Capital 7

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

SMACK TRAP

MAN OF LETTERS

D E C E M B E R | JA N UA RY 2 0 1 3

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ISSUE 7

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

3

CAPITAL THE COVER: A celebration of celebration.

See page 7 for more details.

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

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

MADE IN WELLINGTON

I

always think summer in Wellington doesn’t really begin until after Christmas, which suits me very well as until then most of us are too busy to enjoy the season.

I recall some years ago a mothers’ coffee morning, convened especially for the purpose of considering how the school calendar could be rearranged to reduce the annual choking bottleneck that occurs when exams, school holidays, Christmas, New Year, summer, and annual holidays all coincide. It was a very Wellington occasion. Many of the women were highly qualified, enormously capable and on maternity leave from high-powered jobs; we all wanted a better way. Many good minds were applied to the subject… nothing has changed, but the children grow up, it all becomes more manageable and we move on to other problems. And it’s probably a good thing.

We have however, introduced a problem-solver into this issue, with the well known Deirdre Tarrant dispensing her special brand of help and comfort as our Welly Angel.

The joys of backyard beekeeping and the issues for locals are described by Melody Thomas this month. My grandfather kept bees in urban Wellington in the 1940s and the neighbours complained about bee poo on their washing then. Same problems, different people.

The vexed questions of democracy and local bodies are in Alick Shaw’s sights this month as he suggests how it actually works in practice at a local level.

However it is Christmas and celebrations are in order: We asked three Marys, Mary Tuohy, Mary Mcleod and Mary Longmore, to tell us about the festive food their families will enjoy this year. Charlotte Minty has set out some festive table settings and our beer specialist Kieran Haslett-Moore ensures new-age beer drinkers know where to find a good drop while out of town.

Thank you to all our readers, advertisers and supporters. This is our seventh issue, we return in February. We look forward to 2014 and many more stories.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Alison Franks Editor

This publication uses vegetable based inks, and FSC® Certified papers produced from responsible and well managed forests, manufactured under ISO14001 Environmental management systems

editor@capitalmag.co.nz

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

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

OOPS! omitted photo credits Issue 3, p. 57 More Coffee Photo by Beth of www.eatandgreet.co.nz Issue 6, p. 46 Rolling off the Catwalk Photo by Dominika Zielinska

B A C K YA R D B E E K E E P E R S Wellington gets a comb-over 34

M A RY CHRISTMAS

MODERN MARKET

Three great cooks, three great ideas for Christmas

Cuba Street slips into Lambton Quay

41 8

58 54

FASHION BRIEFS

9 LETTERS

56

MATCHY, MATCHY

10 CHATTER

62

PARIS SYNDROME

12 NEWS

65

BY THE BOOK

15

BY THE NUMBERS

71

HOME

18

TALES OF THE CITY

73

CAPITAL ANGEL

20 OPINION

74

SPORTS BRIEFS

24

75

SPORTS

WHAT THE FLOCK

JAILBAIT ROCK

26 CULTURE

76 CARS

30

78

FOSTERING TALENT

BABY, BABY

46 EDIBLES

79 DIRECTORY

51 CHEERS

82 CALENDAR

52

84

ON THE HIGH BOARD

TOP DOG

CONTRIBUTORS

S TA F F Alison Franks Managing editor alison@capitalmag.co.nz Diane Clayton Haleigh Trower Lyndsey O’Reilly Anne-Marie Cooke

Campaign Coordinators sales@capitalmag.co.nz

John Bristed General Factotum john@capitalmag.co.nz Shalee Fitzsimmons Art direction and design shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Jeremiah Boniface

Design

Craig Beardsworth

Factotum

Gus Bristed

Distribution

CONTRIBUTORS Melody Thomas | Kieran Haslett-Moore Aaron Watson | Thomas Coughlan Sophie Nellis | Paddy Lewis | Arrun Soma Sarah Burton | Sarah Lang | Janet Hughes Daniel Rose | Rachel Priestly | Sharon Greally Larissa McMillan | John Bishop Antony Kitchener | Connie McDonald Harry Culy | Jonathan Kay Michael McDonald

HA R RY C U LY Ph oto g r aph er Harry is a local photographer who has just completed a year-long project capturing New Zealand on a series of roadtrips.

His first solo show By the Wayside opens on the 24 January 2014 at Photospace Gallery.

KAREN SHEAD Journ a li st Karen, originally from the UK, Karen worked as a journalist for over ten years before moving to Wellington last winter.

When not writing she enjoys exploring the city with her daughter, and creating clothes on her new sewing machine.

STOCKISTS Get your Capital in New World and Pak’nSave supermarkets, Moore Wilson, Unity Books, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note and other discerning greater Wellington outlets.

Ask for Capital magazine by name.

Distribution: john@capitalmag.co.nz.

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

THANKS Hop Garden | Flowers Manuela | Thonet | Gazley Motors | Amelia, Chirs & Finn | New World Metro & Chaffers

SARAH BURTON Writer & Ph oto g r aph er

ALICK SHAW Gu e st C olum n i st

Sarah is a talented lass who loves to capture the characters that interest her. She hopes to keep delving deeper into the ever-varied culture of New Zealand as well as explore further afield. When not working she likes to find a sunny spot to read in, or go on day trips around the city.

Alick Shaw was a Wellington City Councillor for nine years and Deputy Mayor from 2001 to 2004.

6

COVER SHOOT

BEHIND THE SCENES

L EFT TO RIGHT: Chris Mitchell: Shirt, Vintage Emporium | Horse mask, Costume Cave Andrew Moore: Shirt, Vintage Emporium Tijana Cvetkovic: Apron, Citta | Tiger mask, Iko Iko Amelia Mazur: Dress, model’s own Finn Mitchell-Mazur: Pig mask, Iko Iko Steve Hall: Shirt, Vintage Emporium | Chicken mask, Costume Cave George Carey: Shirt, Vintage Emporium Anna Flaherty: Dress, Vintage Emporium Ryan Fielding: Shirt, Vintage Emporium | Wolf mask, Iko Iko Indi Fitzsimmons-Lole: Dress, model’s own.

Loaves & Christmas mince tarts: Aro Bakery Tableware: Citta Wellington P H O T O G R A P H Y: S A R A H B U RT O N

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W HAT T H E F L O C K

MR KĀ KĀ

Name: Kākā Status: Endemic. Much reduced in range and numbers (estimated at fewer than 10,000 birds) due mostly to loss of habitat, but still a fairly common sight in the Wellington green belt due to successful reintroduction efforts at Zealandia/Karori Sanctuary.

Habitat: Kākā are rarely spotted in native forest, except when it is adjacent to offshore island strongholds (like Kapiti Island), or in areas where reintroduction has been particularly successful.

Look for them: Another bird you’ll likely hear before you see – look about if you happen to hear a piercing scream from the air. If you’d like to increase your chances of spotting these boisterous parrots, pack a picnic and head along to Zealandia, where a newly launched lower price structure has seen admission fees nearly halved.

Call: Loud and varied series of whistles, screams and ‘ka-aa’s Feeds on: Kākā get all their food from trees – they eat seeds, nectar, sap and honeydew as well as tree-dwelling invertebrates.

Did you know? You’d have no trouble spotting a raucous group of kākā but they can be much more cryptic when alone – you might only notice them by the sound of cracking branches or seed fragments dropping to the forest floor.

If it were human, it would be: Loud, cheeky, social and beautiful – they’re the life of the party, but you’re secretly glad you don’t live with them.

8

LETTERS

WHITHER OUR HISTORY?

HISTORY REPEATS

GO OD IN PARTS

Your interview with Dr Beaglehole interested me. I concurred heartily with his views on letter writing. A good letter (like a good obituary) can be wonderful reading. Letters are and have been so much a record of the past (centuries actually), but quite suddenly hardly anybody writes them anymore. I still have some letters from my parents, as many older people must still do. But what about our children, will they keep their emails — or the photos?

Our history of written contact with each other is now mostly electronic. What we send to each other is either hidden on computers which will surely fail sometime in the future thereby wiping the lot, or somewhere in the sky from where they disappear the moment the electricity is off. And I’m sure the people at Telecom or wherever wipe them off their servers after a relatively short time; so they’re irretrievable. I don’t know how my children would be able to write about my emails at some date in the future were they inclined to.

There’ll be no record. It may be progress, but it seems a sad loss to me.

M. Davies, Wellington

Re the Great Strike story in your November magazine, I was very interested to read the history and hadn’t known just how bitter the confrontation had been. Your writer was right to say, “if you don’t know your history, you risk repeating it.”

That dispute was over wages for watersiders, who did dangerous and dirty work. It is time that we as a society addressed the major inequalities occurring in wages throughout New Zealand. The living wage concept is fatally flawed but the problem is real.

Thomas Aitken, Lower Hutt

I work in design, and was delighted when I bought your your magazine on Lambton Quay to find the design and look are exceptional.

I love that look. It’s a pity all your advertisers aren’t as fussy. A few of their offerings look as though they’re designed by a committee with far too much writing or too many images to be effective. Obviously I noticed them. But I noticed them for the wrong reason and maybe that is all they want, but if they designed their input better their advertising would be more effective and importantly your magazine would look even better.

Jane Williamson, Auckland

PO OR PARENTS

LIGHTING DEMANDS

Regarding methadone treatment in Wellington, Smack Trap, it is interesting that GP’s are able to refuse to treat drug users. How does that sit with their Hippocratic oath?

I noted also that there is no mention of how or why Jake became a drug addict. He is quoted as having - a loving home, parents, a job, cars, motorbikes, a surfboard – to losing everything.

How despairing must his parents feel?

S Best Otaki

Re: A Bright Idea, Nov issue, Does Wellington need more lighting designed or otherwise, surely it is just an unnecessary expense. What is wrong with soothing grey concrete?

B Chesney, Lower Hutt (Abridged) Letters to editor@capitalmag.co.nz with the subject line ‘letters to ed’.

Do your Masters at Massey College of Creative Arts Scholarships available creative.postgrad@massey.ac.nz 0800 MASSEY

ART DESIGN Sharpen your creative practice with postgrad study at Australasia’s best art and design school* 9

* The only university in Australasia to be US NASAD approved and Red Dot ranked

C HAT T E R

A BIGGER BET TER WINDMILL A new bigger, better and taller wind turbine is proposed by Meridian Energy to replace the turbine on Brooklyn Hill.

Four times as much electricity could be generated by the new turbine say

Meridian, enough to power around 490 homes.

The new one would be 77 metres from the ground to the top of the blade —32 metres taller than the present turbine, which is 20 years old. This is considerably smaller than those on Terawhiti Station, west of Wellington, which are 111 metres to the top. Earthworks would be needed to make the new foundation, some road

#1

improvements to get the new turbine up to the site, and electricity transmission equipment upgrades.

CHECKERED CAREER

The existing turbine

is reaching the end of its life.

Meridian says that several hundred people attended a recent open day and

Back in October we wrote about the Azizi sisters who work at Island Bay New World. At the time younger sister Sonita had made it into the final of Foodstuffs Checker of the year.

Well, she won.

Prizes for staff included iPads, travel vouchers, and training vouchers.

most thought a turbine should remain in

Brooklyn. Some thought it was an icon and expressed concern at the possibility of removing it altogether.

The Wellington City Council wants to Meridian’s plan. Submissions close on 14 January. know what you think about

A TOUCH OF SUGAR Award-winning Wellington patisserie chef Tamara Jane has produced a third collection of wanton treats. Decadent Gluten-Free Treats provide cakes and slices especially catering for people on a restricted diet. There are recipes free from gluten, eggs and dairy, and some that are suitable for vegans.

Jane began a designer cupcake business in Wellington in 2008 called Tempt.

10

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS NOT SO MERRY Wellington City Council is coy about their summer city events, disclosing few details of what might appear in the program. We have some idea of what won’t be happening – the New Year’s Eve fireworks display will be replaced with an “family friendly” New Year’s Day Picnic in Waitangi park.

Perhaps the new council, proving itself adept at wishful thinking, hopes its family picnic will draw off the crowds of merry revellers seen at the fireworks display.

DR WHO? It seems that a scatological sense of humour doesn’t diminish with age. There’s a big BMW burning ‘round town with ‘Poo Dr’ on its number plate. A proctologist? Colonoscopist? Or perhaps someone with a doctorate in the works of A.A. Milne? Whichever the profession, they had several people pointing and laughing at the lights on Jervois Quay. Our vote’s for number two of course.

SUMMER SILK The latest range from Wellington girl Lillie Toogood, currently based in Sydney, is On Repeat, a series of accidental patterns - slices from the urban environment, simplified into a collection of repeating shapes and colours, from fountains to post boxes. Each piece is based on a photograph taken on her travels around the world.

Before setting up her own brand Good&Co two years ago, Lillie worked for labels including Karen Walker, Trelise Cooper and Camilla + Marc.

TANGERINE DREAM As the stress of getting another magazine to the printer abated the staff at Capital got a bit fruity. The challenge was to secrete a fruit name into the title of a song. Hilarity ensued – our top 5 follow in no particular order.

• Hey Mister tangerine man – Bob Dylan • Once, twice, three times a lychee – Lionel Richie • I just don’t loquat to do with myself – Dusty Springfield • The Sun Will Come Out Tomato – Little Orphan Annie • I’ve Got Cucumber My Skin – Frank Sinatra

THAT ’S THE SPIRIT Coffee grounds have reached new heights. A study done at the Centre of Biological Engineering in Portugal has found an interesting product from spent coffee grounds.

They have created an 80proof spirit which the researchers have described as ‘smelling like coffee’, and tasting bitter and pungent. They noted that the taste could be improved with age. Start cellaring now!

11

NEWS SHORTS

MARAE CONTROL

POWER DRESSING The one person Marty Donoghue has always wanted to dress up as for the Wellington Sevens is Jenny Shipley, or “Aunty Jenny” as he prefers to call her.

“She had some phenomenal power suits,” he says of the former prime minister.

But as the new general manager of Sevens Wellington, Donoghue’s official position means he will have to put that dream on hold for a little while longer.

The former New Zealand Army colonel has been in the Sevens Wellington lead role for a matter of weeks, following a 27-year military career that took him to Eritrea, Cyprus, Angola, Iran, and back to New Zealand.

Although he doesn’t plan to run the country’s biggest sporting event like a military operation, he admits there are many similarities between his old role and his new position.

“Within the Sevens there are a lot of people to work with, a heap of networking involved, teams to lead, and there’s also that creative aspect which is a huge part of the event,” he said.

Having been a volunteer at Sevens Wellington since 2008, Donoghue knows what the tournament is all about, but expects taking on the general manager position to bring with it new and exciting challenges.

“The tournament has been around for 15 years now, so we are having to really look at how we can keep things new, fresh, and exciting, for those coming.

“I’m expecting it to be a lot of work. When I think of Sevens Wellington, I think of the exciting rugby action and the great athletes, being hosted in a city that celebrates and owns this event.

To be part of that is really something special.”

12

A 25 year process to reclassify the land around the Wainuiomata Marae has come to an end with a landmark decision by the Maori Land Court. The Court’s decision to reclassify the 3.5 hectares of reserve land as a Māori reserve will mean the Marae will no longer have to seek the permission of the Hutt City Council and other bodies to stage events or erect structures on the land. Aaron Marsh, Hutt City’s Park and Assets Manager, said the Council supported the move. The long process to reclassify the land was a result of many personnel changes at the council and the marae, and the fact that both bodies had to negotiate many legal hurdles to have the land reclassified.

ENGINEERING UNION Training for tradespeople will change next year when when WelTec and Whitirea open the doors of their new joint School of Construction next year.

Linda Sissons, Weltec chief executive, said the new school will consolidate all the engineering courses under one roof. The school is positive that this new approach will prepare students for the demands of the booming construction sectors in Auckland and Canterbury.

NEWS SHORTS

WATER QUALIT Y GRIM It’s a grim outlook for our rivers where we swim and fish says Phil Teal, Wellington Fish and Game manager.

Teal was commenting on a recent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment report. Smarter sustainable farming is a way forward for the Wellington region, said Teal, noting that there is evidence that less intensive dairy systems can be just as profitable as the high-intensity model from the dairy companies.

“This is better for the individual farmers and significantly better for waterway health.”

The Government and Greater Wellington Regional Council have a dairy expansion agenda, he said.

“It paints a pretty grim picture for rivers where we swim and fish, if the rate of dairy land intensification continues and there is not a rapid uptake of mitigation measures”.

He says Greater Wellington Regional Council is currently investigating numerous sites for water storage to intensify land use in the Wairarapa region.

“The report unequivocally proves the adverse impact intensive agricultural, and particularly dairying, has had on our region’s water quality over the past couple of decades,” says Mr Teal.

“Industry groups need to stop the ‘blame-dodging’ and urgently take responsibility for their impact on our lakes and rivers and streams.”

BYEWARRA First used as a station when the railway started north out of Wellington in 1874, Kaiwarra got its first passenger shelter (for six passengers) in 1879. The current building was designed

by George Troup and built in 1911. The station was renamed Kaiwharawhara in 1951. It’s due to close because large sums need to be spent on the overbridge which it is felt are unjustified. At last count about 14 passengers were using it daily.

A TON OF T V’S A Government subsidised television recycling programme which is operating throughout New Zealand, through the Ministry for the Environment, is expected to continue for some months. One recycler has collected more than 100,000 old TV’s (more than 2,200 tonnes of recovered materials for recycling) in the past year.

BRONZE B ODY WORK The resplendent bronze lions that sit atop the entrance of Te Puni Kokiri House on the corner of Lambton Quay and Stout Street were removed in September for conservation. The restoration team at The Heavy Metal Company recently completed work on the felines and other art deco details. The bronzeworks were showing signs of deterioration and a full maintenance process was applied to clean and preserve them. Jenny Watterson of Heavy Metal said conservation is a special art. Items should end up looking the same as before not shiny and new. All signs of bronze rot were removed and the patina left as is. Look up next time you are walking past, those cats are holding shields with ‘FS’ emblazoned on them.

Anyone know what that stands for?

BY THE NUMBERS

COMPILED BY CRAIG BEARDSWORTH

GARDENS OF DELIGHT

25

hectares in the Wellington Botanic Gardens

1868

year the garden was established (land was set aside in 1844 by The New Zealand Company)

3000

rose bushes set out in 110 formal beds in the Lady Norwood Rose Garden

50

varieties of flax in the native flax garden

25,000

tulip bulbs in the main garden (tiptoeing through them is discouraged)

SUGAR…..OH HONEY HONEY

20

desserts on the Strawberry Fare menu

1990

year the NZ Portrait Gallery was founded

21 6 100 0

years since it opened

250

number of portraits in the collection (and growing)

5 300

exhibitions mounted per year

chefs toiling in the kitchen kg of sugar purchased per month suggested amount of guilt one should feel post pudding

1907

B RU S H O F F YO U R HAT S

F U S H ‘N ’C H U P S

10

races to watch at Wellington Cup Day

10

months the Mount Vic Chippery has been open

200,000

number in $$ of the richest prize on offer

4 +

kinds of fish available on any given day

2400

length in kms of the course for the horse (of course)

0

reported cases of carpal tunnel in the peeling staff so far

1867

year the first meeting was held

1

tonne of tatties gets peeled each week

15,000

number of attendees expected on January 25, 2014

PORTRAIT OF THE GALLERY

15

average number of entries to the biennial Adam Portraiture Award year Shed 11 was built

LIFE’S A BEACH

5

patrolled beaches in the Wellington region (Scorching, Oriental, Titahi, Paekakariki, and Lyall)

16°

average temperature of water in January (in Samoa it’s 29° – meh get over it and jump in)

15

lifesavers working the binoculars over summer (minimum of three per beach)

43

areas the regional council check for beach water quality (20 in Wellington, 10 in Porirua and 13 in the Hutt)

OUR PEOPLE

A H I P- H O P HIGH Libby Calder is a firecracker, fizzing with an energy that has helped her build a veritable dance empire, Pump, here in Wellington. And she’s on a hip hop high after just coming back from winning the Hip Hop Unite World Champs in Belgrade, Serbia with the Infinite Dance Crew.

With Libby as their coach, the crew fundraised for the $50,000 to get to Serbia. “You have this awesome time on stage and then you go backstage and you have no idea what ranking you’ve got until after the finals.”

Libby and the girls held their breath as the name of each country was called out. “At the final two which was Russia and us, the MC asked, ‘Who do you want to win?’ I saw this wave of Russians in the audience and I thought, Not fair, we have five fans with us! But all the teams surrounding us on the stage started pointing saying ‘New Zealand, New Zealand!’”

Their name was announced and the girls went wild. “One girl wrapped the NZ flag around her and ran the length of the stage. I ran and jumped and did a fist pump in the air!”

Refining and rehearsing a routine is a long process. They rehearse three times a week for three months. “We’ll start looking for music well in advance. I edit the music and I have to play around with it a lot. I’m sure my mixes are a lot better now than they were in 2008 when we had explosions and zapping sound effects.

“In our last routine we had some Fat Boy Slim and Sly and the Family Stone and Rihanna and some Nicki Minaj, so it’s such a mix, but if you pick the right songs you can make it flow.”

And it’s all about the flow. “Our routine had peaks and it dipped. It was really important to keep it interesting but we needed that flow. Some of the European teams are really stop-start. They do a hard-hitting piece and then go into a lyrical contemporary piece, then back to breakdancing. Also a lot of them are mixed so they have four boys and four girls and they do a lot of sexy partner work – you know what the Europeans are like!”

“I love performing on stage and competing. It’s this thrill, this rush. With Pump it’s a different feeling because you get to see your students getting that thrill on stage.”

LEFT TO RIGHT: Anna Robinson, Rinaha Bridge-Comer, Libby Calder, Sarah Courtney Written & Photographed by Sarah Burton

16

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

GREEN THUMBS FOR SUMMER

FAVE SPOT South Coast

SOUL FO OD La Boca Loca

READING

The Antidote

WEEKEND

Hill St Market

GROWING Tomatoes

Organic gardener ANIA UPSTILL says summer means lots of picnics and swimming in the sea.

A

fter a day working outside there’s nothing better than a dip in the sea to wash off the day’s sweat and feel refreshed for the evening. Then again, last year I was a part of VUW’s Summer Shakespeare, so summer also consisted of a lot of late nights performing at the Dell.

My mother always had a large vegetable garden, but as a kid I was more interested in books than plants. It was through studying geography at university in Texas (BA in Anthropology (Hons) and Geography) that I became interested in urban agriculture, and realised that gardening perfectly combined my interests in sustainable living and eating delicious food.

I have lots of tomatoes and zucchini – classic summer crops in my garden. Also lots of tomatillos, so I hope to make lots of salsa verde. No brassicas, because I’ve found that it’s pretty much impossible to avoid cabbage moths and other pests, so they’re a better winter crop.

I like eating at Little Penang or Indian Sweets and Snacks in Newtown for cheap eats – good quality at a great price. Nikau cafe and Haya are favourites for their use of local produce, and for when I am homesick, La Boca Loca uses local produce and makes amazing, amazing Mexican food similar to what I used to eat in the States.

The combination of a cosmopolitan city with a stunning coastline makes Wellington. Particularly the South Coast on a fine day, when you can look all the way across to the South Island. I work at a garden at the end of Ow-

hiro Bay and the view is incredible. I’m listening to Girl Talk while gardening – it’s sort of trashy, but I like it.

I eat organic when I can, and as local as possible. I try my hardest to buy only foods grown in New Zealand, which means no bananas. Also I eat seasonally, which means no tomatoes in winter, for example. I like to buy at the Hill St Market. It is the only local-food focused produce market in Wellington.

When I am not working I am acting, biking, promoting local food through the Local Food Network, working on bikes at Mechanical Tempest or reading when I can make the time. Lately I have been reading The Antidote.

One of my all-time favourites is Hemingway, I love his minimalist style even though he was a misogynist.

My flatmate and I have been part of the Wairarapa EcoFarms organic CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. Programs entitle participants to a share of vegetables each week, while ensuring a steady income for farmers.

It’s a win-win situation, and since our local CSA drop off point was only a few blocks away, it was super convenient.

Tips for Wellington gardeners: Don’t be afraid to try gardening. Just because Wellington’s weather can be extreme doesn’t mean nothing grows here – a lot does!

Start small and grow lots of things that are green – herbs and silverbeet, for example. Make your own compost if you can, and remember to mulch around your plants, as it saves water and keeps down weeds. I could keep going for a while, but I’ll stop there.

Photograph by Sarah Kilner

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

19

OPINION

W HAT ’S DE MO C R AC Y I F CIT IZEN S D ON’ T VOTE? WRITTEN BY ALICK SHAW

A cliché of sixties and seventies graffiti was, “Don’t vote – governments always win”. Perhaps as that activist generation has aged and dried out politically they are so contemptuous of local government that a great many of them observe this injunction. The extent of their indifference can be startling.

F

or example In 2004 a couple of weeks after the local body election I was having a coffee with a woman who was by then an ex-councillor, when a professional, who regularly appeared in consent hearings before her and who one would have thought would be most likely to be up with the play, congratulated her on the result and asked about the three years that lay ahead. He had no idea that my colleague had been defeated.

A year ago many of the people I talked to were absolutely sure that last October’s election would see the defeat of Celia Wade Brown as Mayor of Wellington. As is now abundantly clear it didn’t and her position seems to be more secure for her second term than it was during her first. The greening of local government in this city continues.

Supporters of the mayor and the Green Party promote local government as a focus for political action and they get their people out to vote. No one can complain about that.

However there’s lots of adverse commentary about local government. Criticism ranges from “horse trading” amongst councillors, how “outrageously overpaid” they are, how most of them “couldn’t earn anything like that amount in the real world,” to infighting and dysfunction in council. The coverage is trivial, and a constant diet of this for two and half years is pretty hard to undo in the three or four months of an election campaign.

Councils are constantly criticised for not listening to the “community”. From the accuser this usually means council is not listening to “me” or my special interest group.

Sometime over the next few years we should see some outcome from the debate on amalgamation of local government in Wellington. Critics of the proposals will continue to report the imminent demise of “local democracy”.

More than half the people on the roll choose not to vote, so I am hard pressed to detect any vital signs in “local democracy”. In any case local government is not sovereign, but a creature of statute. The parliament decides its responsibilities and extent of the discretion available to councils.

Thank heaven for that. We do not need a local police force, elected sheriffs or judges, elected water boards, drainage boards or rabbit boards. (Mind you I do not believe we need or are well served by elected District Health Boards either.)

Will amalgamation put more distance between elected members and self-appointed representatives of the community? Probably. But getting strategic land use planning and infrastructure investment decisions into a wider context would be a thoroughly good thing.

Councillors elected to larger amalgamated councils will have access to better advice from officials and will be less likely to be held hostage by small groups with very 20

OPINION

limited agendas. Councillors should see themselves as representatives who are around the table to make decisions based on good advice and the subsequent exercise of their individual and collective judgement. They should not see themselves as delegates who are there to cast a vote on behalf of others who have made the decision for them.

When I lost my seat on council, a very senior parliamentary figure commiserated with me, but parted with this shot, “Now that you are gone who will be on nutter patrol?” There were certainly others on patrol and I am not sure if he was expressing a view on the quality of my colleagues or submitters. Amalgamated councils will probably make life tougher for some special interest groups. These can do remarkably well at picking off, cajoling, threatening and deceiving local councillors.

The best recent example was the anti-fluoridation campaigners who persuaded a majority of Hamilton City Councillors to vote to remove fluoride from the water supply. The councillors surely cannot have been blinded by science, and I am left with the conclusion that for some at least it was a perception that they might be punished at the polls if they did not submit to the demands of the campaign. That 70% percent of the citizens who voted in a non-binding referendum to reinstate fluoride was a triumph for collective common sense.

For me the issues of amalgamation and participation are central to improving the quality of key

decision-making in our wider city.

Will amalgamation result in more people voting? I doubt it, but it will lead to better decisionmaking precisely because it will enable wider assessments of the benefits and negative impacts of planning and investment proposals.

Will more people voting lead to better decision-making? I suspect so, and it is crucial we think of ways to improve participation. In one sense the current situation mirrors the limited participation in democracy before the universal franchise. When only 40% of voters take part it is probably a less reliable means of establishing the public’s choice of representatives than a properly conducted opinion poll. It goes without saying, however, that no public opinion poll can or should decide who governs.

So what’s the answer? Compulsory voting? I don’t like the idea of compulsion.

Let’s consider aligning the parliamentary and local government electoral cycles. That would probably mean fixed parliamentary terms, and it would raise real issues for our Westminster system and it could only occur as part of a much broader constitutional debate.

In the meantime the current postal voting regime is not delivering the numbers. It is deeply flawed, insecure, and wide open to electoral fraud.

The introduction of on-line voting and the option of a ballot cast in person seem much better bets to me.

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BLITHE OPTIMISM Ben Childs is already in the midst of post-production work on his second film. His first short film, Birdsong, has just won Best Foreign Film at Indie Fest, a Californian film festival.

Childs, who graduated from the New Zealand Film and Television School in Wellington, this year describes Birdsong, as a “quirky coming of age film.” It tells the story of a child’s changing perceptions of his eccentric father, who has taken to wearing a bird mask. The film has shown at festivals in Columbia, Australia and Germany.

Childs, 22, says he has been passionate about film and acting since he was about 10 years old when his father came home with a video camera. He grew up in Christchurch, and says his parents were quite keen that he have some sort of backup plan in case a life in film didn’t pan out.

At a time when the obituary is being written for the New Zealand film industry following a major drop-off in the number of productions, Childs remains blithely optimistic about his future in the industry. He works on commercials and has a tutoring contract at Scots College for next year, and saves his money to fund his own filmmaking ventures.

“I am quite drawn to coming-of-age stories, probably reflecting my own position in life. I’d like to direct kid’s films, with some slapstick and fun. I think there’s a gap there.”

“As far as directing goes, I expect to spend a long time creating a name before I get paid.”

The strategy has had some early success; after crowd funding $4000 for production costs, Childs was able to shoot his most recent film, The Space Trash Men. Starring The Hobbit actor Jeffrey Thomas, and Will Robertson, the film is a more ambitious undertaking than Birdsong, with most of the film taking place aboard a space ship. Childs’ win at Indie Fest has already yielded dividends; Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, who presented Childs with his award at the festival, agreed to play the voice of the ship’s computer.

Photography by Tamara Jones | Written by Thomas Coughlan

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P

rovocative though their band name is, the girl’s names are poetic – Vera, Lara, Ella and Flora. Best friends since their first intrepid days at Wellington High School. Their band was a natural extension of their friendship, shared music tastes and love of a good party.

“We just decided to get together make a band, have fun and get all dressed up, even though basically none of us played instruments,” said Vera, the band’s instigator and lead vocalist.

After that first taste of performing pleasure, the band wanted more.

“Flora’s Dad is in a band as well so her house had a band room and heaps of instruments for us to play. So we gathered there once a week having a band practice and then drinking afterwards and hanging out. We just

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really liked it and eventually the music started getting a bit better,” said Lara.

Gigs have kept cropping up, and the support of family and friends has been invaluable. Dave Smith formerly of Manky Chops and Xoe Hall gave a lot of encouragement in the beginning. “Dave came up with the idea for the Lighter Thief song which was our first original. Our friend Ig recorded us on an old condenser mike hanging down the middle of Flora’s band room. Grant at Fast Eddies who owns the radio station there, he plays it even though it’s the worst recording in the world. Everyone is so supportive and it’s really awesome,” said Lara.

They look to the Cramps, the Buzzcocks, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey and surf rock. “Party songs,” the girls all agree.

They’re picking a path through these tried and tested

OUR PEOPLE

JAILBAIT ROCK WRITTEN & PHOTOGRAPHED BY SARAH BURTON

They wanted to bow out of high school with a bang. And they wanted their teachers to have to write the name of their band – Jail Bait – in the end-of-year music performance evening programme.

inspirations, experimenting and finding their own style and way. And, like Patti, Ella says, “lyrics are often inspired by true events.”

“Like the heckler!” Flora exclaims and all four of them laugh. “We played at Meow and this guy was heckling us throughout the show, saying things like ‘I’m clapping because you’re going off the stage.’ And ‘you girls can’t play your instruments.’” As the old guy in the tshirt with a whale on it got drunker, the taunting got cruder.

Ella joins in. “The stuff he said was really gross. We were laughing about it

for weeks afterwards so then we wrote a song about it.”

As they approach their first proper recording session they have begun to question Jail Bait as their band name.

“Are we gonna stick with it? The name is not what other people think it is. At the time we made up the band we all didn’t care, you’re at high school there’s no worries, you don’t need a job, you’re having fun,” said Ella.

Lara agrees. “We’re reclaiming the name. Jail Bait connotes girls who are just bodies and bait, and we’re just making it into girls who do something cool.”

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The girls are recording with Flora’s Dad’s friend Terry, who is a sound engineer and was a teacher at their high school. “My Dad said he would fund us only if we agreed to be signed to his label which is called Fat Punk, because him and his friends are just like, old fat punks.” Flora says giggling. “And I say that in the fondest way possible!”

It’s a fresh road for these girls who are definitely going to keep it up. “This is so much fun, we love music and we have a great time,” said Vera.

Lara joins in. “I feel very lucky to have found them all. Total sisters, definitely.”

CULTURE

EQUINE FINE

UP IN A B L A Z E O F G L O RY

The Wellington Chinese community celebrate the year of the Horse in February. This year organisers are jockeying for position with the Wellington Sevens as official festivities fall on the same weekend (February 7–8). The main celebration will run over 1 and 2 February at the Michael Fowler Centre.

Festival spokesperson Linda Lim said this year Chinese New Year occurs on January 31 and celebrations last for 15 days so no significance is lost.

The festivities will be supported by both the Chinese Embassy and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, which represent two sides of a diplomatic war that has raged since the 1940s. The celebrations will include a fashion show, a Chinese puppet group from Wellington’s sister city Xiamen, and dance set to the music of Tan Dun, the Oscar-winning composer of the score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, who completed a residency at Victoria University in 1988.

According to the Chinese zodiac, Horse-people are active, quick witted and energetic. They have plenty of sex-appeal and know how to dress – possibly in jodhpurs.

Over a week in February, five artists will use compressed air cylinders, propane gas, mirror balls, smoke machines and lots of gaffer tape to transform the Botanic Gardens into an interactive display of sound and light. Power Plant, opening February 28 as part of the New Zealand Festival, has been installed in public spaces from Tasmania to Hong Kong.

Festival director Shelagh Magadza saw it in Tasmania and is especially excited for the Wellington iteration.

“It is one of the biggest installations we have ever done.”

Magadza said that the Power Plant artists were so impressed with the wilderness of the Botanic Gardens that they are creating extra pieces to populate the hour-long route from the Cable Car to the Dell and back again. Watch out for whirring electric flowers, buzzing light insects, and the Pyrophone which allows fire to be played like an instrument.

Neil MacKenzie – Online Fotos

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CULTURE

SANS SAN FRAN? The Phoenix Foundation will have the honour of being the last band to play at the storied San Francisco Bath House when they headline a New Year’s Eve party at the popular Cuba Street venue. The San Francisco Bath House announced it would close earlier in the year after regulators halved its maximum capacity from 500 to 250 people. The Phoenix Foundation have a long connection with the venue, having first played there 18 years ago when it was known as Sonic Temple. Expect an announcement about what will replace the venue in the New Year.

MOVING IN SPITE Capital E is currently discussing the possibility of staging part of its 2014 season at the Hannah Playhouse, formerly occupied

by Downstage Theatre Company.

The not-for-profit organisation aims to ignite and inspire young people through digital workshops, live performance and events.

Late last year they vacated their Civic Square premises as the building met less than the required 34% of current building code.

“Good luck to them,” is the opinion of long-time actor and director Tim Spite, who performed in Live at 6, the last production to be staged by Downstage. “It is the hardest building in the world to make theatre in”.

WETLAND WA R R I O R Huhana Smith is an artist, academic and kaitiaki (environmental guardian). Born and raised on a farm in Australia, she moved back to NZ in 1993. She studied fine art, and indigenous studies, and has a PhD in eco-system restoration within cultural landscapes. She’s now based in Horowhenua where she looks after a conservation project in local wetlands, and is interested in issues of degradation facing fresh water in the marine environment. Smith describes her painting practice as ‘an attempt to overcome a range of disturbing research findings for lands and waterways in this region … It helps articulate and visualise place-based action, for better environmental outcomes.’

She also works with local Māori youth and gets them involved in conservation projects. She and her partner grow olives and are planning for their first pressing next year. She is currently Research Leader Māori for Manaaki Taha Moana and was Senior Curator Mātauranga Māori at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Rae ki te Rae/Face to Face City Gallery – Deane Gallery until January 26.

Craig Beardsworth Huhana Smith, Te Rae #2, 2013, oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist

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CULTURE

M U SIC TO WASSAI L B Y

BY CRAIG BEARDSWORTH

H

eading into town to shop for family and friends, I brace myself for the onslaught of yuletide music. From children busking to traditional carols and peppy modern jingles jangling over the sound system in every store. It’s Christmas.

Christmas hymns for Christians were first heard in fourth century Rome. By the thirteenth century, in France, Germany, and Italy a strong tradition of popular Christmas songs developed. Christmas carols in English first appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay, a Shropshire chaplain, who lists twenty five “caroles of Cristemas,” probably sung by groups of ‘wassailers’, who went from house to house. These songs were sung during celebrations like harvest tide as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols begun to be sung in church, and to be specifically associated with Christmas.

A quick trawl around the internet revealed these obscure gems to brighten up your holiday season. For those hankering after a traditional carol you could do worse than humming along to…

Come Buy My Nice Fresh Ivy Whence Is That Lovely Fragrance Wafting (including the line “Barry, did you flush out the septic tank?”)

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella And from the American Country Charts…

All I Want for Christmas Is a Real Good Tan – Kenny Chesney 2003 Leroy the Redneck Reindeer – Joe Diffie 1995 For more popular music…

Dominick the Donkey – The Italian Christmas Donkey – Lou Monte 1960 What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas – When He Already Owns a Comb? – The Star Wars Intergalactic Droid Choir & Chorale 1980 Santa’s a Fat Bitch – Insane Clown Posse 1997. This is the only single ever charted by this group on the Billboard Hot 100 (we find this hard to believe considering the poetic apogee that the title alone reaches).

Back Door Santa – Clarence Carter 1968 (the less said about this, the better)

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MERRILY-ON-HIGH International Christmas Festival Dec 5 | Old St Pauls’ | 7.00pm | Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates will present Christmas music and traditions from their home countries.

Carols by Candlelight Dec 8 | Frank Kitts Park | 7.30pm | Free Preceded by Wellington Santa Parade through the city (2pm) and Santa’s Party for kids in Frank Kitts Park (3pm).

Christmas Carol Service Dec 10 | Old St Pauls | 6.30pm | Free A traditional Family Carol Service at Old St Paul’s with Hutt City Brass and the Choristers of Cathedral of St. Paul.

Christmas Carols at the Park Dec 13 | Churton Park | 6.30pm Music provided by The Salvation Army Band and the Churton Park Anglican Music Team.

Handel’s Messiah Dec 14 | Michael Fowler Centre | 6.30pm For generations Handel’s Messiah has been synonymous with the Christmas season. Conducted by Richard Gill, with the NZSO.

CULTURE

NUGGETY GOODNESS TOTALLY T Wellington artist Michel Tuffrey will be showing at Toi Gallery in Pataka through to January 19. He will be showing alongside Tracey Tawhiao, Dan Tippet, Tame Iti and others.

N8vLaB showcases visual arts from a wide Pacific view. Should be GR8.

FABRICATING AN INSTALLATION Katherine Joyce-Kellaway’s mazelike installation at the Massey Creative Arts Graduate show in February drew plaudits from establishment figures such as College of Creative Arts Head of School Heather Galbraith, who called it a “deliciously destabilising sensory encounter.” Joyce-Kellaway takes this style of site-specific installation art to 30Upstairs where she will use 200 metres of fabric to assemble an immersive new work over two weeks until 20 December.

We’re hoping it takes slightly less time to view.

The TG Macarthy Trust, named after a prominent 19th-Century brewer-turned-philanthropist, will celebrate its 100th anniversary by erecting a sculpture of a gold nugget adorned with birthday candles, balanced on a Corinthian column. Yes, you read that right. Although it sounds like something Kanye West might give himself for Christmas, it is actually the brainchild of artist and Dunedin School of Art lecturer Scott Eady. The Philanthropist’s Stone is expected to cost $168,000 and should be in place by the end of 2014.

LORD LACKBEARDS LAP OF THE LAND The Lord Lackbeards will tour two plays around the lower North Island this summer. The group, which is based at Victoria University, will perform Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with Henrietta Bollinger’s Bedtime Monsters on alternating nights, that will start in Napier and end at the Aro Valley Community Hall on 15 December. Director Ania Upstill says that touring has freed the performers from focusing on set and costume.

“Instead, we’re spending time on what we have: allowing the words to take on their full power”.

See Ania, our gardener, in Tales of the City page 19

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FOSTERING TALENT WRITTEN BY SOPHIE NELLIS

When Circa Theatre asked director and designer Andrew Foster to join its council in 2011, he felt as if his career had come full circle. He talks to Sophie Nellis about life on the council, the future of Wellington’s theatre scene, and why he’s looking to video games for inspiration.

C

irca Theatre has been a dynamic player in Wellington’s theatre scene since it was established by a breakaway group of actors and theatre practitioners in 1976. They were baby boomers with a radical vision: the theatre was to be run as a co-operative and administered by a council.

“The late 1970s and early 1980s were a magical time for theatre in Wellington,” says Foster, who was born in the capital. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he experienced the magic first hand; his parents were deeply involved in both amateur

successful. “Circa has become part of the establishment almost by default; whereas other companies have come and gone, Circa has been around for a long time.”

He attributes the theatre’s survival to the fact that unlike other theatres, it operates on a riskshare model. Practitioners pitch ideas, the council then curates a programme based on these ideas and funds the productions until they go on stage.

The box office is split between the theatre and the production itself. There are only a few full-time

“Circa has become part of the establishment almost by default...” and professional theatre and Foster himself appeared on stage as a child actor.

“My parents took me to a lot of shows and parties at Circa and I remember being at one party as a little kid and having earache,” Foster says. “One of the actors came to talk to me and my earache went away. And this has always stuck with me; the excitement of engaging with a storyteller and forgetting real life.”

But as Foster “grew up” and forged his career doing more cutting-edge productions at BATS and elsewhere, Circa was increasingly perceived as having a populist niche and an ageing audience that knew what to expect.

This perception, Foster argues, is often based on the fact that Circa has survived and been very 31

staff members and the councillors all work as volunteers.

So why did he join the council?

“The people who founded Circa – a number of whom are still councillors – have realised that the loyal audience the theatre has built up is ageing,” Foster explains. “They know that you need young energy to run a theatre because that’s what they had when they established Circa back in the 1970s.”

He was one of the first in a wave of new council members to join the theatre, and there is now a fairly even split between the familiar older faces and young practitioners who have recently emerged from BATS. These new councillors bring with them a fresh perspective and an interest in new forms of theatre, such as immersive theatre.

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“There is a real mood for change at Circa at the moment. It’s exciting to be a part of that and discover where theatre is heading,” says Foster.

But alongside this sense of excitement is a keen awareness that these are tough times for Wellington’s theatre scene. Circa may have survived because of the resilience of its model to fluctuations in the market but resilience does not equate to immunity and the council is deeply disturbed by the recent closure of Downstage, just months short of its 50th birthday.

Much has been said about the closure and factors falling ticket sales, a lack of adequate and stable funding, and

with new audiences is to draw on the strengths of the other entertainment options it often feels it is in competition with.

He is currently creating a show to take to the Edinburgh Festival called Zombie, which is based on an immersive theatre piece he did for teenagers in Auckland this year called Apocalypse Z. At the same time, he is developing an alternative version of Zombie that will feature as an immersive component at music festivals such as Big Day Out. This has required research into video games and conversations with gaming technologists, and Foster believes

“... the city’s theatres... should learn from this loss to collaborate, rather than compete...”

Wellington’s economic troubles, have been blamed for the Downstage’s demise.

“Like all theatres in the capital, we recognise that the health of the theatre-going audience in Wellington is about having a choice,” Foster says. “We’re really saddened about the loss of Downstage.”

He believes that the city’s theatres and theatre companies should learn from this loss to collaborate, rather than compete with each other, on solving one of the biggest problems currently facing the industry: dwindling audiences.

No one is sure whether it’s a result of the recession or that there are so many more entertainment options these days, but theatres across the country are facing a decline in box office revenues.

“Funding has an important role to play here, of course, but there’s also an onus on theatre to revive itself and reconnect with audiences,” Foster says.

“Audiences are changing. When the council sat down to do the programming this year at Circa, we acknowledged that we can’t actually predict what our audience wants. Even older audiences – what is often referred to at Circa as ‘our audience’ – are evolving and want to see more challenging productions.”

One such production on this year’s programme was Red, an immersive theatre piece about American artist Mark Rothko designed and directed by Foster. Rejecting the notion that Circa has a specific audience, he brought on a young publicist and together they marketed it to the people they thought would be interested.

“We realized that there is actually a really big market of younger people who want to go to the theatre but Circa is either not on their radar or the marketing is actually telling them it’s not for them. We’re at a point where we have to really start re-engaging with audiences and rediscovering what it is they want.”

Easier said than done but Foster’s upcoming projects suggest that one of the ways theatre could try to connect 32

theatre could learn a lot about engaging with audiences from the gaming industry.

“Game designers understand how to tell a story where the gamer has free will. Video games allow the audience to participate in the story and raise interesting questions about how a gamer responds intellectually and morally with the experience they are partaking in.”

The research into gaming for Zombie has fed into the aesthetic agenda of another upcoming project, designing Pasefika, Circa’s New Zealand Festival show. He is taking inspiration from “the beautiful black and white design, reminiscent of film noir” of Limbo, a game developed for tablets and iPhones by a Scandinavian designer.

Foster’s interest in new work and creative projects is shared by his wife, dancer and choreographer Sarah Foster-Sproull. During the past few years, they have learned that the only way to ensure they can work all year round on projects that they find intellectually and creatively challenging is to divide their time between Auckland and Wellington.

“To be constantly working you either have a fixed position, which don’t really exist in Wellington any more, or you have to go where the work is,” he says, although he admits that there is a healthy enough theatre scene in both cities that, if he and his wife were willing to compromise on some of the projects they took on, they could see themselves settling in either city.

“Wellington will always be my spiritual home because it’s where I first discovered the magic of theatre,” says Foster. But regardless of where he is, we can be sure that he’s doing everything he can to keep this magic alive.

Andrew Foster has been nominated for the 2013 Chapman Tripp Theatre awards for Best Director and Best Set Designer. The awards will be anounced in December.

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BACKYARD BEEKEEPERS B EE HIND TH E SCENES

WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Gone are the days when beekeepers were old men with lifestyle blocks. A growing awareness of the plight of bees coupled with a widespread focus on living more sustainably and and keeping them affordably, has seen middle-aged suburban couples, young men and women living in city flats, even children, getting involved with bees.

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ichard Braczek, president of the Wellington Beekeepers Association, says the organisation has had to get bigger meeting rooms every few years. “The numbers are growing and a large number of them live in Wellington city and are backyard beekeepers, who only have one or two hives,” he says.

The Ministry for Primary Industries cited a 16% increase in registered beekeepers from 2011–2012, with

In 2010 the organisation Melbourne City Rooftop Honey began taking over unused roofs, balconies and gardens, to host hives sponsored by local businesses, with the honey and other by-products distributed among sponsors, and any excess sold to raise money for the project.

Back on home shores, budding beekeeper Paascalino Schaller is one young Wellingtonian taking on

“It’s also deeply relaxing. When you work with bees they are able to pick up on your mood...” the biggest increase for beekeepers with five or fewer hives, up 20%, from 2011.

It’s happening all around the world. In the US, some statistics credit recreational beekeeping, or apiculture, with 40% of honey production.

Since New York became an apiculture-friendly city in 2010, hundreds of hives have been officially registered within the city limits – with estimates of many more “unofficial” hives.

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beekeeping as a way to help the environment. The 24-year-old teacher keeps three hives in the backyard of his Kelburn flat.

“There’s not much space but there’s enough for the bees to have a comfortable home. I live with others who all like bees and recognise them for the intelligent beings that they are, so that’s nice,” he says.

Schaller began learning about beekeeping only recently from his brother, and a few months ago

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took bees on himself as his fascination with the creatures grew.

“They are so in sync with one another, they work selflessly in order to keep the hive running. It’s a meticulous system, each bee has their own role. There’s a lot to learn from bees and that’s something that I really admire about them,” he says.

“It’s also deeply relaxing. When you work with bees they are able to pick up on your mood, so if you are tending to bees in a highly strung mood they get into much more of a frenzy. It’s important to be calm around bees and that feels good.”

I decided to seize the day and get bees now – I didn’t want to waste any more time waiting for the right moment,” she says.

It helps that her flatmates are very supportive of the idea.

“My first degree was in biology and ecology. I am interested in and very conscious of the concept of an ecosystem, where everything is connected and interacting.

These sorts of things... [are] part of building a healthy resilient modern city and population,” she says.

Over in Hataitai Chris Daly, a 50-something research consultant, installed his first hive two years ago, following with a second a year later. Approaching the home he shares with wife, dog and cats, you’d never suspect the abundance of life hiding out back – a big vege garden, chooks, half a dozen fruit trees, and two beautiful, buzzing hives.

“One of the reasons for getting the bees was for pollination of the fruit trees and... we have noticed they’ve cropped better in the past year or so,” he says.

Amusingly, Daly admits to not being “that calm” around bees generally, but he’s getting better with time.

“It’s really nice working in the garden and having them buzz around you. Plus we’ve got observation windows on these hives so you can check on them without disturbing anything... They’re quite incredible creatures, once you get to see how they work. They build so quickly and it’s so beautiful,” he says.

Aesthetically very different from the traditional Langstroth, or box, hives, Daly’s are top-bar hives; tub-shaped, frameless hives in which the honeycomb hangs from bars. They are less expensive to buy or build. They require less machinery and equipment, which means less storage space, and because there are no frames the bees can get on with building honeycomb to natural dimensions, without human interference.

“Beekeeping by definition isn’t a natural process, but we think this [way] is more so,” says Daly.

Bees kept in this way produce less honey, but with his two hives Daly still has enough for himself, fam-

CHILDHO OD FASCINATION Brittany Peck is a 29-year-old lawyer who also lives in a flat, hers in Mount Victoria. Peck is all set up to start beekeeping, and has spent about $400 getting prepared.

“The cost varies a lot. For example, I’m no good with a hammer so I bought my hive pre-made. It’s much cheaper to buy the parts or to make it yourself from scratch,” she says.

Peck is awaiting the arrival of her first “nuc” (or nucleus hive, pronounced like ‘nuke’) in a few weeks time.

“I feel a bit like an expectant mother must! Nervous and anxious about the impending responsibility, but also desperate for them to arrive so I can get to know them and nurture them into a thriving hive, then join the other beekeepers boasting about how good my honey is,” she says.

Peck’s fascination with bees goes back to early childhood. She always knew she wanted to keep bees, but was resigned to waiting until she was older and had her own land.

“Having only just graduated this year and started full time work, I realised that is not going to happen any time soon. I moved into a flat with a big backyard and garden [so]

Paascalino Schaller’s backyard bees

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BEEKEEPING IN WELLINGTON Urban beekeepers are required to abide by regional bylaws which can differ substantially.

In Wellington it’s simple – you can keep bees unless they’re a hazard of nuisance to others – whereas in Porirua City a council permit and written permission from neighbours are both required.

Under the “Bees” section of the Wellington Consolidated Bylaw 2008: Part 2 – Animals: “You need to think about where you position your hive. Choose a suitable location for your hive that will not affect neighbouring properties and public spaces. Bees establish a single flight path and drop wax and waste along the way. The Council’s Environmental Health Officers will respond to complaints where bees might be causing any nuisance or danger.”

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ily and friends. The extraction process is also much simpler than with other hives. Run out of honey in the kitchen? “You just pull out a comb as and when you want it,” he says. But for this purpose, Daly still stops to put on his bee suit.

“I’m not that confident a beekeeper!” he laughs.

there is some bother caused to those who live in the immediate area surrounding a hive. Bee poo on washing lines, windows and in pools. An increased likelihood of being stung, however slight. And the inevitable but much-misunderstood tendency for a hive to swarm.

COLONY COLLAPSE

STAY CALM

As well as benefitting directly from beekeeping by-products, backyard beekeepers are helping ensure a good life for the rest of us. You might have heard of colony collapse disorder (CCD), or at least heard talk of drastically decreasing bee numbers. Maybe you’ve begun to notice fewer bees around. It’s a serious issue, and a global one.

Life without bees means life without 75% of the food we eat – things like apples, almonds, blueberries, onions, oranges, even chocolate. Scientists can’t agree on what causes CCD, but the world’s most destructive honey bee killer, a parasitic mite called varroa (scientific name Varroa destructor), is implicated. Varroa arrived in New Zealand in 2000, and while it spreads slowly – it was finally reported to have reached Invercargill and Dunedin in 2012 – it is hugely destructive.

“It only takes a few months for the varroa to eliminate the hive, the wild bee colonies have disappeared.

The only bees that survive in New Zealand are the ones where a beekeeper is treating the varroa,” says Braczek.

The publicity surrounding CCD is contributing to the rise in interest in backyard beekeeping. Wellington Beekeepers Association member and Wadestown resident Carolyn O’Fallon, got her bees last spring.

“My partner Chris expressed an interest in keeping bees and I had been reading about the plight of bees globally. It was something that we both wanted to do... It is one small way we can contribute to improving our environment,” she says.

For all the good that bees do for the environment,

Every year in mid to late spring, full, healthy bee hives split in two – the queen abandoning half her entourage and departing with the rest to seek a new, more spacious place to call home. Most beekeepers take steps to avoid swarming but it can’t always be helped – as Braczek tells me, “it’s a completely natural process”.

“Swarms of up to ten thousand bees can be frightening... But when bees swarm they fill up on honey so can’t really sting easily, and also because they’re without a territory, they don’t feel that need to protect it. Don’t go too near there’s no cause for panic... the bees are just looking for an initial place to settle while they find a more permanent, suitable location,” he says.

Braczek says, “Be calm and be still if you find yourself being bothered by a bee.

“If the bee lands on you it’s usually because it’s tired... It’ll likely just land, have a smoko, recover and take off again,” he says.

If you’re thinking of keeping bees most locals will tell you the Wellington Beekeeping Association is a great place to start. It was the “enthusiasm and support” of the club that prompted O’Fallon to take up beekeeping.

Peck says their support has been “invaluable.”

“Members will go to your house and check on your hive if you’re sick or away, or hook you up with a new queen if you accidentally stand on yours.

It’s a great little community.”

Chris Daly’s backyard bees

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BEEKEEPING FA C T S Beekeeping, or apiculture, is increasingly common in urban areas internationally.

From the National Beekeepers Association New Zealand: $5.1billion of NZ’s economy is attributable to pollination by honey bees, domestic honey sales and exports, beeswax and exported honey bees.

The wild bee population in New Zealand has been decimated by the parasitic mite varroa.

Practically all honey bees alive in New Zealand now are cared for by beekeepers.

The traditional stacked box hives are called Langstroth hives. Some backyard beekeepers are adopting top-bar hives as an easier and “more natural” alternative.

A suitable property for beekeeping is sunny, sheltered, easily accessible and separate from noise or disturbance from children and animals.

A fresh water supply near the hive will avoid many complaints – you don’t want your bees refuelling in a neighbour’s swimming pool.

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MARY CHRISTMAS

MARY CHRISTMAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Christmas is the great New Zealand festive blowout – if there is any time of the year when we give ourselves licence to really indulge, it is the build-up to December 25 and the summer holidays.

Not wishing to lose the important religious note of the festival we asked three Marys to share with us something of what they prepare for family celebrations.

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M A RY C H R I STM AS

MARY

MCLEOD

Our Christmas table is more of a spread than a sit down meal, featuring both traditional Christmas fare and Mediterranean dishes, which our family and guests can enjoy at leisure over a long afternoon.

A large platter of rice-stuffed vine leaves served with chilled minted yoghurt is always included. Part of the pleasure in making these is picking the young fresh vine leaves on a sunny day. I find the fresh leaves easier to work with.

However, one can buy jars of brined leaves. If using these they should be washed and soaked in cold water for half an hour, then drained before stuffing and rolling.

STUFFED VINE LEAVES 250g vine leaves 250g long-grain rice washed and drained 1 tin crushed tomatoes 1 large red onion 3 cloves peeled finely chopped garlic 2 tablespoons finely cut mint ½ teaspoon cinnamon Salt & black pepper Put tomatoes, onion, garlic, mint and spices into the food processor. Mix this with the rice. Place leaf dull side up on a plate and put a heaped teaspoon full of the rice mixture into the centre. Fold the stem end of the filling and tuck in with both sides towards the middle. Roll the leaf up like a cigar so that it is fairly tight. Save any broken leaves and line the bottom of the pot with them. Also some sliced lemons or tomatoes.

Tightly pack the stuffed leaves inside the pot; scatter some whole unpeeled cloves of garlic between the layers.

Pour over at least 2 cups of mixed olive oil/water/lemon juice. Place a plate on top of the rolled leaves to prevent them unrolling, and then the pot lid. Simmer very gently for 1½ to 2 hours, checking the liquid has not all been absorbed and add more water if necessary, when ready leave in the pot to cool.

Serve cold with yoghurt seasoned with mint and garlic.

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M A RY C H R I STM AS

MARY

LONGMORE

AND

JULIET

Our Christmas is usually celebrated at my elderly parents’ house in Eastbourne. Many relatives and friends who gather with us are getting on in years a bit, and with three young children in tow, we keep it very simple with cold meat, salads and new potatoes while our Uncle Bob and his wife Judith will bring dessert, usually a Cowell’s Pavlova, made locally in Petone.

This year, we’ll be having gin-cured salmon, made on-site at our local butchery, Eastbourne Village Meats and served thinly sliced accompanied by finely chopped dill and lemon juice gently folded into some gorgeous Zany Zeus cream fraiche, from just up the road in Moera. The unctuous, rich salmon just melts in the mouth and contrasts beautifully with the sharp creaminess of the cream fraiche. We will serve it simply with some thinly sliced cucumber and rustic bread from the fabulous Taste of Europe bakery on Waiwhetu Road in Fairfield, Lower Hutt. This tends to be washed down with copious amounts of bubbles of course, preferably Cloudy Bay’s Pelorus.

CURED SALMON 2 4 4 2 1 ¼

x 500g of salmon fillet, skin on, pin boned tablespoons sugar tablespoons sea salt teaspoons white pepper corns, lightly crushed cup fresh dill roughly chopped cup gin

Place the two salmon sides, skin side down, on a plate. Mix together the sugar, salt and white pepper and divide the mixture between the two salmon pieces, rubbing it into the salmon flesh with your hands.

Place the chopped dill on top. Place the salmon, with one piece on top of the other, in a thick plastic bag. Add gin to the bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and tie a knot on the bag as close as possible to the salmon. Place the bag on a plate in the fridge, turning it over 3-4 times during 48 hours.

Once it is ready, take the salmon out of the bag and using a kitchen towel, thoroughly brush off all of the the salt, sugar, pepper and dill mixture.

Serve with creme fraiche, lemon and dill.

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M A RY C H R I STM AS

MARY

TUOHY

CHOCOLATE ALMOND PUDDING

I have had a deep interest in food, both in cooking and consuming, for many years and thankfully my family has developed the same passion.

When we are together for holidays and family celebrations the planning, creating and eating of meals seems to take up the bulk of the day.

Invariably, while we are eating one, we are discussing the next.

250g dark chocolate 250g butter ⅓ cup dark rum or brandy 5 Tbsp caster sugar 3 large eggs, separated 1½ cups ground almonds 125g plain sweet biscuits, broken into small pieces Melt chocolate; add the alcohol and keep warm. Soften butter and cream with sugar, beat in egg yolks one at a time. Mix in almonds until just combined. Add this mixture to the melted chocolate and combine well. Beat eggwhites until soft peaks form and fold into the mixture. Gently stir in the biscuits. Line either a loaf tin or a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with food wrap and pour the mixture in. Cover with tinfoil and freeze.

Remove from the freezer ½ an hour or so before serving.

My menu is a mix of celebratory meals that we have enjoyed together and is ideal for a lovely warm Christmas day, or a not so warm one in the unlikely event of a southerly blast hitting Wellington on the big day. Crostine with sardines and salsa verde, marinated poussin, and chocolate almond pudding, an oldie but a goodie.

Serve this with raspberry coulis and a spoonful of either whipped cream or mascapone. Beware, it is rich, so keep the portions smallish.

RASPBERRY COULIS 1 cup frozen raspberries 2 Tbsp icing sugar 4 Tbsp water Thaw the raspberries and process with the icing sugar and water until smooth. The coulis will keep refrigerated for 3 or 4 days.

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FASH I ION

45

EDIBLES

POOR MAN “We’re sorry for him. He’s working too hard”, say the girls in Harry’s Boutique in Seatoun. They’re talking about David Thurlow, formerly of Café Polo in Miramar, who has just opened Huckle and Co right next door to the upmarket boutique. Huckle and Co is his new fish and chip shop, where he produces “fish and chips and salads the way they should be” on Wednesday to Friday evenings, and from midday on the weekends. He was planning to be open every day, but says “it’s just too much.” He and his staff have been run off their feet. In the short term, Huckle will be shut Mondays and Tuesdays.

S TAY H O M E A N D E AT A couple of years in the corporate world was all it took for Emily Joliffe to decide it was time for a change. Determined to put her catering background to good use, Joliffe bucked the disaffectedcorporate-type-founds-café trend and decided to start The Oven, a gourmet delivery service instead. “It’s more exciting to have something delivered to you”, she insists. At the moment, deliveries are Friday only and orders can be placed by email or text message any time before Friday morning.

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LE MIRAGE TURNS INTO REALIT Y A patisserie by day and a bar by night, Le Mirage will open on Victoria Street this December. One of Le Mirage’s owners, Hadleigh Petherick, said the menu will include patisserie baking and tapas for Le Mirage’s respective day/night incarnations. Petherick is also busy building Wellington’s first rooftop bar, called Oasis.

Petherick will be hoping for an uncharacteristically still summer lest his Oasis turns out to be anything but.

EDIBLES

CONFIDENT WINNER Arobake won top honours at the Great New Zealand Xmas Mince Pie bake off. Having twice won gold medals at the New Zealand Bakery of the Year competition, Arobake owner, Max Fuhrer was confident of a win.

“I had a feeling that if the phone rang on Monday morning and it was for me it would be good news”.

The pies will sell at Arobake and at Moore Wilson’s.

SPRU C E GEESE The original Spruce Goose, made mostly of birch is the still one of the biggest aeroplanes ever made. Howard Hughes built the enormous eight-engine, 97-metre wingspan wooden flying boat near the end of the Second World War to carry huge quantities of troops and equipment to Europe where the Nazi submarines were sinking the ships carrying essential U.S. food and war supplies to Britain. The war ended, she only flew once, and is now in a museum in Oregon.

The new Spruce Goose is right here in Wellington—Surfer’s Corner in Lyall Bay to be exact — and it’s well-known Wellington bar and restaurant entrepreneur Nick Mills’ latest venture. He has taken over the old Wellington Aero Club building and with a fair bit of direction from his wife Gina, and a judicious application of money, turned it into what he insists is a beach café.

Mills likes Wellington Airport’s “hang loose” billboard, and says the moniker applies to his new venture. “This beach café is not a bar, and it’s not a restaurant” he says, “but we’ll be serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” He plans to open midDecember. Seems likely to fly.

RYD GES WELLINGTON “You don’t have to sleep with us to eat with us” may be the sort of witty repartee one would expect as witness testimony, but it has won Rydges Hotel on Featherston Street the Excellence in Marketing Award at the Hospitality New Zealand national awards. The hotel also won Excellence in Customer Service – we can only guess at the slogans currently being cooked up to tout this honour.

ONLY FIVE Margôt de Cotesworth has launched her cookbook, Take 5 and Cook – The Dinner Book, this month. De Cotesworth, whose previous contributions to the Capital’s culinary landscape include Hallelujah café on Allen Street and Rockefellers on Oriental Parade, claims to have written an accessible cookbook of recipes containing only five ingredients. Frankly, I’ll be more excited when someone writes a book called Take 5 while I cook for you.

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EDIBLES

WHEELING OUT THE BIG CHEESE As cheesy as it sounds, C’est Cheese is the new shop opening in Featherston’s main street. Paul Broughton, a fifth-generation dairy-farming son of the Wairarapa, bought and updated a historic building that will house the cheese wheels of his dreams.

A mixed career path – ranging from fisherman to his current role as a property manager – has led to cheese-making, the fulfilment of Paul’s passion for artisan products.

After four years’ cheese-making and curing meats at home, he completed an intensive course at the New Zealand Cheese School in Putaruru, run by Australian Neil Willman, a cheese teacher and international cheese judge.

Paul’s cheese production should be in full swing by autumn 2014, using local milk for small batches of select varieties. I was lucky enough to be given a camembert from Paul’s first batch – creamy enough to melt in your hands, soft, flavoursome and slightly salty – the best New Zealand-made camembert I have tasted. Paul plans to specialise in washed-rind cheeses.

The shop will sell local and national artisan-made cheeses, cured meats, and preserves, along with local extra-virgin olive oils and honeys.

C’est Cheese is in the first block of shops as you enter Featherston from Wellington, near Paul’s partner Sue Ryan’s shop Mister Feather’s Den which offers up-cycled ‘oddities and delights’ such as cactus gardens in silver teapots, and Sue’s own canvases and jewellery.

Say cheese!

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MO ORISH MORO CCO Wellington chef Abdelghani El Adraoui remembers well the fun he had as a little boy fishing for sardines with his uncle in Morocco. He never imagined that one day he’d live on the other side of the world and write a cookbook featuring warehou, moki and fresh New Zealand produce.

Abdel’s Favourites from the Marrakech Café was launched in December

by Her Worship the Mayor of Wellington Celia Wade-Brown. In it Abdel reveals how to create fiery harissa, lamb tagine with preserved lemon, m’hancha pastry and many other authentic Moroccan recipes from his Marrakech Café in Evans Bay. The book’s photography and tales of life in Morocco may inspire you to dust off your passport so that you can experience the country and the food yourself.

BUSINESS

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CHEERS

BACH BREW I NG WRITTEN BY KIERAN HASLETT-MOORE

Beer is as important a part of the Kiwi bach experience as beach cricket, barbequed steak and sunburn, and the beer on offer in Wellington’s holiday spots is improving all the time.

T

he sun is shining, you are at the bach and you have just been for a swim in the sea, the BBQ is just starting to hot up, you reach into chilly bin to find the cupboard is bare. You drank the last bottle of that hoppy IPA last night. Disaster! A while ago this would have meant substituting in a green-bottle lager from the local 4 Square but now things are changing.

With the current surge in demand for characterful beer it’s only natural that Wellingtonians are demanding more interesting beers when they go on holiday.

Where once the only beer options in the Wellington region’s holiday spots were mainstream lagers and draughts now we are seeing bars, restaurants and bottle stores stock a wider range of locally produced beers.

The Kapiti Coast has for over a decade been home to the Wellington Region’s largest craft brewer Tuatara.

However Tuatara’s beers haven’t always been easy to find in its own neighbourhood. At Waikanae Beach, Long Beach Bar and Restaurant has been selling Tuatara and other craft beers by the bottle, on tap by the glass and in flagons to take away for years. Recently they have in conjunction with me as head brewer, embarked on a project to build a brewery, bar, and cellar door at Waikanae Village. Named Northend after the northern tip of Kapiti Island, a range of beers are currently being contract brewed and sold at Long Beach

and at Raumati South’s Raumati Social Club as well as in Wellington. Also at Waikanae Beach both The Front Room and Waimea restaurants feature craft beer on their beer lists.

Across the Waikanae River, Tuatara’s new Paraparaumu brewery has a cellar door where flagons can be filled and bottled beer purchased, and brewery tours booked with Tuatara share-holder and former Bar Bodega owner Fraser McInnes.

For those who head to the Wairarapa for their recreation there is a new stop-off on the way. Kereru Brewing in Upper Hutt have opened their cellar door where you can now buy draught beer in flagons and bottled beer to take away. Across the Rimutakas craft beer options are thinner on the ground. The region has a number of small brewers, the Martinborough Brewery being the newest. Also in Martinborough, Microbar is a wine bar that also specialises in craft beer and is the best place to sample the local breweries’ beers.

Moore Wilson’s in Masterton has arguably the best range of off-license craft beer in the region.

While the craft beer revolution is only just beginning to gain traction in these outer parts of the Wellington region it’s clear that the future for good beer at the bach is bright.

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52

FASH ION

ON THE HIGH BOARD WRITTEN BY STACEY KNOTT

Business is about risk and reward, when you’re one of New Zealand’s only swimwear design companies the stakes are high. Sarah-Jane Abraham left her steady job as a high school HOD to take on Wellington label Surface Too Deep – and it all seems to be going swimmingly.

T

he swimwear label was begun by Esther Miro in Melbourne in 2009, and then moved to Wellington where textiles teacher Sarah-Jane became involved. Originally from the Coromandel, she moved in Wellington in 2002 to complete a bachelor of design at Massey University, majoring in textile and design, followed by a teaching diploma. From there, she taught textiles at Wellington high schools.

Sarah-Jane got involved as a business partner in Surface Too Deep last year, when Esther moved it to Wellington. Soon, Sarah-Jane found the work was more than she anticipated, resulting in a huge career change. She had just been appointed head of department of fashion at Wellington East Girls College when she took on the role with the company, thinking it would take a few years to get to the point of working full time, but by the end of that year she had decided to resign from the school.

“It was give up teaching or give up the label, I loved what I was doing with the business but it was a really hard decision. I was in a really good position, something that people work a long time to get to, it was a nice stable income, so to give that up and take something that was quite unpredictable was difficult, but I love what I am doing so I made the right choice.”

And then in April this year Sarah-Jane took over sole-charge of the business, when Esther found her heart wasn’t in it any more.

“It was either close down or sell, and I thought ‘I’m too far into this to be able to walk away at this stage.’”

For the past year the two had co-designed the pieces, but Esther’s bowing out “happened really organically. It was a natural process, she still has heaps to do with it and keeps in touch with what’s going on but more out of interest,” Sarah-Jane says.

Currently working on the 2015 collection, SarahJane says the label is about “elegant and fashion-forward swimwear, made to celebrate different body shapes.”

She doesn’t want to focus on simple surf bikinis; instead she takes inspiration from vintage beach wear “keeping in mind old-school Hollywood starlets like Bridget Bardot and Marilyn Monroe, women who are naturally really beautiful and feminine.

“It’s important to create something overtly sexy, still quite covering, but flattering; still quite sexy without being sexual.”

She keeps in mind New Zealand’s active women, who surf, jump off wharves and kayak down rivers, when she designs.

To manufacture in New Zealand would price the swimwear out of the market, she said. A simple bikini would come out at $500, without taking in over-heads, “more than anyone would be prepared to pay,” she said.

Instead, the pieces are made in Hong Kong, and as Capital spoke to her, Sarah-Jane was getting ready to go to Shanghai and Hong Kong to meet with her manufacturers.

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FASH ION B R I E F S

RANGE RENEWED ALL YEAR

N E V E R S AY NEVER Wellington is not far from Nelson, where Olivia Lacey and Emma Lodge met as 13 year-old girls, but the journey from a high school French classroom to founding their own lingerie label in Wellington has taken them across the world.

The Lacey-Lodge partnership got off to an inauspicious start when the pair met over their mutual affinity for copying another student’s French homework.

Lacey bemoans that this did the girls no favours when they moved to Paris after finishing school. They both moved home to New Zealand and settled in Wellington, where Lodge found work in fashion and design for The Hobbit, working on finishings for costumes.

Frustrated by contemporary lingerie’s reliance upon non-breathing synthetic fibres, the pair decided to found their own company Now or Never? Using only natural fibres like silk, the debut line evokes the styles of 1920s-40s lingerie.

“It was simple glamour because it used a lot of silk [and] good lines under your clothes to compliment them”.

Lodge has made all of the debut line’s garments herself in Wellington and the pair plans to sell them online.before moving into retail locations.

DRESS ONLINE

After three years in Willis Street, clothes designer Robyn Mathieson is moving back to Featherson Street. The new shop will be in the new building on the corner of Lambton Quay which already houses Nespresso.

“We love it there”, laughs assistant designer Pip Stevenson.

The move comes as the label, which Mathieson founded as a design school graduate in 1986, makes major changes to its production process. Now, instead of producing two major collections the year, the company will continue designing garments throughout the year, making in-season additions to their stock. Stevenson says this will help meet consumer demand, which now requires collections to be constantly updated.

SHIRT STO CK 2 That an article of clothing which has historically been used as a backdrop for brief and banal slogans merits its own day-long festival may seem surprising, but the organisers of Shirtstock 2 – The Art of Tee, are banking on a high-fashion revival of the humble T-shirt. The event, held on December 14 at Riley Hall at Wellington High School will feature screen-printing workshops and a competition for the best tee designs judged by designer Robyn Mathieson and Deb Cumming of the Massey School of Creative Arts.

Dress for Success Wellington has launched a new website, www.dressforsuccesswgtn.org.nz .

The site boasts a modern, clean design with easy online navigation. Visitors can find information about Dress for Success Wellington’s dressing and styling service, the Breakfast Club, a job-seekers forum, and its Professional Women’s Group – a career hub for employed clients.

“We’ve built the new website to ensure our online communication is timely and easy to find for our sponsors and referral agencies.” says Helen Trim, President of Dress for Success Wellington.

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SUMMER STUNNER

$339

Elegant summer shoe from Pons Quintana, made in Spain. Leather upper and lining.

105mm heel height.

These stunning Cast Glass Powerpoles make a perfect corporate or personal gift. Choose from either a concrete or wood style in your desired colour.

Available at REAL Aotearoa 1 Grey Street, Wellington. Ph (04) 471 1561

Check out our website www.iloveparis.co.nz Old Bank Arcade, 233 Lambton Quay • 04 473 3123

www.realaotearoa.co.nz

Colonial Cottage museum and garden a Wellington Museums Trust institution

68 Nairn St (top of Willis Street) open every day 12 to 4pm until 16 March 2014 www.museumswellington.org.nz

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M AT C H Y, M AT C H Y

Two by Two white shift, Rex Royale, $138 | Faithful Skirt, Arielle Mermin, Madame Fancy Pants, $320 | Sashenka yellow clutch, Goodness, $59

Bookbinder, Emerson’s at Regional Wine & Spirits $6.15

Lets Pretend dress, Andrea Moore $395 Norma Status wallet, Madame Fancy Pants $89

Japanese Lawnmower, Dragonfly, $15

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M AT C H Y, M AT C H Y

California one-piece swimsuit, Good as Gold, $159 Miista Ossi gold snake shoes, I Love Paris, $349

Shakuhachi Body Map shorts, Good as Gold, $189 Kate of Arcadia Ruby bag, Madame Fancy Pants, $515 | Zinda fuchsia shoes, I Love Paris, $270

Havana Colada, Havana, $16

China Girl, Dragonfly, $15

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BUSINESS

MODERN MARKET WRITTEN BY KAREN HEAD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

Walk along Lambton Quay and you may notice that there is a little bit of Cuba Street there. Nestled among the grey façades and glass-fronted chain-stores is the very colourful Iko Iko. Its flagship store has been in Cuba Street for almost 20 years and is somewhat of an institution. But in the CBD, it’s a bit of a different story.

“W

e thought that everyone in Wellington knew us,” says owner Thomasin Bollinger, “but we have discovered that they don’t.”

The pop-up shop, which opened in September, will help to change that. It was fitted out in two weeks by a team of dedicated staff using recycled materials and what Thomasin calls “cheap creativity” and is every bit as fun and colourful as its sister shop in Cuba Mall.

“We felt that there were a lot of customers in the CBD who couldn’t get here in their lunchtime and who weren’t coming into town at the weekends, so we wanted to give them the chance to shop,” says Thomasin.

When the market closed down, they decided to open a shop, as did a few other stall holders – including Abstract Designs, Frutti, Spacesuit and Starfish – and chose Cuba Street as overheads were low.

The first Iko Iko opened In 1994, and then five years later Thomasin bought the property at 118 Cuba Mall, where it still stands today. During that time, they opened another store in Auckland’s Karangahape Road, which has now been there for 17 years. When the shop first opened in Cuba Street, beads were still a staple, but stock had expanded to include gift-ware and as Rose puts it “everything that was in fashion at that time, including floppy velvet hats”.

“Our concept was to sell quirky, unusual, cool stuff without being an exclusive or an intimidating shop,” “There is nothing like us in Lambton Quay,” adds coowner Rose, “We want to be a point of difference and not to be missed. We want to be a rainbow of colour.”

It’s a perfect way to describe Iko Iko, which will be celebrating it’s 20th birthday next October. What started off as a bead stall at a local market has turned itself into a go-to place for quirky gifts, funky home-ware and locallydesigned cards.

As the two owners – who are also mother and daughter – talk about the history of the store, the conversation flows easily. They chat together, filling in gaps for each other and jogging each others’ memory.

“It began as a stall at Wakefield Market,” says Thomasin.

“A girlfriend and I, who were both early childhood teachers, had a trestle table with 300-odd beads. We were called Global Beads. The first time we did it we sold out really quickly.”

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“Our concept was to sell quirky, unusual, cool stuff without being an exclusive or an intimidating shop,” says Thomasin. “We wanted it to be fun and to have things that everyone could afford. There weren’t so many options at that time and we were hoping to fill a gap in the market.”

After a successful twelve years in business together, Thomasin and her husband, Stephen Jessup, bought out her business partner (under friendly circumstances) and then it became a family business.

Thomasin ran it on her own for a few years, before Rose came on board. There are now four owners: Thomasin, Rose, Stephen, and Danny, an old school friend and former employee who is described as the technical whizz and is in charge of the online store. “Two in our fifties and two in our thirties,” Thomasin says, “it’s a good balance.”

Since becoming a partner, Rose has had three children

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BUSINESS

– Miko, 5, Charlie, 2 and six-month-old Willow – and has been able to maintain a happy work-baby balance.

“For the last five years there has been a baby in the offices here,” says Thomasin. “I don’t know many places where you can bring your baby to work, and that’s one of the benefits of a family environment.”

Although working with family isn’t for everyone, it seems to work well for the Bollinger-Jessup family. The only downside they can cite is that maybe they take their work home a bit too often.

“Working with family has way more positive than negatives,” says Rose. “It means we can be really honest with each

“We would like to carry on having a shop there,” adds Rose. “ It makes us feel really connected to Wellington.”

They talk about previous ideas to open a shop in Christchurch, a thought that still lingers in their minds, and although they would love to have a greater presence in Auckland, say they would need to open six shops to cover the city, which isn’t on their agenda.

“We have our online shop and we hope this fills the gap for the time being,” says Rose.

The mother and daughter team are obviously passionate about what they do and what they sell, but do they have time for anything else?

“You don’t go into this industry to get lots of money, it’s about job satisfaction.” other and can be flexible. There is literally family everywhere you look and as a result everyone cares.”

Thomasin adds that as a family there is a great level of trust and support. “We operate like a family with all of the staff – it’s an extended family.”

“She’s called Iko Mama”, laughs Rose.

Thomasin believes in investing in her staff. “You don’t go into this industry to get lots of money, it’s about job satisfaction.” she says. “Your staff are your biggest asset and you have to look after them and treat them well – without them you haven’t got a business”.

As well as the loyal and passionate team of 28 staff, they put their success down to working hard and giving customers what they want. They don’t buy in bulk and sell to make a large profit, but instead buy a small number of a product and review how it sells. They have many local suppliers and are keen to sell New Zealand made goods.

“We care about our customers and respond to what they want,” says Rose. “And it’s about being one step ahead of what’s going on in fashion.”

But working in retail isn’t always easy, and Thomasin says that for the last few years it has been hard going. “Every year we were growing a bit more, but the last two years haven’t been like that. But we’ve got the staff, we have got the stuff and we have got the drive, which is why we decided to open the shop in Lambton Quay.”

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“Music is the one thing I will always prioritise in my life,” says Thomasin. Her musician husband plays for the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and it was the couple’s love of music that led to the name of the shop.

“We listened to lots of songs until we found one we really loved,” says Thomasin. “It came from a song from the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It’s like a chant and it’s a positive thing. It didn’t pigeon-hole us at all so it was perfect.”

Rose adds: “We also found out recently that it means ‘go, go’ in Japanese, which also fits us really well.”

As Rose continues to talk about their interests including a soft spot for op shopping, bush walks and good food, it is hard to tell whether she is talking about herself or her mum.

“Our interests are quite intertwined,” she says. “Like mother, like daughter”.

And, not surprisingly, family is hugely important.

Thomasin has two more children, Ry and Georgia, and a total of five grandchildren. All family members have been involved in Iko Iko at some point, and as Thomasin says, have also been keen to set up their own ventures. Her sonin-law ran a café in London and her son has just opened a restaurant there.

“To do your own thing, to work hard, and to be your own boss,” she reflects, “it’s in our family blood.”

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BY THE BOOK

PARIS SYNDROME WRITTEN BY SARAH LANG | PHOTOGRAPH BY BENJAMIN & ELISE

“You should have come here when you were not here.” That’s something quick-witted Parisians said to Nazis who complained that Paris was dull during the German occupation. It’s also the title of the second novel by Wellington lawyer and arts journalist Brannavan Gnanalingam: not as unpronounceable as it looks, just a silent G, and everyone calls him Bran.

P

ublished by non-profit collective Lawrence & Gibson, this book of staccato sentences, subtle satire, psychological insight and political resonance centres on Veronica, a single Kiwi journalist in her mid-30s who quits her job and moves to Paris to freelance. The second-person narrative addresses Veronica as you: “You had never travelled properly before. Somewhere hard would be well, you thought, too hard. Disneyland with the

to convey Veronica’s constant appraisal of how others see her. “It’s self-surveillance,” he tells me. “This inner voice saying ‘you can’t do that’.” Nailing the tricky technique, he credits the influence of French novel Suicide. “When it says ‘you’, sometimes it’s talking to the character and sometimes it’s talking directly to the reader.” His own book is full of ‘yeah, me too!’ moments for the reader. Happily, though, it doesn’t drown us in the overused banalities of too

“...visitors to Paris are emotionally crushed by the disappointment of finding it doesn’t live up to the hype.” family didn’t count. Australia was just New Zealand with better weather and more racism. You resolve to start easy with Paris.”

Easy it is not. Veronica is determined to succeed in Paris – or at the very least not to look like she’s failing. But she struggles to get stories published, to survive financially, to communicate, to fit in. As much a protagonist as Veronica, Paris is indifferent to her, and she becomes indifferent to it.

Over coffee on Cuba Street, Gnanalingam explains Paris Syndrome, which sounds made-up but is an actual medical condition where visitors to Paris are emotionally crushed by the disappointment of finding it doesn’t live up to the hype. Veronica doesn’t have the symptoms – which include delusions, hallucinations and depersonalisations – but she does start feeling isolated and invisible.

Gnanalingam chose a second-person narrative

many books about Paris, like one Veronica hates: “It was a book that was about an expat who was exploring Paris. You hate books like that. Honey traps for cliches.”

The author is referring to all the Eat, Pray, Loveesque books about people who go to cities like Paris to find love – or find themselves. Flipping that idea, Gnanalingam has Veronica go there and lose herself. And yet she’s still so wrapped up in herself that she’s looking without seeing. “Self-focus like that breeds indifference to your surroundings and other people,” Gnanalingam says. “Even though Veronica is enlightened and educated, she can turn a blind eye to suffering around her.” She only considers France’s political and social unrest when she thinks a protest might sell a story: “You wrote an article.

You weren’t sure to whom to send it. You weren’t sure what the protest was about.”

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BY THE BOOK

Veronica may struggle to write in Paris, but the city is Gnanalingam’s muse. In 2006, on his first trip to Paris, he wrote debut novel Getting Under Sail, a well-reviewed fictionalised account of aWest African trip with two friends. This time, he took a year off from his job at law firm Buddle Findlay specifically to write another book in Paris. After backpacking there from Asia, he and his partner lived in Paris for eight months until May 2013.

He wrote the first draft of this novel in four months, while also teaching English.

A Francophile, Gnanalingam especially loves Paris with its wealth of culture, but he can also see its

Wanting to explore this idea but not wanting to focus on race, he decided to write about how women adapt their behaviour in misogynist cultures. And so, in the novel, he has Veronica meet some unpleasant men who confound her expectations of sophistication. “It’s not just a French problem, but France is a really misogynistic society,” Gnanalingam says. Men hassled his partner a lot, sometimes even when he was there, and he observed other men behaving badly. He’d been contemplating this issue since Wellington band the Eversons caused controversy with its song Harlot. “I was interested in how they tried to justify their misogyny by saying ‘it’s just a joke’.”

“But whenever I travel, I feel race. I get the sense that people are judging me as not quite a New Zealander.” underbelly. “In Paris, I became really interested in the austerity, darkness, gloom and fear following the Eurozone crisis, and its effects on everyday people. I don’t think we’ve really tried to get behind why this collapse happened and how to stop it happening again.” With this subtext, his book has both a decidedly contemporary feel and parallels to 1930s Europe. As antipathy to Romani gypsies and anti-Semitism escalates in Europe again, the far right has gained a foothold. “You listen to this and think ‘haven’t they learnt a thing?’”

Of Sri Lankan descent, Gnanalingam has lived in New Zealand since age three. “But whenever I travel, I feel race. I get the sense that people are judging me as not quite a New Zealander. I get held up in queues and by Customs. In France, the day after the Boston bombings, I got pulled aside by policemen doing spot checks.” Ironically, he also gets flak for being a Western tourist. “In the book, Veronica’s confronted by three big guys who say ‘you don’t belong here’. What they said to me was ‘You’re not welcome here.’ I had a similar skin colour to them but the stereotypical Western look. I did exactly what Veronica did: walked very quickly away.”

To avoid being categorised in certain ways – whether as a Western tourist or a potential terrorist – he finds himself modifying his behaviour while travelling. “In Paris, that was dressing ‘right’, speaking the ‘right’ French or English, buying the ‘right’ vegetables at the market, going to hipster stores, pubs or restaurants. It was that weird class thing.”

He began thinking about how people modify their behaviour to fit social expectations and stereotypes.

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That wasn’t funny, but this novel is. As in some of the best books with serious themes, humour leavens the darkness. I laughed out loud several times. “If you make people laugh, they can forgive the faults a bit,” Gnanalingam says, grinning. Subjects of his satire – honed by years writing for student magazine Salient – include Veronica’s Kiwi acquaintance Jeremy, who expects her to chaperone him, insults French architecture, and insists on watching the footie in an Irish pub.

Gnanalingam, who has a BA and MA in film, also writes arts articles and reviews. He’s currently a (volunteer) editor-at-large for online arts review The Lumiere Reader. “Consuming other art and talking to other artists fuels my work,” he says, mentioning his interview with Eleanor Catton. “During the five years she wrote The Luminaries, she only read books written before 1867.” And so, before this book, he read only French writers and books about Paris.

His next novel is about corporate fraud and set in South Canterbury. “It’s about New Zealand’s idea of egalitarianism – you must share, you mustn’t show off or be intellectual. I’m interested in how someone who does the ‘right thing’ in those ways is allowed to get away with a lot.”

Writing must fit around insolvency and property law, but he doesn’t have to work overly long hours, and he’s not hankering to write fulltime. That’s not just because he enjoys law, and not just because he doesn’t want financial pressures to affect his craft. “When you write, you’re in this sealed-off space, and I like engaging with people and the world.”

BY THE BOOK

BY SARAH LANG

WOMEN WIN

MINING TRAGEDY

RURAL SELL-OUT

Tragedy at Pike River Mine ($40) by award-winning journalist Rebecca Macfie hit bookstores on November 11. A week later copies had sold out, and Wellington publisher Awa Press had ordered an urgent reprint.

A sell-out in the best way possible, Molesworth: Stories from New Zealand’s High-Country Station (Craig Potton Publishing, $69.99) was recently reprinted for the third time since its mid-September release. Written by Harry Broad and photographed by Rob Suisted – both Wellingtonians – this coffee-table tome tells the tale of New Zealand’s largest high-country station with its rich biodiversity and remarkable history.

Young-adult fiction writer Mandy Hager has won the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship for 2014, one of New Zealand’s oldest and most prized literary awards.

Hager, who lives on the Kapiti Coast, gets $75,000 and at least six months in Menton, France.

Meanwhile, Wellington poet and playwright Hinemoana Baker was recently named the 2014 Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand Writer in Residence.

Well done, ladies.

© RAND OM HOUSE NZ LTD

THE BREAKD OWN The Breakdown: Lost Gold by Paul Bensemann, Craig PottonPublishing, $39.99 What: Part mystery, part history and part adventure story, this is a ripper of a yarn about the search over a century and many generations for a lost gold reef in the mountains northwest of Nelson. Until now this tale has, like the reef, stayed hidden.

Who: Bensemann, a journalist who lives between Wellington and Nelson, is also a conservationist and bushwalker who dabbles in gold prospecting. Since he was given a tatty hand-drawn map on which X marked the spot, Bensemann has spent 35 years trying to uncover the story behind the reef, and even combed the bush himself.

Key quote: “Whether or not the reef exists, the real story about these men, in their pursuit of it, is the bigger treasure.”

In brief: From a popular headmaster to an eccentric loner, we meet the bushmen who risked their lives for a treasure hunt that became their obsession.They have pacts of silence, secret codes and falling-outs.

Convincing detail: “It is not just the wind that tests a loner, especially one who is exhausted, hungry and cold. In silent bush, a dead tree, as if waiting to be heard and feared, will, without warning, crash to earth.”

Why read it: This beautifully written ode to bushcraft and the lure of gold is rich in detail, context, and black-and-white photos that take you there.

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BY THE BOOK

THE BREAKD OWN

BY ASHLEIGH YOUNG Bio: Mercedes Webb-Pullman’s poems and short stories have appeared in publications such as Black Mail Press, Turbine, and Swamp; she has also written several eBooks: After the Danse, Looking for Kerouac, and Ono.

TRAFFIC PAT T E R N S

In brief: First, this poem made me wonder how many poems have green recycling bins in them. (Could this be the only one…?) The speaker recounts a mysterious scene of halted traffic, then silence, then kindness that leads to the speaker’s resolution to meet her grandmother the next day. The everyday – in which we carry out inevitable tasks like trundling our recycling bin to the kerb – is interrupted, and one reading is that what interrupts it is death. What fascinates me is the moment that follows the standstill, when people emerge from their cars, the grandmother seemingly among them. The poem reflects, I think, a mind’s refusal to contain loss, when a person’s being gone doesn’t seem possible: even after years of their absence, they’re still in the world, as vitally, as matter-offactly, as ever.

I was trundling my recyclables in their special dark green plastic receptacle down to the local collection platform next to the telephone and internet connection pillar near the stormwater grate beside the gutter outside #23 Tilley when all the traffic on the highway stopped.

The sudden silence was quite unnerving. After a while people got out of their vehicles and wandered about chatting in groups of two or three. One brought out a drinks flask and some plastic cups.

Another passed around a packet of biscuits.

I thought I saw my grandmother down there offering milk and sugar but by the time I climbed down the hill to greet her, the cars were moving again. I’ll make scones I thought and wait here for her tomorrow.

We haven’t spoken in years.

If you have a few minutes spare: Visit 4th Floor Literary Journal, an annual online publication by the Whitireia NZ Writing Programme. You’ll find an absorbing collection of new and familiar voices in poetry and prose.

4thfloorjournal.co.nz

by Mercedes Webb-Pullman, 4th Floor Literary Journal 2013

NEW RELEASES WISE-CRACKING ATUA

A LO CAL SINKING

FRESH FLAVOUR FROM THE BAYS

Talk about talented. Summer Wigmore was just 18 when she wrote The Wind City (Steam Press, $30), a beautifully crafted and frequently funny fantasy novel that doubles as a love note to her city. It’s also the first Wellington novel to star iwi atua: the patupaiarehe, taniwha and ponaturi of Maori legend. Two classic Wellington characters – unemployed prankster Saint and dolphin-tour operator Tony – come face-to-face with wise-cracking atua in what may become a classic New Zealand urban fantasy.

Earlier this year, local publishers Bridget Williams Books launched digital-only imprint BWB Texts: little e-books on big subjects by Kiwi writers, spanning science, history, memoir and more. Their latest release is The Zealandia Drowning Debate ($4.99) by Wellington author/geologist Hamish Campbell.

He dives into a scientific controversy: did the landmass that would become New Zealand sink below the sea’s surface 23 million years ago?

New Wellington publisher Mākaro Press has launched its first book, Eastbourne, a collection of poetry, fiction, memoir and essays with line drawings by local artists.

Fledgling publisher and local resident, Mary McCallum, said it is a fresh collection of writing that has sprung from Wellington’s Eastern Bays.

Unlike many literary anthologies, over a third of the work is previously unpublished. Writers with a connection to the Bays have offered stories and poems, and some with no history of publication have worked with the editors to take their submissions to publication.

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books B E A N S AT THE BEACH Eli Foley and his partner Paula moved to Wellington from Auckland with their son Simeon following a job offer for Paula on The Hobbit in 2011. Six months passed and despite more than 15 years in hospitality, Eli hadn’t managed to find a job to match his experience. The couple were at the upstairs window of their Island Bay flat looking out over Shorland Park, when both had the same idea.

“We were saying ‘wow the beach is awesome, awesome park, Island Bay’s awesome... But there should be a little cafe down there’” says Eli. They eyed up a little shed that sat on their rented property, opening up to busy Reef Street.

“It took a few days to work up the courage to talk to the landlord.”

But they got the go-ahead, and Eli began researching.

“I was waiting for all the council papers... all the grey information that eats into your spirit and makes you just go, ‘Na, I don’t want to do it anymore’. I’d basically reached that point, but Paula still had her eye out on Trade Me and then the caravan came up,” he says.

“The caravan” was a fully kitted-out food service caravan – all Eli needed was a coffee machine. There was even a perfect spot and during Island Bay Festival in 2012, Eli launched his coffee caravan – beside The Shed.

It’s been successful. Chances are on any given day, southerly-dependent, you’ll find a small crowd gathered outside the caravan, chatting to Eli, sipping coffee and checking out the fantastic Lego collection he keeps on display.

There are parents with children mewling for ice-blocks, locals who come here especially, and bus drivers who use the spot to turn around and rest between routes.

“With Wellington as soon as it’s a good day and a weekend, everyone just pours out to the coast,” says Eli. Next time the sun sends you to Island Bay’s coast, pop by Eli’s caravan to say hi. And for the regulars, if you want something new to talk to Eli about, ask him about his days as one half of 90s hip hop duo Dark Tower, and their underground hit ‘Baggy Trousers’. He’ll love you for it.

Written by Melody Thomas | Photographed by Ben Laksana

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Run for research

advertorial

Wellington’s iconic biggest fun run, AMI Round the Bays is back for 2014. The returning 6.5km fun run/walk and Lenco Half Marathon are joined this year by the Snapper 10km, offering more variety and an extra challenge for returning fun runners. Starting at Frank Kitts park, all three distance options take advantage of Wellingtons beautiful inner city harbour, before converging on Kilbirnie park for entertainment, activities, food & BBQS, spot prizes and a fun-filled festival atmosphere for the whole family.

The 2014 event is set to attract 14,000 participants to Wellington’s waterfront. With more than 13,500 participants in 2013, the event has seen consecutive sell outs and is set for another. Setting a new record, registrations for the 2014 event hit 1000 within a matter of hours upon opening on November 1.

Organised by Sport Wellington, AMI Insurance continue their support of the event for the fourth year. The Malaghan Institute of Medical Research are the official charity partner of the event giving participants the opportunity to join the ‘run for research.’ Round the Bays welcomes Snapper as the newest addition to the team coming on as the naming rights sponsor for the 10km event.

Register at amiroundthebays.co.nz to join the crowd that is set to gather on Sunday, February 23.

advertorial

Take your Christmas party from the ordinary to the extraordinary and impress your team by reserving the courtyard at Dragonfly, Wellington’s fabulous and, many would say, best modern Asian restaurant and bar. Chic, yet casual, Dragonfly surprises and delights you with its diversity of dining spaces. The understated elegance of the front room is perfect for more intimate dining, seating up to 16 people.

A sophisticated main dining room accommodates groups from 5-50. For a more unique and relaxed affair, the bamboo courtyard has a rustic, contemporary feel and can be hired for more casual parties of up to 60. The courtyard exudes a warm red glow and an über cool atmosphere, complemented by old movies projected onto the rustic brick wall. Offering superb modern Asian cuisine in the heart of Wellington’s dining district, Dragonfly successfully blends a selection of innovative South-East Asian dishes with a contemporary, artistic interior and provides a unique and special dining and party experience.

Especially for the Christmas party season, Dragonfly is opening for lunch every Thursday and Friday from 21 November until 20 December.

Dragonfly offers innovative and inspiring dining with seamless service and is sure to provide you with a successful and memorable Christmas celebration.

INDOORS

SUBSCRIBE

CAPITAL free

CHRISTMAS GIFT

$77 inc postage and packaging New Zealand only 10 issues

All new subscriptions* will also receive a special Wellington teatowel with their first issue. * subscriptions must be received by 24 December 2013.

visit our subscription page at capitalmag.co.nz • •

email accounts@capitalmag.co.nz with the subject line Subscribe or send your contact details and payment to PO Box 9202, Marion Square, Wellington.

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HOME

CHRISTMAS

TABLE

LEFT TO RIGHT: Gerda tablecloth $64.90 Country Road | White jug $16 Magnolia | White sleigh bells Set of 6 $12.90 Corso de Fiori | Astra rectangular tray navy $79.90 Citta Design | Large urn glass vase $34.90 Citta Design | Wooden monkey by Kay Bojesen $385 Brown and Co. | Rubbed silver Christmas balls set of 6 $19 Magnolia | Sparkles silver ball set of 6 $9.90 Corso de Fiori | Red and white sleigh bells set of 6 $12.90 Corso de Fiori | Holiday small bowls $9.90 each Country Road | Stemless glass tumblers $10.90 each Citta Design | Holiday plate $9.90 Country Road | Arven small board $54.90 Country Road | Verceral Cote Constance plates white $33.50 each Corso de Fiori | Hippy colour plates set of 4 $79.90 Corsro de Fiori | Hippy colour bowls set of 4 $59.90 Corso de Fiori | Arco small candle $21.90 Country Road | Ceramic Cardinal bird whistles $12.90 each Brown and Co. | Candleholder $42 Magnolia | Porcelain house tealight holder $14 Magnolia | Portugese wine glass $24.90 each Citta Design | Blue marine glass pitcher $49.90 Citta Design | Alto white jug $54.90 Corso de Fiori | Kria small bowl $39.90 Country Road | Holiday salad servers $21.90 Country Road | Round chopping board $59 Citta Design | Laguiole spreader $12.50 Magnolia | Sailor horizontal cushion cover $59.90 Citta Design | Le Corbusier armchair custom paint finish $499 Thonet | KMS extending dairy dining table $4,550 Thonet | Delphiniums 11 for $40 Flowers Manuela | Queen Annes Lace 5 for $25 Flowers Manuela STYLED BY CHARLOTTE MINTY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARRY CULY

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HOUSE

NEW

YEARS

TABLE

LEFT TO RIGHT: Hermes cigar humidor $2,650 Brown and Co. | Rosewood cigar punch $89 Brown and Co. | Gold latte bowls $30 each Magnolia | Vintage onyx ashtray $39 Brown and Co. | Extra large linen teatowel $35 Magnolia | Wooden model ship $49 Brown and Co. | Tyrik small vase $29.90 Country Road | Promenade vase $69 Magnolia | Round chopping board $59 Citta Design | Set of 4 1960s tumblers $29 Brown and Co. | Laguiole cheese knife $15 Magnolia | Tiva large tray $64.90 Country Road | Crystalline Savignon wine glasses $21.90 Citta Design | Crystalline Bordeaux glasses $22.90 Citta Design | Diamond-cut Portugese glass pitcher $84.90 Citta Design | Vetrina glass tumblers $8.90 Country Road | Kria dip bowl $12.90 Country Road | Dias small dip bowl $19.90 Country Road | Ceramic spoon $8 Magnolia | Pewter and glass decanter $199 Corso di Fiori | Eska cushion with gold dots $64.90 Country Road | KMS extending dairy dining table $4,550 Thonet | Le Corbusier armchair in dark oak $327 Thonet STYLED BY CHARLOTTE MINTY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY HARRY CULY

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C A P I TA L A N G E L

W HAT WOUL D DE I R DR E D O? Got a problem? Maybe we can help. Capital has a Welly Angel. The immensely capable, cheerful, and practical Deirdre Tarrant will sort out your troubles. Deirdre has spent umpteen years managing, choreographing, examining and mentoring performers – at the same time bringing up her successful family. Email the Angel your troubles or your doubts and she’ll eye them up, knock them down, and do her best to make them go away.

We are expecting a barrage of family coming with grandiose notions of a four course feast for Christmas Day. The thing is, we’re a bit hard-up for Christmas this year.

How do we balance the bank balance and our families expectations?

Janice, Houghton Bay. Christmas is for families – I would go for broke and ‘just do it’ – life is too short for economic austerity! But, that said and if you can’t in reality survive on bread and water in 2014, then take the pot luck approach and declare a theme dinner – say all red and green food – and it will get you a lovely basil pesto, pasta and strawberries. A feast and family is fun so enjoy your different dinner.

Happy Christmas!

I have been working with quite a few others in a local café for some months, we are all paid slightly above the minimum wage however I am given lots more responsibility, which I enjoy, than the others. Is it reasonable for me to ask to be paid a higher hourly rate?

Gen Y, Kilbirnie.

Probably but be sure you really are given lots more responsibility – are the other workers doing a little more also in different ways? Totally have a discussion, but, as a self employed small business owner myself there are two sides to this and you will do well to be mindful of your employer’s position as well, let him/her know you are wondering ‘if ’ and you will probably get a ‘when’ reply.

Good Luck.

I have a new boyfriend who is loaded. I cannot afford to do all the things he can and he offers to pay for me and to buy me expensive gifts. It is generous, but makes me uncomfortable? Am I overthinking this?

In love, Te Aro. Not at all – do small things that don’t cost – make a cake – go for walks in the rain. Tell him how you feel and enjoy being spoiled.

I think giving gifts is important and valuable in family life and I enjoy the process, but I have reached a stage of life where I don’t want a whole lot more stuff, how can I deal with this?

Tony, Karori I am totally with you. All presents are special, but there is a limit. We have a family tradition of ‘surprises’ which makes it a challenge BUT make sure they are treats – a massage voucher, a cooking class with Ruth Pretty, dinner at Floriditas (their vouchers are works of art), manicures, plants for the garden (camellias for suffrage are particularly appropriate this year), any special food (dijon mustard or gourmet relish) – something they would never spend on for themselves. Or even better make something. Time in today’s world is more precious than presents. A 10 trip hug card. (Don’t give pets!) Over to you!

Email editor@capitalmag.co.nz Don’t forget to put the word angel in the subject line.

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SPORTS

POOLED SUCCESS

JAMIE TROUGHTON/DSCRIBE MEDIA SERVICES

Lyall Bay lifesaver Samantha Lee cleaned up at the German Cup swim meet recently in Warendorf, Germany. She set a NZ record in the women’s 100m rescue medley, then beat all the men to get a gold in the men’s 200m Super Surf Life Saver. Titahi Bay’s Steve Kent finished fourth.

The two also set New Zealand records in the 100m Manikin Carry with Fins. Samantha came in second in the women’s event, and Steve second in the men’s event.

Overall, Steve and Samantha took away top male and female for the German Cup, backing up their wins as top male and female at the BeNe Cup (also a pool rescue competition).

ROYAL GREENS There are thousands of golf courses all over the world, but only 64 carry the designation Royal. Our own Royal Wellington Golf Club in Heretaunga, Upper Hutt, is planning now for the official opening of their remade course which was designed by Scott Macpherson and well-known golf pro Greg Turner. Among those expected to attend the opening is Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland. There’ll be lots of golf and celebrations from February 10 –14.

Turner Macpherson Golf Design is a partnership between Scott (son of local impresarios Stuart and Tricia Macpherson) and Greg (of the sporting Dunedin Turner family — his brothers are former national cricket captain Glenn Turner and NZ hockey rep and award-winning poet Brian Turner).

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RU G B Y MOVES FROM M A N G ATA I N O K A The Hurricanes take on the Blues in a pre-season Super Rugby clash in Masterton early next year.

Wairarapa Bush RFU chief executive Tony Hargood says the rugby clash on Saturday, 1 February will be an entertaining family day out.

“Rugby fans will be in for a treat. Not only is Benji Marshall expected to be at the ground, but it will be exciting to see our old friends Ma’a and Piri take on their former teammates,” he says. “In the buildup to the feature game we will also see a series of Rugby Sevens games, so fans of all ages can expect a fun day out.”

The Hurricanes pre-season game, which for the past four years has been played in Mangatainoka on a make-shift ground next to Tui Brewery, has been moved to Masterton for 2014.

Tui commercial manager Nick Rogers, who has championed the game, says “Neil Symonds, the farmer who owns the land on which the game has been played, has health issues, so it has moved from Mangatainoka to Masterton.”

Hurricanes coach Mark Hammett said “we know there’s a strong rugby community up there, and it’s the home of some of our most loyal fans.”

Hurricanes v Blues, 3pm Masterton, 1 February.

SPORTS

BR E A K TH EI R LEGS

BY PADDY LEWIS

Boys play sexist sport

T

here’s a very grumpy girl in our house at the moment. Talented at netball, basketball and touch, she often comes home wild that the boys on her team never pass the ball to her.

“The boys try and do everything themselves, or they pass the ball over my head to each other,” she says.

Given she is just as skilled and as fast as them, this seemed to be a terribly sexist approach, even to an old misogynist like me.

“That never happened when I was at school,” I started, then realised why it never happened. There was no such thing as mixed teams. Girls played netball or hockey, boys played rugby or soccer. Lunchtime games such as bullrush were “too robust” and girls were banned from playing them, the nuns constantly bringing up the old “fragility and fertility” excuse.

A lot has changed since I was at school. After-school sports have expanded to the point where we now have something nearly every night of the working week. Back in the good old sexist 1970s, sports tended to be condensed into Saturday mornings.

Sport also used to be very much centred around five or six ‘major’ codes – rugby, soccer, netball, hockey in winter, and cricket and softball in the summer.

Now I have my eight-year-old son coming home with everything from korfball to crossfit. The 12-year-old covers off squash and table tennis.

There is a feast of sporting opportunities for kids. The other major change has been the move to mixed teams.

Soccer kicked this off, with parents realising that boys and girls could both play on the same team. Then some girls asked why they couldn’t play rugby, and so mixed teams are now common up until high school.

Boys play netball (often to the chagrin of the females) and girls’ cricket is growing.

According to educational research regularly trotted

out by schools, co-educational learning encourages fewer sexist attitudes amongst boys, and helps girls with their self-confidence.

Co-educational sports don’t seem to have the same effect. I did some very limited research on primary school girls and found that the only sport where the boys don’t have the whole game to themselves is softball.

In part, that’s because at the 7-to-12 year-old level, the ability to control where one hits the ball is still generally limited, so it’s a (excuse the pun) hit and miss affair where everyone has the opportunity to catch, throw or run.

In other sports, such as touch, inherent (and possibly unintended) misogyny regarding sharing the ball comes into play very early on.

My attempt to fix this (“pass the ball to the girls or I will break your legs”) then created the worst kind of equal opportunity mishap. We had the girls not bothering to keep up as they did not expect to be given the ball, or worse, feeling pressured to outperform, with the ensuing tension causing mistakes.

Little boys and pre-teens can be bastards to girls in their sporting teams. Contrast that with kindergarten, where kids see each other as one big amorphous sex.

What happens? And why are some boys more predisposed towards playing fair with girls than others?

I can only guess from reading gender in sports research that leaving girls out is a complicated mix of boys’ growing awareness of their masculinity, a need to show their physical prowess, and the age-old divergence of the sexes from about the age of 10 onwards.

Society is changing, and the masculine-dominated mentality is slowly changing as gender behaviours adjust as well.

But perhaps, just for a wee while, it might be nice to have a few more primary school sports coaches say to the boys, “pass the ball to the girls or I will break your legs”.

Just a thought.

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CARS

SK IN - T IGH T B ODY SUI T S WRITTEN BY MARK SAINSBURY

I confess I have never had the body, nor the inclination to be honest, to wear skin-tight body suits, but I happened to be at a car launch the other night where the models revealing the new cars were wearing those very things. The models were female and the cars French, and being so, slightly eccentric, the cars not the models.

B

ut it got me thinking, what is it about cars that do it for us? Why do some models appeal more than others, and some makes in particular? I’m thinking here of Citroën. It must be challenging to be a Citroën fan. Sure the DS, that quintessential shape that stunned the motoring world at the Paris Motor show in 1955 was, and remains, one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

Aeronautical engineering wrapped in a body designed by an Italian sculptor. Only the French would have the flair in post-war Europe to pull that off. The convertible version made by French coachbuilder Chapron sits very near the top of my ultimate garage inventory. But Citroën have that quality you normally attribute to an ugly dog. Character.

Citroën owners are fiercely loyal. Citroën owners often resolutely refuse to own any other brand. At the model launch the other night I ran into an old pal from parliament days and she made a shocking confession. She thought the car just unveiled was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and… (pause for dramatic effect) was seriously contemplating it as her first new car. This friend is clever, discerning, staunch, not easily swayed, but this Gallic interloper had got under her skin.

The cause of this grand passion: the Citroën DS3 Cabrio. It has one of those full-length fold-back roofs, which makes it more a spiritual successor to the 2CV than the DS Decapotable. The 2CV was the funny-looking Citroën that looked like a VW Beetle squished in from the sides, and had a starring role in a James Bond film when Roger Moore seemingly piloted one down the side of a hill. The 2CV stood for 2Cheveaux, or two horses.

Fast forward to 2013 and that same roll-back roof concept lives on in the DS3. With 88kw it’s a step well beyond the 2CV and it has all the creature comforts: four speed auto (four speed??? In the days when even bargain Korean cars offer at least another couple of cogs?), satnav, auto aircon, auto-sensing wipers, electrochrome rear-view mirror, whatever that is, and of course the roof is electric.

This version of the DS3 is not a speed machine. Oh, it 76

looks the bit, and despite being a two-door has heaps of room in the back. So my friend won’t be buying this to jump that extra place in the queue for the tunnel entrance and I don’t know if the electrochrome rear-view mirror will seal the deal. What will, though, is that this is a “Wellington” convertible. I am a total convertible nut, but you have to accept that on some days in our beloved capital conditions, are not always ideal for roof-down motoring.

And that is where the roll-back comes into its own. All the pleasures of watching the sky above you without being thrown from side to side by Wellington’s gentle zephyrs.

If I’m being critical I thought there was a little too much noise from the open space above me at times.

And then there is the visibility issue. When the roof folds back completely it sits over the boot. A boot that is surprisingly large but accessed by a slot they took from an old NZ Post mail box. And with the roof completely down it totally blocks your rear vision. Yes, the side mirrors give a good perspective of what’s going on behind, and if you raise the roof to the next position it leaves the back window in place with the passenger compartment open like a full length sunroof. But that doesn’t resolve the glaring issue with the roof fully down, as most owners will want it this summer. But it makes me wonder…why a car that has such an obvious blind spot, at a time where this specification is being increasingly called on, does not have a rearview camera? It does have sensors etc, but the addition of a camera would be a major asset for this vehicle. But if it were perfect, would it still be a Citroën? It’s surprising how you can forgive these French foibles and instead revel in all the little design touches like the DS logo beautifully incorporated into the rear light lenses. Yes, my friend is determined, next year the first new car she has ever bought will be a Citroën. And whatever its shortcomings, she will then be part of an exclusive and and appreciative club. And the other good news: we will always know where she is and what she’s doing, because her days of anonymity are over.

Even without the skin-tight body suit.

SECTION HEADER

B A B Y, B A B Y

CHANG E OF H EART WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPH BY NED WORBOYS

E

xpectant parents know how much people like to offer advice. Especially unsolicited advice. When Sadie was still but a bump stretching at my clothes, I did a lot of research with other parents around me. How were the first three months? Did you get any sleep? How did your romantic relationship fare? But, nervous perhaps about setting up unrealistic expectations, all they offered were vague generalities like, “all babies are different.” It was only later when we were starting to come to terms with what was about to happen, and growing more confident in our abilities as parents, that people started to feel the need to get involved. “We’ve got this”, we thought, “Our own little family. How exciting!”

“Oh-oh”, others started to say, “Boy have you got another thing coming...Don’t you know your whole lives are about to change?”

And while everything is different now – our lives split distinctly into “before-Sadie” and “after-Sadie” – I’m coming to believe that how much your life changes depends a lot on you. Of course there’s the obligatory first month or five spent almost entirely at home. When else will you ever have an excuse to watch every season of Project Runway and Parks and Recreation? To nap three times in a day? To upload ten thousand pictures of your sleeping baby to Facebook while devouring a whole container of chocolate chip “breastfeeding cookies” and savouring the buzz of post-caesarean Tramadol?

A new baby is a big deal – it’s understandable that you might need time to process it.

But eventually you’re going to have to change out of your PJs and head back out into the big world. The first night Baby Daddy and I went out to see a band play, five months after Sadie arrived, we were so anxiously excited that we arrived 78

before the bar had opened. I was the new Mum you see in films – checking my cellphone every 10 minutes, anxiously going over every thing that could go wrong in my mind, sipping my (OMG delicious) beer and trying to look casual and relaxed.

But eventually the music, the conversation and the company of friends took effect, and as I threw my limbs around on the dance floor, grinning maniacally all the while, there was a split second where I felt like more than “just” a Mum. After that first time it got easier, and where earlier we might have declined an invitation or decided to go alone, now we often take Sadie along for the adventure. She’s gone on a couple of trips to Nelson, a few family weekends up the Kapiti Coast, to dinner parties, festivals and weddings. She laps up the attention of new faces, stays up a little past bedtime, then goes to sleep in her pram – the music, chatter and laughter serving as a reassuring backdrop that often keeps her asleep longer than at home in her quiet bedroom. Things don’t always go according to plan – but the more I learn to relinquish control over the situation, the less that matters.

I still have to force myself to get out there sometimes – playgroups and antenatal meetings are an especial source of terror. But I never regret it. This weekend I swam under a waterfall, took a trip to Auckland, jumped in the ocean twice and quite accidentally took out the local corner-to-corner bowls tournament at the Waitarere Bowling Club. And I did it all with a happy awareness of the two sparkling blue eyes watching me, taking it all in, mirroring my dance, my laugh and my wave back to me. Sadie changed our lives alright – but I don’t think there’s anything about being “me” that isn’t better now it’s “we

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© AB OVE GROUND LEVEL

SEVENS RUGBY TOURNAMENT Plan your costume now, watch all your favourite teams and join the in-stadium fun.

7 & 8 FEBRUARY, WESTPAC STADIUM.

SOUTH OF NO NORTH: LAURENCE ABERHART, WILLIAM EGGLESTON, NOEL MCKENNA

A touring exhibition from the Museum Contemporary Art Australia.

FROM 14 DECEMBER, CITY GALLERY

NEW YEAR’S DAY PICNIC A day of food and family friendly activities set to the music of locals, Trinity Roots 1 JANUARY, FROM 11.30AM, WAITANGI PARK

MOTHER GO OSE THE PANTOMIME

Circa Theatre continues its holiday pantomimes with Mother Goose featuring music by Gareth Farr.

UNTIL 11 JANUARY, CIRCA THEATRE

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CANTERBURY WIZ ARDS V WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS The Wellington Firebirds contest the Plunket shield.

4-8 DECEMBER, BASIN RESERVE

CALENDAR

INJECT DESIGN & GINA KIE

ANITA PITU PHOTO GRAPHY

CHAPMAN TRIPP THEATRE AWARDS An evening at the Paramount Theatre to honour the best of Wellington theatre in 2013.

15 DECEMBER, 7PM, PARAMOUNT

NZSO – MESSIAH The NZSO perform Handel’s Messiah, a piece synonymous with Christmas celebration.

14 DECEMBER, 6.30, MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE

FAT FREDDY’S DROP After a sell-out European tour in 2013, Fat Freddy’s play their first hometown show of 2014 3 JANUARY, 6.30PM, THE STATION VILLAGE COMPLEX, LOWER HUTT

JAMES WALLACE TABLE, 1991 JAMES WALLACE ARTS TRUST

C H R I S T M A S AT T H E R A C E S Trentham racecourse gets into the festive spirit with a day of racing accompanied with food and wine and an appearance from Santa.

TERRY STRINGER:FACE/SPACE Sculptor, Terry Stringer’s mutli-faceted, multipurpose sculptures explore function and narriative.

UNTIL 14 FEBRUARY,

7 DECEMBER, TRENTHAM RACECOURSE

PATAKA GALLERY, PORRIRUA

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TOP DOG

Capital’s dog Pepe, with Rosie Bristed, our office genie. Like us, she’s off for her summer holidays. Pepe (15) is the perfect pet. She loves adventures, always wants to be first into the car, and has travelled happily all over the country with her family. She’s had 34 pups, that’s enough, she says. Happy Holidays. See you in February.

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