A nightmarish and near-fatal high-speed pursuit of a New Zealand Chinese family concluded with a judge rejecting the prosecution’s request for hate crime sentencing. Tze Ming Mok discusses why New Zealand’s approach to hate crime is utterly useless. I don’t like horror movies. I could only watch Get Out while on a plane, on a … Read more
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt. At the pub one Friday night in London a few weeks ago, I was at the bar with a large group … Read more
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts queued overnight for the honour of being the first through the doors to get … Read more
Every fish on the iconic New Zealand Commercial Fish Species poster, ranked. There are a few staples of the quintessential fish and chip shop: sticky plastic curtains, soggy paper tickets with a little red number, tin pottles of Wattie’s tomato sauce, even some unlabelled aioli if you’re feeling bougie. And then there’s the New Zealand … Read more
The newsreader turned talkback host Peter Williams (not Peter Williams) is furious about the mainstream refusal to acknowledge the cheesiness of the moon. I’m sorry but my head still hurts. Yesterday I blew to smithereens the so-called “consensus” on the “science” around “climate change”. I put forward my doubts about “climate” “change”, posing the question, … Read more
Its rolling slate of cringey jokes and meaningless trivia is a familiar sight wherever there’s a captive audience – but what the hell is Giggle TV? Johnny Crawford looks into the tweet-stealing, wife joke-telling phenomenon. If you’ve spent any time in middle New Zealand in the past half-decade, you’re probably familiar with Giggle TV. Fish … Read more
It comes thrice a year to pummel your aura into cosmic shards. Horoscope lovers are fiends for it, knowing that soon they’ll have a whole month of stellar excuses for their abominable behaviour. Oh yeah, Mercury’s in retrograde, baby! But what does that mean? I almost had a breakdown writing this article. I want to … Read more
The Black Caps were a critical part of what is probably the greatest game of cricket ever played, writes Duncan Greive. Is that enough to get over having lost it? It’s hard to imagine a more hollow consolation than having played the crucial supporting role in the greatest game of cricket any of us will … Read more
Edmonds, Hubbards, Pams – our shelves are full of people immortalised in baked goods and cereals. Josie Adams sets out to discover who they really were, and if they even existed at all. “Who is Pam?” is one of the most burning questions of our time. She makes jam, baked beans, dishwashing liquid; Pam can … Read more
Anna Fifield, Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, talks to Toby Manhire about her new book The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, about working in China, and about reporting from Christchurch after March 15 There are few stories on the world news pages as enthralling, and as … Read more
Nowadays, sex toys aren’t all dildos and vibrators. Emily Writes tries out the cutting edge in sex toy technology. I know exactly when I first read about the Satisfyer Pro 2. Still shaking, my friend had taken to Instagram to spread the gospel, writing that she’d had the best orgasm of her life with it. … Read more
As of this week, I don’t qualify for a benefit. Why? Did I suddenly get healthy enough to work fulltime? Did a distant cousin leave me their millions in Apple stock? No. I just made the mistake of falling in love. Two years ago, MP Alastair Scott was asked about disabled people losing their financial … Read more
Three Women is a fervent, scrupulous qualitative review of female desire. It’s also a lesson in commitment – and the powerful act of paying attention. Imagine a pole vaulter strolling into the Olympics, eyeing the bar – the women’s world record is 5.06m – and casually hitching it like a metre higher. Then fucking nailing the … Read more
Former Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust chair Toni Waho was removed from his position in 2014 for allegedly bringing the trust into disrepute when he reported misspending by a subsidiary. Last month the High Court cleared Waho of any misconduct. The price paid by everyone involved in the six years leading up to that point … Read more
Before Rachael King was an author and a puller-together of literary festivals, she was a bass player in a heap of bands. At the start, she was a schoolgirl rocking in the Battling Strings, opening for the Chills and other 1980s Flying Nun bands, including Straitjacket Fits. Reading Shayne Carter’s memoir Dead People I Have … Read more
Lovepreet Brar was a migrant who scrapped his way from a one year diploma to New Zealand residency, before becoming an international bhangra hip hop star. In between, he was part of an epic and dangerous fraud. In early March 2016, Arvinder Singh left his Takanini home, nestled in a small section at the end … Read more
If your property manager tries to charge you a ridiculous ‘cleaning’ charge when you leave your place, there’s something you can do, writes Sam Grover – and he should know, because he did it. The other week, I saw a story about a property manager named Whittle Knight and Boatwood Estate Agents who took a … Read more
How do we expect vets to care for our animals when we don’t always care for our vets? Ellen Sinclair reports on the struggles of an industry that is far more complex than it seems. Veterinarians and vet nurses commit their lives to helping our beloved pets, but few animal lovers are aware how rife … Read more
‘Fail fast’ has gone from an intriguing idea to mainstream business orthodoxy in just a few short years. Jihee Junn went along to the pricey business event dedicated entirely to ‘falling forward’. It was about 9am by the time I arrived and instantly my senses were overloaded. One moment I’m wading through rush hour traffic making … Read more
The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby Morris, supported by NZ On Air. Read more comics here. Mark’s statistics can be viewed in more detail here.
Alex Casey chats to a group of 16 year-olds about the pressures of Instagram, weird men in the DMs, and their multiple online identities. “I’m planning on getting it,” says Neha. “Just my breasts. They’re just too small. It doesn’t look really nice in clothes and stuff.” Aaliyah would too, but wouldn’t touch her butt. … Read more
Twenty-seven years ago, Trevor McKewen’s book about New Zealand rugby heroes celebrated a stoic, machismo national character. Recently his daughter asked him: would you want your grandsons to read that? I had always wanted to write a book. For a lot of my early working life, I was a sports journo. So I wrote a … Read more
1000 Words is a Spinoff series talking to the photographers behind our most iconic political images. In this instalment, Don Rowe speaks to David White, the photographer who shot Colin Craig. Following a failed attempt at the Auckland mayoralty in 2010, notorious goof and Auckland accountant Colin Craig founded and led the New Zealand Conservative … Read more
Tara Ward power-ranks our nation’s most valuable, revenue-generating resource: Our big-ass rural monuments. Big Monuments are taking over the nation. No town is safe, no highway untouched by their enormous limbs and massive beaks and enormous carroty girths. We’re obsessed with these oversized symbols of Kiwi identity, and it’s time we celebrated them for what … Read more
We’re launching a brand new membership programme, inviting readers to support new journalistic endeavours and help shape our editorial direction. Today The Spinoff enters a new era with the launch of The Spinoff Members. It will support our growth in a way which ensures our work remains free to all, while also allowing us to … Read more
The bad boy of hospitality is nearing retirement age, yet his capacity for bitter feuds remains undiminished. Duncan Greive meets Leo Molloy, the Viaduct’s best host and worst enemy. “I know Bernie Monk,” said Leo Molloy. “He was a year ahead of me at school.” I had barely sat down at Headquarters, Molloy’s Viaduct restaurant … Read more
The CEO of Air New Zealand Christopher Luxon has resigned, leading to feverish speculation that not only will he get into politics, but that he’ll be the next National PM. Why? Watching the takes unfold around the apparently imminent and glorious political career of Christopher Luxon, it’s hard not to feel a little powerless about … Read more
Parent to a fussy toddler? The ‘I’m Not Hungry for Fruit Mum’ bag is the only meal kit service you’ll ever need! Delivery meal kits seem to be everywhere at the moment. Every company insists they have the food that your kids will love. They say you’ll never have to think about what you cook … Read more
The government’s environmental policy is creating major tensions in farming communities. Alex Braae went to a meeting in Taumarunui to see it play out. “We’ve got to get the government’s attention somehow. Okay, we’re not all going to jump on our tractors and drive to Wellington. But we could jump on our tractors and block … Read more