Blog Archives

Surfwear Company Salt Gypsy Supports Slow Fashion

Surfwear Company Salt Gypsy Supports Slow Fashion

In light of recent calls to action from Australian consumers, the Australian fashion industry and Australian fashion brands have made their sustainability and ethical practices more transparent so we can look good and feel…

Māori Business Revaluing the Past

Māori Business Revaluing the Past

Global businesses should heed traditional, indigenous knowledge to better protect land, honour old customs and boost profits, participants at a Wakatū Incorporation conference in Wellington said last week. Instead of a wasteful “take, make and…

Chef Monica Galetti Recounts Rise to Cooking Fame

Chef Monica Galetti Recounts Rise to Cooking Fame

Samoan-born New Zealand chef Monica Galetti was the first woman to become head chef at La Gavroche and now runs her own restaurant, Mere, in London with her husband. Galetti talks to Britain’s Independent…

Tā Moko as Much about Māori Identity as Art

Tā Moko as Much about Māori Identity as Art

The “unusual and pioneering exhibition” Māori Markings: Tā Moko, on until 25 August at the National Gallery of Australia, is curated by Crispin Howarth, and explores and documents tā moko over the past 250…

PM Jacinda Ardern Discusses Global Scrutiny

PM Jacinda Ardern Discusses Global Scrutiny

Optimism is baked into Jacinda Ardern’s character, Spinoff editor Toby Manhire writes in a feature about the prime minister published in The Guardian. At school, her mother once revealed, she convened a “happy club”….

Feijoas Are a National Pastime

Feijoas Are a National Pastime

The little green fruit that’s native to Brazil, feijoa, is one of the most vitamin C-rich foods you can eat. But just for the record, New Zealand discovered them before Australia. “We’re going to smash…

Designer Richard Clarkson Looks to the Stars

Designer Richard Clarkson Looks to the Stars

Intrepid visitors to the Architectural Digest Design Show on in New York during March braved lashings of chilly rain to get there. But inside, the elements were the source of inspiration, and included an exhibition…

Auckland Gets More People on Its Buses

Auckland Gets More People on Its Buses

“Cities across the world are struggling to tempt people out of their cars and onto transit, but Auckland has reversed the trend by creating a really, really good bus network for very little money.” Fast…

Travel the World Like Influencer Alex Gillespie

Travel the World Like Influencer Alex Gillespie

New Zealand-born Instagram travel guru Alex Gillespie has amassed over 54k followers on Instagram over recent years, and has made a living travelling the world. He’s one of those enviable people who seems to…

Saving the Strangest Parrot on Earth

Saving the Strangest Parrot on Earth

It’s as plump as a goose, has the face of an owl and waddles like a duck. It sleeps in the day and is active at night. And it can climb just about anything…

New Zealand Continues Plans to Save Natives

New Zealand Continues Plans to Save Natives

New Zealand is three years into what many consider to be the world’s largest animal protection programme. The Predator Free 2050 government programme has a goal of removing all non-native pests by the year…

Hong Kong Basel Showcases Painter Imogen Taylor

Hong Kong Basel Showcases Painter Imogen Taylor

This year, Art Basel in Hong Kong featured 242 galleries from 35 countries and territories, with a booth set up by Auckland gallerist Michael Lett featuring Whangarei-born painter Imogen Taylor. According to American online…

Even in Brogues Peter Messervy-Gross Completes Race

Even in Brogues Peter Messervy-Gross Completes Race

It would be hard enough completing a 160km ultra marathon across a frozen Mongolian lake with the proper equipment. New Zealander Peter Messervy-Gross, 47, performed the feat wearing his everyday fashion brogues. Messervy-Gross had spent…

Icy World Record for Diver Ant Williams

Icy World Record for Diver Ant Williams

Freediver Ant Williams, 47, has claimed a Guinness World Record for the deepest dive under ice, in a Norwegian fjord in the Arctic Circle. Overseen by GWR observers, wearing only a wetsuit and carrying a…

New Zealand’s Engaged Diaspora an Asset

New Zealand’s Engaged Diaspora an Asset

The number of New Zealanders scattered around the globe is massive. Back in 1999 Brian Sweeney, founder of nzedge.com which originated the idea of a Kiwi Diaspora, put the number at one million of…

Garden Designer Bayley LuuTomes Wins in Melbourne

Garden Designer Bayley LuuTomes Wins in Melbourne

New Zealand garden designer Bayley LuuTomes has ticked a career goal off his bucket list and won a bronze medal in the process at this year’s Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show – the…

What the Haka Means and How It’s Performed

What the Haka Means and How It’s Performed

It’s what representing their country is all about – walking out in New Zealand’s All Blacks jersey, facing their opposition, and delivering a spine-tingling, hair-raising haka before the whistle blows for kick-off. George Ramsay…

Singer Kelsey Karter Is Only Getting Started

Singer Kelsey Karter Is Only Getting Started

“A raw rock n’ roll outbreak of ecstasy and intimacy, ‘What U’ asserts Kelsy Karter, 24, as a genre-defying talent everyone deserves to hear,” according to Mitch Mosk, editor-in-chief of music journal Atwood…

Designer Rebecca Taylor Serves Up Crisp and Breezy

Designer Rebecca Taylor Serves Up Crisp and Breezy

“Last year, Rebecca Taylor chucked up the deuces to her beloved New York City to set up shop in Paris and unveil a City of Light-inspired lineup for her Fall 2019…

Singer Paula Parore Channels Aretha Franklin

Singer Paula Parore Channels Aretha Franklin

New Zealand-born Paula Parore will perform a captivating tribute to songstress Aretha Franklin in Kalgoorlie-Boulder next month, but the singer’s professional career has not always hinged on the performing arts. A self-confessed sports fanatic, Parore…

Tamaryn’s Voice Channels Newfound Intensity

Tamaryn’s Voice Channels Newfound Intensity

In the Los Angeles apartment of New Zealander Tamaryn – one of the most underrated artists in the world of gothic-synthpop – a TV screen is always on a loop featuring classic ‘80s music…

40,000-Year-Old Log Explains Earth’s Mystery

40,000-Year-Old Log Explains Earth’s Mystery

A 40,000-year-old 60-tonne kauri log discovered during excavations for a new power station in Ngāwhā could explain a mysterious global event, which may have dramatically changed the Earth’s climate. Scientists in New Zealand believe the…

New CMO Role at TRI Pointe for Linda Mamet

New CMO Role at TRI Pointe for Linda Mamet

One of America’s largest homebuilders, California-based TRI Pointe Group, announced last week that New Zealander Linda Mamet has been named chief marketing officer. In her role as vice president of corporate marketing for the past…

New Zealand Artwork That Really Makes Its Mark

New Zealand Artwork That Really Makes Its Mark

Tā moko is the traditional Māori art of marking the skin. It is very different from a tattoo and is considered a great cultural privilege. Australia’s National Gallery’s curator, Pacific Arts, Crispin Howarth, says,…

Everyone’s Talking About Monica Galetti’s Mere

Everyone’s Talking About Monica Galetti’s Mere

“With a name as well-known, well-liked and well-respected as Monica Galetti, it’s no surprise Mere (the name of Monica’s mother) has people talking for all the right reasons,” Alicia Grimshaw writes in…

Acclaimed Artist Lisa Reihana Exhibits in Adelaide

Acclaimed Artist Lisa Reihana Exhibits in Adelaide

In partnership with the Adelaide Festival, the Samstag Museum of Art unveiled four dynamic exhibitions in February including one from New Zealand-born artist Lisa Reihana. Reihana’s panoramic video ‘In Pursuit of Venus ’ subverts a…

MinRes Head Chris Ellison Takes Top Honour

MinRes Head Chris Ellison Takes Top Honour

Mineral Resources boss New Zealander Chris Ellison has won a top honour at the Australian Institute of Management WA Pinnacle Awards. More than 450 people attended the glittering black-tie ceremony in Perth to acknowledge stand-out…

Photographing the Epic Beauty of the South Island

Photographing the Epic Beauty of the South Island

“New Zealand’s South Island is known for its picturesque landscapes, breathtaking high peak Alps, and ever-changing weather. It is a world heritage for its untouched wilderness, clear night skies, and adventure tourism. After travelling…

Georgia Fowler Models for Anwar Hadid Jewellery

Georgia Fowler Models for Anwar Hadid Jewellery

US-Palestinian model and entrepreneur Anwar Hadid, brother to models Gigi and Bella, has just released his own accessories line and called in Victoria’s Secret model New Zealander Georgia Fowler, 26, to star in the…

Whale Shark Expert Simon Pierce Hopes Tourism Helps

Whale Shark Expert Simon Pierce Hopes Tourism Helps

New Plymouth-born head of the Marine Megafauna Foundation and leading authority on whale sharks Simon Pierce has been overseeing a project on Nosy Be, an island off the northwestern coast of Madagascar, where there…

Kahurangi National Park Gets Bigger

Kahurangi National Park Gets Bigger

Kahurangi National Park, situated in the north-west corner of the South Island, the second-largest national park in the country, has expanded by 14 per cent, roughly half the size of Auckland. More than 64,000ha of…

Tim Topham Drills Through Adversity

Tim Topham Drills Through Adversity

New Zealanders Tim Topham and his brother had little to show for their business dream in 2006, spending their nights on mattresses in their newly purchased yard in Boulder, Western Australia. By day they…

The Breaker Upperers a Netflix Smash Hit

The Breaker Upperers a Netflix Smash Hit

For New Zealander comedy collaborators Madeleine Sami and Jackie Van Beek, it all started with an idea, a friendship, and one magical ingredient: Celine Dion. Los Angeles Times correspondent Jen Yamoto investigates. Van Beek was…

Warren Gatland’s Wales Reflect Image of Its Leader

Warren Gatland’s Wales Reflect Image of Its Leader

“For all his success in his coaching career, Warren Gatland is no José Mourinho peering into the mirror all the time and trading on past glories. He looks ahead rather than back, plotting the…

Gymnast Ruby Hamilton In Training for Olympics

Gymnast Ruby Hamilton In Training for Olympics

As Abu Dhabi and Dubai prepare to host the Special Olympics World Games, seven women who will be representing the UAE talk about what tolerance, hard work and winning mean to them. Twelve-year-old New…

New Zealand Mourns

New Zealand Mourns

“We’re a long way from anyplace, and that’s the point of New Zealand: We like it like that. We’re lucky here. We’re out of the picture. We’re too distant and obscure for terror cells…

Living the Change Inspired by Sustainable Stories

Living the Change Inspired by Sustainable Stories

Sometimes focusing on the ecological and environmental problems facing the world is overwhelming – so why not put the spotlight on the solutions instead? That was the aim of Christchurch-raised filmmaker Antoinette Wilson and…

Danielle Cormack’s Political Role in Secret City

Danielle Cormack’s Political Role in Secret City

New Zealand-born actor Danielle Cormack (pictured left) seems passionate about politics. She was in the Australian capital recently talking to the Canberra Times about the second series of Secret City: Under the Eagle, which…

Krispy and the Pooch Unveil Irresistible New EP

Krispy and the Pooch Unveil Irresistible New EP

“What do you expect from a band named Krispy & The Pooch? Approaching their music, we weren’t too sure,” Sydney music site, Happy reports. “With their wild band name and even wilder cover art,…

Margot Henderson’s Recipe for Bacon-and-Egg Pie

Margot Henderson’s Recipe for Bacon-and-Egg Pie

“This pie feels as if it is too simple to work – but it does and very easily,” according to London-based chef and caterer Margot Henderson, who dishes up her bacon-and-egg-pie recipe to Guardian…

Golf in New Zealand Exceeds its Hype

Golf in New Zealand Exceeds its Hype

“Tell people you’re going to New Zealand and the praise pours in faster than Cam Champ’s downswing. From the country’s many fans, I heard raves about the people, the wine, the scenery, the food,…

What We Do in the Shadows on TV and Note-Perfect

What We Do in the Shadows on TV and Note-Perfect

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s TV reboot of their vampiric comedy, What We Do in the Shadows is “wonderfully, absurdly over-the-top and hilarious”, according to Hollywood Reporter reviewer Tim Goodman. “There is a point early…

Architect Megan Wraight Collaborates in NSW

Architect Megan Wraight Collaborates in NSW

In a collaboration with Melbourne’s Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA), New Zealander Megan Wraight (pictured right), principal at Wellington-based Wraight + Associates, is designing a major expansion of Australian artist Arthur Boyd’s Riverdale site in…

Samuel Wilkes Rolls Out New Business in Manila

Samuel Wilkes Rolls Out New Business in Manila

Serving handcrafted ice cream in Bali, Indonesia since 2017, XOXO has now opened branches in Manila. “We opened here at Greenbelt 3 in October of last year,” says Samuel Wilkes, the New Zealand-born co-founder…

Artist Richard Lewer’s Sydney Show an Adventure

Artist Richard Lewer’s Sydney Show an Adventure

Richard Lewer “is a New Zealand-born artist with an understanding of history and a sense of compassion”, John McDonald writes for The Sydney Morning Herald in an article about Lewer’s current exhibition, which is…

New Zealand Farmers Herd Sheep with Barking Drones

New Zealand Farmers Herd Sheep with Barking Drones

In New Zealand, farmers are using drones to herd and monitor livestock, assuming a job that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century, and though the robots have not replaced the…

Ambassador Clare Fearnley Interviewed on China

Ambassador Clare Fearnley Interviewed on China

The changes that have taken place in China in the past 70 years are very significant, New Zealand’s Ambassador to China Clare Fearnley has said in a recent interview with Xinhuanet. The ambassador also…

Karting Ace Madeline Stewart Behind New Wheels

Karting Ace Madeline Stewart Behind New Wheels

New Zealand karting ace Madeline Stewart, 18, will race for Australia’s Brad Jones Racing in the Super3 Supercars series this season. The teenager has spent nine years in karts, most recently competing in KZ2 in…

Wuhan Open Appoints Brenda Perry

Wuhan Open Appoints Brenda Perry

Wuhan Open has marked International Women’s Day by becoming the most prestigious professional tennis tournament to have two female tournament directors, New Zealander Brenda Perry and China’s Li Qiuping. Experienced tennis professional Perry will join…

Queenstown Considers Tourist Levy

Queenstown Considers Tourist Levy

In order to cope with large numbers of holidaymakers, New Zealand’s ‘adventure capital’ Queenstown proposes to charge international tourists a $7.50 fee for the privilege of visiting the area. Queenstown, situated in the picturesque Southern…

Academic George Cawkwell Lived Life to the Full

Academic George Cawkwell Lived Life to the Full

Auckland-born George Cawkwell, “who has died aged 99, was Scotland’s oldest rugby international having won one cap against France. He was also a distinguished academic, author and teacher in the field of ancient Greek…

Barbie Releases First-Ever Māori Doll

Barbie Releases First-Ever Māori Doll

Barbie has released its first-ever Māori doll, modelled after New Zealand sports journalist and former rugby player Melodie Robinson. The doll, which has “curly hair and beautiful brown skin”, holds a microphone as part of…

Canoeing a Living Entity in New Zealand

Canoeing a Living Entity in New Zealand

“The Whanganui is so important in Māori culture it has the legal rights of a person. A canoe trip along its forested valley proves a great way of getting to know it,” writes…

Rugby Star Sene Naoupu Takes Strength from Family

Rugby Star Sene Naoupu Takes Strength from Family

Spend any length of time with New Zealander Sene Naoupu, 35, and her love for friends and family will be palpable. But she doesn’t just value that ancestral bond, she cherishes it and is…

Sophie Rowley Makes Furniture From Denim

Sophie Rowley Makes Furniture From Denim

New Zealand-born, Berlin-based designer Sophie Rowley gives new life to discarded post-consumer denim offcuts by recycling them into pieces of furniture with marble-like markings. Called Bahia Denim, Rowley’s material development project has seen her transform…

Extinct Penguins Wiped out by Hungry Humans

Extinct Penguins Wiped out by Hungry Humans

The discovery of two extinct penguin subspecies in New Zealand is a cautionary tale of the threats faced by the waddling birds in the wild. Veronique Greenwood reports for The New York Times. For thousands…