Archive

Secret Community Unearthed!...Sorta

Posted 2:03pm Sunday 7th May 2023 by Hugh Askerud

Athletics aren’t necessarily synonymous with student life. Sport New Zealand attests to this, claiming weekly participation in sporting activity drops from 98% to 75% at the age of 18. Despite these staggering statistics, the question remains: how do breathas remain so skinny in spite of such Read more...

How to Lose a Guy in Five Dates

Posted 3:26pm Sunday 30th April 2023 by Nina Brown

As someone who’s been called a serial monogamist, I recently had the novel (dis)pleasure of re-entering the Dunedin dating scene. Now, “dating scene” is a somewhat generous term for what awaits singles on the damp streets of Dunners, which I was reminded of upon redownloading Read more...

Opinion: The System Isn’t Broken

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 23rd April 2023 by Annabelle Parata Vaughan

A clean, green, egalitarian nation. One that cares deeply for its people and wildlife, all of whom exist within a beautiful, isolated bubble of freedom, safety, and prosperity. At least, that’s what New Zealand likes to go around bragging about. But when you take a deeper, harder look at this Read more...

Burnt Out

Posted 2:38pm Sunday 23rd April 2023 by Anna Robertshawe

“Work hard, play hard” works, until it doesn’t. Most of us drink anywhere between 1-4 nights a week, work one or two jobs, and belong to one or two clubs or volunteer groups - all on top of uni. It’s a lifestyle, and we make it work. But students are burning the candle at Read more...

All the gear, no idea

Posted 11:41am Sunday 16th April 2023 by Max Phillips

Otago is the MDMA capital of New Zealand.  Wastewater testing has revealed that Otago consumes nearly twice as much MDMA (1.8x) per capita than anywhere else in the country. In Quarter 2 of 2022, the Southern District consumed 538 mg per day per 1,000 people, compared to a national average Read more...

How to Smuggle Meth into New Zealand: Just Add Vinegar

Posted 11:38am Sunday 16th April 2023 by Rauri Warren

Imagine if New Zealand banned a specific LEGO set from crossing the border. Let’s say it’s the Titanic model, set #10294. That set comes with precisely 9,090 pieces, and only a specific combination of those pieces results in set #10294. Now let’s say that you built set #10294 Read more...

Pick your Poison: Drug Trends in Dunedin

Posted 11:32am Sunday 16th April 2023 by Anna Robertshawe

The relationship between drugs and Dunedin party culture is probably stronger than your parent’s marriage. But much like fashion and music, taste in drugs has changed over the past few decades. Critic Te Ārohi decided to take a deep dive into Dunedin drug trends over time and ask why some Read more...

Moshers of the world, unite!

Posted 3:04pm Sunday 2nd April 2023 by Hugh Askerud

Trapped in every student’s soul is an immutable desire to mosh. Whether that be in a crowd of hundreds or alone in a crusty bedroom, mosh culture is fundamental to the plight of every student. As the age old saying goes: “Up there’s for thinking, down there’s for Read more...

Different Breeds of Landlord

Posted 3:02pm Sunday 2nd April 2023 by Zak Rudin

Nestled throughout the sprawling ecosystem of Dunedin lies perhaps the most pervasive pest of all: the landlord. They come in all different shapes and sizes, marking territory in their own unique and equally infuriating ways. With each species of landlord comes a different experience. Critic Te Read more...

Lavender Town: A Lesbian’s Guide to a Dunedin Day Out

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 26th March 2023 by Lotto Ramsay

Rock climbing What is it about this sport that attracts queer women? It’s true that climbing gyms are often swarming with shirtless, sweaty “boulder bros”, and outdoor walls can crawl with trad climbers sporting greying beards and bulging veins, but climbing is overall a diverse Read more...

Dammed If You Do: Safe Vulva Sex

Posted 3:17pm Sunday 26th March 2023 by Lotto Ramsay

Note: This guide aims to inform on safe sex practices with and between vulvas. Not all women have vulvas, and not everyone with a vulva is a woman. Resources around STI prevention tend to focus exclusively on sex involving penises, even though STIs can also pass vulva-to-vulva Read more...

Homie-Eroticism: All the gay shit breathas do

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 26th March 2023 by Lotto Ramsay

Dunedin is one of the few places on earth where you’ll hear the f-slur casually used by straight breathas who are mere hours away from drinking out of each other’s nutsacks. I posit that Breathadom creates a unique space for playful, casual male intimacy that remains socially Read more...

Ko Te Katoa o Te Ingoa i Kōrerotia

Posted 2:55pm Sunday 19th March 2023 by Nā Skyla from Ngāti Hine

Mātauranga taiao, environmental knowledge, has never been more relevant. Built over generations, it’s represented in the names of places all around us, and it offers insight into how these places might behave in a changing climate. That is, if you know what they Read more...

Birds of a Feather

Posted 2:34pm Sunday 19th March 2023 by Fox Meyer

Note: We’d like to thank the DCC staff who take care of Sid and his avian mates for letting us in and sharing Sid’s story. They’re keen to tell a bigger story about the ethics of aviaries, which are a relic of a more Victorian time. They can’t just get rid of the birds Read more...

My Life with the Bus Hub Barnacle

Posted 1:50pm Sunday 19th March 2023 by Hugh Askerud

A bus hub barnacle is usually about 1.5 metres tall, and can be identified by their disposable vapes and matching clothing. Pack behaviour is common in this species. While they are often regarded as dangerous, like so many other mid-sized mammals, their bark is worse than their Read more...

Nut Up or Shut Up: Why Halls Should Go Vegetarian

Posted 2:06pm Sunday 12th March 2023 by Fox Meyer

The way halls work right now, with opt-in veggies but obligate meats, is completely backwards.   I don’t care if you keep eating meat in your day-to-day life. It’s kinda cringe, but ultimately, the emissions from one private jet flight outweigh any of your dietary choices. So Read more...

Cutting Your Fringe: The Cost of Defunding the Dunedin Fringe Festival

Posted 1:17pm Sunday 12th March 2023 by Jamiema Lorimer

Dunedin Fringe Festival 2023 was thrown into doubt in September last year when Creative NZ (CNZ) declined their funding application. This year’s Fringe is set to go ahead, after a crowdfunding campaign and a great show of support from the community. Critic looks at what costs it took to send Read more...

It’s All Greek to Me!

Posted 1:10pm Sunday 12th March 2023 by Hugh Askerud

Before you get upset about the title, understand that a toga party in New Zealand in 2023 is about as Roman as it is Martian, so making a Greek pun is excusable.   With that out of the way: Toga party. What’s the deal? This annual event has become an intrinsic part of student Read more...

Avatar 2 Sucked, Actually

Posted 2:53pm Sunday 5th March 2023 by Skyla o Ngāti Hine

Avatar: The Way of Water recently ranked as the sixth-highest grossing film in all of cinematic history. Like thousands of other Kiwis around New Zealand, you may have found yourself in your local Hoyts this summer enjoying a box of popcorn and the long-awaited sequel. It’s also likely that Read more...

Game of Throwns

Posted 1:32pm Sunday 5th March 2023 by Hugh Askerud

There is something distinct in the Otago student spirit which inevitably leads to a bottle, egg, or other assorted item being thrown in the streets of studentville. Maybe it's the Leith’s unyielding supply of inedible trout which spawned the madness, or perhaps the bountiful amount of food Read more...