Blog Archives

New Zealand Mourns Death of Sir John Graham

New Zealand Mourns Death of Sir John Graham

Sir John Graham, widely known as DJ, has died at the age of 82. Graham was a former All Blacks captain, a respected educator and staunch opponent of apartheid. Graham represented New Zealand 53 times,…

Adventure Calls in Queenstown

Adventure Calls in Queenstown

“On the balcony of our lovely suite at the Heritage Queenstown, with its front-row views across Lake Wakatipu, I watch and wait as the morning light slowly washes the vast razorback range beyond in…

Finding renewal in New Zealand’s Birthplace

Finding renewal in New Zealand’s Birthplace

“The cultural history distinctive and beautiful region at the far northern edge of the North Island – from the kauri forests to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, from the colonial buildings and whaling…

Where the Locals Go in Wellington

Where the Locals Go in Wellington

From boutique shopping to cable car rides and all the best food in between, the National Geographic finds out how Wellingtonians take advantage of the capital city. “Wellingtonians go where the wind takes them,” Carrie…

Peter Gordon Likes Shelves Stocked With Memories

Peter Gordon Likes Shelves Stocked With Memories

New Zealand chef Peter Gordon tells the Guardian’s Anna Wilkins about the characteristics of his home kitchen for the newspaper’s regular column, A Cook’s Kitchen. “I used to come to Broadway Market on Saturdays and…

Para-Athlete Liam Malone Vows to Out Do Usain Bolt

Para-Athlete Liam Malone Vows to Out Do Usain Bolt

Nelson-born double para-athelete champion, Liam Malone, 23, says he will use technology to run faster than Olympic legend Usain Bolt within the next three years. Double-leg amputee Malone won gold in the T44 200m and…

Producer Noah Slee’s Music Superbly Infectious

Producer Noah Slee’s Music Superbly Infectious

A New Zealander with Tongan heritage, soul singer and producer Noah Slee threw himself into underground music, using it as a means for him to piece together how he truly felt about himself, Robin…

Amber Sainsbury Teams With Danny Boyle

Amber Sainsbury Teams With Danny Boyle

New Zealand-born Amber Sainsbury is founder and CEO of UK-based creative arts charity Dramatic Need, for which Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle has served as a trustee since 2007. The charity’s South African flagship,…

Alaskan Rugby Grounds Impress Mangatainoka Team

Alaskan Rugby Grounds Impress Mangatainoka Team

Hamish Clentworth, the chairman of the visiting Mangatainoka Barbarians Rugby Club of New Zealand, was almost at a loss for words when he came upon the Alaska Mountain Rugby Grounds. Overlooking Anchorage is a rugby…

Charlotte Brynn Swims from Quebec to Vermont

Charlotte Brynn Swims from Quebec to Vermont

New Zealander Charlotte Brynn recently swam the 40.2km distance between Lake Memphremagog Magog, Quebec and Newport, Vermont in 13 hours and 28 minutes, the second time she has completed the swim. Brynn lives in Stowe,…

Jane Campion is a Clever Person Doing TV

Jane Campion is a Clever Person Doing TV

From Sweetie to The Piano, New Zealander Jane Campion has made some of cinema’s strangest, strongest films. So why has she switched to the small screen? The Guardian investigates. It is eight years since Campion,…

Duchess Of Cambridge Wears Wickstead on Europe Tour

Duchess Of Cambridge Wears Wickstead on Europe Tour

On the final day of her recent European tour, the Duchess of Cambridge took the chance to fly the flag for British-based fashion as she headed to Hamburg, wearing a dress designed by one…

Lost Gustav Holst Scores Turn Up in Tauranga

Lost Gustav Holst Scores Turn Up in Tauranga

No one is sure how the handwritten scores of English composer Gustav Holst ended up in the archives of Tauranga’s Bay of Plenty Symphonia, Jason Daley writes for the Smithsonian magazine. A couple of years…

Amber Doig Appointed Head Chef at The Butler

Amber Doig Appointed Head Chef at The Butler

New Zealand-born chef Amber Doig has taken the reins of Sydney’s Potts Point venue, The Butler. According to Australia’s Hospitality magazine, “Doig began her career under the watch of Sydney chefs James Viles and Vanessa…

Hoseah Partsch to Tour With Boy George

Hoseah Partsch to Tour With Boy George

Eighteen-year-old New Zealand-born Hoseah Partsch, who made it to The Voice Australia grand finale earlier this month, is preparing to tour with his mentor Boy George in Australia later this year. Partsch, who said he’s…

Arma Del Amor Take Back the Sea

Arma Del Amor Take Back the Sea

New Zealand-born duo Arma Del Amor premiere their latest single Taking Back the Sea, “blending soulful bass with striking visuals,” EDM-culture blog Magnetic Magazine writes in a review. “Arma Del Amor is made up of…

Standing up for Mince on Toast

Standing up for Mince on Toast

After American food website Eater published a recipe for good old-fashioned mince on toast, claiming it was a quintessentially British comfort food, Britons cried foul, that it had nothing to…

Gin Wigmore’s Love Hate Relationship With Streaming

Gin Wigmore’s Love Hate Relationship With Streaming

The New Zealander with the mighty voice Gin Wigmore is, like so many other recording artists, frustrated by the peanuts, which rain down from the world’s leading streaming service Spotify. Or let’s call it…

Chef Anna Hansen at Home in Her Own Kitchen

Chef Anna Hansen at Home in Her Own Kitchen

New Zealand-born chef Anna Hansen, of London’s The Modern Pantry, finally got to design her own kitchen. The result? She tells the Guardian she likes everything but the kitchen sink. “We didn’t have to do…

Peter Gunn Offers Up Sample Menus to Regulars

Peter Gunn Offers Up Sample Menus to Regulars

Ides chef New Zealander Peter Gunn has been covertly testing the palates of dedicated regulars at his Melbourne fine diner for a few months now with his Sample Tables, Nick Buckley writes for Broadsheet. “The…

Introducing NZ’s Style It Girls

Introducing NZ’s Style It Girls

Fashion has long had an obsession with “dressing like a French girl,” but the truth is that Paris isn’t the only city with seriously stylish residents. In their column “International It Girl,” industry news…

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe Chats to Highsnobiety

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe Chats to Highsnobiety

For music fans everywhere, Apple’s Beats 1 radio has become known as the definitive stop for breaking news of the musical variety. And it’s all thanks to the triumphant triumvirate of DJs who make…

New Zealand Poets Taking on the World

New Zealand Poets Taking on the World

If poetry makes you think of stuffy classrooms and impenetrable verse, think again. The BBC’s Holly Williams takes a look at the female poets revolutionising the art form, including New Zealand-based Lang Leav and…

Racer Mitch Evans Hits NY for ePrix

Racer Mitch Evans Hits NY for ePrix

Mitch Evans, the 23-year-old New Zealander racing for Team Jaguar, was a part of New York City ePrix’s inaugural field this year. Formula E is similar to Formula 1 racing, but the cars are electric….

Style Icon Kimbra to Perform at Dior Event

Style Icon Kimbra to Perform at Dior Event

Grammy Award-winning musician Kimbra, 27, will perform amongst a night of luxury food, wine and fashion at this year’s inaugural National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Gala in Australia to be held on 26 August. “Kimbra…

Footwear Company Allbirds Opens Pop-Up in LA

Footwear Company Allbirds Opens Pop-Up in LA

New Zealander Tim Brown (pictured left), a former professional soccer player, noticed an opportunity in the footwear market for minimalist, nonperformance sneakers. So he reinvented a simple lace-up tennis shoe in soft New Zealand…

Bruce McLaren Tribute at Silverstone Classic

Bruce McLaren Tribute at Silverstone Classic

The 2017 Silverstone Classic will pay special tribute to racing legend New Zealander Bruce McLaren, one of the greatest names in motorsport history. Scheduled for 28-30 July at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in…

Andrew Nicholson Jumps to Barbury Podium Finish

Andrew Nicholson Jumps to Barbury Podium Finish

New Zealand show jumper Andrew Nicholson’s bid to claim a CIC*** class victory at the Barbury Horse Trials for the sixth year in succession came up just short after he had to settle for…

Alan Brough Making the Kids Laugh in Benalla

Alan Brough Making the Kids Laugh in Benalla

New Zealand-born comedian and children’s book author Alan Brough, who is best known to Australians as one of the team leaders on television’s Spicks and Specks musical quiz programme, was in Benalla, Victoria recently…

Fazerdaze Profile Grows Throughout Europe

Fazerdaze Profile Grows Throughout Europe

Fazerdaze is New Zealand-based singer-songwriter Amelia Murray and her band who weave blissful, echo-drenched and semi-electronic production through bounding bedroom pop songs, Nick Linazasoro writes for Brighton & Hove News. Fazerdaze performs in Brighton…

Artist Hayden Fowler’s Future Distant Australia

Artist Hayden Fowler’s Future Distant Australia

Australia’s history is the inspiration for four new exhibitions throughout Sydney in July, including Future Distant History by New Zealand-born, Sydney-based artist Hayden Fowler on at Artereal Gallery. “Fowler is interested in revealing the disparaging…

Singer Nadia Reid Making Her Way to Ireland

Singer Nadia Reid Making Her Way to Ireland

New Zealand singer-songwriter Nadia Reid, 25, plays the second performance of her 34-date UK/European tour at Galway venue Róisín Dubh on 10 August. “ released the excellent Preservation this year, and is a name to…

Fat Freddy’s Drop Can’t Seem to Tour Enough

Fat Freddy’s Drop Can’t Seem to Tour Enough

Arguably New Zealand’s most famous band, Fat Freddy’s Drop has just played another sold out show in Amsterdam. Communications strategist New Zealander Lucy von Sturmer talked with the band in the Netherlands’ capital where…

Secret Swims with Karen Walker on Waiheke

Secret Swims with Karen Walker on Waiheke

Designer and native New Zealander Karen Walker, who spends her holidays on Waiheke Island, gives Condé Nast Traveler her “summer hit list” for the magazine’s weekly edition of Summer Fridays – a weekly series…

Earth Live With Phil Keoghan for Nat Geo

Earth Live With Phil Keoghan for Nat Geo

Phil Keoghan has seen the world for 29 seasons as host of The Amazing Race. But the New Zealander had never seen the world the way he did on last week’s two-hour National Geographic…

Pleasanton Readies for Baritone Hadleigh Adams

Pleasanton Readies for Baritone Hadleigh Adams

Palmerston North-born baritone Hadleigh Adams has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his “poignant,” “expressive” voice, and “beautiful tone with both flexibility and power.” Adams will present “Classical Broadway,” celebrating the songs…

Miles Gregory’s Globe to Pop up in Melbourne

Miles Gregory’s Globe to Pop up in Melbourne

The Pop-Up Globe theatre, brainchild of New Zealand-born Miles Gregory, is opening in Melbourne in September, and will host four plays: Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, As You Like It and Henry V. The

Bonds Forged By Times Says Gerry Brownlee

Bonds Forged By Times Says Gerry Brownlee

In an opinion piece for The Australian, New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs Gerry Brownlee discusses “the truly unique” trans-Tasman relationship and the new pathways to Australian citizenship opening this month which New Zealanders…

Jane Campion on Inspiration Behind New TOTL Series

Jane Campion on Inspiration Behind New TOTL Series

Fans of the critically acclaimed crime drama Top of the Lake will be eagerly awaiting its return at the end of this month – but writer New Zealand-born Jane Campion admits to the Observer…

Producer Joel Little Dominates Billboard Charts

Producer Joel Little Dominates Billboard Charts

Auckland-born writer and producer Joel Little, 34, has his name in the Billboard music charts next to three different albums in the top 15, Stuff reports. Little worked on tracks on Lorde’s Melodrama album, Imagine…

NZ Lawmakers Apologise for 100s of Gay Convictions

NZ Lawmakers Apologise for 100s of Gay Convictions

New Zealand lawmakers have unanimously apologised for the “tremendous hurt and suffering” of hundreds of men who were convicted of homosexuality during the years it was treated as a crime. Parliament took the rare step…

Young Chef William Houia up for Australian Award

Young Chef William Houia up for Australian Award

New Zealand-born William Houia (pictured seated right) is one of eight nominated for the highest Australian accolade a young chef can receive, the Josephine Pignolet Award. One of the judges on the panel is Good…

John Clarke Remembered in Final Tribute

John Clarke Remembered in Final Tribute

Geoffrey Rush, David Wenham and Gina Riley joined a line-up of some of Australia’s biggest names in television to pay a final tribute to renowned satirist, Palmerston North-born John Clarke in a packed out…

Fans From Both Sides Celebrate All Blacks Lions Draw

Fans From Both Sides Celebrate All Blacks Lions Draw

A draw. A dead heat. 15-15. And the series too, after the epic twists and turns of the last three weeks, is therefore a tie: one win for New Zealand, one win for the…

Packing Guru Daan Dijkstra’s Top Travel Tips

Packing Guru Daan Dijkstra’s Top Travel Tips

New Zealander Daan Dijkstra who works as “pack master” at adventure shop Kathmandu says travellers constantly go over the luggage limit for no reason. He has revealed that countless travellers are constantly going over…

Levi Sherwood Lifts Hands off the Bars and Flips

Levi Sherwood Lifts Hands off the Bars and Flips

In a matter of days freestyle motocross star Levi Sherwood has made history twice. After becoming the first New Zealander to land a double backflip to dirt, the 26-year-old rider is the first in the…

WA’s Only Female Abalone Diver is Alex Pere

WA’s Only Female Abalone Diver is Alex Pere

Meet Alex Pere, 27, Western Australia’s only female abalone diver and the state’s unlikeliest gender equality campaigner. Pere is the newest recruit at Ocean Grown Abalone, an abalone “ranch” in the waters of Augusta’s Flinders…

Jane Wynyard’s Change of Pace in East Africa

Jane Wynyard’s Change of Pace in East Africa

Just a year ago, 48 year-old Auckland-born Jane Wynyard was a public relations maven in London with a career and lifestyle many of us would envy, Kelly Ana Morey writes for Stuff. She completed…

New Zealanders Leading the Wine Charge in BC

New Zealanders Leading the Wine Charge in BC

Two New Zealanders are some of the global movers and shakers in the British Columbia wine industry. Chief winemaker at Okanagan Crush Pad, Haywire Winery Matt Dumayne (pictured) and general manager and winemaker at…

Aldous Harding Making a Big Name for Herself

Aldous Harding Making a Big Name for Herself

A lot of people are starting to talk about New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding. The 26-year-old talked to the San Francisco Chronicle on a stop in Brooklyn, New York on her current tour of…

Jacqui Kenny’s Therapeutic Virtual World View

Jacqui Kenny’s Therapeutic Virtual World View

Last year, amid the stress of shutting down a digital production company she’d co-founded nearly ten years before, Jacqui Kenny, a New Zealander living in London, began exploring the world on Google Street View. Kenny…

Eva McGauley’s Dying Wish is To Help Others

Eva McGauley’s Dying Wish is To Help Others

Eva McGauley is terminally ill. But she’s determined to fulfill her dying wish to help others. While any decent-minded person would forgive the 17-year-old New Zealander, who has a rare form of cancer, for…

Gregory Burke Heads New Canadian Museum

Gregory Burke Heads New Canadian Museum

An ambitious new modern and contemporary art museum is growing on the Canadian prairies. Remai Modern, which has been under construction since 2013, is due to open on 21 October in Saskatoon after a…

iZombie and Rose McIver Still Winning Fans

iZombie and Rose McIver Still Winning Fans

Season three of the “enjoyable series” iZombie, “an adaptation of the DC Comic of the same name and starring New Zealand-born actress Rose McIver, 28, has continued to get the basics right while expanding…

Malakai Fekitoa Features in ESPN’s Body Issue

Malakai Fekitoa Features in ESPN’s Body Issue

New Zealand All Blacks centre Malakai Fekitoa is among 23 athletes featured in ESPN The Magazine’s annual Body Issue, which begins its rollout this week on SportsCenter and ESPN.com, and is on newsstands 7…

Up Close with Triathlete Callum Millward

Up Close with Triathlete Callum Millward

Over the past five years, professional triathlete Callum Millward, who is originally from Havelock North, has divided his time between Noosa, Australia and Boulder, Colorado. He will be racing 70.3 Philippines in August, and…