Calendar / Diary

Events worth noting around the country

Words: Ann Warnock

The Big Easy

23 January, Snow Farm, Mt Pisa, Wanaka

This mountain-bike event has both altitude and attitude as well as an opportunity to roar through the glorious rural Otago landscape. The 40km course commences at the Snow Farm on Mt Pisa then sweeps along the mountain ridge towards Wanaka before the long haul downhill to Albert Town. The track provides a rare opportunity to traverse the rugged valleys of several farms. This “day on the bike” also offers The Big Not so Easy – an additional 20km loop soaring over the top of Mt Pisa at 1900m before descending to rejoin the main race.

Phone (03) 443 5022, www.highlandevents.co.nz

The Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championships

20 to 28 January, Piha, Auckland

The wild west coast at Piha will welcome 250 top international surfers when it hosts the biggest surfing spectacle staged in Australasia for more than 25 years. Thirty countries will be represented in what is billed as an Olympic-style event. The venue has been described by its international organizers as “an amazing location with perfect waves”.

Phone (07) 825 0018, www.isaworldjuniors.com.

2010 Chinese New Year Festival & Market Day

13 February, ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

Events worth noting around the country

Words: Ann Warnock

Cloud9

29 August to 29 November, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu

This shimmering show by nine contemporary New Zealand artists is themed with strange dreams and celestial structures. It is the fourth instalment in an emerging-artist series staged by the gallery and features new work by recent graduates Elliot Collins, Ruth Thomas Edmond, Tim Thatcher, Telly Tu’u, Georgie Hill, Marie Le Lievre, Pete Wheeler, Mike Cooke and Eileen Leung. The works explore new directions in painting techniques and celebrate a genre which has the ability to transport the viewer to another realm.

Phone (03) 941 7300, www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz

New Zealand Opera – Eugene Onegin

17 to 26 September, Auckland and 10 to 17 October, Wellington

An international cast and cutting-edge creative team light up the stage with Tchaikovsky’s great opera of honour, love, death and regret. Set in 19th-century Russia and based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel, Eugene Onegin packs dramatic and visual punch. New Zealand soprano Anna Leese stars as Tatyana alongside British baritone William Dazeley. Leading Russian conductor Alexander Polianichko, based at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, takes the podium. Phone (09) 379 4068 or (04) 499 8343, www.nzopera.com

Hollywood’s Ancient World

6pm to 8pm, Wednesdays 16, 23, 30 September and 7 October, Pipitea Campus, Victoria University, Wellington

Events worth noting around the country

Words: Ann Warnock

2009 New Zealand Body Art Awards Show

25 July, Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland

Think hunchbacked, scaly swamp monsters, glow-in-the-dark children and ethereal other-worldly beings gliding across a catwalk … this is the stuff of the annual body art awards that celebrate the work of practitioners engaged in this unique medium. The event showcases the creative excellence of students, graduates and professionals and will feature hand-painted, special-effects and World of Fluorescent categories as well as a cutting-edge interpretation of New Zealand culture in the Maori Myths and Fantasies section.

Phone (09) 486 8028, www.bodyartawards.co.nz

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park

Wednesdays 5.30 to 7.00pm, 22 July to 12 August, Central Library, Otago University, Dunedin

Compare the light and sparkling novel Pride and Prejudice with its successor, the seriously hued Mansfield Park, in a short course tailor-made for Jane Austen fans. The course is conducted by international authority Emeritus Professor Jocelyn Harris and includes discussion on recent film and television adaptations.

Phone (03) 479 5191, www.otago.ac.nz/courses/continuingeducation

Petone Winter Carnival

18 July, Petone foreshore