Every year Beervana organises a Media Brew where they partner journalists with brewers to make a themed beer. This year I was paired with ParrotDog and we made something rather odd. I met Matt Warner, ParrotDog’s head brewer, at 8am as he was setting up what would be our brew kit: the kit that first […]
Just recently it was time to refinance the mortgage. After running through some numbers with my mortgage broker, he started expressing concern over my current financial plan of taking 25 years to pay off a 15-year mortgage. After much tut-tutting, he hit me with the old cup-of-coffee-a-day parable. The one loved by financial columnists and […]
Imagine life without fermentation. We would have no bread; no wine or beer; no cheese, pickles or salami. For some years now fermentation has been slowly bubbling away as a foodie trend, often with health-fetishist overtones, focusing on sauerkraut, kimchi and other means of creatively rotting vegetables, grains and beans. It was to be expected […]
September is that strange time when spring is officially here but winter is still insisting on making itself felt. You’re either freezing and rain-soaked or skipping through meadows gathering flowers with baby lambs, you know? These pancakes are perfect whatever’s happening outside, using sweet, fragrant, new season apricots and warm, spicy cinnamon. The apricots turn […]
In a discussion with a parent about the wide range of international trips and exchanges available to students these days, he regretfully commented, “In my day a tour of a dairy farm with my geography class was all that was on offer.” With cheaper airfares today, times have changed: so many students are travelling within […]
Beekeeping is growing in popularity in Wellington. You might want bees to pollinate your plants. You might yearn to produce your own honey. Or you might just be curious to learn about this industrious insect. Whatever your reasons, you can keep bees successfully even in an urban area if you position your hives carefully. We’re […]
To be a true Wellington sports fan you need to be able to accept raised expectations followed by disappointment. This is a common feature across most codes with professional sides based here, but at the top of the list is the Wellington Lions. In the years following the 2000 triumph the side has done well. They […]
It’s official. Wellington’s hottest new residence of choice is undoubtedly Clyde Quay Wharf. For those of you a little out of the loop, that used to be known as the much less salubrious Overseas Passenger Terminal. Rest assured, these days plenty of five-bedroom places in Wadestown have gone under the hammer to expedite a purchase […]
Nestled away in the township of Masterton sits a unique house that, from the street, you would think was an old church, with its steep eaves, lattice windows and arched front door. The home was originally built in 1934, by a Scotsman who had emigrated to New Zealand. He used the plans of his original house […]
The story, I think, goes something like this. When we talk about ‘the coolest little capital’, or all that ‘Cuba Quarter’ blather, what we are acknowledging is the work of a handful of business people and a historical fluke that saw the land prices around Te Aro held artificially low for a couple of decades. If […]
