Contributors

Published June 26, 2009 @ noon

Perhaps it's amazing Anya Kussler found her natural home at all. The Namibian-born German–South African studied Italian, French and German before finding her calling in magazine journalism in Enzed. "I can get as passionate about travel, health, fitness and architecture as much as an exciting new business venture, construction project, veterinary procedure or website revamp," she says. "The best thing about writing is the interesting people I meet, exciting places I visit and, ultimately, the rewarding feeling of being able to promote someone and creatively capture what they’re about."

Anya grew up in Stellenbosch, home of South African wine. Her story about the Hawke's Bay winemakers challenging the best of Bordeaux is on page 42.

A photograph captures more than what’s visible on the surface, says Napier photographer Richard Wood. "It’s about evoking not only a scene, but the feeling of the invisibilities, mysteries, emotions and passion beneath its surface." His work has him travelling both nationally and internationally to complete special assignments. For this issue, Richard focused on a subject close to home: the winemakers of Gimblett Gravels.

After a brief flirtation with psychology and public relations, Felicity Monk says her “nosiness and enthusiasm over a good word” was best satisfied by a career in journalism. Over the past decade she has been freelance writing for several magazines and spent time as a staff writer for New Zealand Listener and Sunday magazines. In her first article for Idealog on page 50, she visits the upstart Plaything Gallery in Newton, Auckland. When not writing, Felicity wants nothing more than to travel the world with a good book and eat other people’s cooking, so long as it’s tasty.

Alex Wallace arrived in New Zealand in December 2008, dragged back from the UK by his Kiwi wife, Tracy. Talk about being dropped in at the deep end—Alex says setting up a new business in the middle of the recession has been a “challenging” experience. But the former resident of Guernsey is now happily at home in Auckland. “After several months, things are falling into place and I have learned very quickly that taking great photos is just a small piece of the jigsaw!” In this Idealog, Alex turns his lens on another recent business: Plaything Gallery.