SailGP is coming to Lyttelton Harbour in March, the first time these insanely fast catamarans have raced in New Zealand, and everything is pointing to thrills and spills on the water and party time on the hard. It’s Season 3 of the event. Already racing has been held in eight centres, from Bermuda in May last year to Singapore in January. The New Zealand team, skippered by Peter Burling, came out on top in that event, cementing their position as the main threat to Tom Slingsby’s charge for a third straight season title for Australia. Lyttelton’s former reputation as a partying port town will no doubt get a new lease on life during the event. And what can’t fit into Lyttelton will spill over to Christchurch, so expect the bars to be pumping! SailGP has been likened to Formula 1 on water. Nine teams compete in short, sharp fleet races close...

Imagine a glorious riot of people and performers mingling in The Arts Centre’s Market Square before forming a procession and parading through the former University of Canterbury precinct to the North Quad. That will be the scene on the opening night of Off Centre, a three-day festival on March 3-5 of music, comedy, theatre, food and entertainment that will take over The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora and celebrate its restoration. It’s a chance for the people of Christchurch to symbolically reclaim what before the earthquakes was a vibrant jewel of the central city. The free event begins at 6pm. Performers will give a taste of what is to come over the weekend before leading the parade to North Quad. Spoiler alert: for those who join the parade, expect some surprises along the way. What follows opening night is a two-day programme jam-packed with more than 50 events from over...

As one door closes, another opens. In April, Canterbury Museum will close its doors for five years for a major redevelopment and a pop-up museum will open on the first floor of the nearby CoCA building. The Museum closed temporarily on January 3 and a team of street artists moved in to take over the space for the exhibition SHIFT: Urban Art Takeover. Once that exhibition ends in April, the doors will close till 2028. The Museum will lease the CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki building at 66 Gloucester Street from early February. About half the space will be dedicated to temporary exhibitions and the other half given over to highlights from the Museum’s permanent galleries. “At the end of last year we were encouraging people to come and farewell their favourites but the good news is that a few of those favourites will be shifting only just down the...

Dance music has a new home in Christchurch. After proving itself with Groove Armada’s gig in November, Queen Elizabeth II Park will host Fatboy Slim this Friday and then Netsky & Friends in February. Keeping the action out east, Basement Jaxx bring their beats to nearby Rawhiti Domain in March. The acts are among a slew of big names heading to Christchurch over the next few months, giving fans of everything from psychedelic pop to classic jazz something to get excited about. This weekend is one of the biggies – Fatboy Slim on Friday, Great Kiwi Beer Fest on Saturday and then Cowboy Junkies on Sunday for a quiet come-down. There’s even some clashes. Blues legend Zucchero goes up against homegrown heroes Broods on April 22. Groove Armada’s November gig, which attracted about 5000 punters, was the first major event at Queen Elizabeth II Park since the February 2011 earthquakes caused...

How fitting – Tiny Ruins are the headliners at a festival to celebrate the restoration from big ruin to full glory of Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre. Called Off Centre, the festival is a weekend extravaganza of vibrant entertainment on 3-5 March 2023. A jam-packed programme of more than 50 events from over 250 local artists will offer something for everyone, from kids’ activities, street performance, circus, spoken word, theatre and dance through to classical music, local bands and some well-known names in the New Zealand music industry. www.artscentre.org.nz

Celebration is synonymous with a toast. So why when everyone else gets a glass of something special do our best friends miss out? Thanks to Wigram Brewing Co, that social dilemma is a thing of the past. Now your good boy or girl can have a brew of their own. Be assured – Wigram’s Dog Beer contains no alcohol, hops or barley. No added salt either. Right from its launch, the brew has had a good reaction from dog owners. Wigram co-founder Paul McGurk says some are concerned at first about how healthy it is. Paul is reassuring there. “It has to be safe and it is. Mind you, how bad can it be – they lick their own arses don’t they?” wigrambrewing.co.nz

Ecologist Dr Jaz Morris of Boffa Miskell looks at how public landscaping is helping native species to thrive and recover. Go back 50 or even 20 years ago and most public landscaping reflected a colonial approach to nature. These spaces were more often characterised by stately English trees, hybrid roses and manicured lawns rather than the complex, rich mosaic of New Zealand’s native flora. More recently, natives are often the centrepiece of urban plantings, although many botanists would point out that ‘native’ doesn’t necessarily mean local and that some of the most hardy and popular native species are now seen in parks and alongside pavements from Kerikeri to Dunedin – far beyond where they originally grew. In urban plantings, landscape architects can choose from a wide range of native species to suit the desired form and location – or even to take advantage of an opportunity to boost rare native plant...

A friend in need is a friend indeed. But if it’s always them being needy, how’s that working for you? We all have one, the friend we never hear from unless they need to vent for 30 minutes on the latest injustice in their life. If you’re lucky you might get a perfunctory ‘And how are you?’ towards the end but you know they are just being polite. In the language of Marie Kondo, does this friend spark joy for you? If not, maybe it’s time for a declutter, a checking in with yourself on who should be in and who should be out of your social circle for 2023. Time away from your routine is the ideal for such contemplation. It’s when we get away from the daily grind that we gain some perspective on the quality of our friendships. Where do you find joy? Who energises you? Who drains...

Comedian Danny Bhoy is heading our way in March to premiere his brand new show, Now Is Not A Good Time. Judging by the title of the show he will be aiming his razor-sharp wit at all that has happened in the world since his last visit in 2019. Plenty of material then! The new show opens in Adelaide before landing at the Isaac Theatre Royal on 21 March. Tickets are on sale now. dannybhoy.com

We’ve got two alternative types of golf for you to try out in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Disc golf This is the hottest thing on the sporting scene. Have you seen people in parks around the city conspicuously flinging Frisbees at strange metal structures? These are the new wave of athletes. Well, maybe not athletes but they’re at least athlete-adjacent. The idea is pretty similar to the golf you know and love; you’ve got to get the disc from the tee to the hole (or basket) in as few throws as possible. There are even different ‘clubs’: discs with different weights and flight profiles that take the place of a driver, putter, wedge or other club. You might even see someone with a full-on trundler or backpack stacked with dozens of discs. Top courses // Jellie Park for a walk with a water hazard; Queenspark for a beginner course; Warren Park for some...

Fusion cuisine goes all the way back to the 14th Century in the original melting pot of Andalusia, where Jewish, Muslim and Christian influences combined with the rich soils and abundant waters of this Mediterranean territory to give the world gazpacho, calamari, chorizo and a smorgasbord of mouth-watering tapas. New Regent Street restaurateur Shafeeq Ismail (pictured) of Story fame has always been inspired by the fresh, seasonal and simple cuisine of this area of Spain and now he is sharing the love with Christchurch and its visitors, giving taste buds a zing at his new establishment, Odeon. Before coming to Ōtautahi, chef Shafeeq worked in southern Spain and the Middle East, soaking up the influences of the Mediterranean region along the way. All that is celebrated in the menu and milieu of Odeon, at the New Regent end of Gloucester Street. You can’t talk Spanish cuisine without saluting the rich history...

This Spanish Mission-style walkway may be the prettiest street in Christchurch, but its real drawcards are all the speciality destinations packed into its 120-metre span. New Regent Street was originally the location of Christchurch’s Colosseum. Our gladiators were armed with ice skates rather than swords, but it was still pretty cool. In the early 1930s, New Regent Street Limited developed the street in the Spanish Mission architecture we see today, with stylised gables and columns. It was a forerunner to modern malls, designed to group several small businesses together in a single themed development. In the ‘90s it officially became a walking street, though the space was to be shared with the tram. The street was shut down after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but reopened in 2013 and has been going from strength to strength ever since. Dine Twenty Seven Steps and Story are the kings of cuisine on this royal...

The judges have spoken and King of Snake rules! Cityscape talks to the man behind the magic, David Warring. King of Snake had a big night at the Canterbury Hospitality Awards. How good was that? We were thrilled with the results and humbled by them. It’s been a particularly challenging time for the entire industry. We took on a lot of risk with a project of this scale in the middle of a global pandemic. The entire team has worked incredibly hard and there has been a lot of personal sacrifice, so it was fantastic to see that acknowledged. What do you think swayed the judges your way? I think a combination of things that we have been able to put together in the new premises. Obviously, the commitment from our staff both in the engine room and front of house and the standards they set. We’ve been able to create...

Australian rock legends the Hoodoo Gurus are headlining March’s Selwyn Sounds festival. Cityscape talks to co-founder Dave Faulkner about his heroes, pet hates and where music comes from. With all your awards and accolades, you've become Australian rock royalty, haven't you? Royalty? I don’t know about that. It’s a bit like that saying about prostitutes and ugly buildings getting more respectable as they get older. Are you looking out for the new ones coming through? We've never really worried about anyone around us, whether they're new, older or whatever. Obviously we have our own heroes that we were influenced by that we're very keen to acknowledge when we get the opportunity. But as far as continuing the tradition, we hope we've had people that have used us as a guide post, just as others have inspired us along the way as well. Who are some of your heroes? I was a...

Colin the lowchen cross knows what life is like for a dog in a human’s world. With a little help from Geoff at Kuri, he opens up about why he and his doggy mates don’t always want their ears rubbed or your hand stuck in their face. Have you ever wondered what it's like to live in a world of humans when you're a dog? How I feel, why I do what I do and what my amazing senses allow me to process through my eyes, nose, mouth and ears? One of the biggest myths is that all dogs are sociable all the time, or should be. Is every human sociable? No. Does that make them bad humans? Of course not. It may mean they like their own company, they like to do other things or that they're happy in their own world. For our humans, that means reading the signs...

When Ross Morrison of Mr Mod came across a clock in an antiques shop in Hawke’s Bay, he knew straight away that it was the work of famed 19th-century clockmaker Thomas Cole. The clock wasn’t working but Ross bought it anyway, vaguely hoping he might find someone who could repair it. Back in Christchurch, he put it on a shelf in his St Martins shop. That was when serendipity came to visit. Bruce Aitken, trade-qualified clockmaker of 40 years’ experience and fixer of anything, popped in during his morning walk – he only lives a few blocks away. Ross showed him the clock and Bruce also knew just how special it was. Bruce’s day job involves the restoration, repair and reconstruction of kinetic sculptures by Christchurch-born artist Len Lye. Bruce works closely with the Len Lye Foundation, which preserves and promotes the artist’s legacy. He also specialises in the restoration and...

As a writer and magazine editor, Kate Preece spent 14 years sharing other people’s stories. Now she is sharing her own, having fun and winning accolades along the way. She talks to Cityscape about inspiration, celebration and her goals for 2023. Congratulations on the awards you have been winning for your writing – you must be rapt? Absolutely. One Weka Went Walking is really hitting its stride. I couldn’t be more pleased with how it has been received and love seeing it on the shelves. It’s been a real buzz winning an international short story competition too. This year has been about building up my literary CV, and being able to add awards to it is what I need to make this passion into a career. How is it different to your previous writing roles and magazine editing? It has been a huge change of pace. I’m no longer juggling the...

The set determines the structure of a play. Entrance. Exits. Where the action happens. Cityscape gets to know the unsung heroes building the sets behind every great show at The Court Theatre. The Court is the only theatre in Aotearoa with its own permanent professional set-building team. The full-time construction crew consists of three guys: Richard van den Berg (middle), Nigel Kerr (right), and Seth Edwards-Ellis (left). Richard and Nigel are both veteran artists and all-rounders, and Seth is a young-gun builder who’s lightning-fast at putting together framing and set structures. There’s also Richie Daem, who’s in his 70s now. He was the official Court metalworker for many years before retiring, but he still drops by to put his hand to a set construction from time to time. In his absence, Nigel and Seth pick up the welding gear. The two artists also sometimes do set design, and The Court has...