The Spinoff Weekend: A week inside the 'freedom village'
Every story we loved reading this week.
Mōrena and welcome to The Spinoff Weekend, your guide to everything that’s happened over the past week. It’s been busy, so we’ve got coverage of the Wellington protests from someone who was there, and everything you need to keep calm about rising omicron cases. If you need distracting, we find out why drivers flash their hazard lights, and talk to the TV critic who ended up on an episode of Seven Sharp. We’re also diving into the world of non-alcoholic beverages to find out why no one wants to get drunk anymore. So relax, grab a freshly brewed cup of Coffee Supreme and settle into your weekend right here. You made it.
-Chris Schulz, senior writer
A week on the ground at the ‘freedom village’
Stewart Sowman-Lund spent his week filing updates from Wellington’s anti-mandate protests at parliament and found himself being followed, harassed, filmed and trespassed all while trying to do his job. He found that a group of hardcore protesters remains on site that will not be deterred by the constant police presence, Barry Manilow songs and lawn sprinklers. Stewart says it feels like a permanent occupation. “There are street signs that point you toward different factions of the so-called village,” he writes. “Some of the tents have letterboxes or gardens. Baby lettuce plants are found in pretty much any patch of dirt. You might be offered a scone by a small child carrying a platter. There are countless food stalls, a yoga zone, a dance tent where bands perform generally OK cover renditions of classic hits, a church, a basketball court, a skate park — and even a kids movie area. Aladdin was playing on Tuesday.” Read Stewart’s full account of his time on the ground here.
When Tiny means huge: Inside no-alc beersies
It looks like beer, and tastes like beer, but is it really beer? At the moment, the debate doesn’t seem to matter. Local brewers have spent the past year challenging themselves to make a decent no-alcohol beersie, and now that they’re out, customers are frothing for them. They’re selling out everywhere. “It went crazy from day one,” says Jos Ruffell about demand for Garage Project’s 0.5% hazy Tiny, which launched in November. “It became very apparent we had nowhere near enough.” Other brewers say the same thing: demand for local craft beers full of hoppy flavours with no alcohol is through the roof, and shows no sign of letting up. Why is everyone suddenly craving ‘fake’ beers, and how are brewers coping with this sudden demand? Find out here.
What is omicron doing to our anxieties?
As omicron case numbers started to rise, Sam Brooks noticed that Covid anxieties seemed different to previous strains. “The biggest shift seems to be not, ‘What if I get Covid?’ but, ‘When will I get Covid?’” To cover this, Sam asked Victoria University clinical psychologist Dougal Sutherland what was happening in our brains. The good news? There are unlikely to be any long-term effects over any stress you’re feeling now. For Sam, he’s been keeping sane by sticking to a schedule, working, dressing and cooking like it’s just a regular day. He’s also taken up jogging, something he used to loathe. “It’s about as far away from my normal life as possible,” he says. It seems to be working. “I might come out of this a better person, or I might just come out of this as a better person who likes to run. Who knows?” In other omicron news, Alice Neville kept her cool to put together this excellent explainer on phase three. Siouxsie Wiles points out the numbers to watch as omicron takes hold. And Gabi Lardies finds that if you need a test and don’t have a car, good luck out there.
The truth behind the hazard light ‘thank you’
When Naomii Seah saw a friend use her hazard lights as a courtesy “thank you” while driving one day recently, she got obsessed. She’d never someone do it before. “Once I learnt about the hazard flash, I couldn't stop thinking about it,” she says. “I suddenly started seeing it everywhere on the roads. I wondered how everyone knew about it — what was this secret car language that no one had told me about? I decided I had to find out everything, immediately.” Her fascinating deep-dive into the history of the hazard light flash is essential reading for every driver, a tale that finds her diving into multiple rabbit holes to find out. So, if you see Naomiii out this weekend, make sure you flash your hazard lights at her as a sign of appreciation.
With omicron cases increasing and an ongoing protest fueled by the spread of misinformation, fact-based and level-headed journalism is more important than ever.
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What the protest says about New Zealand now
In a speech called A Nation Divided, National leader Chris Luxon pointed at Wellington’s parliamentary protest as proof New Zealand has splintered in two. But have we? In the most clear-headed piece to from the protest yet, Toby Manhire proves it’s far from the case. Vaccine rates and recent polls show relatively high trust in government and public services. Max Rashbrooke, an expert who has written several books on inequality, also says that view is wrong. “The protest is very frightening to see in and of itself. But is it a threat to social cohesion in the wider sense? I don’t really think it is,” he says. “We’ve had much greater divisions on political issues in New Zealand in the past … disagreement is just part of things.” As the protest moves well into week three, Dylan Reeve finds local businesses are weighing up whether to act against it, Dominic O'Sullivan examines police tactics, Justin Latif meets the man trying to end the protest, and two New World Thorndon staff members tell us what life’s like dealing with maskless shoppers (spoiler alert: it sucks).
How a TV critic wound up on Seven Sharp’s set
Tara Ward is The Spinoff’s resident screen addict, and a constantly reliable source for weird factoids about the state of local current affairs TV. When she tuned into Seven Sharp recently, she noticed something was up with the set of TVNZ 1’s 7pm show. What were all those office knick-knacks? Her intrigue ended up in this wild piece about the drama behind Seven Sharp’s constantly evolving set, but the story doesn’t end there. Hilary Barry loved her piece so much she printed out a photo of Tara that sat between her and co-host Jeremy Wells for the entirety of Thursday’s episode. Yes, Tara tuned in. “Is it wrong to say I LOVED IT?” she says. “It was hilarious and ridiculous but also very, very exciting. I’m proud to be in such esteemed company as Hilary’s handbags and sneakers, but it’s also strange to be staring at yourself, staring back at yourself.” Tara says that moment will make her CV, and her gravestone.
Everything else we loved reading this week…
Just hours after the death of Va'aiga Tuigamala, former All Black winger Joeli Vidiri also passed away. Stuff reports on a tragic day for rugby.
Stuck at home as a close contact, isolating, or just chilling because of omicron? Tara Ward has 10 things you can do in your 10 days of isolation.
Alex Petridis finds Kanye West’s new album Donda 2 thoroughly “depressing” in a two-star review for The Guardian.
Aotearoa’s first te reo Māori television programme Te Karere recently turned 40, and that’s definitely something worth celebrating. So we did.
John Douglas Willis stole a guard's uniform and pretended to be chasing an escaped criminal to flee Rimutaka Prison. NZ Herald’s Anna Leask has more.
If you have brain space for a knotty podcast, The Trojan Horse Affair starts with a strange letter, then goes to some weird and wonderful places.
Some recommended weekend listening comes in the form of the new Broods album Space Island. It sounds serene, but the story behind it is anything but.
Amidst war breaking out in Ukraine, a town called Happiness is at the centre of the conflict. You can follow (paywalled) New York Times updates here.
Great RNZ podcast The Detail covered the protest twice this week: one on the ground, the other examining the political response. They’re both great listens.
Sam Brooks finds out why Max Patte, the man behind Wellington’s Solace of the Wind sculpture, is leaving New Zealand and heading to Europe.
Who’s still laughing with the Razzies? asks Vulture in this piece which examines the point of the anti-Oscars ceremony after 40 years.
For The Spinoff, Toby Manhire finds out why the chief censor banned a Christchurch conspiracy video posted by the parliament occupation group.
Finally, if you’re still obsessed with Wordle, the New York Times (paywalled) has amassed some strange celebrity strategies. For example, Succession star J Smith-Cameron starts every game with the word ‘Suave’, which is just too delightful.