Blog Archives

Northern Summer Lovers Need a Seabreacher

Northern Summer Lovers Need a Seabreacher

“Nothing says summer like a good, socially distanced splash. Whether you’re looking for an easy-to-manoeuvre three-cabin sailboat for your family, a two-seater Sea-Doo on steroids, or a double-decker party barge with a waterslide,” Mark…

Family First for All Black Great Dan Carter

Family First for All Black Great Dan Carter

Former All Black fly-half Dan Carter “recalls his torturous relationship with the World Cup and reflects on a family-filled retirement” in an interview with Guardian rugby union writer, Michael Aylwin. Do Carter’s three boys have…

Sweet Flower’s Tim Dodd Leads LA Cannabis Movement

Sweet Flower’s Tim Dodd Leads LA Cannabis Movement

New Zealander Tim Dodd left behind executive roles at Technicolor, Warner Bros. and Time Warner, and acquired Los Angeles cannabis boutique Sweet Flower with a long-time colleague. Together, they reorganised, rebranded and then opened…

Boxing Now Sonny Bill-Williams’ Main Focus

Boxing Now Sonny Bill-Williams’ Main Focus

Attending a dinner in Sydney, breaking his fast at the mid-point of the month of Ramadan, Auckland-born Sonny Bill Williams is much in demand – from the hosts of the event and Sydney’s Pacific…

Stuntwoman Vanessa Cater Kicking up an LA Storm

Stuntwoman Vanessa Cater Kicking up an LA Storm

New Zealand-born stuntwoman Vanessa Cater has just finished putting her body on the line in Marvel’s new TV show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Before that, the action woman has worked in The…

Light and Inner Peace on Aotea/Great Barrier Island

Light and Inner Peace on Aotea/Great Barrier Island

“When I landed on Aotea/Great Barrier Island, an off-the-grid, mostly solar-powered island in the Hauraki Gulf, off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island, it was a proper coup de foudre,” Canadian author London-based…

Why Billionaires Are Snapping up Second Homes in NZ

Why Billionaires Are Snapping up Second Homes in NZ

While the rest of us may have to wait until 2022 to be allowed in to New Zealand, when the majority of the country has been vaccinated and its success rate has had a…

Local Furniture Designers Endorsed by Wallpaper

Local Furniture Designers Endorsed by Wallpaper

“New Zealand furniture and Australian design pieces are made with a contemporary creative mindset, honest materials and a perfect balance of traditional craft and modern technologies,” Rosa Bertoli writes for design magazine, Wallpaper, including…

Biden Backs NZ’s Stance Against Online Extremism

Biden Backs NZ’s Stance Against Online Extremism

The United States “will join the Christchurch Call to Action” to stamp out violent extremism online, the White House has said, two years after the Trump administration declined to do so. The Biden administration spokeswoman…

Violinist Benjamin Baker Teams Up on New Album

Violinist Benjamin Baker Teams Up on New Album

“In July this year, New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker will be part of the online line-up for the East Neuk Festival,” Ken Walkton writes in a review page for The Scotsman. “Meanwhile, here he…

Advice for Budding Female Comics from Rose Matafeo

Advice for Budding Female Comics from Rose Matafeo

New Zealander Rose Matafeo, 29, is a staple on the UK stand-up circuit; you probably know her face from regular appearances on panel shows, or from her critically-acclaimed comedy special Horndog. But now, she’s…

Champion Sailor Peter Burling on Racing Off Grid

Champion Sailor Peter Burling on Racing Off Grid

When Emirates Team New Zealand’s high-speed foiling yacht, Te Rehutai, successfully defended the America’s Cup on home waters against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in March, the victory was a sweet repeat for helmsman Peter…

Maggie Marilyn Founder Striving for Sustainability

Maggie Marilyn Founder Striving for Sustainability

What unites a number of new fashion labels, including New Zealand’s own Maggie Marilyn, is that they have a broader vocabulary when it comes to sustainability – in short: they know what they’re doing,…

Christchurch Teen Flynn Cranston Flies Up Charts

Christchurch Teen Flynn Cranston Flies Up Charts

Fifteen-year-old Flynn Cranston has become the youngest New Zealander to enter the Billboard music charts, after co-writing and co-producing hit single Richer with US rappers Rod Wave and Polo G, David Skipwith reports for…

Invert Robotics Relocates HQ to Dublin

Invert Robotics Relocates HQ to Dublin

Christchurch-founded Invert Robotics, a company that develops inspection robots, is relocating its headquarters to Dublin after recently raising €3.5 million from backers that include State-backed Finistere Ventures, Charlie Taylor reports for The Irish Times.

Ottawa Could Use a Leader like Jacinda Ardern

Ottawa Could Use a Leader like Jacinda Ardern

“Jacinda Ardern just keeps getting it right. Since being elected as New Zealand’s prime minister almost four years ago, the young politician has been leading a progressive policy with an impressive combination of determination,…

Attica Countryside Pop-Up a Dreamy Distraction

Attica Countryside Pop-Up a Dreamy Distraction

“I’ve been eating at Attica Summer Camp, a four-month pop-up at a winery in the Yarra Valley of Victoria,” New York Times critic Besha Rodell writes. “It’s one of many projects dreamed up by…

Great Scotts Take First and Second in Texas

Great Scotts Take First and Second in Texas

Two New Zealanders have claimed top spots in the same race on the IndyCar circuit over the weekend, with Scott Dixon winning his fifth Texas Motor Speedway outing and Team Penske rookie Scott McLaughlin, on…

Burgers and High Gastronomy to Write Home About

Burgers and High Gastronomy to Write Home About

“Far from same-same, Aotearoa is unique and surprising – banging burgers are just the beginning,” according to Australian Kendall Hill writing for The Queensland Times. “Pavlovas and lamingtons aside, there’s a sense of innovation…

Margot Henderson’s Shoreditch Sanctuary Shines

Margot Henderson’s Shoreditch Sanctuary Shines

New Zealand-born Margot Henderson’s Shoreditch establishment, Rochelle Canteen, which she co-founded with Briton Melanie Arnold 17 years ago, is reviewed by the Evening Standard’s chief restaurant critic, Jimi Famurewa. “Here, beyond the hidden buzzer entrance,…

Talented New Zealanders Make Forbes Under 30 List

Talented New Zealanders Make Forbes Under 30 List

New Zealander Stella Bennett, aka Benee, and Joshua Nanani, who goes by the name of Jawsh 685, are among the musical talent in the Entertainment & Sports category of this year’s Forbes 30 Under…

A Sensory Overload Around Mesmerising East Cape

A Sensory Overload Around Mesmerising East Cape

“Not many tourists head for the East Cape; there are no theme parks, big hotels or fancy restaurants. But there are long, empty, driftwood-lined beaches, volcanic islands, vast forests, rolling countryside cloaked in every…

Mansfield and Woolf’s a Transformative Friendship

Mansfield and Woolf’s a Transformative Friendship

“Stories of friendships between artists are often told as love stories: the chance meeting, the electric first encounter, the mysterious mutual recognition that would change everything,” Megan O’Grady writes in a feature about creative…

Tamara Singer Discovers the Truffle in Seaweed

Tamara Singer Discovers the Truffle in Seaweed

New Zealander Tamara Singer and her friend Norwegian Angelita Erikson harvest wild seaweed on the beaches of Norway’s Lofoten archipelago. It’s an inconspicuous plant, but one that can be used in many ways. One variety in…

Lydia Ko Sets Tournament Record to Win Lotte

Lydia Ko Sets Tournament Record to Win Lotte

No one came close to New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko at last week’s Lotte Championship in Hawaii on the course of the Kapolei Golf Club, the Associated Press reports. Ko torched Club and tournament…

Film Fest Director Marten Rabarts Adapts

Film Fest Director Marten Rabarts Adapts

Marten Rabarts, the globetrotting New Zealand film executive turned festival director reflects on a year spent grounded, watching whales from his home office and the formative influences of Wendy Palmer and Michael Kuhn, Sandy…

NY-Based Claudia Li Draws on Home for Latest Line

NY-Based Claudia Li Draws on Home for Latest Line

Since founding her namesake label in 2015, New Zealand-raised Claudia Li has emerged as one of the most compelling designers on the New York fashion circuit, Mario Abad writes for independent fashion magazine, Paper. Her…

Designer Cherry Kim Pays Homage to Her Mother

Designer Cherry Kim Pays Homage to Her Mother

New York-based designer Cherry Kim’s latest collection, for her brand Rhee, is an ode to her childhood New Zealand home, Laura Pitcher reports for fashion magazine, NYLON. Kim, 24, describes that house as a mess. “My mum…

Drug Testing in New Zealand Without the Penalties

Drug Testing in New Zealand Without the Penalties

New Zealand has enshrined into law a one-year experiment allowing drug users to have illegal substances tested without penalty to ensure their authenticity and to weed out dangerous chemicals, journalist Natasha Frost reports for…

Beauty Blogger Madden Kelley Kits Out Posh Pets

Beauty Blogger Madden Kelley Kits Out Posh Pets

New Zealander Madden Kelley, founder of Los Angeles-based high-end canine accessories brand Pagerie, debuted the company’s e-commerce site during the pandemic accompanied by imagery featuring models dressed in neutral tones walking disarmingly chic…

Rhys Darby and Terminix Unite for Campaign

Rhys Darby and Terminix Unite for Campaign

New Zealand actor Rhys Darby joined Adweek for an exclusive interview about his new campaign with American pest control company, Terminix. Darby, 47, is no stranger to humour – or bringing it to the ads…

Pressio Puts Sportswear Industry Through Its Paces

Pressio Puts Sportswear Industry Through Its Paces

UK design publication Wallpaper offers up a selection of men’s sportswear brands, including New Zealander Jamie Hunt’s newly launched Pressio, that will “guarantee you hit the ground running, whether you’re aiming to beat your…

Peter Jackson to Receive Visual Effects Accolade

Peter Jackson to Receive Visual Effects Accolade

New Zealand film director Sir Peter Jackson will receive the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th annual VES Awards, which will be presented during a virtual ceremony on 6 April. “Sir Peter…

World Cup Giant Slalom Win for Alice Robinson

World Cup Giant Slalom Win for Alice Robinson

An aggressive second run lifted New Zealand teenager Alice Robinson ahead of American Mikaela Shiffrin to win a giant slalom that ended the women’s World Cup ski season recently in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The Associated…

Wurld Series’ New Album Thoughtful and Witty

Wurld Series’ New Album Thoughtful and Witty

“Wurld Series seem to know how to escape millennial disaffection more than most. The Christchurch band, led by songwriter Luke Towart and producer and drummer Brian Feary, fight the encroaching threat of an optimised,…

Bob Valentine New President of Concord Music

Bob Valentine New President of Concord Music

Concord Music Publishing has named its CFO New Zealander Bob Valentine the new president of the company. According to Music Business Worldwide editor Murray Stassen, Nashville-based Valentine first began his association with Concord in 1999,…

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

“In New Zealand, investigators traced an outbreak to a 50-second window of exposure. The case might be a lesson for countries contemplating a future with no Covid-19,” WIRED’s science editor Matt Reynolds reports. “Authorities investigating…

Ata Mara’s Janiene Bayliss a Decanter Influencer

Ata Mara’s Janiene Bayliss a Decanter Influencer

The UK’s Decanter magazine recently highlighted a selection of twelve female talents in the wine industry from across the globe, which included New Zealander Janiene Bayliss, director and co-owner of Ata Mara in Central…

Scrabble King Nigel Richards a Great Enigma

Scrabble King Nigel Richards a Great Enigma

With the Australian Scrabble Championships held over Easter weekend, The Guardian’s Emma Kemp profiled both young and old players competing for the title. When the name of world champion New Zealander Nigel Richards is…

Sinead Boucher and Stuff Break up with Social Media

Sinead Boucher and Stuff Break up with Social Media

Stuff’s decision to quit Facebook did not come out of the blue. In 2019, after the horrific mass shooting at mosques in Christchurch was livestreamed on Facebook, the company, headed by Sinead Boucher, began…

Kenneth Rea Teacher to Outstanding Actors

Kenneth Rea Teacher to Outstanding Actors

The mentor to some of Britain’s top performers believes the best acting comes from a childhood sense of playfulness – and is fraught with danger, David Jays reports for The Guardian. Defining the core…

Artist Euan Macleod Scoops Huge Drawing Prize

Artist Euan Macleod Scoops Huge Drawing Prize

Multi award-winning artist Christchurch-born Euan Macleod has won the Australian $30,000 Dobell Drawing Prize with a pastel-on-paper work entitled Borderlands, Nick Galvin reports for The Sydney Morning Herald. Each of the 15 postcard-sized images in…

New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After Miscarriage

New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After Miscarriage

New Zealand’s Parliament has unanimously approved legislation that would give couples who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth three days of paid leave, putting the country in the vanguard of those providing such benefits, journalist…

World Holstein Appointment for Cherilyn Watson

World Holstein Appointment for Cherilyn Watson

General manager of our largest dairy breed association Holstein Friesian NZ, Cherilyn Watson has been appointed president of the World Holstein Friesian Federation (WHFF) Council, the first female president in the Federation’s 45-year history,…

Aotearoa Women’s Surfing Breaking Stereotypes

Aotearoa Women’s Surfing Breaking Stereotypes

Though movements to boost women’s participation in surfing are taking off in the Pacific region, New Zealand mother-of-two Kelly Murphy remembers the challenges she faced as a teenager trying to make a career out…

Colorado-Based Tip Top Savory Pies Grows

Colorado-Based Tip Top Savory Pies Grows

Tip Top Savory Pies, a popular eatery in Lafayette, Colorado “will soon introduce its New Zealand-style cuisine to a new area of Boulder County as the company is set to expand into a new…

Largest Glowing Shark Species Discovered Near NZ

Largest Glowing Shark Species Discovered Near NZ

During a month-long expedition in waters off the coast of New Zealand, researchers identified the largest glow-in-the-dark species with a spine – on land or sea – that has ever been found, the kitefin…

Blackpink’s Rosé Smashes UK Charts Glass Ceiling

Blackpink’s Rosé Smashes UK Charts Glass Ceiling

Auckland-born singer Rosé, 24, already a star as a member of one of the biggest girl groups on the planet, has now made history in one of the largest music markets in the world…

More to New Zealand White Wine than Sauvignon Blanc

More to New Zealand White Wine than Sauvignon Blanc

“You have only to look at the way the Kiwis have handled Covid to see why their wine industry is such a success: clear, focused and decisive,” Guardian wine critic Fiona Beckett writes. And,…

New Zealand Renews Laos UXO Response Funding

New Zealand Renews Laos UXO Response Funding

New Zealand will provide an additional four years of funding for the UXO sector in Laos through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2021 to 2024. New Zealand will continue its support to UXO…

Deadpan NZ Comedy Acts Resonate Far and Wide

Deadpan NZ Comedy Acts Resonate Far and Wide

The peculiar brand of awkward, self-deprecating, deadpan humour Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie and Taika Waititi developed on stage in the late 1990s – let’s call it the Wellington School of comedy – has now…

Team New Zealand Glides Home to Win Cup Again

Team New Zealand Glides Home to Win Cup Again

Team New Zealand has retained the America’s Cup, “speeding away from its Italian challenger Luna Rossa to claim sailing’s biggest prize in its home waters,” Andrew Das reports for The New York Times. The victory…

Creative Facebook Appointment for Nicky Bell

Creative Facebook Appointment for Nicky Bell

Facebook has appointed New Zealander Nicky Bell – international innovation consultancy R/GA’s former SVP global client partnerships – as its new global VP of Creative Shop. In a statement announcing her Los Angeles-based appointment, Facebook…

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

“Concerts, beaches, crowds: Videos of New Zealand enjoying its summer feel like peering into an alternate reality,” Dublin-based New Zealander Brian Ng writes in a story published by The New York Times. “While much of…

Step Inside a Sandra Nunnerley Aspen Interior

Step Inside a Sandra Nunnerley Aspen Interior

For designer Sandra Nunnerley, New Zealand native and New York transplant, a home’s interiors should always be site-specific. Such is the case for all of her projects, but especially so for a ski chalet…

Dubai-Based Kim Thompson’s Business Success Story

Dubai-Based Kim Thompson’s Business Success Story

Top restaurants in Dubai spearheaded by female owners, founders and chefs are profiled in Time Out Dubai, and include an interview with New Zealander Kim Thompson, who owns RAW Coffee. RAW Coffee was set…