Thinking Outside the Accom Box
New Zealander Shane Blind has created a novel micro-house out of a 6m shipping container that has a couple of pop-outs at its centre, allowing him to get around the problem of narrowness, Kimberley…
Blog Archives
Michala Banas Gets Her Bogan On
Acclaimed actor Wellington-born Michala Banas, 38, had never been to a speedway before being cast as foul-mouthed and tough as nails Amber in the hit ABC comedy Upper Middle Bogan. “That world was totally new…
Producer Kamandi Releases New Track The Mould
New Zealand-raised producer Kamandi, aka Tyrone Frost, “has been changing the game across the globe”, according to EDM-culture blog Magnetic Magazine, who caught up with the artist to talk about his influences and his…
Singer Kimbra Teams up with Wrangler
New Zealand Grammy award-winning recording artist Kimbra is already taking the music world by storm, but she’s also dabbling in the fashion world teaming up with Wrangler. Marie Claire UK caught up with her…
Crowded House Play to Adoring Fans in Sydney
“The decision as to when to call time on a band must be a truly wretched one,” Alexandra Spring writes for the Guardian. “, Crowded House returned to the place where they called…
Model Georgia Fowler at Home in Manhattan
Walking in the Victoria’s Secret runway show has been a dream of New Zealand-born model Georgia Fowler’s since the beginning of her career, when, at 12 years old, an agency in Auckland signed her…
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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…
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, 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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
“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
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
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, 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 “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
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
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…
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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…
