For the last 25 years, the Jubilation Choir has been bringing together singers from all walks of life, and some Kiwi music powerhouses are set to appear next Sunday.

Next week, the choir will be joined by Julia Deans, Bella Kalolo and the one and only Anika Moa.

Anika Moa says she's done plenty of collaborations, but appearing in the Jubilation Choir will be a career first.

"It's nice to be a part of this project because we've got two shows, it's in and out, it's doing our favourite songs...and I get to sing with Julia Deans and Bella Kalolo. That's a pretty good Sunday."

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The Detective by Matthew Reilly: Matt Reilly is well known for the thrillers he’s been writing for many years now, but this one is quite a departure. It’s based in the American South and is the story of many women going missing over a period of 150 years, starting back in 1877….and the investigators looking for them all also disappeared. It’s set in the nexus of Louisiana and Texas, where a quirky private detective gets the bit between his teeth and is determined to get to the bottom of it, and it has all the hallmarks of the area – wealthy family dynasties, racism, bayous and alligators and high stakes adventure.

The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester. A remarkable exploration of our atmosphere, and the role played in our lives by wind – which can be both benign and malevolent. It’s a fascinating story told through history, literature, science, poetry and engineering – and includes a piece on our own Wahine disaster. Simon Winchester has an ability to make the everyday and apparently mundane, extraordinary. It’s a wonderful book.

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Megan Singleton's been working her way through the US - and she concluded her latest adventure with a few days in New York.

The winter season is getting underway, meaning people are flocking to the city to take in a New York Christmas.

Megan unveiled her highlights, check out more here.

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The Coromandel is well-regarded as one of New Zealand's top holiday hotspots, but it's got more to offer adrenaline junkies than it lets on.

Adventure Racing Coromandel co-founder Andy Reid's been leading the charge in this development, having helped create the K2 bike race and the Kauri Run - among others.

Reid's taken his findings and experiences and put them in a new book - Are You Trying to Kill Us?

"We started with the adventure race and straightaway, we knew that we could only put these races on with the help of all our local volunteers - and so we thought that it was really important to put something back into the community."

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This week on The Sunday Panel, editor and journalist Jo McCarroll and Newstalk ZB host Roman Travers joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more!

A damning police watchdog report from last week found numerous failures in how police handled complaints a staff member made against disgraced former deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming. How bad does this look for the police?

It's been a big week for Te Pāti Māori, with Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and Tākuta Ferris being ousted. Is this a bad look ahead of the election?

The All Blacks got trounced in their latest match against England in Twickenham. What do we make of this?

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I had a lovely Saturday morning. Lying in bed, drinking a coffee, reading the weekend Herald and listening to Jack on ZB say that he’ll ditch his wallet by next year as everything he needs will be on his phone.

I was thinking - keep up, lad. I ditched the wallet during Covid. The phone has become ubiquitous and if not the phone, then a card in a pocket in the phone.

It’s debatable whether this is a good thing considering how compromised phones are and how reliant they are on cell towers, software and power supply, but hey.

Meanwhile, on the front page of the Herald was the legislation meaning that councils could charge congestion taxes in the future.

Now this is dodgy. The taxes will be on roads that we already paid taxes to build. And if not taxes then rates, which after all, are also taxes. Talk about double jeopardy - taxes on taxes

And then, you have to wonder if the National-led coalition really is the tax cut party. Surely introducing a new tax is still a new tax, which is something they say is what the socialists do.

But everyone is doing it - rates are up, water rates are up. And under this coalition, the reality is our taxes are going up. No matter what their semantics suggest.

But they have to do it to get some cars off some roads that are so congested that they’re costing our productivity.

The motivation for taxes has many faces - they’re used to punish the rich, they’re used to redistribute wealth, they're used to fund health and education systems and they’re used to punish or change behaviour.

So they’re trying to change our behaviour to make more of us drive off peak and less of us on peak.

Good luck with that. Good luck with your tax. No wonder Wayne Brown said they’re not going to use the new power any time soon, he knows a vote killer when he sees one.

But the fact that a young modern city of just over one and a half million people has got itself in a position where a centre-right Government thinks the answer is a congestion tax is a complete and utter failure of civic planning.

Sure, I can understand congestion taxes in London, which has had centuries of development. But Auckland? Or Tauranga? Or Wellington?

All we had to do was provide alternatives to the car that were affordable and efficient.

But everytime public transport options and alternate modes have been suggested, they’ve been shouted down by people who think they live in rural villages and not modern cities and they should drive from doorstep to doorstep.

Thanks for your lack of foresight - it means another tax is coming and our roads will still be chocka.

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The holiday season means more gatherings and Christmas parties - and with it, more opportunities to binge-drink.

Recent data shows one in every five New Zealand adults were hazardous drinkers, placing themselves and others at risk of harm.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara reveals how Kiwis can be mindful and stay safe this holiday season.

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