Time May Be Running Out for Tāne Mahuta
New Zealand’s oldest and most sacred tree, Tāne Mahuta (Lord of the Forest), stands 60m from death, as a fungal disease known as kauri dieback spreads unabated across the country. Despite stringent efforts by…
Blog Archives
German Museum Returns Tattooed Māori Skull
The Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum of world cultures in Cologne, Germany has returned a tattooed Māori skull, which had been in its collection for 110 years, to a delegation representing the Museum of New Zealand Te…
National Geographic to Feature Whanganui River
When the Whanganui River was given legal personhood Danish freelance photographer Mathias Svold was so intrigued by the headlines that he went to Washington DC in the United States to pitch a story for…
Finding Keith Murdoch Four Decades On
His closest friends in a remote town in the Australian outback had no idea who he was. Now that former All Black Keith Murdoch is dead at 74, the story of the man who…
Media Boss Sam Chisholm Nine Network’s Starmaker
New Zealand-born media heavyweight Sam Chisholm has died in Sydney. He was 78. During his four-decade career, Chisholm was head of Australia’s Nine Network and chief executive at Britain’s Sky Television. He was appointed chief…
Sign Up to Help Protect Our Iconic Bird
Kiwis for kiwi is a national charity working with community and Māori-led conservation projects to put a stop to the horrific decline of our national icon. With the support of Old Mout Cider, they have…
New Zealand Is a Haven of Liberal Politics
“Unlike most other countries, New Zealand’s parliament appears to have realised that no one’s going to get anywhere by pretending to agree with, or make bargains with, Donald Trump,” freelance journalist Matteo di Maio…
Farmer Rick Scoones Supplying Perth’s Eateries
New Zealander Rick Scoones, one suspects, doesn’t have troubles getting a table at many of Perth’s better restaurants. As the public face behind Warren Grange Horticulture – the heirloom vegetable farm he and his…
Andrew Niccol’s Truman Show 20 Years On
Jim Carrey, Peter Weir, New Zealand-born screenwriter Andrew Niccol, Laura Linney, and Sherry Lansing thought their paranoid dramedy The Truman Show seemed absurd – until life began to imitate art. In the 1990s, as Canadian…
Ali Smith Marvels at Katherine Mansfield’s Letters
New Zealand novelist Kirsty Gunn was in London recently listening to Scottish author Ali Smith talk about Katherine Mansfield. Gunn’s article about the event appears in The Scotsman. “ talk, hosted by the
Israel Adesanya Might Be the UFC’s next Superhero
Nigeria-born New Zealander Israel Adesanya “is one of the ‘The Last Stylebender’ … It’s a reference to Avatar: The Last…
Cellist Yuuki Bouterey-Ishido Exhilarates
“On the last flaming day of June, a packed Lancaster Town Hall stood at the end to acclaim another Haffner Orchestra’s triumphant summer concert. The star of the show was a new up-and-coming young…
Ashleigh Young Turns a Lyrical Eye
“When I uprooted my family from Seattle this year to move to Wellington, I knew little of the foreign, faraway place beyond its reputation for grey days and great coffee,” Maggie Trapp writes for…
Soprano Claire Egan Makes Violetta Her Own
Understudies rarely get the opportunity to have their names in bright lights, but a sequence of mishaps at the UK’s Longborough Festival Opera gave New Zealand-born soprano Claire Egan, 34, a starring role in one…
Meeting Jenny Dobson a Pioneer of the Médoc
Jenny Dobson is a New Zealander considered to have been one of the first female cellar masters in the Médoc and who was subsequently nicknamed the ‘queen of red wine blending’ for her consultant…
Richard Hadlee’s the Best Bowling of All Time
New Zealand cricket legend Richard Hadlee has claimed top spot in ESPNcricinfo’s ‘Top 25 Bowling Performances of All Time’. ESPNcricinfo blogger Anantha Narayanan provides a table current up to the West Indies-Sri Lanka St Lucia…
Frolicking Right Whale Charms Wellingtonians
A huge southern right whale frolicking in Wellington harbour brought the capital’s waterfront to a standstill last week as locals skipped work to catch a glimpse of the animal. Southern right whales used to be…
Robert Whittaker Named Fighter of the Year
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion, New Zealand-born Robert Whittaker has been named International Fighter of the Year at the World MMA Awards in Las Vegas, United States. The honour follows a 12-month period that…
Trans-Tasman Tussle Over Deportation
The cancellation of Australian visas on the grounds of “character” has soared since December 2014, when the government amended its immigration law. Last year, more than half of those visas belonged to New Zealanders,…
Thomasin McKenzie a Force of Nature
Might Debra Granik’s latest film launch New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie into the same stratosphere as the Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence? Vanity Fair investigates. Granik’s work feels like a salve to the kinetic blockbuster that fuels…
Get Summery with Emilia Wickstead and Matches
Auckland-born designer Emilia Wickstead’s summer-ready capsule collection – a collaboration with Matches Fashion – is recommended by Singapore Tatler. “British-based Wickstead, 34, creates her first vacation collection in partnership with e-retailer
Ink Artist Steve Butcher’s Latest Eerily Lifelike
Irish UFC fighter Conor McGregor has been immortalised in a brilliantly detailed tattoo by famed ink artist, Aucklander Steve Butcher. Butcher spent 12 hours on the eerily lifelike tat on a…
Dance Prodigy Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson in Houston
The past year has been a whirlwind of events for professional ballet dancer Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson, Jonathan Guildford writes for Stuff. The Christchurch-born ballet prodigy has started his first professional job with the Houston Ballet company…
Ethique’s Brianne West Challenges Beauty Industry
Self-taught green entrepreneur New Zealander Brianne West launched the zero-waste personal care brand Ethique to challenge the clean beauty industry to live up to its name. The company wants to stop millions of plastic…
New Netflix Show for Tickled’s David Farrier
“If you’re a weird-documentary fetishist, you’re probably already obsessed with Tickled, an unbelievably strange saga featuring underground ‘tickle cells’ and a scheming, shadowy figure who spends thousands of dollars to ruin people’s lives,” Andrew…
Activewear Brand Dead Studios Impresses Influencers
Activewear is expected to outsell luxury fashion within two years, and Australian labels are expanding aggressively and gaining recognition around the world, impressing celebrities and influencers alike. New Zealand-founded Dead Studios is riding the…
Bioethicist Josephine Johnston on Egg-Freezing
Australia’s first dedicated egg-freezing clinic opened late last year, promoting the procedure as an insurance policy against infertility. But does it represent hope, hype or heartbreak? Some call the egg freezing drive a feminist…
Rare ISS Moon Shot Captured by Josh Kirkley
Auckland amateur astrophotographer Josh Kirkley captured a shot so unusual the cameraman can be heard gasping as he films clip. Kirkley describes his “shock” at capturing footage of the International Space Station (ISS) crossing…
Billy Apple in Hong Kong and in Focus
To present 21 works in Hong Kong, spanning approximately six decades (1962–2018), is an unusual occasion for Billy Apple, a groundbreaking New Zealand-born artist whose pop-infused conceptual practice is mostly acknowledged in New Zealand,…
Photojournalist Susan Skinner New US Citizen
After many years of photographing the Carmichael Independence Day Parade in Sacramento, California, newly naturalised US citizen, Susan Maxwell Skinner will this year ride in its first division as Grand Marshal. “4 July has always…
J-Law-Like Rise of Thomasin McKenzie
This January, Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik returned to Sundance, to premiere her follow-up narrative feature, Leave No Trace. And she again brought with her a precocious talent in a role that could be…
Jacinda Ardern What the Global Left Needs Now
The future of the left is bright if it looks like Jacinda Ardern and American political activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to Guardian Australian columnist Van Badham. As a political communication, Ardern’s recent handheld Facebook Live…
Ascot Nod for Emilia Wickstead Vida Jumpsuit
Sophie, Countess of Wessex was the first royal to trial Ascot’s latest dress code amendment, wearing a wide-legged turquoise jumpsuit designed by New Zealander Emilia Wickstead. Admittedly, it was perhaps the most unjumpsuit-y of jumpsuits,…
Busy Year for Artist Ronnie van Hout
Ronnie van Hout might need to learn to say no. Not only is the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist about to receive the first major solo exhibition at the new Buxton Contemporary gallery in Southbank…
Ashleigh Young’s Essays Praised in New Yorker
Wellington writer Ashleigh Young’s debut essay collection Can You Tolerate This? is New Yorker-recommended summer reading. “Two things happened the first week I moved to New York, in February. I met up with a friend…
Towards Making Auckland Island Predator-Free
At Forest and Bird’s 2018 Conference, New Zealand Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced funding for the first step in the country’s “most ambitious island pest eradication”. Sage has committed $2 million over the next three…
Academic Peter Fleming’s Earthy Economics
Peter Fleming, an amiable-sounding New Zealander, professes for a living at the Cass Business School at City University London. Once, business schools taught accounting, finance, and profit-and-loss. Nowadays the institutions seem to specialise in profit-IS-loss critiques…
Reform Studio’s Yvette McGaffin on Her Lifestyle
New Zealander Yvette McGaffin, 32, runs Reform Studios in Belfast and Edinburgh. McGaffin talks to the Belfast Telegraph about her lifestyle choices. McGaffin says she trains at the boutique gym every day. “Ideally in one of…
Rob Bell’s Wife Is on a Mission to Unite London
After her husband Rob Bell’s suicide, journalist Poorna Bell realised that for all its dazzle, London can create a perfect storm of isolation. In an article for the Evening Standard she writes about her…
Raelene Castle Riding the Wave
In Raelene Castle’s six months at the helm of Rugby Australia, Australia’s men and women sevens teams triumphed on home soil, Israel Folau plunged the sport into controversy with a single Instagram comment, Super…
Save Australia’s Ugly Animals with Zoë Bell
Australia’s Wilderness Society has launched ‘Save Ugly’ – a radical new conservation campaign to raise awareness of all the ‘ugly’ creatures that help make life possible, warts and all. To mark the launch, the society…
New Zealand Tackles a Surge in Homelessness
New Zealand is known to many outsiders as a beautiful, affluent country, the place where the Lord of the Rings movies were made. But Joseph Takairangi and thousands of others know it better for…
Leave No Trace Star Thomasin McKenzie in Bustle
“When celebrities hang out with Bustle editors, we want to give them the chance to leave their mark. Literally. So we hand them a pen, a piece of paper, a few questions, and ask…
Former PM Helen Clark Receives Honorary Degree
Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, was in Edmonton recently to collect an honorary degree from the University of Alberta. She was also in Canada to speak at the Victoria Film…
Katherine Mansfield Portrait 100 Years On
The well-known portrait of New Zealand’s greatest writer, Katherine Mansfield, is 100 years old. It was painted by the American artist Anne Estelle Rice. At that time, Mansfield and Rice were both staying in…
Bassist Matt Penman’s Collection Balanced and Fluid
Originally from New Zealand, bassist Matt Penman has lived in New York since 1995. His new collection, Good Question is reviewed by Mike Hobart for the Financial Times. According to Hobart, Good Question “features a mix…
NZ Rookie Maggie Hewitt Hits the Roof in NY
While there are some big names showing in the Big Apple (Prada, for one), New Zealander Maggie Hewitt took the leap to show her two-year-old Maggie Marilyn label at the city’s recent fashion week. It…
Winston Peters’ 40-Year Political Rise
The ascension of power will be a curious one for Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters who, at times through his career, has looked like he could take the role with ease and at others…
Jane Campion on Why She Went Back to the Lake
Top Of The Lake: China Girl’s Jane Campion talks to film magazine Screen Daily about the importance of telling stories from a female point of view. “Motherhood is a very underwritten topic, especially in those…
Saving New Zealand’s Prehistoric Giant Wētā
New Zealand is rich in wildlife and, because of its isolation, there are hundreds of plants and animals that evolved here that cannot be found anywhere else. The country’s giant wētā (wētā punga) managed…
New Zealand Ad Genius On Show in Cannes
“Once again”, Down Under will be “well represented” at this year’s Cannes Lions, according to Doug Zanger writing for American trade magazine Adweek. “Going through the list of Cannes Lions winners from New Zealand and…
Berlin-Based Zac Langdon-Pole on Art Journey
Art Basel has announced that the New Zealand-born, Berlin-based artist Zac Langdon-Pole, 30, is the winner of the BMW Art Journey. An international jury unanimously selected Langdon-Pole from a shortlist of three artists whose…
Teen Amelia Kerr Hits Highest Women’s ODI Score
Wellington-born Amelia Kerr, 17, has struck the highest individual score in Women’s ODIs with an unbeaten 232 against Ireland in the third ODI in Dublin. The Tawa College student hit 31 fours and two sixes…
Angela Tiatia Wins Coveted Australian Art Prize
Initiated last year by the independent all-girls school, Ravenswood, New Zealand-born artist Angela Tiatia has been named winner of this year’s Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize valued at $35,000 for her…
Colorado’s Mountain Pie Co Expand Business
New Zealander Matt Campbell and his wife Tara, owners of Mountain Pie Co, have vastly expanded their Colorado Springs-based meat pie production. “I bought a new pie production machine from Australia, which allows me make…
Bird’s Eye View of New Zealand’s Changing Glaciers
Every March, glacier “watchers” take to the skies to photograph snow and ice clinging to high peaks along the length of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Researchers Andrew Lorrey, Andrew Mackintosh and Brian Anderson write…
