Stories

The story of Re:START is the story of a defibrillator applied to the arresting heart of Christchurch. The beats it brought into Cashel Mall pumped life through the CBD, bringing us the thriving collection of businesses present and continually growing in the city today. It was our new High Street while the real thing was cordoned off, and it gave people hope that things could return to normal, even if the mall itself was anything but. The colourful containers became an attraction, a place to hang out, eat, chew the fat, wander and shop. Lonely Planet picked Re:START out when awarding Christchurch a place in its 2013 top 10 cities, calling it “a colourful labyrinth of shipping containers”. Very quickly after the February 2011 earthquake, a committee of CBD retailers and property owners began talking about how to save retail. “We were aware that a whole lot of businesses were looking...

Fabric rationing in the 1940s gave us bikinis, the space race sparked a silver trend, and now 2020 is giving us all kinds of outrageous trends started by creative (and bored) millennials in lockdown, now graduating to Fashion Week main stages. The youthful rebellion Neon punk hair spikes from Christian Cowan and Collina Strada’s pastel-hued pin curls spiced up outrageous DIY tie dye leotards and crayon scribbled jeans. It was high-fashion versions of the lockdown craft projects we’ve all tried and haven’t been brave enough to wear outside the house. Smouldering red lips Internationally there isn’t currently a huge appetite for meeting a sexy sailor in the street and going in for a spontaneous pash, so it’s never been more practical to rock traffic-light-red lipstick on the regular. Colour blocking Tomo Koizumi’s models were spiced up with swathes of overflowing aquamarine eyeshadow, and Chromat was doing lime-green nails. Tom Ford was...

Wedding season is almost upon us, and whether you’re the bride, mother of the bride, a bridesmaid or just want to look ultra-radiant for an event as a guest, now’s the time to start your journey to glowing, radiant skin. Probeauty fills Cityscape in on the dos and don’ts. The first thing you’ll want to do is visit a quality skin clinic or beauty salon to assess your unique skin concerns, and how best to improve them. This may be dehydration (we’ve all been there!), fine lines and wrinkles, acne, or pigmentation and sun spots. Rather than the latest fad serum in a department store, professionals can advise you on the truly powerful cosmeceutical products to create visible change in just a few months, using potent active ingredients. These proven ingredients include retinol (vitamin A), vitamin C, niacinamide, peptides and hyaluronic acid – all in much stronger forms than you’ll find...

Gerard Smyth has become a chronicler of the earthquake recovery, recording hundreds of hours of historical footage and releasing two feature-length docos on Christchurch’s up-and-down decade. When the earthquake hit on February 22, 2011, Gerard Smyth grabbed his broken video camera and within 20 minutes, holding the lens in place with his thumb, began recording the central Christchurch chaos. He had been working on a documentary about what a ‘near miss’ the September earthquake was, and organically flew into the action by the seat of his pants. As a one-man crew he went where he could, when he could, to capture the important moments over the following hours, days, weeks, months and years. Gerard grew up in Christchurch, in an Irish Catholic family with 38 first cousins spread across the economic spectrum. His father – Bernard Smyth – was a well-known local television presenter, and Gerard had a strong grounding in...

SCAPE Public Art has been adorning Christchurch for 22 years, and has been with us through thick and thin. Executive director Deborah McCormick tells Cityscape about the importance of art through adversity. Public art has the power to inspire and challenge us at a personal, local and national level. It invites us to engage, think, respond, and has the potential to inspire conversation about ourselves and what we value. The planning and placement of public artworks, as part of our urban landscape that reflects diverse cultural origins and events, is important to our sense of belonging. Public artworks have rich and varied stories that flow into our buildings, streets and public spaces. We explore our creativity in the places that define us and these are the golden threads that have the power to draw us together. In the last ten years, art has played a part in recognising and dealing with...

Give me mooooo-re. Overshadowed for decades by their more pretentious animal kingdom rivals, the humble cow is finally hitting fashion hot lists. Cow print has taken hold in New Zealand – after all, we have six million of them mooching round in fields to take inspiration from, but this is bigger than just us Kiwis: Meghan Markle’s been spotted in cow print pumps, Kylie Jenner’s been sunbathing in a cow print swimsuit and those super sexy black and brown patches have been spotted in recent fashion runway shows.

Anna Dick from Anna Margaret Interiors reveals how following our senses can help us create wonderful spaces. I’m always inspired this time of year. Warmer days, living more outdoors, and the Christmas and New Year break is a real joy for the senses – the colours, smells, patterns, sounds and textures. I’m drawn to designing calm and open spaces during these months when everything feels elevated – the sun is higher, the days longer, and the trees leafy and full of birdlife. The best place to start designing is to listen to your senses. While you’re feeling relaxed this holiday season, pay attention to colours that grab you, whether they’re the hues of your favourite bach or campsite, colours that remind you of your favourite people, or the natural shades of the season. Think about the sounds and smells that invigorate you outdoors and inside. Notice patterns and shapes that relax...

Empowerment coach Saskia Clements drops some advice on creating healthy habits by actively controlling the important things, and shedding the rest. If we’ve learned anything from 2020, it’s confirmation of that well-worn phrase, we just don’t know what’s around the corner. While we can’t control the circumstances we find ourselves in, we can do a lot to impact how these circumstances affect us. Here are five tips for managing the things in our control that will greatly assist in making 2021 the best it can possibly be, no matter what’s around the corner. 1. Declutter your life Take time to declutter and rid yourself of de-energisers. We all have things we’re procrastinating about, or tolerating, and these things drain us of vital energy. It can be anything from the kitchen drawer that sticks every time you open it, to the pile of paperwork cluttering your office, to the phone call you’ve...

A new beauty oasis has opened in Merivale, and this is one to wash all your worries away. BHAVA is a bespoke nail bar in Merivale Mall, offering a full suite of manicures, pedicures, nail enhancement treatments, and even nail services for the wee ones so they can join in the pampering fun. For now, these feel-good experts are focusing on nails, but keep an eye out: they’ll be rolling out beauty treatments in blissful BHAVA style come early 2021. bhava.co.nz

A unique combination of geography and generosity shaped Christchurch into the craft beer mecca it is today. Ralph Bungard of Three Boys Brewery explains. Beer was not a part of Aotearoa’s pre-European culture, and even in the early days of European settlement it was imported spirits such as rum, with its longer shelf-life and bigger bang-for-buck, that dominated New Zealand’s consumption. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s, when local breweries began to pop up, that beer consumption really began to get a foothold. Canterbury, with its ideal climate for grain production and malting, was quick off the mark. In Ōtautahi Christchurch an early local brewer dominated the landscape – a brewery established in 1854 by Archer Croft and later bought by John Hamilton Ward. The Ward’s brewery provided industry and employment. In 1923, Ward’s amalgamated with another Christchurch brewer, Crown and Manning, to form New Zealand Breweries. A stormy battle between ‘temperance...

Make your Christmas planet-friendly with Green Dinner Table’s absolutely lip-smacking Christmas menu. The main event is a too-good-to-be-true maple and cranberry glazed Grater Goods furkey with herby cider gravy. Then you’ll be eating til you’re stuffed with new potatoes, mint, celery and smoked aioli, sugar snap peas with hazelnuts and sumac butter, stone fruit and tomato salad with avocado, bitter lettuce and cherry vinaigrette, and roast sweet peppers, feta and candied almonds. Green Dinner Table’s Christmas menu feeds four to six, is just $200, and will be delivered Christmas week. All the ingredients you need you need are delivered to your door in one handy package, and you cook it fresh on the big night. Thought vegan meant you wouldn’t need an elastic waistband this Christmas? Yeah, you were wrong. greendinnertable.co.nz

The Drifting Table is a new yakitori joint that comes to you – it’s a portable operation for small events run by the charismatic Chef Yuki Maekawa. Chicken. Beautiful, smoky, marinated, charcoal grilled chicken. That’s what yakitori is all about. Everything else is a beautiful accompaniment. The skewers and tenderloins are all perfectly cooked without a hint of dryness, and the different seasonings complement the smoky charcoal flavour. Our favourite is the yuzu and pepper sauce – a fresh, green, spicy condiment that picks you up by the nose. Another top dish is the simple and flavourful chicken meatballs with ginger and onion. Yuki has been a chef for over 20 years, and wanted to bring his skills to the table serving traditional Japanese yakitori alongside dishes with his own twist. In September he launched The Drifting Table and began drifting into lively household parties and corporate functions. He turns up...

Anchors away! Karen Walker’s fabulous new jewellery range has set sail. Dubbed ‘The Navigator’, the collection is a nod to her childhood spent tootling around in boats on the Hauraki Gulf. It features all things nautical; a ship’s bell, a fully-functional captain’s whistle, and a charming wee fishing lure, as well as a seahorse and an anchor wrapped in rope. Karen’s also reimagined her iconic Runaway Girl, this time toting a nautical burgee over her shoulder instead of her classic stick and bindle, as well as a sailor’s cap and plimsoll shoes. Karen now lives minutes from the Waitematā Harbour, and the sea has a firm hold on her heart. “I grew up on the water and I wanted this collection to reflect that sense of tradition and romance that boating life always evokes for me,” she says. To fuel her ongoing ocean love affair, she’s currently taking sailing lessons with...

Phở (pronounced like fah or fuh) is a fragrant Vietnamese noodle soup. Green Dinner Table Chef Tom Riley fell in love with this dish and it became his late-night post-work dinner when he lived in Toronto. Serves 2-3 big bowls. Shopping list: Stock30g ginger1 large onion4 cloves garlic1.5L water2 pieces star anise½ cinnamon stick¼ tsp fennel seeds3 tsp vegetable stock30ml soy sauce – more to taste Garnish 1 block tofu20g basil (Thai or regular)30g fresh coriander½ bunch spring onions3 Tbsp cornflour½ pack rice noodles2 fresh chillis100g bean sprouts1 lemonSalt and pepper (Szechuan pepper if you have it), to taste Make it happen: 1. Mince the ginger. Peel and roughly cut the onion into chunks. Cut each half into about 12 pieces. Peel and roughly chop the garlic. Place the onion, garlic and ginger in a pot with the water and the spices. Cover and gently simmer this broth for 30 minutes...

Strap on your boots, pack up your tents and pump up your tyres Cityscapers, we’re taking to the trails. Prance up the Port Hills Hike: Ōtautahi’s view-filled antidote to the Canterbury flatlands, the Port Hills are covered in grunt-worthy gradients – and they’re mostly worth it. The Rapaki Track is a hit with fitness fanatics and the running-in-tights crowd, but the real suckers for punishment head up the Bridle Path, which has two options for ascent: 'steepish with corners' or 'quad-punishing and straight to the top'. Either way you can reward yourself with a coffee in Lyttelton on the other side, and return by bus if you're out of steam. Sea-seekers opt for Awaroa (Godley Head) an absolute classic nine-kilometre, three-hour coastline-hugging bonanza of epic ocean horizons, cool baches (yes, you want to take the Boulder Bay detour) rolling hills and, on a clear day, Kaikōura Ranges vistas. For a big...

Want to live more joyfully in 2021? Who wouldn’t? Veronica King, owner of Grassroots Yoga & Health, has loaded us up with ways to fill 2021 with happiness.  According to the ancient yogis our true nature is joy, and they even refer to our ‘bliss body’, where we experience unbounded freedom and joyousness. Here are ten ways to cultivate joy right now. And remember - just like learning to drive, the more you practice, the more it becomes second nature. 1 – Take stock and acknowledge where you are and all you have been through. It’s important to see all you have managed to do and achieve in spite of everything that has happened to you. Write a review of your year - I guarantee it will surprise you. 2 – Slow down, breathe deeply, do one thing at a time and feel your way into your day. Where are the...

As You Like It is one of Shakespeare’s crowdpleasing comedies, featuring all the usual hijinks of unrequited love, mistaken identity, misunderstandings, and cross-dressing. A summer tradition in Christchurch, Summer Shakespeare at Mona Vale is a perfect reason to pack a picnic, bring a rug and a couple of cushions and settle on the gently sloping lawn in the beautiful surrounds of the Mona Vale gardens. If you don’t have the time or inclination to pack a picnic of your own, you can order hampers for one or four people from the Mona Vale Homestead. Mona Vale, Wednesday 9 – Sunday 20 December.FB/thirdbear

Multi-platinum selling Kiwi band SIX60 are setting the tone for summer with an Aotearoa-wide tour of their wildly successful Saturdays show. This time, they're extending their schedule to new cities and large outdoor venues, including Hagley Park in Christchurch, so you can enjoy home-grown tunes in the heat of our long summer nights. At their Christchurch gig, they'll be joined by Drax Project, Dave Dobbyn, Broods and Maimoa in a 100% Kiwi artist line up. Fans at each gig will be treated to the first live performance of some of SIX60’s latest material, for what promises to be a great day of entertainment in the sun with friends, great music and the best of vibes. The Saturdays tour will be the largest outdoor concerts Kiwis have been able to attend since lockdown. Hagley Park, Sat 6 Febpremier.ticketek.co.nz