Capital 25 by Capital

CAPITAL TA L E S O F T H E C I T Y

READING MUSIC OCTOBER 2015

THE NEIGHBO URS SPECI AL

PROJECT RUNWAY

ISSUE 25

$4.90 EARTH, SEA & SKY

TURBO TENOR

Marlborough

EVERY DAY

Plan your next brilliant break:

MarlboroughNZ.com

Ev Ery day

WIN a

loNg WEEkENd Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it to be? Action and adventure or gourmet food and wine. Sailing and fishing or walking and cycling. Lodge in the Sounds or vineyard retreat. Perhaps a bit of everything. Make your dream break a reality*. Enter before 31 October at MarlboroughNZ.com/WIN *Ts and Cs apply.

EVERY DAY

Gourmet paradise

Feast on delicious seafood fresh from the Marlborough Sounds and produce from local orchards and farms, prepared by some of New Zealand’s most talented chefs.

Brilliant bike trails

Treat your bike to a ride it’ll rave about. From a gentle meander through the vines to forest action with the kids, endurolevel trails to multi-day Great Rides, and jaw-dropping scenic road rides and coastal tracks.

Brent Parker Jones

Marlborough

New Zealand’s biggest wine trail

New Zealand’s largest and most famous wine region, Marlborough is home to more than 150 wineries producing 75% of New Zealand’s wine. Visit the cellar doors of your favourite wines and discover new ones. Join a guided tour or explore some of our 37 cellar doors yourself, and taste some of the world’s best wines just metres from the vines they came from.

Brilliant walks

Only Marlborough

You promised those hiking boots a brilliant journey, so step to it. From walking the stunning Queen Charlotte or Nydia tracks, to the expansive Wither Hills and Richmond Ranges, Marlborough is paradise for any pair of walking shoes.



Plan your next brilliant

Brilliant marine adventures

Relax at secluded retreats nestled in the tranquil Marlborough Sounds or stay among the vineyards just a stone’s throw from anywhere. There are hundreds of brilliant options to choose from throughout the region.

EvE ry day Brilliant events

• Nelmac Garden Marlborough • Picton Maritime Festival • Marlborough Wine & Food Festival • Havelock Mussel Festival • Forrest Graperide • Saint Clair Vineyard Half Marathon • Classic Fighters and more! Check out the full list of upcoming events at Follow-ME.co.nz

Brilliant things to see & do

Marlborough is home to Sir Peter Jackson’s phenomenal collection of WW1 aircraft and memorabilia at the world-renowned Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre; explore the burgeoning arts scene, wander among stunning gardens and take in the brilliant sights and experiences across the region.

break: MarlboroughNZ.com

Camilla Rutherford

Brilliant places to stay

With 20% of New Zealand’s coastline in the Marlborough Sounds, there’s heaps to do – from sailing, cruising, kayaking, swimming, fishing, diving, exploring island sanctuaries, lounging in a seaside hammock or discovering a secluded beach.

Wellington to Melbourne

Now flying direct. Book now. Jetstar.com

CAPITAL MADE IN WELLINGTON THE COVER: Neighbours Photograph: Evangeline Davis

SUBSCRIPTION Subscription rates $77 (inc postage and packaging) 11 issues New Zealand only To subscribe, please email accounts@capitalmag.co.nz

C O N TA C T U S Phone +64 4 385 1426 Email editor@capitalmag.co.nz Website www.capitalmag.co.nz Facebook facebook.com/CapitalMagazineWellington Twitter @CapitalMagWelly Post Box 9202, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Deliveries 31–41 Pirie St, Mt Victoria, Wellington, 6011 ISSN 2324-4836 Produced by Capital Publishing Ltd

PRINTED IN WELLINGTON

This publication uses vegetable based inks, and FSC® certified papers produced from responsible sources, manufactured under ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems

The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any losses due to the use of material in this magazine. Copyright ©. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of Capital Publishing Ltd.

t’s surprising how Marlborough sits quietly under the Wellington radar. Our neighbour just across the strait is New Zealand’s most important wine growing region and most years has more sunshine than anywhere else in the country. It’s an enormous area of spectacular land, mountains and protected inland seaways perfect for all kinds of outdoor activities, all spliced together with delicious food and wine. In this issue we take a look at these neighbours and their beautiful landscape. We also talk to long-time Otaki whitebaiter, Eric Matthews, still keen on inanga after more than 60 years of chasing it. Titan of business, Rob Morrison puts forward the case for supporting the airport extension. Journalist John Bishop looks into the global success of a Petone based engineering business and long-time car-lover Roger Walker evaluates the hardy Honda HR-V. To show you that we also take Spring renewal seriously, we have a new columnist this month, Dean Watson, an Australian TV comedy writer and producer who is currently based here. In his spare time he writes for TV comedy show 7 Days. He wrote to me last month saying that a magazine like Capital deserves a humour column and he would love to write it. We hope you agree with us. John Kerr makes the science behind e-ciggies simple even for non smokers and Eloise Evans sets up a new neighbourhood studio. Enjoy the month, the rugby and think about your neighbours.

Alison Franks Editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz

CONTENTS

EARTH, SEA & SKY Across the strait lie the golden contours of Marlborough

TURBO TENOR

PROJECT R U N WAY

Kiwi Simon O'Neill now sings on the world's great stages

Businessman Rob Morrison expands on the airport extension

08 LETTERS

54 EDIBLES

10 CHATTER

MARLBOROUGH MUSSELS

NEWS SHORTS

LIQUID THOUGHTS

BY THE NUMBERS

PERIODICALLY SPEAKING

NEW PRODUCTS

BY THE BOOK

TALES OF THE CITY

READING MUSIC

ENOUGH FOR A FEED

BUSINESS

22 CULTURE

74 HOUSE

WHAT THE FLOCK

WELLY ANGEL

UN-CONVENTIONAL

TORQUE TALK

BABY GRAND

BABY, BABY

48 BEAUTY

86 CALENDAR

THE WELLINGTON JACKET 5

ON THE BUSES

CONTRIBUTORS

S TA F F Alison Franks Managing editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz Campaign coordinators Lyndsey O’Reilly lyndsey@capitalmag.co.nz Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz John Bristed General factotum john@capitalmag.co.nz Shalee Fitzsimmons Art direction shalee.f@live.com Rhett Goodley- Hornblow

Design design@capitalmag.co.nz

Tod Harfield Accounts accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Craig Beardsworth

Factotum

Gus Bristed

Distribution

CONTRIBUTORS

BENJAMIN + ELISE Ph oto g r aph ers Benjamin + Elise are a husband and wife photography team with a love for authentically natural portraiture. With Wellington as their base they travel far and wide documenting creative weddings and interesting people.

R O G E R WA L K E R Car Columnist If there were a university for car designers in New Zealand, Roger, a successful Wellington architect, would have studied there. Over the years he’s owned more than 30 cars, written about some of them, driven a few slightly too fast (but, of course, not any more), and spent two seasons as a copresenter on the AA Torque Show.

STOCKISTS Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown and Pak’n’ Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note, Wellington Airport, Interislander and other discerning region-wide outlets. Ask for Capital magazine by name. Distribution: john@capitalmag.co.nz.

SUBMISSIONS We welcome freelance art, photo and story submissions. However we cannot reply personally to unsuccessful pitches.

THANKS Bex McGill | Laura Pitcher | Ping Dean Kate Asplet | Jason Henry

C L A I R E O R C HA R D Po e tr y

D E A N WAT S O N C olum n i st

Claire was born in Wainuiomata, grew up in Hutt Valley, and now lives in Wellington. Her poetry has been published in various literary journals, and she is looking forward to the publication of her first book, Cold Water Cure (VUP) in early 2016. When not occupied with wrangling her own poems she enjoys reading and thinking about works by other poets.

Dean nearly became a pro-golfer, he likes goats, has been a cheese maker, and a TV camera operator. He lives here, has written columns for Australian magazines, and is a TV comedy writer and producer. He also likes to do stand up comedy. Follow him on Twitter @dean197

BABY POPS

Michael Houstoun Piano Marc Taddei Conductor

PROVIDENCE

Balakirev Overture on Three Russian Themes Khachaturian Piano Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

MYSTERY AND MAYHEM

Thomas Goss Presenter Marc Taddei Conductor

Saturday 7 November 7:30pm Michael Fowler Centre Wellington

Saturday 17 October 3pm St Patrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College Hall Wellington

TICKETS: TICKETEK.CO.NZ ORCHESTRAWELLINGTON.CO.NZ

LETTERS

PISCATORIAL SEARCH Me and a couple of others have searched the August mag (#23) for the recipe for the salmon dish on the front cover, to no avail. Are we blind? Is the recipe in there somewhere? Hayley Kyte Ed: You are not blind, it was our oversight, and the recipe is on page 95 of My Garden Kitchen, our food writer Unna Burch’s new book.

HOUSE OF CARDS The recent feature article in the August issue (#23), “To hell in a handcart” is an excellent comment on the Fabians, and particularly the politics of today. It does certainly appear our present politically-sponsored neoliberalism philosophy has limitations that if we continue to ignore, will have unpleasant consequences. Continual growth of our “house of cards” systems of financial trading, based on

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debt and speculation, seems an impossible dream, for those who give it some thought. Yet our political controllers of all parties promote continuation of these systems, by devious means, in the hope that they will hold or gain power, to continue their “control”. Democracy should be elected representatives fulfilling the needs of the people, but this utopian ideal has long gone. Politics has created these systems and we should look to a political solution, to regain democracy, and by promoting more insightful debate. Let’s have lots more please. I would also like to comment on the excellence of your magazine and its content. Phil Malpas, Otaki

FAIR WIND FOR FABIANS I liked the information about the Fabians (#23) and their belief in a fairer society. How lucky we are that people are prepared to give their time and energy, to achieve a better community for all. H. Hanz, Kapiti (abridged)

Goldsmith artist Dorthe Kristensen of Vilders makes contemporary jewellery with individuality and flair. Bring in your old gold jewellery and gems and Dorthe will work with you to give them new life. Open: Fri 12 – 5 Sat 11 – 3 or by appointment.

104 Aro Street, Wellington Phone (04) 384 7989 / 021 615 971 www.vildersgallery.co.nz 8

SPRING IS IN THE AIR Hey, the current, (September #24) issue is great. I love the spring lamb and the scales with the mince on top (p50), well really, the knitted scarf, are great. I wish you had shown your version of “mutton dressed as lamb.” That might have been very funny. My very unstyley nana used the phrase about most older public women, or whenever she saw former schoolmates who still looked as if they cared about their appearance. It has become a family saying. I always look forward to seeing what you have done each month. E Kent, Wellington (abridged)

Letters to editor@capitalmag.co.nz with subject line Letters to Ed or scan our QR code to email the editor directly.

Grow your own!

For good advice and all you need to grow a bumper harvest this season, visit Twigland! Open every day from 9am till 5.30pm.

240 Middleton Road, Glenside 04 477 4090 www.twigland.co.nz

a 12 kaiwharawhara rd, wellington

t 04 499 8847

e wellington@backhousenz.com

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RD E R S E C TCI H OA N THT EE A

INK INC.

PEACE-ING IT TO GETHER The international Day of Non-Violence is 2 October. It’s also Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Pujaya Mahatma Gandhi Commemorative Committee will celebrate with a vegetarian lunch beside Gandhi’s statue on the Wellington Railway Station lawn on Bunny Street. There will be bhajans (Hindu devotional songs), and speeches about Gandhi’s life and work.

FIONA HEWIT T Art or Rebellion? My first tattoo was rebellion. I was still in high school and had a few piercings so it was a natural progression. These days it's about the art.

WA L K I N G DEAD The rituals around the Mexican customary holiday, the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos), are gaining popularity In New Zealand. The traditional holiday gathers family and friends together to pray for loved ones who have died, and help support their spiritual journey. A procession is planned for 6 November, starting at Thistle Hall on Cuba Street. A hardy group of would-be revellers are meeting Monday nights at Viva Mexico in Newtown to make papier-mâché costumes for the parade. Get the glue out and learn to make alebrijes, mojigandas and calavera catrinas (tequila helps pronounce them).

Why you chose this design? I love Egyptian imagery and strong women characters (this one is Cleopatra). My friend Rohan is incredibly clever with old school style tattoos so I gave him a theme and let him do whatever. Family – for it or against? My family were never keen on tattoos, but are okay with them now because they're on a body they love very much!

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS

HO OKED ON A SONG In a clogged marketplace every business is always looking for a point of difference. The Brooklyn Chippery may have found it. While waiting for fush and chups a Wellyworder reports the shopkeeper serenaded her with I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys. We thought Catch by The Cure might have been more appropriate for a chip shop...

FUR PATROL So beards are a thing. Popular culture has anointed the hirsute so now you can’t walk anywhere without bumping into some hairy hipster with a well groomed moustache or abundantly covered chin (monocle and cane is optional). On the plus side it appears the hairdressing industry is on the up. We at Wellyword Central have counted at least three new barbers in town. No, not salons but barbers – where men can feel like men and beards can be trimmed and massaged with frankincense and other scented oils.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO It’s Rugby World Cup season... this may come in handy if you get sick of everyone asking you about the latest game. Kahore, e kore ahau e whakaaro ki te whutupōro. No, I don't care about the rugby.

DESIGN ON THE FUTURE Fashion Design student Hillary Ng won the Supreme Award and a $2000 prize at the ECC NZ Student Craft / Design Awards. The Massey University student created a fashion collection centred on shape – on creating and controlling volume and fullness. “I experimented with different treatments of materials, fusible interlinings and construction techniques that could aid keeping shape, like seaming. I wanted to see what was possible simply with patternmaking and construction techniques but without the use of any rigid materials or underlying structures to hold up the shapes”. For 28 years the Friends of The Dowse have offered the award scheme, designed to encourage tertiary students in the areas of design and craft. This year they have paired up with ECC Lighting and offered prizes in five design categories – lighting, furniture & product, glass and ceramics, jewellery, and textile & fashion. It is the leading national award for students in this area. Other Wellington students winning awards included Massey industrial design student Abby Farrow and Whitireia jewellery student Sandra Schmid.

NEWS SHORTS

GOOD WITH MONEY Hutt City Council is celebrating its track record for good money management, having retained its long and short-term credit ratings from Standard and Poor's. The ratings are the highest issued to any council in New Zealand. Chief Executive Tony Stallinger has praised the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to balance the books whilst investing $100 million in rejuvenation projects. The Walter Nash Centre is the first of them to be finished and opens in October. Others include enhancements to Fraser and Avalon Parks.

GET ORF THE WHARF

A BRID GE TO O FAR

EARNING TRUST

Petone Wharf is closed to vehicles following the discovery of a slump in the deck. Divers confirmed that a pile has rotted away just under the low tide mark. Reserves Asset Manager Craig Cottrill said it is not cost-effective to repair one pile when a survey of all wharves is due to take place. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our wharves are old; and this type of damage is to be expected.â&#x20AC;? Pedestrian access is still available along most of the wharf.

With the Basin Bridge Project knocked out of the reserve, so to speak, Wellington transport leaders donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to lose momentum on the congestion issue. The Regional Transport Committee is looking for community involvement in finding short-and long-term answers. Its chair, Paul Swain, says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everyone agrees we need a solution at the Basin. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ready to hear ideas from the community on how we can keep Wellington moving.â&#x20AC;?

The Wellington Museums Trustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest annual report says it has recorded almost 690,000 visitors for 2014/15, which is 100,000 more than expected. Website and social media interaction is growing and approval ratings with surveyed Wellingtonians are at 93%. This support has also been matched financially, with better results than budgeted, visitors contributing $4.1 million or 39% of the revenue needed to fund the attractions they visited.

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drag some colour into your drawers www.thunderpants.co.nz

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NEWS SHORTS

CHECK HIM OUT Jason Eade, head concierge at InterContinental Wellington, has been named joint top concierge in the South Pacific in the Hotel Management awards in Sydney last month. Jason said he was humbled and delighted by the external acknowledgement of a job he was passionate about, being done well. Eade entered the hospitality industry after his boxing Olympic medal aspirations were ended with a motorcycle accident in 1991 resulting in the loss of a leg. An avid sportsman, originally from Timaru, he has continued to compete in various sports. He joined InterContinental Wellington team in 2000 as a concierge. and became Head Concierge at InterContinental Wellington in 2012.

SHOW ME WELLINGTON Buyers and Sellers of event services gathered at Show Me Wellington last month, an annual Expo for the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events industry. According to Peter Biggs of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency, the Wellington industry has more than a 17% share of the New Zealand market and contributes over $140 million to the economy.

KIDS RUN

SHORE SCORE

The Hutt City Council, Sport Wellington and food manufacturer Sanitarium have secured a second event in the under-16 triathlon series for the region. The Wellington Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon sold out in its previous two years, and will now also be available in the Hutt Valley. Fifteen hundred new places will be created in the new Lower Hutt event, planned for 22 March, just two days after the 2016 Wellington event at Kilbirnie Park.

A record number of rare shorebirds have been counted in a one-day census at Lake Wairarapa in July. Volunteers waded in, dodging underwater potholes and obstacles, to record a total of 6,773 waterfowl, including a surprising 281 dabchicks â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a record for the lake. Black-billed gulls, Australasian bitterns, black-fronted terns, a white heron and a little egret were also spotted.

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BY THE NUMBERS

BRID GING THE GAP

MAKE MY DAY

1994

year the City to Sea bridge opened, joining Civic Square with the waterfront

6,322

handmade items in the Made It store on Victoria Street (and all Kiwi-made, too)

number of artists involved in creating and carving – Para Matchitt, John Gray, and Rewi Thompson

number of small NZ businesses supported

$$ cost in millions to build

years collective ‘making’ by the 3 owners

number of in-store concerts so far

1.4

THE ‘RAPA RAP

years the biennial Kokomai festival has been running in the Wairarapa

days of theatre, music, dance, film, literature and visual arts in October

events listed in the programme, with 90 performances in total

LEARNING HUB

$$ cost in millions of Cuba Central – the combined campus for Weltec and Whitireia being built on Cuba Street

1,000

number of students expected to study film, performance, creative technology, applied arts and more

9,000

area in square metres of teaching space

2018

expected opening

MENTAL AS ANY THING

listed events in the Wellington region for Mental Health Awareness week in October www.mhaw.nz/

time in minutes you can have in a mobile recording caravan set up in Civic Square to interview a family member or friend about a personal milestone or life event (10am – 3pm until Oct 9)

% of people who will experience serious depression at some stage in their lives

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

PONDER THIS

years since The School of Philosophy began offering courses in Wellington

180

cost in $$ for their introductory course (teaching staff are volunteers and all money and donations goes back into supporting the course and the magnificent building in Aro Valley)

number of terms per year when courses are offered (many participants are long-term attendees – sounds like there is always something to talk about)

NEW PRODUCTS

Evie Kemp pug print $39 - Teapea

Papucei shoes - $329 Willow Shoes

Castle Penny cushion$109 - Small Acorns

OPI nail lacquer - $24.90 Life Pharmacy

Kym Church banner coral $195 - Stacks

Natural woven basket $39.99 - Trade Aid

Ashley & Co Minibar $8.99 - Small Acorns

Flamingo paper straws (pack of 12) - $4.90 - Iko Iko

Pink ribbon - $2 - NZ Breast Cancer Foundation

PINK FIT With Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, we praise the pink.

Marble Booklet - $39.90 - Let Liv

Fly fuchia pendant $550 - Backhouse

White + Warren sweater - $580 - Harry's

Get inspired Wairarapa escape … WITH A

PROUD TO SUPPORT 1 14/09/15 2015 2:12 KOKOMAI CREATIVE FESTIVAL

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SECTION HEADER

TA L E S O F T H E C I T Y

IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

CLOTHING

E AT S

A RT I ST

PET

FAV E SP O T

Swonderful Boutique

Gipsy Kitchen

Louise Lockhart

Albert the brownspotted Dalmatian

Lyall Bay beach

WRITTEN BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPH BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Neighbourhood screen-printing studios can be found dotted around the globe according to ELOISE EVANS. Now anyone in the Newtown ‘hood can visit and be creative – from the novice to the commercially experienced.

fter graduating from Massey University in 2011, Eloise Evans missed the feeling of community, so she teamed up with friends Flora Waycott and Greta Menzies to open The Neighbourhood Studio, a community screen printing studio in Newtown. “I missed the sense of community with other students and tutors. And screen printing equipment was out of reach of my post-student budget! I thought it would be really nice to have a space with all the equipment to work with others.” She began collecting screen printing equipment from Trade Me, op shops, and factories that had downsized, and opened the studio doors in August. She runs the day-to-day workings of the studio and Greta and Flora take community classes and workshops for beginners. More experienced printers can hire the space privately or use it alongside others. “People can pop in just to expose a screen or work on a project from start to finish.” It’s not a new idea, but it’s a first for New Zealand. “Community screen printing studios are all over the world – it was time for Wellington to have one. Other studios take classes but you can only use the equipment during the class. Here people can come back and practice what they’ve learnt.” The studio is nestled in its own little neighbourhood. “We have a nice community and lovely neighbours: Cam and Richard of Rich Coffee Roasters, Wishbone Design Studio, Tim – and Charlie the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, he mans the reception desk – of Renegade Ink, and Frances and Ginny of

Swonderful Boutique. And the guys at the carpet and flooring shop are very forgiving when Albert escapes into their warehouse and inspects all the new deliveries – and the rubbish bins.” Albert is Eloise’s beloved brown-spotted Dalmatian. Eloise spends time away from the studio baking, knitting, sewing or reading. “Be Awesome by Hadley Freeman is a must read for every modern-day feminist. And I am trying to master the art of gluten and dairy free baking. There have been some successes and also some spectacular fails!” Local café Queen Sally’s Diamond Deli, Gipsy Kitchen in Strathmore, and Miramar’s La Boca Loca are her favourite eateries. “They cater very well to my silly dietary requirements.” She can also be found every morning – rain, hail, shine, or wild wind – walking Albert on Lyall Bay beach. “Then I have epic amounts of housework to do – a dog means excessive amounts of sand in the house.” And while she loves Lyall Bay (“It’s so nice living by the seaside”), Cuba Street feels most like home. “I have worked at Martha’s Pantry, Minerva Bookshop, and Swonderful Boutique, which are all dotted along Cuba Street and you get to know the neighbouring business and their owners very well.” What Eloise now wants most is a holiday. “I haven’t been on holiday in so long I want to go everywhere – anywhere with good op-shopping.” Although a night class in ceramics, the designer confesses, would also do nicely.

F E AT U R E

ENOUGH FOR A FEED WRITTEN BY JOHN BRISTED | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Eric Matthews is a patient man, fishing faithfully over the past 60 years despite ever-diminishing returns. We talk to him about the allure of inanga.

“O

ctober’s the best month for whitebaiting,” says 80-year-old Otaki enthusiast Eric Matthews, who goes down to the river to catch the delicacy with his son Shane. “We don’t get very big catches these days. I remember a run a long time ago – a bloke across the river from me caught about 50 kilos. I got about 11 kilos. “It doesn’t happen often, but you sometimes get more when you least expect it. Your little container is suddenly not big enough. On that big day I remember people using anything they could find to store the fish, even putting whitebait in their parka pockets; another took his trousers off, tied off the legs and poured his catch in there. “lf we got a great big catch we wouldn’t be telling everyone else straight away because the spot would be overrun with people. These days we’re lucky to get even half a kilo – just enough for a feed. We eat everything we catch.” Eric, whose family once had a beach cottage at Otaki, has been whitebaiting in the area for more than 50 years. He adds: “Before fridges were common people occasionally came home with more whitebait than they could eat or give away, they couldn’t store it, and it sometimes ended up round the fruit trees. Nowadays there seem to be fewer whitebait, there are many more people fishing, catches are much smaller, and of course everyone has fridges. “It’s a great pastime, anyone can do it. You don’t need a licence, you just need a net and enthusiasm. Being able to drive to the spot makes it much easier too. We used to have to carry our heavy nets and extra clothes and whatever we needed to eat and drink a kilometre or so down the beach – which was fine until you hit a big northerly or southerly. And it’s great to see the kids having a go in the weekends; we don’t fish then.

“Fishing round the mouth of the Otaki can be dangerous” he says, “literally dozens of people have fallen in and had to be helped. If you’re fishing at the mouth you need to be careful, but most of the older people fish further up the river where it’s safer. There’s a bit of competition for the good spots though, and unlike the South Island we can’t own them. When whitebait are running you will see people sleeping out for the night so that they can be first on their special spot in the morning, and sometimes there’s a bit of discussion if someone puts his net in less than 12 paces away which we all think is a reasonable distance. “Everyone’s got their favourite way to cook whitebait. These days people use garlic and stuff. I remember watching some Maori boys who’d caught some. They lit a fire on the spot, threw a piece of old corrugated iron over it to cook them on, and ate them right off the iron. Looked pretty good.” Whitebait are the almost transparent babies of five species of small native fish which, although hatched in wetlands, drift out to sea to grow. When they come back from the sea, the majority (inanga) grow into a thin silvery fish almost 10cms long. Inanga are also native to Chile, Australia and Argentina. Other whitebait, including the native trout, can grow to as much as half a metre in length. Collectively they’re called Galaxiids because their speckled skin is said to look like a galaxy of stars. The whitebait season ends here on 30 November. Fishing must be in a tidal area and is not allowed outside the hours of 6am – 9pm. Net sizes are specified and penalties for illegal fishing are severe.

CULTURE

NZSO TO B O L D LY G O One of the pieces in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s next concert has been described as a tropical storm. Inspired by traditional Afro-Peruvian songs, Perú Negro by Jimmy Lopez was recently characterised as ‘boundless in energy, with much brass and percussion, fierce rhythms and a smashing ending’. It is one of three pieces being played in Bold Worlds, a folk-influenced programme of contemporary music. Peruvian maestro Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts and Finnish clarinettist Kari Kriikku features. Michael Fowler Centre, 30 October, 6.30pm.

KNEES UP

MAJOR WIN

ACHEY BREAKY HEART

Fancy a line dance en masse? As part of the 2016 International Festival of the Arts a public dance spectacular is being organized for Civic Square. Dancers of all levels of experience, age, shape and size are being called to audition over 5-7 October. Le Grand Continental, a 30-minute show by Sylvain Émard Danse, will be performed on 26 February. Around 150 selected dancers will rehearse together in the months leading up to the performance that kicks off the festival. Go to www.festival.co.nz to register.

Soprano Katherine McIndoe edged out a competitive field of young New Zealand opera singers to win the 2015 Dame Malvina Major Foundation Wellington Aria. The former head girl of Wellington Girls’ College is currently studying at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University. Adjudicator Amanda Atlas said each of the eight finalists demonstrated an excellent level of study and attention to detail, so in the end it was about the ‘it’ factor. McIndoe won $4,000.

In New Zealand there are currently 52,000 more women than men in the 25–49 age group. That makes dating great for one gender and not so great for the other. The man drought and how singles navigate it is the subject of Pip Hall’s play Ache. It’s a modern-day romantic comedy about two thirty-somethings traversing the dating scene. Ache recently had a sold-out season at the Court Theatre in Christchurch. Circa Theatre 24 Oct – 21 Nov

CULTURE

MUSIC CRIMES Kilbirnie will be a crime scene once Orchestra Wellington turns up this month. St Patrick’s College Hall hosts the local band in a musical whodunit concert. Education Composer in Residence Thomas Goss presents classic spy and detective theme music from cultural touchstones such as James Bond movies and Get Smart. It will sit alongside spooky music from the classical repertoire too, like Gounod’s Funeral March for a Marionette and Saint-Saëns’ Aquarium from Carnival of the Animals. California-born Goss is a professional composer and orchestrator. He is a pioneer in the field of orchestral education and has created programming for every professional orchestra in New Zealand. For the past few years, Orchestra Wellington has presented his ongoing series Baby Pops as a staple for young listeners.

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MY MY KOKOMAI

LILBURN SOLILO QUY

Porirua College student Tiresa Fomai won Best Vocals and $1,000 cash in the Smokefree Pacifica Beats competition. Her group Blue Rhythm specialises in Poly Funk, Soul, Gospel, RnB and Reggae. The event started in 1994 as the Urban Beats award in the Smokefreerockquest, and has steadily built over the years, to become a competition in its own right. Participants must incorporate Polynesian native language, instruments, dance or movement in their performance and songs.

Hot local and international talent will gather in the Wairarapa to entertain you this month. The second Kokomai Creative Festival kicks off on 16 October with workshops, music, film visual arts, dance, theatre and literature spread over 10 days. The Labour Weekend finale includes one of our own staffers. Go hear our factotum sing in Opera in the Woolshed – Swannies and bow ties are de rigueur we hear.

Contemporary chamber music group Stroma had an overwhelming response to their Boosted campaign to raise money for a concert commemorating the 100th birthday of NZ composer Douglas Lilburn. The group raised over $3,000. Nine composers were approached to write short chamber works, each responding to a movement of Lilburn’s Nine Short Pieces (1961–66). The concert will be on November 2. Check stroma.co.nz for a venue closer to the time.

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TURBO TENOR

WRITTEN BY CHARLOTTE WILSON | PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN LANGDON “Baddies, bodies, bullets and blood.” And, of course, glorious music. It’s Puccini. If it’s a grand night

out at the opera you are wanting, then Tosca will give it to you in spades.

“I

love blood. Of course! I love blood in opera.” Simon O’Neill is talking about the fight scenes, where he gets beaten up by Scarpia’s bully boys, tortured, and shot – and not to give too much away, but let’s just say, his character’s fate does not end well. In fact none of their fates end well, but then, what would you expect? It’s Italian grand opera. And this production is right up there with the best of them. The three principals are an impressive team – Irish soprano Orla Boylan as Tosca, Simon O’Neill as her lover Cavaradossi, fellow kiwi Phillip Rhodes as Scarpia, the evil chief of police. Simon’s sung with Orla before and calls her the greatest Tosca on the planet; Phillip’s been a friend from student days and “he’s just great. And he’s so handsome, he’s the perfect villain for this because it’s set in mafioso times and he definitely looks like a big mafioso don.” As for Cavaradossi, Simon is obviously relishing the role, because he gets more than his fair share of hit tunes: ‘Recondita armonia’ in the first act, ‘E lucevan le stelle’ in the last. Tosca herself gets the equally famous ‘Vissi d’arte’. Even if you don’t know opera, you’ll recognise them. The greatest operas are the greatest for a reason, as Simon points out, and Tosca is something like the fourth most performed opera on the globe.

“It’s a great opera for people to go to, partly because it’s not that long. It’s the height of verismo, real-life drama sort of stuff. It has these beautiful, beautiful arias. And the roles are so beautifully written for the voice. Cavaradossi has so much passion in it, but it also has quite a bit of power, which suits me… and of course you have to address it from a technical point of view as well, you can’t just go out and shout the thing. I want to try and make my singing of this role as beautiful as possible, because the music is the height of beauty.” I’m talking to him at home in Auckland, as he stokes his woodburner, enjoying a few days off before the Auckland season begins proper, and a few hours before he collects his two children from school. He’d finished a tour with the Chicago Symphony before going straight into rehearsals for this season, and he is spilling over with enthusiasm for the orchestra, for the conductor, for the singing, for the set… it’s the fourth time he’s sung Cavaradossi, including the classic production in Berlin where Domingo and Pavarotti sang before him: their costumes still exist, and Simon wore the Domingo costume, joking that he’s not quite graduated to the Pavarotti as yet – “that would be a sad day, a very sad day.” But, joking aside, “it is a thrill to sing. Of course it is. At the same time it comes with a lot of pressure. One

MUSIC

does not want to screw it up. That’s a fact.” No danger of that. Simon O’Neill has one of the most powerful voices on the planet: he’s been called the turbocharged tenor, with a voice that can hit the back of any concert hall, but it’s subtle, and beautiful, as well. He’s a fantastic actor. He’s a hard worker. And he hits all the high notes. Quite a lot has happened since he last performed with NZ Opera: that was in Boris Godunov, in 2003, when he was living in New York and having quite some success – he was a Grand Finalist in the Met Opera auditions the year before – but was still waiting for his break. It came in 2004. “I had this job at the New York City Opera, right by the Metropolitan Opera. The Met called me to say, could you please come and audition for us, and they asked me to sing some Wagner. So I did and 20 minutes later I get a call, as I’m walking back up Broadway, and they say Simon, you did not get the role that you auditioned for but you are now the cover for Placido Domingo. As Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Met. The greatest Ring Cycle of the last 30 years. So I covered him, and I got to do all the rehearsals. All the big stage rehearsals with the orchestra, the Met orchestra! With all the people! That was incredible!” His delight is palpable: it’s clearly never worn off. And that was the beginning – from there, he became Domingo’s regular understudy, and a few years later he began to get double cast – what he calls a “software upgrade”, sharing Siegmund with Domingo on the same bill. In 2005 he made his Covent Garden debut, and the Wagner contracts began to pile up in Europe and the UK: in 2007 he began touring with conductor Daniel Barenboim; in 2009 he jumped into Verdi’s Otello at the last moment, and The Telegraph called him ‘The best heroic tenor to emerge over the last decade’. And now, he performs on the greatest stages in the world – La Scala, Covent Garden, the Met, Carnegie Hall … names he drops with happy abandon but then he’s entitled to: he’s made it, he’s a star. “Opening at La Scala in Milan on 7 December is a big date in Italy, it’s like their Oscars, and in 2010 I opened with Daniel Barenboim. Walking out on stage – that’s pretty

amazing. Actually, just walking up to La Scala through the piazza is amazing. And then you get the poster with your name on it and you put it beside another La Scala poster, like I’ve got an original of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Ring Cycle in 1954, and you know – I pinch my arm every time, every day. I love it.” Tosca is not the only thing Simon is doing in New Zealand – he’s been teaching as a visiting fellow at the New Zealand School of Music for a few years now, and he’s giving masterclasses just before our Wellington season starts. He loves teaching: he still gets lessons from his mentor ‘Sir Don’ – Donald McIntyre, the great NZ bass – and he dreams of one day being a music professor of voice at one of the universities. He’s also looking forward to Wellington, strolling along the waterfront with a gelato, having a coffee at the Lido, visiting Te Papa with “the monkeys”(his children). He’s strongly Kiwi – he prides himself on his no airs and graces, no problem mate, can-do kiwi attitude – and he’s unique in that he is actually based, now, back in New Zealand. He’s married to lawyer and singer Carmel Walsh, and they have the family home in Auckland as well as a place in London for Simon to use as a base when he’s away. He’s away a lot – nine months in every year travelling. But he loves it, and more importantly, he is making it work. “Some people were a bit iffy at first, because you know, a lot of those people think New Zealand’s on another planet. But they got over it. And actually, it’s not that hard. Business people do it all the time, sports people do it all the time, and I guess it’s like being in the big international golf circuit like Lydia Ko, you just hop on the plane and you turn up and you do what you came to do and then you get to come home to this great nation of ours and collect the kids from school and be a dad. I couldn’t think of anything more perfect actually. It’s paradise! It’s paradise we live in! And to sing roles like this, not only on the international stages but also at home, well, that’s just the best. I think it’s just fantastic that they thought of me to do this. It’s the best of both worlds. Tosca, St James Theatre, 10–17 October.

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F E AT U R E

EARTH SEA & SKY PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE MARSHALL

It’s surprising how Marlborough sits quietly under the Wellington radar. Our neighbour just across the strait, it is New Zealand’s most important wine growing region, and often the one that records more sunshine hours than anywhere else in the country. Its enormous area of spectacular land, mountains and protected inland seaways is perfect for all kinds of outdoor activities, all spliced together with delicious food and wine. Beth Rose remembers the exquisite details of outdoor adventures while holidaying in Marlborough and we catch up with a winegrower, a yachtie and a falconer to look at a little of what’s on offer over the way.

Page 30

Earth

Page 31

Sea

Page 33

Sky

Page 34

Travel

Page 36

Calendar

Page 37

Briefs

MARLBOROUGH

THE GRAPE U N C E R TA I N T Y WRITTEN BY BETH ROSE

Jono Bristed is a third-generation sheep and cattle farmer in the Awatere Valley. In 2008, the family decided to put five per cent of their 200 hectares into grapes, just as the recession hit and grape prices plummeted. Looking back, Jono acknowledges the gamble of taking on a crop associated with such uncertainty, but has no regrets. “Things could only get better,” he says. “Prices have gradually gone up and we’ve had big and small years of yield, the lowest of six tonnes per hectare, the highest – just two years ago – of 17 tonnes. It’s been an unpredictable time. “I have no idea what will happen this year. In about a month we can see the start of bunches of grapes and by January or February each berry produces a flower and then you can see how big the bunches might be, so we can make a crop estimate. When the berries go soft by the end

of February, we just hope for the best.” The grapes Jono grows are the Marlborough staple, Sauvignon Blanc. “We sell two thirds to Invivo, in Auckland, and one third to Awatere River Wine Company. The price per tonne is agreed over a cup of tea and a handshake ahead of the March harvest.” The fruit Jono sells to Invivo has ended up under some famous feet. Talk show host Graham Norton holds shares in the winery, and last year he came over to crush some grapes and make his own limited edition Sauvignon Blanc. Far from the bright lights of Auckland and the celebrity blends, Jono is happy living off the land, and accepts the fluctuations of a farming life. “I love being on the farm. Sheep and cattle help with the ups and downs and there’s always something to do.”

MARLBOROUGH

SOUNDS G R E AT WRITTEN BY JOHN BRISTED

Matt Kerr, (right) with his sailing partner Glenn Robinson by their racing yacht Satellite Spy a Ross 40 footer. The pair are keen racing sailors, and looking forward to the season ahead. Kerr, originally a Wellington boy, is now an accountant who moved to Marlborough for the lifestyle it offers. “We used to come down here for holidays to our family bach in Queen Charlotte Sound in Lochmara Bay and we had so much fun growing up. We’ve got history here. So now we’ve got a bach in Port Underwood, and Glenn and I have this yacht which we race round the Pacific, and we’ve got the whole Sounds to play in. My family loves it. For boaties there’s always something to do and it’s safe. You can cruise all round the Pacific, and mostly there are lots of people, and lots of reefs and you need to be pretty careful. Here, there’s always somewhere you can park your boat safely in a sheltered

corner, and unlike almost anywhere else there are few reefs, relatively few people, there are scallops and there are fish. In the old days you hardly ever saw kingfish, but now there seem to be lots of them too.” Kerr raced a much smaller Elliott 7.7(metre) in Wellington before he moved to Marlborough. “The Sounds are a completely different kettle of fish; anyone who’s sailed here knows the wind often blows from lots of different directions at once, and many visiting yachties just pull down their sails and motor. But as everyone knows, cruising in the Sounds, once you get used to it, is phenomenal. “My three adult children all dive and our favourite place to anchor on a sunny evening is down the Grove Arm at Slipper Bay with a few scallops and a glass of Sav Blanc. Feels just like home.”

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MARLBOROUGH

CLEAR SKIES WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDY FROST Her profile decorates the reverse of the $20 bill; she’s not the one with the crown, but she’s every bit as stately and to many New Zealanders, even more important. The kārearea, or New Zealand falcon, our only remaining endemic bird of prey. While it’s a lucky birder who spots one in the wild, visitors to the Marlborough Falcon Trust are invited to get up close and personal with kārearea at their display aviary in the Brancott Valley, or by signing up to a falcon encounter. The hope is apparently that once the public sees for themselves just how incredible the birds are, they’ll want a stake in protecting them. Trustee Andy Frost has seen this at work in his own family. “When we release falcons in the wild we feed them for a time until they look after themselves… But last year the first two chicks vanished soon after they were released and we became quite worried. My adult children were home for Christmas so our family mounted an expedition with a farmer to search for them,” he says. The falcon were found, happy and seemingly well-fed, near a river close to the release site. And Frost’s family went back to their lives with a story to tell their friends.

Falconer Diana Dobson takes Fern (above) on school visits, treating students to displays of flying at incredible speed over their heads. Raising the profile of kārearea is important because despite being more rare than the kiwi they still come to harm at the hands of humans – sometimes indirectly, when a nest is destroyed by a cat or a bird is electrocuted on uninsulated power lines, and sometimes birds have been shot. When birds can be rehabilitated fully they are released, and since falcon conservation was first established in Marlborough ten years ago at least two dozen birds have been released into the wild. “The most recent was Moana, now well established on Banks Peninsula. Sadly we cannot rehabilitate all injured birds so we keep some. Most of them add to our breeding programme,” says Frost. Breeding kārearea is difficult, but last year six chicks were raised successfully, and there are currently three eggs which should hatch into chicks in October. The New Zealand falcon has been a protected species since 1970. 33

MARLBOROUGH

NEAR NEIGHBOURS WRITTEN BY BETH ROSE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUKE MARSHALL

A pristine Wellington sky reveals one of the most tempting views the capital has to offer: the South Island. “Tapi” Mt Tapuae-o-uenuku stands out against the blue, and the outstretched fingers of the Marlborough Sounds reach into Cook Strait, beckoning big-city dwellers.

osting several of New Zealand’s most iconic landscapes – sweeping vineyards, bush-clad slopes, glassy bays – Marlborough has elements of paradise. Tourists travel thousands of miles to experience the food, wine and wilderness of the region. Wellingtonians can get the feel of it in a weekend. For a quick Friday night getaway, flights to Blenheim or Nelson take minutes, but for the classic holiday experience, it’s the Cook Strait ferry. The childish excitement of having watched ferries come and go in the harbour all year, and now you’re being ushered up the ramps and onto the car deck. There are always cameras at work as you sail up Queen Charlotte Sound. Disembarking at Picton, there are three main choices: stay there and play in the Sounds, travel 20 minutes south to Blenheim and wine country, or go west along the fern-lined road to Havelock, a mecca for mussel-centric cuisine. Beyond these two well-trodden highways, however, are the local roads that lead to little slices of heaven. There are over fifty Department of Conservation campsites in the region, some of which are only accessible by water, and countless hiking trails and backcountry huts that can easily rival the beauty of the famous Queen Charlotte Track. Elaine Bay campsite, for example, is a little gem. It’s past Havelock and is the penultimate resting place before French Pass, the most northern campsite reachable by road. In summer, it’s chocka and space is at a premium, but off-season it is the epitome of tranquility. You can launch yourself from the painted jetty into the blue-green waters of the Sound, or cast off in a dinghy for a less bracing alternative. There’s boat access, or if you don’t have one, a friendly local rents his two-person sea kayak out to visitors and he’ll provide a bucket for the fish if you have your rods with you. Walking tracks meander out of the campsite. They can be done in an afternoon, but hardier trampers might want to make for Mount Stokes on Kenepuru Head. The start of the track is a hobbit-hole by the road that takes you along the side of the hill and follows the ridgeline, up through dense bush and the damp, mossy forest of the cloud line to the 1,203m summit: the highest point in the Sounds. Mount Stokes is a relentless climb, but just when you get to the brow-wiping, back-aching, nose-running, thigh-burning

limit, and have decided that “I don’t even like walking”, the trees began to thin out and open onto rocky tussock grass. And there is the reward: the Marlborough Sounds, spread out beneath you with a few white, puffy clouds hanging in the air below. This view could have inspired the phrase “sitting on top of the world”. I truly believe sandwiches taste better on mountaintops, and the day I sat on that lofty peak and tucked into my lunch it tasted amazing. If you go west of Blenheim following the Wairau River you’ll find the South Island’s Lake Rotoiti, the start of the Buller River, surrounded by spectacular mountains, home to the Rainbow Ski Area, and the northern entrance to the road (open January – March) through the Molesworth Station to Hanmer Springs. Back down the river those who are game, and in possession of a licence and the necessary skills, can stop at likely troutfishing spots along the Wairau River. Timing is key though, and seasonal latecomers may be wiser to invest their licence-fee in a smoky salmon dish from a nearby winery menu. The fertile soils of the region host numerous wineries, and many Wellingtonians will have their personal favourites. Stopping at a cellar-door restaurant for lunch or supper ahead of onward travel makes for the ultimate last-minute holiday high. Then there’s Blenheim, and apart from all the good food and wine you’d be delinquent if you didn’t visit the Omaka Aviation Museum, which is world class. If you prefer not to go west or stop in Blenheim, you might like to ride down through the mountains in rafts on the Clarence River or, at the right season, drive from the Awatere just south of Blenheim through the Molesworth Station to Hanmer Springs. You could come back via Kaikoura and watch a whale. On the road north you’d need to stop by the Ohau stream and see the baby seals playing in the creek. It’s fortunate that Marlborough gets plenty of sun. It helps make the great wines, and that stuff in those great piles of white as you pass Lake Grassmere is salt; more than 60,000 tons are harvested by evaporation from the sea there every year. There is a myriad of choices in Marlborough for scenery, rest, adventure, and great food. It’s worth discovering. And it’s so close.

SUMMER CALENDAR

S AU V I G N O N B L A N C YA C H T R A C E The WineWorks Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc Yacht Race takes the new-season sauvignon blanc from competing winemakers’ across Cook Strait to Wellington in a yacht race. A wine tasting is held in Wellington when the yachts arrive, each with its carefully stowed bottle of wine. 6 November from Picton to Wellington

FARMERS MARKET

ARTISAN MARKET

See and buy the freshest seasonal fruit, vegetables and produce that Marlborough has to offer. Sundays till 29 Nov Marlborough A&P Showgrounds, cr Maxwell and Alabama Roads, Blenheim

Highlights the best of Marlborough art, crafts, food and produce. 9.00am – 1.00pm, Wynen St Carpark (behind Market St). Saturday mornings (weather dependent)

MARITIME FESTIVAL

LIGHTS OVER

Picton celebrates the unique maritime character and history of Picton. 23 Jan 2016, 11.00am – 10.30pm, on the foreshore

KAIKOURA SEA FEST An extravaganza of taste, sight and sound for those who enjoy good food and a good time. 3 Oct 10.00am – 5.00pm Takahanga Domain, Killarney St, Kaikoura

An extravaganza of fireworks for everybody. 14 November, 6.00pm – 9.00pm, Marlborough A&P Showgrounds, cnr Maxwell and Alabama Roads, Blenheim

OMAKA FLYING DAY Aerial and ground displays of heritage aircraft at the first Omaka Flying Day of the summer. Sun 6 Dec, 10.00am – 2.30pm, Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre

GARDENS GALORE

WINE FESTIVAL

Nelmac Garden Marlborough festival proudly shows off the very best the region has to offer with garden tours, workshops, market day and parties. 5–8 Nov, around the region and 92 High Street, Blenheim

New Zealand’s longest-running wine festival. Food, wine, tutorials, entertainment, cooking, celebrity chef. Saturday13 Feb 2016, 10:00am – 6:00pm Brancott Estate

BRIEFS

SAFFRON STUNNER The most expensive spice, saffron, has been made a whole lot more accessible by Marlborough grape grower David Pigou. At current market price, saffron is just over $2,000 per kilogram. Saffron from the stigma of the crocus is usually sold as threads. But David and the team at the Marlborough Saffron Room have developed a unique method, a “world first” according to David, of extracting the flavour and aroma of saffron. These extracts are now available in various forms, including powder, salt flakes and oil, retailing from $8.00. David began by using the empty space between his grape vines to grow the hundreds of thousands of crocus flowers necessary. Now he has expanded his plantings and established the saffron tasting room at his vineyard. The products are available at Moore Wilson’s.

VEGETATION CITATION

WINE D OMINANCE

A CRAFT Y RENAISSANCE

The first ever recipient of the Nelmac Garden Marlborough Scholarship is Rose Baylis, seen here with tutor Don Cross, planting Swamp Maire. The scholarship is for students undertaking the National Level 4 Certificate in Horticulture at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. Momorangi Bay near Picton is ground zero for a re-vegetation project for the Marlborough Sounds. The Department of Conservation identified 13 species of trees around Momorangi Bay that used to inhabit the Marlborough landscape. Senior horticulture students from NMIT plan to grow a couple of hundred of each of the 13 species. The best 10 – 15 seedlings will be planted out in a special reserve area behind the camping ground.

The Marlborough region has dominated the 2015 New World wine awards, winning a total of 240 medals including 27 gold. The next highest-achieving region was Hawkes Bay with 132 medals and six gold. Peter Yealand’s winery also took out champion pinot noir with their 2014 reserve. For a wine to be entered in the competition, a bottle must retail for less than $25.

Last month, Marlborough craft brewery Renaissance celebrated its 10th birthday. The crowdfunded brewery took over $250k worth of export orders in the last month, which CEO Brian Thiel sees as a “great birthday present.” Ten years is a long time, we have achieved a lot and learnt a lot more, Thiel said. It will be interesting to see where we are in another 10 years. Hopefully we will have achieved a lot more and learnt a little less.”

W HAT T H E F L O C K

H IPPY STI TC H BIR D Name: Stitchbird. Māori name: Hihi, hīhī.

Call: Most recognisable from their stitch or titch call – which sounds like two stones being struck together. Other sounds are varied and usually high pitched.

Status: Endemic, threatened. Habitat: These beautiful birds are believed to have once been common throughout the North Island, Great Barrier, Little Barrier and Kapiti Islands, but had become extinct in mainland New Zealand and on all islands except Little Barrier by 1883. Re-introduction efforts at various mainland and offshore island sites have been successful, but all populations require supplementary feeding and are provided with nest boxes. Little Barrier Island remains the only place hihi are found naturally.

Feeds on: Competing with tui and bellbird for nectar, insects and small fruit – hihi were originally also thought to be honeyeaters. Recent DNA analysis has shown that hihi are actually the sole representative of a bird family found only in New Zealand. Did you know? The social and mating behaviour of hihi is fascinating. Individuals interact in a number of ways; both males and females have been spotted visiting each other’s nests and chicks from different nests have been seen gathering in “creches” and performing behaviour that appears to be play. The hihi is one of only seven passerines reported to be polygynandrous (with multiple male and female partners), and the only bird in the world that occasionally mates face-to-face, with the female lying on its back, in addition to using the common male-onfemale’s-back position.

Look for them: If you’re lucky enough to be able to go to Kapiti Island some quiet sitting near a feeder should produce a sighting, or else head to Zealandia where hihi have been a real success story. In 2005, 60 wild hihi were transferred from Tiritiri Matangi Island off Auckland to Zealandia, making it the first mainland site to host the birds in 120 years. Ten years on and there are more than 100 adult hihi at Zealandia, making for fairly regular sightings by visitors. A medium-sized, plump bird with a gently curved bill, the males are black about the head, neck, mantle and breast, with a bright golden band across the shoulders and short white tufts either side of the head. Females are plainer and harder to spot, with smaller but still visible ear tufts. Both have a distinctive and rather adorable habit of cocking their tails straight up in the air.

If it were human it would be: Their open-minded sexual approach could call to mind the free love of years past, but these birds have a vulnerability to predation that lends them an innocence, so we see them to be more like open-minded, sexually explorative young Millennials. We also can’t forget the news story from earlier this year that hihi were found ‘tripping’ on magic mushrooms, which may or may not have been consumed intentionally. Hehe, hihi.

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U N - C O N V E N T I O NA L WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY CHURCH

Whoever said you can’t stay a kid forever obviously didn’t tell Nopera Whitley. Whitley became fascinated by the art of magic as a child. But far from outgrowing his intrigue, he would go on to embrace it as a career. Whitley now “does magic” full time. “I think I got into magic like most other magicians by seeing a magician in real life and having an extreme hunger to know how it all worked. It’s like a drug,” he says, “I find it fascinating how what is really going on and what is perceived can be so different, and how it can have such a dramatic effect on people.” The Johnsonville 24-year-old is a performing magician who also runs New Zealand’s largest magic shop, and is the president of The Wellington Magic Club, which has supported and helped develop the practice of local magicians since 2012. Like many club presidents and small business owners, Whitley is proactive about learning all about his trade. For the past few years he has attended magic conventions here and in Australia. But this year is extra special, because The Wellington Magic

Club is hosting the 32nd NZ International Magicians Convention. “This is the first event of this nature in Wellington in almost 20 years,” says Whitley, “It’s very exciting.” The convention is the biggest magic event in Australasia, and is expected to bring 150 magic enthusiasts from New Zealand, Australia and even the U.S.A. into Wellington. Here top international magicians will host lectures and workshops, and of course perform – at venues including a public gala show, Magicians in the Capital, which features six of eight top international headline acts including world champion South Korean manipulator Lukas Lee, Vegas vaudeville variety act Charlie Frye, Canadian comedy magician David Merry and Melbourne-based street magician Nick Nickolas. “Considering the calibre of magicians, we fully intend for this to be the best magic show Wellington has ever seen,” says Whitley. 32nd NZ International Magicians Convention October 24, 25, 26. Magicians in the Capital, 24 October.

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SECTION HEADER

BA B Y GRAND WRITTEN BY HARRIET PALMER | PHOTOGRAPH BY YVONNE LIEW

Anne Neal has a following. Her fans raise fat arms into the air as she sings, ogle her hands as she beats out a rhythm, and fling themselves at her feet as she shakes her tambourine. Often enthusiastic, sometimes fickle, occasionally asleep, when she launches into a crowd favourite they stand on wobbly legs and shake their booties like a bevy of drunks at a mid-summer music festival. But please, forgive them their wild ways. They’re just babies – a pre-school music group who see Anne once a week or so for their nursery rhyme and maracas fix. Anne has been teaching pre-school music in Wellington for the past twenty years. She began after finding there were no groups in the city to take her own children to. Her eldest was three at the time. There are now five young Neals ranging from 15 to 23. Anne says they cringe when she gets stopped in the supermarket by grown men wanting to reminisce about their days of pounding the golden syrup tins from her trove of well worn and loved instruments. It must happen often – Anne teaches across the city, with classes in Miramar, Karori and Island Bay. There are

literally thousands of Wellingtonians who can thank her for their sense of rhythm, their love of singing, or their superior tambourine action. “Music can be enjoyed right through your life,” she says. “It’s important for developing language skills and speech. Your hearing is the first sense that develops and it’s usually the last to go. There is just so much you can learn through music and song.” Anne looks like a dancer. She sits up straight, and while parents mumble and drone, she sings out in a lovely clear voice. Each session begins with the children taking turns to peer through an old tambourine. Anne welcomes each by name. The children love it. She ends with bubbles blown to classical music. Again, the babies are transfixed. Anne keeps up her professional development but she’s not trained. In fact, she has an MA in French and Art History. She is also a qualified librarian. She’s thought about returning to the art world, but says the expressions on the faces of her tiny dancers are enough to keep her singing.

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OPINION

CONNECT WELLINGTON TO THE WORLD WRITTEN BY ROB MORRISON

A runway extension for Wellington airport is not a new idea. In the life of the airport, the runway has been extended five times. And yet every time a runway extension is proposed, the same arguments have been trotted out as to why it shouldn't happen. “It's too expensive, it can't be justified, who is going to use it?”

magine if the original naysayers had won out and Wellington's runway had remained at its original length, all 350m of it. The one constant in the life of Wellington airport is that those who have argued against extending the runway have been proved wrong, quite wrong. Fortunately there is overwhelming support for the proposed new extension with up to 80% of the general public and Chamber of Commerce members wanting direct connections to Asia and North America For the world's most remote country, New Zealand's air links are crucial for inbound and outbound tourism, business connectivity, high value trade, education, and keeping in touch with friends and family. The cost and inconvenience of connectivity out of Wellington is a key contributing factor to Wellington's underperformance in key growth areas of the economy such as tourism and education. In 2015, more than 350,000 Chinese tourists will visit New Zealand and only 5% of their spending will be in Wellington. Education is now New Zealand's fifth largest export industry, a $2.6bn industry of which Auckland provides more than 60% and Wellington less than 10%. In 2014 the industry grew 15% nationwide and 4.6% in Wellington. As always a range of factors are involved but direct airline connections are important to both industries and the lack of them is hurting Wellington. Consultants EY have estimated, using a 40 year period, that the direct benefits for Wellington, on a present value basis, are more than $500million and over $1,300million for New Zealand. They are experts at economic analysis and have a well deserved reputation internationally but it’s easy to do a reality check.

If the extension enables New Zealand to add one long haul service a day and each of those planes brings in 110 new inbound passengers per day (long-haul aircraft carry around 220 passengers at 80% capacity) those 110 passengers turn into 40,150 additional visitors a year. We know from Tourism NZ and MBIE that each long haul visitor on average spends $3500 on their visit so if we multiply 40150 visitors by $3500 that is $140 million a year of additional spending from adding one long-haul fight per day. Despite the obvious benefits to Wellington and the country there is opposition. The most simplistic argument is that if the economic case were so good (and it is a good one) the airport company would pay for the extension itself. Keeping it simple, if those additional 40,150 passengers spent their $3,500 at the airport, then I imagine the airport would be in a bit of a rush to get that extension done and pay for the lot. The reality is different. In fact the airport would only expect to capture about 1% of the spend (including airline charges and assuming the visitor also leaves via the airport). The real spend occurs elsewhere. The airport is simply a conduit, a conduit to connect people and businesses and the value accrues to those people and businesses. The airport will pay its share of the extension but one or two extra flights per day is not a game-changer for the airport financially although everything points to it being a game-changer for the city and the region. Another throw-away line favoured by the “No” camp is "what about Invercargill " or "Rotorua." Both airports extended their runways in the hope of increasing traffic flow but the hoped-for increases haven't happened.To attract an airline to

OPINION

an airport involves a complex range of factors. Location, population, trade, competing airports, aircraft types and availability are all important. Building a bus stop in your back yard won't attract a bus. Wellington already has a million international seats a year while at the time of extending Invercargill and Rotorua had none. But the critical difference for Wellington is the availability of new long-haul fuel-efficient aircraft, for example the B787 and the A350. The global trend is for air travel to be point to point. It’s better for passengers and better for the environment, it is the future and it underpins the need for Wellington to get connected. Another argument is that passengers flying to and from Wellington would normally have flown via Auckland so Wellington would simply be taking passengers from Auckland without increasing the total New Zealand international passenger market. “It’s only an hour to Auckland,” is a current argument that conveniently forgets about the time (and cost) connections entail in addition to air-time. Travel via Auckland on both legs of a recent trip to China added seven hours of travel time to my journey. Does it makes a difference? Whether you have access to airport lounges or are forced to prop yourself up in the airport food court, it matters. There is compelling evidence that direct services generate traffic because they take less time and cost less. When Air Asia commenced flights into Christchurch, passenger numbers between Malaysia and New Zealand had been flat for a decade. Malaysian visitor numbers increased 60% before flights were withdrawn after the Christchurch earthquake. Hawaiian Airlines commenced flights to Auckland in March 2013, a route already serviced by Air New Zealand, and visitors from Hawaii have increased 40% since. This year Wellington has seen an 18% increase in international traffic with the new capacity from Fiji Airways and Jetstar. The best evidence that new services and new destinations grow passenger numbers is found in Australia. Over the past decade Australia has opened more airports to direct long-haul international services. Australia now has eight airports with direct services into the Northern Hemisphere while New Zealand has two. Between 2004 and 2014 airline capacity between Australia and Asia increased more than 50% and over the same period capacity between New Zealand and Asia declined 11%. Adelaide is a good proxy for Wellington. Like other Australian cities Adelaide has introduced direct flights to Asia and in 2014, Adelaide’s international passengers were up 21% on the prior year to nearly a million passengers

If we believe those who argue that Wellington services won't grow the total New Zealand market, the growth in Adelaide should have come at the expense of other airports. However the four largest Australian airports all grew their international traffic in 2014. Sydney by 3%, Melbourne by 10%, Brisbane by 6% and Perth by 5%, while the total Australian market grew by 6%. Quite rightly there are environmental concerns as flying has a significant carbon footprint. The issue is complex but on the positive side the airline industry has made material improvements in the fuel-efficiency of aircraft and the aircraft Wellington is looking to attract are the most fuel efficient long-haul aircraft ever designed and direct connections use less fuel than two flights to reach a destination. So finally the vexed question. Who pays? The question is not just about the merits or otherwise of the extension. You can agree with the benefits but if you don't have to contribute to get them, so much the better. Infrastructure costs money, and cost and benefit is not always aligned. That said, there needs to be a connection between the benefits and the cost of providing them. The clear beneficiaries are the airport company, the Wellington region and New Zealand. It is logical that those beneficiaries, or their representatives should provide the funding for the construction. Low cost connectivity is critical to economic and social development. Central New Zealand has a splendid environment, a well educated population, affordable accommodation, plenty of entrepreneurial spirit, and a safe and vibrant social and cultural environment. But if it is to step-up, it needs to be better connected to the world.

Rob Morrison became Chair of HRL Morrison & Co in 2012. Among many interests he is Chairman of Kiwibank and currently a council member of the Asian Corporate Governance Association, and a director on the Asian advisory board of The Nature Conservancy. He also Chairs Pure Advantage and Wellington Phoenix FC. Morrison & Co is the manager of Infratil Ltd, which, along with the Wellington City Council, owns Wellington airport.

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THE W EL L ING TON JAC K ET

N EW CO L U MN I ST

WRITTEN BY DEAN WATSON

didn’t bring a lot of clothes with me when I moved to Wellington. I brought just two shoes. One shoe per foot. Which makes sense, until you realise I brought one shoe per foot. It wasn’t out of naivety that I packed so light, but necessity. Keeping your check-in baggage under-weight when you’re flying economy is a challenge. It’s a miracle when you’re flying Jetstar. I was packing my suitcase in the Melbourne bedroom I’d grown up in, when I realised I was overweight. Not me, I do pilates – I’m talking about my suitcase. What could I leave behind that I wouldn’t need in New Zealand? Noticing my big, bulky jacket, I pulled it out of the suitcase and put it on. I was now underweight. Not me, I eat donuts – I’m talking about my suitcase. Whether it was the fact I was wearing a big jacket in a house with central heating or the fact Jetstar now had to work really hard to charge me extra, I felt warm inside. Warm: the opposite of what I would be in Wellington. Especially that day I forgot my jacket. In the middle of winter. When the wind was so strong you’d swear it was on performance enhancing drugs. Foolishly, I’d slept through my alarm and in a mad rush to get to a meeting, had forgotten to grab my jacket on the way out. I was in a rush and now I was in Antarctica. Rumour has it the founders of Wellington designed the city to funnel the icy dagger winds straight into the beating hearts of men and women. That may or may not be my own rumour that I just made up, but I stand by it. Figuring out a way to stay warm was the first major test New Zealand had thrown at me, besides the two bottle limit when purchasing Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk. It was time to find out what this Melbournian was made of. I stepped out of the Absolutely Positively nice and warm bus into the Absolutely Positively evil CBD wind. I was wearing a jumper and pants, but it felt like I was wearing nothing. It only takes one missing piece to ruin a jigsaw. It only takes one missing jacket to ruin a Dean Watson. That’s the problem

with being someone who does pilates – I have about as much meat on me as the Kenyan Olympic marathon team. I rely on big jackets for insulation in the same way Kenya relies on its marathon team for Olympic gold medals. Melbourne is cold in winter, but not as consistently cold as Wellington. And certainly not as windy. After my morning meeting, I decided to seek shelter on the second level of the library. Everybody knows the second level is the warmest mainly because security are breathing down your neck, daring you to take a bite out of your ham sandwich. Before I knew it, a polite, but firm Darth Vader was telling me over the library loudspeakers to “Please leave the building.” I’m pretty sure the person who said that was wearing a warm jacket at the time. Or at the very least, a Darth Vader onesie. As I stepped into the cold Wellington night I promised myself that I would never forget my jacket again. I hugged myself and power walked to the bus stop. It’s moments like these your bus is seven hundred and fifty minutes away and true to form, mine was. I realised if I started walking now, I could beat the bus home. The sooner I get to my jacket the better, I thought. So I did what my two shoes do best. I started walking. As I pushed into the jacked up wind, I reflected on why I’d come to Wellington at all. And not one of the reasons I came up with was, ‘to suffer.’ Pretty soon, however, my misery thawed out and I started warming up. Then I started sweating. I burst into my apartment. Or should I say, my sauna. I switched the heater off, despite my partner’s protests. Then I removed all of my clothes. The protests increased. I collapsed on the couch breathing heavily, like someone whose donut intake cancels out their pilates intake. I stared at my jacket, which was hanging on the back of the door. And for the first time that day, as I sat there completely naked, I was warm. Take that Wellington.

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EDIBLES

B AT T L E O F THE BUNS The annual ”Burger Wellington” section of the ever-growing beast that is Wellington on a Plate returned this year for its sixth anniversary. The recently opened Egmont St Eatery took out overall honours with their ‘Cheese, Beets and Meat’ burger. Other finalists included Charley Noble, whose Ebisu fish burger with squid ink bun featured in many instagrams over the 17 Wellington on a plate days.

DISHLIST Love the sticky beef burger at Ti Kouka? Wish you could whip up Fidel’s ropa vieja quesadilla? Want the recipe for the cinnamon buns at Prefab? Fancy The Larder’s lamb brains with celeriac remoulade, baby capers and watercress? These Wellington cafes are four of 50 nationwide who’ve shared their signature recipes in The New Zealand Café Cookbook by Anna King Shabab (Penguin Random House, $30). It sure had us salivating.

PROMINENT PINOT GRIS Palliser Estate’s alternative brand The Luminary has taken out top honours at the New World Wine awards in the Pinot Gris category, winning ‘Champion pinot gris’. To be eligible for the New World awards, an entry must retail for under $25, and there must also be at least 5,000 bottles available in New Zealand. This was one of 27 medals awarded to wines from the Wairarapa/Wellington region.

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FO OD FOR FILM The Wattie’s Can’s Film Festival is taking place on 2 November to help stock the Wellington food banks of the Salvation Army. Moviegoers exchange a can of Wattie’s for a cinema ticket, and Wattie’s matches their contributions can for can. Event, Reading and Hoyts cinemas are all participating.

EDIBLES

B I L I N G UA L MINGLE There are many ways to learn a language. You can go to the country and live there, learn in a class, from books or a tape, or if you must stay here you can now learn on the job as it were in a full immersion course. Sounds like more fun. Musica Linguae is a new project begun by Bronwyn Wilson where you attend cooking, music or yoga classes – all in the language you want to learn. So far there have been “Cooking in Spanish” and “Cooking in Italian.” Cooking in French with Hippopotamus head chef, Laurent Loudeac, begins this month. musicalinguae.com

Rory Lenihan-Iken is behind the Campus Fruit and Vege Market at Victoria University. The market runs every Wednesday from 2 – 6pm in the Tim Beaglehole courtyard. Rory is the Wellbeing and Sustainability officer for the Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. He believes access to things like good food link to broader issues such as sustainability. If the market proves popular enough it will carry on through university breaks.

HOSPO HEAD HONCHO Another of Wellington’s hospitality figures has been officially recognised. Mike Egan is the 2015 inductee into the Restaurant Hall of Fame. Mike is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of Wellington’s restaurant industry. He has been involved with many restaurant start-ups, including Monsoon Poon and the Boulcott St Bistro. He was also part of the group that conceived Wellington on a Plate. Other members include Simon Gault (2011) and Steve Logan (2010).

FINGER LICKIN Island Bay is home to Wellington’s newest fish and chip shop. Salt & Batter opened their doors at 67 The Parade last month. Open every evening, they have done a roaring trade so far. The menu is a slightly upmarket version of your traditional FnCs, with interesting additions like mushy peas ($4.50) and ceviche ($7.50).

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FOREST CANTINA

MARLBOROUGH MUSSELS UNNA BURCH

Delicious things come from beautiful places, and I have a soft spot for the Marlborough Sounds and their bounty. I was inspired to use four ingredients from this region, mussels, saffron, sea salt and wine, to create a light lunch, perfect for outdoor sunny eating. Mussels in a rich broth, crusty bread, with plenty of crisp white wine (or cold beer) sounds pretty dang good to me. And if you are that way inclined then some shoestring fries with aioli on the side too. Mussels are pretty cheap to buy – 3kg cost me around $12. It might seem as if you are buying a lot, but just remember that the bulk of the weight is

INGREDIENTS Serves: 3–4 Time: Quick 3kg mussels 1 large pinch saffron 2 cups organic sauvignon blanc 3 tablespoons butter 1 large onion, finely diced 1 teaspoon sea salt 6 fat cloves garlic, crushed 2–3 green chillies (depending how much heat you like), finely chopped 2x tins chopped tomatoes 2 teaspoons Fair Trade sugar 1 medium bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped salt and pepper lemon juice to taste To serve Ciabatta + extra wine

the shell. The rule for mussels is, buy mussels that are completely closed with no cracks in the shells, then once they are cooked, discard any that haven't opened. That way you are eating safe shellfish. If you're not keen on mussels, you can also poach fish in the saffron/wine broth. Use a firm-ish fish (like butterfish, warehou or John Dory) so it doesn't break up. Depending on the size of the fillets, I would cook covered, over a medium/low heat for around 10-14 minutes until fillets are opaque and beginning to flake. You could serve the fish on polenta with green beans.

METHOD

Discard any mussels that are open. Pull the beards off the mussels (I do this by giving them a wiggle wiggle wiggle, then a sharp pull upward, tugging them out) and scrub the shells well with a scrubbing brush. Set aside. Take a small frying pan and put on a medium heat. Add the saffron and toast lightly to release its aroma (about 2 minutes). Remove and add to the wine to steep. Place a large stock pot (with a fitting lid) over a medium/high heat, and heat the butter until it goes bubbly and slightly brown. Add the onions with a teaspoon of sea salt and cook until the onions are soft and transparent, stirring often. Add the garlic and the chilli and cook for a further minute. Add the saffron wine, turning up to high, and cook off for about two minutes before adding the tomatoes and sugar. Bring to the boil then add the mussels. Cover and set a timer for three minutes. Then remove any opened cooked mussels, and cover again and cook for a further two minutes. At this stage I take the mussels out as they open. Any mussels that don't open must be discarded. Taste the tomato broth and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Ladle the broth into warmed bowls then pile the mussels over top. Garnish with parsley and finish with a little extra pepper. Serve with the bread and wine on the side.

SECTION HEADER

LIQUID THOUGHTS

VINOUS COLOSSUS – MARLB OROUGH WRITTEN BY JOELLE THOMSON

The country’s largest wine region is a force to be reckoned with; it has more grapes producing more wine and enjoys faster growth than any other area in New Zealand.

hy do some wines spread like wildfire while others remain becalmed in terms of economic uptake and popular appeal? Take sauvignon blanc and Marlborough. This white grape and that vast region across the Cook Strait are almost entirely responsible for the fact that this year wine became New Zealand’s sixth-biggest export earner. We’ve all tasted sauvignon blanc in all its powerful pungent glory (and some of us even go back for a second or third glass), but why has it worked so well in Marlborough? The answer is more than just right place, right time; although it helps that when Auckland winemaker Ross Spence pioneered sauvignon blanc, it was right at the time that it had gained popular global appeal, albeit as ‘fumé blanc’, which originated in California. One of the key reasons that Marlborough and sauvignon blanc are a marriage made in economic heaven is that sauvignon blanc thrives in Marlborough’s cool climate. The region has plentiful sunshine, chilly evenings, relatively dry days and a long growing season, adding up to near-ideal growing conditions for sauvignon, which originated in another wine region with a cool climate the Loire Valley in France. Marlborough has, I would argue, become the benchmark region for sauvignon blanc globally, and much of its success comes down to its diurnal contrasts: the big difference in temperature between day and night in Marlborough. Hot days and cool nights combine to promote consistent ripening of fruit flavours during the daytime, which then slows in pace during the evenings. The cooler nights allow sauvignon to retain its freshness – its high acid hallmark. Love it or not, this

NZ GROWEN

LIQUID SAFFRON

acidity marks the taste, the typical zestiness, and it is the very reason for Marlborough sauvignon blanc’s food-friendly qualities. Partner a zingy, distinctly acidic and fruity white with fresh fish and bingo, perfection on a plate! The growth of the production of Marlborough sauvignon blanc is phenomenal by any standards and it has been greater, proportionately, than anything in any other New Zealand wine region. Central Otago Pinot Noir has enjoyed modest success in comparison. As recently as 2004, approximately half of the vineyards in this country were in Marlborough; today it has about two thirds of the country’s vineyards. This year, Marlborough’s grapes accounted for 75% of New Zealand’s total grape harvest. Compare that with Hawke’s Bay, the second-largest wine region where the winemakers harvested 12% of New Zealand’s 2015 grape harvest. Gisborne was next with 6% of the total; and Central Otago, despite its rock star pinot noir reputation, harvested just 3% of the grapes nationwide. Sauvignon blanc from Marlborough accounted for approximately 69% of the grapes picked this year. It is an export success story, which shows no signs of slowing down (despite a slight blip during the 2008 global economic crisis). Marlborough’s hot days and cool nights also favour the flavour in other cool-climate-loving grapes, such as chenin blanc, chardonnay, riesling, gewurztraminer and pinot gris. Western Australian David Hohnen was brave when he founded Cloudy Bay Wines 30 years ago this month. Just think of the potential the Marlborough region offers for another courageous pioneer to harness the vibrancy of these other great whites today.

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

ZERO ALCOHOL JUICE First Press is a new range of juices made from wine grapes, which are now available at the White Swan Hotel in Greytown. The juices are made in Gisborne from grapes that were originally destined to make wine. The new range includes a richly full-bodied gewurztraminer, which was made in larger quantities than the others, a chardonnay, a merlot and a rosé. They are being marketed by Gene Walker from Gisborne Gourmet, a company owned by the Thorpe family, which has a long history of wine and cheesemaking in the Gisborne region. Demand is strong, says Walker, who has also sold them as far afield Qatar in the Middle East. First Press juices come in 250ml and 500ml bottles for $5–$7. www.gisbornegourmet.com

TOP TE MUNA PINOTS A trio of new pinot noirs (without the crazy high prices of many) has just been released by Colin Carruthers and Deborah Coddington from their 11.5- hectare Redbank Vineyard on Te Muna Road, west of Martinborough. Wairarapa winemaker Simon Groves (formerly of the Martinborough Wine Centre) has been the couple’s man behind the scenes, crafting small production runs from the completely hand-tended vineyard in this windy corner of the Wairarapa. Crops are frequently affected by spring winds, which makes for an intense concentration of flavour in the wines and smaller quantities.The top wine of the trio is dedicated to Carruthers’ late son, James; the 2013 Te Muna Valley James Pinot Noir retails for $35–$45.

LONELY PLANET ’S MARLB OROUGH

GINGER NINJA

Marlborough is one of three New Zealand regions to feature in the first edition of Lonely Planet’s new Wine Trails; a curation of 52 regional wine weekends around the world. It recommends staying at Olde Mill House eating at Gibb’s on Godfrey, and attending the Marlborough Wine & Food Festival (the country’s oldest). It also tours wine regions around the world, in places as diverse as California to Brda in Slovenia. Lonely Planet’s Wine Trails is a 304-page, full-colour hardback, in bookstores this month.

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KOKOMaI

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promise and promiscuity a new musical by jane austen and penny ashton

16-25 oct 2015 A hilarious night out for fans of Jane Austen , come dy and music . one Show only, don't miss out. Enjoy a pre-show dinner, or meet penny Ashton after the show, for drinks, dessert and general merriment at the White Swan Hotel, main street, Greytown. Tickets $34.00 For further show information and more Kokomai events visit Kokomai.co.nz tickets avail able at e ventfinda .co. nz , carterton e vents centre and wair ar apa i - sites

P E R I O D I C A L LY S P E A K I N G

A CASE OF THE VAPERS WRITTEN BY JOHN KERR

Electronic cigarettes are everywhere on the streets of Wellington. Are they a welcome solution to tobacco use, or a new public health menace?

eople smoking outside bars in Wellington are nothing new. What is new is when an exhaled cloud of apparent smoke doesn’t carry the acrid tang of tobacco but instead a gentle waft of cherry or watermelon vapour drawn from an electronic cigarette. Recently I have been seeing (and smelling) them everywhere. The popularity of the devices has soared in the past couple of years. A recent national survey estimates that New Zealand now has more than 27,000 e-cigarette users – or ‘vapers’ in the current vernacular. In an e-cigarette a battery-powered element heats up a thick liquid mixture, known as e-juice, creating a vapour to be inhaled. The form of the device can vary wildly; some are almost indistinguishable from real cigarettes (complete with a glowing red LED tip) while others are more like Dr Who’s sonic screwdriver or the hilt of a light sabre. Typically the e-juice contains a mixture of propylene glycol, glycerin and flavourings. It is often mixed with nicotine, although this part of the phenomenon is a legal grey area. Currently the Government is playing it safe, banning the sale of e-juice containing nicotine, but allowing committed vapers to import it from overseas for personal use. The devices themselves can still be bought in Wellington stores, with a nod and a wink and a suggestion of online nicotine e-juice retailers. Even with nicotine in it, the inhaled vapour is generally considered to be low risk. The base solution found in e-juice has been used in nightclub smoke machines for decades; and nicotine, while addictive, doesn’t carry the same health risks as tobacco smoke laden with tar and other toxic chemicals. New Zealand experts have estimated e-cigarettes to be hundreds of times safer than real cigarettes (although question marks hover over some of the added flavourings). So if nicotine e-cigarettes are widely recognised as safer than real cigarettes, why is the Government not welcoming the technology, allowing their sale everywhere tobacco can be found? Public health experts, united for years over the fight against tobacco, have found themselves squaring off in debate about

the health value – or danger – of e-cigarettes. Some believe that, although safer than real cigarettes, nicotine- containing e-cigarettes could have unintended social consequences. We do not know how useful e-cigarettes are at getting people to quit smoking. It may be that people switch to e-cigarettes instead of quitting outright, and subsequently relapse into smoking tobacco, or use both interchangeably. Or their use might act as a gateway rather than an exit door, leading non-smokers into smoking tobacco. Professor Richard Edwards, co-head of the Public Health Department at Otago University’s Wellington campus, thinks more research on these potential consequences is needed before nicotine e-cigarettes are made more accessible to the public. Writing on his institution’s website, he cautions, “The case for making them more widely and easily available is not yet clear. However, we should be open to new evidence and the experience of countries with different approaches, and if it becomes clear that the public health benefits are real and reasonably certain, then we need to think again.” This view isn’t shared by all researchers. Dr Brent Caldwell, another tobacco expert at the Wellington campus, is unequivocal in his view that the Government should allow the devices with nicotine to be freely sold alongside tobacco, as soon as possible. “Half of people who smoke tobacco are going to die about twenty years early,” he says. “In the face of that incredibly overwhelming fact – which we do know for sure – it is just not morally responsible to ban or make it difficult to access e-cigarettes.” What is clear is that the issue needs to be thrashed out soon and a decision made, because if e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to smoking, holding them back isn’t helping anyone. The hypocrisy of the debate is that while the experts argue back and forth over the availability of e-cigarettes, anyone can still nip down to any Wellington dairy (or supermarket or gas station or liquor store) and pick up a pack of much more harmful real cigarettes. 62

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BY THE BOOK

R E -V E R SE INTRODUCED BY CLAIRE ORCHARD

Tr u e Bl o o d Smoothy tries to take him high, and bounces off. I grab his legs. It won’t make ‘Smashed em bro!’ but the only way to really stop someone big is to take them low. The ball goes free. I’m on my feet, hunting. Bodies pile in – a free for all. I’m flat-out at the bottom of the ruck, but I’m over the ball. Boots let me know my place. ‘Commit,’ I shout. If we can just shunt forward a bit the egg will pop out. Then thwack! – a huge knee clocks me in the chops, and I – survival instinct – sink my teeth right in. A painful shock blasts through me – it’s my own knee I’ve just bitten. I rear up and the ball pops clear. Bodies disengage. I find my feet in time to see Smoothy, on an overlap, scoot in to score. Not a hand’s laid on him. I bend, extract something from my knee – a tooth. Smoothy does his silly dance – to great applause. I limp back to halfway, bleeding and, thankfully, ignored. By James Brown, from Warm Auditorium, VUP (2012)

BREAKDOWN

NZ BOOKSHOP DAY SAT 31ST OCTOBER www.unitybooks.co.nz

Bio Wellington poet James Brown’s first collection, Go Round Power Please, won the 1996 Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award. He has since published four further books of poetry, and has been a finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards three times. In brief This poem is effortlessly on trend. Brown, in his notes about the poem, comments: “True Blood” was written for a Rugby World Cup School Journal, but rejected. I had in my mind a line from Owen Marshall’s short story “The Divided World”: “The world is divided… between honest toiling forwards, and flashy temperamental backs.” Best moment to break out this poem A recitation of this poem is just the thing to update and invigorate your World Cup match warm-up sessions. Best quotable line “Smoothy does his silly dance – to great applause.” – best bellowed at the screen whenever a player from your favoured team dots down for a try. 64

BY THE BOOK

BOOK IT IN Bookshops are more than just places where we buy books. They’re also places where we get recommendations from staff, discover new authors, go to book launches, and unleash the kids. The first-ever NZ Bookshop Day “Your Place, Your Bookshop”, on Saturday October 31, celebrates our bookshops – and rising book sales – with events at 175 bookshops nationwide. For the kids, there are treasure hunts, competitions and giveaways. For the adults, there are author talks, discussion groups and book readings. Lower Hutt’s Paper Plus is even holding a win-your-height-in-books competition. See booksellers.co.nz/nzbookshopday

WORK OF ART

As our scientific knowledge grows, is our ability to understand and act on it falling behind? Yes, says scientist Mike Berridge from Wellington’s Malaghan Institute of Medical Research. In The Edge of Life: Controversies and Challenges in Human Health, Berridge summarises current knowledge of everything from the origin of cells to the immune system and refined sugar. It’s the latest BWB Text, a series of short books on big subjects from Bridget Williams Books.

A literary talent with a smouldering gaze will arrive in Wellington in January 2016 as the French Writer-in-Residence of the historic Randell Cottage. A finalist for the 2015 Goncourt Prize, France’s top literary award, Nicolas Fargues will work on a new book and give talks and readings over five months here. If you’re keen to read what he’s made of, some of his 10 books have been translated into English.

The opus magnum that is Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History – published by Wellington’s Bridget Williams Books – has won the history section in the 2015 Ngā Kupu Ora Aotearoa Māori Book Awards. As the judges noted, the awards acknowledge Māori writing about Māori, in a Māori way and with a Māori voice. Earning rave reviews, the book took Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney and Aroha Harris seven years from go to whoa.

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BY THE BOOK

READING MUSIC WRITTEN BY SARAH LANG | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

ew Zealand literature’s new It Girl is hard to track down. Anna Smaill was barely over her jetlag after flying back to Wellington from August's Edinburgh International Book Festival when she left for the literary festival WORD Christchurch. Back home, the poet/novelist is still hard to find. Her house in Melrose is invisible from the road, down a wonky path on a skinny street that isn’t signposted. The fact that it’s dark doesn’t help. Finally, I find the right house, and Smaill makes herbal tea. Her fellownovelist husband Carl Shuker is out of sight in the lounge and their three-year-old daughter Lotte is in bed. Smaill looks like she’d like to be asleep too. Thankfully she’ll get a bit of a breather before appearing at the Nelson Arts Festival in October – “I’d said yes to everything in New Zealand because I thought the invitations would stop soon.” Then her debut novel The Chimes popped up on the Man Booker Prize longlist. Around 10pm on July 29, Smaill was sitting in bed with her laptop when the subject line of an email from her editor read: ‘Confidential – for the next 10 minutes’. She was on the longlist for the world’s premier literary award. “It was a complete surprise,” Smaill says. “It wasn’t even on my radar for the book.” She didn,t know that her UK publisher, Sceptre, had nominated The

Chimes (each publisher can put forward only a few books from its many titles). And here she was among the “Man Booker dozen” (well, 13) alongside writers she idolised, like Marilynne Robinson. Delight soon followed shock. “I ran out to tell Carl. I texted Mum and Dad and may have woken them up.” Ten minutes later she started getting emails, texts and Twitter notifications, and posted a short if not sweet tweet: ‘Bloody hell’. “I don’t often swear actually,” she tells me. The 36-year-old doesn’t seem like the swearing sort. Refined and elegant like a 1950s movie star, she pauses to think before speaking carefully and precisely. Written in precise, poetic prose, The Chimes is set in London in the not-too-distant future. After a mysterious apocalyptic event, the Allbreaking, a totalitarian regime called The Order has taken power, and burned and banned “code” (written words). Now, twice a day, music played by the Carillon wipes the memories of the masses, leaving only the confusion of the present. Arriving in London, the orphaned Simon joins a group of urchins who scour the rivers for pieces of palladium, a silvery-white metal they trade for meagre supplies. Simon is effectively floundering around in a dark room, knowing little about the world he lives in. And who are we without our memories and an understanding of

author

BY THE BOOK

our past? Mere shells, unable to move forward? You can’t exactly overthrow The Order when you don’t even know they’re the baddies. As Smaill intended, the reader gradually pieces together the puzzle only when Simon does. The Chimes was influenced by Russell Hoban’s novel Ridley Walker – written in the 1970s and set two millennia after nuclear war has devastated civilisation – and by books that Smaill read as a child, including Rosemary Sutcliff ’s “mythical quest narratives”. What makes The Chimes fresh and original is that Smaill writes about a world controlled by music in language that carries the sound of music. Ambitious? “Yes, it was difficult to create a cohesive, credible world. Writing dystopia is hard but it’s also fun because you have a crazy amount of creative freedom. You’re starting from scratch, like the characters.” Once Smaill had the initial idea, she started hearing Simon’s voice. “I thought ‘Could this voice possibly come from that world?’ I had a why-not moment, and that’s when the book took off creatively.” The Chimes has drawn labels including sci-fi, fantasy, bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) and crossover fiction (for both adults and young adults). However, Smaill thinks there’s too much focus on labels. “I was writing it for myself: first for the younger reader I once was, then for myself as an adult. But I didn’t have a strong sense of the genre or the market – I didn’t even think about selling it, actually.” She’s not being disingenuous. After all, she writes poetry – which never sells well – for the sheer love of it. Her poems have been published in magazines, literary journals and two anthologies of Best New Zealand Poems, and in 2006 Victoria University Press published her first poetry collection, The Violinist in Spring. Smaill began learning the violin aged seven. At 17, she left Auckland for the University of Canterbury's performance-music programme, with dreams of becoming a professional violinist. “But I realised it wasn’t making me happy.” So she quit. “Without music there was a vacuum and I did feel the need

to replace it, partly for my own identity.” She did a Masters in English Literature at the University of Auckland, then a Masters in Creative Writing at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters, where she met a curly-haired student called Carl Shuker. The couple lived for two years in Tokyo (where her next novel is set), then moved to England where Smaill did a PhD on modern American poetry at University College London. From 2009 to 2012, a half-time job teaching creative writing at the University of Hertfordshire paid the bills and gave her the time to tackle her first novel. “There were two bookends of very intense work.” She began The Chimes in 2010, pressing pause for a year after Lotte’s birth in 2011. Wanting to raise Lotte in New Zealand, the couple returned to Wellington in 2013, when Shuker became Victoria University’s writerin-residence. In between looking after Lotte, Smaill finished the book in about six months. Her husband was her first reader. “Showing him an early draft was terrifying. But he was really encouraging and I needed that, because it felt audacious to even be writing a novel.” As for Lotte, you could say she and the book have grown up together. “She’s also known about it through my absences. When I went to London for the book launch in February, those two weeks were the first time I’d been away from her for more than a night.” Later that month, Lotte accompanied her mum to the Wellington launch. “Since then she’s been writing ‘books’ in a notebook and holding her own ‘book launches’. And the morning after the longlist announcement, Lotte could tell there had been some good news." On September 15, the Booker shortlist came out. The Chimes isn’t one of the six books. “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about being shortlisted, but I didn’t think it would happen. I'm honestly so happy – and staggered – to have got to this point.”

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BUSINESS

FROM PETONE TO THE WORLD WRITTEN BY JOHN BISHOP | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

A Petone factory that looks like an overcrowded garage houses world-leading technology which puts holes in exhaust pipes fitted to cars and motorbikes the world over.

anpro Industries, a business owned by the Sanderson family, sells about ten of its tube perforating machines each year to automotive manufacturing companies. Each machine is worth about $250,000. The Sanpro TPM (tube perforating machine) does one thing very well. It punches holes in a piece of metal tube better, faster, and more cleanly than any other machine in any other part of the world. The diameter of the tube can vary from a couple of inches, (about five centimetres) to six inches (about 15 centimetres). The machine takes about forty seconds for each drilling operation. Amazing as it may seem, no one elsewhere has bothered to make a better or faster machine; and hardly anyone in New Zealand seems to know much about Sanpro either. Sanpro were a finalist in this year’s Wellington Gold Awards for industry, services and exports, but they didn’t win their category. They’ve been in awards shows before, winning recognition but not amassing trophies. Not that that seems to bother any of the Sanderson clan. Managing Director Malcolm Sanderson began his working life as a fitter and turner in Petone, he says his tube perforating machines now make parts which are used on about 70% of the world’s cars. How does he know this? “What we have been able to do is to get our machines into the automotive technical centres: Faurecia, a French automotive parts manufacturer, and Tenneco, which is an offshoot of Tennessee Oil. “They supply 70% of the world market for under-car components (which covers brakes, mufflers, exhausts and suspension) so if our parts are in their supply chain we are reaching 70% of the world’s cars. That’s the logic as it was explained to me,” says Malcolm.

The company story is an instructive tale of Kiwi ingenuity, of responding to opportunities, of luck and fortunate circumstances, and of persistence. “I started the company in 1978 making mufflers in a foundry in Petone. AddisonMckee, the biggest company in the exhaust muffler business, started to make machines like this tube perforating machine. Over ten years they spent about half a million dollars without success, and then their accountants pulled the plug. “I am not an accountant. I was determined to get things right. I wasn’t concerned about the cost, so I just kept on going. I don’t know how much we spent. I didn’t keep count. “Alistair Syme (a leading figure in the New Zealand automotive industry at the time) came to me with an order. I had six weeks to do the first order and I had to build the machine first. You could say it was pretty unique. “Later on Southward Engineering were looking at a similar system and paid me for the licence to build their own machine,” Malcolm says. So how did Sanpro Industries get known? “That was when I was making phone calls overseas that produced nothing. In 1995 I went to FabTech, which was an automotive trade show held in Cincinnati. “There I was told to go to another show in Chicago in October the same year. I took a machine with me, and sold it to some motorcycle exhaust guys and then chased the sports car aftermarket.” His persistence paid off. “In the early days I spoke to metallurgists in the United States and told them what we wanted. They said to expect 40,000 holes from one three-inch (7.6-centimetre) punch. We are now getting 150,000 holes from the one punch.

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BUSINESS

Our machines are so much more attractive to customers.” The YouTube video (youtube.com/watch?v=YEuABAbyGg8) shows how the tube perforating machine works. A cylindrical metal tube is inserted. An operator punches in the instructions and the machine whirrs and whirls. Seconds later the tube is pushed back out, with the requisite number of perfectly drilled holes, no variation in size, no residue, and no shards or metal shavings hanging loose from the holes. You can run your finger over any part of the holes and not feel the slightest blemish, or pick up any spots or dots of metal dust. That’s the way it is designed, and the tube is now ready to become part of an exhaust system. “All the machines have inbuilt Wi-Fi and computer systems. We can repair and if necessary run the machines from Petone. On one occasion we noticed that a machine installed in a Wisconsin company wasn’t working. We wondered why, and then we worked out it was lunchtime over there.” When a machine is sold, a member of the team goes along to install it, and to train staff. “We are building tube perforating machines and tooling equipment. It’s precision engineering, not heavy engineering. The key is the tooling – it has to be accurate. We have the longest-lasting tooling equipment in the industry.” Why doesn’t someone else copy and improve it? Malcolm says it could be done. “We are in a market that sails under the radar. It’s not a business with a high volume of sales. We sell eight to 10 machines a year, although we have just got a joint venture going in China. “The machine could be copied, but we are constantly improving it (it can now handle tube up to 6 inches (15.24cm) in diameter, for instance). “We have been a name in the industry since 1995. Our customers are looking for reliability. We provide that. We are trading

on reputation and brand name as well as leading-edge technology. We are vigilant about keeping alongside the big companies to service and support their machines and their needs.” Despite the company’s success, Malcolm says “We still have a daily fight to stay in business.” There are plenty of challenges. Scale is one. “Quality is another.” The biggest challenge will be increasing production and moving from a cottage industry to a more sophisticated system of manufacturing in response to expected big orders. “Tenneco is on the cusp of ordering big. We have the building blocks in place, but another big thing is funding the developments we need to make.” Sanpro is still a family-owned business and Malcolm intends that it should stay that way. “Two sons and one daughter – all in the business. They are pretty keen, they do the travel now.” So where in ten years’ time? “Better systems for manufacturing the machines will be in place. Right now we are looking to get space next door to give more room for proper assembly line-style layout. Getting the products documented and digitising the stock. We’re working with a business coach to help set goals, priorities and to get things done.” In his spare time Malcolm sails. “I own a 58-foot launch which I keep at the marina. I use it to go to the Sounds or Nelson. It’s not for fishing, more for social stuff – taking a group of friends out on the water for Guy Fawkes Night for instance.” Malcolm started his working life as a fitter and turner. “Did my apprenticeship and went to block courses at the tech in Getz Street, Petone.” Nearly forty years later he’s still working in Petone, but now he sells to and supplies the world.

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HOUSE

LOFTY LIVING WRITTEN BY KAREN SHEAD | PHOTOGRAPHED BY ANNA BRIGGS

The loft where Ian Hammond and his flatmates live in central Wellington could be one of the last of its kind.

t isn't a swanky penthouse in a modern newbuild, but it has views of the harbour, is close to the city centre, and has bags of character, which is perfect for its current inhabitants – six flatmates who all work in creative industries. “This is one of the surviving loft spaces,” says Ian. “I don't think you would find anything else like this in the city.” With its great location – it's in Wakefield Street opposite the New World supermarket – affordable rent, and welcoming living space, it suits the group of mostly late twenty-somethings to a tee. It is a creative urban hub, a long-running flat that has generated many a party tale and many an urban myth. The flat’s history includes rooftop terrace parties and craft nights that were only a little bit competitive, says a former flatmate. Ian is the longest-standing flatmate. Originally from Raumati, he moved to Wellington ten years ago, and as a design graduate from Toi Whakaari, moved into the flat five years ago. “My flatmates have changed over that time, people have come and gone, but that's the way in Wellington – it is a really transient place. I've been collecting my friends along the way.”

Other current occupants include Chris Ulutupu, Emma Ransley, Daniel Whittaker, Jayne Paterson O'Connell and Meg Rollandi. “Ian has paved the way,” says Emma. “The group is settling now, we've all been here for at least a year.” The flat has a large living space, a small but functional kitchen, and five bedrooms off a corridor at the back of the living area. Couple Emma and Dan share a room, and have recently built in a mezzanine to give them more space. “We have done a lot to the place,” says Ian. Some of the rooms are quite small (Ian believes that part of his bedroom used to be a lift shaft), but the flatmates spend most of their waking, nonworking, hours in the open-plan living area, which has the typical loft apartment feel. Thanks to three large windows at the front of the building, it is light and airy. It has wooden floorboards, painted brick walls and a high ceiling with exposed A-frame rafters. The living area serves as a lounge, dining room and place for them all to work. It has eclectic furniture and a quirky, retro feel. And, even with six people living there, it does not feel at all cluttered.

HOUSE

Ian and Emma made the coffee table from an old pallet they found on the doorstep. Another wooden table, currently serving as a desk for two people, was designed and made by Emma and Dan who are establishing their own furniture company, The River. “The table will be part of our first collection, which we'll launch in November,” says Emma, “and it is the prototype so it won't stay here in the flat.” Emma studied business and design and Dan has been a builder, so it's a perfect collaboration. “It speaks to our ethos,” says Emma. “We don't just work on one thing. We have our jobs which sustain us, but do lots of other creative things as well.” At the end of the large dining table, which is complemented by mismatched seventies chairs, there is a blackboard wall, which can be used to paint murals when the inspiration strikes. “We went through a phase of having a different mural a week, but haven't used it so much recently,” Ian says. It's a bit of a surprise to find a blank canvas with so many artists and designers in the house. All of the flatmates work in the same industry, but in different areas. Jayne is an account manager for Springload web design; Chris is completing his master’s in fine arts at Massey; Meg is an artist and designer; Emma is a design tutor at Toi Whakaari; and Daniel, who is studying early childhood education, is also a musician – he is a member of local band Glass Vaults – and a furniture designer. Ian, who has built up quite a CV in performance

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design in the capital, including working as the audiovisual designer for the wearable art show, now plans to move into web design and is studying for a post-graduate diploma in graphic design at Yoobee while working part-time at TradeMe. “One of the bonuses of working with people in the same area is that we all understand the industry and can help each other out,” says Ian. “There is always something interesting going on here.” It has been known for all of them to come together to help out a flatmate on a project, and impromptu gig nights have also happened when Glass Vaults have needed somewhere to practice. And, of course, it is an ideal space for parties. “We like to have themed parties and take the decoration quite seriously,” says Ian. He and Emma reel off a list of themes they have used, including a Doppelganger party, a British theme, cross-dressing, and Ian's favourite, his dinosaur birthday party. “There were some amazing costumes,” he says. Now that Ian is tiptoeing into his thirties, he says that people ask him when he is going to move out and live on his own. “I love living here, it's great. I like being surrounded by other creative types – it inspires me. I'd be very sad to leave this flat.” And when you live in a place which makes you feel good, with people who inspire you, and is a twominute walk to Wellington's waterfront, really, why would you?

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Letting | Property Management | Body Corporate 76

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WHAT WOULD DEIRDRE D O? Got a problem? Maybe we can help. Welly Angel Deirdre Tarrant, mother of three boys, founder of Footnote Dance Company and teacher of dance to generations of Wellingtonians, will sort out your troubles. NOISE CONTROL FOR SEX My flatmates are a couple and friends. They make a lot, a huge lot, of noise in bed, really loud shrieking. I have realised that is probably why other flatmates have moved on. They know about it but think it’s funny. I know they need my rent to pay the mortgage. How do I make them understand it is not easy to live with them? Sleepless, Te Aro Move out. Make sure you tell them why.

HEALTHY LIVING I want to take out health insurance, my partner says it is throwing money away and is implacably against it. We can afford to pay the premiums. We share all our bills; is it reasonable if I take it out for myself? Hypochondriac, Kapiti Coast My father was adamant that health insurance was not needed and if you were ill enough the country would care for you. This was definitely the view of his time but I really struggled financially caring for him when he was ill, and took out health insurance for my family following this experience. It has proven invaluable and is one of the truly “I am glad I did that” decisions that I have since had cause

to be thankful for. Just do it. There is no reason that your partner should know if it makes you more confident to do it.

MODERN MEANNESS My daughter is now living with her partner and to my surprise they share all income and expenses regardless of individual income. My mother (who would never have called herself a feminist), often advised my three sisters and me of the importance of making sure we always had our own money and that we should always keep some money separate. My daughter sees that as meanness, and says it’s different now. What do you think? Surprised, Karori My mother was just like yours, and I have had my own career and handled my own financial management, but marriage and children do change the sharing environment somewhat. At this stage responsibility has not entered into the equation and they are happy. You have said your bit, and it is her decision how to live her life, so it is best to leave it alone and not let the dialogue get into emotive labelling. Just hope that you never have to say "I told you so!"

GAMBLING FEVER My partner gambles often, winning bigtime at poker. Of course he keeps quiet about the losing times. I don’t think it should be mentioned in front of our shared children. I don’t want them to think it’s a good thing. He thinks I am being ridiculous to want to hide it. What do you think? Blended family, Churton Park

You are right to be concerned about the children and indeed about gambling being part of your family life at all. Righteousness aside, I think you should all know and share the thrills and spills and it should be open for discussion in the family. You do not mention the ages of the children, and that would make a difference if they are very young. Make sure that both sides of the action get an airing for your partner’s sake as well. He needs to put this in perspective and ensure there is no leaning towards addiction before it is too late.

ETIQUET TE AGAIN Is it essential to attend some semi-work functions when invited? Often now they ask for regrets only. My partner and I are having major disagreements over this and whether RSVPs are an outdated convention. Over etiquette, Kelburn RSVP – to be or not to be. Invitations are often automated now and the RSVP goes to a computerised collating system and not a real person. The concept of good manners is a little different if there is no one on the receiving end. There are still invitations that require a response and you need to take each on its merits in the same way you do when you decide to accept and attend. If there is a name and a person on the invitation and if you know that person, reply to them; but if it states not to and acceptances only or whatever – do what it says. You are both right. If you’ve got a burning question for Deirdre, email angel@capitalmag.co.nz with Capital Angel in the subject line.

N E W Z E A L A N D S Y M PHON Y ORCH E ST R A pr e s e nt s

bold worldS Miguel Harth-Bedoya Kari Kriikku

CoND u Cto R

C L a Ri Ne t

FI R E & I CE

J i m m y Lo p e z

Perú Negro H a ko L a

Clarinet Concerto Lu to s ł aw s k i

Concerto for Orchestra

Friday 30 October | 6.30pm MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE WELLINGTON

nzso.co.nz FoR tiCket DetaiLs Visit

SECTION HEADER

T O R Q U E TA L K

TOWARDS WORLD D OMINATION WRITTEN BY ROGER WALKER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

he legend about Honda founder Soichiro Honda goes that as a toddler he ran outside his house onto the street in his village after a motor vehicle had just driven through. Kneeling down in the dusty road, he smelled the oil drops that had been left behind, looked up at his mother and said “it smells just like perfume”. Honda combined his love of vehicles with exceptional engineering skills to lead his company to world domination of motorcycle sales. Much of the third world transports itself on small Hondas. Honda was also an accomplished artist so it was inevitable that he was attracted to that intersection of art and science known as Formula One – where he has also excelled, but not so much at the moment. The company is not content merely with machines on wheels. It sells outboard motors, portable generators, and executive jets. It also builds a cute robot called Asimo. After nearly killing myself on a Honda XR250 trail bike, I fell in love with a Honda Beat, a tiny convertible that appears to be the result of an affair between a motorcycle and a car. It's the most fun to drive that you can imagine. Its manual gear change is snicketty perfect, and the threecylinder engine revs like a hungry puppy. It’s bright yellow and I adore it. But the fastest growing territory in the geography of cars is that of small Sports Utility Vehicles, and Honda's plan of world domination would not be complete without involvement there. I’ve often said that SUVs are the clothing equivalent of jeans. Both are styley, versatile and serviceable, and can be worn nearly everywhere. SUVs know what they are, and should not be confused with that other species 'cross-overs', which don't. This brings me to Honda’s recently released HR-V. This is a much sharper and more confident replacement of the previous model. It is offered in the New Zealand market with two variants. Each has a 1.8-litre petrol motor, mated with Honda’s Earthdreams (yes, it says that in the brochure) 7-speed CVT transmission.

Complete with a snouty CRV-type R face and “samurai slash” body design, the HR-V is a very attractive vehicle. Deriving the design from the brilliant packaging of the Honda Jazz on a slightly stretched wheelbase, the designers achieve maximum points for interior space. The boot space, at 470 litres, is 40 litres more voluminous than Nissan’s larger Qashqai. The rear squabs fold up against the front seat-backs to allow large items to be carried in the rear. The rear-view camera adjusts three ways to provide a wraparound view of the rear end. The “entry level” HR-V costs $32,900 plus on-road costs. There are plenty of optional add-ons. Front and rear skid plates, side running boards, chrome grille, stainless steel door sill garnish, cargo step protectors, bigger wheels, aero bumpers, leather seats, auto everything and more nudge the buyer up through the HR-V Sport X to the HR-V Sport + which tops the range at $43,900. This is the one illustrated. The body colour is “orchid pearl”. Here was I naively thinking white was white. I smiled as I chucked it about on the hill and dribbled happily through lunchtime traffic, having noted that the owner’s manual says that because of the higher than normal ground clearance, the vehicle should be driven more slowly around corners. What were they comparing it with? I wondered if a Lamborghini or Ferrari handbook says the opposite. Nice bits of this HR-V include a high-tech sunroof which slides and tilts, and privacy glass for the rear passengers. Indicating left generates a “lane watch” video view down the left side of the car – very handy indeed as that's where bollards, parking meters and small pedestrians tend to lurk. Those are just samples of the HR-V range’s astonishing number of driver aids and safety features. Which might go some way to explaining the size of the owner’s manual. At 568 pages it's probably comparable in size to the Koran … but it introduces you to an entirely different religion.

Art Zone

B A B Y, B A B Y

THE NEW ZEALAND ART & DESIGN GUIDE

Art Zone, the definitive guide to New Zealand art and design. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with artists, galleries and exhibitions in New Zealand. To subscribe, visit www.artzone.co.nz Russ Flatt, Outside Edge, 2015, photographic print, 1188 x 840mm (detail) Courtesy of the Wallace Arts Trust and Tim Melville Gallery

How Do You Get Paid for Doing What You Love?

Have you ever wondered, what would it be like to do work that’s really stimulating? Something creative? Something that has real meaning and purpose and can heal your soul? In life, people can often end up doing something they ultimately don’t enjoy. It’s a common story. Conventional wisdom says if you get an education… a well paying job… and a house then everything will go well with you. But, following this path can end up stifling creativity and squeezing all the colour out of life. The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way. Tobias Taane’s story illustrates this well. After years of dedicated training Tobias found himself in a career that did not make him happy. After making the decision to move to Wellington he discovered a way he could unleash his creative urges. It all started when he discovered the forge at - The Learning Connexion - School of Creativity & Art.

Read more about it online at www.creativecareer.co.nz

For the past few years he has hammered steel from recycled truck springs into blades. Examples he’s produced include an 11th century longsword, and a Pompeii style gladius. Stunning work!

Tobias says, “I love getting my hands dirty and just doing it.” Not only does he love what he’s doing, he gets paid too. His work is steadily gaining attention and increasing in sales thanks to his online presence. His story is just one of hundreds of powerful examples of people who have transformed their lives by following the path of creativity and art. There’s an important pattern that if applied to your own life can yield similar results. Each person’s story is different and at the same time shares common elements. Discover how 14 different people, some of them just like you, made rewarding careers from creativity.

B A B Y, B A B Y

TRYING TIMES BY MELODY THOMAS

f there’s one thing guaranteed to ruin the fun of sex, it’s “trying” for a baby. The eagle-eyed monitoring of cycles and symptoms, the disappearance of sexual spontaneity and its replacement with robotic, hip-elevated mating. I doubt there was ever a person in all of history who tried for more than a couple of months and still honestly enjoyed the process. Try as you might to dress-up-the-fact with sexy underwear, surprise nudity or a re-uptake of long-let-go personal grooming – it will never nullify the mood-killing effects on a couple of being informed by their handy cellphone app that they’ve 24 hours to get horizontal or else face another month of disappointment and waiting. Until you’ve tried to make a baby it’s a common illusion that it’s an easy thing to do. Films, books and high school sex-ed classes are full of stories of one-night stands that end in pregnancy. But the fact is, babies are bloody miracles. To even get to the point of trying, most people will have to sieve through a whole world of potential mates to find someone they can stand to become a parent with. Then both people have to agree on a convenient time to uproot their wonderful, selfish lives by procreating; and, once they’ve started ‘trying’, they have to hope that the universe’s plan happens to follow their own. I’ve been pregnant three times, I’ve never had an abortion, and I have one child. Trying can break your heart. This is why I joke (“joke”) that everyone should get pregnant by accident. I’ve done it both ways, and while our unplanned pregnancy was followed by a significant spike in stress and a good three days of nonstop crying, it was far easier to cope with than the incrementally increasing

and unrelenting pressure of the other method. Our parents aren’t just angling for grandbabies when they tell us there’s “no right time” – it’s absolutely the truth. What feels like the wrong time can later show itself to have been the right time all along. Right times are easier to spot in retrospect. But it’s also good to keep in mind that someone’s personal experience can cloud their advice, as my best friend learned the hard way. She and her husband were so certain that getting pregnant was going to be easy that I went out of my way to convince them otherwise. The crazy kids took my advice, started early, and got pregnant first try. A few months earlier than was convenient. With a due date that, funnily enough, could see the baby born on my birthday. Of course a huge number of factors influence the if, how and when of pregnancy, but I think part of their secret is that they weren’t stressed out about it. They weren’t even really “trying”. This was a practice round. Last time we conceived the scenario was similar; it was the week after we got married, we were probably a little drunk and a lot loved up. And it just happened. If you yourself are currently trying, that might be a frustrating or upsetting thing to read, but I’m saying it to myself as much as to you. Despite a track record that suggests pretty convincingly that getting pregnant is easier when you’re relaxed about it, I am currently tying myself up in knots “trying” too hard. So here’s our homework – yours and mine. Let’s try trying a little less. Go dancing. Get a little drunk. Send the children away for a night. Have sex just for the fun of it. What’s the worst that can happen?