Journalist Laura Pitcher Chooses NY Over NZ
Friends and strangers told writer, editor, and designer Laura Pitcher she was “crazy” to leave New Zealand after a four-month visit “home” to return to the United States during the pandemic. But the New…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
The Phoenix Foundation Returns With Hounds of Hell
The Phoenix Foundation’s latest single, ‘Hounds of Hell’ features fellow New Zealand artist Nadia Reid, and it’s a momentous occasion, Tina Benitez-Eves reports for American Songwriter magazine. It’s the sextet’s first single in five…
Te Puna O Waiwhetū Reorients With Te Wheke
“That Aotearoa New Zealand offers a rich vantage point from which to consider the tensions and affordances of displacement is the central claim of the generous, sprawling exhibition ‘Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania’,” Matthew…
Bayern Munich and Nuremberg Share Sarpreet Singh
It has been just over a year since Sarpreet Singh, 21, officially joined the Bundesliga giants, Bayern Munich, at number 10. The former Wellington Phoenix player is not only the first footballer of Indian…
Artist John Ward Knox Paints a Prime Minister
Fortune has favoured John Ward Knox. The Auckland-born artist’s dual-layer portrait of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been recently released from Australian customs just in time to be entered into the Archibald Prize, Chloe…
Media Mogul Sinead Boucher Challenges Online Giants
Tucked away in Sinead Boucher’s sock drawer is the one-dollar coin that transformed the former journalist into New Zealand’s biggest media mogul, giving her a platform to challenge Facebook and other social media giants,…
Behrouz Boochani Just Wants to Be Free
Recently granted refugee status and now living in Christchurch, Behrouz Boochani fled Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He exposed Australia’s offshore detention camps – from the inside. He survived, stateless, for seven years. Author and journalist…
Prodigious Singer Aleisha Malcolm in the Limelight
Christchurch teenager Aleisha Malcolm is far from your average eighteen-year-old. The bright and accomplished singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and activist has impressed global audiences as her seemingly unstoppable career trajectory continues to reach new heights,…
NBL’s Hawks Sign Teen Rising Star Max Darling
Australian professional basketball team The Hawks has added one of New Zealand’s top young players for the 2020-21 NBL season, signing forward Max Darling to a three-year deal, Olgun Uluc reports for ESPN. Like every…
Pavlova’s Origins Date Back Two Centuries
New Zealanders and Australians have long argued over who invented the pavlova, but the authors of a new book called, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets have found the dessert’s origins go back…
Looking Back at a Squash Legacy With Susan Devoy
In recognition of Rotorua-born squash player Susan Devoy’s exalted status PSA website caught up with the sport’s only ‘Dame’, who ranks only behind the great Heather McKay and Malaysian legend Nicol David in the major…
New Zealand’s Glaciers Testament to Climate Change
New research has found extreme melting of New Zealand’s glaciers in 2018 was at least ten times more likely due to human-caused global heating, Graham Readfearn reports for The Guardian. Twice a year, glaciologist Lauren…
Persian Influences Define CHAII’s Unique New EP
CHAII is of New Zealand’s “most formidable new artists”, according to Happy’s Dan Shaw. On top of a string of singles, she provided the soundtrack to a Fendi campaign and is the first New…
Director Sam Stuchbury Wins Cannes Prize
Aucklander Sam Stuchbury has won a Silver Screen Young Director Award at Cannes for his work in raising awareness about the effects pornography has on children, directing the government-funded viral porn commercial “Keep It…
Lock Andy Haden Key Player in AB History
All Blacks lock Andy Haden, who “was an exceptionally talented, intelligent and resilient lock, among the best in the world in his era,” has died in Auckland, aged 69. The Japan Times has published an…
Robin Hammond’s Zimbabwe Images Show in France
New Zealand-born Robin Hammond is one of ten photojournalists whose work is currently on show at Fondation Carmignac’s newly opened private museum on Porquerolles island, France. Fondation Carmignac is exhibiting each photographer’s work in…
London Health Worker Natalie Scott a Free Sister
Clinical lead physiotherapist for critical care at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, New Zealander Natalie Scott, has received the Freedom of the City of London – a recognition awarded to people who have achieved success, recognition or celebrity…
Like Obama Allbirds Have Widespread Centrist Appeal
Monthly men’s magazine GQ highlights former US president Barack Obama’s penchant for Allbirds, a wool trainer created by New Zealander Tim Brown and American Joey Zwillinger, and a Silicon Valley go-to. According to style feature…
Gillian Lynne and Peter Land Foundation Encourages Students in Performing Arts
Launched last year, the Gillian Lynne and Peter Land Foundation continues the work of choreographer Gillian Lynne, whose widower, Taihape-born actor Peter Land tells Nick Smurthwaite, a journalist for The Stage, how the fund…
New Zealand Grants Behrouz Boochani Refugee Status
Behrouz Boochani, 37, a Kurdish-Iranian refugee who wrote the award-winning book, No Friend But the Mountains on his mobile phone while held in one of Australia’s notorious Pacific detention camps, has been granted asylum…
Scarlets Names Sean Fitzpatrick Board Member
Welsh rugby team Scarlets has appointed legendary former New Zealand captain and World Cup winner Sean Fitzpatrick, 57, as a new board member, the BBC reports. Fitzpatrick joins as a non-executive director and global ambassador. “I’m…
Oscar Hetherington Wins Photo Award for Backwash
Otago-based Oscar Hetherington has won the Grand Prize at the Sony Alpha Awards 2020, Kiro Evans reports for The Scottish Sun. Hetherington was awarded the accolade for his submission ‘Backwash’, which was hailed as…
Tim Dodd Appointed Dean of Texas Tech College of Human Sciences
After two years as acting and interim dean of Texas Tech University’s College of Human Sciences, New Zealander Tim Dodd is taking the reins in his own right, Fox 34 News reports. Dodd will…
How New Zealand Is Beating the Coronavirus Pandemic
“The United States is a pandemic-policy mess, and the whole world is watching the meltdown,” Markos Kounalakis writes for the Washington Monthly. “How did such a small place take on such…
Calling All Change Agents
In the mid 1980’s when the Whakatu meatworks closed we ran a programme at Waiohiki to support workers made redundant by the extraordinary restructuring of our economy. Men and women who previously had been…
Third Straight Win for Scott Dixon at Road America
Winning an IndyCar race is nothing new for New Zealander Scott Dixon, particularly this year. But getting to celebrate as fans cheered him on for the first time all year made his victory at…
UFC Champ Israel Adesanya on Cover of Video Game
The newest Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) video game has been announced – and on the cover, is New Zealander Israel Adesanya (pictured right). ESPN’s Marc Raimondi reports. Middleweight champion Adesanya and American welterweight star Jorge…
New Zealanders Pen Music for Dalai Lama’s Album
New Zealand couple, musicians and producers Junelle and Abraham Kunin, have recorded the music of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s debut album, Inner World, an album with 42 minutes of mantras and chants set…
Eric Watson Breaks Own Wheat Yield World Record
Ashburton farmer Eric Watson has taken the Guinness World Record for the highest wheat yield for the second consecutive time, with a staggering 17.398t/ha crop, Andrew Swallow reports for UK magazine, Farmers Weekly. Watson (pictured…
Actor Michael Dorman Star of Creepy New Thriller
Veteran actor Auckland-born Michael Dorman, 39, stars as Jack Shaughnessy, an ambitious TV sports reporter in the new six-episode Australian thriller The Secrets She Keeps screening on US channel, Sundance Now. The New York Post…
Judith Collins Named National Party’s New Leader
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, widely known for her exhortations to kindness and compassion, will face Judith Collins – a combative, tough-talking conservative lawmaker who styled herself after Margaret Thatcher – in the country’s general…
The Beths Brand With Self-Doubt
When The Guardian’s Brodie Lancaster’s video call connects with Auckland songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, he writes that he realises she’s opted for an audio-only chat and switches his camera off too. It’s the kind of…
How NZ Became an Apocalypse Escape Destination
In Queenstown – a picturesque ski spot that often attracts comparisons to Aspen, Colorado – rumours about foreigners investing in apocalypse-proof bunkers have been swirling for years, CNN correspondent Julia Hollingsworth writes. They’re referenced by…
New Zealand Live Lobster Exports to China Surge
New Zealand exports of live lobster are surging as Chinese gourmets return to restaurants, Bloomberg reports. More than 300 tons of the crustaceans were airfreighted to China in May, up 53 per cent on…
Kiwa is Isaac Burrough’s Sustainable Superyacht
Daily web magazine Designboom features New Zealand-born Amsterdam-based designer, Isaac Burrough’s “forward-thinking superyacht concept … developed to maximise both current and future sustainable technologies.” “Named after the Māori guardian of the ocean, Kiwa measures 110m…
Hugh McCutcheon’s Minnesota Gophers the #1 USA Women’s College Volleyball Pick for 2020
Christchurch-born Olympic Gold Medal volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, in his eighth year as coach of the University of Minnesota’s women’s volleyball team The Gophers, is preparing for the 2020 season with his incoming team…
World’s Newest Dark Sky Park Announced in NZ
New Zealand is quickly becoming one of the top dark sky destinations on earth, Valerie Stimac reports for Forbes, with the country home to two International Dark Sky Association (IDA) certified Dark Sky Sanctuaries –…
Emma G Battling Bigotry With Music in D.C.
Few could have foreseen the landmark events that would embroil the US in upheaval but for former Hamiltonian Emma Ghaemmaghamy, better known as Emma G, the situation has proved surprisingly fertile territory for her…
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 piece for Psychology Today. “New Zealand is a land…
Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention
“Avowed multilateralists” New Zealander Helen Clark and Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a World Health Organization (WHO) panel scrutinising the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic just as international institutions are under…
Supalonely Singer Benee Speaks with Teen Vogue
Twenty-year-old Aucklander Benee recently performed her TikTok mega hit “Supalonely” on two popular US television programmes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Ellen Show. In June, she spoke to Teen Vogue about…
Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan on Future of Travel
Los Angeles-based Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, has been working on a new competition show for CBS called Tough As Nails featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the coronavirus outbreak and premieres…
All Black Beauden Barrett Signs with Suntory
All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett, 29, will play for the Suntory Sungoliath in Japan’s Top League next season, which starts in January 2021, Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun reports. Barrett, a two-time recipient of the…
Blackpink’s Rosé New Global Face of Saint Laurent
K-pop bands and their devoted fans breaking various internet milestones (or messing with Presidential campaign rallies) is nothing new at this point, so perhaps the bigger indication that Blackpink is taking centre stage is…
Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird Antidote to Winter Gloom
“Warming the cockles of audience hearts at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, New Zealander Hamish Bennett’s comedy Bellbird is a defiantly optimistic tribute to the Northland region where the primary school teacher-cum-filmmaker grew up,”…
Oldest Surviving Photograph of Māori Discovered
The oldest surviving photograph of a Māori person, a picture of Hemi Pomara, has been discovered in the National Library of Australia, an historical “scoop” being lauded on both sides of the Tasman. Eleanor…
Maps Reveal New Details About Zealandia
New Zealand’s research institute GNS Science has published two maps revealing new research about the underwater continent Zealandia, where dinosaurs once roamed – and is allowing the public to virtually explore it on an…
Countdown First in the World, Period
Shoppers at New Zealand supermarket chain, Countdown will no longer see euphemistic language like “sanitary” or “feminine hygiene” products to describe pads, tampons and menstrual cups after the chain said it would be the…
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…
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…
