Magazine Articles
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The Right to Repair
Can we fix it? Yes we can, and we should. It’s Sunday morning, and the Wānaka Community Workshop is abuzz with power drills, bobbin winders and hammers. Outside under a marquee, someone is sorting out the drivetrain on a vintage Mongoose hybrid bike. In the main workspace, a wooden chair, a planer and a toaster
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Down to some fine arts
Riversdale’s Mixed Media Exhibition has a lot of heart(s). I drive through Gore, out into the rolling countryside, past the Hokonui Hills. An evening fog hovers at sheep level over the paddocks. Twenty minutes later I arrive in Riversdale, population 500. The main street is mostly deserted. It’s dusk on a winter Friday. There are
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A fort story
Fort Jervois on Rīpapa Island is a legacy of New Zealand’s Russian Scare. No not that scare, the other one. On February 17, 1873 some alarming news came out of Auckland. According to the Daily Southern Star, an iron-clad Russian warship, the Kaskowiski, had entered the Waitematā Harbour, discharged a fatal “mephitic water gas apparatus”
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We’ll all only be images
Marti Friedlander turned an outsider’s eye on the countrysides of Aotearoa. “When you’re born in a land you become blind to it. You no longer see the beauties within.” – Daniel K. Brown, School of Design, Victoria University The sheep seem to know something. Some are minding their own business, but most, ears perked, eyes
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Night at the asylum
A stay at the West Coast’s spookiest backpackers. If you’ve ever been to Hokitika, you’ve probably stopped at the glowworm dell: a little crevasse alongside State Highway 6, usually packed with tourists marvelling at what daylight reveals to be the slimy larvae of the fungal gnat. But if you take a wrong turn on the