Politicians can’t make us feel less lonely, but they can adopt policies that create conditions for meaningful social interaction to flourish. This article tackles loneliness at the policy level, which is important, but won’t be much immediate help to individuals feeling lonely and isolated right now. If you’re in that situation, Loneliness NZ has some … Read more
Grief is an unwanted guest at the best of times, none more so than when you can’t actually have guests. Sam Brooks writes about how he’s processing grief in a time of lockdown. Lockdown is perhaps the first time in modern history where a lot of us have too much time on our hands. Some … Read more
You Got This! pits bubble against bubble in family fun challenges with no risk of overlap. Tara Ward gives us a few of the challenges she’s done with her own family during lockdown. Gather all ye wooden spoons and empty boxes and prepare to enjoy You Got This!, a new show that sees Kiwi families … Read more
In the second part of a new series sharing the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Charles Anderson tries to impose some order on his household and learns that disorder is OK too. It was somewhere between week two and three of level four lockdown when Ivie Anderson, aged 5, began to have … Read more
Eerie scenes from level four lockdown in the nation’s capital. With people instructed to stay at home, Wellington streets, schools and parks are near empty. We captured this strangely beautiful footage during the first weeks of lockdown, visiting familiar Wellington locations including the Wellington Urban Motorway, the waterfront, Kent Terrace and Oriental Bay. This video … Read more
Emergency departments nationwide are reporting a decrease in patients, but an increase in injuries from aspiring handyfolk. “Please,” said Southern DHB on April 2nd, “can we remind everyone to take care when undertaking DIY tasks and using power tools.” Less than a week into lockdown, its hospitals had seen an increase in orthopaedic presentations related … Read more
How do you move your news-stuffed, comedian-packed game show to Zoom? Sam Brooks talked to Hayley Sproull, host of Have You Been Paying Attention?, to find out. Over the last five weeks we’ve all become a lot more comfortable seeing inside the homes of our colleagues, politicians and epidemiologists. And while television has always been … Read more
As the past few weeks have starkly revealed, we can’t always conflate the occupants of a single residence into one neat group. Anthropologists Susanna Trnka and Sharyn Graham Davies explain. On March 23, New Zealanders were presented with a stark and unprecedented demand to get into our “bubbles” within 48 hours and stay there for … Read more
Everyone has had different coping strategies during lockdown, and for many around the country, this has meant taking to the kitchen. Here’s what your iso cooking says about you. Nobody knew what alert level four was going to do to us. We didn’t know which hobbies we would take up, which crafts we would learn … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: What it means now that we’re at level three, contact tracing app on the way, and Vic students in halls protest resumption of fees. Well, we made it. The first – and hopefully only – stint of level four restrictions has come to an end, and … Read more
The seriousness of the restrictions we’re living under deserves a much sounder legislative footing, write law professors Andrew Geddis and Claudia Geiringer. They should have a clear, certain basis in law and be imposed through a transparent and accountable process. Let’s start with the good stuff. New Zealand’s “go hard, go early” lockdown approach looks … Read more
As casual dealers retreat but both demand and prices surge, one surprising consequence of the lockdown could be the hastened professionalisation of the underground cannabis industry. When New Zealand moved to alert level four, most people had no choice about whether to comply with the lockdown. But for New Zealand’s cannabis dealers, who were watching … Read more
Amanda Thompson always thought the apocalypse would be more about zombies and less about a lack of flour. No matter, this recipe will stand you in good stead for either eventuality. Our current dystopian nightmare was not the apocalypse I was expecting. I do not feel prepared, even after years of planning. Big fans of … Read more
Separated from her nine year old daughter in Hungary, Daisy Coles is finding solace in video calling – and Disney gifs. Two months after I last saw her, I’m still finding my daughter’s drawings around the house. Precise line drawings of squirrels, lions, foxes in her signature style: thoughtfully considered, executed with an exquisitely sharp … Read more
The current crisis has rendered visible challenges that have been simmering in the background long before the country went into lockdown, writes Chris Farrelly of the Auckland City Mission. Covid-19 presents new and unfamiliar territory for many of us in our day-to-day realities. Be it managing childcare in the home office, or adjusting to time … Read more
Living with a differently-wired brain is challenging at the best of times – never mind in the midst of a global pandemic. Erin Kavanagh–Hall chats with six neurodivergent New Zealanders who share the obstacles they’ve overcome during the Covid-19 lockdown. ‘I was terrified of being stuck inside’ Cate, 31, Wellington Diagnosis: Autism As a person … Read more
‘I feel like it means something to be a New Zealander in these circumstances, that it means something that we’re all trapped here together, self-isolating at the end of the world.’ On the third Saturday of the lockdown we saw the naked bus driver. We were standing by the road chatting to our neighbour, observing … Read more
Anzac weekend has always been a time for thinking about our country and during this one, in the quiet that has fallen during lockdown, we can contemplate a new kind of New Zealand. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Yesterday I put on a fire, the first one this autumn. Dragged a newspaper from the … Read more
As New Zealanders await the end of alert level four and the chance to escape their homes, some are in such scenic lockdown refuges they won’t want to leave. Every morning, the 11 residents at the Lake Tekapo Holiday Park wake up to silence. It’s dense and thorough – the kind that presses on your … Read more
Restaurants were already teetering on the edge. If they’re to survive this, the industry must come together and take one crucial step, writes Sophie Gilmour. We’ve heard about “the good old days” in hospitality – apparently, people wanted to work in the industry because they could make a decent living. Working conditions were great, people … Read more
The doors may be closed, but the Auckland Museum is open. Elly Strang pays a visit to Auckland Museum At Home. As New Zealand moves through its fourth week of lockdown, there’s no doubt many across the nation will be feeling an itch to explore a place beyond the four walls of their home. After … Read more
Week five, somehow, of these lockdown lists, compiled by the staff of Unities Auckland and Wellington. On the back of widespread reports that brains across the country have turned to custard, the theme this week is “books you can knock off in no time”. And speaking of no time: we are inexorably hurtling towards Tuesday … Read more
For a month now, we’ve been asked to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19. New data visualisations now show how well we’re following that instruction. The Science Media Centre has funded data visualisations showing when and where we’ve travelled over the past month. Geographer Chris McDowall has made videos following population movements … Read more
In the first part of a new series sharing the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Emily Writes watches her sons hold on to connections in isolation. I think when I look back on this time as a parent one of the things that will stick with me is my seven-year-old son desperately … Read more
Praise all that is good and holy, hospitality businesses are allowed to reopen next week – with a bunch of restrictions. Here’s what you need to know. Takeaways are back on next week, right? Thank god, I’m sick of cooking. Yes, New Zealand is moving down from alert level four to alert level three at … Read more
A honey-scented, seed-studded loaf that’s super adaptable. And no kneading required! It was about six weeks ago that the supermarket shelves were first stripped bare of hand sanitiser and toilet paper. A week or so after that whole aisles of bread racks stood empty as the panic-buying took hold. And now here we are confined … Read more
Without the sounds of the day-to-day competing for attention, Scotty Stevenson has taken some time over the past four weeks to listen. I heard my father talking tonight. He’s been dead seven years. His voice was deep, filled with an understated enthusiasm, imbued with eternal encouragement, just as I remembered it. I heard it while … Read more
For a few weeks we haven’t been able to escape each other or ourselves or our own terrible cooking. But at least the celery soup is a prison of my own making. Read more from the lockdown letters here. I’m not a good cook. “What’s for lunch?” my workmate Kirsten used to ask, as I emptied … Read more
Midwife and lecturer Billie Bradford explains the impact stress can have on pregnant women and why support for low-income families is so important right now. The Covid-19 pandemic has turned our society upside down. It’s a stressful time for everyone, and this stress and change is likely to impact pregnant women in New Zealand in … Read more