Turning 18 is a big deal in New Zealand. Once you're 18, you can drink, vote, smoke, buy scratchies, place bets at the TAB or use

They've been the best of times, surely, free of war and famine, well fed and medicated, never needing to bother about things that

No matter the circumstances, the loss of a young life is always a tragedy. Shargin Stephens, who died on Tuesday nearly two weeks

Observation and knowledge of reality are topics that raise all sorts of prickly philosophical questions, chief among them the one

The International Olympic Committee's decision not to ban the Russian Federation from the Rio Olympics is a blow to clean athletes

I was about 10 years old when my brother shot me in the knee. The .22 calibre bullet ripped a small hole in my corduroy trousers

Are you a donor? By that, I mean are you registered to give your organs, or body parts, to someone who needs them in the event of

I've always bought free-range eggs. I've never thought twice about it. If I'm a bit strapped for cash, I will forgo eggs, rather than

Have you ever walked past someone and said to yourself: "geez he looks familiar - in fact he looks just like me?" I remember watching

It's hard in today's connected, catalogued world to go off grid and be intrepid. Unless you're prepared to go to some fairly extreme

It's a mind-blowing level of corruption, even for Russia. A report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency has revealed that

Over the weekend I went to the greatest game of rugby I have seen. It wasn't the skills, or the score, that made it so outstanding

United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg recently told the New York Times that if Donald Trump became President she would

You've got the whole world in your hands, was a huge hit in the '60s and it could be making a comeback. If you can rewind the memory

It seems to have been a fortnight of violence. America is in the most volatile state I have ever seen after police shot African American

To be honest, I don't know what all the fuss is about this Pokemon Go craze that is sweeping the world. For those of you who have

Everyone should watch Fox News a few times a year, if only to be reminded of why women have legs. It's certainly not for walking. I

YOU would think that Barack Obama must be counting down the days until his term as United States president comes to an end later this

This month we are celebrating 75 years of women being in the New Zealand Police. As a police reporter for more than 10 years, I once

How many more feasibility studies does it really need to create the vibrant city heart Tauranga residents have been promised for many

While New Zealand has its race issues, they cannot compare with what is going on in the United States at the moment. Here people

It's alarming that a national charity that supports children in need says it is struggling to keep up with demand. The number of

Nothing changed at 8.01 on Saturday night other than my dreams got put on hold when the loot from Lotto went in three different directions

With $40 million up for grabs, Lotto was a major topic of conversation last week but it made me wonder how it is any different from

Hairy orang-utans with fat cheeks. Monkeys with warts on their lip and gnarly snouts. You would swipe left on Tinder if you came

There is a new door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesperson on the block. But they come knocking through your computer and phone. Overseas

We need to have a wee korero, Aotearoa. If you are reading this and don't know that korero means talk, then it's even more needed. It's

There is no question something needs to happen to revitalise Tauranga's central business district. It's a beautiful spot but there

Both my grandfathers made it back from the Somme, which is miraculous. Commemorations this past week for that appalling waste of

Sometimes the Sensible Sentencing Trust fails to live up to its name. It thought it had a "gotcha" when it asked the Corrections