Ready or not
Spuds are being dug up, supermarkets are playing carols 17 hours a day, church kids are wearing tea towels, police and budget advisers are gearing up — it must be the festive season, writes Bruce...
Life & Style
Post haste to the goldfields
Post haste to the goldfields
Red Coat's goldfields map was drawn up by one of Otago's greatest eccentrics, John (Jock) Graham, and remains one of the more fascinating relics of our gold-rush history, writes Jim Sullivan.
Climate moves up the agenda
Climate moves up the agenda
We need to be tackling the climate crisis, new IMF boss Kristalina Georgieva tells Larry Elliott.
Change and challenge
Change and challenge
You certainly know when a baby becomes a toddler. It’s a time of significant change for them and a lot of challenge for child and parent. It’s probably as dramatic as adolescence, but more...
An artist’s brush with Cubism
An artist’s brush with Cubism
Dame Louise Henderson was born in Paris at the beginning of La Belle Epoch (The Golden Age) at the turn of the 20th-century. At this time, Paris was the global centre of the arts and home to...
Nothing you can buy
Nothing you can buy
Nothing you can buy will ever make you more whole. It’s always a good time of year to remember that gem of truth from Kate Tempest’s Hold Your Own, writes Liz Breslin.
A tale of two asteroids
A tale of two asteroids
In 1998, I was working at a science centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida. To a space nut like me, witnessing launches from the Kennedy Space Center was a real thrill.
Life in the Nevis
Life in the Nevis
Life in the Nevis Valley was far from easy, writes Louise Joyce in this edited extract from Take me to the Nevis.
Giants of the Andes
Giants of the Andes
It’s the Tyrannosaurus rex of trees. Who hasn’t felt a primal twinge of terror as they’ve looked up at a large monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) with its ferocious dark green "teeth"? We feel...
In thrall to quantity
In thrall to quantity
Apps and wearable devices are touted as a way to transform health. But are we too obsessed by the quantified self? asks James Tapper.
Addressing flight’s baggage
Addressing flight’s baggage
Recently, people in Sweden have chosen to fly less and take the train more. They have coined a new word, "flygskam", for the shame associated with flying and its climate impact. When Swedes want to...
Leading by example
Leading by example
It was not good news this week for teenagers: more than 80% worldwide are insufficiently active for the good of their health and New Zealand teens are close to the worst.
Gateway to Otago’s history
Gateway to Otago’s history
Visitors to Toitu’s exhibition galleries now pass under the outstretched wings of Toroa, the centrepiece of an impressive carved gateway, or waharoa, recently unveiled at the museum.
The drinking age - 20 years on
The drinking age - 20 years on
Twenty years after the legal drinking age was lowered, alcohol continues to harm young people. Should the age limit go back up? Bruce Munro investigates
Spreading the panto magic
Spreading the panto magic
This is the start of panto week in the Upper Clutha, writes columnist Liz Breslin.
From the Veneto
From the Veneto
The floating city of Venice has lured and inspired Italian-Australian chef Nino Zoccali for decades.
Fun with the sun
Fun with the sun
In an attempt to lose weight, rather than eating lunch, I have recently been walking from the museum to the Botanic Garden. I use the beautiful horizontal sundial in the Knot Garden as turn-back...
Firefox fights for the future
Firefox fights for the future
With Google's Chrome dominating the web browser market, not-for-profit rival Mozilla is staking a comeback on its dedication to privacy, writes Alex Hern.
Reclaiming the fun of Christmas
Reclaiming the fun of Christmas
If you get stressed out in the Christmas season, perhaps it's time to think about doing things differently, Jan Aitken writes.
Signs of the Pakeha
Signs of the Pakeha
The archaeological record of early Pakeha settlement in New Zealand offers vivid glimpses of a world undergoing turbulent change as two vastly different cultures learned to inhabit the same country...
