Kia ora koutou and hello commuters. Mānawatia a Matariki e te whānau ✨🎇
This Matariki, we’re celebrating the winter holiday with our friends and family, and also celebrating that te reo Māori is coming to Mini Motorways!
To our international commuters who may not be as familiar, Te Reo Māori is one of our official languages here in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Matariki is the te reo Māori name of the Pleiades star cluster. Its emergence in the winter sky signals the beginning of the Māori New Year, and it is a time for reflection, celebration, and preparation for the year ahead.
This year, we’ve been hard at work with local Reo translator Kristin Smith from Kūwaha localising Mini Motorways into te reo Māori for an upcoming update later this year. We’ve also been working on some exciting map updates, with our next stop being the futuristic Garden City, Singapore – chosen by player vote.
Something special we didn’t anticipate along the way: Mini Motorways has been gifted a name in Te Reo Māori, courtesy of Kristin. It’s Rori Riki. We feel incredibly privileged to be appointed with this name and think it sounds endearing.
Thank you for your support over this past year. We look forward to sharing this significant update with you, and Happy Matariki from Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Visit nzhistory.govt.nz or matariki.com to learn more.