Issue No43 — HNY2026

Kia tau te rangimārie,

He uri ahau nō Te Aitanga ā Materoa ki Ngāti Porou. Ko Hiruharama te marae. 
Ko Pekama Waiti raua ko Apikara Mangaone ōku tīpuna.
Ko Isabel Waiti-Mulholland raua Ko John Mulholland ōku mātua tīpuna.
Ko Will Waiti-Mulholland raua ko Athena Hale ōku mātua.
Ko Nayesha Waiti-Mulholland ahau.

Tīhei mauri ora.

I was born in Ōtautahi, raised in Tāmaki, and currently live and mahitahi with Karanga-a-Hape Road.

We’re moving through the tides. Marama is reflecting herself inside our tinana as we listen to those waters of wairua. Nau mai ki a Matariki! 

My grandmother is tōku Poutokomanawa. She and my mother are the ones I owe my life to. Grandma continued following the thread of our whakapapa to Hiruharama. Our marae. She is the one that has loved us all so fiercely and loudly. The kind of love I wish for the world. This year, Te Karanga-a-Hape, Matariki 2026 is an offering to ngā whetū, and she is my Hiwa-i-te-Rangi. 

I’m saying this to you now because I think that each of us has, or has had, someone or something like this in our lives. Even in a really, really small way. Someone you know who has your back. Or something you are so devoted to. Something that makes your chest pinch when you think about it. I don’t know much, but I know holding onto this particular kind of love gets us through the years, eh. Let’s love the stars of Matariki in this way. So achingly, so fiercely, almost clumsily sometimes, that it creates motion for us to move on behalf of that love, and really practice it, without the fear of getting things wrong.

Matariki. 

Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea.

Tāwhirimātea threw his eyes to his dad, Ranginui, after his brother, Tāne Mahuta, separated their parents. That excruciating love he has for his mātua. It’s almost like he’d rather be blind than deal with the pain of that grief, of that love. 

Kei te hīnawanawa au.

This is why feeding the stars is what I know Matariki to be about. A chance to offer back to those eyes that went through that. Offer back, with that type of love. And in return, we receive our community, our relational creativity, a collective resistance, dancing with our eyes shut, sharing homecooked kai, being a part of this experience together. It’s what delivered me to Karanga-a-hape Road, where I can be imperfect, but love. Deeply. 

I guess the whole point of this is to share a small piece of that love with you. Maybe while you drink a coffee or smoke a cigarette. There’s a lot for us to learn as we move through Matariki. We'll just do it with heaps of aroha, eh. Don’t worry about doing it perfectly, close your eyes and whakahoki e hoa. Return to this love. 

You can share in the aroha with Te Karanga-a-Hape, Matariki 2026 on Rāpare, te 9 o Hūrae. Tonight, Thursday 9 July.

Nayesha Waiti-Mulholland (Ngāti Porou) is a textile artist and the Creative Director of TE KARANGA-A-HAPE, MATARIKI 2026, where you can see acts like LADI6 and Halfqueen for FREE and get boil-up at both Pici and Open Late from 4pm!

By Jean

RUMOUR MILL

We’ve heard through the grapevine that the owners of Alma (Jo and Tash) are possibly taking over Daphnes on Ponsonby Rd, with plans to turn it into an Italian restaurant.

NEW OPENINGS

THE HALLIGAN is a new cocktail bar in the Bistro Saine hotel on St Patrick’s Square.

It would be impossible to keep up with the sheer volume of hotpot places opening in Auckland, and so we haven’t really tried, but this one is by our office so here you go: Lala Malatang Hotpot is coming to Lorne St in the old Wesound Cafe space.

NEWS

Bear Gelato is teaming up with its neighbours from 7 July to 30 August, creating new gelato flavours inspired by a dish from fellow Dominion Rd dwellers Forest, Ralphs, Famous Eddy and OOH-FA. First up is FOREST, which is one-half goat’s cheese gelato and other half pickled rock-melon sorbet.

Avondale is getting a lot worse at the end of this month with MOANA FRESH CLOSING on July 31st as their lease ends after six years. They have been amazing every time we have crossed paths with them over the years and we wish them the absolute best. Last orders July 26.

IT’S NZIFF SZN!

The New Zealand International Film Festival programme is OFFICIALLY OUT, and we will be covering it every week till it opens on 29 July. First up, Steve Newall on his top picks.

A bunch of titles have been drip fed in recent months, so for some time now, I’ve had a few must-sees in mind. These include local pics Lomu, Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant and The Ungrateful Tenant as well as NZIFF Opening Night film Big Girls Don’t Cry (announced as the Grand Prix winner at Biarritz Film Festival last week by impressed jury president Kristen Stewart). Highlights abound in the international films previously announced too, with Alpha, Fatherland, I Want Your Sex and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma all potential fest highlights.

Here are five just-announced films that grabbed my attention this week.

The Best Summer — The 90s alt music scene preserved in camcorder amber, as filmmaker Tamra Davis goes across Australia on the Summersault festival tour with Beastie Boys, Bikini Kill, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Sonic Youth etc etc

The Blood Countess — Move over, What We Do in the Shadows… The legendary Isabelle Huppert takes on the title role in this campy, darkly humorous vampire comedy, deliciously cast as a 16th century Countess running amok in present-day Vienna.

The Fox — NZIFF hasn’t had enough live-action talking foxes since Antichrist‘s “chaos reigns” moment.  Here to fix all that is Olivia Colman, voicing a fox who claims to have all the solutions for a hunter grappling with his fiancée’s infidelity. 

The History of Concrete — Fellow How To with John Wilson fans take note. Here its maker looks to marry disparate ideas in his sublimely idiosyncratic style - drawing on a workshop on making and selling a Hallmark movie to create and sell a doco about… concrete. 

The Ice Tower — Marion Cotillard reteams with filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović for this 1970s-set take of a runaway orphan stumbling across a film shoot and falling under the spell of its movie star. 

By Mike

As the move-on orders bill scuttles its way down the fast-track towards a pre-election reckoning, some encouraging signs out in the real world, with the number of people known to be living without shelter in Auckland counted as 586 on 31 March, down from 706 in January and 940 in September 2025. While these figures almost certainly underestimate the true totals, the short-term trend appears positive. But with only 35 immediate overnight beds in the city, even at the low end the need dwarfs the places available. And while funding for outreach and support services has been reinforced recently, rather than providing more places for people to go to, the Government is intent on giving Police the power to force them to leave where they are.

It’s unfortunate, then, that they want no such thing. An OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST DISGORGED 600 PAGES OF DOCUMENTS this week which confirm that criminalising non-aggressive begging and rough sleeping goes against Police’s advice, stating “Police, councils, and social service agencies agree that move-on orders should not be used to address survival behaviours associated with homelessness, like rough sleeping, general begging, or people experiencing mental health distress,” and warning that the cost of doing so could have "significant impacts on the delivery of other core Policing functions.” Treasury, Crown Law, Corrections, Ministry for Social Development, Ministry for Housing and Urban Development, and Oranga Tamariki also raised concerns with the policy. With the full gamut of agencies opposed, it’s hard to see a rationale beyond tough-on-“crime" posturing in an increasingly tight election year. Playing politics with society’s most vulnerable is deplorable, but at least voters will get the chance to see where the parties lie on the Victorian-to-21st-Century morality spectrum as a result of this frantic rush to curb our civil liberties.

Choice items from the liquidation sales of Auckland’s two-speed recovery.
By Simon

KID’S VIDEO SMART WATCH
Current bid $25, Closes Monday
Adorable little video call watch so you can have Zoom meetings with your child while they are at kindy.

PRINTER INK, PS5 GAMES ETC
From $0, Closes Monday
The JB Hifi insurance sale has moved into the gaming and digital ephemera part of the store. They have lots of 10 PS5 games, many of which include Ghost of Yotei, which is the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima which I played and was a BLAST. If any of you are in the printer game you will understand what the possibility of dirt cheap ink cartridges could mean for you and your family’s economic futures – I urge you to double check your machine compatibility and wish you the best of luck. There’s also heaps of AirPods in this sale.

MORE FLYING OUT STUFF
From $20, Closes Wednesday 22nd
The second tranche of Flying Out collectors LPs including, inexplicably, a vinyl reissue of True Bliss’ Dream. If you click around a bit you’ll see the third part is online now too (closes Sunday 26th).

ENTRUST SIGMA DS3 ID CARD PRINTER
Current bid $30, Closes Tuesday
If you’re looking to get into the fake ID game, this gizmo will do most of the work for you. As far as I can tell the best way to go about it is not to try and recreate local cards which people are familiar with but to make like, student IDs from Latvia so you don’t trip up by spelling Auckland University wrong or something.

By Simon

FRIDAY 10TH

OSCAR DOWLING
Whammy, $20
Release show for his second album, In a Kingswood on St Benedict’s St. The first single of which, Wilding Pine, is not exactly an uplifting, feel-good anthem so make sure you’re up on your SSRIs before attending. Support from MODEL and Tom Tuke, who is performing a piece of novel puppetry called Coracle Oracle.

HOKI MAI
Neck of the Woods (!), $22
And just like that, Neck of the Woods was saved. Here’s their first show back, a lineup of Māori and Pasifika DJS with DJ Brenda, Dirty Knees,  Dylan Biscuit & AJ Honeysuckle, Kaiviti, L.I.P. Service, Taddyy b2b Man(k)illa and Tuna_Tunes.

SATURDAY 11TH

GALLAHER SHIELD FINAL
Eden Park, Free
The final of the Auckland senior men’s club rugby tournament in its 104th year, with Auckland University taking on Grammar TEC which is an amalgam of 5 clubs, last won in 2015 and who I’m sure we’re all together in hoping lose to the brave boys of Auckland University, who can’t even arrange a Wikipedia page together for themselves.

IN HEAT
Whammy, $20
Fun looking, genre-bending night spanning punk to electroclash to techno with Blunt Dog, Model (who are back at Whammy for a second night in a row), George Barney Roberts, Boyracer and Porcelain.

SUMUDI SURAWEERA
Audio Foundation, Koha
NZ-educated but Sri Lankan-based Sri Lankan drummer playing solo drums at 4pm (koha entry) and then in a combo with Rosie Langabeer, Rahana Tito-Taylor, Chris O’Connor and Jeff Henderson at 8 ($15).

THE JUNGLE GIANTS
Powerstation, From $85
Australian indie-poppers on tour supporting their 5th album, the pleasingly named Experiencing Feelings of Joy. Support from the Tullamarines and if you are wondering if this is right for you, the promotional material says it is for ‘tastemakers and dancefloor demons alike’.

SUNDAY 12TH

THE JUKEBOX OF JOY
Aotea Centre, $75
An ambitious and expansive new show from the Exploding Rainbow Orchestra – featuring Chelsea Prasiti (SKILAA), Diggy Dupe, Grecco Romank, Holly Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins), Liz Stokes (The Beths), Joshua Worthington-Church (Mammalien), Mainard Larkin, Princess Chelsea, Priya Sami (Bub), Rachel Clarke (Elisa), Samara Alofa, Steph Brown (Lips) and Yolanda Fagan (Na Noise) with extra bits from Dominic Hoey, Rāhana Tito-Taylor and more besides. A must-attend if you have been out there pretending to care about the 2020s Auckland indie-pop scene.

PŪKETĀPAPA MANU AUTE KITE DAY
Mt Roskill, Free
I always like the look of these big kite days when they are flying them off Mt Roskill and the great news for this one is there’s a free bus that will run you up to the top of the mountain so you don’t have to walk up any hills.

TUESDAY 14TH

KAPA HAKA BY TE KAPUNGA, TE HAIKURA A KIWA
Takutai Square, Free
Matariki continues at the Britomart with a performance from Manurewa’s Te Haikura a Kiwa kapahaka at 12:15 and 1pm with DJ G7 filling in the gaps before and after and hangi from Māmā’s Hangi throughout.

WEDNESDAY 15TH

WELCOME TO PURGATORY
Whammy, $20
Overthrown won the battle of the bands in Auckland but only came third in the nationals which should add a fresh layer of angst to the performance of this junior Deathcore outfit. 

THURSDAY 16TH

MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN
Town Hall, From $57
Youngish American violinist Benjamin Beilman is here to play one of his specialty romantic pieces, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with APO musical director Giordano Bellincampi conducting. They’re going to be warming up with Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style in D and Beethoven’s Symphony No.2 is the second half.

THE ODYSSEY
In Cinemas
I don’t know if you’ve seen all those ‘95% of everything you see online is AI marketing masquerading as social media’ articles but they are dispiriting to say the least and I have seen A LOT of pre-release good buzz stuff about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. That said, it’s hard not to be happy for Zendaya and Tom Spiderman.