Stories

Moffatt’s Flower Company’s new owners are old hats in the growing business, having tended to mussels in the Marlborough Sounds for three generations. They’re enamoured with the flower-filled Halswell greenhouses, and new plans are afoot. For Ben S. Winters, walking through Moffatt’s sophisticated climate controlled greenhouses for the first time was inspiring. His memories of Moffatt’s go way back. “I was always interesting in looking at [the greenhouses] on the way to my father’s deer farm in Little River. They have a great company reputation, and are a family business like Aroma.” Along with his father, Ben G, and brother-in-law John Gallagher, Ben S is one of the directors of family business Aroma NZ, New Zealand’s largest green-lipped mussel health food company, and the new owners of the Moffatt’s operation. Aroma NZ has applied for international patents for a new botanical product to lower blood glucose levels in people with type...

The restaurateurs behind Indian Sumner have retired and passed the reins over to their friends at Coriander’s Ethnic Indian Restaurant. Dilip and Vanta opened Indian Sumner in 2002 and for 18 years they ran the establishment to be a part of the Sumner community. The Coriander's team say they are dedicated to continuing this relationship and serving up excellent Indian food at the Wakefield Avenue restraurant. At the beginning of October the restaurant officially became Coriander’s Sumner, and the new owners are looking forward to serving the Sumner community and beachgoers. The restaurant has undergone a renovation to take on the signature green and gold, and a beautiful hand-painted tiger mural now adorns the interior wall. Coriander’s Sumner is the fourth dining establishment in the Coriander’s family, alongside Coriander’s St Asaph Street, Coriander’s Bush Inn, and the original Coriander’s restaurant in Rolleston. The group speicalises in authentic, delicious North Indian curries...

Christchurch City Council had us doing a double take at the last lot of flyers dropped around the city. They’re running a campaign asking locals if we’ve ‘bin good’ with our recycling. Bin good? Get a sweet gold sticker on your bin. Bin bad? You might find some recycling reading material in your letterbox and a bad sticker slapped on your bin. Just like primary school! And thanks to the council’s handy-dandy recycling app it’s just as easy. This is all to help recycling get to the right place. If a recycling truck’s haul is contaminated with too much dirty or non-recyclable stuff, the whole thing has to get dumped in landfill, which costs a truckload of money and is pretty bad for the environment. Dirty pizza boxes? Those greasy badboys don’t count as recyclable cardboard, but they can go in your green bin for composting. Same goes for paper towels,...

Christchurch soprano Amanda Atlas sung her way around the world before settling back in New Zealand. She tells Cityscape about her upcoming performance of NZ Opera’s The Human Voice in her home town. You’ve performed all over the world. Where has been your favourite city to perform? The city I loved performing in the most was definitely New York. I travelled there to work as an apprentice artist not long after I finished my Masters in New Zealand, and the thrill of being in such a huge city, surrounded by incredible artists, with the opportunity to see some of the greatest singers in the world was just so stimulating and exciting. I’ll never forget my first production in NY, singing in the chorus of Cavalleria rusticana, and feeling the rush of emotion as the audience gave the ‘Easter Hymn’ a standing ovation. I just felt so lucky. I returned to NY in...

We round up three great films, reads, shows to bingewatch, new albums to treat your ears to and a couple of decent podcasts to enlighten. Watching Nick Paris from Lumière Cinemas reviews some of the best from the current crop of cinema releases: Rams In this rural Australian comedy-drama, feuding brothers Colin (Sam Neill) and Les (Michael Caton) are raising separate flocks of sheep descended from a breed passed down through their family for generations. When Les’s prize ram is diagnosed with a rare and lethal illness, authorities order a purge of every sheep in the valley. Hot-headed Les opts for angry defiance, while introverted Colin takes the subtler approach: hiding all the sheep he can fit in his farmhouse. It Must Be Heaven Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven is both a comedic and melancholy contemplation of his place in the world and the Palestinian identity. The film stars its...

Cityscape talks to House of Barber’s stylishly-dressed and slick-haired barber Jason Nguyen about the art of hair and beards. How did you get into the hair industry? I wanted to do what I love and it’s artistic. I learned and worked at a barber shop in Vietnam for two years and came to work in New Zealand four years ago. I feel happy that my talent allows me to make friends and share stories. What would you be doing if you weren’t a barber? I would love to go back to school to continue studying architecture. It was a dream of mine in days gone by. What’s the best thing about working at your barber shop? It’s a brightly-lit shop with an Xbox game station, chess, and a football table. You can enjoy the best barber shop vibe in the Christchurch CBD and it’s next to Riverside Market so you never...

Located in a heritage building with gold-plated tools and cast iron and brass barber’s chairs, Golden Blade epitomises modern vintage. Cityscape talks to owner George Toumazou about mullets, banter, and the secrets of men’s haircare. What’s the on-trend style? The old classics are in. Crop cuts especially – a tight skin fade, straight fringing and texturised up top. Mullets are back too. In the last Rugby World Cup there were about four All Blacks on the field with mullets, and now everyone’s into them. Kruiz, one of our barbers, hasn’t cut his in three or four years, it’s halfway down his back. What about in the beard region? Beards are very big at the moment, especially after lockdown. The older boys are growing these big lumberjack beards with twisty, curly moustaches. Moustaches alone are a little less common this year than last, but there are still some pretty cool looks out...

Pump up your pedi and enjoy classic beauty pampering while simultaneously treating your skin with an innovative ‘add-on’: mini LED treatment. Pain-free LED reduces fine lines and wrinkles, acne-causing bacteria, redness, sun damage and pigmentation, and helps scars heal. There’s no downtime afterwards – just a warm, relaxing moment to let this glorious light do its thing. LED treatments were originally developed by NASA to safely encourage wound-healing of the body and skin. These wavelengths of natural light don’t use dangerous UV rays or excess heat, and instead work to ‘recharge’ your cells in 10 to 20 minutes. Easy and quick with no recovery time, LED is the perfect add-on to any classic beauty treatment. We are seriously impressed that you can leave Nicola Quinn Beauty & Day Spa feeling great with not only a shiny new mani or pedi, but with plump, glowing skin to boot. quinnbeautyspa.co.nz

You’ve probably heard all about probiotics that help gut health in the form of supplements, kombucha or sauerkraut. We also have important ‘good bacteria’ on our skin. Support your skin microbiome with O Cosmedics O-Biome Hydrating & Setting Spray. The skin microbiome is an invisible community of microorganisms that act like a security guard to protect our skin from hostile bacteria and viruses. The skin’s microbiome, also known as the skin flora, harbours around 300 bacterial species and is the second largest microbial community after the gut microbiome. Think of it as a delicate ecosystem, like the rainforest. The diverse species of bacteria support the microbiome’s health and keeps the ecosystem functioning. Just like antibiotics and certain foods can mess with our gut flora – soaps, chemicals, pollution, weather, medications and environmental factors can throw off our skin’s microbiome by destroying good bacteria, leading to skin inflammation, acne and other conditions....

Chic destination beauty salon Le Plaisir recommends a treatment so gentle it can be done in your lunch hour: High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. Kaiapoi beauty salon Le Plaisir is your go-to destination for a non-invasive skin-tightening technique called High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU). It uses powerful ultrasound beams to create heat below the skin’s surface, leaving the top layer of skin protected. This heat causes minor damage to the dermal cells, which prompts the skin to start the regeneration process, boosting collagen production and leading to firmer, tighter skin. While you go about your business, collagen production continues over the next three months as the skin regenerates. It lifts and tightens your face, but without the recovery time or the risks that come with an invasive treatment, and many clients will only need one session. La Plaisir salon owner Aniko is a convert. She uses HIFU herself, and says you'll feel a...

Facials can be a luxurious, relaxing experience, but do they work? Cityscape peels back the layers to get to the details. The short answer is yes, but it totally depends what type of facial you choose to have. Think of facials as exercise – the type you go for depends on the result you want. You can choose to do yoga, a gentle walk, a high-intensity run or a mountain hike. In the same way, you can choose your facial type for a particular result. ‘Fluffy’ facials that simply exfoliate and nourish the skin while you relax are kind of like going for a leisurely walk, while professional-strength peels are the equivalent of a gym class to give you visible results. On top of this, you have advanced treatments such as microdermabrasion, IPL, Dermapen microneedling, laser and LED for targeted skin results – just like a hardcore workout, these treatments are...

Trust us, dolphin skin is coming in. Sometimes called ‘glass skin’, this is all about making your face look like the dewy, wet skin of a majestic dolphin. We ask Probeauty what this is all about. Tell us about this glass-skin look. One of the latest trends to come out of Korea, glass skin is all about achieving a luminous, clear and dewy complexion. The first step is using an active skincare routine including a gentle cleanser, serums to tackle signs of ageing, dryness and pigmentation (such as retinol, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid) and a nourishing, hydrating moisturiser. What products should we use to achieve this look? Finish what you started in your skincare routine with a hydrating and dewy-finish foundation that isn’t too heavy. It still needs to look natural! We love Suntegrity’s 5 in 1 Natural Moisturising Face Sunscreen, as well as the Mineral Sheer Tint Foundation from Quoi Makeup....

Jacqui is the head honcho at True Grit, dealing out style advice along with stunning cut and colour ‘dos. She catches Cityscape up on the trendiest hair for spring, how to get the most out of your grey hairs and get excessive shine. What’s a hot style for the season? It’s all about beautiful shapes that accentuate your best features. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an out-there haircut, but I tell you what we’ve been doing a lot of lately and we’ve been having fun with is the mullet. Really? Tell us more. In the salon we call it the ‘femme mullét’. I actually sport one myself. We recommend that if you have a super edgy haircut like that, you back it up with serious colour as well. Wow, so what colour are you rocking with your femme mullét? Today I have a cocktail of tropical with a splash of...

Mod’s Hair in Merivale transcends the idea of a hair salon. Luminous and transcendent, it’s Christchurch’s home of French-style hair, it’s a place to relax with a glass of Champagne from the fully- licensed Perrier-Jouët Champagne bar, and it’s at times a transitional space or art gallery. The stylists are sent to Paris to train in the latest cutting and styling techniques, and bring their experiences back to the salon. It’s not just about learning from the masters at the Mod’s Hair academy in Paris, says owner Julianne Liebeck, it’s about feeling the vibe of the French capital and the people who inhabit it. “The Parisians are more self-assured,” she says. “They have a way of carrying themselves. They’re not very trend-based, they’re quite classic and they stick to the simple things. It’s a lot more natural and elegant. The French are so good at that effortless style.” That style, and...

Tanya Goodin founded one of the earliest digital marketing agencies, and was search engine optimising three years before Google launched. Because of her long history with the internet, Tanya describes herself as a proverbial canary in the coal mine when it comes to tech addiction. When she realised the negative effect tech was having on her life, she decided to set up Time to Log Off, running digital detox retreats for people who want to disconnect. Now an internationally-renowned digital detox expert, she has published two books and hosts the podcast It’s Complicated. Cityscape caught up with her about how easing back on tech could improve our lives. Tell us about those first years working in digital – was there an addictive element to it at the start? At the start I don’t think there was. It was all very new and exciting, but it was shut away in a desktop...

Listen-Able Band? Legs And Butts? Ludicrous Artists Bop? L.A.B. frontman Joel Shadbolt challenges Cityscape to come up with an acronym. League of Argentinian Bicyclists? Like A Boss. It’s been a big few years for the band with three albums and a lot of touring. What’s been a highlight moment for you? It’s been a buzz. We’re actually working on another album at the moment. Our goal was to do three albums in three years and we just seem to be keeping the ball rolling and hoping to get another one out by the end of this year. The highlights have been touring, getting over to Australia and playing some massive festivals here in New Zealand. It’s just been an incredible experience. Is the title of the new album going to vary from the running theme or stick to the pattern? Yeah, L.A.B IV it is. Keep it consistent. No surprises. When...

Dust your fascinator off, get your fancy on and join the party at Addington Cup Week 2020. It’s the fashion, entertainment and racing event of the year. Addington Cup Week is the ideal opportunity to join the best of Canterbury and party it up, enjoying the sun with your pick of spectacular food, wine and beer from some of Christchurch and the South Island’s top creators at Addington Raceway & Events Centre. IRT NZ Trotting Cup Day on Tuesday 10 November is an occasion for celebration with racing, rockin’ entertainment and extravagant fashion. With hospitality areas available for hire, IRT NZ Trotting Cup Day is an ultimate hosting and networking experience for thanking clients, staff and friends. There are limited tickets this year, and as of the start of October five popular hospitality areas had already sold out. Venture into The Edge Public Village to have an epic experience where you...

When Jenna Ingram started exploring street art at university, her painting tutor told her emphatically that “graffiti is dead”. He may have been right. It was 2006. Graffiti crews were tagging suburban fences in the dark, and they were painted over by volunteer groups in the morning. But just five years later, Jenna was part of the explosion of urban artists that took to the broken city centre post-quake, creating hope-filled murals, stencils and paste-ups. Jenna and her husband and Fiksate co-owner Nathan pasted cartoon Band-Aids to soothe cracks in buildings, their contribution to the rebirth of urban art in Ōtautahi. That thriving community of local artists needed a home, so in 2015, Jenna and Nathan created Fiksate, a studio space where urban artists could congregate, develop their craft and hold exhibitions. It’s now a vibrant gallery space in Gloucester Street, representing urban artists from all over Aotearoa. Fiksate is New...