Magazine Articles

  • Hot schist

    Hot schist

    All that glitters is not gold. IT WAS GOLD THAT FIRST BROUGHT THE HOARDS TO OTAGO. PROSPECTOR GABRIEL READ FOUND SO MUCH OF IT IN THE LAWRENCE AREA IN 1861, HE SAID IT SHINED “LIKE THE STARS IN ORION ON A DARK FROSTY NIGHT”. WORD GOT OUT AND, BY CHRISTMAS OF THAT YEAR, 14,000 HOPEFULS

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  • Where the poets hide

    Where the poets hide

    The writing is on the wall for the tiny town of Oturehua. Oturehua is a charming speck of a township. Like in many of the small communities of Aotearoa, there’s not much beyond a pub, a general store and a single main road. It’s a one-horse kind of place. You might stop for a snack

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  • Second hand news

    Second hand news

    The 1964 guide to the top op shops of the south. WALK IN WARDROBE – QUEENSTOWN One of the very few upsides to living in a region where people move away all of the time is that those people often leave great clothes behind. Queenstown’s Walk in Wardrobe is like rummaging through your mate’s closet

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  • Prisoners on the Milford

    Prisoners on the Milford

    That one time the “finest walk in the world” was a short-lived experiment in Australian-style convict labour. THE MILFORD TRACK IS PROBABLY THE SHINIEST JEWEL IN NEW ZEALAND’S VERY BEJEWELLED TOURISM CROWN. FAMOUSLY CALLED THE “FINEST WALK IN THE WORLD” IN A 1902 ARTICLE BY THE ENGLISH-BORN POET AND ALPINIST BLANCHE BAUGHAN, IT’S WALKED BY

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  • No pets, no people, no politicians

    No pets, no people, no politicians

    Stuffing it up with Arrowtown taxidermist David Jacobs. David Jacobs, fourth-generation taxidermist, has one firm rule: no pets, no people, no politicians. As far as David’s concerned, politicians are stuffed anyway, and if your pet dies, you probably need a psychiatrist, not a taxidermist. It’s not a new craft, but there’s currently a growing fascination

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  • The Selfie Project

    The Selfie Project

    Photographer Simon Williams uses the selfie to take a good hard look at himself. MUCH OF MY ADULT LIFE, I HAVE FACED CHALLENGES OF MENTAL WELLBEING. I HAVE SOUGHT HELP TO OVERCOME THESE, TO DEVELOP COPING STRATEGIES, AND TO LIVE AS WELL AS POSSIBLE, BUT NOTHING PREPARES YOU FOR THE JOURNEY OF DEEP GRIEF THAT

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  • All you can eat, cheap

    All you can eat, cheap

    The 1964 guide to binge eating your way around the South Island without ending up in debtors’ prison. WINTON – THE MIDDLE PUB You would think a place like Winton would lead the way when it comes to the Southland delicacy that is the cheese roll, and you would be right. Winton’s Middle Pub−yes, it’s

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  • Alpine soundscapes

    Alpine soundscapes

    In 1998, the Rippon festival brought New Zealand music to the mountains of Wanaka for the first time. Twenty years later, TUKI festival is taking homegrown to new heights. No one said it would be easy. A loss here, a legal tussle there, the trials of the digital age. But Wanaka’s TUKI music festival, and

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  • A portrait of an artist in a small town

    A portrait of an artist in a small town

    Wanaka-based artist Stephen Martyn Welch paints people, because people deserve to be painted. PORTRAITURE. IT GETS A BAD RAP. FOR MANY, THE WORD EVOKES POWDERY ARISTOCRATS IN RUFF COLLARS, GREY AND WHITE CEOS LINING THE WALLS OF GREY AND WHITE BOARDROOMS, AND THE QUEEN. STEPHEN MARTYN WELCH (KNOWN LOCALLY AS MARTY) IS A PORTRAIT ARTIST,

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