Innholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2020 i Metro NZ

01-What’s riskier, Covid-19, or sneezing in public while Asian? 02-Remember how we were all going to “Give nothing to racism”? 03-“Cruise ships a nightmare of discomfort, claustrophobia and potential infection” - so, no change there, then? 04-Some of us have been self-isolating for years, haven’t we? 05-Was pneumonia a natural consequence of Elton leaving his candle out in the wind? 06-Helping with the drought by nobly forgoing shaving your legs for the rest of the summer? 07-Anyone suggested to Duncan Garner he could do his bit by decreasing the amount of hot air he’s emitting? 08-How long until someone uses one of Air New Zealand’s “Economy Skynests” to join the mile high club?? 09-Will the government ask to use them for emergency housing? 10-Started calling your rumpty old sleepout a…

CENTRAL CITY 1947 EATERY 60 Federal St BROTHERS BEER City Works Depot, 90 Wellesley St West CARETAKER 38 Roukai Lane, Britomart COLEY & PUNCH Shed 22, 147 Quay Street, waterfront FUKUKO 43 Tyler St, Britomart HI-SO Cnr Customs St & Gore St HOUSE BAR - HOTEL DEBRETT 2 High St HUAMI BAR 87 Federal St JOHN & MAYS Level 1/12 Vulcan Ln LA FUENTE Snickel Ln, 23 Customs St East LE CHEF 13 O’Connell St LITTLE CULPRIT 151 Wydnham St MASU 90 Federal St MEZZE BAR 9 Durham St East MO’S 5 Federal St NEO Level 1/34-40 Queen St TALULAH 52 Tyler St, Britomart SWASHBUCKLERS 238 Westhaven Drive, Westhaven VULTURES’ LANE 10 Vulcan Lane XUXU DUMPLING BAR Cnr Commerce & Galway Sts DEVONPORT TINY TRIUMPHS 5 Clarence St EDEN TERRACE…

68 INCREDIBLE VIEW, DELICIOUS COCKTAILS, DISAPPOINTING FOOD. They say the better the view, the worse the food. And The Sugar Club, the fine dining restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower, has one hell of a view. On my first visit, I spent half of my two-and-a-bit hours there with knee-shaking vertigo. I kept my eyes settled off into the distance, as if in a plane, avoiding eye-contact with the streets below. A year later, I was drawn back by the a plant-based, low-carbon set menu, a display of confidence worth rewarding with a visit, an open mind, and a steady knee. At lunch, the shiitake mushroom was soft and squishy, tasting like an enjoyable-but pedestrian pie filling shaped like a tartare. This was followed, oddly, by another tartare,…

Ten years ago – hell, even five years ago – Auckland was a bit embarrassing on the beer front. In Wellington, you could barely move for hoppy IPAs, rich stouts and tongue-tingling sours, but in Auckland, the odd craft-beer bar aside, a Peroni on tap was about as good as it got. These days you can fill up a growler at Liquorland, get a ParrotDog Bitterbitch at Prego and buy a six-pack of Liberty’s Yakima Monster at Countdown. Auckland even has its own “beer mile”, running from the top of Symonds St down New North Rd to Morningside, with eight or so breweries or beer-dedicated bars to stop in at. It’s not just Auckland. We are living, my friends, in a golden age of beer. There’s never been a better…

7AM-Join Kokomo’s local network of small-scale fisherman out on the glistening morning ocean to reel in the day’s feast. 10AM-Dive into a late morning of snorkeling at Six Senses Fiji, checking and transplanting nursery coral, and recording the size and location of marine life. 1PM-Fuel up on simple pleasures such as fresh homemade samosas and iconic goat pie created by official culinary ambassador for Fiji, chef Winston Fong at the Malamala Beach Club. 5PM-Retreat back to Likuliku Lagoon Resort for a cocktail or two. 7PM-Watch your freshly line-caught dogtooth tuna transform into mouth-watering sashimi, garnished with micro herbs and citrus from Kokomo’s on-island farm. 9PM-As night falls, sneak a peak at the endangered Malolo Crested Iguana resting in the forest.…

There’s nothing like reading about other people’s problems. It puts things, if not in perspective, at least in a wider context of futility. Perhaps it’s a lazy categorisation to say everything I’ve been reading lately has heavy ‘mental health awareness week’ overtones to it — after all, you could say that about 75% of literature and nobody’s going after Anna Karenina with the DSM-5. But the beginning of 2020 has brought an influx of amazing books that explore mental health issues with great insight and humour. February brings two brilliant debut titles from Victoria University Press — 2000ft Above Worry Level by Eamonn Marra and Head Girl by Freya Daly Sadgrove. Sadgrove’s poetry is staggeringly good — not only is she one of the funniest people alive, but she has…

If you haven’t noticed, Metro loves lists. And we’re known for them — Top 50 Restaurants, Auckland’s Best Schools, Cheap Eats, Top 50 Cafes. But to begin the year, we wanted to celebrate Auckland in a way Metro hasn’t for a few years: by making a list of the people shaping Auckland and making it the city we love, ranking them among their peers, and crowning an Aucklander of the Year. Choosing 100 people from 1.7 million or so (50, we quickly realised, wasn’t going to be enough) and, from them, championing a single person as somehow representing something special about this city was a difficult, some might say impossible, task. But choosing is what we do. Whether it’s the best story to run, or the best restaurant in the…

This elaborate artificial flower arrangement is thought to have been made by sisters Mary Jane and Charlotte Milne, who started a drapery shop in central Auckland in 1867. Milne & Choyce went on to become one of the largest and most successful department stores in 20th century Auckland. Making ornaments by hand was popular among young women in the mid-1800s, using materials like feathers, shells, wool, beads and wax. The flowers and foliage in this arrangement were made by wrapping colourful woollen yarn around wire shapes. AUCKLAND MUSEUM COLLECTION: COL.0737…

Bo is a six-month-old cavoodle puppy with an adorable caramel-coloured shagpile coat and big brown eyes. He’s a tiny ball of energy and irresistible Instagram bait. He belongs to 14-year-old Cruz Erdmann, an award-winning photographer who has never taken Bo’s picture. In fact, Erdmann, who was last year named the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the contest run by the Natural History Museum in London, claims never to have taken a photo that wasn’t under water — not even a cheeky selfie. Erdmann had no intention of taking photos at all until a couple of years ago when his dad, a marine conservationist and biologist, suggested he have a play around with an old waterproof Canon. He expected the results would be bad and the experience frustrating, but…

Nothing drives left-wing nerds wild like a graph that isn’t to scale. Twitter lights up when a television news poll makes it seem as if the Labour-led Government’s lead over the opposition is smaller than it really is. The same thing happened when a National Party bar graph made it appear as if rent rises under Labour were larger than they really were. The misrepresentations were minor, sure, and in the race to the fake-news bottom, Boris Johnson in the UK and Scott Morrison in Australia still hold a commanding lead. But for how long? Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters spent February picking fights with the media, condemning the stories about the New Zealand First Foundation as “fake news” and defending a “dirty politics” hit, initiated by the party he…

We’ve chosen 100 Aucklanders leading the way in 220- a tall order in a city of nearly 1.7 million people. You may not like or agree with all our picks -it would be stange if you did -but whether they’re making waves or ruling them, designing clothes or tailoring opinons, killing it on the world stage or battling for justice right here at home, we think you’ll agree each is a force to e reckoned with. KEY THE BELTWAY THE OPINION-SHAPERS THE HIGHBROWS THE TASTE-MAKERS THE DO-GOODERS THE ENTERTAINERS THE FASHIONISTAS THE JOCKS THE MONEY MAKERS & INNOVATORS THE CITY SHAPERS & PROPERTY BARONS The Jocks! 01. ISRAEL ADESANYA He’s an embodiment of many of the things we want Auckland to be in 2020 and beyond. He’s smart, he’s sharp,…

At my grandfather’s funeral, we feasted on 10 whole pigs, roasted on the spit before being expertly chopped up by men whipping knives through the air so fast, you felt sure the tip of a finger must end up on your plate. The generous servings of glistening pork are a must at family gatherings, an affirmation that we’re all together and flourishing and healthy enough to gorge ourselves on a hunk of salty, fatty meat. There’s a lot I love about Filipino crispy pata: the fact that it uses an underappreciated cut, the hock; the crispy skin; the way it’s always shared. I first ate it in winter at Kalye Manila in Panmure. I gnawed on the bone in a porky haze, slowly coming to the realisation of just how…

66 FORGETTABLE FRENCH FOOD, WEIRD VIBES. GREAT WINE, THOUGH. Le Bistro des Gourmets is the best restaurant in Auckland. At least, that’s according to TripAdvisor, where, at the time of writing, it’s at #1 after a comparatively small amount of reviews (87; The Grove, number 4, has 1,666). Overseas, I often plug into TripAdvisor to help make impossible dining decisions, and so I was intrigued. How did a Parnell restaurant I had scarcely heard of climb all the way to the top, and is the TripAdvisor ranking an accurate reflection of the Auckland food scene as we actual Aucklanders experience it? The restaurant is weird. You walk up narrow stairs to a vacant entry room that has a Getty image of a vineyard on a false door. “Where do I…

It’s a hard road finding the perfect leather jacket, especially secondhand. I could go and get one from Stolen Girlfriends Club that would be amazing and really well fitted but I still do like the thrill of trying to find something from an op shop. I’m always on the lookout for the perfect leather jacket and I thought this one (main photo) was a bit of a find. It’s a little weird and everyone was saying to me “it’s too small and too boxy”, but I like it. My boyfriend Sid has a lot of leather jackets because of his motorcycle obsession and I borrow some of his, which just makes me look like the Michelin Man. I got my one from The Cross Street Market. Buying vintage has always…

Late last year, Auckland musician Benee (real name Stella Bennett) went viral. A simply choreographed dance to her song “Glitter” became a meme on TikTok, a video-sharing app that lets its 500 million monthly users shoot and post videos with their phones, adding visual and audio effects, including music from artists big and small. The content on the app is diverse — short comedy skits, instructional cooking videos, cats, political rants — but the videos that have come to define the app are easily replicated dances to 15-second snippets of pop songs. TikTok allows users access to a massive library of officially licensed songs for their videos (Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music all currently license their catalogues) or users can upload their own audio to the app’s sound…

Towards the end, exhaustion seemed to almost win: the bodies dragged themselves up from the floor as if gravity had tripled in strength. But, in an instant, a new opponent appeared, and the fighters collapsed into tackles, the weight of their shoulders falling into their fresh antagonists’ hips, forcing them to the floor. For 25 minutes — the length of the five-round Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bouts middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and lightweight contender Dan Hooker would soon fight — coach Eugene Bareman marshalled the forces of his gym against his top fighters. Against the black padded wall — darker where his hot sweat was daubed across it — Adesanya wrestled, the grace of his long, liquid limbs searing into the mind like a catchy song. Hooker, slim-hipped, his angular…

Despite news reports (and trend reports) suggesting a cultural shift towards drinking less, the truth is more complicated. Binge drinking might be downward trending (which is great) but casual drinking — a glass of wine to unwind after work, for example — is on the rise. Our weekly spend on alcohol has remained more or less unchanged in the last five years. We’re innovating; changing the way we drink to be more aligned with contemporary viewpoints and values, which lean more into creating connections rather than partying — think “hard” kombucha, “hard” teas and “hard” cold-brew coffee. Think pretty, Instagram-ready RTD cans, “new-wave” aperitifs, “post-category” spirits (using unconventional techniques), worldlier taste profiles (more spice!), sustainable bottles: “feel-good” alcohol, in more ways than one. About 80% of New Zealanders over 18…

Prolific coffee consumption is part of Italy’s DNA. From that first morning cappuccino in a stand up bar, through to the last espresso of the evening with friends around the dinner table, it’s an essential part of Italian life; every bit as important as going to church, eating excellent food, drinking good wine and spending time laughing – and fighting – with your family. And like everything that passes anyone’s lips in Italy, geography plays a huge role. Every region has a different flavour, style and intensity of coffee; a different length and temperature for roasting beans and different notes that make it unique to that particular area. Don’t expect a blend from Rome to taste the same as a blend from Milan, nor a person from either of those…

Located in one of Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands, Likuliku Lagoon Resort has perfected the art of simplicity and escapism by marrying traditional culture with modern ease. The wilderness island retreat at the foot of vibrant green slopes is Fiji’s exclusive resort for authentic over-water bures, surrounded by pristine Pacific Ocean, a protected marine sanctuary, and scores of subtly luxurious appointments. Guests partial to local seafood, tropical fruits and diverse cuisine inspired by the cultures in the region will find executive chef Ryan Ward’s simplistic approach to Fijian fare refreshing (think chargrilled reef octopus married with green papaya, snake bean, chili, mint, and coriander; or local mud crab with a macadamia ajo blanco, cucumber and watercress). Any visit to Likuliku is incomplete without a moment to appreciate the rediscovery of the once…