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My first ever…a death threat that inspires a poem.

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Perpetual motion machine

Jess Johnson experiences UFO culture, desert fauna and lots of stray cats on an artist residency in Roswell, New Mexico. By Jess Johnson

Listen Up

If you adore these new releases, why not spread a little financial love to the artists. By Victoria Spence

Saying the quiet part in 72pt font

Renaissance woman Catherine Griffiths tells North & South why she’s fed up with design industry inequity, and what she’s doing to fight it. By Theo Macdonald

Portrait of the artist as a dead man

The massive task of bringing home Bill Culbert’s studio. By Theo MacDonald

National treasures

Pātea, where the Tasman Sea has pummelled and caressed the shoreline for centuries, hosts a hoard of special taonga. By Lindsay Wright

The Don

Don McGlashan this year enjoyed his first number one album in his 40-something-year musical career. By Elisabeth Easther

Into the darkness

Smiling snakes, biblical personalities and pilfered icons inhabit the Arcadian scenes depicted by Laura Williams. By Theo Macdonald

Oppenheimer

“The central icon of the atomic culture,” wrote historian Peter B. Hales, “is the mushroom cloud, rising above the lush tropical atolls of the South Pacific or the wastelands of the Great American Desert.” By Theo MacDonald

The world according to Kharl

Rotorua fashionista Kharl WiRepa has two shows at New Zealand Fashion Week this year, the first showcasing haute couture, the second featuring kapa haka. By Theo Macdonald

The Deepest Breath

A plunge into the extreme sport of freediving, this documentary showcases daring dreams with an undercurrent of danger.  By Theo Macdonald

Still not knowable

The unpredictability and challenges of working with clay are what drew artist Emelia French to change her focus from painting to ceramics. By Theo Macdonald

Kicking on

Top women’s football official Sarai Bareman has big hopes for the forthcoming Women’s World Cup. By Theo MacDonald
Photo: Cameron James McLaren.

The word “craft” is deceptive — its meaning and application ambiguous, its definitions multifarious.

CRAFTWORK

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Horsing around

Dropping in on a remarkable woman and her lifetime collection of equine memorabilia. By Lindsay Wright

The Last Rider

An account of a fascinating slice of sports history demonstrates there’s more to documentaries than just finding the right story. By Theo Macdonald

The Grapevine

New life springs in the battered bay. By Toby Buck

Profile: Fasitua Amosa

After 20 years of prolific and professional acting, Fasitua Amosa’s face and voice have become well-known. By Gabi Lardies

Ōtautahi Christchurch

The rebuilt heart of the city brings pleasure to visitors and locals alike. By Gabi Lardies

Michael Hill

Sir Michael Hill was a high-school dropout muso before he became one of the country’s most successful businessmen. By George Driver

About Town: Masterton

Culture Etc. Above: Queen Elizabeth Park was called Masterton Park until 1954, when it was renamed following Queen Elizabeth II’s inaugural visit to New Zealand. Not too Bourgeois The marketers might not see Masterton as a prime Wairarapa destination, but there’s much more to it than high-revving engines and patchy…

Vanda Symon

After a decade away, New Zealand’s modern-day “Queen of Crime” is back. By Thomas McLean

Gorse! What is it Good for?

From Chaucer’s time to our own, artists and writers have been enraptured and enraged by the spiky shrub. By Thomas McLean

Q&A: Showing Now

Julia Waite, Auckland Art Gallery’s curator of New Zealand art, talks about how exhibitions are conceived and presented. By Gabi Lardies

National Treasures: Charlotte Museum

A semi-industrial Auckland street is home to a museum honouring Aotearoa’s sapphic history. By Gabi Lardies

Beer Festival Dunedin

A new father ponders his priorities during a raucous beer festival in his old student-days stomping ground. By George Driver

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Modestly Epic

Film star Sam Neill is quietly proud of his Central Otago winery, nestled in the part of the world he still loves best. By Tobias Buck

Crown Lynn

Crown Lynn, the New Zealand-made crockery brand that can still be found in many homes around the country, inspires an unmatched devotion among its collectors. By Gabi Lardies

Awildian Gin

The couple behind a world-beating gin on their unique path to success. By Gabi Lardies

About Town: Springfield

When weary travellers find a welcoming hotel, who needs fluffy robes or flashy furnishings? By Gabi Lardies

A Foreign Flock

How did a small spa town in Austria end up with the largest collection of kea in captivity — and what is it doing with them? By Gregor Thompson

Building Bridges

The last two years have marked big changes in writer Pip Hall’s life, including the end of her 19-year marriage, a move south to her childhood town, and writing the third season of the crime drama, One Lane Bridge. By Eric Trump

About Town: Oamaru

In Aotearoa’s steampunk capital, a self-professed history geek appreciates a much more obscure connection. By Thomas McLean

About Town: Leigh

A popular weekend escape forAuckland road trippers, the tiny town of Leigh is home to a tight-knit and big-hearted community. By Tulia Thompson

The Living Museum

Local history takes pride of place at the Ōtorohanga Museum. By Taualofa Totua

About Town: Clyde

After a youth spent itching to be anywhere but Clyde, no one is more surprised than writer GeorgeDriver to find he’s now choosing to raise his own family in the Central Otago town. By George Driver
178 Cuba street

About Town: Wellington

Home towns tend to be missed, then scorned — and finally rediscovered. By Tess Nichol

Almost Famous

Though they never ventured south of the equator, four literary giants have unexpected links to Aotearoa — some more celebrated than others. By Thomas McLean

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Bienvenue les Kiwi

For an increasing number of talented young rugby players, the lure of adventure and serious cash playing for top tier French clubs is winning out over the potential to be an All Black. By Gregor Thompson

Craftwork

The director of one of Auckland’s most ambitious galleries is reimagining how art and the real world should collide. By Anna Rankin

About Town: Bluff

Cage diving with sharks at the country’s southernmost tip yields unexpected results. By Sarah Webster

Rising Star

One of Aotearoa’s leading Māori astronomers lives her life by the stars, as tātai arorangi (Māori astronomy) undergoes an exciting revival. By Petrina Darrah

Historical Maritime Park and Museum

A home for all things nautical, this Paeroa institution is part Museum, part resting place for resurrected vessels. By Lindsay Wright

Owaka Museum

This museum in the wild and windy Catlins will enrich a visit to the region – and is a handy place to stay dry during a storm. By Tulia Thompson

Paradise Camp

In a groundbreaking exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale, art, history and gender lines are redrawn, bringing Pacific fabulousness to the sinking city. By Tobias Buck

The Cold Beneath the House

Do people in other countries talk as much as we do about insulation? By John Summers

About Town: Reefton

A North Island townie with time on his hands spends seven weeks in Reefton, a West Coast town still defined by its beginnings.

The Sweet Science of Making Chocolate

New Zealand's craft chocolate scene is growing enormously. How do these tiny, artisinal makers manage to make a bar worth paying double digits for? By Laurie Winkless

The Art of Giving

Where do our galleries' collections come from? The journey of an art work from a private owner to the gallery wall can be as fascinating as the work itself, as the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's collection shows. By Thomas McLean
Early etching of Akaroa

About Town: Akaroa

The French influenced harbour town alive with memories of love and romance. By Tom Augustine

On The Gravy Train

The entrepreneurs turning Europe onto the classic Kiwi pie. By Gregor Thompson
Ani Tawhiao-Lomas (right) with partner, Giuliano Porta and their baby, Calina Mareikura Porta.

Tiny Palates, Big Ambitions

The owners of this Auckland-based meal delivery company want to decolonise your baby’s tastebuds. By Nicola Harvey

About Town: Waimārama

Time passes and people change, but the sun still shines at this North Island beach town. By Sarah Catherall

About Town: Millers Flat

The sun-bleached landscapes of a Central Otago summer evoke childhood memories of stonefruit, freedom and family. By Nicholas Sheppard

About Town: Omori

10 weeks of solitude in a holiday town's off season. By Jack Remiel Cottrell

Dog Days

New Zealanders have been acquiring pets in record numbers — companions for the plague year (years). By Linda Burgess

Is This Just Fantasy?

Despite its immense popularity, genre writing like fantasy and romance struggles to be taken seriously by the literary establishment. Why? By Tobias Buck

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

What if we were not just wrong, but deceived? By Anna Rawhiti-Connell

Born Again

Half art project, half home, an old West Coast church is undergoing a radical transformation. By Sarah Natalie Webster

About Town: Te Hāpua

Paula Morris visits the country's northernmost settlement, looking for traces of the late great Matiu Rata.

About Town: Te Awamutu

This Waikato town was once known for dairy farming, producing the Finn brothers, and not much else. By Graeme Wilson

The Best Berry

The secret history of New Zealand's Boysenberry By Don Rowe

This Everest of a Role

Simon O’Neill, a world-renowned Wagnerian tenor, prepares to sing one of opera’s most challenging characters. By Paul Little

About Town: Point Wells

Butting up against wealthy Omaha, this sleepy beach town is determined to stay that way. By Helen Glenny

Hard Sleep

On a night train, even a disillusioned traveller can sleep like a baby. By John Summers

About Town: Whanganui

Small but perfectly formed, this river town is a creative haven that hums with a vibrant art scene. By Kiran Dass

The Alchemist

Christ Booth has spent much of his prolific art career flying just below the radar. By Garth Cartwright

About Town: Te Anau

Sparsely populated Fiordland is even emptier thanks to Covid. That's a source of anxiety for local businesses, but just one more reason for the rest of us to visit. By Sonya Wilson

Simply Red

The trend upending everything you thought you knew about red wine. By Jo Burzynska

Fantastic Beasts

How an English backpacker with an unusual history became the most sought-after sculptor in Whanganui. By Sharon Stephenson

About Town: Waiheke Island

Seen as the playground for Auckland's wealthy, Waiheke's residents are some of the supercity's oldest and poorest. By Alex Stone

Number One in New Zealand

Could closed borders usher in a cultural renaissance?. By Anna Rawhiti-Connell

About Town: Waipu

On growing up out of place.. By Shilo Kino

Recovery Island

The site of a longstanding rehab facility in the Hauraki Gulf has become a sanctuary for native species. By Michelle Langstone

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