Magazine Articles
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There’s no safety like snow safety
On the slopes at the inaugural Ski Patrol Games. Two guys are skiing down a racecourse towing a log in a stretcher. One is out in front, steering, while the other follows, tethered to the rig by a rope. They are dressed in suits and ties. Snow conditions are marginal. The log is visibly heavy.…
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On the boil
Tea, technology and the perfection of the Thermette. It’s the first day of spring and a sharp chill slices the air, hazing the grass at Trotters Gorge with ice. Gregor places more beech twigs into the mouth of the Thermette and warms his hands on its side, the hot gas catching to flame in the…
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It’s all in the head
“The lightning overhead was unbelievable! We had only minutes to decide. Should we keep paddling into the storm, or camp early and waste precious hours?” It’s July 5, 2022. Ben Lott and his teammate Scott Worthington are racing in a kayak down the Yukon River. Flowing almost 2000 miles through Canada and Alaska, it covers…
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In the clubs
The 1964 guide to the club fields of the South Island. “You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub.”- ‘In Da Club’, 50 Cent Here’s an approximation of the conversation I had the first time I set foot on a club field: “What the hell is that?” “That’s the nutcracker.” “Nut what??”…
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An elephant’s graveyard
We heard there was an elephant buried in a Southland paddock. When we went to investigate, we found Sally. Riversdale is a small town tucked between the Hokonui Hills and the Mataura River, just northwest of Gore. It has a nine-hole golf course, an annual Mixed Media Art Exhibition and a gloriously restored circa-1880 country…
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Into thick air
Whitney Thurlow is a professional mountain guide with more than 50 ascents of Tititea Mount Aspiring. But it was a boredom-induced walk up the road that nearly did him in. It was the kind of mood where a bad idea could take root and flourish. I had just returned from an aborted guiding job in…
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Starlink, star bright
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s thousands of satellites circling Earth. I’VE GOT PERSONAL BEEF WITH ELON MUSK BECAUSE THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIS SATELLITE TRAIN MY MATES WERE ON ACID, AND IT SCARED THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF THEM. I was babysitting some friends in the Matukituki Valley, gazing at the indifferent…
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Of M*A*S*H and mushrooms
The curious case of a puffball named for a famous pair of TV lips. There are many things I don’t know about fungi, but one thing I know for sure: it’s crucial to get a positive identification. Taxonomy is of the ultimate importance. Especially when the guidebook (Geoff Ridley’s A Photographic Guide to Mushrooms and Other…
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Roll Cage Mary
Sometimes landscape symbols feel like an ingrained part of ourselves. A cathedral, or a memorial, is solid, concrete and dependable, even when it has fallen. There is an order to the markings of our landscapes that helps us navigate our world. That is until you arrive in Antarctica, when all that solidity goes out the…