Duncan Greive watches The Block’s final nail and asks what this strange show tells us about New Zealand in 2018. 1) Auckland property is definitively chilling the hell out It was never intended to be a quasi-documentary about the other side of the housing crisis (the side where people made heaps of money flipping homes), … Read more
Auckland has erupted into furious debate over a proposal to adopt a 30km/h speed limit in the city centre. Hayden Donnell comes up with a solution sure to please everyone. A few days ago news broke that Auckland Transport may lower the speed limit in Auckland’s CBD to 30km/h, in an effort to make fewer … Read more
In the ongoing palaver around the non-appointment of a chief technology officer, we’re awash in opinions from pakeha blokes. It’s not good enough, and we’re getting very tired of having to say so, writes Anna Connell It’s a hard road finding a CTO for New Zealand. After one failed attempt we were left flailing in … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. Jane returns to save Alex and Duncan’s souls in this very special episode of The Real Pod, convened to celebrate and commentate the return of Married at First Sight NZ to our screens. The team … Read more
“All the teams want is a happy ending,” Mark Richardson announced, as he welcomed us to The Block NZ 2018 live auction. Speak for yourself, Mark Richardson. Tara Ward recaps. I’ve watched over 54 hours of The Block NZ to get to this point. It’s auction night: I want drama, I want tears, I want The Wolf … Read more
In 2018 the New Zealand First Party reached its quarter century. Today at the party convention in Tauranga, its first and only leader, Winston Peters, delivered this address, titled Defying History: The Past as Prologue Today marks a celebration of the New Zealand First Party’s first 25 years. And what a time it has been. From … Read more
Who can bake good, and who will be baking bad? Our first look at the #GKBO contestants offers some valuable clues. Calum Hendersons ranks them. Good news everybody: life is finally about to get better. Go outside and you can feel it in the air, an unfamiliar sense of hope. Everything is going to be … Read more
Welcome back to Waterdeep Mountain High, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast set in a below average school in the mystical land of Faerun. “It’s not that I’m not into you, I’m just frigid.” Kate, Forrest and Lady Luck make gruesome discoveries on their biology field trip with Mrs Gritz and, unexpectedly, love starts to blossom… … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Danyl Mclauchlan: The dumbfounding nastiness of Simon Bridges’ ‘meth crooks’ remarks “Bridges is competing for media-space with Judith Collins, who was first out of the gate attacking the meth compensation announcement, declaring that the tenants were all evicted because of their ‘criminal activity’. Bridges … Read more
Emily Writes bids an emotional goodbye to The Spinoff Parents, a world unto itself she dreamed up and shaped. Two years ago, The Spinoff Parents launched to much excitement. We were set in our kaupapa and sure we could make a difference in how parenting is perceived and viewed and covered in the mainstream media. … Read more
Vector’s sustainability manager Karl Check explains why the company is pushing for more urban forests, despite the April storm bringing down large numbers of trees and disrupting supply to thousands of customers. The rapid rise of the ‘as-a-service’ model – software, transport, energy and yes, even anything-as-a-service (XaaS) – has got me thinking about the … Read more
Developing a taste for the black stuff isn’t the only change brought about by Sophie’s stint at Ballymaloe Cookery School. She feels calm and refreshed, and, believe it or not, has even started running. We’ve finished! It’s over! I’m devastated, but I am also thrilled. I’ll be honest, I’m feeling emotional, and I haven’t even … Read more
Together with a team of crack UK investigators, Hayden Donnell investigates the origin story of one of New Zealand’s most successful viral videos. It was the perfect viral moment. Kyle Mulinder was innocently paddling his kayak in the deep blue water off the coast of Kaikoura. The water was calm. Tranquil. Suddenly a seal erupted … Read more
A piece published earlier this month suggested that Trade Me had hit its peak, citing declining website interest, ageing consumers and problems such as duplicate listings. But Trade Me’s Logan Mudge and Rick Davies argue that’s far from the case. It’s easy to forget that when Trade Me launched back in 1999, e-commerce was a bizarre and somewhat … Read more
Eight years ago a birth accident resulted in Andrew Dickson’s son being diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Today Dickson’s battle with ACC lays bare the myth at the centre of our ‘no fault’ compensation system. In June 2010 our son Ben was born in Wellington Hospital. He was purple and unresponsive when he emerged that day; … Read more
Every week on The Primer we ask a local business or product to introduce themselves in eight simple takes. This week we talk to Joe Harawira, founder of clothing company Flo, which donates a free school lunch to a child in need for every product sold. ONE: How did Flo start and what was the inspiration behind it? I … Read more
1997 was a simpler time – British anarchists topped the charts and you could buy collections of the day’s hits on little plastic discs. It was also the year the very first local edition of Now That’s What I Call Music was released. Henry Oliver takes a listen to Now! Vol 1. It’s the end … Read more
Because Jacinda-mania has gone global and we are going rogue. Look, it’s been a mad week. There are needles in the strawberries, ball bearings in the ice cream, and it seems like our prime minister is never coming home. Why not unwind by watching Mike Hosking’s favourite TV show on a Friday night?! Here are … Read more
The week’s biggest-selling books at the Unity stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 That F Word: Growing up feminist in Aotearoa by Lizzie Marvelly (Harper Collins, $35) “This book is for the bossy little girl in all of us. It’s time that we disrupted the fuck out of the patriarchy.” … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. In our regular Business Chat special, Simon Pound speaks with Maria Slade, business editor at The Spinoff, and Karyn Scherer, senior copywriter at Callaghan Innovation, about the business stories making the news this month. Either download this episode (right click … Read more
Three’s Pilot Week is done – but how good were the pilots, and which ones should get commissioned? Sam Brooks reviews. It’s been a wild week, y’all. I can’t remember the last time we had two and a half hours of new New Zealand comedy content for an entire week on our screens. (Probably the first … Read more
New verse by Wellington writer Chris Tse. Release Not before I stir you from your sleep, and ask whether this is the last time I’ll see you before you hop that plane for Sydney. We’ll hold each other, cheek to cheek, when we both hear the answer. Not before you slip on your trousers, hunt … Read more
Influencers may promote your product for a fee, but loyalty is not included. Madeleine Chapman investigates the dessert box saga of 2018. It all began with a complaint. It wasn’t an exciting complaint. In fact, it was pretty boring as far as rants go. Someone bought a product online and found that the product she … Read more
For the time poor but geopolitical address hungry, we have mercilessly crunched down the NZ prime minister’s speech I’m struck as a leader attending my first United Nations General Assembly by the power and potential that resides here, or did until everyone scarpered to watch Brett Kavanaugh lost his shit on C-Span. Anyway, let’s do … Read more
It’s not just the silly victory dances and weekly challenges; this is the first massively multiplayer racing game where winning doesn’t really matter – it’s the taking part that counts. Lee Henaghan takes Forza Horizon 4 for a spin. Platformers, shoot-em-ups and racers: the holy trinity. Since the earliest days of interactive entertainment, these three … Read more
The Māori caucus statement that it stands by Meka Whaitiri is simply tikanga in action, writes Morgan Godfery. Parliament and the Beehive are, as workplaces, uniquely awful. The expectations are high. The hours are punishing. And the work never really stops. There’s correspondence to file, press releases to draft, briefings to read or write, negotiations … Read more
The Spinoff’s editor Toby Manhire is back with our regular round up of the week’s winners and losers in New Zealand news. This episode: it was a very bad week for people trying to pronounce our prime minister’s name.
Jacinda Ardern’s full address to the United Nations General Assembly. Jacinda Ardern has delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly this morning, calling for kindness over fear, accountability, and collectivism in fights and inequality and climate change. E ngā mana nui o ngā whenua o te ao Tēnā koutou katoa Nei rā te reo … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Cyclone season starts early in South Pacific, more political connections for Derek Handley revealed, and major hoki fishery declared “barren wasteland.” Cyclone season has started early in the South Pacific, which could be a worrying sign for what the summer will bring. Cyclone Liua has developed from … Read more