Blog Archives

Hera Lindsay Bird Takes Poetry Beyond the Bookstore

Hera Lindsay Bird Takes Poetry Beyond the Bookstore

In New Zealand, poetry’s latest “it girl”, Hera Lindsay Bird, is amassing a semi-cult online following for her smart, sassy and explicit takes on everything from female sexuality to Friends. Bird, along with contemporaries…

NZ Attracting Entrepreneurs from Across the Globe

NZ Attracting Entrepreneurs from Across the Globe

New Zealand has been the home to Australian expats for years, and now New Zealander are muscling in on the startup world as low living costs and talented entrepreneurs continue to build the country’s…

Burning up the Tarmac with Amelia Watkinson

Burning up the Tarmac with Amelia Watkinson

New Zealand professional triathlete “up-and-comer” Amelia Watkinson, 25, who has just won the IRONMAN 70.3 Thailand, talks with the sports brand about patience, consistency, and using injury to her advantage. Ever since she turned pro…

Kester Black’s Anna Ross Wins Acclaim

Kester Black’s Anna Ross Wins Acclaim

Australia’s Young Business Woman of the Year has been named and she is New Zealand-born Anna Ross, founder of Kester Black Cosmetics, a brand customers rank better than global name Butter London and in…

How Pacific Islanders Helped Moana Find Its Way

How Pacific Islanders Helped Moana Find Its Way

Fine attention to detail and constant feedback from John Musker and Ron Clements, the writer-director team behind Moana’s cultural advisory group The Oceanic Story Trust, has helped shape the Disney film on every level, Vanity…

Christie’s Imogen Kerr Making Waves in Art World

Christie’s Imogen Kerr Making Waves in Art World

To mark Christie’s 250th anniversary, Luxury London met with New Zealander Imogen Kerr who, along with Briton Kate Flitcroft, represents the new generation of female specialists at the renowned auction house making a name…

Get Naked with a 3D Fitness Tracker Mirror

Get Naked with a 3D Fitness Tracker Mirror

New Zealand-born Farhad Farahbakhshian and Briton Ed Sclater of Naked Labs have designed a mirror that lets you see, in real-time, the effect of your workout on your body. The Naked 3D Fitness…

Peter Jackson to Produce Sci-Fi Series Adaptation

Peter Jackson to Produce Sci-Fi Series Adaptation

Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson will produce an adaptation of British author Philip Reeve’s steampunk series Mortal Engines, the script which the New Zealander has also co-written. Another Academy Award winner, Christian Rivers, Jackson’s long-term collaborator…

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space

Self-taught New Zealand-born scientist and CEO of Rocket Lab Peter Beck, 39, explains to accountancy industry magazine Acuity how – and why – he is making space more accessible. At its Auckland base, Rocket Lab…

Qantas’ Lesley Grant Airline’s Saving Grace

Qantas’ Lesley Grant Airline’s Saving Grace

Qantas Loyalty chief New Zealand-born Lesley Grant is one of three individuals on the executive team who have helped the airline’s turnaround, according to chief executive Alan Joyce. Grant was an air hostess who worked…

Bollywood Star on Power-Packed NZ Adventure Trail

Bollywood Star on Power-Packed NZ Adventure Trail

Bollywood superstar and adventure junkie Sidharth Malhotra, 31, was in New Zealand recently shooting a social media video highlighting New Zealand’s scenery, adrenalin-packed activities and cultural experiences which will be incorporated into Tourism New…

Violinist Benjamin Baker Wins NY Music Prize

Violinist Benjamin Baker Wins NY Music Prize

Violinist Benjamin Baker, 26, has been named one of four first prizewinners at the 2016 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions in New York. The four artists were selected from a pool of nearly 200…

World Fantasy Award for Novelist Anna Smaill

World Fantasy Award for Novelist Anna Smaill

Author Anna Smaill’s debut The Chimes won best novel at the 2016 World Fantasy Awards in Ohio, United States, a “wonderful honour”, the Victoria University lecturer said. “I’m really happy. The authors on the shortlist…

Heavy Metal Drummer Reprints WW2 Book

Heavy Metal Drummer Reprints WW2 Book

New Zealand-born author and musician Lawrence Paterson has recently reprinted his fourth book, Hitler’s Grey Wolves: U-Boats In The Indian Ocean, which originally came out in 2004 and explores the forty German submarines that…

Tape Face Captivates in Milton Keynes

Tape Face Captivates in Milton Keynes

Fresh from a stint on America’s Got Talent, New Zealand comedian Sam Wills, aka Tape Face, recently preformed in Milton Keynes, delivering “a captivating set of skits that the audience on stage and…

Rebecca Taylor Says Logoff and Buy in Store

Rebecca Taylor Says Logoff and Buy in Store

Rebecca Taylor started her fashion line two decades ago, cutting and sewing at a kitchen table in New York that she had built herself. Since then, the New Zealand-born designer has established stores in…

Keeping an Eye on Endace

Keeping an Eye on Endace

Designed by little-known New Zealand company Endace, a powerful piece of technology called the Medusa system, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of internet data at an astonishing speed. And it…

NZ String Quartet Communicate a Culture

NZ String Quartet Communicate a Culture

If you were to listen to the New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ) with your eyes closed, could you tell that they were from halfway around the world? The Hamilton Spectator classical music writer Leonard Turnevicius…

Lisa Harrow’s Coriolanus Role Lauded

Lisa Harrow’s Coriolanus Role Lauded

A New York Times reviewer describes Auckland-born actor Lisa Harrow’s performance as “superb” in her role as Volumnia in Red Bull Theatre’s “gripping new production” of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, on now at New…

Morgan Marquis-Boire Talks Tech Tough in California

Morgan Marquis-Boire Talks Tech Tough in California

New Zealand-born security researcher, hacker and journalist Morgan Marquis-Boire recently spoke on digital authoritarianism at an Ars Technica Live event in Oakland, California, “telling us,” according to the Ars Technica Facebook pages, “what we…

Peter Duncan Takes up New Rugby Role in Hong Kong

Peter Duncan Takes up New Rugby Role in Hong Kong

New Hong Kong Rugby Union president New Zealander Peter Duncan is “honoured” to be in the job after a 16-year hiatus. Duncan was first involved with the union as Hong Kong’s coach in the 1970s…

Oamaru’s Underpass for March of the Penguins

Oamaru’s Underpass for March of the Penguins

A group of Little Blue Penguins have had their own underpass built between their nests and the sea at Oamaru Harbour to protect them from traffic and give them privacy from tourists keen to…

Is it Time for Disgruntled Americans to Move?

Is it Time for Disgruntled Americans to Move?

“The prospect of a Trump presidency led to some prominent Americans – including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – joking, or perhaps half-joking, that they would move to New Zealand,” Washington Post Tokyo…

Sam Ovens Teaches Americans Secrets to Wealth

Sam Ovens Teaches Americans Secrets to Wealth

Entrepreneur Sam Ovens, who is originally from Auckland, achieved something truly unique – by the age of just 25. He became a consultant to consultants and made over US$10 million. From his luxury apartment…

MasterChef’s Monica Galetti Back for New Series

MasterChef’s Monica Galetti Back for New Series

There are 48 cooks taking on the challenge of impressing fearsome judges Monica Galetti and Marcus Wareing as MasterChef: The Professionals returns to BBC Two – but there’s only one woman in the line-up…

Melanie Lynskey Sticking to the Indies

Melanie Lynskey Sticking to the Indies

Melanie Lynskey, star of the latest Duplass brothers film, Rainbow Time, talks to Metro US about indies, acting for friends and being chummy with the most evil people in the world: film critics. “I feel…

Food Blogger Jessica Prescott’s Kale Recipe Wows

Food Blogger Jessica Prescott’s Kale Recipe Wows

Vegan food blogger and photographer New Zealander Jessica Prescott’s kale scones recipe features on lifestyle and news site Well+Good. Prescott, who is based in Berlin, is the blogger behind Wholly Goodness and has…

Tall Ship Celebrates Tenacious Sailors

Tall Ship Celebrates Tenacious Sailors

New Zealander Paul Shaw was a keen sailor until an accident 28 years ago left him in a wheelchair. Then he heard about the Tenacious, a tall ship run by a UK charity, so…

Greg Semu Exhibition on at SCAF in Sydney

Greg Semu Exhibition on at SCAF in Sydney

Auckland-born curator and independent indigenous researcher Greg Semu is the featured artist in an exhibition on at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation (SCAF) in Sydney. “Collection+: Greg Semu” is a major exhibition which contextualises…

Downside to NZ’s Booming Manuka Honey Industry

Downside to NZ’s Booming Manuka Honey Industry

The global craze for manuka, highly valued for its medicinal properties, has created a gold rush in rural New Zealand that some believe is rapidly spiralling out of control, Eleanor Ainge Roy reports in…

Filmmaker Gregory King’s UFO Wins in Toronto

Filmmaker Gregory King’s UFO Wins in Toronto

New Zealand-born director Gregory King has won Best Short Drama for his 2014 film UFO at this year’s imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival held in Toronto. King said from Berlin, where he lives, that the…

Economy Milks Clamour for Middle Earth

Economy Milks Clamour for Middle Earth

Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit series have proved to be as precious to New Zealand’s economy as any magical ring with millions flocking to the country for a glimpse of Middle…

Ben Shewry Culinary Game Changer

Ben Shewry Culinary Game Changer

Chef and owner of “list-topping, award-gathering” Melbourne restaurant Attica, New Zealand-born Ben Shewry, has been named one of Gourmet Traveller’s “50 Most Influential People in Food”. “ approaches food in a way that’s as emotional…

Fulbright Scholar Matthew Stott in Yellowstone

Fulbright Scholar Matthew Stott in Yellowstone

New Zealand Fulbright scholar microbiologist Matthew Stott, 41, is spending four months studying microbes that live under extreme conditions in Yellowstone National Park’s geothermal hot springs. Stott’s fieldwork takes him to places where the water…

Connan Mockasin’s Soft Hair Swampy Psychedelia

Connan Mockasin’s Soft Hair Swampy Psychedelia

Connan Mockasin “a recluse from New Zealand” and Sam Eastgate of UK band Late of the Pier have teamed up to form Soft Hair, “a reverie of swampy psychedelia”, writes NME journalist Ben Homewood in a…

What Sets Conductor Holly Mathieson Apart

What Sets Conductor Holly Mathieson Apart

Several factors set Holly Mathieson apart, according to the Herald Scotland. Mathieson, 35, who has just made her debut as assistant conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, comes from the Antipodes, for starters,…

Exhibit Celebrates Chinese Perseverance in NZ

Exhibit Celebrates Chinese Perseverance in NZ

Chinese New Zealander sociologist Phoebe Li has curated a photo exhibition in Beijing about Chinese migrants’ 170-year history in our country called, “Recollection of A Distant Shore: A Photographic Introduction to the History of…

Artist Louise McRae a Star of the Other Fair

Artist Louise McRae a Star of the Other Fair

Former graphic designer and professional equestrian rider, New Zealander Louise McRae, made her Australian debut at Sydney’s recent Other Art Fair with eight new works of recycled timber compositions. Gallery owner Roslyn Oxley said McRae…

Lucy Lawless on the Evolution of Fake Blood

Lucy Lawless on the Evolution of Fake Blood

New Zealand-born Lucy Lawless of Spartacus, Battlestar Galactica and Xena: Warrior Princess fame says she has noted major advances in props and fake blood since she began her career. “The technology now is so good….

Astronauts and SAS buying up Armadillo Merino

Astronauts and SAS buying up Armadillo Merino

A British company, founded by New Zealander Andy Caughey, has developed a superfine wool which has been snapped up by the UK’s Ministry of Defence for SAS soldiers battling on the front line. Derbyshire-based Armadillo…

Innovative Oddities Abound at Gibbs Farm

Innovative Oddities Abound at Gibbs Farm

Truly one of New Zealand’s best-kept secret gems, according to travel site Atlas Obscura, is the gigantic sculpture garden known as Gibbs Farm. In 1991, New Zealand-born entrepreneur and art collector Alan Gibbs purchased a…

How to Dad Jordan Watson Recommends Chilling

How to Dad Jordan Watson Recommends Chilling

On the How to Dad YouTube channel, shaggy-haired, bearded and bare foot 28-year-old Aucklander Jordan Watson offers “instructional” videos on how to be a parent – with the help of his two young daughters,…

Victoria’s Secret Welcomes Georgia Fowler

Victoria’s Secret Welcomes Georgia Fowler

Every year a brand-new set of models is given the opportunity to walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and this year’s class, including Aucklander Georgia Fowler, 24, is bolder than ever. With the girls taking…

WooJai Lee’s PaperBricks Objects of the Moment

WooJai Lee’s PaperBricks Objects of the Moment

Korean-New Zealander, designer WooJai Lee has given newspapers a second life transforming them into multifunctional blocks. PaperBricks are sturdy, but soft to the touch. Netherlands-based Lee turns discarded newspapers into a pulp, mixes…

Holly Mathieson Conducts Illinois Philharmonic

Holly Mathieson Conducts Illinois Philharmonic

New Zealand-born Holly Mathieson, who has been named assistant conductor for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, was at the helm of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) for a recent concert at Governors State University…

Kon Dimopoulos Painting Chattanooga’s Trees Blue

Kon Dimopoulos Painting Chattanooga’s Trees Blue

Konstantin Dimopoulos is a New Zealand artist heading up an environmental art installation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, titled “The Blue Trees,” which Dimopoulos says is about bringing attention to the plight of old-growth forests around…

Bill Manson Passionate About Wild Food

Bill Manson Passionate About Wild Food

The Local Wild Food Challenge is a global phenomenon that was launched in New Zealand by personal chef Bill Manson in 2008 and has been celebrated on Martha’s Vineyard since 2010. Manson continues to expand…

Iyia Liu Earns Big on Waist Trainers

Iyia Liu Earns Big on Waist Trainers

Along with a desire to cinch her waist, young commerce graduate, New Zealander Iyia Liu, 23, had a burning entrepreneurial ambition. After noticing the waist trainer – a contemporary version of the 16th century…

Simon Phillips Has the Knack for Musical Theatre

Simon Phillips Has the Knack for Musical Theatre

In a wide-ranging career spanning several continents, which to date has seen him employed as artistic director by two Australian state theatre companies and awarded for his direction of theatre and opera, New Zealand-born…

The Naked and Famous Match Sound to Vision

The Naked and Famous Match Sound to Vision

The New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based group The Naked and Famous are pairing a striking visual story with their new album Simple Forms, which was released this month via their own label Somewhat Damaged. Each of…

Sir James Carroll the Voice of the People

Sir James Carroll the Voice of the People

The little known story of the charismatic Irish-Maori politician and New Zealand Wars volunteer, Sir James Carroll’s visit to the Somme in 1916 is retold in the New Zealand Listener. Carroll, born to a Maori…

Standout Commercials for Cheil’s Malcolm Poynton

Standout Commercials for Cheil’s Malcolm Poynton

Global chief creative officer at Cheil Worldwide, New Zealand-born Malcolm Poynton, talks to Adweek in Las Vegas about the “lasting genius” of the “legendary” Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and some of his other…

Musician Roy Montgomery Returns to the Fold

Musician Roy Montgomery Returns to the Fold

Following a decade long hiatus, Christchurch-based musician Roy Montgomery is about to release a new album – a four LP box set titled RMHQ. Featured in the latest issue of The Wire, Montgomery explains…

Jennifer Flay’s 2016 FIAC Unifies Paris

Jennifer Flay’s 2016 FIAC Unifies Paris

Steering this year’s edition of Parisian contemporary art fair Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) through a period of significant change and development was New Zealand-born gallerist Jennifer Flay. Flay who was FIAC’s artistic director from…

Michael Aitken Wins Top Science Prize for SMARTS

Michael Aitken Wins Top Science Prize for SMARTS

New Zealand-born entrepreneur Michael Aitken has been awarded an Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for developing software to identify rigging in the financial markets. Aitken, founding CEO of the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre in…

Everything to Do with Jean Batten Is Gendered

Everything to Do with Jean Batten Is Gendered

New Zealander Jean Batten was the most celebrated aviatrix of the 1930s. Nicknamed the “Garbo of the Skies” for her movie-star glamour, she appeared on newspaper front pages the world over, and drew adoring…