North & South

from the editor

When Auckland went into lockdown in February, first for three days and then for a week, the experience felt both familiar and radically new. Familiar, because I’d spent six months in what passed for lockdown in the United States. New, because it was my first lockdown in New Zealand. As it turned out, time was just as gluey in both places: those first three days working from home in Auckland felt like months. But one thing made a world of difference. In Washington DC, lockdown was a worst-of-both-worlds affair. Nobody could go anywhere but Covid was everywhere. In Auckland, we went into lockdown with a purpose and a plan. There was actually a way to trace the spread of the outbreak. We didn’t know how long the lockdown would last, but…

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featured contributors

A wine writer and former editor of Wine NZ, Jo is the author of Wine Class: All You Need to Know About Wine in New Zealand. She’s also a sound artist who has exhibited and performed around the world, often combining the sonic with the sensory. In her first cover story for North & South, senior editor Madeleine Chapman delves into the little-known life story of Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson. After one interview was cancelled during the March Covid lockdown, they had a “Zoom beer” instead, in which Robertson enjoyed a Helensville porter he won from Newstalk ZB host Heather Du Plessis-Allan in a bet. Hagen is a familiar face around the Beehive, where he’s photographed many of New Zealand’s leading politicians — including our cover image of Grant Robertson. His…

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North & South makes a great gift for the mother in your life. Mother’s Day is May 9. $19 EVERY 3 ISSUES via direct debit, just $6.33 per issue $40 6 ISSUES save 33% off the retail cover price $75 12 ISSUES save 37% off the retail cover price Already a subscriber? Simply renew or extend your subscription to take advantage of this great offer. BENEFITS OF SUBSCRIBING + Free contactless delivery to your home + Never pay cover price again + Never miss an issue TWO EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE: 1 Visit northandsouth.co.nz/subscriptions 2 or phone 0508 624 748 (0508 MAGS4U) TERMS & CONDITIONS: Offer valid for all subscription orders received before 9 May 2021 and for delivery within New Zealand. Savings are based off the retail cover price. Rates include GST and postage. Offer is available to existing subscribers, who must opt in…

four corners

WELLINGTON Kangaroo Alert in Breaker Bay One evening last year when orcas were sighted in Breaker Bay, Megan Shaffer, a local marine biologist, decided to have some fun: go to the beach, collect a water sample and check for DNA. When the results came back a couple of days later, Shaffer found what she expected. And also something she didn’t expect at all. Shaffer, a 29-year-old American, works for Wilderlab, a Wellington start-up that has designed a testing kit for biomonitoring. The kit is used to identify the DNA of thousands of species in rivers, streams and lakes. Sometimes when regional councils or environmental organisations ask the Wilderlab people to look out for something, there are surprise findings. Monitoring fish in Waikato’s Manganui River, the scientists came across a rare velvet worm, which…

screen time

POLYPHEMUS Avatar 2 & 3 Work on James Cameron’s much-anticipated sequels, halted by Covid, resumed in June last year. Since parts of the plot are set underwater (more precisely, in the oceans of Pandora, the fifth moon of the gas giant Polyphemus), a lot of the filming was done in tanks — including one of 2.5 million litres — at Kumeu Film Studios. NEW YORK CITY The Greatest Beer Run Ever No location has officially been announced for this movie which is meant to bring Viggo Mortensen back to New Zealand. (Dunedin was mentioned in the Hollywood press.) It’s based on the memoir of a New York-based seaman who visited Vietnam to deliver some beers to friends fighting in the war. New Zealand’s successful Covid response has boosted our reputation as a great place for filming.…