"Potential plus" is what real estate agents say when what they mean is "tumbledown shack in need of demolition".

Lonely Planet may have gone several steps too far in naming Auckland in a top-10 world city list but in the category of eating out you could make a plausible case.

Like one of Field Marshal Haig's family whiskies, Max Hastings is a dram that steadily improves with age.

Having just been reminded that our Indian population is the second-largest ethnic community in the city, it was fitting that we booked, on a very quiet night, for dinner at IVillage.

What a character arc Jean Batten's life offers.

As we age from children into adults, the sheer power of our imagination ebbs away.

When Elizabeth Knox started writing her new novel, Wake, she wanted to take on the challenge of inspiring fear. But, she writes, that evolved into confronting the real-life things that terrified her.

Grilling beef is an art form Argentinians have perfected, as evidenced at Buenos Aires.

When Sky City's much-trumpeted Sugar Club opened in August, the reviews were not as overwhelmingly favourable as the restaurant's impresario Peter Gordon might have liked.

The menu was a mix of tweaked brunch classics (benedicts, pancakes and omelettes) and an alluring array of less common dishes that we were keen to try, such as eggs cocotte and bubble and squeak.

This Mr Darcy fan says Helen Fielding's latest offering is annoying and fails to offer any depth or relevance.

At last there's somewhere exciting to dine down at North Wharf in the Wynyard Quarter.

"Toe-curling, clunking disappointment": New Bridget Jones reviews are in, and they're not good.

Simon Schama's beginning is Egypt. But it is not the beginning of patriarchs and prophets.

No need to travel to the Louisiana bayou to experience New Orleans cuisine.