Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - FULL: Ben Might Be Sleeping On The Couch This Weekend...

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

We look back at the great NZ history and today we deep dive into the Creme Egg ad! Melanie Lynskey is on Chris Luxon Ben is in trouble with his wife. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kia ora, welcome. This is the John or Ben podcast. Thanks to Dilma making the world a better tea, one at a time. And Ben Boyce, welcome to you. Hey, yeah, good to be here. Now, producer Joel's got some information on the most popular dog names that we're going to kick the podcast intro off with today. Yeah, you guys are both dog lovers. Can you name any of the top five dog names in New Zealand? Okay, we've got to try and figure it out. Milo? It's not there. That's your dog's name, right? I thought that was quite common. We've met a few Milos along the way with our dog career.

Is it like a Bella or something? Bella is second. Yeah, I feel like I've run into a few. Little dog's name, Teddy. Is Teddy in there? No Teddy, mate. Really, for some reason, that winds up my wife. She's like, oh, these bloody little dogs named Teddy.

They're always called Teddy, the little dogs. So I don't know why. Clearly not enough of them because they haven't made the top five. Okay. Would you go George? No, George. Rex? No, Rex.

You're sort of looking, in the list, there's two more like actual human names. And then there's two more that are still used by some humans, but it more of a common like a animal name dwayne johnson ryan reynolds not human names okay no max max is in the top 10 but not the top five oh okay oh that's quite good i'm just trying to think of versatile human names at all don't you i love it when people get offended this is little baby Charlotte and someone goes we've named our dog Charlotte is Charlotte one? almost Charlie

Charlie's a good dog's name you're going to have to give us the other ones one of them is one of your kids names Poppy yes I was just having that conversation this is our daughter Poppy. Oh, we've got a dog now, Poppy.

I wasn't too offended by it, but I know some people do get a little. I don't. Yeah. It's like, well, yeah, your baby looks like a dog. So once, yeah. Okay. And the other one? Number five is Coco.

And then number one is Luna. Coco was the other backup name for our Poppy. Oh, really? Yeah, Jen obviously loves. Poppy, your daughter or dog? No, both. First talk. Right. Could have done both. Dogs, eh? They're

out there. And you know what? They're sniffing stuff. There is nothing my dog will not put in his mouth. I thought he's gone through this phase, but he's still like, he's eating a basket last night? Just a plastic basket? Just snoring on the basket.

I try and give him, I'm like, I try and test him on like, he's a potato chip or some other stuff. No. He won't eat that stuff. Oh, really? So it's just stuff he likes snoring on. Stuff he's, the forbidden things. Well, stuff that he shouldn't be chowing on. And I'm like, how is this, you know,

piece of bark going to work its way through the digestive system? And I don't know. I never see the end result, but it doesn't look like a giant bit of bark. Yeah, okay. Well, maybe it was digestive system working very well. Iron lion. Yeah, no, it's good. Yeah.

My dog sort of went through that sort of chewing stage and ate the gear stick in a car and the little air conditioning sort of knob as well so yeah so that was fun. Now your mum she told you about sex stuff didn't she while you were in the car using a gear knob was it with a gear knob? Was it the prop?

No I can't remember to be honest she reminded me of this and I feel like I just blacked out the story I was like I don't the story i was like i don't like i don't remember this she was like yeah it was really i felt it was really awkward and i was like well probably was and yeah she talked about the thing while i was in the car and we're traveling somewhere and i couldn't leave and i obviously wanted to leave i thought about jumping out commando roll out yeah but yeah we talked about that so um what what was what were

the ins and outs i don't actually in all in all honesty, I don't remember it. So I really feel like maybe it's that part of my brain, or some therapy I'll unlock at some stage. I forget this car ride to school. And then just dropping you at the school gate. I think, have a great day, love. And the whole time you're just thinking, what are you going to talk about?

If that was on the way to school, what's on the way home? What's on the way home? So yeah, awkward conversations that parents have to have with kids well because you were you know your dad was as a principal your uh your mom was a teacher yeah did you because it has to be that form of education in the curriculum they never they never did yeah no that would have been oh geez that would have been awkward if they had to no dad no none of them actually never taught me as such dad was headmaster when I was at the school. That's not the headmaster's domain.

The principal's domain, yeah. The principal's just like, I'll take this one, guys. So what happens is, you know, you'd be like, oh, okay. Let me take it from here. Hey, a really, really fun show today. We're still trying to track down someone to help out a listener who texted us yesterday, right? Yeah, this is a lady

who had a very minor road incident. She cut someone off, or didn't let someone in, and she hasn't been able to she wants to apologise to the person. So it's kind of like Cinderella, except on the motorway with someone who's not let someone merge. So in that instance, it's

nothing like Cinderella. That's on the podcast as well. Is that Melanie Linsky? Who's just done so many amazing things over the years. You're looking through her resume. It's incredible. Acting, movies, TV shows, big stars. She's in two of the biggest shows right now.

Last of Us and Yellow Jackets. Google it says she's made a significant contribution to the acting community. Yeah. And she's from New Plymouth. I know. From the's from new plymouth i know from the bright light of new plymouth yeah bright lights of hollywood she's one of those people who would come back and you would walk past her in the street well for a lot of people probably and then you're like oh of course i see i love her and all that sort of stuff yeah which is probably you'd run back and chase her down because someone would

be like do you know who that was you're oh my god yeah so yeah she's awesome so we caught up with her as well um so enjoy that on the podcast The Hits The Jono and Ben Podcast as you know on The Hits we're giving away tickets to go see Pink in Hyde Park in London

it's a pretty amazing prize and we thought we'd you know often we put it you know after 7 o'clock after 8 o'clock on the show but what about the 6 o'clock club yeah

you're our special friends yeah we do some wild stuff in the Six O'Clock Club. We're going to do it before seven o'clock. Sorry, Ben, I talked over you there because I was going to say it took us weeks to navigate the end of that song where Pink's talking, so we didn't want to talk over her.

But then, ironically, I ended up talking over you. Sloppy radio at its best. You need to wait for Pink to say, what's up? Yeah, right at the end of that song, right? Yeah. Which really threw us for a lot of the time. A long time, but yeah.

You got a package from your mum. Yeah, so I got a package in at work. It's always exciting when you get a package at work because it doesn't happen very often. So these are obviously a little different from the South American ones. Yeah, here we go. Normally, you get an email from reception because we were out at the Kevin Hart

and trying to get Kevin Hart's attention all day. It's like, you've got a package from work. Another package from Ben Boyce from Columbia. And you're like, ooh, what could this be? What sort of shipment is coming through? What got past customs this time? But then I realised it was for my mum. She decided, which is fair enough, it's a lot safer to send packages to work,

which she does do now. Well, because some people, do you know there was a scam going where some people were following courier vans around, and then when a courier van would stop at a household, residents weren't home, they'd leave the package over the fence, they'd swoop in and take the package. Gotcha. It's very clever.

These people are so clever. Just if you put all of that brain space into something, you'd be a billionaire. But it's such a typical mum package. Firstly, she'd stayed a couple of weeks ago. I didn't realise. She'd take them jeans of mine. I was like, oh, she's bought me jeans.

But no. Yeah. My jeans, but she's fixed. Holes in the back of them. Oh, she's repaired them. She's repaired jeans. Because look at the repair job. Yeah, so there was a...

Did you have a hole in the side there? Yeah, a hole in the back there. It was ripped down. Oh, yeah, see, right across there. Oh, she's done a great patch-up job there, Jenny. Yeah, it's a patched-up

job. She's got the Singer sewing machine out. Cucumber pickle relish as well. You know, such a mum package

to send out there. And I mean, I love it, it's lovely, but this will sit in my fridge, let's be honest. Did she make that?

Yeah, she's made some cucumber pickle relish as well. Love a bit of relish. What did she write on the note? Don't have to read out the personal, personal stuff.

Oh, no. She just said, oh, so she took her husky home. So she sent that back as well. She forgot that she'd taken her husky. So she sent that back as well. She said, dearest Ben, Amanda, Sini, and Indy, hope it was good for you. Sending back your jeans, which are fixed up.

Key also as well. Lovely week for you hanging out. And then she goes into detail about people that I vaguely know but not know. And what they've been doing. Yeah, what they're doing. Yeah. What she's doing with the dog

when she goes away. Oh, a lot of mum details. Handwritten note as well, I see. Yeah, as well. Oh, that's lovely. And then, yeah, someone else's number, who I should contact as well,

which are probably... Why do you need to contact someone else? I don't know. Mum stuff, you know, like, hey, but you're there, you should give this guy a call. Yeah.

Probably won't. But lovely, isn't it? It's lovely when you get a package. It's like thoughtful. No matter what age you are, when your parents think of you. Mums never stop being mums, do they? Except for the, you know, the useless ones who are like, oh. What do I use cucumber pickle for, though?

What do I? Put cheese and crackers. Oh, yeah. Hungry Harrison's eyeing it up. Our producer. He's like, I'll drink the whole jar right now. Right. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast.

Yeah, it's Friday, so I thought I'd bring a good news story because sometimes, you know, you don't want a bit of negativity on a Friday. This is a lovely wee story I found online. So Jeanette, she's 78 years old now, and back in 1963, she wanted to marry Len. She was 18 at the time. And according to the rules back then, she needed parents' permission until you were 21.

Quite young to get married then. Yeah. Especially if Len's in his 30s and stuff. It's a little bit weird. No, Len's only a year older. Oh, okay. So it was safe. But yeah, they wanted to get young.

It seemed like the style of the time to get married really young. It was. Yeah, they did kick things off, didn't they? She wanted to move to Australia from the UK, get married. Was this a sexual story? No, it was a sexual story. Producer Joel. Maybe not the music. Really?

You read the mood wrong, mate. Stay out of it, Harrison. So Len and Jeanette wanted to get married. They wanted to move from the UK to Australia. At that age, parents was like, nah, not going to happen. He still moved to Australia. She was pretty gutted. They were both gutted.

But he moved to Australia. He ended up getting married. She ended up getting married, living their lives, not contacting each other for many, many years until just a couple of years ago when marriages had both ended. I think partners had passed away. And he decided he'd go travel down to track her down to see he was like i don't even know if she would remember uh remember me travel down there and hey she of course she

remembered of course she remembered and now they're married they've just got married then what happened then what happened producer joel we celebrated good times that's my way better music that's what we wanted right um gamble though because what if he came back professed his love for her and she was spoken for well that's he was willing to break up a marriage well a marriage that had been going on 40 plus years clearly yeah that's funny that's really nice i know in the retirement village mum used to work in the retirement village and just because they're elderly, they don't lose any passion. If anything, they've got nothing else to do. Yeah, there you go.

They do their own stuff. Mum was, she hates me telling this story, but she had to, they had to go on a hunt in the middle of the night. There was quite an active gentleman. Yeah. And he was all over the village, okay? Friends all over the village. And they were like, he's up to it again, they could tell.

And then they went hunting. They had to go hunting for him in a torch because he'd kind of visit his ladies in there under the cover of darkness He was like a randy university student He was yeah and then they were like I'll just say Len for example, Len we know you're out there and there's silence, silence and they're

flashing the torch and he was hiding behind a bush butt naked but he didn't know that the silhouette of the light was actually beaming his naked body onto a giant wall. It's been a medley of music. Thank you, Producer John. DJ Getter, David Getter here with us this morning playing music behind our stories.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Dogs, dogs, dogs, undies. You know I can't grab your goose chips. Nip, nip, nip. Friday, flashback. And it's Friday morning And what we like to do on a Friday Is reflect on something A Friday flashback Yeah, it's a lot of fun this Easter coming up in a couple of weeks

And I'm just reading this morning Even Easter eggs are suffering from inflation Prices are a lot higher than they have been in previous years hitting the bunny hard oh yeah bunnies like cost of living's busting my chops i'm out here just trying to make dreams come true over easter uh but yeah cream eggs cabri cream eggs they've been a staple of the new zealand easter menu for a long time are they are they just in new zealand i think they might no i think they're in the uk as well i think they'll come from the UK. of course, yeah,

love a cream egg. Australia. Do you, when you have a, I know you don't indulge much in chocolate, Ben, it's not your favourite flavour.

Yeah, like I'll have the occasion, like, you know. Have you had a, when was the last time you had a cream egg? Oh,

I might have had one an Easter or two ago, maybe, no. Do you, like, just, I'm down the whole thing,

whole egg at once. The whole thing? The whole thing. You're only having one bite No bang All in there And it takes me about 10 minutes To chew it down

It's like when I put 20 pieces of chewing gum In my mouth But the Cadbury Cream Egg ad Now this was Like I said It was in the 1980s I thought it was mid 90s

But you know My recollection of time Is becoming dusty and vague Yeah There was a classroom And a big song, giant 80-person choir sort of singing the song, it seemed like. A little boy, a little girl, they were working in the classroom, working away, and they had a secret stash of Easter eggs behind, and they were trying not to get caught by the teacher. This little angel has a secret love

Don't get caught Such a devious boy, heaven's above Don't get caught And she's simply got a... The teacher looked very threatening, eh? The teacher was like... Are you sure he had some sort of like a strap or a cane or something, if you look closely?

Yeah. With egg on your face Can't be real, can you look closely. Yeah. With egg on your face. Can't believe it. No, because, yeah, they were. Thank God. It was a very mischievous young boy coercing the young girl into having a chocolate. He's got a whole hat full of them, right? Yeah, he lifted the desk lids up, the wooden desk lids,

and then the principal was peering through. And then the teacher. Teacher got caught having one at the end Two chowing down on one But it was a very dramatic ad wasn't it It was Just hocking off some cream eggs High concept stuff wasn't it as well

But she got caught at the end Because she had also cream eggs on her face From eating it secretly in class And you know that was the worst thing You could get caught doing back in the 80s Now it's ram raiding True I'd give anything for those days again Those were good days was the worst thing you could get caught doing back in the 80s. Now it's ram raiding. True.

I'll give anything for those days again. Those were good days. Nowadays, if you had the wooden desk lids, the kids would be sucking back on vapes and all sorts, wouldn't they? Yeah, you're right. Really? Was it that bad, what they were doing? The wooden desks were great, because people would carve in fun things with their compass, you know, into the, you know, genitals

and, you know, fun things and the likes as well. Ben Humphrey, our producer, very fastidious producer, tried to track down the little girl. Not interested in talking about the cream. Fair enough, probably left that life a long time ago, you know? Like, was that a low point tracking down the poor little girl from the cream eggs

ad, producer Humphrey? There's a fine line between producing and pesting, isn't there? The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. The Hits is sending you to Sing Pink in London. This will be pretty incredible, Sing Pink in Hyde Park in London. You and a mate, you can head on over there with flights, accommodation and spending money. And to get in the draw, we thought we'd do it for our 6 o'clock club this morning.

Because normally after 7, after 8, they get all the benefits. So why not bring it early? Yeah, Jane, you're in Waikanae and now you're on the radio. What a morning. Fantastic. Fantastic. A bit more excitement in the voice there, Jane. Hey, listen, when you get in the draw for this,

and if you win and Pink yells out, who's come here from the furthest away? You're definitely going to win that competition. Yeah, I reckon, yeah. Now, you've been to London before? Yes. Any more follow-up questions for you, Jano? When were you in London?

Great question Last year What did you do in London? I visited all the sites The Queen's Funeral was last year Were you there for that? Yes, I was Oh wow, that would have been a really surreal

but also historic time to be there Yes, it was. I wasn't invited, though, but yeah. All right, Jane, we're going to play a little bit of a pink song. You've got to tell us what the track is, then you're in the draw. Let's go. Here's in the square, you're just like a... Again?

Okay, one more time. Here we go okay producer joel again you could have when you played just like a pill it was kind of giving away that maybe the song anyway and not up to me to know jane what's the name of that song oh ben you sometimes say my body shape and my skin complexion makes me look like a pill don't you

just like a pill white one I do say just like a pill you're looking like a big white panadol I don't know why I say just like a pill but for some reason I just think of you

and I just think you look just like a pill any clue there Jano just like a pill how did you get that Any clue there, Jano? Just like a pill. How did you get that? How? I don't know.

Wow, that's awesome. Big fan, that's how. Big fan. Oh, Jane, you're in that draw. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. And we must stipulate, too, it's not a literal draw. Ben, for a while there, your daughters thought we were putting people inside a draw. Jane's in the draw now. You're like, jeez, how big's that draw? We can't were putting people in a drawer. Inside a drawer. Jane's in the drawer now.

You're like, jeez, how big is that drawer? We can't keep storing people in drawers. It would be illegal. But Jane, congratulations. Go and have a wonderful weekend. Thank you. Same to you. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast.

Jono and Ben, celebrate your special date with Dilma. Making the world a better cup of tea at Dilma. And we're celebrating every morning by doing old school radio it's a shout out to those who are having birthdays, anniversaries and we also like to look and reflect on what this why this day is important

Dilmar dates, I thought we could do another spin on this where we send people on dates and they have to over a cup of tea it's like Tinder but with tea and it's like you match an Earl Grey with an Earl Grey, and they go off and have a... Oh, yeah. So they match based on their tea.

Okay, that's nice. I like that. Yeah. We could try that. And then we're watching on, too, from a distance. A little creepy. Now, this day, 2005, The American Office. Oh, you love The American Office, don't you?

Love it. I kind of, to be honest, I didn't end up watching the whole series because it goes on for so long. Ricky Gervais' version was only a couple of seasons. I think it was like 12 episodes or something. Producer Joel, you got to the end of it, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, it fell off a little bit,

but the last episode ever, iconic, I'd recommend it. Steve Carell, very good in it. He had never watched an episode of it. Oh, the UK one. Do you ever watch yourself? No. Never? Mm watch uh yourself never no did you when it was on no why we did it's pretty good show well i tend not to do that i don't know ever do you like watch your movies or anything like this no you've never watched one of your movies no no uh no i don't i don't i don't tend to watch

Given all the material he's done I know it's awkward like at the times that I mean a bit with we make TV, you know I'm a TV and but it's probably but I always felt was because the TV that we made I found it really awkward I'm like, oh god, but maybe it's you know, just a thing seeing yourself. Yeah like that. Happy birthday Denzel, Washington No, not happy birthday to Denzel Washington, sorry. Denzel Washington won an Academy Award on this day, becoming the second African-American actor to win the Best Actor Award, and it was the same ceremony that Halle Berry became the first African-American actress to win the award. Oh, that's awesome.

Now, I love Denzel Washington. He just seems like the wisest prophet that we have on the face of the earth at the moment. One of the most important lessons in life that you should know is to remember to have an attitude of gratitude, of humility. Understand where the gift comes from. It's not mine. It's been given to me. Use what I have. Use what you have.

To help others. You know, on your life, you can't take it with you. Yes, that is true. Oh, he's so cool. I love it. But if you're around him the whole time, you'd be like, you can change the beginning, but you can change the end. You're all right, mate.

You're all right. Thanks, Denzel. I just want to do my supermarket shopping. Happy birthday to Sophie Elizabeth. Have a great day today. Yeah, good on you, Sophie. Enjoy the day, mate. Congratulations. Ken's and Josh Palmerston North are getting married tomorrow.

Oh, wow. That's awesome. Happy 80th to Brian today. Lots of love for your whole family. Pauline, it's your birthday from Johan, or Johan, however you want to say it. Shay, welcome to the show. Welcome to Dilmar Dates. Hello.

You're in Whata Whata. Yep. You're 12 years old. Yeah. This is quickly turning into Jono and Ben wake up children before 7 o'clock. Before 7 o'clock. It's the name of the segment. So what are you doing today on your birthday?

I'm going to school today. Maybe celebrating going out to dinner. I'm a big fan of you boys. Oh, hey. Guess what, Shay? We're a big fan of you. That's very nice of you to say. What are you going to do for dinner? Where are you going?

I don't know. Do you get to pick? Surely you get to pick, right? Yeah, I get to pick. Well, I tell you what, Shay, this isn't good news. We're going to give you, thanks to Dilmar, $100. Thank you so much. But that means you're going to have to pay for dinner.

$100 cash, buddy, and a Dilmar tea prize pack, which means you're now going to have to become addicted to Earl Grey tea. Thank you. Have a great birthday. Enjoy spending that $100 addicted to Earl Grey tea. Thank you. Have a great birthday. Enjoy spending that $100 on something cool for yourself. Thank you. Hey, no worries, man. We'll do it again on Monday.

Dilmar Dates, if you've got someone celebrating something special on Monday, 4487 on the text. Kids, they're great at a lot of things. But, you know, they start out and they're not good. But it's all part of growing up, developing skills, tweaking things, you know, and eventually you end up in a position where you're kind of okay at some stuff. Now, makeup. Poppy, my daughter, loves getting into makeup. Especially for the TikTok generation, too.

They see all these tutorials and things and it makes it look easy and then they give it a crack it's an interesting one kids and makeup isn't it do your kids wear makeup well they like playing around playing around yeah yes that's more of the thing nothing like sprucing the kids up

with a little bit of founding oh sometimes they come out there and I'm like guys see how you make yourself look a little bit more presentable come on get the chuck some lippy on mate I'm not taking you out like that Make yourself look a little bit more presentable. Come on, get the... Chuck some lippy on, mate. I'm not taking you out like that.

That's more just playing around. Do the eyelashes, would you? Come on, guys. Standards. But, you know, Poppy's exactly that. Watching makeup tutorials, and she's like, I can do that, and it's adorable, it's sweet. She grabs Jen, my wife's makeup, and plays around. Oh, kids're all kids that's same you won't want to be older than you are until you get old and then you realize can i reverse yeah you want to be a lot younger uh but she's like

sometimes i'm her you know and it's like when a tattoo artist starts out they've got to start somewhere and they've got to start on someone yeah and. And I'm this person for Poppy with her makeup. The blank canvas. The blank canvas. All this stuff, all Jesus stuff he could do with you. Not surprisingly, she started going, yeah, just brush yourself up a little bit, mate. That's what I say to you as well.

Chokes the puppy on, yeah. Whenever we're going out, don't you? Yeah. Make yourself presentable. Yeah. But she's, I kind of end up looking like, you know, a Victorian era prostitute. You know how they sort of end up with a ghostly white

face, very red cheeks and they would be like the king's dirty secret. That's how I, if they put one of those big curly wigs on me. And the nails, the nails are interesting as well. Oh yeah, they're not so good at that. But then you try and do nails back on your child too

because their nails are so tiny, so hard to do. Yeah, it is. And shout out to all the nail technicians out there sucking in those chemicals 12 hours a day in the malls, you know. Because it's not nail painting, it's finger painting basically, isn't it? My neighbour actually told a good story the other day because he's got two young girls and they're into the makeup like Poppy is, like my daughters are as well.

And he didn't realize it. He'd fallen asleep on the couch and they decided to give him a bit of a spruce up. Exactly like you, looking like a Victorian prostitute. And he didn't realize it. Then he went out to run some errands straight away after waking up. And it wasn't until he went in somewhere

and they were like, oh, hey. And they were looking at him weirdly, and he was like, what? And then caught himself in the reflection of the shop mirror, a window going, oh, my God, look at me. I look presentable. I look amazing. He's pushed himself up a little bit.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Play memory to see Lewis Capaldi live in New Zealand. Yeah, how cool would it be to see Lewis Capaldi when he comes to New Zealand in July? Not too far away, actually. And we've got a double pass to his Auckland concert. If you play our game, it's a game of Memory. It's Forget Me based around a Lewis Capaldi

song. Hana, welcome. Good morning, guys. Hana, Hana. Hana, Hana. Sing along, Hana. Hana, guys. Ha-na-na-na. Do-do-do-do-do. Ha-na-na-na. Do-do-do-do. Sing along, Hana. Ha-na-na-na. Do-do-do-do-do.

Do-do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do. Well, hopefully you'll be seeing better singing at Lewis Capaldi. I'm sure you will be. But we need to get you in the draw. So what we're going to do is we're going to play you a little bit of audio. It's Famous Scots today because Lewis Capaldi's from Scotland. And you've got to remember six of the following twelve names, alright? Okay.

Okay, good luck. This is butter! Now, Hana, your memory, how is it? Hmm. Okay. Oh, I should have done this. All right. Okay, well, your memory. How is it? Okay. All right. Well, here we go. This is the most important thing. Well, probably, unless you've got to pick up kids or anything today, but right now, this is the most important thing.

All right. Way you go. Okay. There's Sean Connery. Yep. Harris. Cameron Harris, did you say? Yep.

Sherry Manson. Yes. From Garbage. Lewis Capaldi. Yeah, yep. From Lewis Capaldi. Susan Boyle. Five.

One more. Gordon Ramsay. Hey, well done. You're going to go see Lewis Capaldi. Oh, hi. You are. Thank you guys so much. Well done. You've got to go see Lewis Capaldi. I am? You are. Thank you guys so much.

I don't know why we'd go through all of that and then not send you to Lewis Capaldi. Yeah. Well done. That's amazing. Who are you going to take? Oh, that's going to be a really hard one. It's either going to be... I've got two daughters.

I don't know which one I'm going to take. Well, it's pretty simple. Who's your favourite? I think I have to ask the game now. I've got two daughters. I don't know which one I'm going to take. Well, it's pretty simple. Who's your favourite? I think I have to ask the game now. It depends what day it is. I would imagine. Well, enjoy that concert.

Good luck choosing between your daughters. And hopefully, I was going to say, we'll talk to you soon. I'm sure we'll talk to you soon. Yeah. Do you want to talk to us soon? I'll talk to you any time. Oh, great. Oh, great. Oh, good. That wasn't so weird then.

We'll give you a bell on the weekend then. You can find all the details at libenation.co.nz for Lewis Capaldi. Really, really fun game there. The hits. The Jono and Ben podcast. Jesus, a big weekend. Right around the country. We're looking at the moment.

Coupa-Doupa going on in Wellington. Big festival. That looks incredible. It does look awesome. right around the country. We're looking at the moment. Koopa Doopa going on in Wellington. Big festival. That looks incredible. It does look awesome. All on the street. Yeah. I saw someone hanging from a wheelchair in a photo. Yeah, I think it was.

That's when stuff gets wild. Artistically, it looks incredible. There's cricket on. Test is Warriors. Super Rugby. Netball as well. Counting Crows are in New Zealand at the moment. Oh, Counting Crows.

Yeah, I mean, me and Mr. Jones are getting a look at that show. Mr. Jones and I, that's what my mum would say. Grammatically correct. The Proclaimers are here. They walk 500 miles and also fly over 11,000 miles to come here

from Scotland. Michael McIntyre, comedian, Basement Jacks. Jeez, it feels like 1995 has decided to come and do a nationwide tour of New Zealand. All we need is Bulger back in leadership. Tell you what I'm doing over the weekend, actually. I'm looking forward to it. And the family keep going, what did you sign us up for?

So it's kind of like an outdoor sort of escape room type treasure hunt situation. It's like Alice in Wonderland themed and you go around, you get a little app and you go around and you've got to complete it in the fastest possible time solving clues around the city. You start at a certain place. And I haven't done it before. I just saw it pop up online. You dress up and I'm like, oh, instantly I'm like, yep, we're in.

What around the middle of the city? Oh, I don't know. We've got to meet at this location. You've got any time between a certain time to start. And then once you start the app, you've got to see how quickly you can solve all the things. My family keep going, what did you sign us up for again? God, it must be exhausting being a family member in your household. I'm like, this is fun.

We're going to go around. We'll solve some clues. What time is it? Is it on Sunday? Yeah, I know, Saturday. So it can happen any time between nine and five o'clock, whenever you start. And then basically you can see how quickly you finish it.

And then you compete against other people who will do it throughout the day. Is anyone, are your kids or Amanda like, oh my God, I had some other stuff planned instead of traipsing around the city dressed up. Like, what are you dressing up like? Oh, I got some card costumes. So they look like, we're a little like playing cards.

I thought that was kind of good for Alice in Wonderland. Yeah, wonderful. But is anyone else doing this or is it just you other people were doing it at different times and they're dressed I don't know it's just going to look like

a family of cards wandering around the city yeah yeah hunting for what well clues I don't know I don't know this is what

they keep asking me questions like you I'm like well I don't know I've signed us up it'll be fun so I'll report back on Monday listen to the boys family if you want to just come and hang at my house while Ben wanders around the city dressed like the Queen of Hearts,

you can. You're welcome to. All right. Well, if you think you're having a better weekend than me, 0800 THE HITS, 4487 on the text. We'll put people up against each other next. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Getting into a weekend is something we like to do

on a Friday. It's a fun little thing we do. We find out what people are doing right around Aotearoa and we put them up against each other and see who's having the best weekend.

Now I asked Google over the weekend what's the best free over the weekend? What's the best free things to do over the weekend? Oh yeah. It says,

take a nice walk. Boring. Go for a nice run. Boring. Oh nice run. Oh yeah. says take a nice walk boring go for a nice run boring oh nice run oh yeah go on a hike boring but isn't that just a more excruciating walk yeah those are the three things using your legs uh google suggests doing stuff over the weekend but we're going to kick it off with an 11 year old isabel in rotorua good morning hi how's it going, Izzy? Good. Full of life, full of pep. You can hear it in her voice, can't you?

So good. What are you doing this weekend? I'm going to Armageddon. Oh, that's cool. Where's that on? Taronga. Oh, they usually have all the people from shows and stuff come along to that. Who's going along, Izzy?

That's good. Yep. I'm going with my best friend. Oh, that her name's jessica shout out to jessica best friends off to armageddon well you're gonna dress up uh yeah we're dressing up as mario and luigi perfect oh nice mario movies coming out soon i see the little girl who played uh megan uh for the kiwi actor is going to be there as well. She was the dancer that did the cool TikTok dances, the scary doll. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, good on you, Isabel.

You hold there. It's a competition. We'll see if you're having the best weekend. Very adorable. We started off with cuteness. Now we're going to go to the other end of the spectrum. April, you're in Tauranga. Yes, I am.

Good morning. What's happening? On Sunday is my grandson's fifth birthday, and he wants to have a pirate party. Yo, ho, ho, we are. We're only allowed to go if we dress up as pirates, even the adults. But his great-grandad, who's 92, he's going to dress up.

So he's got a wig with dreads and old razzity pants, and he's going to dress up as a pirate. Oh. He doesn't know yet. Wholesome. He doesn't know yet. I love that. He'll be like, what is this?

Are you going as like a pirate's wench or something here, April? Yeah, well, I've got a bit of a, I did a bit of Googling search to see what female pirates look like. So my makeup might end up like what female pirates look like. My makeup might end up like what your makeup looks like. Johnny's kids still go on them. You'll probably end up looking like

Johnny Depp, Captain Jack Sparrow. Good on you, April. You hold there, mate. Sounds like a fun weekend, that one. Go to Taranaki. Emily, you're on. Morning, boys. It's the best weekend, Em. What's happening, mate? Yeah, I'm taking my two oldest boys, aged four and five.

We're heading up to Taupo to go watch their cousin race in the Motocross Nationals. And my oldest, he asked if we could go stay in a motel. So I've booked us a motel. And I'm going to surprise them. We're actually going to get how pizza delivered on Saturday night, so they'll kind of lose their mind when a guy shows up at our door to give us pizza.

Oh, that sounds like a magical weekend, Emily. Now, Ben, it's over to you this week. Over to you. Let's get them all on the phone. The raw emotion of people winning and losing. Nothing quite like it on radio. Isabel, you there? Hi. We've got April the Pirate

and we have Emily who's taking us on to Motocross in Taupo. What's happening, Ben? Who's winning? Everyone's winning, Jono, because that's what I like to do. Everyone gets Hell Pizza, okay? And I'm sorry to Hell Pizza if that sinks Hell Pizza's business, but that's what I want to do. But it makes him look like a good guy

and that's the important thing. Hell Pizza, the home of the best damn pizza. Contactless delivery and pick-up. You guys all sound like you're having wonderful weekends. Enjoy. Cheers, guys. Thank you. There we go.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. Have a great one. Just had a text here, 4487, from Belinda. She's like, I'm on a bender this weekend. Hens do bender. Going missing for three days. A wide spectrum of what's happening.

Look out. The Hits. The Jono and Ben podcast. Check it out. The Hits. Five words for five pink tickets. Match all five words to see Pink live in New Zealand in 2024. Yes, Pink coming back.

She's going to be in Auckland and Dunedin. They're going to be two amazing concerts on her summer carnival tour. And we've got five pink tickets if you want to play all the way through, five words. Otherwise, there's $500 on the line as well. Do you know, what I really enjoy thinking about this is that we're all frothing. And rightfully so, we're frothing for pink coming in 2024. But she's probably like, mate, I've got 300 shows to do before then.

Yeah, true. We're leading in a year out. We're so excited, pink. So welcome to the show, Linda. You're on, Morena. Hey, how are you guys? Oh, Lindy, we are a box of fluffies on a Friday. What's happening this morning?

What's happening this morning, Lindy? I'm off to badminton. Oh, badminton. Badminton. That's a sport you don't hear too much about every day. I love it. It does look like a lot of fun. It does. I like it. It's a sport you don't hear too much about every day. I love it. It does look like a lot of fun. It does.

I like it. It's just like a slower version of tennis when you bash that shuttlecock. Yeah. I play tennis as well. You play tennis too? Yeah. Table tennis as well? No, gas play.

Oh, sorry. Push the belly button. Table tennis. Settle down, Jono. And a good way you could say the word that you said before, what you hit in badminton, you don't get a broadcasting standards complaint, don't you? Which is good.

All right, Linda, who do you want to send into the soundproof booth? Jono, please. All right. Jono, let's see how he goes. Try and match up words. He's in there right now, Linda. Okay, first word. Salt.

S-A-L-T. Salt. Pepper. Pepper. Hydrant is word number two. Hydrant. Fire. Fire.

Matching 100% with me right now. Bacon. Bacon. Egg. Did you say eggs with an S? Eggs with an S, yeah. Rainbows. Rainbows. Rainbows.

Ooh. Rainbows. Rainbows, rainbows, rainbows, rainbows. Rain. Rain, okay. And apple is the final word. Apple. Pie.

Apple pie. Well done, Linda. You played a really good game today. Some tricky ones towards the end. That always seems to be the way, the format of how this game works. Yeah, doesn't it? Alright, here we go. Let's see how we go matching up words with Jono. Let's head to the first one.

Word one. $25 cash. I'm feeling good about this Lindy. Alright, here we go. Salt. Pepper. Yeah, $25. Lindy, you want to risk that for 50 yes please let's go word two fifty dollars cash hydrant fire hydrant yeah it would be correct you've got 50 you want to double it for 100 yes please word three one $100 cash. Bacon. I'll just go bacon eggs.

And you pick your eggs. Lindy, we are syncing up. We should have a game of badminton, babes. Be a hell of a battle. All right, $100 is yours. You want to put that on the line for $500? Yes, please. Word four, $500 cash.

Rainbows. Rainbows. Rainbows. Rainbows end? Oh, God. Yeah, of course. I see what you thought of it. Rain. Rain was what Linda had, and the final word was apple.

She's going to go apple pie. Linda's so close. This is two in a row. We had one of these yesterday. Oh, it's so annoying. Linda, you were nearly at pink. We understand. I would have loved that.

We understand you're going to Aussie tomorrow for a holiday as well. So we're not, by the way, we're not paying for that. But you have a good trip away, okay? Lovely. Thanks, guys. Oh my gosh. I tell you what, the way this is going, we're still going to be giving away these tickets after she's done the show. Your chance again on Monday to win those pink tickets.

Five of them up for grabs. Operating machinery, it's not my thing. It's not my thing. Even radio machinery too, you stay away from. The amount of times I've heard Ben say, I've locked myself out of the computer again. And, you know, it becomes other people's problems. It happens probably once a month.

Yeah, I'm not super practical. I'm more arty. Like I couldn't put a picture up on the wall, but I could paint a picture to put up on the wall. My wife's very good. She's got a toolkit. She'll go do that sort of stuff. I know my, you know, I'll go supermarket shop

and cook the meals most night, you know, tidy up. That's put stuff away annoyingly in cupboards and stuff. You hire the hubbies, don't you? Now and again, I do, yes. Just purely for practical jobs around the house. Well, other things as well, mate. If you hire a hubby for all sorts that I'm letting everyone down with.

You want the full service. You're like, oh, okay. Okay, pay extra for it. Okay, well, may as well. Didn't realise this was part of the, okay, fair enough. I don't know if we paid for that, but you seem to be doing a good job. Very good at his job. But yeah, so the lawn.

For some reason, the lawns at home fall on me. And you've been around many times to my house. We don't have much of a lawn because I put AstroTurf in the back. To try and avoid mowing lawns. Yeah, he's turned it into, what's that movie? Is it the Lorax? Oh, yeah, yeah. Where everything's artificial.

Yeah. So I've got a very, very small patch of grass at the front and the berm. And I've even thought about putting AstroTurf on the berm and the patch of grass. I'm like, would the council get mad if I put, you know, that's what I've been thinking about. You want putting AstroTurf on the berm and the patch of grass? I'm like, would the council get mad if I put, you know, that's what I've been thinking about. You want to AstroTurf, you turn your berm into a... Honestly, it takes 10 minutes to do the lawn mowing, but it's just one of those things where, you know,

and my impatience towards it, my lack of knowledge of anything. Enthusiasm, yeah. I put the wrong petrol all in once before and it was smoking up and i go and i was so embarrassed i was like man to my wife i was like can you take it into the shop everyone's going to judge me as i go on and so i was like so she took it in before did you think now playing on you know historical stereotypes that yeah if a lady took the thing and they'd be like yeah it doesn't surprise us whereas you and she went and go my husband just done this thing yeah she did but anyway I wasn't there to feel embarrassed she

did it but I did it again the other day I did it again I put whatever it is I put it wrong it was smoke I had to turn it off and then I was embarrassed to even tell my wife Amanda that I'd done this thing again I'd screwed up so what I did is I put the lawnmower in the car and we were doing some errands that day driving my car around I was like oh hey I've just got to whip past the the lawnmower place I think it needs a service didn't say why could you take it in she's like yeah sure so she like why does our lawnmower that only has to mow seven to ten minutes of lawn need a service yeah I said a few things not working you just get them to give a bit of a bit of service and she was like sweet so she's taking it in there it's going to take about a

month so that but i was like yes i got away with not getting there not the embarrassment i haven't actually admitted to amanda that i put the wrong petrol in again so i'm hoping during the service they're gonna go oh yeah they just fix it nothing said the lawnmower's handed back that is yeah genius i thought it was quite genius from my behalf unless she's listening to the radio right now and I'll get a text in a second. But yeah, so that's, yeah,

but it just saves my embarrassment. It's not my spot. But it's also not your finest hour too? No. Manipulating like that? No, you're right. No, but I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of you. You can get, I saw one floating around in a public park the other day. Just an automatic robot one. Really? Just does it on its own. Oh.

All I can think of is the amount of pets and birds. That was my text. That was my text. Oh, my wife. Oh, God. Okay. Let's call it a live. Have we got time?

Okay. One minute. Okay, Producer Joel. Okay. Here's Amanda's number. We'll get a live reaction. Rolling coverage. This is live radio at its finest.

Oh, there you go. This is live radio at its finest. Oh, there you go. This is live radio at its finest. Ladies and gentlemen, a marital discussion about to play out live on the airwaves. But you're so desperate for radio content. I know. That's the thing. I had to talk about it. It happened in like a week or so. Yes, I'm listening.

Good to have you listening. Always great to meet a fan. You are so naughty. I can't believe you did that to me. Well, no, hey, you took it in for, it needs a service. There's something wrong with smoking. I feel terrible. I don't know why it's smoking.

It's just the, yeah, so. You're always putting an oil in a petrol place. I know that. Oh, I don't know. We all know why it's smoking. Oh, my God, you're so sneaky. Have a great day. Great to meet you, fam.

We'll see you at some hell pizza. Now delivering beer and wine. This best lifetime, Dad. But anyway. Hang up on her, John. Hang up, hang up. The Hits, the John and Ben podcast. Melanie Linsky, a great New Zealand actor.

She started off in heavily creatures. She's been in everything, movies, TV shows, many, many over the years, including Two and a Half Men with Charlie Sheen. Hey, Charlie. Hey. Something wrong? She's been in movies, like I said before, even with Leonardo DiCaprio and Don't Look Up.

Oh, it's so boring. You want to skip the part where you feel bad for screwing my husband. She's currently in Last of Us as well and the drama horror Yellow Jackets, which is awesome. It's about a high school girls' soccer team. They are survivors of a plane crash deep in the Canadian wilderness. Now, stuff goes on, and I don't want to give too much away,

but stuff goes on, kind of Lord of the Flies kind of stuff, and many years later, their past catches up with them. No, no, no, no. I mean, yes. Yeah, it's very, very cool. Yellow Jackets, you can catch it right now on Neon. And we got the real privilege of talking to Melanie Linsky. And because the show was called Yellow Jackets,

we decided over Zoom to be wearing yellow jackets. But yeah, it was just a silly jacket. Anyway, here's how it went down when we talked to Melanie Malinsky. Hi. Hi, guys. How are you? We're doing all right. I think we missed the memo about yellow jackets.

We thought it was a show about people that love yellow jackets. Apologies about that. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you for doing that anyway. Was it worth it? I got him to bring in his yellow jacket. I said, don't forget, we're not very breathable, this material. No.

And plus, mine was damp when I put it away, so it's covered in mould as well. It's a little mouldy, but hey. Oh, nice. It's worth it. It's a very, I was worried that because of the horrible weather conditions that you had to just wear raincoats. Great to see you. It's great to chat.

New Zealand is so proud of you. I mean, this show is amazing. You're nominated for an Emmy. It must be awesome to be a part of shows like this. It's such a surprise, honestly, at this point in my life and career to have something that has taken off in the way this has. So fun, honestly. A fun ride.

You've won a Critics' Choice Award, and the critics, they're hard to please. We know that. You spent a large part of your speech thinking you're nanny. Yes. I mean, I couldn't do it without her. She's one of my favorite people in the world. She lives in Toronto, so she just travels with us.

We don't have her here in Los Angeles, and I really notice the difference in my life when she's not around. She just makes everything so much easier you know i just think it's time for for women to stop feeling like they have to do everything by themselves and having to pretend that it's easy because it's just not like if someone's helping then thank them for helping that's a good way to approach it and to anyone who is spending time with your kids so you don't have to, they deserve a good thing. They're not their kids.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, you have to obviously do a U.S. accent again for this. You would have done many over the years. What's the key to going from your New Zealand accent to a U.S. accent? And what do you think is your normal accent now? Is it a bit of a hybrid? It is.

It's all over the place, I think, because I've lived here for so long now. I've lived here for 23 years. But I mean, every day someone says, where are you from? Where are you from? Like every day someone's surprised to hear how I actually talk. So I guess I do still have my accent a little bit, which is comforting. I don't really know what the key is. I think the key is to kind of do it a bit softer than you imagine you have to do it with the American accent. I think people sometimes

hit the R's a bit too hard and you don't really have to. So what about, hey, howdy, howdy. That's exactly what she said not to do, right? No, that sounds perfect. Thanks, thought so. Yeah, can you do a southern accent? Like an old time Wow, yes I am Okay, and may I have a new lens? Wow, yes I am Wow, okay It's a no from me

What about you, Mel? A true chameleon Isn't he great? Wow, what a talent We understand you are missing You've been, like you said Been away for 23 years And you are missing certain things

From New Zealand, from Aotearoa We saw on your Instagram You had like a stockpile of marmite. I brought one here this morning to the junket. I took it out and put it on some toast here while I was getting ready for the junket and everyone laughed at me. Marmite, wow. It's an important part of my day, marmite.

I also miss vogels. If anyone wants to ship me over some vogels. We can ship you over some. What do you need? What do you need? We'll send you a gift pack. What do you need? The thin sliced sunflower seed vogels. We can ship you over some. What do you need? What do you need? We'll send you a gift pack. What do you need? The thin sliced sunflower seed Vogels.

Okay, yeah. Thank you specifically. Okay, that, Marmite. Pineapple lumps. Yeah, okay. Pix peanut butter on your Instagram as well? I love Pix peanut butter, but you can get it here, which is nice. Okay, okay, all right.

You can get that then. Okay, well, all we'll need is your street address. So if you could just it now if you want we'll put it in the we'll put it in the chat yeah yeah maybe i don't need those things now your character in this uh series uh was obviously saying she was at book club but not at book club she was having an affair spoiler alert now uh what's it like playing characters that are quite far removed from what well i don't imagine you're saying you're going to book club and having affairs i don't know your personal life but yeah you don't know i don't know what's it like what's it like playing characters like that is it fun playing a character that's quite far from what

you're you're normally like it is it is fun actually it's fun to get to get it all out at work and just get to be crazy you really got to hand it to people having affairs because it's fun to get it all out at work and just get to be crazy. You've really got to hand it to people having affairs because it's just, you're juggling so much. A lot of admin. I just can't even imagine. I'm very bad at lying. Like, very, very bad. I really, I just don't think I'd, I think I'd be caught within a day. You're an actor.

I thought you'd be good. But anyway. No. Hey, Melanie, we've been told wrap it up, please, which thankfully is very good. It's quite steamy in these jackets. Yeah. So nice to talk.

Yes, I'm happy for you. When are you coming home to New Zealand? Are you coming home soon? I came home in December, December and January, and I'm hoping to come back again soon. I'm already so homesick. Well, loving to talk to you. Congratulations on your success.

New Zealand's very proud. And just give us your street address and we'll send all that over. Thank you. Yes. It'll absolutely be my address and not someone else's. Yeah, I'm sure it will be. Bye. Thanks.

She's awesome. Melanie Linsky. It's catch the second season of Yellow Jackets on Neon right now. The hits. The Jono and Ben podcast. I figured out a hack to uh never getting blamed for anything ever again now kids when you first have kids one of the the pure joys is what they don't actually tell you about an antenatal class is that you can blame kids on anything on kids you know if any if

you make any mistake in the household stains on the carpet breaking things holes in the wall you know from the years through zero through maybe not zero but years through say two to six you can go oh it must have been the kids yeah you know and they've got no comprehension of what's happening to them they don't know they're being thrown under the bus they don't know they're getting played blamed it's a victimless crime and you don't get you don't have to and the kids, everyone's like, oh, they're young. They're not going to get told off. Exactly. So there's a sweet spot, sweet four-year period there. And then eventually the children get older and they start to realise

they're getting blamed for stuff that they didn't do. Yeah. You know, that's fair enough. So you've got to knock that on the head. So you can't do that anymore. So what's your new one? Get a dog. Get a dog. like the dog that

we got a year ago either the 12 month period i'm like jeez i can pin some stuff on this guy and again the dog doesn't know you're a dog the dog's not getting in trouble because it's a dog you're like oh dog knocks over a cup on a table or you know dog forgets to do the washing or something Yeah I get it Anything gets blamed on the dog And For the rest of my life I can get away With pinning all sorts of stuff on the dog Because the dog can't talk back The dog's never not going to be a dog

Like your big dog Bo He's clumsy by nature You must be able to You must pin everything on Bo True you're right If things are messy, if things are spilt. It's the dog. The dog. Yeah. You're like,

who pooped on the carpet? It might have been me. But you can blame it on the dog. It looks very human-like. No. So yeah, if you haven't got one in your life, or cats as well, although they're a little more nimble. Cats can't get away with too many accidents.

That's not a bad theory, isn't it? With the dogs. Yeah. I like it. I'll go with that. So if you don't want a dog for any other reason, just get one. Well, well. That's the best reason I can think of to get a dog.

Getting a love and companionship. No, that's second and third. Being part of the family. All right. Second, Second third and fourth place The Hits The Jono and Ben Podcast Now we received a text To the Hits 4487

You can get in touch with us Anytime good or bad We take it all on the chin Don't we Ben But this is This is one that Needs our help Now it was a text

About an incident That took place On the road yesterday And Sylvie's with us on the phone, that's right, something happened yesterday Sylvie? Hi Ted, good morning, how are you? We're doing alright, the text came through to the hits You had a bit of a bad day yesterday, we wanted to follow up and see if you're doing okay Yeah, yeah, I'm doing fine

So what you've done is when merging onto the motorway You've cut someone off When merging on Geez I tell you what On my scale of stuff I've done on the road This is at the lighter end of the scale I thought that's what you do When you're travelling around busy streets

You just cut people off Honk Don't let people in That's how we drive in New Zealand But you feel so guilty That you didn't let someone in Yes I mean this is supposed to be the good etiquette of driving.

You should have a sense of being considerate, that you should let someone go through when you know that it's impossible for him to go through unless someone actually gives him away. Yeah, right. So you're saying you should be polite, you should let people in. And now this is playing on your mind, and you want to apologise to the driver that you didn't let in, you didn't people in. And now this is playing on your mind and you want to apologise to the driver

that you didn't let in, you didn't let merge. This is adorable. It is adorable. You didn't cause an accident. It's something you genuinely did. No, no, it's not. But I just, you know.

We need to track this driver down for you. We need to put this issue to bed. You need to get this off your chest. What was the car that you cut off? That's the thing. I was so embarrassed. I turned left and I look at him in the window and he just keeps shaking his head. So I was too embarrassed, actually.

I know that he's driving his black car. He's a youth. But I'm not sure which brand. Was it like a Toyota Hilux or was it something else? Okay, so after a black ute, he wasn't angry. He was just shaking his head going, uh-oh, you didn't let me in. He was shaking his head and then I think he just mumbled something to himself. He might have been going,

she's a good driver. He might have been going, she's a good driver. That's what he might have been shaking his head going, I wish I was as good as her. Oh, look, it happens. He's probably thinking, oh, he's about to move. When I cut in front of him, he's probably thinking, oh, well done, what a great job. Yeah, exactly.

Sylvia, now what we need to know, we need some details. We know it's a black ute, a black Hilux maybe. Where exactly was it? What time? 4.45-ish, between 4.45 to 4.55, I guess. 4.45 to 4.55, where were you? In the Berry Road. Would you know Countdown at the Berry Road, Takapuna?

Oh, Takapuna? Okay, yeah. Okay, by Countdown, Takapuna? Okay, yeah. Okay, by Countdown, Takapuna. Okay. Yeah. Okay. It's always traffic from that road all the way, turn right into the highway. So, Berries Point Road, heading on to the motorway by Countdown between 4.45, 4.55 yesterday.

If you were in a black ute, firstly, apologies from Sylvia. And I'm sure the person is probably haven't thought about it again since because nothing was, but I know it's so sweet that you're feeling really bad about it. I'm driving a red car. You were driving a red car. Sylvia was

in a red car, red BMW. If you're in a black ute, and Sylvia didn't let you in yesterday, text 4487, or you can call us, 0800 the hits. We'll try and track this person down, settle a very minor incident on the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's what we do. We deal in minor stuff.

Okay, I feel so good now. I mean, at least I feel relieved that I get it off. Oh, good. I mean, yeah, you sound like a lovely person, Sylvia. Yeah. If anyone can help her out, give us a text to her right now, 4487. But you're so adorable and sweet. We should just have someone phone up and pretend they were the person

so that she can say sorry and get it done with. The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. It is The Hits, the Jono and Ben election year right now. A lot of talk about politics and we've got National Party leader Christopher Luxon joining us in the studio. Welcome. Good to see you guys again.

Nice to see you again, Eve. I've been a bit sick, yeah, COVID again. Yeah, I did actually. I got it the second time around, but I only had two days of sort of flu-like symptoms and I was good again. But no, it's been frustrating being in lockdown for a second day.

I can imagine, yeah. It's good to see you guys in the flesh and to meet some real people again. Yeah. I bet, well, in your position you can't because I know a lot of people probably, and we shouldn't be saying this, probably just plough on.

Well, they shouldn't be. They shouldn't be, but you know, you can't. You've really got to play by the rules. Yeah, very, very, very much so. So within two minutes everyone knows. So it's been great, but it's good to get out and about and it's been a busy week.

Well, it's a big year. Obviously the election coming up later in the year. There's always polls coming through. How much attention are you paying to the polls when they come out? Well, look, it's certainly been an extraordinary start to the year. I mean, you've had a change of Prime Minister

and then on top of that, we've had natural disasters of weather events and Cyclone Gabriel. And that's a pretty intense time. A lot of the focus then, understandably and quite rightly so, they're New Zealand issues, they're not political issues.

So from my perspective, it's been like, let's not get in the middle of all of that. Let's actually be constructive and quite rightly so. They're New Zealand issues, they're not political issues. So from my perspective, it's been like, let's not get in the middle of all of that. Let's actually be constructive and positive about it. We'll support the government where we can and actually make sure we then make sure they get things done. But now it's sort of back to normal service again, which is good. So we've been able to talk about some other things like some of our policies around education and other stuff.

Yeah, right, which you released yesterday. Listen, I'm going to be honest honest i don't understand any of it so we took to be fair i didn't really go deep on the article so yeah you sort of read the headlines yeah exactly what we do it was good yeah so it's to do with obviously what national want to do as far as education goes certainly primary intermediate education because here's the problem. 50% of our kids arrive at high school actually below curriculum for reading, writing, and maths. And when we did a test last year, 65%, so two-thirds of our 15-year-olds, actually couldn't pass the basic reading, writing, and maths test. They know sort of nine months to a year and a half's less stuff than what 15-year-olds did 20 years ago. So it's really important.

And if we can't get education right, we can't access higher-paying jobs, which is actually what gets people higher incomes and money and all that good stuff. Oh, it all makes logical sense to me. And the teachers, they just... Poppy, I put my daughter up from school the other day, she's like, oh, a kid vomited over six people in the class today.

How exciting. That sounds a dramatic day. This teacher is not getting paid enough to deal with vomit-soaked kids, and they're out there doing it every day. The teachers are incredible. They are really amazing. And I try and go to a school, one or two schools a week if I can,

and this week I think I made it three or four. But they do an incredible job because they're being social workers, they're being counsellors, they're trying to manage parents with split family situations. They're doing incredible work. They've got a lot of kids with special needs and extra learning behavioural issues and challenges that they've got as well. So they deserve to be really well paid and really valued as a profession.

And we've got to show them some respect. Christopher Luxon with us, National Party leader. I want to play a quick little last quiz with you. OK, so it's based on the last thing you've done. I'll just rattle through these. Last TV show or series you watched Yellowstone oh the yellow star okay last book you read the inner mind of the inner mind of tennis my wife is really good tennis player yeah I can destroy on the court now

playing a stronger mental game break it of try and break it down and sledge it from the other side. You call that a forehead? Yeah, the inner game of tennis I think it's called. Alright, last concert or sports game that you were to?

Ed Sheeran. Oh, Ed Sheeran, that was great, wasn't it? Yeah, okay. Got a great documentary

coming out I see on Disney Class A. Yeah, it does look really, really good. Alright, last time you Googled how to do something?

Yeah, that was what I did recently. It was something to do with a washing machine actually. Might have been in my apartment actually to do with a washing machine, actually. Might have been in my apartment, actually, just over the last few days, yeah. And last time you and your wife went on a date night? Last date night.

I imagine you would get a lot of time for that, right? Well, date night, yeah. I'm trying to think when we last... Oh, she went out to an Indonesian restaurant, John and Broner Key, actually. And the last question I've got to ask, is this going to be the last time you're in with us as National Party leader? Absolutely not. I'm coming back as Prime Minister, I promise you.

Now, Chris Hipkins, he's come into play. Do you think he's doing a good job? Well, look, I don't know him that well. I mean, and we sort of have a, you know, it's an interesting relationship because you sort of, on one hand, you want to be supportive where the government's doing good stuff. And then my job as leader of the opposition

and our democracy is also to hold the government to account as well so from my perspective you know it's the Labour Party's changed its leader but it's actually still got the same problems which is just not getting things done and I actually think that's what politics has got to be about you've got to get things done improve outcomes so that people get to improve their daily lives so so yeah so we will have our moments I'm sure. Now we're going to play a game. This is Chris or Chris. We've taken audio grabs from either you. We love a game. Or Chris Hipkins. Or Chris Hipkins.

Now you have to tell us if this is you saying this quote or if it's Chris Hipkins. It's been changed slightly, I think. Have you know, Ryan, my room is very tidy. Very tidy person. Was that you? Were you a very tidy person? I am a very tidy person, but that's Chris Hipkins.

Yeah, one for one. Have you know, Ryan, my room is my room is very tight there we go okay here's the second quote chris or chris i do think we should acknowledge when it comes to some of that youth offending that we're seeing at the moment that social media is playing a much bigger role here some of those things that we're seeing are made for tiktok videos okay that is Chris Hipkins. I do think we should acknowledge that. You're good at this. One more. Here we go. Look, it is a challenge in higher density areas

for people to get outside and to spread their legs. Which Chris was that? Oh, that's definitely Chris Hipkins. It is a challenge in higher density areas. You know stuff you've said in the past. Well done, hey, Chris Luxon. It's always fun hanging out with you, mate. Likewise, guys.

Yeah, take care. See you guys.