Sense & Wander is an independent publication documenting the people, places, food, art and landscape of rural places in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Why we exist
Places that deserve their own record
There is a depth of character in rural and remote locations, that rarely gets the space it needs. Stories about people who have built lives in places most New Zealanders only pass through. About food gathered from rivers and coastlines, artists working in old buildings in small towns, communities holding on to something worth keeping.
We started Sense & Wander because we believe long-form editorial storytelling builds a different kind of connection with a place than destination marketing can. Where a visitor guide promotes a region, a well-told story makes you feel it. We are interested in the second kind.
Sense & Wander Magazine is a combination of destination tourism and lifestyle. We are not a news site, a blog or a tourism directory. We are closer to a literary magazine that happens to be about a place.
A Printed Magazine
We are choosing print because I still love the simple pleasure of holding a magazine in my hands, making a cup of tea and disappearing into it for a while. I want Sense & Wander to be an excuse to put the phone down, to stop scrolling, and to spend time with something that has been made with care. We live in a world increasingly crowded with recycled content, AI-generated rubbish and information that leaves you wondering whether any of it is actually true. I don’t want our readers to have to wonder. If a story appears in Sense & Wander, someone has gone there, met the person, asked the questions, checked the details and taken the photographs. It is real, considered and worth your time. Print asks something different of us. It asks us to sit down, turn the page and stay for a while. It will be a collectors item. Something to pass on or keep on the coffee table. And perhaps, right now, there is something rather wonderful about that.
The people behind it
Kara Gray Smith
Co-Founder, Photographer & Editor
Kara brings close to three decades of experience in photography, regional tourism, storytelling and publishing across Australia and New Zealand. She has photographed and written for regional councils, destination marketing organisations and tourism operators, but Sense & Wander marks the first time that voice is entirely her own. She is the editorial heart and strategic lead of the publication.
Brad Gray Smith
Co-Founder & Photographer
Brad is the visual storyteller of Sense & Wander. His photography does not simply illustrate the stories we tell - it tells its own story. He brings a documentary sensibility to landscape, portrait and food photography that is essential to the character of the publication. Brad was born in New Zealand, and that connection to Aotearoa runs through everything he photographs.
In 2025, Kara and Brad relocated from Queensland to the West Coast. They bought a house, set up a business in Westport, and started building the publication they had been working toward for years. They are not observers of this district. They live here. "This is where we will start... where we wander and end up, is the best part."
Ready to read something worth your time?
Sense & Wander West Coast, Aotearoa New Zealand · 2026