Travel Lockdown a Blessing for US Surfers
Back in March, photographer Ridge BenBen and surfer Joe Kisling, both from the US, travelled to the South Island for the Single Fin Mingle logging contest, an annual event that describes itself as a…
Blog Archives
Fix & Fogg Spreads to Houston
High-end peanut butter company Fix & Fogg has achieved enough success in its native New Zealand that it has established its first American retail presence in Houston, Eric Sandler reports for US lifestyle web…
US Investors Eye Mellonsfolly Ranch
Set in the heart of the North Island in the Ruatiti Valley, Mellonsfolly Ranch is a detailed replica of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town, with a successful manuka honey business on the side. Owner…
Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company
In a Fast Company story, internationally renowned photographer and the CEO of Auckland-based Narrative, James Broadbent describes how New Zealand efficiently executed its pandemic response. He argues this same efficiency makes the country an…
Scott Cunningham’s Furniture Graces Tudor Mansion
New Zealand-born furniture maker Scott Cunningham was an early contributor to assisting in the restoration of Holcombe, the “finest Tudor house in Devon”, under the ownership of Nigel Wiggins who had commissioned Cunningham in…
Everything You Need to Know about The Luminaries
“Set during the New Zealand gold rush in the 1860s, is a heady concoction of love, murder and revenge. It follows the story of Anna Weatherell (played by…
Karekare Bach Unites Architecture and Nature
“A bach is New Zealand’s answer to the humble beach cabin, and the Karekare Bach represents the epitome of its building genre,” Ellie Stathaki writes for influential British design magazine, Wallpaper. “The simple wooden…
A Country Can Best Heal When it Acknowledges Past Injustices says Sociologist
What would happen if you lost your land and ended up as a second-class citizen in your own country? asks American medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew in an opinion for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
One-Off Jonah Lomu Broke Barriers and Tackles
It is exactly 25 years since Jonah Lomu flattened Mike Catt to score at the Rugby World Cup, where the All Black transformed into a superstar, Paul Rees writes for The Guardian. “When Lomu arrived…
Todd Muller Plots Downfall of Jacinda Ardern
Todd Muller’s launch last week in the Te Puna rugby clubrooms was not flashy or digital; in one sense it was politics of the old school. But for those who listened to the long,…
Sam Neill Back on Set with Anna Paquin
The Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has been entertaining the masses during lockdown with his ukulele playing and ‘Cinema Quarantino Productions’. He talks to The Independent’s Alexandra Pollard about his new role on season…
Artist Peter Boggs Explores the Ins and Outs
“Peter Boggs, the New Zealand-born, Blue Mountains-based artist, has been a regular exhibitor in Canberra for the past 22 years. Boggs champions a form of ‘slow art’, where he relies on the viewer to…
IndyCar’s Scott Dixon Wins in Texas
IndyCar packed every bit of its delayed season-opening event into one long, hot day at Fort Worth, Texas without any fans in the stands. New Zealander Scott Dixon was the fastest for most of…
Sam Cane is Ready for New Zealand’s Top Rugby Job
Like former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, who learned his craft on the pastoral planes of the Mackenzie Country, the freshly appointed Sam Cane’s rural background in Reporoa, Waikato has become a fundamental part…
How Zane Lowe Became Pop’s Unofficial Therapist
Sitting in a studio in Culver City, California opposite New Zealand-born Zane Lowe, the grey-stubbled Beats 1 host and Apple Music honcho, musicians tend to unspool, even shed a tear, Melena Ryzik writes in…
AlphaTauri’s Graham Watson Explains His F1 Job
New Zealander Graham Watson, the team manager of Italy’s AlphaTauri, talks to Autosport about his job in Formula 1. Watson, who is originally from Pukekohe, started off in rallying before taking his first steps in…
Uncharted Chef Analiese Gregory Dives for Ramsay
Episode one of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted season two on National Geographic sees the multi-Michelin-star chef explore Tasmania with local chef, New Zealand-born Analiese Gregory known for fishing, foraging and diving for ingredients like sea…
Artist Zac Langdon-Pole Looks to the Stars
Gazing at the stars is something that Berlin-based, Auckland-born artist Zac Landon-Pole has been doing for some time now. He had contemplated celestial mapping through his Passport (Argonauta) creations where meteorites were hand-carved to…
Modest Film Pioneer Bill Gavin’s Epic Career
“Once upon a time, a determined sales agent and production executive could set up a career which would resonate beyond their death. Bill Gavin was a New Zealander who left to report on motor…
Lighting Up the TV Screen With a Wild Rush
The six-part television adaptation of New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s award-winning 2013 novel, The Luminaries is “a romantic introduction to the Southern Hemisphere country’s 19th century gold rush”, according to The National’s correspondent, Farah…
Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ
After struggling to find an affordable apartment in Nelson, a Canadian-New Zealand couple signed up to be housesitters, and ended up booking back-to-back sitting gigs for an entire year. But when COVID-19 began, Business…
How a Pandemic Reframed Ben Shewry’s Attica
From creating A$310 degustation menus for international foodies to driving around Melbourne delivering takeaway lasagnes during a pandemic. Few in the restaurant game have upended their business as completely – and successfully – as…
Allbirds and Adidas Team up on New Carbon-Zero Shoe
Footwear competitors Adidas and Allbirds, co-founded by former All White, Tim Brown, are setting aside strategic and intellectual property concerns and embarking upon an unusual collaboration to quickly and jointly develop a high-performance athletic…
Hugh Stewart’s FaceTime Portraits Shots of Lockdown
Working from a pop-up studio in the garage of his Sydney home, New Zealand-born photographer Hugh Stewart has captured the experience and emotion of life in lockdown using just FaceTime and a strategically placed…
Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge
New Zealander Jeromy Wells, the chief executive and founder of listed cloud communication platform and workflow software company Whispir, denies COVID-19 is the best thing that has ever happened to him, Patrick Durkin reports…
New Zealand “the New Leader of the Free World”
“When I say ‘new leader of the free world’, I don’t just mean Jacinda Ardern. I mean New Zealand. As a society,” London-based consultant, leading thinker and author Umair Haque writes in a feature…
McLaren Remembers Life of Brilliant Founder
“Fifty years after , the company he started remembers its brilliant, fearless leader,” Tony Davis writes for The…
Meet Theia Our New Alt-Pop Artist on the Rise
After Lorde and Kimbra conquered the world music scene, there is another New Zealander who’s making waves, according to Manila Times correspondent, Mark Bonifacio. Introducing Christchurch-born, Theia (real name Em-Haley Walker). Theia first emerged…
Sam Neill Locked in the Kitchen
New Zealand actor Sam Neill talks to the UK’s Observer about shunning fame, putting his latest movie on hold, online cooking … and playing Radiohead’s Creep on the ukulele. Neill, star of Jurassic Park, The…
Nelson’s Kakariki Olives Wins Gold Medal in NY
Nelson’s Kakariki Olives, produced by Ray and Brenda Gregory, was one of several New Zealand brands that received gold at the New York International Olive Oil Competition on 8 May, Tim Newman reports for…
From TV to Hot Sauce Charlie Page Looks Ahead
Radical job switches are daunting, but they have the power to rewire entire careers and lives, according to Ed Peters in as story for the South China Morning Post. Peters interviews Ho Chi Minh-based…
Robotic Spot Put to Work Shepherding Flocks
A collaboration between New Zealand-based cloud-based software platform Rocos and American robotics company Boston Dynamics, has been heralded as the future of farming, Luke Andrews reports for the Daily Mail. The two companies have developed…
Designer Sandra Nunnerley’s NY Home Exudes Calm
Wellington-born interior designer Sandra Nunnerley’s apartment – located in a turn-of-the-century Carrère and Hastings town house on Manhattan’s Upper East Side – is a reflection of her signature style, Mallery Roberts Morgan writes for Architectural…
Cogs Begin to Turn on Avatar Sequel Set
Leave it to James Cameron to find a way to work through a pandemic, Yohana Desta writes for Vanity Fair. Like every other major film production, the Avatar sequel – which has been in…
Photographer Amos Chapple’s Love Letter to Prague
High above street level, scores of magnificent statues gaze down over the historical centre of Prague. These rooftop figures – which normally go virtually unnoticed – are now the focus of a project by…
Why is New Zealand so Progressive?
She wasn’t the only mother checking in with their whānau that evening. But this woman was Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, and the one who had decided – on expert advice – to…
Cheil CCO Martyn Poynton Takes Two Minutes
New Zealander Malcolm Poynton joined ad agency Cheil Worldwide at the beginning of 2015 as the network’s first global chief creative officer, following celebrated stints at SapientNitro, Ogilvy and Saatchi & Saatchi, Tim Nudd…
Capturing Copeisolation on Rakiura/Stewart Island
Originally from Estonia, Laire Purik is documenting the life of the residents of Rakiura “through windows, through the gates” as they cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The BBC reports on her…
Twenty-Somethings Trio Helping Us Give a Sh*t
Most of us get at least a small percentage of our daily news from Instagram, according to lifestyle site, POPSUGAR. But there’s one account, the site says, that manages to cut through the noise…
Rosé One Fourth of the Biggest K-Pop Band on Earth
With their new album just around the corner, Jennie, Jisoo, Auckland-born Rosé, and Lisa are on the periphery of global success. Vogue’s Taylor Glasby examines how in just four years BLACKPINK became one of…
How New Zealand Genetics Make Milk in Brazil
New Zealander Craig Bell, co-founder of premium Brazil-based milk company Leitíssimo, likens his product to a time machine. “We have a lot of consumers who told us that ‘this stuff actually tastes nice, this…
Russell Crowe’s Gladiator Marks Two Decades
As the Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott epic, Gladiator marks two decades since it first hit cinemas, UAE English-language daily newspaper, The National looks back at how Ait Benhaddou in Morocco formed the backdrop to some…
PJs by General Sleep Chic Enough for Everywhere
“We’re months into social distancing and this way of life has become a reality both in our lives and in our wardrobes. If you’re anything like the Vogue team, you’ve probably reached for comfortable…
Magical Moments in Time at Mangonui
Australian journalist Jane Nicholls and her New Zealand-born husband visited Mangonui/Doubtless Bay to “capture the simple magic of childhood holidays” for her own family. Nicholls recalls the time there in a travel feature for The Australian. “This…
Coach George Simpkins Took Rugby to China
New Zealander George Simpkin, Hong Kong’s former head coach and HKRU technical director, who played a major role in the overall development of rugby in China and Asia, has died aged 77, the South…
Whānau Menu From Hiakai’s Monique Fiso
It was whānau that brought Monique Fiso back to Wellington. After seven years living in New York City, where she worked in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants, including The Musket Room, Fiso was…
Multi-Talented Producer Yuki Releases Debut Album
Yuki’s goal in life is to avoid staying dormant creatively, according to Ryan Feyre writing for online music news platform, Atwood Magazine. Homogeneity in music is never a good thing when there’s too much…
Hilary Bracefield was a True Polymath
“Writing on a wide range of subjects from Stravinsky to the poetry of her fellow New Zealander Fleur Adcock, my friend and one-time colleague at the University of Ulster, Hilary Bracefield, has died,…
Joseph Parker Self-Isolation’s Greatest Showman
Professional heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker, 28, has proved himself one of the great surprises to rise from the pandemic-induced global lockdown, according to UK-based The Sportsman. While the rest of the world turned to…
Geoff Walker a Helping Hand in Uganda
Photographer Geoff Walker left New Zealand to escape the haunting memory of witnessing the 2012 Carterton balloon tragedy, and found a new purpose for life in humanitarian work in Uganda, Mariné Lourens reports for…
James Shaw on Our Economic Climate Post-COVID-19
Cheap, renewable electricity is one way of reviving economies and preserving New Zealand’s natural environment, Climate Change Minister and co-leader of the Green Party James Shaw argues in an opinion piece for The Guardian. Shaw…
Football Forward Katie Rood Embraces Veganism
“I have gone from five years of continuous injuries to five years with almost nothing,” professional footballer Katie Rood, 27, tells The Guardian’s Suzanne Wrack. The change? In 2015 the New Zealand international and…
AI and Bias Removal a Herculean Task
“Google’s algorithm for detecting hate speech tended to punish tweets written by African Americans, classifying 46 per cent of non-offensive messages as hate language, even if they were not, according to a report by…
Rare Parakeet Rebounds in New Zealand
Populations of New Zealand’s critically endangered orange-fronted parakeet, or Malherbe’s parakeet, are recovering thanks to conservation efforts concentrated on bringing them back from the brink, the editor of educational geography website World Atlas, Oishimaya Sen Nag,…
New Zealand Will Be Waiting for You
“New Zealand remains on the top of many tourists’ travel bucket lists,” Forbes contributor Fiona Tapp writes. “But now that travel is severely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dreams of exploring New Zealand…
Eleven of New Zealand’s Best Wines
Wine writer Wayne de Nicolo examines the wines of his native country – New Zealand – for London’s online culture magazine, The Resident. Home to the southern-most winemaking region in the world, what is…
