Nick Ainge-Roy
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Deep water emergence
He is a monster of metal and rubber, a glass cyclops, an alien in a world he was never meant to visit. His voice is a hiss and a gurgle. He dips his head and begins. There is magic in the water here. It seeps out of the soil and runs down the rock face…
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The satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt
“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN BUSH-BASHING WITH AN IRONING BOARD? IT’S AWFUL, IT’S REALLY AWFUL. BUT WE DID IT EVERY WEEKEND,” REMEMBERS SACHA KNIGHT. SACHA IS THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY TRAMPING CLUB AND, CRUCIALLY, ONE OF THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF ITS EXTREME IRONING DIVISION (EID). HIS NICKNAME IS TRAIN TRACKS. MORE ON THAT…
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Got your back
From sheepskin to gabardine to Gore-Tex, Nick Ainge-Roy charts the evolution of the performance jacket. ON SEPTEMBER 19, 1991, TWO GERMAN TOURISTS, ERIKA AND HELMUT SIMON, CAME ACROSS A BODY ON THE EAST RIDGE OF THE FINEILSPITZE IN THE ÖTZAL ALPS NEAR THE AUSTRIAN-ITALIAN BORDER. The wizened mass looked more like a hunk of gnarled,…
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A manor house for rats
What’s in a hut. Hut. Three letters that might serve as a blueprint for purpose and composition: roof, walls, floor / cover, warmth, rest. Three letters in a singular combination, signifiers of an ancient need for shelter and security, and for something of our own. H-U-T. It could even be an acronym. History. Every hut…
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Eden Hore: The fashionable farmer
The South Island high country is often associated with beauty, but it is rarely associated with fashion. Yet there, in the heart of the Maniototo, glamour found a home with a farmer named Eden Hore. IN 1975, A NEW ATTRACTION OPENED ON A FARM IN THE TUSSOCKED HILLS NEAR NASEBY, IN THE MANIOTOTO REGION OF…
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Homeland security
What a small town in the Waitaki Valley has to do with universal health care. Speaking at an event marking its 70th anniversary, then-Prime Minister Helen Clarke talked about what the 1938 Social Security Act meant to New Zealand. More than just a piece of legislation, it stood for an idea. It was born from…
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The blacksmith and his bicycle
The story of maybe the first made-in-New Zealand actually rideable bike. AS THE LATE WINTER SUN BRINGS ITS WARMTH TO THE DAYS AGAIN, THE DUSTY TRAILS OF OTAGO COME ALIVE WITH THE HISS OF RUBBER TYRES AND THE RATCHETING CLICK OF BICYCLE GEARS. The region’s riders settle onto their seats, travelling singly, with friends, or…
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The Great Kiwi Can Cooker
How to upcycle a New Zealand staple in the name of sustainable backcountry dining. MY DAD IS NEITHER A HIGH-COUNTRY FARMER NOR YOUR ARCHETYPAL DO-IT-YOURSELF BLOKE, BUT HE IS AN OLD-SCHOOL MOUNTAINEER. MOSTLY THIS INVOLVES SLEEPING IN CANVAS TENTS, TRANSPORTING CABBAGES BY SKEWERING THEM TO THE CRAMPONS DANGLING FROM HIS PACK, AND BEING A CURMUDGEON…