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CAPITAL

MADE IN WELLINGTON

Natalie Keegan and Ryan, Art and ‘Fonzie’ Prebble, story on page 49.

T

he recent announcement from the Mayor, Justin Lester, that the Wellington City Council is moving its big annual fireworks display from Guy Fawkes to the Matariki celebrations is welcome news. We at Capital feel vindicated, delighted, justified, smug if you wish; this has been something we have mentioned frequently, to all who will listen, including you our readers. I am a fervent fireworks supporter and take pleasure in tradition; but it makes sense on all fronts to move the event to the autumn/winter and use it to enhance the Matariki celebrations. So do enjoy this year’s event on 4 November, as it’s the last.

In this issue, to help you prepare for summer, we have asked a capable team of locals to devote a sunny afternoon to tasting local gins so we can pass on their cheerful opinions. Our photoshoot, Use your taringas, p52, highlights some of the colourful earrings you might need for summer and tells us a bit about some of the young models in the city; and Nikki and Jordan Shearer anticipate summer with deliciously novel iceblock recipes. And to avoid that ghastly last-minute panic, you can use our simple gift guide to get ready for Christmas.

We have called this ‘the family issue’ and in it we look at the variations of ‘family’ that are now accepted in our society. I think kinds of families have always been many and various, and the many types are always changing and evolving. Melody Thomas talks to families representing just a few of them and Anthony Green has taken the photographs.

Sharon Greally talks to a friend about the pitfalls of mail-order DNA reports and Sarah Lang asks about the pitfalls for creative couples.

And of course all our regular features and more.

We look forward to seeing you in December, our last issue for 2017.

Photograph by Anthony Green

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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 Instagram @capitalmag Post Box 9202, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Deliveries 31–41 Pirie St, Mt Victoria, Wellington, 6011 ISSN 2324-4836 Produced by Capital Publishing Ltd

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The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any losses due to the use of material in this magazine.

Copyright ©. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of Capital Publishing Ltd.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Staff

FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Alison Franks Managing editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz Campaign coordinators Fale Ahchong fale@capitalmag.co.nz Griff Bristed griff@capitalmag.co.nz Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz Lyndsey O’Reilly lyndsey@capitalmag.co.nz Factotum John Briste d john@capitalmag.co.nz Art director Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Designer Luke Browne design@capitalmag.co.nz Editorial assistant Laura Pitcher laura@capitalmag.co.nz Accounts Tod Harfield accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Gus Bristed

Distribution

Contributors Melody Thomas | Janet Hughes | John Bishop Beth Rose | Tamara Jones | Joelle Thomson Anna Briggs | Charlotte Wilson | Sarah Lang Bex McGill | Billie Osborne | Deirdre Tarrant Francesca Emms | Sharon Greally | Craig Beardsworth | Sharon Stephenson Claudia Lee | Dan Poynton

ANTHONY GREEN Ph oto g r aph er

FRANCESCA EMMS Writer

Obsessed with the ocean and the mountains, when not surfing or skiing Ant will be behind the lens. He documents adventure, travel, surf and lifestyle subjects and enjoys connecting with people and authentically portraying them within their surroundings.

Francesca writes things. The things she writes vary in content and length.

Sometimes people say the things she writes aloud on air and other times they read them silently. She is partly responsible for a lamb named Colin, enjoys tap dancing and gets carsick really easily.

Stockists Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown and Pak’n’Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Commonsense Organics, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note, Whitcoulls, Wellington Airport, Interislander and other discerning region-wide outlets.

Ask for Capital magazine by name.

Distribution: john@capitalmag.co.nz.

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

Thanks Jenni Filman | Lauren Anderson Claudia Lee

M E L O DY T HOM A S Journ a li st

R O G E R WA L K E R C ar C olum n i st

Melody is a writer, columnist and producer for radio who uses her work to offset terrible FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out. Writing for Capital provides just the excuse she needs to pry, consider and explore the world vicariously, all from her little window desk in Island Bay. Catch up with Melody between issues on Twitter @WriteByMelody.

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

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CONTENTS

12 LETTERS 14 CHATTER 16 NEWS BRIEFS 18 BY THE NUMBERS

32

34

NATIONAL TREASURE

METHY BUSINESS

Ans Westra celebrates 60 years at Suite

Tackling the P epidemic, one 'P' at a time

20

TALES OF THE CIT Y Jude Pointon fosters a sense of belonging

39

22

W H Ā N AU FILES

THE 2018 LO CAL GIFT GUIDE It's back and better than ever

Four families four ways

38 GREEK TRAGEDY

28 CULTURE

WINNER WINNER- -GARAGE GARAGEPROJECT PROJECT VISA VISAWELLINGTON WELLINGTONONONA APLATE PLATE BEST BESTBURGER BURGER2017.

2017.

NOW NOWSERVING SERVINGUNTIL UNTILCHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

A DNA test and an identity crisis

58 60

FASHION BRIEFS LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

67

FISHY BUSINESS

68

EDIBLES

59 59taranaki taranakist. st. www.mrgos.co.nz www.mrgos.co.nz

CONTENTS

52

U S E YO U R TA R I N G A S

GIN CHIN

We're all ears for these earrings

New Zealand's fresh take on an old favourite

51 T WINNING Megan Blenkarne on stealing her Mum's look

70

72

SHEARERS TABLE

62

BY THE BOOK

82

74

TRUE BLISS

LOW LIGHTS OF LOUISIANA

Hera Lindsay Bird and Rhydian Thomas have a way with words

John Bishop investigates alligators, swamps and slave history.

84

TORQUE TALK Mini goes electric

78 80 86 90 92

SPORTS BRIEFS WELLY ANGEL BABY, BABY CALENDAR GROUPIES

STOP STOP AT AT MODERN MODERN ASIAN ASIAN HAWKER HAWKER FOOD FOOD

LETTERS

TROLLEY DECISION STILL CAUSES STRESS

CONTEMPORARY RETAIL

If you haven’t been to Upper Hutt recently, you might be missing a few gems. Tucked amongst the usual suspects, you’ll find Created Homewares, for contemporary on trend homewares, gifts and furniture. Botanical Beauty Co. is where a mother and daughter team create a range of natural skincare and beauty products. For fashion, Upper Hutt has The Vogue Store in The Mall, and FIX Fashion on Main Street. There is a stunning duo, Avison’s Home & Giftware and Avisons Living & Leisure bang in the middle of Main Street. Visit us for a pleasant surprise!

The two full-page newspaper advertisements recently published show the authorities believe high-pressure propaganda is necessary to persuade the public our local politicians have made the best decision for the replacement of the trolleys with old buses fuelled mainly by diesel.

The Architectural Centre goes to considerable lengths to ensure our advisers are amongst the best there are. In this case their evidence is that the cost to modernise the trolley’s sub-stations is about $15M not the $35–50M touted, and only $4M more than the cost of removing the overheads.

Our advisers also tell us the 35% electric buses will probably fail and we’ll end up with sad stories of why we have to suffer 100% diesels. GWRC made its decision after comparing the total existing bus fleet, including the old diesels, with new Euro 6 diesels and electric hybrids. The Councillors voted without a cost-benefit study (CBS) of the trolley system itself. If they had had a CBS they would have kept the trolleys.

Christine McCarthy & Daryl Cockburn, Co-presidents, Architectural Centre. arch@architecture.org.nz ECO-SEX – PURE AMUSEMENT

FAMILY FUN IN THE CITY CENTRE Packed full of adventure for the entire family, Upper Hutt is well worth a visit. In the heart of the city you will find H2O Xtream Aquatic Centre, then let the kids loose at Maidstone Max adventure playground.

After all that action take a stroll through Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre to catch the latest exhibitions and world class visual arts.

To check out these great activities and more, go to visit.upperhuttcity.com

As a faithful recycler, having learned to carefully sort my plastic from my glass and paper, I was delighted to find in your last issue, (Eco-issue Cap #45, p 35) that now I have yet another responsibility, that of adjusting my sex life to ensure it fits within eco-sexual guidelines. Thank you for such enjoyment and amusement in my day. A true delight. They were all perfectly practical suggestions and a wonderful indication of how an affluent society fills its day.

Conservationist, Northland (name supplied).

THE GO OD LIFE Reading about the rural family life of the couple in your last issue (Cap #45 p 84) was a real delight. They really do seem to have a very good balance. And the photography was awesome.

J Watts, Wellington

IT’S EASY TO GET HERE Utilise our free parking or catch the train and arrive one minute away from our unique stores.

You can send letters to editor@captalmag.co.nz with the subject line Letters to Ed

/UpperHuttCityCentre 12

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

INK INC.

NO C HA RG E We’ve all been trapped in a taxi while the driver’s music blares. House or hip-hop, it’s always exactly what you don’t want to hear. Turns out some Wellington cab drivers are so keen to share their playlists that they’re not charging a penny. The idea behind Wellington Museum’s koha event After Hours: Taxi DJ at Queen’s Wharf (16 November) is to hop from taxi to taxi for a chat and some music as Green Cabs and Wellington Combined drivers live the DJ dream. So weird it might work?

ANGELA PERRI Where are your tattoos and why?

I'm all about symmetry and balance. If I'm going to get something on my left wrist, then I'm most definitely going to be getting something in the same spot on my right wrist.

Family – for or against it?

I have a massive Italian family that all have tattoos all over their bodies! Everyone is super supportive with ink. When I was younger, I felt left out because I didn't have any!

FANCY FO OT WORK Want to witness a World Record attempt? The Footy For All Charitable Trust is attempting to set two 5-a-side football world records; most players in a 5-a-side soccer exhibition game, and most nationalities involved in a 5-a-side soccer exhibition game. The Celebration of Cultural Diversity World Record Attempt will take place at Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua on 11 November.

What is your favorite tattoo?

My favorite would be the coordinates on the top of my shoulders. They are the street addresses of both my grandparents' houses.

It's where I spent most of my childhood and funnily enough, they both live on the same street in Vancouver, so the coordinates are almost identical if you really look at them.

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C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS ZOMBIELAND A Wellyworder foolishly braving Lambton Quay at lunchtime during WOW witnessed an all-too-common healthand-safety violation. A government type and an overdressed WOWser were so immersed in their phones that they walked smack-bang into each other and bonked foreheads. Apparently, you could just about see their heads spin. Look up, people. It’s starting to look like the Phone-Zombie Apocalypse out there.

TICKLED PINK One Wellyworder in Memphis Belle overheard a fellow coffee lover making a strange cup request. Flight Coffee had recently brought out some nice new pink cups, which were apparently not masculine enough for him. He asked the barista for a more masculine cup, for which he received a generic white one and a polite suggestion that he become more self-assured.

HOT MESS A WellyWorder attending a Kokomai event at Pirinoa’s Town Hall recently was unprepared for the ruckus. One excited attendee overdid the pre-loading and had to be escorted out. Others heckled with such abandon that one of the actors got the giggles. After the show our WellyWorder entered a draw to win a ute and quad bike that the performers announced they had test driven and bogged at Lake Ferry earlier in the day.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO Kei a koe te mahi o ngā rīhi i te pō nei, e hoa.

It's your turn to do the dishes tonight, mate.

K A PA I DESIGN Three Wellington companies working together scooped seven design awards in the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design Awards. Story Inc, in association with Studio Pacific Architecture and interactive designers Click Suite all worked on the permanent exhibition, He Tohu, at the National Library.

WHAT ’S IN A NAME? Jo Coughlan is bouncing back from her failed attempt to become Mayor of Wellington last year with a rebrand and says she will ‘continue to provide lobbying and advocacy work with clients who need to "deal with Wellington".’ Her marketing and communications company is now called Silvereye.

Of the rebrand Managing Director Jo says, ‘We’ve refreshed our logo but we’re sticking with our beautiful New Zealand native Silvereye bird.’

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NEWS BRIEFS

T WO THUMBS UP Wellington Airport was a double winner at this year’s New Zealand Airports Association Awards. It won the Community Engagement Award for its Regional Community Awards, and the Airline/Airport Collaboration Award for its Quieter Homes programmes. The Regional Community Awards celebrate volunteer and community groups spanning culture, education, health and the environment. Hundreds of locals benefit from the airport’s Quieter Homes programmes, which delivers a noise management plan for almost 700 homes close to the airport. Wellington Airport airfield manager Nick Petkov acknowledged those involved, saying, ‘We couldn’t have done it just by ourselves – it is a huge piece of work for all of us.’

COMPUTER SAYS YES

SMART PARKS

TUNNEL TROUBLE

Victoria University’s Faculty of Engineering will be home to a new Computational Media Innovation Centre. The centre is one of the first recipients of funding from the Government’s $35-million Entrepreneurial Universities initiative. Its director Professor Ken Anjyo says the centre will incubate potential startups and industry pipelines to strengthen New Zealand’s computing and media ecosystem, placing it at the forefront of an emerging global digital media market. The centre is due to open in June 2018.

Hutt City Council has joined Wellington City Council in offering a smart option for managing parking payments. The PayMyPark app became available in the Lower Hutt area last month. It allows drivers to pay for their parking with their smart phone or computer, and can be used for on-street and council-owned off-street parking, including the Riverbank car park. It warns you when your paid parking is about to expire, lets you extend your time by smart phone, and has a start-stop function meaning you only pay for the exact time for which you use the park.

Seismic strengthening of the Northland Tunnel has been delayed again after the discovery of cables which weren’t shown on the service plans.

Health and safety regulations meant work had to be stopped until it was confirmed the cables were not live.

Wellington City Council said the cables probably date back to the days of the trams. They have estimated the work, which was supposed to be completed in September, will now be finished early in November.

B O TA N I C A L S K I N C A R E / H E R B A L D I S P E N S A R Y / H O L I S T I C FA C I A L S / TA I L O R E D M A S S A G E / S K I N C A R E W O R K S H O P S C r e a t e d b y H e r b a l i s t s M a d e i n N e w Z e a l a n d w e l l i n g t o n a p o t h e c a r y. c o . n z 1 1 0 a C u b a M a l l 0 4 8 0 1 8 7 7 7 F r e e N Z S h i p p i n g

NEWS BRIEFS

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS Lower Hutt’s Kristine Bartlett has been named Supreme Winner of the 2017 Next Woman of the Year awards. Kristine’s case against her employers TerraNova Homes and Care Ltd over low pay turned into a five-year battle and a historic victory for gender pay equality. The win is now being used as a precedent for other low-paid, female-dominated groups to seek pay raises. It has also forced the government to enact new legislation – the Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill is now with a select committee. Kristine received her award at a ceremony in Auckland in October.

THREE CHEERS FOR VIC

FLYING HIGH

SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

Three Victoria University academics were recognised at the 2017 New Zealand Research Honours awards held in Auckland last month.

The annual event, presented by Royal Society Te Apārangi, celebrates the outstanding achievements and excellence of New Zealand researchers. World-renowned geologist Professor Colin Wilson (above) received the highest honour, the Rutherford Medal, for his research into supervolcanoes and the hazards they pose.

Professor Peter Tyler received the MacDiarmid Medal and Emeritus Professor Laurie Bauer received the Humanities Aronui Medal.

Paul Rennie, Managing Director of Orbit World Travel (Cap #41 p 74), has just added to his collection of travel awards. Orbit World Travel was recognised as Best Corporate Brand with multiple locations and Orbit World Travel Wellington was highlighted as the Best Corporate Brand in a single location. Orbit is part of House of Travel, who took out the award for Best Travel Agency Brand for the fifth year running.

Half of the recipients of the Arts Foundation 2017 arts awards have a link to Wellington or Wairarapa. The Laureate Award Recipients include Jemaine Clement who grew up in Masterton before moving to Wellington; ex-Paremata and now Masterton resident Robin White; and Wellington-born film director Niki Caro. Wellington poet Hera Lindsay Bird (see story page 74) and Wellington composer and violinist Salina Fisher (Cap #17 p 38) are both New Generation Award Recipients. All recipients will be celebrated at a ceremony in Auckland, on 6 November.

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BN Y ETWH E P RNOUDMUBCETRSS

Fa m i l y s pec i a l

We are family We dive into some facts about those in your life that you can't choose.

According to the 2013 census

Under my roof Family homes in the Wellington region

124,924

2.6

66.9

17

Number of families in Wellington

average number of people in a household

% one family households

% one parent families

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%

Melting pot Population mix in Wellington in percentages

wellingtonnz.com/ life-in-wellington/ facts-and-figures

Outrageous Fortune

77

13

10.5

8

3.3

European

Maori

Asian

Pacific Island

Other

107

5

episodes

number of foreign countries that bought the right to broadcast.

Now to some facts about NZ's favourite TV family - the Wests.

6 seasons

520,000 viewers by season 6

New Zealand is the world's second most desirable place for families.

Family portrait

46.3% of one parent families in Wellington have adequate income compared to 86.8% of two parent families

Statistics NZ definition of family is two or more people living in the same household, who are either a couple with or without children, or one parent and their children.

Compiled by Laura Pitcher & Craig Beardsworth 1 18 8

HSBC's 2015 Expat Explorer survey

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BOOK

Dear Fatty by Dawn French

Blood is no thicker than water when it comes to Jude Pointon’s family

W

hile many people balk at a bumpy landing at Wellington Airport, Jude Pointon says this is one of her favourite things about our city. ‘I love flying into Wellington on a windy day. Seeing the whitecaps around the Wellington bays, the seagulls going sideways, the houses clinging to the cliffs.’ This poetic optimism is one of Jude’s distinguishing characteristics, along with her occasionally black sense of humour, her strong opinions and her community spirit. ‘I believe that you should try, in a small or big way, to leave your community, your country and society in general better than you found it.’ Jude is hoping to pass these values on to her children. She describes eldest daughter Arliah as ‘determined, emotionally intelligent and imaginative.’

Aniwaniwa, her permanent foster daughter, is ‘feisty, musical and has the most wonderful laugh and smile.’

The youngest, permanent foster son Domanic, is ‘clever, argumentative and great at building things from Lego.’

Jude was taken into care at fifteen. She moved in with the Ogilvies who had been her next door neighbours for many years. ‘I felt very included and loved in the Ogilvie family. I was treated exactly like their children and knew that I was loved.’ Husband Dean had grown up with foster children in his family, as had his mother. ‘Therefore in their family the idea of fostering was normal,’ says Jude. The couple knew that their families would treat their foster children as they would treat Arliah. ‘Ani and Dom would feel equally loved and important in our

family.’ Jude thinks of the Ogilvies as her ‘heart family’ and says ‘although I hope Ani and Dom get and continue to know their birth and wider families, I hope that we (Dean, Arliah and I) will always be their heart family.’

Jude and her family live in Titahi Bay. ‘It is a beautiful suburb with amazing walks, an incredible fingernailmoon-shaped beach complete with boatsheds, and an old world community feel.’ That sounds relaxing; but busy Jude has only just finished reading Dear Fatty by Dawn French which took ‘about six months to read around the chaos of children. However, it has made me laugh out loud on the train and nearly made me cry.’ Evenings and weekends are spent ‘attempting to exhaust the children’ with outside play, sports, board games and taking their dogs Caramello and Mushka for walks. Jude loves living close to the beach. ‘I find the sea essential. It gives perspective on how small and insignificant humans are.

Waves have a rhythm that soothes the soul. The light is beautiful – clean and coastal crisp.’

If they’re not in Titahi Bay the family enjoys holidaying at Eskdale Camping Ground on the Napier/Taupō highway. Highlights include 1970s play equipment, fruit ice creams and a mostly shallow river.

When the kids are older she’d love to take them overseas.

Top of the list is Vietnam because of the ‘great food, crazy manic scooters, beautiful buildings, surprises around every corner and friendly people.’

Aniwaniwa (6), Jude Pointon (with Mushka), Arliah (11) and Domanic (5) at Titahi Bay 21

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The 2018 local gift guide Already getting palpitations when you think about Christmas shopping? Don’t worry, our gift guide is back to take the pressure off. Check out our best Christmas pressie ideas for ladies, gents, youngsters, oldies and everyone in between.

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Wo m e n 1. Georgia Jay Roundie – $250 – The Service Depot 2. France is a Feast – $55 – Ekor Bookshop & Cafe 3. Foldaway Shopper – $14.99 – Unichem Johnsonville 4. Trelise Cooper Pass the Bar sunglasses – $249 – Zebrano 5. XXX – XXX – Florence Boutique 6. Kester Black coral blush and apricot nectar – $23 – Mooma 7. Dazzle sleeping bunny – $440 – The Porcelain Lounge 8.

Palace-Black – $299 – Goodness 9. Bonnie & Neil cushion – $299 – Small Acorns 10. Amazinger Face by Zoe Foster – $50 – Unity Books 11. Boy Smells Gardener candle – $65 – Mooma 12. Fiora Centrepiece – $290 – The Porcelain Lounge 24

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Men 1. Christmas gift box – $32 – Dusted & Delicious 2. Copper thermos – $49.95 – Moore Wilsons 3. Eldis wood wall clock – $168 – Cranfields 4. You Legend cotton tea towel – $20 – Natty 5. Chinook fade sunglasses – $239 – Mandatory 6. Drake’s blue chambray shirt – $325 – Crane Brothers 7. Dorset dark brown overnight bag – $499 – Rembrandt 8. Real World deodorant butter – $25 – Wellington Apothecary 9. Emicro One electric scooter – $1799.95 – Micro Scooters 10. Paddywax candle amber & smoke – $39 – Cranfields 11. Mywalit 8 card flap wallet – $161 – The Vault 25

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Chi ldren 1. Kip & Co pillowslip cheetah white – $39 – Tea Pea 2. Minti Best Friend Tshirt dress – $90 for 2 – Bambini 3. Papier mâché mask from Tanzania – $26.99 – Trade Aid 4. Sky High: Jean Batten’s Incredible Flying Adventures – $25 – Unity Books 5. Castle tote bag – $89 – Small Acorns 6. Ekobo Bambino kids set – $45 – Cranfields 7. My Happy Soap – $19 – Ekor Bookshop & Cafe 8. Olli Ella Child’s Luggy basket – $98 – Tea Pea 9. Baby pilot hat – $28 – Cranfields 10. Blabla Colette the Cat knit doll – $95 – Small Acorns 26

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ARIKISPIRIT

CULTURE

RAISE A GLASS On 6 March 1967, the National School of Ballet (now the New Zealand School of Dance) opened its doors to its first intake. Fifty years on, the NZSD is staging an anniversary graduation season much bigger than its usual annual showcase – and held offsite at the St James, 24–25 November.

Dancers from the NZSD and Royal New Zealand Ballet perform classical and contemporary works that salute key dancers, teachers and choreographers. Works choreographed by its graduates include Loughlan Prior’s new commission Curious Alchemy, Michael Parmenter’s The Bach, and Sarah Foster-Sproull’s Forgotten Things.

LAWLESS

WATCHING WAHINE

LESSONS LEARNED

Quitting her corporate-law job, Karin McCracken became a sexual-abuse educator before returning to her first love, theatre. Based in Kilbirnie, the award-winning theatre-maker played a rape victim in Eleanor Bishop’s play Jane Doe at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Now McCracken and Julia Croft perform in the BATS/Creative NZ commission Body Double (9–25 November), devised by Croft and Bishop with McCracken’s input. ‘It’s about how women can remove that external lens – such as what they look like – during sex.’

In a deliberate decision to strengthen the representation of women and Māori artists in their collection The Dowse Art Museum has acquired works by Ngahuia Harrison (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi), Neke Moa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Tūwharetoa) and Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngāi Tahu and Samoan heritage).

Many teachers trained at Wellington College of Education’s Karori campus between 1970 and 2005 (latterly through Victoria University’s Faculty of Education). Now selling the modernist complex, Victoria has commissioned What Remains, The Karori Commission for its permanent art collection, on show at Adam Art Gallery, until 21 December. Photographer Gavin Hipkins, writer Anna Sanderson and designer Philip Kelly collaborated on 30 framed prints. Also at the gallery, NZ’s 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition Future Islands shows architectural models displayed as ‘floating islands’.

CULTURE

ACTION Mother-of-five Becs Arahanga runs an acupuncture clinic from husband Julian Arahanga’s production company AWA Films in Miramar, and helps out (production manager, wardrobe assistant) as needed. Becs, 40, has written and directed her first short film, Laundry. ‘It’s a romcom about a mum and dad trying to have a root and getting interrupted.’ The Island Bay-shot comedy is one of 55 local and global shorts screening at nationwide festival ShowMeShorts (The Embassy, 9–22 November; Martinborough, 11 November; Paekakariki, 12 November). Becs speaks at the Wellington Short Film Talk (12 November).

THE PERFECT PAIR

MULTI-LAYERED

ART-BEAT

Pat Vinaccia – an Island Bay property developer of Italian descent – bought, revamped and in 2015 reopened the Empire cinema in Island Bay. What could be a better venue for the nationwide Cinema Italiano Festival (1–14 November) than a suburb known 150 years ago as Wellington’s ‘Little Italy’ fishing village?

Twenty films include a digitally re-mastered version of Roman Holiday (1953), starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Run from Auckland, Cinema Italiano last year replaced the defunct Italian Film Festival.

The Maori Sidesteps isn’t just a popular quartet with a live act riffing on Maori Showbands of yore. Its eponymous web series, written by members Rob Mokaraka (above) and Jamie McCaskill, is a self-referential but fictionalised comedy about four fullas from Porirua attempting to make it as a Maori showband.

The first series has been nominated for Best Ensemble, Best Narrative Show, Best Actor (Cohen Holloway), and Best Director (Tamati Kawha) at November’s NZ WebFest. Season two has just been shot.

If you’ve ever wondered what goes on inside Toi Poneke Arts Centre on Abel Smith Street, you can find out without even leaving your desk. Carver and prop-maker Terence Turner, industrial and WOW designer Dylan Mulder and jeweller Vaune Mason are among the creatives featured in a twominute video made by production company Flying Saucer for Toi Poneke’s new website.

MUSIC UP CLOSE

2018 CONCERT SEASON

Anderson & Roe / Phantasm / Alex Ross / Bianca Andrew STROMA / Heath Quartet / Borodin Quartet & more!

Core Funder

2018 SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW OPEN Your Year-Long Festival of Music | Tickets from $26 chambermusic.co.nz/2018

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

CULTUR AL DIRECTORY

GOOD TIME, NOT A LONG TIME: SHOW ME SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL The line-up for New Zealand’s premier international short film festival includes 55 short films from Aotearoa and around the world.

Enjoy screenings, attend workshops and filmmaker Q&As, participate in networking events and meet international guests at The Embassy.

Book tickets at www.eventcinemas.co.nz.

9–22 Nov, The Embassy, 10 Kent Terrace.

(04) 384 7657 showmeshorts.co.nz

P S E U D O E C HO & T H E NA RCS – L IV E !

Aussie 80s pop sensations Pseudo Echo & Kiwi favourites The Narcs turn back the clock for one very special night in Wellington. All the hits like Funky Town, A Beat For You, Listening, Diamonds On China, Heart & Soul & more! Plus guest DJ spinning 80s classics.

Saturday December 9, San Fran, 171 Cuba St. Tickets at eventfinda.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL OF DANCE 50TH ANNIVERSARY GRADUATION SEASON Celebrating 50 years of achievement, our national dance school presents a season of visionary choreography.

VALERIE BOS / LUKE KELLY Transitional States, Images & Objects, Valerie Bos. Navigators, Luke Kelly. Art at Home, Artist Floortalk 4pm Sat 28 October.

Frances Hodgkins & the Field Family in newSPACE.

Performances will feature classical and contemporary students of the New Zealand School of Dance alongside dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Work by Michel Tuffery, Paul Forrest and local artists available to purchase. Extended hours over the Kāpiti Arts Trail weekends. Free entry.

24–25 November, St James Theatre.

Tickets via Ticketek

Until 26 November, Open: Tues–Sat; 10am–4pm, Sun 1–4pm.

20 Mahara Place, Waikanae

NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET PLAYS BEETHOVEN

CULTURE FOR CHRISTMAS

The Goethe-Institut proudly hosts NZ’s leading chamber ensemble in a concert of string quartet works by Beethoven.

Regarded as the pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire, NZSQ will play two of Beethoven’s works, offering insights into their composition and significance in the history of classical music. Book now, seats are limited.

Art Zone is a quality publication that stimulates the imagination and invigorates the creative. Offering a comprehensive coverage of New Zealand’s art world – it’s an ongoing exhibition in every issue. For artists, collectors, enthusiasts and gallery frequenters Art Zone is the perfect choice.

24 November, 5.30pm Goethe-Institut, 150 Cuba Street.

(04) 385 6924 30

A subscription to Art Zone $ 30.50; a year’s worth of joy – priceless.

NON-ESSENTIAL ITEMS FOR MODERN DAY LIVING

www.mooma.co.nz

GOODNESS 19 college st wellington

131 jackson st petone

goodness.co.nz

N AT I O N A L TREASURE ‘I've always loved this one,’ says David Alsop, ‘made near Tokoroa in 1972 (a good year) at a rest area I remember stopping at myself as a child.’ He’s talking about an Ans Westra photograph showing ‘all of the guys and dogs in the image piled out of the car.’ Dressed in denim, swannies and tartan, the men lounge against the car, the road curving away behind them, taking no notice of the camera.

Later this month an exhibition of Ans Westra's work will open at Suite to mark the 60th anniversary of her arrival in New Zealand. ‘This is one of the most important exhibitions I’ve worked on,’ says Alsop, director of Suite and manager of Westra’s print archive and copyright. ‘I wanted to ensure this exhibition paid tribute to the remarkable gift she has given New Zealanders via her photographs.’

Westra has recorded the most comprehensive photo documentation of Kiwi culture by a single artist.

At 21 Westra left Holland, moved to Wellington and joined a camera club. Uninterested in posed scenes, she quickly developed a knack for capturing everyday life. Her ability to show the unique character of New Zealand set her apart. In 1998 Westra was awarded the Companion of the Order of New Zealand Merit for services to photography.

The exhibition includes several images and prints that have never been seen publicly. Also reproduced are works made by Westra in her darkroom, some dating back to 1960.

Suite is also celebrating the completion of a three-year project with the National Library of New Zealand to digitise 150,000 of Westra’s images. Previously, access was restricted to viewing proof sheets in plastic folders. While it was a huge undertaking, David says, ‘It’s great to know that the public can now access this collection.’

HOME: 60 Years of Ans Westra opens at Suite Gallery, Cuba Street, Wellington 29 November 2017.

Ans Westra, Petone wharf, Wellington, 1989 32

For the sweetest dreams.

Beautiful new Castle bed linen & cushions in-store & online now.

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havana bar 32a wigan st, wellington 384 7039 _______________________________

Trade and Exchange (hoard anything you can’t download) 2017 (detail). Courtesy of the artist.

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Methy business Methamphetamine (‘P’) is destroying families around the country. Two men who are tired of watching its effect on their community talk to LAURA PITCHER about how they have taken matters into their own hands.

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ission impossible became ‘ossible’ one Sunday afternoon in August. A few blokes in high-vis vests took to the streets with large rolls of red tape. From Palmerston North to Porirua, they taped over every ‘P’ on every road sign they saw. Their aim is to take on New Zealand’s methamphetamine problem, one P at a time. Paraparaumu became ‘ara araumu’ and Kapiti ‘Ka iti’, which annoyed the council and intrigued the locals. The men behind the tape say it is just one in the first of their efforts to rid New Zealand communities of P. They are Hohepa Thompson and Dennis Makalio, Kapiti coast men who have taken matters into their own hands because they believe government departments are failing to properly educate New Zealanders about P and support those affected by it.

For both men, P has been impossible to ignore.

Thompson watched the Class A drug transform his cousin into someone unrecognisable. He is now serving a life sentence for murder. ‘He used to be the cool cousin,’ says Thompson, ‘the one everyone used to look up to’. In an unlikely twist, Thompson’s brotherin-law was also murdered by someone on P. Makalio has had similar experiences watching the effects of the drug on his community. He is a senior member of the Porirua Mongrel Mob, a gang which has been linked to the distribution of the drug. He says many of his friends have died from P addiction, and suggests that ‘P is such an easy money maker for the Mongrel Mob and Black Power that they can’t stop’.

Their stories are of the faces, families and heartbreak behind New Zealand methamphetamine statistics. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, New Zealanders are among the highest users of methamphetamine in the world. There is a reason for this. Our remote location and lack of land borders mean that other hard drugs make it into the country irregularly. Methamphetamine, however, can

be cooked anywhere. New Zealanders’ handiness and can-do attitude have unfortunately made us excellent meth cooks.

It’s also relatively easy to get your hands on the recipe. Whitcoulls and Paperplus currently stock The Anarchists Cookbook, which has it. Or you can Google it. According to Makalio, P is now half the price it once was, and in some parts of New Zealand it is cheaper to buy than marijuana.

The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust says P is now the biggest reason parents are losing custody of their kids. Thompson and Makalio, like many others, believe the issue is spinning out of control. But official Government statistics suggest otherwise. The most recent figures from the 2015/16 New Zealand Health Survey suggest the number of amphetamine users fell from 2.7% of the population in 2003 to 1.1% in 2014. But the survey on which the figures are based doesn’t factor in people in prison, in hospital or homeless, making some people sceptical of their accuracy. Ross Bell from the New Zealand Drug Foundation says, ‘Everyone is suspicious. But we have to remember we trusted this data when it said New Zealand had a high rate. There’s no point in arguing about percentages. The issue here is that we have some very complicated health issues that we are hoping the police will fix.’ New Zealand’s approach to fighting methamphetamine currently allocates 80% of funding to law enforcement and 20% to addiction support services. Makalio says this is putting addicts on a threeto six-month waiting list for treatment. ‘Enough is enough. When people put their hand out, you need to help.’ Out of frustration, he and his wife, Liz Makalio, have started NZ P Pull. The organisation offers weekly walk-in clinics hosted by previous addicts and a 24/7 support group on Facebook.

The first walk-in clinic opened just over a year ago at Liz’s work, Wesley Community Action in Porirua.

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Since then, they have opened about 10 more around the North Island. In Porirua alone they have had nearly 130 people walk in the door. The youngest to visit the clinic was 10 years old, the eldest approaching 70.

The clinics’ work has recently been recognised with a Supreme Business Award, something Makalio attributes to his and his wife’s knowing ‘what works for Porirua by knowing the community’. Now they are looking ahead to their next step: education.

As a high school teacher, Thompson is also passionate about drug education. This is behind collaboration between his gallery in Otaki, Hori Gallery, and NZ P Pull. Thompson says the red-tape campaign was designed to raise awareness of the issue. Once people were listening, the plan was to follow up with education and support through NZ P Pull. The timing of the campaign was also strategically close to the recent election. ‘P has been a hot potato issue that no one really wants to touch this election,’ says Thompson. ‘Local councils don’t want to touch it and the Government have dropped the ball on it also.’

They received no trouble from the police although the campaign was legally vandalism. But Thompson is disappointed that he’s had no support from them either. While he says every policeman he has spoken to is supportive of the campaign in person, their media department declined a photo opportunity involving the ‘P’ in police. ‘This was a real kick in the teeth’ he says. ‘I couldn’t get over it. What a crock of shit’. He concludes, ‘It would probably have been easier to ask someone like Puma to do it on a pair of shoes.’

The campaign ended with an organised protest outside the Beehive in September, where Thompson met with a wide variety of supporters. One of them was a wealthy 40-something woman whose weekly wine nights had turned into pipe nights. ‘With this issue, it doesn’t matter if you’re in poverty or right up there. Although many Wellingtonians may not think they have contact with the drug, they do.’ He says it is rampant in ‘places like the Hutt, Petone and Porirua.’ Thomp-

son wants to emphasise how universal the issue is. He shares stories of meth-dealers on Victoria Street and teenagers smoking P without realising it by mistaking the pipe for a marijuana pipe.

Thompson and his team of red-tape go-getters raised just over $5,000 for NZ P Pull through the campaign from donations and art sales in Thompson’s gallery. But both he and Makalio agree the lack of official funding and support for P addiction services is disappointing.

He says, ‘If Dennis and I can create this much awareness with no budget, imagine what we could do with some money behind us.’

The perception of a lack of help is accurate, says Ross Bell. He suggests that the long waiting times for treatment in New Zealand leave addicts with only two options: keep using or kill themselves. ‘Having to ration health services should make everyone angry,’ he says. ‘This issue not only affects the meth addicts but also their family and friends.’ The solution, he proposes, is to flip the 80/20 funding from law to health services.

In the meantime, Thompson and Makalio will continue to do what they do best: get shit done. Don’t be surprised if you see Makalio, with his full-face tattoos and a t-shirt reading ‘Don’t meth around’, at charity events around town. He plans on ‘gatecrashing’ other campaigns to talk about addiction, as he regards issues such as domestic violence and gambling as closely linked to the P epidemic. Thompson is also already planning his next campaign. As to whether any more red tape will be involved, he says ‘You will just have to wait and see.’

While Bell says their work is admirable, communityrun rehab initiatives are only needed in a system where addicts are slipping through the cracks. ‘On one hand we should applaud groups like NZ P Pull for their work.

But we need to also acknowledge they are popping up because of health system failures’ says Bell. ‘Traditional treatment centres have lacked the ability to change their model to meet demand. Isn’t it a shame these groups have had to do that for them?’

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Exposure Exhibition Massey University 10–4pm

350+ Graduates 04.11.17 to 18.11.17

Exposure Exhibition Massey University Wellington Exposure Fashion Show 10 and 11 November 4pm and 7pm Purchase tickets at eventfinda.co.nz

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#EXP17 @masseyexposure exposure17.com

COLUMN

Greek tragedy

BY S H A RO N G R E A L LY

A tale of two sisters who had their understanding of their family's history changed forever by a gob of spit.

I

t is fashionable to seek to discover who you actually, really are, by having your individual DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) tested, to shed light on your family’s genetic history.

The DNA encodes all the instructions for the development of a living thing, as a member of its species and as a distinctive individual, influenced by a particular combination of its parents’ and thus its forebears’ DNA. Inexpensive genetic analysis of biological samples is now extensively available by mail order. It compares distinctive patterns in the DNA samples sent in by customers with vast databases analysing previous samples, checking for similarities and matches.

These matches can confirm recent, close genetic connections (notably parentage) pretty accurately, with a high degree of probability. They can make much looser connections with larger patterns in the databases of information, such as ethnic origins and migrations, with limited probability or certainty.

Globally, millions of eager people have paid up, sending off their saliva samples in kits to labs for DNA analysis.

Statistics from databases and algorithms are used to make estimates and projections from the results, about their ancestors and their origins. But, as our story demonstrates, the effect can be to open a can of worms for people whose ethnic identity is an important part of their self-concept.

Irini grew up in Johnsonville, knowing she was Greek to her core. Speaking only Greek at home, she didn't learn to speak English until she went to school. Both her parents were immigrants from Cyprus, and Irini’s mother was sent with her sisters to arranged marriages in New Zealand. They all lived surrounded by constant reminders of their Greekness from the doilies on the tables to the icons watching your every move, and Greek flags around the house. There were the family photos on the walls. And the food. Always the Greek food, from the vege garden, and olives from their own trees. Their family had celebrated traditional occasions such as religious ceremonies and name days, always with the extended family, around tables laden with delicious delicacies. Irini recalls flaounes, a Greek bread filled with a special Cypriot cheese, at Easter, and melt-in-your-mouth kourabiedes biscuits at Christmas. Greek hospitality is legendary. When Irini’s friends would come over, they were plied with food. They had never come across garlic before, or olive oil – hard to believe now, but her parents used to have to buy it from the chemist.

Irini's sister Athena decided to have her DNA tested, just for fun. She was surprised by the result; the flag it raised was not a Greek one. Athena got on the phone to Irini with the

dreadful truth: ‘We're not Greek’. Athena took it calmly, but the news sent Irini into an identity crisis. ‘I got a real fright.

I've always felt more Greek than Kiwi. But I've discovered I've got no Greek blood in me.’ The test results indicate the family’s DNA is 42% West Asian (Turkey and thereabouts), 26% Italian 18% Sephardic Jewish, and 13% Middle Eastern– a ‘terrorist’ as a family tease put it.

Irini started questioning her identity and her culture. ‘Is it all a lie? It feels a bit like what it might feel to be adopted.’ After a lifetime of belonging, she felt a sense of unbelonging. As a daughter and now a mother, Irini has woven traditional Greek practices into the fabric of her family’s life. But now all this was called into question. Was her daughter still Greek? Talk about a Greek tragedy: love, loss, pride, relationships crumbling, pain.

It's taken tears, and much soul-searching, but Irini has come to the conclusion that, after all, she is Greek! In a moment of anagorisis, or insight, she realised that her ancestors way back chose to be Greek, to live in Cyprus; so that is what she is, her fate, her heritage. Traditions and societal values are what shape our identity.

Perhaps the DNA results would have been less disturbing if they had been represented more frankly, less dramatically. Irini has had emails from Norway, from people claiming to be 'family' on the basis of some common DNA. The tests pick up DNA links with other people worldwide who've been tested. But not much can be concluded confidently from them.

Back in October 2007, the reputable journal Science queried common claims about ancestry from mail-order genetic testing companies. First, kit samples include only a small percentage of a person’s genome; and then the databases cover only a small (tested) part of the global population. The test results can tell you where in the world there are some people who share some of your DNA now – as distinct from where your ancestors came from, or their racial or social identity. Any conclusions about the ‘origins’ or ‘lives’ of ancestors are inferences from historic knowledge rather than the test results.

And which ancestors? A specific parental line of descent can be traced with some precision, but ten generations back you have more than a thousand ancestors. What these tests cannot deliver, then, is any certainty about the ethnic makeup of one’s ancestry. And conclusions from them also disregard historical shifts in ethnic and social identity – the basis on which Irini reclaimed her Greek heritage.

Before you send off that sample, be sure you really want to open that can of worms.

* names have been changed 38

Family portraits in Wellington reflect the changing shape of our society. Statistics show that the ‘typical’ nuclear family is still very much alive, but that many more have single, child-free, or other dynamics. A one-size-fits-all approach to families no longer cuts the mustard statistically and we need to adopt a many-sizes-fits-many approach from here on out.

Statistics show families that include both biological parents are no longer the norm.

Back in 2008 couples (including both empty nesters and an increasing number of couples choosing to remain child-free) without children at home overtook those with children at home for the first time since at least World War II. Statistics New Zealand’s 2013 family and household projections show this trend is likely to continue, as is that towards more one-parent families.

We couldn’t capture everyone; the census already attempts to do that for us. So Capital looked into the families behind modern statistics. We then talked to four Wellington families that either fit or break those dominant trends, and asked what the word ‘family’ means to them.

F E AT U R E

Whānau files W R I T T E N BY M E LO DY T H O M A S P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N T H O N Y G R E E N

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M ari a, Nic hol as and El l i ot Ro be r tso n

O

pinions differ over the right time to start a family, but you’d probably agree that a 36-year-old woman six months into the ‘dark zone’ following a breakup is in a less ideal position than most. Nevertheless, that’s exactly how Maria Robertson’s little family began.

‘It was really tough and a period of genuine, deep sadness… But amongst it all I thought, “You know what, it can’t be the end of my wishes about family and children’,” she says, ‘And I’m so grateful, because if I’d left it until I felt better, possibly it would have been too late.’

At the time, Maria was commuting to Auckland each week work with a timber company. Her boss, ‘a middle-aged, religious white male with two children, a dog and VW Passat’ was not as supportive of her decision as he might have been.

‘When I told him – as a matter of courtesy – that I was about to start the process of trying to have children, the first words out of his mouth were ‘How long is that going to take?’ Followed by ‘I’ll have to talk to HR.’ I am a better leader and employer for having experienced that reaction,’ she says.

More than a decade later, Maria is Deputy Chief Executive at the Department of Internal Affairs and Mum to two boys, Elliot (12) and Nicholas (10), conceived through a

sperm donor who was anonymous for a few weeks before Maria made contact and he too was brought into the familial fold. Having never met her own biological father, Maria sees this as a brilliant outcome for her boys.

‘I’ve always had this question in my own mind about what aspects of me are like my father… and I never wanted any children I had to feel that,’ she says.

While Maria’s job is hugely demanding, she says she has always prioritized family – which means being home in time to help with homework and eat as a family, then usually getting back to work emails and other tasks after the boys are in bed.

‘I have realised, without question, that family and career are not, and must never be, mutually exclusive. I will look back on my life proud of the balance I have struck as far as humanly possible,’ she says.

On paper Maria’s household would be described as ‘single-parent’, but she doesn’t consider herself a ‘solo mum’.

‘I’m Elliot and Nicholas’ mum. I’m Maria.

I’m a daughter, niece, friend, colleague, coach, boss, peer, etc. I’m lots of things.

None of those things by itself defines me.

That said, I’ve been so strongly supported by my amazing mum. She is an outstanding woman. I also have an amazing network of great friends. I’m anything but solo,’ she says.

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Family feature

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Saya Has hi m oto and B e n Te m pl e

W

hile you probably shouldn’t put too much stock by the things kids tell you they’ll do when they are adults, sometimes their predictions are spot on.

As was one from little Saya Hashimoto, who announced as a child that she would never have kids of her own. Now 36 years old, Saya is one of a number of women choosing to remain child-free.

‘I’ve never wanted children, I’ve always just wanted to be an aunty. I love little babies so much. I love holding them and I love to be involved – I just don’t want to take them home,’ she says.

Saya is aware that many people don’t understand her position. She’s had strangers tell her she’s selfish or that she’ll inevitably change her mind, and her own grandmother used to share dreams of Saya carrying twins as if they were premonitions. But the people who matter – her close friends, her mother and her partner Ben – do.

‘In my previous relationship… we both skirted around it until it became a problem. So I said to Ben very early on in the piece, “What are your thoughts on having kids? I don’t want to have kids” and he said ‘“I don’t want to either”,’ she says.

Saya has read a lot about the reasons women and couples choose to remain child-free, and says that while some do so because they don’t like children or because they themselves were only children and feel unconfident around kids and babies, this is not the case for her.

‘It’s almost as deep to me as a gender thing, like I’m just not built that way,’ she says. ‘I’ve had friends say to me that they would look at women with kids on the bus and feel this ache or feel jealous and I just have no idea what that would feel like at all.”

In defining ‘family’, Saya describes a series of concentric rings, with Ben and herself plus her brother and a few very close friends in the centre, surrounded by a ring of other close friends and blood relatives, then other, less essential relationships radiating outwards from there.

Notably, Saya does not equate ‘family’ with blood ties.

‘Family is the people you choose… that feel like home for you. There’s a real joy in that. It’s not like they’re stuck with you because they can’t un-choose you.

Every day they choose you,’ she says.

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Roseanne Leota, Ie re m i a Tuiva it i and Is i a h, Leo, Sharqui l l e, Ho Roym ana, Kanei hana, Ie re m i a, Si va i , Dani i, Carol i ne, Troy and Ti ana

W

hen we roll up to Roseanne and Ieremia’s home in Raumati South, no-one is quite sure what to expect. We know we’re here to meet a big family, and the first of many surprises is that the seven children who greet us with tea and a spread of biscuits are not all of them. In fact the four eldest are running late and won’t make it in time for our photo.

From the ‘baby’ Tiana (aged 9) up to the firstborn, Isiah (age 27), there are 11 kids in total, the first five born to Roseanne’s previous partner. Eighteen years ago, after they split and while she was living in Australia, Roseanne was sharing her poetry in an online chat group called Manalounge for Pacific people when a Samoan man from Los Angeles started posting back.

‘I was born in Samoa… [but] my parents split up and my Mum and I moved to the States. So I grew up in south central Los Angeles where my exposure to Samoan culture was through my parents and the little community we had through church. Then… my mum passed pretty young and I lost contact with Pacific peoples,’ says Ieremiah.

A decade later, keen to reconnect with his roots and missing the sapasui, koko alaisa and kopai his Mum used to make, Ieremiah went online to find a Samoan partner – and found Roseanne. It was 1999, ‘when a picture took 25 minutes to load’, years before seemingly everyone would be looking to the internet to find love.

The couple chatted for a few months before Roseanne decided to take matters into her own hands and bought a ticket to the US. A

few months after that, she was pregnant with baby number six – ‘and I was locked in,’ laughs Ieremiah.

The couple moved to New Zealand, living with Roseanne’s former partner and all the kids in in Cannons Creek for 10 weeks before finding their own place. Their already large family continued to grow.

While both Roseanne and Ieremiah grew up in deeply religious families, they describe themselves as atheist and agnostic, so the size of their family isn’t the direct result of religious belief. Perhaps, though, Roseanne’s desire for a big family can be traced back to her Catholic roots, as well as her reluctance to terminate a pregnancy.

‘In every single one of our first three or four pregnancies I was like, “Ok look, let’s get an abortion, we can’t afford to have another baby”,’ says Ieremiah, ‘One time we even drove to the appointment.’

But ‘it wasn’t in me’ to go through with it, says Roseanne.

After four, the final two, born in January and December of the same year, were not questioned.

Now grandparents, they hope that the values they’ve worked hard to instil in their children will continue in perpetuity.

‘Someone once told me that if you wanna live forever you need to have kids,’ says Ieremiah, ‘Family doesn’t have to be a blood relation, it’s the ability to pass on generations of values, culture and innately what is part and parcel of each of us.’

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F E AT U R E

Na ta l i e Keegan and Ryan, Ar t and ‘ Fo nzi e’ P re bbl e

N

atalie Keegan and Ryan Prebble are one of those couples who met and ‘just knew’ they were right for each other.

So they were both stoked when, nine months into their relationship, they got pregnant with their first son Art (now 5).

Two years later, their second child Fonzie was delivered at home by Ryan and a close friend, when he decided to arrive before the midwife did.

If you’d asked the couple six months ago if their family was complete, you’d have received different answers. As Nat puts it, she was content with her two beautiful boys but ‘a combination of hormones and not wanting to let go of the baby phase of life’ led her to bring up the idea of a third.

‘Ryan promptly said, “Not keen” and I agreed it wasn’t a good idea to get pregnant again. And then three months later we did,’ she says.

So in January their little nuclear family will become that much bigger. It’s taken a little time to get used to the idea – and especially to come to terms with the inevitable financial and logistical pressures – but the couple are now firmly in the ‘excited’ camp.

49

Ryan himself is the third of four boys, born nine minutes before his twin brother, after his parents (who already had two boys) decided to try for a girl.

He can’t wait to watch the sibling relationships develop.

‘When I see our boys loving each other and having heaps of fun together, I remember back to what it was like with my three brothers and it makes me feel excited for them to have another lifelong friend,’ he says.

Nat is looking forward to giving birth – ideally at home again, though this time with a midwife present.

‘I can’t wait for that moment when you look at your child for the first time and everything feels so right. Nothing beats that,’ she says.

Family is obviously very important to this couple, with Nat describing it as ‘the foundation to life. Without our support and our community we would be nothing.’

Given the couple’s history it’s worth asking if there’s a chance their family still has room to grow.

‘Not keen’, laughs Ryan.

w w w . c a u g h l e y . n z â „ 5 7 G h u z n e e St

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FASH ION

Twinning

BY M EGA N B L E N K A R N E

I

am my mother’s twin. There’s a photo of her, aged 16.

She stands looking demurely into the camera, dressed in her prettiest outfit for her school dance. It looks like a photo of me in the most convincing historical re-enactment ever. Realising that my Mum and I looked so alike was, like, totally the worst thing that had ever happened in my 17 years. But with the passage of time, and the settling of hormones, I eventually made the exciting discovery that I could rip off all her best looks – and that’s exactly what I’ve done.

Mum in the sixties, in mini-dresses and tights – check. Mum in the seventies, in major flares and cotton sundresses –witness my flares above, 100% inspired by Mum. Mum in the eighties, rocking the Fido Dido t-shirt – stole it, made it my own, basked in the compliments. It’s like my Mum was acting as my stylist 10 years before I was born, and she just kept role-modelling the looks for me. Luckily for me, Mum loves it when I copy her style, and has not yet asked for compensation for her years of hard work.

However strongly your Mum influenced your style, pretty soon you start to choose your own family. Your

51

closest friends become a part of your most significant social infrastructure, a new family that can influence your style even more than the people who raised you.

Apparently, choosing to dress like your friends allows you to tap into the ego-affirming benefit of mirroring – because we prefer people who are already like us – and to avoid the vulnerability of being the odd one out.

The Japanese take this to its cutest conclusion via their futago code, which can be roughly interpreted as “twin look”. I can confirm that nothing is more magical than seeing two adults dressed in fully matching Disney-themed outfits. While the rest of us are busy suppressing our desire to wear matching top to toe Mickey merchandise, those dudes were having an incredibly joyful and unselfconscious outing to DisneySea. The more I think about how our relationships influence the way we dress, the more I see our twinning as a celebration of the underlying relationships. So, next time your mate turns up to brunch in an outfit that matches yours, remember that what she’s really saying is ‘I love ya᾿.

y

Use

ringa a t r s! u o

Name: Makayla Age: 9 Where do you go to school?

Churton Park School.

What makes you happy?

Making my little brother laugh.

What do you want to be when you’re grown up?

An actress.

What is your favourite spot in Wellington?

PappaRich restaurant.

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Art Direction: Shalee Fitzsimmons Photography: Luke Browne Assited by: Laura Pitcher, Lauren Anderson, Jenni Filman Girls care of Kirsty Bunny

53

Name: Josie Age: 10 Where do you go to school?

Clyde Quay School.

What makes you happy?

Food!

If you had one wish, what would it be?

To get a pet.

What is your favourite spot in Wellington?

Oriental Bay.

Miron wears: Triangle fluttering earrings – $22.99 – Trade Aid, Littlehorn Flamingo dress – $69.99 – Bambini Camryn wears: Holly Yashi Gold & Stone Earrings – $93 – Lazulé, White stripe tank – $29.99 – Radicool kids Katie wears: Kitsu twizzler hoop earrings – $68 – Mooma, Sidewalk denim vest – $64.99 – Radicool Kids Delfina wears: Holly Yashi gold hoops – $114 – Lazulé, Eve's Sister Mia Crew – $49.95 – Bambini 54

SECTION HEADER

Name: Delfina Age: 11 Where do you go to school?

Miramar North School.

What makes you happy?

Art and crafts What do you want to be when you’re grown up?

An optometrist.

What is your favourite food?

A traditional Thai snack called Kanom-Crok

Delfina wears: Lucilla Gray Margo earrings – $79 – The Service Depot, Eve's Sister Mia Crew – $49.95 – Bambini 55

Name: Miron Age: 13 Where do you go to school?

Wellington East Girls' College What makes you happy?

Being with friends and family What do you want to be when you’re grown up?

Children’s doctor If you had one wish, what would it be?

To be successful in modelling

Miron wears: Elise Brimer Fritters – $45 – Mooma 56

Josie wears: Meadowlark Petal burst Earrings – $489 – The Service Depot, RYK Love Your Mother tee – $44.99 – Bambini Makayla wears: Kitsu orange diamond hoop earring – $68 – Mooma, Littlehorn waves dress – $64.99 – Bambini Delfina wears: Fringe earrings – $29 – Goodness, Munster Freedom jersey tee – $49.99 – Bambini Camryn wears: Elise Brimer Fritters – $45 – Mooma, White stripe tank – $29.99 – Radicool kids, Munster vintage jacket – $84.99 – Bambini 57

FASH ION B R I E F S

SEW GOOD A significant amount of clothing donated to St Vincent de Paul Op Shops can't be sold or stored long term, so ends up in landfill or being used for rags. This costs SVDP hundreds of dollars that could be spent on their welfare services, besides being bad for the environment. Re Sew, which launches on 7 Nov, is their new up-cycling sewing initiative to turn such clothes into something new or repair them for resale. The initiative will also broaden SVDP’s work experience program for welfare clients, new immigrants and refugees, and their bridging programs.

OVER ARD-CHIEVER

LOU’S SHOES

EXPOSE YOURSELF

Most fashionable All Black of all time Ardie Savea (Cap #13) has just launched a clothing label – Ardie Savea Clothing. The born and bred Wellingtonian, who was 1st XV Captain and Head Prefect of Rongotai College, began the clothing brand with his long-time partner Saskia Hartmann-Hechenberger last month.

Saskia, who has a business background, will manage the brand while Ardie works around his rugby commitments. The streetwear label says it offers simple design, effective colours and effortless comfort.

What to do when you can’t find the perfect shoe? Shoemaker and tutor Lou Clifton can teach you how to make your own. She is relocating her popular venture, where participants learn to make their very own pair of shoes, from Dunedin to 247 Riddiford Street in Newtown.

The Shoe School will be celebrating with an opening launch on Saturday 4 November.

Massey University textiles student Sydney Lash has mastered cutting-edge techniques including magnetic sculpture and digital embroidery. See two of her dresses displayed as a single work, Magnetite, at Exposure (4–18 November): Massey’s University’s annual showcase for graduating creative-arts students in multiple fields. After creating a painting using magnets, Lash digitally uploaded them to create a pattern for a printed silk dress. She made another dress from neoprene (wetsuit material), featuring sculptures on the shoulders made of magnetic sand. The separate Exposure Fashion runway show is on 10 & 11 November.

稀攀戀爀愀渀漀

䌀甀爀愀琀攀

娀愀欀攀琀 ☀ 倀氀漀瘀攀爀

匀椀爀攀渀

䴀攀最愀渀 匀愀氀洀漀渀

䌀漀搀攀

58

䰀攀洀漀渀 吀爀攀攀

Check out our pop up shop

For a limited time you can also find a great selection of your favourite products at our pop up shop at 99 Willis Street, Wellington. You can find us there from October 19th to January 19th. We look forward to seeing you.

janedaniels.co.nz — 97c Customhouse Quay — 04 473 7400

tradeaid.org.nz

Beauty begins in the belly

The Beauty Chef Organic range of super food skincare supplements.

Certified organic, biodynamic, local and fair trade. www.beaute.co.nz Level 1, 99 Willis St, PH (04) 385 3655 250 Lambton Quay, PH (04) 471 1957

LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

MAKING WAY A wider range of housing types and medium-density housing in the city has been proposed for the Hutt Valley. Hutt City Council voted last month to approve the public notification of a proposed change to the District Plan. The change would allow medium-density residential and commercial development in nine carefully selected centres with access to transport, shopping, parks and schools. The proposed centres are Stokes Valley, Taita, Naenae, Avalon/Park Ave, Epuni, Waterloo, Alicetown, Waiwhetu/Woburn and Wainuiomata.

EAT YOUR GREENS

INNOVATION NATION

OLD B OYS, NEW PLAY

Janice and Janice, Principal and Deputy Principal of Karori West Normal School, are hosts of the new Karori Farmers’ Market. The first weekly market was held in October and market organiser Wilson Cain, who also mans a vege stall, says there was a great turnout with almost all the stalls selling out. Locals said the fruit and veges (which come mainly from Horowhenua and Gisborne) were well priced and they enjoyed the convenience of a market in their own suburb.

Thermal imaging of back yards, indoor gardening and urban rooftop ‘biodiversity hotspots’ have been proposed by Wellington finalists in the 2017 Conservation Innovation Awards. Seven Wellingtonians made the finals, including Jordan Munn, Gerald Dickinson, Chris Fink and Pavel Plotinnov. Designed to help innovators fast-track their ideas to development, the awards cover three categories – Engaging young people and communities, Predator Free New Zealand 2050, and an Open category. A prize package of $25,000 will be awarded to each of the three category winners on 22 November.

Hutt Old Boys Marist Club Rooms in Lower Hutt are the venue for Desperate Hutt Wives, a new comedy directed and produced

by Hutt-fave Geraldine Brophy.

Written by local playwright Louise Proudfoot it offers an ‘over the fence’ peek at suburban life in the valley. Presented by Nextstage Theatre, the show opens later this month, playing from 29 November to 9 December.

Fine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2]Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes television advertisements flash text fine print in camouflagic colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to rea Fine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2]Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes television a colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to rea Fine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2]Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy).

Sometimes television advertisements flash text fine print in camouflagic colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to reaine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2]Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes television advertisements flash text fine print in camouflagic colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to rea Fine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2] Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes television a colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to rea Fine print, small print, or “mouseprint” is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service.[1] The larger print that is used in conjunction with fine print by the merchant often has the effect of deceiving the consumer into believing the offer is more advantageous than it really is, via a legal technicality which requires full disclosure of all (even unfavorable) terms or conditions, but does not specify the manner (size, typeface, coloring, etc.) of disclosure. There is strong evidence that suggests the fine print is not read by the majority of consumers.[2]Fine print may say the opposite of what the larger print says. For example, if the larger print says “pre-approved” the fine print might say “subject to approval.” [3] Especially in pharmaceutical advertisements, fine print may accompany a warning message, but this message is often neutralized by the more eye-catching positive images and pleasant background music (eye candy). Sometimes television advertisements flash text fine print in camouflagic colors, and for notoriously brief periods of time, making it difficult or impossible for the viewer to rea

Moving to 38 Onepu Road this March

Buying or selling property?

Use our experience.

We SEE the small print.

30 Years

PARTNERS Ramona Rasch LLB David Leong LLB 60 1st Floor Kilbirnie Plaza 30 Bay Road | Kilbirnie, Wellington | Tel 04 387 7831 | www.raschleong.co.nz

S I M P LY ST U N N I N G M E AT S

Where Nature Blends With Nurture Our fresh, hand-picked botanicals combined with the purest, local water is what gives Karven spirits their distinctive character. Add to that our Master distiller, who has refined his techniques over twentyfive years across New Zealand and Europe and you’ve got a product that is truly a cut above.

Dry Gin, Vermouth, Amaro, Absinthe, Spiced Rum

facebook.com/karvengin @karvencraftdistiller

Buy in-store or online www.prestonsmasterbutchers.co.nz WELLINGTON

PALMERSTON NORTH

PORIRUA

@karvencraftdist

K A RVE N www.karven.co.nz

Gin chin We celebrate this surge in popularity with a close look at five craft distilleries from around New Zealand, none of them more than four years old, each with a fresh take on a very old spirit.

GRIFF BRISTED reports.

LIQUID THOUGHTS

B

y definition gin is a clear alcoholic spirit distilled from grain or malt and flavoured with juniper berries. The ‘botanicals’ are other flavours such as citrus or coriander (Bombay Sapphire has 10) used to enhance the gin.

Traditionally juniper is dominant.

The earliest report of a juniper-flavoured alcoholic substance one would drink is from 77AD, which makes gin nearly 2,000 years old. The gins we know today have evolved from a Dutch spirit called Genever (Dutch courage anyone?). In 1690 King William of Orange passed a law actively encouraging the mass production of gin in England, helping coin the term ‘mother’s ruin’ London was flooded with cheaply produced spirits, often flavoured with turpentine.

Times have changed rapidly, and gin is now very much the spirit in vogue, with distillers producing it worldwide. It is a fashionable drink of choice for both men and women. The traditional profile of gin is being challenged and its rich history re-imagined in many different ways, highlighting the versatility of the spirit and the botanicals used in its manufacture.

We used three different tasters for our informal afternoon analysis, each chosen to provide a different insight into what tickles people’s fancy. While they knew which gins were involved in the tasting, the tasting itself was blind. These gins are all examples of contemporary styles. However the tasters remarked how different each was.

To keep it local we used Bootleggers classic tonic water for the tasting.

Bootleggers was started by former Matterhorn bartender James Waugh in his Brooklyn basement in 2011.

DAVID HUGHES Moore Wilson’s liquor store manager and resident gin expert, has spent more than 15 years in the alcohol industry. He favours a traditional juniperforward London Dry style, but agrees there are many high quality contemporary New Zealand brands.

CALEB CULLEN

is a young bartender at Hippopotamus Restaurant, in the central city QT Museum Hotel, which stocks more than 51 types of gin. He says there is a lot more variety to gin than many other spirits, suggesting that ‘vodka can be boring’.

63

RACHAEL CAUGHLEY

is one of Wellington’s young fashionistas.

Her Ghuznee St store has just celebrated its second birthday. ‘Unlike other drinks, gin is not too sweet, too bitter or too heavy, and is the perfect way to start a night being so fresh and light.’ Gin reminds her of summer afternoons spent with friends.

LIQUID THOUGHTS

JUNO

A very fresh face on the New Zealand spirit scene, Juno is the creation of husband and wife Jo and Dave James, who moved back to New Plymouth from Melbourne to begin this venture in 2015. They use pure Mt Taranaki water in their production, and Juno is created in the London Dry style – only one pass through the 350L copper still, with all the botanicals included.

Tasting notes: The distinctive black bottle immediately set Juno apart for our tasting team. They thought it was slightly more classical, with a strong juniper presence, but also a strong herbal aroma and aftertaste.

ARIKI

Rulers in ancient Polynesian feudal communities were called ‘Ariki’. The name is a nod to founding partner Sean Rota’s Pacific heritage, and the fact that New Zealand is the southernmost of the Pacific islands.

The Polynesian influence is continued in Ariki’s recipe, which uses Cook Island vanilla and Tongan coconut amongst the botanicals that flavour it.

Ariki use a custom-designed still.

Tasting notes: Ariki was one of the strongest performers on the day, with David describing it as ‘his favourite overall’ and ‘quite attractive on the nose’. The sweeter, vanilla and coconut elements were memorable.

SACRED SPRING DRY GIN

The Dancing Springs distillery in Takaka, Golden Bay, is home to Sacred Spring gin. Sacred Spring uses aquifer water from Takaka’s Te Waikoropupu Springs. With an underwater visibility of 63m it’s the clearest water ever measured anywhere in the world.

Manuka is a key flavour among their eight botanicals, which reflect careful research; more than 44 recipes were trialled during development.

Tasting notes: Sacred Spring’s packaging is very eye- catching, especially in the sunlight. ‘Fresh citrus and obvious juniper” dominated the nose and it had an oily feel in the mouth. ‘Very complex.’

REID+REID

Brothers Chris and Stew Reid were inspired by craft whiskey distilleries on a trip to Scotland and their gin was

64

influenced by Chris’s Martinborough winemaking background. They bring a sense of ‘place ’ to their gin by using local botanicals, such as horopito, manuka and kawakawa, which the brothers forage themselves. Reid+Reid attempts to find a balance between traditional and modern styles of gin.

Tasting notes: Rachael said that she “way preferred the smell” of Reid+Reid, and Caleb thought it had ‘a smooth start with a kick to finish.’ Overall the tasters thought it had strong peppery notes but was a very well balanced gin.

KARVEN

A couple of friends sitting around a bonfire on a family farm near Auckland decided to follow their dreams in 2015, when they realised that the farm had its own source of artesian water. Branded as an exceptionally smooth gin, Karven’s botanicals are nearly all sourced from within NZ, and are as fresh as possible.

Tasting notes: Karven stood out in several ways. First, all the tasters agreed that it had massive citrus and particularly sweeter ‘orangey’ notes on the nose. It was also more viscous and was described as ‘oily’ by every one of our tasters.

Beautiful Botanicals

Shop New Zealand Gin in store or online for delivery nationwide at moorewilsons.online

Gift selections ¡ Catering and private functions

You may not be able to take your family, friends or clients to the Mediterranean this Christmas but you can indulge them with the tastes of the Mediterranean instead. Choose from a range of selected gift options or have your gifts custom made. Of course our products are a wonderful gift all year round!

¡ Antipasto platters

MEDIFOODS. C O. N Z

FISHY BUSINESS

John Dory Name: John Dory Māori names: Kuparu, pukeru Scientific name: Zeus faber

jaw, shooting out the upper jaw and expanding their gill cavity to suck ’em in.

Looks like: Not one of the more attractive fish in our oceans, John Dory have a very thin, compressed oval body, a high dorsal fin with extended rays, a huge mouth, large, googly eyes and a distinctive spot in the middle of their bodies. According to legend, more than 2,000 years ago St Peter dropped a coin into the Sea of Galilee and this fish caught it. St Peter picked the fish up to retrieve his coin, leaving his fingerprints on its flesh − it is now sometimes referred to as ‘St Peter’s fish’. The John Dory’s spot serves as an ‘evil eye’ to warn off predators and also to confuse prey. Kuparu can grow to more than 60cm in length and up to 3kg, though they’re typically closer to 30–40cm and 0.8–1.5kg.

Catch: Traditionally John Dory haven’t been a heavily targeted species in Wellington, with most of them landed by accident – but from what we hear that’s changing, and local anglers targeting John Dory are doing so with some luck. John Dory are usually caught with live bait, though they’ll also go for artificial lures.

Cook: John Dory is a highly prized, flavoursome fish with medium to firm, pearlywhite flesh that is suitable for most cooking methods and stands up to strong flavours. Try it pan fried, skin-on, with a generous serving of herbs, or go for something slightly more complicated like Shaun Hill’s John Dory with potato rasam, which is delicious and easily found online.

Habitat: Mid-water to seafloor-dwelling, and found throughout New Zealand, but most common north of Cook Strait and especially north of the Bay of Plenty.

Did you know? East Coast Māori gifted John Dory to Captain James Cook on his first voyage to New Zealand in 1769 – several casks of them were pickled.

Feeds on: Sardines, young herring, pilchards and other small fish, small squid and cuttlefish. John Dory are not great swimmers, and rely on stealth and camouflage to capture their prey, stalking bait fish then in one quick motion dropping their trapdoor-like lower

If they were human they would be: capable of delivering a scathing side eye and an effective eye-roll, and with an ‘evil eye’ to boot. We can’t help but think of your typical ‘mean girl’ aka Regina George and her plastics, who are also forever stalking vulnerable prey.

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EDIBLES

I T ’ S WO ODE N S P O O N , H O O R AY !

Potentially not a combination of words you’d usually hear from a kid. However Wooden Spoon Freezery and Kaibosh Food Rescue have launched the Hooray Programme, to help kids in Wellington celebrate their birthdays! Cake batter ice cream, from which 10% of the proceeds go toward helping Kaibosh with their operations, is available at stores around New Zealand. Also, Wellington community groups receive cake batter ice cream each month to give to kids who don’t get a birthday cake!

QT XLL Wellington personality Laurent Loudeac has now spent a decade as Executive Chef at Hippopotamus, in the QT Museum Hotel, (formerly the Wellington Museum Art Hotel). Late last month he served a 10-course degustation, each course representing a year of his time at Hippo.

Loudeac’s Salmon Sashimi, My Way (still on the menu) is a must-have and was showcased at the 2015 Dilmah High Tea Challenge, which Loudeac won.

THE TRUTH

NO MEAT, SWEET

Pravda Café is introducing steak to their night-time dining options. They plan to serve the best cuts of meat available in Wellington. Executive chef Gareth Stewart has put together a menu including a choice of wagyu beef raised in New Zealand, Australia or Japan. There are also many larger cuts such as chateaubriand which are perfect for sharing with others. In Russian, Pravda means ‘truth.’

Bean Supreme have completed research which confirms what a lot of people would suspect – the vegetarian movement is gaining momentum. Of those polled nationwide 17% expect to be meat free in eight years. The study also shows that vegetarians and vegans are most frequently found to be aged 25–54, female, and, interestingly, to live in Auckland or Canterbury. Health is the main reason people gave for going vegetarian or vegan.

your urban oasis

EDIBLES

A L OA F YO U K N E A D Wellington Sourdough was born from the development of the house bread served at Whitebait. Catherine Adams still bakes it out of their kitchen, arriving at 2 am, when the maitre d’ has had a couple, and leaving at 11 am. However in midNovember Wellington Sourdough moves into new premises on the Left Bank in Cuba Mall. The nooks, crannies and alleyways of Melbourne were an inspiration for choosing the new spot. It will be open to the public and there will also be a selection of cabinet food available.

SALUT, TOAST

GUILT FREE BUSINESS

The annual celebration of Wellington (can we claim that?) wines happens on Sunday November 19, with the annual Toast Martinborough event. This year there are nine wineries and 13 caterers taking part. Five of the caterers are from Wellington, including Capitol, 3littlepigs, the Crab Shack, and House of Dumplings.

At 161 Willis St, Innocent Foods is providing locally sourced organic foods to go. They include cold-pressed juices, salads and breakfast bowls, and soup for lunch. Their organic Turkish pistachios (they charge by the kilo) are proving extremely popular. Treats like vegan Snickers slices cater to those with a sweet tooth.

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LASHINGS Meant insults in the early 90’s. But Jackie Lee, who recently moved home from working as a pastry chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant in the UK, has made them the ultimate gift. She is creating luxurious chocolate brownies, using Wellington Chocolate Factory 70% cocoa chocolate. Among the flavours are Fix & Fog PB & J, and coconut salted caramel. Currently she sells solely online, with an overnight delivery service nationwide. The brownies come packaged in a beautiful box. Find more at www.lashingsfood.com

S H E A R E R S ' TA B L E

A trio of ice blocks

BY N I K K I & J O R DA N S H E A R E R

A

n ice block, popsicle, ice pop, freezer pop, dessert on a stick, ice lolly, frozzie, delectable frozen goodness, whatever you like to call it, a New Zealand summer is not complete without the humble ice block. No matter what your age, an ice block eaten on a hot summer's day captures the essence of being Kiwi. The familiar race to finish as the sticky juice melts and runs down the stick, the last icy chunk always falling off before we are ready, bigger than a comfortable mouthful and usually resulting in brain freeze.

MANGO, TURMERIC AND YO GHURT ICE BLO CKS

As we get more conscious of our sugar intake and are noticing the large amount of sugar in many common foods, why not try making your own flavours of this summer treat? It’s a great way to make the most of abundant summer fruits, fun to make with the kids and at least you know exactly what ingredients you are eating. For a naughty adult version, add your favourite spirit but make sure you don’t get the kids’ and adults’ versions mixed up!

Each recipe makes six popsicle-size ice blocks.

LEMON BERRY ICE BLO CKS

KAFFIR LIME AND CO CONUT ICE BLO CKS

• 1 ripe mango, peeled and chopped • 1 turmeric root, peeled and finely diced • 1 cup mango and turmeric pourable yoghurt • 1 Tbsp runny honey

• 1 large lemon, peeled, depipped and cut into chunks • 1 cup fresh mixed berries, or frozen • 2 Tbsp runny honey • 2 Tbsp icing sugar • ¾ cup water

• Juice of 3 large limes and zest of one • ⅓ cup caster sugar • ⅓ cup water • 3 kaffir limes leaves, finely chopped • 160ml coconut cream • ¼ cup coconut threads

1. Add mango and turmeric to food processor or bullet and blitz until smooth.

2. Stir through yogurt and honey until just combined.

3. Spoon the mixture evenly between six popsicle moulds.

4. Freeze for eight hours or until firm.

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor or bullet and blitz together.

2. Spoon the mixture evenly between six popsicle moulds.

3. Freeze for eight hours or until firm.

1. In a small pot, add lime juice and zest, caster sugar and water.

2. Heat until sugar is dissolved then remove from heat and allow to cool to infuse the flavour.

3. Mix cooled syrup with coconut cream and coconut.

4. Spoon the mixture evenly between six popsicle moulds.

5. Freeze for eight hours or until firm.

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BY THE BOOK

POP IN If you spot a book-laden shipping container somewhere in the CBD this month, you’ve stumbled on the LitCrawl Pop-up (6–12 November). Staffed by VicBooks and Coffee Supreme, it hosts Pip Adam’s live podcast interviews, an agonyaunt Q&A session, readings, and kids’ storytimes. The idea is to whet appetites for the third LitCrawl Wellington (10–12 November). Join Saturday night’s literary crawl around unusual central-city venues to see three of 25 themed sessions spanning topics from writing myth to new journal Aotearotica.

By day, the first LitCrawl Extended brings extra sessions to City Gallery.

ONLY IN WELLINGTON

GREAT SCOT T

SPEAK UP

In 2010, Chris Bourke bumped into fellow author Vincent O’Sullivan near Parsons bookshop on Lambton Quay. O’Sullivan suggested Bourke’s next project should be a history of New Zealand music during WWI – as a prequel-of-sorts to Bourke’s award-winning book Blue Smoke (about mid-20th-century New Zealand popular music). The upshot is the exhaustively researched and beautifully illustrated Good-bye Maoriland: The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand's Great War (Auckland University Press, $59.99).

Tom Scott –award-winning political cartoonist, satirist, playwright, documentary-maker, scriptwriter and columnist – has turned his attention to memoir.

Drawn Out: A Seriously Funny Memoir (Allen & Unwin, $45) is amusing and occasionally sad as it recounts his eventful life, from growing up in a poor Irish-Catholic family to his many notorious run-ins with Sir Robert Muldoon.

Scott is 70 now, but a fortune-teller once told him he’d live to 110.

Drop by Unity Books at lunchtime on Thursday 16 November (12–12.45pm) as the local contributors to The Journal of Urgent Writing (Massey University Press) discuss their pieces with editor Simon Wilson. Jo Randerson has written about dying, Māmari Stephens about threatened marae, Jessica Berentson-Shaw about social investment, David Cohen about philosophy, and Victor Rodger about being brown. The book calls for a higher-quality national conversation on issues that matter.

life after life Delicious Christmas Gifts available from our online store.

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BY THE BOOK

Tr u e bliss P H OTO G R A P H BY TA M A R A J O N E S

Two of New Zealand’s freshest, most provocative literary voices happen to be a couple.

Rhydian Thomas and Hera Lindsay Bird joke seriously with SARAH LANG.

N

ew Zealand’s hottest poet Hera Lindsay Bird, 29, invites me into the ‘Goblin Cave’, a small, dark flat in Newtown reminiscent of a London bedsit. Inside, her 23-year-old boyfriend, writer and musician Rhydian Thomas, holds a cigarette in one hand, a coffee in the other. Together for nearly two years, they still look at each other the way brand-new couples do.

They have a lot in common, besides being Greens supporters. Both did the Master of Arts in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the International Institute of Modern Letters, but in different years. At one point Bird’s boyfriend played in Thomas’ band, so the future couple were acquaintances first for eight years.

They chatted at parties and once did the same poetry workshop. ‘I was inspired by Hera’s writing before we got together,’ Thomas says. He had a crush, but she made the first move. ‘We’re both as boring as each other,’ Bird says. That’s clearly untrue, but they’re equally funny, often giggling at the other’s quips, as well as distinctly cool, partly because they’re not trying to be.

They both fit writing around their day jobs: Bird is a bookseller at Unity Wellington, and Thomas is media adviser for the Public Service Association.

When Thomas was finishing his debut novel Milk Island in time for Lawrence & Gibson to publish in June, he typed until dawn then went to work.

He’s one of those Margaret Thatcher types who can function on very little sleep, and often writes at their multi-purpose table till 3 or 4 am. Bird writes from bed, but she’s usually asleep by 11.30. ‘I can sleep through anything.’

She’s needed her sleep in the whirlwind 16 months since VUP published her debut poetry collection Hera Lindsay Bird. The second New Zealand poetry collection ever to go ‘platinum’ (sell 5,000-plus copies) won a best-first-book prize at the

74

2017 Ockham NZ Book Awards, and the national $10,000 Sarah Broom Poetry Prize. It’s also drawn international attention, with this from the Guardian: ‘It has made me, like many others, more excited about poetry than I have been in a long time’. On 30 November, Penguin publishes Hera Lindsay Bird in the UK. Despite very few poets having representation, Bird has landed the same literary agent as Britain’s poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

It’s unheard of for a New Zealand poet to be so critically and commercially successful, and to also publish overseas. No one is more surprised than Bird. ‘You’re delusional if you’re a poet and think you’ll be successful. It still doesn’t really feel real or make sense.’ She’s unsure how the Northern Hemisphere will like her book. Why? ‘I’ve heard a lot of New Zealand writers really don’t like my book but have been too polite to tell me.’ Some of them think her extreme frankness about sex is a bit much. However, her poems are also about the joy, pain, silliness and messiness of life, often in the same sentence. ‘I feel like there isn’t that much sex in the book. To me it’s a traditionally corny book of love poetry.’ Are Kiwis prudish? ‘We generally like bawdy jokes, but talking authentically about sex and love can make some people uncomfortable.’

Not Thomas. ‘She showed me the book the night before the launch and said “some of these poems are about you”.’ He didn’t mind having no opportunity to redact. ‘We were going to give my grandmother a redacted copy,’ Bird adds, ‘but Dad decided she could read it and the hate poem was her favourite. Never underestimate the elderly in Plimmerton.’

Did she intend to shake up the traditional boundaries of poetry? ‘I definitely wanted to make a provocative first collection. But it’s actually tame compared particularly to the US poets I was reading.’ Now she’s met some of those poets at

BY THE BOOK

literary festivals. Most recently, Bird appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, an Australian festival in September, and two Canadian festivals in October. Bird’s boss Tilly Lloyd is good about time off, and gave her a nine-month ‘Unity residency’ this year: one paid day a week to write.

Bird gets bombarded with emails, Tweets and Facebook messages, and replies to most messages from teenage girls and young women. Sexual propositions arrive regularly. ‘It’s weird because they know where I work. Once a guy I blocked sent a cake and some ear-piercing vouchers to me at Unity. I was away. I told my workmates the cake was probably poison but they ate it anyway.’ Thomas finds all this attention slightly unsettling and quite hilarious. ‘Hera deals with that stuff really well.’

Thomas is a talented creative in his own right.

The Body Lyre, a music collective with revolving contributors, used to play live, with Thomas on vocals, guitar, trumpet, harmonica and sampling.

Now it simply records music for download. ‘To me, the recording is the work, and playing live was a shit imitation.’ For six years (2003–2009), Thomas also released New Zealand underground hardcore and punk music through Actionman Records, but it was too niche to break even.

Now writing is his focus. His poetry has been published in literary journals and online publications, and he’s self-published a collection of poetry and lyrics. But it’s his debut novel Milk Island that has marked him as a writer to watch. It began as a private joke between Thomas and Murdoch Stephens, the editor of small Wellington publishing collective Lawrence & Gibson, but is selling well for a niche New Zealand novel, now on its fourth print run.

It’s a weird but scathingly funny critique of the direction New Zealand politics is taking us. It’s 2023, and a fifth-term National Government has converted the South Island into an agri-prison

76

where inmates talk to avatars, and milk geneticallymodified cows to meet the quotas of private agri-prison contractors. Student journalist Nina has successfully bid for a Farmer’s Weekly freelance contract to join a stage-managed press tour of Milk Island – and commit an act of political sabotage.

Agri-prison contractor Cathy tries to plant a fakenews story about a Green MP to placate her boss after a prison incident.

Thomas doesn’t think things will be quite this bad in 2023. ‘Otherwise I’d be in a doomsday shack.’

Or back in the economically-depressed Welsh village his family left for Mount Maunganui when he was 13. The book is a serious joke, if you like.

Activism, most definitely. ‘Even though a book is the worst possible way to do activism.’ He means in a bourgeois echo-chamber sense. ‘But I can’t not do it. I was angry and this was catharsis.’ What’s he angriest about? ‘National pretending it’s doing something about climate change.’

On election day, Thomas read all 252 pages of Milk Island aloud at the Adam Art Gallery. ‘It took nine-and-a-half hours, and 10 coffees.’ A few friends came by to listen, and some people stumbled upon him, but the point was to live-stream it at milkisland.co.nz, with about 250 people watching online. On 11 November, Thomas takes part in two LitCrawl Wellington sessions, ‘I’m Making a Sign’, about writing as protest (Pegasus Books, 8.30 pm), and on 12 November, ‘An Extravagance of Writers’ (City Gallery, 12.30 pm).

Currently they’re both writing poetry, and Bird is also working on a children’s detective novel. ‘It’s nice having someone you can talk to about process,’ Bird says, ‘without feeling you’re punishing them with your weird hobby’. And they understand when the other must write, right now. ‘Everyone says dating another creative person is terrible,’ Bird adds, ‘but that’s not the case with us’.

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KEEP ROLLING Last year, a group of Wellington skaters raised over $12,000 to resurface the rough concrete at Treetops (Cap #23 p 20), making it one of the most functional and unique skate spots in New Zealand. However, over the past year a lot of the ramps, ledges and quarter-pipes have become worn out, waterlogged or broken. Wellington Skateboarding Association is now trying to raise $4,000 by the end of November to give the park a summer makeover. If their PledgeMe campaign is successful Treetops will boast a new grind box, a new quarter-pipe and a permanent slappie curb. Any donation of $500 or more will receive naming rights for a new obstacle. pledgeme.co.nz/projects/5408-treetops-skatepark-makeover

WEEPING FOR WEEPU

FIFA FANS

SUMMER SPORT

Former Wairarapa Bush player (oh, and All Black) Piri Weepu has hung up his boots, announcing his retirement from playing rugby on Instagram last month. The half-back made his provincial debut in 2003 for Wellington and played with the Lions until 2011. He made 124 Super Rugby appearances – 84 for the Hurricanes and 40 for the Blues. He has since been appointed backs coach for Petone Rugby Club prems.

In a football first, the All Whites will face Peru this month. The first leg of the All Whites' Fifa World Cup intercontinental play-off against Peru will be played at Wellington Stadium on Saturday 11 November. New Zealand Football Chief Executive Andy Martin says, ‘We need all of New Zealand behind the All Whites as they look to create history and qualify for the FIFA World Cup.’ Within the first hour of going on sale more than 20,000 tickets were sold. Temporary seating will be added to the stadium increasing the capacity to 38,500.

Wellington will host the 2017 Special Olympics National Summer Games later this month. Special Olympics New Zealand was begun in Lower Hutt in 1983 by Grant and Wendy Quinn. The founders are thrilled the games are returning to their home turf this year. The competition is New Zealand’s largest sports event for people with intellectual disabilities. More than 2,200 athletes will compete in 11 sports at ten venues in Wellington from 27 November to 1 December.

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W h a t wo u l d D e i r d r e d o?

TAKE A RISK I finish school this year and want to take a gap year next year, and travel overseas. My parents want me to continue on to university. They say I am too young to travel alone and the interruption makes it hard to get back into a study routine. Which do you think is the best plan?

Not wanting to disappoint, Horokiwi Go, and learn heaps as you travel. My generation were very likely to do this and you will probably find things to be interested in that have not been on your radar at all up to now. You will need to be resourceful, responsible, realistic, reliable, respectful and a little reckless!

All life skills that will stand you in very good stead no matter what you choose to study or do in life. Start saving – the world is expensive! Travel safe.

HOLLYWOOD HOOPLA Everybody is talking about Hollywood and sexual harassment being very frequent in the arts. Is this something you have encountered in your career in the world of dance?

Dancer, Te Aro The world of dance is very far removed from Hollywood and incredibly hard work, but I guess there are dancers in film and on stage that have encoun-

tered unwelcome advances and needed strategies for repulsion. The world is tough, but maybe I have been lucky – the stars I have met and know are mostly lovely creative people. The dance world needs to beware of emotional blackmail and abuse. Standing up for your rights and making your feelings clear is frightening and hard but feels good once done. Integrity is a word that needs to be in vogue.

PARENTS FOREVER My children don’t want to hang out with their father. I say nothing negative about him, but they know why we split up and he is often difficult with them; late to pick them up, or forgets he’s having them for the weekend and makes other plans. Surely it’s not my job to persuade them to visit him?

Weary, Johnsonville The not so gentle art of persuasion.

You don't say how old your children are or how long this has been going on. If this is a recent breakup (as in the last two years) and they are young then I feel you do have a responsibility to help arrangements work and to be amicable. If these are teenagers and got dealt this rift some years ago then they need a relationship with their father and will make the arrangements.

Whichever way, they are your children and what they do is a part of you so be helpful not a hindrance!

TOAST ONLINE I am going to Japan to teach English next year. I have never travelled out of New Zealand and am quite a fussy eater. What do you recommend to make sure I can cope with this experience and not bail out?

Scared, Lower Hutt A new kind of fussy? A new country, a new culture, new cuisine – how wonderful. Seize this opportunity to discover some new things about yourself.

Go with an open mind and curiosity take crackers and marmite if you must, but be adventurous. Enjoy.

SHOWING OFF My family is a no-frills kind of lot.

What do you suggest is the best thing to make celebrations special family occasions and get them to join in? If they think I’m making a big fuss, they will not come or just be uncomfortable.

No frills, Brown Owl Do no frills yourself, and invite them casually and regularly for a while.

Once this is established add a special element – a lovely cake, buffet-style serving, flowers – but not all at once!

Build your own trademark style into their visits. Take your time! Have fun.

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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ABROAD

L ow lights of Louisiana Baton Rouge, the capital of the state of Louisiana, presents a medley of experiences for visitors, both in the city itself and as a jumping off point for the state’s many natural attractions, including swamps, alligators, fine historical houses, and special French flavour not found elsewhere.

W R I TT E N BY J O H N B I S H O P

L

ouisiana with its special French heritage is different from the rest of the South. Baton Rouge gets its name from two French explorers who found a red stick in the ground marking the boundary between the hunting grounds of local Indian tribes back in the 18th century.

Louisiana was an organised French colonial settlement from about 1720. Decent farming folk were induced to move there from France.

Their descendants are the Creoles. The French population was later boosted by the forcible deportation of prisoners, prostitutes and others from French cities. Later the Cajuns arrived – French settlers from Canada who fled after the British takeover after 1745.

The first crop was indigo used to dye clothes, then sugar (but not cotton as the soil is unsuitable).

The area remained French in orientation, culture and religion even after Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in 1805. British influence is minimal because this area was never part of the British colonies in America.

Baton Rouge is about an hour north of New Orleans and among the many pluses are the food, the music, the wildlife and the culture.

The food is different and special. This is the land of crawfish, a very small crustacean – lobster shaped but shrimp sized. It’s farmed and eaten by the bucket full in etouffee, gumbo and other fish-stew type dishes served with or on rice. Desserts like banana sautéed in butter with lots of liquor are typically sugar laden.

Much food is fried, even peanuts still in their shells, and alcohol is freely consumed, even with breakfast. The craft beer scene is active and oysters are plentiful, as is pork, chicken and beef.

I enjoyed oysters at Indigo Pearl, freshly shucked, a dozen for US$14. And for BBQ the locals pointed me to TJ’s Ribs – a legendary place. I chow down on pork and beef ribs,

chicken, brisket, sausage and chips with rice and beans and coleslaw as sides.

City Pork an innovative restaurant focusing on local produce is also excellent, Flemings, a sophisticated steak house and Stroubes where I enjoyed crab beignets.

At Poor Boy Lloyds the traditional Po’Boy sandwich is a sizeable soft bread roll (like a bap) filled with whatever you want. The vibe is casual - square tables with plastic tablecloths, gingham curtains, waitresses who call out your order.

In Baton Rouge people stop for lunch and eat substantially. It’s a very social thing.

Almost every type of music can be found here.

At the very good museum in Baton Rouge I listen to jazz, blues, swamp pop, rockabilly, zydeco (a local mixture of blues, R&B and indigenous sounds) on headphones from a large selection of recordings tracing the evolution of music in the state. The Roux Bar and the Blues Room have some impressive local bands with hot sounds.

All the madness that is Louisiana comes together in Mardi Gras. The exact origins are disputed, but the name means Fat Tuesday and it is always held the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, so it was a big celebratory blow-out before a period of self denial. Now it’s a major tourist event and not just in New Orleans.

A short distance out of town is the vast swamp area. At 220kms long and 37kms wide, it’s the largest natural swamp in the United States. The area is alternatively flat open water and close tree-lined streams with overhanging branches, thick brush, murky water filled with debris. Ghostly white Spanish moss hangs off the trees like gossamer.

Dave the tour guide slaps the water with a paddle and the alligators swim slowly to the side of the boat. They are rewarded three or four times a day with marshmallows, chicken

82

ABROAD

necks and gizzards, sometimes dropped straight into their mouths.

Baby alligators about a year old scurry about under their Momma’s watchful eye. We travel in airboats, shallow-draught flat bottomed boats with fans driven by powerful V8 engines making the vessels skim on top of the water.

Downtown Baton Rouge is dominated by the memorial to the state’s favourite son, Huey Long, a manipulative populist who stood up for ordinary folks against big business, particularly the oil industry, and built a huge personal following across the state.The many projects he initiated, were almost all paid for on borrowed money.

State Governor and then Senator, Long was becoming a rival to President Roosevelt, advocating an ambitious programme of redistribution in the Depression era called Share Our Wealth, which was more far-reaching than anything in FDR’s New Deal.

The State Capitol Building, a 27-storey art deco building housing the two chambers of the state legislature and the Governor’s office, is Huey Long’s building. He championed its construction during the Depression and as Governor borrowed money to make it happen.

On the night of 10 September 1935 when Senator Long stepped into the corridor from the Governor’s office where he was met by a doctor called Carl Weiss who pulled a pistol and shot Long in the stomach. Long’s bodyguards cut Weiss down in a hail of bullets. No motive has ever been established for the doctor’s actions, but a bullet hole can still be seen and felt in a marble pillar where the shootout took place.

The bullet hole and site of the killing are the most popular attractions in the building, which offers an extensive view of the city and countryside.

By state law no building can be built taller than the State Capitol, and in the gardens where he is buried, Huey Long’s statue is the only one on display.

Louisiana also has a darker side, as one of the slave states, and one notorious for their ill treatment.

Baton Rouge is a handy base for exploring Plantation Country, with dozens of historical houses dating from the 1730s onwards.

Many fine stories are told about the houses and the families who lived there one such is the story of Laura Locoul Gore, a French Catholic Creole woman who inherited Houmas House and the estate when her husband died. It’s now a major tourism award winner.

She lived to 102, and left behind a set of stories about her life on the plantation written when she was a young woman. The manuscripts were only rediscovered after her death.

Only one plantation is dedicated to telling the slaves’ story. Thanks to a remarkable project commissioned in the Depression, teams of historians, writers and archivists located hundreds of former slaves and captured their stories.

Whitney Plantation now has the names of about a hundred thousand slaves who lived in Louisiana, recorded on marble walls with extracts from their stories.

One tells of a pregnant woman who had been caught stealing. The plantation owner had a shallow pit the shape of her pregnant belly dug to protect the baby while she was tied down and flogged.

Whitney is a moving experience. Entrance tickets each have a picture of a slave with a name and identifying information. I had Catherine Cornelius, “Ah was a slave born an raised on de Smithfield Plantation…Ah worked in de field cutting cane.”

Like most of the slave South, Louisiana is in denial about its past. Slavery is not much discussed; it’s airbrushed from the record. At all the other plantations the focus is on the white folks in the big house. At Whitney it’s about the slaves which makes its preservation an important contribution to the historical record.

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T O R Q U E TA L K

M i n i ’s p ow e r station W R I TT E N BY RO G E R WA L K E R | P H OTO G R A P H Y BY LU K E B ROW N E

I

n 1957 the original ‘nippy, sippy’ Mini stunned the automobile world. With its ‘crosswise’ engine and front-wheel drive, the car managed to achieve the best ever use of interior space within modest outside dimensions. Tiny by most standards, the car became one of the symbols of British pop culture of the 60’s.

I have owned about 50 cars so far in my life. I don’t know why none was a Mini, but I feel I have grown up with them, as many of my friends were owners. We had so much fun in them.

People loved the little cars; some wanted a bit more grunt so they could have even more fun, racing them.

In 1961 Alex Issigonis, the genius behind the Mini’s groundbreaking design, got his friend John Cooper, builder of F1 cars, to pour on the Tabasco sauce. So he designed the Mini Cooper. Asked how much he wanted for doing the development work, Cooper said ‘Two pounds per car’, thinking they’d be lucky to make the thousand they’d need to homologate them. Eventually more than 350,000 of ‘his’ Mini Coopers were made.

Back to the original Mini. Around five million were made, and in 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century behind the Model T Ford and in front of the Citroen DS and VW Beetle.

Mini does not sit on its laurels and over 58 years it has been constantly re-inventing itself.

The original Minis – Morris or Austin – were made by British Motor Corporation. Mini is now a brand of motorcar sharing much with BMW. The iconically youthful brand remains unique and is even recognisable by car agnostics.

For this highly enjoyable review, I was introduced to its most recent iteration, the Mini Countryman Cooper S Plug-in hybrid by Jeseka Pile, a Mini enthusiast herself who is the Mini ambassador at Wellington’s Mini garage. It couldn’t have been a fresher example with only 80km on the clock.

It’s bigger than the current Mini and Mini Cooper.

Externally, its wheels are still placed at each corner, but the original 10-inch wheelbarrow wheels have grown to a muscular 18 inches. Its efficient space packaging, characterful looks, and clever design remain intact.

The Mini, originally born out of the Suez oil crisis

which limited petrol supplies in the UK, is taking the next step toward more environmentally sustainable driving solutions.

A three-cylinder turbo 1.5-litre petrol engine still sits transversely at the front, but now is integrated with a 65kw electric one at the back.A 36-litre fuel tank combined with a 40km pure electric range gives a combined 500km driving range. Transition between the two modes is imperceptible and the battery, which sits unobtrusively under the rear seat, recharges itself going downhill.

Permanent four-wheel drive with ‘dynamic stability control’ optimises traction and performance.

As I got behind the wheel Jeseka asked me what my favourite colour was. She then she set the dashboard LEDs to red.

On the dash is a dear little yellow toggle which starts things off. A boost gauge next to the speedometer shows you what’s going on with both motors. The circle-themed controls are intuitively placed. There are three driving modes. ‘Auto E-drive’ is the default mode and chooses the most efficient combination of the two systems. ‘Max E-Drive’ is pure electric for clear-conscience silent urban driving, and ‘Save battery᾿ in which the petrol motor charges the battery if it’s getting a bit tired.

There are all manner of intelligent adjustable settings, clever interior and exterior lighting systems and a slick manual/auto 6-speed gearbox.

What really got me, however, was the dashboard central display and on-board computer. In ‘navigation’ mode you can dial up ‘points of interest’, so that when you are approaching the small town of Bunnythorpe it will tell you exactly where to find the town’s stuffed rabbit museum.

To see if it still has the classic Mini go-kartish feel, I whizzed it down my favourite section of a certain hill road, the location of which cannot be disclosed in the interests of protecting my drivers’ licence.

I happily report that it’s still a wild child at heart.

In 2019 a fully electric Mini will be available. We are lucky to be living in an age of innovative and creative cars like this.

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B A B Y, B A B Y

The storm after the storm

BY M E LO DY T H O M A S

W

hen you’re in the eye of the storm that is life with young kids, focusing on calmer years to come can be a lifeline. How much easier life will be when the kids are sleeping through! When they can use the toilet alone and sneak out of bed in the morning, dress themselves, make their own breakfast and use the TV remote. The only thing is, if you take a moment to ask parents of older kids what their lives look like, you might find they’re still waiting for the period that comes after the hard bit.

More than a few times I’ve heard parents of older kids and pre-teens say, ‘It actually gets harder, but in different ways’.

Sure everyone is sleeping better and school is taking care of things for a good part of the day, but the parenting – the stuff beyond keeping them clothed and warm and fed – seems to get more and more complicated. Give me a four-year-old who’s crying because they only just discovered One Direction and they’ve already broken up, and I can turn it around with a boy-band back-catalogue dance party. But a seven-year-old who’s struggling at school? An eight-year-old who wasn’t picked for the team? A 10-year-old whose best friends have decided they don’t like her any more? How do you calm the instinct to beat up some children or a teacher, and instead react in a way that helps your kids to grow and learn?

Not to mention that as the years go on we all get that much busier. Last week a mum I had just met leaned conspiratorially over the table and told me, ‘What I wasn’t prepared for was how your whole life turns into chauffeuring them between activities.’ As someone who likes to keep an open mind wherever possible, I try to refrain from starting a sentence with ‘back in my day’ – BUT *cough* back in my day *cough* we got home from school when there were still

hours of daylight left. We filled them with tree climbing and swimming in rivers and drawing and feeding the chickens.

Probably there were times when we were deathly bored – but out of boredom comes creativity. What does busyness breed, besides more busyness?

Of course it’s not really that simple. My childhood was spent in a small country house without a TV, where we were free to roam unsupervised. So many kids these days grow up without nearly as much freedom, in a house with multiple screens. If your kids want to play touch rugby, learn piano or ballet, then assuming you’re in a position to pay for it, isn’t that better than hours on Minecraft?

Maybe the answer lies in the balance. If busyness is inevitable and in some cases even preferable, perhaps what we need to focus on is recognising and using the precious moments where nothing is scheduled. It’s a lot harder than it sounds – I recently spent months bemoaning how busy I was, only to find myself slumped over and half-depressed when the project was over, trying (and failing) to escape the feeling that because I wasn't doing something I wasn’t worth anything. How am I supposed to teach my kids to cherish peace and downtime when I can’t do it myself?

The irony of all this is that as I write, my daughter is standing beside me, trying to show me the shells and stones she’s just brought back from the beach. Every treasure is met with a half-aware ‘hmmm’ or a frustrated, ‘One minute! I’m nearly finished.’ One of my favourite things about writing these columns is finding the words for the perfect ending, a sentence that completely captures the point of the whole thing. But today it feels more fitting that my ending is not really an ending at all. My little girl is trying desperately to connect with me, so I’m gonna go do that instead.

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O

verlooking the sparkling lights of downtown Wellington, and sitting amongst gorgeous décor with a menu influenced by fresh locally grown ingredients, Forage Kitchen + Bar at Grand Mercure Wellington is one of the city’s best kept dining secrets. It is the team’s conscious support and celebration of all things Wellington that has evolved into their support of the arts and New Zealand culture by inviting me to be a guest of the Grand Mercure while I’ve been working here at Circa Theatre.

Whether you’re a guest at the hotel, or a local Wellingtonian, making Forage a destination restaurant is a dining ‘must do’ in the capital. If you’re dining alone, which I’ve done several times since I arrived in Wellington, the stunning view itself is all the company you need. When I’ve brought a crowd of people along to discover the magic of the Forage dining experience the communal tables cater for the joie de vivre of social dining with a sumptuous selection of shared dishes.

Forage has just launched their new Spring Menu with newly appointed, Chef Sumit Kumud at the helm. The ‘plat du jour’, a Horopito rubbed Silver fern farm Venison loin was my most recent selection.

Sophisticated, perfectly presented and absolutely delicious. It epitomised the Forage’s new chef ’s food philosophy “Four elements: fresh produce, quality ingredients, with a passion for food and honesty.”

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CALENDAR

F r e e we l l y

Feeling the pinch?

Check out the following ideas...

GUY FAWKES DISPLAY

November S

See the sky above the harbour light up with a spectacular fireworks display. The show is synchronised with soundtracks on local radio stations The Breeze (94.1 and 98.5FM) and MORE FM (99.7 and 95.3FM). This is the last time you have to stay up so late to see the display. Next year the fireworks will be part of the more locally relevant Matariki Festival. The Maori New Year is celebrated in June so it will be dark at a much more civilised time.

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t s e t s a f e h t N i O J Z N n i r o t c e s g n i w o gr Developing skills and talent for the tech sector through postgraduate study.

wellingtonict.ac.nz

The Wellington ICT Graduate School is a partnership between Victoria University of Wellington, Whitireia & WelTec.

SECTION HEADER play explores sexual politics both on and offstage.

N ove m b e r

7–9pm, City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square

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ALL WHITES VS PERU: FIFA WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

CINEMA ITALIANO FESTIVAL NZ 1–14 Nov, Empire Cinema, Island Bay

4.15pm, Westpac Stadium

DUTCH FILM FESTIVAL IN WELLINGTON 2 & 11 Nov, Nga Taonga Sound & Vision BIC RUNGA AND SPECIAL GUESTS – A CELEBRATION OF DRIVE 8–11pm, The Opera House, 111–113 Manners St

4 WELLINGTON’S SKY SHOW FIREWORKS DISPLAY 9–9.10pm, Wellington harbour

8pm, Michael Fowler Centre, 111 Wakefield St

MAKE AND CREATE Art-making sessions for the whole family led by The Dowse education team.

7, 14, 21, 28 Nov, 3.30–4.30pm, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt

5.30pm, Goethe-Institut Wellington, 150 Cuba St

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Supported by Victoria University Press, Risking Their Lives by Dame Margaret Sparrow. This session celebrates her life and her latest work.

WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS VS CANTERBURY

NZTRIO ART3: SOAR Soar prepares us for new heights and perspectives. You’ll find yourself adrift in daydreams.

7–9pm, City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square SHOW ME SHORTS – WELLINGTON OPENING NIGHT Celebrate local winners by watching the winning short films from each of the award categories.

8–10pm, Embassy Theatre

10 VENUS IN FUR Nominated for Best Play at the Tony awards, the

WELLINGTON’S FREE AMBULANCE’S ONEOF-A-KINDNESS GALA Celebrate Wellington’s Free Ambulance being the only free emergency paramedic service in the country with this black tie event, including a threecourse dinner, live music and a fundraising auction.

6.30–11.30pm, TSB Bank Arena, Queens Wharf

10.30am, Plunket Shield, Basin Reserve

WELLINGTON PHOENIX FC V CENTRAL COAST MARINERS FC

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7.35 –9.35pm, Westpac Stadium

KAPITI COAST FESTIVAL

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Bouncy castles, food trucks, face painting and entertainment, all supporting Mary Potter Hospice.

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: THE MUSICAL

9am–3pm, Kapiti Primary School, Paraparaumu PETER PAN: THE PANTOMIME

9

THE NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET PLAYS BEETHOVEN

DAME MARGARET SPARROW: A CELEBRATION

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Celebrating 50 years of achievement, students of the national dance school will perform alongside dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

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5–6pm, City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square

THE SUPER HERO FUN RUN, WALK, WHEEL 8.30am –12pm, Wainuiomata Recreation Area, Whitcher Grove, Lower Hutt

50TH ANNIVERSARY GRADUATION SEASON: SCHOOL OF DANCE

24 & 25, St James Theatre, 77-87 Courtenay Place

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8–10.30pm, TSB Bank Arena, Queens Wharf

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6.30–8.30pm, Circa Theatre, 1 Taranaki St

ART AT HOME, ARTIST FLOORTALK

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Join exhibited artists Valerie Bos and Luke Kelly for an artist talk at Mahara Gallery.

GUIDED WALK: THE LADY NORWOOD ROSE GARDEN

4pm, Mahara Gallery, 20 Mahara Place, Waikanae

11am–12.30pm, Botanic Garden, 101 Glenmore St

December

TOAST MARTINBOROUGH 9.30am–7pm, Martinborough

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THORNDON FAIR

TAKE THAT The band will be playing classic hits in their first New Zealand tour in over 22 years.

Come visit Capital at Thorndon Fair and grab the best subscription deals for Christmas gifts.

7pm, TSB Bank Arena

10am–3pm, Tinakori Rd and Hill St, Thorndon

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GROUPIES

T h e wo r l d ’s a stage

BY F R A N C E S CA E M M S

I

t all started with a research project for Uni. ‘We enjoyed making and performing that project so much we decided to stay together and form a company,’ says Joel Baxendale. This new theatre company needed a name.

‘Binge Culture kind of suggests a bunch of different things,’ says Joel, ‘like the fact that our work is populist, maybe a bit gross; experimental but not high art; culture you can binge on.’

Binge Culture made quite a splash in their first year, ‘It felt like we were blasting on to the scene,’ says Claire O’Loughlin, ‘we were high-octane, throwing images and words onstage like chemicals to see what would connect and what would explode.’ A highlight for Fiona McNamara has been their community-building event Whales. ‘The summer that we first produced that show was a special time,’ she says. ‘Since then, we’ve performed Whales around NZ and in Edinburgh and we rehearse local people to perform as the whales. Many of them

are non-actors, and it’s a completely new experience for them, which makes it so rewarding.’

With their ten-year anniversary just around the corner Binge Culture is still going strong, so what’s the secret to their success? ‘We keep trying to keep make fresh and interesting work. It always comes back to the work,’ says Claire. ‘We’ve evolved as a company too,’ says Fiona. ‘We work in different combinations of people on different projects, so the rehearsal room dynamic is always changing.’ Joel says that they decided to make the company more flexible and sustainable. ‘Now we have about nine people who believe in Binge’s kaupapa and are committed to keeping it going.’

The group recently returned from a successful triple bill at the Edinburgh Festival, and this month will be presenting Ancient Shrines and Half Truths, a satirical guided audio tour that sends up the traveller vs tourist debate.

Ancient Shrines and Half Truths 14–25 November at BATS Theatre.

Oli Devlin, Claire O’Loughlin, Joel Baxendale, Mouce Young (as the Moa), Ralph Upton and Fiona McNamara 92

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Wainui to Worser Bay. Give the gift that is local this Christmas.

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