North & South

North & South is New Zealand’s premier monthly current affairs and lifestyle magazine, specialising in long-form investigative journalism, delivered by award-winning writers and photographers. North & South also showcases New Zealand ingenuity and creativity, explores the country and profiles its people. It is a touchstone of New Zealand life.

From the Editor

Conversations

Behind this issue

North & South

LANDSCAPE • “Useless to think you’ll park and capture it More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there, A hurry through which known and strange things pass”

Four corners • Maritime misfortune

The first… poem I ever knew • Often artists and writers recall a moment that sparked their creative spirit. In the first of a new series, poet Bill Manhire writes about a poem that takes him back to his childhood.

Guilt, Part 1: Murder in Paeroa • Speculation still swirls about the unsolved 2012 murder of pizza-shop owner Jordan Voudouris, a mystery that prompted Ryan Wolf to launch his own investigation, reported in his podcast, GUILT. In the first of three pieces on the case for North & South, Wolf describes his initial inquiries, and the surprises they revealed.

Timeline of events

THE FLAMES OF OUR SHAME • The fatal fire at Wellington’s Loafers Lodge has reinforced calls for greater scrutiny of boarding houses, places occupied by those with nowhere else to go.

Political opinion: The houses that no one built • Fixing public housing is going to need longer term commitment from both the left and the right.

Bone hunters: The ancient lake revealing New Zealand’s mysterious past • Beneath famously dry Central Otago are the remains of an enormous, ancient subtropical lake that was once home to crocodilians, turtles, giant parrots, bipedal vampire bats and palm trees. The kilometre-thick layer of lake bed is helping to unravel the mystery of our bizarre land of birds.

Fish & ships • Artist Sam Mathers’ nautical theme takes inspiration from just down the road.

Never say goodbye • In the brave new world of generative artificial intelligence you have the option of living on forever, but would you want to?

Ten days in ICU • Serious childhood injury or illness is every parent’s nightmare. For a child, such an event can become a marker amid the mysterious early years we struggle later to remember. And sometimes, one brush with danger, and the resulting lengthy hospital stay, can echo another case from long ago.

Kicking on • Top women’s football official Sarai Bareman has big hopes for the forthcoming Women’s World Cup.

Living up to a name • Moss Te Ururangi Patterson (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) has played a significant role in the New Zealand contemporary dance scene for more than 25 years. A dancer, director, choreographer and producer, he has worked with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Tohu, Black Grace and Atamira, and in 2020 was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. Patterson’s latest creative adventure has him leading the New Zealand Dance Company as chief executive and artistic director.

Horsing around • Dropping in on a remarkable woman and her lifetime collection of equine memorabilia.

Magic, murder and ink: Tourism and tattooing in Cambodia • Along with the pleasures of a holiday, increasing numbers of visitors to Cambodia are opting to endure a little pain – the kind experienced under the needle of a tattoo artist.

Embracing the dry • In the first of a new series, we meet a Central Otago gardener with a courageous, sustainable vision.

The poetry of porridge • There’s magic in this simple, warming bowl of goodness that crops up in many cultures and nurtures young and old.

Film

Books

The writer’s return •...