Articles by Mike Van de Elzen
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Travel
Mike Yardley: Getting to grips with Naples
Saturday, 8 June 2024, 12:55pmIt’s Italy in the extreme. She’s rough and ready and in your face. Gritty, gripping, daunting and intimidating to the uninitiated,...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Newstalk ZB is a success story
Friday, 7 June 2024, 9:32amIt's important I think to end the week with the good news. The good news from an industry, you might have read, that has...
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Travel
Mike Yardley: Dazzling designs in Doha
Thursday, 6 June 2024, 11:24amAs a quick-hit, Doha makes for a head-turning stopover when travelling to Europe, where you’ve got all the flashy and futuristic...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Keep local politics simple and democratic
Thursday, 6 June 2024, 10:09amLocal body politics is having a bit of a week in the sun. They have formed a group, as we told you Tuesday, to look at ways...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Time is up on excuses for thuggery downtown
Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 10:06amAlthough Auckland gets the headlines, it is not alone when it comes to the destruction and degrading of downtown areas. The...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Should we give up access to Australia to solve the 501 problem?
Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 9:29amThe word according to reportage was ‘ire’. The Prime Minister of New Zealand called the Prime Minister of Australia to express...
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Travel
Mike Yardley: Bites and sights in Sicily
Saturday, 1 June 2024, 1:11pmDid you know that there’s less Italian blood in Sicilian veins than there is Phoenician, Greek, Arabic, Norman, Spanish,...
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Opinion
Mark the Week: The Budget painted a picture of some actual hope
Friday, 31 May 2024, 11:11amAt the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all. Flybuys:...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Is this the time of year to be miserable?
Friday, 31 May 2024, 10:27amIt seems to have been a miserable week. We all seem miserable this week. The boss, who I complained to this week about...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: The Budget is a scapegoat for the protest
Wednesday, 29 May 2024, 9:40amPart of the day of upset, or protest, or whatever the Māori Party are calling it tomorrow, is about the way they feel they...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Time to restore standards in this country
Tuesday, 28 May 2024, 10:07amRicardo Menendez March and teachers. Let me join a couple of dots. And the glue for the dots are standards, or lack of them. If...
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National
'A very rare thing': Four Square owner on double Lotto win
Monday, 27 May 2024, 4:33pmA Whanganui Four Square store owner says selling two winning Lotto tickets at his Castlecliff store “made his day”. The first...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Welcome to the week of the tax cut
Monday, 27 May 2024, 10:08amWelcome to the week of the tax cut. The thing for me is it's more about the symbolism than the money. I have no idea if I...
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Travel
Mike Yardley: A Fresh Bite out of Rome
Saturday, 25 May 2024, 1:30pmOne of the greatest ways to sample the heart and soul of a powerhouse city like Rome is to join a food tour with an in-the-know...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Is AI really the future?
Friday, 24 May 2024, 10:08amDespite the cost-of-living crisis, one industry seemingly not hit is that of the pollster. There are new numbers out this...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Why do we keep defending what doesn't work?
Thursday, 23 May 2024, 9:29amAn industry in reportage appears to have sprouted. Never before have I seen such coverage of what the Government is being...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Why the hate for charter schools?
Wednesday, 22 May 2024, 9:55amHere are a couple of things I know about education. The first is that we aren't that good at it and our results, whether...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Yet more questions about solving crime
Tuesday, 21 May 2024, 10:59amIt’s a sad, old business when part of your market update is the cost of the violent crime you are having to deal with. Michael...
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Travel
Mike Yardley: Great Coast Road adventures in Westland
Sunday, 19 May 2024, 4:31pmNo matter how many times I drive the South Island’s Great Coast Road (SH6), between Westport and Greymouth, it never fails...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: The Greens are a basket case
Friday, 17 May 2024, 11:16amDo you get the feeling the only moderately normal person in the Greens left the building a couple of weeks back, and he is...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Was the union win over TVNZ really a win?
Tuesday, 14 May 2024, 10:37amIs the union getting the win over TVNZ in their desire to lay some people off really a win? When TVNZ sacked me many years...
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Travel
Mike Yardley: Heritage nuggets and forest finds on the West Coast
Saturday, 11 May 2024, 12:41pmAmid the treasury of winning attractions across the West Coast, sampling its spoil of historic pubs, steeped in character...
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Opinion
Mike's Minute: Wellington needs to get out of its own way
Friday, 10 May 2024, 10:11amHere is an insight into why bits of Wellington are not like the rest of the country. There is pushback from Whaikaha. Who...
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Opinion
Mark the Week: The most stark and tangible warning yet
Friday, 10 May 2024, 10:03amAt the end of each week, Mike Hosking takes you through the big-ticket items and lets you know what he makes of it all. Jamie...