New verse by New Zealand-born writer living in England, Fleur Adcock. Hot Baths These days when anxious friends confide in me about their intimate medical problems it’s never that they’re afraid they’re pregnant and the situation is complicated by not being sure whether the father was that guy from Christchurch at my party … Read more
Getting Your Shit Together is a monthly column on everyday mental health from Auckland mindfulness educator Kristina Cavit. In her final column of the series she’s talking to Sheryn Gieck about how to find clarity in a world full of stress and anxiety. I’ve just returned from teaching yoga and mindfulness at the NPH orphanage in … Read more
David Bennett, National MP for Hamilton East, stood yesterday in the House of Representatives and intoned: ‘This country has embarked on a socialist experiment in the last few weeks’, and then basically just said socialism a lot.
Where Three have cornered the Friday night comedy lineup, Calum Henderson finds that TVNZ2 is running with a very different, stripped-back viewing experience. It starts with a series of blind dates and ends with a line-up of six dangling, disembodied penises. ‘Love Fridays’, TVNZ 2’s belated ‘romance’-themed answer to Three’s successful Friday night comedy line-ups, … Read more
Rongoā practitioner Donna Kerridge explains how to make a simple decoction for respiratory conditions and digestion. Wairakau (decoctions) were once one of the most common and favoured remedies used by rongoā Māori practitioners. Rongoā Māori practitioners are not chemists and most are unlikely to know what the constituents or active ingredients are in the plants … Read more
Confirmed overnight by the creator of the show, Jordan Mauger is set to represent New Zealand on the international Bachelor stage. Jordan Mauger, conductor of the tremendous trainwreck that was The Bachelor NZ S2, is headed to represent New Zealand in The Bachelor Winter Games, a new spinoff of the dating competition set to air … Read more
Incubators, accelerators, grants, tax credits – there are a dizzying array of taxpayer-funded subsidies available for business. But we could make it all simpler and more effective both for government and the businesses we want to target, says technology investor Rowan Simpson. Here in New Zealand, our local market is small so exports are critical … Read more
Auckland University researchers say beams of timber stuck onto the backs of unreinforced masonry façades could be a cheap and simple way to stop them collapsing in an earthquake. Laura McQuillan investigates. Owners of nearly 140 buildings from Lower Hutt to Canterbury have been given until the end of March to secure unreinforced masonry façades … Read more
Rebekah Graham continues her series on the results of her PhD research on food insecurity. Here she addresses the ridiculous and useless advice forced on poor New Zealand families. Read part one – No, poor New Zealand families can’t just ‘grow their own vegetables’ and part two – No, poor NZ families don’t just need … Read more
The Samoa Rugby Union needs a hand up, not a hand out, writes Scotty Stevenson. It also needs a complete administrative overhaul and an end to the culture of intimidation, cronyism and silence that disrespects the players and the game. Here we are again, then. Samoan rugby’s overlord, prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Maliegaoi, is passing … Read more
Back by lukewarm demand On The ‘Reg is The Spinoff’s regular gaming session streamed live every Wednesday at 7pm on Facebook and Twitch. This highlights package sees José Barbosa and Ashley Noel Hinton load up for Call Of Duty WWII Zombies. In a brutal multi-hour event host José Barbosa and guest Ashley Noel Hinton deal out some split-screen … Read more
Holly Walker, former Green MP and author of a memoir of being a mother in parliament, says this week’s images of babies in the debating chamber indicate a new attitude to working mothers in politics. But there’s still a long way to go. When I was an MP and pregnant with my first child, people … Read more
Deborah Coddington celebrates a biography of former Green MP Sue Bradford. When did New Zealanders who loved a good debate morph into silo mentality? Current zeitgeist has us in this curious – not to say alarmingly unhealthy – state that we all must urgently agree over everything: personal opinions, political policies, future predictions, even book … Read more
New Zealand has been living a lie. The Washington Post today revealed that Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-led government is in fact a facade for the “far right agenda” of Winston Peters. Duncan Greive details the shocking revelations – and the legislative programme of this terrifying coalition. “A shadow is poisoning Middle-earth,” the Washington Post tells us. … Read more
Cloud accounting technology company Xero just announced two things: a very positive half-year financial result, and that it is exiting the New Zealand stock exchange. Rebecca Stevenson considers what this means for our investment landscape. New Zealand cloud accounting firm Xero announced its half-year result today and it was a ripper for the company – and … Read more
In our video series Kiwis of Snapchat, comedian Tom Sainsbury sources exclusive Snapchat footage of Kiwi citizens and luminaries making the news. Today, National MP Simon Bridges celebrates an epic practical joke at the swearing in of parliament. Click here for all our Kiwis of Snapchat videos
A Māori language version of blockbuster Disney film Moana was released in September to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo. Now you can get the soundtrack in your ears! E te iwi!!! The Moana Reo Māori soundtrack is now available on Spotify! Mauri ora! @Lin_Manuel @DisneyStudios #Moana https://t.co/oUeDA1bBqA — Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) November 3, 2017 The film … Read more
Seven years ago today, Outrageous Fortune ended forever. To mark the occasion, Madeleine Holden rewatched the entire series to see if the years have been kind. As a bona fide West Aucklander myself, I have fond memories of watching Outrageous Fortune the first time around. The show followed the lives of a West Auckland family with … Read more
A vast YouTube archive reveals the weird, wonderful and sometimes genius parallel universe of TopPop – the Netherlands’ anything-goes answer to Top of the Pops. Think of a band, any band, so long as they had an international chart hit in the 1970s or 80s. There is a pretty good chance that band lip-synced that … Read more
Whether it’s one year or, in the case of the formidable Alpine fault, 300, looking back to these events should motivate action on building resilience, writes Ursula Cochran of GNS. First, we remember the dead. The two Kaikōura earthquake victims weren’t killed by the earthquake so much as by failure of the buildings they were … Read more
Billy Idol’s bizarre 2002 performance in Sydney was a seminal moment in NRL grand final history. Now, 15 years on, a Sydney journalist has commemorated the event by having Idol’s hovercraft performance tattoed onto his leg. Jamie Wall talks to Steve Zemek about his courageous move to immortalise this piece of rugby league history. The Warriors … Read more
The issue is not the government’s target to reduce emissions, but how we will achieve it, argues Dave Frame of the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute The verdict on New Zealand’s climate targets is in. The judge dismissed the case. This is not always clear in media reports – some of them focusing on details … Read more
After five years in which our local TV successes went largely uncelebrated, New Zealand once again has a national television awards. The full list of nominees has just been announced, along with the winners of the technical craft awards which are doled out early. Duncan Greive analyses the list and picks some winners. Incredibly strange … Read more
Twenty days after Winston announced it shall be Labour, the Gone By Lunchtime trio (plus one) size up the debut of Ardern, the blazing of National parliamentary guns and a goodbye to a good cat. Annabelle Lee, Ben Thomas, Toby Manhire and the land’s favourite baby podcaster discuss an embarrassing start for the new government … Read more
To celebrate the imminent arrival of the interminable summer holidays, Thom Adams has some science experiments designed to teach your children about the cold and heartless reality of the terrible world we’re stuck in. A while ago I wrote an article about my experience running a school holiday programme. Rather than wait for the sweet … Read more
The 52nd New Zealand Parliament was sworn in this week. Many things were on display but it would have taken an eagle eye to spot everything that was happening and all that was said. We’ve taken pity on the novices out here and compiled this annotated video guide to the proceedings.
Kera Sherwood-O’Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Aotearoa Youth Leadership Institute delegate to COP23, the United Nations Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. Over the next three weeks, she’ll be reporting on the conference’s outcomes for indigenous peoples. Talk to any climate nerd about this year’s UN Climate Negotiations, and you’ll likely be met with excited proclamations about … Read more
Dr Paula Morris reveals the seething family dynamics and political turmoil that went on behind the scenes of the books loved by millions. Southern Missouri, 1928. On a green ridge outside the sleepy town of Mansfield, an elderly farming couple lived in a white wooden house, its soaring stone chimney built entirely from the rocks on … Read more
The world famous Girls Rock! Camp is coming to New Zealand. Two of the event’s organisers, Jana Whitta and Nicole Gaffney, had a chat to US-based musician and mentor Fiona Campbell about the initiative and the impact the camps have had around the world. The first ever Girls Rock! Camp Aotearoa is taking place at MAINZ … Read more