Friends, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and season five of our beloved Outlander is finally here. Droughtlander is done for another year, and while we might be shrivelled husks of our former selves, the first episode of our favourite time-travelling drama quenched our thirst with a ginger tsunami of feelings. We are restored. We … Read more
The cancellation of this weekend’s Lantern Festival isn’t the only knock-on effect from the novel coronavirus outbreak to reach Auckland, with the city’s Chinese restaurants reporting a decline in custom. The ban on inbound travel from China combined with overly cautious local diners avoiding their establishments has hit Auckland Chinese restaurateurs hard, with some even … Read more
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was the Netflix hit of 2018, but the sequel feels designed to replicate the success of the original without half as much heart, writes Sam Brooks. Despite the bevy of Oscar nominations for Netflix at the recent Academy Awards, there’s still a stigma around a Netflix Original film. That … Read more
At the highest gathering place of New Zealand sport, UFC champion and sportsman of the year Israel Adesanya delivered the message he has long been destined to give, writes Scotty Stevenson. I met Don Rowe in a Hamilton toilet. At the time I was editing a sports magazine and he was a pending graduate of … Read more
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $20) Before the Dishes Get Done Before the Marmite Gets Spread … Read more
The Real Pod reassembles to dissect the nude and rude third week of The Bachelorette NZ with special thanks to Nando’s. Two wonderful women and a mixed bag of lads jetted off to Argentina this week, one which saw a serious culling of the meek set of the herd. Conor, Flynn and Mr Wedge all … Read more
A new poem by Island Bay poet James Brown. Insulation My barber says that people no longer being able to afford houses is a no-brainer opportunity. He turns on the tele. Cue the leafy suburbs. Cue the dawn chorus. The tent of realty is specially crafted to respond to inequity. Its breathable fabric repels applicants … Read more
This week I watched a man shoot himself in the foot so many times I was amazed he could walk out of the courtroom. Here’s my honestly held opinion. Leonie Hayden was at Wellington High Court thanks to the support of Spinoff Members. To support independent, homegrown journalism, join today. The high-profile case of Robert … Read more
Three Countdown stores are currently trialling drastically reducing plastic from their fruit and veg… but it’s a solution that comes with problems of its own. Ah, plastic. The synthetic material we love to hate. In a world where many of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis are not exactly easy to give up – … Read more
The high-profile case at the Wellington High Court has come to an early halt after lawyers for Bob Jones, who was suing writer and director Renae Maihi, announced they will no longer continue. Sir Bob Jones was suing Renae Maihi for defamation after she presented a petition to parliament in 2018 to strip Jones of … Read more
On Tuesday, people from all across New Zealand will gather to demand the Abortion Legislation Bill be passed and that abortion be removed from the Crimes Act. Jessie Anne Dennis from Fem Force – Feminist Action Aotearoa explains why you should get involved. At the end of this week, the Abortion Legislation Bill will exit … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Deputy PM both admits and denies involvement in smear on journos, new poll shows National have the numbers, and dozens of Te Kuiti sawmill jobs gone. NZ First leader Winston Peters has admitted and also denied involvement in a hit job against journalists pursuing the … Read more
Summer is the time for buying dollar bags at the dairy. It’s also the time for Madeleine Chapman to rank every single one of them. In a feeble attempt to pre-empt the outrage, I’d like to make some disclaimers. Firstly, the lollies were limited to those sold in dollar bags. Items sold individually (such as … Read more
The challenge keeps knocking on Jacinda Ardern’s door: is there a limit to Labour’s patience with its embattled NZ First partner? Magic Talk serves up plenty of news stories to its parent website, Newshub. Usually it’s on-air tirades and flaming rows, amplified further online. But this week it hit the jackpot, delivering a big and … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Emma Ogilvie and Nick Landsman from Bar Céleste. You’ve probably seen their food on Instagram: people ripping into … Read more
Despite what some critics claim, there isn’t a ‘gig problem’ in Auckland, writes Josie Adams. You just need to look beyond indie rock. There are around 20 gig spaces in Auckland’s CBD. Over a three-day period last month, Whammy Bar alone hosted the Laneway afterparty, the bFM anniversary weekend party, and an Eartheater show. The … Read more
Writing about depression is panning out brilliantly for Eamonn Marra – his debut novel, 2000ft Above Worry Level, hit Unity’s top 10 list last week well before today’s official launch. Here, he explains why despite his success, he’s deciding to move on. I wasn’t always a writer. Unlike a lot of my writer friends, I … Read more
This summer, Nestlé released two new flavours of Kiwi Onion Dip. Hayden Donnell, our nation’s leading Kiwi onion dip researcher, delivers the company an angry rebuke. In 2012, 81-year-old Cecilia Giménez started painting over a fresco of a scourged Christ in the Spanish city of Borja. In her mind, the creation by artist García Martínez … Read more
Minerals giant Rio Tinto has once again provoked the fury of the government over their operations down in Southland. So what’s going on, and why are people so angry? What’s all this then? This story is all about dross. Not the dross that gets put out by global corporations as PR when they find themselves … Read more
After 20 years on the telly, Jamie Oliver is back with a new show that celebrates the humble vegetable. Tara Ward looks back on the celebrity chef’s achievements. If anyone has the power to make us see carrots in a new light, it’s Jamie Oliver. Since he burst onto our screens over 20 years … Read more
Director Heperi Mita celebrates the success of his friend Taika Waititi, and explains what it means for Māori and indigenous creatives around the world. There was a moment during the 2020 Academy awards where I saw Taika Waititi, Chelsea Winstanley and Ra Vincent, and realised that in just one generation Māori filmmakers had gone from … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Parliament is back for another fraught year, bad weather news likely to continue, and Winston Peters goes live. After taking a day to mark the life of former PM Mike Moore, Parliament began in earnest yesterday. As is customary, the party leaders each start the year … Read more
When a politician apparently can’t get a fair hearing in the media, how do you get the truth out? Political commentator Ben Thomas braves the wobbly audio to watch Winston Peters’ efforts to clear up questions around the NZ First Foundation donations scandal by doing a Facebook live. Private sector media companies have plenty to … Read more
The controversy over the fate of RNZ Concert, and the proposed youth music network to replace it, have sucked up a lot of attention this week. But the idea the government might foot the bill for a new youth brand haven’t gone down well with iwi stations suffering from years of underfunding, writes Alice Webb-Lidall. … Read more
An extraordinary week at the national broadcaster ends with a complete backdown on plans to downgrade RNZ Concert and make music staff redundant. Toby Manhire speaks to staff and Helen Clark, and asks: has RNZ’s embarrassment translated into RNZ getting a budget boost? Last Wednesday RNZ music staff were summoned to a meeting to hear … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her sixth power rankings for The Bachelorette NZ, where the gloves – and all the other clothes – have truly come off. Click here for previous instalments. Three weeks in and the stark difference between Lesina and Lily has become clear: Speaking of stark, how much bloody nudity was there on the … Read more
After a decade in business on Auckland’s North Shore, the multi-storey complex that once attracted out-of-town shoppers has finally closed its doors. Its owner, fashion designer Karen Walker, explains why The Department Store had run its course. Opening an upmarket shopping hub is the last thing you’d expect to be doing in the middle of … Read more
Political donations are back in the news in a big way, and many feel that the system needs a complete overhaul. So how might that work? Here’s a collection of perspectives. When news broke this morning on Radio NZ that the racing industry had donated heavily (and anonymously) to NZ First, the response fell into … Read more
Holly Walker shelled out big bucks to see The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood being interviewed by Kim Hill in Wellington on Monday. After a prickly 90 minutes of questioning, she left wondering what Atwood gets out of her seemingly endless live appearances. We filled the lobby of the Michael Fowler Centre. We wore jumpsuits. … Read more