Elle Hunt composes a love letter to New Zealand’s online auction site, with which foreign counterparts cannot compare They looked at the mattress, she and her boyfriend. My two flatmates and I looked at them looking, and with mounting disbelief. We seemed to have reached an impasse. “Is it soft?” she said, uncertainly. The two … Read more
Alex Casey takes a look back at the period ads of the late 90s and early 2000s, with the help of advertising guru Jill Brinsdon. These days I can time my targeted ads for menstrual products like clockwork. Period trackers, bleedable underwear and menstrual cups all flood in on Facebook and Instagram several days before … Read more
The long, restorative process of baking fruitcake – and eating the results – has helped Amanda Thompson through the worst of times. A long time ago, so long it feels like this story belongs to a different person, I lost my first and cherished child. On a cold, blustery night around about this time of … Read more
Hannah McGowan once believed that vaccination was to blame for her chronic health issues, and refused to vaccinate her two young sons. Then she started to listen to the health professionals who know best. In 1999 I was 19 and utterly convinced that vaccines had given me Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s is a living nightmare, the … Read more
Don Rowe on the unsettling boom in his hometown. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. Raglan is changing. You can see it in the streets, where luxury cars slot side by side like so many dominoes. It’s audible in the endless buzz of bikes, jet skis and drones. And it’s palpable, if you’re … Read more
Madeleine Chapman on dropping the perfect (dive) bomb – and why it’s worth protecting. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. The key to popping a perfect manu lies in the bum. Before the body has even left the platform, or rock, or bridge, the bum is out. Arms up, back straight, knees bent, … Read more
Toby Manhire spends a day chasing kingis – and PM-adjacent yarns – with Fish of the Day host Clarke Gayford. Mid-week, mid-morning under a muddy grey January sky. We’re skimming into the Hauraki Gulf on a stupidly expensive boat, stacks of fishing rods wobbling away, and Clarke Gayford is getting technical. “So on the handle, as it comes … Read more
Jacinda Ardern’s government has abandoned the idea of a capital gains tax, and it’s a victory for self-interest and disingenuous debate, writes Jesse Mulligan Well that was fun. The Capital Gains Tax “debate” (let’s call it that, though it often felt like we were only hearing from one debating team – the one dropped off … Read more
Just after 2pm today, the capital gains tax proposal was pronounced dead by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. It’s just the latest in a run of bad news for the government’s much-vaunted policy projects, writes Danyl Mclauchlan. At the start of the year Jacinda Ardern declared that 2019 was her government’s ‘year of delivery’. Last year … Read more
A lot of knowledge has been lost about traditional Māori attitudes to menstruation, but some extraordinary Māori women are making sure it’s not lost forever, writes Leonie Hayden Like a bolt of lightning out of the blue it sometimes occurs to me that a thing I’m doing, or feeling, is a product of colonisation. When … Read more
Yesterday, Wallabies player Israel Folau was issued with a “high level” breach notice by Rugby Australia, bringing him closer to the termination of his contract over a social media post in which he claimed “homosexuals” and others would go to hell. For a gay, Pasifika man, it’s not necessarily something to celebrate, writes Patrick Thomsen. … Read more
The first fisherman shows Simon Day how to fillet a fish using the famous Gisborne method. On a dull January afternoon, Clarke Gayford took two of The Spinoff staff into the Hauraki Gulf on a fishing expedition. I was there to take photos, while Spinoff editor Toby Manhire interviewed Gayford about his famous partner’s first … Read more
More survivors of sexual violence at Knox College have come forward since Critic broke the story of sexual abuse and harassment at the Otago University hall of residence a month ago. Content warning: sexual assault and harassment. This story is published today in Critic Te Arohi, the Otago University student magazine. Original reporting by Esme Hall … Read more
Ten days after the terrorist shooting in two Christchurch mosques took 50 lives, Jacinda Ardern speaks to Toby Manhire in her Beehive office. ‘I’ll show you something,” says Jacinda Ardern. We are sitting on sofas in her office on the ninth floor of the Beehive. It is just 10 days since a terrorist attack in Christchurch … Read more
On Friday March 29, the Spinoff published a ranking of every chip flavour in New Zealand. Everyone promptly lost the plot. Chip ranker Madeleine Chapman wonders where she went wrong. I didn’t have anything else to write about. That’s why I ranked all 123 chip flavours in New Zealand from best to worst. Not because … Read more
Forget Married at First Sight, the craziest hookups are happening at Wellington Zoo. Capybara reporter Emily Writes reveals all. I’ve been obsessed with the capybaras at Wellington Zoo for a long time now. They first arrived in 2016 from Paris. Sister wives Vara, Guara and Iapa and pseudo husband Guarani. I loved them on sight, … Read more
James Casson’s comments on refugees and the Christchurch attack have earned him widespread condemnation, but he’s far from the first Hamilton councillor to spout embarrassing rubbish, writes longtime Hamilton Council watcher Angela Cuming. When the tinfoil-hat wearing Hamilton City councillor Siggi Henry was revealed to be an anti-vaxxer loon who believes measles is not deadly … Read more
The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby Morris, supported by NZ On Air. Read more comics here.
Madeleine Chapman goes through starchy hell to rank every flavour of chip available in New Zealand*. *Of course I will have missed some and of course you’ll let me know. Sorry and thanks in advance. This list is so long it really doesn’t need an intro. Hell-123) Any novelty flavour ever Get directly in the … Read more
Remarks by a Federated Farmers leader are a boon to beneficiary-bashers, and they’re utter rubbish, writes tax expert Lisa Marriott On Monday, newsletter comments by Federated Farmers Marlborough President Phillip Neal expressing his distaste for proposed tax reforms were quoted and reiterated on Stuff. Neal didn’t restrict himself to the proposed tax reforms. Instead he … Read more
The myth of white genocide in South Africa has fuelled far-right violence the world over, including the attack on Christchurch’s mosques. Ross Webb calls on his fellow South Africans to stop helping those who perpetuate the myth and who use South Africa to support their deluded fantasies. Lusaka, 1986 In 1986, a New Zealand man … Read more
On Friday 15 March, a terrorist attack in Christchurch took the lives of 50 people at prayer. Eighteen months into her first term as prime minister, Jacinda Ardern faced a formidable task: communicate what happened, embrace a ruptured community, and force through real reform. Madeleine Chapman reports. The kids couldn’t believe she was there. A … Read more
New work by poet Mohamed Hassan. If you are on mobile, read the poem in its intended format here. National Anthem I pledge allegiance to love and good coffee a sleepy heart two sets of feet burning a clatter … Read more
How dare our national airline continue to brand itself with Indigenous symbols while rejecting employees who wear those same symbols on their bodies, writes Leonie Pihama. As I sit at a conference on the island of Maui, I see tā moko and kākau (a Hawaiian form of moko) proudly worn by Indigenous Peoples. The power … Read more
The killer was an Australian. But New Zealand has a long history of white supremacist ideology, writes Scott Hamilton. Content warning: this article contains descriptions of racist behaviour and quotes racist language. The young man wandered the world. By the time he arrived in New Zealand he was obsessed. He tried to warn his fellow … Read more
In New Zealand we’re waiting to see if the all-powerful Facebook boss means what he says about ‘moral responsibility’, writes Toby Manhire More than four days have passed since the world’s weakest man launched an assault that took the lives of 50 people at prayer in Christchurch. He did it with a camera stuck to … Read more
In the first address to parliament since Friday’s terrorist attack on Christchurch, Jacinda Ardern paid tribute to the Muslim community and pledged to deny the perpetrator the notoriety he craves Al salam Alaikum. Peace be upon you. And peace be upon all of us. The 15th of March will now forever be a day etched … Read more
How New Zealand and international organisations are dealing with inflammatory and racist moments in their pasts. UPDATED to include apparent false information from the National Party, and the National party’s subsequent response. In the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, organisations around New Zealand have removed content which might be seen as part of the culture … Read more
The words of the Christchurch gunman were vile, vicious and unhinged. What they were not was shocking. In fact, they were ordinary, recycled lines from the political mainstream, writes Mehdi Hasan in this post originally published at the Intercept “IT’S THE BIRTHRATES.” So begins the online manifesto of the man accused of shooting and killing at least … Read more