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FEATURE ARTICLE

GURDWARA WARS

Unpacking a shocking crime.

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TAKING MERINO TO THE WORLD: Global retailing in rural New Zealand

Raised in the wool industry, The Wool Company CEO Margot Riach’s knowledge of each product’s journey from farm to garment helps her and her team deliver products customers can rely on. By Theo Macdonald

Sipping Sustainability: Dilmah tea brews a green legacy

The social and environmental initiatives from Dilmah reveal that your cup of tea involves a lot more decision-making than just a splash of milk or a dash of sugar.

Great Expectations

New Zealand’s future workforce is going to increasingly be brown. But is our education system stuck in a past of low expectations for Maori students that threatens the country’s future prosperity? By Aaron Smale

Power hungry

Silicon Valley believes more computation is essential for progress. But it ignores the resource burden and doesn’t care if the benefits materialise.By Paris Marx

Objectively Speaking

John Campbell’s recent op-eds reignite longstanding arguments. By Jeremy Rose

A lonely death at Horseshoe Lake

Charlie Mitchell ponders the mystery of the death of a lone woman, who remained the last resident in Christchurch’s red zone district. By Charlie Mitchell

How much a dollar cost

North & South speaks with KiwiSaver providers and an ethical investment charity to understand how Israel’s war on Gaza could influence your KiwiSaver. By Theo Macondald

The price of milk

The slaughter of bobby calves — 1.9 million of them last year alone — is a sensitive topic for our dairy producers. By Karen Trebilcock

Lost Property

The battle over Sticky Forest. By George Driver

Mind Shift

Ketamine is changing the lives of depression sufferers for whom nothing else has worked, but it is only getting to a fraction of those it could help. New Zealand researchers are at the forefront of a push to make it more available. By James Borrowdale

Counting Change

Simplicity looks at how KiwiSaver policy changes past, present, and future have (and might) impact our collective future wealth. By Liv Lewis-Long

A state of denial

The coalition government is scrapping a commitment to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in child-welfare legislation, but the past will not be erased. By Aaron Smale

Illustration: Daron Parton.

The CEO of Age Concern says seniors on a fixed budget will stop eating, and forgo costs for basics like the internet or a cell phone. “They lose the joy of life.”

Where Will You Live When You’re Old?

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A Terrible Trap

As more countries move to restrict the use of puberty blocking hormones for children with gender dysphoria, use in New Zealand continues to increase. Charlotte Paul says our health authorities must act. By Charlotte Paul

High impact

Legal hearings in London are placing the spotlight on the risks of traumatic brain injury from playing rugby. Meanwhile, scientists in Aotearoa New Zealand are using new technology to seek answers about how much risk is too much. By Bridget Van Der Zijpp

No church in the wild

Has middle-class atheism run its course? Despite decades of declining population share, Christianity appears to be having a moment with millennials and zoomers. North & South speaks to some of these 20-somethings to discover what Christian faith offers young Kiwis in 2023. By Theo Macdonald

Pain Relief

Unlocking the Healing Power: Helius Therapeutics Revolutionise Medicinal Cannabis Access in New Zealand. By Helius Therapeutics and North & South

Robot Heart

World-renowned New Zealand scientist Peter Hunter is well on the way to transforming healthcare through digital modelling of the human body. Just don’t expect him to get over-excited about it. By Nikki Mandow

Siouxsie’s Saga

After a drawn-out hearing, no quick judgment is to be expected in the case taken by academic and science communicator Siouxsie Wiles against her employer, the University of Auckland. By Sasha Borissenko

Open Sesame

New Zealand’s out-of-date approach to financial technologies will receive a long-awaited shake-up in May 2024, when the big four banks — ANZ, BNZ, ASB and Westpac — implement open banking. By Theo Macdonald

Fight or flight: An old suburb and the sea

South Dunedin is home to the country’s largest low-lying community, with 2700 homes less than 50cm above the high-tide line. By George Driver

End of an era

Kim Hill is leaving Radio NZ and as far as Hera Lindsay Bird is concerned, there’s no further use for Saturday mornings. By Hera Lindsay Bird

Power Play

While one in five households report having trouble paying the power bill, and one in eight are cutting back on heating because of the cost, the big four electricity companies’ gross earnings for 2022/23 totalled $2.61 billion, or about $7.1 million a day. By Michael Fletcher

Letter from Israel

Under the reign of fear, handshakes are impossible. By Oded Na’aman

Costs, cuts and consequences

Liv Lewis-Long from Simplicity recommends some simple changes to help ease the burden of rising prices. By Liv Lewis-Long

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Legacy and loss

When it all fell apart, a wine industry visionary was left feeling bitter and betrayed. By Joanne Drayton

Burps & Bluster

Are farmers doing enough on methane? By George Driver

Possums of the Deep

A collaborative research project between iwi, environmental scientists and business interests seeks to restore kelp forests while serving the needs of international fine dining. By Theo Macdonald

One small cut

A family enters the twilight world of intensive care. By Lily Richards

The heart of the matter

A doctor’s take on healthcare reform. By David Galler

Fozzie vibes

On the eve of the Rugby World Cup, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster talks to North & South about having to play catch-up after Covid, being ambushed in 2019 and the tough draw to be negotiated in France.

A burning question

New Zealand could one day be burning hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish each year to generate electricity. By George Driver

The end of all enquiries

A year on from the podcast GUILT going to air, people are slowly coming forward, connecting the dots with small pieces of information, but will the puzzle ever be solved? By Ryan Wolf

The art collector, the singer & the silence

After four years of enforced silence, Dudley Benson talks about what really went on that night at James Wallace’s mansion. By Dudley Benson

Guilt, Part 2: The robberies and the outcast

The investigation continues. Were the armed robberies that followed Jordan Voudouris’s murder pure coincidence? And what can investigative podcaster Ryan Wolf find out about the various characters locals believe might know more than they’re letting on? By Ryan Wolf

Back on track: The new Golden Age of rail

Long-distance rail travel is in for a revival in New Zealand — eventually. And you don’t have to be a nostalgia buff, trainspotter or climate-action protester to see why. By Theo Macdonald

Solar eclipse: Our renewable power struggle

Millions of panels could soon be erected across thousands of hectares of the country as an unprecedented solar-farm boom begins. It’s part of efforts to more than double the country’s power generation by 2050. By George Driver

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Murder in Paeroa

Speculation still swirls about the unsolved 2012 murder of pizza-shop owner Jordan Voudouris, a mystery that prompted Ryan Wolf to launch his own investigation, reported in his podcast, GUILT. By Ryan Wolf.

The Flames of Our Shame

The fatal fire at Wellington’s Loafers Lodge has reinforced calls for greater scrutiny of boarding houses, places occupied by those with nowhere else to go. By Max Rashbrooke

Bone Hunters: The ancient lake revealing New Zealand’s mysterious past

Beneath famously dry Central Otago are the remains of an enormous, ancient subtropical lake that was once home to crocodilians, turtles, giant parrots, bipedal vampire bats and palm trees. By George Driver

10 days in ICU

Serious childhood injury or illness is every parent’s nightmare. For a child, such an event can become a marker amid the mysterious early years we struggle later to remember. By James Borrowdale

Exploring the edge

For 60 years, the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California has attracted spiritual seekers, social changemakers and psychedelic explorers. But the birthplace of the human potential movement also created cult leaders like Bert Potter. By Anke Richter

Homeward Bound

Moriori await the final return to the Chatham Islands of human remains recovered from institutions around the world. By Veronika Meduna

Black Stilt

Forty years ago the world’s rarest wading bird, the kaki/ black stilt, teetered on the brink of extinction with just 23 birds left. By George Driver

Follow Her Home

Tracing the tale of a little house – from Taupō landmark to Raglan family home – raises as many questions as it gives answers.

Royal NZ Ballet

As the Royal New Zealand Ballet celebrates its 70th anniversary, past and current company members share some of their stand out memories, onstage and off. By Gabi Lardies

Lyttlelton Music

Lyttelton has an outsized influence on the Aotearoa music scene, nurturing and producing some of our top contemporary musicians. By George Driver

When Only Rain Stops Play

With the proliferation of lucrative professional cricket leagues across the globe, there is more of the sport than ever before. By James Borrowdale

A Country Practice

A Country Practice As the number of general practitioners dwindles thanks to low numbers of new graduates and an ageing workforce, New Zealand faces a major medical crisis — a crisis which has already arrived in high-needs rural areas like the Hokianga, where a lack of doctors has seen vital…

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Out of the Box

The “happiest club in Hawke’s Bay” helps people get used to the idea of death—and exit the mortal world in style. By Tobias Buck with photography by Richard Brimer

The Tourism Future is Here

As international visitors return, has tourism really been reimagined? By George Driver

The Wood Age

THE WOOD AGE When her son is diagnosed with a hereditary tic disorder, Amy Williams looks for explanation and comfort in the “firewood bug” – the gathering, cutting and stacking of wood – that links the men in her family. By Amy Williams Mezzotint illustrations by Fleur Williams Photo…

Defence Force Funding

With pay rates lagging and subsidised housing under pressure is it any wonder our Defence Force is scrambling for boots on the ground? By Pete Mckenzie

Cannabis

What’s gone wrong with what was meant to be a booming sector? By George Driver

China in the Pacific

The escalation of both Chinese investment and a potential military presence in the South Pacific has China watchers concerned. By Ollie Neas

The Kirk Legacy

Norman Kirk was New Zealand’s 29th prime minister. A big man, his impact on Aotearoa remains significant after only two brief years in office. By Ollie Neas

Weight of Expectation

How we do know how much exactly a kilo weighs? In a Wellington lab, metrologists are applying Kiwi practicality to weighty matters. By Mirjam Guesgen

Before Their Time

The Liggins Institute’s ground breaking research was a turning point in the care of premature babies. Today, those first babies are in their 50s and helping the science that helped them. By Donna Chisholm

Chasing the Grey Ghost

The $10,000 hunt for the lost South Island kōkako. By George Driver

Following The Threads

The loss of a collaboration between artist Colin McCahon and weaver Ilse von Randow has sparked both a deep search and a conversation about how we value art. By Hayden Donnell

Island Life

Over 35 years, a barren former sheep farm overrun with rodents has been turned into a lush landscape alive with native wildlife. By Colin Miskelly

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How’s the Air Up There?

For more than 40 years, scientists in a tiny Central Otago pitstop have been studying the ozone layer and the carcinogenic UV rays from the sun. By George Driver

The Virus Hunter

By choosing a career in science over dance, evolutionary biologist Jemma Geoghegan may have saved your life. By Paul Gorman

Blue Smoke: The Past, Present and Future of Our Cars

Our vast fleet of aging cars is a growing problem. But as our Nissan Sentra-owning journalist finds, it’s not easy getting rid of old bangers. By George Driver

Voice Control

Discussions about what is and who should have free speech rarely reach consensus. By Yvonne van Dongen

From Both Sides Now

Career public servant Kara Isaac experienced New Zealand’s managed isolation both as a “guest” and on the leadership team of the organisation running the frontline defence against the spread of Covid-19. By Yvonne van Dongen

A Call for Care

Residential care facilities for the treatment of mental health or addiction have fallen out of favour. By Sally Blundell

The Writing’s on the Wall

Being an adult who can’t read is enormously challenging — though as people who’ve been functionally illiterate their entire lives can attest, there’s always time to learn. By Sharon Stephenson

The Goldfields Gravediggers

Otago’s earliest cemeteries are filled with unmarked graves. Now some of the skeletons are telling their tales. By George Driver

The Misery-Go-Round

New Zealand’s child protection agency, Oranga Tamariki, is constantly in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. But is it the institution that is flawed or the society that expects it to fix bigger problems? By Aaron Smale

The Man in the Shadows

The prime minister’s chief of staff is the most powerful non-elected political figure in the country. Current chief of staff Raj Nahna eschews the spotlight but, despite his best efforts, it somehow finds him. By Pete McKenzie

A Quiet Revolution

Once were champions: for well over a century, Eltham’s rugby club packed out grounds and clubrooms and brought home silverware. Now soccer posts dot the town’s playing fields. By Tim Higham

Where Will You Live When You’re Old?

You are 30, 50, or 60 years old. Life is going to plan.Or is it? By Ollie Neas

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The Fate Of Our National Estate

A new report calls for partnership with tangata whenua to be at the heart of our national parks. By George Driver

The Bigger Picture

Despite decades of alarm about rising rates of obesity, as a nation we’re getting fatter — clear evidence our approach so far simply isn’t working. By Mirjam Guesgen

Spread Thin

The “Sandwich Generation” used to apply to a temporary mid-life squeeze of caring for both younger children and ageing parents. Now, those years are broadening and for many New Zealand families, retirement plans are being impacted by the needs of older kids and geriatric parents. By Sarah Catherall

Aotearoa, Land Of The Digital Cloud

Overseas tech companies are spending billions of dollars building warehouses to store New Zealand’s — and the world’s — information here. Why? By George Driver

Traumatic Births: “A Club No One Wants to Join”

Lizzie Marvelly recounts the birth experience in a major New Zealand hospital which left her physically and emotionally battered. Additional reporting on the state of maternity care by Ollie Neas. By Lizzie Marvelly and Ollie Neas

Happiness by the numbers

In May Grant Robertson will deliver his fourth "Wellbeing Budget". But what is wellbeing, where does it come from — and how does New Zealand measure up? By Tobias Buck

You Have Now Entered Carbon Country

New Zealand’s climate policy is creating a dense forest of winners and losers. By George Driver

The Unhappy Valley

It’s bloody paradise, it’s a nightmare, it’s a bargain — the residents don’t agree on much, except that Waipori Falls is unlike anywhere else in New Zealand. By George Driver

The Forever Files

From the age of 18 to his retirement at 65, Wellington GP Dorian Saker was a watched man. Driven by Cold War insecurities, our security services spied on Saker and his friends, a group of young professionals whose ‘crimes’ were to be thinkers, socially conscious and . . . not…

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