Cigarettes, once sold in brightly coloured packets that were highly appealing to children, will now be drab and mostly covered by dire warnings. The Spinoff’s smoking correspondent Alex Braae reviews the new plain packaging. I remember watching New Zealand play in the Benson and Hedges cricket World Series when I was a kid. In fact, … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, the national carrier’s online video mocking the humiliated Australians The Newshub headline called it a “ruthless offer”. Stuff called it as a “cheeky offer”. Friendly local website the Spinoff thinks it was “a bit of a dick-move offer”. That offer, … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Madeleine Chapman winces while watching cycleway protester Lisa Prager swing a hammer. As Lisa Prager diligently swung her sledgehammer over and over again in an attempt to break a concrete block, my back started to hurt. She was side … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, does the celebrated new bakery from the Orphan’s Kitchen team live up to the Instagram hype? The good burghers of Point Chevalier have been spoiled over the last couple of years. Excellent cafes like Twisted Tomato, the Beach Cafe … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa and photographer Joel Thomas plunge into suburbia to bear witness to the majesty of west Auckland’s Christmas displays. It’s the time of year when Auckland’s bail the family up into their Swifts or Pathfinders and go to … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Henry Oliver drinks a Crate Day’s worth of LaCroix, millennials’ favourite sparkling water, which has just arrived in New Zealand. Napkins are dead: to begin with. And crowdfunding is dead. McWraps are dead. Golf, holidays, the wine cork, they … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, José Barbosa suffers pure horror in the form of Hamilton Gardens’ trauma-inducing scarecrows. Hamilton gets ribbed a lot, but the city has at least two things going for it: 1) the mighty Waikato River (why was the city built … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, the Spinoff’s resident youths Madeleine Chapman and Don Rowe try out the latest summer beverage. Don: So it turns out Coke events are a lot like Coke advertisements – beautiful people standing around just generally stoked about living a … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Madeleine Chapman’s life is changed by mi goreng potato chips. Before you start reading, please think back to your strongest and fondest mi goreng memory. If you don’t have one, get one. If you don’t want one, leave. In … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Madeleine Chapman finds an old friend on the road. We all like to pretend we love long walks, but have you ever walked the length of the country to prove it? Finn Egan is three weeks into his estimated … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, utter boor Don Rowe attends the theatre. Pour me a pinot and call me Simon Wilson, cause I think I like the theatre now! Last night’s Matilda was both my first play and first musical, ever – a fact … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today Simon Day asks: is Duck Island Ice Cream the greatest thing the Tron has ever produced? Hamilton has suffered from an image problem for decades. Suffocated beneath the weight of its own branding, the legendary city slogan “More than … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Don Rowe surveys the chaos at the 66th Annual All Breeds Cat Show. You know what they say: nothing fixes a hangover like the hair of the cat, and so I took my hangover to a cat show at … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Don Rowe worships at the temple of roti, K’ Rd Malaysian joint Warisan Uncle Man’s. In the late 80s, more than eight thousand kilometres from Auckland city, a tradition of roti excellence began. The venerable Uncle Man, a humble … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today The Spinoff’s general manager Kerryanne Nelson visits Specsavers on Auckland’s main street. I’d been having headaches on and off for a few months. I just thought it was part of life with a toddler and a job, so I … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. This time, Pani Chapman (staff writer Madeleine Chapman’s mum) reviews the best cooked taro in Wellington. I’m always looking out for the best cooked taro in Wellington because taro is my favourite food. My children try to tell me that … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Calum Henderson tries the New Zealand sweetie fusion to (hopefully) end all New Zealand sweetie fusions. “Oh they haven’t, have they?” – Toby Manhire, Spinoff Politics editor, 9:15am Oh yes they have. Pascall – the confectionery company owned by … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Calum Henderson takes down an awful bear. When I was five I had a nightmare that a wolf walked into my house on its hind legs and kicked me to death in the kitchen. You don’t forget a dream … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Sam Brooks on his favourite bowling-alley-in-a-multiplex-bar, Metrolanes. “Where are the dive bars in Auckland?” A visitor to this fair city asked me that recently. I assumed by dive bar they meant ‘an empty bar with cheap alcohol’ rather than … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Madeleine Chapman makes a pilgrimage to the frenzy-sparking new Kmart in the Hutt. The staff at the newly opened Kmart in Petone wave green pool noodles in the air to signal an available checkout. It’s funny, it’s genius, and it’s exactly … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Don Rowe reviews a subscription toothbrush. I do my best to avoid checking the mailbox and thus my first Freshbrush was partially eaten by snails. In hindsight that’s actually quite an endorsement though because I eat bamboo too and find it … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Calum Henderson reviews an old pack of rugby cards. These days Oamaru is known as the steampunk capital of New Zealand, but back in the late 1980s and early 1990s it had a much better claim to fame. For … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: José Barbosa reviews the ubiquitous one sheet publication, the Coffee News. Print is dead, they say. Publishing models are falling out of the sky while adverting spend exsanguinates like a gushing toilet cistern. That’s what they say, but I don’t believe … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Madeleine Chapman finally gets to experience a toy fad. On Sunday I took my hangover for a walk around Sylvia Park and found myself in front of a stall selling the latest pointless toy, the Fidget Spinner. The young … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: the deepest, dearest road project in New Zealand was meant to have opened over a month ago. Toby Manhire critiques it. There is so much to like about the Waterview Tunnel. The subterranean nucleus of the Waterview Connection, “New … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Don Rowe reflects on Shaun Johnson’s clutch kick against the Roosters. It takes a special kind of masochist to devote Sunday after Sunday to seeing the Warriors ritually humiliated at home and abroad. But pleasure and pain are two sides … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Madeleine Chapman caught the latest musical in town with the longest name. When I was younger, I watched a DVD of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat almost every day during one school holidays. And in all those viewings, … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today: Madeleine Chapman reveals where to find the best chocolate hot cross bun in New Zealand. Karori is pretty bad. I lived there from birth until I went off to university and I loved every moment of it, but it’s … Read more
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today we present an excerpt from the e-notes of Lucrecia the Arm Flapper, dated 2189, third quarter of the holy Stocktake Clearance, as discovered by José Barbosa. “And so, on the fourth day after our sloop was destroyed by the two … Read more