Definitely come to NZ! I’ve been to Hobbiton twice, once before they started the Hobbit movies and it was just a skeleton basically, and once after they really started setting it up permanently again. Both times were magic, so worth going.

The bad news is it looks like a different actor is playing Harry.

I think it is relevant that McCall Smith was born in Zimbabwe and has lived in Botswana. He’s still a white man though, obviously, with all that entails in terms of the history of Africa. I’d be really interested to see what people from Botswana think about the books and how the country and culture is portrayed. I…

Yeah that’s probably a fair assessment to be fair, with the fact in mind that Canada is also not the Utopia it’s sometimes portrayed to be.

Oh yes, NZ definitely has done that. Ostensibly on behalf of the British and the Empire initially, but in many ways NZ still acts as a colonial power in the Pacific even now. In some cases that power has maybe developed into a more benevolent, supportive role. But the pacific islands are still a huge source of cheap,…

All of this. I am so angry and so heartbroken. So many dead children, and so many more who will probably die. Unfortunately this isn’t even the first time that NZ stupidity/malice has spread a deadly virus to Samoa.

You’d hope so, they live in an extremely fragile glass house on that subject.

It’s not down to privacy laws as such - he has name suppression because the court has ordered his name be suppressed based on an application by one or both parties to the case. The NZ Herald article in the link gives the reasons why name suppression can be granted.

The other thing that’s probably having some effect here - it’s November. Christmas and New Years coincide with summer in New Zealand and the courts, law firms, non-essential public service and pretty much all offices more or less shut down for a couple of weeks. Getting a sentencing date for February is actually…

Indeed. His mother is listed in Yad Vashem for helping hide a Jewish family from the Gestapo.

The Queen didn’t even attend Charles’ wedding to Camilla for those reasons (at least not the ceremony, but she attended the reception afterwards), and they’re on relatively good terms these days.

Wow she really wore that hat.

It is a real problem because Kiwis also love their cats, and there’s a real struggle to get people to change how they keep them. Letting cats roam freely day and night is very common in NZ, and I will admit I used to let my cat do that. We now live in Australia and he’s only allowed out during the day.

Definitely “nisting” or “chulling”.

We Kiwis adore our birds, and Bird of the Year is serious business. Sadly too many of our birds are endangered or threatened.

Douglas Adams had some great things to say about this year’s runner-up (but always #1 in my heart), the Kākāpō:

Oh my GOD that pink wee nose!!

Wow that was...something.

Definitely not. That was probably his break-out role, and even now I’d say he’s still only indie-movie big, not big big.

I really enjoy this series, but please please please stop saying “Queen of England”or “King of England”. There is no such title, and hasn’t been in over 300 years.