Our Wellington

Stories

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  Insider's Guide

  TEACHER and school guidance counsellor Esmee Elias-Tito has been co-coordinating ARTACTION! – the kids’ section of Porirua’s Festival of the Elements - for the past two years. This year the festival is set to be New Zealand’s biggest Waitangi… Continue

• Three Matts, a new brewery, and a new beer

  THREE YOUNG MEN men with confidence in their brewing are planning a brand new brewery right in the heart of Wellington. They’re certainly young.  Matt Warner (23) and Matt Kristofski (25) have recently finished studies at university, and Matt Stevens… Continue

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  All the bells and whistles

  IF you’d looked for Brent Wilson at last year’s Wellington Sevens, you would have instead found a railway crossing complete with ringing bells and flashing lights. The Christchurch-based electrical engineer has been coming to the tournament with friends… Continue

• How should the Wellington region be governed?

  This month Wellington City Council will consider the future of local government in the region. We asked Wellington Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon to background the debate. GOVERNING bodies have a major responsibility in planning for future challenges.   … Continue

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  NZ talent for Chinese New Year

  THREE art forms will come together when Jenny Wollerman performs in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s concert celebration of  Chinese New Year. The Wellington based soprano will sing New Zealand composer Ross Harris’ song cycle The Floating… Continue

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  Art on Cuba

  WELLINGTON’S Cuba Street quarter has become the place in the city to have an art gallery. Another new gallery opens today (February 1) bringing the number of galleries in the quarter to at least a dozen. Ramsey Mortimer Gallery, at 253 Cuba Street, will… Continue

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  One huge hobby

  VIC Draper keeps a Hippo and a Beaver in a big shed at his home in Pautahanui. No, not new additions to a zoo, but part of his collection of classic trucks. The Hippo and the Beaver are Leyland trucks; Draper’s also got a Bedford KM and a Mack Superliner,… Continue

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  Steal the show

  YOU wouldn’t steal a car. But what if there were no consequences? That’s the inspiration behind Thomas Sainsbury’s production Crims. Sainsbury says, “ I was always interested in the criminal life, if you knew you wouldn’t get caught.… Continue

• The move to unoccupy

  SOCIAL networks sites were running hot after the operation to evict Occupy Wellington protestors from the city’s Civic Square. Early Tuesday morning police and security officers, acting on instructions from Wellington City Council,  moved in to evict… Continue

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  Everyone’s eating the peas

  IF you’re out getting your groceries, why not stop into Civic Square for some vegetables and a spot of light gardening? This pop-up garden in the square is part of the Massey University design research project Edible City, exploring how urban design can create… Continue

• Locals says no to liquor

  CONCERNED Newtown residents have objected in record numbers to a bottle store planning to open opposite Newtown School and are now expected to wait months for a hearing to resolve the dispute. The Wellington District Licensing Agency received 110 objections to… Continue

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  Down the rabbit hole

  THREE WEEK OLD Alice was left abandoned without her mother in Stokes Valley, but is now being sent to a prison where she’ll have several mothers looking after her. Alice is a kitten, rescued by the SPCA and one of several young cats selected for a special… Continue

• Still planning at Downstage

  SIX months after financial difficulties saw the axing of shows and staff, Wellington’s Downstage Theatre is still finalising plans for its re-launch scheduled for next month. Theatre management remains tight lipped over its plans, but Capital Times understands… Continue

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  Flamenco here we come!

  FAST-FINGERED Paul Bousader practices flamenco guitar for up to eight hours a day in a flurry of impassioned staccato notes. Bousader, of Lebanese heritage and raised in Auckland, has devoted himself to mastering the energetic art from the Andulasian region of… Continue

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  Books and writers

  A diverse group of some of the finest international and national writers will converge on Wellington for next month’s Writers and Readers Week, part of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.  A Doctor Who screenwriter, a world leading environmentalist,… Continue

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  Waitangi: A chance to reflect

  MONDAY is Waitangi Day, a national holiday and a chance to consider the evolving relationship between Maori and other New Zealanders. One person who will take time to be with her family is historian Dame Claudia Orange, the Director of Collections and the Research… Continue

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  A cup of tea and a lie down...

  THE Fringe Festival is back for 2012 with the line up set to be announced this week. Jennifer Niven talked to the writer of Part Time Prostitute, one of the new shows in this year’s Fringe. Boredom with her office job was all it took for Lucy Johnson to… Continue

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  Fresh truths from the beach

  A good old Kiwi bach holiday is fun, but have you ever driven home with the feeling that you’re returning with a different group of people from the ones you set out with? While the holiday typically involves friends and family at the beach with good food… Continue

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  Dress up, cash in

  IF you’re headed to the Sevens rugby tournament in early February there’s now a tasty temptation to spend time on a cool outfit. Museum Art Hotel owner Chris Parkin is donating $25,000 in prize money for the best costumes, which will be paraded along… Continue

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  Never again

  NEVER AGAIN. The two words spoken and repeated again and again in the sixty odd years since the Holocaust. This Friday marks the liberation of Auschwitz – the Nazi’s biggest “labour” camp. To mark the day, representatives from all groups… Continue

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  Oh to be a Hobbit

  HAIRY feet or particularly pointed ears may stand you in good stead at this Saturday’s casting call for Sir Peter Jackson’s latest project The Hobbit. Selectors are reported to be looking for “men under 163cm and women under 155cm, big men with… Continue

• Time for detox

  WE ‘VE all had those moments. You wake up on a dreary Sunday morning, and you say something like “ I am never drinking again,” but then, lo and behold it’s the work Christmas party, your best friends birthday, and then new years…and… Continue

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  Paekakariki jazz

  IT may be called the Mulled Wine Concert, but there won’t be a drop of the winter warmer at this Saturday’s concert in Paekakariki. Mary Gow, a Paekakariki resident, has been organising the concert series for the past three years and with little funding… Continue

• Students to solve science shortage

  There’s a positive future in New Zealand science and helping school students realise it is the MacDiarmid Institute. Fifteen secondary school students from throughout the country have participated in a science camp at Victoria University, organised by the… Continue

• Festival on track for success

  ORGANISERS if next month’s New Zealand International Arts Festival say ticket says are “going well” but say they have not compared them with sales from previous years. “We have seen some great movement over the Christmas break and all… Continue

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  We have wind

  Local mariners led by the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club are tonight, 25 January, launching a bid to develop Wellington as an international yachting centre, a marine industry hub, an ocean water sports centre, and a sailing academy with its own local yacht racing… Continue

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  Summer colours

  ALTHOUGH the weather seems to be undecided, summer really is here and the city council’s Summer City events are back to celebrate. We’ve picked out the highlights from January’s programme… After almost a month to digest Christmas dinner… Continue

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  He left an impression

  MAYBE it’s because they used to stop to say hello, to offer a burger or a drink, or perhaps because of niggling guilt that they used to walk past without a second glance – either way Wellingtonians have been this week gathering at a makeshift memorial… Continue

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  Start your engines

  Test the seal in Seaview this Sunday at the annual Port Road street sprints.  The road will be closed for registered motorsport drivers to thrash their cars around a marshalled track aiming for the best time possible. Registrations are now open online. Port… Continue

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  Sandy toes

  This Wellington Anniversary Monday, January 23, sees Oriental Beach alive with activity as NZ Beach Soccer Championships presents the Wellington Beach Football Tournament. The sport is played in a more improvised style than regular football because of the sand.… Continue

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  Dam fish

  NO, they don’t have invisible claws, but fish can climb. Climbing ropes for fish have been installed in the Korokoro Stream and yes, they use their fins to climb them. But the ropes aren’t there just for exercise. Russell Bell of Forest and Bird says… Continue

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  Arts achiever heads to Auckland

  HE’S only 32, but the director of The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Justin Morgan has already led a career many artists only dream about. Earlier this month Morgan left the academy in search of a new challenge working at The Depot, in Devonport, Auckland.He… Continue

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  Death, culturally

  THERE is more than one way to deal with death. New Zealand is home to some 200 different cultures each with their own traditions and rituals surrounding death and dying. In its latest exhibition Death and Diversity the Museum of City and Sea has gathered a sample… Continue

• Artistry awarded

  A publisher, a painter and a brass band enthusiast were among those of Wellington’s artistic community named in the New Year’s honours. Managing Director of Huia Publishers, Robyn Bargh, became a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit (CNZM) for services… Continue

• New classrooms for the new year

  THE idea of moving on to high school is daunting for some primary school pupils, but it won’t be so for 150 Newtown Primary School students. They’ve already done it. They were forced to relocate to Wellington High School at the end of last year after… Continue

• Debaters take on the world

  STUDENT debaters at Victoria University have taken the world by storm, for the second time in the past month. The top two debating teams have just returned from the World Debating Championships this month in the Philippines where the Victoria University A team… Continue

• Get out, get about

  There’s no excuse not to lace up, block up, get wet and get active this summer as a whole host of sporty activities has been announced as part of the city council’s Summer City events programme. The Push Play activities that began in late December at… Continue

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  Not a sound is heard

  There’s a defiant wartime airmen’s song which starts “The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling …” But at St Peter’s Anglican church on Willis Street from whose handsome gothic steeple you’d expect to hear bells boom out… Continue

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  New Year’s 11/12: Pick your party

  WHATEVER your taste, there’s a New Year’s shindig waiting for you. We’ve summed up this city’s wildest parties as well as some slighty-more-civilised alternatives so you can choose where to be for the big countdown. Beyond the Black… Continue

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  What happened to the rabbit that chased the dog?

  Last week’s story about the unlikely friendship between Etienne the rabbit and Maisy the spoodle in Mt Victoria noted that  Etienne had disappeared from his lawn and Maisy was missing him.  Many people have contacted us with sightings. A keen gardener… Continue

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  More waggons on the straits workhorse

  The newly enlarged Aratere is carrying more rail traffic across Cook Strait than ever before and rail business is growing says Thomas Davis, General Manager of the Interisland Line. “That new Mainfreight container depot  on Thorndon Quay is just the… Continue

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  Some busker

  There are buskers who perform way above the level of most of their peers. Andy Blue is one such.  He’s lived in Waiheke for years, but recently he’s come to live in Wellington, and he loves it. He says Auckland is difficult, “They won’t… Continue

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  Insider's Guide - The Right Reverend Dr Thomas Brown

  AFTER 14 years leading the diocese The Right Reverend Dr Thomas Brown, the 10th bishop of Wellington, retires at the end of this year. He says being Bishop of Wellington has been pretty amazing and busy too. He’s overseen100 churches in 60 odd parishes stretching… Continue

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  All cricket and no play

  New Zealand cricket got a shot in the arm with the  Blackcaps’ historic win over Australia according to up and coming Firebirds hotshot Luke Woodcock. Niels Reinsborg chatted to him. IT’S a good thing for Luke Woodcock that he’s pretty… Continue

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  “Bah! Humbug!”

  ST PETER’S Anglican Church’s stance towards its Christmas concert is directly from Charles Dicken’s Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge’s famous response to the festive season is the theme of an organ recital being held tonight at the historic inner… Continue

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  Indie pop from Beirut

  AMERICAN  indie rock band Beirut are set to play Wellington for a second time in January. Formed in early 2006, Beirut’s style is a mixture of world music and indie pop. “We’re a pop group really at our core,” explains bassist Paul… Continue

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  Oh Lord …

  Mitsubishi customers have been surprised to hear when they phone the Cambridge Tce premises to hear Janis Joplin belting out: “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime,… Continue

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  All change please

  Tenants are moving all over the city. Just in Cambridge Terrace, Wellington Star has left both its big showroom and its outside car yard across the road.  Both Mercedes Benz and Mitsubishi are now selling alongside each other from the Wellington Mitsubishi… Continue

• Wellington in a snap

  AN earthquake, a Rolling Stones concert and a typical windy day were all it took for local David Colquhoun to publish Wellingtonians, a book that details the history of what he describes as “a neat little capital.” Colquhoun, who has worked as a curator… Continue

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  Dancing the new year

  TO dance all day every day sounds romantic, but the thought of actually doing it is somewhat daunting. Especially if you’re retired. But that’s what Newtown local Elaine Lethbridge, who is now retired is looking forward to at New Years Eve as she… Continue

• Business slows across the straits

  Passenger business  across Cook Strait has been “a bit softer than we expected”, according to the general manager of the Interisland Line, Thomas Davis.   “Maybe people spent their money on the Rugby World Cup” he suggests, “many… Continue

• No trains for Christmas

  BUSES will replace most Wellington train services over Christmas as contractors work to prepare the network for improved commuter services and electric trains. KiwiRail’s Rick Van Barneveld says staff will be working on upgrading tunnel two on the main… Continue

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  Penguin blues

  PENGUINS residing along the Miramar Peninsula have had a particularly time recently. Storms, lack of food and predators have taken a toll on numbers, but thanks to Forest and Bird’s Places for Penguins programme, 15 chicks have hatched in the past year… Continue

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  Insider’s guide

  BARBARA Burke grew up in Ireland and made Wellington her home seven years ago. A Master’s student in Victoria University’s Creative Writing programme, Barbara has just been announced the winner of the annual David Carson-Parker Embassy prize in Scriptwriting… Continue

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  Lindon Puffin brings hope to the holidays

  SICK bags are for people who feel sick, aren’t they? Not for singer-songwriter Lindon Puffin. He uses sick bags to write down his songs. Puffin, who will be performing in Wellington this week, says when you’re inspired by something there is an instant… Continue

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  Gone with the wind

  ERIC Torvelainen is one of a handful of people who look forward to a biting southerly. The young engineer grew up in Tauranga and began windsurfing with his dad on the weekends, using “some old gear that was floating around”. He moved to Christchurch… Continue

• Goodbye Occupy?

  THE Occupy Wellington camp has been officially disbanded, but there are new projects on the horizon for the movement’s protesters, according to Richard Bartlett, a member of the protest communications committee. Two months after they set up their tents,… Continue

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  Looking up at 70 years

  ONE of Wellington’s most well known buildings will celebrate 70 years of providing astronomical education on December 20. The Carter Observatory stands as New Zealand’s longest serving observatory and  has been the source of astronomical education… Continue

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  Etienne loves Maisy

  ETIENNE is a large rabbit who  may not be named after the French Ambassador to New Zealand,  but he definitely likes dogs and lives in Mt Victoria with his best friend,  a  blonde spoodle named Maisy.   They share an unlikely love… Continue

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  Beer Necessities 2011

  Pale Ale City FOR the past 20 years Wellington has been at the forefront of New Zealand craft beer culture. In the early 1990’s we were one of the first New Zealand communities to embrace independently brewed beers and in the early 2000’s we… Continue

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  And the winner is ....

  RUGBY and politics were the winners on the night at this year’s Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. I, George Nepia, Hone Kouka’s play about the rugby legend, was named production of the year, and also took two directing awards for newcomer Jason Te Kare… Continue

• Chapman Tripp awards

  Critics Wild Card : Johann Nortje for outstanding AV design (Wake Less, Hear to See, When the Rain Stops Falling). The Absolutely Positively Wellington Award for the Most Original Production of the Year : Hear to See - Capital E National Theatre for Children.… Continue

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  Rap against racism

  DEAN Hapeta has a problem with racism in New Zealand. In fact, the Upper Hutt musician is so outraged, he’s releasing his latest observations on ‘Declaration of Resistance,’ his seventh album with his band Upper Hutt Posse. Hapeta, stage name… Continue

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  Tall toy tale

  IT hasn’t all been playtime for Wellington director Sophie Roberts. With a rolling cast of 35 actors, her latest production Toys, opening at Bats Theatre this week, has been a logistical challenge. “Working around the schedules of 35 people and… Continue

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  Insider’s guide

  JAANA Krause moved to New Zealand from Germany three years ago - “I soon found out Wellington was the best place to live,” she says. Outside the office Jaana likes to keep busy outdoors by tramping and running with friends - and last year she fought… Continue

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  Shwop till you drop

  THE Big Shwop is even bigger in 2011. Female fashionistas will revamp their wardrobes by swapping clothes at the St James Theatre this Sunday. The well-dressed women of Wellington will enjoy speakers, music and MOMO wine while shwopping for summer threads. The… Continue

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  Wellington to Melbourne’s taste

  FIVE of the region’s top chefs have returned home after creating a flavour-filled fortnight for the people of Melbourne. More than 2,000 Melburnians were treated to the Wellington region’s best cuisine at the WLG pop up restaurant in Melbourne’s… Continue

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  Boxed environment

  INTERPRETING our environment is the theme for the new Courtenay Place light box exhibition, which begins tomorrow. Imaginary Geographies looks at interpretations of the environment from four different artists from around the world – New Zealand, Australia,… Continue

• No futile exhibit

  PHOTOGRAPHY based artist Siren Deluxe opens her last Wellington exhibition this week before heading to a new job in Auckland. The controversial artist has been exhibiting here for more than ten years and An Exercise in Futility, opens at Photospace, the gallery… Continue

• Begging’s the question

  AN INCREASE in the number of beggars has been noted by Capital Times readers. They say more people are asking for money around Lambton Quay, Cuba Street and Courtenay Place. But Trina Saffioti, Communications Manager for Wellington city council, says it is perception… Continue

• Drills fuel flyover rumour mill

  RUMOURS that the New Zealand Transport Agency is drilling in preparation for the construction of a flyover are concerning residents close to the Basin Reserve. Capital Times has received reports from locals worried that the NZTA is drilling at various sites around… Continue

• Artists adrift

  THE drift north of local artists to Auckland is one of the concerns behind the council’s draft Arts and Culture strategy. Councillor Ahipene-Mercer, portfolio leader for Arts and Culture, says that and the pressure currently being experienced by local arts… Continue

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  Beachy clean

  LOCAL man Sam Judd’s annual Huge Coastal Clean Up is back and will take place on December 8-10. On Thursday more than 1500 school students will be out cleaning their local stretches of coastline. On Friday it’s the adults’ turn with a workplace… Continue

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  A nervous reaction to Christmas

  CHRISTMAS with Raybon Kan will be equivalent to a bum on a photocopier, but in an intellectual way. The Wellington comedian launches his solo Christmas comedy show Clear and Present Manger at Downstage on Tuesday and promises a “deconstruction” of… Continue

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  How to meet girls

  LOCAL  film makers Dean Hewison and Richard Falkner believe the best stimulus for their creativity lies in restriction. During a creative partnership spanning five years there’s not much they haven’t tried, whether it’s scouring the dump… Continue

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  Restaurants in trouble – who knows?

  STREET TALK among the cafes of Wellington indicates there could be an après Christmas restaurant shake-out. A Wellington food wholesaler suggests the rumours may be true. The wholesaler said there was a feeling  that quite a number of restaurants… Continue

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  Winners on the day

  The region’s Labour MPs proved more popular than ever on Saturday, but Wellingtonians in the region’s eight electorates overwhelmingly gave their party vote to National. Three Wellington electorates, Hutt South, Mana and Rimutaka, previously Labour… Continue

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  Ambitious but achievable

  SEEN by many as a jewel in Wellington’s crown Karori’s wildlife sanctuary Zealandia has had a year of dire financial results and bleak visitor numbers. Don Huse  has been an advisory trustee of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Trust since 1996,… Continue

• Light fades on summer magic

  THE council’s plan to change the date for the hugely popular Gardens Magic concerts at the Botanic Garden has upset at least one resident. Thorndon local Bea Selwood, who lives directly opposite the Botanic Gardens and visits the sound shell every night… Continue

• Wellington needs government

  Wellington might be disadvantaged by the Government’s $300million cost cutting plans, says Wellington Employer’s Chamber of Commerce’s Ken Harris. The business group believes that government spending cuts could be bad for our city, and government… Continue

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  All cricket for Bats

  SIR Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh not only saved a theatre venue with their purchase of number 1 Kent Terrace last week. The movie moguls also secured the future of one of Wellington’s iconic buildings. Built in the 1923 as the lodge for the Manchester Unity… Continue

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  Sail away for Christmas

  CHERYLL Goodley is hard to buy for. The print production manager’s friends and family always tell her that, which is why last Christmas Goodley was given money to spend on something she picked out for herself. Her choice? Goodley bought a boat. The funds… Continue

• Creative budgets

  ALL art budgets are catered to this Christmas with Mark Hutchins Gallery serving up a large exhibition called ‘Less than 3K’ while Artrium Gallery’s going small on price but big on selection with an everything-under-$200 exhibit called ‘Le… Continue

• Quoil spoils

  QUOIL on Willis Street is bringing colour into focus this Christmas with a window display called Colour Crash. Each week a new piece of jewellery features in the window and details are sent out to the Quoil email list. Local jewellers in the mix include Caroline… Continue

• Clothes for bros

  INSPIRED by an upbringing surrounded by boys, Rachel Beck, 20, has begun a male clothing line called ‘Less Successful Sibling’. Beck grew up with her older brother and six male cousins. A keen basketball player, she spent a lot of her childhood in shirts… Continue

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  College hall preserves heritage

  WELLINGTON College Old Boy Stuart Gardyne has won the competition to refurbish the school hall and his firm Architecture + will carry out the project. Gardyne’s concept will provide a new space large enough for the entire school to fit for assembly and… Continue

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  Clean conscience

  Four wheel drivers were told face to face on Saturday that the Wellington City Council has made up its mind to control vehicle access to the south coast if reckless driving in the area does not stop. A big group of four wheel drive enthusiasts gathered at Owhiro… Continue

• Grumpy Old Men

  Watching the Menzshed in Haining St operate “was a joy” according to Sister Margaret Ann of The Sisters of Compassion.  The building is owned by the Sisters who operate the Soup Kitchen next door. Last week we published a story about the… Continue

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  Should we stick with MMP?

  IF you’re not sure how to vote in Saturday’s referendum on our voting system, Jordan Williams reckons you should vote for change. The young Wellington public lawyer has a passion for constitutional issues and he’s taken up the cause to both… Continue

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  Gospel according to Payne

  A night of stirring gospel music shook 100-year-old dust from the rafters of an ancient Wellington church and changed Pip Payne’s life. A JAZZ and blues musician from London, he followed a Kiwi girl to Wellington in 1978 and never left. Five years ago… Continue

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  Blown back again

  IT’S somewhat ironic that the company responsible for taking the wind out of Wellington has brought it back again. Advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi came up with the Absolutely Positively Wellington motto adopted by the city council in 1981. Now two… Continue

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  Can’t straighten out this Fringe

  (L-R) Hannah Clarke, Emma Flack and Brianne Kerr from the Creative Capital Arts Trust have organised a line up of the bizarre and the entertaining for the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2012. “We have everything from superheroes and space bitches to traditional… Continue

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  Ivy creeps no longer

  MUSICIAN Ivy Rossiter spent her youth finding ways not to perform her music. The singer and guitarist from Auckland, now one half of an indie musical duo called Luckless, suffered a debilitating fear of audiences. Instead of trying to get seen and heard by forming… Continue

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  Fifty years of song

  IT all began 50 years ago with a group of bored husbands. They’d been ferrying their wives, members of the Khandallah League of Mothers Choir, to and from weekly practices and sitting around while the rehearsals took place. Then someone had a bright idea… Continue

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  Furniture to ready by

  BOOKS will return home to the old Wellington Central Library building when City Gallery opens its Mobile Library exhibition in the Hirschfeld Gallery this week. The local art publishing culture is presented in an exhibition of artists’ books, small imprints… Continue

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  New York left in the dust

  A bright young American with a passion for music packed up his life at New York’s Ithaca College and moved to Wellington to study theatre. An odd choice for Gareth Hobbs to make, moving from a university close to New York, America’s vast musical and… Continue

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  Strudel in Roseneath

  It’s a long way from an enormous restaurant in Bavaria to the tiny Roseneath Coffee Shop and Delicatessen. Anja and Martin Wagner used to run the Landgasthof-Schoenau in Munich complete with its stage which catered for functions for up to 300 people, says… Continue

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  On top of the world

  THE world’s biggest atlas has put Wellington on the map. Geographx, a local cartography company, is responsible for all the maps in Earth Platinum, the largest atlas published since 1660, weighing in at 150kg. The previous largest atlas, known as the Klencke… Continue

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  Drypnz’ oriental canvas

  Photo-shy street artist Drypnz (pronounced ‘Drippins’) will stand up and share his creative secrets with classrooms of refugee children in Asia this December. The elusive Drypnz, 24, whose curious accent reflects his upbringing in England, the Caribbean… Continue

• Aiming for zero

  LAST year there were 95 new diagnoses of HIV amongst New Zealand’s gay and bisexual men. It was the worst year for infections in this population on record. Friday is World AIDS day and as the HIV epidemic has never been worse in this country there’s… Continue

• Mana Island rodent

  A rat detected on Mana Island has thrown the Department of Conservation into a full biosecurity response. The rat was detected on the wildlife sanctuary early on Saturday morning by live motion sensors monitoring shore plover nests on the island. A shore plover… Continue

• The shape of things to come? - Tokotoko

  There’s increasing debate over the future for local government in the region. We asked Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown about the Central New Zealand Summit and how councils could work more closely together. LAST week I called a summit of the mayors… Continue

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  Ticking the box

  Capital Times continues its look at the candidates fighting for Wellington Central. We asked four candidates about Wellington issues – roading options for the Basin Reserve, public transport, and that Wellywood sign. … Continue

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  Tripp nominations

  Wellington’s theatre critics have narrowed down the best of the city’s theatre from over 100 professional productions with their nominations for this year’s Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. The nominations are: Brancott Estate Award for… Continue

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  Whose shed is it anyway?

  A fight over a Wellington charity has become personal, bitter, and insulting as two groups  compete for control. Menzshed Wellington in Haining St was started more than two years ago by four people including John Gibbons, the President and Executive Officer … Continue

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  Jazz firefly learns a new language

  JUSTIN Firefly Clarke left for Germany with jazz as his main musical language but came back a world musician. Wellington born and bred (Karori Normal school, Onslow college and the Wellington branch of the New Zealand School of Music), he spent seven years in Berlin.… Continue

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  Roseneath’s ragtime family

  IT’S a long way from New Orleans to Roseneath but that’s where – if you’re lucky – you’ll find the Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band practising in a big old house on the hill. Mike Jensen and Dayle Jellyman, friends and co-founders… Continue

• Save the school pool

  THE City Council’s School Pool Partnership Fund could see the rescue of the run-down swimming pool at Wellington East Girls’ College. The plan is to build a full size 25-metre pool with a 12-metre learning pool both under the same roof. Olympian and… Continue

• Fin on the water

  A Hector’s dolphin, the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphin, has been spotted in Wellington harbour. The dolphin was seen at Mahanga Bay on Monday and reported to the Department of Conservation by a member of the public who said the dolphin… Continue

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  Game time for bikers

  A new game looks like it will speed up Wellington cyclists. It attracts players whose wheels of choice include road bikes, mountain bikes, and even those foldout cycle contraptions. Wellopoly, which embraces the unusual combination of cycling and Monopoly, takes… Continue

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  Carpet ride of magic

  THE pantomime season has begun and audiences at Circa Theatre will embark on a carpet ride of song, dance, silliness and magic this summer. Bringing back Roger Hall’s Aladdin to the Wellington stage, director Susan Wilson has assembled a cast of well known… Continue

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  Towards a professional choir

  PEPE Becker’s dream is for New Zealand to have a professional choir on the same standing as the NZ Symphony Orchestra. Becker, founding manager of Wellington’s Baroque Voices, is also first soprano in the Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, the country’s… Continue

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  Art out for Christmas

  THERE’S a lot of art at Kim Young’s place, particularly around Christmas. When she’s not working at the Wellington Museum of City and Sea, Young can often be found at her favourite local galleries with daughters Coco and Pippi. Now the festive… Continue

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  Insider's Guide

  FASHION-LOVER Sadie Hawker is originally from Wales, though she’s been living in Wellington for more than two years now. She works for Massey University’s College of Creative Arts and in her spare time sells her own handmade jewellery, Ssh by Sadie.… Continue

• Extreme screen

  IT has a colossal three-storey high wall-to-wall screen, the latest picture technology, and luxury seating, and it’s coming to Wellington from Thursday. In a New Zealand first, Reading Cinemas on Courtenay Place has converted its largest auditorium for… Continue

• Tight dining

  KIWI diners are becoming more price conscious when choosing where to eat. It’s now more important to consumers to have access to an affordable menu than quality food and service, according to an American Express survey of New Zealanders who eat out. Continue

• Friendly food

  WE’LL let you in on a little secret. You can enjoy good food and drink for Koha or at reduced prices at four gathering places in the Hutt Valley on weekday mornings. A Koha Café operates on Tuesdays at the Alicetown Community centre, and the Grassroots… Continue

• Going, going, definitely, soon

  WE reported in April that Robyn Bowers of Bennetts Gift World on Courtenay Place had decided to close the shop after 40 years of trading. At the time she said closure would occur within two months and she was busy with the closing down sale. More than seven months… Continue

• Wharf soon underway

  WELLINGTON waterfront is to bid the Overseas Passenger Terminal farewell at a function on November 17, with construction for the new Clyde Quay Wharf neighbourhood scheduled to get underway at the end of the month. Recent reports say that 16 apartments are still… Continue

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  Not for the faint hearted

  HANNAH Salmon tells it like it is. The 21 year old fine arts student has just finished the third issue of her self-published magazine, or ‘zine’, called Daily Secretion. The often-explicit publication is a social critique of perverted obsessions that… Continue

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  Ticking the box

  CAPITAL TIMES continues its look at the election campaign and in particular the fight for Wellington Central. This week we ask four Wellington Central Candidates about the most pressing issues for government, Wellywood and what really grinds their gears. … Continue

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  Bark with a bite

  GROWING up in Wellington, Jackie van Beek’s family home was littered with huge, disabled puppets. The actress’s mother was a puppeteer for the Crippled Children’s Society and toured the puppets in schools to educate kids about special needs.… Continue

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  Ticking the box

  CAPITAL TIMES continues its look at the election campaign and in particular the fight for Wellington Central. The electorate is the best educated in the country, has the highest proportion of 20-29 year olds, and the highest income earners. Labour has held the… Continue

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  Battling Wellywood

  THE public may have voted on the alternative options for Wellywood, but a member of the panel charged with selecting the finalists is labelling the selection process a farce. Panel member Andy Boreham, who led the anti-Wellywood sign protest, has accused the… Continue

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  Bus driver reads obituary on the job

  The driver of a GoWellington bus was observed reading the newspaper while transporting commuters and Wellington College kids along the most dangerous section of the city’s bus route last week. HEADED to the railway station on the number 1 bus that passed… Continue

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  World stage in Wellington

  IT’S a tough rap travelling the globe scouting out the world’s best theatre, dance and music, and Lissa Twomey has had to do it. For the past five years she’s travelled the world pursuing the performances that will thrill New Zealand audiences.… Continue

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  Maori warriors to battle the bulge

  THE Heart Foundation is bringing back an old game played by the Maori Battalion to stop New Zealanders getting slower and fatter. Ki o Rahi is a ball game used by the quick, agile Maoris of yesteryear to settle differences without going to war. These days, New… Continue

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  Public to pick the fruit of edible designs

  MASSEY UNIVERSITY is helping students fill Wellington stomachs the natural way.  As the idea for an ‘edible city’ with numerous community gardens gathers strength, university researchers are setting up grow-your-own-food pilot projects based on… Continue

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  Meet the maker of artificial intelligence

  ROBOTS have helped their makers win a big Wellington award. David Bennett, whose company Mimic builds digital and robotic characters that simulate a human level of intelligence and character, took out the “Most exciting opportunity” prize at the 2011… Continue

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  Moana doodles the future

  THERE’S a girl in Aro Valley who wants to save the birds. Moana Williams, 12, entered the Google Doodle logo competition, My Wish for New Zealand, with a colourful drawing of New Zealand native birds sitting in a Pohutakawa tree. She was shortlisted in her… Continue

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  Insiders guide

  MARY Fisher is a member of StarJam, an organisation that brings under 25s together to perform through dance, song, drumming and guitar. These young people are special as each lives with a disability that makes life a challenge, but “what some of us find… Continue

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  Banjos not just for Hillbillies

  TWO young banjo virtuosos are touring New Zealand to let the country know that there’s more to the instrument than first meets the eye. Alex Borwick and Catherine “BB” Bowness play banjos, mainly associated with country folk and American Hillbillies.… Continue

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  Maybe they’ll know it when they get there

  THE Occupy Wellington camp in Civic Square is to stay indefinitely, but protesters are unsure what exactly it is they’re waiting for and how long it might take. We visited the camp to ask the group what they want. A collection of about 10 tents lies… Continue

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  Save a whale, save your world

  LISA Niven cheerfully shows me her Marine Mammal Medic identification card.  The Wellingtonian last year saw a Project Jonah course advertised on a poster in the morning tea room at the Department of Conservation. Project Jonah New Zealand promotes the welfare… Continue

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  Jump on the brass bandwagon

  THE Central Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force plays pop classics including YMCA, I’m a Believer, and even current chart hits from American TV show Glee.  What was originally a serious pastime has come a long way from its roots in 19th Century… Continue

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  Dirty riders

  THESE Wellington girls like brown more than pink, camelbaks better than handbags and would choose a chain ring over a diamond ring any day. They are the Women of Dirt, a six hour mountain bike event for women taking place at the Makara mountain bike park in… Continue

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  Nun flies to 30th birthday

  WHEN Roger Shepherd began Flying Nun Records, he hoped there would be enough people interested to buy just enough to enable him to go another round. They were humble expectations from the “cheeky, irreverent” record company, quick to prove itself as… Continue

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  Fat sound of summer

  THEY’VE finally cracked it. After five years of trying, Homegrown has excitedly announced that a local band with huge international acclaim, Fat Freddy’s Drop, is to headline the New Zealand music festival in 2012. The band, one of New Zealand’s… Continue

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  Born of destruction

  MARIA Dabrowska knows that if it weren’t for World War Two, she wouldn’t exist. The Wellington-based dancer was born in Lower Hutt - but her mum’s Polish, her Dad’s Dutch and both were displaced from wartime Europe, and settled in New… Continue

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  Chips keeps Harry warm

  A brass statue of a cat resides on Harry McNish’s grave. McNish was a carpenter on board Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance during his Trans Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917. McNish adopted Mrs Chippy, the ship’s cat, who had a great character… Continue

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  Ready to rock you

  FIREWORKS maestro Robert McDermott promises a bolder, brasher Pelorus Trust Sky Show on November 5. McDermott, who has designed, produced and fired the show since inception 17 years ago, says there will be three barges shooting off special effects fireworks including… Continue

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  Green thumb fun

  IF you fancy yourself as friendly and as having a bit of a green thumb, Wellington’s Botanical Gardens wants you. They’re currently looking for volunteer garden hosts to greet the many people who visit during the cruise ship season, which began when… Continue

• Last days of Oceania

  WHILE figures have not yet been released Oceania, the collaborative exhibition between City Gallery and Te Papa, has attracted fewer visitor numbers than predicted. The exhibition of visual art, culture and history from across the Pacific region ends on November… Continue

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  Tea anyone??

  IT has all the glossy pictures of cup cakes, scones and fine china, but there’s a little more to the  recipes in Jonathan Cameron’s high tea cook book than first meets the eye. In his graduating piece from Wellington’s Massey University… Continue

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  View of futuristic vision

  IT was the most expensive silent movie ever made and one of the most celebrated films in cinema history. Now Wellington audiences have the chance to experience Fritz Lang’s futuristic 1927 film Metropolis complete with Gottfried Huppertz’s original… Continue

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  Insiders guide

  Remember, remember the fifth of November? With Guy Fawkes just around the corner, we talked to the Wellington SkyShow designer Robert McDermott who's been in the fireworks game for 25 years. The show was Robert’s brainchild and he’s been firing it off… Continue

• Sunday in Italy

  IT’S hard to pronounce but easy to watch: A group of Sbandieratori - Italian flag wavers - will bring the old European tradition to Wellington for the first time this week. In Italy, each village and town holds annual historical re-enactments and celebrates… Continue

• Wellywood or what?

  AT midnight on November 6, the drawn-out Wellywood sign decision will be a step closer as voting in the “Wellyword or what?” competition closes. Voting for the five public-submitted and panel-chosen designs for the sign on the Miramar Peninsula opened… Continue

• The pressure’s on Downstage

  $90,000  from Wellington City Council may have secured the immediate future of Downstage, but the theatre will have to demonstrate it can continue to operate viably. Councillors voted unanimously last week to approve the theatre’s funding request after… Continue

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  Police the off-roaders

   “RUTHLESS policing” of off road motorcyclists and four wheel drivers would stop the damage being caused to Wellington south coast’s fragile environment according to Grant Purdie of the Wellington Cross Country Club. The Wellington City… Continue

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  Ticking the box

  WITH a general election in just over a month this week Capital Times starts looking at the election campaign and in particular the fight for Wellington Central. The electorate extends from Pipitea in the north to as far south as Civic Square.  It is the… Continue

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  Salute for local boys

  WELLINGTONIANS will get to taste from the cup of victory this afternoon as the All Blacks parade through the central city. The parade starts with a Mayoral reception in Civic Square at 12.15pm before heading down Mercer Street and along Willis Streets to Lambton… Continue

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  No sleep for ballet master

  THERE’S still board level discussion about moving the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s base from Wellington’s St James Theatre to Auckland. Greg Horsman is Ballet Master for the Royal New Zealand Ballet and choreographed the company’s production… Continue

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  The influence of music

  WELL known Wellington composer and musical eminence Jenny McLeod studied under Oliver Messiaen,  the Frenchman  who is remembered for having both composed and first performed what has been described as one of the greatest chamber works of the 20th century. … Continue

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  Submit to Halloween

  TANYA Drewery staples stockings to her thighs and a paper hearts to her chest with a staple gun. The circus performer relishes the moment the audience realises her grotesque tricks are not staged. “I like the intense shock reaction. A lot of people… Continue

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  Summer bunnies

  THE first sun of summer will soon rise, on December 1, and it traditionally brings a fat pile of self-loathing. Wellington gyms say there’s a rush of people signing up to get in shape for summer and there’s also an unhealthy tradition of gym attendees… Continue

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  Vintage stuff

  There’s a new old store opening in Cuba St on Friday which will sell vintage American clothing. It’s the Emporium Vintage Boutique, moving from Christchurch where their store was smashed in the earthquake, to the old Christopher’s Crystals site.… Continue

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  Insiders guide

  Mark Blackman is the  founder of Natural Burials, a twelve year old not-for-profit organization dedicated to setting up natural cemeteries around NZ I returned to live here with with my now-wife when I was 21 and fluked a job as Press Secretary to Mike Moore.… Continue

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  Hot taste of coffee and success

  FLAXWORKS Theatre company began with coffee, and lots of it. Hyperactive with caffeine, Alex Ellis and creative friend Phil Ormsby found they had a common calling. She wanted to be an actress – “I just had to get out and do it” – and he… Continue

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  Strange instrument

  A walk in Civic Square is often a voyage of discovery.  Last week saw a  couple of musos engrossed in the workings of a strange instrument.  Kane Laing, a guitar playing history student who plans to do composition next year, was chatting to Zane… Continue

• I just swear at people...

  IF you believed everything you read on the internet, you’d think that Jay Whalley was a totally hardcore punk rocker. But the vocalist for popular Aussie punk band Frenzal Rhomb tells Jennifer Niven it’s all incorrect. Frenzal Rhomb has apparently courted… Continue

• Pa site

  A Wellington council committee is supporting a proposal to develop and restore the Point Dorset reserve. Council’s strategy and policy committee voted unanimously to adopt a new management plan for the reserve, the first public reserve in the Capital to… Continue

• Don’t get measles

  HEALTH officials are still warning of the continuing risk of measles infection although no new cases were reported in Wellington over the long weekend. A fifth measles case was reported in the Capital late last week All five cases are adults who worked in the city… Continue

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  Downstage funding plea

  A proposed investment fund to secure the future of significant regional events and attractions would put an end to groups such as Downstage coming to the council cap in hand each year. Downstage will ask Wellington City Council this week for $90,000 to get the… Continue

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  Restoring Wellington’s defences

  Mike Lee in the tunnels of Wrights Hill Fortress. Photo: Alden Williams A handful of volunteers are the only ones maintaining Wellington’s defences against possible invasion. For 20 years the Wrights Hill Fortress Restoration Society… Continue

• Warm welcome for refugees

  REFUGEE families from Burma and Columbia were welcomed to Wellington on Friday. New Zealand takes in 750 refugees per year and Refugee Services New Zealand expects an intake such as this one with seven families approximately every two months. Rachel Khual Sim… Continue

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  Happy birthday to us

  Capital Times celebrates 37 years as Wellington’s independent newspaper. In the midst of the RWC buzz we begin another year of giving you the Best of Wellington. Our annual Best of Wellington poll, results published last week, (a 16% increase in responses,… Continue

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  A lifetime walking the boards

  SHE’S New Zealand’s oldest working actor who recently won her first award for acting. It’s a good one. Dame Kate Harcourt, one of New Zealand’s most accomplished and respected leading actresses, was awarded first prize in the Best Female… Continue

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  Wellington’s Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

  WELLINGTON’S Gypsy Balkan brass band Niko Ne Zna sing about a Gypsy woman who wants to sell her horse and her house to go dancing. It’s a colourful story typical of the Balkan people, says the band’s founding member, saxophone player Frankie Curac,… Continue

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  Gone bush

  WHEN Mara Simpson’s musically-inclined dad picked her up from the airport after a trip to South America, she was holding nothing but a new passport and a copy of the novel Shantaram. The singer/songwriter (named ‘Mara’ after the big area of… Continue

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  E-X-P-E-C-T-A-T-I-O-N-S

  SPELLING bee kids. There’s the lonely one with absentee parents, a well-thumbed dictionary her only friend. Then there’s the kid with the overbearing, pushy parents who drill him over and over, telling him he’s a loser if he doesn’t win.… Continue

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  From coins to Brahms

  A coin collection gave Mikhail Ovrutsky, a boy in communist Russia, a glimpse of the world outside the Soviet Union. At a time when few Russians could travel, Ovrutsky’s father Ilya, a flautist with the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and the State Symphony Orchestra,… Continue

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  What a weekend

  IT’S as we expected. Rugby supporters in Wellington for the weekend were well behaved. Around 20,000 Welsh, Irish, Springboks and Wallabies fans were in town and as many as 70,000 people packed out the city centre on Saturday night. Wellington Police… Continue

• Ministry responds

  POLITICAL action group The Queer Avengers says last week’s Queer Our Schools demonstration has drawn a largely positive response from the Ministry of Education. The group took direct action against the Ministry for what it says is its failure to provide… Continue

• Forum on poverty

  A forum on poverty in Wellington hopes to raise awareness of the issues facing some of the poorer residents of our city. Organised by the former Bishop of Wellington, Richard Randerson, the Response to Poverty forum will feature guest speakers Stephanie McIntyre… Continue

• Light fantastic

  LIGHT is to triumph over dark, and good over evil at the 10th annual Diwali Festival of Lights in Wellington this month. A time for celebration in both India and among Indian communities in New Zealand, the colourful Hindu festival is marked by the symbolic lighting… Continue

• Get the kids into space

  THE kids can launch a rocket to the moon, learn the ballad of Orpheus or celebrate the Diwali Festival of Lights these school holidays. At the Carter Observatory visitors can witness and feel a rocket launch and touch a real piece of Moon rock at a new exhibition… Continue

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  Building futures

  PROUD Wellingtonian Mike Hannaway holds degrees in architecture and building science from Victoria University. He’s been involved in waterfront projects such as the Len Lye water whirler, the Meridian building and the Wharewaka, and was the project manager… Continue

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  The weather with you

  WEATHER guru Bob McDavitt graduated with a degree in Maths and Computer Science from Victoria University of Wellington in 1974 and became a meteorologist. On his weather journey he’s produced marine, aviation and public forecasts. He’s also passionate… Continue

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  Kapa haka in the blood

  HINEMIHIATA Lardelli was doing kapa haka almost before she could walk. Her father, ta moko artist Derek, started the kapa haka team in the small East Cape village of Whangara in 1993, the year she was born. She was taken to rehearsals as a baby, later joined… Continue

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  Could be serious

  A 19 year old Victoria University student was confirmed as having measles late last week, causing the concerned Student Health centre at the university to switch into crisis prevention mode before exams start shortly. The female student had been in close contact… Continue

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  Point, shoot, upload

  WELLINGTONIANS Ben Moore and Kathy Scott Dowell have organised a creative photographic event for the public to enjoy in the month of October. The 22 year old photography enthusiasts, eager to encourage others to dust off their cameras, have renamed this month “Photober.”… Continue

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  A frisky God woos feisty lover

  TWO internationally renowned Indian classical dancers with a shared personal history are to reunite at Victoria University to perform the love story of playful blue God Krishna. Gayatri Bala is in Wellington for the third time to work with Vivek Kinra on new production… Continue

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  Mozart to your ears

  BACK in 1990s Auckland, you could watch theatresports 35 weeks of every year at the Maidment Theatre. Nine year old music fiend Robbie Ellis attended for years, and listened especially to the musical accompaniment. “When I was 16 I emailed the contact for… Continue

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  Anxiety choked out

  AMY Westrupp considers choking-out her dad at Brazilian jiu-jitsu, “family time”. “It’s a good way to spend time with him, and beat him up,” she grins. Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ, is all about defence, and works on the premise… Continue

• Tokotoko - Electoral Referendum

  ALTHOUGH the forthcoming national election is definitely playing second fiddle to the RWC, there will be some important voting  issues to be decided for NZ.  Douglas Demchy is a student who aspires to have a political career. He’s also a part-time… Continue

• The Big Maori Art Show

  AUSTRALIAN Aboriginal artist Danny Eastwood says he might cause a bit of interest when he wears his Aussie rugby jumper at New Zealand’s biggest ever showing of contemporary Maori art.  He’s here for the Maori Art Market, on this week at the Te… Continue

• Making his Mark

  MARK Dorrell came to New Zealand to retire but he’s never been so busy. Recently he became musical director of the Orpheus Choir, and he’s also directing Toi Whakaari’s second year musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on top of… Continue

• A kick and a promise

  THE Rugby World Cup promised a boom for city retailers. Capital Times asked city businesses whether the hype has been delivered. Reputation destroyed The Courtenay quarter’s reputation is being destroyed by the City Council according to Hummingbird’s… Continue

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  Wellingtonians are the best - 2011 poll results

  WELLINGTONIANS are eclectic, busy and a little bit nuts and live in a city where the breeze keeps the air clean and the Aucklanders away. Just some of your verdicts about the city we all call home revealed by readers in the Capital Times’ Best of Wellington… Continue

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  Sydney boys still might knock your head off

  Forget everything you know about music, it’s time to meet pop-garage band The Shake Up. Tim Browning, vivacious drummer for the Sydney trio, is quick to tell Jennifer Niven that those clichéd words really rark him up… Yeah they’re… Continue

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  Always the bridesmaid

  SUE Kedgley has been a Green party MP since 1999 and a tireless campaigner for safe, healthy food as well as animal welfare. While the Greens have only ever been the bridesmaid in our parliament, never quite managing to get to Cabinet, Kedgley has made considerable… Continue

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  Samoa exposed

  WELLINGTON based Samoan writer and director Tusi Tamasese has some advice for young aspiring film makers, marry a partner with a good job. THE Berhampore resident has just completed his first full length movie, The Orator, which opens  in New Zealand cinemas… Continue

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  Saving the Basin

  AFTER months of ignoring an alternative design to its controversial flyover options for the Basin Reserve, the New Zealand Transport Agency is now considering the design. Known as Option X, the plan by the Wellington Architectural Centre puts a tunnel under the… Continue

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  Cricket ticking along nicely

  NEW Zealand has gone rugby mad, but numbers of kids signing up to play cricket are up, with the weather also playing its part, says Bryan Dickinson from Wellington Cricket. “We’re heading into a great season of cricket, with seniors beginning October… Continue

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  Instruments of healing

  CLARE Galambos-Winter was 16 when the Nazis invaded Hungary and her life changed forever. She and her family were among the Jews deported from the city of Szombathely to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. From Auschwitz she was selected for slave labour at a… Continue

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  From the dark a son has risen

  ABOUT 15 years ago, it was reported that only two teenagers had been expelled for drugs that year, one from Onslow College and one from Wellington High. Tommy Benefield was the teenager, expelled from both schools in a space of four months. Benefield, who grew… Continue

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  Platz’s path from psychosis to wellness

  Gary Platz began hearing voices when he was in his 30s. He was up Wellington’s Deloittes building, cleaning windows, and he hung there for hours. “I was terrified. I wanted to kill people,” says the softly spoken, friendly Platz. In the 90s… Continue

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  No culture, no Ria

  RIA Hall grew up half way between the marae and the rugby club in Tauranga, deeply involved in the Maori social and sporting community. The 28 year old Wellington-based singer – known most recently for singing World in Union at the opening ceremony of the… Continue

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  Married to the music

  IF music be the food of love then the New Zealand String Quartet has a full stomach. Regular NZSQ members Helene Pohl and Rolf Gjelsten, who are a couple, will be joined by Andrew and Julia Joyce for the quartet’s annual candlelight concert at St Mary of… Continue

• Feel the force: rugby according to Jedi

  JED Thian, known as Jedi, provides alternative rugby commentary for those who want a light-hearted take on a tournament that’s being taken very seriously. He sits on the microphone at The Green Man pub, where half the screens are set up to show the game… Continue

• Reflected glory for designers

  THE nation has voted on their favourite piece from the World of Wearable Art awards show and 3,000 people have agreed: Erna and Karl van der Wat’s design Reflection takes first prize. Made of aluminium tubing and steel, the creators describe it as, “reflecting… Continue

• Bloody party

  LAST year thousands of Wellington party animals came to rave at Illuminate’s paint party, dressed all in white, where they were sprayed with neon colours while dancing to fast-paced DJs. This year’s theme is a little darker: Illuminate has announced… Continue

• Happy police

  CROWDS of rugby fans who turned out to watch the Scotland versus Argentina game at the Westpac Trust stadium on September 25 were well-behaved, say Wellington Police. “With only five arrests and 11 evictions, we were very pleased with crowd behaviour,”… Continue

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  Wellington skates on again

  GLIDING and sliding around the waterfront will be an option for Wellingtonians for a month from September 30. Plans for a temporary ice rink, under the sails on Queens Wharf next to the TSB Bank Arena, include attracting 30,000 skaters; visitors to the Rugby… Continue

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  Lucky legs

  Francis Christeller is one of a handful of Kiwi dancers who don’t have to worry about where their next pay cheque is coming from. FOR the past three years the 24 year old has been employed as a fulltime dancer with Footnote, New Zealand’s longest… Continue

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  A sign of communication

  It’s one of NZ’s official languages yet still a mystery to most of us; the sign language used by the Deaf community. Kerry Locker-Lampson is perhaps a surprising insider in that community, her childhood revolved around pets, horses, cats, rats, mice,… Continue

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  Jess Chambers headed back to her roots

  AS a child in her small American town, Kiwi-American singer-songwriter Jess Chambers went to Pentecostal church three times a week, wide-eyed and passionate about the singing (but falling asleep during the preaching). “There was always singing, clapping… Continue

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  Rhodes Kiwi to swim English Channel

  SWIMMING the English Channel without a wetsuit is a tall order, but it’s exactly what Wellington woman Nina Hall is going to do any day now as part of the Rhodes scholar women’s relay team. Hall, who went to local schools Clyde Quay and Samuel Marsden,… Continue

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  A hug for the Basin

  THE Basin Reserve iconic cricket ground will get a loving ‘hug of protection’ from opponents of the New Zealand Tranport Agency’s proposed flyover. The event, at noon on September 25, is to highlight the Basin Reserve roading options. The two… Continue

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  Sea green queen

  THE two-year Costume Construction diploma at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School accepts only six students a year. 2011 student Sophie is showcasing her green sea queen costume modeled here in the annual Costume Showcase at the Drama School. Costume Showcase,… Continue

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  Flavours of the world

  AS a child growing up in Gambia, West Africa, Barika Darboe learnt to cook from his mother. Now he’s bringing the tastes of Africa to Wellington as part of the Flavours World Food Fair being held at the Town Hall on Saturday. “It’s food from… Continue

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  Downstage will rise again

  THERE’S optimism for the future of Downstage Theatre and planning is underway to ensure it opens next year. Last week, New Zealand’s oldest theatre  announced it was in serious financial trouble and cancelling shows for the rest of the year.… Continue

• Anarchist of love and grace

  I’ll let you in on Aotearoa’s best kept musical secret, though almost I’m reluctant to share him. His name’s Fraser Ross and there’s a disarming depth to his eyes. He radiates a worldly peacefulness that makes me feel my questions… Continue

• Blazing a path to a smart green capital

  With its new digital strategy, its Toward 2040 strategy and a business innovation growth seminar Wellington City Council appears to be looking to the future We asked Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown what this will mean for the city. Last week was an important… Continue

• Cultural Wellington

  THE New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is singing a new song with the appointment of Christopher Blake, currently the Chief Executive and Secretary for Labour at the Department of Labour, to the position of the NZSO’s Chief Executive. He’s also a composer… Continue

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  Scottish for the moment

  HARRY Oakley has taken over Sea Lion, an old Australian work boat which lives at Queen’s wharf, and declared it Scottish.  Harry is a Glaswegian who now lives in Spain and he’s come to New Zealand especially to see his family who live on board… Continue

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  Cheerleading for R16s

  DEATH by Cheerleader is R16 for a reason. The racy play was supposed to show the serious side of the often stereotyped sport, giving well-educated women the respect they deserve. But no one wants to see a serious show about cheerleading, says starring actress Claire… Continue

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  Soul and spirit

  SPIRITED Kiwi soul singer Bella Kalolo likens her debut album to a first teddy bear: “You want it all to yourself.” That’s why she didn’t draw on industry contacts to create Without The Paper, but focused on her own creative process with… Continue

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  All hands to the Gin

  A tiny distillery in the Wairarapa has been internationally recognized as among the best in the world.  It’s owned by a cheerful band of country folk who got together on a whim and they’re already making waves.  John Bristed visited Greytown… Continue

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  Hug a tree this week

  THE Department of Conservation annual Conservation Week began on September 11 with a successful Weed Swap at Waitangi Park. People exchanged the worst weeds from their gardens for native plants and over 400 were given out despite the rainy weather. On September… Continue

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  Never been a show like this

  THERE won’t be an oval ball in sight. Rather than at the stadium it’ll be at the Opera House  and the battle will be between dancers from South Africa,  the Pacific Islands, and New Zealand. “This will be the World Cup on stage,”… Continue

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  For the love of indie pop

  BRENT Harris’ saved pennies got him his first drum kit when he was just nine years old. It cost $400 and he’s got no idea how he scraped it together. “I think my sister lent me $100,” he laughs. It’s been 15 years since then and… Continue

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  Under the Radar

  FORGET Sir Ed: it’s time to celebrate the untold stories of New Zealand history, like that of nineteenth century Kiwi balloonist Charles Lorraine, who used to jump out of the basket and perform gymnastic stunts en route to the ground. Then there’s the… Continue

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  Woolly story

  GERMANY had Paul the octopus who accurately predicted the outcome of World Cup matches and now Wellington has Sonny Wool. Sonny is a three year old sheep born in Dannevirke, but he is in Wellington for the next six weeks to demonstrate his psychic abilities.… Continue

• Business at the Hive

  EVERYTHING from start-up ventures to well-known and well-established enterprises will be on display at Parliament at the Business Innovation Growth expo. The organisers will showcase 70 businesses. Wellington’s diverse industries including digital, science… Continue

• Victoria tunnel delays to continue

  DELAYS in the Terrace Tunnel upgrade means residents on the Terrace will have to manage with inconvenience, disruption and traffic diversions for a little longer. The upgrade, which began last December, was to have been completed this month but the work is unfinished… Continue

• 2000 people probably not lost

  KiwiRail was enthusiastic about its train service after Wellington’s experiences around last Sunday’s South Africa v Wales rugby. We think everyone must have had a great time” reports KiwiRail’s Kimberley Brady, “because we brought… Continue

• Future-proofing our creative capital

  Have your say on Wellington City Council’s draft Arts and Culture Strategy from September 19. Three priorities have been identified for the strategy; to reinvigorate the capital city experience, to realise the city’s potential by connecting talented… Continue

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  Rugby in Tulips

  DID you know that our Botanical Gardens have been affected by the Christchurch earthquakes? They have, and rather charmingly. Three years ago Dale Sutch, collection curator at the Botanic Gardens, got involved in planning a ‘country emblem’ section… Continue

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  Where cultures merge

  THE most anticipated pageant of our Indian community takes place in the Capital on Saturday. Eleven young aspirants are vying for the title of Miss India Wellington in a competition celebrating Kiwi-Indian beauty, fashion, dance and music. Organiser Dharmesh… Continue

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  Sexy monsters

  VAUNE Mason loves monsters. Fanged and furry creatures have fascinated the Wellington-based jewellery designer since she was a kid. Now she’s combining her curious predilection with another hobby, burlesque dancing, in a new show, simply named Monster Burlesque. … Continue

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  Internals exposed

  IT’S 134 years old, has more than 3,500 pipes and is spread out over two levels of Wellington’s St Paul’s Cathedral. Now the cathedral’s organ is to be exposed like never before in a recital far removed from the traditional performance.… Continue

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  Is this a good sign?

  A sign causing offence outside a brothel in Dixon St has been removed. A complaint last week from Family First about the unattractive sign saying “Cum and Get Yours’ led to the Wellington City Council saying it is responsible only if a sign breaks… Continue

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  Easy tiger

  PROFESSOR Sir Paul Callaghan is a world-renowned scientist, but he’s proud to call Wellington home. He’s about to deliver Victoria University’s Inaugural Chancellor’s Lecture and this year it’s based on promoting a prosperous 21st… Continue

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  Jealous of Katherine Mansfield

  THE Katherine Mansfield Birthplace (KMB), one of the gems in Thorndon’s crown has curated an exhibition of six portraits of the writer, some of them unseen by the Wellington public before. The portraits reveal different facets of this complex, enigmatic… Continue

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  Jesus was an All Black

  WELLINGTON’S  St Paul’s Cathedral has taken a tongue in cheek look at New Zealand’s other religion, rugby. On display in the cathedral for the next few weeks is New Zealand Icon, a painting by local artist Don Little depicting the figure… Continue

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  The most of an opportunity

  IT’S not all fame and glamour as a fulltime dancer. For Black Grace’s newest junior dancer, Thomas Fonua, it also means being responsible for the chores. “It’s my job to mop the floors of the dance studio,” the 19 year old says.… Continue

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  I, George Nepia

  Wellington playwright Hone Kouka speaks of George Nepia as though the two were friends. BUT while there are family connections (Nepia farmed down the road from the Kouka family farm in Rangitukia, Hawkes Bay, and Nepia taught Kouka’s father to play rugby)… Continue

• Bus stop boutique

  THERE’S a new mural in Xoë Hall’s ‘hall’ of fame. The 25 year old artist has just painted a bright red bus stop and dedicated it to New Zealand Fashion Week. Bus Stop Boutique’s located opposite Shalimar Minimart at the start… Continue

• Good sorts get awards

  HARBOUR City Wellington Rotary Club has presented Marjorie Orchiston and Jenny Ellis with Community Service awards. Orchiston has been promoting music therapy in rest homes for more than 30 years and her book We Used to Sing and Dance is widely used in NZ and Australia.… Continue

• Queers in schools

  WELLINGTON’S queer community is taking direct action against the Ministry of Education for what it says is the Ministry’s failure to provide safe school environments for queer and transgender students. A protest is planned at the Ministry’s… Continue

• Money is not the object

  A plaintive Wellyworder who works in the midst of Party Central asks: Why are the perfectly good benches at the end of Blair St, off Courtenay Place being replaced with shiny new benches for the RWC. The old benches could do with a lick of paint but that would… Continue

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  Arts funding blues

  WELLINGTON’S Circa Theatre has come out battling against its major funder Creative New Zealand. The theatre relies on Creative New Zealand for nearly a third of its income but last week the funding body cut its funding to the theatre by 15 percent. Circa… Continue

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  Movie people make interesting artists

  GINO Acevedo has always loved monsters. As a child growing up in Phoenix Arizona he would be glued to the TV every Saturday morning watching the monster classics Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. He went on to create his own monsters, first designing costume kits… Continue

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  Oh to be a Hobbit

  THERE’S a man in the States who’s desperate to join the stars who are returning to Wellington to continue filming The Hobbit. Patrick Spadaccino is a life-long Tolkien fan and he would love to play even the smallest role in telling the story. As flying… Continue

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  Sisters of sound

  HOW does a progressive 12th century German nun become the inspiration for Wellington girls to form St. Rupertsberg, an all girl indie-pop octet? St. Rupertsberg is named after a monastery founded by Hildegard von Bingen, and there’s a strong connection. It’s… Continue

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  Relating to dance

  JULIAN Pellizzaro sees a dance partnership as a relationship. Funny, then, that he dances between lots of different women. Jokes aside, the elements of any decent relationship are there: you’re strangers at the beginning and you develop an intense interaction.… Continue

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  Woman with a mission

  THE Reverend Susan Blaikie has been appointed as the new Wellington City Missioner. She replaces Father Des Britten who retired after 18 years as City Missioner in July.  She is the first woman to be appointed to the role and only the eighth person to hold… Continue

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  Foreign concept for new volunteers

  IN his native Tianjin, China, volunteering was foreign to Cuixi Xi. It’s only in New Zealand that the 29 year old language student has had time to experience what he describes as little-known concept in his homeland. Xi is studying English at the Making Futures… Continue

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  Seriously musical

  HE was admitted at just eight years old to a special school for young talent at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. He’s grown up to be one of the youngest of a dazzling cohort of Hungarian pianists. His name is Péter Nagy and he’s… Continue

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  Politics at Bats

  WELLINGTON actor Phil Grieve met Sir Robert Muldoon when he was 16. Grieve was at Parliament to accept his Boys Brigade Queens Award from the then Prime Minister. “He was shorter than me even then,” Grieve remembers. Now he’s playing Muldoon… Continue

• Tokotoko - Not much fizz in alcohol reforms

  THE government has said it will accept all 130 changes suggested for the Alcohol Reform Bill by the select committee. Some say it’s not enough to change our drinking culture. We asked Bruce Robertson, Chief Executive of the Hospitality Association, what… Continue

• Citizens speak

  AROUND 1,900 submissions have been received on the New Zealand Transport Authority’s two preferred roading options for the Basin Reserve. Submissions on the proposals closed on Friday. Both options put forward by the authority include plans for a flyover… Continue

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  Finding their flippers

  THEY’VE been booted out of the nest by mum, but they’re finding their flippers and are perfectly capable of fending for themselves. That’s the word from the Department of Conservation on the New Zealand fur seal pups on the move around the Wellington… Continue

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  Third stoat on Kapiti Island

  THE pest free status of Kapiti Island is again in question after the capture of another stoat on the island last week. The stoat, believed to be a female, is the third to be captured this year. A male stoat was caught on the island in February and last month… Continue

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  A new age for Page

  HE loves our coffee, our beer, our food and our people – so much so that this week, Australian multi-instrumentalist Adam Page is moving to Wellington. “Wellington is one of the sickest cities I’ve ever been to. I came over for the first time… Continue

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  Back to the moshpit

  GETTING ready to interview Nigel Regan from legendary Wellington rock band Head Like A Hole (aka HLAH), I decided to listen to some of their 90s classics. Immediately transported back to my teenage, bogan days – I recalled with special fondness the one time… Continue

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  Invert your assumptions

  WRITER Arthur Meek expected to have a laugh when he picked up a book called Our Maoris at a market, but instead he found a story so good, he wrote a play about it. On The Upside-Down of the World is based on Our Maoris - the memoir of the young English wife of… Continue

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  It’s hip to be square

  Sports jocks watch out: Your time in the limelight might be over. Geeks are back in vogue. THEY’RE ready to change the world, just as soon as they work out the source code. Among the rich and famous, geekery just keeps on growing. Vin Diesel has been… Continue

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  Dazzled by Vegas

  TIM Beveridge has been up all hours with his baby daughter, but he’s still animated about Vegas, the spectacular show he’s bringing to Wellington. He’s clearly excited, but quick to mention the tough entertainment industry, which dictates the… Continue

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  Barking up the right tree

  THEY rescue, rehabilitate and re-home 5,000 animals every year, but the SPCA has also been busy organising itself over the winter period. Widely publicised as being in disarray after several board members resigned earlier this year, the SPCA is now focusing on… Continue

• Flower power

  How does a florist remain at the top of her game for thirteen years?  Manuela of her eponymous flower shop in Cuba Street has because – her staff say – “she’s a perfectionist and an individualist” Run off their feet because… Continue

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  Going Dutch

  DID you know the largest korfball facility outside of Holland is right here in Wellington at the new Indoor Community Sports Centre?  The largest what? When I think of Holland I think of windmills, wooden shoes and a stoic willingness to plug leaking dykes… Continue

• Get conscious

  NOT for profit charitable organisation Conscious Consumers was founded in Wellington to help customers make more informed café choices. It works like this: They award up to nine ‘badges’, which reflect practices that make good business sense… Continue

• A good, cheap cuppa joe

  FOOD prices on the up means Wellington coffee-lovers are hard pressed to find a flat white for less than four dollars. Capital Times called some busy inner city cafés to see what they charge for staple beverages. In the Flat White category (we are, after… Continue

• Wade’s world

  CHILDHOOD. It’s the formative time of our lives, magical at any level. What makes it more interesting for most people is that children are different.  Some are very different. One such child was Wade Hall, now 27, who happily admits to having been… Continue

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  Creative brains

  ATTENTION Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder causes inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, but there’s a silver lining: An ADHD diagnosis often signifies a highly artistic temperament. It’s because of neural diversity, a difference rather than a disorder,… Continue

• Questions on the buses

  AFTER Infratil Executive Tim Brown’s comments on public transport in Wellington (Tokotoko August 3) P.J. Austin of Berhampore asked 1) why the trolley bus power in Manners Street always seems to go off in the morning peak hour, and 2) why in the morning… Continue

• Creative capital

  TWO of three writers honoured with the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement, and the $60,000 that goes with it, are Wellingtonians. Novelist Dame Fiona Kidman and historian James Belich received their awards at Premier House earlier this week,… Continue

• City of carnivals

  THE future of Wellington’s Fringe Festival and Cuba Street Carnival seem assured with the creation of a new trust to oversee the events. The Creative Capital Arts Trust (CCAT) replaces the Fringe Arts Trust and the Cuba Street Carnival Collective Trust… Continue

• Residents speak on city’s future

  WELLINGTONIANS have had their say on the city’s future. The Wellington 2040 City Strategy invited residents to have their say on the future development of Wellington over the next 30 years. Submissions closed last Friday. While only 115 formal submissions… Continue

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  Taxing plan for council

  COURTENAY Place retailers are unhappy at a Wellington City Council plan to eliminate 18 car parks on the south side of Courtenay Place near Cambridge Terrace to allow for a taxi stand. City councillor and co-owner of Kapai Restaurant Justin Lester says the plan… Continue

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  Just the right image

  SHE plays jazz on her trumpet and sings opera for light relief. Imogen Thirlwall might be just one of the band, but she must be exactly the right image for the New Zealand School of Music. She plays jazz trumpet with the NZSM’s Big Band under Rodger Fox, … Continue

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  Spellbound by comics

  WHEN your first words were “Donald Duck,” a career in comics is undoubtedly a fair choice. Dylan Horrocks, prolific Auckland-born graphic novelist, has read and drawn comics his whole life. Firm in the belief that cartoons can be enjoyed by young… Continue

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  If he can do it, I can

  In 2008, director Gaylene Preston sent me into a tent at the Parihaka International Peace Festival, to see a poetry performance. I sat down on a beanbag near the front as a tall Maori man approached the microphone, cleared his throat, and began to weave his magic.… Continue

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  Cook and chat

  LIKE the perfect spice seasoning a mouth-watering meal, the third bi-annual Migrating Kitchen Exhibition at Pataka Museum in Porirua is in time for the Rugby World Cup kick-off. The six-week multi-cultural festival of art, literature, music, dance and food will… Continue

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  Snow lends magic to the zoo

  THERE’S been mixed reaction to the snow from the animals at Wellington Zoo. Marketing and communications advisor Kate Baker says that although snow is a first, most of the animals are prepared for Wellington’s winter cold. “The African animals… Continue

• ’Option X’ for the Basin Reserve

  WELLINGTON’S Architectural Centre is still backing it’s Option X for traffic improvements at the Basin Reserve which an independent costing shows would cost more than the NZ Transport Agency’s two flyover proposals.  But Option X eliminates… Continue

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  Something to say

  WHEN Harbour City Electric started playing their residency at Sandwiches in 2006, it was hard to tell exactly who was in the band. At various stages the lineup included members of The Black Seeds, Recloose Live Band, Olmecha Supreme, Electric Wire Hustle and… Continue

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  Mobbed by music

  DON’T be surprised if you’re mobbed by a choir next week. It’s The Big Sing and more than 700 secondary school students from 22 choirs descend on the Capital for three days of fierce competition to find New Zealand’s top school choir.… Continue

• Earplugs recommended

  THE saying is that good things take time, and this is certainly true when it comes to Auckland band Black River Drive. The band, led by singer/songwriter Sam Browne, was formed in 2008 – yet Browne had been playing and writing since first picking up the… Continue

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  Rugby explained

  IT’S a bustling Saturday night in Wellington. Crowds of rowdy rugby fanatics are on the town and the All Blacks’ game lights up the big screen. The ref blows his whistle and makes a call - wild hand gestures and all - and the pub bursts into shouts… Continue

• Crystal ball on Wellington

  “What plans does the Wellington City Council have for our city’s future?” We asked Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown about the council’s Wellington 2040 Strategy... You can have your say on Wellington’s future and I urge you… Continue

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  Get the kids away from the play stations!

  IT’S time to dust off the trainers and bust out the gym shorts. The Wellington Indoor Community Sports Centre in Cobham Park, Kilbirnie, is ready to open after 18 months of construction, but ICSC manager Craig Hutchings wants to clarify a widespread misconception… Continue

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  Shakespeare meets Marge Simpson

  RICK Miller is a man with a bad dose of schizophrenia. His show MacHomer, opening at The Opera House this week, has a cast of more than 50 and stars Miller as, well, everybody. MacHomer is a mash-up of tv’s The Simpsons and Shakespeare’s Macbeth with… Continue

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  Keeping it straight

  In every society, there are invisible people. The old and infirm, the disabled, those from foreign backgrounds, children; we write them off as inconsequential, winding our lives around them, talking down to them, and looking through them. Pippa Carvell is an… Continue

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  Fitness without the gym

  A fitness class that gets you out of the gym and into the fresh air is leaving people breathless. Evolution Night has been developed by Wellington’s parkour practioners and every Monday night classes are held at the top of Frank Kitts Park. “It’s… Continue

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  Mural to heal ‘severed’ district

  THEY hope art will bring them together. Kathy Smith, owner of Ballroom Café, says small business owners near the junction of Adelaide Road, Riddiford and John Streets are suffering “bad feelings” because of road changes that took away their carparks,… Continue

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  Hollywood at Bats

  IT’S been a busy year for Anya Tate-Manning. The Wellington actor has performed in August Osage County at Circa, McKenzie Country at Bats and in the sell out political satire Public Service Announcements. Now she’s treading the boards in Richard Huber’s… Continue

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  Let there be light

  DUNEDIN singer songwriter Matt Langley comes across much like his music, unpretentious, charming and unafraid to show a little vulnerability. “I feel the world’s quite strange and terrifying… but when it comes to the people you know, I see… Continue

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  Some dance with your rugby

  With the Rugby World Cup now only weeks away auditions for performers to entertain the crowds at the Westpac stadium are under way. Dance teacher Catherine Reid is assembling a squad of 16 dancers to perform at the Canada vs France match on September 18, and when… Continue

• Another week of legal highs

  SALES of synthetic cannabinoids have shot through the roof since the government announced last week it was banning Kronic and similar substances. Owner of Cosmic, Mark Carswell says his company has seen a big increase in sales as people stock up before any ban… Continue

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  Tourists green with envy

  IT’S well-known as beautiful, green, and tourist-attracting, but the sale of genuine New Zealand greenstone or “pounamu” is being threatened by cheap, imported imitation pieces that go for a song. These mass produced souvenirs are mainly made… Continue

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  Medieval Knievel

  WHILE others his age are getting down to Beyonce in nightclubs, Dimitrios Theodoridis is passionately supporting Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music through The Historical Arts Trust (THAT) – an organisation that promotes performance and education in… Continue

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  Time is not money

  WELLINGTON South is about to get a new bank, and one thing’s certain – it will run on time. The Newtown Community and Cultural Centre Trust are setting up a “TimeBank”; a skill-swapping network where time replaces money as the measurement… Continue

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  Theatre of choice

  AUDIENCES will get to choose their perfect night out at the theatre at Circa’s new production, Eight. It’s interactive theatre and audiences can choose their own cast of six from eight characters, either on-line ahead of time, or by iPhone in the… Continue

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  We’re all Pacific Islanders

  CITY Gallery and Te Papa have come together for Oceania; an exhibition celebrating the culture and arts of Aotearoa and our Pacific cousins. Artist Robin White and photographer Greg Semu both feature in City Gallery’s Oceania: Imagining the Pacific exhibit.… Continue

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  Grow your own food

  ‘The Rhizome Effect’  tonight Wednesday is a hui to spread and share ideas about urban food production, what needs improving, and what we’d like to see more of. (A rhizome shoots out horizontal stems which form roots and produces new plants… Continue

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  Angle and poise from Crows

  CROWS Feet Dance Collective aren’t taking themselves too seriously. Mocking the school rhythmic gymnastic classes of the 1950s and 1960s, in Angle Poise the Crows play a group of ageing Russian ex-gymnasts on a tour of New Zealand with their hoop, balls… Continue

• Campaign for food banks

  PREVENT someone from going hungry for less than the cost of a movie ticket. A campaign to support local food banks, themselves feeling the squeeze as more struggle to feed their families. Benn Crawford, organiser of the Wellington500 Campaign, says the goal is… Continue

• Roading plans CAST off

  A new community group has been set up to challenge the New Zealand Transport Agency’s roading proposals for the Capital. Community and Sustainable Transport (CAST) wants to see better alternatives put forward by the agency, based on public transport, demand… Continue

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  Back to the tinny house

  SYNTHETIC cannabinoid retailers and users were expecting a regulation announcement, but instead the government announced that Kronic and similar substances will be temporarily banned. Prime Minister John Key says cabinet-approved amendments to The Misuse of Drugs… Continue

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  Soul sisters

  SISTERS Madeleine, Anji and Priya Sami – who make up band The Sami Sisters – overlap and interrupt each other relentlessly. It’s almost better to imagine them as one creature with three heads – like the troll off Willow – but a hot… Continue

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  Climbing the pie charts

  THE costumes are fitting. All three members of The Nudge – singer and guitarist Ryan Prebble, keys player James Coyle and drummer Iraia Whakamoe – are animals. Prebble, who’s released a solo album, toured internationally with The Black Seeds and… Continue

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  Old shop fronts to stay

  SIX of the city’s oldest suburban shopping areas have been granted heritage status in the city’s district plan. The listing means the buildings cannot be demolished or major changes made to their exterior without a resource consent. The areas are… Continue

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  Inner city escape

  AS I step out of the blustering, numbing cold of Wellington’s winter into beauty therapy and day spa Urban Sanctuary, my first thought is, ‘what a fitting name’. The door closes behind me and I’m met with calm, quiet instrumental music,… Continue

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  Two lives, two worlds

  Paul Wolffram is a man leading a double life. Happy at home in Wellington with his wife Victoria Manning and young family, Wolffram’s also been adopted into a family of a people living in the rain forests of southern Papua New Guinea. He’s more… Continue

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  We’re more similar than you’d think

  AMBASSADOR for the Republic of Korea, Mr Kwang-il Noh, has lived in Wellington for two and half years. Previously, Ambassador Noh served as director-general for policy and planning at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with postings in Washington… Continue

• Crafty gem for sale

  AFTER 42 years in business, Les and Dianne Dyne of Goldings Handcrafts are ready to retire – and they’re selling up. The shop opened in the Cuba precinct in 1969 – some will still remember climbing the Tory Street stairs opposite the old match… Continue

• The business gymnasium

  HERE’S a new idea for Wellington’s freelancers and small businesses. The BizDojo opened in Vivian Street last week providing fully serviced collaborative working spaces for creative workers, niche businesses and entrepreneurs. But BizDojo is more… Continue

• Art show stoppers

  WELLINGTON artists are making an impression at this year’s New Zealand Art Show. Five are among 11 finalists for the Signature Piece Art Award. The artists are Susanne Kerr, Karim Sahai, Steve Thomson, Richard Thurston and Catherine Roberts. Kapiti Coast… Continue

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  Australian drama at Circa

  WHEN Wellington actor Sophie Hambleton finishes her role in Circa Theatre’s When the Rain Stops Falling she’s heading to the big lights of Auckland. Hambleton plays the younger Gabrielle York in the play, opening for the first time in Wellington this… Continue

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  The woman in breeches

  MEZZO soprano Bianca Andrew loves wearing the trousers. Andrew is Oberon, King of the Fairies, in the New Zealand School of Music’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s a “trouser” or “breeches” role, which in… Continue

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  What’s in a name?

  YEARS of playing together have gone down the drain for a group of local musicians. Francis Curac, founding member of band Niko Ne Zna, has split the group, trademarked the name and formed a new band – prohibiting old members from using the name. For the… Continue

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  Basin options: how about NO flyover?

  The debate over roading proposals at the Basin Reserve is getting ugly. Accusations of bribery and incompetence are being levelled at the New Zealand Transport Agency. Public consultation on the NZTA’s two preferred options has opened but a muck up with… Continue

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  Cleansing theatre

  IT opens with a splash and threatens to change bath time forever. The New Zealand premiere of Soap opens at Wellington’s St James Theatre on July 28. A mixture of circus, comedy and cabaret, Soap is a show of music and acrobatics set in the confines of… Continue

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  Relating in a virtual world

  ONE of the directors from this year’s Young and Hungry festival of new theatre is about to have something ridiculously young and hungry dropped in her lap. Rachel Lennart’s about to have a baby. “I just found out they’re doing to do a… Continue

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  Up the pole

  FORGET what you thought you knew about pole dancing, it’s now a sport and fitness discipline and even men are taking to the pole. Last weekend the Wellington heat of the New Zealand Amateur Pole Performer Competition was held at the Garden Club and among… Continue

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  Jon’s new band: Too good

  FACED with a bunch of songs that didn’t suit Shihad, Jon Toogood handpicked his favourite Kiwi musicians to start new band The Adults. Fur Patrol’s Julia Deans, Shayne Carter (Straightjacket Fits, Dimmer), Ladi 6, Anika Moa, Gary Sullivan (The Stereobus,… Continue

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  Famous visitor a rare treat

  WELLINGTON is to host the world’s rarest parrot. Wellington’s Zealandia has announced Sirocco the kakapo will be living at the ecosanctuary for about three months from the end of September. It is the first time Wellington has hosted an adult bird.… Continue

• Pinch on for charities

  As demand for their services grows charities are scrambling for funding. The slow economy, low interest rates, and money flowing to Christchurch have all combined to make things tough for  groups dependent on public and philanthropic donations. One of… Continue

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  It’s those genes

  PETER Donnelly is an Australian mathematician, Professor of Statistical Science at Oxford University and the director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. His early research focused on mathematical and statistical problems in genetics, but over time… Continue

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  Windy city poems

  TO celebrate National Poetry Day, we asked three local poets to share one of their favourite Wellington poems. Airini Beautrais finished a Master of Arts in creative writing at VUW in 2005, and published her first book Secret Heart just a year later.… Continue

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  A voice for refugees

  WELLINGTON writer Yilma Tafere Tasew has given a voice to a group seldom heard, Africa’s black refugees. His latest work, Outcast: The Plight of Black African Refugees, launched in Wellington last week, is a compilation of essays written by refugees, scholars,… Continue

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  Make a mark

  Graffiti artist Pauly Clyne (known as Pauly) has moved to Wellington for some respite from the shaking in Christchurch, and to cover our walls in paint. He’s been here three weeks, and has already noticed a big difference in how Wellingtonians respond to… Continue

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  What about the recycling?

  “HOW stupid is it that everything can only go out in those green plastic bags?” asks a Wellington rubbish collector who doesn’t want to be named. “We have customers who fold their cardboard and newspapers and leave them nicely alongside… Continue

• Queer politics

  A new political action group is pushing for greater equality and better services for queer and transgender people as the 25th anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill was celebrated in the Capital this week. The Queer Avengers was formed following the Queer… Continue

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  Find your way in

  IT may take some detective work to get there; but retailers in the Cobham Drive retail centre want you to know they’re still open for business. Road works on Tacy Street in Kilbirnie, which retailers say were to be completed in March, are now due for completion… Continue

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  Hip hop to the world

  THIRTY young dancers will leave Wellington for Las Vegas later this month to compete in the largest hip hop event in the world. They’ll make up the largest group of dancers ever to represent New Zealand. The two dance crews from Wellington hip hop school,… Continue

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  Ciao to favourite trattoria

  MARIA Pia’s Trattoria in Thorndon, is closing at the end of this month. Richard Klein, who runs the restaurant, says the time is right to move on – but not before he thanks the person who made it all possible. “Without the incredible passion… Continue

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  A better play

  WHEN Albert Belz first wrote Awhi Tapu (Sacred Embrace) in 2003 it toured the country, was nominated for best new New Zealand play at the Chapman Tripp’s, and received an award from the Human Rights Commission for its ‘positive contribution towards… Continue

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  Many ways to amuse the children

  TWO much loved children’s characters, Rumpelstiltskin and Pinocchio are visiting Wellington for the school holidays. Rumpelstiltskin will make his appearance at 4 Moncrieff Street, Mt Victoria, in KidzStuff’s Theatre’s production of the Brothers… Continue

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  Holiday magic

  MAGIC, animals, a deckchair cinema, seaside bingo and strange stories at the library – the school holidays are packed with entertainment for the kids. Kids’ favourite Capital E hosts Summer Scorcher – no, that’s not a typo – but… Continue

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  Highway home

  WELLINGTON band Highway is coming home after nearly forty years. Started by bassist George Limbidis and guitarist Phil Pritchard, and later joined by drummer Jim Lawrie, ex Tom Thumb vocalist Bruce Sontgen and guitarist George Barris, Highway exploded onto the… Continue

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  To inject a little magic

  IF he weren’t an artist, Hong Kong’s Pak Sheung-Chuen might be considered mad. He’s taken a trip to Malaysia blindfolded, waited hours for a friend who didn’t know he was meant to meet Pak in the first place, and spent a month folding… Continue

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  To protect their oceans

  JONATHAN Gardner is a professor of marine biology at Victoria University who’s off to the University of London in October on a NZ-UK Link Foundation Visiting Professorship. Gardner is a world expert in marine protection, biodiversity conservation and population… Continue

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  Showcasing Kiwi furniture

  ANSWERING a business call “YOYO - Todd speaking” may sound like uncouth slang but it is instead a declaration of a store name. Mount Cook resident Todd Hayvice has opened YOYO Furniture in Thorndon Quay, showcasing furniture designed exclusively by… Continue

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  Reflection, not on our waterfront

  REGULARLY voted top sculpture in Capital Times best of Wellington polls: Solace in the wind is missing his buddy Reflection, also by Max Patte, which used to be next to the overbridge leading to Chaffers Park, near the Rowing Club on Wellington’s waterfront.… Continue

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  Foxton Fizz

  Even in a land where poppies never get a chance to grow tall, singer-songwriter Miriam Clancy could probably get away with diva behaviour. Her 2009 second album Magnetic, hit number four on the iTunes charts in its first week, and received four and five star… Continue

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  New pad for families in need

  RONALD McDonald’s old buildings on Riddiford Street have been demolished, but they still need three million dollars to build the new one. Of the two buildings demolished, one was leased out for office space and for the Mexican Café, and the other… Continue

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  Take the plunge

  IT’s time to get active this winter, and an icy dip in the ocean will get the blood flowing. The annual polar plunge is on again this year with hundreds expected to turn out for the midwinter swim on the Petone foreshore on July 16. A gold coin donation… Continue

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  Rattle turns 20

  RECORD label Rattle may be based in Auckland, but Wellington has played a big part in its 20-year life.   Composer John Psathas recorded and released his Tui award-winning first album Rhythm Spike through Rattle, in 1999, Norman Meehan and Bill Manhire collaborated… Continue

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  Works from a new generation

  WELLINGTON audiences will get the chance to see the works of a new generation of dancers and actors when students from both the New Zealand School of Dance and the New Zealand Drama School (Toi Whakaari) perform in the city this month. For the first time the New… Continue

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  No country for old men

  AUCKLAND band The Vietnam War is harder to Google search than bands with really tricky names like !!!, Love, and The the. They didn’t really think about that at the time. “The name started as kind of a joke about music biographies – where a lot… Continue

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  Something beautiful to look at

  Art collectors and 40 of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists have donated over 60 works to help raise funds for a new creative and performing arts centre currently under construction at Scots College in Miramar. Aloysius Teh is a parent at the school,… Continue

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  New plinth art

  THE work of Wellington artist Joanna Langford has been selected to adorn the plinths between Te Papa and Circa Theatre from February, Wellington Sculpture Trust has announced. Langford’s currently unnamed installation comprises four glass cubes, with each… Continue

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  A tissue of ice

  There’s a symmetry about Wellington artist Gabby O’Connor creating her latest work below sea level in the basement of Capital E. Entitled What Lies Beneath, O’Conner is constructing an iceberg, or more correctly the bottom of an iceberg, that… Continue

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  Clowns, but not as you know them

  THEY’RE clowning around at Bats Theatre this week. In two solo performances Wellingtonian Jenny McArthur and Finnish performer Sampo Kurppa give Wellington audiences a rare chance to see European modern clown theatre in Echolalia and Temptation opening at… Continue

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  Wahine Tu: Women standing

  KAPITI man Matiu Te Huki is spearheading a movement to change women’s role on marae. During powhiri – or Maori welcoming ceremonies – it is a woman who calls visitors onto the marae, and a female among the visitors who usually answers this karanga.… Continue

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  Watchdog music

  Hikoikoi means ‘to walk’, and for Wellington band Hikoikoi, that walk’s been a long one – or as singer and guitarist Paul Wickham puts it, “quite a whack, but a good one.” The band was formed eight years ago, a six-piece reggae… Continue

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  Who’s for the corridor?

  Wellington’s Deputy Mayor, Cr Ian McKinnon is making a bold stand. He wants everyone to know that he  supports the New Zealand Transport Authority’s proposed upgrade of the Ngauranga to Airport transport corridor. “It is already a State Highway”… Continue

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  Sock it to Christchurch

  WELLINGTON City Mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, and her Upper Hutt counterpart, Wayne Guppy, have stepped in to raise funds for the Canterbury earthquake. Rural Women New Zealand are selling red and black socks, which feature an earthquake shake line, with all proceeds… Continue

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  Saving power while keeping warm

  IT may have been late but winter has arrived and keeping our homes warm without breaking the bank has become a priority for many. According to Andrew Smith of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority stopping draughts and improving insulation will make… Continue

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  Paddling the waka

  THIS sport combines physical activity with the ancient traditions of the Pacific. Waka ama (outrigger canoeing) is gaining in popularity with men and women of all ages and ethnicities involved in the sport. Christine Fox, Vice-President of the Hoe Tonga Waka Ama… Continue

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  Dancing with the elements

  THIRD year New Zealand School of Dance student Kimiora Grey can’t believe she’s been given the chance to work with some if the best this country has produced. The 20 year old is one of eight dancers in a new work from the Okareka Dance Company, Nga… Continue

• Questions on reality

  DIRECTOR Andrew Foster has taken on a project unlike any he’s ever worked on. An Oak Tree is a play for two actors, one of whom changes every night. The new actor takes to the stage having never seen or heard a word of the play they’re to perfom in.… Continue

• Volunteer, and make a new friend

  Not for profit charity Age Concern say loneliness is one of the top four most pressing concerns for older people, among income, health care and ageist attitudes. It’s also one thing volunteers have the power to help with – through the Age Concern Accredited… Continue

• A fishy tale

  A Wellington fisherman knew he’d found something unusual when he caught a large spotted fish in Cook Strait this week. Island Bay Marine Education Centre staff identified it as a spotted black groper, a tropical fish usually found in rocky reefs and estuaries… Continue

• Double bill of light opera

  WELLINGTON G&S Light Opera continues a 57 year old tradition when it opens its double bill performance in Wellington this week, but the group says the future survival of amateur musical theatre in the capital is becoming increasingly precarious. Gillian Jerome… Continue

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  Looking at Wellington’s future

  THE future has come to Wellington with two interactive exhibitions exploring what the city might look like in 2040. The exhibition Toward 2040: Smart Green Wellington, has been set up in large shipping containers at Te Aro Park and on the waterfront by the Wharewaka.… Continue

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  More than a singer

  Ask delightful blonde bombshell Janina what she ‘does’, and you might get a moment’s hesitation. She’s just released her debut solo album The Original Ending, but she also works as a producer for Radio NZ Concert, a freelance writer for… Continue

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  The final curtain call

  After 45 years in the music business veteran crooner John Rowles is about to embark on his last tour. In a candid interview he spoke to Niels Reinsborg about his tangle with the Mafia, bullying at school, and his love of the Hawaiian sun. WHEN John Rowles… Continue

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  A dose of innovation

  A new research project by a Wellington medical student aims to influence the behaviour of injecting drug users in New Zealand and prevent the spread of blood borne diseases. Martin Woodbridge has been contracted by the Drugs, Health and Development Project to… Continue

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  Take a lesson

  WELLINGTON’S bastion of tertiary-level education, Victoria University, needs to take a class in getting a point across. A letter from the university was sent out to political party representatives on campus last week, asking that, “political visits… Continue

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  Debate rages on hotel bid

  WELLINGTON City Council has gone against the advice of its own officers over a proposal to build a boutique hotel near the top of the cable car in Wellington’s Botanic Gardens. The owner of the now defunct Skyline restaurant building wants the council to… Continue

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  A plate of the best

  MORE than 81 events are planned for the third annual Visa Wellington On a Plate culinary festival this August. The festival includes an Asian night market, a five course chocolate menu, blind dining, master cooking classes and a club baking competition. Event… Continue

• Best of Kiwi take on London

  LONDON is about to be invaded by the best of Kiwi with a strong Wellington flavour. Footnote Dance Company leaves this week for the City of London Festival, joining the New Zealand Trio, the New Zealand String Quartet, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in… Continue

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  A laugh at Hamlet’s expense

  GAVIN McGibbon says his new play is about allowing people to forget about winter and just have a good laugh. The Wellington playwright takes a satirical poke at community theatre in his new play Hamlet Dies in the End, opening at Bats Theatre on June 28. His play… Continue

• Horror at the Embassy

  MOVIE goers can do the time warp again with the Embassy Theatre screening The Rocky Horror Picture Show this weekend. Ali Morris from the Embassy says it’s the one movie screening of the year where punters get to put on fancy dress, throw rice around a theatre,… Continue

• Taylor named best actor

  WELLINGTON actor Rangimoana Taylor has been named best male actor at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival. Taylor received the award for his role in Hook, Line and Sinker, a movie recently released by Wellington collective Torchlight. Taylor plays the role of P.J.,… Continue

• Book to match Capital of cool

  A book celebrating all things Wellington will be launched in the city tomorrow (June 23). The Wellington Book is a collaboration between Fitzbeck Creative directors Mike Fitzsimons and Nigel Beckford and illustrators Sandi MacKechnie and Jess Lunnon. “We’d… Continue

• Wellywood copyright

  THE regional economic development agency, Grow Wellington, has confirmed it owns the copyright for the name ‘Wellywood’. Wellington airport has been embroiled in public debate over its plans to erect a 3.5 metre high Wellywood sign on hillside land… Continue

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  Long Pathway on track

  THE final link in the walking track from Island Bay to Levin has been completed with the opening of the Pukeatua Track at the weekend. The Pukeatua Track, extending from Otaki Forks to Waikanae, was opened by the Conservation Minister, Kate Wilkinson, and already… Continue

• SOS: Christchurch hospo

  CHRISTCHURCH refugees are flooding Wellington’s hospitality market; with cafés and restaurants noting a large increase in applications from Canterbury. Good Luck Bar on Cuba Street is one. “I don’t really have time to talk right now… Continue

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  Cycle city

  The road to making Wellington an accessible city for cyclists has been long and fraught with difficulties; much like riding over our hills and into our winds. But recent signs suggest Wellington is on it’s way to becoming a true cycle city. Melody Thomas… Continue

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  Vida longa ao samba!

  Keen to get involved with Rugby World Cup celebrations, but not sure how? Why not learn to samba, and take part in Wellington’s own carnival. Dance teacher, performer, circus artist and student Clo Mudrik has been dancing the Brazilian samba since she… Continue

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  That which was lost ...

  JANE Paul has spent much of her career delving into cupboards, rummaging through sheds and peeking beneath tarpaulins under macrocarpa trees. During her 20 years at the Film Archive Paul has been involved in some of the archive’s most important projects,… Continue

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  Mountain music

  What happens when you take two Wellington musicians and translocate them to a cottage steeped in history, for six weeks of creative exploration? HOLLY Jane Ewens and Andy Hummel of local band Rosy Tin Teacaddy, spent six weeks last year sitting in the shadow… Continue

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  Dancing with  compulsion

  COMPULSIONS, obsessions and fixations are at the centre of Thricely? Precisely. A Pocket full of Pips opening at Bats Theatre tomorrow (June 16). The dance theatre production made its debut at last year’s Fringe Festival. The show returns for eight performances… Continue

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  Luncheon with the Churchills

  OAMARU playwright Paul Baker says it would be a limiting world if authors wrote only wrote about their own country. His new play Meet the Churchills, which has its world premier at Circa Theatre on Saturday (June 18), airs the secrets, faults and resentments hidden… Continue

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  What would you do?

  VICTORIA University French lecturer Keren Chiaroni discovered the best and worst of human nature when researching her book The Last of the Human Freedoms. Based on letters, journals, military records and personal accounts her book tells of three kiwi airmen downed… Continue

• Sea story

  CONGRATULATIONS to Rachel Sawaya, who won the World Wildlife Foundation Ocean:Views competition, for works of art celebrating our oceans. Sawaya’s story Paying Back the Ocean beat out visual art, music and film entries to take the grand prize. Sawaya will… Continue

• Maori writer’s residency

  MAORI writers are invited to apply for this year’s Kapiti Island Maori writer’s residency, New Zealand’s only writer’s residency by Maori for Maori. The Tau Mai e Kapiti Maori Writer’s Residency is funded by Te Waka Toi/Creative New… Continue

• A healthy sign of progress

  WELLINGTON International Airport has announced the names of the panel set up to find alternatives to the proposed Wellywood sign. Greater Wellington Regional Council chair, Fran Wilde, will head the panel of seven members. Others appointed are Wellington Employers’… Continue

• Bright sparks

  “I find the kids are often teaching me” laughs Nomi Wald, the Gifted Kids Programme teacher at Newtown School with her GKP pupils Jim Zhu (Mt Cook School), Rose Wallington (Owhiro Bay School) and Dell Todd-Johnson (Newtown School).  They are using… Continue

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  Trouble at the pool

  SWIMMERS say common sense has gone out the window at Freyberg Pool; to meet “health and safety requirements”. Kirsten Cameron is a New Zealand distance freestyle and open water swimmer who swims about 60km a week, much of that at Freyberg. Until recently… Continue

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  Johnson really really really really likes her

  TWENTY-two year old Phoebe Hurst was selected from 27 Wellington hopefuls keen to open for singer-songwriter Greg Johnson on his Small Towns & Ball Gowns tour. Described by Johnson as being “right in the vein of classic Wellington left field”, Hurst’s… Continue

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  The youth kind of revolution

  Former Capital Times journalist, 23 year old Sophie Schroder has been dealing with the trials and tribulations of living in Spain, the most-in-debt country in the European Union. She went along to the 10,000 people strong protests in Barcelona, where the young… Continue

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  Maiden Aotearoa

  Respected fibre artist, passionate advocate of Maori and Pacific artists and Te Papa event producer Suzanne Tamaki is one kick-ass wahine. Her strength was built through necessity; when the world seemed not to want her, she had to fight for a place in it. … Continue

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  Dancers flying high

  CHANGING the way we think about dance – and who can dance – is the aim of Triple Bill, a dance-theatre show performed by dancers with and without disabilities. Eight dancers from the Auckland based Touch Compass dance company have teamed together with… Continue

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  Americana, Aotearoa-style

  YOU probably know Auckland-based band The DeSotos better than you realise –their songs were the themes for TVNZ series’ North and South, hosted by Marcus Lush, and many more of their tracks were littered throughout the programmes. Those of a certain… Continue

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  What if we lose?

  LET’S hope a play about New Zealand’s defeat at the 1995 Rugby World Cup isn’t an omen of things to come. Downstage Theatre’s production of Roger Hall’s one man show C’mon Black opens this week but producer, Dave Armstrong,… Continue

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  Time travel on strings

  LISTENING to the Brentano String Quartet is a bit like time travel. The New York ensemble will perform music from the past 500 years, from the 16th century to the 21st, when they play in the Wellington Town Hall on Sunday (June 12). Since forming in 1992 the… Continue

• Furious film finalists

  CITY finalists have been announced for the V48 Hours furious filmmaking competition. The following finalists are listed by team name, film name, and film genre (bracketed). Alpha Bristol Films: Last Chance (road), Cinema in Decline: Tea Jerker (crime), Couch Kumaras:… Continue

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  Run your heart out

  IF you’re a keen runner who’s wondered about doing a marathon, full or half, the Armstrong Motor Group Wellington Marathon is a great place to start. The event is organised by social running club the Wellington Marathon Clinic, established in 1979.… Continue

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  Shell out a shilling

  Graham Atkinson, president of Lions Host Wellington, and Brent Doile of New World Chaffers with their ‘old money’ collection box.  The Lions collect for childrens’ projects, like Outward Bound, Spirit of Adventure, and the Outdoor Pursuits… Continue

• Why have a district plan?

  Thorndon resident Kevin O’Connor asks why the Wellington City Council even looks at  building applications  when the size of the planned building would be way outside the council’s own guidelines.    Last week the hearing began… Continue

• No sign is a good sign

  WELLINGTONIANS may have won the chance to vote on the controversial Wellywood sign but most Capital Times readers don’t want a sign at all. Last week Wellington airport bowed to public pressure and agreed to consider alternatives and although Wellywood remains… Continue

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  Highest honours

  EX-Mayor of Wellington Kerry Prendergast, former Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming and concert pianist and teacher Diedre Irons are among 29 Wellington, Hutt Valley and Porirua residents recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year. Prendergast,… Continue

• Wellywood, or won’t they?

  WELLINGTON International Airport seems determined to erect its controversial Wellywood sign on the hills above Miramar despite a request from Wellington City Council to reconsider the sign. The council passed a motion last week asking the airport to reconsider… Continue

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  In for the caning

  IT was a media scrum at Hurricanes headquarters. He’d just named the team for the game against the Force, and Canes coach Mark Hammett had his interview cap on. He was on the phone doing a radio interview when Capital Times arrived for our allotted 10 minutes.… Continue

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  Local boy done good

  Nineteen-year-old Jesse Sheehan is on the fast track to becoming the next big Kiwi music success. But how’d the singer songwriter the with the trademark ginger ‘fro get to be so good that major record labels are fighting to sign him to their books?… Continue

• Books for the win

  LOCAL writer Kate Camp is the recipient of this year’s Creative New Zealand $60,000 Berlin Writers’ Residency. Camp, who will collaborate with locals and complete a collection of poetry in Berlin, is also a finalist for the New Zealand Post book awards,… Continue

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  Keeping Shakespeare relevant

  STUDENTS from schools as far away as Mount Cook, Rotorua and the West Coast arrive in Wellington this week for the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) National University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival. Those selected will soak up Wellington’s… Continue

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  A queer time at the movies

  GAY zombies, Regency lesbians, queer terrorists, brave soldier girls and gay mayoral candidates are some of the characters featuring in New Zealand’s queerest film festival opening at the Paramount this week. Out Takes 2011 celebrates queer film making bringing… Continue

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  Private works go public

  THE doors are about to open on art works normally found hanging in the homes of Wellingtonians. Behind Closed Doors, a new exhibition opening this week at Victoria University’s Adam Art Gallery, features works drawn exclusively from private collections in… Continue

• “Looks so lame”

  Opposition is growing to a sculpture commemorating the life of Katherine Mansfield, Wellington’s most famous literary figure. The work has been commissioned by the Wellington Sculpture Trust. The three metre high stainless steel  work, (above) by Auckland… Continue

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  Moshpit on wheels

  ROLLER Derby girls are up there with people you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. A Youtube search brings up videos of women in zombie face paint, fishnet stockings and   roller skates smashing into each other, pigtails flying, surrounded by… Continue

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  Ask, and ye shall receive

  IT took a few weeks, but the children at Box Hill Kids early childhood education centre are getting a new recycling bin. Box Hill Kids have been recycling since 2006, when they became one of the first educational institutions to participate in the Enviroschools… Continue

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  Dune work undone

  VANDALS have undone work completed just last month - part of the five-year Lyall Bay Dune Restoration Plan.   Following recommendations from Coastline Consultants and Environmental Restoration Ltd, the Council is now two years into the plan, which has seen… Continue

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  When at first you don’t succeed

  It has all the makings of a Hollywood film – a dashing protagonist on a grand adventure, becomes embroiled in a tragic love story. As his dreams collapse, our hero is forced to face his demons, before beginning the slow, uphill journey of a life rebuilt.… Continue

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  You catch it, we’ll cook it

  Local restaurants are waiting for  successful hunters to bring in the pheasants, swans, and geese they’ve shot.  Their chefs want to make the birds into great dishes and serve them back to the hunters. But thus far, nobody has taken up the offer… Continue

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  Three men, three sports

  IT isn’t all gold and glory for athletes at the top of their sport. For Wellington men Mike Mercer, Casey Glover and Shaun Kavanagh their selection to represent New Zealand at the ITU Triathlon World Champs in Beijing in September has meant many hard hours… Continue

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  Recycling was rubbish

  IT left rubbish on the city streets and caused thousands of complaints but Wellington City Council is confident problems with its new recycling collection service will drop away as the weeks go by. Last week was the first week of the new service and as the number… Continue

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  Blooming baby boomer

  JANE Keller is shocked at being perilously close to 60. It’s not that she feels older. Rather she wonders how the years have passed so quickly. But Keller says being a baby boomer is something to celebrate and in her one woman show Boomers Behaving Badly,… Continue

• NZ Music Month: Bronwyn Kelly

  BORN in the “illustrious town” of Tapanui, north of Gore, Bronwyn Kelly moved to Wellington with her family when she was 10.  After polytech and time overseas nannying, Kelly found herself on the, “slippery slope into the caffeine-driven… Continue

• This week, in music…

  New Zealand Music Month 2011 is in its last week, but there are still lots of great gigs going on. Capital Times highlights some top picks. A WISE man once said, “The more talented someone is, the nicer they are”, and it’s often true - we… Continue

• Sweatshop in Civic Square

  GIRLS working around the clock in sweatshop conditions, not a sight you expect to see in Wellington’s Civic Square. But this weekend students from Wellington Girls’ College will be working in shifts to produce bracelets, bags, pencil cases and teddy… Continue

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  Berlin is the new black

  Ladi 6 has just gone. Electric Wire Hustle, Hollie Smith and Lisa Tomlins are going.  An Emerald City has been there for years; young street artist Carmel Levy arrived in April and Lloyd Jones wrote his last novel after a year there. Melody Thomas looks… Continue

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  Sign language

  Councillor Helene Ritchie has called for a judicial review of the Wellington City Council’s non-notifiable permit for the giant Wellyword sign to be erected on the airport’s land at Miramar. Plans for the sign were announced last year and immediately… Continue

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  Stravinsky’s legacy

  THE great composer Igor Stravinsky was conducting the orchestra’s rehearsal for Petrouchka when Russell Kerr sneaked into the back stalls of the empty theatre to listen. IT was 1955 and Kerr was touring the United States as a dancer in the London Festival… Continue

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  Mean Maori mean

  There are so many talented wahine performing at Pao Pao Pao, we’re tempted to nickname it “peow, peow.”   The popular Bro’Town phrase, however, only carries sexy connotations, and we’re referring to the bigger picture.… Continue

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  Getting more players on the field

  TWO more artificial sports fields are almost ready but winter sports blues may still affect Wellington players looking for a ground this season. City Council contractors are currently working to complete two artificial turfs at Wakefield Park in Island Bay. The… Continue

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  NZ Music Month: Roger that

  THIRTY years ago, Christchurch record-store worker Roger Shepherd founded Flying Nun, which became one of New Zealand’s most influential record labels. Shepherd left the label in 1999 but couldn’t stay away – buying it back again ten years later.… Continue

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  Prize book

  A book by a Wellington author about New Zealand’s rarest parrot, the kakapo, has won the Royal Society of New Zealand’s 2011 science book prize. Kakapo - Rescued from the Brink of Extinction by broadcaster and zoologist Alison Ballance tells the story… Continue

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  Skip to success

  SEVEN times world skipping champion Peter Nestler is in Wellington next week to teach his tricks to local children. Nestler is sharing the secrets as part of the Heart Foundation’s Jump Rope for Heart programme. The American skipping legend will demonstrate… Continue

• Top sportspeople

  OOPS, we dropped the ball. Last week Capital Times ran a list of finalists for the Wellington sportsperson of the year awards. Unfortunately it was from 2010. The 44 finalists for the 2011 awards were selected from a record 232 nominations for more than 13 categories.… Continue

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  Freaky Friday

  MENTALIST Robert Haley was too spooked to continue with his second Séance show last week. The shows were meant to run on Friday the 13th at a ‘secret haunted location’, but when punters turned up at 9:30 a shaky Haley told them the show was cancelled,… Continue

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  Flight plight

  When Melody Thomas first heard about John Goldswain, he was mentioned as being part of the “hot-bed of brilliant bastards sitting out there in Miramar”. Keen to discover what a man’s gotta do to get a reference that good, she tracked him down.… Continue

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  Opera in the house

  CITIZENS who don’t like going to the theatre have it made this week. With Silo Theatre’s production of Did I Believe it? on at Foxglove bar, and Revolver circus at Estadio, you won’t have to go anywhere near a theatre for a theatrical experience.… Continue

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  Portrait of an artisan

  After nearly fifty years of on and off car racing Johnny Mines has won the Sports Car Club of NZ’s 2011 series in a sophisticated racing car he designed and built himself. Along that journey Mines, a cheerful petrolhead,  has revelled in his considerable… Continue

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  Performance meets play

  Tom Beauchamp is learning how to crack whips while tap dancing, for his latest show, Revolver. “AS far as I know it’s a world premier. I’ve been cracking whips for a while and I did some basic tap about ten years ago, but I’m not naturally… Continue

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  Return seasons

  TWO award winning New Zealand plays are back on the Wellington stage this week.   Downstage Theatre’s production of Death and the Dreamlife of Elephants, and Circa Theatre’s The Lead Wait both open on Friday and, both were originally commissioned… Continue

• Support for historical arts

  HISTORICAL music, dance and theatre in New Zealand will now be supported and encouraged by a new charitable trust. The Historical Arts Trust aims to educate and inspire young people and create new opportunities for enthusiasts and professionals.  Executive… Continue

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  NZ Music Month: Oh my Gosia

  GOSIA Piatek is a Hutt Girl at heart (“Oooooo yeah!”), but she was born in Poland and moved to New Zealand with her family, seeking political asylum, when she was seven. She’s since grown up and formed her own company, Kowtow Clothing. Selling… Continue

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  All aboard the adventure bus

  A ‘rogaine’ sounds like hair re-growth medication, but it’s actually a lot more fun. A form of orienteering, rogaining sees teams compete in an epic cross-country challenge.  The aim is to use route planning and navigation between checkpoints,… Continue

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  Which way for the waterfront?

  THE Hilton Hotel, initially proposed for the waterfront’s outer T on Queens Wharf, but halted due to Environment Court appeals, might still go ahead. Despite Wellingtonians’ repeated objections, the hotel is still a possibility for ‘Site 10’… Continue

• The quality of our lives

  WELLINGTON has again been voted among the top cities in the country with residents saying they feel safe in the city and are satisfied with their quality of life. The results of the latest Quality of Life survey were released this week. The survey measures the… Continue

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  What do you think?

  The proposed extension of parking fees to include weekday evenings and an idea that library hours could be be reduced has caused ‘quite a number to comment” says Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean.. The council wants to increase the… Continue

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  A new hook for the movies

  MADE on the smell of an oily rag, a new Wellington movie about a truck driver is made on what Stalin would have you believe was the old Communist system… all the cast made an equal contribution to its production. Directors Andrea Bosshard and Shane… Continue

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  Get reel

  A THREE-day region-wide fishing competition starts next week; covering surfcasting, rock and boat fishing. Participants can fish from Castlepoint to Cape Palliser, east to Cape Terawhiti and north to the southern side of the Otaki river mouth. “It is quite… Continue

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  Plant it forward

  PAY for your carbon indiscretions by planting trees this weekend.  The Manawa Karioi Ecological Project, occupying about 12 hectares of farmland around Island Bay’s Tapu Te Ranga Marae, is marking the United Nations Year of the Forest with the beginning… Continue

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  Groovy and the beast

  LOCAL four-piece metal band Beastwars is hard-core, in a groovy kind of way. Drummer Nathan Hickey, aka Nato, formed the band five years ago, and this was his intention. “We wanted to sound like The Cult crossed with Kyuss, you know - good grooves, and… Continue

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  Lloyd Webber’s lead lady

  KIWI singer Delia Hannah is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s leading lady, selected to perform in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber now touring NZ after Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Delia, who recently completed the Australian and Asian tours of Cats, playing… Continue

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  Petone gallery to close

  PETONE’S Williams Gallery, specialising in contemporary New Zealand and Pacific art, is to close next month. After ten years operating the seven days a week business owners Lorraine and Patrick Williams have decided it’s time to close. They’ve… Continue

• Parking blues

  The city council has painted some mobility parks in the city bright blue in an attempt to make them “more obvious” to motorists. Mobility parks in Island Bay, Newtown and on Grey Street in the central city have been painted blue with a giant wheelchair… Continue

• Light house  in the park

  There will be a new burst of energy in Wellington as Victoria University students assemble a solar powered Kiwi bach in Frank Kitts Park this weekend. The students are building the solar powered house from NZ materials as a test run for the US Department of Energy… Continue

• With our powers combined

  ON average, each person in the Wellington region produces 626kg of waste every year, or collectively more than 300,000 tonnes. The Wellington City Council believes waste management issues could be better dealt with if councils in the region band together –… Continue

• Any bright ideas?

  THE search for Wellington’s brightest ideas has begun with the launch of the 2011 Bright Ideas Challenge. Nigel Kirkpatrick, chief executive of Grow Wellington, the organisation behind the challenge, says up for grabs is the chance to win $25,000 start-up… Continue

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  Coffee, for the people

  SHEEP, cows and Vikings: All things that come to mind when you think about Dannevirke. Forward-thinking ambassadors of fair-trade business, not so much. Meet Matt Lamason, and prepare to change your mind. THIRTY-two year old Matt Lamason is the founder and… Continue

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  Going viral

  When it comes to YouTube, you never know what’s going to make it big, or ‘viral’, and what will sink into oblivion. On this new stage, which has the ability to create superstars overnight, local boy Matt Mulholland is one of New Zealand’s… Continue

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  This is your final boarding call

  For nearly ten years, The Aviators have delivered catchy hooks, grooves and horn lines to funk-hungry ears around the country. The band are about to call it quits, but not before serving up one last morsel, The Ballad of Sour Jayne, a spicier and more surprising… Continue

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  The universe in her grasp

  SHE may be only 20 but Priyani Puketapu says she’ll be older and wiser when she competes for the title of Miss Universe New Zealand in Wellington on Sunday night. She’s walked this catwalk before, as Miss Horowhenua in 2009, she was first runner-up… Continue

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  So much promise

  I remember being at the Hurricanes’ first match at  Westpac Stadium in 2000.  They beat the Sharks 40-23 and our bunch of bright shiny new season ticket holders thought we were on a winner. Flash stadium, covered seats, not a bad team, and some… Continue

• Sweet adelines

  BARBERSHOP harmony will fill the streets of Wellington this weekend with hundreds of women from around the country gathering in the city for the New Zealand Sweet Adelines competition and convention. Four hundred women representing 19 quartets and eight choruses… Continue

• Going solo

  STEVE Wrigley has performed Kevin: The Musical before, but the Auckland Comedy Festival season was really just a dress rehearsal for Wellington. Wrigley’s always wanted to do a solo show at Bats, ever since he first got into comedy doing gigs at the San… Continue

• Barly Theatrical

  IT’S theatre for those who’d sooner go to the pub. Foxglove bar customers are in for something of a surprise when their watering hole hosts Auckland’s Silo theatre which is actively bringing theatre to the people. A downtown bar might seem… Continue

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  Up the wrong tree

  AMERICAN comedian Arj Barker, known best in New Zealand as dispassionate New Yorker Dave on Flight of the Conchords, has mixed feelings about his last Wellington show.   “Some shows you just stay on track and do the jokes, then there are others where… Continue

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  Walk with the Midwives

  Take a stroll along Oriental Bay next Thursday and mingle with people who help bring thousands of new babies into the world each year. The waterfront walk, to celebrate International Day of the Midwife, is to highlight the disparities in the conditions of maternity… Continue

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  Cosmic Carsy

  RETURNING from an autumn trip to Mount Cook, Mark Carswell, Carsy to his mates, lay naked in the back of the station wagon while a friend drove. Why was he naked? “I felt like it, it was a sunny day,” he says, as if driving round naked is something… Continue

• Users will pay more for road reserve

  A “fairer” rental rate for road reserve land will see some Wellington homeowners paying more to use the land. The city council has changed the fee structure for road reserve land meaning rentals will now be set according to land values. Previously… Continue

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  Those darn buses

  MUCH-reviled in Wellington, the bus networks recently received long awaited Real Time Information (RTI), which uses GPS tracking to inform passengers about estimated, as opposed to scheduled, times of arrival. Capital Times journalist Melody Thomas kept a diary… Continue

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  All over the joint

  Australian roots and jam band John Butler Trio was formed in 1998, and they’ve got big. Three of their five studio albums have hit number one in Australian charts, and anyone who’s seen them live raves about their musicianship and energy. Melody Thomas… Continue

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  You’re not in Timaru, now boy

  You’d think performing to massive crowds for laughs would be hard enough, but not for Dunedin-born comedian Sam Wills. In his latest routine, as The Boy with Tape on His Face, Wills performs on stage for up to an hour without talking at all. And audiences… Continue

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  Escaping the clatter of typewriters

  THE thought of retirement doesn’t come easy for Val Browning and when she closes her Cuba Mall shop for the last time this week it’s not to just put her feet up. Browning describes her decision to shut Brownings Secretarial Services Ltd after 50 years… Continue

• Barista title eludes us

  WELLINGTON’S wait for a national barista title continues after a Christchurch barista took out the national barista championship on Saturday. Wellington baristas Aymon McQuade, of Bell Tea and Coffee, and Nick Clark, of Flight Coffee, took out second and… Continue

• I know what I like

  A unique collection of early 20th century negatives from a Wanganui studio sold for $50,000 at the two day Fine and Applied Arts Auction at Dunbar Sloane last week. The Mark Lampe/Tesla Studio Photographic Negative Collection, made up of an estimated 80,000 negatives… Continue

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  Sheilah wins

  FORTY-two groups from 20 schools around Wellington competed for a spot at the University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival nationals last week. One 15-minute and one five-minute long scene are selected in each region to progress to the national competition,… Continue

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  Everyone loves a happy ending

  INDIA is the world’s largest producer of film, and with more than 1000 feature-length releases annually, Bollywood films are a major factor in why. Now, the colour, movement and feel-good storylines have been translated for the stage.   Akshita Nama… Continue

• Whole lotta shakin goin on

  High on the list of the chattering crowd is the subject of earthquakes. Well it might be. We’ve all been discussing the phenomenon.   • In Willis Street, Unity Books have sold huge numbers of Quaky Cat,  a children’s book by Diane Noonan,… Continue

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  Help children, beat Auckland

  DIANE Szabo wants you to know that congenital heart defects are the world’s most common birth defects, affecting 12 babies in New Zealand every week. She knows what that means, because her baby Pierce was one of them. “I was about three months pregnant… Continue

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  “Rubbish” say the residents

  RESIDENTS are blaming the city council’s rubbish collection system for what they say is more rubbish littering the streets of some inner city suburbs. They claim since the council brought in the use of the official yellow bags some rubbish is being left… Continue

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  Go, the curry munchers

  WHEN Pancha Narayanan immigrated from his native Malaysia to New Zealand 25 years ago the locals called him a curry muncher. “Now everyone’s eating curry,” he jokes. “The New Zealand palate has come a long way.” Pancha, who is of… Continue

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  Burlesque, uncovered

  GRACE Hammersley-Myers is a PA at The New Zealand Treasury. But at night, she dons thigh-high fishnets, lace bustiers and frilly-bottomed knickers to become Busty la Belle – New Zealand’s reigning burlesque queen. Modern/neo-burlesque performance… Continue

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  Record stores give you a better life

  IT’S ironic, that while Wellington’s favourite record store Real Groovy was making the announcement it would soon close up shop, others were preparing for International record store day. Despite news of Real Groovy’s imminent closing, the store… Continue

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  Musicians call for jury trial

  WELLINGTON musicians are rallying support for 15 people arrested in the 2007 Urewera ‘terror raids’, who will now be tried by judge-alone, at the High Court in Auckland on May 30. Charges made under the Terrorist Supression Act were dropped in 2007,… Continue

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  Council “strong-armed” over roading, say Greens

  The Green Party has accused the Transport Agency of using “strong-arm tactics” against the Wellington City Council to force through inappropriate roading projects for the city. There have been reports that the agency was to send a letter to the council… Continue

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  Best barista in town

  Memphis Belle cafe’s Nick Clark is officially the best barista in town after winning the Wellington heats of the New Zealand barista championships at the weekend. Clark, representing the Flight Coffee roastery, competed with 16 others for the title, with… Continue

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  Strange nesting places

  HOW come a 46-year old Newtown librarian, born and raised in New Zealand and with little filmmaking experience, is flying to Iraq to make a documentary on Assyrian people and their culture? It comes down to curiosity, compassion and the desire to tell a good… Continue

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  Home is where the heart is

  ELIZABETH Marvelly is singing for joy at being home. The 21 year old songstress joins the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to open her Home Tour, in Wellington next Wednesday night. Marvelly returns to New Zealand after three years international touring, performing… Continue

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  “Have-a-go-mate” spirit alive at design school

  Industrial designer, Mark Pennington, is a former student, tutor and head of the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design. He has had a long career in industrial design in New Zealand and has worked as a consultant to many of the leading design companies in the… Continue

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  Duathlon for generations of women

  THREE generations of one family are amongst those taking part in the Wellington REAL women’s duathlon at Cog Park, Evans Bay Parade on Sunday. Chrissie Bell, of Napier, says her family is drawing on members from Napier, Pahiatua and Wellington to take part… Continue

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  Accessorise me

  THIS season it’s all about accessories - scarves, stockings, chunky jewellery, winter boots, hats… the list goes on. Don’t be afraid to wrap that chunky necklace over a delicate merino top either. This season is all about glamorous accessories… Continue

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  Just in time

  WELLINGTON busses might finally start arriving on time. Go Wellington services are now using ‘Real Time Information’, run through GPS vehicle tracking, to inform passengers about when buses will actually arrive, as opposed to when they’re scheduled… Continue

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  Long range composition

  A ‘pyramid scheme’ is a fraudulent moneymaking venture, which eventually collapses, leaving those at the bottom with nothing. Wellington band The Pyramid Scheme have been engaging in unsustainable practices of their own, but thankfully those on the… Continue

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  Groovy sales a gift to shoppers

  IF the mob last Sunday at Real Groovy’s closing sale are anything to go by many people will miss the record store.  And the Courtenay Place crowd will miss Bennetts Gift World. Combined, Real Groovy records on Cuba Street and Bennetts Gift World on… Continue

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  Good vibrations

  EVAN Dumbleton is an award-winning engineer by trade and a musician by choice, but after winning awards in both areas his musical talents may become more than just a hobby. LAST week, Seatoun based mechanical engineer Evan Dumbleton was awarded the Institution… Continue

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  You’ve got to make peace

  FRONTPERSON for the band Minuit (Min-wee), Ruth Carr, has just released her first book, I felt like a fight, alright? The book is an assortment of song snippets, poems, musings and doodles, although she’s not sure about being called an author. “That’s… Continue

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  To the left, to the left

  STARTING this weekend, Radio Active will be found four steps down the frequency band. In a move dictated by the Government, its transmission will shift to allow for greater space between stations. Of approximately 250 radio frequencies nationwide that were made… Continue

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  Seems like yesterday...

  CIRCA Theatre was born at a dinner party in Miramar. A group of actors bemoaning the state of Wellington theatre decided it was time to start a second professional theatre in the city. “We wanted to make a space for artists,” founding Circa member,… Continue

• Western clan comes to Capital

  CIRCA celebrates 35 years by bringing to Wellington the award-winning American play August: Osage County. Set during the sweltering late-summer heat of rural Oklahoma, Tracy Letts’ play exposes the dark side of the Western clan, an American Midwestern family… Continue

• Swing your bling

  SICK of your jewellery? New handbag the wrong colour? Want some new shoes? Got no money? Then swap your accessories with someone else. You won’t have to spend a cent to get your hands on pre-loved accessories although you pay to get into this weekend’s… Continue

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  In Spite of it all

  TIM Spite was meant to write a play about tagging. Instead, his latest show, The Spy Who Wouldn’t Die Again, is a spoof on an old classic. “[The show] sprang out of necessity. Last year we wrote a show called The December Brother, which was partly… Continue

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  Get a move on

  GREATER Wellington regional councillor Paul Bruce wants to see an off-road pedestrian and cycle facility on State Highway Two (SH2), and he wants it now. The regional transport committee, comprised of mayors of the region, met this week to discuss the The Hutt… Continue

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  Tu meke music

  What happens when you take four leading  musicians and put them in a studio with no restraints, timelines or goals? If those musicians are Warren Maxwell, Rick Cranson, and Tom and Joe Callwood – the answer is sonic splendour. Melody Thomas talks with… Continue

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  Good for something

  COMPOSER John Psathas is onto something good. He has written his first ‘pavlova Western’ film score for Good For Nothing – a Kiwi style American Western film which is receiving rave reviews in the US. FOR JOHN Psathas, who shot to media fame… Continue

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  Earle in town

  JUSTIN Townes Earle may have famous rock country singer Steve Earle for a father but he can sure hold his end up. And the stage, for hours, when he performs. Last time Earle hit Wellington, almost two years ago, he captivated a crammed Bodega crowd with his brand… Continue

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  Keeping it in the family

  Sigismund Owen Keoghan was a joiner working in the West Coast mines in the late 1800s. His calloused hands built the wooden troughs that transported coal after excavation, but they were also used for a more gentle purpose – playing his violin. 130 years… Continue

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  Science and art

  Professor Robin Clark is applies robust scientific techniques to art and archaeology. Melody Thomas talks to him about authenticity. Hoping to electrify the Timaru frozen meat industry, Robin Clark’s grandfather, an electrical engineer, immigrated to… Continue

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  Wellington for Christchurch

  Here’s a nice bit of history from the NZ Film Archive. Travelling film show From Thorndon to Island Bay, consisting of ten short films with live piano accompaniment from Gilbert Haisman, will remind Wellingtonians how their city has developed. Three short… Continue

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  Titillating fashion

  MENSWEAR designer Clare Bowden has got a grip on the female bust. The co-designer and co-owner of Wellington-based label Mandatory, was commissioned to design uniforms for Coco at the Roxy, the restaurant opening soon inside Miramar’s new, 1930s themed cinema.… Continue

• Everybody needs  good neighbours

  HOST a street party, bake a cake, say “good morning” or pop round for a cup of tea; there are a hundred ways to celebrate neighbourliness this weekend, and you needn’t do them all. Not-for-profit community agency LIFEWISE is co-organiser of Neighbours… Continue

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  The picture of health

  AS Nicola Cranfield talks about greens, grains and general well-being it becomes clear she could be starring in her own real life version of movie Eat Pray Love, minus the Hollywood cheese. Cranfield, a health coach in real life, is a living replica of Julia Roberts’… Continue

• Switched on to switch off

  Earth Hour 2011 takes place this Saturday and people across the globe are encouraged to switch off their lights for one hour from 8.30pm. In Wellington the event is being marked at the Carter Observatory where Mayor Celia Wade-Brown will officially turn off the… Continue

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  Flying high in remembrance

  LYNNE Klap led the release of seven white doves, while seven kites flew high, to mark Race Relations Day in Civic Square on March 21. Lynne, who has been a Bahá’í for 28 years, says this was to remind us of seven Bahá’ís… Continue

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  Kick off

  RUGBY World Cup celebrations are falling into place, now all the council needs to know is what you have planned. The Wellington City Council is calling for expressions of interest (EOI) from bars, restaurants, event organisers, fundraisers and others, to build… Continue

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  Wonderful WOMAD

  WOMAD brings New Zealanders flocking to New Plymouth for the best showcase of world music treats, workshops, films and cooking demonstrations in all the land. For the ‘artist in conversation’ programme, artists talk about the musical journey that led… Continue

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  A prize in their eyes

  LOCAL musicians Thomas Oliver and Darren Watson are both finalists for the blues section of the 2010 International Songwriting Competition. Oliver’s Goin’ Home and Watson’s Love is an Ocean have put them in the running for $3,000 in prizes should… Continue

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  Made for marching

  NICOLE Adamson has great posture, thanks to years of marching. She never wanted to march, but when she was 11 she was roped in when she went to meet Shona (her Mum) who was having her marching costume altered. “There were all these girls there and they… Continue

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  Invers logic

  Take 70 film crew, mostly under the age of 30, and tell them they’re going to spend nearly a month with no cellphone reception, drinking bad coffee, probably in the rain. What you’d expect is a mutiny; but what filmmaker Rob Sarkies got was an extension… Continue

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  The magic between your ears

  BE good to your brain cells this weekend, Saturday is brain day. Wellington marks brain awareness week with a day of lectures from leading neuroscientists and clinical neurology experts. Dr Stuart Mossman, clinical neurologist, capital and coast district health… Continue

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  Here’s something new

  FINALLY the rumours will come true, when Ancestral, a new 1930s Shanghai-style bar, opens on Courtenay Place. Thick blue curtains will replace the old newspaper now covering the windows of the former United Video shop at 31-35 Courtenay Place, leading you into… Continue

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  Writer’s war effort

  WRITER Harry Ricketts spent eight years researching some of the finest war poets and their encounters in order to write his latest book Strange Meetings: Poets of the Great War. After some false starts and difficulty with direction, a friend introduced Ricketts… Continue

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  Take me to the river

  PHOTOGRAPHER John Williams has spent years documenting religious events. At Pataka Museum, in Porirua, black and white photographs from his 2007 trip to the ardh mela (religious festival) in India fill entire walls – some six metres long. Despite Williams… Continue

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  In a democratic fashion

  FASHION designer Trelise Cooper is known for colour, ruffles and her curly blonde hair but the internationally renowned designer has much more to her. Cooper begins each day at her Auckland-based workroom with a staff meditation session. She adopted the idea from… Continue

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  Purrrrfect harmony

  THE voice is the same, but Anna Coddington’s new album Cat & Bird is a different beast than her last one. Coddington’s first full-length album The Lake, released in 2008, was an exercise in soul-baring. “Songwriting [for The Lake] felt like working from the… Continue

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  Wrestle mania

  KADE Morgan grew up watching his uncle Rip Morgan and great uncle Butch Miller Bushwhacker wrestle live on TV. Now the only national third generation wrestler is keeping it in the family. From an early age Morgan watched WWF Wrestling weekly on television until… Continue

• Film Festival on its way

  ALL over the world it is volunteer organisations like the Wellington Film Society that keep the flame of film art alive so that cinephiliacs like me can get a decent palate cleanser every Monday night after a weekend of Hollywood tosh. This year’s programme has… Continue

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  A boy’s show

  AMERICAN Director Ronald Nelson has traded politics for theatre. The former “lowest elected official on Capitol Hill” has written, and now directs, Mates and Lovers which is on at Downstage till March 12. “I was working on September 11,” says Nelson. “And I could… Continue

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  Kia Kaha Christchurch

  WHEN two music students at the immersion Maori language school Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Nga Mokopuna in Seatoun heard about the Christchurch earthquake, they wrote a song to offer some comfort to Cantabrians. Te Awhina Kaiwai-Wanikau, 15, and Manarangi Mua, 16,… Continue

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  Opera in the pink

  SOPRANO Tiffany Speight describes herself as a “Mozart-looking Barbie” in her latest NBR NZ Opera role as Romilda. Speight can relate to her on-stage character - a strong, loyal yet cheeky woman. “Romilda’s one of those characters. Someone said to me ‘she’s like… Continue

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  Women celebrate

  INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is 100 years old this week. “There are more than 60 events going on around the country, which is the biggest response to women’s day so far,” says Rae Julian, president of UN Women New Zealand. For the celebration, UN Women and Zonta… Continue

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  It’s a journey in clothes

  FASHION meets music and a whole lot of crazy hairdos at Le Voyage on Queens Wharf this Thursday night. Fashion show organiser and Haight Ashbury salon coordinator Catherine Hunt talks a mile a minute in a smooth English accent about her latest fashion feat. “I… Continue

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  Fringe chop

  COMEDY: Battle of Wits: Improvised stories, songs and sagas, The Fringe Bar, 7pm, March 6, 13. How’s Wife: Life after marriage, The Fringe Bar, 6.30pm, March 2-5. DANCE: Future Astronauts: Society, manipulation, control, power, Bats Theatre,… Continue

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  Dyslexics, untie!

  NOT many artists would refer to themselves as “blessed with the gift of dyslexia”, but Wellington-based “poetic philosopher” Bohemian Thought does. “It took me awhile to accept it, and for a long time I tried to hide from it. But I have to own it; I have to accept… Continue

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  Best of the bunch

  HOMEGROWN sees 16,500 people gather on Wellington’s waterfront to watch 45 bands from around the country. Joining many of New Zealand’s most celebrated contemporary groups is Auckland band The Earlybirds – winners of this year’s band search, who took home a… Continue

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  From Berlin with psychedelia

  BERLIN-based NZ band, An Emerald City, have moved from recording in a decrepit Berlin communist building in the snow to a paddock with cicadas chirping in the background. Their 25-date NZ tour kicked off on February 17 in Raglan, with a gig at Wellington’s San… Continue

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  Musical love affair

  MUSICAL duo Elizabeth Judd and Emile de la Rey’s musical journey in Contrite Elegant Rebel mirrors their own love affair. After a chance meeting in Hamilton in 2000, when de la Rey dossed at her flat, the pair started writing music together. Then, Judd decided… Continue

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  Juggling The idea of America

  WHEN motherhood dictated that actor Michelle Hine would need to reorganise her priorities, she put her children at the top. Eventually. “I had my first child in Wellington and filmed the series Away Laughing with a baby on set. There were actually a lot of babies… Continue

• Decent palate cleanser

  ALL over the world volunteer organisations like the Wellington Film Society keep the flame of film art alive so that cinephiliacs like me can get a decent palate cleanser every Monday night after a weekend of Hollywood tosh. I can’t recommend Society membership… Continue

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  Choice for children

  CHILDREN’S Day is not just for kids. More than 500 events for parents and the young ones are taking place nationwide on Children’s Day, with quite a few happening in Wellington. Wellington Children’s Day at Civic Square: A special visit from the WotWots, a… Continue

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  Capital culture

  CAPITAL E National Arts Festival gets creative. A giant, eight-metre-long, blow-up whale named Manilayo made out of recycled parachutes and a wetsuit, characters from an eccentric chess board that come to life, and a story of a boat made out of bread caught in… Continue

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  Strange furnishings at the Dowse

  A SNEEZING computer, a giant nose, an inflatable finger which deflates as you approach it, a subwoofer fart and something stuck in a locker that obviously wants to get out; artist Sean Kerr certainly has a sense of humour. Why a farting subwoofer? “Humour helps… Continue

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  Festival first

  NEWTOWN musician, Imogen Holmstead-Scott, finally gets the chance to play on the main stage at this year’s Newtown Festival after years of dreaming about it. “I’ve always performed on the community stage, so this year’s a first for me,” she says. Newtown resident… Continue

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  Anything to help

  MAYOR Celia Wade-Brown says there’s been an overwhelming local response to the Christchurch earthquake and she’s pleased and proud to see how Wellingtonians have generously offered their support. The Mayor herself met a builder from the UK at the Wellington City… Continue

• Birthday bake off

  LOGAN Brown’s new pastry chef, Kristen Gibb, celebrated her 30th birthday by baking 30 cakes. As well as starting her new job at the award-winning restaurant, Gibb was up at the crack of dawn to bake in preparation for her “dream party” at Newtown’s Car Club last… Continue

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  A moving play

  WELLINGTON writer Jo Randerson knows that catching up with friends from your youth has the potential to be awkward. “Quite often your interests have changed since you were five,” she laughs. Thankfully, when she met up with fellow Clifton Terrace School classmate… Continue

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  Cruise control

  THERE are hundreds of reasons to start a band, but Tim O’Brien’s bluegrass band Two Oceans Trio has the best one.  “We formed just so we could go to New Zealand. [Guitarist] Gerry Paul asked if I wanted to do a tour there and I said ‘ah, yeah!’ Then Trevor… Continue

• What a show pony

  RENE Gasser is a sixth generation horseman, and the proud owner of 28 stallions. Melody Thomas talks with Gasser about the perils and payoffs of working exclusively with the most dominating of horses.  Forget mares and geldings, for Rene Gasser owning… Continue

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  Health doesn't have to be expensive

  “DON’T eat your overdraft. EFTPOS and takeaways can put you straight into debt, and poor health,” says Maria Goncalves-Rorke, a student financial advisor at Victoria University. Student budgets are strict, and healthy eating can be a challenge. “Essential living… Continue

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  Big bite for Kereru

  THE bird of the forest, the Kereru, gives life to the trees. This is no thrush, sparrow or warbler; this native pigeon is fundamental to the health of New Zealand’s forest ecosystems. “There are signs that the loss of Rimu trees in Wellington might be because… Continue

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  Meet the Mayor

  DO you want to get the ear of the mayor? The first ‘Meet the Mayor and Councillors’ day for 2011 is on March 1 and interested groups are invited to register. Community, sports, business and arts organisations, as well as residents’ associations and ethnic and cultural… Continue

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  Fringe Fest

  THE New Zealand Fringe Festival should get one of those odd keys that people get in those coming of age rites. It launches its 21st season on February 18. Traditionally, turning 21 means that you are considered old enough to be a key holder to your family home,… Continue

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  Graze on the grassy knoll

  THE newly-flat grassy area beside St John’s Bar on Cable Street, dubbed “the grassy knoll”, is pumping. Weekend crowds and after-work revelers are freely using the area to enjoy a whitebait fritter and a drink in the sun – without getting told off. And this… Continue

• Karnival time in Karori

  ONE man’s junk is another man’s treasure at the Karori Karnival, which celebrates its 40th year on Sunday, February 20. Organised by the Karori Lions, which was formed in 1969, the Karnival adopted a ‘K’ rather than a ‘C’ as a gimmick in 1971 when the Karnival… Continue

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  Battle on!

  US-born Wellington designer Allison Jochim saw a person in a rock, paper, scissors (RPS) t-shirt and had a flash of inspiration. “I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be a better idea to have three t-shirts, so you could fight each other?’” she says. From what seemed a fun… Continue

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  Quarantine continues

  HOP on the ferry to Somes Island and find yourself captive in quarantine. And if you couldn’t get a ticket to one of the original seven shows, you may have another chance. Four more shows were announced last Thursday, extending the season into March. Quarantine… Continue

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  Fuse at Frank Kitts

  CAMPGROUND Chaos transforms the circus ring into a multi-sport, adventure playground. The Fuse Circus open-air performance, inspired by an iconic Kiwi holiday pastime, mixes juggling, acrobatics and swinging. Summer holiday at camping grounds are already a circus:… Continue

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  Shoot your own

  GLEN Ahearn has been keyboardist for The Pink Floyd Experience since its inception 13 years ago. The variety of Pink Floyd’s music means Ahearn doesn’t get bored playing it.   “Every two years it’s a different show. No two shows have ever been the same, because… Continue

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  Seven poets in the city

  POET and anthologist Jenny Bornholdt has her own writing shed in her back lawn. At this time of the year it’s a good thing. Bornholdt has an “offensive” cold, and her manuscript The Hill of Wool to finish. “You feel separate in the shed. I love Hataitai and working… Continue

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  NZSO welcomes wind

  PHILHARMONIA oboist Gordon Hunt sounds equally excited about brown trout as he does Richard Strauss. He talks to Janina Nicoll about fly fishing, conducting the NZSO and the oboe. GORDON Hunt, a “three-quarters Kiwi” has come back to NZ every January for… Continue

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  Yank in training

  MY feet are my paintbrush, the pavement my canvas. I am a painter of intense, lengthy cardiovascular sojourns. I am a runner at dawn and a journalist by day. There’s nothing more satisfying than conquering Mt. Victoria, my quadriceps swelling with pain and enjoyment,… Continue

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  Artist to superhero

  Don’t scoff when Claire Prebble tells you her next goal is to design clothes for Lady Gaga; there’s a pretty good chance she’ll do exactly that.  THE 25 year-old artist started life in Golden Bay, Takaka. She first entered the World of WearableArt… Continue

• Cross the line

  ISLAND Bay is better prepared for a tsunami following a pilot project to raise awareness in the area. The six-month project saw 20 local residents join forces with the Wellington City Council emergency management office to brainstorm safe evacuation routes, effective… Continue

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  LADIES beware...

  That romantic email convincing you to deposit money into your internet lover’s overseas bank account is more than likely fake. Last week, the National E-crime Group’s Maarten Kleintjes, warned a room full of attentive female Amity Club members “they target lonely… Continue

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  Online again

  TRAIN users will soon enjoy a streamlined trip north from Wellington. Double tracking and electrification just south of Waikanae caused frustrating delays and buses being used to get past the track works, but that work is now complete. “For well over 100 years… Continue

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  Aromatic art

  PERSONAL style is not only exhibited in fashion, but also in the choice of flowers you pick for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. So, guys don’t get her droopy pink carnations from the local BP if she likes to shop at Karen Walker. And girls, don’t be scared… Continue

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  Hip clothes, hot beats

  NEW Clothes for the New Year opens the final weekend of Chinese New Year celebrations, featuring local talent and an internationally famous dance crew ReQuest. In the high fashion, urban dance show, Wellington designers and performers will take the stage. Wellington… Continue

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  Lovely week ahead

  LOVE is in the air so Capital Times gives you a run-down on some alternative love-themed events happening this weekend, before the big day on Monday, February 14. Every year on Valentine’s Day the Harbour Capital Chorus and Vocal FX Chorus raise funds… Continue

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  Kaimoana Queen

  RACHEL Taulelei, of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Huia iwi, is a Wellington woman thinking big. Taulelei is a director of economic development agency Grow Wellington, co-founder of City Market, and owner and operator of Yellow Brick Road - a seafood supply company that… Continue

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  Approximate love

  “OUT of sight, out of mind”: In the history of long distance relationships, this has been a much-used maxim. But advances in technology mean this isn’t necessarily the case anymore. Spanish-New Zealand theatre collaboration Love You Approximately explores the… Continue

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  Old style, new ideas

  WALKING into The Dowse Art Museum’s Blumhardt Gallery you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped back in time to late 18th-century France. Ornate and sumptuously glazed ceramic pieces are scattered throughout; everything from large, colourful vessels shaped… Continue

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  Summer's tale

  THIS year’s Summer Shakespeare director Lori Leigh was meant to go home to the USA next August - when her doctoral research scholarship is complete. “No, I’m staying. I’ve completely fallen in love with New Zealand. My entire life has shifted here and it’s become… Continue

• Loopy layers

  MUSICIAN Adam Page and composer John Psathas had ten days to put together a 40-minute piece The Harvest Suite. The result will be performed live by Page at Downstage on February 13. Psathas, known for composing music for the opening and closing ceremonies at the… Continue

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  Academic purgatory

  NAUGHTY students have always been sent to the detention room – but where do naughty teachers go? To the rubber room. A ‘rubber room’, or reassignment centre as it’s officially called, is a place where New York teachers await disciplinary hearings - spending days,… Continue

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  Caution: sculptors at work

  ARTISTS are chiselling away making sculptures made of out iconic New Zealand Oamaru stone for the next two weeks. The Soft as Stone Sculpture Trust are hosting their biannual symposium, which started last Saturday. The creamy-coloured Oamaru limestone, quarried… Continue

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  Make the most of the coast

  IF Island Bay Festival seems especially magical this year, it may be because a fairy is running it. Festival director Katrina Baylis is better known among toddlers and their parents as ‘Fairy Trina’, a much-celebrated guest at any children’s birthday party. The… Continue

• Brooke flows sweetly

  DON’T believe everything you read about Brooke Fraser. Despite some news reports, the Sydney-based singer and songwriter did not have a Wikipedia-invented stalker, her husband is not a full-time musician, but she is married, and Fraser admits her husband Scott… Continue

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  Hang loose

  SKATEBOARDER Mike Bancroft was injured before Bowl-a-rama, last year’s international skateboarding competition, had even begun. But he still competed. “I got hit by a car following last year’s pre-party so I didn’t do as well as I could have in the competition… Continue

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  Ten first dates

  You send that potential lover a Valentine to let them know you’re interested, and to see if they might be interested too. A true go-getter, Lisa May went about things in a more direct way. The single, 35-year-old Kiwi girl came home from London last year despite… Continue

• Police fingerprint Museum staff

  POLICE expert Julian Atkins was called in to fingerprint Museum of Wellington City and Sea Director Brett Mason on Friday. But his prints were not taken for a recently committed crime, more so for an historic crime, committed in Wellington in 1905. Mason’s… Continue

• Detergent war

  ACTION for Environment has accused East by West ferries of using excessive amounts of detergent, thus polluting the harbour, affecting the Little Blue Penguins and the marine environment. Managing director Jeremy Ward says the allegations make his blood boil, as… Continue

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  About face on PACE

  THE Ministry of Social Development denies reports that PACE, which stands for Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment and is commonly referred to as ‘the artists’ benefit’, might end in Wellington. “In March 2011, Work and Income intends to seek expressions… Continue

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  Blown away

  ISLAND Bay man Alan McKay is a bubble scientist – his specialty is breaking world records. On August 9, 1996, McKay broke his own record for the longest bubble ever blown. “It was 105 feet long, although it could’ve been 115. The photographer ran out of room… Continue

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  Ring in the rabbit

  XIN Nian Kuai Le, Hui Ling Dun! - Happy New Year, Wellington! This week, Chinese New Year’s tenth year of celebration kicks off, with a fortnight full of festivities. Playing a vital role as a lion in the street parade on February 13 is four-year-old Ximing Dong… Continue

• Fish around in the Wairarapa

  SUPERFISH, the Wairarapa Sports Fishing Club’s main tournament, will be held at Castlepoint on Waitangi weekend. Last year, Stokes Valley fisherman Dave Jarvis won the award with his 157.5kg thresher shark – the first shark to be brought to the weigh station… Continue

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  What to wear

  FOR many the Sevens has become more about costumes and ‘dressing-up’ (or ‘dressing-down’) than sport. Capital Times spoke to Victoria University Associate Professor of Psychology Dr Marc Wilson who applies social psychological theory to important social issues.We… Continue

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  Deva's back

  DEVA Mahal doesn’t call any one place home, but there’s a big space in her heart reserved for Wellington. “It’s wonderful coming back, I feel I can breathe again. In the aeroplane on the way back I was looking up at the sky and I could feel the weight lifting… Continue

• Teenspeak

  “HEY, up2?” “School soon, so excited, den. Lunch?” “Totz could go for a feed, chur.” You follow? Unless you’re a Welly teen, you’re probably in the dark. A new, abbreviated language has emerged since the advent of mobile phone and online communication. Most of… Continue

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  Rhythm in the air

  BOTH Fungisai Foto and Sam Manzanza become hyper-animated when you talk about music, especially if you ask how Africans feel about it. “Music is our life. We breathe it. We eat it,” says Foto. “People look at Africa and think, ‘how can they survive like this?’… Continue

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  Get a move on

  DANCERS from around the world have gathered on Cuba Street for Choreolab 2011; an event devised by Deirdre Tarrant, director of Footnote Dance and Tarrant studios. Carefully selected dancers have two weeks to experiment, network, and study alongside masterclass… Continue

• No love in the air

  MUSIC festival One Love, held in celebration of Bob Marley’s birthday on Waitangi Day, has been cancelled for the first time in 13 years. Dave Gibbons, who jokes he’s been station manager at Active for “far too long”, says times are hard for small business. “I… Continue

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  No booze for Pinky

  THE holiday season is over, along with boozy lunches by the beach, and, if the Alcohol Reform Bill is passed, cheap alcohol will disappear too. A Law Commission review of alcohol use has prompted Downtown Community Ministry (DCM) to launch a campaign for submissions… Continue

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  Being Neil Pardington

  Photographer Neil Pardington could be mistaken for a better-looking John Malkovich. The director/producer/designer/writer has just had a full-body massage, and a baby girl. His calm, artistic air evokes that Malkovichian charm, which settles itself like dew on… Continue

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  Last week of magic

  GARDENS magic is almost over for 2011, with just under a week’s musical entertainment left to go. Jessie Moss and James Coyle combine to form folk-rock outfit Jessie James and the Outlaws, joined too by members of bands like Hikoikoi, Fly My Pretties, Spartacus… Continue

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  Chinese violinist  brings in the New Year

  CHINESE New Year will be marked by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra this year when Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang performs in Postcards from Exotic Places – a Chinese New Year. Yang, since she was 11, has been startling people all round the world with her remarkable… Continue

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  Heat is on

  A WELLINGTON theatre production is the first to be powered completely off the grid. Heat, written by Lynda Chanwai-Earle, tells the story of scientist lovers wintering over in Antarctica. Chanwai-Earle wanted to emulate conditions in Antarctica for her play,… Continue

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  Top Taranaki tart

  Artist Dale Copeland thinks living in Taranaki lends itself to creativity. “I joke that it’s something in the water but it’s just a good place to live. You can give yourself the freedom to play, the time to make things and to create,” she says. The topography… Continue

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  Tongue in chic

  SATURDAY is Cup Day, and the media, women’s dressing rooms and phone lines are abuzz with advice on “what to wear to race day”. While surely delivered with the best of intentions, the advice can be overwhelming. Capital Times has taken the time to compile a simpler… Continue

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  Beastly pets

  ‘Picnic time for teddy bears. The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today’, goes the song. Everyone’s invited with all, or any of their favourite teddies, to Wellington’s annual Teddy Bear’s Picnic. One year an eager picniker brought 106 of her ursine… Continue

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  Worth a kiss

  WHO ever said men can’t multitask? Tim Harrington, frontman of New York band Les Savy Fav, can kiss multiple audience members, swagger round drinking wine straight from the bottle, and change costume onstage, while leading his band to the frenetic and contagious… Continue

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  Ladyhawke leads the way

  PIP Brown is back in town – this time, to perform. St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival will showcase the internationally renowned pop songstress Ladyhawke, originally from Masterton, but whom Wellington strongly claims as our own, at the alternative music festival on… Continue

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  Free yourself

  MUSICIAN Finn Andrews may feel like a fraud, but his musical success came earlier than most Kiwis. As frontman for The Veils, a band that started in New Zealand, Andrews lives in the UK after moving there when he was 17. “I went there to record my first album,… Continue

• Market place grows, now it’s Newtown

  NEWTOWN has a new weekly fruit and vege market as well as its monthly People’s Market. Located alongside the market at Newtown School it boasts one of Wellington’s cheapest fruit and vege markets – an  alternative to the supermarket and increasingly packed… Continue

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  Come on ma wee lass

  EVEN if you have two left feet, you can still dance a highland jig. Well not quite, but you could definitely give Scottish Country Dance lessons a go, says Island Bay Scottish Country Dance Club President and tutor Elaine Lethbridge. This week the dance club… Continue

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  Jailed, but no crime

  THE Wellington film community and human rights activists are indignant over the jailing of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Late last year Panahi was jailed for six years and banned from leaving Iran, and making films or scriptwriting for 20 years. Panahi was… Continue

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  Homeware killed the video store

  AMALGAMATED Video on Taranaki Street is no more. The popular inner-city video rental store has been bought by Briscoe Group Limited. The store will not re-locate and five full-time staff members have lost their jobs. “It’s the end of an era,” says full-time staff… Continue

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  Home again

  AROUND 50,000 highly-charged fans will hear Shihad, one of three Wellington bands playing the Big Day Out on January 21. Also there will be happy rapper Tommy Ill and Flying Nun darling Grayson Gilmour. Front-man Jon Toogood welcomed himself home to NZ with some… Continue

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  Make your point

  WHAT do you want at Point Dorset? Plans for the undeveloped coastal hillside, sitting above Breaker Bay beach at the entrance to Wellington Harbour, are currently being discussed, and public submissions called for.  “We want to know what you like about it… Continue

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  Extra, Extra! Read all about it

  Melody Thomas was asked if she wanted to be an unpaid extra in Wellington musician Barnaby Weir’s new solo video. What? Not paid to hang out with great people in costume, drink free beer and listen to good local music? It was a tough choice but in the interests… Continue

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  Make friends with skinny people

  SERIOUS about losing that post-Summer holiday flab? Laurence Toime, a PhD graduate from Cambridge University and former Wellingtonian, investigated the fundamental processes thought to play a role in diseases like ageing, obesity and diabetes. The findings may… Continue

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  Island Christmas

  MUSICIAN, composer, performer and teacher, Jhan Lindsay, moved to Wellington from Dairy Flat, her rural home just north of Auckland, at 17. She studied saxophone at The Conservatorium of Music, now The New Zealand School of Music, eventually changing her major… Continue

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  A pakeha marae

  CIRCA Theatre’s first play for 2011, The Motor Camp, is also a first for the world. Written by Kiwi Dave Armstrong, the play is based on a 1980s story idea by director and best friend Danny Mulheron. It is a verbal jigsaw puzzle of “pretty much everything Dave’s… Continue

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  All the world’s a stage

  WHAT would you do with a complete stranger, a bunch of small figurines and a little eyedropper bottle of fluid that looks suspiciously like blood? Well you wouldn’t need to worry about what to do, because the headphones you’d be wearing at the Matterhorn in Downstage’s… Continue

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  Be well-rounded

  Mayor Celia-Wade Brown studied te reo, French, speed reading, scuba diving, dived in the Wellington harbour, and took ballroom dancing lessons - when she was 11. “I was hopeless,” she says laughing. Now, she is suggesting to Wellington City Councillors that they… Continue

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  Celebrate the festival season

  A high music festival-to-population ratio in New Zealand means there’s New Year’s entertainment to suit all tastes. Capital Times looks at four of the biggest festivals for 2010. IF you’re about to partake in the annual migration to the New Year festivals… Continue

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  Real time shots

  THERE’S a digital craze that’s sweeping the globe, but Dion Howard’s going back to the old ways. He used to make his money as a wedding photographer, but deciding that the market was saturated – “there were 117 people offering wedding photography services” -… Continue

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  With great pride

  THE achievements of Wellington youth were celebrated last weekend at the Pride Awards. “As a community sometimes we forget to say thank you to young people,” says Amani Younis, director of ceremony and event coordinator. “Their families were so happy, a hundred… Continue

• Party in town this N.Y.E.

  WELLINGTON waterfront is the new ‘place to be’ this New Year’s eve if you are stuck in the city. The Wellington City Council has scrapped the annual Civic Square band shindig. Instead of being crammed into the square you can now watch roving buskers and performers… Continue

• Let them play!

  WELLINGTON percussionist Andreas Lepper is the kind of man you wish was your grandfather. He has a fabulously dry sense of humour made better by his thick German accent and he’s very, very funky. Lepper’s been a part of many of our greatest bands since he moved… Continue

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  Hip hopping home

  KING Kapisi may look tough, but the hip hop rapper, scratcher, and all-round musician can sing like an angel. “I’ve always got my serious look but I’m a smiley guy,” he says. “I’m very passionate about what I do and have to tour internationally so you have to… Continue

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  Do tell, Jutel

  WELLINGTONIAN Annemarie Jutel is a health expert with a refreshingly different view on weight issues. She thinks fat people need to be cut some slack, although she says it more eloquently than that. “We have to liberate ourselves from the measurement stuff. There’s… Continue

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  Artists told to try again

  CREATIVE New Zealand has told six Wellington-based arts organisations to “have another shot” at getting into the new Arts Leadership Investment programme. Downstage Theatre, Footnote Dance, Vector Wellington Orchestra, Arts Access Aotearoa, Choirs Aotearoa New… Continue

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  Motocade, merriment and meat

  EDEN Mulholland, guitarist and vocalist for Motocade, the “emotive without being heavy” Auckland band, used to be a professional dancer. His wife Erin is still a dancer, and a butcher. Mulholland wouldn’t mind learning the butchery trade as well. “I go down… Continue

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  We’re off to see the wizard

  YOU could say Deirdre Tarrant’s dancers are well into character for her dance studio’s annual production. So much so that Tarrant calls her dancers Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and so on, even when they aren’t in costume. Dorothy is played by Sophia… Continue

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  They! Love! Us!

  Dunedin punk/noise/pop band Die! Die! Die! might be from the south, but they do love our city. Guitarist and vocalist Andrew Wilson interviewed drummer Michael Prain on the subject. You have been quite vocal about Wellington being your favourite place to… Continue

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  New Zealand flag marks history

  FOR the first time ever, the French Navy is flying a foreign flag. And that flag just happens to be a New Zealand one. “This is the first time in the life of the ship that we have [flown] a foreign flag on the mast. [The] New Zealand flag is pretty nice,” says… Continue

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  Too busy, already

  A PAIR of brothers is disproving the adage that family partnerships don’t work. Half brothers actually, Shepherd Elliott and Jesse Simpson – both former Logan Brown employees – have taken over the Wellington institution that was Katipo Café on Willis Street and… Continue

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  Wound closes

  WELLINGTON’S long-trusted piercing shop Flesh Wound will close its doors next week. Owner Hamish Halley, who has about 23 piercings of his own, is shutting up shop after 14 years of trading to seek a different kind of life in Northland. “I’m after a change… Continue

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  This is more fun

  IF the $85 ticket price for the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards is pushing it on a Christmas-time budget, perhaps the Chapman Kips is more your thing. Both the awards celebrate practitioners of theatre, they are both on at the same time of year and their names sound… Continue

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  She’s a modern soul

  SHARON Jones – a former prison guard who’s on her way to sing in Wellington – has more relevance today than soul legends Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight & The Pips, says the founder of Rip It Up magazine, Murray Cammick. Cammick founded rip it up 30 years… Continue

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  Go get ‘em, tiger!

  WELLINGTON lawyer and band manager James Mason has won a three-month contract working with the organisers of Gisborne music festival Rhythm and Vines, and he is “pumped”. “I’m really excited, although it’s bittersweet. The other guys [in the competition] are… Continue

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  The people’s poet

  PAULINE O’Reilly Leverton’s father Bill O’Reilly died when she was 12. Pauline set about collecting every piece of information she could find about her dad, a prominent member of the Communist Party New Zealand and national secretary of the unemployed workers movement.… Continue

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  Want to sail away?

  YOU could sail to Oriental Parade, park up your yacht, do your shopping, sip a flat white and watch your kids sail away, if you like the proposed waterfront plans. Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club has spent nine months with the council drawing up a social restoration… Continue

• What’s love got to do with it?

  NEW Zealanders are searching for love. Last Thursday, Google released the results of New Zealanders’ most-searched topics online for 2010 and the question ‘What is love?’ ranked second to: ‘What is facebook?’ Perhaps Kiwis should search for love on facebook to… Continue

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  Singing it in style

  MIRAMAR South School doesn’t do a school fair, instead the choir sings. The vocally strong choir sung their hearts out during lunchtime on Lambton Quay and Manners Mall last week, and business people stopped in their tracks to look and listen and enjoy the big… Continue

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  She wants an ice rink

  SIX-YEAR-OLD Ash Dearnley wants to be an ice skate dancer even though she has no skates. However, she loves to roller-blade and now Ash has her own facebook page ‘Let’s Build Wellington an ice rink’. “I want to be an ice skate dancer or a famous ballerina…… Continue

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  Enough Said

  Our story about the downfall of the Espresso Republic café in Featherston St, the tribulations of its owner John Matias,  and Bob Jones’ allegations about him which appeared in the window of the premises after Matias left, elicited the following letter from… Continue

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  Surf champions

  THE Titahi Bay Surf Life Saving Club has dominated the competition yet again. The first round of the national surfboat champs was held at Titahi Bay beach last weekend, and the local club beat a dozen teams, including top rivals Piha, to take the open men’s title.… Continue

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  Bus drivers “taking it easy”

  WELLINGTON bus drivers are “on edge”. Three people have been injured by GO Wellington buses since the former pedestrian-only Manners Mall re-opened to buses on November 28 and Wellington Tramways Union President Nick Kelly says the majority of bus drivers are… Continue

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  Clean your plate

  ROBYN Langlands, a women’s refuge volunteer said: don’t throw food away! She was inspired when fast food retailer Wishbone offered the charity its prepared, but unsold, food. Langlands picked the food up, but she found that often supply exceeded demand. So she… Continue

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  Festive tales

  RANGIMOANA Taylor’s cousins used to get a whole orange for Christmas, which was a treat. Even though with his large extended family, the citrus would be shared. And to get a whole box of chocolates was unheard of. The children instead got one or two and they’d… Continue

• Chapman Tripp results

  Critics Wild Card: End Game - Kenny King and Rebekah Sherrat Brancott Estate Award for Most Original Production of the Year: The Arrival - Red Leap Theatre Company Downstage Theatre Award for the Most Promising Male Newcomer of the Year: Paul Waggott – Dog… Continue

• Chat with the Mayor

  COUNCILLORS went face-to-face with the public last Wednesday in the first ‘Meet the Mayor and Councillors’ day. “And this time the councillors did the least talking,” says Wellington City councillor Paul Eagle, who is in charge of the community engagement portfolio.… Continue

• We’re not dysfunctional

  RESULTS are in from the Pricewaterhouse Coopers review of how Wellington might be governed in the future. Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy who is leading the Wellington Regional Governance Review says, “We need to make sure that we have the right processes in place… Continue

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  Beer Necessities Survey 2010

  Heading down the quality road One of the encouraging themes from this year’s Beer Necessities survey is the increasing quality of New Zealand beer. Last year’s survey offered up 8 beers scoring 4 out of 5 points, this year we have been able to make up a… Continue

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  It’s just a jump to the left

  When asked whether Juan Jackson – who plays womaniser, murderer and mad scientist Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show – is like his character in real life, he replies: “I am a bisexual mad scientist”. He concedes that he’s not, but “there’s much more to Frank-N-Furter… Continue

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  The intricate art of writing

  Bruce Mason Playwriting Award finalist Eli Kent is so cool you almost don’t want to like him. It’s like not wanting to admit you read The Da Vinci Code or that you liked Eat, Pray, Love (the book) – it’s just not as much fun liking something that everyone else… Continue

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  Eating out

  SUMMER’S come early this year, and restaurants and cafés with lovely areas are in high demand. Here are a few of Wellington’s best spots for sunshine, kai and a beer. The Southern Cross, Abel Smith Street, Wellington Voted Best Outdoor Bar in the annual… Continue

• Opera in the trees

  OPERA is again heading to Rhona Frasers’ Days Bay garden to capitalise on the natural acoustics of the place. Rossini’s The Journey to Rheims, based on the coronation of Charles X, is reinvigorated in Andrew Porter’s English translation of the story. The opera… Continue

• Import for Wellington

  An Australian, Damien Wright from Victoria, will play for the Wellington Firebirds at the Basin Reserve this weekend. The opening bowler will join the other international, England’s Luke Wright, on Saturday and Sunday against the Otago Volts and the Canterbury… Continue

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  Beating those Aussies

  THE ROYAL Port Nicholson Yacht Club’s under 21 match racing team is making its name in Australia. Last week Tim Coltman, Michael Trudgen, Matt Clough, and Hana Maguire beat seven other teams to clean up the Harken regatta in Newport, New South Wales, and after… Continue

• Arty inception

  WELLINGTON artists are going all potty. Ceramics and handmade crafts are featuring strongly at the Christmas cash and carry show at The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. “Appreciation for craft-based works has emerged over the past year. People are starting… Continue

• Memories of  last century

  People who’d flocked to Te Papa on a recent sunny Sunday were going bonkers over its exhibition Slice of Heaven, which brought back memories for people of all ages. It features glass cases of memorabilia from our country’s past. It’s real New Zealand stuff. From… Continue

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  Fantasy artists

  The days when the realms of science fiction and fantasy illustration were just for geeks and social escapists are fast passing us by. Following the global popularity of The Lord of the Rings and the associated Weta, something that was once an ostracised pastime… Continue

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  When in doubt, sing

  Bryan Crump is best known as the friendly and inquisitive nighttime host on Radio New Zealand National. He’s also musical director and performer in local choral group Doubtful Sounds, although he likes to put it Frank Zappa once did; the songs are “produced,… Continue

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  Moa music, please

  There’s a pair of very talented songwriters heading our way, one outrageous and hilarious, one sweet and grounded. What they have in common is that they are unashamedly themselves, unwilling to bend to suit others. Lucky us. ANIKA Moa has her face and name… Continue

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  Return our trees, please

  SOMEBODY in Wilton is stealing from children. Twice in the past month, the children at Wilton Playcentre have arrived to find fruit-bearing trees and plants missing from their garden. “In the first burglary, a ripe lemonade tree and an apple tree that were… Continue

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  Roaring success

  COUNTING COINS might seem a happy way to spend your time. And when they’re for your own charity, great. But four and a half tonnes? Silverstream Lions president Roy Peterson has spent the past three weeks counting coins. Heads up for Kids is a nationwide Lions… Continue

• Beam me international

  There’ll be no excuses now for our diplomats abroad not to know and promote New Zealand films.   The Government’s Cultural Diplomacy Programme has a long list of long and short films  available in its “The Film Showcase” catalogue which will be managed… Continue

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  Heartbeat

  Psychologists have found that the majority of our clearest and most vivid memories come from the period between adolescence and young adulthood, a time they call our “reminiscence bump”. Retired lawyer Doug Webb’s reminiscence bump features many memories of Miramar,… Continue

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  The redhead is back

  JULIA Deans, better known for fronting Fur Patrol, is a dag. On the phone to Capital Times she asks for a minute. Then in the background a man (John Toogood, Shihad’s frontman) says: I want to tell you about it.” Deans laughs. “You can’t tell me about penis… Continue

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  Aint no mountain high enough

  Facebook entry: Haha. Why is a funeral home a sponsor for this event!? Answer: Because the music is great, the lineup is fantastic, so yehaaa ... go funeral homes! AN EVENING dreamed up by a specialist in care for people who are seriously ill or suffering… Continue

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  Beam me up

  “THIS is the best Christmas tree ever! I love Telecom!” It’s not often you’d hear something like this shouted on the streets of Wellington, especially from a 20-something. Nevertheless, this sentiment was overheard last year underneath the 27-metre tall Telecom… Continue

• Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 2010 nominations are:

  THE theatre world is awaiting the standout plays of the year. Winners are to be announced at The Opera House on December 5. Brancott Award for Most Original Production of the Year: 360 – A Nightsong Productions and Theatre Stampede collaboration, The Arrival… Continue

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  Put a ring around it

  KARL Fritsch’s jewellery is unlike any other. “Good,” says Fritsch, “I would have to stop making it if you said you’d seen it before.” For the past few years, the German-born jeweller has made nothing but rings. “I like the format. I can try it all on and… Continue

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  Theatre Critics on the other side of the fence

  DO you ever read a theatre, movie, or music review and think: grrr....anyone could do better than that? Well here’s your chance, if you’re game, to write a review for the Theatreview website. Capital Times’ theatre reviewer Lynn Freeman and film reviewer Dan… Continue

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  Minge binge

  While the cast and crew are all feminists, the real “f” word in a new play at Bats Theatre, is fun. You might be able to tell that by its name. MINGE minge minge minge minge. Minge. Miiiiiiiiinge. What this isn’t is a superficial attempt to draw you into… Continue

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  Exterior decorator

  IF you’re not familiar with his work already, you soon will be. The paintings of the man who calls himself Drypnz are slowly taking over Wellington’s walls, from opposite Massey University’s entrance at the top of Taranaki Street to the front wall of the Japanese… Continue

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  Meet a survivor

  FIFTEEN years ago Beate Lutz, then aged 31, and her then partner were diagnosed HIV positive. Pae Green lived with it for some six years, until he killed himself. Whether it was through the guilt of “giving it to me” or just not coming to terms with it – he’s… Continue

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  Don’t poison the ducks

  WELLINGTON City Councillor Ngaire Best is appealing to Kelburn and Northland residents to be aware of what goes down the drain. The pond at Botanic Garden was turned white last week by, what council believes, was someone washing paintbrushes and allowing the… Continue

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  What’s a moustache worth?

  LAST week, Les Stone shaved off his 40-year-old moustache for charity. “This morning I woke up and thought: “Oh God, I’ve lost a good old friend,” he says. In fact Les has given himself a cold, although whether that’s related to stress or just the loss of a… Continue

• Remember your Manners

  WELLINGTONIANS will be glad to know the new Golden Mile bus route officially opens this Sunday, November 28. The speed limit will also change to 30km, and will apply all the way from the railway station to the end of Courtenay Place. The Council is urging particular… Continue

• Summer is here

  IT’S time to don the trunks and hit the outdoor pools. Swimming season has begun. The 30 metre Khandallah summer pool opens on Saturday, November 27. The Thorndon Summer Pool, which was built in 1924, opened on Labour Weekend, and, what’s more – it’s heated!… Continue

• Live theatre for Petone

  PETONE’S about to get a new space for live theatre, and it’s opening in the spirit of Christmas. Actress Geraldine Brophy will perform her one-woman play Mrs Merry’s Christmas Concert at THE BOX, a space created by Brophy and her partner. “It’s the first little… Continue

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  Staying alive

  BROKE former café owner John Matias is says high rents will change the Wellington we know and love, “When people can’t afford the rent the big names move in. Streets become predictable, like Auckland’s Queen Street, and you don’t go there for fun anymore.” A month… Continue

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  Slow steps anger residents

  CONCRETE pouring has finally begun on the Wellington City Council’s $965,000 Drummond Street upgrade, which is at least four months behind schedule. Repairs on a pedestrian walkway leading from Hanson to Tasman Streets in Newtown began in the first week of June… Continue

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  Drag king

  WAINUIOMATA drag racer Darren Richies is the proud recipient of four trophies after competing in the Port Road Drags over the weekend. Richies won awards for best engine and fastest closed car, as well as taking out the top class and scooping the trophy for overall… Continue

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  The great escapist

  Eva Prowse is sassy, but not immediately so. Melody Thomas reports on the hidden complexity of the singer who’s hailed to be pretty damn good. ON first impression musician Eva Prowse comes across as very sweet and perhaps a little shy. Soldier on through… Continue

• Klezmerising Houdini

  THE word “Klezmer” translates to “Vessel of sound”. “Klezmer music reflects the joys and sorrows of the human voice. You can hear laughs and cries in the music, especially in the violin and clarinet,” says David Weinstein, guitarist, mandolin player and vocalist… Continue

• Vienna highlight

  PLAYING in Vienna was the highlight of my musical life. Everything in Vienna was so perfect - the buildings and the city, everywhere was art. The Musikverein is overwhelming; shimmering and beautiful. I didn’t feel nervous at all, just so excited. It was such… Continue

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  Bird songs

  DUDLEY Benson makes beautiful music. His latest album, Forest: Songs by Hirini Melboune, interweaves elements of barbershop, choral and folk music with beat boxing, ethereal harmony and bird mimicry. The entire album is made up of human voice, except contributions… Continue

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  Do not pass go

  JIM Moriarty, the Wellington actor remembered for his part in television soap Close to Home in the 70s and 80s – for those too young to remember, Shortland Street is its modern equivalent - is not just writing plays. He’s set up the Te Rakau Trust 21 years ago.… Continue

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  What are they on about?

  ADVERTISERS and designers usually keep Kiss, keep it simple stupid, to the fore when spending money on billboards. This billboard, prominently displayed to suburb-bound users of Whitmore Street, defies that premise. A range of passersby including musicians,… Continue

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  Get a date with Wayne

  DATES. They’re Wayne Hosie’s reason for existence right now. He’s put together a collection of photographs from throughout the city, after being inspired to do the two-and-a-half year project during his Absolutely Positively Doors poster montage of photographs… Continue

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  Higher taste

  CRAIG Lambert was upset when he heard new age bookshop Pinnacle Books is shifting. “Sometimes you go to a place and you get lost: forget about time and space,” says Lambert, who likes to spend up to an hour at a time in the bookshop on Willis Street. “The people… Continue

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  Grae’s Anatomy

  TWO Wellington gigs in less than a year? New York’s Jean Grae must be damn fond of our city. Or long plane trips. RAPPER Jean Grae really wants to be a ninja. “My ninja training’s going pretty good,” she says, before two loud beeps sound out from accidentally… Continue

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  With change, other change surely follows

  WELLINGTON’S new council is already changing the way the city operates. New Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown has begun instigating one of the platforms she stood on – more inclusivity and better communication in the council – by offering up December 1 as a day… Continue

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  Fact or fiction?

  KAYLA Imrie, New Zealand representative flat water kayaker has been using a Power Balance bracelet since June this year to help her speed and power in the water. She’s no water novice, at 18 years of age she’s been a member of the Paekakariki Surf Lifesaving… Continue

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  The love maker

  HER business card reads “Kura Scott – Love facilitator”. The accompanying picture, a sweet, curly-haired cupid shot dead in the back with an arrow, suggests the whole thing might be a bit tongue-in-cheek. “It is a bit of a joke really,” says Scott. “I’ve always… Continue

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  Decide for yourself

  DECIDE for yourself. That’s what Rob Appierdo wants you to do. Inspired by American anti-consumerism mag - Adbusters – he’s directing a play that challenges our capitalist system. It’s Everything is OK, a Bats Theatre 2010 Stab commission. He doesn’t want… Continue

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  Superstar Pasifika

  WELLINGTONANIONS took out two of five Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards on Monday night. The annual awards aim to encourage and honour New Zealanders in Pacific Arts. Painter, sculptor and printmaker Michel Tuffery won the Contemporary Pacific Artist’s… Continue

• Hop to it

  MOUNT Victoria is set to get a new local. The Hop Garden will open mid-December in the blue-and-white glass-roofed building on Pirie Street that used to house Greek Taverna Kosmos. The bar is the latest project by James Henderson, owner of Bar Edward in Newtown.… Continue

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  Liquored up

  THE number of liquor outlets (including restaurants and cafes) in Wellington increased by almost 300 percent in the ten years to 2008. The number was 231 in 1998, and nearly 700 ten years later, according to the NZ Drug Foundation. Government will table in… Continue

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  Bold as bras

  IT’S competition time for home sewers and their blinging new bras. Wellington designer and The Fashion Workshop sewing teacher Jenny Deonarain organised the Bling My Bra competition. One of her ideas, pictured, was a bra decorated with home sewing materials,… Continue

• Invest in artists

  HOW much is the arts and culture sector worth to Wellington City? A survey commissioned by the Wellington City Council is attempting to quantify the economic contribution of Wellington arts. Around 35-40 people in music, theatre, dance, and visual arts, are being… Continue

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  Tasty Taquería

  If you’re after a taste of true Mexico here in Wellington, head down Left Bank, off Cuba Street to Taquería Viva Mexico. Capital Times’ reporter Melody Thomas is addicted to their cheese (and more cheese) enchiladas, but has tried almost every option on the menu.… Continue

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  Turn back the pages

  In the 1980s, eight-year-old Briton Sam Trubridge, his brother, and his mum and dad packed up their life and sailed to New Zealand in a boat. They sought warmer climates than those in Europe. Hawkes Bay – open spaces, sandy beaches, and warmth – seemed a good… Continue

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  Absentee cowgirl

  “HOW many cows, Robert?” pop star Bonnie Tyler calls across the room to her husband. She’s owned an 800 acre, 1000 cow dairy farm in Taupo for 25 years, but this year was the first time she’s seen it. In fact, this year is the first time she’s even been to New… Continue

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  Fashionista goes cycling

  “I don’t do sport,” says Wellington fashion guru Penny Barnett, who never has. But suddenly she does. She’s become a cyclist. From her cottage in Martinborough she has become involved with former horsewoman Catriona Williams, and her Catwalk charity for spinal… Continue

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  Adventures in Palestine for Kiwi Islamist

  Mousa Taher, 23, has just returned from the Kia Ora Gaza mission, which distributed $7 million of medical supplies to the Gaza Strip. It changed his life. “The children walking over the bricks of their destroyed homes, their mother putting up a tent, their… Continue

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  Buy a book for Bougainville

  LOWER HUTT born author Lloyd Jones believes in the power of books; he’s organising an event where they’ll be sold to raise money for a building where they’ll be housed. The man who wrote staple Kiwi-reading The Book of Fame and Mister Pip is fundraising for a… Continue

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  Kiwi heroes made in Wellington

  OPERATION Hero, a children’s television programme to be made by Wellington-based production company Gibson Group, has been granted $400 000 in NZ On Air’s latest funding round. Producer Bevin Linkhorn says the “factual entertainment” programme, which begins production… Continue

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  Students on a world stage

  NEW Zealand School of Dance has scored a world-class choreographer to lead one of its graduation dances. Jirí Kylián, who choreographs the Kylián programme sponsored by the Dutch Embassy, is a significant figure in the dance world. He’s choreographed some 100… Continue

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  What goes on, on tour?

  Wellington’s NZSO violinist Pam Jiang gives Capital Times a taste of her first international tour. IT’S concert day in Shanghai and we’ve just arrived at expo. Our instruments were freighted over so it’s been quite weird without my violin - normally it’s… Continue

• Vector resurrector

  AUDIENCES can’t get enough of Vector Wellington Orchestra. Recent analysis of subscription numbers, or numbers of people booking more than two shows in advance, shows an increase of 662% in the past four years. Vector Wellington Orchestra music director Marc… Continue

• Playtime

  TE Ara Hou Apartments in Newtown will open their new playground this weekend, completing the housing improvements in that complex. The improvements are part of a $400million project by the Wellington City Council to improve social housing, which will take 18 years… Continue

• Rich cruise

  CRUISE New Zealand says Wellington will get 280 more jobs as more cruise ships visit the city. Nationally, the industry has increased from 27 cruises and 19,000 passengers in the 1996/97 season, to 81 cruises catering for 109,951 passengers in 2009/10. The… Continue

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  Versify

  MERCEDES Webb-Pullman wants poetry to be something everyone can enjoy. “It shouldn’t be kept just for special occasions. I’d like poetry to be something we’re in contact with all the time in the ordinary world,” she says. With this in mind she entered the Whitireia… Continue

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  Who’s the man?

  THE Elston Gun boys get along so well they have to make up reasons to fight. “We have battles to decide who’s the alpha male,” says guitarist and vocalist Seamus Johnson. “Mostly they’re battles of wit but sometimes they’re physical, like who can run faster or… Continue

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  Go Fish

  Each week we’ll talk to people in the know about the things that make life richer. This week, fishing, of which Herbert Hoover said “Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” A… Continue

• Nothing like it for thirty years

  TE PAPA’s biggest exhibition – and in fact the country’s biggest – since the 1980 Thyssen-Bornemisza exhibition at the National Art Gallery starts on Saturday. “We’ve had nothing like this for 30 years,” Te Papa curator of European art Victoria Robson says of… Continue

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  Clowning glory

  They’re a regular installment at children’s birthday partiesbut, the fear of clowns, or coulrophobia, is so common that a three-day music festival Bestival on the Isle of Wight had to cancel its clown-themed fancy dress after several requests from clown phobics.… Continue

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  Good shepherd

  WELLINGTON photographer and designer Pat Shepherd is waiting for a rebuff that never seems to come. “I send so many emails to friends and musicians telling them about my latest projects. I keep expecting a reply that says ‘can you please stop spamming me?’” he… Continue

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  Cracked but not out

  LOWER Hutt ballerina Alayna Ng is sitting The Nutcracker out after she snapped her right knee, causing a serious hamstring injury. “It’s a real shame that I’m not able to dance this last production. It’s Gary’s last season with the company. He hired me so I would… Continue

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  On yer bike!

  MOUNTAIN biking isn’t just for the super fit or experienced. Wellington City Council and Makara Peak Supporters Group are giving everyone a chance to have a go, with free guided tours of Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park – which last week tied for first in the New… Continue

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  Get your learn on

  IT’s an interesting week for Wellington knowledge-seekers. Clearly Wellington citizens are thirsting for knowledge as well as coffee. We looked at five independent lectures and seminars happening around the city. Games in Greece On Wednesday the Olympic… Continue

• Better place to bike

  MAKING Wellington a better place is the aim of the ASB Cycle Friendly Awards. The Wellington finalists are: - Revolve Training for its down-to-earth cycling for women project, with a goal to provide a range of free or low-cost programmes, clinics, groups rides… Continue

• Family matters

  THEY may not have won seats in the elections, but at least they found each other. Sharon Blaikie, who missed out on a Wellington City Council seat in the Onslow-Western Ward and Dianne Buchan, who missed out on a Greater Wellington Regional Council seat, found… Continue

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  Art for school’s sake

  WELLINGTON artist Anna Stichbury – who has her gallery in Island Bay - didn’t wait to be invited into Artbourne. She believes in fostering creativity so much that when she heard Wellesley College – the school her brothers went to – was again staging Artbourne… Continue

• Snap, crackle, pop

  IT’S the season for fireworks. So market-organisers have jumped on the festival bandwagon and put together a Guy Fawkes art evening market for the Frank Kitts carpark. The market will include more than 40 craft stalls, and will open specially from 6pm to 9pm… Continue

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  Onboard health

  SHE’S new and she’s got ideas. Barbara Donaldson is one of two newbies elected to Capital and Coast District Health Board –with David Choat. She ranked fourth on the polls behind existing members Judith Aitken, Helene Richie and Margaret Faulkner. “Which isn’t… Continue

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  A songwriter in pictures

  Barry Saunders is best known as the guitarist and vocalist for NZ musical institution the Warratahs. A new project sees lyrics from his songs interpreted as arresting works of art. BARRY Saunders needs two places. He’s not sure why exactly, but it’s been… Continue

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  Free at Victoria

  ISRAELI cellist Inbal Megiddo, pictured, performs a chamber music recital on October 27 with accompaniment from Diedre Irons. The free recital, hosted by New Zealand School of Music, includes Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody, Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces and the Shostakovich… Continue

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  Writers be warned

  HOLLYWOOD scriptwriting guru Robert McKee’s famous book Story is rubbish. Well, that’s what we’re told by a character in Greg McGee’s brand new play Me and Robert McKee. Conrad Newport is directing the play, in which the audience act as writing students in… Continue

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  Apollo leap

  Brad Knewstubb - a Plimmerton man and his friend Kip Chapman want to go far with their play Apollo 13: Mission Control, and they’re negotiating a US launch of their spaceship. “We’d hope to be there by 2012. These things take a long, long, time,” says Knewstubb.… Continue

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  Rain under the umbrella

  WHEN Karloine Tamati, aka musician Ladi6, first moved to Wellington, she couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. “I lived here for a winter and really hated it. I remember holding my umbrella up in Brooklyn and the rain was hitting me from underneath… Continue

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  Aussie Aussie Aussie, out out out

  IF blunders like the Hobbit saga are not to occur again, Australian influence needs to withdraw from New Zealand, local actors are saying. “MEAA [Media Entertainment and Artists’ Alliance] has to go. That’s all that needs to happen. The issue here is that an… Continue

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  Culture is everything

  NEARLY everything Indian is enormously important for two Kiwi/Indian girls and their parents. Hasmukh and his wife Parvati Jeram arrived in New Zealand in 1977.  Their daughters: Vandana, 23, and Dharmistha, 20, born here, have both learned Gujarati and… Continue

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  Does my vagina look fat in this?

  The Colloquium series is a regular event held by Victoria University’s psychology department, where local and outside researchers give lectures that are open to the public. The latest talk came with a warning of ‘graphic’ images of female genitalia. Melody Thomas… Continue

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  Food from Jungle Afrika

  BARIKA Darboe is passionate about Africa. The Wellington-based entrepreneur and cultural champion has big plans to properly introduce Africa and New Zealand, first through a gig this month and later when he opens his own restaurant. Darboe says there are three… Continue

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  Elected diplomacy

  MAYOR-elect Celia Wade-Brown wants to include everyone in her decision-making process: but that doesn’t mean she’ll be trying to please everyone. One of her election platforms was an inclusive council, where everyone’s voice would be heard. “I’m hoping that… Continue

• Not a bus, risk a fine

  WELLINGTON City Council has been granted authority from the Commissioner of Police to monitor and fine people driving illegally in bus lanes. The council wants to educate people regarding behaviour on the roads given all the changes that occur with the opening… Continue

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  In a machine, no clothes

  IMAGINE a world where you’re the only person around, naked, in an incubator. For Wellington actor Francis Mountjoy, these aren’t just imaginings. He’s now stripped off everything to perform a one-man show about human conditioning. Mysteriously, the man – who… Continue

• Back to the future

  WHAT would you like to see Wellington looking like in 30 years time? The Wellington City Council asked residents last year for ideas to keep this city great. WCC has just released a statement outlining progress since initial data collection in September 2009.… Continue

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  Chinese-born Japan

  THERE’S a new Japanese variety store in Wellington, managed by a 22-year-old Chinese woman. Japan City is smack bang in the centre of Cuba Street, just up from the bucket fountain and its closest Western competitor The $2 Shop – although most goods vary from $3.45… Continue

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  Take a hike

  WELLINGTON looks set for a fine Labour Day weekend, and what better way to celebrate than with a good walk. Capital Times took a look at three top local jaunting spots. Otari-Wilton’s Bush in Karori is touted on its website as “the only public botanic garden… Continue

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  New Tourist

  This will be international travel of a different kind  for violinist Pam Jiang. she’s preparing to travel with 90 others on the most extensive trip the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has ever done. Jiang, 27, who began playing violin aged four, is Chinese-born,… Continue

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  So book right now

  BECAUSE the words “book” and “cool” use the same buttons on a phone, messages typed with the predictive text function can mistakenly send the wrong word. Teenagers caught onto this and substituted the two in spoken language, as in “OMG he is so book”. Some… Continue

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  Wellington farewells guitar stalwart

  MATTHEW MARSHALL is jumping countries after a final concert at Ilott Theatre. He’s been in Wellington for the past 20 years and is one of New Zealand’s leading classical guitarists, who has given master classes here and abroad and years ago studied under esteemed… Continue

• Film maker on tour

  WHEN Mark Williams, Film Archive’s exhibitions manager, was offered the chance to work on the collection of British filmmaker Malcolm Le Grice, he knew he couldn’t turn it down. “[He’s] probably the most important avant-garde film-maker in Britain to emerge in… Continue

• The big picture

  THERE are going to be no more dusty old brochures extolling the virtues of places around New Zealand at the Civic Square i-Site. Certainly not if they have no relevance to Wellington. The centre is getting interactive displays – similar to those at Te Papa… Continue

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  No stunt double here

  NEWTOWN’S Max Bell first came across the sport of parkour on YouTube. Parkour people get from one place to another as quickly as possible by adapting their movements to overcome any obstacle within their way. “It spread so fast online, before long it was in… Continue

• Six of the best

  It’s Capital Times birthday, 36 years and still counting, an achievement we are proud of. Not only is Wellington the creative capital, and increasingly business meetings may take place at cafés  but it’s also still a city where the dinner party news and good… Continue

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  Music map

  Wellington music author Chris Bourke took Capital Times’ reporter Melody Thomas on a tour of the city’s early music precinct.  CHRIS Bourke admits he is obsessed with music. However, the obsession has been legitimised with a long career as a writer,… Continue

• First time lucky

  LOCAL Body Election results have three new councillors taking a seat at the table. Justin Lester replaces Hayley Wain in the Northern Ward, Simon “Swampy” Marsh replaces Rob Goulden in the Eastern Ward and Paul Eagle has claimed the Southern Ward seat left empty… Continue

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  Education the key

  Naing Koko, a campaigner for ‘democracy in Burma’ fled Myanmar after seven years in jail for sticking up political posters in Rangoon. He’s now in Wellington calling for political change in his country, and talks to Rebekah Burgess. NAING Koko has dedicated… Continue

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  Family ties

  WELLINGTON Phoenix player Paul Ifill and his partner have launched a T-Shirt design competition in memory of their baby cousin George. When the two visited the UK earlier this year, George, aged one, was diagnosed with cancer and he died. During filming of… Continue

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  I got rhythm

  TWO Wellingtonians are in the running to become part of the Rhythm and Vines (R&V) team. The R&V Protégé competition asked applicants to apply for the competition by video and 76 hopefuls sought the chance to be what R&V call “the ultimate understudy”.… Continue

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  No more cuts

  PRELIMINARY results for the Capital and Coast District Health Board have been released. Two new members have been elected – David Choat and Barbara Donaldson - and both share a common message; no more funding cuts. In the candidate profile booklet sent out to… Continue

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  Lest we forget

  Although there is no official commemoration of the deadliest battle (for us) of the first World War the visiting Belgian Ambassador took a moment on Tuesday to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial More than 2700 New Zealanders who died at the battle of Passchendale… Continue

• Film me in

  MORE than 80 actors met in Wellington last Monday to discuss stalled Hobbit negotiations. Wellington actor Greg Ellis was one of a group of actors who spoke out last week in frustration over Hobbit negotiation tactics. “We wanted to get all the information… Continue

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  Wild things

  LORAE Parry has just published Bloomsbury Women & The Wild Colonial Girl, a play based on the life of Katherine Mansfield. It’s launched on October 14 here in Wellington, which just happens to be Katherine Mansfield’s 122nd birthday. “I had absolutely no… Continue

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  Oh, Joy

  YOU can meet New Zealand favourite Joy Cowley over a glass of wine this week. She’s talking with Lynn Freeman at Caffe L’affare on October 13 about her two latest books. Far from being a formal autobiography, Navigation: a memoir tells some of the stories of Cowley’s… Continue

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  Taste of Brazil

  THE Live Brazil Festival is about to kick off, and like most Latin American celebrations there will be colour, energy and good food in abundance. On top of that, everything in the programme is free. The festival opens at Te Papa on October 14 with New Zealand… Continue

• Strike out

  WARREN Maxwell is sitting in his car on the Rimutakas watching a storm unravel when he makes his admission. It’s not entirely true, but good news doesn’t make headlines, so he’s giving me dirt. “I’m having an affair with Strike. The other women in my lives,… Continue

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  Symphony of a songstress

  Continue

• Acting up

  LOCAL actors are beginning to speak out in dismay at how New Zealand Actors’ Equity negotiations surrounding The Hobbit have been handled. Hamish Brown has worked as an actor and as a crewmember in costuming on Peter Jackson’s productions in the past. “Without… Continue

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  Love at first jump

  THE latest Footnote Forte series is based around the theme of the environments we find ourselves in. One choreographer has chosen to meld this with an exploration of relationships, so we thought we’d follow suit. There are three people involved and two love stories.… Continue

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  Salute a Master

  TOP wine judge and connoisseur Raymond Chan is stepping down from his role at Regional Wines and Spirits after 16 years – with nothing lined up yet, you could say he’s making a leap of faith. Raymond Chan is Regional’s wine advisor and a shareholder. “I suppose… Continue

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  Slow start

  ISLAND Bay and Kilbirnie now have new speed limits: 30 km/h. The change is part of a four-year plan to reduce speed limits through Wellington’s shopping areas. The “Golden Mile”, which covers streets in the CBD that run between the railway station, Lambton Quay… Continue

• Midland Mansfield sculpture

  AN EVENING fundraiser for an $180,000 Midland Park sculpture for famed Wellington writer Katherine Mansfield is on October 13. Artists who’ve donated works for sale at the event in Premier House include Peter Trevelyan and Wayne Youle, and a rare edition of Mansfield’s… Continue

• Weekend parking change delayed

  WELLINGTON City Council has delayed the decision of reducing weekend parking time limits to two hours for a week to allow more investigation. Two people voiced their concerns at a full council meeting on September 29: The Very Reverend Frank Nelson, Dean of Wellington… Continue

• Slow vote

  VOTING returns are down slightly from what they were at this time last election round. Less than 20 percent of potential voters in Wellington have done so. This compares with slightly more than 20 percent at the same time in 2007. Wellington returns are lower… Continue

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  Outlaws, E Tu

  Jesse James and the Outlaws is not just a clever band name, it’s a pretty accurate reflection of the musicians in this up-and-coming Wellington folk act.  JESSIE Moss comes from a long line of outlaws. There are known Security Intelligence Service (SIS)… Continue

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  Funk yeah!

  METAPHORICALLY speaking, Riki Gooch wants to splatter your mind across a wall. His weapon of choice? The funk. You may know Riki Gooch from Trinity Roots, or perhaps you’re familiar with his more recent stuff. Reincarnated as the visionary behind live project… Continue

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  Wear it, baby

  THERE’S a new craze around the city. It’s all about wearing babies. And in the name of that, mums hope to get loud and proud on October 10 in an event designed to raise awareness of…that’s right, carrying babies. A group called Babywearing Wellington was initiated… Continue

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  Chaos and ecstacy

  DESIGN students are busy making 31 one-off scarves with a brief to marry theatre and textiles. The scarves are to be auctioned to fundraise for new furnishings at Downstage Theatre. Brittany O’Hara is a third-year Massey University design student. “Some of… Continue

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  Coffee, cake and poetry

  JRR. TOLKIEN is known to have said, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” The creative writing course at Whitireia Community Polytechnic understands this and has formulated a competition from it. Eat… Continue

• Different spokes

  THOSE who think riding a bike comes with compulsory lycra attire will find their opinions long outdated. Since 2008 Frocks on Bikes have been pushing the point that everyday women in everyday clothing can get about on bicycles too. This year they’re taking the… Continue

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  Best of Wellington 2010 Results

  WELLINGTON may be New Zealand’s capital city, but one of our Capital Times’ readers thinks ‘it’s just a big town with a heart’. You, our readers have made some great and interesting choices.. We’ve got winners in there who’ve topped lists again and again – from… Continue

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  Step in time

  WHAT began as a summer fling has turned into a 14-year commitment. The BeatGirls’ Carrie McLaughlin first joined up with the (self-confessed) manic trio after David Backler, friend of co-founder Andrea Sanders, auditioned her six months after the group’s inception.… Continue

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  Supermodel for a night

  Supermodel’s just recorded a debut album – and despite being fresh on the music scene has already hung out at London’s hottest venue and recorded with the same producer as Manic Street Preachers. SUPERMODEL recorded in the picturesque English Cotswolds… Continue

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  Stallion of the opera

  HE GREW up an all-star athlete from Central Otago, has a passion for horses, and a mother who drives taxis. It’s an unusual beginning for an acclaimed opera singer. Jud Arthur, in town to perform as Banquo in New Zealand Opera’s Verdi Macbeth, says he could… Continue

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  Rock on

  INTERNATIONAL travellers can catch a glimpse of Wellington’s new International Terminal. The $65 million dollar terminal looks a far cry from the traditional international departure point. “The copper cladding archways have a great presence in the international… Continue

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  I need the Dunny

  A SHIPMENT of toys is stuck in San Francisco while Cathay Pacific deals with 140 tonnes of backlog, but it’s the grown-up’s who are crying. The toy in question is a “Dunny” – a figure produced by US-based art toy creator Kidrobot that functions as a generic model… Continue

• World cup warm-up

  THE 2011 Rugby World Cup is less than a year away and Wellington’s tourism preparations are heating up. Coinciding with the RWC’s first match, next year’s Montana World of WearableArt Awards Show will run a week longer; InterCity Group has launched a bus to join… Continue

• Don’t vote for me

  PUBLIC Health director Mark Jacobs has withdrawn his bid for a place on the Capital and Coast District Health Board citing “potential conflicts of interest”. Votes already cast for Jacobs will not count. Wellington City Council electoral officer Ross Bly says… Continue

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  Sure to rise

  “IF these walls had ears,” must be especially true of kitchens. Based on the stories, recipes and secrets told in this space, Geraldine Brophy and daughter Bea Joblin have written a play about life, love and the universe. Extending the family involvement further,… Continue

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  Gumbo Gary

  GARY Jones loves Wellington food. “I think Wellington is the best food city in New Zealand by far,” he says. “It’s more cosmopolitan. The population’s a lot smaller so there’s a lot more competition – you’ve got to be good to get the customers.” Jones was born… Continue

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  Boogie-woogie fever

  THE life of boogie-woogie and ragtime piano queen Winifred Atwell will be celebrated on Sunday with a night of sparkly cabaret. Pianist Jan Preston, sister of Wellington filmmaker Gaylene, says her show is inspired by audiences who loved it when she played Atwell’s… Continue

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  Lovers, not fighters

  ART’s language is universal. Deadly, “a portrayal of a relationship between a man, a woman, and the seven deadly sins”, co-stars two Argentinean circus performers who speak broken English. But co-writer Deborah Pope says that’s no barrier to the production. … Continue

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  Smooth sailing

  WELLINGTON Olympic hopeful Josh Junior is one of two Kiwis to beat reigning world champion sailor Paul Goodison at the 2010 Laser World Championships in the UK. “It’s pretty awesome. It’s got to be my best regatta to date,” Junior, 20, said of his sixth placing… Continue

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  Leaps and binds

  SHE’S always been a hero and a champion for budding Wellington artists. Biddy Grant, creatively speaking, is coming out of the closet. For almost a decade Grant has helped creatives find employment through the Pathways to Cultural Employment (PACE) scheme - often… Continue

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  Six of the best

  Capital Times asked six keen Wellingtonians if there were one single deciding issue for their mayoralty vote what would it be? We put those questions to the candidates for you. Tim Brown: Infratil executive How do you want to make people feel they… Continue

• Eastern Ward candidates have their say

  Capital Times’ reporter Peter Moloney casts an outsiders eye over the local body race in the Eastern and Southern wards. IN my role of providing coverage for Capital Times’ readers ahead of this year’s election I have been to many mayoral and local body meetings,… Continue

• Southern Ward candidates have their say

  Capital Times’ reporter Peter Moloney casts an eye over the local body race in the Eastern and Southern wards. After the Southern Ward meeting in Newtown, people seated around me said that they felt these were the best candidates they’d seen in years, Even… Continue

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  Video game fury

  WELLINGTON Phoenix football players are a bunch of gaming geeks. They like to relax ahead of big matches by challenging each other in video game competitions. Phoenix forward Paul Ifill is not only skilled on the field, but has skills when it comes to playing… Continue

• Don’t Sit on the Motorway, Darling

  WELLINGTONIANS are tired of sitting in their cars and we are the least concerned city in New Zealand about a growing multicultural population. That’s the message from a survey carried out by ShapeNZ - New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development -… Continue

• Reduce, Reuse, Freecycle

  Fashion magazines, a cast iron bath, recipe books, fish food, an oven and a sofa, what do these things have in common? You can get them all for free on Freecycle.org, right here in Wellington. The Freecycle Network is a worldwide green initiative with over 7.5… Continue

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  Cuban revolution

  CUBAN ambassador Jose` Luis Robaina Garcia wants to make the relationship between his country and New Zealand tighter. He’s hands on with his efforts and will make a speech at the Latin American Film Festival opening night. “These films reflect Latin American… Continue

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  Strong women

  Maori artist Lisa Reihana challenges herself, again, with her latest photographic study. The series she created might be nude, but it’s not about sex. INTERVIEWING Lisa Reihana is like peeling away layers from an onion. And peeling away layers is exactly… Continue

• Bags to the rubbish

  IN the wake of American Samoa’s decision to ban plastic bags, Hannah Spyskma takes a look at the choices. IF not recycled properly, biodegradable plastic bags are just more sludge clogging up more landfills, according to industry officials. Directors of… Continue

• Wellington goes bananas

  The capital city is going bananas for bananas. All Good Fair Trade bananas, retailing in 19 city locations, sell in Wellington at a higher rate per supermarket than anywhere else in the country. “It’s similar to free-range eggs and pork. After a while people… Continue

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  Born to cook

  ITALIAN-New Zealander Antonio Cacace was destined to be a chef. Cacace grew up on the spectacular Amalfi coastline on the southern side of the Sorrentine Peninsula in Italy. He began helping out at his parent’s Michelin restaurant from the age of four. “I… Continue

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  Who will turn green?

  GREEN MP Sue Kedgley is bowing out after 12 years, but is not giving away who’s going to take her place. Capital Times asked mayoral candidate Celia Wade-Brown whether she would be a likely contender. Wade-Brown says she’s more interested in having her fingers… Continue

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  Sophie is choice

  Young Wellington designer Sophie Burrowes is off to Fashion Week. The Hataitai student entered Westpac’s young designer of the year competition, winning a top three placing and a chance to showcase her work at the inaugural event. SOPHIE Burrowes has come… Continue

• Wellington's future in your hands

  Peter Moloney views the Mayoral Candidate Meetings Kerry Prendergast still looks favourite to retain her position after the first three [mayoral] candidate meetings. So far the things that stand out for me are, Prendergast’s assuredness despite public criticisms,… Continue

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  McKinnon his own man

  Former headmaster, incumbent Wellington deputy mayor and Lambton Ward councillor Ian McKinnon has a passion for the capital that is unwavering and inextricably linked to the city’s history. WORKING with a mayor who has been in office for nine years could… Continue

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  A step closer to a cycle friendly city?

  FROCKS on Bikes member Isabella Cawthorn is one of 10 (out of 12) submitters in favour of lowering speed limits along the Golden Mile. She believes it will make the city safer and more cycle-friendly. “This is the kind of trend that Wellington would be wise to… Continue

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  Rough rehearsals

  THE cast of Father Familiar have spent the past week marooned in Christchurch, following the September 4 earthquake. They lost a third of their usual rehearsal time when Mazda Theatre in Christchurch CBD was shut off to the public. “You’re in limbo – you can’t… Continue

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  Biker targeted

  MOTORCYCLIST Kate Le Comte has had four motorbikes stolen in Wellington in almost as many years. She believes she has been targeted by a recidivist offender on at least two occasions and is concerned that the police are not doing enough to prevent such thefts.… Continue

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  Thursty work

  SEATOUN artist Richard Thurston will have a wine named after him. Thurston’s work Fulfillment, entered in this year’s New Zealand Art Show, attracted the attention of judges from online wine retailer Winesale.co.nz, who commissioned Thurston to design a label… Continue

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  Word painting

  NIGEL Brown likes to paint words in Cosy Nook. His latest series of paintings, New Lemon Tree, were created in his wild Southland home near Foveaux Strait, “where there is lots of wind, and citrus and subtropical things find it hard to grow”. But a lone lemon… Continue

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  Toy story

  WOODWORKER John Spittal is a modern day Santa Claus. The retired Johnsonville resident spends his time making children’s toys and says he is “busier than ever”. “I just finished an articulated truck that took 16 hours to make.” Spittal, a government mapmaker… Continue

• The write design

  Wellingtonian Fifi Colston has the WOW factor. She is a successful illustrator, designer and writer. CHILDRENS writer Fifi Colston describes her participation in the World of Wearable Arts show as “a little bit mad”. She’s entered 17 garments in 15 WOW shows… Continue

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  On the Rhode to success

  WHEN Aussie Rules footballer Andrew Rhodes moved to New Zealand at 18, he thought his days of playing the game were over. Rhodes took up Australian rules football aged six with the Ferntree Gully Eagles in Melbourne. He played for the club until he was 18, before… Continue

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  Pressing images

  Horrific, catastrophic, uplifting and beautiful – the World Press Photography Exhibition features 200 images from around the world that will provoke you and pull your heartstrings. THREE lambs huddle together, peering through the window of a rustic Italian… Continue

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  Corruption and creation in Africa

  Cirque Mother Africa is a celebration of all things African, but given the choice the director and creator of the elaborate stage show wouldn’t live there. ZIMBABWEAN break dancer-turned stage show director Winston Ruddle has a love-hate relationship with… Continue

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  Trinity Roots are back

  MUCH-LOVED Wellington band TrinityRoots have reformed. Band member Warren Maxwell, who went on to play with Fat Freddy’s Drop and Little Bushman, says a series of summer festivals are in the pipe-line. TrinityRoots’ Riki Gooch, Rio Hemopo and Maxwell called it… Continue

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  Capital will miss out, says promoter

  A Wellington City Council proposal could see the operation of six Wellington venues controlled by only one organisation. The council will decide whether the St James Theatre, Opera House, Town Hall, Michael Fowler Centre, TSB Arena and Shed 6 should come under… Continue

• Shaky emergency procedures

  MANY Wellington businesses are not prepared for an earthquake. While most central city businesses have an emergency procedure, few have proper emergency supplies. “A few years ago we had a kit, but since then we’ve really let it slip,” says Iko Iko owner Thomison… Continue

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  Ready. Set. Go!

  THE Datsuns have an album’s worth of new material to showcase at their first show in Wellington in five months. “It will be a chance to blow out the cobwebs - expect it to be loud and sloppy,” says vocalist and bass player Dolf de Borst. Since their year-long… Continue

• No need to ask

  WELLINGTON City is helping to fix the building damage in Christchurch – but they didn’t ask for it, the council offered it. Requests for help are normally co-ordinated through the Ministry of Civil Defence bunker under the Beehive, but Wellington City Council… Continue

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  Lucky to be in Wellington

  WE’RE a year out from the Rugby World Cup on September 9 and the hype is already getting to Capital Times’ star sports journalist Paddy Lewis. He can’t understand why more emphasis hasn’t been made about the Black Fern’s four consecutive wins in the Women’s World… Continue

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  Simpson on cloud nine

  NINE seems to be the lucky number for young swimmer Billy Simpson. The nine year old from Brooklyn took nine gold medals from nine races at the Wellington Short Course Championships. He took first place in the 50 metres and 100 metres freestyle, backstroke,… Continue

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  Superbowl Wellington

  WELLINGTON Wolves president William Anaru learnt the rules to American football by playing video games with a professional NFL player. “I used to play NFL Blitz with Bryant Westbrook, who played for the Detroit Lions.” Anaru arrived in Detroit with his family… Continue

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  Faith in Wellington

  VECTOR Wellington orchestra violist Faith Austin loves performing in Wellington so much she pays her own travel expenses. “I use air-points when I can and I am lucky enough to have friends and family to stay with when I get here,” she says. Austin, a former New… Continue

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  I am a rubbish singer

  MY cheeks are hot. I feel all sweaty. I think I’m going to faint. I’m about to sing with a group of strangers. But I can’t sing. I braved a karaoke stage as an 18 year old and my “friends” recorded my effort and uploaded it onto Youtube … I vowed never to sing… Continue

• Samba spirit

  BRAZILIAN Leandro Cavalcanti came to New Zealand after reading about the country in National Geographic magazine. “There was something about Wellington, and I had a good friend called Wellington, so that was a sign,” he says. Cavalcanti arrived in the capital… Continue

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  Free food

  THERE’S an abundance of free fruit and veg to be found around Wellington city – if you know where to look. Fruit trees on council land, wild herbs growing in parks, and vegetables lining suburban streets all can now be located via google maps. Olive trees on… Continue

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  Pannett not afraid to go against the grain

  Lambton Ward candidate Iona Pannett was named one of the hardest working councillors by a local panel, with her effectiveness, accessibility and work ethic all rated in the “excellent” category. Is this enough to get re-elected? IONA Pannett feels Wellingtonians… Continue

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  Cook aims to set record straight

  If re-elected Lambton Ward councillor Stephanie Cook wants to start a community garden and help set up more youth venues. A local panel’ s hard-hitting assessment in August, which looked at the merits of incumbent Lambton Ward councillor Stephanie Cook strongly… Continue

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  Let’s talk about sex, baby

  EVERYONE remembers the first time they had sex. In 1998 a website was created that allowed people to share such experiences, which inspired American theatre producer Ken Davenport to write My First Time. We asked the cast and crew of the play, directed by Ross… Continue

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  Return of the Kang

  Miae Kang was the first Weta Digital artist to exhibit at Monique and Calvin Rowe’s Eyeball Kicks store and gallery, now the gallery sells the works of three other Weta artists with an exciting addition on the way. CANADIAN artist Miae Kang moved to Wellington… Continue

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  Buy Wellington made

  Voted Best Artist in last year’s Capital Times Best of Wellington Readers Survey, Tommy Ill has released a debut album that is proudly Wellington-made - from the beats, the recording and mixing, right down to the artwork and the mastering. “I was also surprised… Continue

• Not in Wellington

  THERE won’t be an Auckland-style supercity here, avers Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon. “One of the things that differentiates Auckland from Wellington is that our mayors talk.” McKinnon says that one of the reasons a supercity was imposed in Auckland was because the… Continue

• First time lucky?

  Debutant mayoral candidates Al Mansell and Bernard O’Shaughnessy are extreme personalities with big plans for Wellington. One’s a pothead who will work for free, the other will give away a third of his salary to charity and campaigns to restrict the number of… Continue

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  Futsal Brothers

  Phoenix midfielders Diego Walsh and Daniel Lins Côrtes grew up playing futsal in their native Brazil and have set up a school in Wellington to share their skills with local kids. FUTSAL has always been part of everyday life for Phoenix players Diego Walsh and… Continue

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  Clothes make the man

  The arts capital of New Zealand boasts a vibrant and edgy shopping experience. Capital Times celebrates entrepreneurs with a passion for fashion. MANDATORY are perfect fit specialists. The men’s clothing store on Cuba Street produces casual, work and occasion… Continue

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  Cyclists on the footpath

  BICYCLES do not belong on footpaths, say cycle and pedestrian advocates. Cycling on the footpath is illegal in Wellington, and cyclists can incur a $55 fine if caught in the act. However the Wellington City Council proposes to introduce a shared footpath in Karori.… Continue

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  Sexy Rexy

  The arts capital of New Zealand boasts a vibrant and edgy shopping experience. Capital Times celebrates entrepreneurs with a passion for the city. RETAIL boutique and fashion gallery Rex Royale started out as a small vintage store at the St James Markets.… Continue

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  Taste the difference

  With Beervana just around the corner, Capital Times discovers there are more people drinking craft beers than ever before. Cash-strapped backpacker Martin Baptiste says New Zealand craft beers can’t be beaten. “Cheaper alternatives just don’t do it, you really… Continue

• A cyclist's jewel?

  Makara Peak is one of the best mountain bike tracks in the world, according to a travel website. But experienced biker Nick Kemp disagrees. Seattle born Nick Kemp has ridden mountain bike tracks on the west coast of America, Asia, Europe, and New Zealand,… Continue

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  The Sky is the limit

  Without the support of Wellington-based venture capital technology company No 8 Ventures, Kiwi jetpack inventor Glenn Martin wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep his machine in the country. When Inventor and engineer Glenn Martin was only four he “repaired”… Continue

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  Pep in his step

  Capital Times talks with mayoral hopefuls in the lead up to the Wellington City Council elections in early October. COUNCILLOR Bryan Pepperell is a man on a mission, and he is not afraid to use technology to spread his message to his constituents. The Southern… Continue

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  Tunnel vision

  MANY Hataitai residents are unhappy with Wellington City Council proposals for the Hataitai bus tunnel. They feel the council is not listening to them, particularly over tunnel safety. In particular Kent Duston of the Mt Victoria Residents Association says he… Continue

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  Sadist inspires teenager

  TOI Whakaari student Chris Parker felt liberated when he became an erotic novel and short story writer who enjoys bizarre and violent sexual fantasies. The 19 year old is stoked to play the role of French aristocrat and revolutionary Marquis de Sade, after whom… Continue

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  Clothes bake the man

  STEVE Woolcott doesn’t wear his suit to work to impress his clients, but to keep warm at work. The painting contractor for Wellington company House Coating attracted the attention of giggling female pedestrians while he waterblasted a house in Mt Victoria. Woolcott… Continue

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  Explosive cocktail

  WHEN a huge artillery shell was delivered to Calem Chadwick’s home last week, the courier looked at him sideways. “Don’t ask,” Chadwick said as he signed for the delivery The award-winning barman has devised an ingenious way for Wellingtonian’s to get fired up… Continue

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  Offaly close to the bone

  CHEF Kit Foe has always loved eating entrails and organs. The St Johns Heineken Hotel head chef says it was natural for his family to use every part of an animal when cooking and it’s a tradition he has continued to this day. “When you don’t have a lot of money… Continue

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  Superleague superfan

  REGIONAL Superleague Finals competitor Olivia Dunn is a huge Silver Ferns fan. She goes to all their Wellington games, her favourite players are Temepara George and Grace Rasmussen, and she hopes to play for the team one day. So it was a dream come true when… Continue

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  Disable fable

  Lucy O’Brien’s third play, Katydid, exposes the reality of living with someone with a disability, and deviates from the corny and simplistic formula of films like I Am Sam and The Other Sister. PLAYWRIGHT Lucy O’Brien’s 28 year old sister Sophie has the mind… Continue

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  Getting heat from the freezing foreshore

  REST home workers are testing each other’s courage at this month’s Petone Winter Carnival. Upper Hutt Wesleyhaven retirement village staff have dreamed up a “sponsorship scorecard” for the Petone foreshore “Polar Plunge”. Village manager Karen Rhind says the… Continue

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  Tawa girl at heart

  Capital Times talks with mayoral hopefuls in the lead up to the Wellington City Council elections in early October. MAYOR Kerry Prendergast loves her job. It’s not hard to tell why, as we are served bottles of NZ spring water on a silver platter in the palatial… Continue

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  Schlong time no see

  MUSIC awards don’t guarantee financial success. Just ask Kiwi metal band El Schlong. The Battle of the Bands and Handle the Jandal award winners regularly lug their own equipment on the London underground on the way to gigs. They don’t own a car. “Our gear… Continue

• Sophie’s choice

  CAPITAL Times is sad to farewell journalist Sophie Schroder and her work and life partner Jamie-Melbourne Hayward as they jet off to Spain next week. Schroder was a journalist at Capital Times for more 18 months, worked tirelessly as the acting editor for the… Continue

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  Rosa Doyle meets two exPMs

  A framed Capital Times illustration by Rosa Doyle will be given to ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark this week. The image of former Wellington Central MP and Prime Minister Peter Fraser created for our OK, Clever Dick… quiz (see pg 17) will be presented to Clark at… Continue

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  No debate: Wellington is best

  THEY may be quiet and reserved when you chat to them face to face but on stage they are confident and eloquent – not to mention winners. Wellington College’s Tom Mitchell and Duncan McLachlan teamed up with Scots College’s James Gavey to secure Wellington’s second… Continue

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  Building bulldozed

  THE former Tattoo Museum and Underground Arts building on Abel Smith St has been demolished to make way for Tattoo Apartments. The complex will contain 36 units, 18 on the ground floor and 18 on the first. “Not many apartment blocks are going up, so it’s a positive… Continue

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  Set to take on the world

  WADESTOWN student Kate McCaw is the only Wellingtonian competing at the Youth Olympic Games this month. The 17-year-old Samuel Marsden Collegiate School head prefect is one of 16 young New Zealanders chosen to join more than 3,600 athletes from around the globe… Continue

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  Wellington set for Risqué performance

  “THE Queen has sex too”, says “Drag King” Andy Harness. In the past Harness has done the full monty on stage, performed a skit which sexualises the Queen and caused people to storm out of his shows, but he promises his new show Risqué is for everybody, not just… Continue

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  A good story

  A stint living in a zoo inspired David Elliot to pursue a career as an illustrator. The award-winning illustrator of favourites such as the Redwall series by UK author Brian Jacques, was living in Edinburgh and had run out of money. “I went to get a job at a… Continue

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  Behind the crafty mind

  Our lives are filled with the enjoyment of treasures. Capital Times talks with crafty people from around the Wellington region. ARTIST Arlo Edwards who has recently opened his new studio gallery on Dixon Street wants to expand the cultural hub of Wellington.… Continue

• Top wine award

  ENTRIES are open for the 2010 Air New Zealand Wine Awards. All vintage wines must be 100% sustainably produced. “Sustainability has been a focus of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards for several years with the introduction of pure medals in 2007,” says NZ Winegrowers’… Continue

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  Cheeky cow

  BEEF cheeks are the new lamb shanks, says Zealandia head chef Craig Dunshea. Rata, the Karori sanctuary’s new terrace cafe, is doing a main of braised beef cheeks for this month’s food festival Wellington on a Plate. “I wanted [to make] something a little different,”… Continue

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  The life of Spite

  Actor, director, and writer, Tim Spite delves into not only his own family life, but also that of the Bain family, in his latest production. TIM Spite and his cast and crew spent three months as a sort of jury in the Bain family murder case. The multiple… Continue

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  Every Penny counts

  A Wellington band’s clever music video that shows them making their own instruments has won them a showing at a big film festival in London. THE Thomas Oliver Band’s video has been selected from over 1,000 entries to show in an international competition alongside… Continue

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  Human fireflies up the butterfly

  IF you are running through native beech forest at night, the last thing you expect to come across is a half-drunk rugby team. Eastbourne’s annual night race up Butterfly Creek was made more difficult than usual last year when the local rugby team decided to wet… Continue

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  Feeling merry

  IN the build up to the Rugby World Cup, old booze hags The Feelers are excited about their upcoming winter tour because they are returning to their roots: the pub. Drummer Hamish Gee laughs, “I don’t really remember the first five years of The Feelers. We were… Continue

• Council spending scrap

  THE business community wants the Wellington City Council to tighten its belt. The Government heard final submissions on Rodney Hide’s Local Government Act Amendment Bill last week, and former Wellington Chamber of Commerce president Charles Finny says the bill… Continue

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  Hip hooray for Kura

  KURA gallery on Allen Street is turning 10, and its celebrations will bring its opening a decade ago full-circle. Its celebratory dinner later this month at the historic Robert Orr House in Lower Hutt is appropriate because it was also the location of Kura’s original… Continue

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  Kapai for Northern Ward

  KAPAI owner Justin Lester has just become a father and wants to be a city councillor. When Capital Times contacted Lester about his just announced bid for the Northern Ward, he was in another kind of ward, a post-natal one, celebrating his new-born girl Madeleine.… Continue

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  Lycra lovin’ pays off

  A local group of Lycra enthusiasts has picked up a national award for promoting safe streets. Cycle Aware Wellington (CAW) has been reward