The Long Read from Stuff

It was one meeting, in one town, about one river. But it was the flash point for a debate consuming rural New Zealand - How do we conserve our fresh water and our economy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During WWII, Edgar 'Sandy' Sanders from Christchurch was part of an elite Allied unit operating behind enemy lines. After the war, he became a treasure hunter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thirty-seven years ago, Allan Woodford walked out the door of his home in the middle of the night and disappeared forever. The case has confounded his family and the police ever since. Did Woodford take his own life? Or was he murdered? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There has been a surprising emergence of competitive minigolf and putting towards representing New Zealand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over 16 years, Stuff reporter Nikki Macdonald has followed five families with children born before 28 weeks gestation. These are their stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Two-episode special – make sure you listen to Episode One first!) When David Lyttle’s best friend disappeared, police accused Lyttle of murder, then lured him into a fantasy world to get him to confess. This is Mike White’s investigation into an undercover operation that went way too far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When David Lyttle’s best friend disappeared, police accused Lyttle of murder, then lured him into a fantasy world to get him to confess. This is Mike White’s investigation into an undercover operation that went way too far. (Episode one of a two-episode special.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The strange story of the man who pivoted from complaining about “bullet-hard” lentils to becoming a leading voice in New Zealand’s anti-vax movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black Ferns sevens player Ruby Tui shot to international fame last year on the back of some star turns during post-match interviews at the Tokyo Olympics. Since then, she's cultivated a deeper public persona. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In February 2000, 20-year-old Lisa Blakie was murdered after she started hitchhiking towards the West Coast. The man convicted of the killing remains in jail, but some say police have the wrong man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a student rite of passage: first year in the halls, second year flatting. But in Wellington, finding a flat has never been more expensive, or the students more desperate. This is the story of five students, embarking on the annual quest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early hours of August 27, 1921, Constable James Dorgan was shot while investigating a possible burglary in downtown Timaru. His death is the only unsolved murder of a police officer in New Zealand, but new evidence points to a suspect close to home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 236 days across 2008 and 2009, William Stewart was the most wanted man in New Zealand. In that time he became so notorious he inspired a folk song and his own T-shirt. But the reality was much darker. This is the true story of Billy the Hunted One. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2011, a Norwegian yacht sank off the coast of Antarctica during a storm. Three of its crew were lost. A decade on, a Stuff investigation finds new revelations about why the yacht sank and New Zealand's involvement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From crime boss, to circus act boxer, to relentless force for good. Dave Letele's rollercoaster life is finally on the level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A macabre killer targeting horses terrorised Christchurch at the end of the 19th century. Who was the horse fiend, whose spree spanned a decade and drew comparisons with Jack the Ripper? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the only known murder on Stewart Island. On December 14, 1927, 82-year-old André Jose was bludgeoned to death in a Stewart Island boarding house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say they were traumatised at Toi Whakaari. This is the story of a group of students who helped force New Zealand's national drama school to overhaul its sexual harassment and bullying policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kāwhia, in Waikato, is the ancestral home of the Tainui tribe. 100 years ago, it battled to keep the influenza pandemic at bay. Today, it is adopting a unique way of keeping Covid-19 out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For two years, a small team at Christchurch Airport plotted an audacious strike – to move in on their rival's territory. This is the unlikely story of the plan to build an international airport in a tiny town in Central Otago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Covid-19 lockdowns exposed something approaching a national fixation with KFC. Why are Kiwis so obsessed with fried chicken? The Long Read examines the light and dark sides of our collective fascination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1991, Noeleen Marinovich was abandoned during her pregnancy by a local priest, who left her fighting a financial battle with the Catholic Church. Twenty-seven years later, Noeleen was murdered by their son. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carolina Lewis had her whole life ahead of her, then she was gone. For two years, her family kept her story close, hoping for justice. But their pleas for a better investigation into Carolina’s death are yet to be answered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stuff journalist Charlie Mitchell reports once more from deep in the alternate universe of Covid-19 conspiracies. This time, the confounding case of a small group of doctors opposed to vaccination and other public health measures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Stuff reporter was alarmed to discover his car's dashcam had been recording trips for years, long before he bought it. How far is too far for surveillance? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A mysterious group called the Flying Phoenix Trust spared no expense building a large compound on farmland near Waihi. A decade on, the $50m complex is mainly used for school camps and the odd retreat. Who's behind it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Antipodean albatross will be functionally extinct in 30 years. This is the story of how US supermarkets are unwittingly helping to kill New Zealand's most endangered bird. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 60 years of saving the world, 007 has visited more than 50 countries but never been to New Zealand. Why not? Despite our natural beauty and burgeoning film industry, is Aotearoa too bland for Bond? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The untold story of Major David Foote – the New Zealand army nurse who wrote a goodbye letter to his daughter, then risked his life to save others in Afghanistan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When two historians set out to learn more about the first coach of the Silver Ferns, they did't even know her first name. Their journey took them from the netball courts of Wellington to the Central Otago goldfields, revealing a story of immigrant labour, poverty and marginalisation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three sisters, Mei, Charmaine and Francess Whaanga, were children when their whānau moved from the East Coast to the city. Now in their 60s, they, like so many children of the great Māori urban migration, are without homes of their own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, a rundown house in Christchurch secretly harboured one of New Zealand’s greatest literary treasures. This is the story of the reclusive hoarder who hid it, the woman who wrote it, and the man who rediscovered it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One intrepid reporter dives headlong into the world of Covid-19 conspiracies and emerges to tell the tale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Plunket's founder is widely acknowledged as a white supremacist who established the society to help preserve the "master race". More than 100 years on, can Plunket shake its racist past? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olivia Shivas joins Michael Wright to talk about Stuff's latest podcast What's Wrong with You? – about life with a disability –and share the most inappropriate question she's ever been asked about using a wheelchair. Listen to the first episode of WWWY and, if you like what you hear, subscribe to the series: https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2021/08/whats-wrong-with-you-podcast/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From refugee to Fulbright scholar. Abbas Nazari was seven years old when he fled the Taliban and was rescued from a sinking boat by the cargo ship Tampa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forty years on, protesters recall the heart-stopping moments and enduring consequences of the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The terrible truth about why 385 passengers and crew were held hostage by Saddam Hussein; and the New Zealand journalist who refused to let the story go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More and more of us call our home New Zealand Aotearoa, but as its popularity rises, so does the noise around it. Why is New Zealand also called Aotearoa? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seven years since Te Urewera was officially recognised as a legal person, her people – Ngāi Tūhoe – are facing up to the wounds of colonisation and a Crown partnership haunted by the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Willi Huber, the pioneer behind Canterbury's Mt Hutt ski field, hid a dark past on his immigration forms. Now, the woman who was closest to him is breaking her silence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nearly 180 years ago, at a central Auckland intersection, a Māori teenager was hanged before hundreds of settlers, changing the course of history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moko kauae is resurging in New Zealand. One woman's journey to receiving the traditional Māori chin tattoo, and a reporter grappling with her own identity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Zealand’s braided rivers have been systematically strangled, and in some case, left behind zombie rivers. Now, academics and scientists are re-imagining what it means to live with rivers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How chemical weapons, economic theory and the internet combined to squeeze ten barbershops into one Auckland suburb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Skulduggery, bullying and death threats in New Zealand's rabbit breeding community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of how a roguish, beloved New Zealand bird was nearly eradicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thousands of people have strived to represent New Zealand at the Olympic Games. Just 1371 have succeeded. This is the story of Joseph Millar's decade-long quest to be one of them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One public health expert still believes New Zealand’s widely-lauded response to Covid-19 has been a disaster. But how did Dr Simon Thornley become the 'extreme outlier' in his profession and a hero to anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Long Read Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices