Our People

Chef Michael Van de Elzen is creating a block where everything is grown and cooked from scratch.

Mela has been keeping New Zealanders sweet since 2004. Now a second generation of makers is forecasting great things for the Wairarapa brand’s cider and single-variety apple juices.

Medical equipment that would have ended up in the rubbish dump is getting a new life in the Pacific Islands thanks to an innovative social enterprise.

He lives in Fiji running yacht charters. She lives in Auckland with the kids. It’s a long-distance lifestyle that takes a boatload of love, trust, and passion for the Pacific.

Decades after his parents began producing carbon-fibre fishing rods, Tom Johanson has designed an all-in-one rod kit to set the family business apart in an age of mass-production.

Robert Jones and Angela Moon-Jones are bringing native butterflies back — one garden at a time.

Happy days are forecast when the owner of a rosy-hued vintage caravan takes to the road.

An architecture graduate put the theories learned in the classroom into practice and built her own tiny hut in the woods.

This farming family grows asparagus and strawberries — the food manifestations of spring and summer. But Horowhenua’s Lewis Farms is a year-round operation.

It’s more than a storehouse of treasured family memories, more than a good example of 1960s bach architecture. It’s a museum of its era and now it has inspired a book.

An ancient pack-up-and-go structure is reincarnated as a camping-with-comfort option, proving that what goes around comes around.

A family which counts itself lucky to be the keepers of a DOC farm in an unspoiled coastal wilderness shares it every summer with holiday campers.

Meet Amokura Panoho, the first subject of our new series focusing on Māori leadership. Amokura, the author of previous features for NZ Life & Leisure, will write the series from the next issue.

Owning a collection of outdoorsy businesses means this Matakana couple are adept at adapting to the wind. But they are also proving pretty flexible when life’s personal challenges blow in.

The man behind Barker's of Geraldine reflects on five decades of being in the sticky business of syrups, preserves and savoury spreads.

On holiday in Venice with actress Alison Quigan

She may only be edging towards her 70s, but Alison Quigan can empathize with Gen, the character she will play in the Auckland Theatre Company’s new comedy.

He’s into his bikes; she’s into her horses. This Rotorua couple makes a living out of their hobbies.

Kiwi chef Peta Mathias shares her favourite love stories from around the world in her latest book Eat Your Heart Out. NZ Life & Leisure writer Emma Rawson gets the scoop straight from the foodie herself.

Trapping rodents in the Waitākere Ranges is not as daunting as it seems, says bird-lover Jenny Wheeler.

Spontaneity has taken two long-time surfers on a journey of self-discovery — and landed them a business to boot.

Seaweed is the star ingredient in natural fertilizers and tonics for land and animal health. It also makes beautiful body-care products for organically minded people.

In 1988, a solo mum living in the back of beyond launched a business selling health products. It now turns over $35 million a year.

A grand designer of houses and gardens credits the elegant heritage of mid-century Hāwera for developing his eye.

An artist has found joy after great heartbreak by connecting past and present with loops of hot-pink yarn.

From brewing beer to cultivating cow-less milk, companies are experimenting with yeast to make food and drinks for an increasingly eco-minded world.

Twenty-one designers have aligned with Great Full for its first charity initiative. The founder of the social enterprise, Melissa Gardi, explains why community matters.

This couple, one a furniture designer and the other a general practitioner, work in vastly different disciplines, but are aiming for precisely the same goal.

Since 2003, writers have been invited to a tiny brick cottage just off Dunedin’s main street to tap away at whatever they need to get down on paper.

Few muscle cars have more fans than the Dodge Challenger. Gary Covich found one and brought it back to life. But it took more years than he cares to remember.

An environmentalist's heavenly range of vegan dairy producers is flying off the shelves.

Philippe Arregui is winning the hearts of New Zealanders one gourmet sausage at a time.

Responsible for millions of bees, 26-year-old Steph Munro of Southland's Munro Honey now combines her design skills with the sweeter side of life.

Studying graphic design helped pave the path to Sam Mathers' full-time career as a contemporary artist.

Selina’s time as poet laureate has come to an end, but she has many more stories to tell, beginning with her empowering new book, Mophead.