Stories

Craig ‘Shawsy’ Shaw doesn’t do half measures. His celebration schedule of festivals and concerts over the next few months is busier than some of the acts that will be playing there. “I’m going to the wine festival, the beer festival, Electric Avenue, Rufus du Sol in Auckland, Groove Armada in Auckland, Fat Boy Slim in Christchurch, Billy Joel in Auckland and Elton John in Christchurch.” Nothing definite yet but the keen festival punter and promoter might also be breaking out his DJ skills at a gig or three over the summer. FOMO is behind the gruelling list. “One thing I have learned over the last few years is to not put something off and take for granted that it will still be there later. The risk is too high that it won’t.” So Craig is seizing the days. “The list is a bit longer than usual because there’s so much available....

Christchurch artist Mim Jensen is fizzing about her summer. After gigging their way around the local live scene, Mim and her band are now on the festival circuit, playing the South Island Wine and Food Festival in December and Nostalgia in February. “These gigs will be the first festivals I’ve played so it feels like reaching an awesome milestone for me! They are really cool festivals too!” Mim is looking forward to reaching new fans, hanging out with other bands and creating new memories. “I’ve only been to a couple of small festivals in the past so it will be cool to have that new experience as an up-and-coming artist.” Following the festival gigs, it’s looking like a banger 2023 for Mim and her band. “We are opening for Great Gable for their whole New Zealand tour in February, which is super exciting! “I’m also releasing my debut album next year,...

It’s a bright, joyful scene of summery vibes, spinning ice creams, swan floats and shimmering water. Your eye is drawn to a beautiful figure with long legs, bunny ears and a crown: a princess. And then the thorns start sprouting from her body. This is White Rose, the latest 3D animation work from Auckland-based Korean-New Zealand artist Hye Rim Lee, created as part of SCAPE Public Art Season 2022. It is also the latest work to feature Hye Rim’s animated character, TOKI, who has been part of Hye Rim’s practice since 2002. On the surface, White Rose is a fun, frivolous take on cyber culture – a tongue-in-cheek look at female representation and the male gaze of character design. And it is, but it’s much more, too. TOKI’s journey through these hyper-coloured dreamscapes is a story of escapism and transformation; the story of Hye Rim’s own experiences of grief and the...

Inspired by his family and his faith, Christchurch artist and graphic designer Paul Rees has brought Jesus to High Street. At his Cube Art Gallery in High Street, Paul is exhibiting a collection of 30 paintings and prints that depict aspects of the gospel story from the New Testament. Paul picked up his brushes again during the disruptions of lockdown, culminating in him painting a series of works on the life of Jesus. “Everyone encouraged me to bring them to a wider audience through an exhibition, which was really the moment I decided to create a gallery.” Paul’s own paintings are joined in the exhibition by a range of Old Masters and more recent works that tell the story of Jesus in more detail and variety. He approached museums and art galleries in Aotearoa and overseas and found a lot of support. From Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum came an...

How can we survive the celebration season without undoing a year’s worth of healthy living and exercise? Bevan James Eyles has some tips. We’ve got to think about our approach to the holiday period. Unfortunately for a lot of people they think because it’s my holiday I get to drink every night, I get to eat a bit more and so on. We want to remove ourselves from this idea. I had a client who put on 10kg during the three or four weeks of the holiday period. That’s a massive cost. It took him several months to get back to fitness. We need an attitude of this being a maintenance period with moments of excess. For most people the holiday period is not a time when we are aiming to get fit. Instead, we want to add the least cost for this period. Instead of lots of drinking, eating excessively...

Once again the Royal New Zealand Ballet has assembled the perfect tasting platter of contemporary and traditional dance for its Tutus On Tour programme. For the audience at Saturday’s performance at the Isaac Theatre Royal, there was something for everyone. Excerpts from festive-season favourite The Nutcracker put plenty of tutus on the stage and was a sure-fire winner with the significant number of grandparents and their grandchildren that came along.  Tchaikovsky’s music and Caniparoli’s choreography for ‘Waltz of the Flowers’ was given a kiwiana twist, courtesy of costume designer Patricia Barker, with the dancers draped in layers of red and white chiffon that referenced the flowers of the pohutukawa, Aotearoa’s own Christmas tree. Against that backdrop, Sara Garbowski shone in her role as Dew Drop. For the romantics in the audience, the ‘Grand Pas de Deux’ completed the Nutcracker selection, with Kate Kadow (Sugar Plum Fairy) and Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson (Cavalier) bringing...

Christchurch writer Kate Preece is on a roll. Her delightful children’s book One Weka Went Walking has made it onto Storylines’ annual Notable Book Awards list and she has also won an international short story competition for her beautifully paced Lake Fly. Storylines’ Notable Book Awards provide adult buyers and young readers with annual lists of the 10 best New Zealand books published in one of five genres. Announced each November, they function as a buying guide for families’ Christmas presents, and for schools and libraries. One Weka Went Walking has been included on the non-fiction list, a real coup for Kate and her illustrator, Christchurch architect Pippa Ensor. The book shines a light on the rare and endangered bird species of Rēkohu Chatham Islands. Hot on the heels of that announcement comes the news that Kate’s short story Lake Fly has taken out ‘The Story I Needed to Have Read’...

Local favourites Coriander’s, Boo Radley's, Cafe Valentino, Sun Dog Diner and Mumbaiwala are among the diverse range of Christchurch eateries to sign up with delivery service DoorDash. The US-based technology company has launched in the city, meaning locals can now download the DoorDash app and get deliveries from their favourite restaurants, cafes and convenience stores. The DoorDash app enables secure payment processing. Customers can see where their order is at all times and have the option to contact the driver. New customers in Christchurch can get free unlimited deliveries for their first month. Anup Nathu, owner of Mumbaiwala, says he is thrilled to work with DoorDash to share his love of Indian street food. “Having DoorDash in Christchurch brings in a huge opportunity for us as a restaurant. We are so excited to have the DoorDash team on the ground and embedded in the community, listening to what we need so...

Birds, birds, birds – Christchurch writer Kate Preece has teamed up with architect and illustrator Pippa Ensor to produce a children’s book on the rare and endangered bird species of Rēkohu Chatham Islands. One Weka Went Walking (Bateman Books) shines a spotlight on some of Aotearoa’s rarest birds, including one of the rarest seabirds in the world, the tāiko. The featured birds are all endemic to the Chatham Islands, except for the buff weka, which was introduced in 1905. You’ll know Kate – she’s written for and edited several magazine over the years, including editor of Style. Pippa is usually found behind her desk at Athfield Architects in Christchurch but Kate roped in her childhood friend as illustrator, thinking she would be the perfect person to bring the words to life. Pippa’s delightful drawings confirm Kate’s choice. Meanwhile the rhyming and repetition in the text is a guaranteed hook for young...

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is bringing Tutus on Tour to the Isaac Theatre Royal on 5 November. The performance is part of a 10-city tour from Auckland’s North Shore to Invercargill that began on October 7. Artistic Director Patricia Barker has curated a gorgeous gala programme that showcases RNZB dancers at their very best. Beloved classical favourites sit alongside more recent works, including one New Zealand premiere. The pas de trois from Le Corsaire offers firecracker virtuosity, while the joyful ‘Waltz of the Pohutukawa Flowers’ and grand pas de deux from the RNZB's production of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Val Caniparoli, heralds the Christmas season with warmth and grandeur. On the contemporary side, Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain pas de deux (2005) makes its RNZB debut. Gentle and tender, showing a profound connection between its performers, it is a work that is cherished by every dancer lucky enough to perform...

King of Snake has taken out the top prize in the Canterbury Hospitality Awards. The celebrated restaurant’s fusion of Asian and Euro influences caught the attention of the judges, who named it Supreme Establishment of the Year at the annual awards ceremony at Te Pae on Monday, 17 October. As well as landing the Trents Supreme Establishment Award, King of Snake won the OneMusic Outstanding Ambience and Design award, and the Service Foods Outstanding Restaurant award. In all, 20 awards were presented. Restaurant Association Chief Executive Marisa Bidois congratulated all finalists and winners. “Consistency and quality are what puts great establishments on the map, and quality is what the Canterbury Hospitality Awards recognise today. Christchurch and surrounds are richer for our hospitality leaders and our winners are at the top of their game, delivering great experiences and flavours that keep patrons coming back for more.” The Outstanding People’s Choice award went...

This Spanish Mission-style walkway may be the prettiest street in Christchurch, but its real drawcards are all the speciality destinations packed into its 120-metre span. New Regent Street was originally the location of Christchurch’s Colosseum. Our gladiators were armed with ice skates rather than swords, but it was still pretty cool. In the early 1930s, New Regent Street Limited developed the street in the Spanish Mission architecture we see today, with stylised gables and columns. It was a forerunner to modern malls, designed to group several small businesses together in a single themed development. In the ‘90s it officially became a walking street, though the space was to be shared with the tram. The street was shut down after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but reopened in 2013 and has been going from strength to strength ever since. Dine Twenty Seven Steps and Story are the kings of cuisine on this royal...

Jump in the car and head for the highlands this spring. Mackenzie District is just two hours’ drive away from Christchurch, and it’s a whole ‘nother world of scenery and adventure. From hiking to flight-seeing, discover an extensive range of outdoor activities in a stunning natural landscape of jewel-blue lakes and soaring mountain peaks. The stuff of postcards, this is home to New Zealand’s tallest mountain, Aoraki Mount Cook, and a national park punctuated with ice-white glaciers. Fairlie will be your first stop and gateway to the district. This unassuming small town is set amid rolling green farmland and is home to some of the best pies in the country at the Fairlie Bakehouse. Head through Burkes Pass and up to Tekapo (or Takapō), the cultural centre of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. This is a great little town for springboarding adventures. Home to the Church of the Good...

Cityscape talks to Lisa Sinke, the mastermind behind Wink design, about setting up the perfect bedroom. It’s just a bedroom, right? Nobody else ever sees it, so it doesn’t really matter what you do with it, right? Wrong. We spend a third of our lives in bed, so making that room look and feel great is essential to living well, says interior designer Lisa Sinke. “And really, do we live our lives for others, or ourselves?” The centrepiece of a well-designed bedroom is the bedhead. Back when slat beds were the norm, bedheads and bed ends were everywhere. “I always remember looking forward to being a grownup so I could get my own,” Lisa says. “I got a beautiful oak bed and I was so proud of it.” But now, with the prevalence of enormous mattresses and boxed ensemble bed bases, bedheads have gone the way of the moa. “There’s something...

Heat up with some good vibes this spring at Canterbury’s top hot pools. Rain, snow, beautiful sun or even starshine, a steamy soak is the perfect situation. Right here in Christchurch you’ll find He Puna Taimoana hot salt water pools. Sitting right on the edge of the beach at New Brighton, this is the perfect place to gaze out to sea while keeping toasty warm. Ōpuke Thermal Pools and Spa in Methven is the newest entry on the Canterbury hot pools scene. No kids are allowed, so you can enjoy the views of the Alps in peace and swim up to the bar for a cocktail. There’s nothing quite like watching the spring snow drift around while you soak in hot water, and there are several places around the region you can do just that. A little further up the hills and into Mackenzie District, hit up Tekapo Springs. This is...

Anticipation is building ahead of The Colombo Dog Fashion Show on Sunday, October 16, with Starlet the Chinese Crested already showing the importance of accessorising. No big reveal until the day though – competition costumes are shrouded in secrecy. The fashion show starts at 10am but the fun continues all day, with ice cream and cake for the canines and The Colombo’s host of excellent eateries serving up goodies all day. The event is the brainchild of Lilly Cooper, owner of The Colombo, and this year’s one-day event is just the start. Lilly has big plans for next year, with a series of shows for different dogs over four weeks, including the school holidays. “We really want to grow the event and get children involved. Holding it alongside the school holidays will help with that,” Lilly says. The organisers have gone all out to recreate the drama of a New York...

Blessed are the cheese-makers, they say, and that goes double for those that bring the creamy goodness direct to our tables. At Fino Hotel in Kilmore Street you can now take a pew in the all-new Cheese Bar and indulge your tastebuds and senses with everything from classic fondue to baked brie, halloumi fries, cheesecake, and burgers topped with scraped raclette. The latest offering joins Fino’s already extensive array of sumptuous cuisine available throughout the day. The Cheese Bar is open in the evening from Wednesday to Saturday, with reservations available from 5pm-9pm. cheesebar.co.nz

Having swaddled discerning slumberers the world over, M.M. Linen has brought its luxury wares to Christchurch and the home town of its owner. Check out the new Normans Road, Elmwood store and feast your eyes on bed linen and homewares that will drape your home in sophistication. M.M. Linen’s team of artists take inspiration from the rich and lush colours of nature to design botanical collections of bed linen, cushions, sleepwear, throws and more. The beautiful vintage bedrooms of Europe are the guiding vision. From simple pure linen to intricately embroidered cotton and velvets, the room collections are romantic, soft and dreamy. Across the range, quality comes in 300 thread count sateen. If you want more, there’s a new boutique collection of 600 thread count bamboo cotton. There are over 100 different cushions to choose from to complement the range, with stunning prints, a variety of organic and luxe fabrics and...