Capital 39 by Capital

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

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art, design, curiosities and a dash of the absurd. www.qtmuseumwellington.com

Proud supporter of a festival that is out of this world!

CROSS THE ROAD WITH A CLEAR HEAD Leave your distractions at theÂ kerb

Think. Look. Cross.

CAPITAL

MADE IN WELLINGTON

Marianne Elliott, Elliot, story on page 32. Photography by Anna Briggs Art Directed by Shalee Fitzsimmons Assisted by Rhett Goodley-Hornblow

for March has loosely been our theme this month. And let’s forget about the non-event of summer’s non-appearance and plan for a magnificent March. We are a civil servant/government type of city and it still surprises me each year how much the summer break affects the workflow and how long it takes for Wellington to change gear and get back to work, especiallyyear given that December alsoDecember becomes a into the working , especially given that non-decision month. making It makesmonth. for a short working also becomes making a non-decision It makes for ayear. short Nevertheless working year. I am sceptical of yet another attempt to rearrange theNevertheless summer holiday timeanother from local Member of I am season, scepticalthis of yet attempt to rearrange Parliament Dunne. Thethis suggestion getslocal trotted out every the summerPeter holiday season, time from Member of few years inPeter the slow newsThe season, and seems to be anout intractable Parliament Dunne. suggestion gets trotted every problem. minds (a group of mothers my few years Many in the very slowfine news season, and seems to be anofintractable acquaintance formed a group and their abilities problem. Many very fine minds (aput group of considerable mothers of my to the task) have addressed thisand issue years, with abilities no acquaintance formed a group putover theirthe considerable change forthcoming. to the task) have addressed this issue over the years, with no In ourforthcoming. M for March issue we have assembled some special change M In stories, Lang talks Elliott about her many our MSarah for March issueto weMarianne have assembled for you some projects. Duminda tells about settling into special MMechanic stories, Sarah Lang Nathipola talks to Marianne Elliott about herlife in Wellington, we lookDuminda at visiting Melbourne a design many projects.and Mechanic Nathipola tellsthrough about settling lens. Melody Thomas squeezes in a brief interview with musicians into life in Wellington, and we look at visiting Melbourne through Mad Handsome, and in her regular column the insult a design lens. Melody Thomas squeezes in a talks brief about interview with of BMI discussions. musicians Mad Handsome, and in her regular column talks about course our regular features are there to amuse you, with theOfinsult of BMI discussions. food, books and Of course our advice. regular features are there to amuse you, with We books look forward to a busy year and welcome your feedback. food, and advice. We look forward to a busy year and welcome your feedback.

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

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CONTRIBUTORS

Staff Alison Franks Managing editor Franks editor@capitalmag.co.nz editor@capitalmag.co.nz Campaign Campaign coordinators Lyndsey O’Reilly lyndsey@capitalmag.co.nz Trower Haleigh Trower haleigh@capitalmag.co.nz Chong fale@capitalmag.co.nz Fale Ah Chong fale@capitalmag.co.nz Bristed griff@capitalmag.co.nz Griff Bristed griff@capitalmag.co.nz General FactotumFactotum CraigBriste Beardsworth craig@capitalmag.co.nz John d john@capitalmag.co.nz Art direction Factotum ShaleeBeardsworth Fitzsimmons craig@capitalmag.co.nz shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Craig Art direction Design Shalee Fitzsimmons shalee@capitalmag.co.nz Rhett Goodleydesign@capitalmag.co.nz Hornblow Design Rhett Goodleydesign@capitalmag.co.nz Editorial assistant Hornblow Laura Pitcher laura@capitalmag.co.nz

Editorial assistant Accounts Laura Pitcher laura@capitalmag.co.nz Tod Harfield accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Craig Beardsworth Tod Gus Harfield Bristed Gus Bristed

Factotum Accounts accounts@capitalmag.co.nz Distribution Distribution

RHETT GOODLEY-HORNBLOW D e si g n er

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

A born and bred Wellingtonian, Rhett is one of our two in-house designers. He is passionate about our cool little city and the ever growing creative community, and is often found spinning a few yarns around town or surfing waves in the bay. Catch him on radioactive.co.nz at 8.15am on the first Friday of every month to hear what Capital have been up to.

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

NIKKI AND JORDAN SHEARER Fo o d C olum n i st s

A N NA B R IG G S Ph oto g r aph er

Stockists S tockists Pick up your Capital in New World, Countdown

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

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

Nikki and Jordan began their cooking journey on MasterChef NZ. Their Kiwi food philosophy is based on sharing, and cooking from the land using local, seasonal produce. As busy mums and businesswomen, they strive to serve up no-fuss meals to feed the whanau and create treasured memories.

Anna is a young freelance photographer and soon to graduate from Massey University Wellington. She has a love for photographing her surroundings showcasing their natural beauty in a stylish and tasteful way. You can check out her work at annabriggsphoto.com

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CONTENTS

10 LETTERS 10 LETTERS 12 CHATTER 12 CHATTER 14 14 NEWS BRIEFS

TALES OF THE CIT Y Master mechanic Duminda Naththipola is an Audi specialist, cooks a mean curry and wants to drive a Ducati

TA C O B E L L E

CULTURE

Marianne Elliot runs marathons literally and figuratively

Art, dance, film, theatre, design – we have our finger on the Wellington pulse

TUMEKE DENMARK Some Danes knew about Marmite, mountains and millions of sheep - now they can sing Poi E

GONE TO POT There’s a return to the simplicity of the handmade – mass production is out

29 29 31 31 40 40

MAD HANDSOME FISHY BUSINESS LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

MO OD BOARD We get meditative, mellow, merry maniacal and messy with interiors – you get the message

TWICE AS NICE: UNIQUE NZ MADE CREATIVE PIECES IN LYALL BAY

SUE DASLER POTTERY

OPEN EVERY DAY FROM 11AM. 64 KINGSFORD SMITH STREET, LYALL BAY.

C CO ON N TT EE N N TT SS

48 48

EDIBLES EDIBLES

SHEARERS’ SHEARERS’ TABLE TABLE

MULLIONED MULLIONED D DOMAIN OMAIN

Masticate Masticate aa marvellous marvellous stone stone fruit fruit tart tart

Empty Empty and and unfinished unfinished for for 20 20 years, years, an an Athfield Athfield build build now houses twohappy happycreative creativetenants tenants now has two

MELBOURNE MELBOURNE BY BY DESIGN DESIGN

LIQUID LIQUID THOUGHTS THOUGHTS

Two Two bejewelled bejewelled Wellington Wellington expats expats are are taking taking their their wares wares to to the the world world

Fifteen Fifteen minutes minutes with with mistress of wine a Mistress Wine

ROMANCE ROMANCE PAYS PAYS

David David Klein Klein gets gets all all kinetic kinetic on on cycling cycling

Leeanna Leeanna Morgan Morgan makes makes masses masses from from penning penning downloadable downloadable books books

SCIENCE SCIENCE

61 61

BY BY THE THE BOOK BOOK

67 67

76 76 79 79 80 80 82 82

WELLY WELLY ANGEL ANGEL TORQUE TORQUE TALK TALK BABY, BABY, BABY BABY CALENDAR CALENDAR

GROUPIES GROUPIES SPORTS SPORTS BRIEFS BRIEFS

Merry Merry men men Morris Morris dance dance

WELLINGTON ... A BETTER VIEW

East East by by West West Ferries Ferries to to Matiu Matiu99Somes Somes Island Island & & Days Days Bay Bay from from Queen’s Queen’s Wharf Wharf -- www.eastbywest.co.nz www.eastbywest.co.nz // Ph Ph 04 04 499 499 1282 1282

LETTERS

Two ballets by Roland Petit

with

ACCENTUATE ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE THE POSITIVE Am loving your magazine and read it cover to I am loving your magazine and read it cover to cover. Many bouquets: It is mailed in a paper cover. Many bouquets: It is mailed in a paper envelope, not plastic…go you. Your competienvelope, not plastic…go you. Your competition, take note! I am going to a lot more events tion, take note! I am going to a lot more events since reading about them in Capital. The ads since reading about them in Capital. The ads are useful and not in your face. Lots of interestare useful and not in your face. Lots of interesting and unique people given a chance to share ing and unique people given a chance to share their interesting lives. Accentuating the positive their interesting lives. Accentuating the positive rather than the negative. Great design! rather than the negative. Great design! A brickbat: On page 64 in the summer ediA brickbat: On page 64 in the summer edition and having a visceral “Yuk!” reaction to tion and having a visceral “Yuk!” reaction to seeing two lovely ladies sitting on a) a dining seeing two lovely ladies sitting on a) a dining table and b) a kitchen bench. Artistically beautable and b) a kitchen bench. Artistically beautiful; culturally repugnant and disrespectful. It tiful; culturally repugnant and disrespectful. It helped me realise, as a pakeha New Zealander, helped me realise, as a pakeha New Zealander, how much Māori tikanga is now integral to this how much Māori tikanga is now integral to this country. Please avoid showing bottoms on the country. Please avoid showing bottoms on the same surfaces the food goes on. same surfaces the food goes on. Can’t wait for the March edition! Can’t wait for the March edition! Barbara Hay, Stokes Valley Barbara Hay, Stokes Valley

, L ARLESIENNE

MORE MORE MAKARA MAKARA I really enjoyed your Makara feature in the I really enjoyed your Makara feature in the current issue. current issue. Although the summer has been poor, our Although the summer has been poor, our family have been out there twice since family have been out there twice since reading your magazine. reading your magazine. Many thanks B Orton, Wellington B Orton, Wellington O OPS O OPS I am always frustrated when I see in print the I am always frustrated when I see in print the (non) word ‘til – there is a word you can use (non) word ‘til – there is a word you can use instead and it’s ‘till’. Yes, till – dictionary definiinstead and it’s ‘till’. Yes, till – dictionary definition: short for ‘until’. So there is no need to do tion: short for ‘until’. So there is no need to do the other thing. the other thing. Actually ‘till’ has a few meanings, two of Actually ‘till’ has a few meanings, two of which are: ‘to cultivate and work land for the which are: ‘to cultivate and work land for the raising of crops’ as well as the ‘till’ in shops. raising of crops’ as well as the ‘till’ in shops. L Shaw, Hataitai. L Shaw, Hataitai. Quite right. We’ll get the water cannon ready for Quite right. We’ll get the water cannon ready for when our copy editor next comes into the office when our copy editor next comes into the office – Ed. – Ed.

22 – 25 MAR ST JAMES THEATRE SUPPORTED BY

NATIONAL TOURING PARTNER

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

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Bring your ideas in to House of Travel and we’ll help you get there. House of Travel On Hunter is this year celebrating 25 years since they first opened their doors in the old Dukes Arcade. HOT On Hunter owner operator Petra Otte says it has been an incredibly satisfying 25 years helping Wellingtonians achieve their travel dreams. “It has been so rewarding building relationships with Wellington families over the past 25 years. We’ve helped parents take their young children on family holidays each year, watched them grow up and then eventually helped the children with their OE travels. And now they’re travelling with families of their own,” she says. “Seeing the positive effect travel has on each client is something that we never get tired of. Whether travel is giving you the opportunity to reconnect with family, gain confidence by stepping outside your comfort

zone, recharge the batteries or just giving you something to look forward to, it’s always fantastic seeing our clients come home in a happier place than they were before.” Petra calls her staff a team of ‘dream weavers’ and believes HOT On Hunter’s personal service makes all the difference for their customers.

BACK ROW; JOSEPHINE, PETRA, DONNA, WILMA FRONT ROW; CATHERINE, REBECCA

“We invest in our relationships and love it when our customers bring in their ideas that we can combine with our knowledge. We know and understand Wellingtonians, and our work is never done until each client returns home happy and well. “Thank you to all of our wonderful customers for their business over the last 25 years – we couldn’t have done it without you!”

PETRA OTTE, OWNER OPERATOR

The best holidays are created together. HOUSE OF TRAVEL HUNTER ST CBD I 499 4699 I 12 HUNTER ST I HOT.CO.NZ CONDITIONS: Capital to Capital promotion valid 01 – 30 Apr17 only. Entry accepted with completed entry form in store or at www.hotonhunter.co.nz • The Prize is two return Economy Class tickets for the prize winner from Wellington - Hanoi on the Wellington service • Flights must depart and return to Wellington • The ticket is valid for travel departing during the period from 01 Apr 17 to 31 Mar 18. This excludes our peak travel period 01 Dec 17 to 31 Jan 18 • All travel must be completed by 31 Mar 18 • The ticket is non-transferable, non-reroutable and non-endorsable. Any unused portion must be returned to Singapore Airlines Office in Wellington for cancellation • Further terms and conditions apply. For more information see instore.

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

DAIRY ME

MAD MARCH HA R E It’s possible someone may have called you “mad as a March hare”. Admittedly that someone is likely to be older, but the phrase has been in continuous use since the 16th century, so it may catch on in your household too. Derived from the breeding-season antics of the European hare, the phrase can be used to describe someone who behaves in an excitable and unpredictable way. The hare’s annual oddness includes boxing at other hares, jumping vertically for seemingly no reason, and generally displaying erratic behaviour – like the mosh pit at any music festival, really. Unfortunately the European seasonal reference doesn’t transfer easily here. March is not breeding time for New Zealand’s brown hare (Lepus europaeus occidentalis) but it does breed like... well, rabbits, and is a pest.

RAJ PATEL 65 Hobart St, Miramar. Raj Foodmarket. What is your favourite lolly? Caramel squares. Average hours worked each day? 5. Do the whole family work at the dairy? Yes. My sister and I grew up in a dairy. My parents bought this store in 2000, just before she was born. We grew up around customers. Never tell your friends that you own a dairy, they always want freebies!

C HAT T E R

WELLY WORDS CALL OF DUT Y A big-eared Wellyworder overheard a conversation between two well-dressed millennials in a cafe regarding a jury duty call-up. “I found my scummiest pair of ripped jeans, a holey t-shirt and mussed up my hair – I was in the courtroom for less than 10 minutes before the prosecution lawyer challenged my inclusion.” The Wellyworder informs us he’s kept a couple of gardening shirts just in case he gets the call.

WALK THE LINE We’ve all seen them – people walking along the footpath with a book in hand, engrossed and oblivious to the world. A Wellyworder observed someone with advanced skills meandering through Marsden Village – book in one hand and burger in the other, both actively being devoured. The Wellyworder commented on his impressive multi-tasking but the reader didn’t hear...perhaps not so multi.

COME RAIN OR COME SHINE Speaking of walking, is NZ Post dispensing with the time-honoured tradition of posties padding the pavement? A Wellyworder wandering through Roseneath noticed mail being delivered by car, a black Ford no less. It’s a tad windy and hilly up there but nothing that a sturdy shoe and muscled berry-brown thigh can’t handle. Is no one sending mail to the bourgeoisie anymore?

IT'S COOL TO KORERO Are you still waiting for the arrival of summer, like me? E tatari tonu koe ki te taenga mai o te raumati, pēra i a au?

BETTER W I T H W E TA Victoria University and Miramar Creative Ltd, directed by Weta companies Co-founder Jamie Selkirk, are to collaborate in the opening of a new film centre in the heart of Miramar. The new centre will provide Victoria with state-ofthe-art film facilities. “This is an exciting partnership that will give our students a direct link to world-leading practitioners and industry experience in Wellington’s creative sector,” says Victoria’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Frazer Allan.

RIFLEMAN AT THE READY A virtual army of 80 riflemen (Titipounamu), New Zealand’s smallest bird species, will be released into the Zealandia ecosanctuary this month. The pocket-sized creatures are coming from Wainuiomata, with another 80 in reinforcements set for release in Otari Wilton’s Bush a year from now. The aim is to secure the local population, safeguard the species and hopefully extend the territory and range of this feisty native bird.

NEWS BRIEFS

H O N E S T, GOV Scandinavia always seems to shine in international ratings for things like human happiness and quality of life. If these countries’ standards are the ones by which we measure our integrity, then New Zealand has made it, at least in the public service stakes. We’re levelpegging with Denmark as having the least corrupt public service in the world, according to Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perception Index. PSA national secretary Glenn Barclay says "We should all be proud of this achievement, which speaks volumes as to the credibility and capacity of our public service."

CLEVER BIRDY

WHIRLWIND SUCCESS

CONGESTED REALITIES

With kaka numbers in Wellington exceeding 800, the scientific focus has shifted from saving them to studying them, and specifically their intelligence. A partnership between Zealandia ecosanctuary and Victoria University is looking at how they solve problems, learn and remember. “Parrots have long been a favourite subject for animal cognition researchers, but most studies have been on captive birds,” said volunteer Bill Beale, who banded Zealandia's 800th kaka.

They say success breeds success, and this is certainly true of the Hurricanes. Membership has risen by 30 per cent since the club won its inaugural Investec Super Rugby title in 2016. The defending champions will enter the 2017 season with at least 6,000 members after more than 1,400 additional fans joined during the off-season. “We want our fans to feel like they are part of something meaningful, and I think the way our team conducted themselves last year has connected with a lot of people,” says Hurricanes chief executive Avan Lee.

By 2043 there’ll be 24,000 more jobs, 46,000 extra people living in the city and double the number of airport passengers. These are the figures used by Let’s Get Wellington Moving, a joint initiative between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the New Zealand Transport Agency. The committee wants to enhance the liveability of the central city and reduce reliance on private vehicles. “Given traffic congestion is already high Wellington needs to make some critical decisions,” said LGWM’s director Barry Mein.

NEWS BRIEFS

BLOWN AWAY While parts of the country have suffered the unsavoury after-effects of large numbers of freedom campers this summer – a particular concern for Federated Farmers, who liken the government’s $12m to tackle the problem to “a damp tea-towel on a bonfire” – Wellington has its own characteristic way of hosing down the issue. “The wet summer means we’ve had fewer visitors to freedom camping sites and no spill-over,” says Bylaws Officer Andrew McEwan from South Wairarapa District Council. “And the wind out here tends to move people on quite quickly.”

FREE PARKING, PARKED

FUTURE PRO OFING

PLUGGED IN

A free one-hour parking trial aimed at boosting visitors and retail spending in Lower Hutt CBD is ending. Chief Executive Tony Stallinger says the trial has been thoroughly researched but the results don’t stack up. “We have given this trial longer than any other we have undertaken, but ten months of economic data shows free parking is not an effective strategy to attract additional retail spend.”

The next generation of global leaders from New Zealand are to be equipped to deal with issues of conflict and turmoil, at Common Leaders Day 2017. It is run by Commonwealth Youth New Zealand (CYNZ), which received a grant from the Ministry of Youth Development to make the day happen. The theme is peace-building, and senior high school students should speak to CYNZ if they’d like to attend on 13 March. “CYNZ enables bright young people to build global connections and nourishes international leadership talent in New Zealand,” says their executive director, Aaron Hape.

Wellington and Auckland are the first cities in New Zealand for NZ Bus to trial its new BYD eBus. The three-month trial, which began last month, is to determine if these fully electric buses can work in New Zealand’s landscape and existing bus networks. The buses look similar to those running on diesel, and the only change passengers may notice is a quieter journey.

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Master Mechanic WRITTEN WRITTEN BY BY JOHN JOHN BRISTED BRISTED || PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BY ANNA ANNA BRIGGS BRIGGS

NIGHT NIGHT OUT OUT

Bangalore Bangalore Polo Polo Club Club

HOLIDAY HOLIDAY Napier Napier

EAT EAT

Masala Masala

HOBBY HOBBY Cooking Cooking

WISH WISH

Motorbike Motorbike

From From Sri Sri Lanka Lanka to to Dubai Dubai to to Wellington Wellington DUMINDA DUMINDA NATHTHIPOLA NATHTHIPOLA and and his his family family have have settled settled in in and and he’s he’s found found his his mechanical mechanical niche. niche.

uminda umindaNaththipola Naththipolaisisthe theman manyou youtake takeyour yourAudi Audi to towhen whenititneeds needsclever cleverrepairs. repairs.He’s He’san anAudi AudiMaster Master Technician Technicianat atArmstrong ArmstrongPrestige. Prestige.Duminda Dumindatells tellsus us modestly, modestly,that thatmeans meansthat thathe’s he’sjust justwhat whatused usedto tobe becalled calledaa mechanic, mechanic,but buthe’s he’sobviously obviouslyaapretty prettygood goodone onebecause becausehe’s he’s the theonly onlyAudi AudiMaster MasterTechnician Technicianin inthe theWellington Wellingtonregion. region. He He lived lived in in Dubai Dubai until until nine nine years years ago, ago, but but came came to to New New Zealand Zealand with with “my “my wife wife –– she’s she’s awesome awesome –– because because Dubai Dubai isis no no place place to to raise raise kids”, kids”, and and now now they’re they’re the the proud proud parents parents of of two two boys. boys. “Wellington “Wellington was was aa surprise” surprise” he he says. says. “I “I was was staying staying in in aa hostel, hostel, and and on on the the first first day day II was was here here II was was walking walking down down the the street street feeling feeling that that II needed needed to to hold hold on on to to poles poles to to stop stop me me blowing blowing away. away.”” “Coming “Coming to to aa new new country country was was aa huge huge shock. shock. II didn’t didn’t know know anyone, anyone, where where to to get get anything, anything, how how things things operated operated in in New New Zealand Zealand and and even even really really who who to to speak speak to to about about anything. anything. We We had had to to start start from from scratch. scratch. Luckily Luckily we we had had help help from from the the people people at at Armstrong. Armstrong.”” Duminda Duminda now now says says Wellington Wellington isis great, great, the the people people are are great, great, and and he he loves loves the the unique unique and and vibrant vibrant culture. culture. The The waterfront waterfront isis his his favourite favourite part part of of the the city, city, but but he’s he’s most most often likely likely to to be be at at work work in in the the city city or or at at home home in in Tawa Tawa often with the the children. children. with “But ifif we we go go on on holiday holiday we we like like Napier Napier because because of of “But the exceptional exceptional weather. weather. Out Out of of New New Zealand Zealand II like like Sri Sri the Lanka, because because that’s that’s where where I’m I’m from. from.”” Lanka,

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In the the city city he he enjoys enjoys Masala Masala for for aa curry curry with with his his In mates. “Indian” “Indian” is, is, somewhat somewhat naturally, naturally, an an interest. interest. mates. “When I’m I’m in in town town II enjoy enjoy the the Bangalore Bangalore Polo Polo Club”… Club”… “When partly because because of of the the music music (he (he likes likes Lionel Lionel Richie) Richie) and and partly the peanuts. peanuts. the Cooking isis often often the the Sunday Sunday preoccupation. preoccupation. “I “I like like Cooking to cook cook traditional traditional Sri Sri Lankan Lankan meals. meals. ItIt can can take take up up the the to whole day day and and sometimes sometimes the the neighbours neighbours join join us, us, some some whole are English English and and they they like like curry, curry, or or II bring bring something something for for are the guys guys at at work. work. II learnt learnt from from my my wife wife and and from from my my the mum, but but really really you you just just follow follow the the recipe. recipe.”” mum, Sincehe’s he’sbeen beenin inNew NewZealand Zealandhe’s he’ssaved savedassiduously, assiduously, Since and five five years years ago ago bought bought aa house house in in Tawa. Tawa. He’s He’s and obviously aa handyman. handyman. There’s There’s aa recently recently built built pergola. pergola. obviously When Capital Capital called called he he was was just just getting getting into into aa hard hard day day When painting the the house. house. “It “It got got too too small, small, so so we’re we’re selling selling it. it. painting Now we’re we’re aa bigger bigger family family and and we we need need more more space”. space”. Now What does does aa Sri Sri Lankan Lankan Kiwi Kiwi do do in in his his spare spare time? time? What “Well, mountain mountain biking, biking, and and I’m I’m keen keen on on boxing. boxing. II “Well, originally took took itit up up just just as as aa get-fit get-fit thing, thing, but but II enjoy enjoy it. it. originally was even even going going to to fight fight in in aa charity charity event event recently recently but but II II was hurt my my shoulder. shoulder.”” hurt ‘Soyou youhad hadto totake takeititeasy easyfor foraabit. bit.What Whatdid didyou youread?’ read?’ ‘So “SriLankan Lankannewspapers newspapersonline, online,and andAudi Audinewsletters. newsletters.”” “Sri What would would this this super-mechanic super-mechanic want want ifif he he could could What have anything anything in in the the world? world? “A “A flash flash motorbike… motorbike… aa have Ducati would would do”. do”. Ducati

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CULTURE

P O PULAR The Modern Maori Quartet had talked about one day working with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, so they were stoked to be approached to do exactly that. The upshot is a nationwide tour, NZSO Presents: Summer Pops with the Modern Maori Quartet, stopping into Wellington on 10 March. Expect showband classics, Māori waiata and Kiwi golden oldies in English and Te Reo, plus new songs written by the quartet. Formed by four friends at Toi Whakaari in 2012, the showband has toured nationally and globally since.

FINAL ACT

STEPPING UP

COMING UNSTUCK

As a 19-year-old dancer, Italian Francesco Ventriglia met master choreographer Roland Petit. “He not only cast me in my first major roles but he also became my mentor.” Ventriglia, now the outgoing Artistic Director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, pays homage to his late friend by programming Carmen with L’Arlésienne: Two Ballets by Roland Petit, St James, 22–25 March.

For the first time, Park Road Post and Capital E Digital have mentored the secondary-school groups that medalled in the Roxy5 Short Film Competition, helping them remake their films. In the first screening of the more polished films, winner Black Dog (Kapiti College) and runners-up Step by Step (Kahurangi School) and A Fishy Tale (Wellington High School) show at Nga Taonga, on 18 March, and alongside international shorts during the Capital E National Arts Festival from 13 March.

Performing opera, but not as you know it, Aucklandbased company Unstuck Opera wants to bring more intimate, theatrical and shorter contemporary opera to a broader, younger crowd. Founder Frances Moore, a long-time Wellingtonian, directs its feted production producDido and and Aeneas: Recomposed (30 March to 13to13 tion Dido Aeneas: Recomposed (30 March April), which will lead audiences around BATS Theatre’s performance and backstage spaces. It’s here courtesy of The Besties Tour, a collaboration between BATS and Auckland’s Basement Theatre. Selected works staged at each venue get $10,000 – and a mentor – to help them tour the other city. Nice one.

Chamber Music New Zealand presents

“...an urbane sexiness, far removed from the chaste tradition of English Purcell performance” – The Guardian, UK

MUSIC FOR A WHILE

Baroque Jazz – Improvisations on Henry Purcell

Core Funder

Saturday 18 March, 7.30pm Michael Fowler Centre Free Prelude event prior to concert

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CULTURE

GOING B AT T Y After seeing a samba band in an Amsterdam park, Wellington artist Stephen Templer decided Wellington needed its own Batucada troupe to jam with percussionstyle samba. He and Darryn Sigley started Wellington Batucada in time to perform at the 2001 Cuba Street Carnival. Now it’s one of eight Batucada groups performing at CubaDupa, 25–26 March, an interactive street festival honouring Cuba Street’s creative spirit with dance, circus, theatre, installations and especially music. Local acts include the Eggs, the Mermaidens and Estère.

MOVE OVER , MELB OURNE

JUST A MOMENT

FRONT AND CENTRE

It’s hard to miss the second VIVID Wellington street-art festival (27 February to 19 March). Posters reproducing the three winning artworks from the competition will be displayed around the city along with an “arts trail” of artists’ work. On 11–12 March, local street artists will collaborate on a work on Bond Street. Meanwhile London’s Cityzen Kane, who attaches elaborate sculptures to walls, will create a mystery work with local Stevei Houkamau and run a 3D-art workshop with mixed-ability participants from Vincent’s, Pablo’s and Alpha studios.

This 2010 photo captures Peter McLeavey preparing to step down from directing his art gallery, and his daughter Olivia McLeavey preparing to carry it on. Richard Brimer’s image is showing at a small exhibition, Capture: Photographs from the New Zealand Portrait Gallery Collection. In other images, Ralph Hotere and Colin McCahon look decidedly uncomfortable in front of the camera.

In 2015, Voices From The Front: A Gallipoli Story sold out at Porirua Little Theatre and won Best Musical and Best Costume Design at the New Zealand Theatre Federation Awards (for amateur theatre). Determined to reach a wider audience, the theatre has raised $3,000 to stage a shorter revised production at the Hannah Playhouse, from 4 to 8 April. Written by Roseneath playwright Amanda Stone, the play follows three New Zealand soldiers from Cairo to the Dardanelles, and is based on real letters.

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F E AT U R E

Gone to pot Mass production has made our lives easier – it’s become progressively easier to buy affordable merchandise, easier to feed and easier to clothe people, but there is a groundswell of support for the honesty and inimitability of a handmade thing. Whetherpreserved to preserved peaches or to hand-knitted jerseys, are returning the Whether peaches or hand-knitted jerseys, we arewe returning to the to handhandmade and revelling in its personalised simplicity. BEARDSWORTH made and revelling in its personalised simplicity. CRAIGCRAIG BEARDSWORTH looks at looks at some ofchanges the changes happening in Wellington. some of the happening in Wellington.

beingbeing embraced – pottery eramics are also embraced – pottery classes and workshops are popular again, and again artists are being drawn to clay. Domestic ware is big. Several cafes and restaurants in the region routinely serve up their creations in handmade plates and bowls. Felicity Donaldson takes tableware commissions from cafes and restaurants. She supplies them with white stoneware, which she makes using slump moulds. She also makes pots, planters, and vessels, and runs workshops in her Brooklyn studio. Her brand Wundaire sprouted after she completed a beginners’ course at Auckland Studio Potters. After several years of working two jobs and potting into the night, making ceramics has evolved into her full-time work. Mug Mates is another initiative of Donaldson’s. Subscribers can sign up and receive a new mug by each of four potters annually. The four are delivered over four months. All different, they are curated to complement each other. Another potter who has blown into Wellington and put down roots is Sue Dasler. The Nelsonian with 25 years’ potting experience moved into her Lyall Bay studio four years ago, and has noticed a surge of interest in handmade ceramics. “I get a lot of young people

wanting to learn and buy – I think they’re sick of all the mass-produced stuff and want something with a bit of substance and meaning." She thinks the renaissance in potting is linked to the craft beer movement. “People are more conscious of where things are sourced from and tell a bit of a story. You feel more of a connection.” She suggests that the trend is a reaction to a world full of digital, virtual commodities. “People want to commit to something actually physical. Even macramé is coming back into fashion!” The Wellington Clay Collective is another enterprise establishing a presence here. Still in its infancy, the collective is the brainchild of Wellington ceramic artist Maia McDonald who wants to establish a professional studio environment for clay artists in the capital. Her idea, she says, is to allow them to “move out of spaces that are used heavily by the public and into a space shared by people who wish to make a career from their clay work." McDonald has grand plans for the collective. "The dream would be to have a very small number of private studios and one communal area for the running of workshops. The crowning jewels would be our very own large kiln and a small gallery." .

Felicity Donaldson aka Wundaire in her Brooklyn studio

ABROAD

Tu m e ke Denmark BY VANESSA ELLINGHAM

hen one of my Danish students asked whether Poi E was available on Spotify, I knew I’d won them over. My first job overseas was visiting Danish elementary school classes aged 12 to 16 to allow them to practise their English on a native speaker. Each class had been studying New Zealand for a term, so they knew we had Marmite, mountains and millions of sheep. They also insisted we ate possum pie – something their research told them was a major Kiwi delicacy. Nothing I said could convince them otherwise. Showing them the Poi E music video was my attempt to convey the idea that Māori culture doesn’t belong in the ancient past, as depictions from the 1800s reproduced in old textbooks would have them believe, but that it lives and thrives today. Surely there is no better illustration of this idea than a bit of poi performed on roller skates, or so I thought. When students began asking me about Once Were Warriors, I could see I needed to up my game. Many of the older students had seen the movie as part of their New Zealand studies, but only one class had been blessed with a teacher who had discussed with them the connection between a loss of ancestral land and a loss of cultural identity and esteem. A lack of guidance about the film from teachers had left many of the teenagers equating being Māori with being violent. I wanted to tell them that unfortunately some people in New Zealand still think that, too, but I could see it really backfiring. I hoped that telling them I was Māori would be a good start. As a child at the marae I’d been told, “you’re as Māori as you feel”. Back at home, fair-haired, pale-faced me had only ever felt like I didn’t quite qualify; but now, far from home, I felt very Māori. Being the first to explain Māori culture to others felt like a huge responsibility. Everyone at home already had an opinion, but in Denmark I found whole classes of students eager to hear what being Māori meant to me. I decided to tell them about being plunged into my first marae stay experience, aged nine, at my granddad’s tangi. I realized that all the things I had found funny, strange or awkward at the time, they would probably find funny, strange or awkward, too.

I recounted what it was like hosting my granddad’s body in our dining room and having to sleep next to him to shield him from spirits; heading to the marae where hundreds of people I’d never met kissed me, said “I’m your Aunty Such-and-Such” and then told me off for not closing my eyes while we pressed noses to exchange the breath of life; finding myself another dozen brown cousins at the marae, who all asked, “were you adopted or something?” Was this not one of the most interesting things about Māoridom today? That many of us are raised Pākehā, often only experiencing our Māori side on specific occasions like the death of a grandparent. Instead of giving them a token Māori experience, I could offer these Danish kids the genuine article: a 21st-century, urbanized middle-class Māori experience. At the time I was only a couple of months into living and working in Denmark, but I’d already run up against a prevailing attitude that in Denmark there’s only one way of doing things, and that’s the Danish way. It really pushed my buttons, so when I walked into classrooms where I found something other than monoculture – not only white kids but brown ones as well, often from Turkey or other parts of the Middle East – I’d be itching to let them know that where I come from there’s room for more than one culture to be expressed. That there’s a brown part of me too and, in my class at least, it’s ok to talk about being different. (I should pause here and say that I only lasted one year in Denmark, for this reason. Despite my appearance fitting in perfectly, I quickly realized the rest of me did not). After thoroughly spooking the students – they had many questions about my granddad’s corpse and what it smelt like – I’d end each class with our unofficial national anthem. At the end of my first week on the job, I met a class of kids who couldn’t believe the Poi E video had amassed 999,000 views on YouTube – what is this corny, out-dated crap, they asked. But by the time I showed it to the next class the following Monday it had overshot one million views. I like to believe I was at least partially responsible for this. Just imagine 30 Danish families sitting at home on a Friday night watching Poi E. Tumeke..

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CULTUR AL DIRECTORY

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

HEALING POOLS US digital artist Brian Knep’s interactive pool of ever changing patterns. Cross the piece, watch the patterns disperse then heal and rebuild.

THE NEW ZEALAND BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL A festival of films devoted to the bicycle and all who ride.

Exclusive showing.

Features the Big Bike Film Night and awardwinning documentaries and films to enthral, challenge and inspire.

Until 30 April 2017 Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre, 836 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt expressions.org.nz Open daily 9am – 4pm Free entry

28 March – 8 April 84 Taranaki St, Wellington ngataonga.org.nz

THE P E R F OR MAN C E A R C A DE This free annual festival of visual arts and performance brings an exciting arrangement of shipping containers and scaffolding to the waterfront. Open 13 hours a day, it features a pop-up bar, food trucks, a live music series and performance installations by New Zealand and international artists.

Fri 10 – Sun 19 Mar Wellington Waterfront theperformancearcade.com

EAT YOUR ENEMY #4 I DON’T WANT TO WANT The Goethe-Institut in cooperation with Wellington City Council welcomes Berlin performance artist Janine Eisenächer, the GoetheInstitut artist-in-residence 2017. Janine will be based in Wellington until the end of April. You can catch her live during The Performance Arcade at Wellington’s Waterfront.

The Performance Arcade 2017 10-19 March 2017 theperformancearcade.com

CUB ADUPA Revel in the creative spirit of Cuba Street and the city’s diverse communities. “If you could bottle the Wellington vibe you’d be rich; if you unleash it you get @ CubaDupa.” - Angela Monaghan (via Twitter) Saturday 25 March, 12pm–12am Sunday 26 March, 12pm–5pm ADMISSION: Free cubadupa.co.nz 28

T HE HAN N AH PLAYHOUSE Book your ticket, or book your show! The Hannah Playhouse is open for business! An independently run theatre for hire, primarily used for performing arts experiences, the Hannah is in the centre of the Wellington entertainment district. Purpose built, the Hannah is now the home of performance experiences for all! 12 Cambridge Terrace, Te Aro, Wellington, 04 894-7412 kathiyw@experiencewellington.org.nz hannahplayhouse.org.nz

MAD HA N D S OM E WRITTEN BY MELODY THOMAS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA BRIGGS

Wellington hip hop duo Mad Handsome have been making music together since they were first introduced by a mutual friend in 2010. Ahead of their performance at Homegrown, Melody Thomas asks Chris Payton and Kaivai Andrews some hard-hitting questions, starting with their band’s name. A little presumptuous, isn’t it? C: Haha, just look at us! No, it just sounded cool… K: Yeah I'm pretty sure we were just throwing random words out there and Mad Handsome was the one that stuck. It's got a nice little rhyme to it as well. C: Plus it's interesting. People will infer that each of us are one or the other – and because there's two of us and the name is two words it's cool to hear people guess at who's who – no one is ever wrong or right as it's not something that was ever intentional or we've ever alluded to.

When and how did music become part of your lives? C: Not to sound too airy-fairy or whatever, but [music has] always been my chosen form of expression. Watching The Muppet Show as a kid and seeing the original show with its musical guests and sketches made me realise that that's what I wanted to do. K: Music has always been a part of my life. Home always had music playing, and the older members of the family introduced me to a huge range of music. What motivates you to do it? K: I don't need to perform but I need to make sh*t. I always have ideas running around in my head – little melodies, beats, bass lines, hooks, and I need to get them out. The motivation is the music itself – I just want to hear the end result. C: [Music is] my leather couch. If I didn't make music I'd definitely be in therapy. So

instead of paying a stranger to listen to my problems, I get strangers to listen to my problems then pay me. C: We’ve spoken before about how you have to push past physical pain to be on stage. Can you please explain a bit more about why? How do you push through? C: Well, I have cerebral palsy, so for me doing anything physical is always gonna be some kinda challenge… When you apply that to shows and trying to keep energy up for a set is always gonna a battle of some type. I'm a little bit old school… from an era where your prowess as an artist is defined by your live show. [For me] it’s not enough to be a bedroom artist – it's selling the experience short. Live performance is essential to me, and it's important to see people's faces and read a crowd. I need to press the flesh, as a measure of how well I'm doing.

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FISHY BUSINESS

Treva lly Name: Trevally aka white trevally, blue gill, jack fish. Māori names: Araara, kopapa, komutumutu, raumarie. Scientific name: Pseudocaranx Dentex. Looks like: Deep-bodied (meaning the species is laterally compressed or flattened from side to side), greenish in colour with metallic overtones, yellowish fins and a distinctive dark spot above the gills. Trevally are a long-lived species and can survive for more than 45 years, growing up to 70cm long. As the fish grows beyond 40cm its back becomes a darker blue-green and the head develops a hump. Habitat: Largely confined to the warmer waters off the northern North Island but with summer stragglers reaching to Banks Peninsula. Smaller fish tend to form schools, with larger fish roaming alone or in groups of two or three. Like snapper, the species can be found in a wide range of areas from rocky shores to weed lines and in open water. Feeds on: Mostly on smaller fish – the trevally mouth is perfectly designed for shovelling krill from the water’s surface – but they are also very good bottom-feeders in all sorts of terrain. Catch: Around Wellington trevally are most often caught while fishing for other species, using all sorts of techniques and in varying terrain (though many near-catches are lost due to their soft mouths). Once they were deemed suitable for nothing more than bait, but anglers these days are generally happier to land this silver by-catch. Cook: Trevally is good pan-fried, melts in the mouth when smoked, and is also outstanding as sashimi or in other ‘raw’ fish dishes like oka (Samoa) or kokoda (Fiji), when it is marinated in lemon or lime juice then combined with fresh ingredients like coconut cream, spring onion, cucumber, tomato and chilli. Trevally is best eaten fresh as it quickly gets “fishy”. Did you know? According to the Best Fish Guide trevally can be a good seafood choice, but it depends on how it is caught. When trevally is caught by purse seine it’s ranked amber and ok to eat, but if caught by trawl it’s rated red, worst choice, and should be avoided. The bottom trawl fishery captures seabirds and marine mammals and there is a risk of capturing critically endangered Maui’s dolphins off the west coast of the North Island. If they were human they would be: the unusual combination of scrappy-but-soft puts us in mind of those classic Kiwi characters who appear tough and uncaring, but are really just big softies in disguise.

Ta c o Ta c o Belle Belle P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S

Human-rights advocate, restaurateur Human-rights advocate, restaurateur and and trail-runner Marianne Elliott somehow trail-runner Marianne Elliott somehow to talk to SARAH LANG. findsfinds timetime to talk to SARAH LANG.

F E AT U R E

ow does Marianne Elliott fit in everything she does? Has she cloned herself? Does she barely sleep? Nope: she’s simply very good at prioritising and using her time wisely. Her full-time job is national director of collective-action campaigning organisation ActionStation. She also co-owns two Mexican restaurants (one evening, parts of others), is on the board of Amnesty International NZ (many Saturdays) and does long-distance trail-running (Sundays). “Sunday is my day off," she tells me, multi-tasking by discreetly eating a muesli bar. "Well, my day off the computer.” A former yoga teacher and longtime runner, in 2014 Elliott got into trail-running: long-distance running across natural terrain with plenty of breaks. “With trail-running, it’s normal to walk when you’re tired, or stop for a sandwich,” explains Elliott, 44. “As you get older, trying to go further is much easier than trying to go faster.” She's done countless training runs of 40-plus kilometres, often running with the Sunday Snail Trails group (part of the Wellington Running Meet-Up network). “I’ve made lots of new friends through it.” Event-wise, she’s so far done a marathon (42 kilometres), and 50-kilometre and 60-kilometre trails. “I enjoy finding what I think is my limit then going beyond it.”

She's visibly excited about being one of three “sighted guides” for visually-impaired athlete Mary Fisher, a Paralympic swimming gold medallist, for the 87-kilometre Tarawera Ultramarathon in February. Think verbal directives, physical tethers you can pull on, and four months of training runs around Wellington. It's been a busy summer, between training and moving from Miramar to Paekakariki, following her split with partner-of-nine-years Lucas Putnam. “We’re changing our relationship, not ending it. It’s hard if you don’t like the term ‘breaking up’. But we’re still business partners and good friends.” The pair, who co-own Mexican restaurant La Boca Loca, opened a new eatery, Boquita, the week before Christmas. The tiny takeaway taco bar on Kent Terrace, with a few counter seats, serves “100-per-cent plant-based” tacos, soups and salads. So it’s vegan? “That label can be quite off-putting. I don’t call myself a vegan. I say I eat predominantly plant-based food”. (She has done since age eight, after growing up on a Tokoroa farm with home-killed animals.) To launch Boquita, the pair ran a crowd-funding Pledge Me campaign called (tongue in cheek) The Wellington Taco Cleanse. They borrowed the

F E AT U R E

idea from part-satire, part-recipe book The Taco Cleanse, which takes the piss out of quick-fix diets and a moralising approach to food. “Friends, it’s time for The Taco Cleanse: the tortilla-based diet proven to CHANGE YOUR LIFE,” Elliott wrote on the PledgeMe page. Pledges bought you everything from a “Taco Cleanse Tease” (a $10, two-taco voucher) through to a $900 “Home Cleanse” (where Putnam cooks dinner for six). The 271 mainly small pledges raised $15,776 towards the $15,000 target. “Because we pre-sold tacos, people were committed to this place before it existed.” Packed out when I visited, Boquita makes seriously delicious tacos, just like its big sister in Miramar. La Boca Loca, which opened in 2011, quickly became known for its authentic, traditional Mexican food, its colourful, upbeat interiors, and its ethics. The pair pay their 20 staff a living wage, and their ingredients are organic, seasonal, and sustainably and locally sourced whenever possible. But why stop there? In 2015, they released cookbook La Boca Loca: collected recipes from the taqueria, and their product range (predominantly chips, salsas and spices) is now in 40 stores countrywide. Elliott’s always handled all the branding, marketing and communications for La Boca Loca, but she recently employed someone to do this for both restaurants. “That frees me up to focus on ActionStation.”

A bit like global organisation Avaaz, ActionStation is an independent, not-for-profit campaigning organisation that provides practical ways for New Zealanders to take action on issues they care about. Elliott, who co-founded ActionStation in 2012, makes clear that it was primarily the idea of social entrepreneurs Megan Salole and Joe Cederwall. “I’m definitely an implementer rather than a new-ideas person. But I can spot a good idea.” Elliott has driven it since. For nearly a year she didn’t pay herself, while finding launch money, building a digital platform, attracting members and testing campaign topics. Growing to four staff and 140,000 members, ActionStation is funded by donations from its online community, mostly tagged to particular campaigns. “We focus on three campaigns on any given week, though we often have to pivot according to the news, and listen closely to what our community is interested in at any given moment.” Last year, among dozens of campaigns, ActionStation helped save funding for mentalhealth services in Canterbury, helped increase the foster-care age limit from 17 to at least 18, helped win a boost in funding to sexual-violence support and prevention services, and pushed the government to announce a crackdown on tax dodging by multinational companies.

F E AT U R E

“Our job is to filter what’s happening out there and give people opportunities to get involved during windows of change: for instance when a minister is about to make a decision. By laying out small achievable steps, we can often convert a particular moment of outrage about an issue into something positive and powerful.” Last year Elliott won a Kiwibank Local Hero award, and was a category finalist in both the Women of Influence Awards and the Next (magazine) Woman of the Year Awards. “It was uncomfortable to feel singled out, but I also felt surprised and heartened that these reasonably mainstream awards acknowledge people doing quite politically disruptive work. Louise Upston, the then Minister of Women, introduced herself to say she was impressed with my ActionStation work. I thought ‘the work where I bug your Cabinet colleagues to change things?’ In another country you might get arrested for that, but in New Zealand you’re a finalist for an award judged by a minister. That’s actually quite extraordinary.” Elliott thinks New Zealanders are often cautious and wary about work that’s confrontational, but she’s never had that problem. What she’s always had is a strong sense of justice and altruism. A former human-rights lawyer, she worked for the Human Rights Commission and as Oxfam New Zealand’s Policy and Advocacy Advisor. For two years from late 2006, she worked as a humanrights officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, while NATO soldiers

fought the Taliban for control. Her achievements there included calming a crisis situation of reprisal attacks, and setting up training workshops on women’s rights under Afghan law. But documenting human-rights violations – like the man who threw his wife then a grenade down a well – took a toll. Elliott also lived with the threats of rocket attacks, roadside bombs, and kidnapping; once, a missile just missed her bedroom. Another time, after a US-military truck crash killed five civilians, anti-foreigner riots erupted. Elliott and her then boyfriend hid in a friend’s house for two days. People started pounding against the gate, until neighbours told them there were no foreigners there. “It was terrifying.” On edge, anxious and not sleeping much, she developed depression and a chronic-stress condition. It was time to come home. Back in Wellington, she studied psychology and yoga, and went to therapy and to spiritual retreats. She also began teaching yoga and personal-development courses (currently, she only offers online courses) and wrote a memoir Zen Under Fire about her time in Afghanistan. Although she has another book idea, ActionStation is her priority right now. Elliott likens her work there to trail-running. “Advocacy is more a marathon than a sprint, right? How do you keep going when it’s hard and you’re tired, and how do you know when to rest? It's all about striking that balance. That’s the challenge.”

LIFESTYLE BRIEFS

PITCH YO U R S T I TC H E S Talented sewers in Wellington are invited to enter Project Fashion Wellington. The competition, run by screen printer and designer Kate Spencer, and the owner of the Bowerman School of Design, Sue Bowerman, rewards the best six entrants with places at Creation Station to develop their designs. Finalists attend courses in business and social media and get the opportunity to show their work on private and public catwalks before selling their outfits in a pop-up store. “We are particularly looking for designs of day-to-day wear that can be reproduced and are sellable,” say Spencer. Applications close on March 5 and finalists will be notified on March 12.

PARENTAL PAMPER

GIVEN FOR WHOM?

B O OMERANG BAGS

And… relax. Well, for ten minutes at least. Parents with babies can pause for a moment’s rest on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at Southern Cross, where a massage therapist is on hand offering free back, neck and shoulder massages. And baby minders will keep things peaceful whilst you unwind.

Given For You is a local charity launched last year, when five Wellington women began making care packages for families settling in Wellington overseas or around New Zealand. Think of a welcome package for the vulnerable – the packages include family necessities, kids’ birthday treats and swim kits. Cranfields homeware store is hosting a book launch to support the trust, donating the sale proceeds from the night. Cranfields, 14 March, 5.30pm.

Emma Howell hates plastic and loves Karori. So she approached the community Facebook page “I love Karori” about Boomerang Bags – an Australian concept to reduce the use of plastic bags by recycling old t-shirts, bed sheets and other materials into cloth bags and giving them away. The Boomerang Bags website allows anyone, anywhere, to take charge. Emma is organising cutting and sewing bees and Karori New World are keen to have a stand for people to take and return (like boomerangs) cloth bags.

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INTERIORS

Mood board m is for meditative, mindful and mellow m is for mirthful, merry and marvellous m is for maniacal, mangled and messy

Styled by Shalee Fitzsimmons Photography by Rhett Goodley-Hornblow

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Mirthful

The Porchia jug – $46 – TeaPea Kina by Chris Jones – $110 – Real Aeoteroa Seedling striped ball – $5 – TeaPea Muskhane felt placemat – $15 – TeaPea Terrazzo rose vessel – $55 – LetLiv Jonathan Adler Lantern Vase – $72 – Cranfields House Doctor marble plate – $45 – TeaPea Mortar and pestle – $39 – Trade Aid One Two Tree pastel rainbow set – $55 –TeaPea Pomegranate seed oil bar soap – $20 – LetLiv Mini Float by Chris Jones – $161 – Real Aeoteroa

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Jonathan Adler Kikis Derriere – $484 – Cranfields Round chopping board – $50 – Trade Aid Terrazzo snow pot – $85 – LetLiv Platform bowl in grey – $69 – LetLiv Garora stone pestle and mortar – $35 – Trade Aid Citrus + poppy seed exfoliating bar – $20 – LetLiv Shea Butter + coconut milk bar soap – $20 – LetLiv Carved wooden incense holder – $11 – Trade Aid Bhakti incense – $5 – Trade Aid

Meditative

Mangled

Black marble enamel swiss roll pan – $49 – LetLiv Katherine Smyth vases – $36 – Small Acorns Nicholas Vahe slate board circle – $15 – Cranfields Black + white scourer sponge set – $6.50 – LetLiv Katherine Smyth plates – $65 – Small Acorns Black marble enamel tumbler – $16 – LetLiv Jonathan Adler pinch bowl – $198 – Cranfields Jenz Studio strokes platter – $58 – TeaPea Activated Bamboo Charcoal bar soap – $20 – LetLiv

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Beautiful antique Indian furniture pieces in-store now. Each one personally selected, and with a unique story to tellâ&#x20AC;Ś

cnr Blair & Wakefield Streets,Wellington www.smallacorns.co.nz/0800 22 67 67

EDIBLES

GOOD ALMIGHTY The folk down at Almighty Juice have been making their cold-pressed goodness since late 2015. Now they offer five different flavours, the latest an exotic blend of guava, lime and basil. Their marketing information says they have high standards regarding sustainability practices and chemical usage, and are very particular about where their fruit and veges come from. From every bottle sold, 3c is donated to help Kiwi kids in school grow vege gardens. FYI their carrots are from Timaru.

COLOSSAL FO OD

THISTLE CHEER YOU UP

LET ’S TACO ‘B OUT IT

Summer pop up restaurant SupeRoma has done a roaring trade throughout February and will be open Wednesday through Sunday until March 24. At 60 Tory St, the owners of the former Osteria del Toro decided to have some Italian style fun with SupeRoma until the new tenants move in, in April. With pizza and pasta readily available, daily specials and five-dollar Peroni, the fun can be for everyone.

Pay It Forward was a cult movie released in 2000. Seventeen years later New Zealand’s oldest pub (The Thistle Inn) is jumping on the theme. If you email Richard@thistleinn. co.nz with your name and address and a friend’s email address then you will receive a voucher worth up to $40 in value to redeem on the premises. There is no catch here and at this stage the promotion is open ended. Now all you have to do is decide which friend deserves the voucher.

Trained chef Amber Sturtz is a Texan expat with a love of tacos who has found her way to our cool little capital after cooking her way around the world. She is now running a one-woman business called Easy As Kai, delivering weekday tacos to your office. Striking a harmonious balance between traditional flavours and NZ’s seasonal offerings, the current favourite is the “Mean as Bean” taco. Easy As Kai can be found online at at the underground Frank Kitts market on Saturdays.

Tickets on sale now from $27.50

EDIBLES

THREE’S A CROWD On the corner of Onepu Rd and Lyall Bay Parade, in a beautifully restored building, is The Botanist, Lyall Bay’s newest addition to the culinary delights available on the south coast. Boasting an entirely vegetarian or vegan menu, The Botanist opened at the beginning of February and has done a roaring trade since, serving over 300 brunches on Waitangi Day. The avocado ceviche with lemon and olive oil on five-grain, with spicy pineapple and coriander salsa, looks particularly good.

BARE YOUR FANGS

NATIONAL PRIDE

BEST BEEF FORWARD

After conducting research, the New Zealand Dental Association has recommended that a “sugar icon” be placed on drinks in New Zealand. NZDA spokesperson Dr. Rob Beaglehole says that the fizzy and fruit drink landscape is a confusing one, with fruit juices often containing more sugar than fizzy drinks. Given that sugar is a very important factor in tooth decay, their suggestion is that a sugar icon indicating how many teaspoons of sugar a drink contains would simplify a parent’s decision making process.

The vibrant cuisine available in Wellington has again been acknowledged on a truly international stage. National Geographic recently published a guide to six unexpectedly great destinations for the travelling food lover. Alongside Budapest and Santiago, there was Wellington. Cuba St was noted as a “scene of assembly for Wellington’s creative cognoscenti,” with Matterhorn, Logan Brown, Olive and Laundry all getting special mentions. Maranui and Spruce Goose were chosen as the best “Beach Eats.”

Chameleon restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Paul Limacher has won the title of Premier Master of Fine Cuisine and officially cooks the best beef in the country. Chameleon itself also took out the award for best metropolitan restaurant 2016 at the annual Silver Fern Farms Premier Selection Awards, held in Auckland. The beef in question was a beef tenderloin with mushroom ragout, roast parmesan gnocchi, button onion and asparagus.

THE perfectlY bAlAnced ipA BIrD

DOG

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

Summer stone fr u it ta r ts with thyme and pistachio crumb

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

After spending the summer holidays in Central Otago we could not pass up the chance to celebrate the beautiful stone fruit that our country produces during summer. Even though our summer has been late in arriving it has not stopped the sun-kissed ripening of apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums to name a few. In this recipe we have softly poached the fruit

INGREDIENTS Pastry 1 ⅓ cup high grade flour 2 Tbsp caster sugar 90g butter, chilled and chopped into chunks Pinch salt 1 free range egg Filling 250g cream cheese ½ cup sour cream ½ cup icing sugar 1 Tbsp rum (or your favourite tipple) Topping 1 cup water ½ cup caster sugar 1 vanilla bean, sliced in half 3 sprigs thyme 6 apricots (or your choice of stone fruit), halved and stone removed 6 plums, halved and stone removed Praline ½ cup caster sugar 2 Tbsp water 3 Tbsp pistachio nuts, shelled and lightly roasted Extra thyme leaves for garnishing

to bring out the flavour, but you can just as easily top the tart with sliced raw fruit and glaze with jam. We have chosen plums and apricots for this recipe but any stone fruit or berry would work just as well. You choose the shape of the tart, using mini muffin tins, normal muffin tins, rectangular tins or one big tart tin to serve the masses. We promise you… there will be none left!

METHOD 1. 2.

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Place first four pastry ingredients into a food processer and blitz briefly until the mixture becomes like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and blitz until the dough starts to come together. 3. Turn out onto a floured surface and quickly knead together until a soft, smooth dough is formed. Mould into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes. 4. While it is chilling, put all the filling ingredients into a food processer and blitz until combined and smooth. Chill. 5. In a small saucepan heat the water, sugar, vanilla bean and thyme until the sugar is dissolved. Add the fruit and gently simmer for no more than 5 minutes, until the skin just starts to peel away. Remove fruit from heat, cool and remove skin. Discard poaching liquid. 6. Spread the pistachio nuts on baking paper. In a small saucepan heat the extra water and caster sugar over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the toffee becomes golden in colour. Do not stir, but gently swirl the pan as the toffee caramelizes. 7. When golden in colour pour over nuts and leave to set. When cool and brittle chop into a crumb or blitz in a food processor. 8. When the pastry has rested roll out as thin as possible (approx 5mm thick) and cut into the desired shape to line your chosen tart tin. 9. Line the pastry cases with baking paper and blind bake (fill with rice or similar) for 10 minutes. Remove baking paper and rice, and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes until golden. Remove and cool. 10. Just before serving, fill shells with the cream cheese mixture, top with fruit halves, sprinkle with pistachio praline and garnish with thyme.

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pay it forward Do you have a frienD that you think woulD like to try us out? Simply email us your friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name, postal address, a message (if you wish) and we will send them a voucher courtesy of you. Email richard@thistleinn.co.nz

3 Mulgrave St, Thorndon, Wellington | (04) 499-5980 | thistleinn.co.nz

LIQUID THOUGHTS

Mistress of Wine BY J O E L L E T H O M S O N If you had 15 minutes to talk with the most famous person in your profession, what would you ask them?

t was the question I kept asking myself before my 15 minutes with Jancis Robinson – author of the world’s biggest wine website, editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine (latest edition 2015) and Wine Grapes, published in 2012, which weighs over three kilograms. This year she visited New Zealand to speak at the country’s biggest ever wine gig, Pinot Noir NZ 2017, held in Wellington over the first three days of February. More than 600 delegates attended, including a heavy metal rock star who makes wine (Maynard Keenan), a professor of Māori Studies and Anthropology (Dame Anne Salmond) and several Masters of Wine, including Jancis Robinson. A handful of journalists each had 15 precious minutes to talk with her. So, what did we ask? What does she think of New Zealand Pinot Noir? We eventually came to that, but first, I tried to find out what makes this famously hard-working writer tick. 53

She knew she wanted to write before her passion for wine was sparked. She had her first story published when she was just 15. She has written and continues to do so more prolifically than any other in-depth wine writer in the world. Her subscription-based website has 263,000 followers, is updated several times a week, and now has a team of 12 highly respected wine writers from around the world, including three other Masters of Wine. She does not have to rely on the others for a global perspective on wine, however, because she seems to be constantly on the road. So, the first thing I ask her is not about wine, but about travel. ‘Do you take a sleeping pill to get through long plane journeys?’ She doesn’t. “I think the most important thing is to set your watch to where you’re going and ignore the crew’s

LIQUID THOUGHTS

attempts to make you go to sleep immediately. I try to sync myself into where I’m going as soon as I get on the plane.” This works well for her, and she is constantly going somewhere. She came to New Zealand for the first week of February this year and then hot-footed it to South America the next week. She and her food-writer husband, Nick Lander, were shocked by the transition to the brown and burnt countryside of Chile. In between the two countries, she posted at least eight new stories on her website and wrote her weekly newsletter to subscribers. So, amid torrential rain and gale force winds one week, jetlag and heat waves the next, she writes. That’s how she spends her time on planes. “I’m a workaholic. It’s great to take masses of work on the plane and it feels like a release to watch a movie, if I finish writing. I take books and get very neurotic if I don’t have anything to read, but I tend to read only on the descent when you’re not allowed to use your laptop,” she says. The success of her own writing online is fuelled, in part, by her profile as the long-standing wine columnist for the Financial Times, where her most influential mentor was her predecessor, Edmund Penning-Rowsell (1913–2002). He was a left-leaning British journalist who collected wine, wrote about it and was widely considered the doyen of English wine writers. “What I most admired about him – apart from being very proper – was that he was utterly unashamed about professing ignorance and he would always ask questions and I think that’s a very good lesson. Don’t cover up ignorance; ask people if you don’t know.” She is not only naturally curious, but addicted to writing up the findings of her own curiosity, describing her online wine posts as being updated “immodestly” (her own words). Anyone who reads JancisRobinson. com can testify to that. Writing, travelling and editing massive wine tomes make her highly sought after as a wine conference speaker; and she also consults on wine, for clients including Queen Elizabeth II, but in our brief time we don’t touch on that. I still want to know what makes Jancis Robinson tick. How does she relax? When does she relax and what does she drink when she relaxes? “Eat, drink wine and read.” These are the answers to all three questions, but sipping and swallowing a glass of the stuff is postponed until after she has tasted her way through dozens of bottles – and written the notes to prove it. And so to the question that Kiwi wine-lovers really

want the answer to: What does she think of New Zealand Pinot Noir? “It all hangs out,” she says with a smile, adding that ”if you love burgundy, there are only a handful of New Zealand pinot noir styles that you would go for.” The description “it all hangs out” is shorthand for saying that New Zealand pinot noir lacks the subtlety for which red burgundy is held in such high regard. Savoury flavours are the focus of traditional European winemakers – rather than the juicy fruity taste that drives most local pinot noir. More importantly she suggests that it’s time to ditch the comparisons between New Zealand and Burgundy (the holy grail, for many pinot drinkers). “I think we’re past the old world versus new world wine comparisons these days. New Zealand Pinot Noir producers are moving towards being more confident in making their own styles of wines, which is important. “Even if those of us who adore Burgundy would like to find a New Zealand wine that is stylistically close, I think New Zealand Pinot Noir makers should establish their own styles.” And so they are doing, she reports on her website in one of her many, immodestly regular updates. Some reports are free to read, while most are accessible only to subscribers and therein lies the reason for her work ethic. “The last thing I want is for someone who reads my site to say ‘you’re gouging me’,” she tells me. “I write every day because, yes, I do feel compelled to get the information out; and it comes naturally to me, it always has. Most importantly, I want to deliver value to those who subscribe to the site.” And then we’re done. We touch on who she would invite to a hypothetical dinner party (mostly deceased wine people and relatives) and who would cook? Food is held in high esteem in her household where both her husband and son, ( they have three children) are chefs. Husband Nick Lander is a British food author, critic and former restaurateur who travels with her, writing food reviews on her website. So, who would she have to her dream dinner party? “I’know I’d love to have met (the late) André Simon (a French born wine merchant and writer) and Jean-Pierre Moueix (of Chateau Petrus) and I’d like to have met my maternal grandfather. I absolutely love the music of Handel but I’m not sure I would have wanted to meet him. Sometimes the people you most admire are best admired from afar so that your dreams of what they are like are not shattered.”

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LIQUID THOUGHTS

DROR ART AND PINOT NOIR Brancott Estate in Marlborough has a new Pinot Noir label, which will be released later this year with bronze lattice artwork on the bottle. It was designed to match a sculpture that will be erected in the vineyard later this year. Both the sculpture and the label were designed by the New York-based, Israel-born artist, Dror.

D O G POINT OPTS FOR SCREWCAPS

CAROL BUNN TAKES OVER URLAR

SUMMER CLASSIC RE-IMAGINED

Screwcaps are the order of the day for most New Zealand wineries but old habits die hard and it is only now (16 years after the launch of screw caps in this country) that Dog Point Vineyard is moving to use them on their wines. Wines sold in New Zealand and Australia will have 100% screw cap closures, while some overseas markets will receive the wines sealed predominantly with corks, says winemaker Murray Cook. The move will take effect from the 2014 vintage.

Organic Wairarapa winery Urlar has a new winemaker in Carol Bunn, who moved north from Central Otago last year. She has just taken over winemaking at Urlar, which makes certified organic wines and is moving into biodynamics, thanks to the philosophy of the founder and owner Angus Thomson, a Scotsborn farmer and immigrant to New Zealand. He is a man who loves being in close contact with the earth. "Once a farmer, always a farmer," he says, talking about the vineyards he is converting to biodynamic growing practices (the extreme end of organics).

Six Barrel Soda Co. have a new limited edition flavour available right now, stirring memories of our non-summer. Strawberry and Cream syrup, which is at the same time both sweet and refreshing. The cream flavour is brought about by infusing the strawberries with vanilla and lemon juice, similar to a traditional creaming soda. Joseph from Six Barrel recommends mixing with soda, fresh berries and mint. If you are in the mood this goes well with either Campari or vodka even aprĂŠs summer.

SCIENCE

Ca lculus and cycling The intersection of science and the little things in everyday life, fascinate DAVID KLEIN, who has put together a science storytelling show exploring some of this knowledge. He talks about some of the little things in this guest science column.

hen I hop on my bike, I don’t really think about it – I just turn the pedals and eventually end up where I need to go. But now I’m on a three-and-a-halfmonth cycle tour around the country, presenting a science storytelling show: Tour de Science. This has meant many long hours of cycling, with plenty of time to think. I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of cycling and science. First, it’s worth simply considering the quiet miracle that is the bike. You and two wheels gliding along, using what has been called the most efficient means of transport. A whole string of engineering masterpieces have evolved to create the bike you’re riding – bearings, chains, levers and so on. Sometimes it seems so effortless and natural that you can forget about the bike (I like to do this, just

imagining myself floating along). But let’s think about the close partnership between you and the bike. It's a closed system. There’s no mysterious fuel in the engine, or mechanics in the train. Just you – your body and legs – working in concert with your steed to get you where you want. And it’s food that powers the system. Through a series of complex processes, your body breaks down all the food you eat, separating out the fats, sugars, carbohydrates and proteins. These components are then assimilated into your cells, giving you the energy to keep cycling. It’s rather nice to reflect as you eat your food and drink your water that you’re powering the trip, while also lightening your load. And it can be quite a load – food, water and snacks, and clothes and camping equipment. I have a Surly “Big Dummy”,

SCIENCE

which is a long tail cargo bike. It can carry up to 100kg (in theory!), but in turn weighs quite a bit to support all that. I've often felt like a tortoise, making my way slowly up a hill, with my “house” on the back. Pedalling yourself and all your gear up a hill obviously requires energy input – first to get things moving (the first law of motion! An object at rest will stay that way, unless a force acts upon it), and then to overcome the force of gravity. The work you put into raising yourself and the bike up a hill gets turned into gravitational potential energy. It can be a real struggle creaking up to the top (Wellington is an ideal training ground), but all that stored energy has a wonderful flipside. Your gravitational potential is turned into kinetic energy, and a fully loaded bike can really move! With only friction, the wind and traffic conditions to slow you down, you can cover a lot of ground. Once you're flying down that hill, you have momentum. You are mass in motion, and momentum is that mass times the velocity. With a fully loaded touring setup, all the mass will keep you travelling for some time. I like to think that cycling over hills is only half a ride, going up, and then coasting down. Hills are fascinating, but it can be good to take your mind off the upward grind. I often find myself thinking about instantaneous rates of change – cast

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your mind back to high school calculus for this one. Between any two points on a curve (or say, a hill), we can find the average slope or tangent. We can bring these points closer together, finding a more accurate tangent – but what if we want to know the slope at one single point? For that we need differential calculus. At any centimetre along a hill, we could stop and calculate the slope. In practice, nearing the top of a hill, I do try to spot the point, at which the slope finally becomes zero, flattens out, and the hill “stops” Hills, gravity, hours of cycling – how come you don’t just fall over sometimes? One of the reasons lies in the wheels. As they turn, the angular momentum of their spin in conserved. The wheels “want” to stay in the plane in which they’re travelling, which means that your bike does a good job of staying upright all by itself. Like so many things, cycling is a whole string of little miracles. Of course, you don't need to know any of this to enjoy the ride. The big question is, where do you want to cycle today? David Klein will perform Tour de Science on 12 March, The Dowse 2:00 pm; 15 March, Space Place 7:00 pm; 18 March, Bicycle Junction 7:00 pm The New Zealand Bicycle Film Festival, Nga Taonga, from 28 March

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BRAIN CHILD The Sapling, a free online magazine about children’s literature, goes live (thesapling.co.nz) on 6 March after Creative NZ and a crowd-funding campaign (which raised $10,000 in eight days) provided at least a year’s funding. It’s the brainchild of Whitireia Diploma in Publishing alumna Sarah Forster (Booksellers NZ’s communications manager) and Jane Arthur, who are its co-editors. Among the first crop of essays, opinion pieces, interviews, reviews and excerpts, check out Kyle Mewburn’s case for a children’s-literature laureate, and a “Dear John” advice column with The Children's Bookshop’s John McIntyre.

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In June, novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka takes up the Māori Writer’s Residency at Auckland’s Michael King Writers’ Centre. The accommodation, studio and $8,000 stipend will help her finish new novel Kurangaituku, which retells a Maori legend from the perspective of the birdwoman who imprisons Hatupatu. Hereaka will also read her play Rewena, about motherhood and being “childfree”, during the Women’s Theatre Festival at Circa in March.

Island Bay’s Emily Writes made a name for herself when a 3am post on her blog went viral two years ago (never tell a sleep-deprived mother to be grateful). Known for her humour and honesty about parenting, she’s excited about her first book Rants in the Dark (Penguin Random House, $35) hitting bookshelves on 1 March. Parenting editor for website The Spinoff, she’s also founded mothers’ support event The Lighthouse.

Linda Bennett, who works part-time at Mary Potter hospice in Newtown, is one of two writers chosen for the 2017 NZSA/Hachette Mentor Program. Bennett, who has both a graduate diploma and a master’s in creative writing, will be mentored by an editor from publisher Hachette Australia, which will then consider her manuscript for publication. “It’s cli-fi: climate-based fiction set in near-future New Zealand, where climate change is bringing irreversible change.”

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Ro m a n ce Pa ys P H OTO G R A P H Y BY B E X M C G I L L

A Paraparaumu romance novelist tells SARAH LANG how she makes $300,000 a year.

n New Zealand, it’s very rare to make a living solely from writing books, even if you’re published internationally. Yet romance novelist Leeanna Morgan is set to make $300,000 this year. “Initially I would have been happy to sell one book,” she tells me over tea and ginger loaf at her home in Paraparaumu. “Then I saw the numbers.” In this billion-dollar industry, the proceeds from her romance novels flow back to her without a publisher taking a cut. Despite finding a New York agent and a traditional publisher, Morgan decided against signing away the rights to her books for a pittance. Instead she decided to self-publish e-books, which each cost between US$2.99 and $3.99 (about NZ$4–5.50). She sells as many as 300 a day, and her titles have appeared on the USA TODAY Bestselling Books list. Some novels are also available as paperbacks, printed on demand through Createspace, but that’s not a big slice of the pie. What helps the maths is that they’re fairly quick to write. Morgan’s 17th book Just Breathe, at 70,000 words, took just seven weeks, and she usually releases one every three months. To hook readers, her characters and narratives interlink across books and series. There’s the eight-book Montana Brides series (fairly selfexplanatory); the four-book Bridesmaids Club (about friends who give bridesmaids’ dresses to women who can’t afford them); and the three-book Emerald Lake Billionaires series (about men rich in everything except love). The last two books in her four-title series The Protectors (about men whose jobs involve protecting others) come out in April and August. So why set every book in the unprepossessing city of Bozeman, Montana? The romantic lure of cattle

ranchers and cowboys? Actually, the first three books Morgan wrote were initially set in New Zealand and Australia; later she changed their setting to Bozeman after the heroine of the fourth book she wrote (but the first she published) travelled to Montana. They became the first four books in the Montana Brides series. By this point Morgan knew the US was her primary market – and that Bozeman, a sprawling city with several major industries, had storyline potential. Built around community and family, her romances hit the highs and lows that readers expect – including, of course, the happily-ever-afters. Morgan tries to avoid being too formulaic. "You know when you get to an author’s third book, and it’s different characters, same story? I’ve always made a concerted effort to bring something different to the table each time.” For instance, her latest series The Protectors has some thriller elements. I check out the series’ second book Just Breathe, about a bodyguard called Tanner who falls for an antiques dealer called Kelly. It’s well written, with believable dialogue, a little humour and evocative detail. Her novel All of Me won the 2016 Koru Award for best New Zealand romance novel in the long category. From around 35 romance sub-genres, erotica (with its strong sexual content) is the most popular, but Morgan’s novels certainly aren’t erotica. Morgan is very careful about how she’s portrayed, and perhaps these concerns are understandable, given that the serious literary fraternity often look down on or even laugh at romance novels, and don’t consider them proper literature. But perhaps money speaks louder than words. “Romance writing is a billion-dollar industry,”

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Morgan says. “A lot of people are reading and enjoying the books.” She adds that romance novels can be misunderstood. “There’s some romance in most literature, and romance is part of everyday life.” Whether or not romance novels are your thing, her entrepreneurial skills are admirable. Morgan, who has a business-studies degree, researched marketing and branding strategies before self-publishing. The first book in each series is free, to attract readers to her books. “BookBub, which emails people daily lists of free or discounted books, advertised Sealed with a Kiss for free recently, and I had over 60,000 downloads in 24 hours. On sales have been huge.” Her fifth series about four artist friends is all planned out, with a designer already working on covers. “I work a series ahead of myself as pre-orders help build momentum.” For instance, she uses Smashwords: an e-book-distribution platform for independent authors which enables early pre-orders. Her website leeannamorgan.com links to sites that sell her e-books, and she’s very active on social media. So how did her romance with romance begin? Morgan, always a big reader, became a librarian. While doing a business studies degree extramurally, she read Mills & Boon novels to get her textbooks out of her head. “When I turned 30 I decided I wanted to write a book but that goal changed when we had children. When I turned 40 I thought ‘I don’t want the next 10 years to go by without writing a book’.” It was always going to be a romance, because it was a big market and she likes happy endings. To make it happen, Morgan wrote a five-year plan, broken into one-year plans. She got up at 5.30am and wrote in the early mornings and evenings, to fit writing around her day job as the Kapiti Coast District Council’s libraries-and-arts manager. “My husband has been awesome. I couldn’t have done it

otherwise. While I was writing as well as working fulltime, he did most of the childcare and the housework.” Now her writing has paid for luxuries like a trip to the States and a new car. In September, she quit her job to write full time. Days later, she and her mum (who edits her books) flew to Bozeman to see if her depiction rang true. “It’s far more spread out than I realised.” Her husband and two teenage children joined her in Las Vegas. “In Forever Dreams, Gracie got married by Elvis in a drive-through. I really wanted to renew our vows with Elvis.” So they did. “It was actually lovely as well as quirky.” Because she’s an extrovert, Morgan’s friends and family initially wondered how she’d cope working from home alone. But her exchanges with work contacts and fans prevent cabin fever. She emails newsletters every six to eight weeks, and fans post on her Facebook page and send emails (mainly thank yous). Recently, she sent a signed paperback copy to a Puerto Rican reader for her birthday, at the sister’s request. And not every fan is female; Morgan knows of at least four male fans, one of whom stumbled on a book on his wife’s e-reader. Morgan says she’d never have got started without the help of friend Diana Fraser, who was already selfpublishing romance novels as e-books. The pair now runs e-publishing courses through Kapiti libraries, teaching everything from formatting to promotion. Morgan is also an active member of Romance Writers of New Zealand, and did a self-publishing presentation at last year's conference. Morgan thinks there’s never been a better time to be a writer. “Sometimes we get so constrained by the size of our country and what we think we can and can’t do, when internationally there’s such a huge market for writers. E-books make things easier. But you still have to have a really good book.”

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ALL WHITE RU S SIA N S The road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has been mapped out for the New Zealand All Whites. They are playing Fiji in a must-win game on March 28 at Westpac Stadium. If the All Whites win here, they will play again in August for the Oceania conference; and if the New Zealanders prevail there, they will face the fifth-placed South American team in Wellington in November in the final round of qualification. New Zealand has only ever made the World Cup Finals twice, in 1982 and 2010. Hopes are high, with a lot of burgeoning talent, led by captain Winston Reid, who also plays for West Ham United in England.

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Basketball leagues in Wellington this year will gain an unprecedented insight into their games. In all Wellington leagues, from miniball to intercity, games will be filmed by an “intelligent” camera, allowing anyone to review an entire game, or watch highlights. Statistics, including shots made and where from, fouls committed and time-outs, will be sent directly to each player the following morning. This technology, called the The Glory League, is being made available throughout New Zealand. Have a look on Facebook or online.

It is no secret that the British and Irish Lions are coming to our shores from early June. However those willing to give up their houses may take home the winnings. One three-bedroom house listed is going for $1,450 per night while the Lions are in town. The most expensive house available in Wellington can sleep up to 14 guests and has free beer, but comes with the rather hefty price tag of $2,550 per night. That is possibly $25,000 to leave your house for 10 days. Not bad.

Bowlzilla will happen in Wellington on 11 March at the Waitangi Park skate bowl. It encompasses the finals from several qualifying events held earlier this year in Mangawhai and Christchurch. The first NZ Bowlzilla was held last year in Wellington, after the event was established in Spain in 2015. There are now similar events in Spain, Chile, the Gold Coast of Australia and in Wellington. With a prize pool of $15,000 it is the richest skate competition in New Zealand.

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Mullioned domain W R I TT E N BY S H A RO N ST E P H E N S O N P H OTO G R A P H Y BY A N N A B R I G G S

Abandoned and unfinished for 20 years an Athfield warehouse is now home to two happy tenants. Exposed concrete and industrial chic provides the perfect creative environment.

o surprised were Khandallah locals that an industrial-style loft which had lain empty for 20 years was finally being inhabited that there was a car accident outside the day Chloe Rose Taylor and her partner Luke Rowell moved in. “Lots of people have said how glad they are the house isn't empty any more,” says Chloe, a jeweller and part-time nanny. “And we're glad to be the first to live here.” A serendipitous twist of fate saw Chloe and Luke, a musician/animator, and their miniature pinscher dog, Ralph, land the four-storey property in July last year. “We had been happily living in a loft in Mt Victoria where Luke had been for about nine years. But the landlord told us it was going to be torn down and we had six months to get out.” Keen to find a similar open-plan space to accommodate both her jewellery studio and Luke's recording studio, the couple spread their net wide. But there are very few warehouses left in central Wellington and those that were available were charging “ridiculously high” rents. Worried they would have to move in with Luke's parents in Lower Hutt, Chloe told her employer, architect Zac Athfield, son of the late Sir Ian Athfield, of their predicament. “They told me about this place which Sir Ian and Zac had started building in the 90s but somehow

had never got around to finishing. Zac and his wife Sarah kindly offered to rent it to us.” Ironically, Chloe often walked past the industrial-style warehouse/townhouse on her way to work every day as a nanny for the couple's four children. “I used to look up and think what a cool space it was. I've always been a fan of Ath's work, even before I worked for the family, way back when I was at art school in Christchurch.” But their luck didn't stop there – Zac offered to complete the build, installing plumbing, connecting the electricity and finishing the concrete floors. Six months after moving in, the couple say they love their new home with its sweeping views across Wellington Harbour to the east and rugged bushclad hills to the west. “It's so peaceful and isolated here. It's been great for our creativity because it allows us to get on and make music and jewellery,” says Luke whose 14th solo album of “fun, electronic music”, Sweatshop, is due to be released in May. Past the garage (which has been converted into the couple's studio), a flight of stairs leads to the open-plan kitchen/living/dining space. The defining feature here is the 3.5m-tall mullioned windows, which were recycled from a previous building. Not only do they flood the second level with light, they also reduce the need for a major heating source – a small gas heater sees the couple through winter.

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In keeping with the owner's ethos of reusing building materials, the industrial-style pendant lights came from Samuel Marsden School in Karori, which Athfield Architects were renovating. “We started polishing them but Ralph could see his reflection in them and started freaking out. So we just left them as they were,” laughs Luke. The roof is made from cast concrete: concrete was poured into corrugated iron moulds, leaving the look and feel of rusty, corrugated iron. The industrial style continues in the kitchen, which is tucked under the stairs at the far end of the second level. The couple found the commercial oven on TradeMe and installed hardy stainless steel trolleys instead of cupboards and fitted bench tops. An old filing cabinet has been re-purposed as a cutlery drawer, while the vintage locker that serves as the pantry came from their previous Mt Victoria loft, as did the wooden dining table and chairs. The couple, who have been collecting furniture for years, were gifted the blue couch, while the “part kitsch, part funky” green “hand” chair was an $80 TradeMe find. “It harks back to my 90s childhood and adds colour to the space,” says Chloe. “To be honest, it's not that comfortable but it’s a great place to sit and look out at the harbour.” The snow globe collection was a gift from a friend who moved to Melbourne, while the fish tank was made by Luke from an old TV he found in Lower Hutt. “I ripped out the innards and turned it into a fish tank for Chloe's birthday.” The quirky neon light, which once lived in a hairdressing salon, cost $30 on TradeMe. The couple love the eerie red glow it casts at night. Up two flights of metal stairs are the bedroom, bathroom and laundry. The generous bathroom features a claw-foot bathtub and a vintage basin and toilet cistern. Tommy, the Athfield's eldest son, is in the process of tiling the space using an assortment of

various Porteous Art Tiles which the building owners always intended to use. “Some of the tiles are quite old and feature street scenes of Lambton Quay.” Chloe has also painted the windowsills black here and in the dining/living space. “Even though we're renting, it's good to be able to be able to contribute something to the building.” Luke is in the process of fixing the pinball machine in the bedroom, which came from their previous flat. The headboard was found on TradeMe and Luke liberated the 70s-style bedside lamp from an abandoned building. Go up another flight of stairs and the roof garden features spectacular harbour views and all day sun. Not surprisingly, it's a favourite spot for the couple, who often start their day with breakfast here. As much as they love this living space, the couple spend the bulk of their time in their garageturned-studio. Luke has commandeered the back half of the space to write and record music. He bagged the carpet, embossed with $2 signs, from the Cuba Street $2 Shop when it was closing down. He also installed a ply wall to help differentiate his and Chloe's studios. Chloe, who moved to Wellington for the threeyear jewellery degree at Whitireia in 2011, designs and makes her resin rings, earrings and brooches in this space. She's currently busy producing pieces for a group show at Nelson’s Suter Gallery and for a solo show later this year at the National Gallery in Christchurch. Her colourful quirky pieces are also available online (chloerosetaylor.com) “We love pottering around doing our own thing and are lucky to have such a cool space to do it in,” says Chloe. “We're almost becoming hermits up here and because my job is a minute’s walk from this house, there are weeks when I don't ever leave this hillside. But we love it here and will stay as long as we are able.”

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Melbourne by D design P H OTO G R A P H Y BY SA R A H B U RTO N

Between coffee and cocktails in Melbourne, SARAH LANG meets two expat Wellingtonians taking their jewellery global.

A man with a mohawk and too many earrings to count is reading The Great Gatsby over a short black in Captains of Industry: Gentleman’s Outfitters and Café. Other regulars are sipping flat whites at tables (well, desks) that have built-in Singer sewing machines. They look like locals, which figures. This place isn’t easy to find, tucked away on the first floor of a converted warehouse in a surprisingly quiet inner-city laneway. Off the central café space are three small studios/ shops, belonging respectively to a bootmaker, a barber, and a jeweller. Inside one, sketching jewellery designs, is former Wellingtonian Welfe Bowyer, 35. “This place [Captains] is a little bit secret,” he tells me. “The great thing is that my studio is separate but not isolated, with the energy of the cafe, and clients can come for coffee.” Cafe customers often peruse his display case of jewellery outside his studio door. Bowyer, who creates annual collections and does personalised commissions, devotes days or weeks to designing and making each piece of jewellery, which combines precious metals and gemstones. He designs for both sexes, but many of his unusual, textured designs have a masculine vibe. “Men are wearing more jewellery now.” He uses only ethically-sourced local gemstones, mainly from Australia, certified as fair trade and conflict-free. Bowyer, who is a little reserved, completed a Bachelor of Architecture (with first-class honours) at Victoria University. He then lived briefly in Berlin, before moving to Melbourne (with Eastbourne-bred wife Shayna Quinn-Bowyer) for an architecture job in 2009. “I was experimenting with jewellery, and got a lot of word-ofmouth requests, so I spent two years fitting that around my day job.” He would often come into Captains for coffee, and chat to the guys who worked here. In 2012, when a studio became available at Captains, Bowyer left architecture to become a jeweller.

“After two hard years, I began making a living from it.” Welfe Jewellery is now stocked in three shops in Melbourne, one in Sydney, one in Wellington (Precinct 35 on Ghuznee St), one in Hong Kong, one in London, one in Riyadh, and (as of this summer) in New York, Chicago and Toronto stores. For three years, Bowyer has also taken part in Paris Fashion Week trade shows. So why move to Melbourne? “It’s a cliché but Melbourne really is a bigger version of Wellington,” Bowyer says. “It’s very receptive, international and supportive.” Jewellers here share advice and recommend each other, and Bowyer collaborates with Captains’ resident bootmaker Theo Hassett on belts and wallets with precious metals and leather. Hassett is also a Kiwi. “A lot of people make the leap over here.” I must admit I’m tempted myself. But I’m only here for a weekend, long overdue for a break from parenting a two-year-old, and staying at new boutique hotel QT Melbourne, the seventh in a chain of design-focused hotels opened in September in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. With its handcrafted black steel and exposed-concrete ceilings, this industrial-chic hotel is a design buff ’s dream. Guests, and patrons of in-house coffee bar The Cake Shop, sit on pods of designer furniture in bold, eye-popping colours. It’s hard to tear your eyes from the unusual art commissioned especially, including a colourful neon and electric-cable mobile hanging from the ceiling, and many digital artworks playing on screens. Screens also play scenes from black-and-white movies, in a nod to the site’s former occupant, the Greater Union Cinema. My favourite thing, though, is the floor-toceiling interior wall called “Readers Digest,” made from 6,000 discarded books with their spines showing. Up the brass staircase is the excellent (if meatheavy) Euro-style restaurant Pascale Bar & Grill, where you can see the chefs making meals in an open

Jeweller Nina Gordon

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kitchen. Another dinner option, in the same building but with a separate entrance, is a busy casual eatery called Hot Sauce Laneway Bar with its Korean and Japanesestyle tapas dishes and eyebrow-raising Japanese game shows playing on TV screens. They also do a good cocktail, though arguably the city’s top cocktail spot is the 11th-floor bar Rooftop at QT, via talking elevators which deliver one-liners like ‘Looking good’ in various languages. There’s fierce competition for a couch or table in the split indoor-outdoor space, but it’s worth it to see the views of Melbourne’s CBD. QT Melbourne has a partnership with Melbourne Street Tours, which you can book at the hotel lobby. Our tour guide is David Russell (“not Dave, not Davy”), a street-art photographer and commentator. “We’re all really relaxed in Melbourne,” says Russell, the most intense guy I’ve ever met. He also seems to be displaying some nostalgia. “It’s crazy that I’ve gone from doing illegal graffiti in the 80s, to now being paid to promote street art.” Russell, 44, leads us through a warren of laneways including Hosier Lane, the city’s most photographed place. Street artists here are so used to being watched that they’ve become almost performance artists. An Asian girl wearing black Doc Martens and a red baseball cap stands on a crate to paint Millhouse from The Simpsons, clearly aware of her audience. Nearby, an old, bearded man squats in a doorway with a paper bag. “How are you mate?” Russell asks. “Yeah, not so good.” Russell is careful to distinguish street art – an urban movement in art that’s usually legal – from illegal graffiti. “Basically street art is pretty, and graffiti is all letters.” While some walls are constantly painted over, the more impressive street-art works have semi-divine status and remain untouched. “It’s an unspoken rule of ethics,” Russell says. “So, rather than paying people to paint over graffiti, the council is now commissioning street art to prevent graffiti. That’s smart.” He also points out a streetart-style Coke ad on a high-rise building. There were heated words when one street-art crew accepted $10,000 to do the ad; other artists considered it selling out. The tour ends in a laneway where a door opens Arabian-Nights style onto the cavernous warehouse that’s home to Blender Studios, a 14-studio art collective where various established street artists work from, and mentor some younger ones. We get a tour from the inimitable Adrian Doyle, an internationally-exhibited street artist who set up and manages both the studios and the streetart tours. He has a quirky dress sense, so I’m flattered when he compliments me on mine (thank the clearance sale at Melbourne label Dangerfield).

Blender also runs a street-art tour in Fitzroy and Collingwood. A 10-minute tram ride or a 20-minute walk from the CBD, this bohemian enclave is lined with art galleries, bars, restaurants and coffee houses, emergingdesigner boutiques, pop-up shops, record stores and secondhand-book shops. If Melbourne is Wellington magnified, this is its Cuba Street precinct. “I basically never leave Fitzroy and Collingwood. They’ve got everything,” says former Wellingtonian Nina Gordon when she meets me at Archie’s, a cafe on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy, near her home and separate studio. Wearing her own statement necklaces, chunky rings and oversized earrings, Gordon (nickname Flash Gordon) is her own best advertisement for her line Flash Jewellery: a sassy, street-smart label “to make women feel flash”. Gordon grew up rebuilding V8 Mustangs at her father’s wrecking yard in Nelson, and doing jewellery night courses with her mum. At age 17, she put some silver in a mould to make her first ring, and knew that was what she’d do. What she’d always do. But she also needed to pay the bills. For a while she worked at a metal-design firm, making prototype buttons for police uniforms, and props and costume items for Weta Workshop. By then living in Wellington, she worked as a roaster and dispatcher for Flight Coffee. Meanwhile she rented a bench at jewellery collective Workspace Studios at Toi Pōneke Arts Centre, and started making her own pieces. In early 2013, she launched Flash Jewellery with a party at Flight Hangar. A year later she moved to Melbourne with partner Rich Gibbins, to focus on growing Flash Jewellery’s Australian market. Currently Flash Jewellery is stocked in 15 New Zealand stores, one in Melbourne, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. Gordon designs all the pieces, makes some herself, and gets others ethically made in India. Having just crammed a business management degree into one year, her current focus is consolidating the Australian market, and expanding to America when the time’s right. “The opportunities in Melbourne are just insane. It’s like Wellington in that no one has their elbows out. The big dogs don’t mind – there’s room for everybody.” Now 32, she plans to move back to Wellington at some point. “I miss the people and the place, the small-town familiarity. I cherish that. But Melbourne is great right now. It really is Wellington on steroids." Sarah Lang flew Air New Zealand and was hosted by QT Melbourne. QT Museum Wellington (formerly the Museum Art Hotel) opened in January after an $8 million refurbishment, becoming QT’s first hotel in New Zealand.

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T O R Q U E TA L K

F i s fo r Jaguar W R I TT E N BY RO G E R WA L K E R | P H OTO G R A P H Y BY R H E T T G O O D L E Y - H O R N B LOW

hen I was growing up in Hamilton, my Uncle Bill had a 1959 Mark II 3.8 Jag, which completely outshone our family’s crappy Ford Consul. In those days Jaguar's slogan was “Grace, Space and Pace”. Clever and true. No matter that the graceful chrome leaping cat on the bonnet could skewer an errant pedestrian’s kidneys and the shiny wire wheels could deal unfavourably to little kitty's tail, the brand was deliberately raffish and slightly subversive. Vitruvius, the ancient Roman architect, famously said good design must have “firmness, commodity and delight”. Jaguar has consistently embraced value for money as well as performance and beauty. This commitment led to the famous E Type, launched at the Geneva Motor Show in 1961. Autocar magazine described it then as “probably the greatest single advancement of the sports car there has ever been”. That was when that graceful chrome cat first jumped off the bonnet, although it remained on other models until 1970, and is still prized as an aftermarket accessory for some buyers even today. Now it’s a flush-mounted badge, and the wire wheels are alloy. All's safe now. Ford bought the company in 1990. They then sold it in 2008 – a move about as sensible as HMV not signing the Beatles. Getting back to the E Type; unlike many people, I have never liked its design. It looks to me like it was drawn up by an aircraft engineer who saw the tucked under fuselage shape, with skinny inboard wheels set some distance from either end, as a good design. So it was a very great pleasure to visit the Sydney Motor Show in 2012 when its successor, the F Type, was launched (initially as a convertible) by Ian Callum, Jaguar’s head of design. I still can't understand how a cherubic, middle-aged, balding Scot could be responsible for something so stunningly beautiful. Planted on fat wheels at each corner, with its mass close to the ground, its pouty mouth, slinky lights, and slitty-tail-lit rear end, its shape is perfect, and mainly defined by two simple lines.

Fast-forward five years, and I get to drive a four-wheel drive F type R coupe. It's the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 version. I head to my favourite curvy road. The car is feral, ferocious and utterly fabulous. It's quite a different level of performance than I am used to, and it is intoxicating. A few days later, possibly as a reward for not kerbing the FType R’s gorgeous 19-inch “tornado” mag wheels, I am invited to a customer track day at the privately owned Boomrock circuit and skidpan, high in the hills on Wellington’s west coast. There I also meet her sisters – Jaguar’s compact XE, the mid-size XF, and their F-Pace brother. The latter is sort of a SUV bridge to their Land Rover cousins. Both turbo diesel and petrol engine versions are featured. The customers and I take turns with each car on the well-wetted skidpan, and on the coned slalom course. It's fabulous fun of course. But what really impresses in all the cars is the connection with the road. Turn the traction control off on the skidpan and you can easily fling off into the scenery. Traction control on, and the tyres magically turn from rubber to Velcro and the ABS brakes become anchors. At the end of the slalom, I stopped from 82 km/ hour to zero in about six metres, while changing lane. Glad I don't have false teeth. Apart from their staggering dynamic ability and the Scarlett Johansson beauty of all these models, they are not expensive cars. The value of the post-Brexit pound means the XE, for example, is available (until March 31) for $69,900. Eat your hearts out, you equivalent BMW, Mercedes and Lexus models. Jaguar’s “Grace, Space and Pace” slogan has now been replaced by “The Art of Performance.” The company is continuing their long and proud racing history, which includes seven wins at Le Mans and a brief dabble in Formula 1, into a new future – the open-wheel Formula E series for cars powered by electricity. Their Jaguar has now outlasted Uncle Bill, but I’m pretty sure that if he could get one where he now resides, he’d buy it.

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