Laura Williamson
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Book review: The South Island of New Zealand: From the Road
By Robin Morrison (Massey University Press, 2023) First published in 1981, The South Island of New Zealand: From the Road was the result of a road trip taken by the late photographer Robin Morrison and his family in 1979. While travelling through the South Island, Robin chose to take pictures of places and people, instead…
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Book review: BITER
by Claudia Jardine (Auckland University Press, 2022) Claudia Jardine is a bit of a polymath. She has an MA in classics from Victoria University of Wellington, is the reigning Christchurch Poetry Slam Champion, and is an independent musician. She is also very funny. BITER, her debut poetry collection, reflects all of the above. The book…
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Book review: Not Set in Stone
By Dave Vass (Potton & Burton, 2023) In Not Set in Stone, Dave Vass tells the story of a life spent in the mountains, and now spent without them. One of Aotearoa’s leading mountaineers, Dave broke his neck in 2015 while walking out from a climbing trip in Fiordland, resulting in incomplete tetraplegia. Much of…
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At the mercy of the winds
Up, up and away with NASA’s beautiful balloon. It’s ANZAC Day, 2017. I’m parked on the side of Kane Road, peering across a paddock strewn with pivot irrigators and over the Clutha River to the Wānaka Airport. There, a balloon shaped like an inverted teardrop is slowly filling with helium, cubic inch by cubic inch.…
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There’s no safety like snow safety
On the slopes at the inaugural Ski Patrol Games. Two guys are skiing down a racecourse towing a log in a stretcher. One is out in front, steering, while the other follows, tethered to the rig by a rope. They are dressed in suits and ties. Snow conditions are marginal. The log is visibly heavy.…
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Into thick air
Whitney Thurlow is a professional mountain guide with more than 50 ascents of Tititea Mount Aspiring. But it was a boredom-induced walk up the road that nearly did him in. It was the kind of mood where a bad idea could take root and flourish. I had just returned from an aborted guiding job in…
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Food review: Timaru Roast, Invercargill
We are in the throes of myriad crises right now, from the cost of living to the climate emergency to the BTS hiatus. These are all important issues. But also, did you know there is a new roast shop in Invercargill!?! For those of you unfamiliar with the genre, a roast shop is a primarily…
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Book Review: Strong Words 3: The Best of the Landfall Essay Competition
Selected by Emma Neale and Lynley Edmeades (Otago University Press, 2023) Essays are on the up in Aotearoa. This has in part been fuelled by successes like when Wellington’s Ashleigh Young winning the 2017 Windham-Campbell Prize (worth $230,000!) for her essay collection Can You Tolerate This?. The annual Landfall Essay Competition, which has been running…
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Like bucks to water
The 1964 guide to the flora and fauna on the banknotes of Aotearoa. Since the passing of Queen Elizabeth II we have, like Snoop Dogg, had our minds on our money and our money on our minds. Specifically, we’ve got our minds on the prospect of being confronted by King Charles III’s sad bewildered gaze…