All the news and gossip from the free summer festival brought to you by Verb Wellington and The Spinoff, happening this weekend at Wellington’s Botanic Gardens. 2.00pm: Strange happenings during a discussion of NZ sci-fi Toby Morris writes: Elizabeth Knox, Kim Hill and Witi Ihimaera took the stage to discuss the anthology Monsters in the … Read more
Get wild, get cultured, get fed and then get to bed: the essential guide to a perfect few days in the southern city. There’s one thing that preoccupies the staff of The Spinoff almost as much as arranging popular food items into arbitrary lists, and that’s Dunedin. A quite remarkable number of us were either … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 24. 4.05pm: Northland community case went through managed isolation The probable community case in Northland is a 56-year-old woman who has recently been through isolation at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland after returning from Europe, Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins told media this afternoon. The woman’s PCR … Read more
In a historic corner of Dunedin, startup culture is thriving. Catherine McGregor visited the city’s Warehouse Precinct to meet the people driving the movement. When Jason and Kate Lindsey bought the four storey building now known as Petridish, it was an absolute wreck. Once home to a thriving hat and textiles factory – a 1919 … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US presidential inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated through Wednesday and Thursday. The inauguration ceremony begins at 5.15am Thursday, NZ time, and Joe Biden takes the oath of office around 6am. 3.10pm: New Radicals reform to perform one of the greatest pop singles ever Forgive the editorialising, but … Read more
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students. From high in the summit beyond Pine Hill on … Read more
The Democrats started this week high on hopes for winning Senate elections up and down the map. It didn’t quite work out that way, as Catherine McGregor explains. Hooray! President Trump is about to be booted out. That means things are going back to normal, right? Not so fast. There’s no doubt a Biden presidency … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US election live blog: election news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout the day. See the latest results on an interactive US map here. Reach me on catherine@thespinoff.co.nz. 9.45pm: And that’s a wrap, for now With most of the United States fast asleep and much of the vote counting halted for the … Read more
The Big Little Lies showrunner and one of its stars are back with an addictive new limited series – and they’ve brought Hugh Grant along for the ride. Nicole Kidman does a lot of walking in The Undoing. The new HBO murder-mystery miniseries features seemingly endless shots of her character, Grace Fraser, crossing busy Manhattan … Read more
It’s normal to feature two different perspectives discussing a major US political set piece. Yet this morning RNZ’s flagship Morning Report hosted two unabashed Trump acolytes ahead of the final debate. At 2pm New Zealand time, the final debate between president Donald Trump and his challenger, Joe Biden, takes place in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s Trump’s … Read more
Your essential guide to following election night with your eyes and ears, on TV, radio and online, plus where to watch and listen to Sunday’s bumper crop of post-election analysis. Don’t forget to keep your second screen tuned to The Spinoff, where we’ll have rolling coverage kicking off as soon as polls close on Saturday. … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for October 11, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on catherine@thespinoff.co.nz. 1.00pm: One new case at … Read more
Voting is under way in the New Zealand general election. Explore the main parties’ pledges at Policy.nz, but here’s a whistlestop tour of what’s on offer when it comes to crime, justice and policing. Read more two-minute policy wraps here There are few policy areas where the gap between the parties is more stark than … Read more
It was all awful, but these were the most awful bits. Well, that was … something. All those who made it through the first Donald Trump/Joe Biden debate are now bonded by the horror of the experience, one which veteran commentators are variously calling “a disgrace”, “a train wreck” and “the worst debate I have … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 27, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m on catherine@thespinoff.co.nz 6.55pm: The day … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 30, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ is in level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact me at catherine@thespinoff.co.nz 7.15pm: The day in sum … Read more
The second season of the female-focused anthology series is as much a portrait of a disintegrating marriage as it is a crime story, writes Catherine McGregor. This review contains mild spoilers for episodes one and two. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, they say, but we all know it’s not actually true, not … Read more
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 2 where we bring you the latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. 6.10pm: The day in sum Melbourne entered a strict NZ-style level four lockdown, including a curfew, while regional Victoria will begin level three restrictions from midnight Wednesday. … Read more
The latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. 7.30pm: The day in sum There were three new cases of Covid-19, two men in their 30s and one woman in her 70s. All were detected in managed isolation. All returning adult New Zealanders would be charged $3000 to cover … Read more
Neon’s gender-flipped version of High Fidelity features Zoë Kravitz in the role John Cusack made famous 20 years ago. And it works far better than you might expect, writes Catherine McGregor. By now we’ve all accepted the fact that every last artistic touchstone we hold dear will one day end up being reused, reinterpreted or … Read more
In 2001, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s coughing scandal made villains out of British couple Charles and Diana Ingram. A new three part drama on SoHo (and Lightbox) suggest they may be innocent after all. There are few creative works that can be considered genuinely seminal; few that changed the game so entirely that … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has unveiled details of the changes New Zealanders can expect when we move from level two to level one. What will it mean for businesses, hospitality and day-to-day life? Level one! At last, life is finally back to normal. Not so fast. We’re still in level two, and will be for at least … Read more
Budget 2020: The tourism sector was holding out hope for a lifeline to come in the form of yesterday’s budget. It didn’t come, and now its leaders say they’re drowning. Members of the beleaguered tourism industry say the support they’ve been offered is a drop in the bucket compared to what is necessary given the … Read more
The new Netflix comedy features one of television’s most relatable depictions of teenage girlhood, writes Catherine McGregor. It sounds like the premise of a teen movie. A woman decades past her high school years is destined to revisit them, over and over again. Plot twist: The woman is me, and the high school experiences I … Read more
The writing of this new TVNZ series struggles to live up to the drama of its breathtaking location, writes Catherine McGregor. The first scene is astonishing. It begins with a drowned girl floating face down underwater, her hair a weightless auburn cloud around her face. And then the scene expands. In a single shot we … Read more
The new Neon series about the fight to have gender equality enshrined in the US Constitution is a fun 70s romp with a bitter twist, writes Catherine McGregor. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, they say, and right now that’s especially true for television, which is filled to the gills with historical series attempting to say … Read more
Missing international travel? At a loose end? It’s time to learn a language, the easy way. These are hard times for lovers of travel. Even if you weren’t unlucky enough to be forced to cancel a trip, there’s no getting around the fact that, for the foreseeable future, international travel is over. The winter trip … Read more
It’s difficult enough caring for coronavirus patients, but when healthcare providers become sick themselves, or are forced into self-quarantine, it becomes even harder to cope. So how is New Zealand preparing for staff shortages in the health system? News that 43 hospital staff have been put into self-quarantine after coming into close contact with a … Read more
Should you stay, or should you go? Your burning questions on travelling in the time of coronavirus, answered. Should I cancel? If you’re planning on travelling to China, Iran or some regions of South Korea and Italy, yes you probably should. All of mainland China and Iran have now been officially designated ‘do not … Read more