Stories

More and more research is pointing to time in nature being good for us. Why is that? Not sure, but Catherine Knight has some really interesting theories. Like many of us these days, Catherine Knight often works from home. When she does and she feels like a break, it’s a short walk to a riverside track through replanted native bush and a remnant stand of kohekohe. Birdsong filters through the silence. “Everyone should have a place nearby like that,” she says. The observation is both personal and professional. Dr Catherine Knight is a Senior Associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, and Honorary Research Associate at the School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University. In her book Nature and Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand: Exploring the connection, Catherine argues for the restoration of “neighbourhood nature” – places that all New Zealanders can freely access,...

Maisey Rika is bringing her Matariki-inspired songs to Ōtautahi as part of the city’s celestial celebrations. A pioneer in what has become an explosion in Te Reo music-making, Maisey reflects on a career guided by her love of waiata. Your photo is very striking. Can you tell us about the shoot? Thank you very much. I think it’s the setting. I grew up with Abe Mora, who took the photo. The red korowai is from Toi Māori. The black and white dress is from Rotorua designer Adrienne Whitewood. The hei tiki was carved by Rikki Peters. That was the first photoshoot since receiving my moko kauae. The photo is taken by one of our waahi tapu (sacred places) here in Whakataane, Te Ana o Muriwai (Muriwai’s Cave). I love the exposed roots of the old pōhutukawa tree and the green kawakawa plants that surround this site. The red, black and white...

Muso, writer and food entrepreneur Flip Grater talks inspo, crosswords, Paris noodles and learning to temper the truth with tact. What’s one thing people probably don’t know about you? My birth name is Clare, my Muslim name is Mariam and my actual nickname is Flipper, although most people call me Flip. You probably first popped up on many people's radar as a musician. Tell us about that part of your life? Yeah I worked in the music industry for many years, touring and recording. It was a great lifestyle and creative outlet. But after my daughter Anais was born I just felt like I needed to do more for the planet than singing sad songs! Do you still find time for performing? I haven't played in public for a while but Anais and I play and sing around the house and I still love making music. I will always write and...

From being world famous in New Zealand, comedian Melanie Bracewell jumped the ditch and landed a spot on Australian television. She’s famous over there now too. Still happy to pop home and share a laugh with us though. So are you an Australian now? Stone the flamin’ crows, absolutely bloody not, ya drongo! Genuinely though, I’m a very proud kiwi. How is it going for you over there? It’s been really good! I didn’t intend to move here permanently, I was going to travel back and forth back in 2021 when the ‘bubble’ was open. Unfortunately, the bubble closed about three days after I arrived, so I got trapped here forever. As much as we slag off Australia, it is a quite nice place to live. And Australians quite like me! I hope. What question do Australians keep asking you? Are you related to the Bracewell cricketers? And the answer is...

As Aotearoa gears up for its second Matariki holiday, plans are well under way at Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre for nearly three weeks of celebration from 3 – 20 July. Top billing goes to Maisey Rika, the award-winning singer-songwriter and Arts Foundation Laureate from Te Moana-a-Toi Bay of Plenty. Maisey rarely tours south of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and The Arts Centre is bringing her to Ōtautahi for one performance in the majestic setting of the Great Hall. For those unfamiliar with Maisey, her voice is sometimes compared to Tracey Chapman or Sade, although accompanied by taonga pūoru as well as western instruments. From local musicians, there’s a new show called Ka Noho, Ka Mate, created with the kaupapa of Matariki in mind. The performers are Lyttelton music legend Delaney Davidson; university lecturer, reo teacher and hip hopper Kommi Tamiti-Elliffe; theatre and orchestra veteran Heather Webb; singer-songwriter and producer...

Food delivery service DoorDash has been in New Zealand for one year and to celebrate they are sharing the love with $0 burgers in Wellington and Christchurch.  Until Sunday 4 June 2023, DoorDash users across Wellington and Christchurch can get their hands on a $0 burger from some of the country’s most popular burger eateries when they spend $25. Scrumptious burgers on offer in Christchurch throughout the weekend include selections from Fush, Empire Chicken and Burger Station. There’s no denying that Kiwis love a burger, with burgers coming out on top for DoorDash deliveries over the last year – closely followed by Chinese, Middle Eastern, Italian and Indian. DoorDash data over the last year has burgers as the top menu item ordered on the app alongside fried chicken, with pizza, butter chicken, meat on chips and noodles taking runners-up. To access the exclusive burger promotion and celebrate DoorDash’s first Kiwi birthday,...

The boys from Buzz Club have been busy coming up with fresh ways to serve their mead to the modern drinker. Edward Eaton​ and Wilbur Morrison​ founded Buzz Club in 2021. The mead they make is a far cry from the version that was supped in the Middle Ages. Then and now, the base is fermented honey but rather than the sweet and syrupy drink of old, Buzz Club mead is crisp and light, with an alcohol content of 5.5 percent, about the same as a craft beer. The drink is turning sceptics into converts at first sip. The challenge has been getting people to have a try. So following their super thirst-quenching summer offerings of Buzz Mojito, Buzz Collins and The Bee-Sting (Buzz Mead and gin), Edward and Wilbur have gone back to the lab to concoct some winter warmers. Here’s a first taste – the Buzz Club Dark and...

One of the great joys of a film festival is uncovering a hidden gem among the big hitters on the programme, a film you had never heard of before the festival and can’t stop talking about after. We asked festival director Fergus Grady for his list of under-the-radar gems at this year’s French Film Festival Aotearoa. The list is a mix – comedy, cabaret, family feel-good, conflagration and coming-of-age. Something for everyone. The French Film Festival Aotearoa features 23 of the best films to come out of France in the past year. The festival opens in Christchurch and runs till Sunday 11 June before visiting 16 other centres around the motu, from Kerikeri to Dunedin. The Auckland season runs from 31 May to 21 June; the Wellington season from 7 to 28 June. DIRECTOR’S CUT Jack Mimoun & The Secrets of Val Verde Indiana Jones meets Monty Python in this hilarious...

The countdown is on to the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. The tournament kicks off in Auckland on 20 July and supporters, fans and family can now secure their seats through the official hospitality programme. Whether you are a long-time team supporter, a corporate client looking to host special guests, a new fan or you just want to experience the thrill of a tournament like this in your home town, the programme lets you build your ideal schedule at the hospitality level you want.   Packages range from MATCH Place, which offers a simple, convenient means to secure your seats and enjoy the benefits of hospitality; to MATCH Club, for passionate fans wanting a casual family-friendly environment; to MATCH Private Suite, delivering exclusivity and an exceptional viewing experience.   According to FIFA, women’s football is the single biggest growth opportunity in the sport today. The consistent growth and...

For Mitchell Coll and Amy Douglas, what started as a simple shed project on Banks Peninsula has ended up the toast of award judges here and in Australia, with the latest win at the Dulux Colour Awards in Melbourne. Mitchell and Amy, partners in life and in architecture firm Fabric, designed and built Nightlight, as the project is called, over 2½ years of holidays and weekends. The plan had been to slap it up quickly. “But I find it hard to do anything half-arsed,” says Mitchell. “The more we got into it, the more we wanted to take the time to finish it off properly.” The result is a polycarbonate structure enveloped in timber lattice. By day it is a basecamp, packed with useful things such as a kitchen, bathroom and workshop. By night it’s a sculptural lantern bringing light to a very dark site. Attention to detail is what caught...

It all began on 30 June, 1953. At the Playhouse Theatre on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, Danish dancer Poul Gnatt, the founding father of ballet in New Zealand, assembled a small group of young dancers to present two evenings of short ballets and excerpts from the classics. 70 years and more than 300 national, regional and international tours later, the Royal New Zealand Ballet will celebrate its platinum anniversary with a special programme, Lightscapes. The programme premieres in Wellington on 27 July and will be at the Isaac Theatre Royal in August. Lightscapes includes the world premiere of a work created specially for this moment, Te Ao Mārama, by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson. Inspired by haka and powered by the strength of the men of the company, this striking new ballet will be a lasting addition to the RNZB’s repertoire. Serenade (1934) was staged for the then-New Zealand Ballet by former Artistic...

For Hōhua Ropate Kurene, one of three artists chosen by Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre for its winter Creative Residency programme, his home for the next three months is something of a mystery. That’s despite growing up in Ōtautahi Christchurch. “It was a rebuild project when I was in high school,” says the artist, who specialises in photography, creative writing and multimedia design. Hōhua Kurene’s experience is a reminder of the interruption that the earthquakes brought to life at Te Matatiki Toi Ora. A reminder also though of the potential realised by the rebuild. The Creative Residence was installed upstairs in the West Lecture building during post-quake restoration and strengthening. The residence has four ensuite bedrooms, shared facilities and rooftop views. The two artists who will join Hōhua Kurene are musician Lisa Tui Jonathan and visual artist Megan Brady. Lisa Tui has a background in singing, songwriting and musical theatre,...

Fergus Grady is in his third year as director of the French Film Festival Aotearoa and he still can’t quite believe the silver lining to his COVID cloud. With the programme in place for this year’s festival, which begins in Christchurch on Thursday 25 May, Fergus has flitted off to the Cannes Film Festival to start the process of curating next year’s programme. Don’t worry, he’ll be back for opening night. The French Film Festival Aotearoa 2023 features 23 of the best films to come out of France in the past year. Festival films will screen at the Academy Gold, Deluxe and Lumière cinemas. The festival runs from Thursday 25 May to Sunday 11 June. Until 2021 the French Film Festival Aotearoa was organised by Alliance Française, an international organisation that aims to promote the French language and francophone culture around the world. Come the uncertainty of COVID, Fergus and his film distribution company, Limelight,...

For some of us it’s just called putting on our uglies or sloppies. For the world’s trendspotters, though, it’s called slobwear and it’s here in 2023. Apparently. The 1980s are back too, with shoulder pads and leg warmers. And look out for “folklore grandma”, sleaze on everything and ‘90s minimalism. Art, science and marketing all feed into our fashion trends. Often the genius of the forecaster is giving a new trend a snappy, memorable name. Who can forget the “Frazzled Englishwoman” mini-trend of artfully undone hair, cardigans, minimal make-up and a big reliance on scarves? So according to a panel of style gurus surveyed by Vice, we can look forward to the folklore grandma trend (“modest, motherly and cosy with heavy layers, house slippers and knits”), feel-good “dopamine dressing” giving way to a darker, dystopian “anti-dopamine” trend, and the rise of “2000s normcore”, a trend to look and dress like “normal...

Christchurch cinephiles will be the first in the country to sample this year’s French Film Festival Aotearoa. The annual event will this year feature 23 of the best films to come out of France in the past year. With a varied menu of drama, comedy, thrillers, romance and true stories, there’s something for everyone. Festival films will screen at the Academy Gold, Deluxe and Lumière cinemas. The festival runs from Thursday 25 May to Sunday 11 June. Highlights of this year’s programme include the sexy and oh-so-French Masquerade, directed by Nicolas Bedos and starring the ageless Isabelle Adjani; Éric Besnard’s bucolic buddy movie A Great Friend; Sugar and Stars, which tells the true story of champion pastry chef Yazid Ichemrahem; demi-sec romcom The Tasting;  and laugh-out-loud heist spoof The Innocent. Pick up or download your festival programme and start booking if you don’t want to miss out. frenchfilmfestival.co.nz

One of Christchurch Art Gallery’s best-loved paintings, Petrus van der Velden’s 1872 work Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken, also known as The Dutch Funeral, features alongside works by Aotearoa artists Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Séraphine Pick, Shane Cotton and Bill Hammond in the gallery’s new exhibition, Absence. Running from Saturday 6 May to Sunday 20 August, Absence brings together works from artists using diverse mediums and from different eras. All connect with the exhibition’s central theme – that sometimes the most compelling thing is what isn’t there. From the mournful, the mischievous, the monumental and the hardly-there-at-all, Absence invites viewers to fill in the gaps. “Artists have always been fascinated by the power of people and things not shown,” says Lead Curator Felicity Milburn. “In art, absence creates mystery, tension and anticipation – it can imply loss, transformation, exclusion, isolation and much more. It’s the...

With the Royal New Zealand Ballet bringing its dance adaptation back to the city, we take a look at cinema’s various treatments of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  1. Warm Bodies (2013) Those steeped in Shakespeare and zombie movies will get more of the jokes but there’s plenty in this zom-rom-com for anyone to enjoy. The fight this time is between zombies and humans rather than Capulets and Montagues. Our unlikely couple are a zombie named R (Nicolas Hoult) and a living, breathing Julie (Theresa Palmer). And waddya know, love cures everything, even the lack of a pulse. 2. Romeo + Juliet (1996) Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 interpretation replaces swords with guns and sets the title characters in Verona Beach, California. Luhrmann’s trademark visual assault owes more to Mad Max than The Globe Theatre but hey, it’s a helluva ride! 3. Shakespeare in Love (1998) Again, you will get more of the jokes...

We’re a bit over NZ Music Month. Great initiative 20 years ago but surely we have moved on from just one month for Kiwi music. Like Valentine’s Day should be every day, every month should be NZ Music Month. There’s no harm though in shining a spotlight on our homegrown musos. Which is why we have put together our top 5 interviews with Kiwi artists from the past year. Stay tuned to our website for more – we talk to Kiwi musicians all year round!  Two into one makes DUAL We talk dreams and reality with Maurice Miller and Jamie Pyne, AKA Auckland-based psych indie dance duo DUAL. They slayed the Electric Avenue audience, have a second EP out and now have Australia in their sights. They’re definitely coming back to Christchurch at some stage – “It was fun, the whole city was going off,” says Maurice. Read the full Q&A...