It must be at least seventy years since car radiator caps disappeared inside bonnets. Followed, soon after, by the ornaments that once bedecked them. Safety regulations seem to have done for the last of them these days. But you can still find a few, if you loiter around a vintage car parade, camera in hand, … More The art of deco hood ornaments
I thought I would conclude my trilogy of deco posts with a few more glimpses of my home town – Napier, New Zealand. The place has spectacularly reinvented itself since its discovery, about 25 years ago, of its own modernist heritage. Today it styles itself the ‘art deco capital of the world’. And in many … More More wonderful architecture from the art deco capital of the world
I’ve spent a few days prowling the downtown streets of my home town, Napier, New Zealand, capturing its art deco heritage. I’ve been writing on it for years – Random House produced my first book on the history of this city, back in 1997. The downtown collection of modernist buildings emerged from a devastating earthquake … More Enjoying the art deco fantasy of Napier, New Zealand
Welcome to 2014! I thought I’d share some photos I’ve taken in the last few days from the art deco capital of the world – Napier, New Zealand. This year’s already stacked for me, certainly writing-wise. I have a book in press and others to finish and get to publishers by deadline. More on that … More Welcome to 2014 from the art deco capital of the world
New Zealand has a repute for being clean and green. It isn’t entirely; no twenty-first country can be completely so. But a good deal of it is – including our power, much of which comes from hydro schemes. The bulk of those are in the South Island, where the terrain is well suited to such … More A tribute to New Zealand’s clean, green and mighty engineering
It was one of those anonymous central Hawke’s Bay towns that get jokes made about them by anybody who doesn’t actually have to live there. As my wife and I checked into a motel there I noticed a rat sitting under the counter. Actually it turned out to be one of those little lap dogs … More The geeky bluetooth miniature dog adventure
I am often amazed at the way perfectly explicable – if unusual – parts of the natural world get layered with what, politely, we might call ‘woo woo’. Here in New Zealand we have a few – the ‘Kaimanawa wall’, for instance, a few ‘stone blocks’ that are meant to be part of a pyramid and … More Why go for woo woo when we have science? Checking out New Zealand’s amazing Moeraki Boulders
Concluding one author’s writing adventures in Rarotonga Thursday 17 May It’s been a great week, but our time in Rarotonga is coming to an end. I get in a morning’s writing while rain pelts down. Around lunchtime the sun comes out and I head into Avarua with She Who Must Be Obeyed to watch seven ocean-going vaka … More Meeting writers in exotic Rarotonga
One author’s Polynesian travel diary – continued It is Monday by my internal clock, Sunday locally. I am thinking of writing, but Rarotonga is shut down for the sabbath. Work is not an option. She Who Must Be Obeyed thinks we should hire a convertible and drive around the island. We pick up a Volkswagen … More Rain and writing in the land of Tangaroa
Matthew Wright 