My Matariki Kite From last term

My Matariki Kite
By Olivia Payne

My kite is a traditional Maori kite. My dad and I made it on Saturday. It took us a full day! We used Toi Toi, Flax and Raupo reeds. My dad got the Toi Toi from the side of the road, the Raupo reeds came from the swamp and the flax came from our garden.

If you would like to make this kind of kite here is what you would need:
Toi toi
flax
Raupo reed
box cutter knife

Step 1:
We started of by cutting the Toi Toi to the right length and tied them together in a triangular shape for the frame. We used 4 of them. One at the top, one directly down from it and two diagonal. We tied them together using strings of flax.

Step 2.
Start to cut up the Raupo reed with a box cutter. We cut them to the right length and tied it in between the Toi Toi frame using flax.

Step 3.
After we tied the raupo reeds together we added a string made from flax and a stick. After that we tied it up and cleaned up our mess.

The kite is very special to the Maori culture. It is also known as the Matariki kite. There are two types of Matariki kites but the other one is more complex. I hope you have fun making your kite if you do decide to make it!