Innholdsfortegnelse for May - June 2017 i Metro NZ

A library of Metro features and columns is available at www.noted.co.nz. Designed as a home for quality long reads and inspiring journalism, the website gives you current reviews, new food openings and guides to the city, plus all the best stories from the Listener, North & South, RNZ and Paperboy. New at www.noted.co.nz 01—GETTING THERE Campaigner Patrick Reynolds argues that Auckland needs a “renewed commitment to public transport”. 02—THE UNFORTUNATE EXPERIMENT Three decades after Metro exposed a research study at National Woman’s Hospital that led to up to 30 deaths, a public apology has been made. 03—KEEPING IT FRESH Leaders in hospitality share their predictions for Auckland’s dining scene. 04—CULTURAL EXCHANGE Will Prime Minister Bill English’s subdued, serious instincts keep him popular? 05—FOOD: FIRST LOOKS &…

“She does miss New Zealand, though. ‘Sun and clean air and nice fish. Just those three things, really.’” It’s 11pm in London and Rose Matafeo is in her bedroom eating Whittaker’s chocolate. It’s a rare night in for the comedian, who’s usually out doing gigs until late. One to savour. Matafeo is well known back home for her stand-up, TV show Funny Girls and for writing and guest-starring on Jono and Ben at Ten. She’s one of our best exports, and she’s heading home for the NZ International Comedy Festival, which runs till May 21. Despite her success, Matafeo’s kept it real. She’s modest and goofy and loud, yet unsure of herself. “I don’t actually have a concept of who I am as a person,” she says earnestly. “Like, I…

“Where are you from?” It’s a question I have spent my whole life crafting the answer to. Tweaking my response after each reaction, each follow-up question, learning to predict the answer you’re looking for. It’s an innocuous question, or a subtle accusation, depending on who’s asking — or the day I’m having. I might say, what do you mean, exactly? Do you mean in Auckland? Or do you mean where my parents are from? (Do you mean to ask why I’m brown?) Or I might just cut to the chase: I’ll say I’m half-Samoan and half-Palagi. Is that what you were after? Or I’ll say my village is Vaito’omuli, Palauli, in Savai’i, because you’re Samoan, too, and you’re wanting to know my surname, and trying to figure out if we’re…

You won’t find beef fillet or pork belly on the menu at Culprit, the inner-city Top 50 restaurant where owners Kyle Street and Jordan Macdonald favour secondary cuts like pig face and beef rump for their texture and depth of flavour. Their table service — trolleys and trays of seasonal tastes and bites offered yum-cha style at three set seating times per night — allows the pair to offer variety, while encouraging diners to try something they might not be keen on otherwise. “The concept works well with the food we serve, which is largely based on unsexy or underutilised ingredients,” says Street. “Things like marrow, tongue and Brussels sprouts are not safe bets on paper. If people see them on a menu alongside steak and chips, they are going…

In 2015, Watercare, an Auckland Council-controlled organisation, commissioned a study into suitable sites to build a replacement for its ageing Huia Water Treatment Plant. Consultants identified about 40 possible sites, then narrowed the options down to: 01—Upgrading the existing plant on Woodlands Park Rd, Titirangi. 02—Building on land Watercare owns on Manuka Rd, next door to the existing site and originally secured for the purpose. 03—Moving the plant to Parker Rd, Oratia. One proposal for Parker Rd could affect 12 homes, an alternative 18 homes. A total of 104 people — some of whom have lived in Oratia for six generations — are caught up in the proposals. Parker Rd, like the other proposed sites, is within an area of foothills specifically cited as worthy of protection and preservation in…

“Proximity to the city, and access to public transport and cycleways make it a very desirable location.” With construction underway, NXN is set to make a significant contribution to Kingsland’s urban fabric. Under Nigel McKenna’s direction, the Templeton Group has begun developing land at 8-14 Kingsland Terrace into a residential kingdom. Comprising 73 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and five terraced houses, the development is all about providing high-quality living spaces. Head east on the cul-de-sac of Kingsland Terrace and you’ll find the NXN site, bounded by a mature tree-lined frontage on Bond Street, and overlooking Nixon Park to the north. Residents will have an easy stroll to the cafe, bars and restaurants of Kingsland. “Its amenities, proximity to the city, and access to public transport and cycleways ways make…

“Cheer on heresy-trial survivor Sir Lloyd Geering as he nears his 100th birthday, having outlived his po-faced detractors.” Every year the Auckland Writers Festival serves up a dégustation fit for the palate of any literary Mr Creosote. So many ways to overstuff oneself with words, to gag on a surfeit of stories, and to max out the credit cards laying in a stock of new books for the winter. And the fine thing is, no matter how much you consume, there’s no risk of exploding in public. A feast with no calories! So, Messieurs and Mesdames, whether you fancy yourself as gourmet, gourmand or glutton, curate your own menu or try out the following recommendations: Because straight white men have lost the capacity for either truth or good humour, try…

“I began to hope, with a kind of apocalyptic optimism, that Auckland in its sodden extremis might more truthfully reveal its character than it would in a more pleasant guise.” Karangahape Rd. Sunset, 7.47pm, not that the sinking sun was anywhere to be seen. The sky was the same deep slate grey it had been all afternoon. The streetlights blurred in the rain, milky bulbs of sodium yellow. The coloured lights of Calendar Girls strip club — purple and green — attempted a jovial tone, but nothing else did. Water poured from overworked downpipes onto the pavement and the crowds did their best to dodge it. Smokers huddled under eaves and sent little clouds to hang limply in the rain-perforated air. Broken umbrellas, in various stages of disrepair, sat heaped…

“Rising from Auckland’s Fort Street Precinct is a whole new concept of urban living.” Luxury is becoming the catchcry of central city living. As Auckland’s inner city matures, apartment living is rising from formerly underutilised corners to provide world class urban living. The latest luxury development is The Pacifica, a 57-floor residential development in Commerce Street, which will transform the regenerated Fort Street precinct. Award-winning Melbourne developer Hengyi used locally based architects Plus Architecture to bring its acclaimed high rise concept to Auckland for the first time. When complete, The Pacifica’s 295 apartment owners will live a lift ride away from its own Pacific Lane and the rapidly growing network of interconnected laneways, which reach all the way to Queen Street. The Pacifica’s design brings a new verticality to Auckland’s…

“We believe that a country without documentaries is like a family without photo albums.” “That’s what ambrosia tastes like,” says the man eating bees straight out of the hive. Meanwhile, a monk has been walking all day every day for a thousand days. Christchurch is collapsing in absolute silence, and in the major cities of Japan, teenage girls are rebranding themselves as “idols” and attracting vast crowds of middle-aged male followers. “This isn’t a fad,” insists one idol devotee. “This is a religion.” Those fragments are all from films screening in this year’s Doc Edge Festival. It isn’t a fad either. New Zealand’s only specialist documentary film festival — now a qualifying festival for Oscar nominations in the documentary-short category — launched in 2005, under the name DOCNZ. It rebranded…

“He’s been reborn as a mutant Kiwi cross between Jack Johnson and James Blunt, and that’s as worrying as it might suggest.” THOMAS OLIVER FLOATING IN THE DARKNESS (THE LABEL) Thomas Oliver’s second album is being released to much brouhaha, and the Wellington singer/songwriter actually has a couple of serious cards to play: he won last year’s Silver Scroll for his composition, “If I Move to Mars”, and he’s also a virtuoso exponent of the Weissenborn, a rare type of lap steel guitar. His publicists are so ramped up they even had an embargo on the album’s announcement, which hints at an anticipation that may, or may not, be echoed by potential consumers of Oliver’s craft. So what’s all the fuss? Oliver’s early tracks were centred around the lush, evocative…

Just before Bruce Phillips left his job as curator at Pakuranga’s Te Tuhi, I stood with him outside the gallery and watched a pig being cooked over hot coals. Turning the steel pole, which was shoved through the beast from its rear end to its mouth, was the artist Kalisolaite ’Uhila. It was a performance, but it was also dinner. And the pig was starting to look, and smell, bloody good. The meal — complemented with chop suey, taro and beans — was to mark the opening of ’Uhila’s exhibition Pigs in the Yard II, the latest event in his relationship with Te Tuhi, and with Phillips. They first worked together in 2012, when ’Uhila staged Mo’ui tukuhausia, a performance in which he lived homeless around Te Tuhi for a…

“Bringing the carefully applied classicism of the 1904 Australis House’s Customs St front to the Galway St back as a kind of postmodern joke is a bit risky.” An early concept for the rear facade of Australis House on the corner of Gore and Galway Sts involved a supergraphic of Audrey Hepburn. The idea was to invoke the screen legend’s memorable Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to adorn the famous luxury jewellery shop taking up residence next to Chanel and opposite the dancing fountains of the Britomart precinct’s Takutai Square. Breakfast in the 1961 movie was a coffee and Danish while window shopping. I make do with a flat white from Oaken. Sadly, Auckland will have to wait another day for Hepburn’s elegant visage to…

Our cover story about the Unfortunate Experiment at National Women’s (March-April issue) prompted Carol Webb to write: Thanks to the courageous and persistent Ron Jones for Doctors in Denial, to the Cartwright Collective for never giving up, and to Metro for ensuring the lessons of National Women’s during the long, monstrous reign of Herb Green are never forgotten. As much as being a story about Green and his ghastly “experiment”, Dr Jones’ insider’s account exposes the doctors’ old-boy network that consistently denied, bullied and covered up as so many women became terribly ill and so many died. Legislation addressing doctors’ failure to report suspected incompetence among their peers was introduced only after another appalling case emerged in the mid-1990s. Sadly, though, and apparently after the Medical Association fought tooth and…

The Axis Awards — Viaduct Events Centre Opening night of “Boys” — ASB Waterfront Theatre…

“He has yet to understand he is not running a command-and-control organisation like a government department.” The stench of decay already hangs over Phil Goff’s mayoralty. Less than six months after his accession, insiders say his office now resembles Hitler’s bunker, with the ever-more-despondent mayor issuing commands to officers and councillors with no ability to, or intention of, carrying them out. His $275,000-a-year chief of staff quickly fled to join another former Labour leader, David Shearer, in South Sudan. Even Sean Spicer looks set to remain at Donald Trump’s right hand for longer. Goff’s misery stems from the contradictions in his campaign promises, well canvassed by Metro previously. Broadly, the mayor promised no rates rises above 2.5 per cent, no extra borrowing, no asset sales except perhaps the Remuera Golf…

I was born to die here. The Gash family may not be tangata whenua, but our roots in Oratia still run deep. Seven generations in West Auckland, six of them tied into Oratia, take you a fair way down. The family saga first began in these parts more than 100 years ago, and prior to that, just down the road in Prospect Rd, Glen Eden, when Irish immigrant Thomas Gash arrived in New Zealand in the 1840s and, with his wife, Henrietta, grew daffodils and raised nine children. My great-grandparents moved into the Oratia-Waiatarua area in 1905, when the main thoroughfare, West Coast Rd, was nothing more than a dirt track. They lived without power in a tent and a tin shed, with a horse and cart for transport, and…

Set in the heart of the Fort Street precinct, The Pacifica is just two minutes’ walk from the restaurants and fashion labels of Britomart. Apartment living is coming of age in Auckland’s CBD and The Pacifica is set to push the bar a notch higher. The 57-storey Hengyi development designed by Plus Architecture is set to become the first choice for CBD living for discerning urbanites. Whether they choose from the Penthouse, Sky Home, Tower Suite, or Commerce Residence collections, each of the 295 lucky owners will buy their own slice of paradise. Set in the heart of the Fort Street precinct, The Pacifica sits in the perfect location, just two minutes’ walk from the restaurants and fashion labels of Britomart and towering above the waterfront. A series of interconnecting…

The new van about town, the Mercedes-Benz Vito has hit the streets to deliver fresh food and artisan products to the homes of busy Aucklanders. “We needed the right vehicle to deliver our growing online orders, to make transfers between our stores and also to our new Farro locker at the Auckland ferry terminal,” explains Farro Fresh founder Janene Draper. With its ability to be customised to meet the needs of each business, the Mercedes-Benz Vito was the vehicle that could take Farro Fresh where it needed to go, providing them with a delivery van that could not only efficiently store and deliver the food, but also deliver on reliability. “The Vito is an absolute dream to drive and suits our needs perfectly,” says Janene. “It has plenty of space…

“Featuring hallmark iconic design, luxurious amenities, and a bustling location at the civic heart of Auckland city.” No longer just a hub for business, the central city also offers vibrant, convenient living – especially for those looking for a slick, low maintenance apartment. The CAB, in the heart of the CBD, is an A-List Heritage icon, and was at one point the tallest building in the city. Built in 1966 as council offices, it is simply “no longer fit for purpose” says Managing Director John Love of Love & Co., who alongside his wife Director of Design Josephine Love, will actively reuse the space as apartments while creating a Civic Quarter, providing mixed use development, including a hotel. There is some real charm to The CAB, from the striking outer…

“He takes his first Grand Prix title at 22, the youngest ever winner at the time. Ten years later, he’s dead.” McLaren Directed by Roger Donaldson Opens June 1 There was something in the water in mid-century New Zealand when it came to speed, a sudden bloom of car- and motorcycle-racing drivers who took us to the top of the world’s rankings. For a generation of Kiwis, names like Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Denny Hulme are still cause for swooning. A film celebrating the life of Grand Prix champion McLaren has been a long time coming. It has also arrived in the nick of time: McLaren’s widow, Patty, died during filming, but not before her valuable input into his story, deftly cobbled together by speed-freak Roger Donaldson. It’s a…