Archive
Debatable: Should you date international students?
Posted 4:28pm Saturday 19th July 2025 by Ella Grayson
For Who doesn’t love an accent? Winter is the best time of year to smell out the fresh batch of sexy internationals away for a semester to play in the snow of Central Otago, or enjoy the black mould of Dunners. For many of us the fantasy of finding the love of our lives at Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Spaghetti Bolognese
Posted 1:14pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Ruby Hudson
Welcome to Semester Two! I hope you had a great break and are braced for a wintery start to the second half of the year. We have an absolute classic this week: the humble spaghetti bolognese. I know what you’re thinking: “Pfft please! I know how to make spag bowl.” But when I tell Read more...
Moaningful Confessions: “Caught, Clawed, and Chlorinated”
Posted 1:12pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Critic
Have something juicy to tell us? Send your salacious stories to moaningful@critic.co.nz. Submissions remain anonymous. There’s something about Mediterranean air that turns you into the kind of girl who says yes to Jägermeister and public fingering. I was on a family holiday – Read more...
OUSA Exec: The Glorious and Half-Serious Revolution
Posted 1:09pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Liam White
The last couple of months have been rough. Not “there’s no seats in the link” rough. More like “I tried to rebuild the student movement with a whiteboard and a lack of sleep” rough. Please don’t misinterpret this, I love my job. There’s no greater Read more...
Local Produce: Powder Chutes
Posted 1:02pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Jonathan McCabe
From fans to friends. A local rock band from Wanaka ended 2024 on Spark Arena’s stage playing with Grammy-nominated act Highly Suspect. 2025 saw the band interrupt their usual rotation of gigs with a nationwide tour promoting their self-titled album, Powder Chutes. Shredding through chords and Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 14 2025
Posted 12:48pm Monday 14th July 2025 by Critic
Pisces This week you’ll find the thing you so desperately need to fill that hole in your heart. You’ve felt a little ‘out of sorts’ lately and crave stability; this will come from the most unexpected of places. Mistake to Avoid: Getting addicted to vaping… Read more...
Editorial: Census Was a Trip
Posted 11:37am Monday 14th July 2025 by Nina Brown
Welcome back to campus! While many of you had a well-deserved rest and shroom-induced epiphanies, I tripped in a labyrinth of census data, was sent down corridors of correlations and came out the other end both enlightened and far too familiar with your lives. The Critic census was birthed Read more...
Debatable: Is it socially acceptable to drink glasses of milk?
Posted 11:35am Monday 14th July 2025 by Hunter Jolly
For It was a bit of a shock to learn that drinking the occasional glass of milk was a controversial act. I’m an adamant milk slurper, so you’d better believe that after a hard day of mahi, I like to come home and guzzle down a pint or two of it. What’s not to love? It’s Read more...
Recession Indicators: Otago Edition
Posted 11:26am Monday 14th July 2025 by Molly Smith-Soppet
Aotearoa technically isn’t in a recession anymore, but this is what I have seen and things I expect to see in the near future as signs of economic backsliding. Full buses Home hair cuts and choppy bangs U-Bar pintflation (alongside the death) The rise of platonic Read more...
Booze Review: Speight’s Hazy Pale Ale
Posted 11:14am Monday 14th July 2025 by Joan of Rark
This article does not start with a sip, but with a journey. Of course, by journey I mean driving from my boozeless flat in the North East Valley to Rattray Street to pick up a rarer drop than most conjured up by those mad bastards under the Triple Star: Speight’s Hazy Pale Read more...
Booze Review: Kristov Orange Label
Posted 5:49pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Joan of Rark
We’ve gone DI-why the fuck would you do that this week: Kristov Red Label and Raro. Born from a post in the ‘Throwback 4s & Rotary of NZ’ facebook group, surrounded by mentions of monster-ports, premix, and Purple Goannas, this shit should have made like dreads and tribal Read more...
Debatable: Is the gaydar real?
Posted 5:45pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Stella Weston
For: We naturally put other people in boxes immediately upon meeting them based on preconceptions and perceived signals, real or imagined. We are brought up to understand that subtle indicators are reflective of deeper identities. The subliminal messages that we send with our choices in Read more...
Critical Tribune: OUSA Dyes Leith River Green In Celebration Of 135th Birthday
Posted 5:41pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Anna Marrs
Students may have noticed that the Leith is running more green than usual this week. The Otago University’s Student Association has poured gallons of green commercial dye into our very own Leith River in celebration of their 135th birthday, a move that some ecology experts are calling Read more...
OUSA Exec: The Referendum (Again)
Posted 5:31pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Liam White
We know what you’re thinking—“surely the Exec aren’t still going on about the referendum?” Yes. Yes, we are. Because now the message is louder and clearer: voting opens today! If you’re reading this on a study break, why not procrastinate just a little Read more...
Local Produce: ‘Bussy Galore’ by Dirty Talk
Posted 5:18pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Molly Smith-Soppet
If you've found yourself chain smoking outside Woof! or neck deep in an americano at Yours, you may have spotted a slim, lipstick-red booklet amongst the anarchist clutter. No, it's not Mao’s Little Red Book, but it has just as much revolutionary energy. It’s Bussy Galore: Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 13 2025
Posted 5:14pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Critic
Pisces Assignment grind has been getting you down, but now is the time to treat yourself to a big present. Who cares if it will put you into financial ruin in the very near future, put that purchase on Afterpay and never look back. Your Queer awakening: Glee Libra PLEASE GO TO THE TOILET AFTER Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Noodle Wrap
Posted 5:12pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Gordon Ramthisdownyourgullet
Strap yourselves in folks, cause we are about to get freaky. Have you ever been hungry/hungover as fuck only to discover you have close to no real food? Well then this recipe is for you financially struggling legends. This feed has been built solely on the random scraps you have in the cupboard or Read more...
Editorial: Representation Matters, Now More Than Ever
Posted 5:01pm Sunday 25th May 2025 by Nina Brown
Let me get this out of the way: I’m a very straight, stereotypical cis-woman. If you look at me, there’s little doubt in your mind that my favourite colour as a young girl was pink, that my first crush was Dan Carter, and that Azealia Banks Twitter lore draws a blank (had to consult the Read more...
OUSA Exec: The Referendum
Posted 10:47pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Amy Martin
Look, I get it. You’re all sick and tired of hearing about the referendum. Frankly, I’m sick of talking about it! But, here we are still referendum-ing. I promise we are coming to the end of it soon, but don’t get too excited. Odds are that we are going to be doing it all again in Read more...
Local Produce: Women in Business Otago
Posted 10:30pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Molly Smith-Soppet
If you think business clubs are just suited-up LinkedIn influencers moonlighting a degree double majoring in Finance and Accounting, you clearly haven't met Women in Business (WIB). This isn't your average stock-trading, hustle-culture club. WIB is a women-led club built on the belief that Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 12 2025
Posted 10:27pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Critic
Pisces Start a business! There's no time like the present to pile another thing onto your plate and at least you will be motivated by your bank account's potential for exponential growth. Get creative with it and be sure to invest in Instagram ads. Old media to revive: Print TV Read more...
Editorial: Behind the Scenes EXCLUSIVE of Tabloid
Posted 10:22pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Nina Brown
Like most campus-bound creatures in May, Critic Te Ārohi has been crawling towards the pointy end of the semester, and Tabloid Issue has been the light at the end of the tunnel. Only so much of the antics can make it onto the page, so strap yourself in for an EXCLUSIVE cut of the behind the Read more...
Debatable: Should politicians have social media?
Posted 10:18pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Gryffin Blockley
For From flat-out cringe to just plain confusing, seeing your democratically-elected Gen-X or Boomer politicians on your FYP can be jarring at first. But even if it’s a tough watch seeing some MP try and be ‘down with the kids’, at least they’re trying right? Political Read more...
Critical Tribune: LEAKED! OIA Reveals Otago is Legally Obligated to Hire Unelected Politicians
Posted 9:59pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Anderson Coomer
Emails released under the Official Information Act (OIA) have revealed that the University of Otago has entered into a legally binding agreement with the Labour Party to hire politicians that don’t get elected. The official document stated that the University was required to Read more...
Booze Reviews: Ormond Rich Rouge
Posted 9:57pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Griselda Pinot
Move over pinot gris, here come the rich aromas of the lady herself – Ruby Rouge. Aptly named, considering the colour of my cheeks after a glass. She presents with a deep crimson body, casting a siren call for an immediate sip. Is it cherry, strawberry or blackberry that offends the Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Bento Bowls
Posted 9:51pm Sunday 18th May 2025 by Ruby Hudson
Not to be that guy… but I am currently in Japan, sitting on a train eating a bento box. For this week's recipe I thought I’d bring you along with me, and share a homemade take on a bento bowl. This recipe is pretty quick and easy to make, and could be modified to use tofu, beef or Read more...
Activist Rodent Learns What Neoliberalism Means
Posted 4:45pm Tuesday 13th May 2025 by Anderson Coomer
Thousands of people in the Southern Region were left without internet access on Wednesday 16 April following an incident of a rodent chewing through a fibre cable after being radicalised into an anarcho-primitivist agenda through a mix of “hot Leninist goths” and “Into the Wild Read more...
Local Produce: Te Kahui
Posted 3:57pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Jonathan McCabe
Kahui is an Ōtepoti Hip-Hop and R&B band that has been reinventing the solo work of their frontman's Spotify tunes for a live audience. Opening up for Kiwi legend Mā at Pearl Diver on the 12th of April has been the band's most recent accolade. The group is made up of rapper Te Read more...
In The Cage: Can I enjoy movies anymore?
Posted 3:41pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Jordan Irvine
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is probably only notable for the fact that it is another period piece so the Cage has an Italian accent that is more Mario than Chris Pratt was. It is devastatingly long and watching it after Sinners – one of the best films to come out this year, by the way Read more...
Booze Review: Toblerone
Posted 3:13pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Gin Swigmore
Critic went homemade this week. After last week’s adventure tackling a box of Hard Rated Alcoholic Lemon and some questionable decisions to attend an uneventful but expensive night in the Octagon, Critic’s alcohol budget was blown on unnecessary Ubers, vodka sodas, and a guilty attempt Read more...
OUSA Exec: Flatting Quality Survey
Posted 3:09pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Callum Hadlow
We all know flatting in Dunedin can be a wild ride; from absolutely abusing free hours of power to keep the place warm, to seeing more fungi on your wall than at a bush doof. It has become a right of passage to wear three layers indoors and have that one window that doesn't close. But it Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 11 2025
Posted 2:57pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Critic
Pisces Invest in fruit during this week's grocery shop. Your memory and mind is stronger than ever and you will definitely not forget about the fruit and let it rot in the back of your fridge for three weeks. Now is also a good time to pick up a new hobby – maybe crosswords. Instrument Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Toblerone Cocktail
Posted 2:56pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Ruby Hudson
Tossing up between an alcoholic tipple and a decadent dessert to follow your flat dinner? Why not have both with the Toblerone. Inspired by the titular chocolate bar, the Toblerone tied together caffeinated, nutty, and velvety sweetness from a homemade honey syrup is (the star of the show). With a Read more...
Editorial: I Don’t Need to Defend My Music Taste
Posted 2:40pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Nina Brown
The debatable topic this week asks whether or not music taste can be a dealbreaker in a relationship. The topic was put forth as a light-hearted suggestion, tapping into the vein of Gen Z culture where relationship “icks” are as trivial as how he ties his shoes or whether he calls urine Read more...
Debatable: Is differing music taste a relationship deal breaker?
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 11th May 2025 by Ellie Bennett
Yes It’s all about compatibility, baby! POV: you love late ‘60s psychedelic rock, while your partner froths Ed Sheeran. No hate to Ed, but those two genres have nothing in common, and chances are neither do you and the person you’re in a relationship with. Sure, a Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Shakshuka
Posted 10:10pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Ruby Hudson
Shakshuka did the rounds a couple years ago on social media and I have been making it ever since. Tasty, cheap and fast to prepare, it is a great option to make on a weeknight when you’ve got other shit to do! If you aren’t cooking for a crowd, feel free to save a container of the tomato Read more...
In The Cage: “Let’s Ride”
Posted 9:55pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Jordan Irvine
In the late ‘90s, the vibrant colour of the ‘80s faded away, as films – particularly actions and dramas – favoured colour tones of greys, greens, and blues. This is shown in 1999’s 8MM, As the name of the website I watched it on suggested (effedupmovies.com) the Read more...
Booze Reviews: Hard Rated Booze Review
Posted 9:53pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Gin Swigmore
For the second week in a row, we’re reviewing Aussie booze. While Australia hasn’t given us much in terms of worthy exports – apart from Milo, Vegemite, and a bang average rugby team – there’s something that may just take the throne: Hard Rated Alcoholic Lemon. The Read more...
OUSA Exec: Why One Week Off?
Posted 9:40pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Stella Lynch
For reasons unknown (slow news week), Critic Te Ārohi has decided that semester lengths are such a hot topic that they deserve two weeks of coverage. Naturally, they handed me a full page and said, “500 words, please.” Because apparently I’m the only student who knows how any Read more...
Local Produce: EKM Virtual Studios
Posted 9:29pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Jonathan McCabe
You may recognise her work from what was supposed to be the centre-fold of last week's Critic (sorry about that one team) or have been blown away by the immaculate Instagram feed that she has cultivated. Emma Millburn is the genius behind EKM Virtual Studios. Her most recent artistic venture has Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 10 2025
Posted 9:26pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Critic
Pisces Pisces, time to go out and purchase some craft supplies. Everything is falling apart this week and your Duct Tape stockpile is dwindling. Study Fuel: Three red kiwifruit and a Zombie Chew Libra Your condoms have holes in them, and you have been having a whole lot of sex. Read more...
Editorial: Winston Peters is in the Naughty Corner
Posted 9:25pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Nina Brown
I put Winston Peters in the naughty corner last week for his behaviour. I wish I was talking about the real man, but I’m actually referring to the photo of him that we had on the wall in the office – you might have spotted it if you’ve visited the Critic exhibition that has a Read more...
Debatable: Is it okay to pee in the shower?
Posted 9:23pm Sunday 4th May 2025 by Nina Brown
Yay If you gotta go, you gotta go – and why not when you’re conveniently in a location with a drain and soap? Before my opponent suggests this: no, it is not a slippery slope into pissing in the sink. Frankly, I don’t see why it’s an issue. If I’m busting to pee Read more...
Booze Review: Victoria Bitter
Posted 10:39pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Sabrina Barpunter
Ah, Victoria Bitter, VB, Very Best, Vitamin B. This isn't just a beer, it's the unofficial IV drip of Aussie tradies and cricket players alike. Personally, I had never indulged in a VB before this experience so I had my fears. Would I grow a mullet? Would I have Vegemite toast for breakfast? Read more...
Mi Goreng Graduate: Scroggin Slice
Posted 10:35pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Ruby Hudson
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the classic scroggin mix. A fuel-packed, lightweight, outdoor Kiwi staple. I find myself in a love-hate relationship with scroggin. Half the time it’s the perfect pick-me-up mid tramp; the other half it’s a depressing mix of sad raisins and Read more...
In The Cage: All Caught Up
Posted 10:26pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Jordan Irvine
It is now 1997 and the latter half of the decade has a clear emphasis on action films. Most of the films Cage has starred in have been action-packed blockbusters. Perhaps the improvement of CGI and other visual effects had something to do with it. Toy Story, the first film made entirely on Read more...
OUSA Exec: Send Us Your Questions
Posted 9:56pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Liam White
Kia ora team, Every now and then, students get the rare chance to call the shots – and the OUSA Referendum is exactly that moment. It’s more than just a vote. It’s your chance to set the agenda, shake things up, or bring back something you miss (yes, even those iconic Read more...
Local Produce: Ammonita
Posted 9:39pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Jonathan McCabe
Alternative rock/metal band Ammonita is sick of surf rock and ready to make Pint Night their own. The band that recently played Hyde Street is known for opening up Pokémon packs on stage and their repertoire of head-banging tunes. The lineup of second-year students is lead singer and rhythm Read more...
Horoscopes: Issue 9 2025
Posted 9:36pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Critic
Pisces You had as relaxing of a break as someone with three assignments due the first week back can have. Try not to take your lack of break out on those around you, they don't deserve to feel your wrath just because you're averaging five hours of sleep a night. Susty activity rec: Bike to Read more...
Editorial: Daddy David Made it Look Easy
Posted 9:34pm Sunday 27th April 2025 by Nina Brown
I’ve spent a lot of time watching documentaries to get into the mindset of the National Geographic issue. It was just a good excuse to reconnect with Daddy David, really. But it made me think about the people behind the documentaries, and how sad it is that the University no longer offers a Read more...
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