I’m flipping this week’s newsletter around, because I like to keep you on your toes.
Pleased to see the shared path between Port Chalmers and St Leonards will open next Saturday.
That 10km route may have cost an eye watering $50million, but I suspect it will be well used and be a boon for Port Chalmers and other West Harbour communities.
And many residents will be pleased to see the end of temporary stop signs and orange cones.
I wrote this in April:
When stop/go workers were replaced by traffic lights, time stood still.
Motorists travelling between Port Chalmers and Dunedin on State Highway 88 waited up to 90 minutes to clear one set of road works, near Forsyth Barr Stadium.
But it is important to remember that the SH88 upgrades are not just about a shared path, or as newspaper letter writers like to dismiss as just ‘bloody cycleways’, but about proving road safety, including safety barriers and intersection upgrades.
I’d like to note that despite all the doom and gloom about the University of Otago, it was nice to read in their publication about the opening of the 450-bed Te Rangihīroa college – named after the university's first Māori graduate.
The Te Rangihīroa College, which has an approved budget of $104,727,000, will open next year. I note that is part of a gradual improvement of Anzac Ave, which is linked to the nearby stadium and in someways the SH88 upgrade mentioned above.
Speaking of the stadium, next year’s draw for the Highlanders is out and it looks much easier than this season’s nightmare against New Zealand opponents. Playing Moana Pasifika twice may help this young team qualify. (I’m being very optimistic).
I’ve just finished watching the second series of The Bear, loved the script, the acting, and (most of) the music.
I’ve got me interested in Chicago, so I did a deep dive and started listening to some of the local bands. The one that jumped out was the excellently named: Horsegirl.
In a weird twist the group seems enamoured with bands from Dunedin, check this fun little interview where they wax lyrical about The Clean.
‘‘We have found so much inspiration from New Zealand’s Flying Nun-label scene and from just like everything The Clean does. I’ll watch videos of them and I’m like, 'Oh my god, I need to dress like them, play like them and do everything like them.' So, we just wanted to have a The Clean pick on here, because what would we be without them? We love that sound.’’
This is a great song. Play. It. Loud.
Do you know where the below photo was taken, please mention so in comments. Last week was difficult, but if you are ever in Karitane, I’m sure you will find it.
I see the first trailer for Kiwi feature film Uproar, starring Rhys Darby, Julian Dennison and Minnie Driver has been released. You can watch it here.
The film follows Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Dennison as 17-year-old Josh Waaka - a Dunedin teen struggling to fit in at school and gets caught up in the protests around the arrival of the South African Springbok rugby team in 1981.
I spotted this scene being filmed last year, and snapped this. I’m sure the street art won’t make the final cut.
This week I’d like to do a shout-out to my former colleague, Rosie Manins, who was in court in Georgia for the indictment of Donald Trump.
She started work at 9am, and didn’t finish until midnight. Legend.
I was in court for a much shorter time on Tuesday, where the woman who stabbed her partner 22 times in the bath tub appeared. You can read that here.
What was interesting was the media turnout, no state-funded media was there - no TVNZ and no RNZ. It led me to chase-up with TVNZ about the replacement for Maddy Lloyd, who left in May.
I reported some quotes from a TVNZ spokesperson in this story: ‘‘We’re looking at what resource we’ll add to this bureau and will announce any appointments when they’ve been made”.
“In the meantime, Dunedin will be supported by our Queenstown and Christchurch reporters.
“We’re committed to maintaining a strong news presence across the South Island.”
I went onto the 1News’ site, and entered Dunedin into the search engine.
On May 18, they had a small story about the murder in the Dunedin suburb of Tainui, and the following day had a court story about the killer being charged.
On May 27/28, they turned around some releases about the fatal fleeing driver case.
Another police press release on May 31, about armed police arresting a man.
A Fair Go story about a Stonewood property on June 5.
A kitchen fire on June 16, doesn’t name the place at Mitchell’s Tavern, or have any pictures.
On June 22 there is a story about a Pink Floyd musical experience playing at the Planterium
A June 27 story about youths stealing cars after watching Tiktok (I didn’t see OneNews at the cop station when we got the story, but whatever).
On June 25, a shuttle taking patients between Oamaru and Dunedin.
A fire on June 29 at a scrap metal plant.
Then there are EIGHT sport stories, mainly about FIFA and the All Blacks.
Then the coverage ends with a nice Good Sorts yarn about a Dunedin gym helping cancer survivors, on August 7.
The South needs to have better representation on the small screen - we have already lost a Newshub reporter.
I haven’t seen Barbie yet, but I did write a story about a panel discussion held at the University of Otago on that film, you can read that here.
But I did go and watch Oppenheimer with my 15-year-old son. I loved it. As someone who loves history, particularly war history, this was an absorbing watch.
It was pleasing to go to the movies, the lovely Rialto, and be in an almost packed theatre. I hope it is like that when King Loser screens at the even more stunning Regent on Saturday.
Fingers crossed.
Anyway back to the film, despite winning the intermediate competition at the Invercargill Science Fair an eon ago (MOUSE MAZE!), my son helpfully explained all the technical science bits.
As an aside I lived in a Japanese town called Togitsu for three years. It isn’t famous for much, but just over a large hill (not unlike Mosgiel to Dunedin) is one of Japan’s most famous cities: Nagasaki.
I knew an old lady who recalled seeing the mushroom cloud emerge from over that hill, after an American plane dropped a 21-kiloton plutonium device known as ‘Fat Man’ on August 9, 1945.
I was always taken with the tale of how a tree started growing at that epicenter a year afterwards. There is a statue in the middle of the Peace Park which occupies that epicentre, it includes a poem by a then nine-year-old girl at the time of the bombing.
"I was thirsty beyond endurance. There was something oily on the surface of the water, but I wanted water so badly that I drank it just as it was.’’
Tragic.
I spotted this recently uploaded video - of 1981 Dunedin - on YouTube, and found it strangely compelling.
So last week I gave a few snippets on canteen prices inside the country’s prisons, I’m going to flesh that out a bit more at a later date.
But I also alluded to one of the most popular currencies inside the country’s prisons, including our own Otago Corrections’ Facility, and they are *drumroll* nicotine lozenges.
It appears they are in such hot demand that stand-over tactics are being used to source them, not that the Department of Corrections is telling me much.
I filed an OIA (remember: Official Information Act) on this back in April, and only recently got a reply, despite the most open and transparent Government ever, meant to take a maximum of 20 working days. They took months and still declined to release the info I requested, so I’m taking them to the Ombudsman, where you can wait upwards of two years for resolution.
Remember. Open. Transparent. Personally, I think this sort of stuff is important, I’m deeply concerned there will come a time when we don’t have anyone checking anything cos we are too busy watching animal videos on our cellphones.
Anyway *breathes deeply* the country’s prisons have been smoke-free environments since July 1, 2011, with prisoners offered a range of support and cessation aids to help them quit.
But on that - nicotine gum and patches BANNED. Nicotine lozenges – a type of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) all good.
So newly receive prisoners into the custody of the Department of Corrections were assessed for their health needs, including their smoking status and managing the effects of sudden withdrawal from tobacco.
That included being issued with the NRT, which contained two milligrams of nicotine per lozenge (for those playing at home) prescribed to prisoners for a maximum of four weeks.
But that is where some of the trouble starts, according to former prisoner-turned-advocate., Arthur Taylor.
The ending of smoking inside the country’s prisons ‘‘was an enormous issue for me, because of the enormous increase in violence’’, Taylor, who took a case against Corrections over the smoking ban, said.
The introductions of NRT’s ‘‘helped lessen the blow, shall we say’’.
But it had also led to the lozenges becoming a currency inside prisons, ‘‘with the new ones who arrive getting stood over’’.
Corrections maintained that it was up to each prison to determine the best way to distribute lozenges, depending on a prisoner need, and aimed to reduce the risk of the lozenges being traded, hoarded, or excessively used.
While that was the policy, Taylor said, that wasn’t how it was being applied in prisons.
Corrections declined to released to me any reports about the trading of nicotine lozenges, instead releasing two documents, one concerning NRT policy and the other a handout for new prisoners.
That policy, which was last updated five years ago, noted that a new patient who was eligible for NRT, but declined, can request NRT within the next seven days.
Those who were reapplied, who were then also likely to be stood over, according to Taylor (and he should know, right) would be supplied for four weeks.
Meanwhile, any patient who stopped NRT during that four-week period could request to restart during that same period.
Those lozenges were held in prison guard rooms, and provided by custodial staff to prisoners undertaking the NRT therapy.
Other misuses, according to documents released under the Official Information Act, include trading, hoarding and overusing NRT, being in possession of another patient’s supply, or possessing ‘‘illicit NRT gum or patches’’.
If we are all still around in two years, I’ll keep you updated on the Ombudsman’s decision.
Quite enjoyed Horsegirl! it was like old style Blondie & Transpotting soundtrack mix..
I feel like I recognise that building but I can't quite place it...
Part way through watching that video of Dunedin, it's interesting to see how much Dunedin has changed, yet stayed the same. Though frustrating that they (so far) seem to have made a thing of not capturing Philip Laing House. Speaking of, this just celebrated it's 50th birthday. It celebrated with a fire drill this morning 🤣
Intrigued by the nicotine lozenges, to be fair I'm always fascinated by the currencies of prison and ingenuity shown by the prisoners... If only they channelled that into something productive/beneficial to the wider community when they leave (but preferably before they make their way to) prison