Capital 35 by Capital

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

ABANDONED SPACES OCTOBER 2016

ISSUE 35

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ART AND POLITICS

TOURS · EDUCATION · ZEALANDIA BY NIGHT · SEMINARS

Photo kindly supplied by Rob Suisted, Nature’s Pic Photography

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CAPITAL MADE IN WELLINGTON THE COVER: Boo!

ctober already? It can't be! is the refrain I am beginning to hear around me as we begin our mad race towards Christmas and summer. This month we will have a new mayor and a new council to become acquainted with. Halloween, which is becoming an established part of our calendar, pops up unseasonably this month, reminding us just how many of our cultural celebrations come from the other side of the world. In happy timing, our photo essay from photographer Oscar Keys looks at the city’s abandoned spaces, any one of which would make a perfect setting for a spooky Halloween evening. It was surprising to have Oscar point out how many abandoned buildings we have nearby. Are we very wasteful, or is it just part of a natural cycle? Melody Thomas talks to a young Wellingtonian, Rebecca Stewart, about her business idea for helping refugees in a very practical way; and Sarah Lang asks fellow writer Sarah Laing (they share an office) about her passion for Katherine Mansfield. All this and more. You will see from our letters column that not everybody likes our decisions for the magazine. Of course we like it when you agree with us, but we really do value your feedback either way. Please keep it coming.

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

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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 Michael Benton michael@capitalmag.co.nz Griff Bristed griff@capitalmag.co.nz Head Factotum John Bristed john@capitalmag.co.nz Art direction Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Design Rhett Goodley- design@capitalmag.co.nz Hornblow Accounts Tod Harfield accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Craig Beardsworth

Factotum

Gus Bristed

Distribution

M IC HA E L B E N T O N C amp ai g n C o- ordi n ator

O S C A R K EYS Ph oto g r aph er

Mikey is the newest face at Capital HQ. Sales machine by day, musician by night, Mikey is a long-time resident of Wellington. His moustache rivals that of Mario from Super Mario and he can blow a pretty good tune on the harmonica.

Oscar is currently in his first year of spatial design at Massey University. His photography currently centres around the uncomfortable and savage beauty of elusive and unfamiliar people, places, and things. Check out more of Oscar’s work on Instagram @oscarkeysphotography.

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 Ian Cassels | Danielle Warren | John Hobbs Andrew Monahan | Guy Aharoni Bryan Dickinson

ALEX SCOTT Writer

TIM BROWN Gu e st c olum n i st

Alex does a little bit of everything. When she's not painting, cartooning or making tiny objects, she's writing and sub-editing. A transplanted Aucklander, she's enjoying learning why Wellingtonians are always raving about their city. You can find her on Instagram @thisisalexscott.

Tim is a trustee of the Creative Capital Arts Trust which oversees Wellington’s very successful Fringe and CubaDupa festivals. He’s also a director of NZ Opera and done school boards, cubs, and sport governance. His day job is with H.R.L Morrison & Co.

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CONTENTS

A B A N D O N E D S PA C E S Haunting glimpses of the past. Oscar Keys photographs dilapidated Wellington locations.

GAMBLING ON ARTS

REFUGE WITH REFUGEES

FRANK AND FUNNY

Tim Brown discusses why funding for the arts sector hasn’t increased in eight years

Rebecca Stewart’s suffering brings warmth to refugees, and our tastebuds

Frank and funny, cerebral and bold – Sarah Lang on Sarah Laing

10 LETTERS

LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

12 CHATTER

EDIBLES

SHEARERS’ TABLE

LIQUID THOUGHTS

BY THE BOOK

NEWS BRIEFS

NEW PRODUCTS

TALES OF THE CITY

66 HOME

20 CULTURE

TORQUE TALK

WELLY ANGELS

BABY BABY

THE CHOICES WE MAKE

WHAT THE FLOCK

SURF TALK LOVE

77 DIRECTORY

FASHION BRIEFS

78 CALENDAR 9

LETTERS

NOSTALGIA+ I enjoyed the photos you ran of past Toast Martinborough events (#34, Sept). We had many good days attending, in its first decade or so. Our very blended family of siblings and half-siblings often used it as meeting point, a reason to gather for a weekend, and feel quite keen to revisit on its 25th anniversary. R Brown, Auckland

EMBARRASSED READER I thought it was great that Capital Magazine is everywhere. Meant I could get my fix of interesting think-pieces by idiosyncratically cool Wellington writers at heaps of cool places. Now I'm just disappointed that I have to see yet another woman's tiny and hairless arse on the stands. How disappointed I am by your choice to objectify yet another woman and probably call it edgy. It's not edgy. It's boring and I am embarrassed for you. Please do better. Also it’s spring. Was this seriously the best you could come up with? Emma (by email) Editor: Thank you for your feedback. Covers are evaluated by a variety of people involved with the mag, sometimes also random passersby. A range of people, young and old male and female, liked this cover. We didn’t think it edgy. I am sorry it doesn’t please you.

FRESH AND NEW I know lots of people comment on the Capital covers. I thought the knitted sushi in August, was fun, but am really enjoying this month’s very retro salmon pink cover. At one stage (a long time ago, in the 80s I think) every new office in New Zealand seemed to be designed around this colour scheme. And you have given it a fresh new twist. J Swift, Wellington

USEFUL CHART The chart you have produced (#34, Sept, p36) summarising the key positions of the various mayoral candidates for Wellington, is really useful. I am a first-time voter, not very interested in this process but thinking I should try and take part. Next time would you please do one for all the candidates. Student, Wellington (name supplied)

0 8 00 B AS EL INE B A S EL INE.CO. NZ

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

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LOVE LOCAL TALENT: The gorgeous graphics you see featured in our ranges is the result of a hearty collaboration between Chalkydigits design brain and the superlative local artists we encourage out of the woodwork. We love to showcase their creative talents and dig how it adds more creative flavour to our gear. LOVE THY LAND:

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The function and aesthetics of our garments are so intrinsically connected to our spectacular environment and our kiwi lifestyle that giving something back is a no-brainer! A percentage of all our web and shop sales are channelled into saving our endangered species. Because it just feels right.

Exposure Exhibition 5 – 19 November, 10am – 4pm daily A showcase of emerging young artists and designers from Massey’s College of Creative Arts. Free Entry Wellington Campus creative.massey.ac.nz

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

HERE HAIR

NOT T O E AT We’ve just had the annual Great Kereru (native wood pigeon) Count. Wellington people are right into it, because last year across New Zealand 30% of the reports came from the region, reporting sightings of more than 4,000 birds. WWF’s Michele Frank says thanks to pest control by the councils, numbers here are looking good, although not in Miramar and Mt Victoria. They need years of sightings to see a real trend. Flocks of Kereru used to be common across New Zealand skies. Kereru are known as the gardeners of the sky and are crucial for forest regeneration because of their rare ability to scatter the large fruit of our native trees like the Karaka.

HUGH CHESTERMAN Where do you get your hair cut/styled? The Gentleman's Approach.

DINOSAURS AB OUT

Favourite childhood hairdo disaster... My mum used to give me this horrendous bowl cut. It was bloody awful.

Palmerston North’s Te Manawa Museum has hatched one of its most exciting exhibitions yet –Dinosaur Encounter, which will run until February next year. From the Natural History Museum in London, nine moving dinosaur models are brought to life by state-of-the-art animatronics. A massive Tyrannosaurus Rex is the 4.5m-tall centrepiece of the display, which also includes Triceratops, Ankylosaurus and Ornithomimus.

Best teenage hair-related faux pas... I had a fringe. Enough said. My hair tip is... You can make your freshly washed hair last longer if you keep it tied up all morning and then you let it down in the afternoon. It's just like if it's freshly washed because it's still a little bit damp, ya know?

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS GRO OVY, BABY It is a common occurrence for Uber drivers to give (often questionable-looking) mints to their passengers in order to guarantee the coveted five-star rating. One Wellyworder, however, found herself, on a Saturday night, in an Uber that took driver hospitality to the next level. A disco ball hung from the car ceiling, accompanied by 80s rave music. Disco-Uber is now (and forever more) her preferred method of transportation.

MODERN MANNERS “Please”, “thank you” and “sorry” are drilled into us at a young age, yet seem to be forgotten once we hit adulthood. A Wellyworder found herself in an argument with a stranger in McDonalds in defence of these words. After spilling his drink on the floor, the culprit seemed to think this was somehow the cleaner’s fault. We think he may have accidently dropped his manners on the floor also.

WAVE BREAKING Each sport comes with its own etiquette, reinforced with an array of rules and dress codes. Surfing, however, has no referee. Wild waves in Lyall Bay seem to have brought around some wild attitudes, reports one Wellyworder. Three or four people out in the surf are ruining it with their bullying tatics. These rogue surfers seem to have missed the boarding time for the sportsman-ship. All aboard.

IT'S COOL TO KORERO October means spring is in full swing and when we often get the wildest weather... Kia hea tau ai taku pōtae? Where’s my hat gone?

LIGHTS, NOISE, ACTION India’s best loved festival, Diwali symbolises the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil and the renewal of life. To celebrate, families light small oil lamps (diyas) around the home and set off fireworks. Most of the action takes place over Labour Weekend on or near the waterfront at the TSB Bank Arena. Highlights of the festival include food and music and fireworks to conclude. 23-26 October.

PARK AND RIDE The site of the old Waikanae Hotel is being turned into a Park and Ride experience. While the name suggests something of a theme park, its actual meaning is laughably tame but no less welcome. Park and Ride refers to car parking for residents from out of town commuting to work on the train each day, and Waikanae is due to get 240 of these carparks. With over 1,000 people taking the train from Waikanae each day, this extra parking will be very welcome in time for Christmas.

NEWS BRIEFS

TA K I N G ACTION Human-rights advocate, writer, restaurateur and yoga teacher Marianne Elliott is a community-category finalist in Next magazine's Woman of the Year Awards, announced in Auckland in mid-October. The former lawyer, who wrote the 2012 memoir Zen Under Fire about her time as a human-rights advisor with the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, is national director of ActionStation: a New Zealand not-for-profit helping 100,000 members take collective action. She also runs Miramarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mexican restaurant La Boca Loca with partner Lucas Putnam.

GOLDEN FEET

EARTH TURF

METH ON THE BREATH

Golden Foot Walking Awards for three outstanding walking projects were announced recently at the 2Walk and Cycle conference. The winners demonstrated ways to improve the walking environment to create more liveable places for us all to enjoy. The Wellington Sculpture Trust won Best Walking Project 2016 for Park(ing) Day, taking over car parks to turn them into a series of temporary art spaces. Thousands of people walked the mapped route through the city streets, highlighting how enjoyable urban open space can be.

Over three kilometres of plastic piping will be laid in trenches at Kelburn Park to improve drainage at the popular inner city sports ground. Peter Hemsley of the City Council says the new system will drain the park more efficiently so the turf can better withstand winter rugby and also recover sooner before the cricket season. The existing drainage system has filled with silt and become ineffective. Work began late September and is scheduled to be completed within six weeks.

Soon, meth testing could be as unsurprising as a breath test. A group of Victoria University-led researchers are developing saliva tests for motorists and home testing kits for prospective buyers. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve just been awarded $1million by the Endeavour Fund, along with several other research groups from Victoria, totalling $15million in research grants over the next three years. With Housing NZ spending $21million testing homes for traces of meth in the year to June, an affordable alternative is welcome.

NEWS BRIEFS

LET THERE BE LIGHT The LUX light festival is skipping a year, as it’s changed months from August to May, but the folks behind it couldn’t wait another seven months. Glade, an indoor installation of light works, runs from 30 September to 9 October, 12pm to 8pm. Book at LUX.org.nz, meet at Waitangi Park, and you’ll be pointed to the mystery location. “It’s like a secret science lab where the experiments have gone wrong,” says curator Chris Bennewith, who has linked together light works by a dozen Massey University staff, students and alumni.

KIDS, RUN, FUN, SUN

SIX-STAR BUSH

HERITAGE PROMISES

For young families wading through a post-Olympic slump, Cigna and Wellington Sport bring you the 5th year of the children’s fun run. On October 20, hundreds of children will converge on Waitangi Park to participate in a range of races for a range of prizes. Cigna says a healthy lifestyle comes from combining family and physical activity. We think this might be a good way to test your family’s 2028 Olympic potential.

The Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture has upgraded Wellington’s Otari-Wilton Bush garden from five to six stars. This means it is now a Garden of International Significance. Otari-Wilton is the sixth six-star garden in New Zealand and the only one dedicated entirely to native plants. The Otari-Wilton Bush covers around 100ha of the Kaiwharawhara stream catchment and receives over 80,000 visits each year. Landscaping improvements made in 2010, particularly the central collections pathway, contributed significantly to its receiving this award.

Eleven heritage buildings around Wellington, including Futuna Chapel and St Gerard’s Monastery, have received grants totalling $305,513 from Wellington City Council. The money is for earthquake strengthening work such as geotechnical and seismic assessment or structural work, and repairs and maintenance to keep their heritage characteristics.

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IN ASSO CIATION WITH

Edo de Waart Music Director

EDO DE WAARTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S MASTERWORKS

NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

S AT U R DAY

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ELGAR

Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major

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SECTION HEADER

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

AC C ORDING TO SHA RON WRITTEN BY JOHN BRISTED | PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHALEE FITZSIMMONS

INSTRUMENT

MUSICIAN

BOOKS

WEAR

A RT I ST

Piano accordion

Patti Smith

Alla fine del mondo by Paul Elenio

Isabella Blow

Milan Mrkusich

Enthusiasm is a great attribute to have and musician SHARON GREALLY’s got it in spades. Listening, you get the feeling that her intention is to make everything she does, fun.

haron “used to be a nurse back in the olden days” but now she earns her keep not only playing piano accordian for the Balkanistas, Rose Road and The Martini Club, “Loads of fun times”, but also teaching at Inverlochy Art School, freelance journalism, and she’s a practising artist too. She’s quick to add, “Luckily I have a wonderful partner who brings home the bacon.” Does being a mother count as a living, albeit unpaid? “It should, and I am the very lucky mother of four beautiful children.” It’s hard to keep up with a woman who has so many favourite things but included are: “Bands at Meow, Rogue and Vagabond; Paramount Theatre for their great range of films; Five Boroughs for the best coffee in town; and Slim Davy’s friendly Neighbourhood Saloon where you can pop in for a cheeky dirty martini on your own, and everybody knows your name... which may or may not be a good thing.” Back at home “Fritz the Hungarian Vizsla is a constant source of wet sloppy kisses and unfettered love. My adored cat Princess Tallulah Trixiebell keeps me on her own adoration leash.” She rattles off her favourite outdoor spots “The bushtrack up Mt Victoria, where there are myriad bird sounds and wondrous dogs – and their owners, Lyall Bay or up on another of the amazing town belt walks we are so lucky to have; but always with a wine bar or cafe nearby. Not necessarily in that order. I love going away, but it’s always good to come home to the vibe that is

Wellington… the clean air, the hills and the constantly changing colours of the sea and sky. And the wind… maybe not. “My most inspiring artist is probably Milan Mrkusich for his innate sense of colour and space. I can get lost in his works. One day I will win Lotto and own one... “I have always loved Patti Smith. Hers was the first album I bought as a teenager – Horses... And I still find her works inspiring. I buy her albums now though. “At the moment I’m reading Alla Fine Del Mondo’ (To The Ends Of The Earth), by Paul Elenio, about the early Italian migrants to NZ – fascinating local history. I’m also reading Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon, about the extraordinary and parallel lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, both amazing women in their own rights". Sharon’s style depends on her muse for the day. “I try to channel Isabella Blow for her sense of art and intrigue, but generally wear what’s lying on top of the pile". If she studied again, she’d opt for space travel. Meanwhile, earthside, she’d like to explore “the yet to be discovered South America. Two of my kids have been there, and the way they describe the land and the people, the colours and the smells, I’m half way there already. “And if I coveted anything it would be health and happiness for ever. Oh, and world peace.” 19

CULTURE

SEIZING THE MO-MENT Moana Ete, a 25-year-old singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor and playwright, has many talents. Her three-person R&B/electronica live act A Girl Named Mo (that’s also her stage name) performs a multimedia show combining music and the spoken word, Platonic\Romantic at Bats 11–15 October. Twelve tracks recorded there will be released in December as her debut album, also called Platonic\Romantic. “I want to see what recording it live and unvarnished adds or takes away. It’s about the romantic nature of platonic love and vice versa, especially my love for my male friends.”

MOZ ART MASTER

A FAMILY AFFAIR

PRIVATE LIFE

Dutch conductor Edo de Waart is enjoying his first year as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s music director. “It’s wonderful, after my first bow, to turn around and know we can do this together.” Next up in his Masterworks series is Mozart and Elgar (29 October), including Dutch pianist and Mozart specialist Ronald Brautigam playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24.

Amateur theatre Wellington Repertory is usually adults only, but three children play siblings in Brassed Off (Gryphon Theatre, 19–29 October), set in a Yorkshire town threatened with the closure of its mines. PR consultant/Wellington Repertory president Catherine McMechan, gasfitter partner Steve Bell and daughter Emily Bell, 10, are leads, as are Oliver Mander and son Thomas, 15. There’s no nepotism here: the kids mastered Yorkshire accents to audition like anyone else.

Award-winning sound designer, musician and composer Sebastian Morgan-Lynch performs a solo show The Gaps Between at Circa (11 –15 October), playing cello to recordings of his short stories in front of a screen showing time-lapse photography of Wellington. “It’s exploring how people bridge the gaps between them,” MorganLynch says. There’s a gap between his two worlds: he’s been Senior Policy Advisor (health) at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for 15 years.

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CULTURE

C L AY F O R WAY WA R D Y O U T H A major retrospective exhibition of more than 30 years of work by leading ceramic artist Wi Taepa will open at Pataka Gallery in Porirua, on 9 October. The exhibition will be the largest showing of his work to date with around 35 works made between 1988 and 2015. Wi works teaching clay and visual arts at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Porirua. Retrospect tracks his progression from the days of working with clay as a creative and meditative tool for wayward youth, through to the international influences of his later career. In 1988 Taepa made the decision to seriously focus on his art practice, and in 1989 he enrolled in a Certificate of Craft Design at Whitireia Polytechnic in Porirua.

BABY CHAMBER

WORLD VIEW

CAUGHT SHORT

Fun fact: babies enjoy classical music. So Chamber Music New Zealand’s first-ever Rattles and Rhythm concert welcomes babies, toddlers (and their caregivers, please) to hear the eight-person London Conchord Ensemble at the Michael Fowler Centre at 11am on Thursday 13 October. Others might prefer their music scream-free at 7.30 that evening, as part of the ensemble’s debut New Zealand tour.

Raised in Lower Hutt and Eastbourne, dancer, choreographer and teacher Claire O’Neil flitted between Wellington, Auckland and Brussels in the 90s, and now lives in Auckland. She’s back in Wellington with her new work Lifeworld (in five parts) with Footnote Dance at the Opera House (19 October). A background of projected images draws attention to our ability to choose how we see the world.

This year, nationwide short-film festival Show Me Shorts adds three venues, including Finns Paekakariki (16 October). Divided into themed sessions, 47 shorts from 60 countries also show in Martinborough (16–22 October) and Wellington (13–26 October). Local Heather Hayward directed documentary Stevo, about security guard Steven Winiata, who works in Wellington but mainly lives in the Ureweras. Wellington women are represented, with films by Mhairead Connor, Matasila Freshwater and Georgina Bloomfield.

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CULTURE DIRECTORY

LIF EW OR L D (I N F I V E PA R TS )

HUDS O N & HALLS LIVE!

Footnote New Zealand Dance

By Kip Chapman with Todd Emerson & Sophie Roberts

CEN T RAL By Dave Armstrong

Lifeworld (in five parts) by Claire O’Neil is a compelling dance theatre work that celebrates the different ways we move through the world and our potential to choose the way we see it. Whether Lifeworld (in five parts) feels close to home, vaguely familiar or almost alien depends on where you’ve been.

Silo Theatre’s smash hit comedy is coming to Wellington! Celebrate the silly season with New Zealand’s iconic TV chefs, Peter Hudson and David Halls as they show you how to make a Christmas feast with all of the trimmings. Prepare for big laughs, rum-fuelled showdowns and some very questionable cooking.

Armstrong Creative and Circa Theatre present Central by Dave Armstrong. Directed by Conrad Newport. From the creator of The Motor Camp and Rita and Douglas, Central is a hugely entertaining play that has Central Otago at its heart, and explores the way we engage with our work, our landscape and each other.

Wed 19 Oct, 8pm The Opera House Ticketek.co.nz 0800 842 538

From 16 November Hannah Playhouse Ticketek.co.nz 0800 842 538

15 Oct–12 Nov Circa Theatre (04) 801 7992 circa.co.nz

KAP I T I A RT I S T S IN F O C US Mahara Gallery features eight emerging artists, award winners, fresh faces. Drawing by Dante Kennedy George, Katie Sampson, Kimbra Taylor & Harriet Bright – mixed media with Sara Boland – sculpture with Liz Earth, Graeme Hitchcock & Sebastien Jaunas. Also Living in Kapiti by KPS; and Manawaroa by Brenda Tuuta

16 Oct–4 Dec maharagallery.org.nz

W E L L M ADE CRAFT FAIR Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre hosts a smorgasbord of hand-crafted gifts and boutique products from local makers. Including gourmet food, clothing, jewellery, homeware and more, this is a unique opportunity to get lovingly hand-crafted items. Sat 12 Nov, 10am - 2pm 836 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt www.expressions.org.nz 22

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CULTURE

STREET POWER

FROM POL AND WITH LOVE

Graeme James Crehan, aka Graeme James, is glad Wellington’s a pedestrian city. In 2012, the Palmerston North lad spent weekends busking here: singing covers, playing electric violin, and tapping his loop pedal on Cuba Street, the waterfront, the railway-station underpass. “Sometimes I slept in my car.” Moving towns, he gained loyal fans, got bar gigs locally then countrywide, and released two covers albums, with help from crowd-funder Kickstarter. He’s raised $11,000 that way for his first original album News From Nowhere, released independently, last month, with 10 “danceable-folk” tracks blending his playing of violin, guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, percussion, and his beatboxing. Four tracks featured on the NZ-Australian TV series 800 Words, while pre-released single Alive has been streamed 130,000 times, and nabbed him a 2016 finalist spot in international songwriting competition Unsigned Only. The track When You Look At Me is a duet with musician wife Zoe Crehan. “I met her busking when she stopped to jam.” The Berhampore local, 30, made the One+One music video busking on Cuba Street, where passersby young and old stopped to jam and shimmy. “It’s a tribute to the best fans in the world.” He’ll play at Meow (14 October) during a 10-centre album-release tour.

In November 1944, 733 Polish children – mostly orphans – arrived in Wellington on a troop ship with 105 caregivers. Among them were the three orphaned Lepionka brothers, who’d survived a Siberian labour camp. They settled into the Polish Children’s Camp at Pahiatua and most accepted New Zealand’s invitation to stay post-war. Zdzislaw Lepionka, who also goes by Eric, met Halina Melgies at a dance and discovered she arrived on the same boat aged 13 months (with her mother). The couple still live in Seatoun, where their four children went to “Polish school” on Saturdays to learn their home country’s language and traditions. Now their daughter Wanda Lepionka, a filmmaker who holds Polish culture dear, has set up the inaugural Wellington Polish Film Festival. Thirty films, from features and documentaries to shorts, screen at the Paramount from 30 September to 9 October. “The time was right,” Lepionka says. “Polish cinema’s come to the world’s attention, and in Poland it’s the ‘Year of Krzysztof Kieślowski' – the late, great filmmaker – so we’re screening his work.” Lepionka, once Avatar’s costume co-ordinator, co-owns CraftInc. Films with writer-director partner David Strong. The Island Bay parents-of-three, who’ve made two festival-hopping short films, write films and TV series for overseas markets.

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THE CHOICES WE MAKE BY CRAIG BEARDSWORTH | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEREMY HOOPER Hip-hop is all about drugs, crime, showing off your wealth and misogyny – right? That’s how the stereotype goes. Skip through some YouTube videos and see a panoply of sex and violence on display in both lyrics and imagery. Emanuel Psathas is at pains to justify but not condone this particular take on an art form he loves. “There’s a big disconnect between what the public hears and reality – are hip-hop artists glorifying drugs and sexist behaviour? You’re not gonna rap about happy times if you don’t live in happy times. You rap about what you know. For many artists it’s just a reflection of their life.” Psathas, who goes by the pseudonym Name UL, writes what he knows about and on his recently released album Choice(s) explores the out-on-the-town journey from 4pm to 4am on any given weekend in Wellington. He has a strong message and it’s not what you might expect from a 20 year old (especially if you subscribe to hip-hop stereotypes). Psathas is frustrated with the binge drinking culture and Choice(s) is his attempt to call out its destructive behaviour. “You get excluded if you don’t want to drink, people won’t tell you you’re lame specifically but you don’t get invited out so people end up drinking to fit in and it drives the cycle even more – everyone is an enabler. I want to plant a seed in their mind – that’s what my music should do.” Performing and writing music since he was 15 Psathas is now making the connections he hopes will propel him into the American music industry where hip-hop originated. Next year he travels to Los Angeles for a three month internship at Warner Music. There he will make music every day working with producers, sound engineers and other artists “I might be asked to write a hook or add lyrics or beats or a new melody.” he enthuses. He is determined to remain harnessed to the ideals that have informed his writing so far listing artists who he thinks have faltered in the intent of their work – lured by money. Instead, he wants to keep planting seeds.

W HAT T H E F L O C K

LI T T L E FA NTA IL Name: New Zealand fantail. Māori name: Pīwakawaka, as well as dozens of other dialectal names, many of which denote the restlessness of the bird (Tīwakawaka, Hīwaiwaka, Tīrairaka). Status: Endemic, not threatened. Habitat: Fantail are widespread and common throughout most of the country and on offshore islands, except for the dry, open country of inland Marlborough and Central Otago. Look for them: The success of the species is largely due to its ability to adapt to environments greatly altered by humans – so while you’ll still find pīwakawaka in the open native forests and scrub they have always called home, they also frequent exotic plantation forests, orchards and suburban gardens. The fantail is small and occurs in two colour morphs, pied (with a greyish head, white eyebrows, white and black bands across the upper chest and a long black and white tail) and black (much more rare, mainly black and with an all-black tail). Call: Their sweet cheep and distinctive chattering song are both heard regularly, especially during the breeding season (August to March).

Feeds on: Small invertebrates such as moths, flies, beetles and spiders, using three different techniques to catch them. In open territory the birds use perches to spot swarms of insects, flying into the swarm to catch several insects at once (‘hawking’); in denser vegetation they fly about quickly in order to disturb insects from their hiding places (‘flushing’); and as any hikers will likely have witnessed, they also rely on feeding associations, following both feeding birds and feeding people, for any delicious insects they might kick up on their travels. Did you know? According to Māori mythology it was Maui who gave the fantail his appearance. After it refused to tell Maui where the goddess Mahuika kept her fire hidden, the demigod squeezed the bird so hard its eyes nearly popped out, its tail projected out from its body and its flight path became erratic. It was a decision Maui would later come to regret, when he attempted to enter the sleeping body of Hine-nui-tepo through her birth canal, pīwakawaka burst into tittering laughter, awakening the goddess who was so angry she snapped Maui in two between her thighs. If it were human it would be: a three-year-old child – cute, inquisitive and talkative, with a wonderful but somewhat ungainly pattern of movement, who is sometimes so frustrating you daydream about giving them a squeeze.

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

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30 Years

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OPINION

GAMBLING ON ARTS WRITTEN BY TIM BROWN

Support for the “Creative Capital” is evident in local election campaigns, but the art sector is truly out of fashion with central government. Art and politics are inextricably entwined. Art holds up a mirror to society. Politics, which seeks to manage and change society, is often in the mirror.

he politics-art connection attracts particular attention during local-body elections. In Wellington at least, an artistic vibrant city is seen to be a civic good. All the leading mayoral aspirants want Wellington to remain the Creative Capital. Their support isn’t just lip service. Maintaining a vibrant artistic scene requires money and Wellington City Council embraces its arts-sector responsibilities. There are economic and social capital benefits. While the Wellington City Council and its Mayoral aspirants are pledging to expand support for the arts, the central government position is notably different. Since it was elected in 2008, this National Government’s funding of Creative New Zealand has remained fixed at $15.7 million each year. In addition, this year the government will allocate $23.6 million to the NZSO, the New Zealand Ballet and Te Matatini Kapa Haka, up from the $20.7 million provided over the previous eight years. So the performing arts have received $36.4 million for each of the past eight years, and this year will receive $39.3 million, an 8% increase over eight years. This is however only a part of how government supports the performing arts. A material part of art sector funding is derived from gambling and this is in decline. Bob Jones called Lotto a voluntary tax on the innumerate, and the same could be said of pokies. Gambling is a difficult social issue. It clearly has a social cost, but prohibition doesn’t work and in any case individuals have rights and many people do find gambling fun and entertaining.

As a society we balance the reality of harm (the people most likely to wager on Lotto are those most deprived by the almost inevitable losses) with a regulatory structure which aims to recycle the profits (the punters’ losses) to good causes, including the arts. The problem for the arts is that such gambling is in decline, and who is receiving the profits is not always transparent. Lotto funding to CNZ was $33 million five years ago and is forecast to be $31 million this year. CNZ is generally seen to be undertaking its roles effectively, efficiently and transparently. The only issue with this part of government’s allocation of art funding is who is best equipped to cope with lower Lotto income. Should it be the arts sector or government? That doesn’t look complicated. Pokie trusts by contrast seem more problematic and more in need of tough politics. The Department of Internal Affairs is reviewing the “Class 4 Gambling Sector” (that is, pokie gambling in clubs and pubs). The DIA consultation documents are inconsistent and vague on key facts (they are available on the DIA website). The review does however at least underline that government is aware of the social contract: “We let some rather bad stuff happen – innumerate people gambling and losing money, in exchange for some social good – a good percentage of the punters’ losses are recycled to good causes”. The DIA consultation document makes pretty grim reading for anyone interested in the social contract in general and art funding specifically.

EDIBLES

OPINION

The document reports that last year punters lost $818 million on pokies in pubs (excluding those in casinos and clubs) and $260 million of this (32%) was handed out as community grants of which about 4.5% went to the arts ($12 million). Each of these figures rings an alarm bell. •

•

But it points to the need to address two factors; one is hopefully part of the DIA review, one is more for the Minister of Arts. Hopefully DIA’s review will look at the approach the pokie trusts take to distributions. If it turns out that pokie trust art funding is justifiably low, then it is up to the Minister to take a whole-of-sector perspective and address whether the arts needs more government money. The DIA review is a great opportunity for local MP, Peter Dunn (the responsible Minister of this department) to really do some good. Why not make the DIA responsible for the placement and control of pokie machines in bars? Having cut the trusts’ link to the venues why not disband them and appoint a number of regional grants boards? Why not create some guidelines for the allocation of proceeds by the grant boards? Why not reduce the government levy on pokie losses so it matches what government can show it is productively spending on policing the sector and helping problem gamblers (the DIA reports provide no useful information on gambler self-harm, the cost of government initiatives nor the effectiveness of those initiatives)? A lot can be done to tidy up a murky space. Quite probably it would release a major funding windfall for community, sport and arts activities. The remarkable success of Wellington’s arts sector and its strong civic backing means that it is the Creative Capital, but it would be darned helpful if Peter Dunn (gambling regulation) and Maggie Barry (arts) gave Wellington and all New Zealand’s arts communities a hand. This could be done by overseeing a rationalisation of the pokie industry and how its proceeds are distributed, and by having a look at government’s funding of performing arts to determine if the combination of direct grants, Lotto and pokies shouldn’t be increased.

The report notes that pokie gambling peaked in 2004 at $1,328 million. That could be great news if it means gamblers have wised up. But, it could just mean that $510 million of losses are now no longer being reported to DIA. $260 million is a huge amount of funding for community activities. But the DIA report notes that at least forty percent of losses must be distributed as grants. Forty percent of $818 million is $327 million. Arts got $12 million, but DIA figures indicate that on average over the last decade the arts have received $24 million a year from pokie trusts.

As noted, the facts and figures in the DIA reports lack coherence and the summary figures listed above may well not be all the story, but there do seem to be only two possible inferences. One is that there is something wrong in Pokie Land. Another is that DIA’s policing of the social contract is lax. Either way it’s difficult not to conclude that this industry, and where its money goes, needs a major overhaul. The existing model allows almost anyone to set up a pokie trust to administer the machines in affiliated venues and to then allocate the proceeds according to some rather porous guidelines. The upshot is apparently 58 pokie trusts, some which must be associated with only one venue; millions of dollars going on administration; and no certainty that worthy community activities are recipients. Whether the art sector “deserves” $12 million (or $24 million) as its share of the punters’ $818 million in losses depends on your view about the role of arts in building social capital.

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SURF TA L K L O V E WRITTEN BY CRAIG BEARDSWORTH | PHOTO BY LISA NG “A guy called Karl comes in a Cheshire cat onesie, he had to remove it ‘cause the surf was pulling him down, but since then he’s come with an inflatable guitar and a Mohawk,” laughs Fluro Friday convenor Desiree Cheer. In the photographs I see a banana costume, a hula skirt and an array of floral and fluoro costumes that would make a fashionista wince. Fluro Friday happens on the first Friday of every month at Lyall Bay and is for anyone who wants to talk about mental illness. It is modelled on a surf meet-up at Bondi Beach in Sydney by Onewave, a non-profit surf community tackling depression, anxiety and bipolar illnesses with a simple recipe: salt-water, surfing and good mates. Participants dress in fluoro costumes, surf and, if they feel comfortable, share a problem or two. Local founder Cheer says the ocean is a special place. “I’m a bad surfer but the water is my happy place. When my parents broke up, Mum moved us to a house by the beach so it’s always represented a no-stress environment where I can be free to be myself.” Cheer thinks the mental health system offers only limited options for people to talk and process. As many as 12 have turned up brightly dressed, and as the weather warms up the numbers may grow. Cheer giggles at my suggestion that the Wellington group could meet weekly like Bondi. “It’s a bit warmer over there so it’s easier to motivate yourself to jump in. I now have a hood and gloves to go with my wetsuit and I make a spiced organic cacao drink for everyone once they get out. You’re everyone’s friend when you have a Thermos of hot spiced chocolate.”

F E AT U R E

ABANDONED S PA C E S PHOTOGRAPHY BY OSCAR KEYS

he photography of abandoned spaces can construct worlds that lie hazily between reality and the surreal, examining what may lie just beyond our view, says Oscar Keys, our photographer, of this photo-essay. “Forgotten spaces offer us narrative.” These buildings have been at the centre of the lives of a few people over time. “They offer private stories and elusive history,” he says, as well as the “fantastical mysteries of their descent and demise”. A surprising number of buildings originally intended to be permanent have proved to be temporary, he says. “As a country with a comparatively recent history, it is incredible that so many buildings are left to perish.” The images forming this essay are of buildings at different stages of their lives, and most of them are about to be redeveloped or renovated, to begin another phase in the life of the city.

Shelly Bay

F E AT U R E

Erskine College

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100 Taranaki Street

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The Basin Reserve

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Erskine Chapel

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Shelly Bay The Porirua Lunatic Asylum

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S H E L LY B AY

ERSKINE COLLEGE

100 TA R A N A K I S T R E E T

Shelly Bay was sold to the New Zealand Company, along with most of Wellington, by Te Ati Awa in 1839. Its long military history began with the construction of the Submarine Mining Depot Barracks (where the Chocolate Fish Café is now) in 1887. In 1907 the Navy took it over. From 1938 the bay was also used by the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a seaplane base. RNZAF relinquished the bay in 1995, and in 2009 the Crown handed the land back as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement to Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika. Over the years many large buildings and a slipway were built, which are now very dilapidated. Plans are under discussion for developing the area into a new suburb.

"Red-stickered, empty, and dilapidated... the only change in recent years being more broken windows and graffiti.” This is a recent description of the abandoned Erskine College in Island Bay. The two-hectare site in Island Bay was chosen by nuns from Timaru and purchased in 1902 for £1,000. The Catholic girls’ boarding school was originally named the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Island Bay; but later changed to Erskine College to avoid confusion with Sacred Heart College Lower Hutt. Over time the nuns planted the grounds in large gardens, and added a farmyard for cows and other livestock. The farm surroundings were said to help to alleviate some of the homesickness of children from rural NZ. Winters were cold. Against the southerlies, windows on the south face of the building were glazed with double-sash windows. Nearly 3,000 girls were educated at the school which closed in 1995.

The ground floor of 100 Taranaki Street is best known as the long-time home of The Salvation Army Family Store. The 1950s building originally housed a car dealer. When the Salvation Army bought it in the 90s, the ground floor became an op-shop and outreach centre, the first floor housed services for at-risk youth, and the top floor was used as a staff room and offices. The building was purchased in 2015 by Prime Property, with plans for refurbishing and strengthening. The ground floor is leased to a hospitality operator and likely to become one of Wellington’s eateries.

THE BASIN RESERVE

ERSKINE CHAPEL

THE PORIRUA L U N AT I C A S Y L U M

In 1840, settlers eyed the Basin, which was a lagoon linked to the harbour by a stream, as a potential inland anchorage. That plan died with the 1855 earthquake, which raised the land by two metres. The resulting swamp was filled in by prisoners from the nearby Mt Crawford prison, and in 1884 the Governor General of New Zealand, Lieutenant-General Sir William Jervois, approved that the ground be “forever used for the purposes of a cricket and recreation ground by the inhabitants of Wellington”. To allow the crowds to see the action more comfortably, the Museum Stand was built in 1924, but it is now at only 14% of the current earthquake standard, and so cannot be used. A strengthening and redevelopment project has been approved.

Erskine College’s 1929 chapel is recognised as one of New Zealand’s grandest Gothic spaces; the acoustics within the chapel are said to rival those of Wellington Town Hall. The chapel was designed by John Sydney Swan who also designed St Gerard’s in Oriental Bay. Purchased with money from donations, twelve stained glass windows along each side were bought from famous German stained glass design company Franz Mayer in Munich. John Sydney Swan himself donated the central window above the marble altar. The building is to be restored as part of Wellington developer Ian Cassels’ townhouse development on the Erskine site.

The Porirua Lunatic Asylum, opened in 1887, was at one time the largest hospital in New Zealand. At its peak, the hospital housed 2,000 patients on its sprawling 140 acres. The asylum was intended to be a hospital farm, ultimately self-sufficient and sustainable. Patients were expected to work – women in the laundry, and men in the bakehouse and on the farm. In 1911, the Porirua Lunatic Asylum became the Porirua Mental Hospital. The site is currently home to Kenepuru Community hospital, and some inpatient mental health units remain today. The Porirua Mental Asylum was for many years the largest employer in the Porirua area and contributed greatly to the growth of Porirua City.

F E AT U R E

REFUGE WITH REFUGEES WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEX MCGILL

Not long ago Rebecca Stewart was one of many young brains lost to the international drain. But when a cruel turn of events forced her to return to Wellington, she found herself reconnecting with a city that in turn helped her heal. Now she’s on a mission to help former refugees make similar connections, with social enterprise Pomegranate Kitchen.

o look at her, you wouldn’t know Rebecca Stewart has been through the toughest time of her life. Confident, bright and forever within reach of a wisecrack, the 31-year-old is in the throes of launching Pomegranate Kitchen, a company employing resettled refugee cooks to prepare tasty meals for local lunch deliveries and small-group catering. The business model is deliciously symbiotic, aiming to improve social and financial outcomes for former refugees settled here, while offering Wellingtonians a chance to broaden their tastebuds with food usually found in places like Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. But had Stewart not been forced to return to Wellington a year and a half ago, it might never have happened. Like many young New Zealanders, Stewart left the country for her big OE soon after finishing her undergraduate studies. After trying to settle in London (“Hated it”), she ended up working – of all places – on super yachts out of France, exploring stunning parts of the Mediterranean and Caribbean while rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. After the novelty wore off, Stewart returned home for a stint, but by now Wellington felt too small to contain her ambitions and she settled in Melbourne,

where she gained a Masters in Public Health and began work in homelessness and youth justice organisations. In late 2014 Stewart accepted what she saw as “the key job to unlocking the rest of my career” – an AusAID volunteer placement in Fiji, designing program evaluation for an indigenous sexual health organisation. Three months in she celebrated her 30th birthday with a weekend holiday on the tiny tropical island of Leleuvia. Then everything changed. “I felt a lump in my breast, about the size of a marble. I really didn’t think it would be anything, but I was a little nervous and I took a friend with me to the consultation. When the specialist said I had breast cancer the walls felt like they were closing in. Fortunately my friend is a practical lab technician type so she asked questions, like what my treatment options were,” she says. Stewart soon realised her best bet was to return to New Zealand. “I remember before I called my mum and told her, I was walking around my flat, practising saying ‘Mum I have cancer, and I have to come home’ – saying it over and over again. I finally thought I had it but then as soon as she picked up the phone I just broke down and couldn’t even speak,” she says.

Cooks featured: Genet Seyoum (Ethiopia), Muna Al Naser (Syria), Hajar Mazraeh (Iran), Fatima Qasim Ali (Afghanistan).

F E AT U R E

Stewart packed up her new life in Fiji, left her job and flat in a day and a half, and came home. It was March, summer was over, and the future looked bleak to Stewart. While women under the age of 40 are much less likely to develop breast cancer, the breast cancers they are diagnosed with tend to be more aggressive. “I felt like my world had come down around me, my family just pulled together around me and scooped me up. There was a time where I thought I wasn’t going to live very long. And then once we found out more, it was just a case of getting through the treatment,” she says. Stewart had a couple of surgeries to remove most of the abnormal tissue, then months of intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy which sapped her energy, left her unable to eat, made her bones feel broken and caused her to lose her hair. “Treatment was awful [but] there is a weird euphoria once you know you are probably going to live, so I actually felt happier during the treatment than afterwards. [That was when] reality hit about how far down the drain my life had gone. I couldn’t get the work I wanted, and that made me feel I was useless. I had a bald head and a scarred boob. I really didn’t know where to go from there,” she says. Eventually Stewart gained a position at New Zealand Red Cross, and it was through this work helping to resettle new Wellingtonians from refugee backgrounds that she was inspired to reconsider how she might make a difference. Enter Ange Wither – Algate consultancy director and learning and development adviser, obsessed foodie and, incidentally, Stewart’s mother’s partner, and one of her main pillars of emotional support. After they

had a number of conversations about the lack of opportunities for skilled former refugees, Wither stumbled across a company called Eat Offbeat, a catering service delivering food prepared by former refugees to New Yorkers “with a taste for social good”. “I said, ‘Well, if you ever want to do this, you know where to find me.’ And she said, ‘Actually I really do’,” laughs Stewart. And so the seeds for Pomegranate Kitchen were sown. The past few months have seen Stewart thrown head first into a bunch of challenges she’s never faced before – setting up a board and running her first board meeting, writing a business plan and applying for funding – as well as fun stuff like recruiting cooks, planning menus and tasting dishes. October 10 is the launch date of the next phase of Pomegranate Kitchen with a PledgeMe campaign aimed at raising the rest of the business’s start-up costs, plus a pop-up in one of the Moore Wilson’s food pods to give future customers their first taste of the dishes on offer. As any entrepreneur will tell you, starting up a new business is scary. But Stewart and her team believe in the idea, and in Wellington’s capacity to help make it work. “There’s something magical here about the size, which means that everyone knows someone who can help you; plus the energy for new ideas and start-ups and the love of food,” she says. “And ultimately what makes the city so special is the people. I feel if we can connect some former refugees with people from the Wellington community, even in a small way, then they might experience some of the same healing that I did.”

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FASH ION B R I E F S

A DAY I N HER SHOES Just after the Second World War, Grace and her husband Laurie opened Gubb’s Shoes in Manners St. Seventy years later, Grace’s daughter-in-law Julie, with the support of her enthusiastic husband Paul, is still rocking shoes and boots out to buyers of all ages in their current store opposite the City Council building in Wakefield St. It’s actually Gubb’s Shoe Fashions now – and fashions change, but Julie says you can’t beat the personal touch. “Our customers like coming in and having personal service. We often have three generations shopping together.” Julie originally trained as a lawyer but was tempted into retail by way of a swimwear shop and then into shoes.

QUALIT Y OF LOVE

INCREASE THE PEACE

COLOUR ME

Yes, that top may be by a New Zealand designer, but was the fabric sourced in NZ? Was the piece sewn in NZ? Bones Style Club creates 100% organic cotton and merino pieces to order, which are designed, sourced, spun and created entirely on NZ soil. And what’s more, they barely mark-up their products because they want everybody to have access to high-quality, longlasting fashion with a traceable source.

The fashion school at Massey has had another successful year with six recent students or graduates showing at this year’s Fashion Week. Three of them, Pania Greenway, Alana Cooper and Len Houkamau, have been recognised as students “to watch”. For another taste of Massey fashion the School of Design’s end-of-year fashion shows will be held in Wellington on 11 and 12 November.

Have you always wanted to decorate your own underpants? Thunderpants has made this possible. Their “Colour Me” range will get your creative side very excited. Choose from “Lorien’s Zoo” or “Specs” if you particularly enjoy colouring-in designs, or alternatively “Plain Vanilla” for your own blank Thunderpants canvas. Arm yourself with a bag of non-toxic, eco-friendly “Bag O Crayons”, and this could be the perfect family activity for rainy days.

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LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

D OWN TO EARTH Central Flower Wholesalers have introduced an online shop. You can order bulk fresh-cut flowers for delivery the following day from their Grenada North base. What’s more, you can order a DIY flower starter kit. It includes a vase, clippers, some “starter” flowers and instructions for your beginner’s flower styling and care. Is this the equivalent of My Food Bag for flowers? Dave and Cushla from Central Flowers have been running their business for 16 years, and say while this is already happening overseas, it’s a first for New Zealand.

WHAT’S THE FORCAST?

HIGH ON THE TRAIL

LIGHT IT UP

Pantone’s colours of the year are Rose Quartz (pastel pink) and Serenity (baby blue). Rose Quartz represents passion and composure, while Serenity is weightless and airy like the sky. Together they represent today’s gender blur, and an antidote to modern-day stress. What does this even mean? It means that this year these colours have dominated catwalks and collections, instagram feeds and trends around the world. Pantone’s colour forecaster picked this marriage of hues two years ago.

A new mountain bike park 10km from Masterton is to open this summer. With an initial 15km of trails, Rivenrock is designed to suit riders of all styles and abilities. For downhill cyclists who don’t wish to pedal uphill first, a shuttle will take riders up to the highest points. Building of further trails is planned for early 2017. The ultimate goal is to have around 50km of mountain bike tracks. Entry will be by gold coin donation, with all the proceeds going into the maintenance and further development of tracks.

With Guy Fawkes around the corner, it is important to remember there are two types of people in this world: those who love fireworks and those who don’t. No matter which of these you are, it is important to respect others during this time. On sale from 2 November, be sure to keep your furry friends indoors, practise fire safety and keep a bucket of water handy.

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EDIBLES

BOULCOTT ST BA NG E R S It has been 25 years since the Boulcott St Bistro opened its doors to the public. They are celebrating from 10–15 October by recreating their first award-winning menu, which is from the 1995 Corbans Wine and Food Challenge. Owner and operator John Lawrence says he is still proud of the way this menu captured the food trends of the time. It will be a three-course menu at 90s prices. The menu includes a Hapuka mignon, braised lamb shoulder, and a rosemary raisin sponge cake with honeyed goat’s cheese. John says that the loyal staff and the people of Wellington, as well as the food, have made the bistro such a success.

IT ’S AB OAT TIME

SOLDIERS EAT KIWI

FISHERIES OF THE FUTURE

One of Berhampore’s favourite eateries has had a makeover. Paperboat, which will be specialising in good-quality “Kiwi fish and chips” and traditional Italian pizza, is at 461 Adelaide Rd, the old Goose Shack site. Offering dine-in or takeaway options, Paperboat opened late last month, marketing itself as the “go-to suburban eatery.” We like the look of their wallpaper.

The RSA and Countdown supermarkets have joined forces to ensure the 220 New Zealand service personnel deployed overseas get a taste of home this Christmas. Countdown donated over $15,000 worth of “Kiwiana” treats such as peanut slabs, Marmite and Anzac biscuits, which have been packed up and are winging their way around the world with the RNZAF. Each package contains a handwritten card created by a Wellington school pupil from Trentham or Mt Cook primary school.

A new version of the popular Best Fish Guide from Forest & Bird is being released. The free mobile app ranks the sustainability of different species of kai moana so that consumers can make informed decisions at the market, a restaurant or out fishing. New Zealand’s fisheries have been depleted in the past and many are still in danger. The new app will be more comprehensive, featuring freshwater fish and a range of recipes from celebrity chefs. Look for it next month.

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EDIBLES

I S T H AT A S AU S A G E O N Y O U R PA N T S ? The philanthropants are back. This month the good folk at Thunderpants are partnered with the Parents Centre New Zealand. For every pair of their new sausage-sizzle-style underpants sold, one dollar will be donated. You can upsize your donation by purchasing some fictional “fried onions or mustard” to go with your undies. Last month more than $1,000 was raised for the charity “Garden to Table”, which encourages kids to grow and eat fresh food. Like-minded charities, not-for-profit organisations or community groups can apply for next month at thunderpants.co.nz

GIN SHINES BRIGHTLY

LEVIN LIQUORICE

WINNER IN WAIKANAE

Martinborough gin distillery Lighthouse, which uses pure spring water from the Wharekauhau country estate, has won two silver awards at the International Wines and Spirits Awards in London. The gin label, which began locally and is now owned by Foley Family Wines, was named outstanding in the “London Dry” category as well as the “Gin and Tonic” category. The name was inspired by the Cape Palliser lighthouse at the southernmost tip of the Wairarapa.

It is the 21st birthday of Levin confectionery company RJ’s. To celebrate, they are planning a Guinness world record attempt to create the biggest ever liquorice allsort. The attempt begins at 6am on Friday 7 October at the RJ’s factory. Everyone is welcome to join in and help create the (hopefully) record breaking allsort, and enjoy competitions and music. You might even be called upon to help devour the record allsort itself at the end of the day.

The people at American barbeque-style cafe/restaurant/bar Salt and Wood Collective are looking forward to their first summer in business after opening earlier this year. Partner Aaron Wagstaff personally sought out their smoker oven last year at the World Championship BBQ contest in Memphis. It can hold up to 200 chickens or three whole pigs at capacity. From North End Brewing on the same site, fresh craft beer is also available. At 11 Ngaio Road, Waikanae.

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

BITES OF SPRING

he asparagus season has begun… and we are seriously doing a little excited dance right now! We were recently given some gorgeous first-harvest asparagus from Horowhenua asparagus growers Tendertips, and have had fun in the kitchen with our favourite spring vegetable. This dish is the perfect “welcome spring and bring on summer” salad, bursting with flavour, crunch and attitude. It is quick to assemble and has designer looks. Used raw and shaved thinly, asparagus is fresh and juicy and will become

a favourite addition to your salads. While many people think that buckwheat is a cereal grain, it is actually a fruit seed. Dry-roasted it adds a nutty crunch that is the perfect accompaniment to the softer texture of the asparagus… a win-win for those coeliacs out there. The tart is super easy and idiot-proof but if you are short of time use ready-made savoury shortcrust pastry. If you do make the pastry, the trick is to keep the butter and water super-cold, and work quickly.

S H AV E D A S PA R A G U S W I T H P U R P L E B R O C C O L I N I A N D TA N G E R I N E

H O R O W H E N U A A S PA R A G U S A N D G R U Y E R E TA R T

Serves 4 3 radishes, washed and finely sliced 8 spears asparagus, washed, stalks snapped off – 4 thinly shaved with a peeler, 4 chopped in 3cm pieces ½ cup buckwheat drizzle olive oil flaky sea salt 1 bunch purple broccolini, washed and trimmed ½ apple, peeled and julienned juice of 1 lemon 1 tangerine, peeled and sliced into rounds edible flowers to garnish (optional)

Serves 4 Short Crust Pastry 1 ½ cups sifted flour 125g cold butter, cubed 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley 1. 2.

Dressing pinch salt and pepper 5 Tbsp tangerine juice 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 Tbsp runny honey 2 Tbsp rice bran oil 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

3. 4.

Generous pinch flaky sea salt 100ml chilled water

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place flour and butter in the food processor and process until butter is incorporated and you have a fine powder mix. While pulsing, slowly add the chilled water and pulse until mixture is just starting to come together. Remove to a cold bowl and, using your hands, gently bring the mixture together into a dough. Cover and rest in fridge. Spray tart tin lightly with oil. Roll out pastry to fit your tart tin, prick the base with a fork and blind bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and prepare filling.

Filling

In a bowl add radishes and shaved asparagus. In a dry pan dry roast the buckwheat for 2 minutes, moving constantly. Remove and set aside. Add olive oil to pan, and on a medium heat sauté the spears with a pinch of salt for 1–2 minutes. Remove and set aside. In the same pan sauté the broccolini for 2–3 minutes, remove and set aside. Peel and julienne apple and drizzle with lemon juice to prevent browning. Slice tangerine and mix all ingredients together. In a jar, add dressing ingredients and shake well. Drizzle dressing over salad just before serving and garnish with edible flowers.

4 large free range eggs ⅓ cup cream zest 1 lemon 120g grated gruyere cheese salt and pepper ½ Tbsp rice bran oil 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

5 rashers streaky bacon, roughly chopped 1 shallot, finely diced 10 asparagus spears, stalks snapped off and cut to fit tart tin

Whisk eggs together then add the cream, zest, cheese and seasoning. Stir to combine and set aside. Sauté the bacon in oil until starting to brown then add the shallots, sauté for a further 2–3 minutes until shallots are translucent. Set aside to cool. Add the asparagus to the pan and sauté for 1–2 minutes. Stir the bacon and shallots into the egg mixture and pour into prepared shell. Place asparagus spears on surface. Top with extra cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C until egg is set and pastry is golden.

Whanganui is big enough to entertain and small enough to keep it real. Enjoy arts, music, the landscape and our rich heritage. Spend a weekend.

TAKE A

NEW LOOK

BOUTIQUE SOUNDS WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTO BY PAT SHEPARD

www.visitwhanganui.nz

It’s no secret the music industry is struggling with the public’s growing reluctance to fork out for gigs and albums. While this has sadly meant the closure of great Wellington venues like Mighty Mighty, Puppies and, by the end of the year, Bodega, it also means that labels, managers and artists are being forced to think creatively about the ways they promote and perform. Last month we were lucky enough to be given a golden ticket to one such creatively packaged gig, masterminded by Cushla Aston at Aston Road management. For the Aston Road sessions each of Aston’s three artists – Thomas Oliver, Louis Baker and Estere – performed on consecutive nights at a secret location (which turned out to be one of the city’s top recording studios, The Surgery), with only 20 tickets sold for each evening. Tickets cost a substantial $100 each and yet they sold out quickly, with fans wooed by the chance to hear brand new material ahead of release and, in some cases, for the first time in front of a live audience; and also to taste delicious signature cocktails and dishes created especially for each artist by Wellington’s own international award-winning mixologist Jake Searell and Elie Asaf of 5 and Dime Restaurant. Such an event might be viewed cynically, except that it turns out it was not for profit, with all ticket sales going towards production costs including audio engineering by Lee Prebble and videography from Renegade Peach Project. The results will be released at a later date. Plus it’s hard to be critical of an evening where the attention to detail was so wonderfully on-point: we sat atop our cushions soaking up Louis’ amazing vocal performance, with bellies warm from smoked pastrami on a New York-style marbled rye, chosen for Louis’ love of that great city, and a cocktail featuring lemon verbena picked that morning from his own garden. All in all a wonderful night out that seemed to be as special for the artists involved as it did for the punters who paid. 56

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

MASTERING MARTINBOROUGH BY JOELLE THOMSON

Helen Masters describes herself as lucky. She knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life at 16 years of age, and things have panned out just as she hoped, with a slight diversion along the way.

he Martinborough winemaker was born into a large Otaki family. She is the youngest of 12 children, and blames her older brothers for instilling her love of wine. The age spread of the 12 siblings meant that many of hers had left home when she grew up, but her older brothers visited regularly, bringing New Zealand wine to the dinner table. She found these wines interesting, enjoyable and intriguing in terms of flavour. The flames of her wine passion were fanned by a student job for Ruth Pretty’s catering company at Te Horo. “That part-time job and my brothers bringing wine around both made me realise I wanted a job in which I could make a tangible product – something I could feel and touch. I liked the idea of wine more than food.” So Masters wrote to enquire about a job with Ata Rangi winery in Martinborough. Co-owner Phyll Pattie followed up with a phone call and Masters got a job at Ata Rangi for a year, before beginning a food technology degree at Massey University in Palmerston North. She graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Food Technology (Hons). Then she worked for three years at Nestle. Not exactly the environment she wanted to be in, she says, but there were many upsides to the experience, mainly in learning about the corporate world. “It wasn’t me. Things take so long to change in that world. But I learnt so much from being there and the food technology studies were my insurance policy, in case winemaking didn’t work out the way I wanted. That way I had something to fall back on.” Not that she has needed to fall back on anything. Since moving into full-time winemaking at Ata Rangi in 2003, Masters has enjoyed working in an industry where there is no recipe and change is the only certainty. “You can’t be a control freak if you’re a winemaker,” she says, of her role as head winemaker at Ata Rangi. “The weather determines the quality, style and volume of wine that you can make each year. Our weather changes all the time, so you have to be able to adapt and do so quickly.” A good example was the cool summer of 2012, when the

bright sunshine of Christmas Day disappeared from Boxing Day until late February. “There was barely any sun and we were faced with big crops that year, which could not ripen efficiently. The decisions we had to make revolved around re-evaluating how much fruit we left on the vines.” Her solution involved removing a significant amount of the potential crop, to open up the canopy of leaves so the grapes left on the vines could get more sunshine. Masters spends a lot of time in the vineyard, tasting grapes and monitoring the growth of the vines so she can respond to their needs. “I don’t have time to go through all of the vineyards all of the time but it’s important to respond to what nature’s providing and to act quickly to achieve the desired results in the grapes you’ll end up making wine from.” It’s a given that she loves making pinot noir, but being able to produce chardonnay spins her winemaking world on its axis too. “Great chardonnay makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end but you’ve got to have no ego when you make it. You have to pull back and let it happen by monitoring temperature and allowing a great line of acidity to shine in the wine rather than doing too much to it during the winemaking process.” Masters is happy that the Wellington region remains home. though the climate in the Wairarapa is sometimes windier than the one she grew up with on the Kapiti coast. She shares her home in the Wairarapa with her husband Ben, an artist, and their two daughters, Stella and Harvey. She would love to make wine in another country one day. If dreams came true and she says she would work for a spell in Burgundy for her first choice. Exactly where in Burgundy? “I would choose Nuits St Georges on a grand cru site, but I would also love to go to Barolo, a place I spent a week last year and found the Italians incredibly happy and joyous to be around.” That’s exactly the feeling she hopes to invoke for visitors to Ata Rangi winery at Toast Martinborough this year; for the festival she will again work with the Ruth and Paul Pretty team as well as the Ata Rangi one. “It’s a great place to be every year and since this is the 25th anniversary of Toast, it’s going to be pretty special.”

the invention of nature

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BY THE BOOK

W H AT A W H I P- A R O U N D The Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, which has sent a New Zealand writer to Mansfield’s writing haunt in Menton, France every year since 1970, was in jeopardy when sponsor NZ Post said au revoir. Thankfully, the Arts Foundation and the Winn Manson Menton Trust decided to try raising $800,000 as a capital fund, so sponsors would not be needed. They hit that target in August, thanks to a volunteer fundraising committee and pledges from dozens of individuals and groups, including book clubs. Wellington poet Anna Jackson went to Menton this year, so the line remains unbroken.

WAR NEVER ENDS WWI books are raining down on us like last month’s hail. In September, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage launched New Zealand’s Western Front Campaign by Ian McGibbon, and October ushers in New Zealand Society at War (VUP) by Steven Loveridge and After the War: The RSA in New Zealand (Penguin) by Stephen Clarke. Earlier WWI titles are still selling steadily, especially Anzac Experience by Gallipoli-exhibition historical director Christopher Pugsley.

WHO NEEDS T V? The capital’s Kate de Goldi has had a pearler of an idea: giving the oldschool children’s annual a modernday makeover. The result is simply called Annual ($39.99), edited by de Goldi and former School Journal editor Susan Paris. Aimed at 9 to 12-year-olds, it has 136 pages of stories, comic strips, essays, art, satire, lists, poems, games and puzzles by New Zealand writers and illustrators (Gecko).

A LONG LINE A great-great-grandson of “father of Wellington” John Plimmer, Malcolm McKinnon is a public historian, researcher and lecturer specialising in New Zealand history and international relations. He edited the award-winning New Zealand Historical Atlas (1997), a maps-and-graphics guide to New Zealand history, and has written books on the Treasury, foreign policy, and Asian immigration. His latest book is The Broken Decade: Prosperity, Depression and Recovery in New Zealand, 1928–39 (OUP).

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BY THE BOOK

FRANK A N D F U N N Y, CEREBRAL AND BOLD WRITTEN BY SARAH LANG | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

I’m not interviewing myself. I’m a writer called Sarah Lang, writing about another writer called Sarah Laing. As our names sound identical, we’ve been confused many times – by readers, book publicists, even our dentist – and have got a few emails and phone calls meant for the other Sarah. But while I write for magazines, Sarah Laing is far more accomplished. A short-story writer, novelist, comic-book artist, book designer, illustrator, graphic designer, zine-maker, blogger, book reviewer, and Massey University writing tutor, she’s always juggling “about 25 things”, including three children. Earlier this year she co-edited Three Words: An Anthology of Aotearoa/NZ Women's Comics (Beatnik, $35), featuring comics by 64 women, partly to bust the myth that the New Zealand scene is a boys’ club.

ut one project has loomed largest for three years. Paying tribute to a personal hero, Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir (VUP, $35) launches at Unity Books at 6pm on 6 October. Part comic book, part memoir, part history and part fantasy, it segues between pivotal points in Laing’s life and Katherine Mansfield’s life, through cartoon-style drawings with speech bubbles and thought bubbles. Laing’s usual publisher Penguin Random House passed, saying graphic novels are too commercially risky, but Victoria University Press snapped it up. The genre-blurring work combines all her skills, with Laing designing every page and the covers. She also designed the companion exhibition Mansfield and Me for the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden, displaying her book’s original drawings plus some new artwork (until 21 November). She’ll talk there in November at a Mansfield and Me afternoon tea, alongside other writers influenced by Mansfield, during Litcrawl Wellington (11–13 November). Laing’s not expecting stage fright, having performed poetry at

open-mic nights and, more recently, appeared at writers’ festivals. Though she seems shy at first, she’s actually frank and funny, cerebral and bold. She wears vintage dresses and chooses her words precisely, sometimes circling back to summarise. Laing’s drawings of Mansfield’s life are primarily black-and-white; her drawings of her own life are in colour. Occasionally, Mansfield appears in the contemporary panels, speaking directly to Laing. No, Laing’s never heard Mansfield’s voice in her head, but she often thinks about the woman who died of tuberculosis aged 34, a decade younger than Laing is now. “I wasn’t a total Mansfield fan-girl – I loved her writing but hadn’t read all her stories. I just loved the notion of this transgressive girl who kicked against the stultifying cultural norms of early 20th-century New Zealand, went to London, had sex with men and women, took drugs, hung out with modernist luminaries. I was also intrigued by her importance in New Zealand's cultural landscape. And she sort of haunted me.”

A Palmerston North girl, Laing holidayed at York Bay near Eastbourne, visiting great-great-aunts and uncles who knew the Beauchamp family (Mansfield was a pseudonym) and that “naughty girl Kathleen”. As a university student, Laing lived in a flat on Tinakori Road, just along from Mansfield’s birthplace. Laing thought she’d end up in Newtown or Island Bay, but now lives in Karori, where Mansfield grew up. Laing, husband Jonathan Lane and children Otto, 13, Gus, 10, and Violet, 7, fell for a 1972-built, Ian Athfielddesigned house with five levels, porthole windows, cave-like bedrooms, and curved plaster ceilings. Primarily working from home, Laing’s always being pulled in different directions – and admits her constant socialmedia browsing doesn’t help. “My life’s very fractured. I’m always forgetting the children’s sausage-sizzle money.” Her to-do lists are fruitless attempts to order the chaos. So is her table-manners chart, with illustrations of her children holding cutlery the correct way and eating neatly. Laing has closely monitored her diet since being diagnosed with type-one diabetes on her ninth birthday. “I used to pull out syringes, and people in cafes probably imagined I was shooting up heroin, but with insulin pens people don't notice or are too polite to show it.” Laing’s lived in Wellington for 15 years, on and off. “Occasionally I get a little claustrophobic here, but Wellington has a real hold on me.” She always desperately wanted to live in New York, and spent 18 months there with Jonathan, but left “too early” in 2003, partly because she got pregnant on the first try. After another stint in Wellington, the family spent seven years in Auckland, mainly to be closer to family. In 2015 Laing returned to the capital, with three well-reviewed books, a short-story award, writers’ residencies, festival appearances, comics for Metro magazine, and a Twitterati-shared comics’ blog to her name. Suddenly, she was part of the capital’s literary clique. “I got to meet people I’d seen from afar.” She began Mansfield and Me, during her Michael King Writers’ Centre Residency in 2013. The graphic novel also anchored her recently-finished Unitec Master of Design along with a 20,000-word exegesis (a critical interpretation of a work). Reading theory on memoir and comics helped her think critically about her approach. Originally, the graphic novel was going to be only about Mansfield. “But although that would animate her, she didn’t need yet another biographer. I wanted to do something new: bring her to life and make it feel immediate. Rather than slavishly writing every factoid, I chose the interesting bits.” Expect powerful depictions of Mansfield’s stillborn baby, and the writer’s death. “I had to include her hanging out with the Bloomsbury group, D.H Lawrence, Virginia

Woolf, going to Aleister Crowley’s druggy, occultist evenings. And I chose bits where our lives connected.” Think a longing to get published, leave New Zealand, and be part of the cool crowd; health problems; sexual escapades with men and women; intense friendships; unconventional weddings. These parallels are simply a structural device, rather than striking Laing as profound. Laing didn’t second-guess her decision to draw herself having sex with men and women. “It’s the physical manifestation of my approach in fiction: if I write about sex, I write about it honestly. And my cartoon self is a drawing of me, not actually me.” She’ll warn her parents, though. “I do have this slight cringey sense of impending embarrassment about readers giving me knowing smiles.” The book also charts her 22-year relationship with Jonathan. “He’d be annoyed if he didn't appear!” But she’s careful about how she portrays her kids. “They’ll read it eventually. I don’t think they’ll be too scarred.” Portraying Mansfield carefully, Laing plucked much of her dialogue and thoughts from the writer’s diaries and letters. She did have to make some up, trusting the reader to know what’s fantasy. “That was really daunting: putting words in her mouth that could never be as brilliant as the ones she said herself.” Unexpected sources revealed themselves. “One woman invited me over and showed me her father’s dance card with Katherine’s drunken scrawl. I liked to imagine Mansfield’s spirit was pointing out the important things, but I know that’s fantasy.” Laing always wanted to be “a writer as famous as Katherine Mansfield, but not as tortured”. Her book explores that. “I think it’s quite a common impulse actually, growing up with that pop-culture urge to be a celebrity. I was a shy girl – I talked quietly and people didn’t hear my jokes – so it was that desire to be noticed.” She thinks she’s less shy now, or perhaps doesn't care as much about what people think. She’s open about her husband’s public-servant job subsidising her career, and her need to balance writing with better-paid design jobs. But she does get paid (a little) to write, as the younger Sarah Laing dreamed of. “Yeah, the younger Sarah would be pleased. I’m pleased.” The imposter syndrome is largely gone. “But an air of dissatisfaction always runs through humans. International publication’s a big goal. And I always want to write better stuff.” Various projects are saying “me next”, but she’s leaning towards a modern-day novel about feminist women”. Mansfield and Me ends with Laing, if not conquering her craving for fame, putting it in its place. “Saying, ‘Actually, making stuff – and my family – make me happy. This longing for fame and recognition? I can let that go.’”

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LIVING IN THE BUSH WRITTEN BY SHARON STEPHENSON PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

Visiting Kristin and Steven Carden’s house is a little like entering a tardis. At one end, there’s a nondescript suburban street that winds high into the Wadestown hills. But venture down a 200m-long driveway and you’ll be enveloped by native trees thick with tui and kaka.

I’

t s hard to believe we’re only 10 minutes drive from the CBD, such is the glorious isolation of the 2.5 acre site the couple bought three years ago. At the time, they were living in Melbourne with their children Lucas (11), Maya (8) and Blake (6). But when Steven was offered the role of Landcorp CEO, the hunt for a house started in earnest. “I’d only been to Wellington three times in my life,” says Kristin, a Coromandel-born lawyer. Steven, an Aucklander, was only slightly more acquainted with the capital, which made house-hunting a challenge. When they saw this house on Trade Me, they thought there was a typo in the listing. “We couldn’t believe that a bush-clad 8,055sqm section would be available this close to the city,” says Kristin of the property, which sprawls across two titles. On screen, at least, the house ticked all their boxes: ample outdoor space for the kids to roam, trees to climb, drive-on access and a separate twobedroom flat for when friends come to stay. Most importantly, it satisfied Kristin’s long-held desire to own a character villa. What they weren’t prepared for was the state of the 280sqm house which had only had three previous owners since being built in 1908. One of those owners was an architect who extended the house, created the mezzanine level, and built the carport and flat, but that aside, little had been done to the property for years. It had a solid structure

but Kristin remembers it being cold, dark, damp and dated. “The trees had grown right up to the windows, blocking all the light. The carpet was rotten in places, the walls were painted terracotta, green and blue and everything was dark wood. It was a very Arts and Crafts style which isn’t really us.” Unafraid of the task ahead, two months after viewing the house, it was theirs. Challenge is clearly not a dirty word to this couple: in 2001 they moved to Boston where Steven completed his MBA and Kristin worked for a large law firm. Two years later, they moved again, this time to New York for three years. On their return to Auckland in 2009, they bought their first home in Remuera and Steven wrote his book, New Zealand Unleashed. A year later, they once again scratched their itchy feet with a posting to Melbourne. “We rented there for three years, which was hard because not only could we do nothing to make the house our own, the location wasn’t great. There was no greenery, just a few gum trees. That’s why we were desperate to buy something in the bush when we moved to Wellington.” They wasted no time in waving the renovation wand over their new home, meeting with interior designer Niki Bell from Estilo Design and builder Brent Sarten the day after collecting the keys. To cope with the scale of the changes, the renovation was planned in two stages, both of which Kristin project managed with the builder.

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The first stage involved removing a wall between the living and dining area to open up the space, as well as re-flooring upstairs and carpeting downstairs, applying lashings of white paint to dark wooden walls and adding solid balustrades to internal staircases which were “death traps waiting to happen”. A bathroom next to the front door was also gutted and redecorated in the same calm cream and beige palette now used in all four bathrooms. By repositioning a door, the downstairs family bathroom morphed into an ensuite for the master bedroom (now the guest bedroom). The wardrobe in this room was formed by “borrowing” space from Maya and Blake’s room next door. Kristin says the floorboards in all three bedrooms were so badly damaged in places you could see the dirt below. Fortunately, the changes required to modernise the kitchen were minimal: a hanging pot shelf, which obscured the tree-lined view, was removed, the cupboards were painted white and new handles were added. Ditto the upstairs mezzanine level, which the couple use as a home office, only required a lick of white paint and a solid balustrade. Most people would probably sit back and have a well-earned break about now but not this couple, who used the time between renovations to have the house’s numerous windows and doors double glazed and called in professional landscapers to make sense of the overgrown garden. It was, says Kristin, money well spent. “They cut back the bush, which flooded the house with light. They also flattened an area next to the house and in the process, uncovered two full-sized bathtubs, a trampoline, a sink, a chimney and lots of bricks, all of which had been buried for years.” Passing bays were added to the long driveway to allow better access to the house and gravel paths were laid so the kids could more easily get down the hill to school. In April 2015, the couple began the second stage of the renovation. It took more than a year and involved adding a wing to the north side of the house. Wellington architects Craig & Coltart developed the 60sqm addition constructed from poly-block and concrete and clad in dark grey PBS panels that grafts seamlessly onto the 108-year old villa. The extension includes a generous master bedroom and ensuite, as well as a family bathroom next to Lucas’ bedroom. Large Laminam tiles are used on the walls and floors of both bathrooms, which add a streamlined look. So too the bathroom in the guest

bedroom, turned into an ensuite during the first renovation, was given the updated treatment, being stripped down and rebuilt with a new shower, toilet and basin. During the second renovation, three earthquakerisk chimneys were removed and replaced with ducted central heating and a gas fireplace in the living room. They also converted the carport into a double garage and built a flying fox. Across from Lucas’ bedroom is a sauna, added by a previous owner. It once sat outside the main house but by extending the hall for the new master suite, they were able to bring the sauna into the main house. Although they don’t use it as often as they’d like, the couple say it’s a nice luxury. The final major piece in the renovation jigsaw was the extensive rooftop living area, built above the master suite addition. They removed an existing wooden deck to create a 105sqm outdoor living space that necessitated special arrangements to be able to pour 30 cubic metres of concrete for the roof slab. “Our driveway is too narrow for a concrete truck so we had to ask our neighbour’s permission to close the private road above our property so the concrete could be pumped down to our section. And we had 10 deliveries of concrete, so that’s a lot of road closures! Fortunately, our neighbours are lovely people.” Access to the deck is via a second, sun-splashed living room, where a foosball table and large sofas make it a favourite place for the kids. Kristin turned to Niki Bell for inspiration for decorating. The result is clean lines and pops of colour to contrast with the the white walls and natural floor treatments. Niki also suggested rich, textured wallpaper for one wall in each bedroom. Although most of their furniture moved with them from Melbourne, the couple were able to buy certain pieces to fit the space, including the teal chairs and a grey sofa in the main living area which they bought from Freedom Furniture. Kristin’s real passion, though, is lighting and she spent months carefully selecting fixtures for each room. One of her favourites is the white, circular floating Artemide Pirce pendant in the guest bedroom, while Lucas dubbed his light “the donut” for its shape. Now that the three years of renovation are over, Kristin says they are thrilled with the result. “We love living here and although both renovations were stressful at times, the end result was totally worth it. I don’t see us leaving anytime soon...”

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AUDI DO WRITTEN BY ROGER WALKER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW

t Audi I have always admired both their technical wizardry, and their motorsport achievements. Then, when they added physical beauty to the mix by launching the original Bauhaus-inspired Audi TT Coupe at the Frankfurt Motor Show, I melted and my wallet fell open. I’d seen pictures of a show car which had hand-stitched tan “baseball glove” style leather upholstery. I had to have one like that. Then, at the showroom in Wellington (some time ago now) I saw a body colour option called “Denim Blue”. Imagine my surprise when another interested onlooker said that if I wanted the Denim Blue car I’d need a black interior, or if I wanted that lovely tan interior I should have a “neutral” body colour. He was possibly the kind of fellow Billy Connolly had in mind when he said that “‘some people think black, white and grey are colours.” Combining the tan and blue, said my observer, would be very poor taste. Of course I ignored him. As well as not being as afraid of colour (unlike some other German car manufacturers) one of Audi’s strengths is its Italian connections. Its parent company owns Lamborghini, acknowledged as the most mental of the supercars, and Ducati Motorcycles, the two-wheel equivalent of Ferrari. It also recently purchased car designer Italdesign Guigiaro. Audi now produces over two million cars annually from 11 factories around the globe. Like that other design-driven company Apple, they have their dealerships consistently architecturally branded. The range of Audi models available in New Zealand is huge. Apart from sports cars, sedans, SUVs, station wagons and convertibles (powered by petrol and diesel engines of various sizes and dispositions) they are now busily promoting their E-Tron electric models. The third-generation Audi A4 comes with a choice of four different engine combinations and as a sedan or station wagon (Avant). The base model A4 costs $72,000 and has a 140kW four-cylinder petrol motor. The one I get to drive is the top of the line $109,000 A4 TDi Avant with a couple more cylinders and lots more horsepower. It’s

diesel, with 4-wheel drive (Quattro in Italian), and enough cameras to make a feature-length movie. It sits prettily on lovely sculpted wheels, low and looking ready to pounce. I get in. From the passenger seat, Todd the dealer takes me through the myriad of driver aids and safety features for 15 intense minutes. There’s a map screen in the middle of the dashboard, but a feature I like is the big screen right behind the steering wheel. You can load it with the instruments you prefer, or the map, trip information, or maybe your favourite music, which all work well even in bright sunlight. It’s also set up for easy connection to your phone and there’s even a charger. They call it a “virtual cockpit”. Todd gets out telling me women love the car because it’s so easy to drive. It’s also a plush, lovely, comfortable place to be, with legible instruments, a soft-touch steering wheel and individually heated seats. With all these controls and instruments at hand, I feel as though I am in charge of a small nuclear power station. I push the start button and head north to see if the weather is any better there than in Wellington. After a few kilometres all the controls became intuitive. The car goes like a scalded cat, but even in the wet, I can’t provoke its rubbery claws into letting go of the road. The car has both an automatic and manual gearshift. My bias is towards the manual gear changes and I am well satisfied. There are eight speeds, and I spare a nostalgic thought for my first car, a Model A Ford, and its three-speed gearbox. While this Audi is far too interesting to drive to ever fall asleep at the wheel, it makes sure that less interested drivers don’t, with a gadget to wake you if it thinks you’re nodding off. Turned out that the weather was just as bad up north, but I had a great time getting there. To summarise my experience, I refer to a motor mechanic friend in Auckland called Sandro Zanforlini. He has a German mother and an Italian father. I think of him as a perfect blend of precision and passion. He is very Audi.

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WHAT WOULD DEIRDRE D O? WITH DEIRDRE TARRANT

WANTS MULTIPLES

SCRAMBLE RAMBLE

SCARED TO OPEN MOUTH

We have one child, and my partner wants us to have an open relationship and says it will not affect our partnership, our living together, nor our commitment as parents together. I am unsure. What do you think? Anxious, Tawa

Is there a right way to scramble eggs? My flatmates argue about the method, every time. Scrambled, Kelburn

What is acceptable by way of comments from men in a workplace about the way a woman looks? Is it wrong to comment at all? Or just wrong to comment if there are other women present? Over-thinking it, Whitby

This sounds like a no-go on every level! What happened to mutual respect, commitment, love and devotion? Leave him.

FAMILY PARTIES My in-laws have lots of family gatherings but a lot of alcohol is consumed and a lot of very wild behaviour goes on. I think we should keep our 10–14-year-olds away from night-time gatherings and only go to daytime events, where things are usually a little quieter. This policy now has become known and has annoyed my wife’s family. I am now seen as unfriendly, uncaring and snobbish. What should we do? Snob, Lower Hutt You are right and totally caring. Be perfectly pleasant and just stick to your guns. I hope your wife supports you on this; but otherwise, go together and leave early – they have school and bedtimes etc. It won’t be long before they will have their own social lives, and this sort of social modelling is best avoided.

It is amazing how much cafe chat revolves round scrambled eggs! The best in town are at Prefab and Floriditas. Mine are never as good and my habit is to go out for them and cook lesser challenges at home. Either way – is it a whisk? Is it a fork? Swish or circle? Cream or milk? The jury is in constant conflict. Organic eggs are the absolute start point though. Enjoy!

Compliments given and received should be part of life whether in the workplace or not. Be open and sincere.

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GUEST COMPLAINTS Is it reasonable for a guest to complain about the volume from speakers or the TV if they have decided to retire early to bed? Fed up, Te Aro

My child does not want to learn to drive, nor to obtain a driver’s licence. His father says it is an essential life skill and and thinks I should be backing him up, that we should present a united front on this. What do you think? Petrolhead, Upper Hutt

If you are a guest you will have to wear it. This is why hotels were invented. Take earplugs with you or stay up and join in the action. It is not your home and you are visiting their patch.

Millions of people don’t drive. It is his call and let him decide. When he needs to he can – meanwhile fewer drivers on the road can only be good for the planet.

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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TO O MUCH SUGAR AND YELLING BY MELODY THOMAS

Having spent far too much time this week trying and failing to write something you might enjoy or at the very least understand, I have decided to embrace the brain fog and scatter by listing off some of the lessons learned from four months of parenting two kids with very little sleep. On that note – On sleep: Of the phrases peppering modern communication there is none more cruelly misleading than “sleeping like a baby”. How on earth it came to mean to experience a deep and restful sleep is completely beyond me. Was the first utterer of this idiom demented? Had they ever met a baby? Did they actually mean to say that they had spent the entire night groaning and writhing about trying to poo and waking hourly for snacks and sleeping only when their full weight was pressed on top of another person, but their meaning was misconstrued? Sleep deprivation is the absolute worst, hardest, shittiest part of parenting. It is torture. No, actually: sleep deprivation is used as an interrogation technique by organisations like the CIA – producing symptoms ranging from irritability, difficulty concentrating, poor judgement and an increase in appetite to disorientation, apathy and social withdrawal. Any of that sound familiar? On time: As you’ve no doubt heard already, time has a way of speeding up once kids arrive. What they don’t tell you is that time also slows down, turns inside out and disappears entirely. Whole weeks fly by despite the fact that every single day making up those weeks felt like it would never end. If you’re the main parent at home you’ll know all too well how the two hours before the other parent finishes work are actually more like four, whereas if you’re lucky enough to be given half an hour to lie down or have a shower the time is gobbled up in about three minutes. And it’s best not to ever look back on photos of yourselves from before babies – a year in the life of a parent equates to about five when it comes to ageing. On mental health: There will be days when you feel like your identity and the life you once knew is lost to you; like all of the great things you spent however many decades becoming have fallen away and all that remains is a tired, unfamiliar shell of a person called “Mum”. On these days hormones will cast you as 76

an emotional female stereotype bursting randomly into tears, eating way too much sugar and yelling at people who don’t deserve it. But then you’ll wake up the next day or the following week or month and you’ll be feeling good again. You might even put some makeup on, or clothes that aren’t leggings. And while those horrible spells won’t completely disappear for a while (maybe ever?) they will become fewer and farther between until you barely remember them anymore (*although it’s important to talk to someone about it if they don’t). On support: Because Western society celebrates individuality there is an unspoken narrative in which asking for help or relying on others makes us failures, and as a result we’ve become incredibly good at pretending everything is fine. But chances are, every single one of your uber-competent, super-mum friends experiences self-doubt, guilt or anxiety a good deal of the time, and they are just waiting for someone else to give them permission to bring it up. Talk to your friends. Watch as relief floods their expressions, and enjoy the newfound strength that comes from solidarity and shared experience. On love: If parenting is something you’re doing with someone else, be ready for your relationship to change. Prepare to become like ships in the night, trading information about pickups and drop-offs and nap times before sailing to your beds at opposite ends of the house. You will go whole days without checking in, weeks without saying something affectionate, and don’t even get me started on the sex. But at some stage you’ll find yourself together in the same bed, cuddled up like you used to, talking about something other than the kids – and provided it was there in the first place you’ll realise with relief that that good, solid foundation you built this relationship on still remains, and is in fact better and stronger than ever. Revel in that moment. Have sex if you’re up to it. Or else just sleep. There’ll be plenty of time for sex when the kids move out.