Red sails in the Auckland sunset are all very well, and I’ve enjoyed them as an eating backdrop many times, but for me seeing a working port in action beats yachts every time.

Alan Perrott talks to the men who keep guard at Auckland’s hottest nightclubs and bars and finds out it’s not just physical danger they have to contend with.

Pump up the volume with these clean-cut and relaxed separates.

A popular dining strip has a newcomer, which scores top marks for its attention to details — and its coffee.

Tina Shaw talks to Rebecca Barry Hill about her connection to provincial New Zealand and why she is drawn to dark crime.

It’s full of dazzling prose, it’s ingeniously put together, it’s so long it’s a drag to lug around.

A new report bragging about how cool and grown-up the ‘new’ Auckland is doesn’t even come close to imagining how great this city could be, writes Greg Dixon.

Where the hell did kale come from? Seriously, how did the cauliflower’s ugly cousin go from this thing no one outside a few food/health freaks had ever heard of to suddenly being the single most important vegetable none of us can possibly live without?

Pump up the volume with these clean-cut and relaxed separates.

Loop, with its white walls, tables and chairs plus a rather magnificent curved bar, is a refreshing change in Kingsland.

You’ve been warned. These highbrow prints have an artistic temperament.

Any old rented tux won’t do anymore. Guys do give a damn about what they get hitched in. A lot, says well-dressed husband Alan Perrott.

Breton Dukes has an interesting bio. He has shifted from north to south — from Whangarei to Dunedin.

Publishers are wary of short stories. They don’t sell as easily or pleasingly as novels.

A couple of weeks ago, while she was visiting Northern Ireland, the Queen popped on to the set of Game of Thrones to cast a professional eye over the Iron Throne to see if it was cooler than her throne.

Not even the winter cold can take the heat out of the inner city’s temperature, as Paul Lewis discovers during a three-venue dinner around watching a luncheon play.

Never having been to Hanoi, I might be mistaken. But I suspect the similarities between eating at a street food stall in Vietnam and dining in a Grey Lynn cafe on a cold Auckland winter’s Sunday night are not striking.

Ursula Le Guin’s long career has traversed many worlds, within which she is still uncovering more, writes David Larsen.

A utilitarian staple gets a makeover. No scooter required.

When her daughter was diagnosed with a life-threatening peanut allergy, Kiwi mum Lydia Monin turned her home into a nut-free zone. But life outside is a never-ending risk assessment, she says.

It starts in the 1970s. An illiterate girl from a Soweto slum is crammed into a truck with a load of potatoes.

We all know about Barossa and its big, bold shiraz; the famous Penfolds Grange and Melbourne’s terrific foodie scene.

Talk about your quintessential First World dilemma.

Despite the many outerwear choices this season from trench coats to sporty anoraks, the utilitarian roots of the parka continue to inspire, with several updated versions offered in a range of unexpected colours and fabrics.

Getting to try newly released wines is never a chore, nor is it taken for granted. I sample them all so you don’t have to…trust me; we’ve never had it so good…for example.

Gusto Italiano is one of those restaurants that makes you feel great the moment you walk through the door. It's light, warm, reasonably

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that every woman, no matter how successful, must be in want of a husband and family to feel complete.