Issue 19: Spring 2024
Shelter from the storm
Viv Head explores a hidden hut on the Old Man Range. A short climb through the tussocks and we were there: the ‘Skiers’ Hut’. Its existence is known to some, its location to only a few. Central Otago’s Old Man Range stretches for about 40 kilometres, 24 of which look down on the Roxburgh Gorge…
Cowboy Geniuses
Liz Breslin and Eliana Gray trot south for the 2024 NZ Gold Guitar Awards and find maybe all that glitters is gold after all. Eliana: “We haven’t quite finished the renovations.” An email, approximately a week before Cowboy Genius saddled up to ride through the Gold Guitars like an outlaw wind, or a trio of…
Film review: The War on Style
Directed and produced by Hank Bilous Our favourite photographer/writer/nurse/skier and regular 1964 contributor has made a movie, and we caught it at The New Zealand Mountain Film & Book Festival earlier this winter. Blending poetry with skiing and surfing, this is not your traditional action sports film. It’s more about people and learning than your…
Book review: Performance
By David Coventry Simply put, Performance is a memoir detailing David Coventry’s experience of living with ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis), a debilitating illness that has a way of defying diagnosis, treatment, causation, and sense. But Performance can’t be simply put. It is a memoir, but also a novel, a work of autofiction, and a space in…
Book review: Heart Stood Still
by Miriam Sharland After nearly two decades in the country, Miriam Sharland was set to move back to the UK in early 2020. Then the borders closed. Heart Stood Still (Otago University Press, 2024) is a series of personal essays based on her journal entries from that time. The pieces follow the pattern of the…
Album review: Midnight Hours By Killergrams
An alt-country/rock band based in Arrowtown, Killergrams is singer-songwriter Tom Maxwell, singer and bassist Sam Maxwell, as well as Nick Lynch on piano and Reuben Pearce on drums. More a reintroduction than a release, Midnight Hours has an interesting backstory. A change in distribution companies saw the original album, their 2019 debut, taken off streaming…
Music review: Merchants by Powder Chutes
Wānaka’s Powder Chutes have dropped a new single and it’s a “hell, yes” from me. ‘Merchants’ is just the thing for our times, a bundle of joyous grunge-infused angst that simultaneously looks forwards and back. Sonically, it’s smarter than your average rock anthem. Powder Chutes reminds me of the musically-sophisticated rock bros of my youth…
Heading North
It doesn’t matter where you go. In October of 2022, Penzy Dinsdale set off on an 85-day traverse of the Southern Alps. The trip would involve walking, climbing, skiing, biking and extensive planning, including coordinating food and gear drops, and a whole lot of dehydrating meals. Her route would take her through some of Te…
The wonderful wizard of Bluff
Noel Peterson uses his powers for community good. Perhaps there is a magical explanation for why it’s such a lovely warm winter’s day in Bluff. But if he has cast a spell, Noel Peterson won’t say. It’s a valid question. After all, Noel is a wizard. “When I cast spells from my lair, it sometimes…