Great South

  • Licensed to ride: the story of the Southland cycling scene

    Licensed to ride: the story of the Southland cycling scene

    How the six o’clock swill helped make Southland the cycling capital of Aotearoa New Zealand. Every time you crack open a Speights in Invercargill, you help a cyclist. This is because every drop of alcohol purchased between the intersection of SH6 and West Plains Road in the north to Waimatua / Duck Creek in the

    Read More …

  • Let the good times roll

    Let the good times roll

    The 1964 guide to the small town cheese rolls of the South Island. THE CHEESE ROLL IS AN EMBLEM OF SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY. CAFES AND DOMESTIC DEITIES HAVE BEEN CLAIMING THEY MAKE THE ULTIMATE ONE FOR DECADES. IT’S A DIVISIVE DEBATE. DO YOU ALIGN WITH THE CLASSIC (GRATED CHEESE FILLING WITH A BIT OF EVAPORATED MILK

    Read More …

  • Failure is inevitable

    Failure is inevitable

    Or is it? LYN MCNAMEE LOOKS INTO THE REVENANT, A RACE SO HARD THERE ARE NO WINNERS, JUST FINISHERS. It’s dawn in the Nevis Mountains. A piper stands silhouetted on a ridge, his melody drifting towards a host of tiny lights in the tussocks below. Each pinpoint is a contestant — twenty-four audacious adventurers seeking

    Read More …

  • How to dance on a liquid spaceship

    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

    Read More …

  • Review: NZMSC Outdoor safety videos, Season two

    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,

    Read More …

  • In the Theatre of the Gogs

    In the Theatre of the Gogs

    Where art meets adventure. IN THE THEATRE OF THE GOGS IS AN ODE TO OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY. THE FILM BRINGS TOGETHER AN ADVENTURE FILM-MAKER, RICHARD SIDEY, AND A LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER, CHRISTOPHER DAVID THOMPSON, TO DOCUMENT WHAT IT TAKES TO CAPTURE IMAGES OF THE REMOTE AND WILD PLACES OF AOTEAROA. The making of this documentary, filmed in

    Read More …

  • The tortoise and the bare

    The tortoise and the bare

    Sprinting starkers for charity in the shadow of the Darran Mountains. WILLIAM BLAKE ONCE WROTE THAT ART CAN NEVER EXIST WITHOUT NAKED BEAUTY DISPLAYED. IN FIORDLAND, THEY’RE ON THE SAME PAGE, AND THERE’S PERHAPS NO GREATER EVIDENCE OF THIS THAN THE SIGHT OF A CROWD OF LOCALS DASHING NAKED THROUGH A DARK, COLD TUNNEL EVERY

    Read More …

  • The 1964 guide to the coolest small-town ice rinks in Aotearoa

    The 1964 guide to the coolest small-town ice rinks in Aotearoa

    ICE SKATING HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A WHILE. IT PROBABLY DATES TO THE BRONZE AGE, WHEN SCANDINAVIANS AND RUSSIANS STRAPPED THE BONES OF ELK, REINDEER (SORRY, RUDOLF) AND OXEN TO THEIR FEET SO THEY COULD GLIDE ALONG FROZEN WATERWAYS. MACABRE, BUT EFFECTIVE. The Dutch improved things by replacing the bone with metal blades and, in

    Read More …

  • The greatest outdoors

    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

    Read More …