Seasons greetings from everyone at The Spinoff. Here’s a little extra scene shot for our Lightbox TV series Get It to Te Papa that sadly didn’t make the cut, featuring host Hayden Donnell and former Māori Party MP Marama Fox. Watch all six episodes of Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox now by signing … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, for The Real Pod has stumbled upon a Christmas miracle: a full-length podcast with the King of the Cranny himself, Colin Mathura-Jeffree. Joining Jane, Duncan … Read more
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, unless you’re a journalist, in which case Christmas is just another day. So what’s the vibe like in newsrooms on Christmas day? And why can’t journalists just take the day off? A state highway is blocked after a car crash. There’s been a drowning at a West … Read more
It’s a bad week for time-travellers, insurgents, newlyweds, blokes with misdiagnosed hernias, and basically everyone else in this week’s episode of Outlander. Tara Ward recaps. Friends, if I ever have the fortune to fall through a vortex of time and space and find myself two hundred years in the past, please make sure I do not end … Read more
Follow Calum Henderson’s advice on how to occupy the annual family Christmas chasm between lunch and dinner with these guaranteed crowd-pleasers on Freeview. Ah, the classic Kiwi Christmas: pohutukawa trees in bloom, the abandoned remnants of a backyard cricket game strewn across the lawn, a fresh pavlova in the fridge. The whole family together under one … Read more
It’s the silly season – and you need an excuse to get away from your family and in front of the television screen. Here’s the best holiday episodes to watch on Lightbox this Christmas – from families modern to fortunes outrageous.
Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) and Special Care Baby Units around the country will be visited by Santa this week – he’s just made up of a lot of people who care. Emily Writes shares the story of the NICU Secret Santa. As Christmas cards are handed out around the country, a few will have … Read more
The Presidential Wall Game is an ugly celebration of Trumpian nationalism and has no place on NZ shelves, argues Emily Writes. Toyco is selling a board game that encourages children and their parents to build a wall – a wall that more than anything is a symbol of the xenophobia and hatred that is central to … Read more
Alex Casey gets to the bottom of a pop culture obsession: what’s the deal with Doc Martin? It’s getting to the time of year where many of us return home to roost like big drunk chooks incapable of doing anything more than chugging prosecco, eating fistfuls of ham and blobbing out on the couch. In … Read more
Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: José Barbosa on how one thing could change the sporting world forever. First up, a declaration. The last sports match I watched was a … Read more
The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby Morris, supported by NZ On Air. Read more comics here
Good morning, and welcome to the last edition of The Bulletin for 2018. Well, crikey. It’s the end of the year. I’ve got some thoughts on that down the other end of the page, but you’re here for the news and there’s still heaps to get through here. I thought what might help people out the … Read more
If you’ve felt like this year has been one bad news story after another then you’re not alone. Let’s face it, things have not been great for the environment and the many species that live on this planet for a while now, writes Waikato University researcher Raven Cretney. Over the past year I have collated … Read more
If you’re among those calling for a harsher penalty for the hit-and-run killer of Nathan Kraatskow, fine. But at least be honest about what you’re after, writes Aaron Hendry. Two lives, not one, were destroyed that night. Young Rouxle made a terrible mistake, with horrific consequences. One life was ended, another was altered completely. It is … Read more
2018 was quite the year, and TV was no exceptions. Sam Brooks is here to round up the year. What went down, who won what, and who came out smiling? Killing Eve From my assessment of the show back in July: “Eight spine-cracking episodes down, I’m willing to call Killing Eve not just the best show of … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Tina Ngata: Once were gardeners, lovers, poets… and warriors “We are not a warrior race. We are, and always have been, a race of voyagers, scientists, gardeners, lovers, poets, composers, philosophers, artists, orators, mathematicians, dancers, astronomers, builders and healers. We were peacemakers and keepers as much as … Read more
Pre-meeting meetings sound like bureaucracy gone mad to Westerners, but the Japanese method of decision-making means everyone is brought along together. From the moment you first arrive in Japan you realise that your conceptions, whatever they are, need to be thrown aside. I ended up living for a total of five years in Osaka and … Read more
Whip up these easy, classy ice blocks at home and save yourself a trip to the dairy on a stinking hot afternoon. These ice blocks came into being just at the right time, at the start of the summer, enjoyed in the heat of the afternoon as we gazed admiringly over our ever-expanding vege garden … Read more
Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Simon Day on the scourge of the scone. I’ve spent the last six months trying to like scones. After seeking advice on where the … Read more
Worried about getting your kids to sleep on time amid all the excitement of Christmas Eve. Don’t worry, says Emily Writes – it’s easy when you know how. A new tool has been created to help parents with when is safe to hand out the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. No it’s not a prescription … Read more
A chronic illness is a life-changing experience for anyone – but what if it stops you from doing the one thing you’re best at? Dick Widdison writes about his year writing with a chronic illness. I’ve never found writing hard. It’s the brag that I genuinely never intend as one – it’s just that the … Read more
Every day in the lead-up to Christmas, open the door to reveal a Spinoff writer’s short, sizzling commentary on a weighty subject. Our arbitrary and strictly enforced word limit: 365. Today: Sam Brooks on Delta Goodrem. Let’s not talk about her acting – and the less said about her Olivia Newton-John biopic the better. Let’s … Read more
The top ten best-sellers of 2018 at the Unity store in Willis St, Wellington. See also: The bestselling books of 2018 at Unity, Auckland 1 Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Little, Brown, $35) The most popular book of the year was a novel about gay writer Arthur Less as he travels the world on a literary tour and dreads his … Read more
The top 10 best-sellers of the year at the Little Unity bookstore for kids in High St, Auckland. 1 Maui & Other Legends by Peter Gossage (Penguin Random House, $40) 6+. “Peter Gossage was a true household name in New Zealand, because almost every family read and loved his picture books,” Paula Morris wrote at The Spinoff, … Read more
For the first and last time, Henry Oliver gives his definitive account of The Spinoff’s best New Zealand music of 2018. Read it and get angry. Here it is, my ten best albums and ten best songs, all from Aoteroa, all released in 2018. The one rule: appearance on one list disqualifies that artist from … Read more
Corporates shouldn’t think of the living wage as an expense, but rather as an investment in their business and people, says Vector’s Chief Risk Officer Kate Beddoe. As New Zealand’s largest energy distributor, Vector puts a lot of money into electricity investments and infrastructure in Auckland. I mean, a lot: we’re talking billions of dollars … Read more
The top ten best-sellers of 2018 at the Unity store in High St, Auckland. 1 The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson (MacMillan, $35) Self-help in the Age of Trump. Manson’s book really hit a nerve, and kept pressing it all throughout the year; there was barely a week when The … Read more
Over the month of December, we’ve been taking suggestions from readers of The Bulletin on what you reckon the best NZ journalism has been. We also took the suggestion to put them all in one place. It’s not really the done thing to say this at the start of a best of list, but this … Read more
Listen to Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and Michèle A’Court tackle the past YEAR in women, news and popular culture, with thanks to our friends at The Women’s Bookshop. We made it everyone! It’s last episode of On the Rag for the year, and we are more than ready to say goodbye to 2018. But first, we … Read more