Issue 12: Summer 2022/23
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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…
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Full steam ahead: the Kingston Flyer
The return of the Kingston Flyer reminds us what it is about steam trains that stops us in our tracks. FAR DOWN THE LINE, A GLEAMING SMOKESTACK BELCHES AS CARS SCREECH TO A HALT, THEIR OCCUPANTS SCRAMBLING FOR CAMERAS AND PHONES. A MOURNFUL WHISTLE HERALDS ANCIENT CARRIAGES FULL OF BEAMING FACES AS IT PULLS INTO…
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Rest ye merry gentleman
Has Santa lost his head? THERE IS A SANTA HEAD THE SIZE OF A BUILDING MOUNTED OUTSIDE A HANGAR AT WĀNAKA AIRPORT. I PASS HIM ON MY MORNING COMMUTE. DEPENDING ON THE WEATHER AND/OR MY STATE OF MIND, ON ANY GIVEN DAY HE’S A CHEERY REMINDER OF CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS PAST OR AN UNHAPPY METAPHOR FOR…
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Stop the clock
Is Te Anau ahead of its time? IN SEPTEMBER OF 2021, A MEDIA FURORE ERUPTED AROUND THE TOWN OF TE ANAU. SEEMS THE PLACE HAD ANNOUNCED THEY WOULD NOT BE JOINING THE REST OF THE COUNTRY IN TURNING THEIR CLOCKS BACK THE FOLLOWING APRIL. TE ANAU WAS MOVING TO DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME FOR GOOD. The…
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Business time
bon ton [archaic] Sophisticated manners; class. Stylish or fashionable society. French for ‘good tone’ or ‘good taste, stylish.’ “IT TURNS OUT THERE ARE MANY COUPLES WHO COME TO QUEENSTOWN FOR ADVENTURE IN EVERY SENSE. IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE HURTLING DOWN A MOUNTAIN IN THE AFTERNOON, IN THE EVENING YOU MIGHT WANT SOMETHING THAT MATCHES…
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The lions of Lawrence
THE ANIMAL ATTIC IN DUNEDIN’S OTAGO MUSEUM IS ONE OF THOSE PLACES THAT IS BOTH MAGICAL AND UNSETTLING AT THE SAME TIME. DATING FROM 1877, IT IS ORGANISED LIKE A VICTORIAN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OR THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF A GENTLEMEN OF MEANS WHO HAD THE INCLINATION TO PURSUE THINGS SCIENTIFIC. IT IS AN ODE…
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Pills ‘n’ hills and roadkill: The 1964 guide to cycle touring in the South Island
Dan Slater spent a month circumnavigating Te Waipounamu by bicycle so you don’t have to. Actually, you should, because it’s a good time. But there are a few things you really need to know first. AH, CYCLE TOURING IN AOTEAROA – LIVING THE DREAM! DAY AFTER DAY OF GENTLE PEDALLING ALONG COUNTRY LANES, WHISTLING JAUNTY…
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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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So amped right now
Harry Dawson’s Nixie amps have a heart of glass. SOMETIMES FUNCTIONALITY TRUMPS BEAUTY. SOMETIMES HISTORY DOES TOO. BUT SOMETIMES BEAUTY WINS. EXHIBIT A: THE VALVE AMPLIFIER. The garage-slash-workshop in Harry Dawson’s garage is, in square meterage, as big as his house. It has two spaces: a “dirty room” and a “clean room”. Much of the…