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New Zealand

Kara Gray Smith

Kara and Brad Gray Smith, a Westport-based writer and photographer team. Kara's 28 years of experience across regional tourism, storytelling and publishing in Australia shapes the editorial heart of Sense & Wander.

HOUSE & GARDEN ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

Spring on the Coast

The fire was still going when the drizzle set in this morning. That grey Westport light had settled in and it felt, for a while at least, like winter wasn’t quite finished with us. In comparison to the east side and the deeper South, the Winter here has been
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NATURE ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

Vote Tāiko: Bring the West Coast's Own Bird Home

Last year, the tāiko finished the Bird of the Year competition with 81 votes. Not last place, but close enough to it that a bird found nowhere else on the planet barely registered a blip on the national radar. Forest and Bird That's the strange thing about the
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HOUSE & GARDEN ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

Weighing In on What We Waste

The tap runs cold over the meat tray, and I turn it side to side, rinsing off the last smear of blood. I think about someone standing at a sorting line somewhere, hands moving fast, and I rinse a little longer than I need to, a small act of consideration
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NATURE ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

Over The Rainbow

We’re standing on North Beach in Westport, marvelling at the summer sunset. A fireball in the sky in one direction. In the other, soft pastel pink and a full glowing rainbow, close enough that you swear you could run up the beach and be touched by it. Brad’s
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HISTORY ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

The Silent Memories of Millerton

The vanished coal settlements of the Buller plateau Walking through Millerton, you wish someone who lived here could walk beside you and point things out. There are traces of the old town everywhere, but no one to tell you what you’re looking at. The tunnels are still there. So
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PHOTOGRAPHY ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

The Sense & Wander Photography Competition Opens December 2026.

Start Shooting Now: We’re opening our first regional photography competition. Winning images will be published in The Buller Edition, our inaugural print magazine, and shown at a public exhibition in Westport. The theme There’s only one: Sense & Wander. If it captures something of what it feels like
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HISTORY ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

The Keeper's Story

Cape Foulwind’s fifty years of hand-lit nights On the night of 4 September 1913, the principal lighthouse keeper at Cape Foulwind, Mr MacIvor, was on duty in the tower when a storm broke over the headland. Just before one in the morning, lightning struck the telephone wires outside
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PEOPLE ⸱ Kara Gray Smith

We moved to the West Coast to tell its stories.

A note from Kara and Brad Gray Smith, the people behind Sense & Wander. There is a particular quality to the West Coast in the early morning. Cloud and salt hang over the hills, waiting to make up its mind about what kind of day it is going to be.
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We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Buller Resilience Trust, whose funding has helped bring this new local publishing project to life.