Full Show Podcast: 05 April 2026

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks EDB. Welcome to the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin and Wig Girls for the best selection of
great reeds used Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Gurth Morning and welcome to the Sunday Session. On Easter Sunday.
It is seven past nine daylight saving today, so don't
forget to change any clocks that need to be manually changed.
I hope you're having a good long weekend and joining
a hot cross fun and maybe a chocolate egg or two.
Coming up on the show today, British based ossie comedian
Felicity Ward joins us to talk about her latest show

(00:49):
she is bringing to the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.
It's called I Wish I Could Come Out of My Shell,
which is very tongue in cheek title. We're going to
talk about how appearing on Dancing with the Stars changed
to her life after eleven. I am joined by Dutch
filmmaker Bart Shriver. A few years back, Bart walked the
to Aditoha track here in New Zealand. It's inspired him
to make feature films about hiking and his latest film,

(01:11):
The North is the quintessential hiking film. It follows two
thirty year olds walking six hundred kilometers in Scotland and
it's in cinemas now. We talk about the unusual way
that Bart shot this film and the joy of being
in nature, and of course, as always, you're most welcome
to text throughout the morning. On ninety two, ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Two the Sunday session.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Right, so on Thursday afternoon, almost three hundred pages of
police emails, text messages and documents were released about the
Tom Phillips Netflix documentary following an Official Information Act request.
What was released raises real questions about the appropriateness of
the relationship and communication between police and the production company,
and whether the doco should be made at all. The

(01:54):
planned Netflix documentary sits right in the middle of the
tension between public interest storytelling and the welfare of vulnerable children.
It's not just a media issue. The information that was
released pos's legal, ethical and social questions. On the one hand,
there is a clear argument for the documentary to go ahead.
The Phillips case gripped the nation. Three children were missing

(02:16):
for nearly four years before being recovered after a violent
police confrontation in twenty twenty five. A documentary could provide transparency,
explain police decision making, and help the public understand how
such a prolonged disappearance was able to happen. From the
production company perspective, a documentary is a good business opportunity.

(02:38):
Global global true crime documentaries sell and this story has
undeniable international appeal. Producer Dame Julie Christie isn't one to
sit around discussing placing levees on streaming services. Rather, she
believes and producing globally appealing content they will buy, so
it was no surprise to learn this doco would be
broadcast on Netflix. Christie has always walked the talk. However,

(03:02):
the OIA documents complicate things. They show that film maas
were granted unusually high levels of access to police operations,
including briefings and access to a crime scene, and what
could be seen as an exchange for police oversight of
the final product. So this raises two concerns. First, it
risks turning the documentary into what critics describe as police

(03:23):
pr rather than an independent account, and the police have
final say off sign off on the editing of the documentary,
which does imply they have a certain amount of control
over the narrative. Second, it suggests that the production company
was given privileges beyond what is typical for media, and
the production company was given a heads up about Phillips's
death before his family or the media, and the police

(03:44):
Commissioner Richard Chambers has expressed regret for that. The commissioner
also added that the documentary was not always handled in
line with the usual protocols and processes that apply to
documentaries police are involved with. But that's not on the
production company, which clearly built a good working relationship with police,
and we're just doing their job when asking for cooperation access.

(04:07):
If it's granted, they're not going to turn it down.
But where most New Zealanders will be wary of this
documentary is when it comes to the welfare of the children.
Experts and family members have already warned that a film
could retraumatize them, particularly given their prolonged isolation and the
ongoing process of reintegration. There are court injunctions limiting what
can be reported, signaling that the legal system prioritizes their

(04:29):
protection over public disclosure, as it should. But if there
was not this documentary, there will only be another one,
or a book or articles. Everyone has an opinion on
the story. The interest won't go away. The Police commissioner
said there were strict conditions in place to protect the
children and sensitive police operational information. Let's hope that's the

(04:53):
case the Sunday Session. So while the documentary may be defensible,
there's a business decision. I'm going to admit it. I'm
quite keen to watch it. I want to know what
was happening behind the scenes and how the police were
dealing with this case, but its continuation should depend on
whether it can genuinely safeguard the children's privacy and their

(05:16):
well being. Keen to hear from you, you can text
on ninety two ninety two Coming up next, the world
record holder for the longest unassisted swim. Well when it's ratified,
but I'm sure it will be.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
John O.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Riddler is with us next.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
All Sunday with Style The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin
and Wiggles for the best selection of Greg Reas news talk.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Sabby ninety days, one thy, three hundred and sixty seven
calimeters and more than four hundred and sixty eight hours
swimming in the ocean, no wetsuit, just togs, swim cap
and some goggles. Absolutely mad, right bonkers. But yesterday John
Oriddler finished his mammoth swim for the Ocean. It was

(06:02):
a history making journey that's expected to be ratified as
the longest unassisted stage swim ever. The swim was in
partnership with Live Ocean, with the aim of sending a
message to end bottom trawling. I've been keenly following John's
journey and I'm very excited to have him with me now.
John Ovidler, good morning.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
Good morning, Francisca. Great to be and great great to
hear that you were following along.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
You've got some questions.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I got a little obsessed. First of all, congratulations, How
are you feeling today?

Speaker 5 (06:36):
I feel I feel pretty good.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
My body feels feels feels great. Actually, that's it's one
of the things that probably most surprises people, expecting me
to be a lot more batted up than I am.
But it's it's really pulled through and it's been amazing
to be able to take me down the entire East Coast.

Speaker 5 (07:01):
Emotionally, it's been like a real whirlwind.

Speaker 6 (07:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yesterday was in a credible all day bringing for three
months all together culminating in this this one very special
day with a lot of Wellingtonians coming out to support
us and.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
Our cause and.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
All of you know, the excitement of the moment, the
joy of finishing, the sadness of ending this what has
been an all consuming mission, you know, just very a
lot of different emotions boiling around.

Speaker 5 (07:34):
Let's say that.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I was wondering about the emotions, especially maybe over the
last sort of few legs when you know, you realize
that you were you were going to make it. M So,
so what is going through your mind.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
Right now?

Speaker 4 (07:50):
It's it's it's reflecting on what we've done and appreciating
what has just happened. I'm kind of I'm a little
bit dumbfounded myself around how I've actually done this. It's yes,
there's been a huge physical effort, mental effort on my behalf,
but the logistical effort from the team that communications, everything

(08:12):
that was brought together to make this mission of success.
It's just it's been unreal. We were reflecting on it
as a team yesterday. Yeah, I think this is all
very very unique, and I don't know, I'd be surprised
if we could see something like this again, and I'm
looking at that from the point of view of an

(08:33):
observer somewhat rather.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
Than somebody in the thick of it.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
And yes, I'm moving into a bit of a reflective stage.
But also, you know, my higher level reason for doing
this around the ocean advocacy. I think that's something that
will help to pull through what could be otherwise a
difficult period. You know, you talk to Olympic athletes and

(08:58):
the like after the Olympics end, and they go through
this kind of deep dark depression because they're focused and
mission for four years. It's just ended. And I'm very
very conscious of that. You know, you've got to have
good people around you to stop that kind of potential.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
But it's interesting. I was wondering whether it was going
to feel strange not swimming today Johno.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
I mean it's been normal to have rest days, right,
and some weather force breaks as well, but two or
three days in a row, yeah, look, that'll that'll feel
a bit odd. And not not being around the team
and not climbing onto the boat tomorrow. And you know,
there's some things that I'm definitely not going to miss.
I'm not going to miss getting stung by jellyfish constantly.

(09:46):
I'm not going to miss being hypothemic. I'm not going
to miss being sleep deprived and in pain. But yeah,
that's all of that hardship has kind of made it
all the all the sweeter as well.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Were those the challenges that you thought that you would face, Like,
as this challenge unfolded with the aspects of the whim,
you hadn't anticipated being so hard or something that maybe
was easier than expected.

Speaker 4 (10:13):
I think that the biggest thing in my mind, at
least if I look at my role in the team,
was it was around my body holding up.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
You know, that was an unknown and I really didn't
know how it perform.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
And by the end of it, I was physically just
in such a good place and right now in such
a good place where I feel like I could have
gone for hours and hours at a really good intensity
and that my body would hold through. Yes, there was
some kind of niggles that I was managing, but it
ended up in a really good place. I think the

(10:48):
challenges that I didn't quite expect, you know, things like
the navigating some.

Speaker 5 (10:54):
Of the difficult.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
Currents that we had to I thought it would be
a lot more consistent but it's just all over the place,
you know.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
It's the ocean is a very wild beast.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
And particularly in New Zealand, we're just fully exposed to
the Pacific Ocean on the east coast, which brings a
lot of challenges.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
The cold.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
They didn't think it would get quite as cold as
it was. It got down to about fourteen and a
half in places. I was kind of thinking in my
head eye, you know, it'll get down to maybe seventeen degrees.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
So that was a bit of a shock. And then
the jellyfish.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
You know, I just had no preparation for any of that,
but a general confidence that whatever we faced we could
overcome with the right mindset, the right attitude that you know,
problems were opportunities and we could push through them.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Okay, I've got a bit to unpack here, John, you
said that the body ended up in a really good place.
Can you actually prepare yourself for a feet like this?

Speaker 4 (11:59):
I think somewhat you'd want to do some kind of
preparation and training. I've been doing that marathon swimming now
for about ten years, and so my body's adapted to
that quite nicely, but nothing like this like this is
this is very much going.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
It has been very much going into new territory for me.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
I did a lot of strength training in the lead
up to make my body a bit more robust, but
there was a lot of adaptation that happened during the
course of the swim, whether that be cold adaptation or
muscular fitness adaptation, cardiovascular all of that was happening while
I was going, and so the first I kind of
cast my mind back and some of it blurs together,

(12:40):
but probably the first six weeks or so they were
quite tough with my body adapting to that physical load.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Ah, fascinating. This is a world first, a new world
record for the longest unassisted swim. Of course that's got
to be ratified yet, but that's absolutely incredible. Speaking of
the cold, was swimming unassisted the way to go.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
I've tended to follow that style of swimming because that
that's it's more aligned with kind of English Channel rules,
what you'd swim if you were swimming the Cook Straight
or any of these other iconic swims, you do it
in that same style of being unassisted. There were times,
for sure when I people reminded me of this that

(13:27):
maybe it would have been better to wear when I
was constantly getting jellyfish things and battling hypothermia. But now
I think it's very very possible to do. And i'd
like to think that I approved that as well.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Is it kind of?

Speaker 7 (13:44):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
I don't want to, I don't want to appear like
you being snobby about it, but is it? Is it
true long distance swimming if you're unassisted.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
And interesting?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (13:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's very much more of a purest view,
and I don't like that where it's you know, it's
kind of.

Speaker 5 (14:02):
Our way is better.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
I heard somebody use an analogy the other though, which
I thought was quite good, which is using a wetsuit
as like using an e bike.

Speaker 5 (14:10):
It just makes things a little bitier.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, And everybody can just choose what
works for them. I guess my body has been quite
good in dealing with some of those elements that other
body types might not be in terms of the cold
and the like. So you know, I've been fortunate that
I can tackle these with only wearing togs.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
Some people might not be able to do that.

Speaker 7 (14:33):
John O.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
The jollyfish obviously made their presence found What other wildlife
encounters did you have?

Speaker 8 (14:40):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (14:40):
We had so many. Yeah, so many encounters.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
I mean that in the first ninety minutes of starting
leaving Waikuku Beach, I had a quite close encounter with
a shark.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
We had a lot of shark sightings up.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Up in the far North, turtle, the whale in the
first couple of weeks, penguins, lots of school fish and
refish around certain areas. Dolphins, man, so many dolphins from
I was surprised we didn't see more further up the
East East coast actually, but down south of Mahia Peninsula,

(15:17):
between Mahia and probably Castle Point or so, just incredible
amounts of dolphins and sometimes pods of hundreds and hundreds
that came by.

Speaker 5 (15:30):
That was very very special seals. As we got further down,
it was quite cool. During one of my.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Swims, as we kind of came close to Cap Pallas
around an area called White Rock, I happened to cross
a dead seal floating in the water and we moved
on quickly. Let's just say that it had some amazing
wildlife experiences out there.

Speaker 5 (15:54):
Yeah, I've been able to.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
See some things I think that most people will never
never experience or see, and it gives me a different appreciation.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I think most of this experience nobody else will ever experience.
The purpose of all this, of course, was to raise
awareness and end bottom crawling. Why is this such an
important issue for you?

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Well, ocean, the ocean generally, and this has just been
absolutely hammered home over this last ninety days. But the
ocean has given me so much. I grew up around
the ocean, and I've had some amazing experiences, been able
to see some amazing things, some of the things that
we've just talked about over the last ninety days, in particular,

(16:40):
growing this connection with the ocean and understanding that it
is so important to us. It's not just a source
of of seafood. It's much much more than that. Every
second breath that we take is from the ocean. It's
got social value, it's a part of our cultural identity,

(17:03):
and as Manna Aharibi said, it's knowledge, it's connection. So
we need to look past what we kind of take
from it at a surface level and understand that it
gives us so much more. And I think at a
high level that's really what it's all about. It's appreciating
that the ocean gives us a lot. We're taking too

(17:24):
much from it, and we've seen that over previous generations
we've depleted what was once a very abundant resource, and
that abundance can rebound and I saw that as we
went down the coast. I also saw and heard from
some of the elders that have been in these coastal
communities for decades and hearing of the devastation that they've

(17:48):
seen through human impact over their lifetime. And so I
think we have the option, We have choices that we
can make to be able to change things, and human
impact has a considerable influence on the health of the ecosystems.

(18:08):
And so our mission has never been about opposition to
commercial fishing.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
I just want to make that clear.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
It's looking at fishing methods and saying, well, can we
do better in terms of the methods that are being
used in New Zealand right now is the only country
that is bottom trawling in the South Pacific High Seas,
and we're a lagged in that respect, you know.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
So there is work, I think, and based on the
based on what.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
We've the discussions we've had with independent advisors, independent science
that that's informed where you know.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Where we've taken this. Many people have got behind us
obviously as well.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
We're well over seventy thousand signatures on our petition as
of yesterday.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
I haven't checked it this morning.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
So John, know you've had ninety days, you've been swimming
a little bit of time to let the mind wander
a bit. Have you got new plans for what's next?

Speaker 5 (19:13):
Yeah, it's a funny question.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
And an inevitable question as well.

Speaker 5 (19:19):
Yes, of course I've been thinking about this, and you know, I've.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Just got I've got this incredible passion for ocean health
and ocean conservation, and that I think will be a
through line for the rest of my life. I don't
see that going anywhere, and so I don't know what
it looks like, and I'm excited to discover what's next.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
So am I Well, congratulations, Thank you so much for
joining us this morning. If you want a little bit
more information, just go to Swim for the Ocean. You'll
be able to find that petition there. I think what
John has done is actually kind of remarkable, and that
was very neat and me going what next? I mean,
You've just completed a world first, right and here am
I going?

Speaker 7 (20:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Okay, so what that's a pretty high bar, isn't it
to leap over coming? Up next, Peter Dunn is with
us to talk politics. It's twenty nine past nine.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Dogs
at b.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Joining us now to talk politics. We have got political
commentator Peter Dunn. Good morning Peter.

Speaker 8 (20:29):
Good morning Francesca.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Happy Easter and to you too, thank you for being
with us. Let's start by talking about the national cabinet reshuffle.
What is the key to a good reshuffle?

Speaker 8 (20:39):
I think the key is that first of all, you
sought out some imbalances in the cabinet. Are always going
to have a case where some people have got a
heavier workload than others. And the second key is that
you set some sense of direction as to where the
cabinet's going for the future. So if you look at
the current reshuffle, the Prime minister officer to replace two

(21:00):
retiring ministers, and then there was the opportunity to promote
some new talent as a way of sort of indicating
what the show of a future government that he leads
might look like. And to some extent he's achieved both goals.
But what overshadows the whole thing is this debate about
what he's done or not done to Chris Bishop.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
What do you think he's done.

Speaker 8 (21:20):
I think he's given him a warning and of ticking off.
But I think it's going reave it too far to
sort of some of the more extreme comments about how
Bishop's been put in his box, he's been punished, all
that sort of thing. I don't think that's the case.
I think that there was a bit of a signal
there that just you stick to your day job and
not try and sort of go beyond this. And Bishop's

(21:40):
got a big load anyway, He's now the Attorney General
as well as other portfolios, so you know, I think
on balance he's had a mile ticking off, but no
more than that.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
No, I tend to agree. I mean, you're right, he's
got a big workload. He only lost his roles as
Associate Sports Minister and Leader of the House picked up
Attorney General. I think what everyone was talking about was
probably more about the lost losing being the campaign chair.

Speaker 8 (22:05):
Yeah, and look that I think a lot's been read
into that, but that's too much. The campaign's chairs jobs
fundamentally an organizational won. The strategic role for the campaign
comes from the Party leadership. I think that swapping Chris
Bishop for Simmey and Brown. I'm not sure that Brown's
got a much lighter workload, but he's got the advantage
of being Auckland and the Auckland vote will be critical

(22:28):
to National chances at the selection. So there's a little
bit of sort of playing to the audience in that respect.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Do you think it could have been more a case
of keeping Simym Brown happy. I mean, he didn't deny
that he'd asked for the role.

Speaker 8 (22:39):
Quite possibly, and as I say, given the criticality of
Auckland to National chances, not alienating key Auckland members, let
alone Auckland voters is a pretty important task for National.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
There was a lot of talk James Meagher, who was
outside of cabinet at present, could be promoted, and once
again a lot of speculation here Peter that he might
have been responsible for doing numbers for Bishop last year
and that could be why he didn't get a promotion.

Speaker 8 (23:05):
That whispers about Mega not quite living up to some
of the early expectations. I don't know whether they're true
or not, but I think that what became a greater factor,
and if you look at the sort of the other promotions,
Cameron Brewer obviously by dint of hard work, gets for you.
I think Mike Butler and I don't know very much
about it all, but he's got the advantage of being
rural wire or rapper up against Kieran mcinalfy.

Speaker 9 (23:29):
You know.

Speaker 8 (23:29):
I think that that's probably an explanation there. The other
important one is the promotion of MICHAELA. Grigg, although she's
not in cabinet, but she's got it picked up the
pretty critical environment portfolio. And it seems to me if
you look at Gregg and Butter and Brewer, there's a
bit of a signal there for the future. Got mega
so sort of tucked in the pocket if you like.
So there's quite a little group of up and coming

(23:50):
ministers who could be more prominent in the future. And
I think that Prime ministers probably signaled that, whether of
course he gets the chance November will tell.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
I'd love to talk to you too about New Zealand
and the Cook Islands sort of becoming friends again and
signing the Defense and Security declar what's the significance of this, Peter.

Speaker 8 (24:09):
Well, look the historics a relationship between New Zealand and
the Cooks goes back for many, many years, and I
think that the risk of that relationship fracturing, and it's
had some pretty testy times to go right back to
Albert Henry in the seventies when with the vote rigging
and all of that sort of thing, but we've got
over them and I think the situation here is Mark
Brown's are very aggressive and forward thinking Cook Island's leader.

(24:35):
He wants the best for his country. He sees it
as a country, not a dependency, and I think there
was always going to be a bit of a challenge there.
This is not the first time he's had a run
in with governments. I recall during my time in government
we had some issues with him, but it's all about
his passion for the Cook Islands. So I think it's
really important for New Zealand to have a good relationship,
particularly strategically in the current geopolitical environment. And I think

(24:57):
it's quite a feather in Winston Peter's cap in a
way that he's been able to pull off or a
possemant in Rahratanga, and I think that will be for
the future. Of course, what will come with that will
be the expectation of more New Zealand aid and support
and that's what will be the test of the relationship.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Peter, as always appreciate your thoughts. Thank you so much
for your time today. It is twenty three to ten
and don't forget coming up after teen, We've got comedian
Felicity Ward with us to talk about her up and
coming show that she is bringing to New Zealand to
the International Comedy Festival.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
You're with News TALKSB for Sunday session Full show podcast
on iHeartRadio powered by News TALKSBB.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
I do tend to agree with Peter Dunn. I don't
think there's too much to read into that reshuffle, and
I think he's right. I think it was a mild
telling off for Chris Bishop, who does have an awful
lot on his plate. But you are most wear good
to text your thoughts through as well. Ninety two ninety
two right. It is believe that around seventy percent of
packaged foods in our supermarket are considered ultra processed, with
ultra processed food making up over fifty percent of Kiwi diets.

(26:00):
Alarming statistics, aren't they? A great app created by Kiwi
Nurse is looking to help us navigated the supermarket shelves
and make healthy choices. I'm loving it. Peter Bird is
the founder of kai Wise, and he joins me, now,
good morning.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Peter, good morning.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
How are you really good? Thank you? Nice to talk
to you. Talk me through why you created this app.

Speaker 10 (26:24):
Well, I look, fundamentally, our food system is a little
bit broken. And about fourteen years ago I was diagnosed
with I had some health issues, and I started to
the first thing I did was I looked in the mirror,
and I said, looked at what I could do to
help myself, And of course nutrition was the first thing

(26:45):
that I started to look at. And then from that
came the realization of just how damn confusing it is,
just even just going to the supermarket to try to
find and hunt through and get some healthy foods, and
then following that doing a little bit more research, just
realizing the just how confusing, purposely confusing, too unfortunately our

(27:13):
food system is. And so really it was and being
a practical chap, I'm a farmer, farming boy from way back.
You just had to get on and make things happen yourself.
And I just thought, what can I do? And really
that's how kai it was, like kiwis came from that.
It was like, what can I do? How can I
reach as many people as I can? How can I

(27:34):
help even the playing field? And that was kind of
that was the beginning of it.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
I think you probably answered this question I was going
to ask you, do we make understanding food too hard?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
I think we did it well.

Speaker 10 (27:48):
I'm a simple sort of organism really, you know, I'm
one of one of the good. Fundamentally, I'm a nurse.
I'm also a nutritionist, but I'm an educator at the
bottom line, and I think I'm quite good at taking
complex information, breaking it down, delivering it simply. And I
just thought I need to try translate that into an app.

(28:08):
Translated into that into coi wise. Because I've worked for
the last thirty years of my nursing career, I've worked
with the average person. I've worked with blue collar just
and I know what's going on on the ground because
that's me.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
I'm there, you know.

Speaker 10 (28:23):
And so it needed to be simple, that needed to
be easy, and it needed to be truthful, that needed
to be independent and needed. And that's so that's what
we're developing with with coi wise.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
So here's what I love about it is depending on
what maybe on your mind at the moment, or something
you're trying to work on. You can select what interests you.
Of course I just selected everything because I wanted to
know everything, but you know you can, you can, you
can find it gives you information. You can select what
interests you. You can find out about processed food, a sugar
content impact on blood, sugar protein content. Of course, everyone's
obsessed about getting their protein or fiber, how much fiber content,

(28:57):
salt content, calorie. So you give people the opportunity to
focus on something that might you know, you don't because
it can be overwhelming doing it all right, but if
there was something you were trying to improve, this gives
you the opportunity to get the real facts. The other
thing I really like is you talk about serving sizes
being more realistic, because if you read the back of
a pack, it will give you a percentage per maybe
one hundred grams now well ye or something similar, and

(29:21):
that's not often what we're actually putting on the plane.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
No.

Speaker 10 (29:25):
Look, it's one of the games at Big Food Play
is that if to hide an increase in soulful sugar,
what they do is they change the serving size. So
what we've done is we've going, well, this is about
how much you eat, and we've made the serving size
of that.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
And what we've also.

Speaker 10 (29:44):
Done is you'll know within Kai Wisers, we've made it
teaspoons and pinches of salt and teaspoons of sugar because
who understands milligrams?

Speaker 3 (29:53):
And I mean.

Speaker 10 (29:54):
It's we've endeavored just to strip away the confusion, just
make it, make it, make it truthful.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Absolutely. How important is a locally produced app like this?

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Well, I think what, look what we've done.

Speaker 10 (30:11):
The the the food literacy in New Zealand is pretty poor,
and certainly in certain in Pacifica and Maori. And I'm
so for me creating creating by Wise And it wasn't
by accident. We called it CI wise and Food Food Wisdom.

(30:33):
So having having an app for New Zealand by New
Zealand was really really important to me. I love my country,
I love I love our people, and I I really
disliked being taken advantage of and seeing people being taken
advantage of.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
So so it's vitally important.

Speaker 10 (30:51):
And I think we're not we're not planning on stopping
at New Zealand. We're I'm over in Australia now on
a holiday and visiting family, but I'm also going around supermarkets.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
And were we're you know, we've got the in the.

Speaker 5 (31:04):
Process of on the edge of law in Australia, so amazing.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
So it's pretty simple. You basically scan the serving sizes
and the and the information is to you know what's
in a product and then it gives you all this information.
Did you have to load all these products into the app?
Or is it the way it the information you give it?

Speaker 10 (31:28):
Yeah, Look what we've got is we've got is called
a gens one database, and so that's the database of
all the foods that we've got in our supermarket. So
when so when you look at a barcode and behind
that barcode that that barcode is designed and owned by
gus One, which is an international non for profit and
so we've we've we have a relationship with them, contract

(31:50):
with them here in New Zealand. Actually my my niece
manages that particular department, which was I didn't know at
the time, and so we've we've got so when you
scan a barcode, you accesses that database and draws all
that information. So food companies have to provide the information.

(32:11):
The information, the information that wise gets is from what's
on that product. It's just translated into green, amber and red.
And we all know what green, amber and red is.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Peter, what's your oin with this app? What do you
hope it'll achieve.

Speaker 10 (32:29):
I'm hoping look to create a to create a free,
a far more level playing field. That's all I'm trying
to do. Is there's a lot of isn't there. There's
a lot of talk about taking self responsibility and in
relation to eating well and exercising and losing weight and

(32:50):
just you know what you need to do is you
need to you need to take self responsibility. Well, the
essence of take. When you're taking self responsibility, what you
also need is you need the truth, don't you so
you can make accurate decisions.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
And so my aim for kai wise.

Speaker 10 (33:05):
Is to be able to provide that truth, a food
truth app in the pocket so that someone can scan
before they buy. And you can download the app right
now is the free version, and you can go to
your pantry and your cupboards and you can just scan
your products and I can absolutely guarantee you'll find surprises.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
You sure do. Thank you so much, Peter, and so
that we were talking about was kai wise and as
we just said, good thing to do if you got
a bit of time on your hands this afternoon. Downloaded.
I just used the free version. Go to the pantry,
start having a scan. You might be intrigued by what
you find. It is a twelve to ten.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
The headlines and the hard questions. It's the mic asking breakfast.

Speaker 11 (33:48):
The increasingly sticky FTA deal with India. Zeland first, of
course are out, so labor are batter up in terms
of numbers, but they've got a letter containing issues. That
trade man is Damian O'Connor. You're sort of there, aren't
you really? I mean, we're not that far apart. This
is too big a deal to cock up in the
long term.

Speaker 12 (34:02):
You know, there's a commitment to best effort. It's not
an absolute commitment. We get there, but we need some
explanations to what happens if in fifteen years time we
haven't invested thirty three billion New Zealand dollars in India.
What will that mean for exporters who might have committed
money less money than that, but money to the Indian market.
So these are questions that we would have asked through
the process.

Speaker 7 (34:22):
Have we been consulted?

Speaker 11 (34:23):
Back Tuesday from six am the mic Asking Breakfast with
a Vida News Talk ZB keep it.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Simple, It's Sunday the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudcott and
Wiggles for the best selection of great reads used Talk zedb.

Speaker 9 (34:54):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
So if you've got to spare twenty five thousand pounds
then there's some new music memorabilia on the market that
may interest you. I don't have any money for music memorabilia.
I can. I can keep a concert ticket and maybe
buy a T shirt occasionally. That's as far as I go.
But if you do have twenty five thousand pounds, one
of Bob Marley's dreadlocks is being sold. That's what it

(35:19):
is estimated to sell for. It's a one point five
inch length of hair. It originates from a Top of
the Pops performance in nineteen seventy eight. It's kind of
the presentation isn't impressive. It looks like it's in someone's
SnapLock bag. It does come though with that. He also
did his signature, so his signature's there. So I don't
know if that kind of just you know, confirms that

(35:41):
it actually was one of Bob Marley's dreadlocks, but clearly
someone has decided it was I don't know. It seems
to be a rather unusual and personal item to be
added to your collection. I know you mind why you
might buy guitar or some music lyrics, But anyway, there
we go. Interesting to see how much that goes for
very quickly some text. There is no whether Phillips documentary

(36:05):
should ever see the light of day. Those's have been
through a huge ordeal and it must be left to
heal the public. Talking about it won't help one bit.
That the police let the doco be made as a
betrayal of public trust in my view, and that is
the second reason why it should never screen anywhere. Thank
you for your thoughts, Tony. I do think there is
an aspect to this story which is interesting and of
public interest, and that is the police operation behind it.

(36:28):
I think we will all would. I think there was
a lot more going on than we realized, and I
think those who were very concerned about the welfare of
those children, I think there will be some answers there
for us. But I do agree with you about making
sure that you know nothing further happens with those children.
I do think though as well, that other people will

(36:50):
once the court proceed you know, any court procedures and
the coroner has done their job and everything, that we
will hear more about it. That someone will write a book,
there'll be articles about it. It will be sort of
you know, brought up anyway, Thank you for the text. Hey,
if you're at all interested in skin treatments and skin care,
we hear a lot about micro needling kits these days, peptides.

(37:13):
The world of cosmetic treatments has never sort of been
more crowded and confusing. There's lots of articles, social media
posts telling you about trending treatments, and there's a lot
of hype for things, and quite frankly, it can be
just very hard to figure out what works and what doesn't,
where you should spend your money and time, and where
you shouldn't. On our latest episode of The Little Things,
which you can get at iHeart or wherever you get
your podcasts, we talk to cosmetic medicine expert doctor Sarah Hart,

(37:36):
and she's going to talk about all the latest treatments
of products, what to look for, what to look out for,
what to avoid, what works, what doesn't all that kind
of thing. So it's a great epp. If you've got
a moment, have a listen. It is six to ten
new Stalks The b The.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by News talksb.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Alrighty coming up after the break, The Star of the
Ossie Office, Time Bandits Live at the Apollo seven days,
various other shows. The Ward is with us to talk
about the comedy industry. What is she loves about, sharing
her life on stage with strangers and how Dancing with
the Stars changed her life. The hilarious and irrepressible Felicity

(38:18):
Ward is with us. Next, we're gonna finish with some
new music from One Republic. This is Need Your Love Chortley,
go love those lines, Gonna love shades Adread.

Speaker 13 (38:33):
You know that I have made a million on the stage,
but ill make a million Dons Early's.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
Down with another nod need drains to fill this cold.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
But it's Sunday.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
You know what that means.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Winkles for
the best Election of grape Reeds Us Talk sat.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Be Tabby Easter Sunday. This is a Sunday session. Good
to have you with us. I'm Francisco Ruggen. At is
seven past ten.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
Right.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
We could all do with a little bit of a
laugh at the moment, couldn't we. So the good news
is that the New Zealand International Comedy Festival is just
around the corner. One of the international comedians attending this
year is British based ossie Felicity Ward. So Felicity is
a regular to our comedy scene and you may also
know her from the Office Australia, time bandits or in
between ers. Her show for the festival is called I

(40:01):
Wish I Could Come out of My Shell, and Felicity
Ward joins me now from London.

Speaker 14 (40:05):
Good morning, a good morning, how are you? Or good evening?

Speaker 2 (40:09):
But good morning, good I am very good, thank you.
I want to talk to you about this show that
you're bringing to New Zealand. It's called I Wish I
Could Come out of My Shell, which is hilarious considering
the photo that accompanies the title. But talkways through it
is it as tongue in cheek as it sounds.

Speaker 15 (40:25):
It is as tongue. It is as tongue in cheek
as it sounds. That's a very difficult sentence. I don't
know how you do that so easily. Yeah, I mean,
like this show is I always come up with the
show title and the poster first.

Speaker 16 (40:40):
That's where I start.

Speaker 15 (40:41):
And I thought that was a really funny thing because
I'm like ninety seven percent extrovert, Like I'm the only
three percent that's introvert is.

Speaker 14 (40:48):
When I'm pretending to be shy. That's it.

Speaker 15 (40:50):
I need people, I need I need.

Speaker 14 (40:53):
That's how I get my energy, That's how.

Speaker 16 (40:55):
And I'm such a.

Speaker 15 (40:59):
I'm such a sad show off, like you know those can't.
I don't understand shy comedians. The medians are really shy
off stage. I'm like, what what are you doing here?
Isn't this the most uncomfortable thing you've ever done in
your life?

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Well, I was going to say, I thought that, you know,
most comedians are already out of this shell. That's my
general perception on stage anyway.

Speaker 15 (41:21):
Yeah, on stage, but when they're not, when they're off
stage and they're like shy people, I'm like, this doesn't equate.

Speaker 14 (41:27):
This equation doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
It feels like hard work, right, I don't get it.

Speaker 16 (41:34):
Yeah, Yeah, like why put yourself through.

Speaker 14 (41:36):
I need it.

Speaker 15 (41:37):
I'm desperate for it. It's not not just like not
just laughs, but like I get a thrill out of
being on stage. I've been doing stand up for like,
I don't know, since the prehistoric era. But I love
stand up more now than I did when I started.

Speaker 14 (41:55):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Why is that?

Speaker 16 (41:58):
I think I got good?

Speaker 15 (42:00):
There's at one point where I was like, oh okay,
I could have been doing that the whole time. No,
like everyone, you know, you get, you get, you get
better at different points in your career and you learn
different parts. And I had done lots of acting before
I started stand up, so I had like I was
really comfortable on stage, but my writing was very hit

(42:21):
and miss, and then you know that got good after
a while.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
That's really interesting because you did You did start about
you're about twenty seven, I think when you started stand up. Yeah, yeah,
so you did come to it bit later. But I
also wondered whether having a little bit more life experience
under your belt also helped.

Speaker 15 (42:38):
Oh I god, my god, I don't know how imagine
getting up when you're eighteen years old on stage, Like,
what do I have to.

Speaker 14 (42:45):
Say at age eighteen?

Speaker 15 (42:46):
Having said that, there's lots of people that are really
good joke writers and they or there's like, you know,
there's freaks and proteges, like prodigies like Rose Mantafeo, where
she was just you know, she's just incredible at the
time that she was a teenager.

Speaker 14 (43:04):
I was not that.

Speaker 15 (43:06):
So And because my stand up is really hyper personal,
it's I had to go and have a life. But
also I didn't want to do stand up when I
first started, Like before I did stand up, I had
made a vow never to do stand up because I'd
always been in acting.

Speaker 14 (43:22):
I was like, er being yourself erh.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
What I am intrigued about is, as you see it,
you do share a lot of yourself in the stand
Oh yeah. Is that what kind of keeps bringing you
back to the stage? Does it bearing your soul on stage? What?

Speaker 11 (43:40):
What?

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Why do you want to keep doing that?

Speaker 15 (43:42):
Because it's the only thing that I have that no
one else has an opinion on, No one else has
the insight on my life that I do. And when
i'm you know, I have big feelings.

Speaker 14 (43:54):
All the time.

Speaker 15 (43:55):
And when I'm in the middle of a big feeling
of whatever that feeling is, whether it's like fury or
joy or sadness or struggle or whatever it is, I'm
really good at articulating it when I'm in it. So
I often write material when I'm in it and then
perform it like six months later and then and sometimes

(44:18):
it's really good to have that space and not feel
so attached to it. And then other times you're like,
this feels wrong. I should not be saying this anymore.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Still a bit too raw? Is it quite cathartic for you?

Speaker 7 (44:28):
Then?

Speaker 15 (44:29):
No, Everything that is a problem for me I deal
with in therapy. I am when people like, is there
is stand up the therapeutic, I'm like, no, I pay
for that. I have paid for that because I do
not want my audience to feel unsafe in front of me.
I'm a very mentally ill person. I would never ever
take out my feelings on my audience.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
So this particular show, what has inspired this particular show.

Speaker 15 (44:56):
Or two things? Basically, I got divorced and I separated
three years ago, and I was sort of like, really
I wasn't like, I won't say I was lost. I
was just starting again at forty three, and I was
in London and I was a single mum, and I

(45:19):
didn't have any family here, and it was it all
felt really really hard, and then the grief of you know,
of the marriage breaking down. But that's not what the
show is about. The show is about the first year.
About the end of the first year, I got the
call to do Dancing with the Stars and it changed

(45:41):
my life. And then the following twelve months, so the
three months that I was doing the show and then
the nine months that followed that had been one of
the greatest years of my life, of my whole life.
I have to be very quiet because my son, Oh
here is just now.

Speaker 14 (45:58):
I will read to you.

Speaker 15 (45:59):
I'm just I'm just doing an interview right now. But yeah,
do you want to come and say hi? Do you
want to quickly cut?

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Always?

Speaker 14 (46:07):
This is Frankie.

Speaker 16 (46:08):
Nice to see you, okay, father be can.

Speaker 12 (46:12):
You close it?

Speaker 15 (46:18):
Do you know how cute it is having a son
with an English accent when you don't have an English accent.
It's adorable. It's like living with a Disney bed. I'm
just going to close the door. Excuse me for a second.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
Okay, okay, So dancing with the Stars.

Speaker 14 (46:34):
So is he dancing with the stars?

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Who did really well? We've got to let people know.
I believe that you made it through to the to
the final.

Speaker 15 (46:41):
To the finale. Yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, it's really
really hard. I cried so much.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I don't know anyone who's done it who says I
had no idea how hard it would be, and everyone
kind of rolls their eyes. But to so many everybody
said that, now you can't ignore the fact that obviously
it's just.

Speaker 14 (47:00):
So in Australia.

Speaker 15 (47:00):
I don't know how they do it in New Zealand,
but Australia's I think, the only territory in the world
that still pre records the entire show. So we rehearse
for six weeks, one on one just our dancer. We
have no idea who the other contestants are awesome and
me and my dancer. We rehearsed seven hours a day,
five days a week, and you have to learn five

(47:21):
dancers in that time, and then the show starts like this.
Then they film the entire series, nine episodes in twenty
three days.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Oh my gosh, right, okay, so I didn't know. I know,
we go live here. I think sure, yea, it might
have been.

Speaker 16 (47:36):
Fo Yeah, I think it is.

Speaker 15 (47:38):
No, I think Australia is the only territory that does it.
So you have to know everything before the show record starts.
So everyone has to know five dancers, but there's only
two that you're guaranteed to perform. The first one is
a freebie first episode that you do, and the second
episode is elimination.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Nuts. That's quite yeah, that's a lot of pressure.

Speaker 6 (47:59):
Do you dance?

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Can you dance? Could you dance? Before I can Danceing
with the starts.

Speaker 14 (48:04):
Well, let me tell you.

Speaker 15 (48:05):
I went in thinking I could dance a lot better
than I could. I did a little bit of jazz
ballet in nineteen ninety one and went in a bit cocky,
you know. I thought I had an unfair advantage, and
it turns out that does not translate to the sumber
or the fox trot. So I have musicality, I have
a sense of rhythm, but I am also I didn't

(48:29):
realize this. I hate learning. It turns out I hate
learning and that is not as conducive as you'd think
to going on Dancing with the Stars.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
So when you say it changed your life, did it
change your life because of opportunities? And did it change
what was it?

Speaker 16 (48:44):
No?

Speaker 15 (48:45):
No, it was I this is going to sound depressing,
but don't worry.

Speaker 14 (48:49):
We all come out of it in the end.

Speaker 15 (48:51):
I because my life was so hard before I went
out there, like everything was really really hard, and I
just thought you got sadd or as you got older.
I just thought that's what happens with life, and I
just thought that was kind. That was my version of
rebellience is like that doesn't matter what you can throw
at me, I will always continue. It will be hard,
and I will be sad, but I will always continue

(49:12):
like I can. The stuff that I've been through in
my life is insane, and I will write a book
when all of my family are dead.

Speaker 14 (49:22):
I thought that.

Speaker 15 (49:25):
I think I thought that things were just going to
get sadder as I got older.

Speaker 16 (49:28):
And then what happened with the show is every time.

Speaker 15 (49:31):
I performed the dance, I got this massive like adrenaline, oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, everything,
And then in between the dancers, like while we were recording,
it was really really hard and really really stressful, and
just like subconsciously, it just retrained my neural pathways too,
like that I trusted that things can be hard and

(49:52):
good at the same time, and I didn't think they could,
and then I was like, I was at the airport
coming back to London, and I was like, oh my god,
I'm looking forward to coming back to London for the
first time in a decade.

Speaker 16 (50:03):
Like I always used to sit at the airport and
just go.

Speaker 15 (50:06):
I miss my family, I missed the food, I miss beaches,
I miss coffee, I miss my friend, like it was
every time, and this time I was like, I wonder
what London's going to be like. And then we went
on to have like the greatest summer of all time
as far, the most sunshine that we've had in like
one hundred years over here.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
But you're very good. You're very good at competitions, because
not only we were finalists and danced with the stars,
but I believe you were on in one Celebrity Mastermind,
which is pretty impressive. Your specialist topic.

Speaker 15 (50:32):
Was I'm the American band the Pixies. Brilliant, brilliant little
post punk bands.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah yeah, yeah. Did they ask you anything you didn't know?
Or are you actually you know, a Pixies expert? Seriously, Pixies.

Speaker 15 (50:47):
Oh sorry, that was just I'm sorry to be in
Australian but Pixie's expert is just the most key. We
phrase that you could say Pixi's expert is law lah
lah lah blah.

Speaker 14 (50:58):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 15 (51:00):
I know that's really hacky, but that was like, that
was afraid that I haven't heard of New Zealand to
say before, and that.

Speaker 14 (51:05):
Was absolutely dely. I'm so sorry.

Speaker 15 (51:09):
So what they do is before the show is they
ask you, like, what you would think your specialist subject
would be. And I firstly said the Simpsons series one
to nine because that's sort of something that I know
a lot about, and they're like, we have just recorded
that last week. I was like, And then they said,
you can be something that you know about, or it

(51:30):
can be something that you want to know about, and
so I said, I really love the Pixies though they're
my all time favorite band, I wouldn't say that I'm
an expert. And they're like, great, that's going to be.
And then they send you a resource. They send you
a source material so you learn from that, and then
it was like all of the all of the albums
up and.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Til you can learn. You are good at learning.

Speaker 15 (51:55):
Yeah, oh all right, no need to disprove my theory.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
It's really interesting hearing you talking about sort of you know,
being able to work out in life that you know,
just because something's hard, it doesn't assuming mean it's good.
And you talk about the fact that you know comedy
and the work that you do is kind of your
purpose and it lights up your life, But that doesn't
mean that it's not a pretty brutal industry and career.

Speaker 15 (52:21):
Oh you know, try being a single mum in the
arts in London. Do you have any idea how much
I have to hemorrhage just to get by over you?

Speaker 16 (52:35):
It's madness.

Speaker 15 (52:37):
It is madness how much money it costs to stay
afloat here. So I'm working like I've just started, like
I am on the road. I am like, but I
do love my job. I will say I am too
old to be driving six hours in a night, and
that's still happening.

Speaker 14 (52:56):
Sometimes.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
You're looking forward to getting back to Australia and New
Zealand for the comedy festivals. I know it's been a while.
I think since you've played Sydney, you're going to do
a couple of weeks there male and then here in
New Zealand. How long has it been since you sort
of performed.

Speaker 15 (53:15):
I was in New Zealand last year. I had a
great time, and that's why I wanted to come back.
I just had the time of my life and I
had a ball on seven days and I did it.
I'm doing all the galas again. I just can't wait.
I'm doing Wellington this year. I'm doing a full hour
at Wellington. I only did Auckland last year and just
did like a week there, so I'm really pumped about that.

Speaker 16 (53:35):
I'm just it used to be that I.

Speaker 15 (53:38):
Wrote an hour show every year, and then I got
pregnant and had a baby, and then COVID and so
then I wrote three one hour shows over four years,
and then tour that ended up being in a bridge Ferd.
So I sort of had like these three one hours
that I was kind of tinkering with for six years.

Speaker 16 (53:57):
This is the first show that I've written in.

Speaker 15 (54:00):
Four months, Like the time limit is four or five
months that I've written the show.

Speaker 14 (54:05):
The first time I've done that eight years.

Speaker 15 (54:06):
So it's been really exciting and stressful and thrilling and
finding out how much I can push myself and that
the muscle memory is still there. Having said that, I
have not done the show without notes yet, so we
will see how it goes when I start tomorrow in Melbourne.

Speaker 14 (54:24):
Oh my goodness, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Brilliant offules's see. I wish you all the best. Thank
you so much for good time this morning. It's been
lovely to talk to you.

Speaker 15 (54:32):
Oh my god, it's been lovely to talk to you too.
Thank you so much for your time for.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Liicity's show I Wish I Could Come Out of My
Shell is coming to New Zealand for the New Zealand
International Comedy Festival in May. For more details, head to
Comedyfestival dot co dot zed and if you'd love to
get into the outdoors and enjoy a hike, then you
will love my guest after eleven. His name is Batchdriver.
He's a Dutch filmmaker. He walked the Tataroa a few

(54:57):
years back and he was inspired to make a film
about long distance walking. It's a feature film. It's called
The North. It's in cinemas now and he is with
me to talk about it. After eleven. It is twenty
two past ten.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Relax, it's still the weekend. It's a Sunday session with
Francesca Rudgin and Wiggles for the best selection of Greg
reads used talks.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
That'd be.

Speaker 17 (55:29):
Okay, I'm really sorry to telling you Spice Girl fans
out there. But Melby has put an end to the
long swirling rumors of a Spice Girl's reunion tour.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
She is basic, She's made it very care she says,
I can tell you it's not happening. So there we go.
She said, if it does, it'll be a shock to me.
Let's put it that way. You can't be nagging everyone
to go on to her if they don't want to.
I laid that to Recee one nineteen fifty. So there
we go. Good on her putting her foot down. But
sorry about that. If you're a fan, I know some
people have been holding out for that. Join me, NAS

(56:06):
Talk Entertainment, Steve Neil.

Speaker 18 (56:08):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Have you been watching You've got some East of viewing
for us? Yeah, cutting up on a few shows.

Speaker 18 (56:14):
A couple of long weekend viewing options. So over in
prime video. I've been watching Bait, which stars Riz Ahmed.
He plays Charlotte Tiefe, a rapetent actor who is done
on his luck a little bit, but is auditioning to
be the next Bond. It's kind of I guess, riffing
on that dialogue that always swirls around like who's going
to be the next James Bond, and particularly in the UK,

(56:36):
is it just going to be another whitebread James Bond
or not? So Riz is really well castles. He has
developed the show himself and written it. It's very much
one of those shows that sort of takes a bit
of an insider's look inside the life of an actor
and we kind of have been here before. It's like,
it's not flattering. He doesn't portray actors anything less than narcissistic,
in vain and a bit hapless. But I think the

(56:58):
sort of his London Pakistani upbringing adds a lot to
the show's family relationship adds a lot to the show.
And his relationship with a character I won't spoil us
too much with a character voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart
lends a lot to this. Also, Riz finds himself talking
a lot to Sir Patrick Stewart's voice, and this show

(57:21):
him not very nice stuff back. So yeah, he leaks
or sort of generates the news story about him becoming
Bond and that the show is sort of about the
ramifications of him post that, and I guess what it
means to be a London Pakistani actor who suddenly thrust
into the National spotlight.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Nice now and it's a comedy most and we can
have a laugh there we go love it. For All
Mankind is up to season five. I loved this when
it came out. I love the way it took history
and then it just kind of, you know, manipulated it
and said what if essentially, And of course we currently
have some astronauts about to fling themselves around the dark

(57:58):
side of the Moon about yeah.

Speaker 18 (58:01):
Yeah, So For allman Kind Season five is now streaming
on Apple TV and it's the twenty tens in the show,
so yeah, the series diverged from the point of the
moon landing. It's set up in the universe where Russians
were the first of the moon, and then kind of
posits that butterfly effect into everything that came after that.
By the twenty tens, there's a colony on Mars. It's
fairly independent, but it's seeking its full independence. So it's

(58:24):
really kind of just kind of showcasing or spotlighting what
geopolitical things start to happen when space becomes busier. Some
of the core cast are still kicking around, they're wearing
a lot of old age makeup now and it's been
recently announced that season six it will be the final season,
and I think that, considering this is in the twenty tens,
presume that season six will bring us up to the present,

(58:45):
and then that will be a really nice way to.

Speaker 2 (58:47):
Yes, Look, I love the first few seasons and then
I sort of lost interested a little bit. I do
come back to it just because I you know, I'm
fond of it, but it isn't quite as strong.

Speaker 18 (58:59):
Yeah, it started out, and I think the Mars base
setting is just maybe a little bit more reminiscent of
lots of other sci fi, so it doesn't quite have
the same sense of space risk and adventuring, Like I
recall like asteroids astronauts being stuck on the Moon in
the show to a hugely moving effect, whereas this is
just a bit samey.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
It's a little bit more internal. It's what's happening within
sort of this colony, and it turns out humans do
exactly what they do on Earth totally behave the same way,
you know, if you like.

Speaker 18 (59:29):
That exploratory part of the show. There is a kind
of spin off show, Star City, which starts really soon,
and that follows the Russian side of the story, and
they keep the time period in this allegedly to just
during the nineteen seventies, so it's very much during the
the kind of danger years of space.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
So this is all mankind is on Apple TV. So
is that we star?

Speaker 18 (59:50):
I believe it immediately follows this season.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Of writing that down. Hey, has there been any movement
on the situation at Western Springs in Auckland when it
comes to there?

Speaker 18 (01:00:00):
Hasn't we touched on this a few weeks ago that
it was looking more and more likely The Auckland Councils
governing by has voted to support the transformation in Western
Springs into a boutique bowl like stadium. It also includes
an investment by Tartuki Auckland Unlimited, the owner of the venue,
and the idea is that it will be for festivals

(01:00:21):
and concerts of up to thirty thousand people and an
upgraded and broadcast quality sports set up for events of
up to five thousand people. So Ponceby Rugby will continue
to play there, which is really great news from my
point of view. I sympathize with the Speedway crowd. Speedway
has been a part of that part of Auckland for
a really long time. The sound of speedway sounds like

(01:00:42):
the suburbs I've lived into me, so it's a real
shame they have to move on. But I think this
is the best future that Western Springs Stadium is going
to get.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Oh well, if you're missing the sound, just come out
to where I am. I can get white at a
park in the distance if the wind's blowing in the
right direction. But you won't hear me complaining. It's just life.
People to have their hobbies and do the things roundtown.

Speaker 18 (01:01:02):
That's a maybe, but I'll probably see you to show
at the Western Springs.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
That's probably more like, thank you so much.

Speaker 7 (01:01:07):
Steve.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Entering the reast of your Easter. It is twenty eight
to a living. Coming up NIXT, We've got some interesting
discoveries about bumblebees.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin on News Talk stb.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Sttor Michelle Dickinson, Good morning, Good morning, bumblebees. We all
love a bumblebee, don't we.

Speaker 19 (01:01:31):
We love them And this is like a happy ever
after story about the bumblebee.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Turns out they were even cleverer than we thought they were.

Speaker 19 (01:01:38):
And what I love is usually I bring you in
scientific research, and you know some scientists has like planned
it for their whole lifetime, applied for millions of grants,
finally got it funded and put it through. This research
happened by accident, and that's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
My favorite type of research. I love it.

Speaker 19 (01:01:52):
And it started sad but ended up happy. So researchers
were looking at bumblebees, especially queen bees, who hibernate, and
they stored them in a fridge to watch them hybernate. Basically,
as the bees got cold, they hibernated, and the plan was,
after a while, see howung they hibernate for and then
pull them out. Apart from here's what happened. The bees

(01:02:13):
were happily hibernating. It's called it's not called hibernation in bees,
it's called deep resting. They were doing that, and the
scientists didn't realize that condensation from the fridge was dripping
into the containers that the bees were in, leaving the
bees fully submerged in water. And somebody opened the fridge
to check on the bees. They were in water and

(01:02:35):
they went, oh, no, all of our bees have drowned.
And everybody panicked, and so they were like well, that's
very sad. Our science experiment is over. So they pulled
the bees out, poured the water away, and lo and
behold the bees were not dead. They woke up and
they were perfectly fine. And scientists were hot. On a minute,
there's a science project there. Why are my bees not dead?

(01:02:56):
So that's where the study came from. It's published in
the Royal Society Publishing Proceedings. Be if you want to
read it. And I love science by accident. So bees
are and have lungs. They basically breathe through these little
holes on their side of their body and usually if
those holes are blocked, they can't get oxygen into their body.
So surely water would fill those holes. So they didn't

(01:03:18):
literally like guilds like little yeah, like little holes. Yes,
that's how their oxygen gets in. And so they did
this again. They basically took the bees, hibernated them, put
them in the fridge, and then put them in water.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Hope it wasn't one of the one.

Speaker 19 (01:03:33):
And actually they measured carbon dioxide levels and they found
that in this hibernation state, this state where they don't
move very much, actually the bees produce seventy five percent
less carbon dioxide, so basically the whole metabolism shuts down.
We've seen this in bears two when bears hibernat in case,
it basically that all their body functions just become this
tiny minimum level. Then actually the amount of oxygen that

(01:03:55):
they needed was tiny anyway, so the fact that these
holes were blocked didn't matter so much. Secondly, they found
that bees, like people, can actually use a different type
of metall and move to anaerobic metabolism. Anaerobic is what
basically when you're exercising and you're puffing in your panting.
It's that same thing. Now they can't do it forever
because like in humans, they get a build up of

(01:04:17):
lactic acid, but they can do it for short periods.
So they found that not enough oxygen in that's fine,
they didn't need too much, and they can do this
anaerobic metabolism. But here's the thing. Bees are fluffy, and
what they found is the fluffiness of bees meant that
the water didn't quite touch their body but instead left

(01:04:37):
a little air pocket. I don't know if you've ever
put anything fluffy in the bathtub, but you see that
like little air bubbles get caught between the surface and
the fluff. Yeah, well that's what happened. And so these
little bees had a little air pocket around their body
that they could pull the little so their tubes weren't blocked.
They could pull oxygen from it. And they've called it
a physical gill in this story, but basically it's a

(01:04:59):
little like a little oxygen bubble.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
So does it Does this only work if they're in
the deep state. Definitely, don't into the garden and catch
your bee.

Speaker 19 (01:05:11):
And they only did between bees, which most people won't have.
So this is a very specific state for a very
specific bee. So please don't take your bee and dunket
and see if it will drown.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
It will drown.

Speaker 19 (01:05:21):
But in this case, because they're in this hibernation state
and their metabolism was so reduced and they had this
little bubble of air around them that they could breathe
and get their oxygen from, the.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Bees survived, Hurrah. And you know, here's another in sec
that is a lot more resilient than we thought.

Speaker 19 (01:05:38):
Bees are so cool and I just go, it's another superpower.
How cool is that? So well done on the bees.
What was a sad story ended up being a new
scientific discovery and the bees lived.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
I love it. Thank you so much, Michelle. We'll catch
up next week.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
The Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeart Radio powered
by News.

Speaker 7 (01:05:56):
Talks it be.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
It is time to talk to our resident shift Mike
vend Alison.

Speaker 6 (01:06:00):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Has the Easter bunny been out in your place?

Speaker 20 (01:06:05):
There's still a little easy the budding sitting by my bedside.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
There we go. Always good to have a little something
tucked away for later.

Speaker 6 (01:06:15):
I'll get there. I'll get there later. Hazel definitely had hers,
Ivey definitely had hers.

Speaker 20 (01:06:19):
And I think Hazel probably got most of her Easter
egg over the doubt and over her bed.

Speaker 6 (01:06:27):
So now the sheep's all getting clean.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Fantastic. So I imagine that the Easter bunnies contribution in
our house will be long gone by the time I
get home. Today we're going to talk about figs. I
don't think I've ever done anything with a fig when
it comes to cooking it or preserving it or anything.

Speaker 20 (01:06:49):
They can they can be a little bit tricky. And
like right now, figs are out. Now the trees are
the leaves will fall off and basically all you've got
left the branches of the tree and these enormous figs
that the birds haven't managed to get to yet. So
if you are thinking figs, now is the diamond, and

(01:07:10):
I guess they kind of play into that rolling into
autumn scenario as well. Our ones are brown turkeys that
we've got on our trees and it's misleading.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Yeah, someone go out and get the brown turkey.

Speaker 20 (01:07:24):
Yeah, they do look like a big brown turkey belly,
so they are, but they're not the mission.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
Figs.

Speaker 20 (01:07:31):
I think are probably the better of the figs. They
tend to have the real bright red flesh and are
slightly sweeter and slightly more flavor than brown brown turkeys.
But you know, what do you do with figs?

Speaker 7 (01:07:43):
You can go.

Speaker 20 (01:07:46):
Into what we're doing here, which is going to be
the oozy caramel slice, or you could just also keep
them really simple. You could just turn your oven on
to grill, cut your figs in half, place them onto
an oven tray over the top just to touch a
bol slomoic vinegar, just a touch of soft brown sugar,
and then toast them under the grill for like five
minutes or.

Speaker 6 (01:08:07):
Until they just start to collapse, because eat.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Them with ice cream and things, don't they.

Speaker 6 (01:08:11):
Well, and that at that point you could then serve
them hot over some ice cream, or you could serve
them with a grilled a loomy cheese salad, or we
used to back in the day, I used to make
a smoked marlin risotto and I'd serve these figs over
the top of the smoke malon risotto. Quite bizarre, isn't it. Yeah, But.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
For all that, I've never actually cocked done anything with
the figure, I have enjoyed a lot of fig chutney too.

Speaker 20 (01:08:42):
And that's and that's where we tend to go a
lot of times, and that works better with the dried figs.
So you wouldn't really use a fresh fig in a
fig chuckney. I don't think you would, because it just collapses.
And I think with a fig chuckney you kind of
want to maintain that the firmness of that fig, or
at least the shape of that piece of fig, where

(01:09:04):
for fresh figs you tend to go trying to keep
the shape and keep the flavor of that for going.
So I thought I thought I'd do an Easter fig
and oozy caramel loaf.

Speaker 6 (01:09:18):
Love it doesn't that sound?

Speaker 7 (01:09:20):
It does?

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
It sounds really good, So it is.

Speaker 20 (01:09:25):
A loaf, but it could also be a slice. It
could also Yeah, you could also make this in a
cupcake format, or a muffin format, or a steam pudding format.
So I've got a loaf tin for this, it's about
twenty twelve centimeter and then you want to you want
to line it with greaseproof paper at least the bottom,
and then maybe just use some butter and just rub

(01:09:46):
the sides of the loafs tins with butter. Then into
a pot you go one hundred and twenty five grands
unsalted butter. Just melt that slowly and then add in
one hundred and fifty grands of soft browned sugar, bring
it up to up to the ball, and then just
continue to cook that for about two or three minutes
until the mixture becomes foamy and starts to become light
and pale color. Once you've reached that and it starts

(01:10:09):
to foamb up nicely, turn that off and then pour
that into the bottom of your greased loafting. So that's
the caramel element done. And then I've got six figs,
depending on the size and how many you can fit
into your loaften cut them in half, take the little
hard stem off and then lay them down, flesh side
down into your muffin tee on top of that caramel,

(01:10:31):
and then just set that aside. Turn your overn one
hundred and eighty degrees and then take another one hundred, sorry,
two hundred and twenty five grams unsalted butter. Put that
into a mixer. Start to crean that up with two
hundred and twenty five grams a caster sugar. Once that's
light and fluffy into a bowl, you go four eggs
with three tablespoons of milk. Just give that a light whisk,

(01:10:53):
and then while you're beating the eggs or sorry, the
caster sugar and butter, just slowly pour the egg mixer
into it. Just a little bit out of time. It
will kind of separate out and then it'll come together.
It will separate out, come together. So you've got all
their egg mix.

Speaker 6 (01:11:07):
In and then you want to stir.

Speaker 20 (01:11:09):
And I've got one hundred grams of ground almonds, a
pinch of salt, a teaspoon of ground ginger powder, one
hundred and fifty grams of plain flour, and a teaspoon
of baking powder. That's your cake battle cake mix done.
Pour that over the top of your figs that are
sitting in that beautiful caramel fire. That into an oven
one hundred and eighty degrees. It's going to take about

(01:11:30):
forty minutes. But the way to check it is just
chuck a skewer into it. If it comes out nice
and clean, then you're good to go. Pull it out
of the oven. Just let it sit for a couple
of minutes before you can handle it, and then just
run a knife around the outside, fold it out, peel
off that greaseproof paper, and then you should have the
finished proroduct and you can from there you can serve
it with some ice cream, You can slice it the

(01:11:51):
next day, you can toast it, or you could just
have it as nice a little bit of afternoon tea
sounds good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Thank you so much, Mike. Enjoy the rest of your Easter.
If you would like the recipe for the Easter fig
and easy caramel life, head to new talk ZIDB dot
co dot nz forward Stash Sunday. All our interviews and
our recipes and things will be up on there for
you throughout the day, and of course you can head
to Good from Scratch dot co dot Nz as well. Right,
so there might be a bit of a possibility at

(01:12:20):
about three pm this afternoon, or maybe two pm, you'll
be feeling a little bit like the ester fig and
Uzi caramel loaf. So Aaron is here with us next
to help us battle the afternoon sugar craving. But maybe
we'll start that tomorrow. It is twelve to eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
There's no better way to start your Sunday. It's the
Sunday Session with Francesca Rutkin and Wiggles for the best
selection of Greg Reeds.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Use talk, said.

Speaker 21 (01:12:46):
Bee say he's just stepan railround.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Righty home, it's time to talk wellness. Erin O'Hara joins us. Now,
good morning, good morning. I'm not entirely sure that this
topic was probably well thought through for Easter. Maybe next
weekend it would have been ideal, But look, it's always
we've us been able to start to think about it.
How we can tackle the afternoon of sugar craving. Because
I'm sure there'll be a few today.

Speaker 9 (01:13:14):
Yeah, and maybe it's something you start next week after
it's a weekend exactly, But you know, I you know
it's worth talking about because I think many of us
get to it, and whether it's a sugar craving or
just a snack craving of some sort, whether you want
cheese or cracks or something there is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
Each one of us sort of has a point in
the day where we start looking around, going what can
I nimble on?

Speaker 9 (01:13:34):
Yeah, it's usually that carbohydrate that people are looking for.
And usually somewhere in that window between two and four
is you get that glouk where blood glue cose level
drop off and that mind says, give me, sugar must
be sugar, must be something carbohydrate, And that's where you're
kind of rummaging through the cupboard looking for something to eat,

(01:13:54):
even when maybe you're not even that hungry. And it's
actually more likely to happen after you've had a lot
of sugar. So if you've had lots of.

Speaker 22 (01:14:02):
Easter buns this weekend as well as Easter eggs, then
leading into this week a head, you might have a
problem with some afternoon sugar crashes. And the main reason
we do get these sugar crashes or sugar cravings in
the afternoon is because the blood sugar level dips in
the afternoon, and naturally, when we get that, we're looking

(01:14:23):
for something that will give.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Me a quick pick me up, which.

Speaker 9 (01:14:26):
Is never something like protein or vegetable sticks or an
apple will never satisfy a sugar craving at three o'clock
in the afternoon. So that's really the main reason that
people will get the sugar cravings is that afternoon energy
drop or blood sugar drop. Also, it can be to
do a Cicadian rhythm, so we've also last night just
had daylight saving as well. So sometimes although this change

(01:14:49):
over with the extra hour sleep actually works in our
favor because we're less likely to be afternoon tired in
that two to four window because we've actually had an
extra hour's sleep. Well might feel like an extra hour sleep,
but it can be that we haven't had enough sleep
or we need to rebalance our sleep cycle. We're getting
that energy crash in the afternoon. And the other big
one is stress. If you've had a really stressful day,

(01:15:12):
then we get to that afternoon lull and we're looking
for a way to kind of pack me up, give
you that feel good vibe, and give you the energy
to keep going through today.

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
So if nothing else is going to satisfy it, then
how do we get rid of it?

Speaker 9 (01:15:25):
In the first place, it's all about how you set
up the day, and actually what you do in the
morning half of the day is going to affect you
for the afternoon half of the day. So looking at
eating a balanced breakfast and lunch, and it means it
needs to have a good amount of protein in it
as well as fiber, because they're going to help you

(01:15:45):
regulate your glucose level throughout the whole day. So if
you've done that through your breakfast and your lunch, you're
setting yourself up for a great afternoon ahead where your
energy won't dip as much for the afternoon. The other
thing is staying hydrated. Sometimes if we've not had much
hydration and water through the day, we're actually get that
energy drop off in the afternoon, and we think we

(01:16:07):
need sugar because that's what our brain's telling us, but
actually we're actually needing water, which is actually something that
we're getting that q wrong in what we're Our mind's
telling us one thing, but actually what our body needs
is something different. Also, how you're managing your stress sivels
through the day, so we're not kind of needing that
big serotonin dopamine hit from the sugar that actually gives

(01:16:30):
you that pick me up, So if we're regulating our
stress through the day, that can be helpful. And then
also having healthy snacks on hand is always helpful because
if you don't have any healthy snacks, particularly if you're
at work, then you go to the vending machine and
probably nothing in the vending machine is that great for you.
So even if you're looking for the healthiest option in there,
maybe there's a packet of nuts, generally there's not much

(01:16:54):
there that's sort of healthy snack version there.

Speaker 22 (01:16:58):
So making sure you've gotten.

Speaker 9 (01:16:59):
Your bag to go to work or to go to school,
go to after school activities, making sure you've got seeds
or nuts or piece of fruits, so something that'll really
give you that good regulation through the afternoon, and pack
your energy up to thank.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
You so much, erin as always lovely to talk to you.
It is five to.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
Eleven the Sunday Session Full Show podcast on iHeartRadio, powered
by news Talks atb.

Speaker 2 (01:17:24):
Okay. Have you ever wondered what it might be like
to walk the taadooa or six hundred kilometers of Scottish highlands. Well,
my next guest, Dutch filmmaker Batch Driver, has done both
and while he walked Scotland. He also made a feature film.
It's called The North and it's in cinemas now, So
up next match Driver on walking long distances and how

(01:17:46):
it changes you and making movies. We'll be back shortly.
You're a newsbo.

Speaker 16 (01:18:17):
Waiting for the.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Welcome to the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin and Wiggles
for the best selection of great reeds us.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Coming out for this hour. Jason Pine on whether the
Warriors can get back to winning form against the Sharks
this afternoon. Of course, I can Megan on her slow
mo New York itinery, and Joan has the latest from
Anatomy of a Scandal author Sarah.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Vaorn the Sunday Session.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
The ti aroa trail running between Cape Rianga and Bluff,
is one of the world's most diverse long distance walks.
It's not for the faint hearted, so it's interested to
see it has had one of its busiest years yet,
with more than two thousand people completing the trial. Someone
who has just who has undertaken the trick is film
director Baut Shreither. The trial inspired his latest filmed The North,

(01:19:19):
which has been referred to as the ultimate hiking film
The North is in cinemas now, and Bart joins me. Welcome,
thank you lovely to have you back in New Zealand,
because you are no stranger to the place you walked
the Adradawa trial, the three thousand kilometer hiking trail the
length of New Zealand.

Speaker 13 (01:19:38):
Larsurely three thousand?

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
He what did you what did you end up walking?

Speaker 13 (01:19:42):
I have no idea, no, but a three thousand. It
doesn't matter if it's three thousand or three and a
half or seven hundred and fifty kilometers. It's already crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
When did you do that?

Speaker 13 (01:19:52):
In twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen?

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Yeah, what was it like?

Speaker 13 (01:19:57):
Yeah, that's that's well. I already made two films about this,
you know, so to kind of try to explain what
it's like, it's so tricky. I think it's how do
you explain the last four years four months of your life?
How were how were those four months? It's also yeah,
it's it's it was. It's life changing in a sense,
and it's yeah, difficult to difficult to describe, but very special.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
Why did you choose this trial? How did it come about?

Speaker 7 (01:20:24):
It was?

Speaker 13 (01:20:26):
It was sort of an accident, not. It was me
and a friend to the friend that I walked to
the with. We were having a beer and he just
finished his internship, or he was going to finish it
in like half a year, and he wanted to go
travel a lot. And we were having a beer and
he said, I want to go in nature things and
I said, oh, you have these these great long walks
all over the world. So we started looking them up
and we found the ones in in the US, the

(01:20:49):
famous ones, and then we also found this one here
in New Zealand and he said, oh, yeah, maybe I'll
do that. I said, okay, cool, then I'll come and
I'll look you up for two weeks. And I think
a beer later, I said, but should we just do
it together? It sounds so good, and he said, yeah,
let's do it. And then that was it. It was decided.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
And but how much hiking had you done before?

Speaker 13 (01:21:07):
No? Zero? We did campaign and stuff with my parents
in like a caravan, so I slept in a tent before.
But really the walking with the backpack and all the
gear and the stuff and nothing, no, absolutely nothing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
Can you prepare yourself for long distance walking like this?

Speaker 8 (01:21:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:21:25):
I think you can, but it's also, I think that
we didn't overthink it that much. Yeah, it was quite good,
because if you know how tough it is, you'll probably
will probably haven't done it, you know. But if you
also know how cool it is and how nice it is,
then then for sure you will do it. But usually
you see the challenges before you see the fun.

Speaker 2 (01:21:45):
And had you thought about the fact that you were
picking a walk that was probably as far away from
the Netherlands, you know, your home as possible?

Speaker 13 (01:21:52):
No, not really, no, no, but it's the same when
I studied, I studied architecture in the city, and then
I lived in Amsterdam and my sister said, as go
study architecture. I said, okay, I'll do it. And then
a week later after I applied, I noticed, oh wait,
it's in a totally different town to go there. So
those things usually kind of happen. No, No, I don't

(01:22:12):
think we really thought about that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
I think we all kind of know that being in
nature can be transformative, and spending three months in nature
absolutely has that effect. How did it change you? Can
you articulate it?

Speaker 13 (01:22:26):
Yeah, it's difficult, but I think what it really does nicely,
it stops you for a bit even though you're moving,
of course, but your life kind of stops because there's
not a lot of new input coming in, not a
lot of your phone doesn't work half the time, you
don't have a job, you're not paying taxes, you don't
talk to your friends and family that much. So there's
this quite long period of time for us. Then it

(01:22:49):
was three and a half months where you stop and
things can come up, especially when you're twenty six twenty
seven and you know your student life is behind you
and you kind of want to want to and need
to grow up maybe in a certain way. There's all
these reflections and things that you haven't thought about about
yourself or about the world or where you are and
what you want to do. They come up, and then

(01:23:09):
the cool thing is is that you have three and
a half months for them to just a lot of
time to just out yeah, and then not that something
comes up, but then other things ask your attention or
you talk to someone about it, but you really have
this moment in time to think about, Okay, what is
it for me? And then in the end, for me,
there were no conclusions, but there were all these puzzle

(01:23:30):
pieces and then I think since then in the last
eight years, nine years, all those puzzle pieces they come
up again sometimes things that are collected and thought of
in that moment, and they're like, oh wait, you know
this is what that meant, and this is what that meant.
So there's no in the end, I'm going to change
my life, but your life has changed. But you'll notice it.

(01:23:52):
You'll notice it afterwards, and you'll notice it along the
way in the rest of your life what you want
to do with that. So it is Yeah, it's a
really interesting experience that keeps on coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Actually, So you were in your mid late twenties when
you did to Adroowa. But our characters in the film
The North, these two men that we follow across Scotland's
West Highland Way there in the early sort of mid thirties,
why did you choose that age?

Speaker 13 (01:24:21):
Well, because it's so me and a friend we walked
the tail all together. We also slept in the same
tent and I kept a diary of our walk and
a lot of that is in the film. But I
also sawze that if I want to even make the change,
that the changes in these two characters more visible because
I and when we were walking, I was twenty six,

(01:24:43):
twenty seven, and still not really knowing what I wanted
to do. And then Nil's my friend already did an
internship and was looking for a job, and we were
on this point where we were diverging into different lives.
And now, like a couple of years ago, thirty three,
thirty four, the lives of us were so different. You know,
when you were twenty five, you were the same, You

(01:25:04):
were just having a drink and you still have this
life in front of you. But then early thirties is
such a weird period of time where some people already
have they're married, have a kid, have their promotions, and
a job and a car and a dog, and other
people are stay like I have no idea what to
do with my life, and they're still trying to figure
it out. And I think like when you start going
maybe to your forties, those things they come back again

(01:25:27):
a little bit. But this is a very weird place
in time where those friendships they kind of go different
routes and you really can see the differences in people.
And that's why I thought, Okay, let's make them a
little bit older. And also that's the age that I was,
and it felt more like this is what the things
are that I am working on right now.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
I think the North is like the quintessential hiking film.
It just captures it all so beautifully. Can we start
maybe with the landscape. Why did you choose Scotland?

Speaker 13 (01:25:55):
Well, a couple of reasons that were quite practical. Actually
it's close to the Netherlands, but also.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
So youre getting more practical as you get older, Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:26:02):
A little bit. Yeah, No, New Zealand is quite far away.
But another thing that's really important for me as well
as to have a sort of freedom. So in Scotland
you have the freedom to roam what you also have
here in New Zealand in a lot of places where
you can pitch your tent as long as you stick
to the rules of the and the regulations of you know,
leave no trace and take care of the environment. But
you can do a lot of things there and that

(01:26:23):
meant that for filming we have the freedom to go
places that we want to go. And in Europe you
don't have that in a lot of places. You have
it in Scandinavia, where I shot my first film. You
have it in Scotland, some parts of Iceland, up in
the mountains in Switzerland and Austria. But so for me
it was okay. It has also the different things that
I need to actually have the freedom to do what

(01:26:44):
I want there. And then there's also I've never been
to Scotland before this film, but it always had this
sort of magical attraction and when I went there, I
know why. It's it's such a beautiful place.

Speaker 6 (01:26:57):
It's done.

Speaker 13 (01:26:59):
Yeah, and in a sense, and in some places it
has some parts that New Zealand has as well, with
the Tayo Ranges or parts of the South Island. It
really reminded me of that.

Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
And here's the really crazy thing. You actually did the walk, Yeah,
you and your actors and the crew. It was a
pretty small crew. You actually did the walk and films
as you win. Is that correct?

Speaker 13 (01:27:22):
Yeah? Most of it. We couldn't do everything because it's
the it's the West Highland Way and the Cape Wrath
Trail and together it's about four hundred or five hundred kilometers,
which if we want to film and walk, we can
only do about ten kilometers a day, so that meant
that we'd be more than fifty days. That's quite tricky.
So we did I think about three hundred kilometers because
there's just a lot of places that you cannot get otherwise.

(01:27:43):
So if we want to film on top of a mountain,
and with the budget that we have, which is quite low,
we don't have an helicopter or you know, nice hotels.
So it's it's this twofold where this way we can
go to the places. But it's also we really experience
what it's like to be out there. So if you
have an actor and he slept in a tent yesterday,
I don't have to explain what that's like. Or I
don't have to explain, you know, what it's like to

(01:28:05):
walk up a mountain be tired. You know they're tired.
And it's the same with the camera. Everyone knows this
is the feeling that we're trying to capture. And I
also just really enjoy it, and I think that's the
most important part.

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
I love the way this film just captures that day
to day routine of long distance walking. It's the you know,
you get up, you have your breakfast, you pack up,
you start walking, you stop and you eat. The end
of the day, you eat again and put your team,
you know, and it's just it's kind of like it's,
you know, depending on the weather it can be a
wonderfully simple way to live life or a very challenging

(01:28:39):
way to live life. And it's really interesting to see
how people respond, isn't it. You know one person, one
person might have a fantastic hour all day on a trial,
while it could be the worst day of somebody else's life.

Speaker 13 (01:28:51):
Yeah. No, definitely, but that's I think that's also because
we really did it, we really walked it, because then
you get these these two different things. But it was
I think what really helped was when I when I
walked here in New Zealand, I kept a diary, so
I knew all the things how it felt in the
moment instead of thinking now back, how was it? So

(01:29:11):
I knew the little irritations that happened, and I knew
these were the things that were difficult for that person
or for that person. And in the end, it's you know,
it's it's sort of a holiday, but after a while,
walking becomes your life. It's just it's exactly the same
as you know, it's your job almost this is what
I do each day, so that has good days and

(01:29:33):
bad days. And it isn't even that walking through the
rain or it has to be a bad day. No,
those can be sometimes the best day. So it's not
even about that. It can be it can be small things,
just like you know when you wake up one morning
and you put a pen in your pocket and then
it splurges out, but it's a beautiful day and that,
but that can still ruin your day. And I think
with hiking it's the same. It's just these little bits

(01:29:54):
and pieces that can do.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
Then are you a convert now to longest I mean
obviously as you say, you've made two films. You made
Human Nature in twenty twenty two, and now the North
that you are convert to the long distance walk?

Speaker 13 (01:30:05):
Yeah, I really like it, but it's tricky. Now my
son is now a year and a half, so I
haven't done it for a little bit or a little while.
But now we're hopefully we're going to go to Sweden,
the three of us with my wife and we maybe
can do some walks there and it's it's but it's
a big investment. But now I kind of have these
two things because then I can say, oh, but I
need to do it for my job because I need

(01:30:26):
to make a new film, so it's.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Also to make another high time. Yeah, I need I
needed to do you need to do it. How did
you cope with the midges in Scotland? Because I did
actually read somewhere or I was actually told a couple
of weekends ago that studies have been done that have
identified that though the midges cost Scottish tourism industry over
three hundred and twenty million pounds a year because people

(01:30:48):
can't go with them.

Speaker 13 (01:30:49):
Brill you have the SAand flies here as well.

Speaker 2 (01:30:52):
Oh yeah, no, don't worry, we have we have out fish.

Speaker 13 (01:30:54):
Yeah yeah, no. And I think they are there the
same their cousins. There're something no there they There's places,
especially up in the really up in the north in
Scotland that remind me of South America and the beauty
of it and the wildness of it. And you have
these beautiful beaches that are just that are this almost
white sand, and no one goes there because it's also

(01:31:16):
the weather, of course, but you can cope with that.
But the midges are quite tough. I think it's also
kind of a good thing, or else it would be
filled with hotels and now it's still this beautiful nature.
But there they are. They're terrible when they're there, But
when they're not there, which is also a lot of
the time, it's not really that big of a deal.
If it's been raining, then the sun shines and there's

(01:31:37):
no wind, it is the worst, but already a little
bit of wind and they're gone. So also the moving.
So that's why in the film you also see them
eating while walking around. Yeah, that then they cannot get you.
But if you see one of the actors, Carlos, he
had quite a bad reaction to the bites and his
whole face was, yeah, that's not makeup, you know. And

(01:31:59):
then for me as the director, I'm also like, ah,
I feel so I feel so sorry for you. And
on the other side, I think this is quite nice.
This looks very good for the film.

Speaker 2 (01:32:06):
I think it's something very important that actors are going
to need to know in the future when they hear
that there's a possibility of being involved in a bat
About film, it may require Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:32:15):
I always tell them what it's going to be like,
and I tell people these are the tough days, and
they all always just hear the beautiful poets.

Speaker 2 (01:32:23):
I love it and it is an incredibly beautiful film.
But it's the kind of film that you watch and
you just want to run for the hills the lin
You've finished it, so congratulations, thank you so much, and
thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker 13 (01:32:34):
You're welcome. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
That was film director but Drivor. The film is called
The North. It's in cinemas now. It is twenty past eleven.
The panel's up next.

Speaker 7 (01:32:43):
Grab a cover.

Speaker 1 (01:32:44):
It's the Sunday Session with Francesca, Rudgin and Wickles for
the best selection of rings us talk.

Speaker 2 (01:32:50):
Sed be it is time for the panel and joining
me now. We have got director at Capital Ben Thomas.
Good morning, Ben Modernor. And we have resident economists at
Opie's Partners. Ed McKnight, Good morning, Ed.

Speaker 7 (01:33:02):
Great to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:33:03):
Francesca, oh look, I love that energy. Can I start
with you. We had the cabinet reshuffle National's cabinet reshuffle
over the week. I think a lot has been made
out of Chris Bishop lost campaign chair to Simmy and
Brown a little bit of movement there, but he picked

(01:33:24):
up Attorney General, lost Associate Sports Minister, Leader of the House.
Maybe a very mild kind of punishment for possibly looking
at a leadership challenge last year. But I don't think
there's a lot in that as there.

Speaker 7 (01:33:38):
Well, well, yeah, look to you know, it depends on
your perspective. For instance, I'm a former press secretary for
the Attorney General. I would say he's got the only
promotion that matters, the most important one in Parliament. On
the other hand, if you're a real diet in the
world party sort of person, you're a political animal, you
might say campaign chair. That's actually extremely significant. Leader of

(01:34:01):
the House also, that's the real long for parliament nerds.
You really get to sort of set the schedule the
time to everybody has to come to you asking for
time for their bill to be read in the House.
So you know, look, these are positions of some sort
of moment in that kind of situation. But yeah, look,
in terms of the portfolios that Bishop has, there's certainly

(01:34:22):
no sort of casting out into the wilderness. He has
still sort of got a handful of the most important
portfolios that his sort of vision, which is, you know,
that vision for sort of bringing down house prices, for
really radicalizing I guess, you know, urban development that's still
intact and hasn't been sort of you know, pulled away

(01:34:43):
from him, and some people might have thought could have
been on the cards after those sort of Bokland backdowns.
Oh look, no, I think you know, a bit of
internal sort of party shuffling around probably, I think Yehan
response to Bishop maybe not sort of quieting those rumors
about leadership early enough last year and just a bit
of a swat from the leadership in that respect.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
Yeah, your thoughts, d Well.

Speaker 23 (01:35:08):
The one that really surprised me was was Goldsmith getting
the Minister of Pacific people. So I thought that was
a very strange and interesting appointment. But on Bishop, he
still has some very important portfolios, like the Minister of Finance.
Though it did seem a bit petty to take off
from Associate Minister of Sport, and it felt personal because

(01:35:29):
he wasn't replaced by anybody. Having said that, I think
it's probably makes sense to get rid of some portfolios
that don't make much sense. I mean, sometimes I wonder
why we have a Minister of Sport and then why
we have an Associate Minister as well. I think it
almost boggles the mind. But that one's felt quite personal,
I suppose since it wasn't big place.

Speaker 2 (01:35:51):
That's only because we see that ed as the ministry
where you just get free tickets to go to you know,
or it's appropriate to turn up at Rugby World Cups
and things like that. That's how we see it. I'm
sure there's a lot more that goes into it than that,
but it just looks like a good kind of you
get to go on if you good junkets sort of really,
don't they.

Speaker 7 (01:36:12):
I think that's right, isn't it. I'm not sure that
there was an Associate Minister of Sports when Bishop was
the minister, you know, at the beginning of the term,
and I think he became associate during last year's reshuffle
and that was sort of, you know, in order to
not entirely cut him off from you know, the Black
Caps games overseas and I guess that the Soccer World

(01:36:33):
Cup maybe this year, and so, you know, I guess
it's one of those things that you create the association
position for somebody when they're in favor, and you maybe
take it away when they're out of favor. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Look, the other the other reason why you do a
bit of a reshuffle is to promote new talent. Do
you think Ben, with the promotion of Nicola Gregg and
also Cameron Brewer and Mike Butterick, that we're seeing that
that happened that that's a good thing to see going
into an election.

Speaker 7 (01:37:05):
Yes, Simmons was promoted into cabinet along with Chris Penk
and then Nicola Gridg got that environment portfolio that would
from Penny Simmons, I guess given her elevation. But yeah, look,
I think that was an interesting one. Look, I was
in a bit of commentary before the reshuffle and I

(01:37:26):
was sort of saying, well, it'll be very conservative. You know,
there's two out two ministers retiring, so you bring two
new people into the ministry, probably outside cabinet. Cameron Brewer
bit of a no brainer. He's the chair of the
Finance and Expenditure Committee. That's seen as the sort of
waiting room before you become a minister. And then I
think Mike Butterick, he was the bolter. You know that

(01:37:49):
not since the days of sort of all Black trials
have you seen sort of somebody coming as sort of
as much of a dark horse from nowhere, I think.
And the argument for that is, you know, National is
lacking in sort of some rural voices up the top.
It's you know, it's a Minister for Agriculture for the
National Party, not a farmer for the first time in

(01:38:12):
a long long time. It's based I call them a
gentleman of the land. Todd McLay and does a good
job in the primary industry's portfolio, but not from a
farming background. And so Butterick, you know he is a farmer.
He was very active in one of these sort of
anti forestry farm groups before joining parliament. But yeah, even

(01:38:36):
in terms of the farmers that came in as first
term you know MP's last time which you'd say Grant
McCullum from Northland, Sue's Redmain from ring a ticket, you'd say,
Mike Butterwick should probably go and buy a lottery ticket.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
Can I change the topic If that's okay, I'd love
to hear your thoughts. We got a lot of information
on Thursday about the appropriateness maybe of the relationship between
the police and a production company when it comes to
the Tom Phillips Netflix documentary. We learned a lot more
just about behind the scenes, how it's come to be
and that relationship. Are you at all interested? Will you

(01:39:16):
watch it? If they are able to contractually do what
they're obliged to do, and that for is to protect
and keep the children out of it.

Speaker 23 (01:39:23):
Well, I wasn't that interested until I started reading about
how much access the production company actually got, and then
I thought, wow, this is going to be a very
interesting documentary because they were filming at the crime scene
while there was an active investigation going on, and I'm
sure that they would have been able to get extremely
good footage and takes of what the police were doing

(01:39:46):
while they're undergoing their work. And I kind of wasn't
that interested until I thought, actually, this is going to
be something quite interesting here.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
Now.

Speaker 23 (01:39:53):
I know some people are thinking, well, if the police
is so involved in giving footage and supporting the production,
can the documentary or is it likely that it's going
to be at all critical of what the police are doing?
And the answer is probably not if they're that involved.
But the way I think about it is a documentary,
especially one that goes on Netflix, isn't necessarily about saying

(01:40:16):
exactly what happened. It's entertainment, and given they've got that
sort of access, I think it's going to be pretty entertaining.
So I'll be tuning in on Netflix.

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
Oh, I don't know how much. Yeah, I'm not going
to watch. I'm not intrigued to see it. For entertainment's sake.
I'm intrigued to see it because the police do feel
that they were doing a lot of work behind the
scenes that we're not aware of and we don't understand.
And for you know, New Zealanders were sort of those
who were concerned about the welfare of the children felt
like nothing was happening, and obviously there were things happening,

(01:40:48):
Ben and that intrigues me. I'm interested to see a
little bit more transparency about what was happening behind the
scenes over those four years.

Speaker 7 (01:40:57):
Well, yeah, Licole, ultimately we know what happened, and you know,
if the police were doing more work behind the scenes,
which I know, I fully understand it accept and we've
heard sort of, you know, stories about basically Says being
brought in to do a bit of trekking in the
forest and that kind of thing. But look, ultimately we
know what happens. I think that with anything of this

(01:41:18):
nature there there is a bit of a danger that
you know, even a small part of the audience will
sort of idealize the scumbag, you know, they'll sort of
the sort of guy I can understand so many problems
or whatever. You know, there has been a tendency, you know,
to sort of by some to sort of suggest that
he's this kind of man alone hunt for the wilder people,

(01:41:41):
sort of New Zealand stereotype. And I just think the
whole thing is so sort of fitted and squalid. I
personally would have no interest in watching it. But look,
I do accept the argument that, you know, there is
probably an interest in singing some of what the polices
do it police were doing, you know, just from that
sort of procedural aspect.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
It feels to me like it just sits right in
the middle of the tension between public interest storytelling and
the world fear of vulnerable children. That's kind of where
it sits very quickly. I don't know if either of
you are into music memorabilia, it's probably a good investment edge,
you know, I'm thinking of a guitar or written lyrics,
But how about a dreadlock. Would you pay twenty five
thousand pounds for one of Bob Marley's dreadlocks?

Speaker 7 (01:42:23):
Yeah?

Speaker 23 (01:42:24):
I don't know what the capital growth rate is. It
not a piece of but it's amazing that somebody is
willing to pay, or it is able to pay twenty
five thousand pounds for a lock of this guy's here.
I mean, I'm personally not into it, and it looks
like it's in a little plastic bag. But maybe somebody
will drop that sort of money on a zip lock

(01:42:44):
with some hair.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
In it, something that you were done display at home.

Speaker 7 (01:42:47):
Ben, Well, you know, look, I'm always googling hair how
much online? You know? So I mean, if this came up,
I made order at by mistake. You never know. Look,
the one thing I was thinking that I, you know,
ixpan back in my youth and I'd go to go

(01:43:10):
to shows and concerts and would do something that you
call was called moshing back in the day, like jumping
around and just just triggered a memory. Nothing hurt more
than being whipped by someone's dreadlock if you're if you're
in the moshpat and there was a heavily dreaded man around,
usually man in front of you, it was it was incredible.

(01:43:30):
It was like it's sort of like a whip that
would sort of just like hit you. And they're quite
dense and yeah, so no, look, I probably wouldn't pay
the regal of those memories.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
Ben, Go and enjoy Easter Sunday lunch with your grandmother ed,
thank you so much for joining us today. Much appreciate it.
It is twenty five to twelve.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
It's the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin on News Dogs Bunny.

Speaker 2 (01:44:05):
Coming up at midday as Jason Pine with Weekend Sport
and he joins me. Now, good morning, good morning, Happy Easter,
and to you too. What have you got coming up
on the show.

Speaker 24 (01:44:13):
We're going to talk some cricket after midday. You want
to review the home summers for both the black Caps
and the White Ferns. White Ferns finished their summer yesterday
with a very impressive series win over South Africa in
three odii's. They've got their T twenty World Cup in
the middle of the year, so how are they building
towards that. Their head coach is Ben Sawyer. He's with
us after midday, as is Rob Walter, head coach at

(01:44:35):
the black Caps. For them, they've got a really really
intriguing time ahead in terms of test matches. They play
England and three Test matches middle of the year, then
India come here for a couple and then across to
Australia for four Test matches in December and January. So
with so much white ball cricket being played at the
moment and having been played over the summer. How ready
are they for this diet of test cricket. So yeah,

(01:44:58):
both of our head coaches after midday on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
Today, fantastic. My son's returned from university for a few
days and he's telling me that his life BIGE Fantasy League.
This is his year, he said to me, this is
my year. I'm on God, I was like you, The
Warriors feel the same way. How do you think the
Warriors will fare this afternoon against the Sharks?

Speaker 6 (01:45:17):
Well?

Speaker 24 (01:45:17):
Tough going there, Yeah, tough. Going to the Shark Park
is always a tough place to plan. And I just
checked the odds before I came on with you, Francesca,
and the Sharks a favorite to win this game. So
I think that's mainly home advantage because the Warriors are
three and one, three wins, just the one lost. The
Sharks are two and two, so you know, I guess
home advantage does count for a lot. The Warriors and
want to bounce back from that loss to the Tigers

(01:45:37):
last week. They were, by their own admission, really disappointed
with the way they lost that game at home. If
they are to be a real contender. If it is
to be our year on the on the grass as
well as in Fantasy Rugby League, then these are the
sorts of games they got to go and win. They've
got the Storm next weekend which is shaping as a
huge match. So I kind of feel as though this
is this is quite an important early season marker for

(01:46:00):
the Warriors. I think they'll be okay, but then again
I always think that who knows what will happen this afternoon?

Speaker 2 (01:46:07):
Are you at all fast about the sort of the
limited amount of rugby? I sort of felt like I
wasn't really sure that was a story this week.

Speaker 6 (01:46:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:46:14):
I spoke to Jack Measley on the show yesterday ahead
of Super Rugby and he said, well, part of it
was that six home grounds were unavailable across Easter weekend.
I mean, here in Wellington we've got Armageddon down at
Don Henry Stadium, so you can't play rugby when that's
going on, and there were other venues the same.

Speaker 6 (01:46:28):
Look.

Speaker 24 (01:46:29):
I kind of thought for a while have they defaulted
Easter weekend to the other codes? And then you think, well,
you know, they've got to fit some buyers in here
and there and if the grounds aren't available then you know,
I mean, having said that, would have been quite cool
to watching New Zealand Derby at some stage over the
weekend instead of the mismatches we've had. But you know,
here we are now. I think next weekend we'll get
back to regular service as far as Super Rugby is concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
Sounds good? Anything else coming up on the show?

Speaker 24 (01:46:54):
Jason looking forward to chatting to a guy after one
o'clock by the name of Davy Gray. He works a
lot with grassroots sports people as we come into Easter
and the winter sports seas and starts for you know
at the weekend battlers, how do you make sure that
you don't get injured in the first couple of weeks.
How do you make sure that you know your season

(01:47:14):
in and over before it's begun? Some tips for grassroots
winter sports people. After one o'clock that might be one
worth tuning in for.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
I love it, Thank you so much money. We will
tune in. Talk then.

Speaker 1 (01:47:28):
The Sunday Session full show podcast on iHeartRadio powered by
News Talks AB Travel with Winnie Woo tours where the
world is Yours for now?

Speaker 2 (01:47:39):
Joining me now to travel Megan Singleton, blogger at large
dot com. Good morning, Good morning, right, you are getting
all ready to fly out to New York. Not a
bad way to spend your Easter.

Speaker 25 (01:47:50):
I know, accept economy class sitting upright, going all the
way to New York.

Speaker 16 (01:47:54):
And I'll tell you why, because the plane is full.

Speaker 25 (01:47:57):
I think everyone's avoiding the Middle East and they're having
to go to Europe through whichever which way they can.

Speaker 16 (01:48:03):
And yeah, that plane's pretty full. Even get an upgrade.

Speaker 2 (01:48:07):
Well that makes sense. And I'm sure that you've got
an amazing itinery in New York to completely eraise the
journey from your mind. Anyway, I have.

Speaker 25 (01:48:16):
So we're there for the whole of Easter weekend, just
my husband and I before I pick up the tour
on Tuesday in Washington. So you know how I'm trying
to do less fomo, more slow mo. Yes, so I
haven't packed our itinerary too full.

Speaker 16 (01:48:31):
I mean, as you know, I've been to New York.

Speaker 25 (01:48:33):
I think it's been my sixth visit in three years,
so I'm kind of just doing it piece by peace.
So my first plan and I just cannot wait for
this is I really wanted to go to a gospel
church in Harlem, and I've found the Abyssinian Baptist Church,
which was actually founded in eighteen o eight and it's
where Martin Luther King attended. Malcolm X made big statements

(01:48:55):
from there, and I expect full goosebumps on Easter Sunday morning,
and then that afternoon we're going off to the Yankees
baseball game, which is up north of Harlem. So we've
got at times perfectly. It's an afternoon game, We'll get
some lunch in the stadium and then that's it.

Speaker 16 (01:49:15):
How I'm just dinner.

Speaker 2 (01:49:16):
How expensive were the tickets? When did you sort of
book the tickets for that?

Speaker 25 (01:49:19):
I book Yeah, I bought the tickets about a month
ago and they I think they paid one hundred years
dollars each. And we're on the like second tier looking
over first base. First base is the premium. Where's where
you kind of want to be because that's where most
people get struck out right. All the action kind of
occurs either at the home plate or first base.

Speaker 16 (01:49:38):
So that's where we're going to be.

Speaker 25 (01:49:40):
And the weather is looking a little in clement, so
I'm kind of hoping that it will be I had
to google whether they pencil baseball games like they do
with cricket in the rain, and yeah, it depends how
heavy it is.

Speaker 16 (01:49:52):
So there we go.

Speaker 25 (01:49:53):
That's that and we'll see, we'll see if that's going
to work.

Speaker 2 (01:49:55):
Out for tomorrow.

Speaker 25 (01:49:57):
And then the next day, Monday, we're off to the
Plaza for afternoon tea. So that is famous for the
Home Alone movie and also if you've followed or read
any of the Aloe's at the Plaza books that you
might have read your daughter when she was very little.
So I'm excited about that. It's a super posh afternoon

(01:50:18):
tea that we're going to do there. That'll probably be
dinner because knowing what prices are in New York, that'll
be we eat once a day.

Speaker 16 (01:50:23):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:25):
What else is n What else is the plaza where
they have the Christmas display?

Speaker 25 (01:50:32):
Yes, so their Christmas display is so famous that people
try and get in just to look at it. And
they won't let you through all of December. No, unless
you're a guest at the hotel. You can't even poke
your head in the door. So a little tap though
I have read is there's a gift store and Aloe's
gift store and you can slip your little head in

(01:50:52):
there and maybe even set foot in there.

Speaker 16 (01:50:54):
If you get there, like it's seven in the morning,
you can get.

Speaker 2 (01:50:58):
Display still not up. It's still not up now though
you won't be doing that.

Speaker 16 (01:51:01):
No no, no, that comes down like yeah by New Year.
No that that's well gone. But it is a famous
hotel for Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
And where do you go because you've been so many times? Now,
where's the best view of New York? Where do you
go to get the best view?

Speaker 16 (01:51:15):
Well, John, I'm.

Speaker 25 (01:51:17):
Going to say we went up the Empire State Building
last year. We were there in November, a little bit underwhelmed.
So the Rockefeller Center gives you the view all the
way down the top of the rock, all the way
down Central Park and looking back at the Empire State Building.

Speaker 16 (01:51:33):
So you could take your photos with that.

Speaker 25 (01:51:34):
Beautiful, iconic Empire State Building, but from the top of
the rock.

Speaker 16 (01:51:38):
So I totally recommend that.

Speaker 25 (01:51:40):
And I'm also going to go up to so Much One,
which is down the bottom of the island and that's
like one hundred and something floors.

Speaker 16 (01:51:47):
I'll be up and that's all glass.

Speaker 25 (01:51:48):
And mirrors and crazy crazy, but I want to be
up there for sunset. So again, Hopefully there'll be nice
sky and we'll get some sunset twinkly lights of the city.

Speaker 16 (01:51:58):
So that's my plan as well. Meet the train down
to DC.

Speaker 2 (01:52:02):
Brilliant, travel safe, look forward to hearing all about it.
We'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 25 (01:52:07):
Thanks Francesca Seeya Books with Wickles for the best election
of Great Reads.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
Joan McKenzie head book by at Wickles is with us now.
Good morning, Hello, Happy Easter.

Speaker 26 (01:52:20):
Yes Andie you what have you got for us today?
My first book is by Claire mackintosh, and we at
Witckles have been fans of hers for a while. She's
a really terrific thriller writer, but those of us at
work who've read this one all think it's her best yet.
It's called It's Not What You Think, and it starts
with a woman called Nadeka. She's a divorced mother of
two kids. She's in a relationship with a new guy

(01:52:42):
called Jamie, but she thinks he's having an affair. He
can't be contacted when she needs him. He says he's
working late. There's all the usual excuses that she's familiar
with from her marriage to her former husband, so she
decides to go home early one day to try and
catch him out, and when she gets there, she's astonished
to find that he is indeed there, but he's dead
on the carpet and the police are in the house

(01:53:04):
investigating the crime scene. Been a few odd goings on
in the neighborhood, and things just start getting weirder as
Nadeka takes matters into her own hands. When she visits
the police station, the news they give her is truly shocking,
and then when she goes to his place of work
to talk to colleagues and friends, it doesn't take long
for them to shut her out. Like so many of

(01:53:26):
the thrillers that we talk about, it's full of twists
and turns and it's clever. But what I will also
say is that this is very much a book of
our times. Is the story about what's been going on
in Jamie's life and in his mind becomes clear and
a real current day kind of what the world is
now scenario, and it's really chilling.

Speaker 2 (01:53:47):
If you love a good stroll, I just want I
just want you to tell me now if you love
we need to read it. I just want to know
what's going what's really going on here? A new book
from Sarah Vaughan, which of course a lot of people
will have read her book Anatomy of a Scandal.

Speaker 26 (01:54:03):
Yes, which I loved, and this is her sixth book.
It's about Dame Elinor Kingman, who's a celebrated British children's author,
and on the eve of her seventieth birthday, she's planning
a big party on her flash estate in Cornwall. Her
three daughters will be there. She has a fairly prickly
relationship with them, but they'll be there as well as
lots of friends and the great and the good of

(01:54:24):
the UK literary world. And there's a TV crew who've
been planning to make a documentary about her life, and
all of these groups converge to potentially ruin her big day.
There's a lot at stake. She of course has a
fortune and a reputation to uphold, but it seems she's
also maintained a lie about her talent and career and
somebody knows. So you know from the very beginning that

(01:54:46):
a body is found on the beach near her home,
and it's clear that things aren't going to go well,
and they don't. The night before the party, she gets
an email which threatens to expose this lie that she's
built up over so many years, and she can't figure
out where it's come from, and all the big party
ideas start to fall apart. There's lots of enemies on
her rise to the top, and some of them are

(01:55:08):
probably there to ruin her big day.

Speaker 7 (01:55:10):
Right.

Speaker 26 (01:55:11):
A lot of the books I talk about with you
seem to be about the drama and the dynamics of
dysfunctional families because they're such great literary fodder. But I
think Sarah Vaughan does this as well as anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:55:22):
Is this a thriller? Yeah? Yeah, it feels like it's
edging towards nice. I love it. So The first book,
It's Not What You Think by Claire Macintosh and based
on a true story by Sarah Vaughan, was the second book.
Thank you so much, Joan. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
Thank you you two The.

Speaker 1 (01:55:39):
Sunday Session Full Show podcast on my Heart Radio powered
by News Talks that Be.

Speaker 2 (01:55:46):
Thank you so much for joining us this morning on
the Sunday Session. Love you to have your company, don't
forget that. Coming up next, Jason Pine is with your
Weekend Sport. He has the coaches for both the Black
Caps and the White Ferns doing a little bit of
a review of their home summer season, plus much much
more coming your way. Thank you so much to Kerry
for producing the show and e Marie. Thank you for

(01:56:11):
the Easter eggs in our locker and for not forgetting
about us. We very much appreciate that when we work
long weekends, enjoy the rest of your day. I am
looking forward to being back here tomorrow Easter Monday for
the afternoon show, so I'll see you inn. Take it a.

Speaker 21 (01:56:25):
Little blower because it's so crowd over something on.

Speaker 20 (01:56:31):
Show My Day.

Speaker 16 (01:56:35):
Right down all.

Speaker 4 (01:56:41):
The time.

Speaker 21 (01:56:44):
It's the midnight sun kidskin a little reslene. I just
like this, me like the pep and they just said
to say, yes, summer is long. Bog catting Dipper with
you'll out it's my favorite bar, nowing out.

Speaker 1 (01:57:01):
Of town all lu never. For more from the Sunday

(01:57:38):
session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks it
B from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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