A Colombian couple have started a social enterprise with disadvantaged New Zealanders as a way to thank this country for two Kiwi missionaries who devoted their lives to Colombia.

Matt Heath writes: Soon parents will get in as much trouble for putting sugar in their coffee as I did for a tasty little cigarette.

Deborah Hilll Cone writes: I'm neither right-wing nor left-wing: I just believe in rigour. Fair dooz? But this election I'm depressed and unimpressed.

Pranks can be fun and cause some great laughs at the time - but they can also go horribly wrong and end in serious or harmul consequences.

Grammy winner Jemaine Clement says some of his earliest New Zealand TV roles left him "ashamed" after "running down" his Maori culture.

He was about 13, coming towards me on the downtown footpath. I could see he intended to say something, so I prepared to tell him the time, or where the nearest public loo was.

September 19 will mark the 121st anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. This country is proud it was the first to give women the vote.

NFL player Michael Sam told reporters that he hoped in future he would be seen "as Michael Sam the football player, instead of as Michael Sam the gay football player".

Young people without educational qualifications are increasingly being left on the shelf by potential partners, New Zealand researchers say.

With her Auckland ties, Annette Sykes says she could have easily stood in the Tamaki Makarau electorate.

Housing Minister Nick Smith was shouted down when he claimed at a forum on Auckland's housing crisis that foreign buyers weren't impacting on prices.

A Queenstown policewoman accused of racially abusing a taxi driver in the resort last year has been found guilty.

Teacher Peter Lyons says he's finally learned a valuable lesson - life isn't fair, so he explains why he's decided to vote the right way this election.

Overseas studies support Kiwi research on role of casual relationships in child abuse, writes Ewen McQueen.

A police officer denies allegations she racially abused a taxi driver in Queenstown last year while affected by a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol.

Dr Harold Williams has long been featured by Guinness World Records as the world's greatest linguist. He spoke 58 languages.

New Zealand's expanding building industry has signed up its 9000th apprentice - but says it is running out of young people to fill the demand for more.

A transgender refugee from Colombia who was knocked back by other countries says she has "found paradise" in New Zealand after being officially recognised as a woman.

Labour wants drivers' licences and passports in New Zealand to offer three gender options.

Lydia Sosene writes: A full-strength alcohol outlet would be a recipe for disaster and the social cost on our struggling community will continue to triple.

When Cecil Lochan settled in Mt Roskill in the mid-1970s, the Fijian-Indian was the first non-European in the street. His neighbour wasn't happy.

The Government’s proposal for get-ahead loans is okay, but it won't help New zealanders who are still in serious financial trouble, writes Peter Calder.

Most New Zealanders take their rights for granted, but they're rights often not realised by disabled people, writes Paul Gibson.

Voters comparing social policies at this election have a clear choice: "Unrelenting focus on work" with National, or a softer line if Labour wins.

The Auckland Council was an early supporter of Te Ururoa Flavell's Gambling Harm Reduction Bill and it saw the legislation as a toolkit.

When I was in Christchurch recently to interview the two main candidates in the Christchurch Central electorate, I was shocked to see that people on the street seemed even more weary than ever.

David and Wendy Farnell blundered their way through a 60 Minutes television interview about their disabled son, Gammy, born to a surrogate mother in Thailand.

A new war on "loan sharks' should help bankrupt Auckland mum Farrah Matthews, who ended up paying $29k for a $12k car - borrowing money at 29 per cent interest.