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Crime & Investigations
Meth in the suburbs: How high flying professionals became hooked
They had jobs, homes, and routines – lives that by all accounts looked stable from the outside. Then methamphetamine entered the picture. Katie Ham investigates the everyday lives destroyed by New Zealand’s most prolific drug, and the system that keeps it flowing.
Anna* is sitting at the lunch table on her first day in rehab, her hands never still as she talks – fingers picking at each other, tapping lightly on the surface, shifting her mug from one hand to another and back again.
She hasn’t been sleeping, she explains. She was meant to arrive at 10.30am the day before, but didn’t make it through the doors of Red Door Recovery Centre until 8pm.
It was too hard stepping away from the life she knew and saying goodbye to her family home up for sale, but sitting here she says she’s ready – “excited” even – for recovery.
Now a mother of two in her 40s, it’s hard to reconcile this version of Anna with the life she once lived.
Read the full story on The Post here.
Dying for a cure: Inside the global drug trial that ended in tragedy for two Kiwi families
When two New Zealand men volunteered to take part in a global drug trial, they believed in the promise of medical progress. Both are now dead, and their families have been left to navigate a maze of silence and bureaucracy as they fight a “David and Goliath" battle for accountability. Katie Ham investigates.
“My life was pretty good before the trial,” Peter Woods says in a grainy video recorded from his home in Kerikeri in July.
“I’d been cleared of cancer for a long time, a year or so. Everything was going along well. I had an active retirement. Things were happy.”
Woods’ lawyer had asked him to record a video, a statement of sorts, that could be played in court if he didn’t live to tell his story himself.
On screen he looked well enough, but beneath his bright blue-and-white floral shirt, Woods’ body was failing - his skin was mottled with dark bruises, bleeding at the slightest bump, and exhausted from the cocktail of drugs coursing through his system.
Read the full story on The Sunday-Star Times here.
The lost childhoods and lasting scars of the Tom Phillips tragedy
In a case that has captivated the world, fugitive Tom Phillips’ four-year flight from authorities came to an explosive end on a quiet gravel road deep in the King Country earlier this week. Katie Ham reports from Waitomo on the human cost of the tragedy that has rocked back block New Zealand.
It’s the colours you notice first.
In photos of the Phillips children - taken just weeks before they were swallowed by the Waikato wilderness - the world bursts with technicoloured joy.
On a picnic blanket, the siblings cuddle close to their mum, bucket hats shading their dimpled smiles, their clothes a kaleidoscope of bright patterns as pounamu hang proudly from their necks.
By a waterfall, the girls glow in rich tulle princess dresses as they struggle to keep still, cheeky grins stretched from ear to ear.
But on December 12, 2021, the three Phillips children - then aged 8, 7 and 5 - disappeared into a secret, sunless world hidden deep in the bush.
Read the full story on The Sunday-Star Times here.
You can read more of Katie Ham’s latest crime and investigative writing on The Post and Sunday-Star Times here.
Travel & Culture
Red Hot: The ‘Ed Effect’ warming up New Zealand’s economy
When Ed Sheeran touches down in New Zealand, it’s never just a concert.
It’s an event - and one that brings with it a perfectly timed boost to wallets, morale and midweek foot traffic.
After two jam-packed shows at Go Media Stadium over the weekend, Sheeran’s Loop Tour rolls into Wellington on Wednesday, before heading south to Christchurch for a double encore next weekend.
And while the 34-year-old British megastar might insist he’s just a guy with a guitar and a loop pedal, the numbers suggest otherwise.
In Auckland, the city moved to the beat of Sheeran’s arrival over the weekend, as fans flooded the streets and local businesses felt the boost.
Read the full story on The Post here.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Southeast European country that oozes charm
First things first, a confession – Bosnia and Herzegovina had never been on my bucket list.
But after seven days in the Southeast European country that oozes charm, here’s why I think it should be on yours.
A word of warning to Kiwi travellers though: it’s a bit of a mission to even get to Bosnia and Herzegovina. I flew from Auckland to Singapore, from Singapore to Istanbul and then from Istanbul into Bosnia’s capital city, Sarajevo – a 30-hour trip.
After one night in Sarajevo, I then travelled on to Mostar to watch the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series athletes launch themselves from the iconic Stari Most Bridge in what can only be described as a superhuman fashion.
So, here’s where to eat, stay and play next time you happen to be on the Balkan Peninsula.
Read the full story on The Post here.
What is Red Bull Cliff Diving — and why the heck am I in Bosnia because of it?
In just over two months, the Red Bull Cliff Diving roadshow is set to roll through Auckland, bringing with it budgie smugglers, camera crew turned scuba divers and - most importantly - some serious talent.
With a usual penchant for crime reporting in Auckland, you might (quite rightly) ask how I’ve ended up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a small country on the Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe.
Well, on November 18 and 19 the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series will be hitting New Zealand’s waters for the first time ever, with the Grand Finale set to be held in Tāmaki Makaurau’s Wynyard Quarter.
And with Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the penultimate stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving roadshow, what better place to get a taste of what’s to come for Kiwis? Or so I told myself when I embarked on the 48-hour journey.
I had a lot to learn (and thanks to a delayed flight and an almost-lost suitcase, not a lot of time to learn it), so here’s my quick guide to everything you need to know about Red Bull Cliff Diving before it comes to Aotearoa.
Read the full story on Stuff here.