As a teenager, I discovered cycling, and it changed my life. Thanks to the Kennett brothers, the Wellington siblings generally regarded as the godfathers of mountain biking in New Zealand, I stumbled into what was then a very nascent…

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My parents were refugees in this country and, despite both having qualifications where they came from, they both had to retrain here and take on different low-level jobs to keep their heads above water while they had to. My…

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I grew up in Wellington and as a kid spent a bit of time in the wonderful greenbelt that surrounds the city. Back then, while there was relatively abundant plantlife, a walk or jog up there was a fairly…

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As I sat down to read board papers on Saturday night, I had a quick scan of the news headlines and the first article I came to was about a young police officer who was critically injured in the…

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One of the wiser governance people I’ve had the privilege of working with once told me that, as a professional director, you should always try to be a cleanskin. By this she meant that people should never be quite…

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I love Europe. Maybe it’s my Eastern European roots, but having clocked up a huge number of air miles over the past 20 or so years, my favourite trips were always the ones where I winged my way to…

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The other day I was enjoying my usual morning coffee with the regular C4 brains trust. Old mate Noel was yarning about a recent experience he’d had where he’d gone into a shop wearing his favourite Cactus pants, only…

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Dear Xero, I got your email. Let’s talk about it. It landed in my inbox with the usual cheerful corporate energy: “We wanted to share information about an increase in the price of your Xero plans.” Ledger up 7.7%.…

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There comes a point every New Zealand winter where I realise I’ve somehow become shaped like a prawn. Maybe the last few days’ sub-zero runs at 5am have something to do with it. Either way, it’s not an overnight…

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I was never good at sports. In fact, my claim to fame was always having an excuse to miss PE lessons at high school. It wasn’t until I discovered cycling after I left school, and running in my 30s,…

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