Review: RNZB’s Macbeth

Review con­tains major spoil­ers for the RNZB’s Mac­beth — the only rea­son I’m spoil­er warn­ing a 400 year old sto­ry based loose­ly off an 1000 year old his­tor­i­cal fig­ure is that the RNZB does include some changes in its stag­ing that are more so implied in the text, and there’s also some things you want to […]

Ten Years in Pōneke: Part Five — Somes Speedrunning

Or, hey I was sup­posed to fin­ish all of these arti­cles in 2025 but then life hap­pened so I guess we’re doing lit­tle quests in 2026 as well. [Warn­ing: This piece talks about dis­ease, war and death.] Matiu / Somes Island is the ever-present spec­tre loom­ing in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, one of three islands that the har­bour […]

Review: The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker’s always been one of ‘the bal­lets’ I’ve heard about but nev­er seen. Learn­ing about it via read­ing the The Baby-Sit­ters Club books as a kid and grow­ing up danc­ing myself, I’ve always want­ed to get the chance to expe­ri­ence it, and final­ly, thanks to this year’s Roy­al New Zealand Bal­let Kiwi twist on […]

Ten Years in Pōneke: Part Four — Throwing Down the Escooter Gauntlet

Or, how far can you trav­el on a Flamin­go before it dies on you?  A Pōneke East­er Exper­i­ment. Do not try this at home. It’s not whol­ly dan­ger­ous, but it is a lit­tle fool­hardy. Most­ly it’s just time con­sum­ing and will make your legs ache. I’ve been scoot­ing ever since I was a kid. I […]

A Once in a Lifetime Ballet Treat this Friday & Saturday

For the first time in fifty years, the Scot­tish Bal­let vis­its Aotearoa for a dream col­lab­o­ra­tion. This Fri­day and Sat­ur­day in Pōneke only, the RNZB and the Scot­tish Bal­let will share the stage to present four gor­geous works. Dex­tera (Scot­tish Bal­let) com­mis­sioned to cel­e­brate the Scot­tish Bal­let’s 50th Anniver­sary in 2019, is cre­at­ed by Fran­­co-British […]

10 Years in Pōneke: Part One!

I’ve been liv­ing in Pōneke for ten years this Feb­ru­ary, and hon­est­ly — I can bare­ly believe it. It cer­tain­ly does­n’t feel like ten years have passed since I was left to fend for myself at Weir House, ready for my first year at uni­ver­si­ty — but some­how, the time has passed and here we […]