Morrinsville’s World Famous Takeaway Worker
It’s Friday night in the small town of Morrinsville and a handful of locals are waiting at the Golden Kiwi on the main street for a greasy parcel of fish and chips, Julia Hollingsworth…
Blog Archives
Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize
Marton-born banjo player Catherine “BB” Browness is one of five recipients of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Browness, who plays with the bluegrass band Mile Twelve, shared in the US$50,000 prize, which…
King of Soul Max Merritt Will Be Greatly Missed
Christchurch-born Max Merritt, the ARIA Hall of Fame inductee best known for his soulful songs “Slippin’ Away” and “Hey, Western Union Man”, has died in Los Angeles. He was 79. Merritt made his mark when…
Georgia Fowler Modelling From the Couch
Vogue magazine recently caught up with four Fashion Week regulars, including New Zealand model Georgia Fowler, 28, to see how they handled the shift from real-world runway to virtual. Fowler has been doing fashion week…
Global Media Outlets React to Jacinda Ardern’s Win
Jacinda Ardern will serve a second term as New Zealand prime minister following Labour’s landslide victory in an election on 17 October, which delivered a major shift towards progressive parties, Jamie Smith reports for…
Climate Change Graphics Made Simple by John Lang
New Zealander John Lang has just finished an unenviable task: taking a jargon-packed, number-heavy report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and turning it into a graphic the average person might read,…
At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685
Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed 1.1 billion streams and was…
Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU
Work is underway on the construction of a European HQ for New Zealand-based security giant Gallagher, Rachel Covill reports for UK media site, The Business Desk. Gallagher, a leading manufacturer in security and agricultural…
Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic
Allbirds, the wool shoe brand that closed a $100m fundraising round this week, is backing bricks-and-mortar stores in spite of the pandemic, according to Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules. Moules writes that the new…
Len Lye Inspires Belgian Designer Dries Van Noten
Antwerp designer Dries Van Noten’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection was partly inspired by New Zealand-born filmmaker and artist, Len Lye. Van Noten was struck by the inventiveness of Lye’s oeuvre, UK-based AnOther editor-in-chief Susannah Frankel…
UFC Superstar Israel Adesanya Makes It Look Easy
UFC 4 video game cover star Nigerian-New Zealander Israel Adesanya, 31, tweets “what EA curse?” after emphatic victory over Paulo Costa on Fight Island, Andrew Whitelaw writes in his South China Morning Post column,…
Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval
Good American founder Khloé Kardashian has invested in Dose & Co., a New Zealand-based company that sells a variety of collagen products throughout New Zealand and Australia. Kardashian is joining the company as a…
New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot
The Passport Index has named a new most powerful passport in the world, and it’s none other than: New Zealand. Stacey Leasca reports on how our passport allows travel to more countries than…
Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles
In Melbourne, coronavirus brought with it a challenge the scope and severity of which local restaurateurs have never seen before. With eateries collapsing around him, New Zealand chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry was forced…
Parris Goebel Dials in on Inclusion With Rihanna
Lockdown has been stultifying and depressing in its sludgy predictability for many of us – but for others, it has proved uniquely creatively fulfilling, according to British Vogue’s digital director Ellie Pithers. Take New…
Mathematician Vaughan Jones a Man Who Knew Knots
“In 1994, Gisborne-born mathematician Vaughan Jones walked on stage to address the Italian national academy in Rome’s Palazzo Corsini, lit a cigar and began to blow smoke rings. With a mischievous grin, he told…
Ahi’s Ben Bayly Inspired by Right Here
Ben Bayly, chef, television personality and owner of new Auckland CBD restaurant, Ahi is profiled in The CEO Magazine. The feature focuses on how Bayly, who has run establishments all over the world, is…
Auckland Student Aysha Hussan Aims High
At just 14, track athlete and netballer Aysha Hussan has already achieved so much, including as the New Zealand face on the Muslim Women in Sports Powerlist 2020, alongside 34 other women involved…
Mint Innovation Saves Valuable Metal from E-Waste
Our “throwaway” culture often means consumers are guilty of getting rid of old devices as soon as new ones come to the market, a habit that can have a significant effect on waste streams…
Jessica McCormack and Emilia Wickstead Join Forces
“Reality is bleak,” Jessica McCormack tells Financial Times fashion features editor Jessica Beresford, “so we all need some escapism, right?” The jewellery designer is huddled over a table laden with precious objects – elaborate earrings…
PM Jacinda Ardern Runner Up in Prospect List
The votes have been counted and the results are in. UK magazine Prospect’s top 10 is full of practical-minded thinkers for the Covid-19 age – and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken…
Digital Human Creator Uneeq Shares Its Tricks
Auckland start-up UneeQ, that counts Salesforce’s former head of AI Richard Socher as an investor, has a new tool that aims to make building virtual humans to answer questions as easy as creating a…
Labour’s Priyanca Radhakrishnan Proud of Roots
In an exclusive interview with Indian news magazine, The Week, Labour list MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan, 41, talks about how the New Zealand Government is handling the pandemic and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s chances of…
Roseanne Liang’s Shadow in the Cloud a Blast
“Imagine how Ripley of Alien would handle a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet-style gremlin attack. Sound wild? Roseanne Liang’s female empowerment thriller delivers on that premise.” Variety’s Peter Debruge reviews the New Zealand director’s film…
Search for Life on Venus Could Begin at Rocket Lab
New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab may be able to send a small spacecraft to probe the clouds of Venus long before NASA or other space agencies are able to do so, industry journalist Jonathan…
Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue
As the Covid-19 pandemic closes borders and grounds aircraft around the world, iconic destinations from Kyoto to Amsterdam are addressing the new reality of fewer visitors and looking for ways to reset their local…
Underplayed Doco Stacey’s Lee’s Homage to Women
Electronic music documentary Underplayed is the feature debut of New Zealand-born director Stacey Lee, who has been shortlisted for the Cannes Young Directors Award. “Filmed through a deeply intersectional feminist lens, Underplayed highlights not…
TikTok Opens up a New Music World for Jawsh 685
TikTok has only been part of our lives for two years, but it’s already had a massive impact on the music business, the BBC reports. South Auckland producer Joshua Nanai, 17, better known as…
Savage is a Moving Street-Gang Saga
“A pulse of vulnerability beats at the heart of Sam Kelly’s outwardly imposing but unexpectedly touching debut feature, Savage,” Phil Hoad writes in a review of the film for The Guardian. The film has…
Inside Anna Paquin’s LA Driftwood Home
The story of New Zealander Anna Paquin and husband American Stephen Moyer’s Venice Beach home is one of ultimate artistic license. With their selections of architect, interior designer, and landscape designer over the course…
How the Iraq Uprising Inspired Singer Yasamin
Three months before the start of Iraq’s October protests last year, almost 10,000 miles away in Auckland, “artivist” Yasamin began binge-watching an Iraqi YouTube political satire show. It would open her eyes to a country…
Wheel Of Time Star Zöe Robins Profiled
Amazon Prime’s epic adaptation of The Wheel Of Time is based in an alternate world where magic exists, but only certain women are permitted to use it. One of those women, Nynaeve, is played…
Eco Challenge Racer Nathan Fa’avae Wins For NZ
Nelson-based adventure racer Nathan Fa’avae, 48, who led the New Zealand team on to win the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, is profiled by entertainment news site, Screen Rant. For the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji…
Chlöe Swarbrick Makes Fortune’s 40-Under-40 List
In a year of “monumental challenges and change”, Fortune magazine has released its 40 Under 40 lists for 2020, the Government and Politics list of which features Aucklander Chlöe Swarbrick alongside iHeartMedia’s Jalisa Washington-Price…
Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora
International strategist and insights specialist Aucklander Julia Arnott-Neenee, 27, is one of a number of high achievers “coming home at once”. The Spinoff’s managing editor Duncan Greive interviews the well-travelled Arnott-Neenee, amongst other New…
Niki Caro’s Mulan “a dazzling, moving, hair-prickling spectacle”
An Empire reviewer bemoans this month’s “bittersweet” release of New Zealander Niki Caro’s live-action adaptation Mulan through online streamer Disney Plus. “Not only the best live-action Disney adaptation to date, but also a dazzling,…
Why Everyone Wants A Piece Of Shift72
Many film companies have taken a battering during the pandemic. The opposite is true of New Zealand-based video streaming platform Shift72, which has grown by 400 per cent. Andreas Wiseman reports for Deadline. Business for…
Pete Oswald Skiing to Reforest Madagascar
New Zealand freeskier and photographer Pete Oswald, 35, speaks with Men’s Journal journalist Eliot Grover about his efforts to reforest Madagascar and alleviate poverty. This June, in a partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects, Oswald…
Though NZ Is Confronting a New Outbreak It Is Still Way Ahead of the USA – WashPost
“Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand has drawn global attention for the effectiveness of its response,” associate professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law Rebecca Hamilton writes…
Fix & Fogg Opens First Outpost in Houston
Wellington-based gourmet peanut butter company Fix & Fogg has set up shop in Montrose, Houston in the US and you can get it at a walk-up window. Fix & Fogg was founded in 2013. After…
Kendo Expert Alexander Bennett Has Hand in WWII Kamikaze Pilot’s Memoir
New Zealand-born scholar of Japanese history and martial arts Alexander Bennett has joined forces with fellow kendo practitioner, Shigeru Ohta, to write the English version of World War II kamikaze pilot Kazuo Odachi’s memoir,…
US Vogue Promotes the Soulful Teeks
You’re about to hear a lot more from Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi, who goes by Teeks. The Māori soul singer is well known in New Zealand but is about to step onto a global stage…
Travel + Leisure Takes in the Best of Auckland
Parnell’s Pasture was recently named one of the World’s Best Restaurants by Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. “It’s worth planning a trip around,” New Zealand-based writer and editor Ellen Falconer recommends…
Wellington Library Book Returned after 118 years
A book has been returned to a Wellington library 118 years after it was checked out, Yahoo News Australia reports. The Earl of Derby by George Saintsbury was borrowed from the Newtown Library in…
Taking Māori Narratives to Hollywood a Good Thing
In a story published by Cambridge University student newspaper, Varsity, Emily Moss argues that we have “nothing to fear” from New Zealander Taika Waititi’s move into the mainstream, “as he seems intent on taking…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
