30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Luma in a new light
Queenstown's Kiwi Park's hosting 'Luma Enchanted' from tomorrow night till the end of winter. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A nature park by day, Queenstown's Kiwi Park's hosting from tomorrow night a "whimsical" iteration of the popular Luma light show which ran in the Gardens for the past 10 years.
Formerly staged over King's Birthday Weekend, it returns again this same holiday weekend as 'Luma Enchanted' — from 5.30pm tomorrow — but this time runs nightly till the end of winter.
Local Screentime New Zealand CEO Philly de Lacey filmed the penultimate murder in her first A Remarkable Place to Die TV murder mystery series during last year's Luma.
"I approached them and said, 'look, I would love to get my hands on Luma because I would love to see if we can do something different with it'."
As it happens, Luma's organisers soon after decided to pull pin due to funding constraints.
De Lacey says "I did a deal with them to kind of give myself six months to find a property where we could host it, but obviously to run it for a whole winter it couldn't go in the Gardens".
A Luma organiser, Luke Baldock, put her in touch with new Kiwi Park boss Richard Wilson, "and he was like, 'Ireally want to do something with the park, and this is exactly the sort of thing I've been thinking about"'.
She says they've appropriately lent into the theme of NZ native animals, both extinct and living, "and then we've gone completely off-piste, but generally it sits within that natural world".
For her first off-screen production, De Lacey's tapped about 40 creative brains from both her film world and Luma's.
Her guiding light, as it were, is "people feeling like the minute they walk into Kiwi Park they've entered a wonderland, and until they leave they're in this wonderland".
De Lacey also thinks it provides locals and visitors with a much-needed family-friendly nighttime attraction.
She adds the voiceovers from Queenstown Alpine Ski Team youngsters and two Arrowtown School kids "sound absolutely incredible".
She's also thrilled with the finger food local restaurant Momentos by the Lake has created "in kind of weird colours and things".
Luma Enchanted tickets are for sale via
