Royal Albatross, Dunedin
Culture Compass
April 3, 2025
April ushers in the end of daylight saving – though daylight savouring might be a more uplifting name, less desperate grasping of the light and more radiating abundance. Now it’s over, it’s time to take the hand of someone you love – or like quite a bit – and white knuckle it through the darkening. Ultimately, it’s culture that will get us through, filling our short days and long nights with creativity, insight, innovation and wonder, the most luminous of which you’ll find below. From great darkness, poetry is borne and that’s where we begin…
A Bad Haiku
Below a column
On autumn arts and culture
Wine, plays, hoiho, beards
Phantom Billstickers has announced that registrations are now open for people, organisations, schools and communities throughout the motu to host an event for National Poetry Day in August. Devising a poetry event – big or small – is both an act of service for the community and a literary and creative indulgence for the organiser.
Like poetry itself, the possibilities are limitless – it could be an intimate open mic, a nationwide digital event, it might be indoor, outdoor, day time, night time, as long as it has poetry at its heart, it’s on the table.
Organisers can apply for seed funding for their event (applications due June 3), with all the information available from nzbookawards.nz
The People We Love
Wonderscape, Cloudy Bay
From poetry to prose, local film The People We Love follows young writer – Maddie – whose first book of short stories is rejected by her publisher, sending her scurrying back to the comfort of her family beach house. There, Maddie gets herself in the middle of her parents’ crumbling marriage, reconnects with a high school flame and nearly loses her best friend, which all comes to a head when she turns her family and personal dramas into fodder for her writing.
Writer/director Mike Smith and the team behind The People We Love deserve ample recognition for getting this film off the ground. At a challenging time for the local film industry, they independently-funded the film, which will be released in cinemas on May 1st. Trailer out now.
Cloudy Bay has created something spectacularly cinematic for its Wonderscapes series. This year, the wonderscape is a floating table or, at least, the illusion of a floating table. Set overlooking the Pisa Mountain Range, the table sits atop an “invisible” platform just below the surface of the lake at Cloudy Bay’s Central Otago second home, so your feet may well get a bit damp. It’s a one-off event that has been months in the making with Cloudy Bay enlisting renowned Australian interior designer and “tablescaper” Steve Cordony to curate the aesthetic and two chefs
The cliffs at St Clairs, Dunedin
– Tom Hishon and Cloudy Bay’s Chef Momo – to create a menu that showcases the region’s finest local ingredients and pairs thoughtfully with Cloudy Bay’s wines. This dreamy afternoon is taking place on April 12. Tickets are $220 and limited. cloudybay.com
Andrew Grainger in End of Summer Time
Otago is the moment this April and, for non-locals, it’s calling for some autumnal travels. Wild Dunedin – New Zealand’s Festival of Nature – is celebrating its 10th birthday with a 10-day festival that seeks to crown Dunedin as New Zealand’s wildlife capital. The festival makes a pretty compelling argument, highlighting the vast biodiversity of the region – home to some of the rarest species in the world – and raising awareness of conservation efforts.
Wild Dunedin has received international recognition from the BBC and CNN, and even has the attention of Jane Goodall among others. There are more than 150 events including the Nature Dome at Forsyth Barr Stadium on April 13, which will be a festival atmosphere with interactive exhibits, live entertainment from Anika Moa, Suzy Cato, and more, community-driven activities, local food and beverages, and a world record attempt for the largest yoga session. There’s also a Wild Night Ball at Larnach Castle raising funds for the National Bird of the Year, the endangered hoiho.
Where Wild Dunedin celebrates the region’s triumphs, End of Summer Time spotlight’s Auckland’s failings, with humour of course. Sir Roger Hall’s 59th play will be staged by Auckland Theatre Company in June with Andrew Grainger as returning Hall character, Dickie Hart. The lovable curmudgeon has moved to the big smoke with his wife, Glenda, to be closer to the grandkids but he doesn’t have to like it, until – spoiler alert – maybe he does.
ZZ Top
Consistently a beloved voice of his generation, Hall roasts Auckland for its traffic, bureaucracy, high prices, and lack of community. But like his Takapuna apartment-dwelling creator, Hart ultimately finds plenty to love about Tāmaki Makaurau, even in the face of Covid lockdowns. Alison Quigan QSM is directing ATC’s production, which will run June 17 to July 5.
The band with the beards is coming next month, and they’ve recently announced that they’re adding a Christchurch show to The Elevation Tour. The Texan rock band and cultural icons ZZ Top have been touring the world for over 50 years and despite losing bassist Dusty Hill in 2021, their touring days are far from over. The band’s long-standing guitar technician, Elwood Francis, now fills Hill’s boots as bassist. Joining ZZ Top for all three shows – Christchurch (May 15), Auckland (May 17) and Wellington (May 18) – is Bad to the Bone singer and blues-rock band George Thorogood & The Destroyers. Rock nostalgia abounds.