When I showed this picture of a wintery Wellington night to a class at Discovery 1 School this week the kids saw Matariki in the sky, which was something I had failed to see.

It was very good spotting from the kids.

Matariki is the Maori name for the group of seven stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters. The pre-dawn rise of Matariki can be seen in the last few days of May every year and the Maori new year is marked at the sighting of the next new moon, which happened on Thursday.