There’s a particular kind of joy in booking a winter escape. Flights to Fiji. A long stretch in Bali. Three weeks chasing the European summer while New Zealand sits under grey skies and four layers of merino.

And there’s a particular kind of regret in arriving at your destination, sun-starved and pale, and reaching for sunscreen only to realise the only thing in your toiletry bag is a half-used tube of something that expired during the last Labour government.

If winter is when you’re planning your getaway, this is your reminder: pack the SPF before you pack anything else.

There's something quietly powerful about Matariki.

It arrives in the middle of winter — when the days are shortest, the mornings are dark, and most of us are more focused on finding a warm jacket than thinking about sun protection. And yet here it is: a constellation rising in the pre-dawn sky, marking a new year, asking us to pause, reflect, and care — for ourselves, for each other, for the world around us.