Contributors
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Glass / Glace
THE OUTSIDE FLOODS IN AND THE INSIDE FLOWS OUT. THE VIEW FROM INSIDE IS TO THE MOUNTAINS WHICH HOLD ONE’S STEADY, WONDERING, APPRECIATIVE GAZE: TO THE LIGHT, AND TO BIRDS WHICH MAY KNOW NOTHING OF THE WONDERING GAZE AND WHICH FROM TIME TO TIME FLY RIGHT INTO THE GLASS. Some of this is seasonal. In…
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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: Is This the Promised Land? by Peter Simpson
“DRIVING ONE DAY WITH THE FAMILY OVER THE HILLS FROM BRIGHTON OR TAIERI MOUTH TO THE TAIERI PLAIN,” WRITES COLIN MCCAHON, “I FIRST BECAME AWARE OF MY OWN PARTICULAR GOD, PERHAPS AN EGYPTIAN GOD, BUT STANDING FAR FROM THE SUN OF EGYPT IN THE OTAGO COLD.” This is a sensibility that drove McCahon’s life work…
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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…
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Hide and seek
Turns out there are many ways to be cryptic, even if you’re not a crossword. Some words don’t mean what you think they mean. Cryptic is an adjective that usually refers to something having a meaning that is obscure – hence the deep and frustrating seam of hard-to-decipher puns mined by the sadists who design…
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Take a punt
It’s all river crossings and holy hops at Tuapeka Mouth. The Tuapeka Mouth Ferry is a hangover, a legacy of the days when Aotearoa’s rivers were a pain in the arse to cross and the iron needed to build bridges was expensive to import. The ferry is said to be the last of its kind…
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Recollections
Allan Uren finds a private collection of wartime memorabilia hidden in a small town basement. Dear Mummy, I hope this letter reaches you without the mark of a censor’s hand. Life here in the trenches could be worse and it’s best not to make a fuss of what you can’t control and just get on…