South Island
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Summer camp
Snapshots from a holiday hotspot. You leave town early to beat the holiday traffic. The car is packed tight with camping gear, the overflow strapped to the roof. The kids were bouncing off the walls, but by the time you pull into Wānaka, everyone is asleep. You’ve left your worries behind. — Every year, around…
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Homeland security
What a small town in the Waitaki Valley has to do with universal health care. Speaking at an event marking its 70th anniversary, then-Prime Minister Helen Clarke talked about what the 1938 Social Security Act meant to New Zealand. More than just a piece of legislation, it stood for an idea. It was born from…
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Sound and vision
What’s a nice Post Rock band like EchoKnot doing in a place like Queenstown? THE LIST OF ECHOKNOT’S THREE MEMBERS TELLS YOU A LOT. JOE BARRON-COWIE IS ON “GUITARS, KEYS AND PROGRAMMING”, SCOTT KENNEDY DOES “GUITARS, KEYS AND VISUALS”, WHILE ANDY PATERSON TAKES CHARGE OF “BASS AND NIHILISM”. CHECK. THERE IS NO LEAD SINGER, THERE…
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A diamond in the beer garden
Digging vinyl at Nelson’s Family Jewels Records. “I THINK THAT A TOWN THAT DOESN’T HAVE A RECORD SHOP IS CULTURALLY IMPOVERISHED,” SAYS GRANT SMITHIES, WHOSE LOVE FOR OLD VINYL RECORDS LED HIM TO INSTALL EXTRA PILES UNDER HIS HOUSE TO SUPPORT THE WEIGHT OF HIS MUSIC COLLECTION. When Nelson’s The Everyman record store closed down…
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That Middlemarch Submarine
How a historic bateau plongeur ran aground in the Strath Taieri. THE TOWN OF MIDDLEMARCH IS 80 KILOMETRES FROM THE NEAREST BEACH. IT’S SO DRY IN SUMMER THE CLIMATE IS CLASSED AS “DESICCATING”. THERE ARE DUST STORMS. YET THERE, TUCKED AWAY ON ABERAFON STREET OFF THE MAIN DRAG, SITS AN EXTRAORDINARY SLICE OF NEW ZEALAND…
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How to dance on a liquid spaceship
At the bottom of the world. AOTEAROA IS FULL OF TOWNS WITH QUIRK, AND THOSE WHICH HAVE SPROUTED UP NEXT TO THE GREAT SURF SPOTS HAVE THEIR OWN PARTICULAR CHARACTER. WELL-SUNNED LOCALS WITH ONE EYE ON THE WEATHER, THE SCENT OF WET WETSUITS AND WAX, A GENEROUS RATIO OF ARTISANS TO OTHERS: THEY DOT THE…
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Firstborn son of the sky
The point of return. NIC LOW’S NEW BOOK UPRISING IS THE ACCOUNT OF NINE EXPEDITIONS INTO THE NGĀI TAHU HISTORY OF KĀ TIRITIRI-O-TE-MOANA, NEW ZEALAND’S SOUTHERN ALPS. GUIDED BY ORAL HISTORIES, NIC TRAVELLED ON SKIS, ON FOOT AND BY WATER TO REVISIT THE STORIES OF HIS ANCESTORS. In this excerpt, he visits Aoraki / Mt…
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A history of bats
When mammals fly. A BAT CAN’T SEE IN THE DARK, BUT A BAT CAN FIND ITS WAY. TO BATS, EVEN THE BLACKEST NIGHT IS THREE-DIMENSIONAL. THEY CAN CATCH TINY INSECTS WHILE FLYING AT 60 KILOMETRES PER HOUR USING NOTHING BUT SOUND. WE THINK THINGS ARE AS WE SEE THEM, BUT BATS KNOW OTHERWISE. THE WORLD…
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Review: NZMSC Outdoor safety videos, Season two
The NZ Mountain Safety Council Following the success of their 2018 Tramping Video Series, the NZ Mountain Safety Council (MSC) has made seven new clips detailing the dos, don’ts and be-carefuls of some of the country’s most popular tracks. With a total of 19 short films now on offer, it’s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe,…