Travelogue
Christchurch - Red Sticker City - 3 January 2011
New Zealand’s second-largest city has 400,000 residents but big country town feel. Just a few streets from the CBD and you could be in a small regional town with one-tenth of the population. It’s noted for the picture postcard idyll with the Southern Alps’ backdrop complete with earthquakes but with other less inviting undercurrents.On 4 September 2010, Christchurch made world headlines when struck by a huge earthquake, more powerful than that which devastated Haiti earlier in January, yet with comparatively miniscule casualties.Driving into the city past Hagley Park, where I had once lived as an undergraduate years before, but little has changed. When the northwesterly wind blows, temperatures in the city can hit the thirties, during winter there is sleet and sometimes snow. Christchurch has distinct seasons; a cold winter, warm spring, mild autumn and hot summers. Japanese tourists book weddings here years in advance to have bridal photos taken amongst the blossom. The grey stone churches along Riccarton Road do a nice earner in Asian weddings.On Hagley Park, the large parklands and Botanical Gardens set aside by the city’s founders bordering the CBD, a game of Kilikiti was underway, Polynesian cricket played with a shoulder-less bat by gargantuan men in lavalavas – Pacific island sarongs. Auckland is the largest Polynesian city on earth, but Christchurch retains an overwhelming European flavour, to the point of being, aside from temporary visitors, seemingly
St. Kilda - Bikers, Beggars, and Bohemians by the Sea - 23 December 2010
St. Kilda, now a funky seaside suburb near Melbourne, has a chequered history full of gangsters, pimps, prostitutes, crooked cops and, well, pyromania. Many of its landmarks have a habit of burning down – the sea baths, the St Moritz Ice Rink, the pier kiosk and the Palace nightclub – have all been lost to fire. Some remain, including
Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Tragedy at Diamond Island - 12 December 2010
Cambodia is a country which has experienced more than its fair share of tragedy, some on a scale barely comprehensible to most foreign observers. This year, what was supposed to be a celebration of the Water Festival, turned into disaster on Diamond Island near the capital, leaving many questions unanswered as to why, in a country not noted for
Life and Death on the South Island's West Coast - 3 December 2010
The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island has some of the most stunning scenery to be had anywhere on the planet. The life of Coasters is shaped by the rugged beauty of its landscape which contains a lethal legacy clearly illustrated by recent events. To drive the coastal road of the West Coast is to privilege one of nature’s
Liverpool FC - Above Us Only Sky - 7 November 2010
The plaque at Liverpool’s airport contains an apt excerpt from the eponymous John Lennon’s song Imagine, ‘Above us only sky’. In that football mad city, England’s most successful club side, Liverpool, the red half of Merseyside, is currently suffering its worst start to a season in decades. Liverpudlians (colloquially known as
Korea - The North, the South and the Moon - 31 October 2010
Korea is two lands with a penchant for the greatest choreographed spectacles on Earth, big industries and the world’s largest weddings, all divided by the world’s most heavily fortified military zone and one of only two last vestiges of the Cold War. The Korean people appear polar opposites divided politically, militarily and
Nullifying the Opposition - 18 October 2010
According to the game’s commentators, rugby league is apparently all about banana kicks and nullifying the physicality of the opposition, or something like that.The Rugby League Four-Nations is about to take place in Australia and New Zealand from October until November 2010 featuring the host nations, England, and the 2009 Pacific Cup
It's The News But Not As We Know It - 11 October 2010
The media in Britain covers the whole spectrum from the ridiculous to the sublime, whereas New Zealand just has, well, the mediocre. At the recent annual television media awards, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) News beat the competition to be named news channel of the year for New Zealand in a competition of two, well, three –
Let the Games Begin - 3 October 2010
The Commonwealth Games are here. Terrorism, racism, burning effigies, exploitation, poverty, masses of security and, oh yeah, then there’s the sport.The XIX Commonwealth Games are about to get underway in the Indian capital, New Delhi, but not without more than it’s share of problems associated with hosting multinational sporting events.
