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

SHOW US THE GREEN M AY 2 0 1 6

ISSUE 31

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

elcome to May, that lovely autumnal month before we must earnestly consider winter. Mother’s Day falls early in this month, I may have mentioned it before, but I do think it’s a good idea to grab every possible chance for a family celebration. Whether the status of “domestic godesss” has been achieved may be open to question, but a bit of pretence for a day is no bad thing. Children, bow down and worship. And helpfully our food writer Unna Burch has come up with a recipe perfect for a Mother’s Day brunch. This is our second green issue. We have talked to a number of locals about the eco-work they do in their communities. It has been interesting to hear how rewarding they find their quest for an eco-friendly life. Beth Rose talks to Matt Morrison about his business life, which is dedicated to fair-trade projects. Science writer John Kerr highlights the real health benefits to us of green spaces in the city, while Joelle Thomson provides some pointers to finding “green” wines. And much more. We have not abandoned enjoyment of well-established pleasures. Roger Walker tells us about his long-standing love of Citroens and Gallic flair. Sarah Lang talks to award-winning author David Coventry, and Melody Thomas, on the eve of coping with her second child, urges us to just do it and enjoy the wonder. Have fun in May.

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Alison Franks Editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz

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The opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the publisher for any losses due to the use of material in this magazine. Copyright ©. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of Capital Publishing Ltd.

CONTENTS

ITî&#x2020;&#x160;S EASY BEING GREEN From fair trade bananas to cracker cola company

MOVE WITH THE TIMES

A SMALL FOOTPRINT

EVERY HOME IS A GRAVE

Patrick Morgan tracks the trends bikewise

A diminutive house in Island Bay delivers big

Tuvalu: a fight with nature

08 LETTERS

50 WAFFLES

10 CHATTER

ORGANIC WINE

NEWS SHORTS

PERIODICALLY SPEAKING

BY THE NUMBERS

BY THE BOOK

NEW PRODUCTS

PUSH THROUGH THE AGONY

TALES OF THE CITY

GREEN LEAN

20 CULTURE

TORQUE TALK

MUSIC THAT GROWS

WELLY ANGEL

ECO BRIEFS

BABY, BABY

WHAT THE FLOCK

80 DIRECTORY

GREEN SLEEVES

82 CALENDAR

48 EDIBLES

ON THE BUSES

CONTRIBUTORS

S TA F F Alison Franks Managing editor editor@capitalmag.co.nz Campaign coordinators Lyndsey O’Reilly lyndsey@capitalmag.co.nz Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz Dagula Lokuge dagula@capitalmag.co.nz General factotum John Bristed john@capitalmag.co.nz Art direction Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Design Rhett Goodleydesign@capitalmag.co.nz Hornblow Accounts Tod Harfield accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Craig Beardsworth

Factotum

Gus Bristed

Distribution

D E I R D R E TA R R A N T Wel ly Angel Deirdre Tarrant, mother of three boys, founder of the former Footnote Dance Company and teacher of dance to generations of Wellingtonians will sort out your troubles as our Agony Aunt.

CONTRIBUTORS

B E T H R O SE Journ a li st Beth loves writing about people and issues. Relocating from London in 2011, she now spends most of the year writing in Wellington and the rest of the time travelling the country in a sixmetre converted bus, finding out lots of interesting stuff from the boltholes of NZ.

STOCKISTS Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown and Pak’n’ Save supermarkets, Moore Wilson's, Unity Books, Commonsense Organics, Magnetix, City Cards & Mags, Take Note, Whitcoulls, Wellington Airport, Interislander and other discerning region-wide outlets. Ask for Capital magazine by name. Distribution: john@capitalmag.co.nz.

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

THANKS Courtney Bragg | Hattie Logan | Laura Pitcher Bex McGill | Petra Mihaljevich | Angela Barnett

UNNA BURCH Fo o d Gur u Unna aka Forest Cantina is a mum of two, wife of one. She lives on the outskirt of a little suburban forest where she keeps chickens and grows her own organic vegetables. Unna is a self-taught home cook and loves all things edible. theforestcantina.com

RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW D e si g n er A born and bred Wellingtonian, Rhett is one of our two in-house designers. He is the Robin to our Batman, but insists he drives the Batmobile. Rhett is passionate about growing Wellington’s creative community. He is often found spinning yarns or surfing waves in the bay.

LETTERS

Make your home snug and warm this winter, and for many winters to come

If you pay rates to the Greater Wellington Regional Council you can make your home warmer and healthier, and repay the cost through your rates.

WELL-CRAFTED TRAVEL PIECE I am a Massey University student and I am also a devoted consumer and reader of Capital. The April issue (#30) about “The Beautiful Land of Ghosts” was a well-crafted and well depicted piece of travel writing. I was also able to intimately relate to the piece, as I too have travelled to Cambodia. The way Ian described and illustrated his experience greatly reflected my own personal experience in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. Helene Fitisemanu (abridged)

NOT CAMB ODIA I have just returned and have been enjoying your magazine as a way to re-acquaint myself with the city. I question the images accompanying the article “The Beautiful Land of Ghosts” printed on p 75 and 76. Please verify that the images are from Phnom Penh? If not, it’s quite misleading to have these images accompany an article about Phnom Penh, and matches the tone of the article’s somewhat exoticisation “...Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, feels like other Asian cities”. Phnom Penh and Hong Kong are as similar as New Zealand and Hong Kong. Perhaps this is characteristically Kiwi to racially lump them together in an “Asians are the all the same” attitude. I really enjoy Capital and even though it’s a lifestyle magazine perhaps expected something a little more... progressive? I also question the author’s statement that the “young do not talk about the genocide; it is largely ignored and supressed”. Maybe they just didn’t talk to him about it? Vera Mey, Wellington (abridged) Four of the 11 images printed were not correct. The image files, regrettably, were mixed up. (See Eerrata below) Editor

BIZ ARRE, BEAUTIFUL AND B OLD

As a Greater Wellington Regional Council ratepayer you can apply for up to $3900 (incl GST) towards home insulation, and if you live in Masterton or Wainuiomata, you can also apply for up to $5000 (incl GST) to replace old wood burners with cleaner heating options. Providing financial assistance across the region for home heating and insulation is just one of the benefits the Greater Wellington Regional Council provides to ratepayers. Repayments are made through a targeted rate added to your regular rates bill over nine years.

For more information, visit

It’s Easter Sunday, and I am enjoying the delights of your March issue of Capital. Great work – thank you – about a city with a seemingly infinite source of the bizarre, beautiful and bold. CubaDupa was all that and more. Julie Clifton, Wellington (abridged)

Photo credit: The image printed on p26, #30 of K2K Electric Feels was by Rachel Brandon Photography. The attribution was received after we had gone to print. Errata In our feature At Your Service by John Bishop, #30, p37, a reference was made to a citizen’s arrest of an army commander: it should have read, Major John Masters. The error is regretted. The images in issue #30, April, The Land of Beautiful Ghosts, p75 and 76, bottom left and middle right, are not of Cambodia. The files were mixed up in our office. The error was not the responsibility of the author and is regretted.

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BAC K TO BL ACK Wellingtonians infamously like to wear black. Now there’s a study that confirms that wearing black clothing makes you appear more attractive, intelligent, and confident. The Independent reports that of 1,000 people tested for their attitudes to colours and certain qualities, 66% of women thought black was the most attractive colour on a man, while 46% of men thought black (the largest group for any colour) was the most attractive colour on a woman. Images shown for the survey were of identical people in different-coloured shirts. Less associated with intelligence were yellow and orange, and pink came last.

SAMIE KNEGT Why did you chose the design? There’s an artist who does erotic tattoos, like snakes coming out of vaginas. I took inspiration from him. It’s about femininity and being aware of your sexuality. The snake also represents my grandma, who was born in the year of the snake. There’s lots of meaning behind it. Also, titties.

BUY A B O OK, SAVE A CHILD Vietnam’s poorest children are helped by the annual Blue Dragon book and DVD sale at the Ngaio town hall on 7 May. The charity rescues children who have been trafficked to sweatshops or the sex trade, helps families in three rural areas to keep their children at school, and helps street kids in Hanoi to build a better life (with shelter, nutrition, counselling and education).

Family – for it or against? Against. My mum’s completely against tattoos and is not big on nudity — my tattoo has both so she thinks it’s really bad. Art or rebellion? Art. The last thing I wanted to do is disrespect my mum, but I feel like I have already.

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS

D OD GY D OD GEMS A Wellyworder posted abroad reports that our fair city has spoilt him in many ways including the art of jaywalking. Anticipating green lights and walking in between cars while they are waiting at intersections is a rite of passage for most of us but is frowned upon in Hawaii. Our Wellyworder has been stopped by numerous scandalised Honolulu locals and resoundingly chastised for playing traffic tag. We here at Capital; of course, don’t condone any form of law breaking and never ever jaywalk on Cambridge Terrace, ever...

DANCE TO WORK DAY

WA L K WOM A N Get moving. Go for a useful walk. Dress for Success, the charity that helps women in the Wellington community, has organised a fundraising power-walk round the Wellington waterfront for 14 May at Frank Kitts Park. Register from 9.00am, or email wellington@dressforsuccess.org. Children 12 and under enter free, and entry is $20 a head for the rest of us. Jeff Gray Motor Group is a sponsor, and there are plenty of spot prizes.

And while we’re on the subject of pedestrian high jinks, a Wellyworder observed someone gesturing wildly while waiting to cross at a Taranaki Street intersection. Conductor-like hand movements gave way to some fevered dance steps earning some strange looks from fellow walkers. He admitted that, yes, he was a dancer – just one who’s not easily embarrassed and likes to practise in his free time. He sashayed away.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO Time to hang the jandals up for another season... Kei hea toku hiripa? Where are my slippers?

WIND OW DRESSING The Wellington Curtain Bank is open in Porirua. Head to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau on Hagley Street to make a donation or take your Community Services Card with you for a free pair of curtains. Warm windows are a winter essential.

NEWS SHORTS

ST I L L MOU L DY AND COLD Better ventilation and heating standards should be enforced at student accommodation according to Victoria University’s Students’ Association. Although the government has increased penalties for landlords who don’t meet rental standards, students “still have to brave the Tenancy Tribunal before penalties are applied”. VUWSA says that despite 706 submissions for changes to the recent Residential Tenancy Amendment Bill - many in favour of strengthening the bill - the select committee has walked away from the aim of making rental housing warmer, drier and safer.

A FREE HOUR

OUR FRO GS

HUGE BEQUEST

Hutt City wants you to shop there. The council has just extended a onehour free park allowance on all P120 car parks until 30 June, the end of the council’s financial year. The free hour had been scheduled to end in April. Your meter payment goes toward the second hour of parking. Mayor Ray Wallace says the free parking costs the council more than $900,000 a year in lost revenue.

Did you know that New Zealand frogs don’t croak? That they communicate with chemical signals? That they develop inside an egg rather than as a tadpole? And that they’re some of the rarest in the world? The Maude Island frog is one of them, and five of them have just been moved from Zealandia to Wellington Zoo so more people can become acquainted with them.

The legal profession all over New Zealand will benefit from what must be one of the largest charitable bequests ever managed by Wellington’s Nikau Foundation, and possibly one of the largest ever made in New Zealand. Retired Judge Ian Borrin established the trust (assets $30 million) in the name of his parents Michael and Suzanne Borrin, whose inheritance he built up significantly, to make grants for the development of legal education, legal research, and scholarships in New Zealand.

Cheeky goodness for any situation (even riding unicorns)

thunderpants.co.nz

CMY

NEWS SHORTS

T S U N A M I AWA R E N E S S COMING TO TOWN Those blue lines painted an alarmingly long way up the hills on the roads around southern Wellington are likely to appear in more places round the city. The Tsunami Blue Lines Project is likely to be adopted by the Central Business District later this year. The original concept emerged from a group of Island Bay residents discussing how to raise tsunami awareness in their community. The project has received accolades internationally and is now being copied by other vulnerable cities around the world.

A long and involved report by the Greater Welington Regional Council has highlighted what many of us already know… that there are not enough spaces on commuter trains for all the people who would like to travel with their bikes. The report details ways the trains might be enabled to carry more bikes on all but the busiest peak periods. It looks expensive. Bike ADFF Capital banner Ad.pdf 1 12/04/16 transport is free on local trains.

TURN OFF THE WIND Make it easy. Bike to work. On an electric bike. Sales are reported to be booming round the world. Listen to the blurb: “eBikes flatten the hills and turn off the wind. You still have to pedal, but the burn from the hill is taken away, and there are no emissions, no sweat and no parking charges,” … Consumer’s April issue says it costs only five cents per commute. Switched On Bikes want you to try one, hire one or even buy one. They’re at Shed 1 on the 3:41 pm waterfront, by the helicopters.

AUCKLAND 5–18 May @ Rialto Cinemas WELLINGTON 26 May–12 June @ Embassy Theatre DUNEDIN 16–26 June @ Rialto Cinemas CHRISTCHURCH 30 June–13 July @ Academy Gold

STEADY AS SHE GOES The Hurricanes rugby team have a committed coaching team through to the 2018 season. Assistant coach John Plumtree’s (above) long-standing relationship with head coach Chris Boyd continues. “Last season’s results spoke volumes for how effective they are together. We were thrilled when John returned home from Ireland with his family to join the Hurricanes in 2015 and that he will stay with us for another two years,” chairman Brian Roche said.

Fogo Island Inn by Saunders Architecture

BIKES ON TRAINS

rialto.co.nz book tickets online

BY THE NUMBERS

A CAPELLA SELLER

1979

year the NZ National Youth Choir was established

number of international tours the choir has participated in

singers aged 18–25 make up the choir’s ranks

farewell concerts before they embark on their 11th international tour (one in Wellington on 29 May and the other in Auckland)

FLOTATION NATION

number of minutes you can spend in a float tank at Float Well relieving stress

500

amount in kg of Epsom salts dissolved in 1,000 litres of water in a float tank

100

amount in $ for a casual float

SOLE TRADER

number of years Dr Tim Halpine has been treating foot ailments

Active Feet Podiatry locations in Wellington

250,000 number of sweat glands in the feet

(and we wonder why we get athletes foot sometimes – pffft!)

% of your bones are in your feet

HALLOWED HALL

1866

year building began on Old St Paul’s in Mulgrave Street

480 70–90

seating capacity

MEN SWEAR

years Mandatory have been kitting out sartorially-minded Wellington men

number of new clothing designs on the rack every week

4 18

weeks it takes to custom-make a suit

cost in $ for a guided tour

SMART DRIVE

cost in millions of the Smart Motorway now under construction – it posts real-time changing speed limits to control traffic flow

expected lifespan of a new asphalt being laid – EMOGPA (epoxy modified open grade porous asphalt) lasts three times as long as normal asphalt, absorbs road noise and has a seriously sexy name

months in the making (expected finish is end of May)

vintage anglepoise lamps in the store (obsessed, much?)

Compiled by Craig Beardsworth

weddings per year (+ 50 funerals and numerous concerts)

NEW PRODUCTS

2 3 15

13 6

nzso tix

4 10

M OT H E R ' S D AY 1. Smell the Roses tea, 75g – $8.99 – Ritual Tea Company 2. Pashmina bird print – $239 – Sills & Co 3. Women's hipster undies – $28 – ThunderPants 4. White cotton scarf – $43 – Trade Aid 5. Chiaroscuro 2012 wine – $65 – Seresin 6. Annabel bouquet – $75 – Bud Florists 7. Boh Runga earrings – $183 – Global Culture 8. Grey jute shopper – $37 – Trade Aid 9. Vanilla ply necklace – $79 – Chalky Digits 10. Jewellery box – $224 – Let Liv 11. Bonnie & Neil plate – $85 – Small Acorns 12. Epokhe Oha sunglasses – $209 – Sills & Co 13. Six Barrel Soda syrup – $16.50 – Iko Iko 14. Obiqo restoring night cream – $65 – Pukeko 15. Diamond socks – $24.90 – Iko Iko 16. Palette cushion cover – $89.90 – Iko Iko 17. Pink panama hat – $319 – Sills & Co

save the date Friday 17th June & Saturday 18th June, 2016 For reservations and more information visit seresin.co.nz

waterfall bay dining

Seresin garden Meli-Meli presented by Nic Poelaert, Waterfall Bay 2015 Photo taken by Peter Burge

SECTION HEADER

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

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y S TA R WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY XANDER DIXON

BOOK

FOOD

PET

T R AV E L

WA L K

Body and Soul by Anita Roddick

Tacos at La Boca Loca

SPCA brindle staffy cross, Kayla

Portugal

Heaphy Track

What happens when you bring together a love of fashion and a passion for sustainable living? Meet the city’s best-dressed cyclist, LAURIE FOON.

hen Wellington eco-fashion label Starfish went into liquidation in 2013, founder Laurie Foon was quoted as saying, “The funny thing about starfish is that, if you cut off their legs, they always grow back.” And grow back it seems they did. “In fact my partner would say there’s more growing still,” she laughs – which is a good thing, considering the many passions and projects she dedicates herself to. First there’s the day jobs – helping businesses and individuals to make a difference for the good of all through her work with the Sustainable Business Network and the Sustainability Trust. On top of that, Foon celebrates “the unsung heroes of Wellington” with her Access Radio show/blog/podcast B-side Stories (search online or listen Tuesdays at 5.00pm). It’s the kind of thing she’s wanted to do for a while – the old Starfish shop was a couple of blocks from Radio Active, and Foon used to daydream about having the time and the guts to walk in and grab the mic. So, when a friend asked her to get involved with B-side Stories, she says, “My knees were knocking as my head was nodding.” Foon’s extra legs also come in handy for all the cycling she does. You’ve probably seen her around – pedalling madly to work from her home in Berhampore, pink vest and helmet atop a stylish, billowing frock. “It is very important to be noticed on your bike, so why not try to look nice? Fortunately lots of the great clothes we made at Starfish work for this situation so I am still wearing those frocks a lot,” she says. Given her eco-friendly character, it’s unsurprising that Foon’s “happy places” are largely found outdoors – from

holidays camping with the family, exploring big, wild, open spaces and tramping the country’s big walks, to the 20-minute walk from her back door to the top of Mt Albert, where 360-degree views over the Tararuas and down to the snow-capped mountains of the south still make her heart sing after 16 years. Also unsurprisingly, her favourite indoor spaces are those where people consider not just profit, but also planet and people. She spends a lot of time at work meetings in cafes. “I try to frequent places that are Conscious Consumersaccredited. My favourites are Ti Kouka on Willis St and People’s Coffee in Newtown. If we could, we’d eat at La Boca Loca every week, as our family are taco-mad and theirs are the yummiest,” she says. Balancing work, creative passions and family isn’t always easy, so Foon makes a conscious effort to shut down on the weekends to “recharge for the week ahead”. “We try to be technology free. I muck around in the garden and there’s often something in the oven… [at the moment] I’m working on perfecting a polenta cake,” she laughs. Foon laughs a lot – she has the fizzing energy of someone who lives a rich and rewarding life, and this city is part of what enables her to do that. “Back when Starfish closed I had the opportunity to explore if I wanted to move or not. When I looked around I discovered a city that I really love. There are so many great projects going on here that are benefitting the community and the environment, we should all be really proud… I’m a Wellingtonian through and through.”

CULTURE

MASKED MAN His parents wanted him to become a doctor but Jacob Rajan became the first Indian to graduate from the New Zealand Drama School. Twenty-two years later, the Ngaio family man and co-founder of Indian Ink Theatre Company has toured six shows to 460,000 people here and around the world, with his mate Justin Lewis. Blending Western and Eastern theatre techniques, the shows are known for their humour, music and masks. Their new show The Elephant Thief (Hannah Playhouse, 18 May–4 June) is set 50 years from now. It’s about an Indian girl leaving town to see the world, and the elephant that follows her.

STOP RIGHT THERE

WORLD FIRSTS

STEWART ISLAND ART

What’s BAFTA-award-winning animator Alan Platt doing on the Kapiti Coast? He actually grew up in Blenheim before moving to Britain, and retiring to New Zealand in 2000. Now, until 22 May, Mahara Gallery in Waikanae hosts Stop! Frame! The Illusion of Life, featuring 50 of the hundreds of puppets Platt created over 40 years for films like The Happy Prince, and for TV shows like BBC children’s series Fourways Farm. The exhibition is also playing a showreel of Platt’s stop-motion animations.

Always up for a challenge, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra tackles two world premieres in triple-bill concert Aotearoa Plus (6 May), with a little help from a Brit. Grammyaward-winning conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey (above) flies in to premiere his orchestral suite Time Tracks, and also conducts the premiere of Christopher Blake’s Symphony – Voices; Stephen de Pledge plays Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No 2. On 13 May, Stephen Hough – another Brit – plays Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 2, conducted by Spanish maestro Gustavo Gimeno.

Solander Gallery in Wellington has initiated 47° South Rakiura a Stewart Island artist residency and exhibition project that has been snapped up by regional galleries as a touring exhibition. The exhibition opens in their Willis St space on 4 May. Wellingtonian Jacqui Colley is one of the five artists whose work makes up the suite of printmaking artworks, all inspired by the artists’ experiences during residencies on Stewart Island. The exhibition will open in Oban on 13 May and will tour throughout New Zealand.

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CULTURE

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT Marine-biology and film student Zoe-Rose Herbert from Lyall Bay has made a wonderfully weird short film about a bored marketing exec who secretly sculpts thumb-sized animal portraits of people he meets. The Lonely Animal Friendship Society is among 15 shorts and 37 features – from overseas and home-grown – showing in the Documentary Edge International Film Festival at the Roxy (4–15 May). Herbert, 21, is excited. “I didn't think they’d accept the film, but now I feel I shouldn’t doubt myself.”

SHEDDING LIGHT

MAKING SPACE

MUSICAL MAY

If you’ve missed International Dance Day with its free workshops and performances at Te Papa (1 May), The New Zealand Dance Company can show you how it’s done. Their triplebill show Lumina stops by the Opera House on 21 May. WOW’s former principal choreographer Malia Johnston has created Brouhaha, collaborating with Wellington musician/composer Eden Mulholland and AV designer Rowan Pierce; expect dancers manoeuvring around floor-toceiling beams of light. Fellow Wellingtonian Louise Potiki Bryant has choreographed the first act, In Transit.

Alpha Studio on Abel Smith Street is a creative space where people with intellectual disabilities can make art of all kinds, from sculpture to weaving, jewellerymaking to 3D printing. Drop by any time to see artists at work. In the adjacent Alpha Gallery. The exhibition Space Suite (26 April–13 May) showcases work by 16 artists from creative spaces nationwide, facilitated by Arts Access Aotearoa.

May is New Zealand Music Month – or should we say classical-music month? Chamber Music NZ brings back Grammynominated US ensemble The Ensō String Quartet (Michael Fowler Centre, 20 May) following their popular 2012 tour. Meanwhile, Classical Sessions at The Third Eye – Tuatara’s brew-bar on Arthur Street – continue on the first Wednesday of every month (4 May, 1 June). The first two events drew classical musicians keen on 10–15-minute sets – and packed out the place. No tickets, just koha.

y en b n Writt b Raja s

i Jacostin Lew & Ju

May 18 – June 4 Hannah Playhouse 21

#wheresmyelephant

NZ Herald

Book indianink.co.nz $25 to $55*

*Service fees apply

The future is ours to see

Some of the best theatre in the world

CULTURE BRIEFS

PUPPETMISTRESS

MARRY ME

Country-hopping director and choreographer Sara Brodie, who works in theatre, dance and opera, doesn’t get much time at home in Te Horo on the Kapiti Coast. “But my home is my retreat – I choreograph on the verandah, and have research books and scores spread all over the house.” She’s currently got some home work directing the New Zealand Opera’s production of The Magic Flute (St James Theatre, 28 May–4 June). Mozart’s morality tale sees Prince Tamino rescue a beautiful princess from her evil mother, while taming nature with his magic flute. Brodie, a longtime puppet fan, couldn’t resist directing an opera with puppets, like an angry lion and a giant serpent, already written in. She’s turned other (human) characters into puppets, too, with the help of set and props designer John Verryt. We’re not talking sock puppets: these are huge mechanical creatures operated from above. Brodie hopes some parents will bring their kids to the all-ages “singspiel” with both song and dialogue (it’s sung in English, so there’ll be no cricking your neck to see the surtitles). The new Arts Foundation Laureate is off to London in August to direct the opera Iris Dreaming about New Zealand author Robin Hyde.

Baby-faced comedian James Malcolm has a confession to make. Not that he’s gay – he actually came out on stage – but that he’s obsessed with Shortland Street character Chris Warner. And what better way to capture the attention of “Doctor Love” than making him part of his latest gig? Marry Me Chris Warner plays at BATS from 3–7 May as part of the New Zealand International Comedy Festival (22 April–15 May). It turns out Michael Galvin said yes — but only to letting Malcolm use a life-size cardboard cutout of his character. “I know it’s not orthodox to sell tickets to a wedding,” Malcolm deadpans, “but Woman’s Day wouldn’t pay for it because I’m not as famous as Mike Hosking.” Instead Burger Fuel, where he worked for five years, sponsors him. The 20-year-old from Lower Hutt, who did his first gigs while at Wellington High School, was turned down by the New Zealand Broadcasting School. So he turned to comedy, winning the 2014 Raw Comedy Quest at age 18 (the first Wellington winner in 10 years). Now Malcolm and fellow Wellingtonian Alice Brine are among five nominees in the Billy T Award for the country’s most promising up-and-coming comedian, announced 15 May.

DO YOU HAVE A WILL? Say

I will

the will to live is not enough and make an appointment with RASCH LEONG LAWYERS

PARTNERS Ramona Rasch LLB David Leong LLB 22 1st Floor Kilbirnie Plaza 30 Bay Road | Kilbirnie, Wellington | Tel 04 387 7831 | www.raschleong.co.nz

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KUMON EDUCATION CENTRES Johnsonville (04) 478 8737 (0274) 491 458 Lower Hutt (04) 566 8844 (0220) 566 882 Karori & Mt Cook (04) 476 7926 (021) 709 669 Kilbirnie & Ngaio (04) 478 1230 (021) 254 9759

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F E AT U R E

MUSIC T H AT G R O W S Some things make such an impression on you that you just keep coming back to them. It might be a book, a movie, a restaurant, or a beach. For LAURENCE HUGHES it’s the New Zealand Youth Choir, and Wellington, the city he grew up in.

first auditioned for the Youth Choir in 2009, thanks to encouragement from Michael Stewart, director of music at the Cathedral of St Paul and of the Tudor Consort. And since then I’ve worked with some of the finest choral musicians in the country, and in the process made lifelong friends. I’m heading towards my third and final international tour with the choir, and my final performance with it in my home town, and I’m compelled to look back on what has kept me coming back. International tours are of course an amazing incentive. In 2010 it was Singapore, Seoul, the World Expo in Shanghai, and then Australia. In 2013 we went to LA and sang Britten’s War Requiem in the Walt Disney Concert Hall with musicians from several local universities, before heading off to Canada, and the east coast, including New York. This time we’re swinging by Singapore, before heading to the Czech Republic, France and England. We’re competing in the Festival of Academic Choirs in Pardubice, and singing Mass in Notre Dame in Paris. In England we sing at St John’s, Smith Square, Ely Cathedral, and St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. What I take away most from these tours is the friendship and camaraderie. The intensity, and at times the stress, as well as the shared joy and experiences of touring forges a real closeness and sense of whanau. And that, I think, is what makes the Youth Choir so important to me and to many others. David Squire, the choir’s musical director, also couldn’t keep away. After seven years in the choir in

the 1980s and early 90s, he returned to take the reins in 2011. When I sat down with him recently to chat about our choir experiences, he said that, working with young people, “you never know what seeds you will sow, and they’re not even necessarily musical, they may be in terms of well-being”. And I know this to be personally true. I learnt so much socially, and grew up a hell of a lot thanks to my time in the choir. I’ve often found the intense week-long rehearsals to almost be a holiday from the stresses of everyday life. We regularly work with schools near where we are performing. Two stand out for me. In 2014 we did a workshop at my old school, Wellington College, with their students and some from other Wellington schools. It was really special to return. My own days in the college chorale, cemented my love of choral singing. And this year we did a workshop in Northland with 15 students from Te Kura Taumata O Panguru, who drove three hours both ways just to attend. It was beautiful to see their reactions to the choir, and to spend time talking and goofing around with them afterwards. They also responded in kind at the end of the workshop by singing a waiata for us, and that small but heartfelt exchange is something I will never forget. The current New Zealand Youth Choir will be giving their Wellington farewell concert at Sacred Heart Cathedral, where I was singing when I joined the Youth Choir, on Sunday May 29, at 3pm.

NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

F R I DAY 6 . 3 0 P M

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B R AMW E LL TOV E Y

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Featuring choreographers Malia Johnston, Louise Potiki-Bryant and Stephen Shropshire with composers Paddy Free, Chris O’Connor and Eden Mullholland.

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I N D I AN I N K

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Indian Ink’s brand new show written by Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis! When Leela Devi leaves her tribal home to see the world, she doesn’t expect her father’s elephant to follow her. As she battles corrupt officials, hungry poachers, fanatical leaders and supreme beings, an unlikely love story unfolds and a quiet revolution ferments.

Join the Orpheus Choir and Orchestra Wellington on a musical voyage across the sea. Storms, quiet beaches, echoing cathedral caves, steamers and sailboats — this concert has it all. Soloists Lisa Harper-Brown and James Clayton complete the lineup for an evening of music echoing the moods of our own Wellington coast.

Featherston comes alive as book lovers and collectors gather for the 2nd annual Booktown Festival 20–22 May. Featuring stalls from NZ and Australian dealers, writer’s events, historic tours, heaps of children’s activities and events around the railway. This is an event for all the family.

18 May–4 June Hannah Playhouse 0800 842 538 / indianink.co.nz

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F E AT U R E

IT’S EASY BEING GREEN Tom Jones sings of the Green Green Grass Of Home – grass isn’t the only green thing we sing about now that we’re under the glare of limited resources, pollution and climate change. Capital tunes into the region’s recycled, renewable, ecofriendly and organic happenings.

F E AT U R E

FAIR GO WRITTEN BY BETH ROSE

These are no ordinary bananas. But perhaps they should be? If MATT MORRISON, co-founder of All Good, has his way their Fairtrade bananas will be the most ordinary thing in your shopping basket.

banana is a banana, is a banana, right? Well, not necessarily. There are around a thousand types of banana. The Cavendish is the one we mostly see on supermarket shelves and that’s because it can handle international shipping conditions – an early lesson for Matt when he and his brother Chris and friend Simon Coley launched All Good, the first company to bring Fairtrade bananas into New Zealand. “The three of us were hanging out at Piha and finishing previous jobs. We were all into ethics and we understood that consumers wanted to support companies who looked after their producers. We were talking about why we were going far away to get our fruit, so we began working with growers in Samoa to ship Fairtrade bananas to New Zealand – and it failed. He explains that the bananas that grow there couldn’t handle the fumigation required by the Ministry for Primary Industries to destroy pests. “More than 50 per cent of each shipment was spoiled.” Understanding now the reasons for sourcing fruit from further afield, Matt and his co-founders went in search of some hardy Cavendish bananas in Ecuador, still with a steadfast determination to support fair trade.

“We knew that non-Fairtrade banana producers were poorly paid and the chemicals being used on plantations were making people sick. Many of the men working on plantations were sterile by the age of 40, respiratory illness was prevalent and cancer rates were much higher than average in South America for people working in banana fields. It was an industry where workers were exploited so that people in Europe and the US could get bananas as cheaply as possible. He says this typifies “pretty much anything that is produced in developing countries” where labour has no statutory protection, “and this is particularly the case for tropical fruit – including pineapples and mangoes – which often come from massive plantations. Workers live on the plantations and so they get sprayed when the plants get sprayed.” Matt tells us some growers have moved to organic and Fairtrade production because they have seen the effect of chemicals on their livestock and understood that it is affecting their children’s health. “It was in the water and they were never free of it.” Fairtrade environmental standards have a long list of prohibited pesticides and herbicides. Organic banana plantations are completely pesticide-andherbicide-free.

F E AT U R E

“The producers in Ecuador were so enthusiastic to get into a new market that they took some of the risk with us. They taught us what to do and helped us with documentation, shipping and negotiations. In some cases the growers had representatives in Europe. AgroFair in Rotterdam helped us organise our supply chains to get the first containers sent to us.” While All Good was organising, they were supporting themselves on savings; fortunately business picked up quickly. “Once you have a good story to tell, people jump at it. In 2010 – when a banana was a banana – we talked to supermarkets who said, ‘You’re kidding yourselves; people won’t pay a dollar more for their bananas no matter what story you tell’.” But Moore Wilson’s and Commonsense Organics came on board, and told the All Good boys to get out in front of the store and promote their bananas – “and that’s when we put on the yellow gorilla suits”. “We couldn’t wear the more realistic black gorilla suits because they frightened children. We’ve kept it up, and now everyone wants to be the gorilla at least once – but only once, as it’s really hot. Not least in Ecuador when it was 40 degrees. We just had to do whatever we could think of to tell our story.” All Good is now telling its story in schools. “Kids really understand what we are doing because they don’t like to think they’re ripping anybody off. Trade Aid do the same thing, to talk about where food and clothing comes from.” Matt Morrison has an intriguing career history. Most recently, as a senior advisor at Treasury, Matt was responsible for monitoring the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Fisheries and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority. Earlier, as an army officer he was stationed in East Timor. Before that, working for the New Zealand Government’s export credit agencies, he led finance projects to bring energy plants into Fiji, an aquarium into Turkey and whiteware processing lines into Turkey and Russia. Not such a leap, then, to bring-

ing Ecuadorian bananas onto New Zealand shores. Brothers Matt and Chris have been working together on various sustainable business initiatives for some years. All Good Bananas had been going for about two years before Matt and the team branched out into soft drinks. “Bananas are a low-margin business, and with just that one product it’s quite a risk to hold together. “Banks say, ‘We love what you’re doing but sorry you’re too fragile to invest in,’ which is understandable: Our product comes from half way round the world, we’ve had a handful of customers and a week to sell 20,000 bunches – because that’s how many go into a container – or they’ll go off.” All Good looked to their friends in the Fairtrade community for ideas for expansion. “In 2012 we asked Harriet Lamb, head of Fairtrade International, to come to New Zealand so we could talk bananas. Over lunch we chatted about Coca-Cola and how the world’s biggest brand, based around the cola nut, has never benefitted the people who grow cola in Sierra Leone.” Coke sells 1.9 billion soft drinks a day. Although they synthesised the flavour of the cola nut and haven’t used the nut itself for 80 years, something about making so much money under the name “cola” while Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world didn’t seem fair to All Good. They agreed that while the world didn’t really need another soft drink it did need ethical ones. Harriet introduced All Good to the representatives of cola growers in Boma Village, West Africa and they began the process of producing Karma Cola. “Cola nut has quite an earthy, bitter flavour. We knew we couldn’t be too different from what people expected of cola, so we added a concoction of nutmeg, Sri Lankan vanilla, sugar from India and citrus oil, all of which are fair trade and organic. It took nine months of iterations to come up with the first batch of Karma Cola in 2012.” A few months later, All Good added Gingerella ginger ale, which uses Sri Lankan ginger, cloves and some citrus, and Lemmy Lemonade using Sicilian lemons. It

F E AT U R E

is a logistics challenge bringing all these ingredients together each month to make each batch. All Good quickly broke into international markets with their Fairtrade drinks when Simon Coley went to the London coffee festival on a reconnaissance mission the same year. He signed up 70 cafes. Matt says it appealed particularly in the UK. “If you go into Waitrose, Selfridge’s or Harvey Nichols you’ll find Karma Cola.” All Good work with small distributors to get into foreign markets and the drinks are now made and bottled in Bristol for the European market. The English operation also has the advantage of reducing food miles and thus All Good’s carbon footprint. “We’re trying to move production as close to the customer as possible,” says Matt, “as we now sell right through the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy – we got into 15 countries in three years. “We think we know what we’re doing now. The bananas were important to our drinks. Without them we probably wouldn’t have had the credibility to launch a soda on the market. Otherwise we were just saying, ‘Hey, here’s another soda.’ Common Sense Organics and Moore Wilson’s believed in us and Wellingtonians really give small business a go. Cafes have been really good to us, they were our offices when we were starting out. Well

over a hundred cafes in Wellington now stock our drinks. “The bananas are widely available in supermarkets and specialty stores. It’s kinda working, although just when you think everything is sweet, we can get an email overnight saying a container’s been delayed in Panama.” As a born and bred Wellingtonian, Matt is pleased to say that All Good sell more bananas per capita in Wellington than any other city in New Zealand. “It’s a conscious consumer capital and has a great awareness of organics. And the coffee culture supports awareness of fair trade. People here are interested in provenance and are asking tough questions about where their food and clothing is coming from. “New Zealand was a bit slow on the uptake but it’s now one of the fastest-growing Fairtrade countries in the world. You see Cadbury’s, Whittaker’s, Wellington Chocolate Factory, L’Affare and all the great coffee roasters here who are looking after their farmers. Conscious consumerism is in the mainstream and it’s here to stay.” Matt has just become a father for the first time. When he started All Good and had no dependants the financial precariousness of launching a new business felt less risky. Now, his outlook is so positive you can’t imagine that Matt ever thought it wouldn't work.

COMMUNITY AWARDS SECTION HEADER

Nominations now open: wellingtonairport.co.nz Common Unity Project Aotearoa 2014 Supreme Award winner

Nominations close Tuesday 31 May 2016

ECO BRIEFS

BIKE IT Wellington City Council is peddling some seasonal cycle-safety messages and reminding folk of the free services that support cycling in the city. Top tips include checking that your lights (white on the front, red on the back) are visible from 100 paces; if you get a flat tyre there are Bike Fix-It stands outside the Central Library; and for commuters in a hurry, get ahead of the traffic on intersections using the green bicycle zones. For newbies, Pedal Ready offers courses to build your skills and confidence. Pedalready.org.nz

KEEP IT MUNCHABLE

PAPER SAVINGS

KAKAS ARE GO

A Newtown business’s product has been selected for acclaim by Organic magazine. Munch cooking makes its Nil “nothing added, nothing taken, nil waste” organic beeswax wraps so that you won’t have to use plastic to wrap your lunch or your leftovers. They’re re-usable and part of the global approach to minimise single-use plastics.

Two years ago a team of Wellington designers who saw huge paper waste in their industry formed The Misprint Co, which “repurposes non-confidential waste paper into top-notch notebooks and notepads”. Every notebook produced saves 100-300 litres of water, which would have been used recycling the paper in China. Some profits go to the Wellington City Council for tree planting.

After nearly 15 years, Zealandia’s kaka-banding and nestbox monitoring programme has come to an end. The native bush parrots were reintroduced to the Sanctuary in 2002 and 750 birds have been banded, with the last two monitored chicks about to fledge. “It's the end of an era. The species no longer needs to be intensely monitored so it’s job done in that respect,” says Conservation Lead Ranger Matu Booth.

P: 04 385 3855 W: THEPILATESSTUDIO.CO.NZ E: INFO@THEPLATESSTUDIO.CO.NZ A: LEVEL 1, 282 WAKEFIELD STREET, WELLINGTON, 6011

ECO BRIEFS

POWER ST RU G G L E Victoria University of Wellington is using the power of rivalry to save energy on campus – and cut the university’s power bills by thousands of dollars. Student Bethany Paterson has started a competition between two halls of residence to see who can save the most energy compared with the previous year’s usage. There are prizes up for grabs and the university has promised to put the cash saved back into sustainability initiatives, with the idea of communal bikes being explored.

UN-BURYING A TREASURE

DIGGING IN

GREEN GOERS

Bargain hunters and op-shoppers at the ready: Trash Palace at Spicer Landfill in Porirua is reopening. Metallic Sweeper Limited has taken over operations and is asking for pre-loved toys, clothing, books, appliances, furniture and kitchenware.

The pet worms have arrived in St Anne’s School in Newtown as their Garden to Table project gets under way. The children are setting up their free worm farm supplied by Tui Garden Products and learning about growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing healthy, seasonal food in the New Zealand-wide gardening and cooking programme.

New members are being sought by an eco group who meet monthly to discuss green issues, swap ideas and take it in turns to do presentations. The group gathers at 7pm on the first Monday of every month at the Petone Depot in the Doreen Doolan Mall. They have a Facebook group called “Ecomums”, which is the best way to get in touch. All are welcome, it’s not mum-specific.

Visit our EcoShop Open 9am – 4.30pm Monday to Saturday 2 Forresters Lane, just off Tory St Free Parking

www.sustaintrust.org.nz

Drop off all your electronic waste to us. For a small fee we recycle it safely.

ECO BRIEFS

LESS TO THE LANDFILL

WHEELS ON FIRE Need a package delivered from here to there across the central city? Come rain, shine or hair-parting southerly, Russell “The Legs” Silverwood pedals about Wellington providing an emission-free, quiet, reliable, local courier service. “I launched Nocar Cargo in June last year, right into the thick of winter as a kind of trial by fire. Since then I have been growing organically. Businesses that appreciate the friendlier, more thoughtful service that I provide have come on board. “I’ve delivered everything from a chest of drawers for a friend who couldn’t fit it in their car, a small freezer and a lastminute delivery of four small screws for a dental operation. I moved a three-metre plum tree to the Newtown Community Garden (it is doing well!) and I also helped out Wellington Chocolate Factory – cycling a tonne of cacao from waka to factory.” If you feel like testing Russell’s mettle, he reckons he can carry up to 75kg. nocarcargo.co.nz

More and more local businesses are reducing their waste to landfill via an audit with the Sustainability Trust. Knowing exactly what’s going on with your waste is the real secret to reducing waste, according to the trust. Audits help organisations reduce their waste and environmental impact, and give advice to reduce waste. Studio Pacific Architecture have done two audits, firstly in May 2013 and then again a year later which showed there was room for improvement, especially in diverting waste from landfill that could be going to Kai to Compost. “The way we set up our bins was incorrect,” says Studio Pacific Architecture, "and it was encouraging landfill use. Knowing this we re-designed our waste station and implemented red eco-bin cubes on every desk. After our first audit and resulting changes, we reduced our waste going to landfill by 75%”. Fidels Café have also completed two audits. Fidel’s second audit showed that more than 40 tonnes of waste was being recycled and composted per year that would otherwise go to landfill. That was 20 tonnes/ year more being diverted, compared to their earlier audit. Southern Cross Hotel has recently commissioned an audit and restaurant manager Michelle Whale says they’re eagerly awaiting their results. Audits cost between $750–$1000 depending upon the size of the business and usually take about a week.

Photography by Pivot

Create Your Future Massey University Wellington College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwharangi creative.massey.ac.nz

Harmony Repia, Lachie Philipson Visual Communication Design

OPINION

MOVING WITH THE TIMES Tailwinds are pushing cycling to a new high in Wellington. But this is not just about cycling. It’s about what kind of city we want, says PATRICK MORGAN of Cycling Action Network @CyclingANZ

ackie, 28, is just back from her OE. She lives in Berhampore and cycles to her job at the government end of town. She has a car but it’s faster to get to work by bike. And it’s too expensive to park. The bus is an option but it gets held up by other traffic. Jackie is nervous about cycling down Adelaide Rd, but loves her ride through the Basin Reserve and along the waterfront. She spends the money she saves on going out, or banks it for her dream of home ownership. Jackie wants to know when Wellington will build more protected bike lanes, like the ones she cycled on in Vancouver and London. I have good news for Jackie. Wellington is responding to the demand for better transport options and investing in cycling. All around the world, people are flocking to great cities. And Wellington is expecting to grow by 50,000 people in the next 30 years. Transmission Gully is predicted to pump another 11,500 cars into Wellington by 2031. What impact will that have on our streets? Gridlock, or do we want to give people more transport choices? Cars are amazing machines but too many add up to a problem. Two thirds of all urban trips are less than 6km, an easy distance for cycling. More people on bikes makes sense. According to the council's annual counts, cycling in Wellington has doubled in the past decade. Bike racks on Lambton Quay and Cuba St are clogged. At rush hour, the green bike boxes at traffic lights are overflowing. Volunteers are busy building trails to meet demand from mountain bikers. And if you want your bike serviced, there’s a two-week waiting list. On census day in 2013, nine per cent of people from Lyall Bay heading to work went by bike. It was eight per cent from Island Bay, and ten per cent from Berhampore. Many young people are forgoing the hassle of driving. They see car ownership as a pain, not a passport. Hills? Wind? Electric bike sales are rising more steeply than Brooklyn hill. There’s even a new cargo bike service offering quick deliveries around town (p38). There can be no doubt that cycling is on the up. That’s good news whether you ride a bike or not. More people on bikes cuts congestion and makes parking easier. It reduces the need for expensive flyovers, and delivers compelling health benefits and cleaner air.

Giving people more transport choices makes Wellington a better place in all kinds of ways. It unshackles us from car-dependence. It unlocks public spaces. It makes streets safer and more attractive. More people cycling makes good cities great. It’s also excellent value for money. An entire cycling network costs less than a few kilometres of motorway. Cycling projects return up to $20 worth of benefits for every dollar spent. The council and the government are responding positively to the trend. Over the next three years the government and Wellington and Hutt Councils will invest $53 million in improving provision for cycling in the region. At Wellington’s Go By Bike Day in February, Minister of Transport Simon Bridges explained why: “We recognise the contribution cycling makes to healthier communities. We’re investing to give more New Zealanders more opportunities to choose cycling – whether to commute to and from work and school, to run errands, or get some exercise.” With 76 per cent of Wellingtonians saying they would cycle if protected lanes are built, it’s giving people what they want, and what they voted for. As protected bike lanes are added to our streets, we'll see more and more people on bikes. But change can be unsettling, so it’s no surprise there has been pushback. But opposition to protected bike lanes is already softening, although a few local politicians haven’t got the memo yet. A recent survey in Island Bay showed that two thirds of residents chose not to express an opinion about the cycleway. Bikelash is fizzling out as people embrace the convenience and fun of cycling. This is a pattern familiar to observers of New York. Transport Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said, “When you push the status quo, it pushes back, hard. Everyone likes to watch a good fight. And the battle over bike lanes most surely was a street fight. Call me biased, call me crazy, but I’ll tell you this: the bikes, and all New Yorkers, won.” It’s not all about cycling or being anti-car, it’s about making cities for people the top priority. Wellington is already a great place to live. Our compact layout, vibrant streets, thriving culture and easy access to nature give us a competitive edge. Our task now is to develop better transport options to match our ambition to be a worldclass city.

W HAT T H E F L O C K

L IT T L E BL AC K SHAG Name: Little black shag, aka little black cormorant. Māori name: Kawau tūi.

Feeds on: Mainly small fish. They are gregarious birds and the only shag in New Zealand that routinely forages co-operatively in flocks, herding and encircling shoals of small fish in groups of anywhere from a few to a hundred birds or more.

Status: Native, naturally uncommon. Habitat: Little black shags occur throughout Australia as well as in New Zealand, mainly on the harbours, lakes, rivers, inlets and ponds of the North Island, although they are being seen increasingly in the South. Look for them: A small, black-plumaged cormorant with a greenish gloss on the back, bluegreen eyes and a thin black bill, with legs and feet similar in size to the little shag but lacking white plumage, and with a shorter tail. They’re likely to be spotted in and around the coastlines of Wellington and Porirua harbours, as well as Pauatahanui Inlet, Lake Wairarapa and Waikanae Estuary – but you can increase your chances further by paying a visit to Zealandia. Check out the species maps on eBird.org for a better idea of hotspots, or to add your own avian encounters. Call: A series of throaty croaks and whistles during the breeding season (October through December), but very quiet otherwise.

Did you know? The sight of a shag perched atop a rock or roost with wings outstretched to dry is familiar to most of us, but did you know they do this because their plumage is not waterproof? Having feathers that are easily waterlogged helps with fishing; the lower buoyancy allowing them to sink and dive faster (which is why you often see them with just their heads poking out of the water – they are being weighed down). But this also means every fishing bout must be followed with a good session of drying and preening. If they were human they would be: One of those wonderful, often elderly folk you start to see from about this time of year, when everyone else has abandoned the ocean for the warmth of the fire, stubbornly floating for what seems like an unbearable time in the quickly-cooling coastal water, only their heads visible above the choppy surface.

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2+1=

WELCOME TO OUR NEW ADDITION. At Staples Rodway we’re about so much more than numbers. It’s our people that really count. So, it’s with great delight that we welcome Roger Shackelford to the practice.

Roger enhances our tax offering and adds to our significant audit and accounting services. With extensive experience advising private businesses at all stages of growth, corporates, and notfor-profits, he brings incalculable benefits to our clients. ROG

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Busin ess A dvic e, Ta x, Pa rtne r, We lling ton PHO NE: +64 9 49 6909 Rog 3 e Tax P r joined S artn er in taples R o Janu ary 2 dway W e 016 after llington as 12 ye ars a a s

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Contact Roger to find out how he and Staples Rodway Wellington can add real value to your business. Phone: 04 496 9093 roger.shackelford@stapleswellington.co.nz Lvl 6, 95 Customhouse Quay, Wellington www.staplesrodway.co.nz/wellington

Serving the peop le since 1996 Adrift on a sea of blue. Beautiful handmade ceramics by Paige Jarman. Just one of the many Mother’s Day gift ideas exclusively available at...

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GREEN SLEEVES Eco-fashion doesn't necessarily mean hessian and hemp. Cotton, wool, suede and leather combine in an eco-forward autumnal wardrobe. Stylist: Shalee Fitzsimmons Photography: Rhett Goodley-Hornblow Assistant: Courtney Bragg

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Kowtow long sleeve dress in bottle green – $95 – Let Liv | Mousseline lace-up maxi in copper – $587 – Zebrano | When Harry Ran Away 'Claude' coat – $475 – Harry’s | Caroline Sills 'Winterfell' coat – $295 – Harry’s | Nostalgia linen skirt in copper – $229 – Chalky Digits | Indigo & Co dress – $180 – Viva | Hauler overnight bag – $690 – Mandatory | Moda Immagine scarf – $90 – Viva | Pinto boot – $429 – Minnie Cooper 46

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“my lovely shoes have arrived in the post and I feel like a kid again, I can’t stop looking at them!”

EDIBLES

T H E BA RON ’ S I N B E R HA M P OR E Clayton McErlane, aka Baron Hasslehoff, has moved to Wellington from Golden Bay, bringing with him his handcrafted chocolates and sweet treats. Almost all of his products are vegan, organic and locally sourced. The chocolatier’s space at 464 Adelaide Rd is shared with Libertine Blends herbal teas. Some of his most popular products, such as the blueberry, basil and chipotle chocolate, the salted caramel and rosemary “toffee pops” and the ginger pistachio slice are here to stay; but there are always experiments, such as the heart-shaped smoked beetroot and lavender shortbread, dipped in dark chocolate. Just in time for Mother’s Day.

BREAD AND BUT TER

COFFEE BEHIND BARS

CLASSY BREWS

Unable to find a bread that complemented his famous-in-New Zealand Lewis Road Creamery butter, founder Peter Cullinane decided to make his own. The Premium Kibbled Grain Bread was Lewis Road’s first departure from the dairy aisle. Baker Malcolm North helped to create “bread which doesn’t skimp on grain but yet still has a moist, fresh texture”. Available at select outlets, including Moore Wilson’s.

Last year the socially conscious Peoples Coffee Company launched a barista training course for women at Arohata Prison in Tawa “to provide real, transferable skills outside of the traditional women’s work to which they are usually limited”. There was an overwhelmingly positive response from the trainees, so a bigger and better version of the course will run again this year.

Well-known Wellington breweries Parrotdog and Garage Project have weighed in strongly yet again, this time at the New World Beer & Cider Awards. Garage Project took home best in class for their Los Lobos American-style ale. Parrot Dog won two gold medals for their Bitter Bitch IPA and Bloodhound American-style ale. All three owners of Parrotdog are in their late 20s and have given up business and law careers to “hop” into brewing.

EDIBLES

GALE-FORCE GARDENING From garden to taco, Miramar favourite La Boca Loca has been growing its own produce for more than two years now. It began with ingredients that were tricky to source, such as heritage cucumbers, tomatillos and coriander. The garden was out the back of the restaurant, until a nearby piece of land popped up for lease. Food scraps from the kitchen help create compost for the garden. Unsurprisingly, there have been trials and tribulations, such as our familiar gale-force breezes upsetting the vegetation.

RAW AND UNCUT Sister act Zara and Shinee McIntyre have begun their own raw foods business, called Half Baked, after being inspired by the food scenes in Auckland and Melbourne. Bakers by day (ironically at Midnight Espresso), they create the raw slices at night, at Toi Whakaari where they rent a commercial kitchen. Their most popular creation is a Snickers-flavoured slice, although Shinee’s favourite is the coconut (all natural ingredients and no sugar). Available from World Market in Lyall Bay and Elemental Eats health-food truck in Plimmerton.

EAT. COFFEE. READ Ekor is Swedish for squirrel, and this interesting wee nut is hidden at 17 College St. Director Niki Ward uses locally sourced organic ingredients wherever possible, such as Zany Zeus milk and Leeds St Bakery bread. Not only can you find coffee and a bite to eat here, but you can also purchase books and gifts. A cafe masquerading as a bookstore, or the other way around?

FIVE OUT OF FIVE Local jam maker Graeme Cunningham cleaned up at the recent Marmalade competitions in England. At the “Marmalade Olympics” in Cumbria his lime/chilli/coconut marmalade won the gold medal, he also won four other awards against 3,000 entries from 60 countries. Not bad for five entries. Cunningham sells at the Jervois Quay underground market on Saturdays.

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THE FOREST CANTINA

S AV O U R Y WA F F L E S UNNA BURCH

I want to introduce you to waffles, the savoury kind. If you don’t know this version of the usually sweet waffle, save judgment until you really know them, because they are delicious! I see them as a better form of toast, ready to take on your toppings, or to be eaten on their own. The cheese makes them extra crispy while the inside

stays nice and soft and the spinach gives a good balance – which means you can take that extra slice of bacon on the side. I topped mine with a soft poached egg because when the yolk was broken it gave a similar runny textural vibe to maple syrup. Such a good recipe for breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day or a slow weekend morning.

INGREDIENTS

METHOD

Makes: 4–5 depending on the size of your waffle iron Time: A little bit of effort

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray top and bottom (you need to do this again for each waffle), and add enough batter to almost reach the edges. The waffles will spread a little but won’t puff much. Cook for 4–5 minutes or until crispy on the top and bottom.

1 cup white flour 1/2 cup wholemeal flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon fair trade sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated 4 cups spinach, chopped 1 1/2 cups milk 1 egg 1/3 cup oil (I used canola) cooking oil spray for cooking

When I took them out, mine separated at one end a little. I took a sharp paring knife and lifted the waffle from the top and bottom of the iron, and then they came out perfectly. They will stick a little more than usual because of the cheese. Repeat until all the waffles are made, then top with bacon and eggs or whatever takes your fancy.

To top poached eggs bacon – or toppings of your choice

SECTION HEADER

LIQUID THOUGHTS

W H AT I S ORGANIC WINE? BY JOELLE THOMSON

“Our decision to became organic was based on intuition, as was our decision to become biodynamic, which is the concept of the entire property being a self-sustaining environment.” Intuition or gut instinct was also behind filmmaker Michael Seresin’s decision to ditch synthetic compounds at his Marlborough winery in the late 1990s. The winery owner, who spends most of his time working in London, the United States and Tuscany, was shocked to see the quantity of synthesized chemicals sprayed on his Seresin Estate vines. He told the team straight away to stop using them. “It wasn’t easy combating ever-present fungal disease risk on vines growing in a maritime country, but it was the right thing to do,” says the uncompromising owner. The number of organically certified vineyards in New Zealand has grown significantly since Millton, Seresin and others moved to organics in the 1980s and 1990s. New Zealand has approximately 35,800 hectares in vineyards; 5.8% are now certified organic. This puts New Zealand on par with Germany and Spain (5.6% and 5.2%) but behind the world leader Austria at 9.2%, Italy at 8% and France at 7.4%.* Claims to organic status come with no guarantees unless wines have the authentication of an independent organic, biodynamic or sustainable certification. “Labels with descriptions such as ‘organic in transition’ are like dabbling your feet in the water, but not diving in to swim,” says Millton. The definition of organic wine is that it’s made from organic grapes, whose growers shun artificial industrially synthesized compounds such as fertilisers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides. Organic viticulture (the growing of grapes organically) focuses on prevention rather than cure. Growers use naturally occurring organic fertilisers in the form of compost. They release

creative 7287

rganic wine certification is like being pregnant because you can never be halfway there – you either are or you aren’t, says Gisborne grower James Millton. He should know. He and wife Annie were the first New Zealand winemakers to gain organic certification for their wines in 1984. Gaining organic accreditation can be painful, time consuming and costly, says Millton. Their decision to ditch fungicides, pesticides and herbicides in their vineyards was made in the early 1980s when their workers developed skin rashes. When their organic certification was achieved, the rashes had disappeared. They became the first growers in this country to market their wine as organic, using the Bio-Gro certification as a powerful sales tool, both here and overseas. It quickly became one of the Millton Vineyard’s greatest strengths. Fast forward to today, and 100% of The Millton Vineyard wines are now certified as biodynamic – the heavy metal version of the organic wine movement – but the Milltons do not now use either their biodynamic or their organic status as a marketing tool. In fact, they have chosen to use an understated, undersized brown cow icon on the back of their bottles to indicate that their wines are biodynamic. It is not an official logo, nor does it include the word biodynamic. It is indicative of biodynamic farming because cow manure is used to make the compost preparations used on the land. “We used our BioGro certification as a marketing tool because we were the first to make organic New Zealand wine and we did think it was something to sing about back then. But the focus today is on quality ahead of organics, although I often find the two can be tied together quite closely,” he says.

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

GREEN LABELS TO SPOT…

minerals and nutrients into the ground more slowly than synthetic compounds. This means less vigorous growth on grapevines, which therefore need less pruning but also produce fewer grapes. The overall combo may be less commercially appealing but it can result in more concentrated flavours in the grapes and, hence, better wine. Lars Jensen from Richmond Plains produces wines which are 100% biodynamic, from what was New Zealand’s first biodynamic vineyard. “We bought this vineyard when it was already on the organic path but we haven’t made a big deal about our accreditation because it gets confusing for wine drinkers, in terms of what we are and it can get more confusing trying to explain it,” says Jensen. “Our philosophy is to make wines that are healthier to drink and have less of an impact on the planet to make.” *Oxford Companion to Wine (2015).

Organic Bio-Gro, the main organic certification label in New Zealand, indicates that certified organic methods have been used and approved by this independent organic body. biogro.co.nz Biodynamic Demeter is the world’s leading certified biodynamic brand, and is based on the teachings of the late Austrian philosopher, Rudolph Steiner, founder of Steiner schools. He suggested in the early 1900s that every living area on earth, from large orchards with vegetables, pigs and animals to small backyards, should be treated as a complete farming system. No inputs should be made and all waste should be used to regenerate the ground. Cow manure is an intrinsic part of the biodynamic compost-preparation system.

SOME ORGANIC AND BIODYNAMIC WINERIES Ata Rangi, Martinborough; Dog Point Vineyards, Marlborough; The Millton Vineyard, Gisborne; Seresin Estate, Marlborough; Felton Road, Central Otago; Churton Wines, Marlborough; Muddy Water, North Canterbury; Carrick Wines, Central Otago; Pyramid Valley, North Canterbury; Richmond Plains, Nelson; Rippon Vineyard, Wanaka, Otago; Villa Maria Estate, Auckland, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough; Vynfields, Martinborough; and Woollaston Estates, Nelson.

SWNZ Sustainable Winegrowers New Zealand was formed in 1995 to systematically reduce the use of synthetic compounds in vineyards nationwide.

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

GREEN S PA C E S WRITTEN BY JOHN KERR

Wellington’s pockets of urban plant life don’t just make the city pretty – they’re good for your health.

rban green spaces are fundamentally healthy; dozens of studies have shown that living closer to city parks and gardens is directly linked to a healthier, happier life. Dr Paul Blaschke is an ecologist who also teaches at the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago’s Wellington campus. Part of his work is exploring how the natural environment can improve our wellbeing. He says, “There is quite a bit of international research, and some in New Zealand, that shows that the health benefits people get from green spaces are real, and they are real to all sorts of people.” Compared with many cities overseas, Paul believes that Wellingtonians are very fortunate in their access to urban green areas; “Whether you live in Porirua or Karori, you have got quite reasonable green spaces within 10 or 15 minutes’ walking distance from your house.” Wellington’s south coast and Otari-Wilton’s Bush are among his personal favourites. Some of the best local evidence for the salubrious effects of green spaces comes from a massive New Zealand study published in 2013, which linked up health survey results on 8,000 Kiwis with map data relating to urban green spaces. The researchers found that the greener the neighbourhood, the lower the risk of poor mental health and heart disease for residents. This could be explained partly by people in greener areas getting more exercise, but this only accounted for some of the better health outcomes – there was clearly something else at play. Paul agrees it isn’t just the fitness element that accounts for green spaces’ health-boosting qualities. Urban parks also provide an open place for people to meet and interact, building the networks of friends and associates that enhance our wellbeing. According to Paul, the “hardest to prove” health benefits from green spaces are direct mental or physical effects simply from being in nature. They include the psychological benefits of relaxing and spending time in nature, and possibly even direct physical health benefits from lowered stress and blood pres-

sure. The mental health and wellbeing rewards of green spaces extend to natural freshwater and marine environments – “blue spaces” – as well. Recent research by Paul’s colleagues found that people who live in Wellington neighbourhoods with a better view of the harbour have lower levels of psychological stress, even when other factors such as income and age are taken into account. The idea that the natural environment can enhance our health and wellbeing is backed up by studies from overseas. For example, last year a study of 30,000 Toronto residents found that having just 10 more trees on a city block, on average, improves residents’ perception of their health in ways comparable to being seven years younger. This was perceived health, but the authors noted that this generally lines up with real health measures pretty well. Given our reputation as a nation of nature-lovers, it is not surprising that New Zealand’s urban green spaces are generally well looked after by local authorities. The next step is making sure that they are attractive and accessible to the widest range of people. “That is quite an emphasis here in the capital,” says Paul. “The council is thinking quite creatively about how to make parks more accessible to people with disabilities, people who are ill, older or younger and can’t get very far on their own feet.” Are we taking full advantage of the inherent healthiness of green spaces? Paul points out that in countries like Korea and Japan the hidden health benefits of natural environments are more widely recognised and doctors actually prescribe “forest bathing” walks in natural environments as part of treatments. It is a concept he thinks Kiwi doctors should take a closer look at. Some GPs already prescribe visits to the gym for their patients, but Paul suggests this could be expanded, so that “visits to outdoor areas like parks and beaches are actually a part of a medical treatment or therapy”. Sounds like a great idea, but why wait for your doctor to tell you to do it?

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BY THE BOOK

R E -V E R SE INTRODUCED BY CLAIRE ORCHARD

The change over We thought it was solid so we held on to it. Sometimes we clung to it. Sometimes we lay on the sand and dreamt. It gave us faith because we needed faith. What patience it had. And detachment. Even now that we know it is filled with fire and always has been, that it can crack open as if it has lost all care and attention for anything other than itself, even though we have gone too high, too low and far too far, and like a mother it has had enough, we are holding on to it as if it is the trunk of a coconut palm on an atoll in a high sea and a higher wind.

BREAKDOWN Bio: Ocean and Stone is Dinah Hawken’s seventh collection of poetry. Four of her previous books have been finalists in the New Zealand Book Awards and her first, It Has No Sound and Is Blue, was chosen as “best first time published poet” in the 1987 Commonwealth Poetry Prize. In 2007 she received the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry. Dinah was born in Hawera, has lived in Wellington and New York, and is currently “in place” in Paekakariki.

the power of the word

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In brief: Dinah Hawken has commented* that “writing a political poem is something of a balancing act for me. It works best when I’m in touch with both my thinking and my feelings about an issue so that what is a political poem is also a personal poem.” Here, her blending of personal response and political concerns seems seamless. “We thought it was solid / so we held on to it” has me imagining a couple clinging to a rock face but the view soon widens to include dreams, faith given and received, the evolution of human knowledge about the Earth. There are reminders of the power, menace and detachment of our natural world, “that it can crack open / as if it has lost all care”. Having gone “too high, too low / and far too far” we remain dependent upon the planet and, “like a mother” of children constantly pushing their luck “it has had enough.” The speaker’s use of “we” throughout the poem emphasises the collective, all-encompassing nature of our global situation, whilst the metaphorical comparison within the final two couplets employs a scenario increasingly common in parts of the world to express how perilous that situation has become. Unspoken but implied is the question of where to next in our relationship with the planet. (*VUP blog These Rough Notes, September 2015.) 56

BY THE BOOK

P O P- U P BOOKS We’re loving the small-town book festivals popping up within driving distance of Wellington. After its successful debut in October, Featherston Booktown returns 20–22 May, headlined by Richard Taylor and Joy Cowley. Nearly 40 events (mostly free) range from readings and workshops to bookbinding lessons and a book fair. And Booktown isn’t just a fancy festival name. To join the 17 official Book Towns worldwide, you must be a scenic or historic village near a main city, with some second-hand or antiquarian bookshops. Featherston has applied to join the clique.

PRIDE AND JOY

MORE PUDDING

Kapiti Coast author Tina Makereti is one of 26 writers shortlisted for this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize, out of nearly 4,000 entries from 47 countries. The five regional awards are announced 4 May, and Makereti is strongly favoured to win the Pacific prize. Meanwhile her first novel Where the Rekohu Bones Sing was longlisted for the 100,000-Euro Dublin Literary Prize. She’s also a creativewriting teacher and Curator Māori at Museums Wellington.

Last year, Wellington’s Paul Mannering won best novel at the Sir Julius Vogel Awards – New Zealand’s fan-voted speculative and sciencefiction awards – for comic fantasy Engines of Empathy, about computer psychologist Charlotte Pudding stumbling on a quantum-physics-based religion. He’s just released a sequel, Pisces of Fate (Paper Road Press), about Charlotte’s brother rushing to her rescue. Mannering, who also writes short stories and radio plays, cofounded BrokenSea Audio Productions, which podcasts free audio drama.

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Sarah Grundy from Ngaio has won the Storylines Joy Cowley Award for best (unpublished) picture-book text. “I was so stoked because I grew up reading Joy Cowley,” says the debut author, who accepted her award in Auckland. The technical writer and plain-English expert wrote The Wondrous Archew – about a strange creature asleep in a tree – for her four-year-old daughter. She wins $1,500, publication by Scholastic, and editorial direction from Cowley.

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BY THE BOOK

PUSH THROUGH THE AGONY WRITTEN BY SARAH LANG | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

Literary success is wrenched out of illness and exhaustion by a first-time author.

rom the outside looking in, David Coventry is living the dream. A year after his first novel The Invisible Mile debuted at number two on the New Zealand-fiction bestseller list, it’s still in the top 10 (most recently, at number four). What’s more, it’s one of four shortlisted for the $50,000 Acorn Foundation Literary Award in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. The four category winners and supreme winner are announced on 10 May. In June, heavyweight publisher Picador will release The Invisible Mile in the UK and the Commonwealth as part of a two-book deal, with translations in Dutch, Spanish, German, Danish and Hebrew to follow. And Coventry, 46, has just landed a contract with Europa Editions to publish the novel in the US and Canada. These deals are big deals, given that even big-name New Zealand writers can struggle to land international contracts for just one book, let alone two. It all means Coventry can live off his writing, which is pretty rare in a country that doesn’t read a lot of local fiction. “And I’m very grateful for that.” But success has been bittersweet, given he’s been laid low by myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME): a term he prefers to chronic fatigue syndrome which can trivialise a debilitating and painful illness that involves flu-like symptoms and brain fog as well as extreme exhaustion. “On 27 March 2013, I went down and didn’t get up,” Coventry tells me, almost wincing. He was at his long-time job as database and research manager for Nga Taonga Sound & Vision (formerly New Zealand Film Archive) when he felt so ill he had to go home. Coventry doesn’t want to speak about his other health problems, but isn’t as reluctant to talk about M.E. He pauses and thinks before he speaks, looking at the

ceiling as though he’ll find the right words up there. “I don’t remember much. Sometimes I’d lie there and, for hours, I couldn’t produce the thought to make myself roll over.” He couldn’t even read. He was six months into writing the book, with about a quarter to go. “I could only manage to write in bed for 10 minutes in the morning, though there were moments of clarity when I could write more.” The Invisible Mile is, technically, about a Kiwi cyclist racing in the 1928 Tour de France. As Coventry wrote key scenes about the (unnamed) narrator pushing through physical agony and exhaustion, he was pushing through something not dissimilar. “I can’t know what it’s like to ride the race, but this was my version. I was close to finishing the book, and I wanted to see what would happen [in the story] if I sat at the computer and tried to push through this. I wrote one scene on my birthday at midnight in one go and in deep sickness. My body shut down and I couldn’t see the keyboard or the screen. It was excruciatingly painful. I woke up the next morning and thought the writing would be terrible, but it wasn’t. And I’m a terrible typist, but there was hardly a typo. I did a similar thing with two other scenes. Vitamin B injections helped a little.” Coventry was very ill for two years. He’s feeling better, but still not 100 per cent. “Maybe 65 per cent.” The day we meet, he’s just managed a four-kilometre walk between his Mornington home and Newtown. “That was big for me. Physically I’m way better but cognitively I’m still really struggling. I’m still struggling to read.” He only has enough energy to write in the mornings, doing easier tasks by afternoon. Life has contracted. His partner Paula Southgate, a technical writer at Xero, has supported him

BY THE BOOK

throughout, reading out his various drafts of The Invisible Mile as he lay on the couch, so he could make corrections verbally. The couple married in their home in June last year, the same month the book was published by Victoria University Press. The Invisible Mile captures the injuries, injustices and insanity of the Tour de France so well that you’d think Coventry had been an elite cyclist. He hasn’t. But don’t dismiss this as a sports book – it’s very much a psychological novel. You’re in the narrator’s head throughout. His memories, thoughts, and after-hours antics, and the stories of other characters drive the story forward, so it’s anything but a mere race narrative. Some see the narrator’s physical journey as an emotional journey of understanding what happened to his brother during WWI. But this is a Matrix-like ride which constantly upsets expectations and where the reader doesn’t know anything for sure. What is certain is that no other New Zealand author writes quite like this, with sentences so taut, short and dense with imagery that they border on poetry, with passages so beautiful you stop to reread them. Coventry brings 1928 France alive without having ever visited. “I looked at photos and used Google Earth street view a lot.” He also has a talent for writing dialogue in the cadence and colloquialisms of the 1920s. “It’s the writer’s job to imagine these things. This didn’t start out as a book about the Tour de France. It could have been about any old thing that came along.” What came along was a voice that would become the narrator’s. Coventry jotted down notes, knowing this would be his next novel but not knowing what it would be about. Then one day at Nga Taonga, he fielded a request for film footage of Harry Watson, a Kiwi member of the first English-speaking team to race the Tour de France. “I went to Watson’s Wikipedia page and something about him captured my imagination, including the fact they called him The Priest. The religious aspect of sport is really interesting to me.” He knew this was the nub of his novel. But the core of the book isn’t sports psychology. “It’s the act of remembering, as the narrator keeps moving towards that moment when he tries to remember what his brother went through.” But how can we remember something we didn’t go through directly? “That’s the allegorical bit. I’m writing this book in first person as if I’m owning the story. But what are we doing when we’re owning history?” He’s suggesting that perhaps we’re ap-

propriating something that we can’t own. That we can’t remember. “At Nga Taonga, I got so many requests for World War I film footage [in the lead-up to the centenary] and I thought, “Let’s be wary, people, of what we’re doing here. Let’s look really closely at what we’re doing as we’re doing it.’ And that’s what the book is about. The processes of memory.” Initially Harry was the narrator. “But I quickly realised it wasn’t his voice.” Not wanting to mess with Harry’s history or reputation, Coventry made Harry a minor character – and made the narrator a fictional fifth member of the team. Why is the narrator never named? “Well I know his name, but the book doesn’t,” says Coventry with his wry wit. “It was to keep him outside of history. Some of my readers have asked, ‘Is this guy actually in the race? Is he the imagination of another rider?’ And I like that.” It’s not that he agrees, necessarily, but that he’s purposely left much open to interpretation. Was he surprised by all the rave reviews and the inclusions in books-of-the-year lists? Refreshingly, he doesn’t go in for false modesty. “With this book, either it worked or it fell on its arse, not anywhere between. I had a feeling it worked and when my publisher [Fergus Barrowman] expressed confidence in it, I felt it was going to be okay.” But was he surprised by the shortlisting? He pauses. “I’m trying to explain this without sounding like a wanker. The novel has gone off and begun this other life. Surprise becomes something else. I’m certainly amazed by what’s happened with the book, but this amazement is just a part of the book’s life now.” Coventry will fly to Auckland for the New Zealand Book Awards on 10 May, up against literary heavyweights Patricia Grace, Patrick Evans and Stephen Daisley. The ceremony is part of the Auckland Writers Festival, where Coventry will read at a session on 15 May alongside Albert Wendt, David Slack and Booker shortlistee Hanya Yanagihara. It’s all a long way from 2010, when Coventry drafted a novel for his MA at Victoria’s International Institute of Modern Letters. He’s not going back to that manuscript – at least not for now – but he lets slip a few clues about his next novel: something about punk rock, something about the relationship between memory and violence. “I can’t wait to complete this book so I can move onto the next one – and I know which one will come after that, too. There’s a queue. So I’m going to keep writing and see where it takes me.”

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HOUSE

A SMALL FOOTPRINT WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY SIMON DEVITT

rom the moment I step inside Andrew Simpson and Krysty Peebles’ tiny Island Bay home, all memory of the insistent southerly blustering outside is erased. Pulling off my jacket, I comment on the toasty temperature and thank them for putting the heater on. They laugh. “There’s no heater on! I think we turned it on three times last winter,” says Peebles. Somehow, in a country renowned for leaky, drafty houses, and a city famous for the biting cold, architectural designer Simpson has built a home that, by using a whole lot of glass, high-quality insulation and clever site positioning, easily and quickly warms itself. It’s not the only pleasant surprise within the house’s diminutive 50 square metres. While Peebles pours a glass of wine, Simpson takes me on the tour – and although we cover the entire house in all of a minute, I’m amazed to notice the building never feels cramped. Aside from the bathroom and laundry the whole house is entirely open, so while the floor space allocated to the bedroom, kitchen or study might be negligible, each of these spaces borrows generously from those around it – including from the sweeping view of the valley that pours in through an enormous sliding glass door covering most of one wall. The house

is also sited in a way that takes full advantage of the lush, green surroundings – most neighbouring properties are hidden from view, making the house feel as if it sits alone among the fern and pohutukawa that poke their heads and trunks into the view through every window. “When we went to build in an established neighbourhood I think the neighbours thought, ‘Oh no! There goes the lovely green outlook’, but because of the small footprint we didn’t need to take out much more than a couple of trees. For a house that’s been here four years we have pretty established greenery around us,” says Simpson. When Simpson and Peebles first decided to move into a home of their own, the plan wasn’t always to start from scratch. But they soon found their house search being pushed further and further away from the central areas where they’d hoped to settle. “The homes with character which are also closer in tend to be either too expensive or require large amounts of work. But because we were open to living small we gained options for cheaper sections normally considered marginal,” says Simpson. When friends alerted them to this steep, scrubby Island Bay spot, the couple quickly snapped it up and began to brainstorm –

HOUSE

leading Simpson to recall an exhibition he’d seen while living in Japan, of models based on renowned Japanese architect Makoto Masuzawa’s “Nine Tsubo House” or “minimum house” design. A tsubo is a Japanese unit of area equivalent to the space taken up by two tatami mats placed side by side – nine of them together form an area of 50 square metres. As is often the case in architecture, Simpson found the idea of imposing a specific set of design constraints profoundly liberating, and so the house was designed in keeping with those principles. There is an art to living in such small spaces, and before they built their home Simpson and Peebles had lived in others, including the 40-square-metre studio of late architect Gerald Melling and a 60-square-metre apartment by architect Chris Kelly. “When people ask, ‘How do you live in such a small place?’ I always say, ‘Think about the spaces you live in – not your house, but the areas you actually use on a day-to-day basis. In that way I have as much space as you. I just don’t have a spare bedroom with the old bike and the ironing board and last winter’s clothes,” says Peebles. But while the couple are vocal proponents of the perks of living small, Simpson

is quick to distance himself from the “tiny house movement” that clutters many of our social-media streams. “Tiny houses are often uncompromising in their size, and they become cramped, which to me is not building the right size but building small for the sake of building small. Undoubtedly building small is better environmentally, economically… but I think it can provide better living as well,” he says. Simpson has a couple of pieces of advice for those considering downsizing the space they live in: “Think about what is important to you and how you live. Apart from the mundane considerations of easier cleaning, the joys are not necessarily connected to the size of the home. It’s the quality of the space which is important.” Also, consider your site carefully – the design that worked so well for Simpson and Peebles won’t necessarily work for you. “To build a small house on a perfectly flat, square site is a little bit weird… a little box plonked on the land with a fence round it. So you kind of need a site that’s a bit challenging and unusual and precarious,” says Peebles. “With small houses, everything has to be thoughtful and chosen carefully, because you’re experiencing it pretty intimately once you’re living in it.”

The most important person in my world is you when you phone or walk through my door. Ask for Mark. 70 Constable Street, Newtown P: 04 939 9402 E: service@uphol.co.nz W: uphol.co.nz

ABROAD

E V E RY HOME IS A G R AV E WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY AMANDA WITHERELL

Climate change is a deepening issue here; in the Pacific Islands it’s an everyday reality.

n Funafuti, Tuvalu, in front of most homes there are long, cement boxes, some neatly tiled, some painted bright reds and greens and blues and pinks, some festooned with garlands of plastic hibiscus, some accompanied by carved crosses. Graves. All are big enough to house a human, and they house the remains of past family members, kept close to their future generations. “It ties you to the land,” one man told us when we witnessed the same tradition on Bora Bora, and makes it very hard to sell. Or leave. What if the land is the first to leave? To be on an atoll in Tuvalu is to be on an island disappearing, as climate change takes hold. We sailed out of New Zealand in July 2015, with stops in Tonga and Fiji, but the ultimate goal was to put ourselves and our 41-foot sloop safely on the other side of the equator for what was forecast to be a nasty El Nino-influenced cyclone season. Tuvalu was the first atoll where we felt we might be just out of reach of the season’s first storms. However, not far from where our yacht was anchored there was plenty of evidence that even average weather routinely does its worst here. There used to be a beach along the western edge of Funafuti’s lagoon, just steps from the capital and government buildings that serve the country’s nine islands. Though patches of golden sand remain here and

there, now the foreshore is mostly sharp grey rock, shattered coral, and seaweed, entirely submerged by a high tide that licks at the edge of the main road. To serve a tightly-packed population of 10,000, there is one long, paved road running down the centre of the thin ribbon of island, parallel to both shores, lagoon to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east. In many places, it’s possible to see both bodies of water at once and to see evidence of the water encroaching. Cheap Chinese motorbikes are the primary mode of travel on Funafuti. From the back of our rental ($10 for 24 hours, no we don’t need your name or ID) I felt that I was looking up at the breaking waves, that the water was actually above me. Funafuti wants its beach back, and a dredging project is under way, sucking up tonnes of sand from the floor of the lagoon and spitting it onto the sharp rocks and fallen palms. Australia-based Hall Contracting is completing the $7 million project, funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It includes construction of a seawall to hold the sand in place – hopefully. “It will be a nice place to come drink a cold beer and watch the kids play,” a police officer told me as we stood on the narrow concrete pier watching a bucket loader redistribute piles of dredged sand. “Do you think it will stay?” I asked.

ABROAD

“Maybe a year or two,” he shrugged. Heavy winds and waves from the northwest were forecast for a day or two, just in time to coincide with the full moon’s king tide. “Water will be in the streets,” he assured me. He was right. We rode our motorbike through it. One day, I chanced to meet the chief of the island, Andrew Ionatana, son of former Prime Minister Ionatana Ionatana, who died suddenly in 2000 while giving a speech just a few steps from where I was sitting despondently by the shore, bags of wilting groceries at my feet. My dinghy was left high and dry and stuck underneath the pier by the extremely low tide. “You want some help?” he offered. With his young daughter in charge of the dinghy’s painter, we waded through the seaweed with the shifty, slippery, newlydredged sand sucking our flip-flops off our feet. Together we frog-walked the dinghy off the rocks and into the milky blue water. It was then he introduced himself. I asked if he was down by the waterfront to check on the progress of the dredging, but it was just to let his daughter fossick for shells in the upturned sand. Then I asked about climate change. “Yes, we are really worried,” he said. “We don’t know the future of Tuvalu in 50 years.” His eyes got wet and glassy. And what would those 50 years look and feel like? An increasing population crowding ever closer on a diminishing atoll, the ribbon of land slowly fraying away at both ends, open ocean kissing the lagoon across the causeway at all high tides, not just today’s king tide. Yet, everywhere there were signs of a people deeply connected and committed to their land as long as it continued to exist. Many new homes were under construction. The dredging to create the beach

was part of a contract to fill in the myriad “borrow pits”, a legacy of WWII when the US Marine Corps mined coral to construct a runway down the centre of the island, leaving behind 10 vast trenches that were eventually filled with trash and junked cars, broken appliances and brackish, polluted water that shifted with the tides, indicating just how porous and fragile the island is. Filling the pits shored up the land and increased the standard of sanitation – many pits now resembled random, white-sand beaches marooned incongruously inland, with volleyball nets stretched across them. Trash is now collected by a tractor towing a trailer and delivered to a new dump at the north of the atoll. Myriad climate-change-adaptation and foodsecurity projects were operating. I talked at length with a 19-year-old student attending the University of the South Pacific who said she was definitely coming home to Funafuti when she was done with school in Fiji. Playing cards with friends sitting in the shade of Grandmother’s grave, sleeping on open platforms under palm-leaf roofs, racing down the airport runway with the motorbike’s throttle pinned to its fragile limit, tapping a new palm shoot for bootleg coconut “toddy”, searching for shells at the beach – all of that sinks with Funafuti. They’re not just victims of the first-world activities that have accelerated climate change, they’re victims of the optimism that keeps us all going, attending school, building additions on our homes, gathering fresh flowers for the grave in the front yard. We can’t stop nature, Andrew commented, as the bucket loader roared closer to where we stood and began rearranging a pile of dredged sand. But they were trying. That’s human nature.

T O R Q U E TA L K

DANCING WITH A GODDESS WRITTEN BY ROGER WALKER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

A close encounter with Gallic design flair provides a joyful dance.

wo architects walk into a bar and start talking about buildings. Pretty soon, as happens on these occasions, they start talking about cars and discover, to their mutual joy, that they both own Citroens. It was not only the start of a beautiful friendship but a successful business partnership that lasted 40 years, until sadly, one died (but through no fault of his car). I had lunch last week with six architects (including the remaining partner), and again we began talking about cars. As we began with Citroens, we did a straw poll on how many we had collectively owned: 30. This particular brand loyalty is not, I believe, restricted to architects. Ask a dog to name a French car brand and he will bark Citroen. They’re almost obligatory in films trying to emulate the French sense of style – think James Bond and the Pink Panther. I myself bought an ex-Belgian-Post-Office Citroen 2CV (deux chevaux), in 1981 to help build a house in the UK. Its corrugated metal sides made it look like a small New Zealand outbuilding on wheels, but its soft and supple suspension enabled it to “straight-line” the 500 or so traffic roundabouts in Milton Keynes, saving about 15 minutes on a cross-city drive. I had nowhere to store my van when I came back home so, to my great regret, I had to sell it. The mechanical pedigree of Citroen is outstanding: first massproduction front-wheel drive, first chassis-less body, first disc brakes, and first four-wheel independent suspension. Citroen was one of the early pioneers of aerodynamics, and in the ‘50s began using a wind tunnel in their design tests. The Citroen CX was named after the term used to designate drag coefficient Cx. The first ever DS, to my knowledge, was the 1955 DS19. In addition to its state-of-the-art mechanical underpinnings and streamlined body, the car was jaw-droppingly gorgeous – a motoring counterpart of the Mona Lisa. It was named by Classic and Sports Car magazine as “the most beautiful car of all time”. In French DS is pronounced DAY-ess, the same as déesse, which means goddess. Ah yes, that makes perfect sense. Citroen’s upmarket DS brand was officially launched in 2010 with the stated ambition of “reviving the tradition of premium vehicles in the French automotive industry”; and to highlight the difference they rearranged the old Citroen logo into a more upmarket D and S.

The DS series is designed “for customers looking for a means to express themselves” — 430,000 have been sold worldwide. I had this in mind as I picked up the brand new 2016 DS4 Crossback. In the showroom I noted the lowest mileage I had ever seen in a car: 000003km. I went round the back to see if the placenta was still attached. She certainly is very pretty to look at. Chunky, curvaceous, and sitting nicely on the ground on black 18-inch alloys (some cars, and I include the E Type Jaguar, seem to perch on the road rather than connect to it), the car looks like the result of a one-night stand between a coupe and an RV. The rear door handles are concealed to promote the two-door coupe look and the stance is lifted further off the ground than the preceding 2010 DS4. The NZ spec car has a 130kw (180hp) 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel, mated to a six-speed auto box. It’s a long way from its ancestral 2CV with its minuscule 7kw. Driving out of the delivery suite, I discovered a host of creature comforts and intuitive features – an automatic parking brake; stored “jukebox” sound system; a great sat-nav; a stopstart engine; lane-departure detectors; tyre-pressure sensors; blind-spot monitoring; electronic fuel-filler release, front and rear sensors, and more. And there are other things only the French could come up with – LED indicator lights that “swish” left and right; and clever slide-forward visors to reduce the area of the wrapover windscreen in glare. And the fog lights still have that wonderful invention from the first DS – they look round the corner as you turn. The French – with all their glorious motorsport and car culture history, still allow purists to over-ride the auto box (to the left of the select is a manual gearshift) and the engine management systems. Magnifique. And so we went dancing – on city streets, on hills and motorways. I feathered and planted the accelerator. She’s taut, quick, sharp-handling, and yet fuel efficient (4.4litres/100km). She didn’t put a wheel wrong. No rattles, no hassles. Pure joy for me. She’s an impressive example of the art of French car makers, and definitely has the goddess genes. And at $54,000 + ORC the price is an absolute bargain compared with her German cousins.

W E L LY A NG E L

WHAT WOULD DEIRDRE D O? TIPPING OVER My step-brother (30) who is quite shy, is drinking a lot socially. He has a drinking problem, but he doesn’t want to listen to me. Do I tell my parents, who live in another city, and will worry but probably can’t do much? Bothered, Newlands He is 30 and not being young and irresponsible so maybe talk to him – at lunch or breakfast! Have you actually voiced your concerns for his health and wellbeing? It would be fine to mention your concern to your parents but consider how much it will upset them, particularly as they are not close. He must acknowledge that he needs help himself before you can really support him and before help can be found.

HARD CAT PARENTS I left a much loved cat at home (given to me for my 12th birthday) while I am away in another city. My parents are moving house and have said I must take

the cat or they will have it put down. I can’t have a cat in my current flat, is this unkind and callous or what? Catty one, Berhampore This is a sad but not uncommon situation and this cat deserves better. He/she is your pet and circumstances change but it is totally your responsibility – find another home either for your cat or for yourself – but get onto it, your parents are not being unkind nor callous, just practical.

OUTRAGEOUS WESTIE My partner is lovely but has not been taught the manners my family is used to, particularly table manners. Is it okay for me to tell her what would be most appropriate before we go to visit? Anxious, Ngaio

SELFISH SO CIALLY My partner is a kindly and gentle person but doesn’t like people much or taking part in very many social activities. He is totally used to just doing whatever suits him. Will this change at all over time? Lonely, Te Aro There are plenty of people who feel like him. I don’t think change is likely but maybe organise smaller gathering/outings with friends you both like and he may develop a more comfortable approach and enjoy social outings more. Go to the theatre, music and films where there is a clear focus that is not always on people. Concentrate on the good and positive and find a way to appreciate his gentleness and kindness and not to hanker after change. Enjoy.

She is lovely and you need to focus on this. They and you will lead by example and just see how it goes. You may be surprised and if it is an issue then let it be between your parents and your partner not between you two. Or does it bother you? Be honest with yourself and with her. Good luck.

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

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OPEN DAY 14TH MAY 10AM-2PM Atarea, Deputy Sports Prefect, Year 13 “Playing sports has got to be one of my favourite things about going to school. I enjoy the hype and adrenaline rush you get from giving it your all on the court, field or pool. Being able to bust out some sick moves on the basketball court and pulling off one three pointer after another was one of the best feelings. I don’t think I would have gotten into it if I didn’t have the freedom to say “I wanna have a go at that,” and being given the opportunity to learn how. I don’t know much about how other schools worked but Solway worked for me. I even got to participate in the National Maori Basketball Tournament in a regional team. Solway has given me the opportunity and confidence to have a go at anything I wanted and to know that I’ll have the support from the school and my team mates. Sure there were some rough moments when our teams would be divided at times but this isn’t the stuff I remember. I remember the good stuff.”

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Holly, Academic Prefect, Year 13 “It was one of those cold mornings when we were all seated in class and the teacher announced that she was going to get a coffee. Someone asked cheekily if the class could have hot chocolates. To our surprise, the teacher said yes. Once she took down our orders of how we liked our hot chocolate (being concerned with how much sugar we would be consuming) she went and got them for us. A few minutes later, we were all happily drinking hot chocolate, and we began the lesson. Our academic results are really good at Solway and that’s because of the motivation of the students. This is helped along by the dedication of our teachers who give extra time whenever it’s needed.”

SOLWAY COLLEGE Visit our website for details Fleet Street Masterton P: 06 378 2219 E: office@solwaycollege.school.nz W: www.solwaycollege.school.nz

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B A B Y, B A B Y

TRY OUT THE NAUGHT Y STEP BY MELODY THOMAS

4. Wear whatever you want Don’t want to get out of your PJs today? Why would you!? Sick of the pinch of that bra? Ditch it! With their three-hats-on-topof-each-other, underwear-outside-of-their-pants and princessdress-with-Ninja-Turtle-shoe combos, our preschoolers know that getting dressed is just another opportunity for creativity. If you need inspiration or reassurance that “dressing your age” is totally overrated, check out 87-year-old Instagram celebrity and bad-ass Grandma Baddie Winkle.

rom sleep training to time out, the art of sharing to potty training, we spend a lot of time talking about the things we need to teach our children. But with the passing of the Little Dragon’s third birthday came a whole host of new skills and behaviours that, on closer inspection, are revealed to be valuable lessons for the adults in her life. Here are a few of the best. 1. Saying ‘no’ No-one says no better than a three-year-old, and no-one needs a lesson in saying no more than a mum. Next time you’re asked if you wouldn’t mind taking on an extra role at creche/having the MIL to stay/baking a cake for the birthday party, try out this magic little two-letter combo. It’s even more fun when you yell it!

5. Wonder-filled is wonderful One of the coolest things about having kids is how they crack open the pockets of wonder that responsibility and experience fuse tightly shut. It’s usually worth taking time to get down on their level and really see what it is they’re trying to show you – because that spider feasting on the trembling fly really is pretty awesome, as is the light on those distant hills and the funny way that little dog digs on the beach.

2. Act first, think later Is it a good idea to finish that bottle of wine? Is it wrong to push out your tummy and feign pregnancy for a seat on the bus? Will your boss enjoy the hilarious one-liner about your vagina? Well, how will you know till you’ve tried? There’s no end to anecdotes and inspirational quotes printed on canvas about the merits of being a “doer”, and if things don’t go as well as you’d hoped then, as kick-ass US naval officer and computer scientist Grace Hopper put it, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”

6. Fun is number one When much of your life is dedicated to making sure other people are fed, rested and content, having fun can seem pretty low on the priority list. But there’s a reason our little one wakes us up every morning with the words “Let’s play!” Go out dancing if someone offers to babysit, bake something delicious you’ve never made before, cover the floor in newspaper and paint pictures using your limbs. Adventure, excitement and exploration are the stuff good, satisfied lives are made up of. I won’t go as far as suggesting you follow Jezebel writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton in her article, It's a Lot More Fun to Play Make-Believe With Your Kids If You're Slightly High on Weed but… you know… that’s the vibe. (NB: that author lives in a place where recreational marijuana use is legal and there were responsible, sober adults present at the time.)

3. Most dark moods can be brightened with a snack, aka “hanger” is real You know the drill – something seemingly insignificant sets off a monster tantrum and just as you’re about to launch into lecture mode you realise that (despite being an exceptional, super-onto-it parent 99% of the time) you’ve forgotten to feed your child. No-one acts rationally when they’re hangry (hungryangry) – and you are no exception. Next time you start to feel a blind rage or a spot of uncontrollable sobbing coming on, get a handful of almonds or some peanut butter toast in you, then see how you feel. If the urge is still there, chances are the feelings behind it are legitimate. 78

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