We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances
What does it feels like to leave New York and “land in a parallel universe of calm politics and good health”? Journalist Natasha Frost arrived in New Zealand last month and investigated for the…
Blog Archives
All Blacks Inflict Record Defeat on Wallabies
“New Zealand served up a Halloween nightmare for an inexperienced Wallabies side by romping to a record 43-5 victory in the Tri-Nations opener and claiming the Bledisloe Cup for an 18th successive year,”…
Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre Due to Open
The last gift of Austrian-born artist, painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser to his adopted homeland, New Zealand, is being built in Whangarei, three decades after its inception, Malaysia’s The Star Online reports. The Covid-19 pandemic…
Racer Scott McLaughlin Switches Super for Indy
Team Penske has announced three-time defending Supercars champion, Hamilton-born Scott McLaughlin, 27, will drive Indy cars full-time starting in 2021, Nathan Brown reports for The Indianapolis Star. Roughly 18 months ago, team owner Roger Penske and…
Portland’s Twist on Classic NZ Dessert
What happens when it rains? A question especially pertinent for warm-weather businesses, like ice cream shops, many of which say they see a big drop in business during rainy weather, Katherine Chew Hamilton writes…
Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done
Directed by Curtis Vowell and produced by Taika Waititi, award-winning comic Rose Matafeo “is wonderful in irresistible film about parenthood”, Guardian Australia critic Luke Buckmaster writes in a review of New Zealand comedy/drama, Baby…
Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix
Whether you’re just a casual fan or a full time “blink”, everyone can take delight in the fact that South Korean pop sensation Blackpink – an all-girl group, including New Zealand-born Rosé (pictured back,…
New Zealand’s Political Debates Show What Changes When Two Women Lead
“New Zealand’s recent election, which ended up with an electoral landslide for the incumbent Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, says something about women in leadership roles. With the leaders of New Zealand’s two biggest parties…
Billion-Dollar Start-Up Allbirds Launches Apparel
Allbirds, the San Francisco brand whose wildly popular £95 wool trainers and low-carbon ethos earned it a valuation of $1.7bn from investors earlier this month, is about to find out. The five-year-old company, co-founded…
Academics Affirm Influence of Katherine Mansfield
Two UK academics from Edge Hill University in Lancashire have taken over editorship of the respected Tinakori: Katherine Mansfield Society Critical Journal, and are hoping to draw further attention to Mansfield’s often overlooked importance…
John Reid a Cricket Player of Uncontested Standing
“ John Reid, who has died aged 92, was in large part responsible for establishing New Zealand as a respected force in world cricket. A superb all-rounder who was the captain and mainstay of…
Berlin Museum Returns Toi Moko to New Zealand
With a ceremony and prayers, Berlin’s ethnological museum has marked the official repatriation of two Toi Moko, or tattooed Māori heads, to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, Deutsche Welle…
Morrinsville’s World Famous Takeaway Worker
It’s Friday night in the small town of Morrinsville and a handful of locals are waiting at the Golden Kiwi on the main street for a greasy parcel of fish and chips, Julia Hollingsworth…
Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize
Marton-born banjo player Catherine “BB” Browness is one of five recipients of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Browness, who plays with the bluegrass band Mile Twelve, shared in the US$50,000 prize, which…
King of Soul Max Merritt Will Be Greatly Missed
Christchurch-born Max Merritt, the ARIA Hall of Fame inductee best known for his soulful songs “Slippin’ Away” and “Hey, Western Union Man”, has died in Los Angeles. He was 79. Merritt made his mark when…
Georgia Fowler Modelling From the Couch
Vogue magazine recently caught up with four Fashion Week regulars, including New Zealand model Georgia Fowler, 28, to see how they handled the shift from real-world runway to virtual. Fowler has been doing fashion week…
Global Media Outlets React to Jacinda Ardern’s Win
Jacinda Ardern will serve a second term as New Zealand prime minister following Labour’s landslide victory in an election on 17 October, which delivered a major shift towards progressive parties, Jamie Smith reports for…
Climate Change Graphics Made Simple by John Lang
New Zealander John Lang has just finished an unenviable task: taking a jargon-packed, number-heavy report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and turning it into a graphic the average person might read,…
At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685
Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed 1.1 billion streams and was…
Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU
Work is underway on the construction of a European HQ for New Zealand-based security giant Gallagher, Rachel Covill reports for UK media site, The Business Desk. Gallagher, a leading manufacturer in security and agricultural…
Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic
Allbirds, the wool shoe brand that closed a $100m fundraising round this week, is backing bricks-and-mortar stores in spite of the pandemic, according to Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules. Moules writes that the new…
Len Lye Inspires Belgian Designer Dries Van Noten
Antwerp designer Dries Van Noten’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection was partly inspired by New Zealand-born filmmaker and artist, Len Lye. Van Noten was struck by the inventiveness of Lye’s oeuvre, UK-based AnOther editor-in-chief Susannah Frankel…
UFC Superstar Israel Adesanya Makes It Look Easy
UFC 4 video game cover star Nigerian-New Zealander Israel Adesanya, 31, tweets “what EA curse?” after emphatic victory over Paulo Costa on Fight Island, Andrew Whitelaw writes in his South China Morning Post column,…
Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval
Good American founder Khloé Kardashian has invested in Dose & Co., a New Zealand-based company that sells a variety of collagen products throughout New Zealand and Australia. Kardashian is joining the company as a…
New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot
The Passport Index has named a new most powerful passport in the world, and it’s none other than: New Zealand. Stacey Leasca reports on how our passport allows travel to more countries than…
Supercar Driver Scott McLaughlin Makes History
Christchurch-born Scott McLaughlin, 27, from the Shell V-Power Racing Team has put himself in rare company in the pantheon of Australian touring car racing by taking out the Supercar drivers championship for the third…
Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles
In Melbourne, coronavirus brought with it a challenge the scope and severity of which local restaurateurs have never seen before. With eateries collapsing around him, New Zealand chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry was forced…
Parris Goebel Dials in on Inclusion With Rihanna
Lockdown has been stultifying and depressing in its sludgy predictability for many of us – but for others, it has proved uniquely creatively fulfilling, according to British Vogue’s digital director Ellie Pithers. Take New…
Mathematician Vaughan Jones a Man Who Knew Knots
“In 1994, Gisborne-born mathematician Vaughan Jones walked on stage to address the Italian national academy in Rome’s Palazzo Corsini, lit a cigar and began to blow smoke rings. With a mischievous grin, he told…
Ahi’s Ben Bayly Inspired by Right Here
Ben Bayly, chef, television personality and owner of new Auckland CBD restaurant, Ahi is profiled in The CEO Magazine. The feature focuses on how Bayly, who has run establishments all over the world, is…
Steven Joyce a Top Figure in Australian Education
The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s recent Power issue includes lists of the key players across six industry sectors. In education, New Zealander Steven Joyce, 57, is named as one of the top five most…
Auckland Student Aysha Hussan Aims High
At just 14, track athlete and netballer Aysha Hussan has already achieved so much, including as the New Zealand face on the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist 2020, alongside 34 other women involved…
Mint Innovation Saves Valuable Metal from E-Waste
Our “throwaway” culture often means consumers are guilty of getting rid of old devices as soon as new ones come to the market, a habit that can have a significant effect on waste streams…
Jessica McCormack and Emilia Wickstead Join Forces
“Reality is bleak,” Jessica McCormack tells Financial Times fashion features editor Jessica Beresford, “so we all need some escapism, right?” The jewellery designer is huddled over a table laden with precious objects – elaborate earrings…
PM Jacinda Ardern Runner Up in Prospect List
The votes have been counted and the results are in. UK magazine Prospect’s top 10 is full of practical-minded thinkers for the Covid-19 age – and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken…
Digital Human Creator Uneeq Shares Its Tricks
Auckland start-up UneeQ, that counts Salesforce’s former head of AI Richard Socher as an investor, has a new tool that aims to make building virtual humans to answer questions as easy as creating a…
Labour’s Priyanca Radhakrishnan Proud of Roots
In an exclusive interview with Indian news magazine, The Week, Labour list MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan, 41, talks about how the New Zealand Government is handling the pandemic and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s chances of…
Chur, Russell Crowe Educates Vanity Fair Readers
From “bugger all” to “jandals”, Wellington-born actor Russell Crowe, 56, star of Unhinged, takes Vanity Fair readers through some “sweet as” phrases from New Zealand and Australia – two cultures he is “very, very…
Roseanne Liang’s Shadow in the Cloud a Blast
“Imagine how Ripley of Alien would handle a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet-style gremlin attack. Sound wild? Roseanne Liang’s female empowerment thriller delivers on that premise.” Variety’s Peter Debruge reviews the New Zealand director’s film…
Search for Life on Venus Could Begin at Rocket Lab
New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab may be able to send a small spacecraft to probe the clouds of Venus long before NASA or other space agencies are able to do so, industry journalist Jonathan…
Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue
As the Covid-19 pandemic closes borders and grounds aircraft around the world, iconic destinations from Kyoto to Amsterdam are addressing the new reality of fewer visitors and looking for ways to reset their local…
Meet Monday Haircare’s Jamie Lupton
Jaimee Lupton took the beauty world by storm with the launch of Monday Haircare, which sold out from Australian supermarket Coles within days, with the stockist having to put a purchase limit on its…
Underplayed Doco Stacey’s Lee’s Homage to Women
Electronic music documentary Underplayed is the feature debut of New Zealand-born director Stacey Lee, who has been shortlisted for the Cannes Young Directors Award. “Filmed through a deeply intersectional feminist lens, Underplayed highlights not…
Tony Blakely Advocate for COVID Elimination
The professorial fellow at Melbourne University’s School of Population and Global Health, New Zealander Tony Blakely has become one of the go-to epidemiologists for the Australian media trying to explain the complex interactions between…
TikTok Opens up a New Music World for Jawsh 685
TikTok has only been part of our lives for two years, but it’s already had a massive impact on the music business, the BBC reports. South Auckland producer Joshua Nanai, 17, better known as…
Savage is a Moving Street-Gang Saga
“A pulse of vulnerability beats at the heart of Sam Kelly’s outwardly imposing but unexpectedly touching debut feature, Savage,” Phil Hoad writes in a review of the film for The Guardian. The film has…
Inside Anna Paquin’s LA Driftwood Home
The story of New Zealander Anna Paquin and husband American Stephen Moyer’s Venice Beach home is one of ultimate artistic license. With their selections of architect, interior designer, and landscape designer over the course…
How the Iraq Uprising Inspired Singer Yasamin
Three months before the start of Iraq’s October protests last year, almost 10,000 miles away in Auckland, “artivist” Yasamin began binge-watching an Iraqi YouTube political satire show. It would open her eyes to a country…
Gary Rohloff’s BNPL Outfit Laybuy Soars on ASX
New Zealand-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) outfit Laybuy pulled off a stellar landing on the Australian Securities Exchange, with its shares shooting up 45 per cent on its maiden trading day as a…
Wheel Of Time Star Zöe Robins Profiled
Amazon Prime’s epic adaptation of The Wheel Of Time is based in an alternate world where magic exists, but only certain women are permitted to use it. One of those women, Nynaeve, is played…
Eco Challenge Racer Nathan Fa’avae Wins For NZ
Nelson-based adventure racer Nathan Fa’avae, 48, who led the New Zealand team on to win the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, is profiled by entertainment news site, Screen Rant. For the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji…
Chlöe Swarbrick Makes Fortune’s 40-Under-40 List
In a year of “monumental challenges and change”, Fortune magazine has released its 40 Under 40 lists for 2020, the Government and Politics list of which features Aucklander Chlöe Swarbrick alongside iHeartMedia’s Jalisa Washington-Price…
SAS One of Top Special Ops Forces in the World
Special operations forces have become some of the most prominent and active military units in the world, Stavros Atlamazogkou writes for Business Insider. US units like Delta Force and the Navy SEALs are well-known…
Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora
International strategist and insights specialist Aucklander Julia Arnott-Neenee, 27, is one of a number of high achievers “coming home at once”. The Spinoff’s managing editor Duncan Greive interviews the well-travelled Arnott-Neenee, amongst other New…
Niki Caro’s Mulan “a dazzling, moving, hair-prickling spectacle”
An Empire reviewer bemoans this month’s “bittersweet” release of New Zealander Niki Caro’s live-action adaptation Mulan through online streamer Disney Plus. “Not only the best live-action Disney adaptation to date, but also a dazzling,…
Story of WWII Spy Nancy Wake To Hit TV Screens
Anonymous Content, the company behind True Detective and The Revenant, has acquired the TV rights to the New York Times bestselling novel Code Name Hélène written by Ariel Lawhon about Wellington-born World War II heroine…
