From Captain Cook’s first fetid brew in 1773 to the hop-rocking IPAs that dominate today’s craft scene, small breweries at the Top of the South have shaped beer culture and industry in New Zealand. Matt Philp primes his fermenter to figure out why.
In the wilds of Kahurangi National Park, a tramper disappears two days before Christmas, sparking a huge search and rescue effort. Several years later, Alistair Levy has still not been found.
The South Island kōkako is widely believed to have died out a half century ago, but some committed bird experts are convinced there are signs a few remain: disturbed moss, glimpses of grey wings and orange wattles, an occasional haunting call. Yet despite decades scouring southern forests, the kōkako has remained elusive—a single feather is the closest the searchers may have come to proving the bird still exists.
In a land where invaders are cinematically popularised as battle-clad Orcs thundering down a mountainside wielding spiked clubs, it’s ironic that Public Enemy No. 1 is a butterfly—an ephemeral being borne on alabaster wings, not dissimilar to an already well-established cousin. And yet, this phantom menace threatens to wipe out a large number of native plants and more than 230,000 hectares of commercial crops.
Nile Street looked much like its Egyptian namesake as rain thundered down on Nelson in December. Culverts choked with rocks and silt, and despite extensive use of sandbags, houses and gardens were inundated. But worse was to come. Hillsides collapsed, rivers burst their banks and torrents of water drove tonnes of silt and sand through valleys and farmland throughout the district. After two days of deluge, those who weren’t driven from their homes by the rising flood looked in disbelief upon the damage wrought by water in one of New Zealand’s sunniest regions.
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