Issue 09: Autumn 2022
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Where can I take my dog?
How to avoid the pound when you hike with your hound. THE WORDS “DOG” AND “WALK” GO TOGETHER LIKE “BARK” AND “BITE”, SO IT’S PRETTY FRUSTRATING TO ARRIVE AT A TRACK WITH YOUR BEST MATE, ONLY TO REALISE YOUR MUTT IS NOT PERMITTED. A SIGN ANNOUNCING THAT IT IS LAMBING SEASON, OR THAT THERE’S BEEN…
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Licensed to ride: the story of the Southland cycling scene
How the six o’clock swill helped make Southland the cycling capital of Aotearoa New Zealand. Every time you crack open a Speights in Invercargill, you help a cyclist. This is because every drop of alcohol purchased between the intersection of SH6 and West Plains Road in the north to Waimatua / Duck Creek in the…
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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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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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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…
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Pants on fire
Revisiting the great exploding trousers epidemic of the 1930s. It was strange behaviour for “a quite respectable garment”. According to the Hutt News, “not long ago, in a country township, a man’s pair of trousers exploded with a loud report.” Fortunately, he wasn’t wearing them at the time and was able to throw the offending…