Issue 25

We took 10 liberties with this painting. Did you spot the differences?

Image: "Donderdag" by Janna Van Hasselt, Seed Gallery, (09) 522 5360.

When times are tough, you need to make your wardrobe work harder. Tracey Strange has the scoop on investment dressing.

Fashion and beauty editor Tracey Strange with some seasonal makeover tips.

In her monthly email newsletter (which you can subscribe to by clicking on the box at bottom left), editor Kate Coughlan asked readers for their advice on cooking on a coal range. Advice and anecdotes came flooding in - here are a few we received.

Ann Warnock goes out and about to find out what's happening around the country.

MAGAZINE EDITORS aren’t supposed to publish stories about their friends: it’s called cronyism and is frowned on by decent journalists. But rules should be broken when there is a good reason and I very much want you to meet Ruth and Paul Pretty. In my book, they are among the country’s unsung heroes. Their idyllic lifestyle, in a perfect country home tucked away on the coast north of Wellington, is not one they fell into by luck but one earned by hard work.

Whether it’s feeding the thousands at an international expo, an America’s Cup cocktail party on a Spanish island, a formal dinner at an ancient French Champagne house or state dinners for the Prime Minister, the work of this catering couple is often the way the world meets and tastes our country.

As a regular (and fortunate) recipient of their generosity, I know how good it is to be looked after by the Prettys. They operate at the highest level in everything they do. Lots of my friends’ uni-age kids have worked for Paul over the years as part-time waiters and boy, do they learn about hard work, high standards and how to serve guests.

Take time to stroll through their garden and see if that magnificent macrocarpa hedge with the keyhole gateway evokes for you the childhood memories of rural New Zealand that it does for me. It is Christmas Day at Aunty Nancy’s near Geraldine where the macrocarpa hedge was high and forbidding; it is at the playground at Eiffelton Primary School where the hedge swallowed our cricket and tennis balls; it is the high hedge shielding many farmhouses from the nor’wester that howls across the Canterbury Plains where I grew up.

Modern living and building off the grid can go hand in hand. Words Bette Flagler; photographs Mike Heydon.

Besotted with all types of game birds, a Hawke’s Bay couple is teaching the country how to enjoy a miniature delicacy. Words by Sue Hoffart; photographs Dean Mackenzie.

A commercial palm garden that is also listed among New Zealand’s Gardens of National Significance, Palmco is a triumph for its owners whose lives are devoted to planning, visiting and writing about gardens. Words by Lyn Barnes; photographs Sally Tagg.

When the government wants to impress overseas guests with food and wine, it turns to a former cowshed in Te Horo. Words by Lyn Barnes; photos Nicola Edmonds.