One of New Zealand’s foremost true crime writers has taken a break from cold cases to look at some of our greatest local mysteries.
Scott Bainbridge’s previous six books have focused on missing persons or cold cases, but his latest book New Zealand Mysteries takes a look at some of our countries strange sightings or more unexplainable experiences.
The ghosts of St James Theatre, the Kaikoura Lights, the Nelson Street Ripper, the South Canterbury Panther - Bainbridge has looked into them all.
He joined Andrew Dickens to discuss what he learnt about these phenomena and what he drew him away from true crime.
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Juen 21st marks the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere - as well as the summer solstice for our northern counterparts.
But what is the shortest day of the year for New Zealanders is also International Day of Yoga.
Wellbeing expert Erin O'Hara joined Andrew Dickens to discuss why yoga is how you should spend the limited daylight.
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With borders closed, Kiwis are looking closer to home for their next holiday.
Campervans and motorhomes are suddenly hot commodities once again, as road trips become increasingly popular for those looking to explore their own backyard.
Travel blogger Megan Singleton joined Andrew Dickens to share her tips for those planning to take to the roads. 
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The Lizard by Dugal Bruce-Lockhart. Young Alistair Haston heads off to Greece in pursuit of the girlfriend who dumped him, and once there is befriended by a charming Australian guy who recruits him to help find models for his German boss who’s an artist. He’s seduced by the fun, the sun, the money that floats around, parties and good times and then realises – too late – that he’s bitten off far more than he can chew. Good plot against a great setting in the Greek Islands.              
Kill the King by Sandrone Dazieri. Third and final book in the trilogy from an Italian writer in translation – started with Kill the Father, then Kill the Angel and now this one.
The premise of them all is that a man called Dante Torre was kidnapped as a child by a man known as The Father and kept in solitary confinement for years so he’s a very damaged, PTSD individual. He teams up with an Italian cop, Colomba Casselli, and they go after the bad guys. This new book starts with Colomba recuperating in the Italian countryside after a nasty incident in Venice a year earlier; and Dante hasn’t been seen since so she doesn’t know if he’s alive or dead. One day an autistic teenager turns up in her garden and sets in train a whole series of events……these are great thriller and this is a very fitting finale.
 
 

New Zealanders have been left furious this week after Covid-19 returned to the country.
Two cases were confirmed on Tuesday after two women were allowed to leave managed isolation without being tested.
It led to a slew of news stories about flaws in the quarantine process, with people absconding while being on compassionate leave to attend funerals and hotels hosting private functions in rooms that were used for exercise by those in quarantine. 
The Government, praised internationally a week ago for eliminating the virus, has come under intense pressure to sort out the problems, with much of the blame being passed on to the Ministry of Health and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
Herald columnist Simon Wilson and radio host Lorna Subrtizky joined Andrew Dickens to discuss where the blame should lie and how the problems are indicative of wider health system flaws.
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Today marks the shortest day of the year, but the winter solstice does not mean the season is over yet.
The long cold months ahead are set to be tough for female birds. Studies have shown that male birds are more dominant and tend to eat the available food, with the female birds having to hope there is some left over for seconds.
As there isn't always available food for the females, theu instead have to lower their body temperature over the cold nights to try and reduce the amount of energy that they need, which makes them slow and therefore much more likely to be eaten by a predator.  
But new research has given female birds a better chance of survival - and it's thanks to bird feeders.
Michelle Dickinson joined Andrew Dickens to explain.
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Pumpkin pappardelle with burnt butter sauce and garlic chips (serves 4)
½ small pumpkin, peeled and deseeded
pinch salt
pinch ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small tub ricotta cheese
1 tbsp raisins
3 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced very thinly
handful oregano, sage or parsley (don’t stress if you don’t have them all)
50g butter
juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan to serve
Preheat oven to 190*C. Cut pumpkin into large chunks. Place in a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast in oven until soft.
Place a pot of salted water over high heat to boil.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan over med-high heat. Sauté garlic slices until golden remove and drain on paper towels. Drop herb stalks into hot oil for about 5 seconds then remove and place on paper towels.
Remove pumpkin from oven. Mash together with ricotta, then stir in raisins and season.
Heat butter in a small saucepan until it is a light nut-brown colour. Add lemon juice and remove from heat.
Blanch pasta ribbons in salted, boiling water for 2 minutes then drain. (if your using brought pasta just follow the instructions on the packet) Spoon some of the pumpkin puree onto each of the serving plates. Layer pasta with remaining pumpkin, then spoon over butter sauce. Garnish with herbs, garlic chips and Parmesan.
Pasta (makes about 150g)
125g high-grade flour
pinch salt
1 egg, plus 2 egg yolks
1 tbsp olive oil
Place flour and salt in a food processor. Add whole egg and mix, then add egg yolks and oil. Process until a dough forms. Add more flour or water if necessary. Roll out to about 3mm thickness and cut into wide pappardelle ribbons.

Rob Cope has just built a kitchen out of free pallets.
A kitchen made of something usually stuck on the end of a forklift to transport goods wasn't the dream for the Wellington builder and his wife, author and psychology student Zareen Sheikh-Cope.
They'd planned to put a new kitchen in the family home.
Instead, they made a documentary about how easy it is, and how damaging, for kids to watch porn online.
It cost them a new kitchen, and then some.
"We're still in debt to it," Sheikh-Cope says of the couple's self-funded documentary, Our Kids Online: Porn, Predators & How to keep them safe.
"This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's more about, 'Here's the bit we need to do.'"
Need it was. Easy it was not.
"This is such a s*** film to make, ay?" Cope says in the opening moments of the documentary, which canvasses how porn has changed in the online "all the time, for free" age, what that means for kids and young teens exposed to explicit content far beyond their parents' childhood experiences, the ever-present risk of online predators and, ultimately, solutions for rattled mums and dads.
"We were in tears a lot," Cope says of the 18-month project, which was completed during the lockdown and is now streaming on Vimeo On Demand.
"I'm a builder by trade so I don't cry a lot. But I've cried a lot. Now that we know what we know, it's really upsetting whenever I see a kid with a smartphone because I know what they can watch on it. I go to my son's soccer and he's almost 13 and you've got 20 gorgeous young men on the field and you know that 90 per cent of them have smartphones and about 90 per cent of them don't have any filters.
"I really fear for their futures … it's like this massive burden we're carrying and we just want parents to be educated and to know the reality of the world their kids are growing up in."
Survey: One quarter see porn before age 12
What is that world?
According to Our Kids Online, it's a world where a teen's first sexual experience, once "light petting", could now be strangulation of a sexual partner.
And it's a world where, at the tap of a screen or click of a mouse, kids can find themselves in places where predators, sometimes posing as other children, may be lurking under the invisibility cloak of the internet.
It's also a world that's on the radar of authorities, and there have been moves to keep kids safe online - among the most recent the six-week, $1.5 million advertising campaign Keep It Real Online.
The film censor's office, police, Internal Affairs, Ministry of Education and Network for Learning collaborated with Netsafe to put advice, including on pornography and online grooming, on one site, keepitrealonline.govt.nz
Any doubt of its need is promptly put to rest with a flick through the findings of a 2018 survey of 2000 Kiwi teens on how and why they view online porn.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification research project found more than two-thirds of the 14- to 17-year-olds surveyed had been exposed to porn, a quarter before they turned 12.
Sixty-nine per cent had seen violence or aggression and 15 per cent - boys at twice the rate of girls - watched porn at least once a month. One in 10 told the research project they were regular viewers by age 14.
They were using porn "as a learning tool", 73 per cent said, and 20 per cent admitted trying a sexual act they'd seen online.
Ministry of Education figures support the findings - schools blocked 300,000 attempts to access pornographic websites in March last year alone, the ministry's associate deputy secretary Pauline Cleaver told a parliamentary committee.
And the stats of one of the world's most popular porn websites, Pornhub, show a daily spike in usage between 3pm and 5pm.
But the survey also found 71 per cent of those surveyed by the Office of Film and Literature Classification weren't seeking out porn when they...

The search is on to find thousands of Kiwis who created Gisborne's Millennium wall.
Built in 1999, the wall is made up of tiles featuring the portraits of 6500 children.
Now the Artistic Director of Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival is trying to bring those people together again.
Tama Waipara told Andrew Dickens he wants to create a "living time capsule".
"Although there will be people who created a portrait on that tile wall who aren't around now, 20 years on, we can look back and ask what's your story now."
People can visit www.pakiwaitara.nz for more information. 
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A husband and wife duo are on a mission to change the perception of renting.
First time property developers Blair and Jules MacKinnon are the team behind 26 Aroha, a new apartment complex in Auckland.
Their development is different to most, as the apartments will only be available to renters.
Blair told Andrew Dickens renters who choose to stay past the initial 12-month lease, will be able to lease the apartment for up to 10 years.
"What we tried to do is as that the renting experience should be as close as owning your own home." 
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