New Zealand martial artist Israel Adesanya will cross the threshold into legitimate worldwide superstardom this weekend when he fights the most dominant mixed martial artist in history. Israel Adesanya is near untouchable. With just two losses across more than 100 fights from Brazil to the Far East, Adesanya has captured the nation’s attention like nobody … Read more
In which Al Brown praised Simon Day’s grillin’ skills and we got it on tape… and then disaster struck. But don’t worry, the recipes survive. If legendary chef Al Brown demands you cook his own recipes for him, you spend all night in the kitchen. And when he tells you how delicious everything is and … Read more
New Zealand’s first celebrity builder, John “Cocksy” Cocks, died yesterday. Tara Ward takes a look back on some of his finest television moments. There was only one celebrity builder who ruled our screens at the turn of the millennium. It was John “Cocksy” Cocks, and we knew him best as the unassuming expert builder in … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National plans approach to regaining government in 2020, fishing industry letter about onboard cameras to Stuart Nash revealed, and unemployment up. The National Party are off on their caucus retreat to start the year, and are already promising more policy will be rolled out well before … Read more
As two trusted groups go into battle on SPF ratings, microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles explains what the numbers mean, and how they’re measured The Cancer Society and Consumer NZ recently got in to a bit of a fight after Consumer NZ tested the SPF of a whole bunch of sunscreens and found that the Cancer Society’s … Read more
Last year was tough for online privacy: new breaches, new laws, and way too many emails about privacy policies. James Ting-Edwards from InternetNZ takes us through the challenges and what they mean for New Zealanders online. Modern online devices and services are built and funded through the information we share with them. Apps that help … Read more
Every year there is an expectation of disruption on our national day, with armchair Treaty experts sharing their analysis of the history and value of the day without ever having actually travelled to Waitangi on February 6th. Here are two accounts of a day spent at Waitangi on Waitangi Day 2019 – one from tangata whenua … Read more
It’s nominated for a bunch of Oscars, it’s the most memed film of last year, and you can finally watch it from the comfort of your living room via Lightbox now. Superfans Alex Casey and Sam Brooks discuss why A Star is Born is the best film ever made. A Star is Born is available on … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, the new Primo x Tip Top collaborative flavoured milks. Before Lewis Road Creamery came along and changed the flavoured milk landscape in New Zealand forever, there was Primo. Primo was humble – it was the everyman’s milk. It came … Read more
Crackdown 3 is one of the most notoriously delayed games of all time, but it’s finally out next week. Lee Henaghan caught up with the game’s top creative talent to find out if it’s going to be worth the wait. With the possible exception of Hollywood, there is no industry more obsessed and fixated on … Read more
Contrary to popular belief, there is no biological evidence for “giving your body a break” from the pill. More than half of 18- to 19-year-old women in a recent survey agreed that “women should ‘take a break’ from oral contraceptive pills every couple of years”. You may be surprised to know there is no biological … Read more
In the latest instalment of her series on life as a NZ expat, Elle Hunt recounts the tedious minutiae of flying halfway across the world. Pull down your suitcase from on top of your wardrobe. Not the compact carry-on for long weekends on the continent, but the one that marks you out as high maintenance or a … Read more
When even the ‘woke’ are ignorant about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, it’s clear we need to make teaching its history compulsory in schools, writes Liam Hehir. Sometimes something happens in the news that shakes you out of a bubble. I thought that making New Zealand history a compulsory part of the curriculum was more heavy-handed … Read more
All week this week we feature tangata whenua writings to mark Waitangi Day. Today: “Everything we know about urban Māori is probably wrong”, writes Morgan Godfery, in his review of a new study by Bradford Haami. The first urban Māori were probably eighteenth century Sydneysiders. Until 1912, a laneway near the Australian Heritage Hotel, a … Read more
It’s Huitanguru, the ninth month of the Māori year – also known as Pēpuere – when we move from the fifth summer phase to the sixth and seeds pods burst and release their seeds onto the ground. Learn more about the maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar, here. Tēnei te reo o mihi e rere atu nei ki … Read more
Marsha Pohatu has lost two front teeth and seen friends die while working in the New Zealand trucking sector. The industry’s culture of dangerous practices has to stop, she says. Exhausting and illegal hours, antagonistic and exploitative management, untreated injuries and fatalities: Driver Marsha Pohatu has witnessed the industry she loves at its grim worst. … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fire rages in tinder-dry Tasman region, contention over call for compulsory colonial history teaching, and another big jump for dairy prices. Hundreds of people haven’t been able to return to their homes overnight, as fires rage in the Tasman District. A Civil Defence emergency was declared yesterday … Read more
A call for feedback in our daily email newsletter The Bulletin on how New Zealand could reduce the amount of waste being produced – and ending up in landfills – prompted a massive response. Here are some of your ideas. In some ways, this call for feedback was the crisis New Zealand is facing with … Read more
Last night The Spinoff deployed a specialist squad of millennials to the 90s nostalgia fest So Pop. This is their story. It was late last year that several copies of a magazine called So Pop arrived at The Spinoff office, complete with splashy 90s fonts, band profiles from B*Witched to Blue, and even a pull … Read more
Barbecuing is one of New Zealand’s national summer past-time, but what are the nuances in our barbecue culture? Brenda Talacek, Vector’s Group Manager for Gas Trading, lifts the lid. As a nation we’re pretty keen on barbecuing. While places like London have banned them from parks (unless it’s a re-useable charcoal one) Auckland Council provides public ones … Read more
It’s Waitangi Day! Time to learn, respect, honour the treaty and eat some yum AF food. The ol’ midweek public holiday can sneak up on you – suddenly you don’t have to go to work but alas, you have no plans. Never fear: there are many cool Waitangi Day events happening around the country, all … Read more
Every year, thousands of New Zealand immigrants in London celebrate Waitangi Day by dressing up, publicly getting drunk, and doing the haka, and it makes Madeleine Chapman shudder. New Zealanders acknowledge Waitangi Day in different ways. Some do nothing and are just glad to have a day off work. Some celebrate it, believing that the … Read more
Hinerangi Rhind-Wiri, Haylee Koroi and Lizzie Strickett spoke to friends and whānau about what a living Treaty of Waitangi partnership looks like. Some would have us believe that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is of the past. We wanted to share the voices of those trying to live by Te Tiriti today who suggest otherwise. We … Read more
Sources suggest the New Zealand editorial arm of the global youth media giant is shutting down, reports Duncan Greive. A huge round of redundancies being rolled out worldwide by youth media giant Vice has reached the New Zealand office. Staff were told today that the team faces being slashed to one to two positions – with … Read more
Blessed be the fruit, we have been sent a good teaser. A new trailer for season three of The Handmaid’s Tale landed yesterday, and Tara Ward takes a look. The first trailer for the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale just dropped like Aunt Lydia after Emily stabbed her in the spine with a steak knife. It … Read more
A team of researchers at Unitec believes it has come up with a biological way of breaking down asbestos and making soil safe again. Renovation shows like The Block are unwittingly lifting the veil on a problem many homeowners thought was a long lost toxic issue of the past. “All the nice red roofs on … Read more
A new petition is calling for changes to address New Zealand students’ ‘shameful’ ignorance of their country’s history, writes RNZ’s John Gerritsen. In the lead-up to Waitangi Day, history teachers are calling for compulsory teaching of New Zealand’s Māori and colonial history in schools, but government representatives are rejecting the idea. The chairperson of the … Read more
All week this week we feature tangata whenua writings to mark Waitangi Day. Today: Vincent O’Malley reviews a new history of the battle of Gate Pā. Head up Cameron Road, one of Tauranga’s main arterial routes, a few kilometres out of the city centre and you drive over one of New Zealand’s most important historical sites. … Read more
Will & Grace ran for eight seasons at the turn of the century and now it’s been revived for a ninth. Sam Brooks explains why the beloved sitcom remains relevant today. When I heard that Will & Grace was coming back a few years ago, I immediately felt myself tense up. It was nothing to do with … Read more