Capital 30 by Capital

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

AT YOUR SERVICE APRIL 2016

ISSUE 30

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CAPITAL MADE IN WELLINGTON

THE COVER: Straining to be serious.

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

his time last year we were beginning to look seriously at amalgamation proposals. They were thrown out, but recent reports have shown that Wellington City Council officers are exploring possibilities with Porirua. Some columnists have decried this as dastardly work, in secret. It seems to me reasonable for council officers to continue to look at other possibilities. I don’t think the entire region was against amalgamation of any kind, but rather that the specific proposals lacked merit. Although Auckland hasn’t provided compelling evidence of amalgamation benefits yet, compared with other countries we do have many layers of local government administering relatively small communities. In this issue John Bishop talks to three war veterans about their time in the army. I thank them for being so willing to talk about their war experience and for their cheerful acceptance of a morning’s photoshoot, which they thought should have been able to be despatched in 10 minutes or so. We have paid close attention to our neighbours over the hill, and explored the links between Wairarapa commuters and lifestylers. Joelle Thomson has talked to Martinborough winemaker Lance Redgewell about his new “hippie” style wines. Our science writer John Kerr explores developments in smart phone recording of endangered birds; and Ian Apperley on a family holiday to Cambodia is shocked at how few older people there are to be seen. This is our 30th issue. We are very pleased to have reached this milestone, and to tell you that our distribution continues to expand, as does our subscriber list. As always, we welcome your feedback and look forward to hearing from you. Alison Franks Editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz

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.

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CONTENTS

AT Y O U R S E R V I C E Three Kiwi veterans share their tales of life after war

SHAD OW PUPPETS

á¿¾RAPA ROUND-UP

LAND OF GHOSTS

Fall back into Autumn with new season jackets, knits and denim

We talk to a vintner, a potter and a family of five about the wiles of the Wairarapa

Cambodia's haunted beauty and hopeful youth

10 LETTERS

50 EDIBLES

12 CHATTER

AUTUMN PICCALILLI

NEWS SHORTS

PERIODICALLY SPEAKING

BY THE NUMBERS

BY THE BOOK

NEW PRODUCTS

TORQUE TALK

TALES OF THE CITY

WELLY ANGEL

22 CULTURE

BABY, BABY

84 DIRECTORY

ELECTRIC FEEL

40 HE-HE

CALENDAR

ON THE BUSES

WHAT THE FLOCK

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 Dagula Lokuge dagula@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

ALEX SCOT T Writer

JAMES O'NEILL Ph oto g r aph er

Alex does a little bit of everything. When she's not painting, cartooning or making tiny objects, she's writing and sub-editing. A transplanted Aucklander, she's enjoying learning why Wellingtonians are always raving about their city. You can find her online at Instagram.com/thisisalexscott

James O'Neill is a recent Honours graduate from Massey University where he studied photography. James lives and breathes fashion and is working towards a career in fashion photography. Check out more of his work at instagram.com/ jamesophotog

ANNA BRIGGS Ph oto g r aph er

GUS BRISTED D i stributi on

Anna is a young freelance photographer Massey graduate. She has a love for photographing her surroundings showcasing their natural beauty in a stylish and tasteful way. You can check out her work at annabriggsphoto.com

Gus runs most of the distribution side of both Capital and ArtZone and attempts to make sure every possible place a magazine might look good, has a copy. He also makes quite good coffee and is a rather good baker.

STOCKISTS Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown and Pak’n’ Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Commonsense Organics, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note, Whitcoulls, 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 Signy at YND Studios | Matthew Rennie at RSA Wellington | Sebastian Grodd at Life Flight

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LETTERS

RAW FO OD HEALTHY?

VIBRANT WELLY

Before you publish statements implying that raw food is universally “healthy” as in a piece in your magazine (#29, p47), you might want to check on the nutritional implications of eating raw food vs eating cooked food and the statistics relating to food poisoning from eating "raw food". A statement such as that in your March issue may very well be misleading. George Poropat

Not only do you portray a very vibrant Wellington, humming with the enterprise of clever young entrepreneurs in your wonderful Capital magazine, you also embrace articles on every generation, while keeping a contemporary tone. I loved the cover with the glamorous “older” woman. You have me, residing in Nelson, champing at the bit to return regularly to THIS vital, fabulously interesting Wellington, where I had lived 40 years ago. Thanks Capital magazine. MJ Tisson, Nelson

DUMB PHOTOVOLTAICS The Capital article about rooftop photovoltaics (#28, p78) misses a key point. If you buy a PV unit today and place it on your roof the economic cost (the investment sum amortised over 20 years) will be roughly 30–50cents/kwh (depending on how much sun your house gets). The electricity a household is using today costs 10c/ kwh. Transmission adds about 12c/kwh and retailing costs add a further 6c/kwh (all figures are averages, some people pay more, some less). There are moves afoot to have transmission costs made fixed, so a household will pay $2-3 a day rather than 12c/ kwh which will mean that PV on the roof will save a household 10-16c/kwh, not 28c/kwh. It is a dumb investment to avoid a cost of 10-16c/kwh by incurring a cost of 30-50c/kwh. Which is why PV has had little take-up in NZ. It isn’t even as if there will be reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. NZ’s electricity is 82% renewable and with Huntly closing, its emission footprint will be the lowest in the developed world. Probably rooftop PV will drop in cost, but households are better to wait. Buying today is to pay about twice what the cost needs to be for it to be a good investment. However, if you want to start covering technology that will soon start causing noticeable changes, think electric vehicles. There is every sign that they will be viable well before rooftop PV. Incidentally NZ has a very low rate of both PV installation and the use of electric cars. About 8,500 homes and businesses have PV and 1,015 electric vehicles are now on the road. So today about 1kwh in 10,000 is generated by rooftop PV and 1 car in 3,000 is electric. T Brown, Wellington

SUMMER RO CKS Your sassy, mature model on the cover of the Capital summer edition ROCKS. Thank you! Amanda (Ngaio)

LIE D OWN NEEDED There’s very little not to like about your magazine – it is a joy to read; but as a nervous cook I wondered if you and your food writer Unna Burch would consider dialling it back a bit. Everything featured seems to have 43 different ingredients and when I look at the list my eyes glaze over and I want to put my head in the oven. Could you offer up some adventurous recipes for the anxious? Perhaps create wonderment from 10 ingredients or less? Nigella Lawson recently made avocado on toast. We don’t always have to be fancy to make an impact. C Payne, Petone Have a look at p52 in this issue and let us know if Unna's piccalilli is easier for you to manage. Ed Letters to editor@capitalmag.co.nz with subject line Letters to Ed or scan our QR code to email the editor directly.

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

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A TOT FOR T H E B OYS One of the lesser known traditions of ANZAC Day (well, at least round here) is the “gunfire breakfast”. Shortly after the dawn service it is considered fitting to have coffee with rum added. This recalls the “breakfast” that many soldiers had before facing battle. From a population of just over 1 million, 100,444 New Zealanders served in World War 1. Those killed totalled 16,697 and 41,317 were wounded – a 58% casualty rate. If you don’t get to a service on 25 April, why not sit down with your morning coffee and spare a thought for the diggers. The rum is optional but perhaps the acknowledgement should be mandatory.

NAT MCIVOR What led you to getting a tattoo? I wanted a giant back piece and I wanted Sera Helen to be the person to do it. Before I could change my mind I walked in and was like, “Hi, I want to get this done, Sera will you do it?” – it was her first big scale piece.

FRIGHT CLUB The first lot of filming is complete on creepy New Zealand-US collaboration Before the Darkness. Kaitoke Regional Park (aka Rivendell) sets the scene for the horror-thriller film, which follows a family who must tap into their primal instincts in order to survive unspeakable horror. Shudder. US actor Zach Touchon was excited to “work with the incredible talent and creative minds in New Zealand” while the female lead is being kept under wraps – until the film wraps, we presume. Shooting resumes in November.

Why did you choose the design? It was about letting the tattooist have free rein. It’s a beautiful collaboration between my body and somebody’s talent. Family – for it or against? I told my dad first – “I got a tattoo, wanna see it? If you show me yours, I’ll show you mine.” My mother, not so much. It might be a cultural thing, or it might just be how she feels about women and tattoos. My grandfather’s covered so he’s pretty proud.

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS WALK IN THE PARK A Wellyworder was startled to see a young woman blithely enjoying a picnic and pouring tea into fine china, in a parking space on Cuba. In the next parking spot, passersby of both sexes applied different shades of lipstick then kissed a glass panel to make their mark. Our Wellyworder did stop for a cuppa. Turns out “Pecking Space” and “Ladies’ Tea Party” were two installations in CBD parking spots to celebrate both National Walk to Work Day and Parking Day. Drivers looking for a park missed the memo; several tooted and another was heard muttering “Bloody Cuba.”

AUTO BAKE Seen around Island Bay – a woman driving wearing oven mitts. Either our eagle eyed Wellyworder was smoking something she shouldn’t have or there’s a Honda Civic with a built-in oven in the back seat. What’s more likely?

D OWN AMONG THE CABBAGES Have you been plagued by white butterflies this summer/autumn? An eager Wellyworder tells us that white butterflies are very territorial and that this eco friendly repellent works. Cut out butterfly shapes from old white ice-cream containers, affix them to a stick and dot them among the Brassicas, and Bob’s your uncle. For extra authenticity, add a black line down the middle and a few spots on the wings. Do you believe it? Try it and see.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO When you buy your ANZAC poppy say this to the volunteer: Kei wareware tatou Lest we forget

WOU N D UP Daylight saving ended on April 3, meaning clocks jumped back an hour and bewildered people everywhere were early for Sunday brunch. By now, you’ve probably lost count of the times you’ve had to use the phrase “It’s actually [insert daylight saving time here]” to explain why you’re nodding off. But we should all enjoy the extra hour of stargazing while we can, because clocks are going forward again on September 25. (If you’re reading this before April 3, wind that dial back on Saturday night.)

MAKE A SCENE Forget club sammies, milky tea and a lie-down, Wellington Repertory Theatre is celebrating its 90th birthday with a bang. Their gothic take on the comedy classic Arsenic and Old Lace opens on 6 April. The history-making community enterprise set up shop in 1926 – decades before there was professional theatre in the capital – and it’s been entertaining the masses ever since. Keen to get involved and tread the boards, or pull some strings behind the scenes? Get in touch at wellingtonrepertory.org.nz

NEWS SHORTS

MONEY TA L K S According to results just released by Statistics New Zealand, Wellington contributed 13.5% to the nation’s overall GDP for the year ending March 2015, coming in third behind Canterbury (13.6%) and Auckland (36.6%). It’s an increase of 3.7% from the previous year, and is mainly thanks to the defence, safety and public administration sectors, and to financial and insurance services. These industries, along with transport, postal and warehousing services, have been instrumental in the 19.5% increase between 2010 and 2015.

GREBE EXPECTATION Queen Elizabeth Park has two new residents. A second pair of dabchicks (otherwise known as little grebes) has been spied at the Marines Wetland, and local twitchers are all aflutter. The rare water birds are found only in Aotearoa and they’re under threat. Habitat loss, wetland drainage and predators have all contributed to their official status as “nationally vulnerable”. With between 1,900 and 2,000 left, it’s exciting to see numbers rising – even incrementally – in our local park.

TREETOPS ON FIRE Crowd funding to resurface the Treetops skateboarders park was successful, raising the required $10,000+, 10 days before the deadline. Last year the group developing the park, led by Tom Culy, (see issue #23, p20) announced their project to have the rough concrete surface diamond polished. The space was formerly the Newtown Skating Rink.

DESIGNER DUNNIES The lobster loos on Queens Wharf, resembling a pair of giant antennae, are on the cover of Lonely Planet’s April release Toilets: A Spotter’s Guide. Officially called the Kumutoto Toilets, Bret Thurston’s convenience is one of seven New Zealand dunnies – and 93 worldwide – flushed out by Lonely Planet. Is toilet tourism really a thing? And has anyone else desperate for the loo rushed past what they thought were just sculptures?

NEWS SHORTS

PA R E N T C O M PA N Y Playcentre is proud to be celebrating 75 years of sandpits, finger painting and relieved Kiwi parents. The organisation was masterminded by a clique of clever Karori mums whose husbands were serving overseas during WWII. With a focus on learning through play, what began as a parent-run cooperative now boasts more than 450 centres across the country. And it’s not just the young’uns who are gaining valuable skills – interested parents can study free for NZQA-accredited qualifications to act as educators in the centres.

BRAIN STORM

COME TO GETHER

A TALE OF T WO CITIES

Savvy at science? Talented at tech? The Hutt City Council is seeking event and activity proposals for the second ever Hutt STEMM Festival (4–12 June). That’s science, technology, engineering, manufacturing and mathematics. So if you have an idea up your sleeve, head to huttstemm.nz by 5pm on April 11.

The people have spoken, and Vogelmorn’s community precinct is about to get a big friendly makeover. Proposed changes will transform a disused bowling green, existing community hall and a privately owned bowling club into a hub of social connectivity, says architectural designer Calley O’Neill, who held workshops where locals could pitch ideas. Think multi-purpose green spaces, easy flow between ecologically sensitive buildings and a firm focus on sharing, caring and flexibility. There’s even talk of a commercial kitchen.

Everything’s easier when we work as a team, right? Well, one idea on the table right now at the local Chamber of Commerce is a merger of Wellington City and Porirua. Chief Executive John Milford explains, “There’s only one way for growth, and that’s north. Expanding into Porirua would give Wellington City critical mass.” With all the logistics and red tape, it’s not the kind of thing that’ll happen overnight, but, says Milford, “There’s nothing wrong with considering something that could benefit both cities.” Thoughts?

CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ZEALAND presents

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Core Funder

BY THE NUMBERS

DIPLOMATIC THAIS

MULTIPLE REPS

number of years Thailand and New Zealand have had diplomatic relations

numbers of years Wellington Repertory has been producing theatre

$ it cost to attend a concert of classical Thai music at St James Theatre on 7 April

1926

year of the first show (Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw)

days of traditional Thai dance and food at the Odlins Plaza on 9, 10 April

554

number of shows produced since it began (that’s a lot of limelight)

2559

the year it is in Thailand – yes seriously – they go by the Buddhist Era calendar (B.E.)

cast & crew involved in current production, Arsenic & Old Lace

EXPRESSO average age of the carriages on the ANZAC Express to Paekakariki on ANZAC Day

years experience the New Zealand Bed Company has had making ...beds

1915

year the WWI Memorial locomotive Ab608 was built (it’ll be pulling the train)

10-20

average lifespan of a mattress in years

35 + 3

number of different beds on display

$ to travel one way

number of shows on offer in Wellington for the 2016 NZ International Comedy Festival

shows featuring NZ Sign Language interpreters

international comedians traumatised by their landing at Wellington Airport

300

the number of times on average a child laughs each day (an adult? only 15 times)

number of shows in the Comedy Fest featuring jokes about Finland

PILLOW TALK

100

500k + $ spent on doing up the Ab608 Passchendaele

BIG WELLY LAUGH

waterbeds in store (who knew they were still around!)

FLASH ME

1859

year the Pencarrow Lighthouse was built

1935

year it was decommissioned because it was often obscured by fog or cloud

11.5 13-16

height in metres range (in nautical miles) the light can be seen out to sea

39 Abel smith st, te Aro

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

n e w g A r d e n b A r A r e A • dA i ly e v e n t s & Act i v i t i e s • f r e e l i v e e n t e rtA i n m e n t • v e g A n, g l u t e n f r e e o p t i o n s • f u n ct i o n s

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BULLET TIME STEVE CARR • DANIEL CROOKS • HAROLD EDGERTON • EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

25 March–10 July 2016

Steve Carr Screen Shots 2011. Courtesy Michael Lett, Auckland.

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SECTION HEADER

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

THE AV I AT O R

T H E AT R E

FOOD

PET

I N ST RUM E N T

T R AV E L

The Embassy

Harbourside Market

Puppy Zephyr

Keyboard

Tongariro Crossing

WRITTEN BY ALEX SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

olly Massy-Greene knew from the age of six or seven that she wanted to fly. “I was in the jump seat of a Boeing, coming in to land at sunset, with all the panels lit up, and I just thought there was nothing cooler.” She didn’t waste time. “I started training straight after high school and have been flying for more than 10 years.” Her aircraft is a Jetstream 32 air ambulance, which she captains for the Life Flight Trust. A hero in the sky, Massy-Greene helps to transfer patients between hospitals across the country – intensive-care cardiac patients to Auckland, premature babies to Wellington, and people with spinal injuries to Christchurch. “Flying is very rewarding and saving people’s lives is the icing on the cake,” says the 29-year-old. “No two days are the same, which is both the best and hardest part of our job. We operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Female pilots are still a minority, but numbers are increasing, says Massy-Greene. “I have only ever received support and do my best to encourage other girls considering it as a career. It’s hard sometimes, and it requires dedication and study, but all good things do.” While there are challenges – “Windy Wellington can certainly live up to its reputation” – there are also perks. “We get to see the country in a way not many people do: watching the sunrise over Nelson; Mt Taranaki poking up through a layer of cloud; whales in Kaikoura; or the sunset over Wellington Harbour. Photos rarely do it justice.” When she’s not on missions, Massy-Greene likes to

unwind with husband James (28), who’s also a pilot. That’s if their tricky schedules allow. Originally from Sydney, the couple moved to Wellington two years ago and live on the Miramar Peninsula. “I have a 45-minute window from receiving the call for a mission to taxiing the aircraft out to take off, so I need to live close to work. “We have a great view and it’s really sunny, with good cafes and beaches nearby. We’re regulars at Lyall Bay and the Spruce Goose for coffee.” Puppy Zephyr (named for the windy city) loves Wellington too. “He likes walking along the harbour front, sniffing as much as possible and saying hello to every person that walks past.” For eating out, the couple enjoys Maranui, Pizza Pomodoro and, on special occasions, Ortega Fish Shack & Bar. “But our favourite is the Sunday market at Te Papa – bacon and egg butties from Food for the People, butter chicken wraps, chocolate crepes and great berry smoothies.” Date night means dinner in the city followed by a movie at the Embassy. They’re also keen to explore the country more. “We’re planning on doing the Tongariro Crossing, then heading to Queenstown for some great skiing,” says Massy-Greene. Not that she’s in a rush to take time off work. “I absolutely love it. Not many people get to say that about their job.” The Life Flight Open Day is on 10 April, from 10am at 17 George Bolt St, Lyall Bay. Entry by donation. See lifeflight.org.nz/openday

Jet Stream 32 air ambulance pilot Holly, at the Life Flight hangar.

CULTURE

JUST THE TICKET Poor Mondays get such a bad rap, but here’s one pretty solid reason to show them some love. The Wellington Film Society is celebrating its milestone 70th year with weekly screenings of cinematic delights from cult classics to contemporary foreign flicks. It’s cheap as chips to join – a $95 membership works out to just $3 a film – and you’ll get discounts at other cinemas across Welly too. Cheers to the volunteers for keeping this not-so-secret society ticking for 70 years.

FRENCH CONNECTION

STRINGS AND THINGS

TOUR DE FORCE

Artist Etienne de France has bid adieu to the world’s most romantic capital to take up a three-month residency in the world’s coolest little capital. Thanks to Massey’s School of Art and the Wellington City Council, he’s hunkered down at Te Whare Hera’s studio-gallery-apartment on the waterfront. The multidisciplinary artist is tinkering away on his ongoing project, The Green Vessel, which tells the story of a water-contamination scandal in an imagined land. It’s inspired by true events. Très intriguing.

Rub shoulders with other classical connoisseurs at the NZSO’s Brahms & Beethoven. It’s part of the ambitious Masterworks series being played under the baton of acclaimed Dutch conductor Edo de Waart, which he says “flawlessly distil in music how it feels to be alive”. Sounds a bit nice, huh? Violinist Nicola Benedetti and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich’s rendition of Brahms’ Double Concerto promises to give unsuspecting heart strings a tug. It’s all happening on 16 April at the Michael Fowler Centre.

Weta Workshop should be feeling pretty chuffed right about now. It’s just been named by the Guardian as one of the top 10 movie studio tours in the world – up there with heavyweights Warner Brothers in Leavesden, where the Harry Potter series was filmed. It’s hard to argue with the more than 100,000 Lord of the Rings, Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin (we could go on) fans who’ve peeked behind the scenes at the Wellywood headquarters over the past year.

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CULTURE

AND THE NOMINEE IS A round of applause for the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Javier De Frutos! The director-choreographer has been nominated for a prestigious Olivier Award for The Anatomy of A Passing Cloud. Commissioned for the ballet’s 60th birthday, the 2013 work celebrating Pasifika culture premiered in Wellington before drifting through theatres across the world. “We’re delighted Javier has been nominated for an Olivier Award for this stunning work which holds a special place in our repertoire,” says Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia.

NOVEL APPROACH

POP ART

We love a good auction, especially when ours is the winning bid, so we’re living vicariously through Te Papa’s recent acquisition of a rare bravery medal. The Women’s Social and Political Union Medal for Valour was awarded to New Zealand suffragette Frances Parker for her role in the fight to win women the vote in Scotland. “It’s a powerful memento of the ongoing struggle of women around the world for civil rights,” says Te Papa’s Bronwyn Labrum of the $40,000 treasure.

They hosted their share of international talents, but, says Writers Week Manager Kathryn Carmody, “the event people are giving extraordinary feedback on is Literary Idol.” Brave authors were chosen at random to read out the first lines of new works, to be discussed by a panel. And the response from senior NZ practitioners has been huge. “Some even suggested it should be franchised,” says Carmody.

Bullets tearing through bananas, bursting paint-filled balloons and exploding watermelons. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. But these are actually some of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments captured in the City Gallery’s current exhibition Bullet Time, on until July. The works, from four artists, blur the boundaries between art, science and special effects. There’s even a bit of history. Way back in 1878, Muybridge’s photo studies were the first to prove all four hooves leave the ground when a horse hits full speed.

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S NA P HA PPY WRITTEN BY CRAIG BEARDSWORTH

Photographer Ans Westra isn’t short on accolades – she is a Companion of the Order of New Zealand and an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon (one of only 20), and has an honorary doctorate from Massey University. By the end of this month she will also have a private museum in Cuba St. Westra’s dealer gallery Suite is establishing a space dedicated to her work, on the second floor of the gallery. Visitors will be able to browse articles dating back to 1960, view more than 200 books featuring Westra’s images, see some of her camera equipment and purchase prints from the artist's archive. Born in the Netherlands, Westra moved to New Zealand in 1957 when she was 21 and became fascinated with documenting New Zealand life with a particular focus on Māori communities. Her 1964 photo essay Washday at the Pa was groundbreaking and controversial in its depiction of the daily life of a Māori family. Suite director David Alsop says a private museum dedicated to one artist is unprecedented in New Zealand. “One of her greatest achievements is the way her photographs are ‘owned’ by the people and communities depicted in them. They have become a great source of community and national pride,” says Alsop. The museum will open in time to celebrate both Westra’s 80th birthday on 28 April and her 59th year behind the camera.

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F E AT U R E

ELECTRIC FEELS WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS

KATHERINE ANDERSON (aka K2K) has found sound inspiration in the blurred boundaries between real life and virtual reality.

n her bio, Wellington-based electronic music producer and DJ Katherine Anderson is credited with specialising in alternate realities. It’s a reference to the type of music she makes – otherworldly pop-house (charmingly described elsewhere as “haunted house”) dusted with hip-hop and noughties R&B samples, mined from digital culture and personal experience. “My music is influenced by William Gibson and Philip K Dick novels, neon lights and a mixed global culture. Living in big cities and existing mostly at night can get you into a weird dystopian mindset,” she says, adding with a laugh, “but I still can't resist throwing in an Ashanti sample here or there.” Her life seems similarly divided into distinct realities: by night, music maker, DJ and novice hacker; by day, web developer for TradeMe. A quintessential millennial, she’s as comfortable in the virtual world as the real one. “The virtual world exposes me to ideas, music and art, but it’s not an adequate substitution for human contact… online communities can never compare to talking IRL,” she says. Anderson grew up in Nelson, where a childhood spent swimming in rivers and clambering up trees made way for “socialising and doing dumb things that teenagers in small towns generally get up to, like going hard on cask wine, driving around listening to music and hanging out on 4chan.” After high school, she packed her bags and hopped a plane to Canada for a snowboarding OE. Her plans changed when summer stretched on longer than her will to wait around for snow. Anderson visited Montreal, quickly fell in love with the city and its music scene (at the time current Cana-

dian indie superstars Grimes and Mac DeMarco were just coming up), and stayed on for three years. “Most of my time was spent around musicians, watching jams and going to gigs. Eventually I was introduced to Ableton and I realised it was possible to do everything on a computer,” she says. Ableton Live is extremely popular computer software used by musicians and producers all over the world. At the end of 2013, Anderson posted her first song online as k2k, but remained “pretty introverted about music” for the next year and a bit, sharing the odd song on Soundcloud and performing at a few DJ gigs. It was a huge surprise when, in 2015, she was selected to attend the Red Bull Music Academy in Paris. “I couldn't believe it. It's amazing that they’re willing to take on musicians at any point in their careers – obviously higher-profile musicians would get more press but most of the crew this year was pretty unknown,” she says. Since the RBMA, Anderson has emerged from her bedroom and into the spotlight, playing the Paris Pitchfork after-party and performing at NZ festivals Chronophonium and A Low Hum. This year she plans to release her debut EP, and build a live show, which means deconstructing her songs so they can be played with a sampler. It also means facing a hurdle all producersturned-performers must face – translating tracks built in the privacy of a bedroom into an engaging live show. For Anderson, it’s about taking it one step at a time. “It'd be great to form a unique live show, but the first step is getting comfortable enough to play in front of people,” she says.

SECTION HEADER

CULTURE DIRECTORY

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The Autumn Events classic film weekends return to Wellington in April and May. Classic films and New Zealand premieres will play on the grandest screen, bringing a sense of occasion to movies best seen in a crowd. Produced by the charitable trust responsible for the NZ International Film Festival (NZIFF).

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F E AT U R E

AT YOUR SERVICE WRITTEN BY JOHN BISHOP PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES O'NEILL

To commemorate ANZAC Day and mark our 30th issue, Capital chatted to three returned servicemen, who, by the age of 30, had already fought their biggest battles. ANZAC services will be held across the region on April 25, from Tinui in the Wairarapa, where the first ever formal commemoration was observed in 1916, to the Wellington Cenotaph and Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. So pin on your poppy and remember those whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve served New Zealand.

F E AT U R E

GROUND CONTROL

en Gordon enjoyed his time as a professional soldier. He retired as a major general, collected a CBE and was deputy chief of defence staff. He was in the defence bureaucracy in the early 1980s, far from the troops during the difficulties caused by the then Labour Government’s anti-nuclear policy. He’d decided to join the army in 1953 and was selected for officer training, which in those days meant four years full-time in the Royal Military College at Duntroon near Canberra. He graduated as a full lieutenant in 1956 and was posted to Linton (near Palmerston North) where he took intakes of young men doing their compulsory military training (CMT). “About half of them didn’t want to be there, but we turned them out spick and span after 14 weeks.” He was a fan of CMT. “It was possible after World War II – because we had huge amounts of army war surplus – and didn’t cost us much. There were plenty of rifles, uniforms, barracks, kit and other materials. “By the 1960s that was all gone and we had to start building and buying stuff, which made it more expensive and the government backed away. The whole strategic climate was different, and that changed a lot again in the 1980s.” In 1958 CMT was replaced by national service, where 18-yearolds were randomly selected by ballot, and when that was abandoned in 1972, the army became wholly professional soldiers. Ken was posted to Waiouru and then sent to Malaya in 1958 and caught the tail end of the Malayan Emergency where communist insurgents led by Chin Peng were seeking to overthrow the government. “They were still active but in far fewer numbers than earlier. We tracked them day after day, some of the Māori boys were very good trackers, almost as good as the native guides from Sarawak who were working with us.” Platoons spent a month at a time in the bush on patrol, but encounters with the enemy were few. He regards his two years in Malaya as a formative time in his military career. “This was the foundation. The troops were real scallywags. In the jungle I was ‘Skip,’ but in barracks I was addressed as ‘Sir.’” They never took advantage of the close relationships that are forged where men pursue a common purpose in arduous circumstances. New Zealand war historian Chris Pugsley quotes Ken

talking about men “bursting for action… shepherds, freezing workers, deer cullers… as hard as nails… but it made for a wonderful battalion.” One of those wonderful men was a certain young Lieutenant Jerry Mateparae, later to become a major general himself and then governor-general. In Malaya Ken met his great love, Eleanor, a British nursing officer. She joined him in New Zealand in 1961 and began married life at Waiouru, then the major army establishment where Ken was now an instructor at the various military schools. He went to Vietnam as a liaison officer. The New Zealand presence was small – some engineers, and a medical group, later artillery and finally a single company of infantry, which later expanded to two companies. They operated with the Australians. Two days after Ken’s arrival, the base was shelled by mortars, but it was just “friendly fire” from their own side. The domino theory was the prevailing orthodoxy; China had fallen and Vietnam was under attack. If it fell into communist hands, then the rest of Indochina would be threatened. Malaya and Indonesia (and there had already been significant communist guerrilla activity in both countries) were next, which meant a direct threat to Australia and New Zealand. In 1966 he was sent to the British Army Staff College at Camberley, Surrey, a positive sign of favour. Promotion came regularly if slowly as he moved into general staff roles ending at Defence HQ in Buckle St. “A great job but away from soldiering.” Only then, in the mid-1980s, did he discover “how dependant we were on the Americans for intelligence. [In this period] we found it very difficult because the relationship was restricted in the aftermath of the dispute over ship visits. The upside was that we had to scramble for ourselves. “To be a senior officer in the higher echelons of the army services was professionally very satisfying, but it was not soldiering.” He retired in 1988, and was awarded a CBE for his service. Ken cherishes his experiences with his men. “My best moments were as a platoon commander, living with, on patrol with, and in charge of about 32 men, all depending on each other. Likewise as a battalion commander.” Now 81, he is a widower who lives quietly in Karori, but still meets his mates once a month for lunch.

F E AT U R E

BULLY BEEF AND BISCUITS

aptain Ian Stewart is now 93, and he easily recalls his war service in Egypt, Italy and Japan during and immediately after World War II. He enrolled as a private soldier in 1940, aged just 17, was later commissioned a lieutenant in the field, and promoted to captain before being demobbed, although he continued to serve in the Territorials for several years after the end of the Second World War. Back in New Zealand, he took an MA in economics and in 1949 was invited to join the Department of External Affairs under Alexander McIntosh. He had a remarkable career as a diplomat and representative of New Zealand, serving as our ambassador in Brussels, Rome and Bangkok and at the United Nations, before ending up as the number two man in the Department of Foreign Affairs. He retired in 1983 and now lives quietly with his wife in Oriental Bay, but all the memories are still vivid. “I joined the army in June 1940. I was only 17, but I told them I was 18, and no-one checked.” He was assigned to the artillery but requested a transfer to the infantry. In January 1944, he and others were sent to Egypt, and quickly onto Italy to reinforce the New Zealand Division, which was taking heavy casualties in the battle of Monte Cassino, which raged on from January to May 1944. “[Cassino] was a hell of a place. We lived on cold bully beef and biscuits. It was only safe to move about at night. By day, one finger above the parapet got you a good spray from a Spandau machine gun.” Later, working as spotters up in the mountains, his group was shelled by their own side. “We were suffering casualties from every salvo, but headquarters refused to believe us, until we took a nose cone of a shell from a 25-pounder back, and that convinced them.” By early 1945 “whole regiments were throwing away their arms and surrendering.” The war in Italy ended in April that year. In May 1945 he and other New Zealand troops were in the port city of Trieste, then under the partial control of the Yugoslav leader Josef Tito and his largely communist partisans. “A whole brigade of New Zealand tanks was sent into the central square and trained their guns on Tito’s headquarters.” Tito’s forces withdrew, and according to the Italians, Trieste was saved for Italy. Later in 1972, he was involved when the UK was ne-

gotiating to enter the common market. Italy stuck up for New Zealand and got this country a much better deal for continued access to butter, cheese and lamb exports than the French had wanted to offer. Ian says the chief Italian negotiator told him later it was because of what New Zealand had done during the war to keep Trieste in Italian control. He’s sceptical about learning from history and prefers not to offer advice to today’s 30-year-old. Both the certainties and uncertainties of his times, the rise of fascism, the Second World War, the Cold War, the clashes of communist and capitalist cultures, New Zealand’s shift in focus from the UK, then to Europe and onto the US, and now to Asia, Japan and China have taught him that flux is normal. One memory he carries clearly is drafting the 1965 cabinet paper which recommended a modest and limited involvement by New Zealand’s armed forces in the Vietnam War. Then Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, although personally reluctant according to some accounts, headed a cabinet of war veterans, and New Zealand was under pressure from the United States to join Australia and Korea in committing troops. There were also trade considerations – the US was imposing quotas on New Zealand beef and other exports. His carefully worded paper trod a fine line between the support requested and the commitment made – an artillery battery (and later infantry) was added to a team of engineers and medics already serving there. The military commitment was modest but important in diplomatic terms. Ian retired from foreign affairs in 1983 aged 60 (the compulsory retirement age at the time) and was awarded a CMG, a high honour only a step below a knighthood. He joined Frank Renouf’s investment company, with Bruce Judge and (the late) Mike Cashin as fellow directors. Frank Renouf was trying to build New Zealand’s biggest stockbroking firm and the country’s biggest industrial conglomerate. Renouf failed, Ian says. The company went down in a blaze of losses in the 1987 stock market crash, although a small remnant – Hellaby Holdings – is still operating. Now Ian makes an annual trip to Paris to spend time with his sister and looks back on a life of immense interest in a world that has fundamentally changed from when he signed up as an underage soldier in 1940.

F E AT U R E

SECTION HEADER

F E AT U R E

WAR OFFENSIVE

or David Lackey, his year as a lieutenant in New Zealand’s artillery battery in Vietnam was the “thrilling” highlight of his brief military career, but it left him with a deep and enduring suspicion of politicians and their motives. David signed up for a three-year commission in the regular forces in 1965 after leaving Christ’s College, having a period in his father’s insurance brokerage and a spell overseas with Lloyd’s of London. “Back in New Zealand I was totally bored with the insurance industry – it was so low-scale compared to London. Then I was called up for national service. Suddenly I found I was on my own, I wasn’t my father’s son. “I was ideally suited to army life. The discipline was easy after the bullying I had experienced at school. After the futility of school cadets, this was substantive soldiering. “Mike Thornton [the son of General Sir Leonard Thornton, then chief of defence staff] and I both had problems with our parents, and we both signed up for a three-year commission.” He trained at Waiouru (under then Captain Ken Gordon) in the gunnery school and went to Vietnam in 1967 as part of 161 Battery, which operated 105mm howitzers. He very nearly didn’t go. Due to depart by RNZAF Hercules on a Sunday morning, David returned to the mess late on Saturday afternoon to the news that he had been pulled off the flight, apparently because the NZ battery in Vietnam had made a mistake and had shelled Australian infantry, killing three. Rather than accept this, David took himself to Army HQ in Wellington, demanding an explanation. In a makeor-break career moment, he found himself facing a stern brigadier general who rescinded the order and told him to get the next flight out. Vietnam was transformative. On a roadside while he and his men were filling sandbags, he watched a parade of young Vietnamese in luxury cars, streaming past to a local beach resort. He started to ask why foreign soldiers were fighting the communists when the local people were not. He started to question the political rationale for New Zealand’s presence there. (At the time, there had been much controversy about New Zealand’s committing troops and the antiwar movement was growing in strength.) “Ken Gordon had done a good job on me. At Waiouru I came to believe what I was told by my superiors and by the government. In Wellington I had been mixing in a high

social circle of defence and security personnel where the consensus was that we were doing the right thing by being involved with the Americans in Vietnam.” In 1968 the North Vietnamese and their allies, the Viet Cong, launched the Tet offensive, which shifted the strategy from guerrilla campaigns to conventional warfare. The attack at Tet (the Vietnamese New Year) was unexpected, large, and initially successful, although ultimately a failure. But more importantly, it disproved US claims that the war was being won by the Americans and their allies. In 1968 David returned home – his group ordered to wear civilian clothes, not their uniforms, so as “not to upset anyone.” The battery paraded up Auckland’s Queen St and were jeered and mocked by some. A protestor made a citizen’s arrest of their commander Major John Martin. He appeared in the Papakura Magistrate’s Court where the charge was dismissed. It took David many years to overcome symptoms similar to those of a post-traumatic stress disorder, and he remains bitter to this day. In 1973 he married Kate Elliott, who was beginning a career in foreign affairs. She turned down a posting to Washington because David was now happily making money with sharebrokers Daysh Renouf. He resigned and told Kate to accept the next offer of a post. In 1974 they went to Singapore and, contrary to the rules about spouses of diplomats working on posts, David set up a yacht-brokerage business, which he carried on when the pair went to Fiji. A career highlight for Kate came in 2002, when she became high commissioner to Canberra, the first woman to do so. While there, David devoted himself to helping veterans. He helped produce evidence for New Zealand Parliament’s inquiry into the exposure of New Zealand soldiers to Agent Orange, a defoliant widely used in Vietnam, but which subsequently was shown to cause birth defects and cancers. David has a clear view about what he would like to have known at 30. “I’d like to have known more of the bigger picture about Vietnam and New Zealand’s involvement – much more than I was told at the time.” Now aged 72, his scepticism of politicians is still strong. “Don’t trust politicians – ever” is his simple advice to today’s generation.

W H AT O N EARTH? BY ALEX SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA CHUBB Unless you have superhuman vision, or a thing about dirt, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time pondering the microscopic particles of meteor dust under your feet. Well, photographer and science enthusiast Jonathan Kay has, and he’s putting his findings on display in a group show, From the Aether, showing at the Courtenay Place light boxes from April 3. “It‘s about photography and amateur science and what it can reveal,” says Kay (29), who’s interested in illuminating things not normally visible to the naked eye. To collect the potential extra-terrestrial matter, Kay visited the site of the light boxes regularly over a sixmonth period. He armed himself with a customised broom which he’d hollowed out, filled with high-powered magnets and wrapped in cling film. “I don’t know why I did it for six months – I think it might stem from being quite obsessive,” he ventures. “I got a lot of funny looks.” He then used scientific sieves to separate the matter and sorted through it further under a microscope. His patience not yet fully stretched, Kay travelled to Massey University in Palmerston North where he photographed the remaining material with an electron microscope. “Each photo is magnified at least 2000 times and pieced together from between 16 and 20 images,” Kay explains. The results are beautiful – celestial forms suspended in blackness; potential micro-meteorites. So where did all this so-called meteor dust come from? “The earth is a huge gravity source,” says Kay. “Tons and tons of this stuff enters our atmosphere and we don’t know about it.” As well as seeking the things that are often overlooked, Kay’s site-specific work is “about connecting the space to extra-terrestrial thought”. Here’s a challenge for you: Try visiting these incredible illuminated photographs without stealing a glance at the footpath – and invisible meteor dust – beneath your feet.

HE-HE

POSTCARD FROM INDIA DEAN WATSON

ear Wellington salespeople, Don’t ever change. You’re beautiful just the way you are. Travelling to India taught me this. A local cow whispered it in my ear – just “moooo!” But I know what Daisy really meant was, “You’ve got it pretty good back home.” I guess you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone. When my partner and I arrived in Goa a little over a week ago, we didn’t have the slightest idea how to haggle with people like you. The closest I ever came to haggling in Wellington was alerting a waiter that they’d charged me for an orange juice I never had. Luckily, the waiter admitted his error and subtracted the $58 from the bill. You might think that’s a lot to pay for an orange juice, although these orange juices are freshly squeezed. The exchange rate from New Zealand dollars to Indian rupee is so good, in the beginning you don’t care how much you spend. A thousand rupees here, a thousand rupees there. Or in New Zealand dollars: twenty one dollars here, twenty-one dollars there. Then you discover that Indians love overcharging tourists almost as much as they love their cricket. When you’re oblivious to it, everybody’s happy. But then you start to realise things are a lot cheaper when your Indian tour guide comes into a shop with you. They haggle with the shop owner to get you a better price. Just the way your mum would haggle the teacher at parent-teacher interviews to get you a better grade. “Is B+ for English your best grade? You say you can’t give him a better grade, but won’t you please think of the children?” In India, they have billions of children (probably) and you better believe that restaurant owners are thinking of them when they’re charging tourists hundreds of rupees for an orange juice. To be fair, they’re almost always freshly squeezed. And I mean tourists’ wallets after eating out. India hasn’t changed its flag in over 50 years, but don’t be fooled, India is a developing country. This means it is developing, unlike New Zealand, which stopped developing with the introduction of reality TV. Because India is a developing country, there are lots of things we take

for granted in New Zealand that are not readily available over here. Things like access to clean water, education and Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk. This means that people like you, salespeople, need to sell A LOT just to feed their families. And when someone is in the market for an anniversary gift for their partner, like I was this week, Indian salespeople pull out all the stops. Indian salespeople are the Donald Trumps of salespeople. They have good business acumen, but they are willing to commit war crimes to get what they want. At least, that’s what it seems like at first. If you have put off buying someone a present until the last minute, walk into any shop in India and you won’t leave without buying something. The trick is to get it at the price you want. Before I entered the jewellery shop, I downed three freshly squeezed orange juices, hold the straw. After a week of getting ripped off because I didn’t know the meaning of the word “haggle,” I was match-fit. High on energy, I went in. The moment I entered, I was offered tea. Genius. They were already seducing me with exotic aromas, twice the strength your average T2 customer can handle. Then they struck up a conversation in fluent English. Brilliant. Would I like to view some rings? Would I! As I looked over some rings, displayed in persuasive golden light, the Kashmir silky salesman told me that the catseye ring with two diamonds would be “a wonderful surprise” for my partner. Amazing. He knew exactly what my partner liked! Then he hit me with the price. Now, I love my partner, but I’m also a 25-year-old writer. Tens of thousands of rupees here, tens of thousands of rupees there – this just isn’t in my vocabulary. I stared into his perfect eyes. It was time to commit a haggling war crime. I could go into detail about how I haggled Ganesh Goliath into submission, or I could be honest and say that I paid what I was told to pay. The point of the story is that buying things in New Zealand is much less stressful and we should all be grateful for that. Anyway, I’ve got a plane to catch, with orange juice on board I can no longer afford. Love Dean.

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W HAT T H E F L O C K

MR CHA F F INC H Name: Common chaffinch. Status: Introduced, abundant. Habitat: Although introduced, the chaffinch is now one of New Zealand’s most common birds. The colourful, chirpy passerine can be found in gardens, urban parks, orchards, farmland, scrub, pine forest and – to a lesser extent – native bush, on all three main islands. Outside of the breeding season you’ll spot them hanging out with other finch species and buntings, and at this time of year especially in native forests with species like piwakawaka (fantail) and tauhou (silvereye). From April to July birds from the South Island start to show up in the southern North Island, and a birder with an especially keen ear might recognise the visitors by their slightly different dialect – the contact call of North Island chaffinches sounding like “chink chink,” with that of the mainlanders being closer to “chek chek.” Look for them: The finches were among the first birds that got this twitcher interested in birds, after spotting what looked like a house sparrow but apparently wasn’t. Male chaffinches are roughly sparrow-sized,

with females slightly smaller; and while both male and female have similar white markings – a solid bar on the wing as well as patches on the shoulder and in the tail – they are otherwise sexually dimorphic. Though their colours dull over the colder months, at their brightest male chaffinches are beautifully coloured, chestnut on their backs and face about the eye, with a grey-blue collar and crown and an olive rump. Females are dull brownish-grey. Feeds on: In winter chaffinches feed mainly on seeds including those from radiata pine, beech and rimu trees, and ground seeds like chickweed, dandelion and thistle. During the breeding season the diet expands to include invertebrates like flies, beetles, moths, caterpillars and spiders. Did you know? The word chaffinch comes from the Old English “caeffinc” meaning “chaff finch” or “the finch that eats the chaff.” If they were human they would be: Effortlessly stylish without being showy – a believer in immaculate tailoring, attention to small detail and Wes Anderson-inspired colour palettes.

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EDIBLES

PA I N T E R’ S PA L AT E Art and afternoon tea go together like Monet and water lilies, so it’s no wonder the people at Ora Gallery are so excited. Wellington’s favourite French cafe, La Cloche, has recently opened its little sister store on the gallery premises. Head along and say bonjour to Francois, Hisham and Mariah, who’ll be serving up their culinary delights, including mouth-watering mille-feuille and almond croissants, plus their very own blend of coffee. And don’t forget to check out the artwork while you’re at it.

CIDER KICK

ISLAND BAY, NO WEIGH

SALUTÉ AT EASE

Hopstock is best known for its fresh-hopped beers (made using fresh cones as opposed to dried pellets) but this year Black Dog brewery is lifting the lid on something a little different, an apple cider dry hopped with fresh cones. The first blend brewed in NZ, Five Fingered Tree, is made using a giant “tea bag”. Like a good sense of humour, it’s dry and complex and will put a smile firmly on your dial. The fourth annual craft beer festival runs from 13 to 18 April.

Is it possible the architects of the Island Bay cycle way had been paying attention to the results of a multimillion-dollar spotlight on obesity? The investigation, conducted by European universities, found that town planners need to put more focus on creating environments and spaces which encourage healthy behaviour such as exercise.

Greytown restaurant Saluté has been serving Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired dishes since 2001. Now, after numerous awards, television appearances and recipe requests, Travis Clive-Griffin and wife Eve have extended the business by offering cooking classes at their lifestyle block home in the Wairarapa. Travis, who is of Lebanese descent, uses ingredients from their own garden and locally grown produce whenever possible.

EDIBLES

CAN’ T BEET IT A survey of Wellingtonians commissioned by LeaderBrand showed that 59% of us see beetroot as “an iconic part of New Zealand cuisine,” ranking it alongside pavlova, feijoa and L&P. Nearly half of those surveyed (49%) also consider the blood-coloured root a superfood. In contrast, 33% said they wouldn’t know how to serve fresh beetroot in an appealing way. Looks like we’ll be sticking with tinned beetroot in our hamburgers.

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ENTER THE MATRIX

CRISP FORECAST

UNCORKIN’ A BRONC’

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a musician of legendary talent, able to charm anyone or anything, even stones, with his music. In Wellington, Orpheus is one of our newest bars, with a legendary number of cocktails on offer – we lost count after 4,000. The current Guinness World Record holder in Bulgaria has only 2,014. Each table is allocated an iPad and there’s an app designed to help you narrow down exactly which cocktail to order, even if you don’t know what you’re after.

Wairarapa-based apple-juice company Mela have diversified and are serving up a cider, made from locally sourced English and French cider apples. They portray themselves as producing a cider which is “dry, deliciously bitter, sharp and sparkling,” an alternative to the many sweeter varieties on the market. You can find the Forecast Cider at Moore Wilson’s in Wellington, and at a variety of outlets in the Wairarapa, including FreshChoice in Greytown.

Saloon-style eatery Slim Davey’s is set to open in early April on Majoribanks St. It’s owned by the same folks as Ortega next door. Simple food is to be accompanied by a high-calibre wine list, as well as cult and popular beers on tap. The colonial villa has been renovated and re-imagined as your friendly neighbourhood saloon, for all you cowboys out there.

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THE FOREST CANTINA

AUTUMN PICCALILLI UNNA BURCH I love a spoonful of preserved goodness with punchy flavours to bring something like a Ploughman’s lunch together. Piccalilli is an English version of Indian pickles, and it’s best served with a strong mature cheese. Piccalilli is a great way to use seasonal vegetables. I cut up and used the last of my courgettes from the garden, and some capsicum. And no piccalilli is complete without cauliflower. Cauliflower with any curry is a favourite of mine, as it absorbs all those spices so well. The spices in this recipe can be found cheaply

at Indian spice stores around Wellington. A bag of each of the spices usually sets me back $1 a pop. You can also switch the vegetables around, using broccoli, de-seeded Lebanese cucumber or eggplant. Add fresh chilli if you want it with extra kick. Whatever you have growing or is cheap to buy, you can use to make this your own! You can eat this piccalilli immediately, but the flavours will be more developed and the vinegar will have mellowed out after three months in a dark cupboard.

INGREDIENTS

METHOD Break the cauliflower into small florets and cut all the vegetables into 2 cm pieces/dice. Put them into a non-metallic bowl, pour over the salt and top with water to cover. Put in the fridge and leave overnight (12 hours). The brining process helps draw out the moisture in the vegetables, making them nice and crisp – especially good if you are pickling gherkins too (no soggy pickles, thanks!)

Makes: 4-5 medium-sized jars Time: Begin the day before 1/2 large cauliflower 3 courgettes, I used yellow and green 1 large handful green beans 1 red onion 1 red capsicum 1/4 cup fine sea salt or kosher salt *

The next day, take a large heavy-bottom pot or preserving pan and heat the olive oil over a medium heat. Add the cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric, fenugreek, mustard powder and chilli flakes, and stir for 30 seconds, then add flour and cook for a further minute. Add the sugar, vinegar, water, apples and garlic, and stir to combine. Cook for a further three to four minutes. Drain the vegetables and add to the pot, stirring to combine. Increase the heat to medium/high and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom, until the vegetables are soft but not mushy. I test by tasting them. Once it is cooked, spoon hot piccalilli into sterilised jars.

2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons ground cumin 2 tablespoons mustard seeds (I used yellow and black) 2 tablespoons turmeric 1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds 1 tablespoon mustard powder 1 teaspoon chilli flakes 3 tablespoons flour 1 cup fair trade sugar 400ml white wine vinegar 100ml water 2 large apples, grated 4 cloves garlic, crushed

* Iodised table salt should not be used when pickling. Iodised salt makes the brine cloudy and may change the colour and texture of the vegetables, and leave sediment at the bottom of the jars.

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

KIWI CALLING WRITTEN BY JOHN KERR

“Spying on Kiwis” usually has negative connotations, but when it comes to bird monitoring, listening in on kiwis’ private conversations can help ensure the survival of the species.

few years ago I tramped up the Mokihinui Gorge near Karamea at the top of the South Island, to experience the valley’s picturesque scenery – possibly for the last time, as it was planned to be dammed and flooded in a power company’s hydro-generation scheme. Halfway up the valley I met an ecologist – let’s call him Rob – contracted by said power company to survey the wildlife in the possibly soonto-be-flooded valley. One of Rob’s jobs was to monitor kiwi in the area, trying to get an estimate of how many birds might find themselves evicted by the rising waters of the dammed river. He would spend several hours sitting up in the bush each night, he explained, just waiting and listening for kiwi calls. It was a bit boring, he admitted, but the money was good. It turns out that paying a qualified human to sit in a forest waiting for bird calls can get pretty expensive (not to mention the cost of flying them about in helicopters, as in Rob’s case). Monitoring birds in the wild is a key part of conservation; how do we know if we are doing a good job of protecting them if we don’t know how many there are in a given area? Yet sending Robs or volunteers out there to sit and listen in the dark becomes prohibitively expensive in terms of money and time. Is there a better way to listen for, track and record kiwis in the wild? A number of current New Zealand projects are aiming to digitise the process of bird monitoring. Advances in technology are making Rob’s lucrative kiwi monitoring skills obsolete, to be replaced by the tireless workhorses of the modern era: computers. Rather than paying ecologists to spend lonely nights out in the wild, what if we simply had remote recorders out in the bush that could detect and log the calls of native birds? This would be cheaper and far less time-consuming. The problem is that computers don’t know what a kiwi sounds like – yet. Solving this problem is the work of AviaNZ, a team of Massey University voice-recognition scientists who are

turning their hands to detecting the calls of native birds in recorded audio. Their programme, if it succeeds, will allow hours and hours of recorded forest audio to be quickly analysed for bird calls, producing a good estimate of the number of birds in an area. They are also working on a smart-phone app to identify New Zealand bird calls on the go, an idea which earned them a finalist place in the WWF Innovation Awards in Wellington last year. If you have ever encountered the song-recognition app called Shazam!, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what AviaNZ is trying to do. Users will be able to record bird calls in the wild using their smart-phones and, via the app, instantly see what kind of feathered friend they just heard. It is early days for the project, but the AviaNZ team has developed a successful way to reduce the amount of background noise in recordings, making it easier for their algorithms to detect and classify a bird call. AviaNZ’s work dovetails nicely with another New Zealand initiative, the Cacophony Project, which is working on developing better hardware for recording native birds in the wild. Spearheaded by Grant Ryan in Christchurch, the project is looking at converting smart-phones into solarcharged, hardy, waterproof remote recorders, aka “cacophonometers”. These devices can be left out in the wild for months on end and, using cellular networks, send audio data straight from the bush to the cloud. The equipment resulting from projects like AviaNZ and Cacophony will become important tools for looking after our native birds. We will quickly be able to see if breeding programmes and pest trapping are paying off, and will get a much, much clearer picture of New Zealand’s biodiversity. The work is ongoing but it seems certain it will work out well for New Zealand birds and bird-lovers. For contract ecologists like Rob… not so much. 54

Shopping and Other Rituals 2016 (installation detail) Photo by Mark Tantrum

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BY THE BOOK

R E -V E R SE INTRODUCED BY CLAIRE ORCHARD

C are er Q u est There is a computer programme at school that tells you what job will suit you best. How interested are you… in using weapons or explosives? Fairly interested. How interested are you… in learning about accounting? No interest. I do the questionnaire five times, and each time it comes back the same – I will be a detective, which is not so different from a thief. I don’t like lamb, but if I were to steal sheep, it seems I may be very good at it. By Louise Wallace, from Since June, VUP (2009)

BREAKDOWN Bio: Louise Wallace is a Wellington-based writer, the author of two collections of poetry, and was the Robert Burns Fellow for 2015 at the University of Otago, Dunedin. Her work has been anthologised in The Best of Best New Zealand Poems and Essential New Zealand Poems: Facing the Empty Page.

the power of the word

www.unitybooks.co.nz

In brief: This poem reminds me of my final year of high school, when I looked with a blend of awe and disbelief upon those of my classmates able to confidently declare their vocational passions. I imagine they were probably puzzled, perhaps appalled, by the anxiety, indecision or just plain indifference of those of us who had little or no clue. With a dizzying array of new industries and jobs continuing to emerge (Fear Containment Managers are apparently going to be a thing) the notion of a computer programme able to tell you “what job will suit you best” is alluring, but also, as Wallace highlights, increasingly absurd. The confidence of “I will be a detective” swiftly destabilised by the following line “which is not so different from a thief ” mimics that complex blend of relief and confusion that often ensues upon receipt of your personalised questionnaire recommendations. The paradox outlined in the concluding two lines neatly signposts a final key point for consideration: being highly skilled at sheep rustling is all well and good, but if you don’t like lamb you’ll struggle for job satisfaction. If you’re a young person more than fairly interested in writing poetry and/or prose: Consider submitting your work to Starling, a spanking new online poetry journal for new writing from young New Zealanders (you must be aged under 25 to submit) founded and edited by Louise Wallace. Issue two submissions close on 20 April at starlingmag.com 56

BY THE BOOK

7 OUT OF 16 A I N ’ T BA D Wellington has the most finalists of any town or city in the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, back after a year’s hiatus with new sponsors, more prize money and 16 finalist spots in four categories (fiction, poetry, illustrated non-fiction and general non-fiction). Wellington writers Patricia Grace and debut novelist David Coventry are up for the $50,000 fiction prize, while Rachel Barrowman, Athol McCredie, Bronwyn Labrum, Chris Tse and Lynn Jenner are the other local finalists. Victoria University Press, with four finalists, is the standout publisher. Winners are announced in May.

A B O OK TO CALL YOUR OWN

WHO ELSE?

MEET AND GREET

Worried that the physical book is an endangered species? Take heart. In the Kellogg’s Kiwi Kids Reading Survey, 93 per cent of parents said their child prefers to read physical books rather than e-books, online books and magazines. However, nearly half of parents say they don’t buy books often as they’re too expensive. Happily, Kellogg’s is gifting 10,000 books to Kiwi youngsters through its Free Books for Hungry Minds initiative.

Wellington writer Barbara Else is the 2016 winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal, an annual award for a lifetime achievement in New Zealand children’s literature. Alongside her four children’s novels, Else has edited nine topselling short-story anthologies, and mentored emerging children’s writers as a literary agent. She is currently the University of Otago’s resident children’s writer. Previous Margaret Mahy Medal winners include Joy Cowley, Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

Small indie publishing house Book Island from Raumati South has been nominated for Best Children’s Publisher of Oceania in the 2016 Bologna Prize, which acknowledges the world’s most significant publishers in children’s literature. Book Island, which translates foreign-language books into English and Dutch, is one of three Oceania nominees, and the only one from New Zealand.

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F E AT U R E

‘ R A PA ROUND-UP

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

From a house-hopping family trying to create the perfect home, to a hip vintner doing groovy things with grapes, and an industrious potter (whose handmade dinnerware you’ve most likely dined off if you’ve stopped in at Loretta lately), we check in with our neighbours in the wonderful Wairarapa.

F E AT U R E

ROOM TO GROW WRITTEN BY ALI MACKISACK | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

For Wellingtonians Samantha and Campbell Venning, the grass is greener on the other side of the Rimutakas.

innie, the SPCA mutt, has found himself a shady spot under a tree in the dirt. A few metres away Marmite, the high-maintenance Labrador, snoozes poolside in the sun. The two dogs have found their perfect spot and their owners echo the sentiment; the home and lifestyle they have created here “for right now, is perfect.” Samantha and Campbell Venning shifted their family from Wellington to the Wairarapa in 2008. Just to see how things went. Only for a year. Since then Zach (14), Estella (12) and Lexi (10) have been raised as Wairarapa kids, first near Martinborough then more recently in Masterton, while the family has maintained close links to Wellington. From the first tiny cottage that they bought as a weekender, the couple was hooked. “We both had busy jobs in Wellington,” says Samantha, “but once we’d driven over the Rimutakas, that hill would be between us and work. We’d always say ‘Oh, we’ll have to do this work while we’re there,’ or ‘We’ll have to come back early.’ But we never did. The Wairarapa was a different climate, a different vibe, and we found ourselves just more chilled out.” As the family grew bigger, so did the weekend residences, until they found themselves living in a contemporary house on 16 acres near Martinborough. “We tried to throw ourselves into country life,” laughs Samantha. “We had land and stock and not a clue. We had chickens with crazy names, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, sheep and pet rams. The neighbours managed the stock and continually fixed up the water connections. We’d be out there in a line with hockey sticks, trying to get the rams out of the garden and back into their paddocks. “Those rams were always trouble. One of them got in through the cat door when it was little and there was

sheep poo absolutely everywhere. Fortunately the house was ultra-modern with polished concrete floors, so cleaning up wasn’t as bad as it might have been.” The sleek, modern design of that home is in stark contrast to the home they moved to two years ago, in an older, established area of Masterton. Built in the 1930s for the General Manager of Borthwicks Freezing Works, the large wooden house is set back from the road on two-and-a-half acres of trees and lawns. “We have the best of both worlds here,” says Samantha. “Now we’ve got the space but not the stock! We’re close to town and the schools without feeling like we’re surrounded by other people.” “We both fell in love with this house,” agrees Campbell, whose investment property business is based in Wellington. As he combines commuting with working from home and frequent flying within New Zealand and across the Tasman, the house needs to function as a family home and a workspace. And somehow it does. At 450 square metres, the size certainly helps. “The children can each have a group of friends here at the same time and they don’t need to get in one another’s way,” says Campbell. But the size has its drawbacks, too. “Our first winter here we went through 12 cords of firewood just trying to keep warm. We’ve now put diesel radiators throughout. Samantha’s fantastic at designing interiors – she really wanted to get going with that, but we needed to get the boring things like heating sorted before we started refurnishing.” Those “boring things”, such as moving the driveway and rewiring, have taken precedence so far. Self-seeded saplings and dying trees have been removed, to let in light and provide more lawn instead of “forest” around

F E AT U R E

the grass tennis court. The digger parked on the lawn has just finished clearing away a tangle of undergrowth that was overhanging the boundary creek. “We have a wonderful gardener,” says Samantha, “but she’s terrified of eels and couldn’t bring herself to pull out the things beside the creek. The digger’s done a great job of clearing them away, but for some reason the driver decided to clean the dirty digger in the middle of the lawn. Not what you need when the photographer’s on her way!” The dogs don’t know it yet, but their poolside retreat is about to get an overhaul as well, with new fencing, hedging, and decking. The inside of the house will be tackled next. “The concept plans are done and I’m really looking forward to getting under way,” says Samantha. Despite her insistence that they have “done nothing” in the house, the interior already looks inviting, with charming-old and stylish-contemporary mixed by a confident and skilful hand. “The bones of this house are fantastic already,” Campbell says. “There’s nothing structural that needs doing, it’s just the internal look that we’ll be working on. It’s a big project – perhaps that’s why the house was on the market for such a long time – but we’re not fazed by big projects. We started small, but we’ve always been involved in renovating.” The architect for the renovation is Barbara Webster. “We’ve been to many of the beautiful old homes that Barbara has renovated, including her own home in Greytown, the former Tinui Pub,” Samantha says. “We want to create a restful and timeless home, using subtle colours and natural textures, designed for comfort, and not ostentatious. I’m inspired by Hilary Robertson’s book, Monochrome Home.” As seasoned renovators, the Vennings are keen to retain their home’s special quirks. “We’ve got

the creek round the edge, but we’ve also got a proper little well, bricks and all,” grins Campbell. “And an attic. Zach wants to live up there, but at the moment it’s used for storage.” And just as his descriptions of creeks and attics and wells are starting to make the home seem like an ideal place for the Famous Five to have a jolly old adventure, he points out the servants’ bells still wired through the walls. The house has maids’ quarters attached. On one side the door handles are brass and on the servants’ side they are stainless steel. Jolly good show. While loving the Wairarapa lifestyle, the Vennings agree that it’s their proximity to Wellington that really makes the lifestyle work for them. Their family doctor, hairdresser and work hub are in Wellington. Campbell, an early riser and a devoted mountain-biker, drives over the hill a few times each week to work in Wellington. On those days, he gets into his car in his cycle gear about 5.00am, is on his bike by 6.30am, bikes around Wellington and is showered and at his desk by 9.00am. “I think I love Wellington even more now than I did when we lived there full time,” Campbell says. “Now, when I’m there, I’m either there for business or I’m there with the family, I’m not trying to do both at once. When I’m there on business, it’s way more intense. When I’m in Wellington, I still feel like a Wellingtonian.” “The hill in between enables us to enjoy the contrast and have a different perspective,” agrees Samantha. “We love living here, but the kids also really love their trips to Wellington. We stay at a relative’s house in Mount Vic, go biking round Scorching Bay, and eat all sorts of yummy Asian food at the Sunday market.” And while they’re there, there’s even a dog to hang out with. A city dog. A tiny one.

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

HIPPIE WINES WRITTEN BY JOELLE THOMSON | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

Meet Martinborough’s maverick winemaker, Lance Redgwell of Cambridge Road Wines

summer stint as a gardener in Italy is not the usual path into hippie winemaking, but Lance Redgwell says he found his soul in the Italian countryside. “City life is not the life for me – I’m meant to be out on the land,” says Redgwell, who was born and bred in Auckland, and worked in the London wine trade before discovering happiness in the living landscape. He has carved out a non-conformist identity for Cambridge, which is beginning to gain traction in the market. The wines are as different as they are delicious. Unconventional reds made from blending Pinot Noir and Syrah, extended skin contact for whites and cloudy bottles of barelylabelled fizz are just the tip of his interesting offerings. His first Martinborough wines were made in 2010 in a modest prefab building down a lavender-lined driveway on Cambridge Rd. From day one, there have been maverick wines along with classics, but now the unusual wines are gaining in quality and quantity. To say that Redgwell rejects traditional winemaking wisdom is tempting, but wrong. Many wines that he makes are blends of extremely different grape varieties, such as Gruner Veltliner, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc, fermented together for flavour integration. Then there are wines with no yeast additions, no fining agents and no sulphur dioxide at bottling. Some wines are cloudy when bottled, sealed with crown bottle tops and labelled minimally – in clear glass with neck tags on strings. They look and taste exotic and different. There is no repeating these maverick wines, which vary from one year to the next, depending on the availability of grapes. His home vineyard is three hectares, so it cannot supply enough for all of the regular commercial production, let alone for the experimental edgy wines. This year he is buying organic Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Nelson, which he will treat with extended

skin contact. This is highly unusual for white wine, most of which is made from grapes separated from their skins as soon as they arrive at any winery. “I don’t think you’ll see this as a typical take on Sauvignon Blanc from Nelson but it will add a few more feathers to the experimental cap – as will a Cabernet Franc that I’m going to make from Hawke’s Bay grapes. This year’s wines should be quite a psychedelic rainbow of flavours,” says Redgwell, who admits that he is still scratching his head about what to do with the Viognier grapes he has acquired. The plan at this stage is to add them to his dry white, Papillon Blanc. “We have a nice Riesling component which I think will be the lead player in Papillon Blanc this year, so Viognier’s voluptuous body might work well with it.” By his own admission, Redgwell is doing “some crazy hippie shit”. Not only are the wines sulphur free, but so are the grapes. “Sprays are horrible, although I don’t know anyone who farms organically with zero sprays,” he says. The permitted organic sprays he uses include elemental sulphur, which washes into the soil and becomes an essential trace element for healthy biological growth: “To me, sulphur is not the devil’s spawn. In our conventional wines, we use 50 parts per million of sulphur. A lot of winemakers use that. Much of my work in recent years would see sulphur dioxide at 25 ppm and 10 ppm is worthy of discussion. It’s really a number in the air, but it just happens to be the threshold that most international bodies have chosen for whether wine needs to be declared as containing sulphites or not.” This means he can sometimes drop the sulphites declaration from his labels. “I’m definitely a fan of minimal intervention; not to

LIQUID THOUGHTS

skew things but to see what they really look like. What does Pinot Noir look like without all the winemaking things we usually do. Natural acidity is a big thing for Pinot Noir, particularly when you start dropping sulphur out, and that’s where you need to embrace leaner-framed wines with slightly higher acids.” When he started Cambridge Road wines, he farmed the small vineyard as a satellite block while working full time as the vineyard manager at Turanga Creek in Auckland. He helped the owners to kickstart their organic vineyard programme there. “It was an excellent litmus test for the philosophies that I had learnt. If you can grow organic grapes in Auckland, you can do it anywhere.” He also worked at Piper’s Brook in Tasmania as a cellar hand, before his European travels; but life in Italy’s Marche region and Tuscany gave him the strong feel for how he wanted to make wine. “Italy had a big stylistic rubbing-off on me. It gives you a feel for how a place and the flavours of that place relate together. Wine is a part of culinary history in Italy, which is as valid as the food that surrounds it in many respects, so a margherita pizza or cinghalle – wild boar sausage from the local delicatessen – has an equal voice in Italy. This is what I want to achieve with my wines; creating flavours that capture what the place is all about from its climate and grape varieties to its food.” This underpins his philosophy to push outside the boundaries that have come to define modern winemaking. It is why he ferments wine in his ceramic egg rather than in stainess steel, and it is why he wants to make wines that are true to the place he is in.

This year’s skin-contact Nelson Sauvignon Blanc may not fit the familiar mould and it may not be superior for its out-there flavours, but the past five years have shown that there are three things it is guaranteed to be: “It’s playful, it’s affordable and it’s destined for fun.”

THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED WINES The Naturalist Now on its fifth vintage; this cloudy bubbly is about as raw and as honest as it can be; no added yeast and no additional sulphur have been used at bottling to make this “petillant natural” style. It tastes off dry but with a tannic, savoury grip, which balances the fruity flavours here. Cloudwalker A tiny bit of spritz adds a fresh zingy flavour to the wine, which is made along the same philosophical lines as The Naturalist. Rogue reds There will be a preservative-free Cloudwalker red coming out for the first time this year; sealed with a crown cap and very affordable. Only 1,000 bottles will be made, mostly for export; a smidgeon available at the winery and at Regional Wines & Spirits. Cloudy and raw… The first Cambridge Road cider was crushed this year; expect a cloudy fizzy version to be out soon.

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WA I R A R A PA B R I E F S

HORSES FOR COURSES You can lead a horse to water, but how do you make it drink? Horseman Gavin Morison might have the answer. He offers two-day leadership courses to staff groups, with participants working one on one with the animals to learn a little about communicating better. “How you treat a horse is the same as how you treat people,” says Morison. “To get them to follow direction, you have to treat them with respect.” Morison loves horses’ honesty, and that they don’t discriminate. “A horse doesn’t know if you’re the head of the company,” he muses. Visit gavinmorison.co.nz to book.

UP IN THE AIR

CABIN FEVER CURE

POSITIVE CYCLE

Vintage aircraft look cool up close, but there’s nothing like seeing them in their element, gliding through the sky as they did during wartime. One of the world’s largest collections of original, reproduction and replica WWI planes hang out at the Hood Aerodome in Masterton. They’re taken for a spin on the last weekend of every month from April to November. Bring the kids, a picnic and something to sit on. The action begins at 10am with guided hangar tours between flying sessions.

The Pukaha Junior Rangers – it sounds like an elite team of Kiwi kids sent to save the planet from imminent danger. And it sort of is. The school holiday programme at Mount Bruce wildlife sanctuary puts kids in the middle of the action, mucking in with the rangers to learn about our natural world. They can even earn badges and rewards. The $25 for the day (11am to 3pm) includes lunch. See pukaha.org.nz to register.

All right, everyone on your bikes! Registrations are now open for the Skyline Challenge Martinborough (24 April). Set on private farmland, it’s a fun way to experience the region while getting a bit of a cardiac kick. There are four options, so there’s something for every age and ability – from the 3km flat course for eight years and under, to the 32km trail for the more experienced pedallers out there. Visit skylinechallenge.co.nz to sign up for the Anzac weekend event.

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F E AT U R E

SEASON OF THE POTTER WRITTEN BY JULIA MAHONY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

The turn of the wheel reveals a quiet, simple, and highly industrious life in the Wairarapa.

aul Melser’s pottery wheel has been turning smoothly since the 1960s. Through the decades and seasons with crockery trends waxing and waning, Melser has dried, fired and glazed at his bushenveloped home on the Wairarapa fault line. In 2016, the wheel is rotating at usual speed, but sales are cranking up. Paul supplied cafe Loretta in central Wellington with its handmade dinnerware, and diners in trendy hotspots in Hawke’s Bay, Queenstown and Auckland are eating from his plates. Could pottery be working its earthy way back into favour? The tranquil 125 acres on Norfolk Rd in rural Carterton is an apt home for the Wairarapa artist. He and partner Frances watched their rustic wooden house being built in 1978, when their first child was only a year old. The two storeys are flanked by Paul’s painting studio and two long covered verandahs. Glowing wood, heavy textures and rich, warm colours (plus lime-green window trim, which somehow works) combine in a cosy, bohemian nest. Climbing the stairs to the bedrooms is like ascending into the tree tops. “We designed it using the simplest plan we could think of,” Paul says. "It’s been adaptable. It was good when we had two little toddlers and I even enjoy the old-fashioned singleglazing – it lets me hear the sounds of the birds in the morning and evening. But it does take a lot of heating during the winter.’’ In his 70th year, Paul is hardy, like the kanuka

and totara standing guard around the property, and like other long-time Norfolk Rd lifestylers. “It’s a raw natural environment here. We once had a series of very strong winds over six weeks and half a dozen houses went up for sale.’’ He’s stayed partly because of his 40-year investment of time and energy in the trees he planted to fire his kiln and the natives and exotics he established after battling the land-gobbling gorse. Or perhaps because if he moved, the social cricket club that has played for more than 30 years on his bottom paddock would be robbed of a venue. So far this year 11 matches have already been played there. Through the trees is Paul’s pottery. En route, we pass his 50-metre-long drystone wall, a back-bending achievement that required lifting about 2,500 stones from around the property and into place along the snaking curve which hugs a little parking area. The kilns, bisque storage area and glazing space are nestled beyond and the workshop wears a ghostly cloak of clay dust, as if untouched for years. A green office drafting chair on five rollers, ready to support his long lean frame, sits before Paul’s wheel. “I just cleaned the windows,’’ he says, pointing above the wheel to glass panes still thick with clay dust. About two-thirds of his firings are powered by gas. The other third use his wood-fired kiln. Pine from the firewood forest is cut into metre lengths to fit the Dutch oven firebox, then bundled and stored to dry for two years before use. Paul designed and built his

F E AT U R E

clay mixer, in which he combines clays from around New Zealand with some of his stash from a clay bank in Pahiatua – 30 years ago he had 80 tonnes of it dumped onto his property and built a shed over it. The showroom is like a little bush church, with many windows and a high stud. It holds around 3,000 objects, in soft hues of blue, green, brown, cream and black. It’s a subtly beautiful display of his 10 glazes. A young man from Wellington arrives alone, quietly deliberates and makes a purchase. He drives away, carefully making his way back down the bank where tectonic plates heaved and twisted in the Wairarapa earthquake of 1855. Paul says he is one of the few potters in New Zealand currently making domestic stoneware, which is fired at 1,300 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, clay and glazes melt together, resulting in products that are very durable – dishwasher, microwave — and oven-proof. His aim has always been to make pottery objects designed for ordinary domestic living, and to be "quiet, simple reminders of the natural materials they are made of.’’ In the 1980s, pottery was the must-have homeware. Paul enjoyed a steady demand for mugs, jugs, plates and bowls, their textures solid and warm in the hand. The 1990s and early 2000s, with the removal of import restrictions, saw a demand for sleek, snow-white imported dinner sets; then Nana’s dainty heirlooms were dusted off for cup-and-saucer parties. The number of potters producing everyday homeware fell, many potters rebranding themselves as “ceramic artists.” “There was a change in industrial design and production with the digital revolution. Computerised design and global production and trade has produced more uniformity and fewer handmade products,’’ says Paul. “The revival of craftwork has been a response to this machine-made conformity. The marks of a maker have always been an important part of our ability to form a bond with the objects.’’ Cafes and restaurants following fresh, healthy food trends are seeking matching dinnerware in shapes, colours and sizes to suit their dishes, and Paul says

this is a driving force behind the resurgence of pottery. “The natural, healthy food movement promotes food which is not hugely processed, just like pottery. Pottery retains certain impurities, such as small spots. A perfectly white dinner set is perfectly bland.’’ And the vintage tea cup revival? Paul doesn’t make cup-and-saucer sets but there are small espresso cups in his ranges and more recently laksa bowls and tagines. Demand for casserole dishes has tapered off and people don’t appear to have that great 80s urge to pickle urns of gherkins and onions. Super large “man mugs’’ are out of favour, but he has made some special sauerkraut pots with water seals by request. His interest in ceramics began at Ardmore Teachers’ College in Auckland, where 10-year-old Paul was allowed to play in the pottery after school. He built his own in Wellington in 1960 and Featherston in 1966, before moving to his present home. An interest in painting became a “major preoccupation’’ around 1990 and his painting studio – far removed from the pottery on the other side of the house – is full of canvasses. He describes his paintings as being about people and the struggles of power, change and understanding that challenge us all. Stoneware lasts, and there are undoubtedly Melser vessels, plates and bowls in many a cupboard. There’s something wonderful about generations of families still being able to drive over the Rimutakas to buy Paul’s pottery. “It’s nice that, having lived so long in a place like Wairarapa, that you see people, and their children, coming back over years,’’ he says. “Sales are a little bit seasonal – more people come in summer or when the weather is fine, and at Christmas of course.’’ And so Paul’s wheel will turn in the bush, where cricketers aged 10 to 70 come to play and then relax on the Melser verandah with a beer. Or tea served in a beautiful glazed cup created just a few steps away; while over in Wellington, central-city folk scrape the last of a very good thing from a Melser plate. For everything, there is a season.

ABROAD

THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF GHOSTS PHOTOGRAPHY BY IAN APPERLEY

The face of Cambodia is beautiful and haunted. The people are young, smart, kind, humble and poor. It is a beautiful land filled with wonders and overrun with ghosts of its recent past, writes IAN APPERLEY.

t first glance, Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, feels like other Asian cities. Dusty highways with no gutters running up into small shops, surges of motorbikes moving past in noisy clouds, buildings of French Colonial design skinnier than a Parisian model, and people everywhere. But peer deeper, and you begin to see the heart of Cambodia. The people here are beautiful, polite, perceptive, quick to smile and very young. The average age in Cambodia is 24, and the majority of the population is aged 14 or less. You notice the middle-aged and elderly because there are so few of them. When you do see them, they are distinctive, with weather-beaten brown faces. The sad fact is that the majority of the older generation suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the genocide. Cambodians are slow to anger, but when pushed, are subject to terrible episodes of violence. No-one is sure how many the Khmer Rouge killed during the genocide. The estimates range from one million to two million; and that is just the executed. Millions more starved as a result of the war and genocide. Imagine everyone in Auckland, over a period of years, being taken away in trucks, and murdered. The young do not talk about the genocide; it is largely ignored and suppressed. It has been said that Cambodia “just wants to be left alone,” and this rings true. The streets are littered with parked motorbikes and tuk-tuks, brightly coloured covered trailers towed by mopeds. It's 10.00 am and already over

30 degrees Celsius. Rubbish litters the streets and every now and again you get a whiff of decomposing biomass in among the sweet smells of cooking or incense. Down the alleyways, plants are retaking the city in the shadows, vines and leaves snaking up the side of buildings. The city has a bad reputation. Pickpockets can be a problem; Western drug users are like zombies by early afternoon, and many bars only trade in sex. The patrons of the many bars are overweight, white, middle-aged Englishmen and Americans for the most part, drinking away the day and waiting for the girls to arrive. The city is a bustling, vibrant, living creature. Restaurants and cafes line the inner city, pushed up against the old Russian Market and jammed along the river’s edge. The Royal Palace dominates a large section of the central city, and I had never seen anything like its exquisite architecture. High rising walls topped with jagged reliefs and swordlike extensions floating over the façades like dragon spines. Muted colours, pastels, with an abundance of yellow and red. Paintings on the walls show the history of Cambodia. The detail depicts the countless lives over centuries that have written the history of Cambodia into the palace stones. The food is incredible: French baking, Western staples, Khmer-style, Chinese, Vietnamese, and fusions of them all. At 75 cents a beer and a couple of dollars for a meal, sitting under an umbrella outside a cafe watching the world go by Cambodia-style is worth a few hours of your time.

ABROAD

We visited the Killing Fields, Cambodia’s official monument to the genocide of 1975-1979. It simply is not talked about here. It is relegated to the Killing Fields and S21, a notorious school-turned-torture-factory. The Killing Fields are a rolling park, mounded by the mass graves, with a central monument stacked high with the skulls of the disinterred. I found it impossible to relate to what happened here. The atrocities are laid out in plain sight, yet my mind refused to make the emotional connection to the thousands that were slaughtered. A sign sticks in my mind. “Please do not step on bone.” Every time it rains more fragments surface. “The ghosts want us to remember, they refuse to stay in the ground,” says our tuk-tuk driver. We fly to Siem Reap, the cradle of Southeast Asian civilisation dating back to the ninth century. The smog is horrific. Millions of tourists visit at this time of year, and the resulting fumes blanket the city and temples. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer empire and a powerful force in its time. Lonely Planet named Angkor Wat, the ruined remains of its temple complex, the top tourist destination on earth in 2015. The temples are extraordinary. They range from sprawling, substantial edifices with cool interiors to tumbledown structures being swallowed by the jungle. You could spend days exploring the dozens of ruins. Concession cards can be bought for a week’s worth of visits. Around 1430, the Angkor Kingdom finally collapsed. Continual war had strained the economy until it fell apart, religion underwent a change that put thousands out of traditional jobs supporting it, and as the money dried up so did the infrastructure, hastening the death cycle. Finally, it seems that the climate change added the final nail to the coffin, as the monsoons dried up at the same time. People simply left and went to places where they could make a living. Democracy in Cambodia is a tenuous and shadowy affair. The prime minister has been in power for more

than three decades and refuses to loosen his grip on the country. A former Khmer commander during the war and genocide, he is grooming his son to step in and take over. While we were there, two members of the opposition party were pulled from their car after a session of parliament, and severely beaten, right in the grounds of parliament. No one was held accountable. Allegations and murmurings of corruption are everywhere. It is said that one of the major international hotels in Phnom Penh is owned by the country’s most powerful drug lord; opposition party members are in hiding or have been arrested, there have been riots in recent months over the state of government, and drugs are trafficked in vast quantities. Travel in Cambodia is easy. Tuk-tuks, drivers, cabs, planes are all readily available and cheap. We moved between some cities by taxi. Arranged by the hotel, it cost $50 US for our family to travel the equivalent of Wellington to Palmerston North by taxi. After a break at a Sihanoukville resort, we went to Kampot, a laid-back small town on the south coast, near the Vietnamese border. A holiday spot for the Cambodians, it is tucked into a river delta with extensive rice paddies. We were driving through the heat and dust on the main highway near Kampot, early afternoon. It was dusty, hot and polluted. Suddenly, school was out. Thousands of children in immaculate uniforms appeared on the highway on bicycles. The youthful population means that schools are everywhere. Cambodia is a land of possibility still caught in the grip of its traditional masters, who have failed once and will fail again. Corruption is a way of life, and you can only hope that the younger generation will be able to take eventual control of the country and introduce more democracy without suffering more bloodshed. This is a lot to hope of a country of people in their mid-twenties.

T O R Q U E TA L K

THE CAT ’S WHISKERS WRITTEN BY ROGER WALKER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

In 1983, over sushi and sake, the chairman of Toyota, Eiji Toyoda, held a meeting in Nagoya with his company’s executives, and said, “Let’s develop a new upmarket brand for the USA.” Twenty-four engineering teams were put to work, and 450 prototypes produced. Some say the company may have spent as much as a billion dollars on development over the next six years.

uxury Exports to the United States (Lexus) launched its first car, the LS400, at the North American Motor Show in 1989. Silent, ergonomic, powerful and reliable, the LS400 became a fierce competitor with Mercedes and BMW, whose US sales dropped drastically. In 1996 Lexus entered the SUV segment in the US with the LX450, with similar sales results. Unusually in the Japanese car industry, it was only introduced back to its spiritual home (and the rest of the world) in 2005. Quality was a religion for Eiji. Years ago, I had an old Cortina that had shut lines (the door, bonnet and boot lid joints in the bodywork) so wide and sloppy that you could insert a Saturday paper in the door joint while fumbling for your keys. Reputedly Toyoda instructed his engineers that the shut lines on the Lexus were not to exceed 3mm. And they don’t. But even that’s probably enough space for a Monday edition these days. The Lexus crossover is one of the two most popular vehicles sold in recent years in the States, and this new RX350 Sport really is a most bountiful beast. Its transverse-mounted 3.5 litre V6 is powered by real Arab juice, not your smelly diesel or range-restricted electric, and is connected to a seamless 8-speed auto delivering 219kw (nearly 300hp) to the gorgeous 20-inch wheels via either on-demand or locked-in 4-wheel drive, and it’s got enough clearance to go cross-country if you want to. In addition to the almost mandatory keyless entry, sat nav, cruise control, and ABS, there are tyre pressure monitors, air-con with pollen and odour removal functions, 10-way adjustable heated/cooled leather seats for driver and passenger, park assist, head-up instrument display, lane-departure sensors, three drive modes, and as many lighting options and cup holders as five passengers in desperate need of refreshment could ever need.

And all this wizardry is covered by a four-year warranty and service period. I took it into our tight, obstacle-strewn parking basement and was impressed. There are electronic feelers projecting wraparound pictures of every side and corner of the vehicle and signalling the proximity of every column, wall and lesser car. I felt rather as if I were in a cat’s head. The feline feeling continues around the RX350 Sports exterior. Its lithe styling could be called “origami pounce.” Its eyes, mouth and pert bottom are all vaguely sinewy and panther-like. Back inside, the dash-mounted screen is so large that were it to be a TV, the distraction of such movies as Fast and Furious ought to result in a crash – but the Lexus’ myriad safety and selfalerting features makes this much less likely! As I am wafting silently and luxuriously around the hills, rain appears on the windscreen. It automatically activates the wipers, and I contemplate the future of cars. I realise that this Lexus is a precursor of the self-drive automobile; even now, all you have to do in this excellent vehicle is steer, and operate the accelerator and brakes. In future years, they tell us, most of us won’t even own our cars. I won’t have to garage, service, insure or clean the vehicle. A car will appear on request at my door to transport me safely through heavy traffic, and should I have one over the eight, bring me home without fear or recrimination. (As a car culturalist, I will still, of course, keep a real car with gears for actual driving pleasure). We can look forward to car-parking buildings being converted into affordable housing, and all those acres of tarseal outside supermarkets becoming city farms. The RX350 Sport is a step toward this future they’re predicting. Its combination of state-of-the-art design, refinement, technology, comfort and build quality is a remarkable achievement. Eiji would be proud.

W E L LY A NG E L

WHAT WOULD DEIRDRE D O? PAYING LIP SERVICE The only person whom I kiss on the lips is my partner and maybe a bit of side lippage when greeting my mum. I see an acquaintance two or three times a year, every time she goes straight for the smackers. I try to turn my head but sometimes I’m a bit slow. She’s in her 60s – is this something that the older generation does? Do I tell her that I’d prefer a cheek or continue lip-dodging? Uptight, Te Aro It is only two or three times a year so not really an everyday dilemma. She is an old family friend and clearly sees you as near and dear – go along with it but maintain your own stance with your friends and family. Sometimes the status quo is the way to go. You may upset her and it will be hard to retract any comment you make especially as this has been happening for years.

DARK SIDE OF THE MO ON My friend’s mother likes to wear a sun visor, like something people wear playing golf or tennis. She has a few of different colours and has progressed from wearing these items by day to also wearing them by night, in fact

almost all the time. My friend is embarrassed and does endure quite a lot of teasing about it. Our families are old friends and he wants me to ask her to stop. I think it’s none of my business. What do you think? Not my mother, Upper Hutt

before the second arrives then good manners definitely means not dropping the one you have accepted for the second – no matter what! Courtesy, particularly when friends and catering are involved, is important.

Stay out of this and let your friend speak if he needs to. It is his mother. Maybe she is blissfully unaware of the eccentric element here or maybe she has some eye problem and light is causing her discomfort. I had cataract operations recently and dark glasses were the go — even in a dark theatre — the light was painfully glaring for a while! A cup of tea and a chat in the family would clarify things and maybe there will be an easy resolution.

PRIVACY

MANNERS MAKETH THE... I have been trying to teach our children that if they receive two invitations for the same time, they should accept the first invitation they receive. Their father says that is old fashioned and unnecessary; you wait until closer to the time to decide which offer looks the most fun. What do you think? Etiquette needed, Karori I am in sympathy with the “pick the one that looks like most fun” approach! But, and it is a big but, if you accept the first invite

My partner shares a lot of personal information about our life together with her friends – fights, sex-life good or bad, irritating habits, personal information about our respective families. I think it’s disloyal and a breach of privacy. She says it is normal for females to share this stuff. What do you think? Tightlipped, Petone Tell your partner how you feel and that you are uncomfortable. She should respect this and tone it down – not all women talk about personal details to their friends. She needs to understand it really concerns you and find something else to talk about.

If you’ve got a burning question for Deirdre, email angel@capitalmag.co.nz with Capital Angel in the subject line.

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B A B Y, B A B Y

LEAN IN BY MELODY THOMAS

his month I entered into the final trimester of my second pregnancy and the last few months of life as Mum to just one. As my stomach has stretched from “ate too much?” big to so swollen that strangers feel the need to make jokes about my due date (10 weeks to go, dickheads), I’ve become hyper-aware of the ways in which our lives will soon change. The return to nappy changing, the cracked nipples and aching C-section scar/ vagina, the sudden disappearance of work and social life and the inability to hold a conversation after very little, very broken sleep. It’s probably the hormones, but when people tell me I must be getting excited about the impending arrival I have to fight the urge to poke them in the eye. Because I’m not really excited. There are occasional bursts of excitement – when I think of dozy cuddles and first smiles and sibling love and the parent-crack of new baby smell – but those moments are fleeting, because I know how hard the reality is going to be. Our parents and their parents made it look so easy. These days almost all of my friends have had the sanity to call it quits at one or two kids (some were even smart enough to not go there at all), whereas offspring seemed to pop out of our Mums like tic tacs. How on earth did they do it? Children washed and clothed, family fed, house tidy, hair and skin shining. How did they not all lose their goddamned minds? But of course most of them had little choice in the matter and many did lose their minds, and that’s why they fought so hard for our right to “have it all”. To become a mum without sacrificing our careers or to choose to stay at home if that’s what we want. To cook, clean and change nappies as much as our partners do. To pursue self-betterment and creative fulfilment without suffering from the guilt of “neglecting” our children to do so. So why does it sometimes feel like we’ve been liberated from the shackles of domesticity only to have the weight of a dozen additional chains added? Mothers who return to the workforce exhaust themselves trying to put equal energy into parenting so they won’t be called neglectful. Stay-at-home Mums protect themselves from pity and

accusations of “not living up to their potential” by taking on ECE roles and becoming experts in chemical-free cleaning and healthy lunchbox prep. Mums who do it alone are failures for not being able to nail down partners. The one on her phone at the park is negligent, the one chasing her kid up the ladder is smothering, those who bottle-feed aren’t doing what’s best for their kids but neither is the mother still breastfeeding the toddler. Those who have one child are selfish, so is anyone who has more than two (environmental impact etc, etc), but they’re not nearly as selfish as those who have none at all. There’s no winning this game, and no matter what your position on the board you can bet you’re not allowed to complain about it – we can’t be seen to be ungrateful for these privileges, and anyway to complain would be to admit that women can’t have it all. That equality was ultimately too hard. Only equality still hasn’t happened. Research shows time and time again that in households where both parents work full time, mothers still shoulder the majority of the housework (shout-out to my husband who helps balance the stats by doing more than me). Working mothers are twice as likely to report that being a parent has made it harder for them to advance their careers. Far from improving, the gender pay gap in New Zealand is currently the worst it’s been in 10 years. And most of these statistics reflect concerns relating to me – a white, educated, gainfully employed, able-bodied, cis hetero woman who can afford to pay the bills most of the time. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult things are for those who lack these privileges. I don’t mean to sound so miserable – probably this column would read much more optimistically if I’d had a chance to have a nap today. And I don’t know what the answer is. But maybe for now, as we wait for equality to become a reality, we invest some time in not judging each other so harshly. In respecting that no matter how each individual is choosing to live their lives as a parent (or not), it’s probably pretty tough a lot of the time, and that a little support and understanding can go a long way. Because if we can’t support each other, then the inevitable result of all this “leaning in” is all of us flat on our faces.

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At Playcentre: ●

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children attend part-day sessions with their parent or caregiver, with older pre-schoolers able to have some independent sessions children enjoy play in a family environment, with siblings and other local children from birth to 6 years parents/caregivers receive free training in early childhood education and parenting high ratios and child-led play support children to grow as competent and confident learners and communicators families build strong relationships through working as a co-operative, learning together and supporting each other.

Hear clearly again and live life to the full Do you have hearing issues? Are you missing out on the bright, beautiful, exciting sounds of the world – children’s laughter, soft summer rain, or keeping up with conversation across the table or at a dinner party? You can hear clearly again and live life to the full.

Modern hearing devices are easy to use, comfortable to wear and very discreet, so call today to book a FREE LIFESTYLE HEARING ASSESSMENT and find out what you’re missing. Wellington Hearing Care can show you how well you could be hearing and create a personalised solution for you. Your Lifestyle Hearing Assessment takes your specific issues and goals into account and is FREE OF CHARGE WITHOUT OBLIGATION, so don’t delay, call now and find out how digital hearing technology can dramatically improve your quality of life. You may even find it’s a revelation!

“We offer full support and understanding for all your hearing care needs. Please feel free to call and chat with us, you won’t be rushed and we have no targets to meet. You will receive quality professional advice and the best hearing solutions available with FREE lifetime aftercare – unbeatable value for money.” Helen and Clive Steadman-Powell

To make an informed choice about your options, call Wellington Hearing Care today,

Your best choice for sound advice • • • • •

FREE home visits FREE lifetime aftercare 60-day trial period 100% money back guarantee Price promise guarantee

CALL FREE 0800 474 676 FOR A FREE, NO OBLIGATION HEARING CHECK