Capital 69

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

SEE CHANGE MARCH 2020

ISSUE 69

TRIPLE VISION

EYE SPY

$5.90 DIAL 121

SCENE NOT HEARD

Th e Vision issue

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What's the shape of our city tomorrow?

In the next 30 years our city will be home to 50,000 to 80,000 more people.

Wellington City Council head of Urban Planning Vida Christeller says that making plans for growth is much more than houses and roads‌it’s actually all about people.

She emphasises that Wellington is growing, and the topography and existing infrastructure create challenges, but simultaneously are part of the city’s strengths as they create the internationally recognised compact capital we all love. Vida believes that planning and developments should create connections, places and spaces so that our city is sustainable and safe as well as designed to support and create communities, social interaction and bio-diversity which are proven to increase resilience, quality of life and health.

Put plainly, Vida says good urban planning involves understanding how people live their lives, and creating communities that are a joy to be in, and easy to get around. She says turning over more of the city space to vibrant street life is at the heart of that.

Talk Wellington’s Isabella Cawthorn agrees.

“It’s exciting to see Wellington starting to join up transport and land-use around what’s going to give people great lives. I’m hoping we can drop the myths and magical thinking that our centres can thrive with streets dominated by cars, that Kiwis can’t live rich, healthy lives without jumping in the car every day.

We can start getting it right – all eyes on the Council,” Isabella Cawthorn says.

Density is good – people imagine a big beige box blocking their light, but it doesn’t have to be like that There is strong public support for good change.

In every major engagement recently – Let’s Get Wellington Moving, Planning for Growth, and Te Atakura – First to Zero, Welingtonians have said they want to see future growth directed to the central city and existing suburbs, less reliance on private cars, and priority given to walking and cycling. There is also a balance to find between new development and protecting important character areas.

Gerald Parsonson, architect behind the award winning Zavos Corner in Mt Vic thinks the key to doing density well lies in good architecture, and good urban design.

“At the moment most of us live in suburbia, driving in cars. Dense urban living is a relatively new idea for us.”

“Density is good – people imagine a big beige box blocking their light, but it doesn’t have to be like that.”

He says that the Zavos Corner project was a challenge.

Nestled in the heart of Mt Vic’s pre 1930s villas, the team spent plenty of time talking about character.

“Do we strictly follow the Mt Vic character design guide – little cottages with weather board, the proportions of which can look a bit cheesy if applied to a larger development with lower stud heights. We tried that but it didn’t work, so we looked elsewhere and this is what popped out from our explorations.”

All sectors, groups, and communities need to get involved to get this city and region thriving Gerald talks positively about the model Urban Habitat Collective are creating in Adelaide Road. His company is looking at something similar, in that there would be a shared laundry and communal space, with the opportunity for people to live quite independently.

He says affordability is key.

Another upside of growth, Business Central CE John Milford sees promise in the link between more people and exciting new business prospects.

“In order for us to manage growth expectations we’ve got to be planning ahead, ensuring Wellington business is best placed to take advantage of the economic opportunities. To this end, we have to get the platform right to ensure business can invest, employ and grow. However, the responsibility to grow Wellington isn’t local government’s alone. All sectors, groups, and communities need to get involved to get this city and region thriving,” John Milford says.

The other big thing on our mind is resilience in the city centre. Tim Grafton, head of the Insurance Council of New Zealand responds succinctly to the importance of future proofing.

“Wellington’s central city is the commercial and entertainment centre of the capital as well as a home for many people, so it’s critical that it is resilient.”

Join the conversation. Help shape your city tomorrow.

With the District Plan up for review, this is our moment to say what we want for our city tomorrow.

During March and April, Wellington City Council will be on the road to get your view on what’s being proposed.

It includes increased density and height in the city centre and most suburbs, plans for living with climate change, changes to pre-1930s character settings, green space in the city and more. You can also talk to us about proposed changes to the city’s Parking Policy.

See the visiting schedule and make your submission Visit planningforgrowth.wellington.govt.nz

CAPITAL

Made in Wellington

A SUBSCRIPTION Subscription rates $89 (inc postage and packaging) 10 issues

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

C O N TA C T U S Phone +64 4 385 1426 Email editor@capitalmag.co.nz Website www.capitalmag.co.nz Facebook facebook.com/CapitalMagazineWellington Twitter @CapitalMagWelly 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

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

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

s we put this issue together, in-house discussions several times turned to the way the rise and rise of public relations and comms people inside and outside organisations has changed the way we do business; and there is also a steady shift taking place in the way the role of media is perceived.

We are a lifestyle publication, not tied to a daily news cycle, but we too observe first-hand how defensive organisations of all types are becoming.

For example, we are frequently asked to send interview questions in advance, and physical interviews are harder to organise. In particular we note the way even publicly funded bodies seek to manage anything written about them. I have seen a senior academic historian required by a comms person to withdraw from an interview with this magazine that he had willingly agreed to give on his professional subject area; the journalist was en route to the interview. It was rare 20 years ago, to receive requests to view copy before publication. Now it is common; after the interview, the media minders ask to inspect it.

People rarely accept or understand that the journalist’s job, and by extension, the publication’s role, is to seek the information and craft the story that they think is important and interesting to their readers – not just to tell the story that the organisation may prefer.

And despite these travails, we have turned our gaze to the year ahead and, on our theme of Vision, we bring you a multifaceted March issue.

Harriet Palmer has talked to three influential locals about their plans and projects for their new positions.

We look at the proliferation of CCTV cameras in the central city and John Bishop explains who is responsible for the information collected and how it is used.

The Shearers ran with the theme, connecting the dots between wartime propaganda and night vision, and have come up with a carrot risotto to enhance your vision and your palate forever.

It is also festival season and we are taking part in the Newtown Festival – come and visit. Sarah Catherall talks about love for family, the sea, and music with Gerry Paul, director of Cuba Dupa.

Melody Thomas highlights the depth of talent among local women in music, and deplores the perpetuation of gender imbalance by promoters booking local acts.

Top talent Kate McIntosh tells Francesca Emms how early ballet studies led to a life of performance all over Europe.

Travel broadens the vision, right? Benn Jeffries recounts experiences in Kenya and how a classic New Zealand book shared a vision of values shared across continents.

See you all in April.

Alison Franks Editor

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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Staff Managing editor Alison Franks

Featured contributors

editor@capitalmag.co.nz

Campaign coordinators Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz Emily Wakeling emily@capitalmag.co.nz Sandy Phillips sandy@capitalmag.co.nz Factotum John Bristed

john@capitalmag.co.nz

Art director Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Designer Luke Browne

design@capitalmag.co.nz

Writer Francesca Emms

journalism@capitalmag.co.nz

Editorial assistant Benn Jeffries

hello@capitalmag.co.nz

Accounts Tod Harfield

accounts@capitalmag.co.nz

Contributors

A N N I E K E IG Writer

E M M A SM I T H I l lu str ator

Annie Keig is a freelance writer and brand new Wellingtonian. With a taste for travel, earth sciences, and Sweet Mother Kitchen’s ‘Moose’ mac and cheese, she hopes to plumb the depths of this multifaceted city one layer at a time.

Born and raised in Wellington, Emma is a small business owner of Steer Illustrations. She works full time at Iko Iko selling her art work and creating exciting window displays each week.

BENN JEFFRIES E ditori a l assi st ant

C H R I S T SE Writer

Melody Thomas | Janet Hughes | John Bishop | Beth Rose | Anna Briggs | Charlotte Wilson | Sarah Lang | Deirdre Tarrant | Craig Beardsworth | Griff Bristed | Dan Poynton Sarah Catherall | Chris Tse | Claire Orchard Freya Daly Sadgrove | Harriet Palmer Brittany Harrison | Sharon Greally Finlay Harris | Maddie Le Marquand | Jess Scott Katie Paton | Marguerite Tait-Jamieson Elliot Martin | Claire O’Loughlin Victoria Whisker

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

Benn is a writer, photographer and Capital's editorial assistant. A lover of all things outdoors – you’ll find him out on the water with his rod and reel or in the bush scribbling down god awful poetry.

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

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Chris Tse is the author of two collections of poetry published by Auckland University Press: How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes (winner of the Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry) and HE'S SO MASC. Chris and Emma Barnes are currently co-editing an anthology of contemporary LGBTQIA+ Aotearoa New Zealand writers.

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C O N T E N T S

12 LETTERS 14 CHATTER 16 NEWS BRIEFS 18 NEW PRODUCTS 21 EYE CHART 22 TALES OF THE CITY 24 CULTURE

30 BAND OF BROTHERS

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Music is life for Gerry Paul

20/20 Three Wellington leaders look to the year ahead

34 BALLET BONES Kate McIntosh is more than a dancer

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58

C OUNTRY CLUB

PACK OF EYES

CASSET TE IN HIS WAYS

From home to club to festival, the journey of 121

You’re on camera, whether you like it or not

Melody Thomas asks, where are the Homegrown women?

BAO AND BEERS WINE AND WONTONS DINE IN OR TAKEOUT AND WE CATER

59 taranaki st. www.mrgos.co.nz

C O N T E N T S

60

70

80

I SPY

SHEARERS’ TA B L E

LABOUR OF LOVE

What can you find?

Night vision risotto with zucchini chips

Hard work pays off with this Newtown reno

64 LOVE LOCAL 65 LIFESTYLE BRIEFS 66 BUG ME 68 EDIBLES 73 LIQUID BRIEFS 74 BY THE BOOK

87 SEC ONDHAND BO OKS AND YELLOWFIN TUNA Fishing coastal Kenya

75 REVERSE Mary Macpherson’s ‘New Zealand Holiday’ introduced by Chris Tse

76 EYE CANDY Glam glasses and backstage passes

90 93 94

GOOD SPORT WĀHINE CALENDAR

STOP AT

MODERN ASIAN HAWKER FOOD

L E T T E R S

A SUM M E R READ What a treat to find a short story in your summer issue. Would love more...

Hamish Brown, Karori TIP IT OUT Well done Capital for your story on waste – Load of Rubbish (Cap #68) – by Harriet Palmer. I was disgusted by Iona Pannett’s suggestion that Wellington should send its waste and sewage to Lower Hutt or Porirua. She literally wants to dump shit on other people.

Pushing the problem away is not a solution.

(Name and address supplied) TOP D E SIG N

Comprehensive eye care and advice you can depend on

Every time I come to Wellington the first thing I do is pick up a copy of Capital. I always enjoy it from start to finish. Although for some reason I often start at the back, speaking of which your sunburn comic really tickled me!

Something that I’ve noticed, compared to other magazines, is how seamlessly the ads and the stories flow. I spent a little while admiring a stunning portrait of a flapper girl before realising it was an ad for a hair salon! Thank you.

Mahlia, Sweden

Send letters to editor@captalmag.co.nz with the subject line Letters to Ed

Apologies to Six Barrel Soda Co – we got the price of their Rosemary and Cucumber Tonic wrong in our last issue, Cap #68. It’s $19.50.

mgoptometrist.co.nz 77 Customhouse Quay

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473 6275 12

S E C TCI HO AN T TH EE RA D E R

Ink inc.

One B i t c h i n’ n e w j o b Former Wellington Mayor, Justin Lester, is the new chair of the board of Good Bitches Baking. Since 2015, volunteers have donated 750,000 treats to people having a tough time (via organisations such as Women’s Refuge, the Cancer Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Shakti, and Age Concern). Here’s a warm welcome to the newest good bitch on the block!

THEA FAUVEL

Two Groundlings

Favourite tattoo and why?

The matching tigers. I think the symmetry works really nicely with the placement on my body.

After ten years, the Underground Market (beneath Frank Kitts Park, see Cap #66) is shutting up shop because their underground carpark location is earthquake prone. The owners are proud of the way it has been a springboard for many Wellington businesses. No news yet of a new location, but owner Helena Tobin has been spotted scooting around the city in search of a new home. The final Underground Market day is Saturday 14 March.

Why did you choose the design?

Who wouldn’t want two angry tigers on their stomach?

What led you to getting a tattoo?

I’m not one of those people who thinks every tattoo has to have a special meaning. If I like the design enough to want to have it on my body forever, that’s special enough for me.

C r o s s wo r d a n s we r s f r o m C a p i t a l # 6 8

Art or rebellion?

Art. They serve as a reminder of the period in my life, which is an art in its own way.

Across 1. Kumara 2. Beehive 3. Wairarapa 4. Toot 5. Redrocks 6. Ferry 7. Martinborough 8. Peninsula 9. Turbine

Family – for it or against?

For! My brothers are (kind of) tattoo artists, so my parents weren’t shocked when I started getting them. We’re on the way to convincing our mum to get a tattoo.

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10. Kaukau 11. Karori 12. Barbecue Down 1. Morepork 2. Cuba 3. Tuatara 4. Weta 5. Mansfield 6. Earthquake

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Hurricanes Coffee Roadtrip Raumati Phoenix Wind Mana Jandals Kupe Roxy

C H AT T E R

New in town

Go w it h t h e f l ow

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Danu Natural’s new organic cotton period underwear is natural, reusable, free from PUL, and made ethically in New Zealand. Manage your period the sustainable way.

Available in four styles from Commonsense Organics or order online at danunatural.com

B e s t o f t h e fe s t Louis Baker, Tiny Ruins, and Mara TK (Cap #56) are just three of the many hundreds of people who will perform at the Newtown Festival on 8 March. There’ll be bands, circus and dance groups, choirs, and heaps more. Catch Freya Daly Sadgrove performing her killer poetry, or ECE teachers Karen (aka Wellington Paranormal’s Officer O’Leary) and Tom singing songs about helicopters, sharing, and poo.

Make sure you come visit us at our Capital stall on the main drag, we’re doing something a bit special.

I g ot yo u b a b e Nature Baby is coming to Wellington. This March, the much-loved New Zealand family-owned business is joining the community on Jessie Street in Te Aro. Their new store will provide a haven of calm, offering their full range of organic clothing and natural products for baby, newborn to four years. naturebaby.co.nz

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Socia l bunny

It's cool to kōrero

There’s thinking outside the box and then there’s Nixie and Oscar, a pair of adorable therapy bunnies who are available to pat, cuddle, or simply spill your heart out to on Cuba Street. You’ll find them rummaging around the bark of Cuba’s planter boxes, or on instagram @nixie_and _oscar

He wai pūataata rawa te wai, e kitea noatia ana te ika nunui o taua awa.

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It’s such clear water, you can easily see the big fish in that river.

N E W S

SNEEZED OUT Kākahi (freshwater mussels) are declining in Lake Wairarapa. Kākahi larva, called glochidia, are sneezed out by their mother and latch on to a passing native fish using a hook at the top of their shell. But native fish populations have been damaged by pest fish such as perch, rudd, and brown trout. Last month’s annual Kākahi monitoring survey at Lake Wairarapa, found that adult kākahi could be found easily, but very few juvenile molluscs were discovered. Freshwater ecologist Amber McEwan said this was ‘deeply troubling.’

PAT I E N T OU T

C OA ST E R S

B R IG H T SPA R K S

Hutt Valley and Wairarapa patients will be able to receive their dialysis treatment closer to home once a new outpatient unit opens at the Hutt Valley Health Hub in Lower Hutt. The dialysis units at Wellington Regional and Kenepuru Community Hospitals provide treatment for nearly 150 patients and travel is a ‘significant burden’ for some of them, says Director of Provider Services Joy Farley. The new satellite dialysis unit is expected to open in July.

Māhina-a-rangi Baker and Aroha Spinks (pictured) are among the climate experts who will present information and facilitate discussion at Takutai Kāpiti: Climate Change and Our Coast Summit. Spinks is Kaihautū Taiao/Environmental Science Director at the World Wide Fund for Nature NZ. Dr Baker, an environmental planning expert, has completed a PhD in catchment modelling from a Māori knowledge perspective. The summit, on 8 March, is hosted by Kāpiti Coast District council and its aim is to jump-start community responses to impending coastline changes.

Dr Shona Munro (Royal New Zealand Police College) and Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu (University of Otago, Wellington) both of Wellington, have been named 2020 Fulbright Scholars. Dr Munro will research justice reform through police learning and development at the University of North Carolina.

Dr Sika-Paotonu will continue her research on rheumatic fever and heart disease at Harvard University and the University of Oklahoma.

N E W S

SPEED DEMON If you get hit by a car travelling at 30km/h, you have a 90% chance of survival. At 45 km/h, though, your chances are less than 50%. Wellington City Council proposes reducing city speed limits to 30km/h as part of its Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme.

‘Setting safer speeds across the core of our CBD will also help make the central city a more pleasant and relaxed place to be,’ says Mayor Andy Foster.

Consultation is open until 31 March.

YOU A SK E D

G E T A M OV E O N

PIPE DREAMS

A whopping 6981 people responded to Wellington City Council’s electric scooter survey which closed last month. The community was asked to provide feedback on the public share escooter schemes that have been operating in the city. A report on the responses will be presented to help councilors decide if electric scooters should operate full time in Wellington. A decision will be made in early April.

Chris Bishop says the National Party will not rule out congestion charging to help pay for the Let’s Get Wellington Moving projects. He is transport spokesperson for the party. John Milford (pictured), Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive, is ‘baffled’ by the current Government’s opposition to congestion charging.

‘LGWM has been costed but not funded, which is why congestion pricing must be in the mix of solutions.’ Wellingtonians need to hear that every avenue of funding will be explored, he says.

Lower Hutt’s water includes 2,000 km of pipes, 74 pump stations, and 24 reservoirs.

Hutt City Council proposes a substantial upgrade for water infrastructure, including water supply, wastewater, and stormwater systems. According to City Council Chief Executive Jo Miller, ‘In Lower Hutt, around 60% of the city’s water infrastructure needs to be renewed in the next 30 years.’

The project requires an estimated $30 million increase in operational expenses and a further $240 million to replace existing systems over ten years.

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Rainbow connection

1. Fair & Square soapery selection box, $35, Wellington Apothecary 2. Form Light rectangle, $149, Cranfields 3. Garden cushion cover, $55, Trade Aid 4. Oasis insulated drink bottle 500ml, $20, Moore Wilson’s 5. Drip barrette hair clip, $21, Mooma 6. Kester Black First Date set, $72, Mooma 7. Reuben Paterson print – Tahuri to Kanohi ki te Ra, Page Galleries 8. George & Edi, peony creme perfume, $38, Small Acorns 9. Paloma Wool Mercurio, $419, I Love Paris 10. SodaStream Spirit, $130, Moore Wilson's 11. Castle pillowcase rainbow linen, $99, Small Acorns 12. Rainbow puzzle, $30, Trade Aid

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S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

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We have an array of stylish venues in the heart of Wellington’s CBD that can easily be adapted for many styles of events.

For more information & to book your next event please contact our events manager Lucy: 027 660 1144 or events@yugroup.co.nz We look forward to hosting you soon!

yugroup.co.nz

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Escarpment track Paekakariki 10km of precipitous walks and Kāpiti views

The Wellington Eye Chart Not for medical use, but handy for finding things to do in 2020.

F P Ferry your way from the CBD to Matiu/ Somes Island and on to Eastborne

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W R D

Days Bay Wharf go for an amble, or better yet, jump into the harbour

O Z Oriental Bay swim out to the pontoon, rest, swim back, buy ice-cream, eat ice-cream

Titahi Bay north of Porirua, an ideal family beach with a gentle incline into the water

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Water Whirler Len Lye sculpture, Wellington Waterfront.

Watch it wobble

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Remutaka Cycle Trail you can take in railway bridges and tunnels on two wheels

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Percy Falls 20m high Lower Hutt waterfall found on Percy Track, in Percy’s Reserve (named after Percy)

Quiz nights plenty of local bars host them – grab a drink and scratch your head

Vegetable markets

Johnsonville, Newtown, Porirua, Tawa, Lower Hutt, and three in the CBD

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Glow worms in the Botanic Gardens.

Enter from Glen Rd, Path 8 should twinkle a little

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Katherine Mansfield House Tinakori Rd – 1890s literary vibe

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

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Southwards Car Museum over 400 vehicles for petrolheads to enjoy

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Xtreme Aquatic Centre Upper Hutt (Ok, it’s called H2O Xtreme but ‘X’ places are scarce)

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Zephyrometer 26m-high Phil Price sculpture on Cobham Drive. Got zapped by lightning in 2014

International Film Festival over 150 films from around the world. People take time off work for this midyear cinema-fest

Adrenalin Forest rope courses up to 31m off the ground in Porirua

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Lighthouses we have three in the region – visit Pencarrow, Castlepoint, or Cape Palliser

National War Memorial — Pukeahu sports sculptures from around the world and the world’s third largest carillon

S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

TA L E S

O F

T H E

C I T Y

Private eye W R I T T E N BY F R A N C E S CA E M M S P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S

READING Identity Crisis by Ben Elton

COFFEE

CINEMA

PETS

ALBUM

L’affare

Lighthouse Cuba

Two moggies

Naturally – JJ Cale

Peter Grimmer, the man behind the eyes

P

eter looks deep into the eyes of Wellingtonians to crack every case. ‘Being an optometrist, you’re more or less a detective. A person has a problem, either a visual one or an eye disease one, and you need to solve that problem. It’s a good science, and you need to think in straight lines,’ he says.

A self-confessed ‘sports junkie’, when Peter’s not at McClellan Grimmer Edgar Optometrists on Customhouse Quay, he’ll mostly like be at the gym or the yoga studio. ‘I started yoga about two years ago. I still can’t stick my nose on my knees but it’s good for you.’ He also loves snow skiing, and Central Otago is his first choice for holidays. ‘It’s just too beautiful down there,’ he says, ‘whether I am skiing, tramping, restaurant-ing or wine tasting.’ On Sundays Peter gets into the kitchen. ‘My big unwind is cooking – most Sundays my adult kids and their partners come over and I do the dinner. My biggest influence was the brilliant Pierre Meyer – after Pierre closed his restaurant and started his cooking school out of his house in Khandallah I was a regular attendee.’

What’s his favourite place in Wellington? ‘Well, it used to be Civic Square but now most of it is closed.

A message to our local politicians: stop looking at the problems and get on with it – the iconic town hall has been closed for seven years! The St James for five years!’ But he says Wellington has some really good architecture: ‘When I give out-of-towners the guided

tour, I always stop the car outside Antrim House on Boulcott – blink and you’d miss it.’ For coffee, Peter heads to L’affare. ‘When they renovated I was deeply concerned that they would cock it up (none of my business) but no! It’s modern, grungy, industrial and great coffee, instead of old, tired, grungy, industrial and great coffee.’ He’s also a regular at Lighthouse Cuba, so much so he reckons he might have a legitimate shareholding claim. (Favourite movies: Breakfast at Tiffany’s and both Blade Runner films.)

Peter has always been interested in eyes, ‘ever since having surgery as a child for a squint (a turned eye) and regular visits to my eye care practitioner.’ As well as being a clinical optometrist, he is heavily involved in the administration of the optometry profession. He’s lectured, published papers, examined final-year optometry students, and spent eight years on the Registration Authority and six years as an Elected Director of the Optometry Council of Australian and New Zealand.

What makes eyes so appealing? ‘The eye care industry is diverse and changing all the time. You have to have a position in the marketplace that you are comfortable with in terms of the provision of eye care and you need to embrace technology (where there is huge choice).

Online eye exams are just around the corner!’ But he also enjoys the day to day work: ‘When you get okay at your job you can yarn more – behind every pair of eyes there is often a really interesting person.’

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C U L T U R E

HEAD SHOTS Portraits of New Zealanders by New Zealanders are currently on display at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery for the 2020 Adam Portraiture Award Exhibition. Of the 51 artists chosen for the exhibition, 11 are from the Wellington region. Among them is Meredith Marsone whose studio mate Gina Kiel is the subject of her portrait Gina and the dragon. ‘The dragon refers to a partly visible Japanese dragon on her shirt, analogous to the human struggles we have in common but keep mostly hidden from each other.’

BLISSFUL

BY THE BARD

TRIO

Becky Bliss is the only New Zealander exhibiting at Schmuck, ‘the’ international event for contemporary jewellery, this month in Munich. The three pieces of the Newtown artist’s work chosen for display at Schmuck are part of Bliss’s Fair Play collection, which explores the gendered history of toys. The seven pendants are made of Meccano-style steel pieces fabricated by Bliss and put together to create a family that plays with gender stereotypes – for example the boy is pink and the girl is blue.

Teenagers across the country are ‘to be or not to be’-ing, ‘out damned spot’-ing, and ‘what light through yonder window breaks’-ing as they prepare to battle it out in March and April in the Shakespeare Globe Centre Sheilah Winn regional competitions. Wellington’s young thespians will walk the boards in public performances at Wellington East Girls College 6–8 April.

Bjorn Aslund, Alessia Augello, and Alec Katsourakis have used their dance residency at Toi Poneke to create a triple bill called Situations in Play. The three dancer/choreographers, all graduates of the New Zealand School of Dance, hope to challenge audiences’ preconceived notions of performance with their new works. Situations in Play is at Te Whaea from 12 to 14 March as part of the Fringe Festival.

O L D S T PA U L’ S

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S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

EST WELLINGTON 2000

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LIGHT

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C U L T U R E

T RU ST ME A sculpture depicting animals, plants, transport, technology, and culture is now atop the four plinths outside Te Papa. Sue Elliott, Chair of the Wellington Sculpture Trust, says they chose Signal Forest by Auckland artist Yolunda Hickman because they were drawn to the many layers of the work. The trust is also responsible for Quasi atop City Gallery, and is currently fundraising for the installation of Fibre-Optic Colonnade Car Wash, a kinetic light sculpture that looks like an automatic tunnel car wash.

CONFLICT AND HOPE

GO FOR GOLD

COVER GIRL

Lema Shamamba arrived in New Zealand in 2009 as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now a community leader, educator, mother, and artist, Lema makes embroidered art works depicting the ongoing conflict in the Congo. Figures are shown attempting to cross the border, and metallic forms represent conflict over minerals, but her work also includes symbols of hope. Her solo exhibition, Mulame (meaning ‘be there forever’) runs at Minerva on Cuba St from 28 to 29 March.

Originally written for harpsichord, the Goldberg Variations – an ornamented aria followed by 30 intricate variations – was an artistic triumph for J S Bach and a lesson in what could be played on a keyboard. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra take the Baroque gem to Carterton, Lower Hutt, and Kāpiti early this month, performing the variations on various instruments.

Since Estère graced the cover of our second issue of Capital back in 2013, she’s released two albums, toured the world, and given a Ted Talk about sound, sexism, and producing DIY records at home in your pyjamas.

The critically acclaimed Wellington musician brings together music, theatre, design, lighting, and costume for Into the Belly of Capricorn – a live music event specially curated for the Festival of the Arts on 14 March.

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D I R E C T O R Y

{Suite}

SGCNZ Shakespeare Festival 2020

Suffrage in Stitches

New Zealand Arts Icon photographer Ans Westra is responsible for the most comprehensive documentation of New Zealand culture over the last 60 years.

The {Suite} Westra Museum is a dedicated exhibition space for Ans' photographs.

Prints are available for sale.

Students perform fresh interpretations of the Bard's works in Wellington's Regional SGCNZ UOSW Shakespeare Festival. Using 5 and 15 minute scenes students portray personalities replicated in Shakespeare's plays with those of today, parallel social, political and religious issues and power-struggles.

Shakespeare is very current!

An outstanding exhibition celebrating our whakapapa, history and the power of New Zealanders who came together to win women the right to vote. Brought to you

by Wellington Museum and Vinnies Re Sew. Koha.

Tuesday–Friday 11am–6pm, 11am–4pm Saturdays 241 Cuba St. suite.co.nz

6–8 April, 7pm Wellington East Girls' College, Austin St, Mt Victoria. iticket.co.nz

Until Monday 27th April 3 Jervois Quay, Wellington. wellingtonmuseum.nz

Pangaea

Nairn Street Cottage

Goethe-Institut Residency

Hailing from India and NZ, Pangaea performs a fusion of Indian and Western musical styles, blending classical instruments with modern songs. Their live shows are always mesmerising and captivating for the audience and will make the body move! Doors open from 8pm. Koha.

Journey through time and gain a fresh perspective on history through the stories of three generations of the Wallis family in one of Wellington’s oldest homes. Tours daily. Adults: $8, child: $4. See our website for our winter hours.

Anna Peschke (Berlin) works as a theatre director and visual artist worldwide. Her work creates new forms of expression connecting performance, installation, and music. In NZ Anna will realise an interdisciplinary and collaborative performance-project. Watch out for events in the Wairarapa and Wellington.

8.30pm–10.30pm Saturday 28th March 3 Jervois Quay, Wellington. wellingtonmuseum.nz

12pm–4pm, until 31st March 68 Nairn St, Mount Cook. nairnstcottage.nz

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February/March 2020 goethe.de/nz

fashion / 131 jackson st, petone

f o o d / 133 jackson st, petone

F E AT U R E

Band of brothers

BY SA R A H CAT H E R A L L I L LU ST R AT I O N BY E M M A S M I T H

O

n a typical Sunday evening, Cuba Dupa director Gerry Paul and his Irish family gather at their Belmont family home for dinner and a sing-along. Gerry, a musician all his life, strums his banjo, and his brothers Eddie, Steve, and Conor bring out their instruments. Their 68-year-old mother, Alice, leads them in singing traditional Irish songs along with their father, Brendan, their wives and partners, and the next generation: Gerry’s daughter Odelia, Steve’s son Luca, and Eddie’s daughter Florence. If the brothers – ‘best friends’, they and their mother say – have been out spearfishing with their father, dinner will be the fish they caught.

Alice laughs that the brothers are so competitive about their catches. ‘When Gerry was overseas, I’d tell him that Conor had come back with a crayfish. He would say, “Mum can you do me a favour? Can you measure it?’’’

At his recent wedding to Josie Keating, Gerry’s brothers were his best men.

Born in Dublin, Gerry is the only one of the Paul brothers who has made a career in music: Eddie is a tiler and lawyer, Steve is a civil engineer, and Conor is a marine biologist and teacher. Now the frontman for Wellington’s biggest street festival, Gerry spent 16 years touring the world and has performed in over forty countries.

He performed and recorded with some world famous folk musicians including Bluegrass icon Tim O’Brien, Irish accordion maestro Sharon Shannon, and his own band of ten years, Grada.

Music brings the tight-knit family together, along with a desire to maintain a connection with their Irish culture from almost 20,000 kilometres away.

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On why his family is so close, Gerry says, ‘Our parents instilled (and drilled) loyalty and respect into us from a young age’. As the boys were close in age, they grew up friends as well as brothers: ‘We used to kill each other, but we’d always be friends again by the end of the day.’

Alice is an accomplished singer. She grew up in County Monaghan singing Irish ballads with her family. Moving here with Brendan and her sons in 1985, she suffered from culture shock. To help ease her homesickness, and to keep her home culture alive, the family joined the Lower Hutt Irish Society.

‘It was a very lonely time. Being away from your home and your culture is so hard. Your heart is always in your homeland. Someone described it once as like walking with a pebble in your shoes.’

From the mid-nineties, Alice co-ran an annual St Patrick’s Day event with an Irish friend, Sue Ikin. Sitting in a cafe on Cuba Street, Alice tells me she is determined to keep Wellington’s small Irish community connected to their roots.

The sparky former Aer Lingus flight attendant helps run a weekly Irish show on Access Radio, fronting it or scheduling other Irish presenters.

She also teaches a group of children to sing at the Irish Society each week.

For her 60th birthday, Gerry and Alice made an album together. Alice gave the 150 CDs away to family and friends: ‘It was a bucket list thing for me and a really special thing to do with Gerry.’

Gerry was introduced to music by his mother, who had her sons each learn an instrument from a young age. Gerry and Eddie started playing the

F E AT U R E

tin whistle as preschoolers in Ireland. Gerry’s first present was a piano, and his mother says he was gifted with ‘incredible rhythm’.

At the age of 12, he formed his first band with four Irish friends. Back then Irish music and musicans were little known in New Zealand. Says Alice: ‘Then suddenly all these Irish acts came from Ireland, and Gerry went over there for 13 years to perform, and he would send all these amazing acts back.’

It’s fitting that Gerry is bringing art and music back onto Cuba Street. At the age of eight, he made his first public performance on Wellington’s most colourful street. Playing the tin whistle and the banjo, he and Eddie busked in the mall, and their great-aunt, Kathleen O’Connor, danced alongside.

Kathleen and another one of Gerry’s great aunts ran a ballroom dance studio on Cuba Street, where his grandmother sometimes helped out.

‘This is my first proper desk job at the age of 40. Until now I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than music,’ Gerry laughs.

Gerry inherited his mother’s talent for bringing people together and organising events.

‘We grew up with an open door policy at the house and had a lot of social gatherings, so I suppose we are all that way inclined. I also think it is natural for immigrants and diaspora to hold onto and preserve their culture very carefully – maybe Irish culture was more of a priority for us growing up in Aotearoa than it would have been if we had grown up in Dublin.’

Gerry says that his mother ‘inspired and instilled’ in them the love of music, while their father passed on the love of the sea: ‘These are passions, hobbies, and lifestyles that we have

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all shared and been able to do together right up until now.’

When Gerry brings Irish musicians to town, they typically end up staying at the family home in Belmont, which, Gerry laughs is ‘like the Irish embassy’.

‘New Zealand got its first Irish ambassador one and a half years ago, but until then Mum was like the Irish ambassador for Wellington.’

When the boys lived at home, they typically had a pot luck dinner with their Irish friends on a Sunday night, when 15 guests would explode to 40. Alice always told them to ‘bring your instrument and bring your voice’. The result, she says, was always ‘spontaneous’ and ‘lovely’.

Gerry adds that it’s typical in Ireland to bond over music, and everyone has a song or two to bring to a party. The Paul brothers never went to bed until the guests left, a practice Alice brought from Ireland, where children mix with adults all the time. ‘We see that as really important. Children are number one,’ she says.

Over the years, the Wellington community has changed around them, as the city has welcomed more immigrants. Alice and Brendan have a South African family nearby, and have befriended Spanish neighbours. She loves the way new cultures are bringing their music here, something Gerry is embracing in programming Cuba Dupa. ‘Gerry is a great ambassador for Wellington. He just loves Wellington,’ she smiles.

As does his mother, who welcomes visiting artists with open arms.

Alice says: ‘I just love it. I think the world stops if you stop welcoming people and stop being nice to people.’

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F E AT U R E

Ballet bones P H OTO G R A P H Y BY E VA M E Y E R K E L L E R

Apparently it’s quite a feat to get time with Kate McIntosh. The Brussels-based Wellington-born ‘creative genius’, as her former dance teacher Deirdre Tarrant (our own Welly Angel) describes her, is in demand. Even so, while she was home for a summer holiday last month she happily met Francesca Emms for a chat in a cafe.

I

’d been told that Kate McIntosh is a dancer, and it’s clear from her posture and grace that this is true, but she’s also much, much more. In fact, the first time I came across her, back in 2015, she was performing All Ears, a participatory sound piece. She’s a performer, or as she puts it, ‘I work in performance’. But dance is where it all began.

Six-year-old Kate fell off a wall, hit her head, and suffered a concussion. ‘I was struggling for about a year. I remember being very confused about everything,’ she says. Her parents wondered whether dance might help her recover, so she found herself in Deirdre Tarrant’s ballet class on Cuba Street. ‘I really remember one week being there and she was teaching the sequence and all the other kids were getting it. And I couldn’t string it together. It was like moving through fog, I just couldn’t get it,’ says Kate. But the next week it began to come together, and around the same time she began to recover from her concussion.

Kate studied ballet with Deirdre for the next 13 years, working her way up to the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the studio’s annual production. ‘Training with Deidre was really fantastic, because the whole focus was on the idea of performing. The end-of-

year productions were these completely magical events. The idea that you could create another world on stage, that you could make this kind of bubble of time where another reality was true – I found it deeply magical.’

At 19 Kate moved to Brisbane to do a degree in dance, something that wasn’t offered in New Zealand at the time. ‘That was the only reason I left.’ She studied and worked as a contemporary dancer in Australia for a few years before moving to Europe. She’s spent the past 20 years abroad working in performance.

Her work is multi-faceted and her roles include dancer, choreographer, writer, actor, artist, sound designer, musician, and director. ‘With every new performance, I always try to do something that I have no idea how to do. So with each project I accumulate another thing that I'm a bit more experienced in.’ For example, when Kate first started making her own performance work, she went straight for texts and the spoken word because ‘I had done nothing like that before.’

In 2011 Kate created a work for contemporary dance company Footnote Dance.

The piece, Hullapolloi, was a collaboration

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between Kate, Footnote, and Kate’s childhood buddy Jo Randerson (CAP #54). Hullapolloi toured New Zealand, won ‘Best of Fringe’ in Dunedin, and received rave reviews before travelling to Germany in 2012 to open the Frankfurt Book Fair. At the time, Deirdre described it as ‘a very strong and unexpected collaborative work. There’s a strong element of surprise and confrontation. Hullapolloi explores these issues of consumerism and materialism and aims to put the human back into humanity.’ Looking back, Deirdre now says it was ‘radical’ and ‘ahead of its time’.

Kate and Deirdre are still in close contact.

‘Kate’s always been special,’ says Deirdre.

‘She’s quite amazing and very clever.’ Deirdre often goes to Europe to see Kate’s work, which she describes as ‘intelligent dance’ and ‘a movement statement in her own words.’

She says her former pupil is ‘highly thought of ’ in Europe, and ‘arguably our most outstanding contemporary dancer, though unsung in New Zealand.’

The last time Kate performed in Wellington, I happened to be in the audience. The show was supposed to be a duet, she tells me.

But the other performer became unwell and she realised she’d have to create a one-woman show. ‘I really didn’t want to make a solo, because I’ve done it a few times before and it’s quite a painful process,’ she says. ‘I was “ah, I don’t want to, I really don’t want to do this on my own. Damnit, I’m going to get the audience to do it with me. We’re going make a show together.”’ Suddenly Kate was creating a participatory show, ‘which I’d never done

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before and I really don't like participation at all.’ In fact, she has a ‘natural suspicion of such situations.’ I agree, and tell her, ‘I hate audience participation, but I liked your show.’

She laughs, ‘I’m glad you say that, because my whole ambition was to make sure that even I would agree to participate in it.’ She didn’t want to break the normal contract between the audience and the stage. ‘It would be the way you would expect to go in a theatre, that you buy your ticket, you sit down, you watch something on stage. But how do they participate if they’re not going to leave their seats?’

She thought about how the audience sits a lot like a choir or even an orchestra, ‘a bank of people all looking one way. So I thought, okay, they’re going to do the sound for this piece.’ The result was All Ears, in which Kate transformed the stage into a sound laboratory and ran a series of acoustic experiments with help from the audience.

Deirdre remembers Kate joining her class all those years ago. ‘I was aware that dance was helping her,’ she says, referring to the head injury. Plenty of research has shown dance movement therapy benefits survivors of head injuries. Despite her 13 years of ballet training, Kate says she knew she wouldn’t be a ballerina: ‘I’d never been a very technical dancer, I was always a performer.’ Deirdre agrees, adding that Kate was too tall – so tall in fact that Kate’s father built a special barre in Deirdre’s studio so that Kate could work at the right height. ‘She was never going to be a ballet dancer,’ says Deirdre. ‘She has ballet bones, but she’s found a bigger voice.’

Old Bank Arcade, 233 Lambton Quay 04 473 3123 • iloveparis.co.nz

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Country club A series of house parties became a Cuba Street nightclub, and this year steps out for the first time as 121 Festival, a three-day music event.

Melody Thomas speaks with 121 founders Olly de Salis, 23, and Cameron Morris, 24, about their journey so far.

T

he story of 121 is, in many ways, a familiar one. A couple of friends fall in love with dance music and search for the underground raves and secret warehouse parties that foster exactly this vibe.

When they can’t find any, they decide to make their own.

The reason it’s familiar is that something very like it has happened here before.

In the 90s and into the early 2000s, New Zealand bore witness to the birth of a dance scene that was unlike anything we’d seen till then. In clubs, old warehouses and middle-of-nowhere fields all around the country, stages were erected and massive subs wheeled in. As the sun went down, these spaces filled with (mostly) young people with a proclivity to dance in a pulsing throng of thousands.

There were lasers and black lights, glow sticks and fire poi.

There was inevitably a thudding bass that seemed to reverberate in the very core of your soul. Alcohol took a back seat to substances that made you more likely to still be dancing at sun-up, to make a best friend in the line to the toilet, and cradle a tender jaw for a couple of days following.

It was a beautiful scene, but like all scenes it peaked then receded, so by the time 121 was formed, its founders felt very much as if they were ‘sculpting and moulding a scene from scratch.’

121 began in 2015. De Salis was 18 years old, studying fine arts at university, when his parents set off to Europe for six months and, perhaps naively, left him in their house. Keen to celebrate the end of the school year (and, as he tells it, make some mates), De Salis organised a massive multi-media party at his parents’ house, featuring more than 20 artists, painters, photographers, and musicians.

The party went off so naturally De Salis organised more, and his parent’s house became a thriving hub for like-minded people to ‘hang out, create, and party’ (think Andy Warhol’s Factory, but in a family home on the side of a hill in Wadestown).

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‘We had no rules or regulations to follow and made the most of the creative freedom,’ laughs De Salis.

De Salis did make friends, including his future business-partner Cameron Morris, whose band headlined one of the parties. The pair bonded over their shared love of ‘curating parties and social gatherings’, and Morris introduced De Salis to house music. They parted ways for a bit – Morris to Sydney to expand his musical horizons while De Salis kept up the 121 parties in Wellington – but they continued to swap house beats, and eventually Morris moved home to officially get on board the 121 train.

By this point, De Salis’ parents had returned and regained possession of their house (complete with a fresh lick of paint), but the pair continued to host one-off events together. Then in 2017, Tim Ward, San Francisco co-owner and soonto-be 121 business partner, offered them a club space on Cuba Street, where Good Luck bar used to be. Soon after, Club 121 was born.

For two years, Club 121 was the place to go if you wanted to dance in a ‘smokey basement rave cave with raw edges, a high quality soundsystem, an impeccable roster of DJs, jet black walls, and tons of vibes.’ De Salis and Morris continued with their one-off parties, selling out a warehouse rave with Fat Freddy’s Drop and a couple of others in the surprising setting of DIY sculpture-garden-mini-golf-course Carlucci Land.

But it wasn’t all easy – the day to day of managing a club proved a steep learning curve for the boys and, a year in, Club 121 suffered that same frustrating fate of many inner-city music venues: somebody moved in upstairs and decided they didn’t like the noise.

‘They were constantly complaining and harassing. We had little support from the council

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and felt our creative expression was being squashed by this uptight upper-class resident who purchased an apartment above a pre-existing night club, whose goal was to squash us to the point of leaving,’ says Morris.

When it was revealed that the space needed earthquake strengthening, the 121 team decided to cut their losses and move out.

‘The closing weekend was bittersweet. We were so sad about leaving, but it was also one of those “take a step back and realised what you've achieved’’ moments,’ says De Salis.

The future of 121 looks bright. This month, the inaugural multi-day 121 Festival kicks off in Tauherenikau, near Featherston, and is on track to sell upwards of 4,500 tickets. As well as a bunch of exciting international dance music producers and DJs like Richie Hawtin, Nina Kraviz, The Black Madonna, and Ben UFO, the festival will host local festival staples The Black Seeds and Trinity Roots.

They’re also dead keen on getting back into another regular club space where, just like always, anyone and everyone can enjoy the ‘fully immersive multisensory experience’ of a 121 event.

‘Dance music has no prejudice on age, race, gender,’ says De Salis. ‘It’s an all-inclusive space where anybody and everybody can dance and have fun.’

Morris agrees: ‘The music and art is the main focus of our events, and we regularly see it breaking down any boundaries people may think they have between each other. There’s only one rule, no f*ckwits.’

Consider yourself told.

121 Festival, Tauherenikau, March 13–15.

S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

Carterton Wed 4 March, 7.30pm Carterton Events Centre Lower Hutt Thu 5 Mar, 7.30 PM Lower Hutt Town Hall Kāpiti Sat 7 Mar, 7.30 PM Kāpiti Performing Arts Centre NZSO Setting Up Camp concerts, education and community events Greater Wellington 4–7 March

VARIATIONS NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA BAROQUE SERIES

Vesa-Matti Leppänen Director/Violin Stephen De Pledge Fortepiano JS Bach Goldberg Variations

Book at nzso.co.nz

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F E AT U R E

BY H A R R I E T PA L M E R P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S AS S I ST E D BY B E N N J E F F R I E S

The hype-man of the Hurricanes is eyeing up the Super Rugby Championship, there’re changes afoot for the Wellington City Mission, and the wheels are spinning at Wellington City Council. Harriet Palmer talked to three local leaders about their vision for the future.

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Dream chaser At 33 years old, Dane Coles is the self-proclaimed ‘grumpy old man’ of the Hurricanes.

T

he father of three boys collects music on vinyl and loves an early night. He remembers what rugby was like before social media, and is spending time on the couch resting his ‘old body’.

So how does he find captaining a rugby team of kids born so recently they don’t even qualify as millennials?

‘A lot of the young boys want everything straight away. It’s like mate, calm down,’ he says.

‘It’s a young man’s game now and I just have to adapt, but I love it. Helping those boys and showing them what it means to be a professional rugby player. Making it enjoyable.’

He says he was probably a ‘ratbag little shit’ when he got his start in the Hurricanes in 2008, but pro rugby has made him a better person. He is very keen to impart this to new players – and he’s also very keen to see them win.

Coles’ vision for 2020 is to bring home the hotly contested Super Championship, something the team has only done once before, in 2016, the first year Coles was captain. He reckons it’s not really worth playing in the competition if you’re not serious about winning it.

Coles announced he was going to be an All Black to his parents in their Paraparaumu home at the age of five. He chased the dream until he made it in 2012. It took him 21 years. If anyone can claim to be able to turn a vision into a reality, it’s Coles.

‘It’s always the same vision for us. We want to do everything we can to win the championship. Even if it feels out of reach, you always need something to aim for.’

This year Coles is co-captaining the Hurricanes with TJ Perenara. It’s the first time the team has had joint captains, but it’s working well because the two players have different strengths – TJ is the ‘smarts’, Coles is the ‘hype-man’.

He’s fairly low-key for a hype man – the figure who bounces around at hip-hop concerts stirring up the crowd.

He does it his way – with a sense of humour and an unswerving commitment to the team. With the team of young players, Coles is a grumpy old sage, a bit of a dad.

Coles tries to impart to all new players the Hurricanes’ deeply held values.

‘It’s more than rugby. We want these people to be good people. We want them to have a good work ethic, be respectful, and enjoy their footie.’

The good person stuff is appealing, especially in an era where the influence of professional sports players is amplified by social media. Fans who used to hang over sidelines for a

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glimpse of their favourite players now have access to their private lives almost 24/7. And in the past there would be a write-up after the game, then it was yesterday’s news.

‘Now it’s very different, you do one little muck-up or say the wrong thing on social media and it gets blown up. We have to put a lot of work into education. We know how it can affect people.’

Coles has more than 80,000 followers on Instagram. He says he enjoys using it to talk to fans, to be a role model, and to advocate for charity.

Fans are important, especially the ‘hard core staunch Hurricanes fans’ that show up in whatever Wellington weather to see a team that could be winning or losing. Coles says ‘We try to do it for them.’

Otherwise Wellington fans can be tough, especially over the last ten years, as ‘rugby has taken a hammering’ with spectator numbers in decline.

Coles is hoping that earlier games will make a difference.

He’s particularly happy with the few that kick off at 4pm.

They will mean more sleep for him, and his oldest Jax, 5, will be able to see him play.

‘I can’t take my kids to 7 o’clock games. The next day wouldn’t be too flash.’

And aside from rugby? Coles says his kids are his hobby.

He likes to get them outside ‘where they are free’, take them into the bush or into the surf. He rates the Wellington outdoors, especially the walks and the diving. The family live close to the beach in Lyall Bay. Last season Jax played his first season of ripper for Coles’ club Poneke. This year he has asked to try soccer.

‘He hasn’t registered yet. As long as they are being active, doing something is all I really care about.’

And there is that vinyl collection. Wife Sarah bought Coles a record player for his birthday 10 years ago and he hunts in record stores around the world.

In Wellington he enjoys popping into Slow Boat Records and Rough Peel Music on Cuba St. He and Sarah play one a night from a collection that now numbers over 100. He loves the retro sound, and the way vinyl means you listen to whole albums and discover songs.

Coles’ parents were lovers of soul and rock. They introduced their kids to music and it’s been a big part of his life.

They also took him to rugby games at Athletic Park and the stadium. Coles has always been a supporter of the Hurricanes.

‘I strove to get here for a long time and to be here for a decent stint is special.’ He says he loves the highs and lows of rugby.

‘I still get a good feeling when I am able to turn up every day and earn my team mates’ respect, and work really hard.’

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F E AT U R E

From vision to reality 2020 is the year Murray Edridge’s vision will start to look like a reality.

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ll going to plan, the head of the Wellington City Mission will see construction start this year on a new $20-million headquarters and social services centre, to be named Whakamaru.

The development will transform an existing building in Mt Cook, which backs onto the gardens of Government House.

The move from the City Mission’s current headquarters in central Newtown will bring it closer to the CBD – and to more of Wellington’s homeless community, which is growing after years of skyrocketing housing costs.

The list of services Whakamaru will provide is long: 35 supported-living apartments for people who have endured chronic homelessness, a 120-seat café offering cheap and healthy meals for anyone who needs them, a social supermarket to replace the current foodbank, an alternative education school, a commercial laundry with free services for people on the street, and office space for staff and volunteers.

Funding for the development has come from Wellington City Council, philanthropists, and business owners, including property developer Ian Cassels who recently pledged $10,000 from every home he sells for more than $800,000.

If everything goes as planned, consents will be obtained and construction will begin in the second half of this year. Edridge wants to be walking through the door at the end of 2021.

He says Whakamaru, meaning ‘to protect’, and ‘to provide shelter’, represents a new era for the City Mission, which has been helping the city’s most vulnerable people for more than a century. It will focus on three areas.

The first is housing – ‘such a significant issue in Wellington.’

The City Mission opened transitional housing for homeless people in Petone last year. It is looking at ways to work with commercial building developers to create more public housing.

Next is food – the mission has always been a provider of food, Edridge says, but the way it’s done now is ‘not manaenhancing’ and people get food they don’t like or don’t know how to use. The social supermarket will mean people can choose their own food and have some help while they do it.

His third goal is to harness the energy and support of the Wellington community – through volunteering. ‘I have a view that there are significant volunteering opportunities that we haven’t capitalized on yet.

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‘We bring in people now who are really skilled and capable and experienced and we get them chopping food and moving tin cans.

Which of course needs to be done, but we are not taking advantage of all the skills people have and the experience they bring.’

Beyond these immediate ways of making a difference, Edridge has a bigger and longer-term vision. He wants to see a transformation in the way Wellington perceives people in need.

‘Lives matter just as much no matter what you have, who you are, or what you are going through,’ he says.

Utopian? Edridge thinks not. If any city can do it, he says, it’s Wellington. This isn’t the optimism of a recent arrival – Edridge was born in Wainuiomata and spent 35 years there before moving to Whitby. He loves the city.

Before taking up the lead at the City Mission in 2018, Edridge had a long career. He started as an accountant in the power and gas industry, a far cry from social advocacy. He moved to the NGO sector after he became deeply concerned about ‘families and the lack of dads in our community’ and spent eight years as the CEO of children’s charity Barnado’s.

He also served as a Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Social Development, but left after taking the blame for a data bungle.

He says he was never really a good fit in Government. The move to the Mission feels good. Edridge is the first Missioner not to be an ordained Anglican priest, but he is a committed Christian.

‘I have inherited this thing – this organisation that is 116 years old – which means some of it is just awesome, but some of it feels like it has been here too long. For me, it’s about what do you do with something this iconic, with this much brand recognition? We have huge opportunities.’

‘I’m pushing quite hard. Nobody sleeps around here,’ he half-jokes.

He says Whakamaru will be a massive improvement for the Mission, and a manifestation of the way the City Mission needs to be. It’s his vision in bricks and mortar.

‘Whakamaru gives us the ability to create a community where there is no “us” and “them”’, he says, ‘where all people can come to connect in a whole variety of ways and there is no judgment, no distinction.’

Ultimately, he says, the City Mission can do a lot more than serve people, as important as this work is.

‘The best thing we can do is help the community understand that for us to be successful as a society, we all need to share in that success. So, how do we support and facilitate the community to care for itself?’

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To deliver visions Barbara McKerrow, Wellington City Council’s brand new CEO, is very clear it’s not her job to have a vision for the city.

‘P

eople often ask the chief executive about their vision, but the vision for the city is something the mayor and council and people of the city own. I don’t think it’s about my vision,’ she says.

‘My job as a CEO is not to reinvent our priorities but to actually gear this organisation up to a new phase in its life which is to actually really start to deliver. The city just wants to see some progress.’

McKerrow is here not to reinvent the wheel, but to get the wheel moving.

She is stepping into the role at a time everything seems to be going awry. There’s the shuttered library, the overflowing sewage, the empty Te Ngākau Civic Square, the bustastrophe.

But she’s positive – and she’s already proven herself capable. In her eight years as the CE at New Plymouth District Council, she drove a metamorphosis.

‘New Plymouth started being recognised as edgy. It was named by Lonely Planet as one of the best places to visit in the world.’

She says this came about because the city invested in itself, including $11.5 million on the impressive Len Lye Centre. Such projects boosted the confidence of the private sector, which started splashing money on hotels, restaurants, and cafes.

But Wellington is more complicated than New Plymouth. We’ve already had the Lonely Planet

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shout-out, and the cafes are famously numerous.

We moved from dull to colourful decades ago.

‘Wellington has already got a vibe. It’s more complex in that it’s a bigger place and the issues can be bigger and you are dealing with far more stakeholders, but the council has the capabilities, the framework is there.’

McKerrow has a long list of projects and issues the city is tackling now, or will down the track.

As well as Te Ngākau Civic Square, the Central Library, and the sewage system, she lists the convention centre, Let’s Get Wellington Moving and our transport network, resilient infrastructure, and the continuing aftermath of the Kaikoura Earthquake.

There’s also the rising cost of housing, and population growth, climate change, and sealevel rise.

It’s a long list, but McKerrow seems energized rather than daunted. She says while the library is a loss for the city, it’s also an opportunity to replace it with something that is ‘good for Wellington in the 21st century’. Some progress is already on track. She says the council’s transport programme Let’s Get Wellington Moving will ultimately lead to a better public transport system.

There’s also a plan for the city to become carbon free, and soil has been broken at the convention centre site.

She’s big on leadership and talks a lot about the capabilities that need to be nurtured within the council organization. She wants to see everybody at the council ‘united by a common vision’ and to have the tools they need to get things done.

S E C T I O N

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This is going down well. McKerrow was very popular in her previous role as the council’s Chief Operating Officer. A staff member told us, ‘She knows building a functional organisation is her job, and she is the best person at doing it I have ever worked with’.

McKerrow has been here three years, and this is her second stint in the capital. She and husband Barry came to Wellington as newlyweds in the 1970s. At the time she says Wellington was a grey government city, ‘a place you had to go to on your way from the North Island to the South Island.’

It was not a place the young couple aspired to live in.

But it surprised her. She says the people were open. They made friends and during years in Australia and New Plymouth, she remained fond of the place.

‘I had opportunities to work in other cities in New Zealand when I was looking for a change, but I chose Wellington as my preferred destination. If I were to live in a city anywhere in New Zealand this would be my choice.’

She likes the social scene and the creativity, the restaurants and the shows. She and Barry are out and about a lot, often with

family. Her mum and their two sons remain in New Plymouth, but regularly take up residence in her spare room not far from the Brooklyn Wind Turbine. The family is very taken with the bird life: kaka frequently pass her deck and a karearea recently swooped over as the family was barbecuing.

McKerrow doesn’t agree that Wellington has lost its buzz and its place as the country’s creative capital – a line Auckland marketers and television executives are spinning.

She thinks the buzz still exists – ‘but we can’t take it for granted. It’s something we need to keep working on and that’s something I am keen on. The important thing is that we work in a deliberate way and that we take opportunities.’

McKerrow envisions that the creativity which ‘permeates Wellington’ will help the city address its challenges, from climate change to capital infrastructure. ‘There should be an imaginative and an artistic approach to the way that we do things.’

‘And we can’t forget that while we address all these issues, we still need to be talking about what this place is like to live in and the experience people have living here every day.’

50

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F E AT U R E

Pack of eyes You are being watched. Do you care? And does it matter?

More than 500 public CCTV cameras, and probably many more private cameras, are in operation in Wellington. John Bishop talks to the people sitting behind them.

W

alk from the corner of Willis and Manners Streets to Courtenay Place and you’ll be seen at least nine times on the Wellington City Council’s cameras.

Dodge into Dixon Street and there are another three cameras there; another three are up Cuba Street. In total there are 34 counciloperated cameras, which are intended to make inner Wellington safer by monitoring what’s happening on the streets and helping police to take appropriate action.

The council owns the cameras and shares the pictures in a live stream with the police, where volunteers (suitably vetted and trained) monitor the screens for indications of possibly criminal behaviour or actions that place anyone at risk.

There are hundreds more cameras in business premises looking out onto the streets, and in alleyways and nooks immediately outside offices, shops, apartments and the like – all in the name of protecting property, by deterring and detecting offenders.

If you loiter or linger, cuddle or canoodle, fall asleep or vomit in a doorway, chances are you will be seen and recorded.

Just how many private cameras are operating in Wellington isn’t known, because permission to operate one isn’t needed, although all operators are required to comply with the Privacy Act. Just how much protection this legislation provides is questionable because it’s hard to know what happens to the footage.

In December 2019 the New Zealand Herald reported 567 public CCTV cameras in Wellington, many of them operated by the government’s Transport Agency. By comparison Auckland had 5,486 cameras, of which 54 percent were operated

by Auckland Transport.

And that’s still not counting the cameras which operate inside shops supposedly to prevent shoplifting and the like.

It’s part of the surveillance society; cameras are everywhere and there seems little we can do about it unless we shop only online, socialise only in our own dwellings, and don’t go out in the inner city at night. Righto!

Nicola Moreham is a Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington, specialising in media and privacy issues. Her concern is that CCTV is part of a movement over many years – the encroachment of cameras and other forms of surveillance into all aspects of our lives. ‘You simply can’t avoid CCTV in most cities in the UK.’ She is more concerned about surveillance by private entities than by government bodies because it is more difficult to know what footage from them is accessed and what use is made of it.

Annabel Fordham, the Public Affairs Manager at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, herself a lawyer, explains that parties operating cameras are obliged to comply with the main principles of the Privacy Act, which includes disclosing that CCTV cameras are operating.

Visible signage saying so is sufficient.

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F E AT U R E

‘Cameras – concealed or not – have to be used for a legitimate purpose. Security and preventing shoplifting are clearly legitimate but you can’t splash footage of people trying on clothes on Facebook.

‘Equally if you tell customers that you are collecting information for a business purpose you can’t then share the footage for laughs.

‘You also have to collect information in a fair way which generally means that cameras should not be hidden although that can be legitimate.

For example, if a shop owner suspects a staff member is stealing it would be lawful to position a hidden camera over the till to detect offending.

‘You have to keep the information you collect secure, and guard against loss or misuse and not keep it for longer than necessary.’

– Annabel Fordham Complaints about CCTV don’t rank particularly highly, although in its biennial survey, conducted by UMR Research, the Privacy Commission found a general concern about the rising tide of surveillance.

The 2018 survey found the number of people concerned about their individual privacy had risen slightly to 67 percent, up two percent from the last survey held in 2016.

However only 36 percent were concerned about the use of CCTV by individuals; the use of drones in residential areas concerned 62 percent, making the CCTV the issue of least concern in 2018.

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Sergeant Hamish McKnight is part of the City Community team at Wellington Central Police Station in Victoria Street. He oversees the monitoring of the CCTV cameras that cover some of the inner city trouble spots, such as Cuba Street from Wakefield to Ghuznee street, Victoria Street, and Manners Street to Cambridge Terrace.

The council records the pictures; the police do not. The council holds the pictures for a month and then wipes them. The police have a month to request any footage they might want to see and retain. The council meets their requests promptly.

For the council the purpose is to make Wellington, particularly central Wellington, a safer place.

For the police, the cameras are ‘another tool in crime prevention and detection,’ says Sergeant McKnight.

The volunteers are trained to spot individuals ‘at risk’, people who are disoriented, under the influence of drinks or drugs, or potential targets for robbery or assault.

A volunteer will call police communications, who will take the matter from there, sending a foot patrol or a car as they judge appropriate. Volunteers can also text McKnight directly.

Sergeant McKnight says the biggest benefit of the cameras is prevention, although detecting crimes and identifying offenders is also very important.

‘We get a lot of co-operation from the private owners of CCTV cameras. If we ask to see their footage, invariably they give it to us.

I can’t recall any time when we have asked and been refused. After all, it’s in their interests and they see that very clearly.’

Capital wasn’t allowed to meet or talk to any volunteers, with the PR department citing safety

F E AT U R E

and security issues. However, nine volunteers have their pictures and first names on the council’s website. In two cases surnames are used, and in three cases the person’s place of work is also given.

The PR department arranged for one of them, Jordan, to respond to written questions. He says weekdays are quieter than weekends.

‘You may see fighting/disorder, theft, property damage or someone with a medical emergency’.

He finds the busier weekend night shifts obviously more intense, with more potential for crimes and risks to people’s safety.

Anti-social behaviour and alcohol are the obvious issues at night, so ‘you are looking out for criminal activity and potential victims’.

He tells us he once played a role in apprehending an offender.

He saw a speeding car pull up in Te Aro Park. ‘Then a male jumped out with a machete in his hand and ran into a nearby business. I got straight onto the police radio and notified them of the situation.

‘The offender was back in his car in less than a minute and took off. Shortly afterward it comes over the radio that a unit has pulled the car over and recovered a machete from the vehicle.’

Sergeant McKnight says that the success of the cameras is hard to determine: ‘Statistics will tell you some things but it’s hard to find the root cause of what drives crime figures up or down.’

But he is clear that without the cameras in operation, people walking though the city streets would be more at risk than they are now.

‘It may sound a bit Big Brother, but this works,’ he says.

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Squawk the squawk

BY A N N I E K E I G

Squawk Squad has taken off and Alex McCall and Fraser McConnell have moved on to another joint endeavour in pursuit of their vision: ‘to inspire the world to choose purpose over profit.’

A response to the Predator Free 2050 project, Squawk Squad is a web-app that allows people to collectively fund self-resetting predator traps in sanctuaries throughout Aotearoa. Each funder has a ‘Squawker Profile’, which keeps track of their particular trap (where it is and when it is activated) and provides a precise measure of the difference participants make for native birdlife.

Squawk Squad has also designed an online education pack for schools. Over three years, more than 100,000 students

signed up to be ‘Squawk Squad Rangers’ and to raise funds.

Communities all over New Zealand report kids pitching ideas – selling veges at farmers’ markets, for example, and beeswax food wraps—for funding Squawk Squad trap projects in four locations, including one at Pukaha Mt Bruce.

Choice, McCall and McConnell’s newest project, tackles offshore credit fees rather than pests. Choice is a payment app which creates a direct link between customers’ and merchants’ bank accounts. Instead of the merchant paying up to 3% in credit fees, Choice charges a flat rate of ten cents per transaction. Five of the ten cents go to a charity of the shopper’s choice, and the app keeps the rest. Its strength, they say, is that it saves money for merchants, keeps New Zealand money in New Zealand, and gives shoppers an opportunity to support their communities with every flat white they buy.

With an MO of creating platforms for ‘nation-wide, grassroots, community driven effort,’ it’s no surprise McCall and McConnell were selected as Edmund Hillary Fellows in 2018 and Fraser was also nominated for the 2020 Young New Zealander of the Year Award.

Alex McCall & Fraser McConnell

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O P I N I O N

Cassette in his ways

BY M E LO DY T H O M A S

The year is 2053. Post-apocalyptic scavengers rummage through the debris that was once Wellington city and stumble upon an old poster. ‘Homegrown’, reads the one who found it.

‘Looks like a music festival.’ The scavenger’s friend comes closer to survey the find – so little information remains about the old world – and squints to read the lineup: ‘There’s, like, three female musicians on it. Must be an old one,’ they say. Gently, so as to avoid crumbling it to dust in their fingers, the finder turns over a folded corner to reveal the date. ‘2020!?’ they cry.

I

can’t say I was surprised. For years now, every time another Homegrown lineup is released, my workmates and I have taken bets as to how many female musicians will feature – the trick is to think of a really low number then subtract a couple, and you’ll usually get pretty close. But still, after years of criticism for exactly this, you’d think festival organiser Mark Wright would have put in a bit more effort.

To be fair, there is a wider issue in the music industry when it comes to gender representation. At last count, roughly 22% of APRA writer members identify as female – a fact the organisation is attempting to address with various programmes and initiatives. At the time of writing, only four out of 20 songs in the NZ charts are written by or feature female artists, and three of them are by BENEE. Other music

NEWTOWN F E S T I VA L March 8: Tiny Ruins! In Newtown! For free!

If you’ve never seen her before you won’t want to miss the chance, but get there early to stake your spot – it’ll be packed.

While you’re there check out Auckland producer and DJ Peach Milk; local songwriter, producer, and DJ Alexa Casino; plus the most excellently named Na Noise, Strange Stains, Unsanitary Napkin, Crone, and B*tchmagic. We’ve also heard inside word that AJA is incredible.

N Z F E S T I VA L O F T H E A RT S March 12 & 13: If you love Tiny Ruins then chances are you also love both Nadia Reid and Aldous Harding, who play consecutive nights in Wellington this month.

Nadia will be launching her highly-antic-

festivals manage to achieve a better gender balance in their lineups, but they have a larger, international roster to choose from. Plus, those who attend a festival like Laneway expect to discover new music, whereas Homegrown punters are more focused on catching already-established favourites.

That said, there are a handful of all-male bands on the Homegrown lineup that have fairly small followings and streams online. It seems Wright and other festival organisers are much more likely to take a punt on an ‘up-andcoming’ act if it’s male. Last year, when asked why he didn’t try to book BENEE, Wright said ‘It just didn’t quite fit’. This year when he did try to book her she was too busy.

Homegrown is a really cool day out – a celebration of musical talent made right here in Aotearoa, on stages around the waterfront. I have no doubt that Wright and organisers of other festivals around the country care about the state of New Zealand music, and want to see all good Kiwi musicians thrive. But so many musicians are born when they go to a gig and see someone on stage that ‘looks like them’. Until a real effort is made to get more talented women on our stages, the gender imbalance is going nowhere.

Off the back of this story, we’ve pulled together a gig guide of killer artists and bands performing in Wellington this month, who also happen to be female. Enjoy.

ipated (by me, but I’m sure many others as well) new album Out of My Province on the 12th; and Aldous plays the Michael Fowler Centre on the 13th with Weyes Blood (USA) and Purple Pilgrims. The festival website calls the evening ‘A triple bill of sublimely original indie chanteuses’, and there’s no better way to describe it.

March 14: You’ve gone out two nights in a row now – why not make it three? Wellington songwriter and producer Estère performs songs from her forthcoming album Into the Belly of Capricorn, which she produced alongside none other than Stew Jackson of Massive Attack.

121 F E S T I VA L March 13–15: A whole lot of incredible local talent including k2k, Aw B, Peach Milk, Jess B, Bailey Wiley, and much more. See page 38.

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CUBA D U PA March 18: Look, I know you’re tired. Your mission to check out femme music talent in Wellington this month has had you out most nights because there’s just too much of it. But you can’t skip this one because if you do you’ll miss seeing rising hip hop star Jess B! If like me you missed out on tickets to her Wellington gig last year (sold out, of course), then I expect to see you front-row-centre.

If you love babes taking up loads of space and making far more noise than is ladylike, check out Miss June, Giantess, and Wax Chattels.

Then soothe your spirits with Māmā Mihirangi & the Māreikura (you might remember Mihirangi as the looping extraordinaire who made the top six in New Zealand’s Got Talent) and local up and comers H4LF CĀST.

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H E A D E R

S E C T I O N

I spy Find these 12 items in the collage. Go on.

H E A D E R

Jonathan Adler Banana Bud vase, $124, Cranfields

Out of order pin, $20, Mooma

Nakshi Kantha painted vase, $65, Trade Aid

Paloma Wool Neptuno, $629, I love Paris

Panel Dress khaki, $189, Kowtow

NASA mug, $17, Museums Wellington

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S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

High waisted swimwear pant navy, $98, Thunderpants

Centennial tray magnet, $9, Te Papa Store

Moooi Delft Blue 10, POI, ECC

Longest Drink In Town cup (set of 4), $33, Made It

Jonathan Adler Veuvius vase, $380, Cranfields

Orange tree, $120, Palmers Mirimar

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Death before digital

ing seasonally from gig to gig. Thomas worked with a long list of impressive clients over the years. ‘We were printing t-shirts with only four Spice girls on them before they announced anything about Geri leaving,’ he says proudly.

In 2010 Thomas returned to New Zealand and set up shop in Shelly Bay. With the encouragement of his partner, his workshop Artisan Screenprints became the only workshop in Wellington using solvent-free and plastic-free print methods. ‘The t-shirts pay the bills,’ Thomas says, as he slides ink across a stencil for a Mermaidens poster. The band posters and artworks are his passion project. I ask if he thinks people are learning to appreciate the tangible again. ‘Absolutely,’ he says, ‘stuff that some guy in a shed in Shelly Bay made, people love that.’

Screen printing is repetitive labour, but quick in the preparation stages: from idea to wearable t-shirt can take just a few hours. When MCA from the Beastie Boys died, Thomas made a memorial shirt and wore it to the grocery store only a few hours after his death. ‘Some guys did the most comedic double take because it was still breaking news.’ Thomas’s mantra is ‘Print to live, live to print,’ and his guiding principle ‘Death before digital.’

He figures it’s important to love what you do.

BY B E N N J E F F R I E S P H OTO G R A P H Y BY LU K E B ROW N E

Sometimes the old ways are the best. Take one look around Thomas Lynch’s screen printing workshop in Shelly Bay and it is clear that he believes it. Cassette tapes and music memorabilia pile up on the desks collecting dust, old punk rock posters line the walls and splotches of ink and paint cover the floor. Thomas got into screen printing as a teenager, cutting basic stencils to make t-shirts proclaiming his favourite bands. He floated around Wellington’s punk scene for years before leaving New Zealand in the nineties and talking his way into a screen printing job he says he was spectacularly under-qualified for. His mentor was patient and he learnt his trade on the job. For 13 years he travelled, mov-

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Gemini Cafe & Eatery

Representing Wellington in Te Papa Store’s extensive collection of NZ ceramics artists is Sue Dasler, who’s contemporary, hand crafted work takes inspiration from our environment and culture. www.tepapastore.co.nz

Gemini is a local Kiwi café, which specialises in unique drinks, and Asian-inspired innovative food options, serving a creative menu that caters to many different dietary needs and choices. www.geminicafewellington.business.site

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Going on a beer hunt

City life can be busy. If you found yourself in need of a respite, you’ll be pleased to hear Frank’s offers exactly that. A modern minimalist escape offering award-winning coffee, freshly baked goods, delicious brunch menu, and neat retail goods. www.frankscoffee.co.nz

It’s hot, you’re thirsty, and pausing for a beer and bite to eat is never a bad idea. Capital have produced a handy pocket sized guide to tempt you on beer adventures around the city. Find a copy free around the city this summer. www.capitalmag.co.nz

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B R I E F S

P O T T E R’ S SHOP Inspired by the much-publicised installation in Christchurch consisting of 185 white chairs, sculptor and vision merchandiser Melissa Young has helped the Mary Potter Hospice Shop become an op-shop with a difference. The shop-meets-gallery layout uses plinths and white-painted chairs to display and highlight the value of high-quality donated goods. Melissa’s less is more approach feels ‘high-end’, giving the shopper room to breathe, while book readings and vinyl listening stations mean the op-shop fits right into the creative Cuba quarter.

NOW YOU SEE IT

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Sotheby’s recent virtual staging of a Kāpiti Coast mansion was done so well that when we looked at the ‘before’ photos we couldn’t believe the house didn’t have an indoor pool!

Virtual staging is the ‘next big thing’ in real estate. Traditional home staging helps buyers to see a property’s potential, but virtual staging takes it further. Instead of using items that are used over and over by physical home staging companies, you can dream up any style of interior, and test out colour schemes, styles and décor without lifting a finger.

Blow Up Hairdressing’s #DareDo campaign has come to an end, having raised $1,654 for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. Participants were sponsored to get a daring new hair-do, which Blow Up did for free. Raising awareness as well as money was the goal – when someone asks you about your radical new hair, that is your opening to discuss Mental Health.

New Zealand's coastline is the 10th longest in the world, measuring about 14,000km, so we really need to know how to swim. ‘Basic aquatic skills’ are part of the New Zealand school curriculum, but water confidence is on the wane as many school swimming pools have been closed because of maintenance costs or health and safety rules. Students enrolled in SwimWell classes learn essential swimming and water safety skills, and have unlimited access to all Wellington City Council pools.

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B U G

M E

Praying mantis Name: New Zealand praying mantis

Look/Listen: It can be tricky at first to tell the difference between Springbok and New Zealand mantis, but by all accounts this becomes easy once you’ve figured it out.

The Springbok mantis is bigger and varies in colour, where ours is always bright green. The thorax (the long neck-like bit between its head and abdomen) of the native species is wide and flat, where that of the South African is skinny, almost as if it had a cinched waist. But the easiest way to tell if you’re looking at a NZ specimen is to check the inside of its front legs for a purple-blue spot - if it’s there, it’s native.

Māori name: Rō or whē Status: Native, at risk.

Scientific name: Orthodera novaezealandiae Description: The praying mantis is a very cool-looking insect. Take its head, for example, a weird triangle with a mouth on the pointy bit and a bulbous compound eye in each top corner, which would likely turn as if to assess you if you were to approach.

Plus those legs! Unlike other insects, the mantis primarily uses only four of its legs to walk, holding its spiky forelimbs up in ‘prayer’ position, ready to shoot out and trap its prey. In New Zealand there’s only one native species of praying mantis (compared to 20 in Australia), but there’s also a South African interloper – the Springbok mantis, or Miomantis caffra – which arrived about 1978 and quickly spread around the country.

Tell me a story: There are a few different reasons for the decline in rō numbers, but one is the proliferation of the Springbok mantis, which competes for food, does better in the cold, and has more babies more often. Research by behavioural ecologist Dr Greg Howell at the University of Auckland in 2014 also found that two-thirds of native mantises are devoured by South African females, lured in by their attractive scent and lacking any inbuilt evolutionary caution. The worst part is, the two species are actually unable to mate with each other, so they go to their deaths in vain.

Habitat: Rō are found throughout New Zealand except on Stewart and the Chatham Islands and the West Coast.They prefer open, shrubby terrain where they can camouflage themselves amongst leaves in order to surprise prey.

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E D I B L E S

PLUMBING THE DEPTHS Several brands of ‘diet’ or ‘detox’ tea have been removed from supermarket shelves after Consumer NZ found that they contained pharmacy-only ingredients. The teas in question contained senna, which is used to treat constipation. Approval from Medsafe is required to sell products containing senna, which neither Healtheries nor Senna Cleanse had obtained. ‘These types of products can be little more than laxatives in disguise,’ says Consumer NZ. One of Capital’s writers noted this change with some regret, saying they have previously used senna tea to great effect. ‘Senna can lead to liver damage if taken for too long,’ Sue Chetwin of Consumer says.

MUM’S COFFEE SHOP

SHALIMAR RUNS DRY

PARTNERS IN THYME

Kanama Kopi Kadai is a new Kilbirnie restaurant owned by Muthuvelu Supramaniam who is also the head chef. Kanama is the name of Muthuvelu’s mother and ‘kopi kadai’ means coffee shop. This was the name of a family-run stall opened by his mother in Kuala Lumpur in 1984, and Muthuvelu has decided to continue the family tradition here in Wellington. He has more than 20 years experience as a chef, and has worked at popular eateries such as Chow and the Roxy.

Aro Valley’s Shalimar Four Square, which was in the news last November for selling 3.8 tonnes of poppy seeds in one year, is currently fighting to keep its alcohol license. The proprietors failed to convince the Wellington District licensing board that poppy seeds should be classed as a food product. To qualify for a grocery store liquor license a vendor’s principal business must be the sale of food.

It was no hostile takeover when kiwi chef Hayden McMillan, owner of highly acclaimed Melbourne eatery Etta, ‘took over’ Floriditas for a Visa Wellington On a Plate event two years ago. Now Hayden is back in the capital and back at Floriditas, this time in partnership with the owners of the Cuba St eatery, Julie Clark and James Pedersen. Julie says the partnership will give Floriditas another lease of life.

‘Hayden’s food has always excited me and I know I’m going to learn heaps.’

E D I B L E S

WELLINGTON’S WA S T E Food accounted for 32% of Wellington’s kerbside waste in 2018. But we will this year be trialling a food waste system on Wellington’s journey to ‘greenness.’ This is part of an overall City Council goal of reducing Wellington’s total waste by 1/3 by 2026. This trial will take place in one suburb, which is currently undisclosed. Wellington is one step behind Auckland, which is already trialling a service, and two steps behind Christchurch which already has a food waste programme. When the trial will start has not been announced.

KĀPITI KUISINE

CONVINCE YOUR B OSS

Joanna Pirtek is a Kāpiti photojournalist.

Much of her work has been taking portraits of people. Recently she has turned her skills to photographing home-grown produce. Kāpiti: A Portrait Through Food is a celebration of 25 well known foodies from the Kāpiti Coast. Jo teamed up with publisher Michelle Lovi to bring the idea to life. Apart from recipes, the book also includes stories from producers such as KoaKoa Limoncello (see Liquid Briefs, page 73).

Coffee Supreme’s Coffee For The Office deal will make Mondays easier. They’ll give you everything you need to make great filter coffee (aka a Moccamaster!), and your office will only need to cover the cost of the coffee. They can tailor the size of your weekly coffee order to fit your team and the frequency of meetings and visitors. If that sounds like a sweet caffeinated deal, just wait, there’s more.

If you’re not sure about it they’ll give you a free one-week trial.

CROSS-TOWN BURGER Earthquake strengthening has shut down another well loved Wellington eatery, Burger Liquor. The Willis St restaurant will be closed until mid April, and a pop-up replacement has already opened on Majoribanks St in Mt Victoria, next to Ortega. It has a slightly reduced menu, and different specials each week.

H O L I S T I C T H E R A P I E S , O R G A N I C H E R B A L T E A , N AT U R A L S K I N C A R E , A R O M AT H E R A P Y, B E S P O K E B L E N D S & W O R K S H O P S OPEN

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S H E A R E R S '

TA B L E

Carrot risotto

with zucchini chips

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

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arrots have long been thought to benefit our sight, and specifically night vision, by virtue of their high Vitamin A content. This belief, which is true to a degree, was popularised during WWII in a propaganda campaign by the British. A new radar technology allowed the air force to hit their targets in darkness with greater accuracy. To keep the new technology under wraps, the British

offered another reason for their success: carrots!

Whether or not the Germans bought it, the public did, and believed that eating carrots would help them see in blackouts.

Give this carrot-rich risotto a go. Remember that risotto should have a pool of liquid surrounding it, and keep the rice firm to the bite.

Serves 4 – entree size

Carrot Risotto

Zucchini Chips

6 large carrots, peeled and diced 25g unsalted butter 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 large brown onion, peeled and finely diced 3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock 1 ¼ cups arborio rice ½ cup white wine 25g butter ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated (keep some for garnishing) 12 sage leaves, fried quickly until crisp 1 extra carrot, shaved into ribbons and fried until crisp

1 zucchini cut into chips ½ cup plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper 1 egg, beaten 1 cup panko breadcrumbs 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 Tbsp finely chopped herbs of your choice (we used thyme) 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, finely grated salt and pepper 1 Tbsp olive oil

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Make carrot puree, by boiling carrots in water until soft, draining and blitzing them. This should make approximately 1½ cups of puree.

In a large pan heat the butter and oil on a medium heat, and saute the onions until translucent.

In a separate pot, heat the stock and keep at a simmer.

Add the rice to the onion mix and stir until coated in oil.

Add the wine and continue to stir until all the liquid is evaporated.

Add the stock one ladle-full at a time, stirring continuously until most of the liquid has been incorporated and rice is al dente.

Stir in carrot puree, butter, and parmesan cheese. Stir briskly until creamy.

Season well with salt and pepper.

Garnish with the zucchini crisps, carrot ribbons, and fried sage.

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Heat oven to 200°C. In three separate small bowls place the beaten egg, the flour, and the breadcrumbs. Add seasoning, herbs, and cheese to the breadcrumbs.

Dredge each chip in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, making sure that all surfaces are covered.

Drizzle with oil and place on a lined baking tray.

Bake until crispy and golden.

Approximately 20 minutes.

S E C T I O N

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NEW BREW The Hurricanes have teamed up with Fortune Favours, the first craft brewery to make such an arrangement with a Super Rugby team, and now we can all get craft beer at the cake tin. There are currently three beers on tap at Sky Stadium: The Naturalist Pale Ale, The Adventurer Pilsner, and The Trailblazer Lager. But later in the season fans can also expect a special brew created in collaboration with the Hurricanes – watch this space.

KAWAKAWA KOAKOA

MAKE MINE MELON

FILL YOUR CUP

Two years ago husband and wife duo Chris Barber and Bec Kay quit their day jobs and began searching for a new business idea. They began making gin, and competed with each other to see who could come up with the best recipe. The winning recipe uses peppery kawakawa from their farm. At the same time as they began making gin, Chris and Bec purchased Koast Limoncello, which they renamed Koakoa (happiness). They brew their Bond Store gin, limoncello, and now vodka on the Kāpiti Coast.

Watermelon is surprisingly good for you. It’s rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and phytonutrients like lycopene – a powerful anti-inflammatory that can help protect your cells from free radical damage. The Brothers Coldpress have released a new watermelon and lemon juice called Pink Panther.

We tried it, and found that unlike the original Pink Panther this little drop doesn’t sneak up on you – the undeniable aroma of watermelon is unleashed the minute the top is unscrewed. And boy is it refreshing.

Every month L’affare offers a new Roasters’ Cup coffee. ‘It’s a specialty single-origin coffee and always a treat,’ says Amy Dalziell. The beans are sourced from some of the world’s most interesting coffee plantations and roasted at L’affare’s Wellington and Auckland cafes in small-batch roasters. These coffees are roasted light to medium to heighten their special varietal and location characteristics. Roaster’s Cup for March is ‘Jairo Arcila Tabi Natural’, a coffee from the city of Armenia in Quindo, Colombia.

artzone.co.nz NEW ZEALAND GALLERIES, EXHIBITIONS AND ARTISTS, PRODUCED BY ART LOVERS FOR ART LOVERS.

ArtZone

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F U L LY BOOKED Decommissioned books are getting a second life at the Outdoor Reading Room in Te Ngākau Civic Square until mid-March. Taking inspiration from City Gallery’s 2009 Yayoi Kusama installation, the square’s artificial turf is covered in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue bean bags, bookshelves, tables, and chairs. Readers are encouraged to stop by, pull up a seat, and read a book (or your favourite mag, wink wink). The best bit is, if you love the book, you can keep it!

D O YOU MIND?

SPRING CHICKEN

TIME TO WRITE

After hitting rock bottom, Kerene Strochnetter used mindfulness to claw her way back up. The Wellingtonian is now the Managing Director of Mindful at Work and has just released a book.

In Crazy Busy she shares her story and offers strategies for people suffering from ‘the relentless pace of modern life.’ Kerene says even the busiest people can work mindfulness into their routine and believes that doing so can affect people’s lives powerfully and change workplace culture positively.

Essayist and poet Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Rārua, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Takihiku) is the inaugural Emerging Māori Writer in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington’s International Institute of Modern Letters. ‘I'm a bit embarrassed to have been awarded the residency because I'm 41 which is fairly late to be considered emerging,’ she says. ‘I spent my twenties looking after my son so maybe this is my time and I should be less whakamā about claiming it.’

Applications for the 2020 FulbrightCreative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency close at the end of this month. The residency allows a New Zealand writer of Pacific heritage to work at the University of Hawai’i for three months. Previous recipients include Wellingtonian Marisa Maepu, who has written numerous short stories and children’s stories (in English and Samoan), many of which concern Pasifika culture and identity.

Co-working made simple 40 Taranaki St | credenza.nz

R E V E R S E

Re-verse I N T R O D U C E D BY C H R I S T S E

About the poet: Mary Macpherson is a Wellington photographer and poet. Her photography has been widely exhibited and is represented in many national collections, including Te Papa and the Dowse Art Museum. Her poetry books include The Inland Eye (1998) and Millionaire’s Shortbread (2003), a joint collection authored with fellow Wellington poets Mary-Jane Duffy, Mary Cresswell, and Kerry Hines.

NEW ZEALAND H O L I DAY The weather blew through us. Wind and rain driving through bones as we strained to pull the cart of belief. The forest was dirty, sullen. You looked for the slash of a road sign to reel us in. I believed in a beach that stretched further than thought but held fast as water flew from our wheels.

We spoke as if speaking would rope us to our intentions – intended more by me but negotiated silently between us like sniffing animals. I thought of being told New Zealand photography was more about place, Australian, more ephemeral. It was like seeing myself as a child hot and blinking in front of a hedge. Moments on either side falling like sheer cliffs.

Was that still me, in spite of the journeys and grown-up body? When the car rocked, our hearts skipped, being there with toetoe, a gravel-edged ditch, shrouded mānuka.

In brief: As we all know, summer holidays in New Zealand aren’t always so picturesque, thanks to a pesky thing called the weather. Mary’s poem, taken from her recently published collection Social Media, is a memory of one such holiday, depicting a family trip that is more rainsoaked than sunsoaked. As well as the literal scene of a family persevering through unideal conditions, the poem alludes to a more figurative journey, contrasting childhood experience with adult reflection.

Appropriately for a poem set on a road trip, there’s a lot of motion – the weather, water flying from under the car’s wheels, hearts skipping – which puts the reader right in the middle of the action.

Why I like it: A lot of Mary’s photography explores natural and urban environments and how we interact with, and are affected by, them. These ideas can also be found in her poetry. Unsurprisingly, Mary’s career as a photographer lends this poem (and others in Social Media) a very visual quality, conjuring scenes using carefully selected details and words to convey tone and atmosphere. It’s a poem that triggers some very specific sensory memories while also leaving the reader with plenty to contemplate.

By Mary Macpherson, from Social Media (The Cuba Press, 2019)

Best quotable line: Driving around New Zealand is a breathtaking reminder of how much open space there is in this country, especially if you haven’t left the city for a while. That’s why I love the line ‘I believed / in a beach that stretched further than thought’. It encapsulates how our imagination, and to some extent our holiday snaps, can’t contain the vastness of our landscape. The fields, the sky, the water – everything just seems bigger in real life.

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Eye candy P H OTO G R A P H Y BY J OS H WOTT E N P RO D U C E D BY B E N N J E F F R I E S A S S I ST E D BY M EG BY R N E S

To celebrate the Wellington Pride Festival we ducked behind the shimmering curtain to find three of Wellington's most talented citizens. With glitter in the air, and rubber penises stuffed in undies, we spent the evening trying on sunnies with three drag kings, in and out of dress.

The Wellington Pride Festival runs until 8 March

Hugo Grrrl wears Chimi Sunglasses mango, $165, Harry's 76

‘Oooh, people always tell me I look most like a pukeko or a takahe, just in terms of plumage.

But if I could be any native bird, I think I would want to be a kereru because who wouldn't want to sit in a tree drunk all day, eating berries.’ 77

Homer Neurotic wears Age Eyewear Voltage matt milky tort, $269, Sangster & Matthews Optometrists

S E C T I O N

H E A D E R

‘My New Year's resolution was just to give less shits, and yes, I absolutely am living up to it.’

‘My favorite dairy snack is a caramello bar. I can't go past one.’

Willy SmacknTush

Homer Neurotic

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‘If I were a native NZ bird, I'd be a Pukeho. Wow, that's very gay!’

Hugo Grrrl wears Age Eyewear Hostage black, $269, Goodness 79

H O M E

Labour of love

BY C L A I R E O ’ LO U G H L I N P H OTO G R A P H Y BY SA N N E VA N G I N K E L

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n the kitchen of Kathryn Jackson and Tom McGrath’s restored 1920s Newtown home, a large cane elephant head hangs on the wall, the trunk pointing upwards. As they say in Tom’s favourite film, Aussie classic The Castle, in Thai culture this brings good luck. For a number of years as they renovated the house, Kathryn and Tom needed it.

On their first visit to the house as prospective buyers in 2015, Tom gently pressed a finger against a wall, and it slid right through.

‘It was totally rotten,’ he tells me. ‘There were problems everywhere.’

The piles were also rotten, the roof was shot, the floor was on an angle, and the house seemed to be sinking.

But Kathryn, a production manager at Weta, and Tom, a high school deputy principal, could also see the potential.

For a young couple looking for a first home, it ticked all their boxes: central location, big garden, double garage, multiple bedrooms, plus some additional features, such as a pool and a conservatory. And the previous owners had lived there for almost 70 years. Kathryn and Tom decided to take it on.

‘Having a home was always really important to me,’ says Kathryn, who had saved towards owning one from the age of 19.

The day I visit is still and sunny, with crickets trilling languidly and tui hopping heavily between trees. An almost otherworldly tranquillity hangs over the property, which is tucked away off a quiet Newtown Street – quiet until their two papillons Stanley and Ronda rush out yipping to greet me.

Inside, the house is barely recognisable from the 2015 pictures Kathryn shows me – an entire wall is gone, as are floral wallpaper, patterned carpet, and lace curtains. It is light and airy now, not damp and cold. The newly-painted white walls are dry and solid, and the whitewashed floorboards no longer squelch. A new kitchen and fireplace have been put in and the space is minimally decorated with plants and beautiful, meaningful pieces – Tom’s family’s big wooden dining table, Kathryn’s grandfather’s toolbox as a coffee table, an ornate liquor cabinet built and carved by Tom’s great-grandmother, a framed colour-pencil drawing of their

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beloved first dog Neko, and the cane elephant head – a gift to Tom from Kathryn, brought back as hand luggage from South Africa.

But change took time. They lived in the house as it was for two years. Their first night was stormy and a low branch scratched noisily against the roof of their bedroom all night.

‘We were like, “Oh my god, what have we done?!”

There was water running everywhere. We thought we had done something really wrong,’ says Kathryn.

‘That feeling actually lasted for about two years,’ adds Tom. ‘In those first couple of years we were just hoping not to blow a fuse, not to have a disaster, not to have the piles wash away,’ says Kathryn. They didn’t. The elephant kept its trunk up.

Living in the house before starting any work allowed them to learn what the sun did, save money, and decide on a sensible plan. When the work began, it was all-consuming. They removed the roof, walls

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and floor, moving out briefly while the piling was redone. They were involved in every part of the renovation, saving money wherever possible by doing it themselves.

‘You don’t know what you can do until you try it,’ says Tom, ‘and it’s only through doing that you learn what it’s worth.’

‘There are of course some costs you can’t get away from – the piles, the wiring, the plumbing, the roof – those are non-negotiable and you need professionals,’ adds Kathryn. But even when professionals came in, they would muck in and work alongside them. They had a builder fit the first board of their new deck and then copied his process, building the rest themselves.

Five years on, the home is transformed.

The petite, rectangular lap pool clad in pastelcoloured tiles is a restoration highlight. It looks like something out of a Wes Anderson film. They put in the filtration plant and plumbing, and did a whole lot of concrete drilling. Kathryn’s colleague

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helped them. ‘Without him, I’m not sure it would have been done by us at all. We would have needed a professional concrete cutter.’ Sitting in the hot sun dangling our legs in the pool, it’s as clear as the water that the hard work was worth it. I’m told one of the neighbours comes over for a swim almost every day – and sure enough, half an hour later she turns up, bringing a carton of eggs as a gift.

‘It’s a great neighbourhood,’ says Tom. ‘We all take care of each other.’

Another restored relic is the original kitchen, tucked away in a nook off the living room. Rather than rip it out, they kept the sink and restored the pale-green wooden cabinetry, replacing the old oven and fridge with a washing machine and linen cupboard, and turning it into a laundry. They removed a pelmet that had accidentally been built over a high cabinet in the 1950s, opening it for the first time in over 60 years.

Inside were stacks of dusty medicine bottles (including a dubious-looking hemorrhoid cream) from Castles Chemist, a pharmacy on Riddiford Street that opened in 1888 and still operates. Tom took some of the bottles down to them to add to their display.

The conservatory at the back of the property is another special feature – a great space not only to grow plants and dry washing, but just to hang out and be really warm, especially in winter.

‘This heat was a selling point for me, being from South Africa,’ says Kathryn, as we stand sweltering amongst bone-dry towels. A task ahead of them is figuring out how to reattach the roof to the main house – it had to be disconnected when the house was lifted to re-pile. There is more work to do – the back room where they spent their first, terrible night is still in its original state, with pale pink stucco walls. It is currently a music room and home office space. The corners of the windows are rotting and soft to touch. It is hard to believe that most of the house was like that. This project has taken a huge amount of hard work, vision, and commitment, and the results are remarkable.

Together for 14 years and married for five, it is clear that what Kathryn and Tom have here, and with each other, is something special. ‘It is really a labour of love.

As a couple, it’ll make you or break you,’ says Kathryn.

‘And we’ve always been a good team,’ Tom says.

‘This was a test of that – but a good test.’

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Secondhand books and yellowfin tuna East of the dry savannahs and the herds of wildebeest that populate them sits a side of Kenya that is rarely explored. Here the Indian Ocean meets coral rock and a delicate ecosystem wrestles against the corrupting influence of human beings. Benn Jeffries travels the coastline in search of a balance.

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t’s a struggle to find a traditional book store in Mombasa, but wander the old town and you’ll find towers of second-hand books lining the streets. I was sorting through a stack a good head taller than myself when a familiar title caught my eye. Witi Ihimaera’s Whale Rider. I tugged it free and bought the book for a hundred shillings – about a dollar fifty. It was a battered, dog-eared copy with a large stamp from a local school library on the first page. The woman who sold it to me watched as I turned it over in my hands.

‘We read that book in school,’ she said.

‘Really?’

‘All of Kenya does. It’s part of the curriculum.’

This was my fourth visit to Kenya. I’d fallen in love with the country during a rather lost year I’d spent travelling the area after university.

While I was living on the Kwale coast just south of Mombasa, I developed a coping mechanism for the times when homesickness struck. The ocean was one of the few things that reminded me of home, so I’d take my rod and reel and wade into the warm waters. Despite the lack of any real fisheries regulation, East African waters are in better shape than some might assume. Giant trevally patrol the reefs that extend from the Red Sea south to Madagascar. Further out you’ll find pelagic species like sailfish, tuna, and marlin. On my first trip to Kenya I’d spotted a solid-looking game boat moored out on the edge of the reef.

I asked around town and found Captain Gitau asleep under a palm tree. He was mistrustful of me at first, but when he learned I was a Kiwi his eyes lit up and he asked if I knew the famous New Zealand fisherman Matt Watson.

‘How the hell do you know who Matt Watson is?’

‘Everyone knows Matt. Did you see that episode when he rugby tackled that marlin?’

Gitau was my first port of call on returning.

We met early one morning on the golden sand beach of Diani and took a skiff out to his game boat, the M.V. White Dove. Beyond the narrow gap in the reef the ocean gained depth and flattened off.

‘It’s the healthiest I’ve seen it in a decade,’ Gitau said, pointing to a boil of yellowfin and skipjack tuna. Flying fish sailed past all around us and sea birds dove into the ocean like torpedoes.

Our first catch of the day, however, was a large sheet of plastic debris. One of the crew pulled in the line and freed the hook. I watched what he did next carefully, because I’ve found the New Zealand mindset of protecting our environment is rare outside our waters. The crewmen looked around unsure for a moment before Gitau yelled at him to stuff it into a rubbish bag.

‘It’s getting better,’ Gitau said, ‘people are starting to realise we’ve got to look after this resource. I think those who live on the coast are more aware, I mean locals are doing beach clean-

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ups. Admittedly, they do it because they know the tourists won’t come if the beaches aren’t clean, but it’s a start.’

When I first went out with Gitau he told me upfront that his boat ran on a strict no billfish aboard policy. That means all sailfish and marlin species were catch and release. Gitau understood the ocean needed to be looked after.

At the end of the day we return to Diani with sore arms and a feed of yellowfin tuna. As we picked up the mooring Gitau started telling me about a little town in the far north where the fishing was meant to be unparalleled. A few days later I left Mombasa and followed his advice to the Lamu archipelago on the border of Somalia.

The fishing industry here was split in two about a decade ago when a Jihadist terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, began harassing and kidnapping local fishermen. The Kenyan government banned all night fishing in an attempt to protect their citizens, but the new law meant that close to three thousand fishermen had to find a new source of income. Things have quietened down in recent years and the industry is beginning to recover. I spoke to a boatbuilder sanding a fibreglass skiff, who said they even trade with Somalia now. I asked if he thought pirates might be buying his skiffs. He shrugged his shoulders and went back to work.

There’s a US military base not far from Lamu.

Helicopters buzz back and forth and floodlights light the sky at night. The town itself is majority Muslim and one of the safest places in Kenya. The old town is a UNESCO world heritage site and for good reason; the coral stone streets transport you to another time. There are no cars on the island.

Goods are moved about by donkey and skiff.

Seafood dominates the diet and the turquoise ocean colours every aspect of life. While things have quieted down with Al-Shabaab, new threats are facing the fishing industry in Lamu. Foreign fishing vessels have moved into Kenyan waters and while the government tries to police their activity, illegal boats and fishing methods are still common. China alone takes over three million tonnes of fish each year from African waters. The continent has become their largest distant source of fish, overtaking Asian waters by almost two million tonnes.

I went out hand-line fishing with a local captain named Mohammed whose father was among the fishermen caught up in the troubles with Al-Shabaab.

‘The trawlers are the problem now. Soon the local fishermen won’t be able to compete. The deep-sea guys already have to leave Lamu at 2am to get out to where the fish are.’

A large percentage of major infrastructure projects in East Africa, like the new port just out of Lamu or the railway between Nairobi and Mombasa, are in partnership with China. The projects are pumping money into the economy – but it comes at a price.

I spent a day on the roof of my guest house and read Whale Rider. It left me feeling sentimental and missing home.

I first read the narrative as distinctly Māori and thought it an odd book for Kenyan school children to read, but its ideas are universal. There are forty-two different tribes in Kenya; for the most part it’s their relationship with the land and the sea that shapes them.

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POPCORN ADVENTURE Scale a mountain, dive from a 60-foot cliff or run an ultra-marathon, all from the comfort of a recliner chair. The Women's Adventure Film Tour, showing on 8 March at the Penthouse theatre in Brooklyn, celebrates women who are doing extraordinary things in search of adventure. The ‘tour’ includes nine films on various adventure sports, including three that feature New Zealand athletes: runner Anna Frost, and skiers Janina Kuzma and Anna Smoothy.

ON FIBRE

RUN FOREST

GRUD GE MATCH

Forget the Commonwealth Games, the Rugby World Cup, even the Olympics. The year’s biggest sporting event is here. The Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon has become a New Zealand institution over 27 years. In Wellington it now includes two events, on the morning and afternoon of 15 March, with a third in Hutt City on March 12.

We’re spoilt for trails in Wellington, whether our taste runs to bush, sand, or howling wind. No event showcases our challenging terrain better than the Xterra trail-running series, with five events over four months. The first of the year kicks off 22 March at the West Wind farm and has three race options including 18, 12 or 7.5 km. Other races take place in the Orongorongos, Belmont Regional Park, Red Rocks, and Makara Peak.

‘Forgive and forget,’ said Beauden Barrett when he left the Hurricanes at the end of the 2019 super rugby season.

Wellingtonians have big hearts and a willingness to forgive, but come the much anticipated clash against the Blues and old team mate Beauden Barrett, things may be different. Kickoff is at the new family-friendly time of 7.05pm, Sky stadium, 20 March.

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WĀ H I N E

Burn baby burn

BY M E LO DY T H O M AS

I

’ve got a theory that Wellington summers run oneon-one-off, so when last year’s was great, I was already bracing myself for a letdown (granted, I couldn’t have predicted the summer gale-force winds, sideways rain, poo in the harbour, or the skies turning orange from Australian bushfire smoke). To be fair though, I’ve been feeling a little pessimistic in general, because at the end of last year I went and gave myself Burnout.

The reason I’ve capitalised it is because before I got burnout I’d read the word and thought ‘oh yeah, we’re all burned out, bloody capitalism’. But burnout and reallystressed-out aren’t the same thing. Burnout is what happens when stress accumulates over weeks and months (maybe years) and, because there’s never enough time to stop and address it, a person mentally and physically implodes.

Here’s how to know if you have burnout: Whereas stress is typified by over-engagement, moodiness, or a short fuse, burnout feels like disengagement. Your emotions are blunted, you don’t care any more, you’re numb. Thinking about something you need to do, even a small thing, might give you the urge to curl up in a hole in the foetal position. You’re plagued by headaches and/or muscle aches, constantly exhausted and/or sick, increasingly cynical, and unable to focus on your work as you usually do. You feel helpless, hopeless, unmotivated, detached, and depressed.

These are all feelings I’ve been unable to escape for the past few months. Before I realised it was burnout, I’d diagnosed myself at different times with an iron deficiency, chronic fatigue syndrome, a thyroid condition, a hormone imbalance, and even peri-menopause.

But I’m finally beginning to see a way out the other side, thanks to a bit of time and space over summer and a couple of really good books: Burnout, by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, and The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.

The first is aimed at ‘every woman who thinks “I am not enough”,’ and uses a whole lot of scientific research to help you understand and then dismantle the systems that lead to burnout. The second is a 12week self-directed course in ‘discovering and recovering your creative self ’. I’m 100 pages into the first and two weeks into the second, and the overwhelm has already greatly decreased. These are the things that have made the biggest difference:

Getting more sleep.

It’s so obvious I’m almost mad at myself for not figuring it out earlier but I just haven’t been sleeping enough. After putting the kids down, making lunches, and doing a quick tidy I would inevitably stay up too late watching Netflix, get myself tied up in knots thinking about work, or decide that 10pm was the perfect time to bring up a highly emotional historic argument with my partner.

Recently, I make sure all screens are off by 9, I read for half an hour, do a five-minute meditation with the Headspace app, then melt off into a deep, restful sleep. It’s incredible how different I feel the next day (and I don’t always manage it, but more and more often I do).

If getting more sleep sounds wonderful to you, but far too difficult given your kids’ ages – might you be able to nap during the day?

Catch up on the weekend? I know it’s hard to prioritise sleep, but think about how your kids stubbornly refuse nap time even though it’s so obvious that’s what they need – go to bed, you idiot!

Regular exercise.

Me and exercise have never gotten along well. My main motivations for doing it have always been to lose weight (aka thinly-veiled self hate) or because I felt guilty for not doing it.

In recent years I’ve realised that I love to exercise – so long as there’s variety in what I’m doing. For me this means yoga, hiking, bike rides, dancing, and a low-key ‘bootcamp’ some Mum friends roped me into. In Burnout, exercise is highlighted as the #1 way to work through backlogged stress. For people who hate to do it or have no time, they even suggest lying on your back and tensing each of your muscles in turn (really hard), then relaxing them.

Time for myself.

This might be the hardest one to manage of all. There’s just never enough time in the day, and even when you find a window it’s so hard to choose something you enjoy over the To Do list (and to do so guilt-free). But it is absolutely true that investing time in yourself reaps rewards for your whole family. If you’ve forgotten what ‘me time’ even looks like, can you take a moment to do this simple Artist’s Way exercise: Write a list of 20 things you enjoy doing, with an estimated date of when you last did those things. Now pick a couple of your favourites and see if you can’t squeeze them in in the next couple of weeks.

Recovery from burnout is slow. I might be through the worst of it (who knows!), but the road to recovery is long, and when work gets intense again it’s going to be really hard to keep these changes up. But the alternative – burnout, exhaustion, depression, recurring illness – isn’t really an option. Slowly but surely, I’m figuring out that I deserve a life that is balanced, fulfilled, healthy and nurturing. I hope you know that you do, too.

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C A L E N D A R

Free welly

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FINDING FLORA If you haven’t discovered the Discovery Garden yet, best head to the Wellington Botanic Gardens. Located just above the TreeHouse Visitor Centre, the Discovery Garden is a ‘living classroom’ to connect students to the land and environment. Water the garden using a hand pump, learn about the healing properties of plants, or create a bamboo structure at the tepee-making station.

Discovery Garden is open to the public from Friday–Monday.

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C A L E N D A R

March NEW ZEALAND FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS Various events, until 15 March

5

13

PLANNING FOR GROWTH

121 FESTIVAL Three-day dance odyssey Tauherenikau Racecourse, 13–15 March

Free speaker series to help shape your city Prefab Hall, 5.30pm

NZ FRINGE FESTIVAL Various events, until 21 March 20/20 WORDS OF WISDOM Work by artist Wayne Youle

TUATARA OPEN LATE Art, music, film, talks, beer, wine, and food.

City Gallery, from 5pm

15 WELLINGTON PHOENIX vs Melbourne Victory Sky Stadium, 6pm

Pātaka Art & Museum, Porirua

6

LET’S NOT CELEBRATE COOK

PARK(ING) DAY

Robyn Kahukiwa

Art temporarily takes over parking spaces

Mahara Gallery, Waikanae

Wellington city, all day

A SONGLESS LAND

7

MĀORILAND FILM FESTIVAL Ōtaki, 18–22 March

MARTINBOROUGH FAIR

21

Sue Cooke explores Aotearoa’s forests Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North

Art, crafts, food, jewellery, and more

17 ST PATRICK’S DAY

18

Martinborough Square

HOMEGROWN Wellington Waterfront, from 1pm

Whanganui Arts Review winner’s exhibition

WELLINGTON PRIDE PARADE

27

Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui

Tennyson St to Odlins Plaza, from 6pm

1

DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

PLIMMERTON FUN RUN

Wellington Waterfront, 7–8 March

HURRICANES v BULLS Sky Stadium, 7.05pm kick-off

HURRICANES V BLUES

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Sky Stadium, 7.05pm kick-off

FILM SOCIETY SCREENING

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PANGAEA A fusion of Indian and Western musical styles Museums Wellington

PATILLO PROJECT 2020: DR KATHRYN WIGHTMAN

Plimmerton and Pukerua Bay, from 7.30am

Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3D The Embassy, 6.15pm

4 GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY NEWTOWN FESTIVAL Food, music, and crafts

NEIGHBOURS’ DAY AOTEAROA

CUBADUPA Cuba Quarter, 28–29 March

Newtown, from 9:30am

CROQUET HAVE A GO Kelburn Municipal Croquet Club, midday, free

Touring Wellington region, 4–7 March

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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

DEREK COWIE

Concert featuring Toi Whakaari graduates

New paintings and peculiar constructions

Te Whaea Dance and Drama Centre, 7pm

Page Galleries

DRAG BRUNCH Part drag show, part buffet breakfast Eva Beva, Eva St, midday

Performed by the NZSO

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L I M I T E D S E C T I O N

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