Nix Adams is best known for her social media presence and victory on Celebrity Treasure Island, but there's more to her story than that.

She's survived intergenerational trauma, losing a child, meth addiction, and a short stint in prison - which ultimately inspired her to turn her life around.

She's shared her journey of survival and starting over in a new memoir, Nothing to Lose.

"It's been pretty scary, I've shared bits and pieces over the years, but to have it all in your hands is pretty freaky, actually."

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Irish comedian and tv host Dara O'Briain has always known he was adopted and he's worked that detail into his standup comedy routines.

His 2023 tour focused on his journey to find his birth mother, and his upcoming tour - set to arrive in New Zealand later this month - will share the story of finding his birth father.

He's promised the show will be a 'romp' as it's a 'lovely' story to tell.

"I'm lucky to have got in under the length of it being a long and involved story."

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Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child. The latest outing from the two brothers is the 31st in the Jack Reacher series and for me, it held up very well. General Susan Turner is a former colleague of Jack’s from his Pentagon days, and when someone on her team is brutally murdered she needs someone she can trust to work out what happened and why, Jack being the obvious candidate. She tracks him down and the mission rekindles their previous relationship as they take on the bad guys, set in a modern world where data farms are the new big thing and not everyone is on the right side. It’s full of action, as always with Reacher, but there’s some great human interaction as well and is less one dimensional than some in the series.

King’s Ransom by Matthew Reilly. This is the second in a new series featuring an autistic detective, Sam Speedman, who is called on to help with a case when the world’s richest man and some of his family are kidnapped in New York and the kidnappers demand that five of America’s smartest detectives be brought in to solve the riddles and clues they’ve laid down as a challenge. It’s fun, pacy, requires some serious willing suspension of disbelief but is extremely entertaining and I’ll be looking out for the next in the series. Highly recommended for some great escapism.

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The summer season is over for another year in the US, and tourism in Hawaii has seen a noticeable decline.

Visitor numbers are down, and there's less flights in and out of the region, according to new reports.

BloggerAtLarge.com writer Megan Singleton was recently there, but she cited a weakening dollar and growing political discontent in America.

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This week on the Sunday Panel, partner at Freebairn and Hehir Liam Hehir and journalist and TV producer Irene Gardiner joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the week - and more!

We've got one week of the election campaign left to go - but is is too negative? What have we made of the campaigning across the board? Winston Peters said people are sick and tired of it and that this campaign has been among the worst he's seen. Is he right?

How do we see the election playing out? What are our predictions?

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Your brain and your gut communicate with each other all the time, and certain emotions can impact how your body feels.

Often, when people experience gut symptoms like diarrhoea or constipation, they attribute them to gut problems rather than to stress or the nervous system.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explained this process further - and revealed some techniques to address stress.

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Cook time: 25 minutes

Prep time: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

250gm beef mince

150gm pork mince

¼ pumpkin, grated

2 tsp Dijon mustard

400gm tin whole peeled tomatoes

400gm tin chickpeas in spring water, drained

400gm tin white haricot beans, drained

1 onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

4 eggs

1 tbsp sunflower oil

5-6 sprigs sage (optional)

Salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180*C.

Mix the mince, mustard, pumpkin and 1 tbsp fresh thyme in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Roll the mix into golf sized balls. Heat a little oil in a cast-iron frying pan and shallow fry the meatballs, just enough to colour the outside. Set aside.

Now add a little more oil to the pan and sauté the onion, garlic and remaining thyme.

Add the tomatoes, beans and Worcestershire sauce, cook for one minute.

Pour this mix into a large baking dish (about 50cm square). Place the meatballs into the tray then gently crack the eggs in around the balls.

Bake in the oven for around 15-20 minutes or until the egg white is cooked (the yolks should still be a bit runny).

While this is cooking, shallow fry the sage in hot vegetable oil until crispy.

Set aside on absorbent kitchen towel.

Garnish the baked dish with the sage and serve.

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