Stories

Get learning with these upcoming workshops at The Colombo – master homegrown gourmet mushrooms, indoor plants, Instagram, the kitchen and the garden with the guidance of experts in easy-to-digest sessions at Sydenham’s trendy mall. Gourmet Mushrooms workshop (sold out) Thursday 30 July If you can’t get enough of the umami feast that is gourmet mushrooms, get your lucky self along to The Colombo for this workshop run by Taylor McConnell from Sporeshift Mushrooms. You’ll learn more about the many different varieties and how to use each of them to best advantage, how to grow your own mushrooms organically, and even get the chance to start your own home mushroom farm! Indoor Plants workshop Thursday 6 August No matter if you have a flourishing green thumb or are an aspiring plant parent who can’t seem to stop accidentally killing your babies, this workshop has something for you. Ben from Monstera and Men...

Get psyched, city-dwellers, there’s a new gym on the block in central Christchurch. Sitting just inside the four avenues at the corner of Fitzgerald Ave is the brand new Anytime Fitness Hereford Street. What’s especially cool about this club is that every new membership comes with a free one-on-one session with a personal trainer. Get some expert guidance on how to smash your fitness goals, or get them to point you to the lightest weights and cushiest mats – whatever works for you. And if for some reason you have to venture far from home, you’ll have access to all 4,000+ Anytime Fitness clubs worldwide. anytimefitness.co.nz/gyms/nz-1057/hereford-christchurch-south-island-8011/  

In a world of Netflix, Neon and YouTube, we have access at home to a huge range of cheap and readily-available content. What’s missing is the joy of watching a film in a cinema with others – as we know from the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, connection, communication and learning are powerful forces for individual and communal good. That’s where the Canterbury Film Society comes in. Each year it has a programme of superb arthouse films, many of which do not reach New Zealand cinemas or television. Regular screenings satisfy Film Society members’ craving for viewing films in a large group and doing deep in the topics with guest speakers, question and answer sessions and panel discussions. There’s a strong sense of community, the incomparable feeling of watching a film on the big screen. Membership is easy with a range of options to suit every wallet. True to its more than...

With the opening of the Good Times Comedy Club this year, Christchurchers have a dedicated digs for a good guffaw. The bar’s comedy might be what sucks you in, but the warm vibe and great banter from the bar staff will be what keeps you laughing your way back in. On top of the special booked gigs, the bar runs a vortex of regular shows you can catch every week. Monday is Fresh Comedy night, an open mic hangout for up-and-comers and Christchurch comedy royalty. Anyone can get up and give it a bash, so it’s your chance to try your stuff with a receptive crowd, or hear experienced comics testing out new material. For quiz with a twist, check out the Off the Wall Quiz on Thursday nights - it’s the loosest quiz in town. You don’t need to know facts to win, and the markers won’t punish you for...

Throw your arms (and conducting batons) in the air and get ready to dance, because Synthony is returning to Christchurch Arena with a killer Kiwi lineup on Saturday 20 March. It’s a unique combination of body-shaking electronic dance music anthems and the unbeatable might of a full orchestra. The show will feature Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and local DJ Craig Shaw as well as conductor Peter Thomas and DJs General Lee and Greg Churchill, with performances by Jason Kerrison, Ria Hall, Cherie Mathieson, Nate Dousand and Lewis McCallum. With an epic backdrop of visuals, lasers, and a state-of-the-art sound system, it’s a magical, uplifting, hands-in-the-air dance party like no other. This dance music celebration takes the audience on a journey, track after track, down memory lane to celebrate unforgettable bangers. Synthony founder and producer Erika Amoore says she’s incredibly excited to bring Kiwis an outstanding musical showcase based on performances of the...

Lunch should be savoured, flavoured, and never a labour. At Cityscape we believe in the long lunch: a proper sit-down feast with good banter and maybe a glass of wine. Here are our picks for the best places to make merry over lunch in the central city. Universo Brasserie & Bar is equal parts edgy Euro chic and tropical escape with a drinks list that’s off the charts to match a brunch and lunch menu with ingredients that always give something a bit different. Try the Universo Platter – a selection of meats and sides to share that will keep you going for ages. Across the road you’ll find Fiddlesticks Restaurant & Bar, a sophisticated haunt that serves up an array of great fare and excellent tipple – the Saturday bottomless brunch option will keep your champagne, mimosa or bloody Mary glass full while you dine and there’s always Sangria Sundays....

One of the best things about going on holiday is getting to try exotic new foods, but for the owners of passports gathering dust this winter, Cityscape is charting an international culinary adventure without leaving the city. Join us for an intercontinental tour to treat the taste buds as we traverse through Christchurch’s finest examples of international cuisine. EUROPE From bangers and mash in the west to the thousand-year-old tradition of shchi (Russian cabbage soup) in the east, European cuisine is as diverse as the different cultures of the more than 50 countries in the continent. While countless French and Italian staples in particular have, of course, become favourites all over the world, a host of other European nations have given one or more famous and epically-tasty gifts to the globe. ITALY There are several excellent Italian food options in the city. The institution that is Café Valentino has an outstanding...

Returned to New Zealand, Christchurch boy and international dancer Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson has joined forces with Royal New Zealand Ballet in Venus Rising. We hear Venus Rising will be your first professional performance in your hometown. How does that feel? It’s a very strange circumstance to begin with. I’d not expected to be in New Zealand right now, given my usual place of work is the Houston Ballet, let alone dancing as a guest for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. I am deeply grateful to Artistic Director Patricia Barker for this opportunity, firstly to continue my dance training when ballet performances across America are largely cancelled for the rest of the year, but secondly to perform with the RNZB. Christchurch is where my dream began. It feels so important to me and poetic – I left Christchurch for the USA exactly ten years ago on the 29th of August 2010. We will...

Feeling a bit creaky this winter? Muscle People have the cure for what ails you. Winter is prime time for backaches. There are a lot of long days at ski fields and long nights on the couch, and of course, that heavy firewood doesn’t lift itself. But there’s a Christchurch clinic helping heal our aches and pains by combining fun, friends and… physiotherapy. The crew at Muscle People have designed a multi-week group course called Dynamic Spines, which can help us all rebuild our backs from scratch. They assure us things start of easy: imagine standing against a wall and rolling down, from your neck, one vertebrae at a time. You’ll also try neck tucks: instead of a double chin, you’ll go for quadruple or quintuple chins. This is so you can find your spine’s neutral position, not so they can snap unflattering photos. The classes ramp up with exercises including...

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: MILITARY WIVES Inspired by a real phenomenon, Military Wives follows a group of women who band together to form a choir while their husbands are on a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The director of The Full Monty returns to the realm of comedy-with-heart, although in this case it might be more heart-with-comedy. Through trials and yes, grief, these wives know that singing releases all those feel-good chemicals, and you’ll find yourself leaving the cinema feeling similarly buoyant. WHĀNAU MĀRAMA: NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Kicking off in late July, the New Zealand International Film Festival will be the first festival around the world to begin showing films...

DP Herbals’ Deirdre Panapa shares some centuries-old wisdom so we can enjoy wholefoods with new knowledge. The "doctrine of signatures" is an idea that’s fascinated herbalists for centuries. Many believe God marked everything he created with a sign or a signature to indicate what the item was created for. Later, science took a look at the doctrine of signatures, and found shapes or patterns in wholefoods that look like body organs that can indicate the benefit the food provides the eater. The pupil, iris and radiating lines of a sliced carrot look just like the human eye, and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. A tomato has four chambers and is red. Sound familiar? Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, which are great for heart health. Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart while each grape looks like a...

Feel like swinging your hips to sultry samba music in a buzzing dance hall? Brazilian Beatz is bringing the carnival to Christchurch. You might have two left feet, but pro dance instructors Leo and Becky reckon they can get anyone’s booty shaking. Join them for their beginner classes – you can do fast and flirty samba dancing, or try the smooth and sexy bachata style. You’ll be drawn instantly into the studio’s luscious latin vibe, and once you’ve found your feet you can head over to their social nights, where you’ll get your groove on with a bunch of other fun-loving dancers. And although you’ll be too busy soaking in the good times to notice, a good caper is great for your health. When you take the floor, you’re boosting the brain chemicals required for nerve cells to grow. Couple that with remembering steps and sequences, and you’ve got a great...

If you find shopping for skincare confusing, overwhelming or are just sick and tired of spending money on beauty products that promise the world and deliver nothing, then you will love the new Probeauty Advanced Beauty Hub. Probeauty knows skin, and is committed to sharing the game-changing power of skin science. The new online hub is a go-to for all things skincare, active ingredients and the destination to search out the best skin and beauty clinics throughout the country. Learn about how you can firm, tighten and rejuvenate skin, clear acne and brighten your complexion through high-performance skincare products and advanced treatments. As a leading supplier for the professional beauty industry for more than 20 years, Probeauty also houses a curated selection of top of the range active skincare brands, nurturing internal supplements and clean beauty brands. You can even support local and nominate your regular clinic at the checkout when...

Mary Turnbull has got the good stuff: she’s a cracking Christchurch real estate agent, and one of the top Harcourts agents in the world. Mary says the secret is giving as much care to marketing a $400,000 house as she does to a home worth $1.5 million. She goes beyond the call of duty, always chasing the buzz of a happy client – perhaps a retiree who made more than expected on a sale and went travelling, or a couple who found their dream first home. Mary likes to give her clients a personal touch: regular phone calls for updates and a genuine care for the work she does. “I never pass the buck,” she says. “I put myself in the vendor’s shoes. This is probably their most valuable asset, and it’s important that I’m passionate about their house.” Mary started her career working for the New Zealand Government Tourist Bureau,...

These crisp winter blue-sky mornings and snow-socked hills have made us feel invigorated; we’ve got our boots on and there are frozen puddles to jump on. Bring it on, world. Now we just need a conduit for this frost-induced zest for life that’s sprung up like a daffodil shoot breaking ground a few months early. So here at the Cityscape office, we’ve vowed to try something new this winter. This isn’t just to use up our excess winter energy. We’re focussing on wellbeing this year, and there’s a ton of evidence to say that trying new things will make us feel good: psychologist Rich Walker of Winston-Salem State University catalogued 30,000 event memories from 500 people’s diaries over four years, and found that people who try out a variety of different experiences feel more positive emotions than those who don’t. Research has also shown that learning new skills comes with mental...

This Royal New Zealand Ballet season represents a new era in dance, with the powerful programme’s full repertoire choreographed by women. The masterminds behind the routines tell Cityscape what’s what in the whirling worlds of the 2020 season. Venus Rising is first to ascend into the spotlight. The invocation of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and victory over adversity as well as Earth’s scorching hot sister planet, the brightest of stars and herald of the dusk and dawn, seems wholly appropriate for the ignition of this female-fronted year of ballet. “The astronomical symbol for Venus is the same as that is used in biology for the female sex. The Venus symbol also represents femininity, and the symbol for Venus has sometimes been understood to stand for the mirror of the goddess. Rather fitting at this time and place for the RNZB and for New Zealand,” says RNZB artistic director Patricia Barker. The...

There’s no better place to be this winter than the newly-opened He Puna Taimoana hot salt water pools in New Brighton, where you can relax in open-air hot salt water baths while looking out over the beach and pier. The complex features five hot pools ranging from a muscle-relaxing 39 degrees down to the 36-degree family pool and a 28-degree pool for those who want to get active. There’s a refreshingly-chilly plunge pool that fluctuates between 10 and 14 degrees, a steam room and a sauna where you can enjoy the heat while watching the waves break on the beach. He Puna Taimoana has a great range of accessible features, with ramp access into the active fitness pool and hoists for the four other hot pools. Handrails have been installed to support entry in every pool, and there are accessible changing rooms and toilets. Also in the complex is a gorgeous...

New online catering platform is a hit with corporates, but you can use it too. We’ve got a hot tip for savvy Cityscapers: new online catering platform Caterway is designed for corporates looking to simplify their catering administration, but it’s also a great way for anyone planning a birthday or event to see a wide range of caterers in one place. If you’ve ever planned food for a big party or organised a caterer for a wedding, you’ll remember the stress of back-and-forth emails organising menus, delivery times and invoices. Caterway does it a different way, and it makes a lot of sense. You just choose what you want on a caterer’s page, choose pick up or a delivery time, and pay online. It’s easier for you, and easier for our wonderful local catering businesses. It’s a tummy-rumbling website to browse, listing caterers that cover every kind of cuisine you could...