Experience Mid Canterbury
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The Wonder Dog of Methven
Celebrating Canterbury’s celebrity canine. We go a bit nuts for clever dogs. There was war rescue Rin Tin Tin who nearly won an Oscar in the 1920s, Dorothy’s Toto (also a rescue) in The Wizard of OZ, and Sinbad the sailor dog, who, as the mascot of the USCGC Campbell, was at sea for 11…
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War and peace: The 1964 guide to the memorial halls of the South Island
Commemoration meets community. There might be a playgroup one day, indoor bowls the next, or a tangi, a Euchre night, a wedding, a roller derby, a cabaret, a community board meeting, a life drawing class, a gig. Almost every small town in Aotearoa has one: a town hall. They are often called the heart of…
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A plague on both our islands
The 1964 guide to pest control in Aotearoa. The American at the dinner table is telling us about coming across a woman, who from the sounds of it was a West Coaster, in the act of dispatching a possum. I won’t get into it, but a rock was involved. He goes a bit pale as…
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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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Five skaters and a goalie
It was bedlam, plain and simple. North Korean military police had stormed the ice and were trying to wrangle a team of South Africans. They were slipping and sliding as they chased the hockey players around the rink in front of a crowd of thousands. In the stands was 17-year-old Simon Glass. His home in…
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Elie and Ellen
Professional skier and ski mountaineer Sam Smoothy reflects on a ski descent of Elie de Beaumont with his mum, Ellen. My mother skied the day she gave birth to me. She prefers the backcountry, but thanks to me, ten pounds of destabilising ballast on her slim 5’3” frame, Ellen Smoothy was relegated to the easier…
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Natural Born Campervanners
May 2020. First week out of lockdown. We were trucking along nicely when my wife made an announcement: “I’ve done something. I’ve booked us a campervan for ten days!” I had many thoughts, largely circling around the theme of whether or not she had paid any attention AT ALL in the 24 and three-quarter years…
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In the clubs
The 1964 guide to the club fields of the South Island. “You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub.”- ‘In Da Club’, 50 Cent Here’s an approximation of the conversation I had the first time I set foot on a club field: “What the hell is that?” “That’s the nutcracker.” “Nut what??”…
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Book Review: Dirge Bucolic
By Jasmine Gallagher (Compound Press, 2022) Jasmine Gallagher’s debut collection is like a series of fractal prisms. She takes moments, spaces and stories, then breaks and turns them so we see them from all sides. As implied by the oxymoronic title, there’s a lot here. Dirge Bucolic delves into and through Jasmine’s personal experience of…