South Autumn 2024

SOUTHLAND, A FOOD LOVERS’ PARADISE

From the finest ocean fare to fantastic farm fresh produce — it’s a food lovers’ paradise.

With the perfect amount of sunshine and rain, Southland’s fertile plains and coastal waters produce many New Zealand delicacies, from world-famous meat and game to succulent seafood and the freshest, crunchiest vegetables.

Whether raised or grown on the land, hunted, fished, or produced, Southland’s food story is connected to people and place. It really is the land of plenty, the ultimate Surf ‘n’ Turf destination.

Take your pick of exceptional tasting, grassfed lamb, prime pasture-fed beef, and the

Savouring

finest Fiordland venison. Enjoy mouth-watering kaimoana, including world-famous Bluff oysters, Stewart Island salmon, Fiordland lobster, mussels, paua and blue cod.

The famous Southland Cheese Roll is a local delicacy — the perfect combination of freshly toasted bread, gooey, tasty cheese, and a hint of onion.

Southland’s stellar foodie reputation is fuelled by amazing food producers, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, food trucks and countless others — serving up innovative tastes and textures to surprise, tantalise and delight your taste buds. Discover more at southlandnz.com/food

southern cuisine

SOUTHLAND MULTICULTURAL FOOD FESTIVAL

16 MARCH

Take a trip through the many flavours, sights and sounds of this epic food festival that is a window into the incredible diversity of Southland.

RIVERTON HERITAGE HARVEST FESTIVAL 23-24 MARCH

Recalibrate yourself with nature’s rhythms and enjoy a wholesome retreat in the charming seaside township of Riverton to celebrate Southland’s home harvest.

TASTE SOUTHLAND 23-26 MAY

A weekend of events to drool over – Taste Southland is set to impress the ultimate foodie. You’ll be spoilt for choice, tasting the unique and delicious flavours of southern fare with every bite!

The

RUNNING DOWN A DREAM

“Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” (Matt Biondi)

I grew up a couple of houses away from where Rod Dixon had lived with his parents in Nelson.

You’d never imagine the marathon is a great spectator sport… unless you’d watched the great runner’s triumph in the 1983 New York Marathon.

To see Dixon run down Geoff Smith over the last few hundred metres was to be reminded of what sport was truly about. Raw emotion; the ecstasy of victory, and the agony of defeat.

On the 25th anniversary of that race I had the opportunity to talk to Dixon about it. He reeled off a compelling yarn still saturated with the emotion of the day.

Dixon had been passionate about the sport since he was a child, and had become one of the most versatile runners on the planet by the early 1980s.

He’d won 1500m bronze at the 1972 Munich

Olympics. But despite many further successes, he remained stung by a fourth placing in the 5000m at the 1976 Olympics.

And so Dixon had trained like never before for the 1983 New York Marathon, determined to take on the new challenge of marathons.

“I was prepared to live with the consequences no matter what,” he told me. “I'd trained the best I ever had in my life, and I realised I was at peace with myself, which hadn't happened before.”

This kind of ‘total preparation’ is a hallmark of athletes who consistently win.

It’s a characteristic of world champion motocross rider Courtney Duncan, making sure she’s ticked every possible box when she hits the tracks in Europe.

Like Dixon, Duncan is driven forward by an inner flame that is largely beyond understanding. And like him, the ruthless pursuit of a dream that has taken her to the top.

EDITOR

Gavin Bertram

gavin.bertram@alliedpress.co.nz

DESIGN

Mike D’Evereux

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER

Nic Dahl (03 479-3545)

nic.dahl@alliedpress.co.nz

CONTACT

Email: south@alliedpress.co.nz

Online: www.southmagnz.co.nz

Digital edition: issuu.com/alliedpress

Facebook: @SOUTHMagNZ

Instagram: @south_magazine_nz

General

Printed and distributed by Allied Press. ISSN 2815-7605 (Print); ISSN 2815-7613 (Online).

WHO WE ARE

EVEN over 24 years since it opened, Speight’s Ale House Dunedin still trades on the same ‘‘generous to a fault’’ approach it was originally founded on in 1999. And at the Speight’s Ale House Dunedin, the beer is matched to a menu of equal quality.

Food has always been a major part of the offering, with a focus on Southern fare, hearty servings, and value for money.

The menu has something for every taste, with classics including seafood chowder, blue cod, lamb shanks, steak, venison, and vegetarian options.

And, of course, there’s a superb range of brews on offer, including the original Gold Medal Ale, the Triple Hop Pilsner, Distinction Ale, Old Dark, Empire IPA, and even a cider.

What more could you want from a Dunedin Bar & Restaurant!

Rod Dixon and former New York Marathon director Mary Wittenberg, with a painting of his 1983 triumph.

Cover image: Courtney Duncan after winning the 2023 WMX in Türkiye. (Photo: Bavo Swijgers/Full Spectrum Media/Fox Racing)

FOREWORD

4 EDITORIAL

7 BIG PICTURE

10 WHAT’S ON: Five things to do this spring.

12 BIG ASK: With southern music star Jackie Bristow.

14 MUSIC: The Verlaines Way Out Where gets reissued.

16 FASHION: The best of Autumn’s new arrivals.

18 SHOPPING: Interesting objects for the home and beyond.

FEATURES

20 Full noise:

Motocross world champ Courtney Duncan’s path to greatness.

24 Fine vines: Central Otago’s second favourite wine.

ENDNOTES

26 ONCE UPON A TIME:

Hello Sailor’s late frontman Graham Brazier.

28 HOW YA GOING?

Poet Blair Reeve writes home from Hong Kong.

I WAS THERE: Glenn Turner’s twin centuries in 1974.

29 BOOKENDS:

Gretchen Albrecht - Between Gesture and Geometry.

30 LOOSE ENDS

Alcohol licensing expertise

Summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable point of time, like the turning of a leaf.

Made here by our family for your family.

Shop now at: shop.topflite.co.nz

Photo: Tracey Roxburgh

(Henry David Thoreau)

Use colour to bring the outside

in Connecting

the indoors with the outdoors

has become one of our most desired design trends. 1

It might be a seamless flow from a living room through French doors to a sweeping deck, or it might simply be connecting to the natural landscape through colour to create spaces that are soothing and comforting.

Spending time in nature has been proven to give all of us a mood lift when we need it, but it’s not always easy if you live in an intensive urban environment. Adding Resene colours inspired by nature to our interiors can be one way to find a little bit of that serenity until you’re next able to run barefoot through the grass, or take a long walk in the bush.

Earthy neutrals

Neutrals are a good place to start on a colour palette that connects your room with nature and the outdoors.

Resene Colour Consultant Jill Marsh suggests looking at warm whites, or even soft subtle greens and warm earthy browns, like Resene Open Sesame, which is a soft milky latte colour perfect for layering with sandy-toned Resene Tua.

“Resene Rice Cake is a stunning light warm white, or you could try Resene Peace, which is a soft green that can

feel fresh or tranquil,” she says.

Try warm white Resene Rice Cake paired with the fresh herbal green of Resene Caper. Warm whites are some of the most popular shades among Resene customers, loved for their versatility and their ability to change in different lights and against other shades.

Try the blackened finish of Resene White Pointer to anchor bolder colours like Resene Raspberry, or the chameleon-like sandy beige of Resene Half Fossil with the deep primordial green of Resene West Coast.

Green and beyond

When we think of using colour to connect our interiors with the natural environment, the tendency can be to go for greens. Green is a widely appealing colour that comes in a huge spectrum of shades. Try the colours of a rainforest canopy in Resene Permanent Green or Resene Rolling Hills, the pale leafy green of Resene Transcend or the lush lawn of Resene Green Pea.

Greens work very well with a variety of different whites and neutrals, and when they are paired with bare or

washed timber, create a simple, fresh Scandi-inspired space. But interiors don’t need to stay neutral to connect you to the natural environment.

Think of the way bright flowers or fruit set off the greens and browns of your garden. Think about the evolving spectrum of colours in a sunrise or sunset on a clear night and think about the constantly changing blues of the sea or sky.

If you want a colour scheme that connects you to nature that you will find uplifting, inspiring or calming, think about the natural environments that most stimulate those feelings for you and try to recreate them through your colour palette.

For rose garden or other floral prettiness, try soft pinks like Resene Valentine or classic red Resene Rudolph. Try the classic Kiwi red Resene Pohutukawa against pale grey-green Resene Eau De Nil, or opt for deep fruity red with Resene Red Berry.

If you want to try tonal layers in your interiors sunset - or sunrise - shades are beautiful ones to play with. Keep to different colour intensities of

dusky-hued pink or apricot shades like Resene Soiree and Resene Dawn Glow with paler Resene Dust Storm and Resene Umber White. If you want to get more of a light to dark representation of a sunset add in notes of sky blue Resene Dream Big and even purple-toned Resene Epic. If you want to recreate a relaxing beachy landscape, pair a sandy neutral like Resene Half Tea, with parched tussock greens like Resene Field Day and the wild blue of Resene Deep Teal.

Grains and texture

The other aspect to consider to really bring your nature-focused interior to life is to think about textures and finishes, says Jill Marsh.

She suggests bringing in natural textures, plants, and flowers, as well as natural-looking flooring, or even wooden ply on the walls will give your room a relaxed cabin or bach feel. Protect the wood and show it off with a Resene Aquaclear waterborne urethane varnish coating, or go for a washed weathered effect with Resene Colorwood Whitewash.

Rattan, cane and even stone all add

2

visual interest and extra dimension to your room while keeping it connected to the natural, exterior environment, she says.

Eye-catching art and lots of natural light are other ways to seamlessly and subtly build that sense of symbiosis between inside and out.

“Hang a beautiful landscape or a nautical painting and increase the amount of natural light to open up darker spaces.”

Spaces to try

A natural place to implement your natural colour palette would be a living area that opens out to the world, via a deck or balcony, but there’s really no restrictions on what spaces work best for a nature-inspired colour scheme. If you want to start small, try a transition space like a porch or foyer, where you can literally connect the indoors with outside. If you have opted for a pale neutral like classic Resene Alabaster as your main interior colour, graduate to subtly warmer shades in the foyer or porch. Resene Double Alabaster works well with earthy beige Resene Bison Hide and weathered sky blue Resene Emerge for a serene

nature-inspired combination that will welcome guests through the door. For added drama add a berry red door in Resene Fahrenheit.

Soothing natural shades also work well in any space where you want to promote calmness and serenity, like a study or even a bathroom.

Create all the calm of a tropical spa in your bathroom with the colours of bamboo in Resene Green Days, Resene Smashed Avocado and Resene Creme De La Creme. Create a warm, deserthued, inviting office space with walls in Resene Tuscany, Resene Solitaire, and deep sky-blue Resene Rulebreaker.

The key to creating a successful and appealing colour palette that connects your interiors to the outdoors will come down to finding the shades that really speak to you and invoke for you the same feelings of calm and inspiration you find in nature.

For help choosing colours to suit your projects, visit your local Resene ColorShop, ask a Resene Colour Expert online, www.resene.co.nz/ colourexpert or book a Resene Colour Consultation, www.resene.co.nz/colourconsult

1. Innovative use of wallpaper, with complementary paint colours, makes this room feel like a jungle oasis. The rear wall is painted in Resene Woodland with panels in Resene Wallpaper Collection 91210. Side wall and floor painted in Resene Blanc, sideboard and panel frames in Resene Teak, coffee tables in Resene Papier Mache and the light fitting is Resene Crail. On the sideboard, the planter is Resene Avocado, the rope-handled bowl is Resene Colorwood Breathe Easy and the lamp base is Resene Tea. On the table, the painted book is Resene Yogi and the tealight holder is Resene Brown Sugar. Sofa from Nood, rug from Mocka, throws and leaf cushion from Adairs, rust cushion from Freedom. (Project by Vanessa Nouwens, image by Bryce Carleton)

2. Connecting to nature doesn’t mean keeping to a strictly neutral palette. This mix of blues in a natureinspired artwork has all the serenity of being underwater or sitting in a field on a summer’s day. The wall is painted in Resene Half Escape with the plant line drawings painted in Resene Tangaroa filled in with Resene Cello. The gold leaves and vases are painted in Resene Apache with Resene Gold Dust, the floor is Resene Tangaroa, the bedside table is Resene Escape and the end table is Resene Cello. (Project by Megan Harrison-Turner, image by Bryce Carleton)

Get decorating with Resene plant-based paints and stains!

At Resene we’re committed to producing paints and stains that lessen the impact they have on our environment. Which is why we’ve developed a range of new plant-based products that are made using plants and minerals.

Available now at your local Resene ColorShop!

To fi nd out more visit: resene.co.nz/plantbased

Ripe Festival

Glendhu Station, Wanaka

11am, Saturday March 23

Now into its third year, Ripe - The Wanaka Wine and Food Festival returns to showcase the best of local wine and food producers. And in addition to the 25 wine and 15 food vendors, there’s an entertainment line-up including the Black Seeds, masterclasses, demonstrations, and more.

OF THE BEST

Tutus on Tour

Lake Wanaka Centre

7pm Saturday March 2, 1.30pm and 7pm Sunday March 3

A taster of the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of Swan Lake, before its season begins in May. The creation of former Artistic Director Russell Kerr, the Swan Lake excerpts will be complemented by Alice Topp’s Clay, and Shaun James Kelly’s Prismatic

Greg Johnson

Errick’s, Dunedin

5pm, Sunday, March 24

It’s 1000 miles from Kerikeri to Dunedin - the two extremes of Greg Johnson’s 1000 Miles Tour. Over the three decades since the LA based songwriter released Isabelle, Johnson has had nine Top 20 albums and won two NZ Music Awards. This is a seated late-afternoon show.

White Ferns vs England

University of Otago Oval

1pm, Tuesday March 19

Dunedin hosts another international T20 as the cricket season starts to wind down. England are visiting for five T20s and three ODIs. The series will no doubt prove a challenge for the White Ferns, currently several places beneath England in the ICC rankings for both formats.

Highlanders vs Hurricanes

Forsyth Barr Stadium

7.05pm, Saturday March 30

The Highlanders showed signs of life during the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific competition, but several lean periods cost them. With a stronger squad they’ll be looking to improve on that showing and make a return to the playoffs this year.

BIG ASK:

Jackie Bristow

After growing up in Gore, Jackie Bristow embarked for the United States via Australia. In Nashville the songwriter has forged a strong career, and she now divides her time between there and Wānaka.

What inspires you?

Great music, soulful people and nature, a great conversation with depth and laughter. I think you can’t underestimate having fun and connection.

And what annoys you?

I think the biggest thing these days for me on a daily basis is the new world and technology is a bit of a crazy maker. It feels like it takes up so much creative space, and being an artist you really need to daydream and work on your craft and reflect and get to the heart of the matter, and all the apps and phones and technology gets in the way of the freedom to be creative.

Can you recommend an album (or song)?

One of my favorite songs recently is Born to Love You, and the version I love is a duet with Ray LaMontange and Sierra Ferrel. The song has such a soulful and classic feel and their voices sound incredible together. When I first heard it I couldn’t stop listening to it.

What’s the most important thing that you’ve learnt?

I guess it is to work hard and trust in the Universe. There are no guarantees in the music business or life so you have to love what you do and to follow your heart. I have chosen to sing and write from the heart and to be brave enough to take a chance, follow my muse and travel. I have met so many incredible people all around the world and experienced some wonderful opportunities and if I had stayed home none of this would have ever happened. It is always good to see the bigger picture and try not to sweat the small stuff too much. Take the high road and move through life with ease and love. Be a giver and it will come back tenfold.

Who do you admire?

I really admire people who live from the heart and live for their art. I currently have real admiration for Annie Lennox. I have always been a huge fan of her singing and songs but currently she is being brave and speaking out about the tragic situation in the Middle East and speaking her truth, calling for peace. I have noticed many influential people stay quiet to protect their careers, but Annie Lennox has a strong moral compass and speaks out, like she just did at her Grammy performance. She is also one of the greatest singers in the current era.

What do you love about where you live?

The silver lining to Covid was I got locked down in New Zealand. I have lived in the US for 17 years and my home and life was in Nashville. However, I had been homesick for New Zealand for years and longed for the mountains and land and I missed my family terribly. So, now I actually have the best of both worlds as I have a 1950s rock’n’roll house in Nashville TN which has a home studio to record. In New Zealand, I just purchased a tiny house and have a stunning base in Wānaka. I feel so lucky to have a base in both places.

What I love about Nashville is the MUSIC and the international music community. I have had a great career in the US and I have so many great friends and collaborators, world class musicians and players whom I work with, and I have toured opening for world stars such as Boz Scaggs, Chris Isaak, Bonnie Raitt, Tommy Emmanuel.

In New Zealand I love being close to family and nature. During Covid I started developing a songwriting program called ‘SongCatcher’, and I love working with the kids. I love seeing them shine and glow and be amazed by their own potential. I also have a great duo with Barry Saunders, the leading man of the Warratahs, which has been such a great friendship and collaboration. We are releasing our debut single Good Miles To Go on March 1. I am enjoying the two worlds and living my best life possible for right now.

Where/when are you happiest?

I am always happiest when I am writing songs and in the creative flow, it doesn’t really matter where I am, if I am in touch with my heart and being creative then I am happy. I also love to perform, and when I am singing on stage with an audience that is engaged and giving me energy then I feel the connection to them and to my soul and feel completely at home. It's a true high and I know I am in the right place and doing what I love, this is when I am happiest. Creating and performing music.

When (other than now) was the best time of your life?

Last year was an epic year for me, I launched my Songwriting program in the Grant Hall in Parliament NZ, which was a huge achievement and produced and released music for some young talented kids. I also toured Europe and USA and opened for Boz Scaggs in the US. We played some incredible

Jackie Bristow is performing several shows around Central Otago.

shows and it was such a great year filled with travel and excitement. It was a buzz as the past few years had been difficult with Covid. It was great to break out.

I loved touring and then being able to come home and spend time in beautiful Central Otago. Living in Wānaka I have access to so much nature it really fills the soul. Nashville fills the soul in another way and it's so great to be surrounded by a melting pot of music. There is no place like Nashville, it is inspiring, a real music city.

What are you looking forward to?

I am excited to have a bunch of new songs to record. I will be in the studio in Nashville mid year and I can’t wait to start recording. It is always such a buzz to be in the studio making music.

I think everybody should… at least once in their life.

Have the confidence to do what you love. If there is something you have secretly dreamed about doing, give it a go.

Jackie Bristow shows:

• March 2: Kinross, Gibbston Valley, with Barry Saunders.

• March 16: Desert Heart Wines, Bannockburn - with Mark Punch (Nashville).

• March 17: Paddons Paddock, Wānaka, with Mark Punch and the Katrina Bristow Band.

LUCKY IN MY DREAMS

In 1993, Way Out Where presented The Verlaines at their most ambitious. Three decades later the album gets a vinyl release for Record Store Day.

By Gavin Bertram

Way Out Where saw The Verlaines at their most driven, but it was also a sort of submission.

The 1993 album was written in an atmosphere of acceptance about the band’s fate, songwriter Graeme Downes says. It was the Dunedin band’s second release on the American independent label Slash, and he knew it was something of a valediction

“To a certain extent it’s a farewell to the big time dreams,” Downes says. “This was probably the last hurrah in terms of being with a relatively big American record company.”

As a consequence, the songs on Way Out Where are grounded in a lot of deep philosophical ideas, as well as literary illusions.

It was the culmination of more than 10 years of creativity, and served as an ellipsis on The Verlaines career, although further albums would ultimately materialise.

An important turning point had arrived in 1988, when legendary New Zealand independent label Flying Nun was subsumed into the Australian Mushroom Records juggernaut.

Unhappy with that prospect, The Verlaines sought a new label that would better further their interests. Their manager, Downes’ wife Jo, approached Los Angeles based Slash, who eventually offered a seven album deal. The band already had a good following in North America, as earlier records had been released there. The 1987 album Bird Dog had charted highly in the College Radio Charts.

“We had already had a pretty good run with the early records, and we’d been there in 1989 for the first time,” Downes says. “The kids were digging it on the college campuses.”

Ready to Fly in 1991 was the first of the Slash albums. Recorded in Australia, it failed to meet the label’s expectations.

Downes recalls that when they returned to Dunedin after touring, the record company gave him a deadline of just a month to write and demo the next album. While that was never going to be possible, he did work harder than ever on the songs that became Way Out Where.

“I think it took three or maybe four months,” Downes says. “That was getting up at six o’clock in the morning every day and working my arse off. I’m proud of the work ethic that went into producing that batch of songs.”

It was a busy time in the songwriter’s life, with his young family in Dunedin, and the completion of a doctoral thesis on Austrian composer Mahler. The Verlaines were also changing. Bassist Mike Stoodley had joined before Ready to Fly, while drummer Darren Stedman and guitarist Paul Winders came aboard in mid-1992.

They now quartet almost immediately began rehearsing Downes’ new songs, before flying to Los Angeles to record Way Out Where in early 1993. Thanks to a generous budget from Slash, they worked with producer Joe Chiccarelli. The Grammy Awardwinner’s recording credits also include the White Stripes and Frank Zappa.

“It was a pretty grueling process, but the greatest learning curve in my life in terms of how you record,” Downes says. “You have to be with a record company with a certain amount of heft to be able to afford that experience. I’ve tried to keep his standards with me for 30 years now.”

Having rehearsed with Chiccarelli for 10 days, the band then recorded between various studios, including NRG in North Hollywood where the drums were tracked. The producer was particularly tough on Stedman, Downes says, making sure that the drum grooves were perfect.

Way Out Where was released late in 1993, and The Verlaines toured extensively to promote it, including seven weeks supporting indie favourites Buffalo Tom across the US and the UK.

But unfortunately the band never found the wider acclaim that they deserved.

“We tried our hardest and toured our guts out,” Downes reflects. “I thought they were a great bunch of songs, and we were a pretty hot band at the time. But if they’re not going to take, they’re not going to take.”

And so when The Verlaines returned to Dunedin, the aspirations changed. Focusing on other things, Downes raised his family and eventually pursued a successful academic career.

The fact that there’s still interest in The Verlaines, and Way Out Where is finally being released on vinyl 30 years later, is clearly satisfying for the songwriter. This Record Store Day release, and other recent Verlaines reissues on North Carolina label Schoolkids Records, have been coordinated by Stedman. Way Out Where has been remastered for vinyl by Frank Arkwright at London’s Abbey Road, and Stedman says, “there’s much more space in the music and a border, more muscular bottom end.”

For Downes, it’s a bit of a miracle that Way Out Where is having a second chance to be heard.

“Most things just disappear without a trace,” he notes. “There’s not many people in any kind of club where the work they did 30 years ago has any cachet with the audience. There’s a bit of an ego stroke in that I guess.”

• Way Out Where is released on vinyl by Schoolkids Records on Record Store Day, Saturday April 20

“I’m proud of the work ethic that went into producing that batch of songs.”

The Verlaines in 1993: (L-R) Mike Stoodley, Paul Winders, Graeme Downes, Darren Stedman.

Autumn serenade

From festivals to family gatherings, it’s good to have some versatility in your summer wardrobe.

1. Frost loafer, available from Merchant 1948 in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 2. Conclude vest in pale mineral green, available from Moochi in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 3. Blake knee high boot, available from Merchant 1948 in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 4. Luxe Moto jacket in black leather, available from Moochi in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 5. Darius slingback heel, available from Merchant 1948 in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 6. Absolutely Trenched coat in forest by Coop, available from Hype in Dunedin. 7. Ivory sweatshirt in lavender by Blacklist, available from Hype in Dunedin. 8. Trenched crop coat in mineral green marle, available from Moochi in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 9. Harper coat in black by Anne Mardell, available from Hype in Dunedin. 10. Sherry heeled boot, available from Merchant 1948 in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin. 11. Ezel top in check by Blacklist, available from Hype in Dunedin. 12. Tread jacket in sangria red by 6&7, available from Moochi in the Meridian Mall in Dunedin.

The right vintage

Discerning shoppers will discover a range of beautiful lighting at Invercargill’s Miss Vintage.

Disappointed by the quality of what was available elsewhere, Anne Maree launched Miss Vintage Lighting in June 2018.

After seeking out some beautiful art deco wall lights for her own home, she became spellbound by the charm of vintage lighting and started the Invercargill store.

Along with a wide range of beautiful lighting stretching back over a century, Miss Vintage also stocks fixtures and fittings, and select home decor products.

You’ll certainly get inspired at Miss Vintage Lighting at 118 Dee St in Invercargill, www. missvintage.co.nz

1. Australian King Parrot, available from Flora Fauna. 2. Veiled Chameleon, available from Flora Fauna. 3.Bordello Pinero ceramic bull pitcher, available from Flora Fauna.

4. Limited edition Falconware enamel jugs in Tarragon and Marie Rose, available from Flora Fauna. 5. Bernard the Fantastic Red Fox, available from Flora Fauna.

BURNING TO WIN

Having won four world championships, Otago motocross rider Courtney Duncan is as driven to succeed as ever. What keeps the flame alight?

By Gavin Bertram

DINNER WAS ready, and dusk was descending in East Otago.

That wasn’t deterring the kid on the dirtbike though. Nothing could stop her. Circuit after circuit, it was never enough.

“Just one more lap, mum!” she’d implore when called away from the dirt and the noise.

Even at the age of 10 there was an inner fire, a desire to win that would eventually take her from this home-built track to multiple motocross world championships.

In January Courtney Duncan made the trip home to that track at the back of mother Linda’s lifestyle property in Palmerston. This place where her dreams were first forged remains an important psychic anchor.

“It’s like, ‘wow… this has made me, me,” Duncan marvels. “These facilities and this upbringing really gave me the opportunity to be where I am today.”

IT’S THE day after that now rare visit to where it all started, and Dunedin’s St Clair Beach is humming.

There are large crowds for the national surf champs, and Duncan is negotiating the congested footpath on crutches.

Over the summer the 28-year-old has been rehabbing after the latest in a series of surgeries that have regularly dented her riding career. But those injuries and other obstacles have never kept her down for too long. Ultimately they’ve all just been another challenge to be overcome. While Duncan has felt like giving it away, she wouldn’t surrender her dream to the tough times and disappointments.

“There was definitely a time when I was done,” she recalls. “I felt like I was going under the knife more than I was actually on the track, and I almost lost the love for it. But I wouldn’t have been able to put my head on the pillow knowing that I’d walked away without a world title. Because I was destined to do that.”

Gazing out at the Pacific from a table at The Esplanade, the down-to-earth Duncan happily unpacks the highs and lows of her career, and what’s kept her pushing forward.

She spends time in Dunedin when she’s back in New Zealand during the offseason, except when she’s racing in the North Island. After enjoying time with family and friends, she’d be returning to Europe to join a new team for the 2024 WMX Motocross World Championship.

Yet even in her down time during summers at home, Duncan’s subconscious is working away on the puzzles of the track.

“You’re always focused on what’s coming next and how to be better,” she muses. “But it is important that you switch your brain off as well.”

LINDA DUNCAN remembers her daughter being a natural at any sport she tried.

Swimming, basketball, hockey - she performed in all of them, even being told she’d be a Black Stick one day. Overflowing with energy and drive, Duncan was always competitive.

“She had to win,” her mum says. “I remember taking her to the Weetbix Tryathlon, where you don’t have winners, and she was out there giving it more than 100 to win. She has just always been committed and full on.”

Introduced to motocross by stepdad Carey Turner

The motocross star during 2019, when she first won a world championship.

(Photo: Ray Archer)

“You might only get one opportunity in your life to give it a crack. When it came I knew that this was my time to strike.”

when she was just six, Duncan immediately knew that she loved the sport.

An outdoorsy kid who’d ridden a push bike without training wheels before the age of two, she loved a challenge. But while it’s the speed and aerial thrills of motocross that attract most riders, those are the elements Duncan least enjoys.

While she struggles to pinpoint exactly what it is that she loves, it’s somewhere in the experimental physics of the sport. The constant puzzling out of problems to make micro gains that will give an edge on race day.

“The more work I put in the better I got, and it almost became addictive,” Duncan says. “I wanted to be the best at it, and I knew that I would need to work really hard. I would watch motocross DVDs every night. Although I didn’t understand, I was learning from it, I was looking for ways to be better.”

This careful study of the minutiae that combine to produce total mastery is a common thread among those who achieve highly in sport. From big wave surf pioneer Laird Hamilton, to Formula One champion Max Verstappen, such athletes are constantly fine tuning their natural skills into something supernormal.

Professor Ken Hodge from the University of Otago School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Science has worked as a mental skills trainer for many elite New Zealand athletes.

He explains that mental skills are called that because they are skills. And in modern sports science, mental training is in the same realm of importance as fitness training and

nutrition.

“Even if you’re good at something, you still need to get better at it, and that’s one of the hallmarks of elite athletes,” Prof Hodge says. “They’re able to harness perfectionism to help motivate them to do all this extra training and work hard. Elite athletes aren’t necessarily selfish, but they’re certainly very self-focused.”

IN ACADEMIA there’s an emerging area of study into what distinguishes super-elite athletes from elite athletes. A key UK study focuses on 16 serial winners at Olympic and World Championship events. By any metric Duncan meets the super-elite criteria; she’d score highly in many of the psychosocial features that define the cohort. Alongside ‘ruthlessness’, ‘obsessiveness’, and ‘a need to succeed’, is ‘a career turning point that led to enhanced motivation and focus’.

Numerous events could support that narrative in Duncan’s journey. But she remembers watching the Motocross World Championships on TV when she was 12 as a pivotal moment.

“We had some Kiwi icons at the time racing overseas,” Duncan remembers. “I was like, ‘you know what? That’s what I want to do.’ It’s what I’ve wanted to do since, and there hasn’t been anything that’s stood in my way.”

From riding with friends on the backyard track at home, she’d made rapid gains in the sport. Already racing against boys at the age of seven, Duncan was soon travelling to motocross events around New Zealand with

Turner - and winning.

It was during this time that Josh Coppins first encountered the prodigy. The superb Motueka rider had been one of the Kiwis that Duncan had watched competing in the World Championship.

Coppins saw her racing at an event in Nelson, and recalls that it was already clear that she had the goods.

“Not so much from the speed, but more so from the attitude, the desire, and the want,” he says. “The speed was there, but the rest of the package was what made it evident.”

That all translated into early success in New Zealand, and then in Australia and the United States. Duncan finished sixth overall when the World Junior Championships were held in Taupo in 2009, and won the 65-85cc girls title at the Ponca City Junior Motocross Nationals in the US during 2011.

But even during her teens the injury toll had begun to mount, with long recovery periods after knee surgery. When she was 17, Duncan spent months in the United States, training at Colleen Millsaps’ facility in Georgia and winning races including the Hangtown Motocross Classic. She also suffered a serious concussion while racing in the Amateur National Motocross Championship in Tennessee.

“Courtney is as tough as they come,” Millsaps noted at the time. “What makes Courtney dangerous as a competitor is her belief that she has no limitations.”

MOTOCROSS IS

an expensive sport; both Linda Duncan and Josh Coppins are all too aware of that. The financial outlay is just part of the sacrifice made by a young rider and their family. There’s the time spent away from home, the missed education, and the huge commitment that overshadows many other aspects of life.

“Everything I did was to be the best at racing a dirt bike,” Duncan reflects. “I missed out on school proms, friends’ birthdays. I’ve never had a birthday party in terms of a 21st or anything. I’ve missed family weddings. But at the time they weren’t sacrifices because I was doing what I loved.”

Around 2015 she joined the stable at Josh Coppins Racing, the team he’d established with Yamaha after retiring in 2013.

With Coppins now coaching her and Yamaha’s support opening up doors, Duncan’s aspirations to race internationally were rapidly accelerated. While her technique and speed were already world-class, there were other things to be worked on.

“There was already an abundance of speed, so it was just about making that count,” Coppins says. “And getting

Courtney Duncan winning the 2023 WMX world championship in Türkiye. (Photo: Bavo Swijgers/Full Spectrum Media)

her to manage the expectations; she’s a super emotional rider, so trying to control those emotions in the good and the bad moments.”

That guidance served Duncan well when she debuted on the world stage in Qatar during February 2016.

Instead of being daunted by a field that included world champion Italian Kiara Fontanesi, she dominated to win both races by considerable margins. Her scorching arrival earned Duncan an ongoing spot with Yamaha in the WMX. “You might only get one opportunity in your life to give it a crack,” she says. “When it came I knew that this was my time to strike. I needed to go out and win, I needed to dominate to get a contract to go on further. It puts a lot of pressure on you; it’s not easy.”

WITH FOUR gold medals, Ian Ferguson was for many years New Zealand’s most successful Olympian.

Although he and fellow kayaker Paul McDonald enjoyed multiple triumphs at the Olympics and World Championships, their path to glory was tough.

In a minority sport with little to no funding, they largely succeeded on their own wits.

Prof. Hodge references multiple examples of athletes from New Zealand and Australia achieving highly despite similarly austere programmes. But while they have to fight every inch of the way, such measures ultimately make them tougher.

“Some of the other athletes haven’t had to tough it out like the Ian Fergusons and Courtney Duncans,” Prof. Hodge says. “That toughing it out is one of the reasons they have these mental skills. The underlying mental toughness just for life contributes to your mental toughness on race day.”

Duncan would certainly require a deep reservoir of resilience during her first years in the WMX.

Over the three seasons from 2016 to 2018, she experienced a chaotic rollercoaster of ups and downs that nearly broke her.

“I hate losing more than I love winning. I’ve always been like that.”

Along with wins and podium finishes, Duncan’s souvenirs included injury, disappointment, and frustration.

During 2016 in Germany, a collision with a photographer on the track scuttled her chances. The following year a dodgy call from an official cost her dearly, while in 2018 a foot injury stole the title when she was leading the championship.

“There were many times I would be in tears on the phone, saying ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’,” Duncan relates. “I was living on my own in Belgium and I was really lonely and homesick. There were some really tough years, but it kind of made me, me.”

While her mum remembers those early calls home, she knew her daughter could handle pressure better than anyone. It was tough with her on the other side of the world, but always in Linda Duncan’s mind was the thought that “if anyone’s going to do it, she will. She’ll keep going until she does”.

AFTER ALL the dark days, everything

finally came together in the 2019 WMX. It took a change of manufacturer and a new team, but Duncan was utterly imperious as she rode towards her first world championship.

Coppins says it was inevitable that big European teams would be interested, so it was no surprise when she switched to Kawasaki and joined the Dixon Racing Team.

This fundamental change in her programme and the hard learnings from previous campaigns coalesced to make Duncan unstoppable.

“Winning a world title in any discipline is not easy,” she says. “You’re going to have to figure it out and persevere until you understand and put the pieces of the puzzle together. When it clicks, it clicks.”

Duncan won four out of the five rounds that she raced in 2019, finally being crowned world champion in an emotional race at Afyonkarahisar in Türkiye. That maiden championship will always remain the sweetest of her career, she reflects five years on.

“To cross the line and finally get the monkey off my back was like ‘woah!’,” Duncan says. “The last 10 or 15 years prior, everything was like a build-up to achieve this one goal in life.”

For many athletes, realising their dream is enough. Prof. Hodge compares it to a onehit-wonder in music, where people reach the top and quickly disappear.

There aren’t that many athletes who can keep winning, he says, because they can’t sustain the commitment that it took to get there the first time.

But after a triumphant homecoming at Dunedin Airport in 2019, Duncan refocused and came back for more.

In 2020 and 2021 she backed up that first championship with two more, and while injury subdued her in 2022, last year brought a fourth world championship. As the rider reiterates, it gets tougher every year, and she has to keep working hard to keep winning.

“I hate losing more than I love winning,” Duncan says. “I’ve always been like that. I’m not a sore loser, I’m humble in defeat. But at the same time I just don’t enjoy it. The majority of the time I feel like I’m good enough to win and when I don’t it’s frustrating.”

ARCH RIVAL Kiara Fontanesi is the most decorated female rider, having won six WMX titles.

Duncan is determined to eclipse the Italian star’s record and leave behind a formidable legacy in the sport.

To that end she’s moving forward again, with another change of team to the Dutch based F&H Racing. She says when the opportunity arose it was a no-brainer. “It’s going to expose me to resources that I didn’t have before,” Duncan explains. “I feel like this team aligns with my purposes a whole lot better. I honestly haven’t been more motivated for a season than this one. I want to test my abilities and see how many I can win and how good I can be.”

• The 2024 WMX championship starts in Spain on March 23.

Courtney Duncan at the track at home in Palmerston when she was 12. (Photo: Linda Robertson)

“Pinot Gris can have a lot to offer; it can be intensely aromatic, and have lovely texture, lovely poise.”

Gris Power

Pinot Noir may reign supreme in Central Otago, but its pale cousin Pinot Gris continues to beguile wine aficionados.

By Gavin Bertram

WHILE Pinot Gris is a relatively versatile grape, the cooler climates of Central Otago offer it a natural home.

Grown in the shadow of its darkly sophisticated counterpart Pinot Noir for decades, it has become the second most planted varietal in the region.

New Zealand wide it’s the fourth most planted, and last year it eclipsed Pinot Noir in wine exports for the first time.

Winemakers Matt Dicey and Paul Pujol both have lengthy histories of making Pinot Gris, in Central Otago and beyond.

They both say that while it is capable of producing uninteresting wine, if treated with care Pinot Gris can be spectacular.

Where it was previously maligned, in recent years its popularity has grown as it has come to be viewed more seriously.

“There’s been a bit of a sea change in attitude towards Pinot Gris,” Dicey says. “It can have a lot to offer; it can be intensely aromatic, and have lovely texture, lovely poise.”

With brother James at Dicey in Bannockburn he’s pursuing an expression of the wine that ticks those boxes.

Over the 25 years he’s been making wine in central Otago, Dicey has produced three or four different styles of Pinot Gris. Now he’s settled on a bone dry version that hits the aromatic high notes, while achieving a silken texture.

“It’s a naturally low acid variety, which being a very cool climate winery works really nicely for us,” Dicey says. “It’s a variety that likes a little bit of hangtime, so if you hang it out there you can really get into an aromatic profile.”

Pujol, the head winemaker at Prophet’s Rock in Bendigo, also notes the benefits that Central Otago’s cooler climate provides by allowing the grapes to ripen for longer.

The length of the growing season, the warm days and cool nights, and lack of exposure to maritime seabreezes, all contribute to a wine that’s ripe and aromatic, but bold and fresh.

“It’s this really interesting grape that can make these totally different wines depending on climate,” he says. “In Central Otago we’re lucky in that we’ve got the length of growing season in that cool climate where we can ripen it into an aromatic spectrum of flavours on the vine.”

Pujol has a special affinity for Pinot Gris. Having worked at Seresin Estate in Marlborough he left for France in 2000, where he became the winemaker at KuentzBas in Alsace, an area renowned for its Pinot Gris.

The varietal had been grown there for centuries, and he became acutely aware of his place in the chain.

“It was just a tremendous privilege and experience,” Pujol says. “To see that history, and how they approach the winemaking, the diversity of sites, and how they farm and look after them is quite remarkable.”

One of the main takeaways from that experience was how the wine can truly showcase the small slice of the world from which they emerge.

It’s an approach that is equally relevant at Prophet’s Rock, which was launched in 1999. Their first Pinot Gris was produced in 2007, and Pujol says that and subsequent vintages are in a great drinking window.

“As a small producer, what’s your only unique asset?” he asks. “It’s your land. If you successfully make a wine that tastes of your unique piece of the world, then you’ve globally differentiated the wine. It won’t taste like anyone’s wine anywhere in the world.” But despite Central Otago being ideal for growing Pinot Gris, its success in the region is because of a “funny quirk of timing” Pujol explains.

The vast majority of vineyards were planted between 1995 and 2005, after the wine industry was pioneered in the area during the 1980s and 1990s. Planting then rapidly tapered off, with the Global Financial Crisis largely being responsible. During that golden decade, planting was dictated by the wine trends of the time.

“It was dead smack in the middle of the ABCs… ‘anything by Chardonnay’,” Pujol says. “That variety just went out of favour. The hot new white variety on the block at the time was Pinot Gris, so that’s why it became Central Otago’s biggest planted white variety.”

Ironically, although Pinot Gris now accounts for about nine percent of Central Otago wine, Chardonnay is having something of a global renaissance. In recent years plantings of that varietal have doubled in the region. Regardless, Pinot Gris has carved out its own unique place as Central Otago’s white grape of choice.

“Its popularity has been on the up for a long time,” Dicey reflects. “It’s certainly got its own hardcore group of enthusiasts.”

• International Pinot Gris Day is on May

They’re producing seriously aromatic Pinot Gris at Dicey in Bannockburn. (Photo: Morven McAuley/Dicey)

Once Upon a Time

By Gavin Bertram

Two decades ago I found The Brazz at the Grey Lynn Tavern, next to his home on Auckland’s Great North Road.

The magnetic Graham Brazier, smoothing over some misunderstanding stemming from the bar being hit with license fees for playing music. The proprietor thought the musician had reported the bar to APRA. But even if they’d had Hello Sailor on repeat, he wasn’t wired that way. Brazier, a narc? Not likely.

With a ban from his local watering hole avoided, we adjourned to the rear veranda for a drink and a chat. The reason was the release of Brazier’s third solo album East of Eden. But the conversation was broad, rambling, endearing.

He pointed out the back of his bohemian terrace home. Fittingly, it had a colourful history, having served as a brothel, opium den, betting shop, and bootleg liquor outlet during the temperance years.

“I like Grey Lynn,” Brazier reflected. “It’s what Ponsonby was like 25 years ago when I used to live there. The boys from Dragon were downstairs, and me and my mates were upstairs.”

The Ponsonby house nicknamed ‘Mandrax Mansion’ spawned both Hello Sailor and Dragon, he continued. Two of this country’s most revered rock acts, they have storied histories stretching back half a century. Still featuring founding members, both acts visit Dunedin in April on Dragon’s 50th Anniversary Tour. Brazier passed away in 2015, two years after fellow Sailor Dave McCartney. Between them they’d penned classics including Gutter Black, Blue Lady, and New Tattoo.

Hello Sailor romanticised a side of working class Auckland that had been largely ignored until the 1970s. Brazier had been deeply immersed in it his entire life. His father was a Liverpudlian seaman who’d washed up here and become a founding member of the New

Zealand Communist Party.

Mother Christine was dedicated to the world of literature. She ran a bookshop on Dominion Road, where Brazier grew up from the age of nine.

“I’ve been surrounded by books all my life,” he said. “So I’ve never been short of anything to read. When I was younger my mum would give me a book that I’d like, it was almost uncanny. There’d almost be a little message in there for me, and I don’t know whether this was just coincidental.”

Absorbed by words, music, and rugby league, Brazier later started writing songs and met McCartney, and Harry Lyon, who still keeps the Sailor flame burning. Founded in 1975, they helped transform the local music industry. Their self-titled 1977 debut album, reissued late last year, was the first all-original New Zealand album to go gold.

On the back of their local success Hello Sailor departed

Billy Bold: Hello Sailor’s late frontman Graham Brazier was a singular presence in New Zealand music for four decades.

Hello Sailor in the 1970s, Graham Brazier front right.

for Los Angeles and rock’n’roll decadence. For half a year from August 1978 they were nocturnal denizens of the Sunset Strip, playing at venues including the Troubadour and the Whisky. They supported The Knack who soon became huge, raided the smoking ruins of Keith Richards’ Hollywood home, and Brazier turned down the opportunity to front The Doors on a tour.

Soon enough they ran out of cash and came home, plans to return to California never fulfilled. A painful Australian excursion proved fruitless, and so in 1980 the first chapter ended.

Over the decades Hello Sailor got together to record further albums and perform to New Zealand fans. Meanwhile, Brazier, McCartney, and Lyon all enjoyed success with their other musical ventures. When East of Eden was released in March 2004, Brazier was working at his mum’s bookshop. Christine, who outlived her son, joked that the nerves he still suffered before performing were “preminstrel tension”. He loved that.

Having struggled with addiction and some run-ins with the law, Brazier was philosophical about his somewhat tumultuous music career.

“If I had got world recognition when I was younger, I probably would have killed myself,” he mused. “If I get another shot at it I’ll be a lot more sensible than I was in the past. But I think for a lot of people it takes them a long time to grow up. It’s taken me a long time… I’m the Peter Pan of Ponsonby!” Brazier died in 2015.

• Dragon and Hello Sailor: Dunedin Town Hall, 8pm, Saturday April 13. (Also Invercargill on April 12 and Oamaru on April 16

Graham Brazier at Brazier’s Books in 2004. (Photo: Michael Bradley/Getty Images)

How ya going? Blair Reeve

I

was there: NZ vs

Hailing from the south, Blair Reeve is a performance poet, creative writer, and occasional animator. He spent seven years in Japan, and the last 16 in Hong Kong.

So, how are you going?

By cheap taxi mostly, private car often, by foot, by MTR, by tram, and even by cable car, on occasion. Because I live partway up a mountain, sadly never by bicycle.

Where are you and how’s the weather?

Old Peak Road, Hong Kong. At time of writing we are enduring Hong Kong’s single week-long winter before the humidity returns. It’s genuinely cold in a way that my fellow South Islanders would scoff at. It went down to 7 last week. Brrr.

What’s been keeping you busy recently?

1. Packing and unpacking my record collection as we move into a bigger apartment. It’s back-breaking work.

2. Preparing a course on the short story to be taught at HKU next semester.

3. Preparing for a children’s author visit to SIS, my daughter’s school.

When you have visitors, where do you take them?

My last overseas visitors were from Dunedin and I took them round back of the island to the beaches. My next overseas visitors are also from Dunedin and I’ll be taking them to the beaches too (shout out to Mike and Anna!). Hong Kong has a lot of nice beaches. Maybe some hiking. Also, it’s fun to visit a fancy restaurant or two when guests are here.

What do you miss about New Zealand?

Four seasons. Democracy. The relatively non-pretentious and chilled kiwi sensibility. NZ produce. NZ supermarkets, which I know are expensive these days but not even close to pricy Hong Kong supermarkets. Do I miss certain people? Not really. I’ve been away for 23 years

Australia, March 1974

New Zealand beat Australia in a cricket test for the first time 50 years ago this month. That victory was largely due to Glenn Turner scoring a century in both innings.

Members of New Zealand’s 1974 side will attend when the Black Caps face Australia at Hagley Oval next week.

NZ Cricket has organised the reunion in honour of the team that beat Australia in a test match for the very first time - also in the Garden City.

Not that there’d been a lot of opportunities prior to that test series 50 years ago. Australia had beaten New Zealand so resoundingly in a 1946 test that they’d refused to play this country for three decades.

When they finally relented for three tests in Australia over the 1973-74 summer, the hosts again won convincingly. But they’d faced a New Zealand side with

some backbone.

That was displayed emphatically when Australia visited these shores two months later. On the back of the sweet victory at Lancaster Park the series was drawn.

Turner, having had a hugely successful County season for Worcestershire, amassed 403 runs across five innings. While he struggled to 101 in the first innings, the 110 not out in the second was superb - perhaps Turner’s greatest outing for his country. And that was despite some animosity with Australian captain Ian Chappell as New Zealand inched towards triumph.

The batsman wrote about the test in his

1975 book My Way.

“A surprisingly large crowd had turned up that morning to watch us. One spectator was so eager not to miss any of the play that he stopped his car outside the main gates and rushed into the ground leaving his motor running. Everybody seemed highly delighted that we’d managed to beat Australia for the first time and the papers were full of reports of the victory. There is no doubt that this win did an enormous amount to foster interest in the game in New Zealand and this was the most satisfying aspect for all of us who had taken part.”

• New Zealand vs Australia: Hagley Oval, Christchurch. 8-12 March.

Glenn Turner during the 1974 test in Christchurch.

BOOKENDS

Painter Gretchen Albrecht pursued a new direction during her time as Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1981.

Visiting the Northern Hemisphere during the late 1970s was a revelatory experience for New Zealand painter Gretchen Albrecht. In the galleries and churches, cities and ancient ruins, caves and fields, she discovered and documented new forms and ideas that would inform her future work.

“I knew when I came home , my work had to change,” Albrecht wrote in a 1981 notebook. “I looked at what I had done and felt it was beautiful, but was lacking in the strength and power I wanted my work to have.”

And it was during her time as the 1981 Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago that the Auckland raised painter embraced a new structure to lead her forward.

Eventually moving on from square canvases, Albrecht began

producing distinct hemispherical works, including Cardinal and Reveal.

This period in Dunedin is covered in a chapter of Dr Luke Smyth’s book Gretchen Albrecht: Between Gesture and Geometry. Initially published in 2019, the superb survey of her career was reissued and updated late last year.

“Albrecht called these new paintings ‘hemispheres’, so as to foster a reading of their interiors as deep spatial environments,” Smyth writes. “The ten works of this kind that she created in Dunedin drew heavily on her overseas experiences, but also made further allusions.”

The curved form would become a signature that the artist has regularly returned to over the four decades since. In the pantheon of New Zealand abstract art the only comparable devices are the quatrefoil

deployed by Max Gimblett, or the powerful saltire of Allen Maddox.

Smyth places its fascinating development within a career now spanning over 60 years. This revised edition is a vital inclusion in the collection of anyone serious about contemporary New Zealand art.

Luke Smyth

Published by Massey University Press.

Fully

Extensive

Family

Cardinal was painted during the artist’s time in Dunedin. (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)

Gretchen Albrecht in the studio during her time as Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1981. (Photo: Greg Wilson)

Gretchen Albrecht: Between Gesture and Geometry.

One thing about…

Serpentine QUIZ TIME

Near the Greenland, Manorburn, and Poolburn Reservoirs around Rough Ridge, the Serpentine Scenic Reserve is particularly remote.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1863, and within a decade the population was well over 200, predominantly Chinese miners.

The Presbyterian Serpentine Union Church was built in 1873, and remains the highest church in New Zealand, at 3300 feet above sea level. When the population dwindled the building became a residence and a musterer’s hut, before being preserved by the Department of Conservation.

The church and relics of the gold era including a restored stamper battery and water wheel can be visited. However, this requires a four-wheel drive in good conditions, between October and Queen’s Birthday Weekend. And there’s a one-hour return walk to access the battery.

5 TRUTHS IN 5 WORDS

Self command is the main elegance. (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Who, being loved, is poor? (Oscar Wilde)

Insomnia is my greatest inspiration. (Jon Stewart) We are what we do. (Amy Dickinson) Never fight an inanimate object. (P. J. O’Rourke)

1. Which Dunedin band topped the NZ album charts in 1990?

2. Where did workers on the Manapouri Power Station project stay?

3. In what year did Belinda Colling play basketball at the Olympics?

4. What is the famous hotel in St Bathans called?

5. Where in the south did WWII ace Bob Yule grow up?

6. The pseudo-suburb Little Paisley was where in Dunedin?

7. Which 1988 Ron Howard movie was partially filmed around Queenstown?

8. The Bridge sculpture at the University of Otago was by which New Zealand artist?

9. In what year did Sukhi Turner become Mayor of Dunedin?

10. Which mountain is known as the ‘Matterhorn of the South’?

Answers: 1. The Chills; 2. On the MS Wanganella in Doubtful Sound; 3. At the 2000 Sydney Games; 4. Vulcan Hotel; 5. Invercargill;

6. Around the Southern Cemetery; 7. Willow; 8. Peter Nicholls; 9. 1995; 10. Tititea/Mt Aspiring.

Music Festival appeals to all audiences

Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival is set to return to Gore this year, and the action packed 2024 event line up has just been released.

Sixty plus events will entertain locals and patrons alike across the 10 days of festivities starting on May 24, and there are a number of exciting inclusions on this year’s calendar.

Headlining musicians include Southland’s Suzanne Prentice, the guest entertainer at this year’s Country Music Honours, and Australian Fanny Lumsden returns to Gore to perform her energetic family friendly show at the SBS St James Theatre.

An event unique to this year’s festival will be the world premiere Capital Of Country Music, a

documentary chronicling the 50 year history of the Gore Country Music Club.

Determined to provide a platform for New Zealand musicians to present their original music, the ODT Tussock Stage will play host to songwriters Mel Parsons, Sam Bartells, Katie Thompson, The Mitchell Twins, Kayla Mahon, Dollys and Maia Pereiha-Fletcher, who will perform across four intimate shows.

Long-standing events including the MLT NZ Gold Guitar Awards, Freeze Ya Bits Off Busking Competition, the Gore Truck

Show, Old Hokonui whiskey and food match evening, and The Celtic Unleashed, a fundraiser for the Hokonui Celtic Pipe Band, also add to the diverse offering.

Following the success of the festivals held in 2021 and 2023, Bayleys Tussock Country encompasses events managed by the Gore Country Music Club, the NZ Songwriters Trust, the NZ Gold Guitar committee, the Gore District Council and many other independent artists and community organisations. All event details can be found on the festival’s website www.

Top: Kiwi musician Mel Parsons will perform on the ODT Tussock Stage and host a songwriting workshop as part of Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival. (Photo: Cartwright Creative)

Above: Australian folk sensation Fanny Lumsden with Lumsden Volunteer Fire Brigade members in 2023. Lumsden is returning to Gore again in May 2024.

for less than one coffe e a we ek. Not that we asking you t up that coff