Blogs

Happy Christmas, ho-bloody-ho

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny A heads up - there's 45 shopping days until Christmas. Or thereabouts. We might want to start thinking about it. We might also want to start thinking about the difference between... Read More

Oozing talent from Octogenarians

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz Just occasionally, as we rush towards the precipice, it can feel like time is standing still. I've felt that recently, enjoying in the same week both a new Martin... Read More

Looking back to the 1967 Melbourne Cup

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid History buffs tend to collect things - and I am no exception having collected sporting memorabilia over half a century. The oldest piece I have, is a 1936 Auckland... Read More

Tauranga October Rainfalls 1898-2023 and Temperatures 1913 - 2023

Weather Eye with John Maunder The graph below shows the range of Tauranga's October rainfalls, from an extreme high of 357 mm in 1916 to a low of only 7 mm in 1984. The second wettest October was 1928, when... Read More

The Day My Car Ate Me... (...and other damned nuisances)

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny ‘The Day My Car Ate me'. I know it smacks of those outrageous British tabloid headlines - like ‘I'm having a martian's baby' or ‘Adam and Ed - gay couple were first humans'. Now... Read More

Brand new music from the plentiful Bay

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz I do love when local music gets released; today I have some new Tauranga tunes for you. Firstly, there's an album set for release which - due to the complicated... Read More

A milestone for local cricket

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid A big milestone in the advancement of Western Bay of Plenty women's cricket was announced last Saturday, with Bay of Plenty Women's Captain Tash Wakelin posting... Read More

The tragic ‘4/10’ Kiwi bloke

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny He has the hands of a blacksmith - big, vice-like, scarred and calloused. But…oh my! He is also blessed with the touch and tenderness of Casanova himself. 'And,” says the... Read More

Celebrating Unrestful Movements

Music Plus with Winston Watusi watusi@thesun.co.nz Way back when, the New Zealand punk scene was a small fragile thing. For all the braggadocio and swaggering fashion violations, anything that radical was going to struggle... Read More

Selection of NZ boxers for Olympics

Sports correspondent & historian with Sideline Sid A number of the country's top elite boxers who came to town over Labour Weekend for the North Island Golden Gloves, are preparing to face the biggest challenges of their... Read More

In the beginning

Weather Eye with John Maunder Weather Eye with John Maunder Following the death of my sister Valerie in 2001, I wrote the hymn 'There is season” (based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) which used... Read More

Broccoli, beans and balderdash!

Roger Rabbits with Jim Bunny Hey kids - hey everyone. Shove the broccoli to the side of your plate and you might, one day, become the most powerful person in the free world. Because former United States President... Read More