Darren Bevan: Movies

The Girl On The Train - Cast: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Rebecca Ferguson, Alison Janney, Luke Evans, Laura Prepon, Edgar Ramirez

Director: Tate Taylor

Darren's verdict: http://bit.ly/girl-on-the-train-review

Deepwater Horizon - Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, Kate Hudson, Gina Rodriguez, John Malkovich, Ethan Suplee, Dylan O'Brien  

Director: Peter Berg

Darren's verdict: http://bit.ly/deepwaterhorizon-review

Money Monster on home release - Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, Giancarlo Esposito

Director: Jodie Foster

Darren's verdict: http://bit.ly/money-monster-review

Nici Wickes: Food

Nici loves the theme of breakfasts and how much they differ depending on where you are.

For example in Egypt the breakfast staple is foul, which is beans and spices, lashings of garlic and olive oil, chopped tomatoes and more. It's delicious and fills you up all day!

And we head to Greece where it's flaky cheese and pastry-filled pies, drizzled in honey and puddles of dark black coffee.

In Spain, it's the tortilla.

And to Japan where breakfast is dominated by salmon, nori and miso soup.

Lynda Hallinan: Gardening

What do you know? It's raining again. Sigh. So let's pretend it's not...

It's time to start preparing your soil to plant for summer. Think of the next fortnight as the sand-and-prime preparation for Labour Weekend, at which point the soil should be warm enough to go out all guns blazing and start sowing and planting all your favourite summer crops.

Key tasks:

1. Get the weeds out first. If you don't weed before you plant, it makes it that much trickier to keep on top of them. Fast growing annual weeds will also steal all the goodness (nitrogen) applied as fertiliser. 

2. Dig in compost to improve soil structure and nutrition. Blood and bone and sheep pellets also help on this front. 

3. Think about the orientation of the sun and how it will affect what you're growing. Plant taller crops such as sweetcorn so that it doesn't shade your tomatoes, but can offer shade to crops that often bolt to seed, such as radishes, coriander and basil. 

4. Buy good quality stakes for tomatoes, capsicums and eggplants. Once they're in fruit, the stems will be quite heavy. Thin bits of bamboo won't cut it.

5. Stock up on seeds. Crops to sow direct include beetroot, carrots, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins and all beans. Don't waste your money on potted individual plants or punnets of these. Save that cash for grafted tomatoes - they grow rapidly, fruit more prolifically (especially in cooler areas with shorter summers) and don't need to have the laterals pinched out. Just wait until Labour Weekend to transplant them.

Bob Campbell: Wine

A few weeks ago Bob revealed that New Zealand had won an important international wine competition that compared the very best wines from six countries: Australia, NZ, South Africa, Chile, USA and Canada.

Now he can reveal that New Zealand also won seven out of the 12 classes we entered by scoring the highest number of points in each– a great achievement. Those classes are:

-          Sparkling (up against some pretty tough opposition)

-          Aromatic whites (Gewurztraminer was our secret weapon)

-          Sauvignon Blanc (predictable)

-          Pinot Noir (fairly predictable although the US is pretty strong here)

-          Merlot (helped by the excellent 2013 and 2014 vintages in Hawke’s Bay)

-          Syrah (particularly nice to beat the Aussies at their own game)

-          Bordeaux blends (once again helped by high quality vintages)

Did any particular NZ wines stand out?

The show awards trophies to the top wine in each class and to top red and white wine of the show.

Here are the NZ trophy winners:

-          Top red wine of the Show: Akarua 2014 Pinot Noir, Central Otago

-          Top Sauvignon Blanc: Rapaura Springs 2015 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough (for the 2nd time)

-          Top Pinot Noir: Akarua 2014 Pinot Noir, Central Otago (for the third time)

-          Top Merlot: Church Road 2013 McDonald Series Merlot, Hawke’s Bay

-          Top Blended red (other than Bordeaux): Crossroads 2013 Talisman (for the 2nd or 3rd time)

Will it help to sell NZ wine overseas?

Bob certainly hope so. The results are fairly widely publicised in the competing countries which certainly must help sales. It also gives our wine a great deal of credibility in new and emerging wine markets. He was recently talking to someone hoping to sell our wine in India where an awful lot of people have little or no knowledge of NZ wine. A result like this will really help to put us on the map in potentially important markets like that.

And do you have a wine of the week for us?

Yes, Neudorf 2015 Twenty Five Rows Chardonnay, Nelson is a very classy wine and a bargain at $33. They are one of the country’s best Chardonnay producers. This wine is less than half the price of Neudorf’s magnificent 2015 Moutere Chardonnay with a price tag of $74, but it is certainly not half the quality.

Mike Yardley: Travel

Feature Destination - A Taste of Moscow.

For more tips on experiencing Moscow, Mike's travel article  will be  published on our website in the next week or so.

www.newstalkzb.co.nz/lifestyle

Catherine Raynes: Books

Holding Up the Universe - Jennifer Niven, HarperCollins, $29.99

From the author of the New York Times bestseller All the Bright Places comes a heart-wrenching story about what it means to see someone - and love someone - for who they truly are. Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed 'America's Fattest Teen'. But no one's taken the time to look past her weight to get to see who she really is. Since her mum's death, she's been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby's ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for  every possibility life has to offer.

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead, DoubleDay, $34.99

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hellish for all the slaves but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood - where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned and, though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

Andrew Dickens: Music

Van Morrisson: Keep Me Singing. Andrew's Verdict: 7/10

This appears  to be a record where Van counts his blessings, and they are many.  Breezy, joyous, uplifting yet simple songs performed impeccably with Van in good voice and a lovely ensemble behind him.  It includes soft blues and gospel but at it’s heart is lovely simple pop songs. Put it on on a sunny day and feel your blues lift away.