News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Auckland’s Pacific Islanders Take Stock

Auckland’s Pacific Islanders Take Stock

Some Pacific Islands, such as Tokelau and Niue, now have more of their people living in New Zealand than at home, a trend that is predicted to soar with the rising threat of climate…

The Best Place in the World to Be a Child

The Best Place in the World to Be a Child

After the Hāpaitia te Oranga Tangata summit in August, Denis O’Reilly started thinking about how to address the wicked criminal justice problems we face. He turns to the past, and muses on community, from…

Wellington One of The 10 Best Cities For Digital Nomads

Wellington One of The 10 Best Cities For Digital Nomads

“Wellington has ranked in the top ten cities around the world for digital nomads – remote workers who usually travel between different locations – to work in, according to a new study,” as reported…

Deserted Waitaki Village up for Sale

Deserted Waitaki Village up for Sale

Lake Waitaki village in South Otago was built in the 1930s as workers accommodation for dam labourers but has lain largely empty since 1989 when the dam’s operation was automated. Now, it’s for sale….

Café Calls Itself ‘Home Of Terrible Trip Advisor Reviews

Café Calls Itself ‘Home Of Terrible Trip Advisor Reviews

Christchurch cafe C1 Espresso “publishes its worst reviews in its menu so customers can read them at the table. The info panel of the cafe’s door proudly states it is home to: all day…

Scrabble Fanatic Wins 4th World Scrabble Championship Title

Scrabble Fanatic Wins 4th World Scrabble Championship Title

Nigel Richards, from New Zealand, has won his fourth World Scrabble Championship title “with the word ‘groutier’, defined as sullen or sulky,” writes Sophie Law in an article for The Daily Mail. The crucial…

How Teenager Nina Griffiths Began to Heal Kaitaia

How Teenager Nina Griffiths Began to Heal Kaitaia

At the start of 2016, Kaitaia – population 5000 – had just experienced the loss of six young people to suicide in quick succession. Nina Griffiths, a local high school student, was one of…

MP Poto Williams Awarded University Prize

MP Poto Williams Awarded University Prize

MP Poto Williams has been named the 2018 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year at Southern Cross University’s annual awards recognising exceptional achievement and outstanding service. The New South Wales university welcomed home more than 50…

New Zealand Second-Best Place for Expats

New Zealand Second-Best Place for Expats

New Zealand has been ranked the second-best place for expats in a study by HSBC. Singapore has landed the top spot in the survey. The Singapore Business Review reports. The…

Lyndsey Lewis Becomes a New American

Lyndsey Lewis Becomes a New American

Twenty-two foreign-born Maine residents, including New Zealand-born Lyndsey Lewis, completed the long journey of becoming US citizens at a naturalisation ceremony in Acadia National Park. According to Lewis, there were “about 15 or 16 different…

Photographer Robin Hammond Speaks Out at UN

Photographer Robin Hammond Speaks Out at UN

The United Nations has celebrated 70 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at a high-level event on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) persons around…

Why Countries Are Competing in Happiness Rankings

Why Countries Are Competing in Happiness Rankings

Move over GDP, happiness is angling to become the metric of the future. Nation states have begun to compete in global happiness rankings and plan policy according to statistics of wellbeing, with New Zealand…

New Zealand Celebrates 125 Years of Women Voting

New Zealand Celebrates 125 Years of Women Voting

New Zealand became the first nation in the world to allow women to vote 125 years ago, and hundreds of people celebrated the anniversary by turning out to gatherings and speeches. New Zealand’s female lawmakers…

Auckland: The Economics of Shared Streets

Auckland: The Economics of Shared Streets

“The obsession with self-driving cars and dockless cycles means pedestrians are often overlooked. But if we fail to accommodate those on foot, we ignore an essential part of what makes a city great,” writes…

Trailblazers: 125 Kiwi Women Who Changed the World

Trailblazers: 125 Kiwi Women Who Changed the World

125 Kiwi women who changed the world have been showcased in a special project in The New Zealand Herald, which explores their extraordinary stories. It’s “a combination of high profile women, such as Helen…

Why Irish Physios Are Flocking to New Zealand

Why Irish Physios Are Flocking to New Zealand

Why do so many Irish physiotherapists choose to move to New Zealand? Over the past decade, the highest number of New Zealand work visas for Irish citizens went to physiotherapists, with 444 work visas…

Christchurch Once Again Refugee Settlement Location

Christchurch Once Again Refugee Settlement Location

The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees represents an important step for New Zealand’s ambitions to increase the refugee quota and is a milestone for the city’s post-earthquake…

Yvette Morrissey Walks Scotland for a Cause

Yvette Morrissey Walks Scotland for a Cause

Most people choose to enjoy Scotland’s awe-inspiring views by bus or car, but New Zealand travel writer Yvette Morrissey, 29, has hiked a massive 864km on foot to take in the country’s beauty and…

NZ Avocado Shortage Leads to Orchard Crime Wave

NZ Avocado Shortage Leads to Orchard Crime Wave

“People in New Zealand are taking desperate measures to acquire a coveted treat for their breakfast toast: avocados. With prices for the fruit soaring after two years of low harvests, orchards are experiencing a…

Korean-New Zealander April Kwak off to the UN

Korean-New Zealander April Kwak off to the UN

Tri-lingual public servant, and scholarship-winning, Korean New Zealander April Hyorin Kwak, 23, is heading to the United Nations in New York, where she will intern at the Department of Safety and Security. Kwak will be…

NZ Announces Plan to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

NZ Announces Plan to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags

New Zealand has become the latest country to ban single-use plastic bags in an effort to tackle plastic pollution, Time magazine reports. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced plans to…

Jacinda Ardern Reflects on Life After Giving Birth

Jacinda Ardern Reflects on Life After Giving Birth

From the outside it appears to be business as usual for New Zealand’s prime minister. But eight weeks ago Jacinda Ardern became only the second leader in the world to give birth while in office,…

Paid Leave a Rare Moment of Empowerment

Paid Leave a Rare Moment of Empowerment

A woman who lived through an abusive relationship writes anonymously for The Guardian, and says New Zealand’s latest domestic violence legislation is a relief from shame and fear. “The years of control, manipulation, blame, gaslighting,…

Rugby Leads NZ Sporting Family to France

Rugby Leads NZ Sporting Family to France

New Zealander Johnny Claxton, head strength and conditioning coach for Grenoble Rugby, 40, and his family moved to France in June 2017. Claxton’s wife, former Black Sticks player and double Olympian, Jaimee Claxton talks to…

New Law Grants Abused Women Paid Leave

New Law Grants Abused Women Paid Leave

Around the world, 1 in 3 women have been physically or sexually abused by their partner, according to the World Health Organization. Forty per cent of all women murdered each year are killed by…

Helen Klisser During Unloads on Gun Violence

Helen Klisser During Unloads on Gun Violence

Connecticut’s Fairfield University exhibition “Guns in the Hands of Artists” is using decommissioned guns to explore and generate conversation about gun violence. The exhibition is being “presented by Fairfield University Art Museum in partnership…

Perpetual Guardian’s Four-Day Week a Hit

Perpetual Guardian’s Four-Day Week a Hit

Auckland company Perpetual Guardian has declared their landmark trial of a four-day working week an “unmitigated success”, with 78 per cent of employees feeling they were able to successfully manage their work-life balance, an increase…

PM Makes Fortune’s 40 Under 40 List

PM Makes Fortune’s 40 Under 40 List

The influential Fortune magazine 40 Under 40 list includes Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at No 12. Co-founder and CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom took top place in this year’s ranking. “It’s only appropriate that Ardern,…

New Zealand’s Inside Stories

New Zealand’s Inside Stories

New Zealand Story Group have created a selection of New Zealand stories, which underpin the values of Kaitiaki, Ingenuity, and Integrity, to share with the world.” “New Zealand already has a well-deserved reputation for outstanding…

NZ Police Campaign Recognised at Cannes

NZ Police Campaign Recognised at Cannes

The New Zealand Police’s campaign World’s Most Successful Recruitment Video won one Silver and one Bronze Lion at this year’s Cannes Lions. Sam Burne James reports for PR Week. With World’s…

Social Enterprise Empowering Women Refugees

Social Enterprise Empowering Women Refugees

“Government discussion surrounding refugees oftentimes revolves around costs and quotas” and “the human element can get lost in the conversation,” writes Rina Diane Caballar in an article for PRI.

New Zealand World’s Second Safest Country

New Zealand World’s Second Safest Country

New Zealand has been ranked as the second safest country in the world in this year’s edition of the Global Peace Index. Iceland was ranked the world’s safest place for the 11th consecutive year….

Rob Bell’s Wife Is on a Mission to Unite London

Rob Bell’s Wife Is on a Mission to Unite London

After her husband Rob Bell’s suicide, journalist Poorna Bell realised that for all its dazzle, London can create a perfect storm of isolation. In an article for the Evening Standard she writes about her…

New Zealand Tackles a Surge in Homelessness

New Zealand Tackles a Surge in Homelessness

New Zealand is known to many outsiders as a beautiful, affluent country, the place where the Lord of the Rings movies were made. But Joseph Takairangi and thousands of others know it better for…

Former PM Helen Clark Receives Honorary Degree

Former PM Helen Clark Receives Honorary Degree

Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, was in Edmonton recently to collect an honorary degree from the University of Alberta. She was also in Canada to speak at the Victoria Film…

New Zealanders’ Screen Time Skyrocketing

New Zealanders’ Screen Time Skyrocketing

New Zealanders now spend close to half a standard working week (18 hours) getting their digital fix online, according to findings of this year’s Nielsen Connected Consumer Report 2018. “Accessing…

The Queen Names Activist Catherine Healy a Dame

The Queen Names Activist Catherine Healy a Dame

Catherine Healy, 62, a founder of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, was instrumental in helping this country become the first to decriminalise prostitution in 2003. After 30 years of activism, the queen recognised her…

Will New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘Living Person’ Status Bring Respect?

Will New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘Living Person’ Status Bring Respect?

“Recognition is something Māori communities have been campaigning for over 150 years. In 2013, they achieved a landmark ruling when the Te Urewera national park on the North Island was granted ‘all the rights,…

Mothers-to-be on Birth of a New Kind of PM

Mothers-to-be on Birth of a New Kind of PM

In a Guardian article, New Zealand women with babies due this month discuss what it means to have a pregnant prime minister, and how they will balance parenthood, work and a severe lack of sleep. In…

Helen Clark Speaks in Japan on Gender Equality

Helen Clark Speaks in Japan on Gender Equality

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark stressed in a recent interview with Japan’s national daily newspaper The Mainichi that women need to continue to fight for gender equality, adding that zero tolerance policies…

Peter Hillary’s Love of Mountaineering

Peter Hillary’s Love of Mountaineering

When Rebecca Gibian first emailed Peter Hillary about an interview, he replied saying that he was currently at 16,000 feet in the Himalayans, but would get back to her when he returned to New…

Wellington Most Liveable City Second Year Running

Wellington Most Liveable City Second Year Running

The city shocked many when it was ranked the most liveable city in the world last year, but it won’t surprise Wellingtonians to learn it has kept that number one spot in 2018, mayor…

Scientist Richard Dawkins Considers Move to NZ

Scientist Richard Dawkins Considers Move to NZ

The British scientist Richard Dawkins has told current affairs programme The Project he would like to move to New Zealand as a refuge from the “madness” of a post-Trump, post-Brexit northern hemisphere. “I thought about…

Helen Clark Talks Global Health and Gender Equality

Helen Clark Talks Global Health and Gender Equality

In a joint opinion piece for Project Syndicate former New Zealand prime minister and UNDP administrator Helen Clark discusses gender equality and global public health. Organizations advocating for improved public health…

Ways to Better Water Quality in NZ Lakes and Rivers

Ways to Better Water Quality in NZ Lakes and Rivers

“Two years ago, New Zealanders were shocked when contaminated drinking water sickened more than 5000 people in the small town of Havelock North, with a population of 14,000,” writes Professor Troy Baisden, chair of…

Peter Gordon’s “Who’s Cooking Dinner?” “Top Foodie Fundraising Event”

Peter Gordon’s “Who’s Cooking Dinner?” “Top Foodie Fundraising Event”

Top foodie fundraising event “Who’s Cooking Dinner” 2018 boasted a line-up of 20 chefs and 15 Michelin stars. At the annual event which was hosted by Leuka, diners in attendance were assigned to…

Getting More Done in a Four-Day Week

Getting More Done in a Four-Day Week

On the first long weekend of her employer’s experiment with a four-day working week, Kirsten Taylor freaked out a little bit. Like a housework hurricane, she got through mounds of clothes-washing, weeded the garden,…

On the Rodeo Trail in New Zealand

On the Rodeo Trail in New Zealand

Animal activists are calling for rodeos to be banned in New Zealand, but cowboys say bull riding is their calling. Eleanor Ainge Roy and Paul Roy report on the controversial sport in a photo…

NZ Government Joins UN Clean Seas Campaign

NZ Government Joins UN Clean Seas Campaign

“New Zealand has become the latest country to sign up to the five-year long United Nations Environment #CleanSeas campaign to rid our oceans of plastic,” reports Australian sailing publication My…

New Zealand One of Ten Happiest Countries

New Zealand One of Ten Happiest Countries

New Zealand has been ranked the eighth happiest country in the 2018 World Happiness Report released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. CNN reports. Finland took…

Jacinda Ardern’s Favourite Kiwi Hangouts

Jacinda Ardern’s Favourite Kiwi Hangouts

“At just 37 years of age, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the world’s youngest female Head of Government.” Vacations & Travel Magazine spoke to Ardern about her favourite spots in Auckland…

Summer Heatwave Sets All-Time Record

Summer Heatwave Sets All-Time Record

“New Zealand has sweltered through its hottest summer on record and can expect more of the same if climate change continues unabated, the government’s scientific agency said Tuesday,” an article in

NZ Company Offers Employees $10 a Day to Cycle to Work

NZ Company Offers Employees $10 a Day to Cycle to Work

Christchurch advertising company Make Collective “is offering hard cash to employees who bike to work every day in a bid to energise staff and move the city away from a…

New Zealand Is the World’s Least Corrupt Nation

New Zealand Is the World’s Least Corrupt Nation

New Zealand has been identified as the world’s least corrupt nation in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International. Each country is receives a score out of 100. New Zealand scored 89…

Sam Neill Wants to Ban the Plastic Bag

Sam Neill Wants to Ban the Plastic Bag

Actor Sam Neill is the latest recruit on board Greenpeace’s campaign against plastic bags. He joins Dr Jane Goodall and former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark in the quest to ban single-use plastic bags,…

Why New Zealand and Australia Should Bid To Host The Winter Olympics

Why New Zealand and Australia Should Bid To Host The Winter Olympics

“The five interlaced rings on the Olympic flag represent the five continents of the world, but the Winter Olympics has only been hosted on three continents by just 12 countries. No southern hemisphere country…