Contributors
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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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Lost and found
How a Mount Aspiring mystery was solved. 2016 A PAIR OF BOOTS, COMPLETE WITH GAITERS, CRAMPONS, AND SOCKS. A FEW LONG BONES SCATTERED ACROSS THE ICE. THIS KIND OF THING MAY BE SO COMMON ON SAGARMATHA / MT. EVEREST THAT CLIMBERS ARE INURED TO IT, BUT THIS WASN’T NEPAL. IT WAS AOTEAROA. THE LAST THING…
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Let the good times roll
The 1964 guide to the small town cheese rolls of the South Island. THE CHEESE ROLL IS AN EMBLEM OF SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY. CAFES AND DOMESTIC DEITIES HAVE BEEN CLAIMING THEY MAKE THE ULTIMATE ONE FOR DECADES. IT’S A DIVISIVE DEBATE. DO YOU ALIGN WITH THE CLASSIC (GRATED CHEESE FILLING WITH A BIT OF EVAPORATED MILK…
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What’s the story with puffas?
On four types of puffer and why the down jacket does not mean the same thing to all people. WHAT’S THE STORY WITH G AND THE PUFFA JACKET? I ASKED MY FRIEND S. She worked with G when we started dating back in 2011. S and I had immigrated from the same small town in…
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The Cabin
The unlikely journeys of an Antarctic hut. The fawn-coloured, three-by-four hut perched atop Godley Head is neat and unassuming. It sits quietly, overlooking the Pacific and the Kaikoura Ranges, but if walls could talk, these ones might just chew your ears off. This cabin has been to Antarctica and back, weathering relocations, heartbreak and more…
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Isn’t it beyond words: Essie Summers
Between the covers with Aotearoa’s Queen of Romance. IN THE BEGINNING WAS ESSIE. ESSIE SUMMERS. THE MOST FAMOUS NEW ZEALAND NOVELIST YOU’VE MAYBE NEVER HEARD OF. TO VERIFY THIS CLAIM, IN A HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC SURVEY, FOR A PERIOD OF A WEEK, I ASKED EVERYONE I KNEW OR MET WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF ESSIE SUMMERS AND…
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Book Review: Across the Pass – A Collection of New Zealand Tramping Writing
Selected by Shaun Barnett Across the Pass is like a lolly scramble. It takes you in lots of directions and it’s sweet as. The focus is narrow, sure, but there’s a wide range of voices and genres, including, but not limited to, poetry, prose, song lyrics, diaries, articles, columns and a fair bit of humour.…
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Book Review: Tussock
By Bruce Hunt Despite being primarily black and white, the photos in Bruce Hunt’s Tussocks feel, in both composition and tone, like paintings. Turns out Bruce is a painter, one who likes to head out, brush in hand and polyprop on legs, to capture the hills of Otago and the Mackenzie Basin. He also likes…
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You’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet
A sailor in the hop gardens of Nelson Tasman. THE SCENT LURED ME CLOSER TO THE BRICK WALL IN THE GREENHOUSE. LIME GREEN BINES CREPT UP THROUGH THE GRAVEL AND CLIMBED FIVE METRES TO THE GLASS ROOF. I REACHED OUT TO PRESS A DELICATE, FLUFFY CONE AND YELLOW POWDER COVERED MY FINGERTIPS. I brought the…