Web Exclusive - Letters to the Editor

We often don't have enough space to print all the letters we receive. Here are a few extras WE HAVE RECEIVED IN THE PAST TWO MONTHS. FOR MORE, CHECK OUT THE LATEST EDITION OF NZ LIFE & LEISURE - OUT NOW.

I would love to receive the [subscription] prize [Lancome mascara] but I don’t have a little black number hanging in my closet to wear as well. So something male for us single guys would also be great. Of course you could send someone in a little black number which would be well received with open arms. I would give you some personal details but that’s a little smart arse.

Cheers for the original card on receiving my first mag and the free coffee from Caffe L’affare.

Your mag is great. Oh! I am 5’7’, blue eyes, blond hair, 55 years old.

Wayne
Auckland

Thanks to your team for another lovely magazine this month (Issue 13). I get a lot of inspiration from each issue – both from the entrepreneurial people you write about and the luscious photos.

But I was particularly delighted this month with two inclusions – Peter Chaplin and the feature on riding the Otago Rail Trail (‘A Golden Era’).  I have been trying to find information on Peter’s classes since buying his cookbook about 12 months ago. So I was so pleased to find his website in your article.

Secondly, the inclusion of the Naseby feature couldn’t have been more timely as I am right in the midst of researching and booking a cycling/eating/sightseeing trip of the Otago Rail Trail. Your article (and accompanying advertisement page) gave me some great ideas and websites to research.

Please keep up the great work.

Nina Stacey
Hamilton

I felt compelled to write this letter, last night I attended a fundraiser at Kristin School, every year the senior students work together to produce a fashion show fundraiser for CANTEEN, an organisation that helps young people and siblings deal with cancer. I purchased a VIP ticket, whilst a little more expensive; the money is going to a good cause. A perk of this ticket was a goodie bag, and eagerly looking inside my bag this morning I found the March/April issue of your magazine, one that I had never read before or to be perfectly honest, never even noticed in the magazine stand.

I was pleased to see the photo of Kate Coughlan as editor, previously being a subscriber to NZ House and Garden, I recognised her as a previous editor of that publication. I had often wondered where she had gone as I have felt that magazine has lost some of its shine since her departure and have not renewed my subscription - way too much advertising.

To get back on task, the point of my letter, I was interested to read the letter published from a Michelle Slade who was not renewing her subscription to Life and Leisure because she found it monotonously elitist and was sick of reading about another successful family when the magazine chooses to ignore the problems of NZ society.

Firstly, I am impressed that you choose to publish her comments and my reply to her is, what a load of cobblers, we don’t purchase magazines to be depressed. As a person who deals with the daily stresses of a serious illness I want to be inspired by other people’s successes, to read about new places and innovative ideas, this magazine has the right balance of advertising and interesting articles. One only needs to read the newspaper and watch the news on television to know the issues affecting our society today, not every publication needs to deal with these issues. We all need a little but of escapism, how dull our lives would be without it.

Wendy Malcolm
Auckland

After reading your editor’s letter I feel inspired. We do live in a wonderful country with amazing people. Everyday I appreciate how lucky I am to be living the dream.

I am a 32-year-old artist and I work from my straw bale studio that we built two years ago near our home, in the Waiotahe Valley, 10 minutes out of Opotiki in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. I live with my husband, Greg and our four children. Greg works in archaeology.

I sold my first piece in 1998, and it seems the hard yards since then are now paying off: I feel like I’ve finished my apprenticeship. The last year has been amazing and it just keeps getting better; my work was exhibited in France and Japan and I have completed many commissions. Next week I am being flown to Christchurch to sign one of these. I am also working towards an exhibition at Wine Country Gallery in Havelock North in October.

Thank you for a magazine that lets us share the joy of others successful lives.

Nga mihi

Fiona Gedson
Opotiki