Destination Queenstown
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Home sweet home
A Queenstown-based film-maker wants us to think globally, shred locally. Sage Kotsenburg once said, “there’s no blueprint to snowboarding, you know? You can really just make your own mark.” In 2014, Sage won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in men’s snowboard slopestyle, and his words still ring true for Ryan Quirke. With the mountains up…
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A gig in a hut
On stage and off the grid in the Pisa Range. A single bulb hangs from the roof, casting direct light on the musician below, his eyes closed, his face contorted. The crowd, if you can call it that, sits on wooden benches in near darkness just a few metres away. They are completely silent. At…
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Winter mixer
Onwards and upwards at the Remarkables Ice & Mixed Festival. A four-limbed creature moves across the vertical face with careful agility. The rock is plastered with blobs of freezer ice. The creature’s extended arms end in singular sharp hooks and its lower limbs are adorned with multiple spikes, which it places carefully. It looks terribly…
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The cutting edge
Zambonis and the business of smoothing the ice in Aotearoa. THE HILLS OF THE CROWN RANGE ARE ALIVE WITH SECRET CARS. THEIR MAKES AND MODELS ARE HIDDEN UNDER DARK CLOAKS, LIKE NUNS’ HABITS. THESE ARE THE CARS OF THE FUTURE (HENCE THE SECRECY), SENT HERE BY INTERNATIONAL AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS TO HAVE THEIR ICE HANDLING PUT…
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Living in a fantasy world
Trolls and Tolkien and the landscapes of the far south. A FOREBODING CLOUD CLINGS TO THE UPPER PEAKS OF A GREY-BLUE, SHARP-EDGE MOUNTAIN. YOU STAND ON A ROCKY OUTCROP WITH A GOOD VANTAGE POINT OF THE ICY LAKE IN FRONT OF YOU AND BREATHE IN THE MOSS-SCENTED AIR. THE LAKE IS UNFATHOMABLY DEEP AND FAERIE…
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The rice is right
When is gentrification a good thing? When it happens to gruel, that’s when. Congee is comfort food. A traditional Asian rice porridge, or to be Victorian about it, gruel, congee is a nourishing, reassuring and inexpensive dish that has been a go-to in households across Asia for thousands of years. It has also, of late,…
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Full steam ahead: the Kingston Flyer
The return of the Kingston Flyer reminds us what it is about steam trains that stops us in our tracks. FAR DOWN THE LINE, A GLEAMING SMOKESTACK BELCHES AS CARS SCREECH TO A HALT, THEIR OCCUPANTS SCRAMBLING FOR CAMERAS AND PHONES. A MOURNFUL WHISTLE HERALDS ANCIENT CARRIAGES FULL OF BEAMING FACES AS IT PULLS INTO…
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Business time
bon ton [archaic] Sophisticated manners; class. Stylish or fashionable society. French for ‘good tone’ or ‘good taste, stylish.’ “IT TURNS OUT THERE ARE MANY COUPLES WHO COME TO QUEENSTOWN FOR ADVENTURE IN EVERY SENSE. IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE HURTLING DOWN A MOUNTAIN IN THE AFTERNOON, IN THE EVENING YOU MIGHT WANT SOMETHING THAT MATCHES…
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Dirt, the new snow
Is mountain biking the future for the resort towns of the past? WHEN WE USE THE PHRASE “RESORT TOWN”, WE GENERALLY MEAN ONE OF TWO THINGS: A PLACE WITH A BEACH, OR WITH ONE OR MORE SKI HILLS. QUEENSTOWN IS THE LATTER. IT’S PROBABLY THE COUNTRY’S BEST-KNOWN SKI RESORT. CORONET PEAK, AOTEAROA’S FIRST COMMERCIAL SKI…