Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - August 12 - Paul Henry, Jono Got Dressed In The Dark This Morning, News In Beeps

Episode Date: August 12, 2020

After the news of the COVID community transmission in NZ, Jono had a bit of a shambles getting ready this morning, and Producer Ben slept through ALL THE NEWS last night. We also talked to Michelle Dickinson AKA Nanogirl and Finance Minister Grant Robertson about the new COVID cases, and finally, Paul Henry joined us on the phone to talk about his experience in hotel isolation. What a big day! Enjoy the podcast, please follow the government rules and stay safe people!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just when you thought you couldn't get enough of Jono and Ben, you can have them anywhere, anytime. Welcome to the Jono and Ben podcast. Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to an unusual day in New Zealand. Yeah, pretty surreal, isn't it? After 102 days without any COVID-19 in the community, I was back yesterday and announced at a press conference pretty late last night. It was almost like COVID were like, yeah, I'll give you a century. I'll give you a ton. I'll give you a ton, but then I'm coming back for more.

Like a cricket batsman that gets to 100 and then goes out with a... Well, I don't know, a little 100, but now I'm back. I've been waiting here since 92, by the way. So New Zealand going back into some alert levels, alert level three for Auckland. What level are you at, Lockdown? Well, I'm on a personal level. Oh, I don at? Lockdown. On a personal level. Oh. I don't understand your question.

Level one to ten. What level are you sitting at? What way is good? In what way? Oh, you judge. You be the judge of that. And I'll tell you what I'm asking. My feelings.

Feelings wise or level bringing to the show or what? In what way? You give me the number and I'll tell you what I'm measuring. Let's say I'm at a four. Yeah. That's your performance on air. Okay. Give me the number and I'll tell you what I'm measuring That's a metaphor Yeah, that's your performance on air Okay, give me another number Today probably to be honest Seven

That's your performance in the bedroom Oh good, it's gone up It's gone up from where was it? Where was it sitting last time? Oh, a bit lacklustre Yeah, it was sitting two, two and a half Yeah, as well as that I don't know what I said about that But anyway, it's a bit of a different show today It took a bit lacklustre. Yeah, I was thinking two, two and a half. Yeah, as well as that. I don't know what I said about that.

But anyway, a bit of a different show today. It took a bit of a change tack because obviously a lot going on. So we talked to some people. It's called pivoting, Ben. That's the word of 2020. We pivoted. We tried to not only update you guys with what was going on in New Zealand at the time, but also try and be positive through it all.

But there's a lot going on. We talked to scientists, Dr. Michelle Dick Dickinson about whether we should be wearing masks out in the community. The problem is when you do such a topical show, and boy, we were topical this morning, is that the information is going to be dated by the time anyone listens to the podcast. No, but hey, we'll check it out. Check out the dated information. No, it's not all dated.

There's great stuff. There's great stuff in there. I give it a nine out of ten. Not dated at all. Grant Robertson, who we discovered is not the Deputy Prime Minister, after we'd been saying, oh, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Both options, we said. Not true.

Neither were true. But he joins us as well. He awkwardly corrected us on him. And you won't believe what the former Prime Minister of New Zealand tried to smuggle in for Paul Henry. That's in the podcast today. More painful than your alarm clock. It's Jono and Ben on the hats.

You know, we work here in quite a big building, and we're in a foyer with a big window, and we can see everyone walking in, and everyone just walks in and puts their arms in the air. There we go again. Oh my God, we're back again. But let's be positive. We're trying to be positive.

We've got through this together with New Zealand, and hopefully we can do it again. Oh my god, we're back again. But let's be positive. We're trying to be positive. We've got through this together with New Zealand and hopefully we can do it again. So last night I was obviously caught up in this business, Ben. What business? The business you've just been talking about. Oh, you mean like the updates with, yeah. The stuff you were literally just saying.

I was like, what's the business you got caught up in, mate? You as a business person? That's what I was thinking. Oh, you mean like... I mean, we've got our importing-exporting business, which is going pretty well, isn't it? Yeah. And if you need anything, you can meet us after the show in the back alley.

We cover a wide range of products. But from a social distance, though. Yeah, social. Two metres away. We'll be wearing masks as well. Probably more balaclavas. But I didn't like... Because last night I was watching this press conference

and talking and panicking with the millennials. Millennial Max and Millennial Demilju. You were all over the WhatsApp group. Oh, the WhatsApp group. We were up all over WhatsApp, weren't we? Oh, I know. It was a frantic, frantic time. Even on the WhatsApp group, the boss told him, I've talked to Jono.

He's like, oh, he's had a phone call with Jono. He's decided to talk to Jono. Oh, it's all over. I've talked to Jono. We've outlaid all the... I was like, oh, okay, Jono's the favourite one, is he? We've outlaid the plans. You follow me this morning, okay, Johnny's the favourite one, is he? We've outlaid the plans. You follow me this morning, mate.

Okay. You stick with me, you'll be fine. But I didn't get my usual nightly routine done where I prepare my clothing for the next morning in a military fashion. Right. Like when I wake up in the morning, I'm ready to pounce like a sniper.

Yeah. Or like a gigolo. Well, we do get up really early in the morning, don't we? So you do need to get up and you need to have a lot of things prepared. Yeah. I didn't do that last night, but then I had to get dressed in the dark. Now, that's a guessing game, isn't it? Which is what many people see you normally.

That's what many people would assume that you've done. Yeah. Get dressed in the dark with a coat. With my fashion choices. Well, usually it's a pretty safe bet. Because you find yourself like blindly feeling clothes and going, I think that's what I think it is. Right.

Inevitably, in my case, it's always a holy 90s rock band t-shirt. Yeah, yeah. But then I feel like I'm wearing my wife's bra as underpants this morning. Maybe you are. Yeah. It feels like quite a thongy sort of, I haven't checked. I haven't checked. But it's quite a guessing game when you're... I haven't checked. I haven't checked,

but it's quite a guessing game when you're dressing in the dark, isn't it? Yeah, totally. No, you've done a pretty good job. Yeah, I've got mismatched socks. Oh, but that's okay. Yeah. Oh, Juliet's saying wrap this up. She's doing that thing.

She's doing that thing when it's either helicopters on the roof or she's like wrapping up. Is John's chopper here or not? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, the chopper's here. I'm going to grab the chopper. I'm going to wrap up.

He was talking about mismatched socks. Great content. I'm going to go catch my helicopter, guys. Such great content. Not a morning person. Sadly, neither of these two. It's Jono and Ben on the heads. There's talk that masks might be made compulsory in Auckland at least for New Zealand.

We'll bring you updates on that before nine o'clock if we hear anything. At the moment, masks are recommended if you're out in public anywhere in New Zealand if you've got one. We just took a photo in the studio with our masks on. Funny how you smile even though you can't see your mouth for the photo. Just automatic too. And you still make your selfie noise.

Tell you what, masks remind me, wearing a mask reminds me of, because you can hear your breathing. It's kind of like you're alone with your breathing. It's kind of like when you used to play hide and seek as a kid, you know, wearing a mask reminds me of, because you can hear your breathing. It's kind of like you're alone with your breathing. It's kind of like when you used to play hide and seek as a kid, and you know, you're like, just me, you start, could they find me? And you just hear your breathing, you're like, I'm breathing too loud.

And you can really smell, it's like face farting, isn't it? You really come, instant feedback on your breath when you're wearing a mask. Yeah, like, ooh, okay. I see some people, you know, can resort to using G-strings and things like that, don't they? A friend of mine was trying half a bra. His wife's bra was just trying that through. And it actually looked kind of... Yeah, it's a good cupping system.

But a bit odd at the same time. Well, I mean, his poor wife's got no support. Yeah, that's true. But he's COVID-free. So obviously everything went down last night, quarter past nine at the press conference. And Alex, who works here in the office, she's like, I had the wildest dream last night.

And we're like, well, this must have been COVID related. Yeah, because going to bed with all that news circulating through your head, I imagine a lot of people would have had some unusual dreams last night. Yeah, and she was like, Jono, Ben, you're in my dreams. I was like, well, that's a given. I mean, we're always in dreams, aren't we, Ben?

Are we? I like to figure that we're always in dreams, people's dreams. Or nightmares, maybe. It's weird when you tell people, like, I had a dream about you. People often think it's a naughty. Yeah, you always do. Oh, did you? Oh, yeah, I bet you did.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Or I write yourself, mate. It's funny, you always do that. It's like, I had a dream about you. You're like, oh, did you? Yeah, no, you were doing some horrible stuff. Yeah.

I was not... You were caught. I was trying to... I was character witness, but I couldn't get you off the charge. That's it. All right. So Alex goes,

John, I've been, you're in my dream, and we both thought, oh, yeah, yeah. I bet we were. La, la, la. But she was like, we were flying on a humpback whale to Palmerston North. Okay. Okay, now there's nothing hallucinogenic about this dream in any way.

But if you're ever wanting a reason to vote yes to not making lead weagle illegal in the referendum. Lead weagle. Lead weagle in the weefawendum. The reefawendum? Are they calling it the reefawendum yet? Oh. In the weferwendum. The reeferendum? Are they calling it the reeferendum yet? Oh, the reeferwendum. There's a head. Just send that off to the Herald.

The reeferendum. Have we just called the headline? Oh, I think so. Anyway, so that was her dream last night. When everything in the world was falling down, we were flying on a humpback whale. Logistically, how does that work? I don't know, but maybe Air New Zealand are like,

there's got to be some alternatives. Cheaper alternatives to flying planes. I mean, how does that work? I don't know, but maybe Air New Zealand are like, there's got to be some alternatives, cheaper alternatives to flying planes. I mean, so many businesses you feel horrible for and you hope this lockdown's only going to be minimal because it affects so many industries. But yeah, the poor Air New Zealand, the travel industry, the other airlines, it's horrible.

I know. Well, they're resorting to whales now as a mode of air transport. That's good. Whale riders. That was our movie, right? Wonderful film. There we go.

That was Alex's dream last night. Now next, supermarkets, panic buying, madness, toot paper, craziness, stocking up, Jacinda. I don't know. Why am I talking about that? He's not even making full sentences. Economy of words Just saying

Words Space in the mouth For the effect Like starting your day Without your morning coffee It's Jono and Ben on my heads Now yesterday In New Zealand

The news was a little bit lighter One of the biggest news stories Was broadcaster Paul Henry In quarantine That's right He's flown back from America I think he spends a lot of his time He owns a house in Palm Springs, California He does You know a broadcaster Paul Henry in quarantine. That's right. He's flown back from America. I think he spends a lot of his time.

He owns a house in Palm Springs, California. You know a lot about Paul Henry. And for some reason, you have his phone number, which I don't know why. Well, I mean, I've had a turbulent relationship with Paul over the years. Most of my relationships are turbulent. My marriage, turbulent. All of our relationships. Turbulent.

I only like to run a turbulent. Do you want to get to know me? Well, it's going to be turbulent. It'll start great. only like to run a turbulent way. Do you want to get to know me? Well it's going to be turbulent. It'll suck right? Then it'll sort of fall apart. And so yesterday after our show we thought well we'll call Paul

Henry never thinking that he would answer in quarantine. No because we're like does he need anything? Like he's a better class of human being. Put me in there.

Lock me up. Bring him out. But anyway we called him to see if he needed any surprise. And things are more turbulent after this phone call.

Hello? Is that our dear friend Paul Henry? Who is this? It's your dear friends, Jono and Ben. Oh, no. You know, I just, I recognised the voice, Jono, and I thought, please let it not be him. How are you guys? We're going all right. I'm sorry for, like, cold calling you, Paul.

I don't know if you, we answered your phone. That was your first mistake. Oh, exactly. Especially when it came through private number. What was I thinking? You made a fatal mistake there, Henry. Now, there's news coverage that you're in isolation. Did you need anything? Did you need us to get you anything? No, no. It's very, very,

very kind of you to offer, but I think the sort of things you're likely to bring are not the sort of things that will get past security. Okay, so you're all good? You've got your selection of chucks shoes?

You're wearing your Converse chucks? You've got enough pairs to get you through? Yeah, well, you're surprising how few you need. That's right, you're surprising how few you need. That's right, you're not going anywhere. In quarantine, but yeah, I've got a couple of pairs of chucks here,

so I'm all right for those. And I've got very nice room, and so I'm very happy. Now, your experience, it's been a mixed bag with people's experiences in quarantine. So far, you've had a pleasurable time, Paul? Well, I mean, you know, no one would choose this. Well, I don't know. I mean, maybe if your life was so terribly awful, you would. You wouldn't really choose this. I mean, you've just got to suck it up, haven't you? It's just part of the deal of the new order.

Now, you made it just before the threshold of when you have to pay as well, so you must be happy with that. Well, no, I didn't really. I mean, I could have stayed over for a lot longer than that. I mean, because it's not retrospective. So if you're leaving the country now, then you will have to pay when you come back. Or if you're visiting the country for a short period, you'll have to pay. But if you're coming to New Zealand to continue living or to live from now on, you don't have to pay. Oh, look, you're across the news better than we are.

We do a breakfast radio show, so well done. Yeah, you know, to be honest with you, that doesn't surprise me. I don't think there's anything new there. No, it's true. I mean, essentially, the only people that are going to have to pay are people who are going out for a short time or coming in for a short time. That makes sense. That makes sense, Paul.

I'm glad you're across the details, Paul. Yeah, yeah. Anytime you need updating, just give me a call. He's not going anywhere for a couple of weeks, that's for sure. Paul, listen, if you need anything at any stage throughout this two-week period, you call us. Well, you can't get alcohol in. You can't bring me alcohol.

I cannot get deliveries of wine or beer or anything like that. No, you cannot. And it probably comes down more to the liquor licensing laws because the hotel's licensed. So I can buy alcohol here. Funnily enough, I was called down, security called me down to get a package this morning, and it was from our ex-prime minister.

And he had tried to, I'm going to use the term smuggle, he tried to smuggle me an alcohol. John Key did? But I suspect it's more likely that he didn't know. But the security guards were enormously amused as they withheld John Key's wine from me. You'll get that in two weeks. Oh, well, listen, you've got a far better calibre of person

offering to drop you off stuff. You don't need us, Paul. Does that surprise you? No, he's never needed us, let's be honest. Not once have you needed us. No, I don't know why we've got your number. I love you guys dearly, you know that, don't you? We love you too, Paul.

Yeah, you're so good to us. You tolerate us, which we appreciate. Exactly. You've hit the nail on the head, I tolerate you. You shouldn't. Okay, guys, you take care. And you've hit the nail on the head. I tolerate you. You shouldn't. Okay, guys, you take care. See you, Paul. See you.

Bye. Start your day the wrong way. It's Jono and Ben on the hits. Scrolling through your feed. Yeah, this is the news. This is what the news would sound like if we made it up along the way. Scrolling through your feed. Ben Boyce, what have we got this morning?

Anything happen overnight? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing I can think of. Of course, last night in all seriousness, surprised by a press conference. After 102 days with no community transmission,

four cases of COVID back in the community in Auckland. And so Auckland and the rest of the country are moving into different alert levels as of midday today. So level three for Auckland, level two for the rest of the country. So just to paraphrase, level two if you're the rest of Aotearoa. When away from home, physical

distancing, 2 metres distance. Wear a mask if possible. Stay at home if you're sick, obviously. And all gatherings limited to 100 people. I don't even know 100 people, so I don't even know why they give that limit. I guess if it's like a big wedding or a concert or something like that. I would

love to know 100 people. Yeah. But that's never applied to me. Even when she was like gatherings of 10 limit. I guess if it's like a big wedding or a concert or something like that. I would love to know 100 people. Yeah. But that's never applied to me. Even when she was like gatherings of 10 people during the last lockdown. I struggled to name

seven people that I know. So that's level two for the rest of New Zealand as of midday today. For the Auckland, the greater Auckland region as of midday today and this is until

Friday midnight. Remain home where possible. Keep your bubble small. Physical distancing of two metres when you can. Wear a mask when away from home. And then we're going back to this again. Restaurants and bars closed, but takeaways allowed. Schools, gyms, libraries, museums,

all those things are closed at the moment. And gatherings limited to just 10 people as well in the Auckland region. I've always said Auckland's bringing down the rest of the country. Now the rest of New Zealand, this is your chance to ditch Auckland, finally well in the Auckland region. I've always said Auckland's bringing down the rest of the country. Now the rest of New Zealand, this is your chance to ditch Auckland, finally. Form your own country. Go, be free.

Be free. You're a better person. You're a better person. But it's a, do you think it's always been there? Do you think it was just a case when we dropped back to level one that obviously less people were getting tested, but they may have had it not realised because that's the

Donald Trump theory too many tests we get too many tests and I dare say now that not a good theory there's going to be obviously increased testing

not only in Auckland but across the whole country that more cases will inevitably pop up now and I know that out there there's going to be a lot of worry there's going to be

a lot of panic and concern and all that so we'll try and keep positive through this. We have beaten it before. We have got on top of this before. I mean, you compare it to Melbourne. It is really positive.

Only four cases, the government's banged. Shut this down. Straight away, three. We've done it nearly. So we're trying. We're a positive show. We're trying to be positive this morning. Are we?

We just played If The World Was Ending as our first song. Okay. Well, now. From this point on, now. Now, now, now. We're a positive show. And hopefully well now, from this point on now, from now, now, now, we're a positive show and hopefully we can get through this again. So we are here for you

if you want to text us at any stage this morning, you want to talk to us, we are around, our numbers are 0800 that hits 4487. Happy to pass on any information we know and get the right people on

that you want to hear from today on the show. Want more Jono and Ben? You can catch up with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Facebook. Kia ora with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Facebook. Yoda, I'm Ash Thomas and this is

The Beeping News. This is The Beeping News where producer Juliet makes it increasingly difficult to decipher what the headlines are as she beeps them out. Juliet, I don't know

if anyone's told you this but it's quite inconvenient for us. Oh, really? Yeah. Damn, sorry about that. No, maybe if you unbeat them we would hear what the headlines were.

Yeah, true. That would be helpful. A little tip from an experienced broadcaster there. All right, you ready for your first news story? Not really, but we'll give it a go anyway. Okay, all right. Two men rob a convenience store wearing... Two men rob a convenience store wearing...

nothing but convenient clothing. That's convenient. I'm going to go with Jono Pryor bald wigs. Oh, yeah? You know, the bald caps. That would be quite a good disguise. Is there a range of those? Yeah, well, I think you should.

Are you selling these on the black market? I'm selling them. People are impersonating you, committing crimes around the world, and it's hopefully going to be all laid back on you. Close but not quite. Two men rob convenience store wearing watermelon reins. So they've literally

carved out a watermelon, chucked it on their head and gone and done the deed in a store. Like some sort of helmet. Yeah, it just covers their whole face. Oh, do they have eye holes

in the wood? Yeah, it's quite, it's on the CCT. Smart and healthy, Ben. I know you love getting your five plus a day. Well, you'd get a lot of great watermelon beforehand, wouldn't you?

You'd end up with a very sticky face, wouldn't you? Your face would be inconveniently... Cause a bit of melon drama. Ha ha. I planned that one, guys. Good start. Good pun. Good pun.

I'm becoming so lame. Do you know the... Hey, hey. Every time you say a pun, you're like, I'm learning from you guys, and now your real feelings come out. Yeah, you're coming down to our level. Welcome to the bottom of the barrel, baby. Once you're here, there's no law, you can go.

Thank you very much. Now, as a watermelon hack, remember you were telling us with tooth floss? Oh, yes. You can hold tooth floss and carve out the inside of the watermelon. Yeah, exactly. That was better living, everybody. Yes, love that.

And next one is... Aquarium is collecting coins from its own... to pay bills during pandemic. Collecting coins from its own dolphin's blowholes. They were left there by visitors to the aquarium. Oh, yeah. I've no idea for this one. Normally I come up with a quirky answer for this.

I've got nothing. I've got nothing. Jono's reasonably close. Aquarium is collecting coins from its own wishing well to pay bills during pandemic. That is nothing like a dolphin's blowhole. How is that close? I was closer by saying I had nothing.

I was going to say, you know, the dolphins. I was like, finally, am I going to get one? No, I am nowhere near that. But I appreciate the sentiments, Julian. You were close. You said an answer. You were. I wasn't close at all.

Yeah, exactly. But it's because of, you know, how over the whole pandemic, people are using less cash. They're like, there's a coin shortage. So they just took all the coins from the wishing well and are using it to, you know, keep the aquarium going, I guess you could say. Are those coins fair game?

I've always wondered. You know, if you go to a public park and could say. Are those coins fair game? I've always wondered. You know, if you go to a public park and everyone's chucked their coins in, is that open slather? Because I've always wanted to dip my hand in there, but I'd never... I don't know. I don't know the protocol. If it becomes the property of the place or not.

It's not like it's for charity or anything. I understand if it's inside an aquarium, but in the park? Yeah. Surely that's fair game. But people make a wish and you're like, is that bad karma? I feel like I've taken this wish away from this place. No, you're an idiot for making a wish and you're like, is that bad karma? If you're like, oh, I'm taking this wish away. No, you're an idiot for making a wish and throwing a coin into a body of water. True, true.

And the final one. Woman celebrates 103rd birthday by getting her... By getting her first lethal injection from David Seymour. Oh, God. Oh, wow. If you vote that way in the referendum, that's over to you. It's not my choice. I'm going to have something quirky. twerking lessons or something at 103.

Oh, that would be fun, but no. Woman celebrates 103rd birthday by getting her first tattoo. Okay. What a boss lady, eh? What was the tattoo of? It was of a little small frog on her arm. Isn't that adorable? I would like to say that is completely meaningless and random,

but I should not throw stones looking at my pasty white body. Wake up full of shame. Wake up with these guys. It's Jono and Ben on the hits. Thinking of everyone around New Zealand today, a very different day here in New Zealand. Of course, you would have heard the news last night from the press conference. You'd probably wake it up this morning reading all about it,

that New Zealand, well, Auckland is going back into alert level three and the rest of the country alert level two from midday today and Ashley Bloomfield, Dr Ashley Bloomfield sort of laid out what we need to do. There are things that every single New Zealander now needs to do. Continue or get back to stringent

hand hygiene, washing for 20 seconds with soap and water or regular use of an alcohol based hand gel, sneeze for 20 seconds with soap and water or regular use of an alcohol-based hand gel, sneeze and cough into your elbow. If you or a family member are unwell, wherever you live in New Zealand, stay at home. Practice physical distancing of two metres wherever possible and please consider wearing a mask in spaces or places where it is hard to physically distance. If you have not already, please take this opportunity to download the NZ COVID Tracer app. Of course, if you want details of what's open and what you can get under Alert Level 3 or 2 wherever you are in New Zealand, head to covid19.gov.nz.

Do you know the most disturbing thing that I found last night at 9 o'clock? It was a barrage in our WhatsApp group, which I never check. I'm usually three or four days behind the WhatsApp group. Yeah, you were all over it last night. For some reason, I was on top of it, loving it. Millennial Max, Mill Jew, Millennial Juliet over there.

All the millennials were texting me on WhatsApp. All your favourite millennials. Coming at me on WhatsApp. One of your favourite millennials. Coming at me on WhatsApp. But you guys, before Jacinda and Dr Ashley Bloomfield walked out to the media, they're like, I heard. They're already gossiping. They're like, I heard there's an outbreak of papatoetoe. We're going to go back to level three.

I was like, how do the millennials know? Before the Prime Minister's come out and told us. Millennials, mate, they're on the finger of the boss. Where are you getting your intel from? We're millennials for a reason. We can hack anything. So we just found the information

through, you know, just online hacking, basically, obviously. Before the press conferences are now, they're telling me what's happening. Oh, I'm an old boomer.

We're on to it. Now, Ben Humphrey, producer Humphrey, you've won. Millennial, no, you don't call him millennial. Are you a millennial?

Where are you sitting? Probably am. Millennial Ben. Not as millennial as these other two. You figure not quite on the pulse last time. You know you're a millennial, but you're an 89-year-old soul, isn't he? I think because he comes from fairly. When you're born in fairly, you're immediately over 50. Mentally speaking.

I'll tell you what, I slept like a baby last night. Because you woke up this morning to how many texts and messages? I had 83 text messages, 12 Facebook messages. The WhatsApp group was bananas, like you mentioned. Oh, tell me about it. I was there. I was there in real time. I don't know if it was a library.

15 missed calls from Boss Todd. 15? And the alert that got sent out to everyone's iPhone and I slept through it all. Wow. Woke up this morning, phone was like a Christmas tree. I love how Boss Todd called you 15 times. Why did he say number 15? Oh, that's too many

now. I'd be like, even at five you'd be like, okay, well clearly he's not going to answer. But I'll try another 10 phone calls. Keep going with that one. Did you miss out on all the details of the WhatsApp group? I'm still reading the WhatsApp group. It's like novels. The Millions knew before the Prime Minister told anyone.

But we're getting on top of it. What a thing to wake up to. What were your first thoughts? I just thought, I thought, panic, God, and I got to work in record time, I tell you. I was through the shower so quick and out the door. Because we go to sleep quite early obviously for this job

getting up in the morning I was actually I had fallen asleep and then the phone started ringing I woke up to the phone because it wasn't Boss Todd

but it was someone in the family going hey turn on the TV Boss Todd didn't try to call you 392 times no he left you alone I can imagine he's going to be

filthy at me after the show today oh listen it was lovely to have everyone here. And it's not panic stations. No. We must reiterate that.

It's level three. It's for three days while the health department try and find out what the case was. And that's just level three in Auckland. Around the country, level two. We want to try and keep positive because we have done this before as a country. And so we can hopefully do this again. And we'll get you through the morning after 7 o'clock. I'm loving your inspirational words.

I love it. I'm loving it. He's like Gandhi. What are you saying with a big smile on your face? Put your mask back on. I don't want to see your face. Low in calories and low in laughs. It's Jono and Ben on my hits.

Yesterday, in Mike Hosking's car, similar happy times. Happier times. Tuesday, happier times. We have acquired Mike Hosking's fancy. Similar happy times. Happier times. Tuesday, happier times. We have acquired Mike Hoskins' fancy Jaguar, as you know. Been banging on about it. And he wants it back. He called us yesterday demanding that we give the car back to him. We've set Monday as a deadline.

And we thought, well, before we hand it back, we want to get an arch nemesis in the vehicle. And who better than Green Party Millennial MP, who he's hung up on previously on his radio show. He has, yeah. Like literally hung up on her, Chloe Swarbrick. We had Chloe in the car and we're like, hey, Chloe, you're not just a passenger, baby.

You're driving this thing. So she was driving the fully automatic. I didn't call her baby, by the way. Fully electric. Sorry, fully the car. And we're like, hey, Chloe, you're not just a passenger, baby. You're driving this thing. So she was driving the fully automatic. I didn't call her baby, by the way. Fully electric. Sorry, fully electric car. Electric, you know, for the Greens party. They'd love that. Oh, it's funny.

And it feels like Mike probably wants to hide the fact that he drives an electric car, especially from the Green party, because they'd have a field day with it, a genetically engineered free field day with it, but a field day nonetheless. So Chloe hopped in. And first, the first moment, she was driving down the road and this other car pulled out from an intersection, took a wide

berth. Oh, so wide. And Chloe just, some magnificent driving. We literally missed an accident in the $150,000 Jaguar by centimetres. And less likely to have Whoa! Jeez. He took that Whoa! That was bad driving.

Yeah, I did that, mate. Wow! I just nearly hit a car. Is that defensive driving? Did I just do some defensive driving? Thank you. I don't actually own a car. So you know. She doesn't have her licence

either, she told us afterwards. We pulled over, we regrouped. She does. But of course, Chloe Swarbrick is quite pro the cannabis being legalised in New Zealand. And we got into that. We got into that conversation with her around the reasons behind why she's pro in this election. In a nutshell, the argument effectively is people are going to purchase cannabis regardless of whether it's legal or illegal. The Prime Minister Chief Science Advisor's report says that.

Also says that 80% of New Zealanders will use cannabis by the time they are 21 years old. Do you want those people to be getting access to that cannabis from the black market where there's no controls and potency on education? Or do you want to set controls around it and enable those regulations that reduce harmful usage, but also, I mean, God forbid, we have more money going into mental health and addiction services. So that's really interesting. She raised a good, because we did ask her, we're like, is this about tax? And she's like, well, yeah, we're going to get,

the marijuana will be taxed, but they'll put that money towards mental health services. And also I thought, yeah, interesting that, you know, she's like, well, the kids, they're going to have it anyway. They're going to try 80% of them. That's what the stats say. So wouldn't you rather have it from a good source rather than stuff that you don't know what's inside it?

And the age limit is 20. I didn't realise the age limit was 20. So a lot of misconceptions around that referendum. There's more information online if you want to read more about it. And she had a stat about New Zealand's consumption of cannabis compared to Jamaica. Okay, great. Fun fact about New Zealand. We have higher per capita usage of cannabis than Jamaica.

Than Jamaica? Than Jamaica, yeah. Based on official stats. I was playing Bob Marley in the background. I. Based on official stats. I was playing Bob Marley in the background. I thought it'd be funny if I played some Bob Marley. She didn't quite appreciate it,

did she? It made her realise and remember a good fact, though. Yeah, it was a great fact. Then we did some Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, didn't we? We covered some musical gags.

We'll try and get that video on our social media channels as well. So Chloe Swarbrick, champion, having her in Hosking's car. Hosking would be his, oh, he would blow his Amani distressed

jeans off his legs in anger if he knew who he had driving his vehicle. So no one tell him. Like starting your day with Panda Eyes. It's Jono and Ben on the hits. By the WhatsApp by doco.nz She is serving up a steaming hot double shot cup of gossip,

which is odd because we actually just ordered a flat white, but that'll do. Welcome, Juliet. Thank you very much. Oh, look, I'm getting a live emergency alert. Wow. Coming through. I hadn't actually got one.

I got one too. There you go. Sorry about that. Sorry for answering. That's all right. That's all right. Live right over here you go. The beauty of it.

It's just a reminder that from a day to day, Wednesday the 12th of August, the Auckland region moves into a level three, the rest of New Zealand a level two. So there you go. That's just arrived on my phone. Very nice. Not very nice.

No, that's okay. It's live radio at its best. It is. Live. I was like, what is that noise? So Solomio, they were due to have some Spark Sessions concerts at Spark Arena. It was meant to go ahead on Thursday, tomorrow,

but obviously the concert is not going to go ahead as planned. It's not cancelled, they say. They expect to have an update for everyone about whether it can be rescheduled. All ticket holders will receive updates via Ticketmaster. And then also the Super Rugby. So it was meant to be the Blues versus Crusaders this Sunday. Sold out at Eden Park. Exactly.

And so if Auckland was to stay at Alert Level 3, this match would not go ahead. But if it dropped only to Level 2, it would not be able to go ahead with spectators present. Right. Because people can't fly into Auckland at the moment if you don't live in Auckland. Oh, so the Crusaders couldn't fly in?

Technically not at the moment. True. And I heard today that as of midday today, because Auckland goes to Alert Level 3, the Blues can't train together. So they've got their last training, trying to squeeze one last training session in. Too many people in one group, so they can't actually train.

So you would think there's question marks over that game, sadly, this weekend, as well as at Netball as well. Yeah, it's just about to say Netball. Yeah, so that's all up in the air, depending on whether we can move back to Level 2 by this weekend or not. Well, it's sad for Solomio, because I know they were looking so forward to that show.

It was going to be like the first in the world. They were going to stream it online as well. And they come back from overseas, a couple of the guys from Solomio as well, for it, especially for it. So, yeah, really sad. They came into the studio and we got them to do, because Ben, Jenny Boyce, Ben's mother, rampant fan of Solo Mio.

Maybe a bit too much. She said she would do anything for tickets. It was almost like a suggestive anything. I don't know what her boundaries are. Please make me do something for tickets. Mum, you can just have the tickets. No, I need to do something for them. Just buy that. So we phoned them.

You were phoning your mum just for a casual catch-up, and you had Soleil Mio doing live hold music. Yeah, I was phoning her from work, pretending to put her on hold, and I wondered if she'd noticed that was one of her favourite groups singing to her down the phone. Oh, hey, mum. Yeah? Sorry, my boss has just come in for a second.

Can I just put you on hold? Sorry, mum. Oh, hey, Mum. Yeah? Sorry, my boss has just come in for a second. Can I just put you on hold? Sorry, Mum. Oh. Three little birds pitch by my doorstep. Good morning, Jenny. This is my message for you. Jenny.

Say you don't worry about a thing. Don't worry, Jenny. Do you realise it's so Lameo? I know, I know. It's going to be't worry, Jenny. Do you realise it's so Lameo? I know, I know that. It's going to be alright, Jenny. Good morning. Oh my God.

Oh! It's just a heart fluttering. And afterwards, as you said, John, I should do anything for tickets. Oh, wow. My dad's, it would be nice to see my dad's in concert tomorrow night, but we'll have to wait.

And that is Spy, I guess, COVID edition. For more updates, obviously, you can head, and there'll be more over the next, hopefully, wee while, and obviously the news

is coming up at seven o'clock too. We apologise in advance. It's Jono and Ben on the hits. It's a big day for Lotto.

$43 million tonight in the Lotto draw. And yesterday after our show, we caught up with Marie Winfield from Lotto to ask her all the questions we wanted to know about Lotto. Hey, guys. How's it going? Very exciting night tonight, isn't it, with the Lotto draw? Oh, look, so exciting.

$43 million. It's a massive amount of money, right? Whopping. Whopping. They keep saying whopping in all the headlines online. It's a whopping. Wait, what stage do you get to whopping? Like, when does it become whopping?

I don't know. I think our latest one is jaw-dropping. Jaw-dropping. Okay. I've gone past whopping. Yeah, we've gone past whopping. We were whopping last week. Does it cap, or does it just keep on going, Marie, if no one wins?

We don't go past $50 million. So, if you'll remember in February, we had a $50 million must be won. So that means it's got to go. So we're not there yet. And I really, really, really hope somebody wins the $43 million tonight. So what happens if it gets to $50 million? It has to be won and no one gets all six numbers and all that. Yeah, so then it rolls down to the next division.

So if nobody gets all six numbers and the Power Bullet first division, then it goes down to second division, splitting the big winnings. So look, it's pretty exciting. Yeah. So I've always wondered what happens when you win big on Lotto. Can I just go down to my local dairy

and pull that money out, get the money out, or how does it work? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that won't work. So you need to come in and see us and come and see me, and I will take care of you, and we will literally have that money in your bank account by the next day. Oh, really'm pretty sure that won't work. So you need to come in and see us and come and see me and I will take care of you and we will literally have that money in your bank account by the next day. The next day?

Wow. We don't muck around. We don't muck around. We want to give you your cash. What sort of experience would I get down there? Would I get a little bottle of bubbles or something like that or is it just like... Oh, without a doubt. So we've got champagne here. I'll pipe open some champagne. You'll probably have a bit of a cry. A lot've got the champagne here. I'll pop open some champagne.

You'll probably have a bit of a cry. A lot of people have a bit of a cry because they're feeling so overwhelmed. Yeah. Using crackers. And I'll give you lots of tips and tricks on how to be careful with your money. And probably one of the biggest things I say to people is just be really careful on who you tell because you can't untell anyone. Now, because you just said, you know, be careful who you tell. If you won Lotto, would you tell people? Oh, look, maybe just my partner.

My kids think I would tell them, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't because they'd probably go to school and tell their mates, right? Because it comes with so much complication, doesn't it? The more people that know, it just gets fiddly, I imagine. It is, it is. And look, to be honest with you, a lot of our players get really, really stressed about that. So some of our winners come in here and it's the first question they ask. And look, it is. And look, to be honest with you, a lot of our players get really, really stressed about that. So some of our winners come in here and it's the first question they ask. And look,

it's individual to everyone, but most people just tell the people closest to them and usually that's parents or partners. So let's say, hypothetically, I won. I'd be so worried about losing the ticket. Is there anything I can do? Like if I took a photo of that ticket or does it have to be the ticket that I have to hand it in the next day? Yeah, look,

if your ticket's online, then you're all stuffed. We would have that already. But look, most people, you know, they put their ticket under their pillow. We've had people put their ticket inside a piano stool. Like, people have got all their theories. It'll be fine. Ben always sticks his ticket down my underpants. It's a safe place where he knows no one will look.

No one ever wants to go there. I might bring along my gloves to work on Monday. Yeah, you definitely do. No, Jotty has to get it out from there. That's fine. Do you get taxed on lotto winnings? You don't. You get the whole lot.

Wow. The whole lot goes in and you don't have to worry about tax. That's a pretty big bonus, right? And a lot of people think you do get taxed, but no. You're crazy, isn't it? Imagine that. It's life-changing. Although when you say don't tell anyone,

if you've moved from your modest three-bedroom house into a 29-room mansion, Nope. You're crazy, isn't it? Imagine that. It's life-changing. Although when you say don't tell anyone, if you've moved from your modest three-bedroom house into a 29-room mansion, red flags will be popping up for friends and family, I imagine. How do people cover up their purchases? Because I can't all of a sudden turn up in a Lamborghini tomorrow. Yeah, look, it's really tricky, right? So some people actually sit on money and don't really spend it for a long time.

And some people just tell people that they want a smaller amount. So they'll say, hey, look, I've got an inheritance of a couple of mil. Not many people come out sort of too openly and say they won the big prize. Can you play lotto working at lotto? Yeah, I sure can. All right. So anyone who works there is allowed to play? Yeah, and I get asked that question almost every day.

But look, it's completely random. I mean, you see the draw, it's on TV twice a week and it's under audit New Zealand's Grusiony. So look, anyone can win anytime, anywhere. So there's no reason at all why anyone couldn't play. What is the better way to win? Is it just buying a lucky dip or is it having a row of numbers that you come back to week after week?

Look, it makes no difference at all. It doesn't make a scrap of difference. So, look, just get your ticket, and if you play your own numbers, then that's awesome. And we've had some people play the same numbers for the entire time that we've been in operation, and some people just buy a dip. We had someone win a prize this year,

first time that they've played in their entire life, first ticket that they've ever bought, and they won a big prize. Really? Wow. Oh, well, hey, listen, good luck to you for this evening then. A jaw-droppingly

whopping 43 mil. Yeah, well, good luck to you guys and hopefully I see you in the morning drinking champagne. Oh, that's right. Well, Ben's always

doing that anyway. He's got a rampant drinking problem but it'd be nice to have a purpose this time. Yeah, well, it'd be good to have an excuse. Not just a Thursday morning.

Yeah, great. Yeah, all the best. I don't know why I'm wishing you away. I guess you might have a ticket as well. Yeah, well, it'd be good. An excuse. Not just a Thursday morning. Yeah, great. Oh, yeah, all the best. I don't know why I'm pushing it away. I guess you might have a ticket as well. Good luck to you. Good luck to us. Good luck to everyone. Want more Jono and Ben?

You can catch up with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Instagram. Joining us on the phone right now, and we thank him very much for his time this morning because I imagine it's very busy where he is. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Grant Robinson. How's it going? Morning, guys.

How are you? Grant, last time we saw you, listen, just before, a bit of light banter before we get into what we need to. Yeah. Last time we saw you, and you're a wonderful human being. I really got a lot of time for you, even though we don't see much of each other. Yeah, he hasn't got a lot of time for you. Well, he is this morning.

But Grant, last time we saw each other, you were wandering around field days, and you were like, no one wants to talk to me at field days. No one likes talking to the Labour people. It was so long ago. It was back when we were in opposition. I looked for a friendly face. I saw you guys.

I looked for some friendly faces again. Yeah, no. It was a long time ago. I've been back to field days and a few more people followed me around. That might have been because of who I was with. Yeah, no, well, listen, we had something in common. No one was talking to us either, Gramps. So it was wonderful. But, hey, look at you now, Mr Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

I'm not, by the way. We do just need to greatly clear that up. No, I'm just the humble Minister of Finance. Oh. Who's the deputy leader? No, that's Kelvin Davis. Oh, it is. We've been saying it all morning, mate.

The research team needs to get back on its job. Maybe we've started a political coup in the Labour Party. Maybe not the day for it. If anything, I think you should be deputy leader, okay? Oh, mate, all morning we've been banging on about that. Apologies to you. We gave you a new job. Anyway, Grant, this has been a shocking start on our part.

But, mate, what's the plan? What's the deal? Yeah, look, I mean, we're all very disappointed by this, aren't we? We thought we had this virus knocked on the head, but it's a tricky bugger, and after 102 days of no community transmission, we've got some cases. So what we've done, we've got a plan for this. So we've just implemented that.

And as most of your listeners will now know, that means for Auckland from midday today, it's level three while we do as much testing as we possibly can to sort out whether or not, you know, we've got a small outbreak, have we got it under control or is it bigger? We'll know all of that by Friday. But for the next few days, we're just asking people in Auckland particularly to basically to stay home if they can, the rest of the country just to be on alert and keep that social distancing. So none of us wanted to be back here, but this is a virus that doesn't respect our wants.

Yeah. Updates, I imagine imagine are going to be happening daily again around midday, one o'clock, is that right? Yeah, they are. So actually today you'll get two. The Prime Minister and Ashley Bloomfield will do one about 10.30 this morning and then they'll do another one at about one o'clock

because we're getting the testing information back. So we found out about this yesterday afternoon. Straight away the team's got on to testing the family and then their contacts and the workplaces that they work at. So we're already getting testing information coming back. So yeah, over the next couple of days, certainly the one o'clocks and maybe others as more information comes to hand. With Grant Robertson, Minister of the Labour Party, Minister of Finance since 2000. The one about the money. The one about the money. Since 2017 they say on Wikipedia, so that's good, that's good.

Now Grant, and I don't want to speculate here, but it feels like Dr Ashley Bloomfield and the government sort of knew something was coming over the last week with the mask preparation, with Ashley yesterday publicly demonstrating a COVID test.

Is this something you guys have felt has been bubbling away? No, not really. I mean, what that was about was a few weeks ago, in the middle of some other political shenanigans that were going on, we actually announced a thing called a resurgence plan. And that's just about being prepared. It's not about a particular case that we knew about we didn't. It was just about making sure that the nature of this virus if you look around the rest of the world is that it's a tricky bugger. It's hard to control and it has the

potential to come back. So no that was really just about making sure people were alert and were ready and were prepared and now we're now implementing that plan. We want people to remember those really basic things back from when we were initially in lockdown, you know, wash your hands, you know, do keep your social distance from people when you're out and about. Please, please, please download the app because that makes it a lot easier for us to trace people if we do need to do that. So no, it's just about being prepared like a good boy in Guild Scouts. Now, Grant Robinson, we've got your title wrong multiple times over the morning, but Minister of Sport is something that you hold as well, right?

Correct? It is. Sports games this weekend. A question mark, I guess, regarding the Blues Crusaders, a sold-out game at Eden Park and some of the netball over the weekend, I imagine, at this stage. Yeah, absolutely. I was in contact with some of the sporting bodies last night

and they keep a close eye on it. Obviously, we'll be making calls on Friday, which is pretty tight in terms of deadlines, so people should listen out today and tomorrow for any messages from the rugby union and from the Blues franchise up in Auckland,

but it'll obviously be quite tough to get those games to happen in Auckland on Saturday, even if we're able to loosen restrictions after Friday, but the final decision on that will be with the Codes themselves. Is this going to affect the election, Grant? Have you thought about that yet? Yeah, look,

we don't know yet, is the short answer. We've got six weeks or so until the election. We've got this three-day period now where our job is to find out what the extent of this is. Is it an outbreak or is it something we've got under control? And we'll be able to make further announcements about that towards the end of the week once we know. But we haven't put our minds to any changes on that yet. Obviously testing, a lot more people are going to get tested over the next two or three days. Is Ashley expecting more positive results from

those tests? Yeah, look, last night when he was asked that, he was asked that exact question, and he said that is likely just because of the nature of the virus and the fact that obviously we had a household involved here and there were more members in that household who the results for them were still coming through last night. So he has said he expects there will be some more, but obviously that's the whole point now of doing the contact tracing. We want to find them. It's not that we don't want to, we want to find them

so we can make sure we keep those people in isolation and control the spread of it. On testing, just one thing to note, there's going to be pop-up testing clinics all around Auckland over the next, towards that today and the next few days. What we want there are people who've been asked to have a test to go, but also people who are feeling unwell. But if you're just worried but feeling perfectly well,

please don't go and have a test because we want to make sure in these next few days it's for people who aren't feeling well or who are contacts of the people that we're chasing up. Well, Grant Robison from the Labour Party, thank you so much for your time this morning. We've done it before. Are we confident we've got it early again and we can do it again? Absolutely. We've got this. We have done it before.

Everyone knows what to do and we'll get on top of it. You're a bloody good bugger, Grant. Thank you so much for your time. You look after yourself and have a good one. Making poor life decisions every morning. It's Jono and Ben on the Hats. The A to Z of New Zealand. We call a different town or city.

We do one a day and we work our way through New Zealand alphabetically. Today we've got to Dunedin, Jono. Yeah, yesterday we phoned Drury. Drury is quite a hard word to say. It should be the sobriety test. How many beers have you had? You need to say Drury. I know, and I have to spell it out quite often

because people think I'm saying Drury instead of Drury. Oh, yeah. Now, this is the biggest problem with living and working in Drury is how to explain and spell Drury. Today, we've moved to Dunedin, as I said before, and one of the most iconic things in Dunedin is the world's steepest street, Baldwin Street. Well, it was the world's steepest street,

and then the Welsh, they claimed it. They got the Guinness record, and one man in particular was not happy about this. So we're going to go through to him right now. Toby, his name. Hello, Toby speaking. Oh, Toby, it's Jono and Ben here from the Hits radio station. How are you?

You're not bad, and you? Yeah, we're doing well. I just want to bring you up to speed with what we're doing alongside all of our philanthropy and charitable work. Okay, well, less of that. We're also doing the A to Z of New Zealand, phoning every town and city in New Zealand. We're doing one a day.

It's Dunedin's turn. Ben Boyce thoroughly researched you. Rad. Yeah, and you took something back. You got something back for Dunedin, a little mission you went on. It was pretty cool, actually. No, thanks. You know, it was a bit of fun.

Yeah, once you sort of got the bit between the old teeth and that and got a bit of momentum up, you know, I ended up, yeah, good result. Can I just say, you sound like you're fronting a post-match press conference and a rugby game as the captain of the All Blacks. Proud of the boys, proud of the boys. I love it. So Toby, you're a surveyor

and so the steepest street in the world was Baldwin Street in Dunedin, the famous street, but then the Welsh, they got the world record and you got that back, you basically measured Baldwin Street. Is that right? Yeah, no, they pulled a fast one. They measured it on the inside of that curve.

And they're quite charming, these guys. I met them, and they did the hard sell, and of course Guinness fell in love with them and thought you guys are awesome. But then we saw the photo of the measuring, and we smelt a rat, and we went, sorry, boys, not having it. And yeah, took some measurements,

measured Baldwin Street and went over to Wales and measured their street. Oh, so you went over to Wales? You travelled all the way over there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I got talked into it by my mate Fingers and Dave and they said... Your mate Fingers?

Fingers and Dave. Fingers sounds like something Fingers would say and I don't even know him. I don't know if I'd want to travel internationally? Fingers, indeed. Fingers sounds like something fingers would say and I don't even know them. I don't know if I'd want to travel internationally with fingers. Yeah, I don't know. He's quite a good rooster.

I think he's quite like him. But they're quite persuasive, you see. So they said, if we crowdfund it, would you go over and measure the history? And I went,

oh yeah, look, anything for a laugh. So we went over to Wales and we measured it and then we come back and peeled out this big massive report and we just chucked heaps and heaps of data and science

at it and because it was quite special to us, Baldwin Street, part of Dunedin, you know what I mean? We've had a lot of enjoyment over the years and to my way of thinking, if you're going to take the world record, mate, it needs to be legit. Oh, good on you. You tell them to shove that in there, Tom Jones.

Yeah. And no besmirching the good name of the Welsh. Wonderful people. No, as you said, they took it well? No, I think they were a wee bit upset. Imagine you roll into town with your tape measure and all that and you're like, who's this guy? We rocked up with Daniel Fodtower

and Lloyd Burr and there's a guy from New Zealand Herald. Oh, the journalist. Yeah, everyone was there. Oh,

you were like, I've bought everyone from New Zealand. We bought, it was a good laugh. Oh, hey, good on you.

Your commitment to novelty steep streets is outstanding. Oh, no, thank you guys. No, no, thank you, guys. No, it was a lot of fun, eh? And I'm glad we got the world record

back to where it rightfully belongs. Boardwind Street reinstated. It's the world's steepest street. Boardwind Street put the rad into gradient, mate. Something over only a quantity surveyor would say. Oh, so good. Tommy, we appreciate your time this morning and congratulations on your epic mission. Good on you would say. Oh, so good. Toby, appreciate your time this morning and congratulations on your epic mission.

Good on you, fellas. Hey, cheers. Wake up and smell them. Actually, no, please don't smell them. That's odd. It's Jono and Ben on the hits. Spy the WhatsApp. Spy.co.nz.

Do you know, before we get to Spy, Producer Juliet, we work in a big building and everyone is coming in in masks and leaving with boxes of their belongings. Like, we're being investigated by the Inland Revenue, and we've got to burn all the documents and just escape the building as quickly as possible. Yeah, you're right.

Everyone's getting their stuff out of Pittsburgh. Which we are as well. We're dodging some serious tax here. We did that earlier in the week, though, right? Yeah, we did. I got rid of all my stuff. Producer Juliet with the latest spy update. What have we got, mate?

So this is a bit of a COVID spy. So Solomio were due to perform a concert at Spark Arena tomorrow, and obviously this is not going ahead. It's not cancelled, but they expect to have an update for everyone about whether the concert can be rescheduled in the near future. And all ticket holders, you can expect an update

from Ticketmaster. And obviously the final round of the Super Rugby is due to happen this weekend, but we had Grant Robertson on earlier this morning talking about what the plan of attack is due to happen this weekend, but we had Grant Robertson on earlier this morning talking about what the plan of attack is there, and this is what he had to say. Obviously, we'll be making calls on Friday, which is pretty tight in terms of deadlines,

so people should listen out today and tomorrow for any messages from the rugby union and from the Blues franchise up in Auckland. I was just thinking it only affects the Auckland game because Auckland's in a more stricter lockdown, but it does affect the other game going on because outside of Auckland Level 2, only a gathering of 100 people.

Exactly. If it does go past Friday midnight. Oh, so they could play without a crowd in the stadium, obviously, outside of Auckland, can they? Well, yeah, they'll be able to play up to 100 people. Yeah. So the Chiefs might get, you know, normal people turning up to watch.

Oh, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Not in these current times, mate. Sorry. You didn't need to. I was just trying to think of a team that hadn't been doing as well as maybe we had thought. It was Insert the Blues about eight weeks ago. That was my go-to joke.

Now it's the Chiefs. It felt bad. It felt bad doing that, so I apologise. Well, then you shouldn't have said it. Oh, no, I shouldn't have. But it was very enjoyable. I could see the enjoyment on your face.

Juliette, that was a wonderful update. Thank you. No worries. You had a news grab in there as well. I was really impressed. Love it.

Thank you. Some people skip breakfast, the meal, and also this show. It's Jono and Ben on the Hits. Great to have you company this morning

on a very surreal day for New Zealand. Of course, as we've been mentioning all morning, we're going back in Auckland to Alert Level 3 for Midday Today and the rest of the country to Alert Level 2 and talking to us on the

phone. She's joined us many times throughout lockdown. Dr Michelle Dickinson-Nanogill, thanks for your time. Marina, it's good to be back. Sadly, under sadder circumstances. Morning, Michelle. I was hoping we would never talk again. I mean, we love catching up with you,

but it was always, as you say, to do with COVID-19. Maybe we should even out our relationship and just, we call each other, but just on non-COVID-related topics. Yeah, you've got a dog, I've got a dog. Maybe we'll talk about dogs one time. We could do, but right now,

it's really important that everybody around New Zealand has access to great advice. So let's chat about what's going on right now. Michelle, are you telling me that I have to go back to washing my hands again? Because I haven't washed my hands in months. No, he's lying, he's lying. Worse than that, I'm going to make you soap with your water.

It's really important. You're the worst. So obviously the hygienes are very important, as it has been throughout this whole process, but important again. And masks have been brought back into the conversation a lot more recently. Yeah.

So look, this is the big change. We've done level three before. We've practised in it. I know it's stressful for everybody, but we've been here. We made it through. It's time to just sort of stay calm and we'll see what happens over the next few days.

But masks are the big change. There's been a whole bunch of research that's happened since we were last in lockdown that really shows that you know the virus being spread by viral droplets that little bits of moisture basically from your nose and your lungs and can really spread um the virus and so by wearing a mask if you cough or even talk you stop those particles from going out into the air to other people. And also, if you're wearing one, if somebody coughs around you, it means it protects you. So masks are really important. Look, I know that there's going to be a whole bunch of people who aren't prepared, who don't have a mask, who are like, what do I do now?

There are lots of easy ways to make one at home. I'm going to put a video out today which just shows you how to make one with, I've got a handkerchief, but you can use a square of any sort of fabric, pillowcase is fine, and two hair ties, but you can use elastic bands. I like hair ties because they're softer. But you don't have to know how to sew, you just need to cover your face with at least two layers

of preferably cotton really quickly. My major thing is that when I'm wearing a mask with sunglasses, it fogs up my sunglasses. That's a little bugbear I have. Dr. Michelle Dickinson, of course, 102 days without community cases in New Zealand, COVID-19, and now we've got some. Are we expecting more over the next coming days? I mean, surely it's got to be in the community.

I would expect quite a few more because now there's going to be people who felt a bit sick and didn't get tested, who, you know, maybe living in the area, living in South Auckland, go to Mount Albert Primary School. You know, there's a lot of connections now that are going to come out today as we start to do contact tracing. But the rules stay the same. If you feel sick, stay at home. Call if you want to get a test. If you are feeling sick, please do get a test. The symptoms are, as you know, throat reddy nose cough and the reason being is that if you are positive it allows contact

tracers to figure out where you've been and help protect other people so they can isolate and there's going to be more with the virus the person the 50 year old who was the first one to come down with symptoms and and get a test He's a legend for getting a test. He had been symptomatic, it looks like, for five days. And so, you know, there's a risk that actually he caught this a week ago from wherever it is that he caught it. And so it means that it's been probably in our neighbourhoods, at least in Auckland, for at least a week. Don't panic buying the supermarket.

They're going to stay open. Don't worry. I live opposite a supermarket and it's crazy right now. Just go home. It's fine. You can go later on today. It's an emergency. Pharmacies and supermarkets will stay open,

so you don't need to do the toilet roll thing again. And yeah, just assume that it is in your community because people travel. It's probably been a week that it's been around. So yeah, just stay home. I've got enough toilet paper to last me to 2056 for the last one.

I'll be fine. I'll be fine. Michelle, we've got to be very careful in this position of public broadcasting not to panic people. No, we want to be positive

as well too. But you've also got to be realistic. Are you imagining the rest of the country going to a higher level? Are you imagining the current lockdown Auckland's in, or level three, sorry? Do you imagine that to be extended out in all reality? Look, in all reality, we have, I mean, if you look at how quickly we have locked down,

I mean, Victoria is a great example of how they had case from managed isolation that came out and then they didn't lock down for a couple of weeks and as you've seen victoria is really struggling now to control the virus as soon as um the authorities found out that there was a case of community transmission we have locked down this is the earliest we're always the first to do this so yes it's anxious making yes we are being severe but actually these next three days are going to really help to, number one, stop the spread from happening any further, but number two, give the contact tracers time to try and figure out where this case has come from. Every time you hear someone who's contracted it, there's always the backstory, and they have been to literally everywhere in New Zealand. But you think about where you go in a day, you're like, oh yeah, I went there and I got a coffee from there and you just move around.

The guy who went back to Korea, I was like, there was no part of the country he didn't visit. Yeah, and look, I don't want to say we became complacent,

but I think after 100 days we were like, oh, let's party, it's all good. I mean, we saw everybody was behaving like normal

and so this is a great reminder to us that actually the pandemic is serious and the virus is persuasive. The virus, its whole goal is to stay around enough to get to another host so it can replicate. But it is crafty. And so we can be great as humans, but it only takes one tiny human error for it to be able to get back into the population. And so here we are again.

It's OK. We can easily stop this virus. The virus only stays alive in a human host. And to stay alive, it has to go from host to host. That's you and me. So if we don't allow that to happen, the virus cannot survive. There you go. Stop licking Ben's hands then.

Yeah. And I'll wait until we're back to level one for that. Dr. Michelle Dickinson, thanks again for your time and explaining it to us and our listeners in such a great way. No worries. Go wash your hands. See you, Michelle. This is your new breakfast. Health Star rating still pending. It's Jorowen Manomahet. We go back in the Auckland

region to alert level 3 at midday today and for the rest of New Zealand outside of Auckland, level 2 as COVID is back in the community with four cases found yesterday. Last night, Prime Minister was like, don't panic buy. First thing we did was panic buy. It seemed like the sensible thing to do.

Supermarkets strapping up. I mean, feel sorry for the poor night staff at the supermarket. So we're just prepping for another casual night and then got bombarded by... Oh yeah, queues around the block and many supermarkets around the place. I saw a vision of like an elderly security guard trying to have to hold people back, like a poor guy in his 80s. He's like, this is my retirement job.

I know. We just need to be kind and just take a deep breath. And we wanted to talk to someone from the supermarket. So joining us on the phone right now from Foodstuffs, Chris Quinn, thanks for your time this morning. Moreno, guys. Good morning. Moreno, Chris, CEO of Foodstuffs

I'm checking you out if you know what I mean There's a checkout gag there but anyway we don't need to work several on that Chris, panic buying obviously we're all advised not to do it but we all go ahead and do it anyway How are you coping with this?

Look, it's exactly right and I think hopefully two things we learned from last time is one, we can sort this health risk out together. And I think people really committed to respecting each other by doing that. And the second thing is there was no need to panic by the stress and the issues that it causes just weren't necessary because New Zealand has the products we need. We have the food we need. Our supply chain has recovered really well following lockdown over the last few months, and we're in good shape as long as people just breathe a little bit. We'll be able to give you the things you need.

You just keep shopping normally, and we'll be okay. When you say shopping normally, obviously we're going to go back to physical distancing and waiting outside the supermarket in line, being led in one by one I imagine? Yes we are. So the level 3 in Auckland and in fact level 2 is not a lot different across the country. The 2 metre social distancing, we're going to manage

the number of customers in stores so we keep people safe again like we did last time. We're going to ask that people have one person per trolley so that we can have the most amount of people shopping within the limits. We won't have bag packers at checkout so that we have less people gathered around there. And we won't be using reusable bags

and we're going to step up the sanitisation, hygiene and cleaning as we did last time. Look, people need to remember, last time we didn't have people get this disease while they were shopping in supermarkets. And we can do that again by putting in place these things. And as long as we just have a smile for each other, we'll make this work. A smile under a mask probably as well, too, at the moment.

You really have to over-squint your eyes, don't you, to sort of accentuate you are smiling. Everyone has smiley eyes. I'm sure they'll be able to tell. Now, of course, you're from Foodstuffs, which is Pack and Save a New World. Countdown have announced today that there may be a limit on some items for people buying. What's the case with you guys? Yeah, we will do the same because we think that just respects everybody

and makes sure that everyone gets the few things they need and makes sure we share it around fairly. We have very good stock of the key items, so the masks and the sanitizers, the flowers and the various things that people seem to focus on for this. And so if we just shop normally, then we'll be able to look after everyone and focus on what really matters, which is let's get those things sorted out as quick as we can so we can get back to normal. Was there one item last time during lockdown and when everything was going on that you were like,

oh, OK, I didn't expect everyone to really want to buy heaps of that? One of the funniest moments was celery salt. Celery salt? I never knew it existed, so there you go. Salt from a celery stick? Apparently,

it was one of the ingredients in the KFC recipe that was released in social media. Is that how it came out? Why are these celery salt sales booming? One of the kudels, the leavened herbs and spices, allegedly. Well, Chris, thank you for all the work that you

and everyone that works across supermarkets, across not only your ones, but also Countdown as well, Doof in New Zealand, keeping our country moving and keeping it going. We really do appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Cheers, mate. And as Chris just said, take your time, be easy, there's enough for mate. And as Chris just said, take your time, be easy,

there's enough for everyone and Chris, I'm gathering there's still enough Heineken and beers in supply as well. Maybe not for you. Yeah. Well, I don't know on your particular demand

but we're on pretty good shape. Okay, that's great. Good. I'm just checking for a friend. For a friend. For a friend who likes to... Who's worrying about his weekend consumption.

Good on you, Chris. Thank you for your time. Want more Jono and Ben? You can catch up with the boys anytime. Just search Jono and Ben on Facebook. It is the hits. Jono and Ben fastly wrapping up our show with the last word. From Rich, why is it going to be a good day today, mate?

Because spring's around the corner and we've got this New Zealand. We've got this New Zealand. Love you, Rich. Kia kaha, New Zealand. Want more Jono and Ben? You can wake up with the boys weekdays from 6 on The Hits. New Zealand. We've got this, New Zealand. Love you, Rich. Kia kaha, New Zealand.