From caffeine hits to comic Hitlers: The year in preview

A soy decaf latte to go might set you back more than $7 in Auckland but what about the humble flat white and long black? With the latter now fetching $4 we reckon a flattie will start hitting the wrong side of $5.50.

Star-Times columnist Kylie Klein-Nixon says while the rest of the world has grown to love director Taika Waititi (pictured) as much as Kiwis, there could be controversy ahead with the New Year release of his WWII fantasy comedy JOJO RABBIT ,in which he plays Hitler for laughs. ‘‘It could be amazing, or it could end with Waititi ostracised from

Hollywood for all time.’’

This week we write on page 8 that the future of our consumerism will change with the advent of getting pretty much anything you want delivered to your door. Once it used to be cases of wine and prepared food, now you can order anything from artisan cheeses and bamboo toothbrushes to brownies, underwear and beauty products.

The first NZ Married At First Sight was a scramble of claws, the second was short-lived thanks to a lack of commitment. In 2019 we’re picking audience love affairs with Married at First Sight will also end (though we’ll always fondly recall Brett and Angel, pictured), but reckon MediaWorks will hold on for another season before giving it the push.

First comes love, then comes election, then comes baby . . . This will surely be the year Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford tie the knot – but in typical progressive style we reckon they’ll wed in secret in a classic Kiwi backyard throwtogether, perhaps in Te Aroha.

Thanks to Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones’ regional development fund, we predict Northland’s Whangarei will be the next under-rated, affordable destination – while average prices there are nudging $500k, it’s still miles cheaper than Auckland.

While we’re on Shane Jones, political reporter Henry Cooke predicts Jones’ eternal war with Air New Zealand will continue (most recently he derided the airline’s safety videos, saying they trivialise safety) as the partially state-owned airline does something else to rankle the first lad of the regions, but ‘‘he will continue to fly with them, constantly’’.

Brexit. The Trump wall. Jami-Lee Ross. Politics was interesting this year, even for the ambivalent and next year won’t be any different. Cooke predicts National leader Simon Bridges may not be in as much of a happy place by the time 2020 rolls around, but the National Party will not dip very far below 40 per cent in the polls. ‘‘There’s just nowhere else for that right-wing vote to go!’’

Further afield, Cooke predicts Brexit and the Mueller inquiry into Trump will roll through 2019. What’s more, ‘‘the four or five serious contenders for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020 will all ‘write’ deeply boring books’’.