South Island
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Peak reading
The best things come in small packages, or in the case of the climbing section at The Next Chapter, small bookshops. Set smack against the Southern Alps, Wānaka is a small town with a big reputation in the climbing world. You can see Tititea / Mount Aspiring, also known as the ‘Matterhorn of the South’,…
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Rhymes of the Mariner
The words of poet, actor, musician and storyteller Noel Coutts roll and rise like the ocean. ONE LOOK AT, OR LISTEN TO, QUEENSTOWN POET AND BLUESMAN NOEL COUTTS TELLS YOU HE IS NOT A MAN WHO HAS LIVED A MAINSTREAM LIFE. A CHAT WITH HIM TELLS YOU THIS IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. HIS IS A TRAVELLING…
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The Best of Bingo
On the footpath outside a Helwick Street café in Wānaka, there is a plaque, a leash hook and a water bowl. Bingo’s back arches, suddenly, like those silly cats when they get a fright. All the hair on his back stands on end as if magnetised. In that moment between surprise and concern, he has…
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She’ll strap on her wings and fly
“Any day now / That joke will turn sour / And she’ll say a sweet goodbye / She’ll pack up her things / Strap on her wings and fly” – Aviatrix, The Lucksmiths IT’S HARD TO PINPOINT, BUT THE HISTORY OF WOMEN IN AVIATION IN AOTEAROA MAY HAVE STARTED WITH A BALLOON, A WET SOUTHLAND…
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A cranking good time
Hokitika socks it to the world. Lurking among the innumerable Facegroups, alongside Genuinely Stoked Goats and the Comic Sans Appreciation Society, there is a 5.5K-member sock knitting community. Not just regular sock knitters. These are Circular Sock Machine knitters, also known as crankers. Conversation centres around yarn tension and brass cylinders, and images show an…
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The greatest outdoors
The 1964 guide to the sweet campgrounds of the South Island. IF NEW ZEALANDERS HAVE A SUPERPOWER, IT’S THE ERECTING, AND DECONSTRUCTING, OF CAMPING INFRASTRUCTURE WITH MILITARY PRECISION. EVERY SUMMER, THEY USE THIS POWER TO SPEND SEVERAL WEEKS LIVING ON A DIET THAT IS 70% SAUSAGES AND 30% FRUJU ICEBLOCKS, DROPPING MANUS OFF WATERLOGGED WHARF…
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Space race
Size matters on the Interplanetary Cycle Trail. I HAVE A PHOTO ON THE LOCK SCREEN OF MY PHONE. IN IT, OUR PLANET IS A PRICK OF LIGHT. THE ONBOARD CAMERA ON NASA’S JUNO SPACECRAFT SNAPPED THE IMAGE OF EARTH IN 2011 WHILE IT WAS ON ITS WAY TO JUPITER. I LOOK AT THE PHOTO WHEN…
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Book Review: The Wilder Years – Selected poems by David Eggleton
YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW THAT DAVID EGGLETON WAS CROWNED LONDON TIME OUT’S STREET ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR IN 1985, BUT THAT’S AN ENVIABLE BIO NOTE AND ALSO A GREAT REMINDER TO TAKE TO THIS, HIS LATEST COLLECTION. The Wilder Years, Selected poems, comes to you in ten sections, spanning 1986 to the present. It’s an…
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The Rhythm Method
Scott Kennedy reflects on how Rhythm & Alps went from the Little Festival That Could to the hottest, and rarest, ticket on earth. In case you hadn’t noticed, the global live music scene is a dumpster fire. Glastonbury – grab your Hunter wellies, you’re gone. Coachella – pack up that culturally inappropriate headdress and get…