The Star: December 16, 2021

Thursday December 16 2021 The Star
IF YOUR favourite burger on
the Maccas menu is the classic
KiwiBurger, then you’ll be
disappointed next time you pull
up at a drive-thru.
The McDonald’s KiwiBurger
has been dropped from the fastfood
chain’s menu just in time
for summer.
A quick scroll through the
McDonald’s burger menu
reveals the KiwiBurger is
nowhere to be seen – in spite of
the franchise releasing a new
version of its advertising jingle
last year.
The KiwiBurger has done the
rounds over the years. It was
McDonald’s franchisee Bryan
Old who first came up with the
idea to create a typical Kiwi
hamburger before the restaurant
chain was introduced in New
Zealand in 1976.
The burger is full of Kiwi
flavour, including a beef patty,
fried egg, beetroot, lettuce,
tomato, onion, mustard, cheese
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
KiwiBurger dumped from McDonald’s menu
• By Kristie Boland
BEN KENDREW has a personal
reason for reading the most
sought-after New Zealand nonfiction
book at Christchurch
libraries this year.
After recently finding out
about his Māori heritage, he
wanted to learn more about the
language and culture.
“My mum, who was adopted,
discovered her birth dad was
Māori . . . It’s been simmering
that I should understand a
bit more about my heritage,”
Kendrew said.
Māori Made Easy for everyday
learners of the Māori language,
by Scotty Morrison, took out
top spot. It replaced last year’s
number one, Scrumptious by
celebrity chef and food writer
Chelsea Winter.
Kendrew said he sought out
Māori Made Easy last year
following the societal rumblings
with the Black Lives Matter
movement.
“Hearing Māori share
their story of feeling a little
disenfranchised, I want to
be part of advocating for this
language and didn’t want to have
my kids know more Māori than
me,” Kendrew said.
The book is a weekly guide,
taking the reader through basic
pronunciation to more advanced
sentence structures.
“It’s definitely helped with
my pronunciation and trying
and tomato sauce.
But it’s not the first time the
burger has been booted from the
menu. It was discontinued in
2004 and then returned in
2007. Just a year and a half later,
it was dropped from the menu
again.
McDonald’s brought back the
KiwiBurger briefly in 2009, and
then again in August 2011 to
mark the Rugby World Cup as
part of its new Kiwi menu.
—NZ Herald
PHOTO: NZ HERALD
Māori Made Easy takes no 1 spot
AVID: Ben Kendrew is taking practical steps to use more
te reo Māori in his everyday life. PHOTO: KRISTIE BOLAND
to drop it more into everyday
language, which is one of the
encouraging things in the book,”
said Kendrew.
Heperi Harris, the Kaiārahi
Senior Kaupapa Māori advisor
at Ara said he’s very glad to hear
a guide to learning te reo Māori
book has taken the top spot.
“[It’s a] positive shift for the
Māori language and culture,”
said Harris.
In most other respects, the
tastes of Christchurch residents
are similar to previous years.
Non-fiction most popular
title was Michelle Obama’s 2018
memoir Becoming for the third
year in a row.
Children’s most popular
was Diary of a Wimpy Kid –
Wrecking Ball by Jeff Kinney.
Overall, the five most popular
adult fiction books are Sentinel
(Jack Reacher 25) by Lee and
Andrew Child, Blue Moon by
Lee Child, Liar by Lesley Pearse,
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi
Picoult and Hide away by Nora
Roberts.
In the young adult category
Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of
Songbirds and Snakes is on top
followed by the graphic novel
That Time I Got Reincarnated
as a Slime by Fuse, Komi Can’t
Communicate by Tomohito
Oda, Catching Fire also by
Suzanne Collins and
Blue Spring Ride by Io
Sakisaka.
More and more people are
choosing to listen to eAudiobooks
with 234,261 issues in the
11 months to November 30 – up
on last year’s figure of 212,161
and well ahead of 2019’s 160,075
issues.
Meanwhile, eBooks also
continue to be popular with
library customers downloading
444,562 eBooks in the year to
November 30, well up on the
343,135 issued during 2018.
NEWS 3
in brief
Sparks concert back
on for January
One of the city’s muchloved
summertime events is
returning to North Hagley
Park, with the classical musical
extravaganza Sparks scheduled
for January 22. The concert,
which features a dazzling
fireworks finale, was not staged
this year due to Covid-19
restrictions. The Christchurch
Symphony Orchestra will
headline the ‘travelling
through the ages’ themed
production. Vaccine passports
will be required for concertgoers
aged 12 years and three
months or older. “We are so
excited this event is able to go
ahead under the new Covid-19
protection framework
protocols,” said city council
events and arts manager Lucy
Blackmore. Numbers will be
limited to ensure safety with
staff monitoring the amount
of people in the contained area
during the evening.
Stamp shortage
‘Snail mail’ might be going out
of style, but Christmas card
season has still depleted stamp
stocks at some NZ Post outlets
in the city. “There may be some
stores in Christchurch where
some stamp denominations are
temporarily out of stock and
we wish to reassure customers
there’s more on the way and
they should be restocked this
week,” a NZ Post spokesperson
said.
Infectious diseases
department to
change its name
The Department of Infectious
Diseases at Christchurch
Hospital is changing its name
to Infection Management
Service, so patients will not feel
as stigmatised. The Canterbury
District Health Board has said
many patients are taken aback
by the department title, and
wrongly assume they have
a communicable disease as
opposed to simply an infection.
They feel stigmatised by
their infection and the title
contributes to this.
Bin good this
Christmas
Download our handy bin app
ccc.govt.nz/bin-app
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