Spoiler alert: it’s hearty, it’s humbling and it involves horse. I woke up in my capsule in Bishkek with desert mouth. The vital signs of a hostel in the morning – bags zipping, doors slamming, toilets flushing and teeth being cleaned – told me my boyfriend was also showing signs of life. A capsule hostel … Read more
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more succinct summary of the way that sexual violence lives in the air that we breathe,” writes Alex Casey of Boys Will Be Boys. I’ve never written a book review before, so I’m assuming it’s totally canon and intelligentsia to start by talking about the cover. Boys Will … Read more
Our new series produced by the New Zealand Red Cross profiles people from refugee backgrounds who now call New Zealand home. Our first Kiwi Legend: Jorge Sandoval, who fled Pinochet’s Chile for a new life in the Hutt Valley. It’s November 1988 and competitors in the Vuelta Ciclista de Chile (Chilean cycling race) are jostling … Read more
In a series of interviews this morning, a very high-ranking member of the National caucus has set the clock ticking, laying out exactly what Bridges needs to achieve in the coming polls to remain in his job Last night the immediate damage to the National Party from the Jami-Lee Ross saga was laid out in … Read more
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time to produce a local version of beloved board game Scrabble, featuring Kiwi slang and te reo words. But then the Scrabble diehards played it. New Zealand is a country with a proud history in competitive Scrabble. At this year’s Alchemist Cup, the world’s richest, most … Read more
A Kiwi startup is at the cutting edge of a technology that knows what you put in your shopping basket, eliminating the need for checkouts and queues. Aucklanders are about to get their first taste of a shopping revolution that is gathering pace around the globe. If you thought the demise of single-use plastic bags … Read more
In the first instalment in the Money Talks series, Alice Webb-Liddall and Henry Oliver face up to their finances. As a culture, we’re not very good at talking about money. Financial literacy is hard enough as it is and it’s only made harder by our silence around money issues. We are afraid of discussing our … Read more
An early-morning rave session isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but for aficionados there’s no better way to start the day than at the regular Morning People events in Auckland and Wellington. Sarah Pollok went along to find out whether she could become a convert. The electro-funk baseline rocks through your body as you … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National party orders internal culture review, international students claim they’re being treated like slaves, and CHCH faces water restrictions or more chlorine. The National Party has ordered a review into its internal culture, focused on ensuring women feel safe within the party, reports the NZ Herald. It follows allegations that … Read more
This year’s Weapon Expo is being held in Palmerston North amid an insistence from organisers that it’s not an arms fair. Valerie Morse of Auckland Peace Action explains why they’re not buying that line and will be protesting regardless Next week hundreds of weapons company delegates, military brass and government officials will descend on Palmerston … Read more
The refrain that climate change is difficult to get people to care about it or, worse, that nobody cares can’t be allowed to go answered, writes David Hall There’s a rumour going around that “not many people care about climate change”. Fortunately, Danyl Mclauchlan isn’t quite right about this. Unfortunately, his being wrong doesn’t make … Read more
From deep within her grave, Alex Casey delivers the power rankings for week four on Married at First Sight NZ. Honestly, liquidate my heart, pour it into a Soda Stream, blast it with ice cold fizz and pour it out in the Adrenalin Forest, because I just can’t take this anymore. We are nearly at … Read more
Julia dropped a metrosexual bombshell on Married at First Sight this week. Dejan Jotanovic goes deep on the implications of this, and what’s behind our society’s relationship to masculinity. Married at First Sight pegs itself as the ultimate experiment. Six couples are forced to not only cope with clashing values and combusting pasts, but the scrutiny … Read more
The slice of heaven that is The Great Kiwi Bake Off was this week awash with sweet and/or salty caramel. Tara Ward ranks the gooey results. It seeped over slices, it poured over pineapple, it oozed over benches and onto floors and threatened to drown us all in a sticky sea of sugar. Drowning in caramel … Read more
A new Colmar Brunton poll for TVNZ conducted in one of National’s bleakest weeks makes tough reading both for the party and its leader. As is often pointed out, to read too much into any one poll is folly: it’s the patterns that matter. That’s a fair point; some of us do every now and … Read more
Here are some of the issues an internal probe following the Jami Lee-Ross saga will confront. The National Party leader faced a bit of blowback for commissioning an inquiry into the leaking of his expenses. He’s unlikely to face much criticism, however, for the inquiry he commissioned today. After a week-long fusillade from Jami-Lee Ross, … Read more
According to a theory that’s gained traction online, vegans should be spurning smashed avo and an almond milk flat white at brunch this weekend. But an Oxford ethics professor says it’s not so simple… A video recently doing the rounds on Facebook included a segment from the BBC comedy quiz show QI. The video asks … Read more
How do museums learn to tell the truth about what they hold in order to become ‘decolonised archives’ asks Puawai Cairns, kaihāpai Mātauranga Māori at Te Papa. ‘Museums are dangerous places because they control the storytelling’ – Moana Jackson For the last few months, my curatorial team – Mātauranga Māori – has been meeting regularly to discuss … Read more
Charlotte Grimshaw endures a novel full of ‘knowing and coy references to real people’ in New Zealand literature. I have a friend who refers to a certain weekly newspaper column as “the Seventh Form essay.” I recalled this description recently while reading Anne Kennedy’s new novel, The Ice Shelf. “Seventh Form essay” not only implies writing … Read more
According to reports over the weekend the MP Jami-Lee Ross has been admitted to mental health care after being ‘sectioned’. But what does that mean? What is sectioning? In New Zealand, when you have a mental illness, you can generally decide your treatment options. Sectioning is a term that covers situations where someone needs mental … Read more
In episode three of Get It to Te Papa, a Lightbox Original made by The Spinoff, Hayden Donnell starts a valiant campaign to move the country’s most famous sign to Te Papa: the Deka sign in Huntly. Watch Get It to Te Papa on Lightbox here. The first thing most people notice about Huntly is the … Read more
The Botany MP is experiencing mental illness – and he, like the women he has hurt, and his family, are as deserving of help and support as anyone else. Public speculation and privacy violations only serve to hinder this, writes Scout Barbour-Evans Scout Barbour-Evans is an expert in being mentally ill, living with PTSD, Bipolar Disorder … Read more
Best playground in New Zealand? According to whom, exactly? Tara Ward and her kids review Whanganui’s greatest claim to fame. In last week’s debut episode of The Great Kiwi Bake Off, one contestant made a statement that shook me like an underbaked ornamental trifle terrine. “I’m from Whanganui,” said amateur baker Clayton, “and it’s a … Read more
Add a new central library and a cinema complex to the Margaret Mahy playground and you’ll see a template for how the rest of the rebuild should work, writes James Dann. Christchurch in the rebuild is a city of extreme moods. There are bursts of energy, followed by long periods of frustration and stagnation. The … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bus strikes begin in Auckland and Hamilton, secret party donations stay in the spotlight, and backlog of sex assault cases unassigned by police is rising. In transport news, the week is likely to be dominated by bus driver strikes. Some bus services in Auckland and Hamilton might … Read more
The sons of pioneering immigrant vintner Nikola Nobilo are embroiled in legal action over the family inheritance, with one accusing the other of losing it all. A bitter battle over money has caused a deep rift in one of west Auckland’s original Croatian wine-making families, leaving two brothers slugging it out in court. Relations between … Read more
A lawsuit has revealed Facebook inflated its video statistics for years, inspiring the ‘pivot to video’ which made thousands of journalists redundant. Duncan Greive looks at its impact on New Zealand. So Facebook’s been lying again, at least according to a suit filed last week. Days after admitting that its new portal device would eavesdrop … Read more
In their pursuit of an abstracted planning perfection, the designers have seemingly been prepared to sacrifice some people’s experience for the sake of a cleaner looking system, argues miffed North Shore bus user and design lecturer Peter Gilderdale When a huge new public transport initiative rolls out, as it did recently on the North Shore, … Read more
Madeleine Chapman rode to Huntly on an OnzO bike. Sadly, she won’t be doing the same with a Lime scooter. Imagine a life with no ups and downs. No struggles, but no cruise mode. An infinite plateau. It would be boring, yes, and mundane, but you’d never have to sweat. I thought my life would … Read more