Capital 18

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

GINGER BREWS SUMMER 2015

WALK ON BY

ISSUE 18

$3.90 FROGS FOR CANCER

FA S H N’ F R U I T Y

SUMMER ISSUE

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SEASON CONCERTS

FREDDY KEMPF’S BEETHOVEN JANINE JANSEN PLAYS TCHAIKOVSKY SPIRIT OF ANZAC AOTEAROA PLUS INTO THE STORM NZSO NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA I N K I N E N F E S T I VA L

emotion exhilaration excellence MORE

_______

SEASON 2015

Enjoy the ultimate concert experience of a full symphony orchestra with the world’s top artists. Experience the wonder, the power, the emotion.

WAGNER GALA HILARY HAHN PLAYS BEETHOVEN POWER AND PASSION CATHEDRAL OF SOUND SPECIAL EVENT

RENÉE FLEMING GALA EVENING CLASSICAL HITS BOLD WORLDS GARRICK OHLSSON PLAYS BRAHMS RITE OF SPRING HANDEL’S MESSIAH

e Save th Date

Single tickets on sale from Mon 9 February.

B O O K AT T I C K E T E K - 0 8 0 0 8 4 2 5 3 8 - T I C K E T E K . C O . N Z

The 2015 Season launched with a record-breaking response.

Now is your chance to secure your seats for this fast-selling concert season.

F U L L C O N C E R T D E TA I L S AVA I L A B L E AT

nzso.co.nz

CAPITAL THE COVER: "Summer: Hair gets lighter.

Skin gets darker. Water gets warmer. Drinks get colder.

Music gets louder. Nights get longer. Life gets better."

Photograph: Raquel Chicheri

SUBSCRIPTION Subscription rates $77 (inc postage and packaging) 11 issues

New Zealand only To subscribe, please email accounts@capitalmag.co.nz

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

PRINTED IN WELLINGTON

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

MADE IN WELLINGTON GUEST EDITORIAL

W

ellington is a wonderful city; we’re going to make it even better.

Wellington City Council’s draft Long Term Plan builds on our strengths as a city: our stunning natural environment and quirky built heritage, our creativity and business savvy, our low carbon emissions and our support for our most vulnerable citizens. It is ambitious. It doesn’t waste rhetoric on trade-offs or service cuts. We are not here to manage decline. The plan invests in growth and our communities’ ongoing prosperity and wellbeing.

Imagine Wellington with an international film museum, an indoor music arena, an extended airport runway able to bring in modern large aeroplanes able to carry more visitors, students, and business opportunities from Asia and North America. Imagine the jobs created by a convention centre, a tech hub, and a screen industry enterprise zone. Imagine Adelaide Road and other parts of the inner city transformed into vibrant, mixed-use areas with shops, offices, cafes and apartments. We aim to turn imagination into reality.

We are already much more likely than residents of other cities to say we’re happy, healthy, and satisfied with our lives and work-life balance. Moving into 2015 we want Wellington residents to retain their pride, happiness, and satisfaction as we strengthen our economy to create jobs, prosperity, and more opportunities for residents.

The foundations are already in place: fast-growing tourism; competitive ‘smart’ industries like film production, science, education, and ICT; Aotearoa’s most highly educated population and our compact city; all of which encourage connection and collaboration. Investing to strengthen our economy will increase Wellington’s value and a bigger rating base means the costs of rates are spread across more people and businesses, making them more affordable.

He pai te tirohanga ki ngā mahara mo ngā rā pahemo engari ka puta te māramatanga i runga i te titiro whakamua. ‘It's fine to have recollections of the past but wisdom comes from being able to prepare opportunities for the future’.

I am delighted to wish all the many Capital readers a Happy New Year for 2015.

Celia Wade-Brown Mayor, Wellington City Council

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.

CONTENTS

RAMBLE ON Wander our Wellington walks

26

GINGERELLAS

D I P L O M AT I C IMMUNITY

Fiery redheads sample gingery brews

French science trio fight cancer

34

75

8 LETTERS

58 EDIBLES

10 CHATTER

60

THE FOREST CANTINA

12

NEWS SHORTS

64

LIQUID THOUGHTS

14

BY THE NUMBERS

68

PERIODICALLY SPEAKING

16

NEW PRODUCTS

70

BY THE BOOK

18

TALES OF THE CITY

72

A NOVEL APPROACH

20

A SURFER’S OPINION

24

A LONE WOLF

38

WHAT THE FLOCK

40 CULTURE

80 INTERIOR 82

MANA THROUGH CRAFT

91

TORQUE TALK

92

WELLY ANGEL

94

BABY BABY

95

GET OUT OF TOWN

46

WELL ORCHESTRATED

51

FASH ‘N’ FRUITY

98 CALENDAR

56

STREET STYLE

100 TOP DOG

CONTRIBUTORS

S TA F F Alison Franks Managing editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz Lyndsey O’Reilly Campaign coordinators Haleigh Trower sales@capitalmag.co.nz

John Bristed General factotum john@capitalmag.co.nz Shalee Fitzsimmons Art direction & design shalee.f@live.com Rhett Goodley- Hornblow

Design design@capitalmag.co.nz

Craig Beardsworth

Factotum

Anna Jackson-Scott Journalist Gus Bristed

Distribution

CONTRIBUTORS Emma Steer | Melody Thomas | Kieran Haslett-Moore | Sarah Burton | Kelly Henderson | Janet Hughes | Daniel Rose Sharon Greally | John Bishop | Tamara Jones Ashley Church | Mark Sainsbury | Benjamin & Elise | Jess Hill | Beth Rose | Evangeline Davis | Unna Burch | Aidan Rasmussen

E VA N G E L I N E D A V I S Ph oto g r aph er

SHA L E E F I T Z SI M M O N S Ar t D i re c tor

Evangeline is entranced with humanity and the natural world. Her work explores the beauty in the mundane, the ordinary and the overlooked, in her practice of photography. Evangeline adds whimsy and empathy to her subjects by layering her own fantasies on to the images created.

Shalee blew in on the wind from up north many years ago and couldn't figure how to get back. She's our resident Art Director, stylist & designer. Obscure music enthusiatic, fanatical online shopper and sav-guzzling misfit, Shalee puts the it into Capital.

STOCKISTS Pick up your Capital in New World and Pak’n’ Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note and other discerning greater Wellington 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 Rosie Bristed | Kaitlyn Smith Grace van Dyk | Maddi Brown Catharine Franks

ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT Writer Anna is a writer from Wellington, and in-house journalist at Capital. She lives in Brooklyn with a pug-obsessed electrician, a hairy Greek, and a lingerie designer masquerading as an economist.

She enjoys adventures, especially those involving coffee, and trying to slip bad puns and salsa-related articles past the Editor, which usually fails.

6

AIDAN RASMUSSEN Writer Aidan is a freelance writer who has spent much of the past decade working as a web copy writer and editor. Though Wellington will always be home, his love of 'other places' means he's often far away from it.

For more information on the new Cayenne contact your Official Porsche Centre or visit www.porsche.co.nz

Designed to perfection. And to perform.

The new Cayenne has arrived.

Dynamism, 5 doors, versatility and comfort – the Cayenne continues its path to success with a new design, new driver’s assistance systems and new engines that provide spectacular power whilst remaining economical. The Cayenne has been reinvented and is moving on.

Right up into the future.

Visit an Official Porsche Centre this weekend to see the new Cayenne.

66 Cambridge Terrace, Welllington Phone 04 384 8779 Francois Du Plessis Phone 021 0229 6062 francois.duplessis@armstrongs.co.nz

MAG16061

www.armstrongprestige.co.nz

LETTERS

TEQUILA PINNACLE I just read the letter from La Boca Loca in your last issue. If you missed them out of an article about tequila in Wellington that is a real shame. I had the best margarita of my life at La Boca Loca (it’s my favourite cocktail, so I’ve had quite a few). I had been wondering why it was so good, after all a margarita is just lime/lemon juice, triple sec, and tequila, if I’m not mistaken - but their letter cleared it up for me - it’s their tequila.

No, I’m not friends with the owners or any of the staff, just wanting to give credit where credit’s due. The best margarita of my life demands I do so!

Leonie Reynolds, Wellington

HAPPY READER I love your magazine. It makes great reading and I enjoy hearing about the Wellingtonians who are doing such interesting things with their lives – whether that is in a new business venture, performing or producing great art and culture, or stalwarts of Wellington passionate about our city.

It is also so encouraging to see the Wellington business community and arts organisations supporting you with their advertising in these times of people believing that Social Media for free is the answer to promotion. I am sure their continued support will keep Capital in our shops for years to come.

Many of my friends also enjoy reading the articles but more importantly we all try

and support those companies who keep our city the vibrant place we all love by using their services or buying their products. May I encourage all your readers to do the same especially those supporting your magazine.

This is not a dying city and Capital reminds us why we love living here.

B Smythe, Berhampore

KEEN INTEREST IN MONEY I enjoyed your story about John Todd and was intrigued that he too, like many of our generation, was expected to go into the family business, despite the clearly large amount of money available in his family. The choices were sometimes more circumscribed for boys, yet wider for the girls.

By the way why was he photographed in a dairy?

Former farmer, Feilding Ed: Our art director liked the idea

BEER HELP I like your beer summary in the latest issue.

Having never really been a beer drinker, I am starting to enjoy it as a summer drink and am finding your summary of beer types and the tasting notes really helpful. On the strength of it I have volunteered to buy the beer for Christmas. My six brothers-in-law will be a very critical audience.

Mary Irwin, Hutt Valley

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TREMAINS ART DECO WEEKEND VISIT: WWW.ARTDECONAPIER.COM

8

TRUE LOVE Here’s a little bit of festive spirit. I’ve been watching Capital since you started and want to say congratulations for keeping up the clever look and feel you started with, and so quickly making yourselves a part of the Wellington culture. I love your ‘attitude’ which seems very independent and not at all boring or mainstream. I see they’re getting about too. I saw some in a coffee shop in Hamilton. I love the way I turn a page and find something odd, interesting, or amusing, and people I may not know, but often know of. I never quite know what it’s going to be, that’s what I love. In short I love you.

Anna Wilson, Wellington Ed: That’s made our year

ANOTHER CAPITAL MISPLACED Dublin is not the capital of Northern Ireland!

David van Kampen Ed: Thank you.

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

HOUSTOUN TCHAIKOVSKY SIX BY ONE 2015 SEASON SUBSCRIBE NOW Six Tchaikovsky Symphonies Six Piano Concertos with Michael Houstoun Take advantage of a special Subscription price when you book 2 or more Wellington concerts within the SIX BY ONE series.

Attend all 6 concerts for only $18 per concert – offer only available until 28 February 2015.

Details and other Subscription packages available online at orchestrawellington.co.nz

BABY POPS Abracadabra Saturday 21 February, 3pm Sacred Heart College Lower Hutt Sunday 22 February, 3pm Southward Theatre Paraparaumu Thomas Goss – Presenter Magic and wizardry abound in this summer’s presentation of Baby Pops. The orchestra takes young listeners on a Magic Carpet Ride and casts a spell over them with humour, mystery, and enchantment.

Tickets ticketek.co.nz / fringe.co.nz

2015 SEASON

BABY POPS

MARC TADDEI, MUSIC DIRECTOR

MARC TADDEI, MUSIC DIRECTOR

C HAT T E R

INK INC.

COMM(UNIT Y) B O OKS The Common Unity Project Aotearoa has started a book depository housed in a hobbit house they built in Epuni, Lower Hutt. It’s designed to saturate the community with books. “It’s another way of doing cool things in our community. Bring something, leave something, take something,” founder Julia Milne says.

The ongoing depot project is open on weekdays and Saturday mornings.

Common Unity is based at Epuni Primary School and runs a community garden tended by local school children.

DAVE MCD ONALD

COLOURED IN

What led to getting a tattoo? Art or rebellion? I just like tattoos, so art I guess. Its fun to have artwork to travel with. This was my first decent piece, I wanted something a bit bigger than my previous ones and colourful.

Whisky, T-wei, Geek and Blake Dunlop are the Wellington graffiti artists included in art duo BMD’s newly-released colouring book. BMD worked on the well-known Wellington shark wall.

A competition for work space on Ghuznee Street inspired the book, which is the first of a planned series of yearly publications. “Graffiti is the world’s biggest colouring-in competition. We paint, other people paint over it, we paint it again, the council paints over that, and then it starts again; it’s a never ending competition for space” said one of the BMD crew.

Why this design? I love Ed Roth's artwork and work inspired by his style, so this was a perfect opportunity to mix that with my love of drumming.

Family – for it or against? Slightly against, but you know they will still love you no matter what.

Where is the tattoo & why? On my upper arm. It was free real estate at the time I got it.

10

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS

THE TELLTALE HEART One of the most popular Te Papa displays for the kids was a life sized model of a blue whale’s heart (it’s comparable in size to a small car). Budding heart surgeons could squeeze through its largest blood vessel in the level 1 Discovery Centre, but no more. A Wellyworder Mum tells us it’s gone, much to the chagrin of her four year old. Te Papa, where is it? We don’t want to bypass the heart!

TAXI TROUBLES The demands of the city are proving too much for some Wellington taxi drivers, who are getting lost and emotional. One patron asked to be dropped at the Michael Fowler Centre, which was too obscure a destination for the cabbie, who dropped her at the top of Cuba Street. Another rider had to drive the taxi himself after his driver began to cry at the trauma of driving on gravel roads. No fare was deducted.

SHEPHERDING IN THE NEW YEAR 2015 is the Year of the Sheep in the Chinese zodiac (technically you can also call it the goat or ram too but we live in a country with 31 million sheep so let’s go with sheep). This astrological chart cycles through 12 different animals, all of which have different attributes. If you know someone who was born in 1943, 55, 67, 79, 91 etc then next time you bump into them, scrutinise them for the following characteristics...

Strengths: tender, polite, filial, clever, and kind-hearted. Sheep people have special sensitivity to art and beauty and a special fondness for quiet living. They commonly have symmetrical figures and features (and the other 11 signs have wonky faces?!).

Weaknesses: shy, pessimistic, moody, indecisive, over-sensitive, weak-willed and like flattery and compliments. They don’t dare to express their love openly and usually have interests in strange theories (like astrology).

SKIN DEEP Wellington Apothecary and Peoples Coffee have collaborated to create a caffeinated body scrub. It’s made with arabica beans from Guatemala, from an all-women cooperative called Cafe con Manos de Mujer: Grown by the Hands of Women.

The scrub also contains cane sugar, sweet almond oil and essential oils of vanilla, orange and cardamom. You’ll be so awake.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO Impress your love this Valentine’s Day with a few well chosen words in Maori.

KISS ME NOW! KIHIA AHAU INAIANEI!

11

NEWS SHORTS

ALL SEWN UP We’ve lived and breathed it for 15 years – the Middle Earth behemoth has finally been laid to rest but not before one last swansong. Wellington hosts The Middle of Middle-earth Costume Trail until the end of February. In the Intercontinental hotel’s sparkling new reception, Gandalf’s Hobbit costume is attracting a throng of fans. Pick up a map from the Wellington Visitor Centre and trek through the city in your prosthetic elf ears. There are 22 costumes spread across 15 venues including Te Papa, Roxy Cinema, Kirkcaldie & Stains, the Embassy Theatre, and Wellington Airport.

SUMMER HURRICANES

SNAPPED UP

CYCLE CIT Y

The Hurricanes are road tripping to Gisborne this summer for the first time since 2009.

The squad will spend almost a week on the East Coast from 24 January preparing for their pre-season game against the Crusaders in Eketahuna on 31 January.

Activities include open trainings, a BBQ, and a coaching clinic.

Wellington’s Snapper Card team are up for an international award at the Transport Ticketing and Passenger Information 2015 Awards. Snapper Services Ltd has been nominated in the Ticketing Technology of the Year category for their work in Dublin which allows travellers to top-up their local “Leap” cards using their Smartphones.

The small Wellington-based team of 20 are up against multinational companies. The winners will be announced on 27 January at the London ceremony.

Construction on the first stage of the Island Bay to City cycle route begins in February. The Kerbside cycle lanes are separated from traffic by a buffer and parking spaces. The section runs from the sea to Wakefield Park. After public consultation, changes to the original plan include side-road Stop signs, short-stay car parks, and new pedestrian crossings across the Parade.

Consultation on the second of the four stages, through Berhampore and Newtown, begins early this year.

Spend the day at

TE PAPA

ON NOW – 8 FEBRUARY 2015

MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA

12

Charges apply

S ENCETW IO S NS H HOE R A TDSE R

M A N Y HA N D S MAKE A NIGHTMARE A group of Hutt City residents formed to fight amalgamation says the Local Government Commission’s plan to amalgamate the region will be a 'nightmare' for the Hutt Valley.

Chris MacKay, co-leader of the newly created Hands off the Hutt group, said the plan would devastate the Hutt Valley.

“The result will be loss of control, and loss of investment in our own communities,” MacKay said.

A Peter Glen Research survey found the majority of all regions were against amalgamation. Lower Hutt had 80% opposition; Wellington 76%; Porirua 71%; Kapiti 61%, and Wairarapa 84%.

“Local Government Commission just doesn’t seem to be listening to what the people are saying. It’s really nuts,” Chris says.

INDIANS GATHER

CUT IT OUT

LO CAL DEMO CRACY

Indian motocycles (made in the USA) featured with the US Army in both the first and second World Wars. The Indian Owners Register here is celebrating their 30th anniversary with a display of members’ rat, road and restored motorcycles mostly from the 1920’s – 40’s on Taranaki Wharf from noon on 28 February. Also showing will be the Bert Munro replica (as used in The World’s Fastest Indian), as well as NZ’s oldest - from 1904.

Greater Wellington Regional Council has put a stop to the Akatarawa Forest firewood collection scheme. The 30 year scheme, which issued $50 firewood collection weekend permits, failed injury prevention standards for inadequate supervision and difficult conditions.

Despite 17 observed breaches of the permit conditions since 2013, no one has been injured.

The public has until 2 March to express their views on the proposed 'supercity', which combines Wellington's nine councils into Greater Wellington Council.

The council would be headed by one mayor and made up of 21 members from eight wards – Rongotai, Lambton, Ohariu, Porirua-Tawa, Kapiti Coast, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wairarapa.

20 Dec 2014–7 June 2015 FREE ENTRY

Air New Zealand 75 Years Our nation.

The world. Connected 13

Tepapa.govt.nz

BY THE NUMBERS

ISLAND MAGIC

45

minutes to walk around Matiu/ Somes island

48

years used as a quarantine station for people (1872 – 1920)

5

gun emplacements found at the summit (built for WWII but never used)

50

tuatara were introduced to the island in 1998 (the original population was wiped out in the 1890s)

SPOUT AND AB OUT

1973

year the Carter Fountain was built in Oriental Bay

16

height in metres of the fountain water spout (assuming a windless day...pfffft)

75,000

8-10

original cost in dollars donated

by Hugh Carter to build it (Carter drowned days after it was finished so the name was changed from Oriental Bay Fountain to honour him) speed in knots that the wind has to reach before sensors trigger a shutdown so houses on the shore don’t get soaked in salt spray

ILLUMINATING B O O GIE

7

days of music, workshops, electronica, healing and eco friendliness, at the Luminate Festival in Golden Bay, Nelson

0

wastage expected from festival goers (leave nothing behind... except memories – and we predict some of them will be a tad hazy)

160

music acts ranging from groove and tribal beats to gypsy and Celtic

4000

festival goers expected in January

A D OSE OF D OWSE

5

number of Wellington based artists showing in Solo an exhibition at The Dowse in Lower Hutt

9

metres in length of a work by Karl Maughan (featuring hydrangeas)

0

number of $$ it costs to visit The Dowse

18

number of exhibitions mounted each year at The Dowse

SIGNED SEALED DELIVERED

1976

year that New Zealand Day was renamed Waitangi Day and turned into an official public holiday (it was originally proposed in 1957)

175

years since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed

27

the number of pub stops that London expats aim to visit on a Waitangi Day pub-crawl (this recent development sounds slightly less subdued than what goes on back here)

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

14

SUMMER O’FUN

36

number of years the city council has been running the Summer City programme

90

events spread over four months (from festivals to beach football, parades to scavenger hunts)

200

performers/groups to see and hear

18

free concerts in the Soundshell at the Botanical Gardens throughout January

PORTLANDER BAR & GRILL. MORE THAN JUST STEAK. We make a damn good cocktail too. Visit www.portlander.co.nz

C317

By Yuzuru Yamakawa

a 12 Kaiwharawhara Rd Wellington image by fotostudio.be

t 04 499 8847 w backhousenz.com e wellington@backhousenz.com

NEW PRODUCTS

D AY I N T H E B AY Women’s Original Caterpillar, $28, Thunderpants | Indigo scarf, $59.90, Repertoire | Wolf in White Van, $44, Unity Books | Tramping a New Zealand History, $70, Minerva | Downtown straw hat, $59.99, Kirkcaldie & Stains | Tivoli Bluetooth radio, $499.00, Kirkcaldie & Stains | Castle Blanky, $120, Small Acorns | Mediterranio candle, POA, Backhouse | 1812 Pale Ale, Crafters and Regional Wines & Spirits | Facial oil, Belle Helene $69 | Stanley x4 shots, case & flask, $79, The Vault | Stilmoda nude flats, $169, I Love Paris | Lighthouse gin, $59.99, Foley Family wines.

16

NZ's largest annual FREE outdoor street concert and market.

A world of food, music & craft!

• 12 STAGES • 380 STALLS

• 80 ACTS • 80,000 PEOPLE

STREET FAIR 9.30AM - 5PM 12 STAGES OF MUSIC 10AM - 9PM

SUNDAY 8TH MARCH

Go to the website to check out other fantastic events in Newtown as part of Celebrate Newtown!

NEWTOWNFESTIVAL.ORG.NZ Celebrate Newtown!

FEB 13 - MAR 23 2015

18

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

C A S UA L B E AU T Y

EAT

PET

MUSIC

DRINK

AC T I V I T Y

Pravda

Fish

Broods

Beach Babylon mojito

Horse riding

WRITEN BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPH BY KENT YU

R

achel Millns says she’s never been big on getting dolled-up. “I’m not a dressy person. We have a lifestyle block with horses and alpacas, so I live in jeans, and sneakers or gumboots. Even at work I don’t wear much makeup.” She did admit to a high-heel obsession when pressed. “I love Kathryn Wilson shoes, and Swarovski and Boh Runga jewellery. That’s my style – I like simple things.”

Rachel will represent New Zealand in the Miss Universe competition on 25 January in Florida. The full-time beauty therapist at Absolute Bliss Karori, originally from Waikanae, was crowned Miss Universe New Zealand 2014. She says the Florida peageant will be her last. “I’ve achieved everything I wanted, and it’s a huge time commitment.”

She will compete against 90 other girls to be one of the 16 finalists for the title. “I’ll put my best foot forward, but it’s more for the experience.”

The 24-year-old says she never expected to get involved in beauty pageants; she was talked into five out of the six she’s entered. “It’s just a bit of a hobby,” she laughs. Her first pageant was Miss Nature Coast 2010, when a family friend convinced her to enter. It was a great confidence boost for Millns, who was really shy as a teenager. “It was completely out of my comfort zone: being on stage, speaking publically, performing. I’ve never been a dancer so it was a good confidence builder, learning how to present yourself.” She was voted Miss Friendship by the other girls in the competition. “It’s a great way to make friends,” although some girls can get competitive.

The Florida competition is Millns’ third overseas trip.

She has travelled to Thailand twice with Miss Universe NZ for charity work. She loves the cultural differences. “I’ll be doing a lot of observing, taking it all in. I found Thailand to be another world,” particularly the coastal city Pattaya.

“It isn’t as busy as Bangkok, and I’m a real coastal girl.”

Travelling makes her appreciate New Zealand. “I can see why people come here for holidays. We’re so lucky to be able to see stars, and have good air and food quality.”

In Wellington she can be found people watching on Cuba Street or walking along Wellington waterfront and Oriental Parade. “On a beautiful day you can’t beat it.”

Millns wants to begin a nutrition course once the Miss Universe competition is finished. She became interested in nutrition through her work, dealing with skin and bodies. Dr Libby's Seven Sugar Snippets is her latest bedtime reading. “I really like that she goes into the science behind nutrition.”

She says she is a big foodie and loves to bake, but has to cut back at the moment. She loves all food except seafood.

“We’ve got a pet fish – maybe that’s why.” Lunches and dinners find her frequenting Marsden Village Cafe in Karori, Zibibbo, Deluxe and Pravda. She doesn’t drink a lot but “Beach Babylon does a really good Mojito.”

Down-time is spent with friends, family, and animals.

“They’re really the top priority for me. Being so busy with competitions, work, and hobbies, I’ve learnt to make time.

Time is really precious.” She also likes listening to music, such as Nelson band Broods, and watching movies.

Asked about world peace, Rachel laughed goodhumouredly. “I’ve actually never been asked that before.

It’s not necessarily possible. There are so many different cultures and beliefs there are always going to be clashes.

Although I won’t be getting up on stage saying that! Greed for me is a big thing. We’re always pushing for more, chopping down trees but wasting the paper. If everyone did their bit – reusing and recycling – the world would be a better place.”

19

What is The Free Store?

OPINION

The Free Store is a thriving inner-city community that facilitates connections between the hospitality industry, those needing to eat and the many generous folk wanting to contribute meaningfully in their neighbourhood. From their purpose-built shipping container store on Willis Street, The Free Store daily redistributes perfectly edible surplus food from 30 local cafes, bakeries and restaurants to, on average, 50-75 people in need. Since opening in October, The Free Store has redistributed 8,500 items of food in 45 days, setting it well on a path to redistribute in excess of 50,000 items annually.

Shipping Container Fit-Out Project Being a humble grassroots non-profit The Free Store took an innovative approach to creating a space to call home, converting a rusty old 20-foot shipping container into a brand new purpose-built store. With the help of 25 local businesses this $100K project was completed at no cost.

First things first we needed a container.

Enter Spacewise to get the ball rolling ...

... Designgroup Stapleton Elliott developed the vision, created the plan and liaised with Wellington City Council to secure resource and building consents ...

... Jamie Boyle and his team at Practical Building Solutions committed themselves to constructing the entire project once all the materials were sourced ...

... Mitre 10 MEGA Petone came to the party in a big way, supplying benchtops and enough plywood for our joiner to create beautiful cabinetry ...

... Abodo provided FSC certified sustainably harvested wood for exterior cladding and Forman Building Systems donated top-quality Kingspan insulation to ensure stable internal temperatures ...

... Twin Lakes Industries fabricated the shrouds and BOC ensured we had all the necessary welding equipment ...

... while Metco crafted a nifty stainless steel sign and Mothlight developed an off-the-grid battery powered LED lighting solution for inside the store ...

... The windows and doors were kindly donated by Advanced uPVC Windows and were installed by Neil from Aluminium Joinery Wellington ...

... The container was sprayed in an instant set waterproofing layer courtesy of Tritoflex and was covered with paint donated by Resene ...

... Elephant Plasterboard donated the gypsum plasterboard in combination with GIB who provided all the other accessories required ...

... to top off our focus on sustainable materials, rubber flooring made from recycled car tyres and dashboards was provided by Jacobsen and installed by Tinakori Flooring...

... before the interior was perfectly finished off by Remnant Painters and Decorators. Finally, Hank from Croft Combined Carriers masterfully transported the finished container onto site.

www.graphicsolutions.co.nz

www.thefreestore.org.nz volunteer@thefreestore.org.nz

Givealittle Donation 20

OPINION

THE AIRPORT AND THE CORNER

BY TONY LINES AND JAMES WHITAKER

The airport runway extension proposal has surfies concerned about the future for Lyall Bay surfing.

21

OPINION

S

urfers are worried that the proposed extension to Wellington airport’s runway will spoil the Lyall Bay surf breaks. Nobody has yet been able to tell us exactly what the effect will be.

The local surfing experience can best be described as good on a good day, however its proximity to the city makes it a hotly contested recreational space that we would hate to see diminished. We know that Wellington Airport also hope that the extension will enhance surfing not reduce it.

The Wellington International Airport Ltd (WIAL) proposal is for the runway to be extended another three hundred metres to the south. Buoys tethered off the end of the runaway mark the extension and can be seen if you park at Moa Point and head to the beach.

The plan is for a rock and concrete sea wall perimeter around the ten hectare site which will be filled in with local material. Massive concrete accropodes - man-made unreinforced concrete objects designed to resist the action of waves on breakwaters and coastal structures - twice the size of those at the southern end (which in storms have reportedly shifted up to three kilometres offshore), will no doubt feature.

The main concern is for waves at ‘the Wall’ aka ‘the Corner’ next to the runway. Lots of surfers are active there on a good day and increasingly they are joined by stand-up paddle boarders. There is intense competition among users. Likely effects will be less at ‘the Bend’ opposite Kingsford Smith St or in front of Maranui Surf Club at the Western end.

Predicting the effect is difficult because the seafloor is dynamic, a constantly changing scene. ‘The Corner’ has about three different take-off spots dictated by sand bars that move around with storms and rips. The sand at the beach rises and falls up to three metres in height due to wave and tide action but is slowly accreting. The sand bars opposite Maranui are presently producing a better break than there has been for some time.

The planned environmental assessment report, required for the consenting process, needs to address the impact and mitigate any adverse effects by exploring new surfing options. Modelling is required to demonstrate the impact on waves and sand transportation, but experts do not always agree on the validity of modelling techniques and they will only offer a guide.

A right-hand wave into Moa Point off the new extension is a possibility. However, the water is quite deep there and rocks are scattered throughout making for no easy surf option unless they were removed.

The breakwater currently offers a fat lazy wave off its end and possibly this could be improved with a concrete structure, but there are safety issues with the site as it is difficult to access in high winds or big surf and surfers could get caught on the ocean side and pounded on to the breakwater.

The resource consent for the artificial surf reef proposed for the area opposite Kingsford Smith St lapsed in April this year. There have been no successful artificial surf reefs built globally and those that have are being either removed (Tay Street at the Mount), or placed off limits by authorities (Bournemouth, England) or were never completed (Opunake).The Gold Coast reef near Surfers remains but is primarily to prevent shore line erosion and does not rate for surf.

The Wellington Boardriders Club is concerned that WIAL is getting advice from a recreation consultant based in Nelson. They say the club does not have faith in [an outsider’s] ability to offer relevant recommendations for this project as [would be] locals who have studied how topography changes have affected waves over the past decades.

The club says that over the years ‘the Corner’ has provided thousands of Wellington surfers with beautiful memories that will last a lifetime. It is unique because it is the most reliable surf break in Wellington city and is the city’s only left-hand break (preferred by surfers who surf with their left foot at the back of their board).

Moreover, there are a very small number of places to surf on the south coast. The handful that exist are either dangerous and reserved for advanced surfers (such as the reef at Breaker Bay) or produce weak, short waves of poor quality (such as the surf in Lyall Bay west of Tirangi Road, or most of the year at Houghton Bay). ‘The Corner’ is essentially the only high quality wave that breaks on a sand bottom in Wellington. Any adverse effect on ‘the Corner’ will be a major loss to the Wellington surfing community.

The extension could potentially enhance surfing options in Wellington via the creation of a right hand break off the side of the extension.

However, at this stage concern regarding the extension’s potential to threaten the existing break at ‘the Corner’ significantly outweighs optimism regarding the potential creation of a new break and the top priority is to protect the asset Wellington surfers currently have.

Tony Lines was chairman of the group seeking the now lapsed creation of the artificial surf reef.

James Whitaker is chairman of the Wellington Boardriders Club.

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MUSIC

THE ART OF SUBTRACTION WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPH BY LOGAN ELLIOTT

Following the release of his first EP Ablutophobia in mid-2011, Sheep, Dog & Wolf aka Newtown-based musician Daniel McBride was named a “young Sufjan Stevens” by the Guardian and a “rare pearl” by Italian Vogue. Pretty good for a 17 year-old working out of a tiny studio in his bedroom.

F

rom that first bedroom studio in his parent’s basement in Auckland, McBride moved to Wellington to study composition at the New Zealand School of Music. While only formally trained in saxophone (and briefly clarinet), he’s self-taught on guitar, drums, piano and bass, dabbles in euphonium and cello and has most recently picked up the French horn and the flute. For the lushly layered, jazz and electronica-flecked, off-kilter folk-pop of Sheep, Dog & Wolf recordings, McBride plays all instrumentation himself.

“I like to have a player's understanding of any instrument that I'm using on a piece, it gives a much more in-depth understanding of how it will fit into an arrangement,” he explains. “It also helps that I can think of a part, any part, at 11pm on a Sunday and record it immediately - you don't get that kind of flexibility with session musicians.”

Going it alone also makes the musician fully accountable for how the music is received - tough for a ‘worrier’ like McBride.

“It's always a great feeling to get such a positive response to your work, especially when the work was created in such isolation. [But the] relief… is always accompanied by, ‘Oh no, now they expect the next release to be just as good!’ which can be terrifying,” he says.

He needn’t have worried. In 2013, McBride’s debut full-length album Egospect, (also recorded alone in his bedroom studio), was released on Lil’ Chief Records and McBride was promptly awarded the New Zealand Music Awards Critics’ Choice Prize and named as one of eight finalists for the 2014 Taite Music Prize for best New Zealand album (which was won by Lorde).

Whatever McBride was doing was working, and he was offered a European tour as Sheep, Dog & Wolf. Before he could do that, though, McBride had to figure out how to play 24

his very ambitious bedroom compositions in a live setting.

“While composing I had a little voice [in the back of my mind] telling me some of these pieces might be impossible to fully realise live… I knew I would have to bite the bullet eventually, but I decided to ignore that fact for the sake of creative freedom in the moment,” he says.

Although there were enough instruments to fill the hands of an eight-piece band, times were tight and McBride could only afford to bring one more person onboard − old high school friend and drummer Eddie Crawshaw.

“I wanted to make the performance more or less a reproduction of the album, but I quickly realised not only was that impossible… it was stupid. A live performance should be something of its own.”

The European tour saw Sheep, Dog & Wolf play 21 shows in 23 days, from big festival crowds to small towns where a dozen people came to watch. The band returned home and played homegrown festivals Camp A Low Hum (now defunct) and Chronophonium, before McBride put a stop to shows in order to focus on organising and rehearsing a five-piece set-up and working on a second album one he asserts is a “new direction” for Sheep, Dog & Wolf, while remaining familiar to fans of his work. “[I’m exploring] subtraction, trying out more minimalist arrangements. I think before I was so insecure about whether or not my songwriting was any good that I would try to mask my worries in dense instrumental arrangements. Occasionally that yielded results that I'm still really happy with but this time around I'm actively trying to suppress that urge… The insecurities are still there, but I'm doing my best to ignore them, to be a more honest and… let the bones of the composition be seen.”

See Sheep, Dog & Wolf play the Wilson Street stage at Newtown Festival, Sunday March 8.

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SECTION HEADER F E AT U R E

RAMBLE ON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVANGELINE DAVIS WRITTEN BY BETH ROSE

Standing beneath the giant Brooklyn wind turbine, peering eastward on an impossibly still and cloudless Wellington evening, I’m catching my breath, recovering from the thigh-burn inducing schlep to the top to take in the view from up here on the city’s ceiling.

F E AT U R E

G

reen hills and patches of bush divide and embrace the suburbs right down to the scoop of the harbour.

Spread across this vista is a web of walking tracks that beckon as the summer season rolls in.

To attempt every listed walk in Wellington would be ambitious, end-to-end the distance is over 340kms. An equivalent journey could easily take me from Wellington to Napier.

I consider myself a seasoned rambler but by no means do I have the stamina of many Wellingtonians whose enthusiasm knows no bounds and to whom residents and visitors owe gratitude, as many of the fine walks on offer were campaigned for − and thereafter maintained − by local tramping aficionados and volunteers.

According to Amber Bill, Open Spaces and Parks Manager at Wellington City Council, volunteering on walking routes has become increasingly popular. “There are over 100 community groups in Wellington that commit over 20,000 hours of volunteering time to the upkeep of reserves and access routes, including track maintenance, weeding and planting,” she says. “In 2004 we only had 10 community groups”.

My own sporadic meandering experience isn’t without a sense of authenticity, however, as each year I still disappear for a few months in my house-bus, getting to know New Zealand on an interrupted journey that has taken me practically the length and breadth of the country − stopping for walks as I go.

And, my choice to live in Wellington for the most part of the year is no accident, a decision that was based on a Goldilocks-style process of elimination that puts ‘being able to get out and walk’ high on the day-to-day lifestyle agenda.

With a nationwide tapestry of day walks under my belt it’s not lightly that I say Wellington is truly blessed with its accessible parks and reserves, native bush, Botanic Gardens and a wonderfully long, snaking coastline.

Directly below me here at the turbine lies the Polhill Reserve, one of the most well-used reserves in Wellington.

A loop-walk to Polhill starts on Aro St on the edge of the

city and encompasses the ‘Transient’ track up towards the wind turbine, along the ‘Highbury Fling’ and the Zealandia/ Karori sanctuary fence-line, down to George Denton Park.

Steven Peters, Head Ranger at Wellington City Council, is trying to keep track of visitor numbers, which is proving tricky. “At the main entrance to Polhill Reserve is a visitor counter using an infrared beam. We have clocked over 7,000 visitors per month, although it’s hard to know how accurate this is. With so many linking tracks and exit and entrance points, we can’t really tell where people are coming and going from. This is also part of the beauty of our walkways, particularly the longer Explore Wellington routes, where you can decide which section of the walks to do and whether to mix it up with other crisscrossing paths.”

Steven puts the popularity of Polhill down to its accessibility: “We get loads of runners up here during the week as office workers can fit in a loop of the reserve – even up to the wind turbine and back - on their lunch hour.”

An urban/rural partnership such as this can also produce some surprising wildlife results. My first experience of getting out and about in New Zealand was three weeks volunteering on Hauturu (Little Barrier Island). Having had this Jurassic Park-style immersion into a bygone era of New Zealand, I could have been spoilt from the get-go, but it wasn’t until I got to the capital that I saw a hihi (stitchbird) whilst walking in Zealandia eco-sanctuary.

It’s not uncommon now to see kaka flying high above the heads of bureaucrats sitting on the steps of parliament eating their sandwiches, but the continued overspill of birdlife from Zealandia was marked quite spectacularly this year when saddlebacks were spotted nesting in Polhill Reserve, outside the pest-free boundaries of the sanctuary.

Wellington’s patchwork of linking green spaces is clearly benefiting the extended range of New Zealand wildlife, and likewise the enjoyment of walkers, over ridgelines and reserves.

Possibly the keenest of all is Rosamund Averton.

Known to the council’s park rangers as ‘the lone ranger’

Top: Makara peak Bottom: Thorndon walkway, up to the lookout

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F E AT U R E

Rosamund is in her late sixties and has nearly three decades of experience walking in Wellington. She is avid and famous for it among her peers. Not even a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis could keep her hiking boots off.

“I’m now on two sticks”, says Rosamund about her determination to keep walking, and she attributes her continued mobility to regular bush walks. “I’ve been a walker all my life, but I don’t like concrete or gravel. Bush walks and uneven terrain are best.”

“I volunteer as I go. I’m one of the ‘good elves’: citizens who walk a lot, clear steps as we go and call the council to report damage or obstructions”. Her assistance is appreciated by the city council and her view is often called upon in decisions about walking routes.

When Rosamund asks me which walks I’ve done in Wellington I’m nervous about my answer as she’s been reeling off a list of favourites, many of which I’m yet to encounter. I plump for Otari-Wilton’s Bush and it turns out I’ve struck gold, as it is also one of Rosamund’s favourites.

My experience of walking the tracks at Otari-Wilton’s Bush, though, is somewhat different fromRosamund’s ‘lone ranger’ style, as most of mine was done at a half walk, half run pace with Lizzy the giant Labradoodle, pulling me on with boundless enthusiasm. Rosamund is eagerly pushing me for details of my route but much like Steven’s account of how walkers in Wellington approach footpaths, it was a left or right turn depending on how I felt that day.

I always finished with a final push up from Karori Cemetery to the top of Johnston Hill though, where Lizzy and I would stand to cool, noses into the wind and ears

pinned back looking over Karori, the city and out to sea.

A good view is the ultimate prize at the end of a bloodpumping walk.

While the Wellington climate can’t dampen the spirits of Rosamund Averton who “ducks into the bush” on rainy days, I’m generally more of a fair-weather rambler.

Another favourite pastime of mine is very noncompetitive running. My aversion to hills while running tends to find me on a there-and-back-again at various coastal starting points between the city and the fur seal colony at Red Rocks.

Once, a poorly timed run from Lyall Bay round Moa Point all the way past Seatoun to Evans Bay found me battling a head wind the entire distance and receiving odd side glances from cyclists. It happens I was running into the tail end of the September 2013 storm that had wreaked havoc in Canterbury twenty-four hours earlier.

Note to self: check the weather forecast.

Wellington City Council’s assistance to those looking to explore Wellington on foot has modernised from maps to apps. The techno-savvy can now download the Welly Walks app to assist discovery of the city and its surrounds. The City to Sea walkway is on my list, a seven hour excursion that begins in the tranquil Botanic Gardens and ends with a cooling dip in the sea at Island Bay. Being able to use your feet to get around a city and its suburbs gives a sense of empowerment and self-reliance.

You’re not obeying anyone else’s schedule and how fast or slow you go, which short cut or long cut you take through a backstreet, park or past a favourite coffee shop, will determine your arrival time and add to the experience of getting there.

Top: Otari Bush, Wilton Bottom: City to Sea walk, Mt Cook

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SECTION HEADER

SINCE 1928 WELLINGTON AIRPORT’S RUNWAY LENGTH HAS MEANT THE MOST MODERN AIRCRAFT OF THE DAY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO USE IT... THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE. From the 1928 first crossing of the Tasman by Charles Kingsford-Smith (he could only circle Wellington and had to fly on to Christchurch to land) Wellington’s runway has caused the Airport to lag in its ability to accommodate the modern aircraft of the day. Today aircraft flying from Wellington can reach east coast Australia and Fiji. Aircraft flying from Auckland can make Beijing or Dallas.

Auckland Airport Auckland Airport Aircraft HistoryAircraft History

1910

19101920

19201930

19301940 1946 When Auckland and Christchurch had moved on to DC3, Wellington relied on Lockheed Lodestars (one of which still managed to over shoot the runway and end up on the golf course)

Wellington Airport Wellington Airport Aircraft HistoryAircraft History

1911 Arthur Schaef trialled his homemade Vogel monoplane on Lyall Bay beach, Wellington was briefly at the cutting edge of aviation technology

1911 Arthur Schaef trialled his homemade Vogel monoplane on Lyall Bay beach, Wellington was briefly at the cutting edge of aviation technology

1928 Charles Kingsford-Smith first crossed the Tasman in a Fokker F.VII. He could circle over Wellington but was then obliged to fly on to Christchurch to land

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1928 Charles Kingsford-Smith first crossed the Tasman in a Fokker F.VII. He could circle over Wellington but was then obliged to fly on to Christchurch to land

19401950

19501960

1946 When Auckland and Christchurch had moved on to DC3, Wellington relied on Lockheed Lodestars (one of which still managed to over shoot the runway and end up on the golf course)

1950 On the Tasman, Auckland and Christchurch had DC4s while Wellington had flying boats

1950 On the Tasman, Auckland and Christchurch had DC4s while Wellington had flying boats

1970

19701980 1972 DC8 jets arrived in Wellington and DC10 wide bodied jets arrived in Auckland and Christchurch

19801990

19902000

1972 DC8 jets arrived in Wellington and DC10 wide bodied jets arrived in Auckland and Christchurch

20002010

20102020 2014 Wellington has A320 links with Australia and Auckland has B787 links with China

2020

2014 Wellington has A320 links with Australia and Auckland has B787 links with China

1965 Auckland and Christchurch moved on to the DC8 jet.

Wellington had Electra props (with reduced loads)

1981 Special Performance 747 fly the Tasman from Wellington

1981 Special Performance 747 fly the Tasman from Wellington

www.connectwellington.co.nz 33

F E AT U R E

GINGERELLAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVANGELINE DAVIS WRITTEN BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT

Four frocks with auburn locks came to the office to drink ginger beer (and ale). Rated on ginger and spice and everything nice, here are their top eight.

A special mention goes to Gingerella ginger ale, whose name provides an affectionate alternative to ‘ginga’ for our fabulous four.

BIOS Kaitlyn Smith studies postgraduate linguistics and loves Wellington for its personality, and red hair for its Scottish roots.

Grace van Dyk, a PA, lives in Brooklyn. She grew a thick skin against name calling when she was a child; now that she’s older people admire her flaming locks.

Rosie Bristed works at Sounds Air where the orange logo matches her hair. Her first experience of ginger beer is undocumented, although she remembers being gifted some 'live' ginger beer to look after, “which promptly died.”

Maddi Brown is a food technology graduate from Massey University, where she could never skip a lecture unnoticed which she blames entirely on her hair.

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HARDIEBOYS MEDIUM GINGER BEER

B O OTLEGGERS DRY GINGER ALE

SPRIG & FERN GINGER BEER

MAC’S GINGER BEER

One woman team Rebecca Hardie Boys brews Hardieboys Ginger Beer on the outskirts of Wainuiomata. Even with ginger bits floating disconcertingly in it like a specimen jar, Hardieboys medium Ginger Beer still scored first-equal as judged by our gingerellas. It rated highly for being sweet and flavoursome, with high spice and ginger factor.

Bootleggers Handcrafted Sodas are Wellington’s local bandits on the Kapiti Coast, smuggling locally-sourced ingredients into their bottles. Scoring firstequal according to our ginger consultants, flavour and spice are Bootleggers’ most notable attributes, with a good ginger factor. One noted it “tastes like Christmas,” although a sneaking suspicion says she’s still reeling from Christmas cake.

With independently owned Sprig & Fern taverns in Tinakori Road and Jackson Street, Petone, the Nelson-based brew needed sampling. Sweetness was its defining characteristic, so our ginger bingers suggested mixing it with something else. Hopefully no one’s bitter about it.

Mac’s Ginger Beer tastes like popcorn, apparently. The brew bar produces a sweet, gingery, and spicy ginger beer, which scored high flavour points amongst the gingerellas. The spice is softer than other beers, and leaves the tongue lightly tingling, but we won’t mac on about it.

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F E AT U R E

FRANK DAMN TAST Y GINGER BEER Owned by Frucor, originally a small New Zealand juice business, Frank Damn Tasty Ginger Beer is another sweet one. It’s high in fizz factor, leaves a lingering spice in the mouth and frankly, it’s really quite peppery.

B OUNDARY ROAD GRIZZLY BEER Boundary Road Grizzly Beer is a combination of ginger and beer so unsurprisingly it scored high on beer factor. The hotheads also found it to be fizzy and spicy. At 4.5% alcohol, it is “very beer-y and not so ginger beer-y,” but you could probably get away with drinking it in the morning and nobody would be any the wiser. We did, anyway.

GINGERELLA GINGER ALE This light ale is made with organic Sri Lankan ginger and vanilla, and Indian sugar.

High in fizz, flavour and ginger factor, she’s fiery, just like our redheads. So watch out.

37

PHOENIX ORGANIC GINGER BEER A complex ginger beer, Phoenix starts off sweet and feather soft and ends with a savoury aftertaste. Good matched with left-over Christmas ham or at a summer’s day barbeque. Enjoyed particularly by the young gingerella; more experienced drinkers might find it too bland.

W HAT T H E F L O C K

LI T TLE BLUE PENGUIN Name: Little blue penguin. Māori name: Kororā. Also known as little penguin or fairy penguin Status: Native. Population stable or increasing in areas where predator controls are in place but declining elsewhere. New Zealand’s most common penguin.

Habitat: Widely distributed around the coastlines of North, South, Stewart, Chatham and offshore islands.

Look for them: At 35-43cm tall, kororā are the world’s smallest penguin. They are largely nocturnal on land, coming to shore at dusk and returning to sea again before sunrise during the breeding season. January/February is annual moult time for little penguins, and the moulting process makes them especially vulnerable to predators. In what’s called a ‘catastrophic moult’, the birds gorge on food until they are 1 1/2 to 2 times their regular size, then hole up somewhere safe until all of their old feathers have been replaced by a new, freshly-waterproofed layer.

Karin Wiley from Places for Penguins, a Forest & Bird Wellington branch project, explains: “Each feather overlaps the feathers beside, above and below like tiles on a roof. Penguins are reliant on a 100% waterproof coat of feathers to be able to spend 75% of their life in the sea… [otherwise] they would die of hypothermia.”

To spot a little blue penguin you will need patience or luck - we hear they’re often spotted from the deck of the East by West ferry from Queens Wharf to Matiu Somes Island and Days Bay on a calm day.

Call: Penguins can be noisy when at their nesting site - letting out loud brays, the odd squeal and deep growls.

Feeds on: Kororā forage for small shoaling fish, squid and crustaceans up to 25km offshore, pursuit diving (i.e. diving while in the water) at depths of 50m or less.Their scientific name “Eudyptula” means “good little diver”, which is pretty spot-on.

Did you know? The dark blue back and white underbelly of the little blue penguin provides camouflage through ‘countershading’. Imagine a sphere in a single colour, lit from above. The upper side would appear lighter, grading down to the darker underside - making the sphere look more solid and therefore acting as a visual clue for detection. Countershading colouration balances these effects by lightening the area usually in shadow and darkening the area usually illuminated to reduce shadows and contours.

If it were human it would be: We’re thinking Wellington beatmaking musician Estère would make a great little blue penguin. It’s no stretch to imagine her as a fairy, her plumage is particularly striking and, with the help of her MPC Lola, she makes all sorts of strange noises in her bedroom (aka ‘nesting site’).

38

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CULTURE

RAISING THE PROFILE The Dowse Art Museum is completing a Wikipedia research project that increases the profile of New Zealand craft artists and history.

Mackenzie Paton, a former Dowse intern, and Bridget Reweti, the 2014 Blumhardt Curatorial intern, are researching and writing entries for a list of 100 New Zealand artists until the end of January. New Zealand silversmith and sculptor Tanya Ashken was the first entry. The complete list is still being finalised. “We’ve all got different opinions as to who should be in there,” Mackenzie says.

The Dowse will hold an open day to get the public involved with the research project once the 100 entries are complete. “It’s an open project that other organisations can add to, and could continue indefinitely,” says the Dowse’s Katrina Smit Ngā Taonga a Hine-te-iwa-iwa A Treasury of New Zealand Craft Resources are providing financial support for the project.

SONG BIRDS

A PREGNANT ISSUE

TAKE FLIGHT

The fifth edition of Singing at Silverstream takes place 23- 26 January at Lower Hutt’s Reynolds Bach Drive.

The weekend-long music festival brings people together who like to sing, whether they can sing or not.

Wellington’s Carol Shortis and Julian Rafael lead the singing, with guest song leader Brendan Taaffe.

Seed opens the Circa Theatre circuit this year. The play, written by Elisabeth Easther, won the 2014 Adam New Zealand Play Award, which celebrates new writing for the theatre. Directed by VUW theatre lecturer Kerryn Palmer, it follows four women through “the dilemmas of modern reproduction”: trying to get pregnant, trying to stay pregnant, or trying to become un-pregnant.

The Aston Rd Sessions are on board all Air New Zealand International flights until the end of February.

Local artists Estere (above), Louis Baker, and Thomas Oliver recorded the songs at Newtown’s Blue Barn Studios in May. The songs have been made into a 35 minute compilation for the flights.

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CULTURE

VA J A Z Z L I N G F O R VA L E N T I N E ’ S DAY Actress, writer and director Nathalie Boltt releases a new and naughty short film this Valentine’s Day. Vajazzle is a short film about one woman’s revenge on her boyfriend, who doesn’t appreciate the effort she’s gone to to decorate her nether regions. “Vajazzle on V-day has a nice ring to it. It’s a naughty way to remind couples to spoil their partners – or they might regret it!” Boltt jokes.

Fittingly backed by Wellington’s Strip Wax Boutique, and shot in Houghton Bay, Karaka Bay and Seatoun homes, and the Terrace tunnel, it’s “the kind of film where you see something played out that you wish you had the balls to do,” Nathalie laughs.

“I love the idea of pairing the film with the release of 50 Shades of Grey!”

Naturally.

The idea comes from when Boltt was a child and wondered why her mum would pain herself to wax her bikini line. “We would make little animals out of the still-warm wax my mum had just used to de-fluff. I loved how the animals I fashioned were already complete with fur!”

Boltt is South African and has lived in Wellington since 2006. “I'm from Johannesburg – the murder capital of the world. I've been in Wellington for eight years; really enjoying not being murdered.”

OLDER AND WISER

LO CAL LANDMARKS

SCOT TISH HOMECOMING

Jane Keller embraces the power of getting older in her latest production, Yep still got it!

The classically trained and Broadway singer is accompanied by pianist Michael Nicholas Williams and directed by Alan Palmer as she shares stories of abject embarrassment, wonders what happened to the days when face time was over a G&T, and laments the loss of sentences that are punctuated with full stops rather than smiley faces.

28 Feb – 21 March, Circa Theatre

Paekakariki streets and train station got some international exposure last month in a music video by musician Stefan Wolf.

The video, for On your Side, a song from his latest album Brandnew Life, won an award at the Australian Independent Music Video Awards.

The video, featuring locals Indy and Nicky Giles, was filmed in Paekakariki by the One Shot Wonder video collective with indoor set design by local Jaimee Viner, making the production an all-Paekakariki affair.

Musician Fraser Ross Mackenzie returns to Wellington over summer to play a series of shows. He’s lived in Scotland, his ancestral home, for the past three years, where his favourite memory is coaxing Bill Murray on stage to perform with him at a St Andrews pub.

He played and travelled in the UK with Wellington folk duo, French for Rabbits.

21 January, 7.30pm, The Soundshell, Wellington Botanic Garden; 5 February, 8pm, Meow

41

GOING UNDERGROUND WRITTEN BY SHARON GREALLY

Burrowing runs in local artist Bruce Mahalski’s family. It’s how his father wooed his mother. On their first date, Bruce’s father, back home from the army in Malaysia, and who was apparently ‘obsessed’ by burrowing badgers, took his mother badger watching, up on Box Hill, in London.

Now its Mahalski’s turn to go tunnelling underground. He is taking part in a UK Arts Council initiative to radically change the way folk in the English towns of Sunderland and South Tyneside experience, and make art. It’s a three year project, hoping to make a real difference in these communities of 100,000, focusing on opportunities for people to participate in, experience and create art and culture.

Mahalski came to be part of this project through talking with another likeminded UK artist, Garry Hunter, a scientist, award winning visual and photographic artist and author of books on street art.

Bruce describes himself as a “jobbing artist,” his bone art work has been exhibited in galleries, and featured in art and music magazines, in particular his collaboration with local bespoke guitar maker Dave Gilberd of Goldbeard guitars.

He is also known as an illustrator and mural street artist, specialising in native flora and fauna in conservation-themed work, and as a tutor at Inverlochy Art School for the past ten years.

Anyway, back to burrowing. And yes, Mahalski has also been known to dabble in underground politics. But that’s another story.

Hunter invitated him to collaborate in a mural work. With the theme of ‘Tunnels’, and other well known participating street artists Mahalski’s interest was piqued, and he decided to go despite his concerns about the cold. “I’m a bit worried about it being winter.”

He will spend three weeks on site, and time in London where he will be exhibiting his bone art.

The site is an old underpass in Sunderland. With a centuries old mining history, and the last colliery closing in 1993, the initial thoughts were to create a mural focusing on the anecdotal underground world of miners. However, Bruce has other ideas, and with his interest in burrowing, underground politics, and his animal conservationist art works, there are bound to be a few badgers in there.

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Re-open for 2015 from 3rd January.

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OUT OF THE WO ODWOR K WRITTEN BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPHED BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

Duncan Sargent’s furniture for the exhibition Modern Revivals are family-home experiments. “The Man on the Moon is a development of my kitchen table. It was first made for our kitchen from left over pieces, and it has since gone through a slow refinement process to end up in the show.” What he means is a leg – or something similar – broke, so he made a new and improved version, he laughs. “There were several iterations.”

The chest of drawers was made for Coco, one of his daughters, as a meditation on the furniture world’s low opinion of pine as furniture material. “It’s got a bad rep as a very soft wood. It’s not thought furniture standard. Most of our houses are made of it!” he says. “Builders hate it because it’s never flat. And people think it’s ugly, which is totally subjective.”

Sargent innovates by using an old technique to inlay the pine

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with Southland beech, giving strength and a reddish tinge.

“I think horses for courses!”

Sargent works from his Newtown studio. He’s just been commissioned for an installation for the Waiwhetu Stream Sculpture Walk, which ran through his grandmother’s backyard on Wyndrum Avenue. He exhibited the sculpture ‘Untie this’ at Shapeshifter this year, and has created ‘Untie this 2’ for the Waiwhetu stream walk, which, at more than two metres in diameter, is twice the size of the original sculpture.

A true local, Sargent grew up in the Hutt, where his family lived at what is now the New World. “Mum still lives in Pretoria Street Lower Hutt!”

Modern Revivals, the Dowse.

Henry Caird, Nina McKenna

Create Your Future Massey University Wellington College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwharangi creative.massey.ac.nz Fashion and Textile Design, Industrial and Spatial Design, Visual Communication, Fine Arts and Photography, Maori Visual Arts, Creative Media Production and in 2016, Commercial Music.

Late applications accepted subject to spaces being available: contact creative@massey.ac.nz Lizzie Langridge

Jack Nesbit

MUSIC

ONE OF THE WORLD’S FINEST BANDS PHOTOGRAPH BY NEVADA NAVAEE

The five piano concerti of Ludwig van Beethoven are among the man-made wonders of the world. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will be opening its 2015 season with all five, and for Wellington audiences acclaimed British pianist Freddy Kempf will play - and conduct - Concerti 1-3 on February 28, and 4 and 5 on March 14. In between, other centres will be favoured with Concerti 3 and 5 and the Egmont Overture. Fan, Lindsay Perigo spoke to Freddy Kempf ahead of the tour, in an exclusive for Capital magazine.

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For Wellington concert-goers, to have all five Beethoven concerti served up over two nights means … well, something akin to rapture! What does it mean for you as conductor/soloist?

think directing from the piano only works for piano concerti up to Beethoven – the Beethoven themselves being very much borderline. There are a few exceptions – such as the Chopin concerti or Rhapsody in Blue. And it is also really not at all easy to do – I’d imagine plenty of players, given the chance to direct, would happily go back to ‘just’ playing.

It is a massive privilege. The NZSO has really become one of the world’s finest bands: so, to sculpt the soundscape and performances, and to be given the chance to perform all over such a beautiful country is a dream! However it is still going to be extremely challenging – to be able to quickly get the players to understand and accept my personal way of doing these works and to actually cope both physically and most of all mentally to make it through the concerts. I still remember one time during a concert of the 1st three piano concerti having to turn to the leader and ask her whether I started (playing) or whether she did!

What’s the trick to holding it all together when your arms and hands, which in the case of a dedicated conductor would be guiding the orchestra, are indispensably engaged elsewhere?!

A top level orchestra can pretty much play by itself, without conductor. In fact a more advanced conducting skill is allowing an orchestra to have its own freedom – you wouldn’t want the famous clarinet solo at the beginning of Rhapsody in Blue sounding like it was in a hurry just for the sake of keeping the brass harmonies together(!). The leader and all the section leaders and anyone else playing a solo have far more responsibility now that the conductor’s not there, so we do really have to all listen far more carefully – which is a really good thing.

And how we set the stage also becomes vitally important now – so those of you who remember to look might notice that all the woodwind soloists and as many other section leaders have been positioned so that they can see right down the piano keyboard just above the top of their music stand - they are ALWAYS able to see my hands. This is no accident and I usually take part in the set-up and actually do sit in every single chair on stage.

Is there a conspicuous point of departure between your way and what we may be used to?

I try to show very clearly the influence of Mozart and Haydn on the first two concerti – how different those two influences are; I heavily feature the timpanist in the 3rd concerto, maybe paying too much attention to its original title “Concerto for Piano and Kettle drum”; the 4th I try to romanticise, and the Emperor I never forget that it is Beethoven and like to emphasise the possibly military sound of some sections.

Is there an advantage to dispensing with a dedicated conductor? Should conductors be worried?

I think that playing this way gives much more freedom for everyone without any compromise whatsoever. Many people don’t really know what the conductor does – 90% of the conductor’s job is the rehearsal – this means coaching and motivating (and allowing) highly trained, highly experienced experts to achieve the best musical result possible in a fairly short space of time.

Orchestras can get a symphony ready by themselves but would normally need far more time for this than there usually is.

The main advantage for me is that I’m able to really create my own vision of the music. It also allows [me to] take more risks and liberties, as I don’t have to be sure that the conductor understands what I’m thinking and is conveying that to the other players.

And no, this does not mean the end of the conductor! I

I suppose the public’s favourite is always going to be #5, the Emperor. Is it yours?

For a long time the Emperor was my unequivocal favourite – mostly because of its breath-taking 2nd movement. However, recently I really started to adore the 3rd concerto – and especially without conductor. Beethoven wrote it for himself and am sure he’d have performed it conducting it from the keyboard – he frees up one of the hands whenever other players need to be cued in – and the slow movement really feels like he would have improvised it and made it up each time he played it.

What do you make of the least-played Concerto #2, written when Beethoven was a mere teenager (and before #1)?

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MUSIC

I love No. 2 – and have really warmed to it now after having play-directed it. I think it’s not often played because of how tricky it is to put together – it needs a very stable pianist and the 2nd movement is particularly difficult to get sounding really good. No. 2 is very much influenced by Haydn and the Baroque era. Beethoven idolised Mozart and came to Vienna hoping to study with Mozart but only ever met him fleetingly and ended up studying with Haydn. I feel that Concerto No. 1 is Beethoven trying to grasp the new sound that Mozart had created, whereas No. 2 is the sound he’d studied and been handed down from Haydn.

Your namesake with the extra ‘f ’ [Wilhelm Kempff] liked to make up his own cadenzas in these concerti, as did many other illustrious performers. Whose will you be playing?

I shall be playing Beethoven’s own. This is not to say I’ll stop myself from throwing in the odd personalised bit. I love to improvise and can often not resist doing a little here and there, as I feel Beethoven would have done so himself.

Aside from the obvious superiority of Wellington audiences to those elsewhere in the country, is there any reason only the capital will be favoured with all five concerti?

This was just down to logistics and the casualties were the full cycles outside the capital.

You have been called “a charismatic force of nature at the piano who finds the emotion in every note,” and audiences swoon and lady cellists faint when you’re in full flight. To “find the emotion in every note,” though, requires formidable intelligence and discipline. What would you estimate to be the division of labour between intellect and emotion in great music-making?

This is a highly personal thing that varies from artist to artist. Some heavily prioritise intellectual judgement, working out the emotional structure of a work, others just play, but pour their entire heart and soul into every note. I tend to err on the side of spontaneity (I think).

I’ve sometimes heard a recording of a performance which I thought went outstandingly well only to then hear it sounding unconvincing and broken up. Other times I’ve felt tired in the performance only to hear a very moving recording of it

You’ve also been called ‘Fearless Freddy’ (that might have been one of mine). Are you? Are there ever moments of trepidation, terror even, as you’re about to unleash?

I think any professional can feel nerves at times – but we ARE professionals and we know how to prepare and how to compensate. Youngsters often ask me if I ever get nervous and the answer is yes, I do, but I know exactly what my body does and can easily compensate.

I recall meeting up with you once just after you’d completed a 50-minute jog around Oriental Parade and beyond, an experience you pronounced ‘bloody windy.’ Is jogging still one of the ways you unwind?

What are some others?

It was bloody windy – I almost took off after I passed the lighthouse and approached the airport I love sport, so jog religiously and do strength work too; I think a ambition of mine is to do the Ironman one day. I love so many things – I love life! I love my kids and adore and worship my wife. I cook with a passion. Sometimes I feel I unwind at the piano – as in unwinding from my three young kids..

I also like low-brow TV. Right now I think I unwind the most with Bruckner symphonies.

Low-brow TV? I seem to have a soft spot for these dreadful shows where random people cook dinners for other random people and then stab each other in the back by saying how awful the food was on camera.

What does that career hold for you in future? What would you like it to hold for you in future?

I do know what I have coming up, but most of all I’m amazed at the variety of things I have. I never, ever imagined I’d ever conduct, it was something I never really had any craving for, and yet I seem to be doing more and more of it. I just had a wonderful experience with www.ninepianos.com – working with kids playing some great music. It also involved recording a concert-grand piano onto a sequencer and creating effects that are not physically possible. I’m also doing more master-classes: another thing I never thought I’d really do. I just would like to keep performing, and hope to only do stuff I’m really, really good at.

TELL US YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS Composition: Bruckner Symphony no. 7 Composer: Beethoven Performer (classical): Bernstein Actor: Oleg Menshikov Sportsman/woman: Fedor Emelianenko Food: Salmon Wine: South Australian Shiraz (sorry!)

Car: Audi A7 TDi Quattro 48

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Tim Veling Sapporo White (detail) 2012

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FASH ION

FASH’N’ FRUITY Tasty accessories for summer.

ART DIRECTION: SHALEE FITZSIMMONS PHOTOGRAPHY: ASHLEY CHURCH ASSISTED BY: ROSIE BRISTED

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Arlington Milne zip coin purse, $99.00, World Kowtow How We See scarf, $75.00, Let Liv Pop Rocks rings, $150- $310, Service Depot

Sass and Bide Fast Times bra, $50.00, Superette

Bowtie, $99.00, World OPOP sunglasses, $529.00, Geraldine Booth Optical Beige sculpture watch, $159.00, Mandatory

Zera Xane Cage bangle, $399.00, World Sass and Bide Any Given Time bra, $200.00, Superette

Stripe silk scarf, $28.99, Trade Aid Arlington Milne zip coin purse, $99.00, World

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STREET STYLE

MADDIE Eastbourne

ANON Upper Hutt

Fave store: Emporium Fave accessory: My belly button piercing Fail safe outfit: A cute dress & cute shoes Missing from your closet: Some more cute shoes!

Wellington fashion needs more: More clothing range for younger people

Fave store: Wild Pair Fave accessory: Lipstick and my bracelets Fail safe outfit: High waisted jeans with a cute sheer crop and a bracelets Missing from your closet: Colour Wellington fashion needs more: Courageous outfits

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EDIBLES

LA BOOKA LOCA Mexican restaurant La Boca Loca has released a cookbook. Lucas Putnam and Marianne Elliott self-funded the photography, design, layout and editing of the book and raised the money for the first batch of books through a PledgeMe campaign, printing it locally and sustainably.

Martin Bosley has endorsed the book saying La Boca Loca “made me rethink what Mexican food was all about.”

Local food photographer Nicola Edmonds also worked on the book, which will be launched officially in February. Putnam and Elliott will also run cooking classes to celebrate the launch.

A BEAKER OF HOPE

SMOKIN’

FERTILE GROUND

Lighthouse gin originated in the Wairarapa and the new owners say it still retains its local flavour.

With a name inspired by Cape Palliser lighthouse, it’s still made at the southernmost tip of the North Island, blending native botanicals, such as leaves of the peppery Kawakawa, with mountain spring water with orange zest and yen ben lemons.

Have you ever wondered where you can get manuka smoke concentrate? Us too.

Now you can, from the Riverbank Market in Lower Hutt on a Saturday. Kane Russo of The New Zealand Manuka Egg Company smokes eggs for his bacon and egg butties in a compression chamber, resulting in manuka smoke condensation, which he then bottles and uses to flavour other dishes.

If one of your New Year resolutions is to reduce waste in 2015 then the WCC can help you. Second Treasures – the recycling shop at the Southern Landfill is hosting two workshops on how to make your own compost/ worm-farm bins. You can take home your creation at the end of the workshop and the organisers can help with delivery.

Jan 31, Feb 28, 9.00am.

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EDIBLES

FOOD FUND The Garden to Table Trust is teaching food literacy to children in four Wellington schools thanks to a $12,000 grant from Our Living City Fund.

The Trust teaches children to make healthy food choices, and how to garden and cook by having a dedicated garden and cooking space at their school.

Our Living City Fund, a WCC initiative, is designed to improve Wellingtonians’ quality of life.

Eight grants, totalling $22,770, were approved.

The next round of funding for Our Living City Fund is 24 March 2015.

TOP OF THE HOPS

PACKED WITH FLAVOUR

Most of Wellington’s beer brewers get their hops from Motueka, so it’s good news that they’re on top of their hops. Plant & Food Research recently opened a new Hop Lab research brewery, enabling the hops breeding team to create experimental trial brews from promising new hop cultivars.

The new pilot brewing plant is described by Plant & Food Research director, Dr Ron Beatson as the missing link in the teams’ research.

Local brother and sister duo Brent Wong and Tania Siladi, founders of Wellington’s Dragonfly, have launched into the pre-packaged fresh food industry.

“People were always approaching us about how they can make the food themselves. So we thought, why not bring these flavours straight into households?”

Products from Asian Food Republic include mango, white chocolate and coconut sticky rice dessert in a jar and Angus Beef Short Rib Curry.

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VEGE TALES Summer is not just time to loll about on the beach but also to dig about in the garden. According to some sources Wellington lies in a ‘warm temperate zone’. Vegetables you should consider planting over January and February include beetroot, silver beet, radishes, broccoli, carrots, spring onions, lettuce, cabbage and leeks. Just think of your winter harvest.

THE FOREST CANTINA

G R AZE IN ST Y LE

BY UNNA BURCH

R

oad trips, adventures and the outdoors. Summer is the perfect reason to pack a picnic and enjoy a day away from home. Living in Wellington where it’s anyone’s guess what the weather will be tomorrow, even a picnic in the lounge can be fun!

When we are planning a day away, I like to do a little preparation before we leave and pack a wellstocked basket so it’s all about relaxing when we get to the location. I like the idea of ‘grazing’ and just snacking all day in between activities, watching the kids, or as you read a good book. No hurry, no rush, everything you need is right there.

Picnic baskets are inexpensive, a cute little investment, and I often see them at second hand stores too. I packed my picnic into some old fish and chip baskets; they are one of my favourite things I own. They came from my sister in-law’s parents’ old fish and chip shop in Tawa. The boys wanted to use them for hangi baskets but they were way too cool to put in the ground, so I claimed them for myself.

Essential in my basket is always some sort of sandwich – below is a ‘‘green, eggs and ham” version which

our good friend Johnny (Rotten) Lancashire first made for us a few years back and I have been making his combo ever since. He uses wraps but any bready vessel will work. I also took some celery sticks and filled them with Fix and Fogg Smoke and Fire peanut butter with a little cream cheese and sesame seeds.

The creaminess of the cream cheese and the hit of the spice from the peanut butter with that fresh crunch of the vegetable…it’s so good. They transport well in tall mason jars. And of course, we have to have something sweet in our basket, so I packed some Wellington Chocolate Factory salted brittle caramel shards – the perfect thing to nibble on.

Refreshing drinks? Yes please! My husband’s favourite beer, Tuatara Hefe and some Six Barrel Soda Co. celery tonic with some sneaky little bottles of gin and lemon on the side. These mini bottles are the perfect tipple to pack for a picnic. Freeze them first for an ice cold shot in your soda! I finished the basket with some fresh fruit – something easy that you don’t need to peel or slice.

For the green eggs and ham rolls

For the celery sticks

5 free-range eggs 5 tablespoons mayonnaise Fresh chilli, chilli paste or hot sauce to taste Lemon juice 5 rolls, mini baguette or wraps 1 bunch of greens – watercress, rocket or baby spinach 3 large slices, free-range ham on the bone

½ celery, washed and trimmed Fix and Fogg Smoke and Fire peanut butter 5 teaspoons cream cheese Black (or white) sesame seeds Spoon the peanut butter into the centre of the celery, followed by some cream cheese and sesame seeds.

For the basket

Put the eggs into a small pot with cold water and turn onto a high heat. Once it comes to the boil, time for 4 minutes. Once cooked, plunge into a bowl filled with cold water and ice immediately to stop them cooking further. This will give a yolk that is mostly set with gooey bits. Once cool, peel and q uarter and set aside.

In a bowl, mix together the mayo with chilli or hot sauce and taste, adding more if you wish. Season with a good squeeze of lemon and salt and pepper. Mix again. Cut the rolls open and spread over the chilli mayo. Top with ham, greens, and the eggs. Add a little extra chilli mayo over the eggs. Season with salt and pepper.

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Salted brittle caramel chocolate shards Pears or other fruit Hefe beer Celery tonic Mini gin bottles (available from Moore Wilsons) Lemon cheeks (tied in muslin if you wish to catch any seeds) Straws Napkins To serve the Gin and Tonics Take a big sip of tonic out of the bottle. Add a squeeze of lemon and add gin to taste. Swirl around with a straw.

Enjoy, but remember: don’t drink and drive.

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A LIVING ROOM IN THE CITY WRITTEN BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT | PHOTOGRAPHED BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Up a hidden staircase at 90 Manners Street is volunteer-run space where people can hang out, work, read, or make coffee. There’s a library complete with a bed, a movie and games den, a stage for live music, things to eat or drink. And just so everyone’s really comfortable, there’s a sheet fort. It’s a living room in the city.

Petone-born Naomi Smith is the woman behind Homies Cosy Teahouse. The 23-year-old is the youngest of five and an occasional barista at Memphis Belle. She got the idea to open an entirely volunteer and koha-based project after losing her wallet and phone at Puppies’ last show, bartering the next day for coffee and food.

“I had just bought Blink’s book, The Problem with Music in New Zealand and How To Fix It & Why I Started And Ran Puppies, so I didn’t want to trade it. I offered the barista at Aeroshop the book in exchange for coffee and food. He gave me coffee and a banana for free, and we sat down and had a conversation. We traded coffee for conversation. I thought, ‘Coffee doesn’t have a price when you’re homies,” Naomi laughs.

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She’s on the giving end now. Naomi doesn’t want the space to be seen as ‘hers’. “I want to disappear from the face of it. My friends recently asked if they could come to Homies. You don’t need to ask! It’s not my space – it’s for everyone.” She’s never met most of the people who come to Homies.

She rents for $150 per week. The building can’t be rented at full price without necessary earthquake strengthening, so they said, ‘Make an offer’.

A coffee machine, tables, and chairs were left from the previous restaurant business. But they’re not a cafe. People prepare their own food and coffee for a koha instead of payment. “Anyone can have a go on the coffee machine.” It’s an entirely novel setup.

“There’s no law for what we’re doing.”

The unfixed payment setup is working so far, but even if Homies closed next week, “I’d still consider it a success,” Naomi says.

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LIQUID NEWS

ROSE C OLOUR ED GL ASSES

BY JOELLE THOMSON

Call it rosé, blush or even schillerwein, but there has never been a better time to drink pink.

B

leeding off. Two little words that make one very strong impact on the look, smell and taste of one of the world’s most attractive wines; rosé.

Call it rosé, pink wine, blush (for barely off-white wines) or even schillerwein, as the Germans do. But one thing wine drinkers can rest assured of today is that there has never been a better time to drink pink, especially when buying locally made.

Forget funny shaped bottles of insipid international rosé.

New Zealand’s best pink vinos are pushing better buttons of flavour than ever before and in nearly all cases it comes back to Pinot Noir and often to Marlborough; the HQ of New Zealand winemaking and home to more rosé than any other region. Both of the capital’s other local wine regions, Nelson and the Wairarapa, also sport high quality rosé today. My top pink vinos are listed below but first, let’s look at why there is a direct correlation in the rise of rosé and that of New Zealand Pinot Noir.

A large number of rosés are made by taking off a portion of Pinot Noir juice mid fermentation to create a light to medium bodied pink wine.

By removing partially fermenting juice from its grape skins, winemakers can concentrate and intensify the taste of their Pinot Noir, creating some extremely refreshing rosés in the process.

The French have a far more attractive word for this process of separating fermenting grape juice from its grape skins. They call it saignee.

It literally means ‘bleeding off ’ and it is widely practiced by winemakers internationally because it is the easiest, most straightforward and most economically attractive way to produce rosé today, regardless of the raw material.

It just so happens that in New Zealand – a predominantly white wine producing country – the main raw red material is Pinot Noir.

It is possible to make a pink-hued wine from some ‘white’ grapes; Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris can have rather intensely coloured skins, for instance. Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc very rarely do. Chardonnay Musque is a 64

notable exception, but that’s another story. But there are other ways to make rosé .

Winemakers who intentionally set out to make rosé may prefer to give their dark skinned grapes a short period of skin contact with the juice after the grapes have been crushed. But this method has two downsides in a (mostly) white winemaking country, such as New Zealand. Firstly, there need to be sufficient quantities of rosé-dedicated black grapes available and secondly, this makes it more costly to produce.

There is another way. Winemakers can blend a finished red with a finished white wine to create the desired colour, but this technique does not enable the same flavour integration as saignee. Many champagnes are made by blending a little finished red wine into the base wine for this bottle fermented bubbly. Champagne is the only pink European wine that is legally allowed to be made by blending red and white together for colour.

Saignee is often described as creating a by-product rather than an intentionally made wine. But unlike blending different coloured wines together to make a pink one, the saignee method remains an intentional one. And when high quality grape growing (which New Zealanders are getting good at) and impeccable wine closures (screwcaps) are added in, it has another name too; it’s called a win-win.

DRINK PINK My top list of local rosés (from Marlborough and the Wairarapa) to pour (moderately, of course) into your glass this summer: 2013 Brodie Estate Martinborough The Angel’s Sigh Rosé, $22 2013 Harakeke Farm Nelson Rosé $18 2014 Johner Estate Wairarapa Pinot Noir Rosé $18 2013 Julicher Martinborough Rosé $20 2013 Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir Rosé $20, 500ml 2013 Neudorf Nelson Pinot Rosé $23 2014 Spy Valley Marlborough Pinot Noir Rosé $23 2013 Woollaston Nelson Pinot Noir Rosé $20

FOCUS ON

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

ATA R A N G I AWA R D November was a rewarding time for Wairarapa Pinot Noir pioneer Clive Paton of Ata Rangi, who was awarded the 2014 Loder Cup for his environmental conservation work.

“Awards are neither a motivation nor a goal when I throw myself into conservation work, but this is a wonderful surprise. The cup is engraved with the names of many of my heroes,” Paton says. Over the past decade, Paton has planted more than 50,000 native trees on the Ata Rangi Bush Block; 130 hectare, adjacent to Aorangi Forest Park in the South Wairarapa. He also grows rata from seed and for the past decade he has contributed a portion of the proceeds of Ata Rangi’s Crimson Pinot Noir to Project Crimson.

NEW WAVE GIN SIPPING If gin is your thing and Pimm’s is a happy memory, check out one of the newest drinks in town; Sipsmith Summer Cup, which contains 29% alcohol and has just landed in store at Moore Wilson and other outlets. If the packaging looks tempting, the taste is even more so. The front label says this drink is ‘crying out for lemonade and fruit’ and this new wave Pimm’s lookalike most definitely is. It contains Earl Grey tea and lemon verbena but not that you would know it. Serve it on ice with soda water; fresh mint, slivers of fresh watermelon, and strawberries. Or try it at the Hawthorne Lounge, Crumpet and WBC. Summer Cup is part of Regional Wines’ top 30 Christmas drinks. One sip shows why.

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BLACK MAGIC

CAPITAL BREW NEWS

Wellington band The Black Seeds is the headline act at the 20th annual Marlborough Wine & Food Festival on Valentine’s Day, Saturday 14 February 2015. The festival is to be held, as always, at Brancott Estate; home to the first Sauvignon Blanc vines ever planted in what has since become the country’s largest wine region.

Bookings essential at: ticketek.co.nz or marlboroughwinefestival.co.nz

Capital city brewers the Yeastie Boys have announced a sale of shares in their business from 28 January 2015. Keen beer investors and anyone wanting a slice of the irreverent Yeastie Boys’ action can invest via an equity crowd funding campaign on PledgeMe. The capital raised will go towards developing Yeastie’s production in Britain and Europe.

The company’s second shipment to Britain left New Zealand in late 2014.

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

WHERE D O OUR CATS GO? WRITTEN BY JOHN KERR

Is the curiosity of the capital’s cats at odds with native wildlife? With the help of some high tech gadgetry and Wellington cat owners, ecologist Dr Heidy Kikillus is going to find out.

I

t has been two years since high-profile economist Gareth Morgan launched his controversial #catstogo campaign, proclaiming that feral and domestic cats are killing our native birds and need to be better controlled − if not eradicated completely.

This certainly raised the hackles of many cat-loving New Zealanders. The resistance should come as no surprise; we are a nation of cat lovers with almost half of New Zealand’s households caring for at least one furry feline companion.

Although feral cats can be a problem for native species, many domestic cat owners refuted claims that their well-fed pets were killing native birds. Some, including the SPCA, argued that cats might in fact be helping native fauna by hunting other introduced predators like mice and rats.

Though public debate has died down, the question of who is right remains unresolved. For all the bluster from both sides, we still aren’t really sure what cats get up to in their spare time.

It isn’t an easy question to answer. Cats are notoriously sneaky critters and little is known about their day-to-day activities; where they hunt and what they catch. In Wellington, however, that is about to change.

Dr Heidy Kikillus, an Urban Ecologist at Victoria University Wellington, is embarking on a new research project, Cat Tracker, which will uncover the private lives of the capital’s cats.

Her study will track cats using GPS monitors attached to harnesses. Each week, cat owners participating in the study upload the GPS data to a website. Aiming to include 500 cats in the project over the next year, the research will collect information about the habits of the Wellington cats: how active they are, how far they roam, and, perhaps most importantly, where they go.

By tracking the movement of cats, Heidy and her colleagues will be able to see how much time they spend lounging around the house, and how much time they spend wandering the areas likely to be home to native bird species. This new information will fill a large gap in our understanding of domestic cats and their predation behaviours.

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The Cat Tracker project, backed by WWF New Zealand, Victoria University Wellington and Wellington City Council, is part of an international collaboration involving similar projects in the USA and Australia. New Zealand will offer a unique perspective as cats are the top predator here, and can roam far and wide without fear of running into more threatening species. The presence of the Zealandia wildlife sanctuary so close to the city centre also means many urban cats share their habitat with more native birds than would normally be expected in a built up area.

The cat owners who take part in the study will also be surveyed on their cat’s habits, and asked to report any animals caught and brought home by their pets. Birds aren’t the only native species thought to be of interest to domestic cats in New Zealand; endangered species of native reptiles and insects such as weta have also been reported as prey.

However, the research isn’t just an exercise in data collecting, it is a collaborative, engaging science project that takes cat owners along for the ride.

“This is a ‘citizen science’ project where the public help collect and collectively analyse data,” says Heidy. You have people getting involved and actually more interested in the whole cats issue.”

Once uploaded to the Cat Tracker website, the GPS data is displayed on a Google maps interface. The end result is a publically accessible map showing squiggled lines overlaid on Wellington streets and parks - the once secret itineraries of free-roaming cats.

While the data collected and analysed in the study will contribute to our understanding of New Zealand’s domestic cats, Heidy hopes that by involving the public directly, the study will have a more immediate impact.

“My main goal is to get people interested and engaged in the issue, helping us to find out what the solution might be. It’s obviously not a black and white issue. Rather than arguing back and forth, if we can get together and find a way to try and balance cats and conservation, that would be the ultimate.”

If you or your cat is interested in taking part in the Cat Tracker study, you can find out more at: www.cattracker.nz .

13 November 2014 - 1 March 2015 Featuring works by Rita Angus, Frances Hodgkins and Toss Woollaston.

New Zealand Portrait Gallery Shed 11, Queen’s Wharf, Wellington Waterfront Open daily 10.30am - 4.30pm nzportraitgallery.org.nz Developed and toured by The Dowse Art Museum.

the ode less travelled

57 Willis St, Wellington 6011 (04) 499 4245 • www.unitybooks.co.nz wellington@unitybooks.co.nz

Ann Verdcourt, Ken and Barbie Infanta, 1999-2000. Collection of The Dowse Art Museum. Gift of the Artist. Image by Jeff McEwan

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BY THE BOOK

RE- V ERSE INTRODUCED BY FRANCES SAMUEL

FROM ‘ THE BEACHES’ II Island Bay, Orongorongo, Day’s Bay, Miramar, Evans Bay where the slips and the rust-red ships are; You can’t lie still, pretending those are dreams Like us … Or watch, I’ll show you: wet and clean, Coming past the sand-dune couples, strung out far, Purple on brown, his shadow grows between: Bleached logs stare up: he’s bringing us ice-creams.

By Robin Hyde, in Big Weather: Poems of Wellington, new enlarged edition, selected by Gregory O’Brien and Louise St John, Mallinson Rendel, 2009

BREAKD OWN Robin Hyde was the pen name for Iris Wilkinson (1906–39). She lived a brief life of tumult, inspiration, and tragedy that saw her working as a reporter in Wellington, publishing 10 books in 10 years, and travelling to China. She died by her own hand in London. This poem is part two of a seven-part poem, ‘Houses by the Sea’.

In brief Robin Hyde had the glamorous looks of a 1920s move star, and this poem, too, has something cinematic about it. It begins expansively, panning along Wellington’s bays, then zooms in on some figures – children on the beach. I was feeling pretty comfy at first, appreciating the summery scene and the way the rhyme reflected beach time: moments rolling into each other like waves.

But then there was the double take of that word ‘clean’. Unusual, because – wet or dry – at the beach you definitely have sand stuck to you somewhere. Also, the palette of the poem (a term I just made up) is not your expected bright summer hues but ‘rust-red’, ‘purple’, ‘brown’. Uh-oh, someone is getting closer like a growing shadow, and those bleached staring logs ...

I think from the greater context of the poem that things aren’t that sinister, and it’s the poet’s father bringing the ice-creams, but, seeing we’re talking beach-poem noir here, it might not be him and ‘ice-creams’ could mean something else …

Read more Check out other interesting New Zealand poets active in the 1930s, such as Mary Ursula Bethell and R A K Mason.

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BY THE BOOK

NATIVE POEMS

T R AV E L L I N G W R I T E R

Louise Wrightson, a local poet, has written about real and imagined encounters in Otari in her book Otari: Poems & Prose. The native plant reserve, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, contains the only botanic garden in New Zealand dedicated solely to native plants.

It hosts Wellington region’s remaining few hectares of virgin forest.

Wrightson will begin an MA in Creative Writing at the Victoria University’s IIML in 2015.

French writer David Fauquemberg is Randell Cottage’s new resident. The novelist and translator will spend five months at the residence reserved for French and New Zealand authors situated in Wellington.

He expects his stay to give new momentum to his writing and plans to work on a short story collection, “whose themes and precise form will – hopefully – arise from my experience in New Zealand”.

The Randell Cottage Writers’ Fellowship was established in 2001 as a rotational residency for French and New Zealand writers.

HISTORY RE-IMAGINED James McNaughton’s debut novel, New Hokkaido, due in February, is inspired by Wellington’s Makara Beach gun emplacement. The book re-imagines New Zealand under Japanese occupation in WWII, and has John Lennon grow up, make music, and die in New Zealand.

McNaughton grew up in Wellington and graduated from Victoria University’s Creative Writing MA.

MUSICAL FELLOW

CULTURAL CONTRIBUTOR

Chris Bourke is the Lilburn Research Fellow for 2015. The Wellington writer and radio producer takes up the fellowship this month and will work on a book about New Zealand music during the First World War. It will be a companion book to Blue Smoke: the Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music,1918-1964, which won Book of the Year, Non-fiction and People’s Choice at the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards.

Professor Lydia Wevers received the Pou Aronui award from the Royal Society of New Zealand for dedication to New Zealand’s literature, history, arts and culture. The Victoria University Professor has directed the Stout Research Centre at Victoria University since 2001, a centre for scholarship on New Zealand society, history and culture. Wevers is also an author, literary critic, historian, editor, and reviewer.

The annual award is given to a candidate for services to the humanities-aronui over a sustained period.

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BY THE BOOK

A NOVEL APPROACH COMPILED BY ANNA JACKSON-SCOTT

BIG BOOKS

It’s time to ease up with a good book and a good drink. We asked four avid readers what

Lawyer by day, novelist by night. Brannavan Gnanalingam, author of You Should Have Come Here When You Were Not Here, says he takes on ambitiously oversized novels during summer.

He’s equally optimistic about Wellington summers.

“I’m convinced that this summer is going to be blazing hot, and therefore full of rosé, so I will read Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans with a mixture of Provençal/Languedoc and Hawke’s Bay rosés. I’m going to need more than one bottle to go with this beast of a book.”

Next is Georges Perec’s Life a User’s Manual.

He’ll drink something similarly intricate: Garage Project’s VPA. Reading for Bran’s next novel, about cricket, will take place at the cricket. “I may get in touch with my inner 19 year old and sneak in a ParrotDog Pitbull via a hollowed-out watermelon.” He’ll read Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. and David Peace’s The Damned Utd. “After all of the beer I’m going to need some food.” He’ll read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend with a good Neapolitan-style pizza and a bottle of red.

their combo’s will be this summer.

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TA S T E R S A N D TEASERS

BOOKS FOR A CLEAN LIVER

BEACH BOOKS

Unity Books’ Tilly Lloyd is profiting this summer from early access to book proofs.

Kazuo Ishiguro’s new book The Buried Giant, out in March, is top of the list. To drink: Laphroaig, with a drop of water.

Peter Walker’s Some Here Among Us receives a dose of Tanqueray; Poet Stephanie de Montalk’s memoir How Does it Hurt: Narrating Pain takes juice to sweeten the subject. Best American Magazine Writing 2014, the annual anthology that “keeps your faith in journalism,” she pairs with “anything from Mount Maud”.

Other recommendations include The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (“drink absinthe”); The Children Act by Ian McEwan, (“drink something thoughtful like Te Mata Bullnose Syrrah”), and Lila

by Marilynne Robinson, (“drink Dilmah, strong, milk, no sugar”).

Finally, Tilly will re-read the “completely absurd Tom Wolfe-esque last chapter in Steve Braunias’ new book Madmen: Inside the weirdest election campaign ever. Drink: tap water.

Jackson James Wood is a former Salient editor and diehard saddleback campaigner for Forest & Bird. He’s now Chief Media wrangler at PledgeMe, and has also pledged not to drink alcohol, so he’s going to drink homemade elderflower cordial while he reads Steve Braunias’ Madmen: Inside the weirdest election campaign ever.

Evidently still dedicated to birds, he’ll then drink Kereru Birch Beer with What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.

Wood feels he should drink beer with James Robinson’s Voyages in America: A Story of Homes Lost and Found, but because of “that whole not drinking alcohol” thing, he’ll take “Germany’s finest non-alcoholic beer,” Bitburger Drive.

Finally, he’ll end with Moore Wilson’s orange juice and Richard Seddon, King of God’s Own: The life and times of New Zealand’s longest-serving Prime Minister by Tom Brooking. “It’s the best orange juice in much the same way that King Dick was New Zealand’s best Prime Minister: fresh, reliable, acidic.”

Vic Books’ general manager Juliet Blyth will be holidaying in Hawkes Bay this summer, and plans to settle in with some of her favourite authors. Top of her list are Jane Smiley’s Some Luck and Colm Toibin’s Nora Webster.

In true festive spirit, she’ll then re-read Elizabeth David’s Christmas.

“I adore Christmas cookbooks and at this time of year Elizabeth David has a reassuringly sensible approach to celebrating the silly season.”

Other contenders are the anniversary edition “doorstopper” National Geographic: around the world in 125 years, and Sheila Heti’s Women in Clothes: why we wear what we wear.

She’ll match these volumes with Peoples Coffee signature roast Don Wilfredo, lots of sparkling wine and, “at a respectable time in the afternoon,” will add a decent slug of Lighthouse gin to an All Good Lemmy Lemonade – “no one will even know”

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RESEARCH

D I P L O M AT I C IMMUNITY WRITTEN BY BETH ROSE | PHOTOGRAPHED BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Imagine being diagnosed with cancer and then immediately being prescribed a vaccine that could cure you. This futuristic-sounding scenario is creeping closer to reality via a trio of French scientists working here in Wellington.

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RESEARCH

D

r Olivier Gasser, Dr Tiffany Bouchery and Dr Alexander Smith are based at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and between them they aim to re-train our immune systems to fight off cancer and other diseases through the use of vaccines.

Vaccination tends to be something more commonly associated with preventative medicine. Most of us are aware of the importance of polio and tetanus vaccines, childhood immunisation, getting shots ahead of the flu-season and preparing for trips to foreign climes with typhoid and hepatitis jabs, but what about using vaccines as antidotes?

Finding a cure for cancer that could be given as a simple injection, removing the need for painful, lengthy treatments with chronic side-effects, seems a ‘holy grail’ scenario, particularly for those who have experienced the disease first hand or through loved ones. The team at Malaghan, however, are producing layers of evidence that point towards vaccines as a breakthrough.

Manipulation of the human immune system is the focus of the research. “Genomes represent the biological version of a computer program,” says Alexander Smith, “however, we all have cells that develop ‘bugs’ in the system now and then. Given enough time, some can even become cancer cells. Thankfully, most of the time our immune systems picks up these bugs, responds correctly, and kills them.”

Alexander is helping me understand the complex business of Bio-Informatics, which uses powerful computers to analyse large amounts of biological data and highlights some of the inner workings of cells. “By identifying how cells behave in particular circumstances, such as in the presence of a parasite or cancer cells, we can formulate useful hypotheses that will direct further research.”

Modern biology is producing ever-bigger data. Fortunately, the power of computers is growing exponentially, and their application is helping to fast track the exploration process, which enables researchers like Tiffany to refine how her practical experiments are designed.

Tiffany’s immunology work focuses on tackling the root cause of a different disease that affects up to one in five Kiwis: asthma. “Most medical research looks at combating

the symptoms of asthma, but relatively little is known about the cause.

“Allergic reactions are an immune response, it’s the body’s way of responding to what it perceives to be the presence of a parasite, when in actual fact it may just be pollen or dust”.

By understanding how cells react in the presence of an apparent parasite, Tiffany can then look at re-training them to simply ‘do nothing’ instead of reacting in a way that causes an asthma attack.

The high rates of asthma and other allergic reaction among people living in developed countries like New Zealand is often linked to our now germ-free, modern lives. It makes sense then that as the parasites have been removed; our bodies’ responses are struggling to catch up, having evolved to anticipate the presence of parasites.

“We know that where there is a high prevalence of allergies in the world, there is a low prevalence of parasites and vice versa. The immune systems of people in Western countries look for parasites that don’t exist anymore,” confirms Tiffany”.

The only way to understand exactly how our cells are responding though, is by introducing parasites to a host in a controlled experiment.

“Mice that have had an infection with hookworm have shown greater levels of immunity when they get infected a second time,” Tiffany explains, “this means that we can isolate the cells that react to fight off parasites and look at either suppressing or encouraging them”.

The impact of Tiffany’s work is two-fold. “We are working with the Sabine Institute in Texas, funded by Bill Gates, which is the only institute in the world designing vaccines to fight parasites”.

Tiffany’s research at Malaghan is contributing to the fight against hookworm epidemics in parts of Africa where a vaccine is desperately needed. “People who get hookworm infections from birth have immune systems that are so used to the presence of the parasite, it stops fighting it off and accepts it as part of the body”.

“Hookworm affects the growth and development of chil-

Previous page: Left: Oliver Gasser Right: Alexander Smith

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RESEARCH

dren and whilst the parasite isn’t life threatening, it’s having a serious impact on the productivity of societies and the progress of entire countries and their economies”.

If Tiffany and her colleagues at the Malaghan and Sabine Institutes create a treatment that could be given in childhood, it could have such far-reaching effects as to change the fortunes of entire nations.

And, on the home front, instead of creating a vaccine that encourages cells to fight off parasites, one could be developed for asthma-sufferers that suppresses cell reactions to fraudulent parasites like dust.

Tiffany speaks passionately about her work and is aware of the impact her contribution to science could have in the world. “I think I have the best job,” says Tiffany, “being able to play a part in something that can improve people’s lives in so many ways”.

The Malaghan Institute’s international collaborations and reputation for high standards is what first attracted the interest of these top European minds, not least Olivier Gasser, an unlikely looking scientist specialising in human immunology.

At over 6ft tall, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with tattoos disappearing up his sleeves, Olivier’s appearance does not betray his impressive educational background or any hint of scientific genius. Olivier had already completed a five year PhD in Switzerland and two post doctoral positions with Harvard University before flying out to New Zealand to take up his job running a vaccine clinical trial with stage three and four skin cancer patients.

“In the States I was working on the puzzles of immunology in relation to supressing the immune systems of HIV patients with kidney transplants,” says Olivier.

“People don’t die of HIV any more, but the effect of twenty years’ taking medications to manage their infection ends up causing organ failure, which means they are common candidates for transplants.

“A transplant operation can only be successful if the immune system is supressed so that the body doesn’t try and fight off the new organ. My work with HIV patients was about studying cell samples after the operation, it never really impacted people’s lives”.

Olivier speaks rationally about his work, but it is clear that his compassion for human wellness is what’s driving him. “Here in New Zealand I am actively treating people with advanced melanomas who are showing signs of recovery”.

Olivier spent two years setting up the melanoma vaccine clinical trial in partnership with Wellington Hospital and he’ll be treating fifty cancer patients through the trial over the next two years.

“The treatment involves extracting the white blood cells from a patient, manipulating them in the laboratory to work harder, training them so that when the cells are injected back into to the patient, they can instruct the immune system to fight cancer”.

The system of extracting white blood cells requires a person to be hooked up to a machine at Wellington Hospital which filters their entire body-full of blood - out one arm and back into the other – over a few hours.

Once the white blood cells have been collected they are sent to Olivier in the lab to be enhanced. The finished result is a collection of retrained cells that can be injected back into the patient to begin instructing the immune system to attack the cancer cells.

The aim, however, is to remove the extraction and laboratory processes completely. “The next step would be a simple vaccine that can be given to a melanoma patient allowing the entire cell manipulation process to happen inside the body,” says Olivier, consequently creating a vaccine to cure cancer.

New Zealand has among the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, so this is a pretty big deal, not just for cancer sufferers, but for the country as a whole. A cancer-curing wonder drug could be greater economically than Fonterra and would enhance New Zealand’s reputation for medical research onto the world’s stage.

It is somewhat remarkable then to hear that the Malaghan Institute is a charity, relying on government funding and donations. Nearly everyone who works there – including Alex, Tiffany and Olivier – are on contracts. Such is way of things in scientific research, despite its prospective global reach, life-saving potential and economic possibilities.

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CROSS THE ROAD WITH A CLEAR HEAD Leave your distractions at the kerb

Think. Look. Cross.

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HOUSE

MANA THROUGH THE ART OF CRAFT-MAKING WRITTEN BY AIDAN RASMUSSEN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL ROSE

If there was a quote that was the opposite of Matthew McIntyre Wilson and Natalie Jones' busy life, it would be the one inscribed on their fireplace: “Rest here from life's vexations. Catch the thread of vanishing dreams.”

W

hen you live in a household of eight – McIntyre Wilson and Jones have three kids each from a previous relationship – you'd think relaxation would be a much sought after commodity. But any spare moment is put to use when it arises. McIntyre will disappear into his workshop to make traditional Māori textiles, such as kete, hīnaki and tatua , but from copper and silver.

Jones, on the other hand, will climb the spiral staircase of their turret to sew or work on a play.

McIntyre Wilson and Jones make an attractive and complementary couple. Both are of mixed Māori and Pakeha descent. A Wellington boy, McIntyre Wilson’s links are also to Taranaki, his hapū Titahi and Ngā Mahanga, while Jones has ties to Rangitāne, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Tahu. Their lives, in one way or another revolve around art. There's of course McIntyre Wilson's weaving and coin cutting, but Jones is also a curator who has worked for Expressions gallery in Upper Hutt and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. She trained

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at Elam, Whitireia and Nelson Polytechnics and holds a Degree in Visual Arts, a Certificate in Commercial Photography and a PhD in Museum Studies. Though she largely keeps her curatorial eye to herself when it comes to her partner's work, it's not easily switched off.

“Matthew is very good at self-editing anyway, so there's little for me to suggest. If anything, my main area of input is making sure he meets his deadlines,” she laughs, which draws a slightly embarrassed look from her partner.

It's fitting a couple so enmeshed in the world of arts and crafts should find themselves renting a house created by James Walter Chapman-Taylor. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1880s/ early 1900s, the English-born, New Zealand architect's bespoke houses were renowned for their craftsmanship.

The Ngaio property's unique quality is apparent the moment you view it from the road: roughcast plaster exterior walls, small paned windows, a heavy wooden

HOUSE

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front door with an adzed finish – a signature feature of Chapman-Taylor's homes. Inside, the stark white walls and visible joists give the impression you've walked into a cottage in the English countryside. The turret, the ground floor of which has been turned into a playroom for the children, was an extension designed by Roger Walker and added in the 1970s. Even though McIntyre Wilson and Jones were familiar with Chapman-Taylor's houses, it wasn't a prerequisite when searching for a home for their blended family, said Jones.

“We were looking for a place that could meet our needs.

It had to be able to fit six children, have a workshop so Matthew could work from home and have a decent kitchen.”

All boxes ticked, they moved in. The fact their new place of residence was designed by Chapman-Taylor may seem, on the surface, to be nothing more than a happy coincidence. But there are some similarities in what Chapman-Taylor was trying to achieve in the first half of the 20th century and what McIntyre Wilson is striving for today. Both were and are interested in providing an alternative narrative to the 'norm', or recapturing something lost.

Each has had a spiritual attachment to Mount Taranaki.

For Chapman-Taylor, the creation of a house was essentially an expression of love, an attempt to de-commodify homes, to make them unique and human. Over time McIntyre Wilson's art making has grown into a commentary on the relationship between Māori and the Crown and reclamation, or recognition, of cultural artifacts taken from this country, but not recorded, by Europeans.

Matthew McIntyre Wilson's workshop is small and suprisingly tidy. Copper scraps are scattered atop a work bench dedicated to weaving. There is another bench for cutting and soldering. A large wooden spool of copper wire lies in wait on the floor. The tall – he wouldn't look out of

place on a basketball court – 41-year-old, shows me some sketches on specially made diagonal graph paper that better suit the design of his weaves. But these aren't the objects you first notice when you enter the room. In the middle of it all, prominent in all their antiquated beauty are two rolling mills. Central to what McIntyre Wilson does, like a rite of passage, all his raw metal must pass through these to be reborn as useable material that can later be woven into whatever form he desires.

“The rolling mills have been an integral part of my practice. Although the objects I have been making have changed most things have been through the mills. Over time the collection of mills has grown and I imagine they will continue to in the future. I am not sure where things would have headed without those tools.”

An art maker and jeweller for 20 years, McIntyre Wilson is the grandson of renowned post World War II painter Peter McIntyre and has been weaving in copper and silver for a decade. Since 2008 he has also been cutting and reshaping coins into brooches that reference New Zealand's uneasy colonial past: a tiki wearing a crown made from HMS Endeavour, a Māori warrior poking Queen Elizabeth II with a taiaha; Mount Taranaki features prominently in these works.

McIntyre Wilson first learned to weave with traditional materials while studying for a Diploma in Visual Art and Design at Hawkes Bay Polytechnic in the early 1990s.

Prior to that he completed a course in Craft and Design at Whitireia Polytechnic. He admits his first attempts at weaving in metal were quite crude.

“They were a bit rough around the edges, it has taken many objects to refine them into what they are today. I was once told by another maker that it takes 10,000 hours of making before you can call yourself a craftsman.”

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Today his art is sought after and exhibited widely. His work has been shown in City Gallery Wellington, Te Papa, Melbourne's RMIT Gallery, and Ponsonby's Object Space.

His current show, Matthew McIntyre Wilson & Maker Unknown, is currently showing at Pataka Gallery. This exhibition expounds on an idea – and a passion – he has been riffing on since 2006 when he first visited Te Papa's storeroom to research the construction techniques used to make hīnaki. It troubled him there were so many museum labels or collection databases with the title, ‘Maker Unknown’, especially in reference to taonga tuturu .

“I found there was a lot to be learnt from studying these objects housed in collection stores and wanted to highlight this within my practice with the hope it

would raise awareness about other makers who are often unknown. As a result my work offers an indigenous response to museological practice.”

For the past ten years McIntyre Wilson has been seeking to redress the dissociation and disconnection of the 'hidden' or 'lost' creator by 'recognising' them and their art. Their names and their origins may still be, essentially, unknown. But by pairing them alongside his own copper and silver weaves he is gifting them back the humanity and mana stripped from them when they were taken overseas. This approach to craft-making is one the designer of the house, which McIntyre Wilson, Jones and their combined family call home, would no doubt take great pride and solace in.

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TA K I N G T H E M O T O R FOR A SPIN WRITTEN BY JOHN BRISTED

Summer is when the vintage cars come out to play.

This summer the big car event is in Hawkes Bay in February at the annual Art Deco festival. Hundreds of lovingly cared for 1920s and 1930s motor cars arrive in Napier from near and far and their deco dressed passengers gather to flaunt their costume, and be in the big weekend’s festivities of vintage cars, clothes, music, and style. The festival commemorates the devastating earthquake of 1931, and celebrates the art deco styled buildings which replaced those destroyed then.

Colin White, chairman of the Wellington Vintage Car Club is taking his big 1930 straight eight Hudson (above) to Napier as part of the Wellington contingent heading to

the festival. About 20 local members and partners will be driving their precious cars up to join in.

Wellington’s Vintage Car Club which operates from Petone, has more than 300 members of all ages from all around the region.

Most members have an older car they own proudly, some have collections. Many members have restored an old car, or are doing up, or have just found one to restore.

‘Vintage’ cars cover the period between 1919 and 1930, although these days the vintage car movement is much more inclusive and offers help and cameraderie to enthusiastic owners of any vehicle more than 30 years old.

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T O R Q U E TA L K

RIGHT ON TRACK WRITTEN BY MARK SAINSBURY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

I have to say from the outset I’m probably not the target market Holden are after with the Trax … but my wife certainly is. I can safely admit now, out of earshot of Greg at Johnston Ebbett, that when I arrived home with the Trax and we went for a spin she immediately suggested that we should buy one. It's another reason I can never let her near a dealership alone.

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art of the reason for her excitement was the fact it was an “Australian” car, which she felt good about, and even when I explained that it was sourced from Korea it still didn’t dampen the enthusiasm. The other fan in the household was my son for entirely different reasons.

His reasons become clear leafing through the brochure, where way ahead of layout and engine options and technical stuff as in real car technical stuff, was the “connectivity” section. It says something about the age we live in and the needs of the modern driver that connectivity is priority number one. And this is a very modern vehicle.

My test model was curious in that it had a smaller engine but a higher price. I tested the 1.4 turbo which at $36,990 (list price… car dealers love to do a deal) was $1500 more expensive than the non turbo 1.8LTZ. It is a case of less is more where the smaller power train delivers better and more economical results. There’s also the even more affordable 1.8 LS at $32,990.

This is a very user-friendly vehicle; take the doors for instance. They are much wider than usual and that means easy access to the back for putting in kids or other necessary cargo. If you’ve ever struggled to get stuff into a modern car with tiny rear doors you will understand why this is such an advantage.

It is one of those cars that look like a small SUV without the four-wheel drive and while that is the one of the biggest segments in today’s car market how often do you actually need 4 x 4?

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So you get the raised driving position, the functional layout and the easy access without the cost of powering all the wheels, and let’s face it, it’s the urban jungle that the Trax will inhabit. The finish is excellent and the ride comfortable and of course it boasts all the usual safety features including side impact and side curtain air bags, stability control, descent control and traction control. In fact so many controls it’s a control freak!

But it’s those interactive controls that are a big part of what the Trax is aiming at. You can connect to Pandora, to podcasts, watch movies or hook in your own satnav with the BringGo app. Just so you aren’t away from your smart device for a nano second it can pair up to five phones and store up to 1000 contacts. Yes you never need to leave the vehicle. A lot of these features of course are already available in premium European models but remember this is a Holden, and the Holden people are quietly stoked about the Trax being up there with what it offers at a fraction of the price.

It’s certainly roomy front and back and the front seats are particularly good. It’s also bristling with storage and cubbyholes. So practical on the inside but outside you can even specify Holden Track Stripes to give you that racer look; fine if that’s your bag but I think I would pass on that feature.

I did manage to get it back to Johnston Ebbett’s without signing the purchase agreement but first impressions count a lot with a car and judging on the reaction at my place, for the right people the Trax will weave its magic straight away.

W E L LY A NG E L

WHAT WOULD DEIRDRE D O? Got a problem? Maybe we can help.

Welly Angel Deirdre Tarrant, mother of three boys, founder of Footnote Dance Company and teacher of dance to generations of Wellingtonians, will sort out your troubles.

JUMP SHIP My partner gets involved with lots of local issues, some of national importance and some at a local level. Said partner says the activism does not indicate political ambitions just a strong sense of civic awareness and justice. My family had political connections and I loathe political life. In your experience is this interest likely to lessen in the future or should I cut my losses now?

Political novice, Te Aro Cut your losses. Or join the politics and find a way to enjoy it. The writing is on the wall.

Vote for ‘said partner’ in a later life.

IT ’S ALL AB OUT RESPECT My family, my mother and her partner come to visit which I love but they always bring their dogs, and expect to bring them inside, which I

think is unfair. I don’t particularly like animals and we are a pet-free house. They just treat it all as a big joke, when I raise the issue. How do I tell them without having a row?

Dog lover, Miramar It is not a joke. I am definitely with you on the visiting canine resistance. The dogs can have water outside and wait on the deck or better still, back at home? It sounds like you have a precedent that may be hard to shake but try again to tell them − it is your home and good dog lovers understand and should respect your feelings. And this is family. You need to find a middle line here − how many dogs? Sounds like an invasion. When they all come suggest you all go out for a long walk together. This is an activity that will please everyone and will work for summer. Good luck.

JOIN A CLUB I am 25 and don’t really have any friends, I think I am pleasant, I get on quite well with my workmates, though I know they think I am bit dull. What would help me make friends?

things − go lots of places − find new activities − go tramping, curling, dancing, sing in a choir − there are people out there who you will like and who will like you − be proactive and go find them.

GSOH Why is there a double standard about commenting on appearance? At work the men are often teased (lightheartedly) about their dress sense and sometimes their looks. We are expected to take it and laugh, but would be slaughtered if we offered the same jokes in return?

Cool Dude, Brooklyn I asked a few male business friends for their response on this. "Get over it" and "Get on with it" was the refrain. And don't bother putting your jokes to the slaughter test would be my advice.

Anxious, Lower Hutt Don't try too hard. I guess if you think you are pleasant that is a good start. Do lots of

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 SECTION HEADER

SUMMER SHINING

BY MELODY THOMAS

J

anuary has always been my favourite month. It’s my birthday month, so memories abound of family and friends gathered over picnic baskets at the beach, camping at festivals like Splore or Parihaka and barefoot dancing at the Botanic Gardens if we couldn’t afford to get out of town.

Summer with a toddler is even more wonderful. After months of carefully wrapping them in merino and woolly hats against Wellington southerlies, they are suddenly free to spend the whole day in the nude, hair wild and shining in the sun; mouths, hands and bellies sticky with the juice of strawberries and watermelons.

But it’s been hard to get in the summer mood this year, because there’s been so much else going on. The debate about whether women can ‘have it all’ - a healthy career and family life - has been going on for decades, so I know I’m not alone when I say I spent the last few months of 2014 completely overwhelmed by everything that was expected of me. The beginning of the year was great - both me and Baby Daddy were working part-time and, while we were a little like ships in the night, we both got to enjoy the benefits of days out in the workforce and days spent at home. But the year progressed, opportunities came up and I found myself pulled further and further from the home. Lucky for me I love my job, but I also love being a Mum, and in December there were too many days when I only got to see Sadie for a couple of hours. As 2015 approached the cracks were beginning to show, and far from my usual joyous embracing of holidays (I’m one of those insufferable Christmas-lovers who insists on spreading good cheer and has been known to wear glitter for the occasion), I found myself playing the role of the grinch.

I don’t usually pay much mind to New Year’s Resolutions. I

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can’t argue with the importance of striving for personal betterment, but tying those goals to days that are obviously designed for camping trips, the consumption of gin and tonics, ice cream and fish n chips and for swimming in every available body of water is just ridiculous. It’s a hangover from traditions of the northern hemisphere copy-and-pasted onto the south, and we actually have our very own day in the middle of winter designed especially for gathering in loved ones, reflecting on what’s been and looking to the future, in the form of Matariki. But this month I do intend to make a sort of resolution, and to make every effort to stick to it. That is to have more fun.

It started this morning. As I was dressing for work the regular routine began, where Sadie starts to grizzle as she realises I’m leaving soon. For the first time in forever I stopped and thought about it. Yesterday was a big day and I was absolutely needed at work. But not today. I called my (wonderful) boss and said I was taking time off for family. I took off my stockings and put my track pants back on. As I finish up my writing, Baby Daddy is getting Sadie dressed and then we’re going to the zoo to roar at the lions, kiss the glass at the baby monkey enclosure, eat cake and drink a fluffy at the cafe. I know these fun-focused intentions are going to take energy and to find that I’m going to have to dig pretty deep, but if I’m happy enough to drive myself into the ground for the sake of my work, should it be so hard to redirect some of that drive into actively seeking a more joyous and fulfilling life for myself and my family?

Happy New Year everyone! See you at the park, the beach, the gardens or the bar.

GET OUT OF TOWN

We know Wellington’s the centre of the universe, but if you really must leave, here are some suggestions.

MUSICAL M A N IA Connan Mockasin and Race Banyon are the Wellington musicians playing at Auckland’s St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival on 26 January. International bands Flying Lotus, Little Dragon, and Royal Blood will also play sideshows at Wellington’s Shed 6.

The yearly alternative music festival, which began as a series of weekly shows at a tiny Melbourne bar, brings local, national and international artists to Australia and New Zealand.

ACROSS THE GAP The Golden Bay Luminate festival runs 28 January - 4 February on Wellington’s doorstep, where Wellington artist Matiu Te Huki will be running a workshop for children on Maori storytelling.

The festival includes workshops, food, a massage and bodywork zone, and five music zones.

Canaan Downs - Pikikirunga, Takaka Hill, Golden Bay, Nelson-Tasman

TERRIBLE TERRIERS

TOUCH OF TARTAN

The Nga Tawa Fete has a new addition this year: terrier racing. There’ll be flat and hurdle races, team terrier heats, and a best-dressed dog and owner section. “It’s the most hilarious thing,” says organiser Sarah Marshall. She’s entering her terrier Tom. “He’s 12 and has slight dementia, and the only time he runs is after a rabbit.” Her daughters are mortified.

The Fete is a fundraiser for a new school hockey turf.

22 February, 10am -3pm Nga Tawa Events Centre, Marton

If you need to renew your inner Scot, take yourself to Turakina for the longest running Highland Games, begun in 1864. There’ll be traditional Highland dancing, activities, and music. Caber tossing included. And don’t forget how a ‘true Scotsman’ wears his kilt.

31 January, Turakina Domain, Marton

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DIRECTORY

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

Michelle Backhouse Trevor Pye Frances Hodgkins DK Richmond Petrus van der Velden Girolamo Nerli

John Foster Adrienne Spratt Peter Healy Speaking Truth to Power forums, Saturdays, 20 Feb - 13 Mar

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DIRECTORY

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04 576 9976 peakelectrical.co.nz

0800 546 237 www.kimberleyriver.co.nz Visit us at the Wellington Underground Market, Frank Kitts Park. Saturday’s 10am-4pm Factory shop : 12 Prouse Street, Levin.

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JAN-FEB

Feeling the pinch? Check out the following ideas...

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DAYS BAY DEUCE

On the opposite side of the harbour, Days Bay hosts a clutch of cafes and bush walks and of course the beach but there’s a hidden gem – the grass tennis courts in Williams Park. They are free to use. All you need is a couple of rackets and a ball...and really fast hand-eye coordination as grass courts are the fastest of all the court surfaces. Just watch Wimbledon for proof.

FEELING FOXY

With the number of hills around here it’s perplexing that the city isn’t criss-crossed with flying foxes. One from the Beehive into the harbour would attract tourists (and anarchists) but until such time head to the middle of Central Park on the Brooklyn hill. You’re never too old to hop on to a knotted rope and hoot like a maniac. There are two side by side so you can practice synchronised flying (and screaming).

04 382 8300 1st Floor, 193 Vivian Street info@quinovic-vivianst.co.nz www.quinovic-vs.co.nz

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WELLINGTON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT EXPERTS

Quinovic Vivian Street

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JAN 04

WELLINGTON PHOENIX MATCHES Wellington Phoenix v Brisbane Roar (4 Jan),Wellington Phoenix v Melbourne City FC (14 Feb), and Wellington Phoenix v Newcastle Jets (22 Feb) 4 Jan, 5pm, Westpac Stadium; 14 & 22 Feb, 5pm, Hutt Recreational Ground

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WELLINGTON PASIFIKA FESTIVAL Traditional and contemporary music, performance, food, and activities.

17 January, 12pm – 6pm, Waitangi Park

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STATE NEW ZEALAND OCEAN SWIM SERIES - CAPITAL CLASSIC Four different swim events for all ages and abilities

FILMS BY STARLIGHT

25 January, 8am – 2pm, Freyberg Beach,

Outdoor films at various locations around the region. http://www.filmsbystarlight.co.nz/

Oriental Parade, Wellington

10, 17, 24 & 31 Jan; 21 & 28 February

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15 NZ OPERA SUMMER CONCERT A Summer Opera Concert in the grounds of 'Longwood' in Featherston.

15 February, 3pm - 5pm Longwood, 78 Longwood Road East, Featherston, Wairarapa

14-22 CHINESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL Festivities welcome the Year of the Sheep 14 - 22 February, TSB Bank Arena, Frank Kitts Park and Shed 6

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FEB 06

FRINGE FESTIVAL 2015

WINGS OVER WAIRARAPA

WELLINGTON SEVENS

Annual arts, culture and comedy festival

Experience 100 years of Aviation with Wings’ professional flying programme

The annual rugby sevens weekend of craziness.

from 20 FEB

16 – 18 January, Hood Aerodrome, South

6 – 7 February, 11am, Westpac Stadium

Road, Masterton

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THE KITCHEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD Marionettes limited by their strings crave what lies beyond their reach.

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GO BY BIKE DAY Wellington’s official cycling day 11 February

20 ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP Wellington hosts match 9, England V New Zealand 20 February, 2pm, Wespac Stadium

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16 − 25 January, Circa Theatre

OUT IN THE PARK

CIGNA ROUND THE BAYS

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The fabulous annual Out in the Park queer fair.

Wellington’s annual waterfront run

TRIATHLON PINK An all-female fun run raising funds for cancer 17 January, 7am, Naenae Swimming Pool, 2 Everest Ave, Lower Hutt

14 February, 10am – 9pm,

22 February, 8am, Fank Kitts Park

Waitangi Park, Wellington

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NZSO: FREDDY KEMPF’S BEETHOVEN

ISLAND BAY FESTIVAL

British pianist Freddy Kempf plays

Island Bay’s annual street fair

Beethoven’s concerto masterpieces.

15 February, 10am – 5pm, Shorland Park,

28 February, 7:30pm, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

Reef St, Island Bay, Wellington

the Foundry C o11ective A joint exhibition of Wellington Metalworks

Brett Rangitaawa, Moniek Schrijer and Jen Waterson.

Open M-F, 10am-4pm, December through January.

Holiday closing dates: 25 December – 6 January, 2015.

the Foundry Gallery

99 The Foundry Gallery, c/- The Heavy Metal Company Ltd,

5/55 Parkside Rd, Seaview, Lower Hutt. Find us on Facebook.

TOP DOG

Chloe Rose Taylor has a jewellery studio in Mount Victoria. Ralph, her 11 month old miniature pinscher is a constant lap companion while she works on her creations. Secretly she knows he’d prefer to be off lead up in the Mt Victoria town belt paying a visit to every second bush.

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