Barn Owl
Rec Room #12 – What we’re enjoying this week
Kia ora, welcome to the newsletter.
The time has come, once again, for New Zealanders to get rarked up about birds. Voting for Bird of the Year 2020 opened this week, and this time we get to pick not just one but our five favourite feathered friends in a new, STV-style voting system.
I would like the world to know I have voted for the Barn Owl. A newcomer to a BoTY ballot, apparently Barn Owls have been showing up randomly in New Zealand for years but only became classified as a native bird since 2008, when the first breeding pair was discovered in Northland. I don’t know, I mostly just voted for them because they look cool – same reason I collected Dennis Rodman cards at school.
My ballot this year also includes the New Zealand Dabchick, Royal Spoonbill, Bittern and the elegant White-faced Heron. Others might use this platform as an opportunity to try and tell you who they think you should vote for, but personally I believe you should vote with your heart. Honestly, it’s just nice to take a break and look at birds for a couple of minutes.
–Cal
CORRECTION: Last week’s Rec Room claimed Shakespear Regional Park was “only an hour north of Auckland.” A reader kindly explains: “Shakespear Regional Park is IN Auckland, not north of it. The boundary between Auckland and Northland is between Te Hana and Kaiwaka, many miles north of Whangaparaoa.” We apologise to the people of the former Rodney district for this error.
Several people DO NOT recommend Whittaker’s new Wellington Roasted Coffee Supreme Flat White Chocolate, which has been unanimously described by all in the office who’ve tried it as “bad”. However, these same people also unanimously reported confusion as to why they also “couldn’t stop eating it”. Stewart writes: “I ate the whole block and will probably buy more. But you should definitely NOT buy it because it is bad.” Personally I can’t wait to try the disgusting choc.
Stewart does however recommend the Wellington Chocolate Factory dark chocolate. “This is how good chocolate should taste! Top tier stuff.” Dark chocolate – good or actually horrible and everybody just pretends to like it to seem grown up? That’s a conversation for another time.
Leonie recommends the new InnoNative store in Whangārei. “What started as a monthly market for Māori creators and businesses and then became a pop-up store now has a permanent home on Reyburn House Lane, and the new online store launches on Thursday. The range of products is primo – natural skincare, jewellery, books, clothing, weaving, kai and other nifty gifts – and it’s all made by creative natives.”
Sam recommends Heidi Schreck’s What The Constitution Means to Me on Amazon Prime Video. “This is the kind of show that deserves not just to be filmed, but preserved beyond the murky rivers of streaming rights. Schreck’s one woman show is about her relationship to the Constitution, and how it exists to protect the men who wrote it, not the people of the United States. It’s devastating, intelligent, and has way more parallels with our society than I think a lot of us would care to admit. Necessary viewing.”
Emily recommends Inside on Neon. “I watched it in one sitting last night. Very spooky but also very New Zealand. The "bunny" / Zoom calls are very very public sector New Zealand. It's funny and weird and creepy and touching and the episodes are very short!”
Matt recommends The A24 Podcast, in particular the latest episode with Nathan Fielder and Alexa Demie. “Listened to this while I was mowing the lawns and it almost made up for the bit where I unexpectedly mowed over a dead rat.”
Eddy recommends Accidental Partridge, the Twitter account chronicling broadcasters who accidentally behave like Alan Partridge. This bloke doing the “cinnamon challenge” and almost choking to death is a good, if extreme, example.
Josie recommends Fiordland. “Made up of 14 fiords, which is the same number as the number of moose released there between 1900 and 1910. The mountains are massive and dark and there's something about staring at them that's like the Total Perspective Vortex, but good. Feels good, man. Last week I saw a takahē on the way to Manapouri and ate the best chips of my life at the Olive Tree cafe in Te Anau.”
Dietary Requirements hung out with Monique Fiso
This week’s Dietary Requirements guest opened one of New Zealand’s best and most exciting restaurants a couple of years ago, and recently published a sensational book about the history of kai Māori and how to incorporate indigenous ingredients into your cooking. Both the restaurant and the book are called Hiakai, and there’s a copy of the latter up for grabs – here’s how you can win it. (Top tip: download and listen to the entire back catalogue of Dietary Requirements and carefully tailor your entry to specifically appeal to each of the hosts’ individual tastes for the best chance of winning.)
Gone By Lunchtime returned to discuss Labour’s new cabinet
Last time we heard from Gone By Lunchtime was the morning after the election, and I’m pretty sure if you listen closely toward the end of that episode Toby Manhire was so exhausted he actually fell asleep mid-sentence. Things are better this week – everyone’s come back refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to discuss all the new cabinet appointments, the Labour-Green agreement and find out whatever happened to TrueBliss.
Business is Boring learned about the future of HR software
Last week Simon Pound caught up with Jo Mills, co-founder of Fuel50, AI-powered HR software built to handle the rapidly changing future of work. The software is now being used to help some big overseas companies with concepts like “people strategy” and “agile working” and other things that sound like they’re probably quite good ideas. Have a listen to find out how they’re doing it, and what the future of HR software involves.
Frame – Season 1
The second season of Frame is a matter of days if not hours away now. If you don’t know what Frame is it’s a series of short documentaries produced for The Spinoff by Wrestler – last year’s season included this one about a brothel in Hawera, which has got heaps of views on YouTube because A) it’s good and B) I guess it accidentally got swept up in some weird horny algorithm. You can watch them all here.
That’s all for this week. As always please feel free to share and reply if you’d like to get in touch or share a rec. See you next Wednesday! 👋
