Contributors
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A song for Big Bay
[PHOTO ESSAY] Dinner when it’s cooked / breakfast when it’s shucked / surfing, food beneath our boards / all of Big Blue’s rewards / spend all our time living / no need to be forgiven / we exist in nature’s rhythm. Awarua Bay, also known as Big Bay, spans eight kilometres along the southwest coast…
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Winter mixer
Onwards and upwards at the Remarkables Ice & Mixed Festival. A four-limbed creature moves across the vertical face with careful agility. The rock is plastered with blobs of freezer ice. The creature’s extended arms end in singular sharp hooks and its lower limbs are adorned with multiple spikes, which it places carefully. It looks terribly…
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The smell of uranium
“HOLD YOUR BREATH JUST FOR A MOMENT. I CAN SMELL THE URANIUM ON IT.” PRIME MINISTER DAVID LANGE TO HIS AMERICAN OPPONENT AT THE OXFORD UNION ‘NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE MORALLY INDEFENSIBLE’ DEBATE, MARCH 1, 1985. One evening in November of 1955 a pair of long-in-the-tooth miners rolled out of a West Coast pub. On the…
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Our hearts’ desires: We can go our own way
“Lines are created by being followed and followed by being created.” THE LINE ABOVE IS A LINE BY SARA AHMED, AND SHE’S WRITING ABOUT LINES CALLED DESIRE LINES. YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD OF DESIRE LINES, BUT YOU’VE PROBABLY SEEN ONE OR WALKED ONE IN YOUR LIFE. Desire lines, sometimes called desire paths, rat tracks,…
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Size matters: The 1964 guide to the roadside attractions of the South Island
BACK IN 2013, IN SEASON 1 OF THE SERIES HOUSE OF CARDS¸ CONGRESSMAN FRANK UNDERWOOD FACES A POLITICAL CRISIS IN THE FORM OF THE PEACHOID, A 41-METRE-HIGH PEACH-SHAPED WATER TOWER IN GAFFNEY, SOUTH CAROLINA. THE STRUCTURE, WHICH UNDERWOOD HAD CHAMPIONED, IS IMPLICATED IN A FATAL CAR ACCIDENT. THE DRIVER WAS TEXTING HER BOYFRIEND WHEN SHE…
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The cutting edge
Zambonis and the business of smoothing the ice in Aotearoa. THE HILLS OF THE CROWN RANGE ARE ALIVE WITH SECRET CARS. THEIR MAKES AND MODELS ARE HIDDEN UNDER DARK CLOAKS, LIKE NUNS’ HABITS. THESE ARE THE CARS OF THE FUTURE (HENCE THE SECRECY), SENT HERE BY INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS TO HAVE THEIR ICE HANDLING PUT…
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Living in a fantasy world
Trolls and Tolkien and the landscapes of the far south. A FOREBODING CLOUD CLINGS TO THE UPPER PEAKS OF A GREY-BLUE, SHARP-EDGE MOUNTAIN. YOU STAND ON A ROCKY OUTCROP WITH A GOOD VANTAGE POINT OF THE ICY LAKE IN FRONT OF YOU AND BREATHE IN THE MOSS-SCENTED AIR. THE LAKE IS UNFATHOMABLY DEEP AND FAERIE…
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Frozen fish
Freezing the day at the New Zealand National Ice Swimming Pool Championships. THE FIRST TIME YOU FACED REALLY COLD WATER WAS IN AN ALPINE LAKE. IT WAS SUMMER, BUT THERE WERE STILL POCKETS OF SNOW COWERING FROM THE SUN IN SHADY GULLIES. THE INSTANT YOUR TOE TOUCHED THE WATER IT BUZZED. YOU EASED YOURSELF IN…
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To grace the water: A love story
IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS I HAD EVER SEEN. MERCEDES WAS A MAHOGANY SPEEDBOAT, ABOUT FIVE AND A HALF METRES LONG. A CHRIS-CRAFT, I WOULD GUESS MANY YEARS LATER, THAT HAD COME FROM THE UNITED STATES. ITS VARNISHED WOOD AND POLISHED STEEL SPARKLED IN THE WĀNAKA SUN. MY DAD THOUGHT IT WAS…