Articles

Cold is a funny thing. We work pretty hard to stay out of it but sometimes it creates the best adventures. It was early June and the season’s first snowfall had just hit the Canterbury high country. The boat slid off the trailer at Lake Lyndon and the fish-finder displayed...

The Coromandel is one of New Zealand’s most popular holiday destinations. I’m sure a huge part of this is the fact that it’s a fishing and boating paradise blessed with miles of diverse coastline, hundreds of islands and reefs, and shelter in all but the worst weather conditions. Working our way...

After growing up on the family’s beef farm near Kawakawa in the Far North, Gemma went to Otago University, where she gained not one, not even two, but three degrees. She credits her mother, whose early-onset arthritis was a wake-up call for Gemma to live life to the fullest and...

If you’re an avid trout fisher, you would have heard whispers about the “tiger trout”. For those that don’t know, the tiger trout (Salmo trutta × Salvelinus fontinalis) is a sterile, hybrid of the brown trout (Salmo trutta) and the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), and in my opinion, is the...

Brewing beer is one of the oldest and most noble of trades. From the deeply spiritual processes mastered in European monasteries, through to the bloke in his garage just desperate to make something drinkable, the desire to create beer is a not so secret passion of most males on this...

Keen hunter Nick Binks headed to the South Island’s west coast to chase the mighty tahr recently, and the trip did not disappoint. Every year, I try my luck in the tahr ballot run by DOC. This allows you remote access by helicopter into some of the most fantastic, rugged...

Having run snapper and kingfish charters in the Hauraki Gulf for many years now, there’s one place that I find particularly special and almost always delivers on the fishing and diving front – Great Barrier Island. Great Barrier Island is the largest and most seaward of Hauraki Gulf’s islands. The...

We are living in weird times. The earth has been humbled by an invisible enemy and everything we knew to be the norm quickly changed. Our direction of life for the next while was up in the air, so a bunch of us lads thought we would go to our...

Ethan Roots has squeezed a lot into 22 years. Earlier this year, on the fringe of the impending COVID-19 induced lockdown, he made his Super Rugby debut for the Crusaders. While this is a substantial achievement in itself, not many have risen through the ranks so fast. He only made...

During lockdown, my ‘bubble’ (not sure if my partner Jeannie will like her new nickname, but we will see if it sticks) and I participated in the first (and hopefully last) Great COVID Cook-Off – an online BBQ competition. The format focused on presentation, captured through photos and video, rather...