Contributors
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Clinkered and cramponed
Lilian Familton’s audacious ascent of Mount Aspiring. “Day was now drawing to a close, the setting sun lit up the peaks in riotous colours of flaming crimson and gold. Purple shadows … all was peace” – Lilian Familton, New Zealand Alpine Journal Lilian Familton was wet. When she walked her boots squelched and it seemed…
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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…
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When the white gold’s running
Little fish, little fish, swimming in the water. It’s dawn on a small stream near Haast. The stream can’t be named, the river it leads us to can’t be named. It’s all very mysterious, for reasons that may soon become slightly less murky. A highlighter-yellow kayak, nose jammed into the muddy shore, tail bobbing softly…
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To turn is to admit defeat
Fast times and straight lines with Aotearoa’s top speed skiers. SIX NEW ZEALAND ATHLETES COMPETED AT THE 1992 WINTER OLYMPICS IN ALBERTVILLE. ONE, ANNELISE COBERGER, WON SILVER IN SLALOM, THE COUNTRY’S FIRST MEDAL AT A WINTER OLYMPICS, AND ONE OF ONLY THREE WE’VE WON TO THIS DAY. BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER CONTINGENT OF ATHLETES FROM…
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YAMI time
So you want to be a rock’n’roll star? IT STARTED A DECADE AGO AS A SERIES OF WORKSHOPS FOR SMOKEFREEROCKQUEST HOPEFULS. TODAY IT’S ONE OF THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR KIWIS WANTING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. AND IT TAKES PLACE, OF ALL PLACES, IN WĀNAKA. The YAMI SouNZ Summit got…
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Book Review: Common Ground – Garden histories of Aotearoa by Matt Morris
Here’s a thing I didn’t know before I read Matt Morris’ Common Ground: gardening is more than an expensive pastime that mostly causes back pain and a seasonal cycle of frost-damage-induced disappointment. Gardens are, in fact, frickin’ fascinating. This isn’t a long version of one of those Home & Garden profiles featuring properties owned by…
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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…