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Prince Andrew is defying his brother King Charles’ orders by refusing to leave his 30-room Royal Lodge mansion on the Windsor estate, where he’s lived for almost 20 years. But the disgraced royal fears the monarch may go to extreme lengths to get him out. “He’s concerned that now the coronation is over, the knives are out,” royal biographer Phil Dampier tells Woman’s Day. “He’s worried that the royals might even turn off the utilities to get him out of there.” According to reports, the $60 million home – which Andrew, 63, shares with ex-wife Sarah Ferguson – has been earmarked for the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke of York has been told he must vacate by September. In addition, Charles, 74, is reportedly cutting the $500,000 subsidy that the late…

Thank you, Andrew Anthony, for your intelligent article “Transition alley” (May 13), where you look at Hannah Barnes’ book Time to Think on the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock Centre, London. Also, thank you for calling Posie Parker a “women’s rights campaigner” and the protests “claims of transphobia”. Such simple discriminations make a world of difference when so few seem to be able to see that there is more than one side to this fraught debate around gender. Sadly, the realistic fear of condemnation and cancellation, in NZ as well as overseas, makes it hard for concerned voices to be heard and so little thoughtful debate is possible. While there is a lot of focus on male-to-female self-identification, in reality, there is a huge rise in the number of…

A riddle: when is a waka jump not a waka jump? Apparently, when former Labour MP, now Te Pāti Māori MP, Meka Whaitiri does the leaping. Speaker of the House Adrian Rurawhe has decreed that her resignation email did not meet the criteria for what, under the so-called waka-jumping law, ought to have forced her to give up her Ikaroa-Rāwhiti seat. He hasn’t released her email, if indeed there is an email, although apparently there is no legal reason he can’t. He said: “I think it would be a dangerous situation for the Speaker of the House to start interpreting things that are clearly not being officially submitted to me. Now, as I began my ruling, members can say whatever they like outside of this House but unless they inform me…

Danyl McLauchlan’s excellent “Bees & honey” feature (May 13) highlighted public money wasted on consultants. For any particular client ministry, the consultant is aware of the answer its client wants. Repeat business depends on pleasing the client. Yet public policy based on incorrect facts is likely to be harmful. One report I read left me convinced the client had required the consultants to show the conversion of sheep and beef farms to forestry in a favourable light. It made forestry look good by including high-country farms. These have very low-employment density, but are on iconic landscapes few want to see planted. The report used StatsNZ data but did not count thousands of sheep and beef support workers who, in the original data, appear in a wider agricultural category. Forestry support workers were easy…

Hospice is grassroots. It was founded in the 1960s by UK palliative care pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders, who believed everyone deserved to die well after she witnessed undignified and painful deaths in hospital. The first hospice was set up in New Zealand in 1979, with more following in the early 1980s, set up by passionate people who saw a need for this type of care here, too. Hospice has remained at the heart of communities across Aotearoa since then. Our philosophy of care looks at the whole person, not just their disease or symptoms. Everyone is treated as an individual. What matters to them matters to us, and through this approach, we explore and support all aspects of a person – their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. We help people…

Here at Lush Places, the bunting has come down. Actually, it never went up. But I did make a quiche to celebrate the coronation. That is also a lie. I made a quiche because we, unlike the odious British Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg, like a quiche. He said: “I don’t like quiche, it’s disgusting, I wouldn’t dream of having it.” This seemed to be a good enough reason to indulge in a quiche. The coronation of King Charlie was quite the spectacle. Watching it was very strange, a time warp, akin to being transported back in time 700 years. But it will mostly be remembered as the dividing of a kingdom over a quiche. Only the English could get their Marks and Sparks knickers in such a twist over a bit of…

1st Daughters Lorina (11) and Isabella (9) unload mum Christine’s new Chesterfield sofa, using dad MANFRED KROPF’S 2.2 TDCi Defender 130 to carry it right to the door of their hilltop home in Ratten, Austria. We’re sure Mum and Dad stepped in to help at some point… ‘A nicely staged family shot from Manfred, with that beautiful sofa almost stealing the limelight from the equally beautiful 130.’ NEIL WATTERSON, EDITOR‘I feel like I need a stiff drink just looking at this amazing photo. Well done, Anthony!’NEIL WATTERSON, EDITOR WIN! gear in the next issue of LRO To browse the full range of gear, go to exmoortrim.co.uk 1st PRIZE Exmoor Trim T-shirt, mug, coffee cup, flask and keyring worth £50.99 2nd PRIZE Exmoor Trim T-shirt and mug worth £27.99 Send pics to wolr@LRO.com. Include a description of the vehicle and…

J ust two months before her death, Tina Turner revealed how she wanted to be remembered. “As the Queen of Rock’n’Roll. As a woman who showed other women that it is OK to strive for success on their own terms,” she said, voicing the thoughts of millions of fans who are now mourning the incredible life and work of one of music’s most iconic stars. The American-born singer famous for her raw, powerful voice, incredible stage presence, empowering songs and iconic hairstyle broke through numerous barriers during her five-decade career. And she was triumphant to the end, telling The Guardian in the same interview that “nothing” frightened her about getting older. ‘This is life’s full adventure... I embrace what it brings’ “This is life’s full adventure and I embrace and accept every day…

We live in Nelson. A few months ago, my partner and I went out on a Sunday afternoon and came back to find our house had been red-stickered. In an instant, our regular routines ground to a halt. Our plans for the future, which we previously measured in years, immediately shrank to days. We were able to make temporary arrangements, but anything after Christmas is a total void. Despite this fear and insecurity, a part of me felt more alive, shaken out of my humdrum life. I had to appreciate the present, because that was all there was. The gaping void I spent so much time ignoring while I brushed my teeth, watched TV and ate my meals could not be ignored. I came closer to seeing the real me; not…

‘That’s when we decided it was happening – and it was happening in an hour’ They say the course of true love never did run smooth – and there’s nothing like a pandemic to prove it! With one COVIDcancelled wedding behind them, Auckland couple Paelina and Joshua Passfield couldn’t believe their bad luck when their phones blared with a Civil Defence notification advising them of an upcoming lockdown, effectively cancelling their second lot of plans. Unable to face the idea of postponing their nuptials again, Paelina decided there was no time like the present and declared they’d be getting married that night, before Auckland entered Alert Level 3 at 6am the next day. She wasn’t able to organise a last-minute photographer for their whirlwind ceremony, so fortunately, Woman’s Day has come to…

The New Zealand suburban landscape, when it is projected onto wild places, is an odd thing. Mixed with the New Zealand summer holiday, suburbia has all the beauty and absurdity of a bad translation. Or that was the way it seemed when our family turned up at a campsite on the shores of a South Island hydro lake late in the summer, with a boat on the back and a tent in the car. We were getting away from it all and looking forward to swimming, fishing, and sailing. What we didn’t know is that we were about to drive slap-bang into a version of suburbia we thought we had escaped from. We arrived early in the morning and perused the campsite for a suitable gap to pitch the tent. There…

Humans burn about 2000-3000 calories a day, no matter how much exercise they do. Herman Pontzer, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, North Carolina, published these findings in his recent book, Burn, after delving into the lives of hunter-gatherer tribes in East Africa and exploring why they don’t burn more calories than sedentary office workers in New York. Over a decade, Pontzer and colleagues discovered that exercise doesn’t increase our metabolism. The majority of calories are burnt in the process of keeping us alive – in breathing and digestion, for example – while only a small percentage is expended on exercise. “Our metabolic engines were not crafted by millions of years of evolution to guarantee a beach-ready bikini body,” Pontzer says. “Rather, our metabolism has been primed to pack…

• Phantom Pickup IN THE build by a young team at their recently opened fabrication shop, Peterson Fabrication Ltd. This “phantom” 1937 Ford pickup started life as a sedan, now features slick quick-change installation. From Craig Stare. • Howzat!! AS FAR as trophies go, there is probably nothing better than receiving Ed Iskenderian’s 100th birthday favourite car award. Imagine that. A legend in our sport picking your car at his 100th birthday bash. Well, the recipient was a Kiwi, and Squeak Bell has this trophy as his 1939 Convertible Sedan was Ed’s pick. Squeak thinks he possibly received it because there were no Model Ts there, and maybe he had a soft spot for 39 Fords. Squeak has been to every one of Ed’s birthday parties since his 80th. Ed is an extremely knowledgeable…

THIS ’41 Willys coupe saw drag strip action in the ‘50s and ‘60s in Alabama before being tamed and transformed into a street rod, running a smallblock Chev/Muncie combo. In 2005 Greg Haliday purchased the car out of Fayetteville, 40 miles from Atlanta. He had already decided to take the relatively mild street rod and return it to its racing roots whilst retaining some degree of street running manners. To kick the project off, parts were gathered. Eric Livingston of West Auckland Engine Reconditioners sought out Ray Barton Racing Engines to build a race-inspired blown and injected Hemi based on one of RBRE's iron 426 Hemi race blocks, alloy heads, and utilising a 4.150” stroke crank to produce 472ci. Livingston also supplied and built a 904 TorqueFlite transmission with reverse pattern…

Cutting the throat of a sheep with a knife was once a coming of age for Kiwi blokes, and it was certainly for almost a century an essential first step in one of the country’s most important sources of wealth – the export of refrigerated lamb and mutton to the United Kingdom. This trade began on December 6, 1881, when six butchers at Tōtara Estate, near Ōamaru in North Otago, began slaughtering sheep. Some of these knives, imported from Sheffield, the great British home of knife-making, were used to kill the sheep, skin them, disembowel them, behead them, and finally cut away the surplus fat. It was a highly skilled job and the butchers prepared about 40 sheep each day, making a daily total of 240. The carcasses were then taken…

KEVIN Grainger has been playing around with old cars since the ‘70s. In 1974 he started work on ‘48 Ford Pop, running an HA Viva front end, 105E Anglia rear, and a hotted 1725cc Hunter engine. It was painted in blue with the name ‘Blue Moves’ (after an Elton John album title). Once completed in ‘77, and as his daily driver, the Pop was a regular sight around Hamilton ‘til the mid-'80s. A lot of the original Pop's build set the pattern for Kevin's next project, the Van you see here. A trip down to Horopito in ‘77 bought back the remains of the ‘38 Thames; yes, it's a ‘38 Thames. While many folks instantly assume it's Pop Van, this one is a ‘38 Thames and proudly wears the rare grille…

This column has taken a short break from London, in composition if not content. I’m writing in an idyllic setting, on the terrace of a charming villa surrounded by bougainvillea and perched on a pine-filled Croatian hillside above the translucent waters of the Adriatic. Back home, the news is almost unremittingly of the pessimistic kind – inflation is up, productivity down, transport strikes are everywhere, flights cancelled, with a prime minister so deeply mired in his lies and indulgences that even his own ethics adviser has quit. But here, the big issue is whether to swim in the pool or walk down to the sea. On the surface, there is an obvious disconnect between the cloudless beauty of my family holiday and the darkening reality of life in the UK that, by…

Like most doting parents, Alexandra and Lee Woodworth say bringing their two precious children into the world was a dream come true, but for the Auckland couple, it’s been a particularly bumpy start to family life. After their daughter Sylvie, now two, was born prematurely, Alexandra’s second pregnancy was classed as high risk. But despite the nerves, she was determined to stay positive. “I had a cervical stitch and I was optimistic that everything would go as planned the second time around,” Alexandra tells Woman’s Day. “Then my waters ruptured at just 21 weeks.” Due to the risk of infection, the 35-year-old was whisked into surgery to have the stitch removed, while doctors told her to prepare for the worst if she went into early labour. “I cried my eyes out in that…

As we drive to the Far North in early January the roads are very busy out of Auckland. We are in the holiday traffic, and once we complete the section of motorway through the tunnel at Pūhoi the pace slows to a crawl. Patience wanes after a series of slow stop–starts through Warkworth and a long 50km section through Dome Valley. Parts of the highway are pretty rough, and having not travelled north for a number of years I am surprised how bad this section of road is. But there are plans underway for the construction of a motorway bypassing Warkworth, Dome Valley and Wellsford. Improvement is long overdue and will certainly help access to Northland. SCAN QR TO WATCH THE VIDEO OR CLICK IN DIGITAL EDITION Youtube channel: NZTODAY RV…

It would be hard to find a more impressive-sounding organisation than the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge. It publishes the Public Health Policy Journal, which has a list of distinguished board members. There are neurosurgeons and university professors, experts in paediatrics and ophthalmology: a lot of impressive titles. If you were a respected academic, wouldn’t you want to be in that company? Certainly, Dr Simon Thornley of the University of Auckland must have thought so. Thornley, a senior lecturer in epidemiology, jointly authored a controversial paper that was published by the journal as peer reviewed. It called for withdrawing the Covid vaccine roll-out to all children, pregnant women, and people of “child-bearing age”. The paper has now been withdrawn — there are multiple studies showing the vaccines are safe during pregnancy — but…

I am a lifelong reader of newspapers. We still get the printed edition of the Washington Post, mostly because, at my age, if I don’t go out and get the newspaper after starting the coffee how the hell am I supposed to know my day has begun? These days, however, one must approach the Post with eyes narrowed to a slit lest you see the front page in its entirety, and the comprehensive awfulness of it sends you racing back to bed. Even a careless glance at a rarely visited section can ruin your day. Like this morning, when in the process of delicately removing the sports section – still the safest spot in the paper, though horrors have lurked in its pages all too regularly of late – the business…

‘So,” a colleague recently asked, “who were your family?” A weird question, you might think. But it’s actually even weirder than it sounds. And in fact, in Germany, it could even be considered mildly menacing. Why did she ask that? the discomforted questionee worried. What does she want to know? The unease stems from World War II, which ended for Germany with surrender 78 years ago this month, and the country’s culture of “Vergangenheitsbewältigung”, which translates roughly to “dealing with the past”. That awkward question actually means something along the lines of, what did your grandfather do during the war? Was your granny a Nazi Party member? Were your relatives victims, bystanders or perpetrators? Germany is often praised for the way it has dealt with its horrific history. But, as one local historian, Oliver von…

It’s time we stopped making excuses for the appalling deaths on our roads. It’s not because of bad weather, bad roads, old cars, “bloody tourists” or the Covid vaccine turning drivers blind. If we drove well, the previous factors would be taken care of, but instead we choose to drive badly. (Not you and me, of course; our driving is exemplary. It’s the other couple of million who are the problem.) This attitude is demonstrated by a recent online exchange I saw where an individual announced that it was fine for drivers like him to tailgate others because of their “superior driving ability”. Maybe if Sir Lewis Hamilton had moved to Warkworth and changed his name to Brent, there would be some truth in this, but it seems unlikely. It appears most…

SATURDAY MAY 27 PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE Lego: the cash-in Whakaata Māori, 7.00pm It featured the voices of Anya Taylor-Joy and Daniel Radcliffe among others but this French animated attempt to do to the German toy franchise what Hollywood had done for Dutch Lego didn’t even make for a decent commercial for the toys it was based on. (2019) THE BOURNE IDENTITY The thrill ride begins TVNZ 2, 7.30pm Starting tonight’s double feature is Matt Damon’s great first outing as Jason Bourne, the amnesiac agent from Robert Ludlum’s novels. It set the bar for what was a terrific original trilogy and became something of a game-changer in the action movie business. (2002) PUNCH Above its weight class Rialto, 8.30pm Auckland director Welby Ings deftly combines sports drama and a teenage coming-out story in his debut feature. It’s a dreamy, curiously timeless melodrama in…

Keith Urban can’t wait to get back on to the set of American Idol after announcing his upcoming return as a guest mentor. It’s been seven years since he flirted up a storm with fellow judge Jennifer Lopez on the hit talent show – and insiders say his wife Nicole Kidman “is bracing for more of the same” when it comes to current judge Katy Perry. “Keith is a huge fan of Katy’s,” reveals an insider. “One of his favourite songs is Teenage Dream. “He’s never made a fuss over performing in front of other judges, but this time, with Katy there, he’s making a huge effort to put on a perfect show. He’s always admired her vocal range and has a terabyte of songs he’d love to record with her.” However, friends…

For the one in five Kiwis fighting high blood pressure, it’s a health battle with high stakes. Though the condition can go unnoticed, it’s the single biggest risk factor for cardiovascular disease – New Zealand’s No 1 killer, accounting for almost one in three deaths, according to the Heart Foundation. On a professional and a personal level, Dr Igor Felippe knows this battle well. A postdoctoral research fellow at Manaaki Mānawa, the Centre for Heart Research at the University of Auckland, he is advancing understanding of high blood pressure and new ways to treat it. In particular, he’s looking at the massive issue of how to treat hypertension through a tiny sensory organ called the carotid body. About the size of a grain of rice, the carotid body sits at the fork…

After starring in the 1980s television adaptation of Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, English-born actress Rachel Ward married her co-star Bryan Brown and moved to Australia, where they raised their three children. Over the years, Ward has moved away from acting in favour of directing, writing and activism. Most recently, she has turned her hand to agriculture, transforming her rural New South Wales property into a regenerative farm, a transition she documents in the feature-length film Rachel’s Farm, playing at the upcoming Doc Edge Festival. Your lineage goes back to Henry VIII. What was childhood like for a posh kid in the Cotswolds? I was sent to boarding school when I was 10, which meant I became independent really quickly. Being away from my family was no problem for me, and I…

FOSTER’S RECORD 66.7 % wins 16 wins 1 Draw 7 defeats Historic series loss to Ireland First loss to Argentina ‘THE HORSE HAD CANS THROWN AT HIM. HE’D DONE NOTHING WRONG. THE POOR HORSE DIDN’T KNOW WE’D LOST THE WORLD CUP.”’ John Hart was spat on. His horse had beer cans thrown at it. Wayne Smith once had a human turd left in his letter box with a note suggesting it reflected his coaching ability. And Ian Foster was abused getting off the team bus after the second test loss to Ireland in Dunedin. Blaming the coach is a national sport and Foster would be advised to stay away from social media as he is being eviscerated there after the historic series defeat to Ireland. It’s left his coaching tenure hanging by a thread - and rightly so - but his fellow…

‘Good things came along too... I learnt to appreciate the light with the dark’ Wrapped in a cosy jumper in the lounge of her new home, Hayley Holt is finally in her happy place. After a painful 18 months, which saw the TVNZ sports reporter and her partner Josh Tito deal with the sudden and tragic stillbirth of their son Frankie when Hayley was six months pregnant, the pair have shared a difficult path together. But a year down the track, life is better and brighter, and Hayley and Josh have something to celebrate – the purchase of their first home together. As she takes Woman’s Day on a tour, long-term renter Hayley laughs that it took her a full week to feel like she wasn’t squatting in someone else’s home. But…

Last month, as Britain went through its preparations for the lavish jamboree celebrating the coronation of King Charles, Huw Pill, the chief economist of the Bank of England, suggested that Britons “need to accept they’re worse off”. Instead of trying to get wage rises that will maintain high inflation, he explained, we should all just come to terms with the fact that we are poorer. In other words, shut up and enjoy the ceremony. No politician would ever have said such a thing, because in politics, the promise is always of better times ahead. But the truth is that hasn’t been the case for 15 years, since the banks went bust and Britain went into hock bailing them out. Brexit and then Covid only made a bad situation worse. Whatever the chief economist…

It’s a night Jeff Wilson can’t forget. He’d like to, but there are too many people happy to remind him. “I don’t need to see it,” Wilson says, waving his hand to add emphasis. He’s talking about a photo that shows him losing the ball forward in what would have been a match winning try had it not been for a remarkable tackle by Wallabies halfback George Gregan. There are two different clips on Youtube with the shorter version viewed almost 300,000 times and a longer edit nudging 200,000. “Nothing,” is Wilson’s succinct answer when asked what his memories are of the night. “That was the start of my poor memory,” he laughs. “It’s easier as a sportsman to have a poor memory because you remember the bad days a lot more than…

THE CHAOS OF UPHEAVAL CAN CREATE OPPORTUNITY. Take the dawning EV revolution, which has already seen a startup car company rocket past century-old competitors to become the most valuable automaker on earth. In the latest upset, a Korean brand best known for low prices, long warranties, and liberal financing has created a machine with performance that rivals the most revered Germans. In nomenclature, the difference between the Kia EV6 GT and the lesser EV6 GT-Line models is slight. That Kia denotes the top-performing version of its mid-size EV by reducing rather than adding to the nameplate is something of an undersell, but the GT’s hardware shows the intensity of this effort. The headline achievement is the powertrain. Other dual-motor, all-wheel-drive EV6 models serve up 320 total horsepower; the GT, presumably after downing a…

THE V8 C63 is dead. Long live the V8. Mercedes-AMG has all but confirmed the next iteration of its much-adored super-sedan will be powered by a four-cylinder turbo, but one packing a monstrous 480kW working in conjunction with a powerful new high-tech rear-axle electric motor. For the first time, the C63 will also be equipped with tarmac-tearing all-wheel drive, with 0-100km/h times expected to dip into the low three-second range. This, of course, represents an enormous philosophical shift away from the current brooding 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 375kW/700Nm rear-drive model. But it will also mean an enormous increase in outright performance potential: the new C63 will make the current one look slow, blasting the claimed 3.9sec time to 100km/h into the weeds, not to mention our own measured 12.4sec over 400m. And, of course, it…

The Tavistock Centre is a mental health trust located a couple of minutes’ walk from the Freud Museum, where Sigmund Freud lived and his daughter Anna practised. Set in the Hampstead foothills, it’s a leafy corner of North London renowned for its psychotherapeutic history and illustrious connections. Carl Jung gave lectures at the Tavistock in one of its early incarnations and over the years the clinic has established an international reputation for expertise in medical psychology. But in the past two decades, its image has increasingly become synonymous with one particular department within the centre, the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS). The service, which has treated thousands of young people suffering from gender dysphoria (discomfort with their born gender), has found itself at the centre of the dispute about the nature…

New Zealanders justifiably anxious about the country’s fight against Covid are right to be perplexed: what’s the point of the Government and the Ministry of Health having new powers to contain the virus if they’re not used? The recent revelations that border and isolation facility workers could dodge Covid tests without consequences or records being kept were a shock. So, too, was the lack of contrition or sense of urgency from officialdom. Kiwis assumed those most at risk of catching and transmitting Covid would be scrupulously tested in a verified process. Yet when Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield was asked why this wasn’t always enforced, he gave a staggering response: he “would have hoped” all workers were having their regular tests by now. Hope is not a strategy. This is…

Tabitha Lorck, 24, is a solicitor based in Auckland. By day, she deals with clients and contracts; in the evening, she enjoys dinners out with friends. So far, so normal. But Tabitha has a second life: she’s an Instagram food influencer (@fattab). When she dines out, which she does at least once a day, she photographs the meal carefully and writes a short review. Then she posts it for her 9,000 Instagram followers – who like, comment, repost and, as often as not, visit the restaurant themselves. Food influencers like Tabitha have popped up en masse in recent years. You’ve probably heard of Albert Cho, the foul-mouthed superstar behind @eatlitfood, whose 65,000 Instagram followers hang on his every word. Herne Bay’s Bacio café told me that when Albert favourably reviewed their jam…

Anyone who’s ever had a child, dog, or recalcitrant Roomba knows that without the ability to dole out consequences, domestic tranquillity is as elusive as a balanced diet in Willy Wonkaland. Imagine for a moment a home with kids, pets and other wilful creatures where there are no consequences, no matter how obnoxious the behaviour, then quickly dash the image from your mind, as it will haunt you, I promise. Sadly, that’s pretty much where US politics lives right now. The latest and most egregious example involves Kevin McCarthy, minority leader of the House of Representatives and one of Donald Trump’s most treasured sycophants. The New York Times recently reported that McCarthy, shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, told fellow Republicans he’d “had it with this guy”,…

CHRISTMAS EVE SATURDAY DECEMBER 24 CHRISTMAS AT CASTLE HOWARD; CHRISTMAS AT CHATSWORTH HOUSE; CHRISTMAS AT HOLKHAM HALL A festive heritage binge Screening: TVNZ 1, 7.00pm, 8.05pm and 9.05pm Streaming: TVNZ+ A three-episode serving from a Channel 4 series about Christmas preparations at Britain’s stately homes, whose owners will have welcomed the chance to pitch to the paying visitors who fund their continued existence. Fans of Bridgerton and Brideshead Revisited should tune in for the episode featuring Yorkshire’s Castle Howard, which starred in both shows. Chatsworth House is even more of a feature of popular culture, having been employed in Pride and Prejudice, Barry Lyndon, The Bounty, The Crown and many more. Holkham Hall, completed in 1764, is notable for its art collection – the financial recklessness of its original owner, Thomas Coke, the first Earl…

King Charles’ coronation had people the world over debating many unexpected things, from the palatability of broad beans to the inability of nobles to deploy mothballs. By the time people got around to asking, “And what the heck is Nick Cave doing there?”, the supposedly burning question, whither the monarchy, barely got a look-in. Avowed and lofty republicans swarmed from afar for the crowning glory, none exactly underdressed. Equally oddly, broad beans, which feature in the official coronation dish, were the perfect double metaphor for the occasion. They taste horribly bitter to many people and this can only be ameliorated by double-podding. This is an absolute faff, unless one has the staff to do this for one. Happily, when one’s new gig is kinging, one absolutely has. Republicans were disappointed no toffs appeared…

The most difficult thing about urban design improvements, former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins told me recently, “is that you have to make the case for them as an abstraction. And humans don’t do abstraction well, as a general rule.” Any proposal for change creates a vacuum: detailed design can’t be done until funding is secured. Until that stage, Hawkins said, “The conservative voices can just wave their arms around and say, ‘Nobody will be able to access the city centre ever again. Crime will skyrocket. It must be stopped!’ So, of course, people sign a petition saying, ‘Please don’t do what conservative politicians say you’re going to do.’” He was referring to the controversy over an upgrade of Dunedin’s main retail strip, George St, which undoubtedly played a role in Hawkins, who…

It was more than 30 years ago that, as a recruit at the Sydney Morning Herald, I was told a wild story by a knockabout, cocky bloke in a faded jean jacket and lefty T-shirt from inside the central Sydney headquarters of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Anthony Albanese was then a 26-year-old assistant secretary for the Left faction in the party’s avowedly right-wing headquarters; the future prime minister was a warrior for social justice while the Zegna suits of the dominant Right lunched power and influence with Sydney’s moneyed movers. Albanese thought them spivs. The loathing was mutual. Right-faction operatives rifled through his desk, and had instructed receptionists not to put calls through to him. A Right leader threatened that anyone who seconded a motion by Albanese would be expelled from…

When he was a little boy, Barry Humphries’ mother sternly told him not to draw attention to himself. Her floppy-haired, artistic son loved breaking the rules. But nobody could’ve guessed that a suburban misfit from Melbourne would go on to hog the global spotlight as superstar Dame Edna Everage and a host of other characters. The world mourned when Barry – acclaimed comic, actor, writer and artist – died at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital on 22 April, aged 89, following a seven-decade career. Friend and fan King Charles III even sent the Humphries family a personal letter to convey his sympathies and was said to have called Barry before he passed away. Ricky Gervais declared Barry a “comedy genius”, while chat-show legend Sir Michael Parkinson said outrageous Dame Edna was his most…

FOR the past few years, the Street Rod Nationals has been cancelled due to COVID or other problems. However, the Zone 9 clubs were determined to run the event as it coincided with the 50th anniversary; the first was held in Taupo in 1973. We may have missed a couple, but the 50-year anniversary was going to be celebrated and was done in grand style over Easter weekend in Christchurch. Over 100 cars were entered from the North Island, and many still had problems getting across the water, some not managing to arrive ‘til Friday afternoon. All up 155 cars were entered. Interesting note: Dave Coker and Danny Redhill (from Northland) found out that their boat sailings had been cancelled, so they stored their cars with friends halfway down the island,…

YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEING THE BEST YOU If you’ve never heard the term perimenopause, peri is Greek for “near” and menopause is, well, menopause – the end of our fertile years. But it’s not something to be afraid of. It’s not a disease or a disorder – it’s a natural life transition. However, getting there can be a confusing rollercoaster, which is why understanding it is key. Knowledge is power! WHAT IS PERIMENOPAUSE? Perimenopause is the lead-up to menopause. If you’re in your early forties, you’re probably in it or will be very soon. You might not even realise you’ve stumbled into it because it can creep up gradually. What’s more, most menopause symptoms actually happen during peri – and 20% of women don’t experience any symptoms, gliding right on through! But if you…

After months of “will he, won’t he?” speculation, Prince Harry finally jetted into London in what palace insiders are dubbing a “fleeting but meaningful” visit. And while Harry, 38, may have no other supporters among the rest of his family, who have been aghast at his shocking attacks on the monarchy, insiders reveal he brokered a fragile peace with his father King Charles III, 74. “Harry was determined to put on a flawless show as the dutiful son,” a palace source says. “He is genuinely proud and in awe of what his father is going through, and the incredible weight he now bears. Whatever’s going on with the rest of the family, Harry was not going to let it mar his father’s special day. “Their troubles are by no means resolved, but it…

Anyone who has ever visited a nursing home will have seen them, trapped in their recliners, mouths open and eyes blank, being fed liquids from sippy cups: elderly people who are entirely dependent on their carers. Some look close to death; arguably, their quality of life is so diminished they may as well be. It can be difficult to see these people. None of us want to envisage ourselves spending our final years that way. But we ought to be envisaging it, says Canadian-American doctor and longevity expert Peter Attia. He believes we should be spending more time with those who are in their final 10 years – what he terms “the marginal decade” – and thinking about what we want for that time in our own lives. We need to…

Model Lexus LS500 F Sport Engine 3445cc V6 (90°), dohc, 24v, twin-turbo Power 310kW @ 6000rpm Torque 600Nm @ 1600-4800rpm Transmission 10-speed automatic Weight 2230kg 0-100km/h 5.0sec (claimed) Economy 10.0L/100km Price $195,953 On sale Now THE LATEST Lexus LS limousine has quite a unique character depending on the choice of engines and two trim levels available. The most driver-focused example, the LS500 F Sport, is fitted with the 310kW, 600Nm 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 rather than the 264kW 3.5-litre V6 hybrid, as well as a raft of mechanical inclusions aimed at making it sharper to drive. For their substantial near-$200K outlay, LS owners benefit from a fairly absurd level of standard equipment, including soft-close doors, 28-way adjustable and heated seats, heated steering wheel and an electronically controlled rear sunshade and sunroof; while the infotainment has been upgraded to a 12.3-inch widescreen and…

The catchphrase of the famously melancholic movie The Sixth Sense was “I see dead people”, but the punchline was, “They don’t know they’re dead.” So it is that many ex-politicians roam the Earth believing themselves immortally potent on the basis that a few people – often out of mere politeness – still seem to recognise them. This has always been a feature of politics, as Nasagrade egos and impregnable hides are fabrics of the craft. But the continuing viability of former United States president Donald Trump, who has survived more brushes with extinction than Road Runner, risks putting new lead into the most broken of pencils. Far from being downhearted that a court has found him guilty of sexual assault, he now reckons he could personally stop the Ukraine invasion inside a…

Where I live, the police drive some heavy-duty machinery. There’s the odd Ford Taurus hanging in there, but mainly it’s Chevy Tahoes, Dodge Durangos, and Ford Explorers, with a healthy smattering of V-8 Dodge Chargers. One day, while I was day-dreaming about municipal budgets (as I am wont to do), I wondered: Would cops drive something smaller and more efficient if they got to share in the savings from a lower purchase price? And if so, what would that number need to be? If I were a cop, I’d think $1000 could persuade me to drive an Escape patrol car. But I am not a cop—I had to turn in my badge because I play by nobody’s rules but my own—so I asked some police to join me in this…

‘Kia ora,” I said. June the postie gave me a look. “Kia ora,” she said, and smiled. Then: “Kei te pēhea koe?” It was my turn to give a look. “Er, sorry, ‘kia ora’ is about as far as my Māori goes,” I mumbled. We gave each other more looks. What she could see was me going as red as a sunburnt bum. What I could see was her smiling at me as I went as red as a sunburnt bum. “‘Kei te pēhea koe?’ means ‘how are you?’” June continued, as if speaking to a slightly dim child, which, by this time, felt about right. “What should I say in return?” I ventured. “You should say ‘Kei te pai’, ‘I’m good’.” “Kei te …” “Kei te pai,” June repeated, then “Eat the pie!” She hooted…

Rumors picked up again recently that a new 15-inch MacBook Air will be Apple’s next major Mac release, possibly at the Worldwide Developers conference, according to Mark Gurman’s latest report. But whether we get it before, during, or after WWDC, this much is true: It will instantly become Apple’s perfect laptop. That may seem like a stretch, but hear me out. Assuming the rumors and our own assumptions are true, the 15-inch MacBook Air will be the ideal laptop for nearly every user, with its combination of size, processing power, and value. The MacBook Air is already Apple’s most popular laptop, and a 15-inch model would be the jewel of the lineup. Here’s why. THE RIGHT SIZE Apple offers MacBooks in four different sizes: 13.3 inches (13-inch MacBook Pro), 13.6 inches (M2 MacBook…

“Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.”—Arthur C. Clarke HUMANS HAVE WONDERED about life in the universe since antiquity. Early Greek philosophers argued that the cosmos contained “a plurality of worlds.” Today we know that exoplanetary systems are indeed ubiquitous, but the question now is: How common are planets that can support life? In 2000, paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle penned a controversial book, Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (Copernicus). In it, they propose that Earth is an unusual world where complex life-forms developed over an extended period. They further assert that though simple, unicellular life may be abundant in the universe, complex…

home profile MEET & GREET Mary (self-employed interior designer and artist) and Matt Tapsell (executive chef), and their daughters Rosemary, six, Olive, three, and Daisy, one. THE PROPERTY Three-bedroom attached rental unit in Bucklands Beach, Auckland. For Mary Tapsell, home should be a calm and comfortable place – a sometimes tricky proposition when you don’t own the property you live in. But the interior designer, artist and mother of three, has turned transforming a rental into an art form, creating soothing spaces for her family without interfering with the integrity of a house. Two years ago, when Mary saw the attached unit in a beachy East Auckland suburb, she knew this would work for her, husband Matt and their girls. At just 120sqm, it wasn’t big, but it had three bedrooms and features she instantly liked…

DEBUNKED PRINCESS DIANA IS… STILL ALIVE One of crazier theories out there is that Princess Diana didn’t die in a Paris car wreck in 1997, and is actually living as a French socialite under the name Ondine de Rothschild. A YouTube video, which has gathered hundreds of thousands of views and has been widely circulated on Twitter, suggests the late Princess of Wales faked her own death to escape the royal family and assume the identity of Ondine – in reality, the daughter of Elie De Rothschild of the banking dynasty and his mistress, Ariane Dandois. With her blonde coif, blue eyes and strong jawline, Ondine looks incredibly similar to Diana, who died aged 36. Conspiracy theorists also claim the two women have the same birthmark on their right cheek – which…

EMPIRE CITY: WELLINGTON BECOMES THE CAPITAL OF NEW ZEALAND, by John E Martin (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $70 hb) It’s often the small, least significant things that shift the tides of history. Consider the decision to make Wellington the seat of government and capital of New Zealand. In this account of the first decades of Wellington’s European settlement, John Martin suggests the final decision may have been a mixture of luck and astute marketing. In the early 1860s, parliamentary sittings continued to seesaw between Auckland and Wellington but the question remained a controversial issue. In 1863, southern members of parliament successfully engineered a capital move to the Cook Strait area with the final location placed in the hands of three independent Australian commissioners. In 1864, the Australians arrived in Auckland to…

The other day, my computer was giving me a problem or 10, so I took it to a techie in the Christchurch suburb of Halswell. His abode was in a relatively new housing development with the grandiose name of Country Palms. The thing is, post earthquakes, that area’s gone from being “country adjacent” to one of the First Four Ships Town’s largest suburbs. So, it’s not in the country and there aren’t palms. At least, there aren’t palms plural. There is one solitary palm, singular, which must have given someone quite a bit of grief nurturing it to maturity through the Canterbury winter. But calling the area Suburban Palm wouldn’t have appealed to any developer. No, they like a grand name to get cut-through and compete with all the other developers,…

WHEN COVID-19 began tearing around the globe, Francesca Dominici suspected air pollution was increasing the death toll. It was the logical conclusion of everything scientists knew about dirty air and everything they were learning about the novel coronavirus. People in polluted places are more likely to have chronic illnesses, and such patients are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. What’s more, air pollution can weaken the immune system and inflame the airways, leaving the body less able to fight off a respiratory virus. Many experts saw the possible connection, but Dominici, a biostatistics professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was especially well equipped to test it. She and her colleagues have spent years creating an extraordinary data platform, one that aligns information on the health of tens of…

Despite many people calling for a boycott of the event, I went to Doha to watch some of the Football World Cup. I realise this could leave me open to a charge of hypocrisy, because I decided to put my love of sport above the way I like my countries to behave. But as it happens, I had a great time, which begs the question of whether I was brain-washed by the Qataris’ charm offensive or I’ve become more understanding of another nation’s behaviour through temporary immersion in their culture. I’ll let you decide. Sportswashing is the idea that autocratic states set out to gain international acceptance by hosting large sports events. For example, Hitler’s Germany hosted the 1936 Olympics and Putin’s Russia held the 2018 Football World Cup. These events…