March #10
Roll up for March! We’ve got: Dolly Parton for Women’s Day. Drag, tutus. The hot air balloon festival turns 25! Heritage locomotives. A sushi train. New Korean barbecue and some vegan banana pancakes! We’ve got Swiss kraut rock, and Sydney Sweeney as a pregnant nun.
Our theatre editor Louise Drummond was on RNZ last month to talk Hamilton Arts Festival - Toi Ora ki Kirikiriroa and cool goings on in Hamilton generally.
Welcome, new readers! And congrats to our ticket winners for the festival; we hope you had fun at your respective shows.
As always, send us your tips, gossip, and local discoveries to hello@thewaikatodraft.com or slide into our Insty DMs.
Scuttlebutt
We’re going to have to structure this month’s Scuttlebutt as a bit of a compliment sandwich, so we’ll start with the fun stuff first.
Former Hamiltonian, now one of those people secretly running Auckland, Richard Betts wrote for The Listener on how we are cool now.
If you missed Prima Facie at the festival, you might enjoy our own local compelling legal drama – posted without additional comment.
Made is open Tuesdays now. We hope that someday soon the mess hall will stay open later so we can badger the Amphora crew for wine recs into the wee small hours (or at least until 11 or something).
Now, the more serious bit: We felt compelled to say something about the absolute lack of good candidates in last month’s Hamilton East byelection. The voter turnout was an abysmal 18.6%, and even amongst our generally political engaged circles, many chose not to vote due to the candidates on offer, which is a real shame, but understandable. One thing that was striking to us browsing the booklet of candidates - how many sounded like they really fucking hate local government, but then emphatically pitched for your vote. Other than that being silly and depressing, well, we wonder if that’s sensible? Given tightened central purse strings, do we really want to help them shrink the role of local government, which affords a little autonomy and agency over our own projects and priorities, and where the dollars get spent in real proximity to the voter?
(Also, running for council, and then running for central government shortly afterwards, thus vacating your seat and forcing a byelection seems kinda wasteful of everyone’s time and money, but hey, what’s the famous quote about getting the government you deserve?)
Local government is confusing and often mundane - most councillors would likely agree with that. But it’s important stuff and affects us all on a daily basis. Opting to shrink the power you do have is not the same thing as being prudent. Hamilton in recent years has felt like it's flourishing - one of the things that inspired this newsletter, and we hope that continues. But all of us may have to work on that together.
While we’re still on this filling - Councillor Louise Hutt has detailed, articulate account of some of the abuse – both online and real world – she has sustained on the job. It was picked up by the Herald as part of a wider story on the same themes.
The Spinoff wrote about the Lambton ward by-election, which could be a copy + paste tale of the dynamics playing out in many Aotearoa New Zealand cities currently, including ours, where a clash in the motivations and values between two amorphous groups conceptualised in the piece as Old Town and New City, are shaping local politics.
Now, if you’ll excuse the continued sandwich metaphor, to the top bun: We’re very excited at the opening of Tongkun, a new Korean barbecue place on southern Victoria, and we’ve heard great things about it. The split level building seems to have been a bit of an elephant graveyard over the years when it comes to restaurants, especially upstairs, which Tongkun now occupies. With the consistently excellent Tatsuta downstairs (For our money, Hamilton’s best Japanese restaurant), we hope this marks a bit of stability and prosperity for the beleaguered old complex. (Can anyone confirm if that karaoke bar downstairs is still running? We are uncertain.)
What’s on
IRL
The Hamilton half-marathon takes place on March 17 (undoubtedly ruining St Paddy’s Day for somebody out there) with the starter pistol at 0800 hours - it’s not too late to enter, including their 10km and 5km races which leave a little later. The five bridges swim on the same day, from 10am! It’s in its 85th year! With the current, that’s about a 3km swim. They both leave from the Gardens, so forget about getting a park there on that day. We did a back of the envelope calculation, and you’d need to run the former with 5 minute 27 second splits per kilometre to do both races. Go on, that’s only 11 kilometres per hour.
The main game in town this March is Balloons over Waikato, running from March 19 to the 23. Innes Common has see something like 130,000 visitors over the 5 days in years prior. It’s the current iteration’s 25th birthday. Spotting some balloons aloft on weekday mornings is always a highlight of our March madness commutes.
And then that weekend, because of the Nightglow, the Hamilton farmers’ market will be at Innes Common rather than the usual Claudelands barn.
At Laree Payne Gallery, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy’s solo exhibition Rhythmical Relations is running until March 16th, displaying pieces from her work over the last eight years.
Image: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, The Listening, 2020-2024, Oil and pigment on aluminium, brass. 600mm H x 400mm W x 152mm D. Image courtesy of the artist.
All aboard!
Contributed by Malcolm Giles
Train enthusiasts! Or, if that’s too strong for you, the train adjacent and train curious! On March 10 you can ride a lovingly restored steam locomotive riverside to Ngaruawahia and back, out of Frankton station. (You can also join the service at Rotokauri station opposite Te Awa The Base.) Originally built in 1915, steam locomotive WW644 will be pulling heritage coaches, chug-chug-chugging along the riverside journey we so quickly forgot since the State Highway 1 expressway went in.
Tips for the modern traveller and uninitiated: travel on a steam locomotive is slow, so you’ll have plenty of time on the afternoon trip to socialise and enjoy the view. Bring snacks. Travel on a steam locomotive is also noisy - the little engine will be working hard on this trip, with several railway and road crossings, so prepare for an auditory trip back in time to when steam locomotives filled the air around Hamilton with chuffing and whistling.
Theatre
By Louise Drummond
Hope you all got to see a show or several at the Hamilton Arts Festival Toi Ora Ki Kirikiriroa. I saw a bunch and they were absolutely fabulous. My three year old son got to experience his first sunset symphony, and at the end of one piece he jumped up, clapping, and yelled, Tthat was awesome!" I don't know how anyone could receive higher praise than that. Artists inspiring our future artists.
Anyway, here's my picks for the rest of March.
Sirens of the Silver Screen, Meteor Theatre. 6-7th March, 7.30pm. Tickets. The drag scene in Hamilton is excellent, and this show combines the art of drag with some powerhouse musical performances from classic movies like Hocus Pocus, Sister Act, Titanic, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Personally, my favourite part is hearing the queen names - Miss Manage, Miss Givings and Miss Demeanour tickle my punny bone immensely.
Tutus on Tour, Clarence St Theatre. 14-16th March, times vary. Tickets. If you like ballet but social media has killed your attention span, then this is like a highlights reel. This year, the Royal NZ Ballet are touring the full-length Swan Lake in May; Tutus on Tour performs teaser excerpts. You get all the most famous pieces from the ballet, including my favourite parts: the Cygnets quartet, which is beautiful to watch and the tune is catchy as heck, and the Black Swan pas de deux, which is peak athleticism and I accept no debate. You try doing that many fouettés.
One Way Out, Meteor Theatre. March 15-16th, 7pm. Tickets. The Meteor is known for its dedicated support for local writers and artists, and here's another great example. Local playwright Emily Costello has written a two-person play about relationships, friendships, love and grief, and it's directed by another local playwright, Melanie Allison. I'm sure it'll be a gem.
Music
By Adam Fulton
Blue Divers (Australia). Last Place. March 7. Free show.
Wondrous ambient noodly instrumental group from Wollongong play a free/koha show at Last Place. Reminiscent of The Dirty Three's Mick Turner and American primitivist Mason Lindahl.
Shonen Knife (Japan). Yot Club, Raglan. March 8. Tickets.
Possibly the longest running power-pop trio from Osaka will grace the immaculate stage of the Yot Club with their presence.
Scorched Earth Music Festival. The Local, Te Rapa. March 8. Tickets.
A comically cheap ($8 presales!) metal fest in Te Rapa, featuring 6 bands with suspiciously legible logos: Monolith, Chasing Titans, Unwanted Subject, InTheirImage, Afterlight, and Act Of Vengeance.
Hyperculte (Switzerland). Last Place. March 22. Tickets.
Swirling, hypnotic, krauty art-rock from Switzerland sitting somewhere between OOIOO, Boredoms and Animal Collective. Joined by Glass Shards and Late for Life Drawing.
Film
By Jason Marshall
Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes last year, the directorial debut for Molly Manning Walker, How to Have Sex follows a trio of young woman on a party-filled trip to Crete for what should be the summer of their lives. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent writes, “Described by its director as loosely autobiographical, How to Have Sex is built around a subtle but devastating rug-pull that exposes the culture of sex and consent in the same way F Scott Fitzgerald put the Jazz Age on blast in The Great Gatsby.” Trailer. Releases Thursday March 7.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, the Regent have two screenings (6:45 pm and 7:00 pm) of the 1980 classic comedy 9 to 5, which tackled sexism in the office and the gender pay gap in a way that its contemporaries seldom did. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote in his 2018 retrospective, “Thirty-eight years on, this tale of misogyny, kidnap and rattling typewriters is a boldly progressive piece of film-making.” Trailer. Tickets. Friday March 8.
For all of you looking to resolve some Catholic school trauma (I’m not totally sure that this is the way to achieve that), It girl and audience favourite Sydney Sweeney is back in theatres again with Immaculate, a spooky-looking psychological thriller about a pregnant nun at a convent where things aren’t quite what they seem. Fellow White Lotus-er Simona Tabasco also stars. Trailer. Releases Thursday March 21.
What we Put in our mouths this month
Auckland import and purveyor of rotisserie chickens Bird on a Wire has closed their Grey Street location, which was a surprise, but excitingly local original Salam Afghan Food has sprouted up in its place. We have ordered takeaway and dined in – it’s all excellent, and we particularly recommend the charcoal grilled whole chicken, the mixed kebab platter, and the spinach and leek stuffed Bolani bread.
Sometimes we tell you all the basic bitch things. For all their fancy flavours, we’re returned to the Duck Island vanilla ice cream recently, especially with all the amazing fruit in season. We have, for example, a neighbour’s passionfruit vine that’s practically jumped the fence and made a run for ours - and we’ve been practically cracking it on top of a bowl like an egg. Over summer we had some very ripe strawberries and made a like a sauce - together they served like really high end, elevated McDonalds sundae and it was fucking amazing.
God we love a good cafe co-located with an attraction. I’ve been meaning to go to Everyday Eatery (run by the fine folk behind Cream) for yonks, but going to the zoo is not an everyday occurrence for us, and we have not. The breakfast sandwich for lunch is a solid option, there’s a decent range of gin (and beer and wine).
We usually think of CBD favourite Anne Fern on Knox Street as a weekday lunchtime kind of place, offering excellent coffee and cabinet food, but don’t forget that they’re open Saturdays too from 8 am to 1 pm - and are now slinging weekend vegan banana pancakes, which are $12 a plate.
We kinda missed the sushi train on Worley Place - the owners of Sushi Chew Chew told us they’re been there a year. A year! We were a bit disappointed with some of the fried items from the menu, but loved the sushi on offer, especially the range of tuna options.
Expleo are doing casserole packs again this winter, through both Te Awamutu and the Made location.
Hayes Common were well and truly due a menu refresh - and it’s here. We miss them in the evenings, but their Neighbourhood Eats are still a thing, and Thursday March 21 they are doing a Latin theme. $95, or $130 with drinks pairing.
Lastly, regular readers will know Ernest has been one of our favourite spots in the city; we were very sad to hear that, in its current form at least, has shut its doors after going into liquidation. We hope they reopen soon and look forward to supporting them.
