history
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Ashburton
There would be mornings where the sun cast long shadows down the rows and dewdrops formed around the raspberries like crystals. But the air would warm quickly, stirring to life with birdsong and insect clicks as we lugged our crates… Continue reading
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Wellington
We learned first-hand why they call it ‘Windy Welly’. Poor Mitch, little more than a tin can on wheels, careened across the highway, victim of every violent gust from every passing HGV. This was our introduction to the Roaring Forties,… Continue reading
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East Coast, North Island
The first encounter between Captain Cook and the Māori of Aotearoa was disastrous. Cook’s instructions had been to forge amicable relations with the indigenous peoples he met, but within hours of his ship Endeavour sailing into Poverty Bay in 1769,… Continue reading
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The Coromandel Peninsula
Following our unscheduled evacuation of Rotorua, we found ourselves back on the road, untethered and aimless. We’d earned enough over the past month to delay job hunting a few weeks, plus we felt a break in employment might help us… Continue reading
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Waitangi
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a suitably impressive setting for the birthplace of a nation. Pristine lawns flow down to the sun-speckled waters of the Bay of Islands, while in the distance the pretty white buildings of Russell – once… Continue reading
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Kawakawa
Upon first impressions, it’s hard to imagine what could attract a celebrated European architect to Kawakawa. The small farming town seemed distinctly unremarkable when we passed through on our journey around Northland. The Klondike Ale House, bare walled and unadorned… Continue reading
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Waipu
As you enter the Northland town of Waipu, a sign to your left extends ‘A hundred thousand welcomes’. Excessively friendly in its English form, it’s there as the literal translation of a sign in Scots Gaelic across the road, ‘Ceud… Continue reading
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On Marx’s Final Letter to Arnold Ruge
September, 1843. Karl Marx was feeling stifled. His editorship of Cologne’s Rheinische Zeitung had come to an abrupt end following the publication’s termination by Prussian censors. Authorities were clamping down on anti-monarchical, pro-democratic voices and free political discourse was becoming… Continue reading
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Encounters: William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops
It was mid-summer, and the evening sky was a deep cerulean blue despite the late hour. From the living room of my old Glasgow flat, I looked down on the Maryhill Road as it ran towards St George’s Cross subway… Continue reading
Dead Academic 