Smile, You’re on Camera

Posted 11:51am Sunday 8th October 2017

Imagine this: it’s early on a Sunday morning, and the sun is streaming in the window. It’s obnoxiously bright, and rouses you from your slumber; entangled up in a bed that isn’t yours. Who is that person snoring beside you? Where on earth are you? And why does your head hurt so Read more...

Opinion: The Deliberate Flouting of the Crimes Act at Auckland’s Drury Christian School

Posted 10:56am Sunday 30th July 2017

Last year, I wrote an article on the horrors of Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), a fundamentalist American homeschooling programme being taught in homes and schools across New Zealand. I discussed how ACE upholds the belief that the Bible is literally true, that there should be no distinction Read more...

The Village at the End of the World

Posted 12:11pm Saturday 1st October 2016

In ancient Celtic carvings, on dappled rocks where moss has not yet crept, one may read of the primordial myth of Creation; a tale of Oran Mór, or The Great Melody. This haunting, mighty melody – the very breath of a long-forgotten god – sang Creation into existence, hewing Read more...

Breaks & Skates - the revolution of Roller Derby

Posted 11:28am Sunday 29th May 2016

There I stood, gingerly extending my right foot as the wheels rolled across the ground. Clad head to toe in battered protective gear, I resembled a second-rate Stormtrooper, and like the infamous head-bumping guy from Episode IV, I was just as clumsy. I had always envisaged Roller Derby as a sexy, Read more...

Escaping the Cult of Accelerated Christian Education

Posted 11:22am Sunday 1st May 2016

Picture this: gray walls rising up on three sides of you as you sit, hunched over your schoolwork - a science worksheet repudiating the theory of evolution, using the Loch Ness Monster as an example for why Darwin was horrifically, inexcusably wrong.  As you fill in the blanks, copying Read more...

Spilled Soup, Secrets & Schadenfreude

Posted 11:18am Sunday 10th April 2016

Jean Balchin on that gleeful feeling of happiness when something horrible happens to someone else. Imagine, if you will, a cold, blustery day in the city. With the wind howling and the rain coming down in horizontal sheets, the interior of the bus seems positively luxurious. From your Read more...

No Pain, No Gain

Posted 1:36pm Sunday 13th March 2016

It wasn’t until I felt the sharp sting of lemon juice trickling down into my eye made me realise I had made a terrible mistake. Inelegantly slumped over the bathroom sink, I squinted through my tears at the woebegone girl in the mirror and vowed never to bleach my freckles again. Although only Read more...