M2 Rolls-Royce July 2022

Chris Hemsworth Of All The Chris’s, This One Is Our Second Favourite

TECH

SUCCESS

STYLE

Going Stratospheric

The Big Shorters

The Latest From Zegna

The Kiwi Taking Aerospace Tech to a New Level

Billions on the Line for the Next Big Dip

Look Even Better This Winter

D i s c ove r t h e N ew Rol l s- Royc e B l ac k Bad ge Gh o st h e re

Shizukuishi. A land of majestic white birch groves.

A spring of constant inspiration for Grand Seiko.

Here, light and shadow are in dynamic harmony.

And Time is etched with intricate precision.

Here, the TAKUMI infuse the essence of Nature into each and every timepiece, bringing its true beauty to life.

Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture

Heritage Collection Series 9 SLGH005 Mechanical Hi-Beat 36000 80 Hours Calibre 9SA5

grand-seiko.com

BE YOUR OWN

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Gibbston Valley, Central Otago

HANDPICKED, RIGHT HERE IN PARADISE. We’re proud to handpick our own grapes and care for every vine by hand, the same way our family has always done.

It might sound like hard work, but we think it’s worth it. Try our wine and you’ll see why.

waitiricreek.co.nz

JUL/AUG 2022 ISSUE 189

“I FEEL LIKE I'M READY FOR ANY DANGEROUS SITUATION THAT MIGHT COME MY WAY, PROVIDED I HAVE A HAMMER ON ME.” - Chris Hemsworth

CONTENTS

FEATURES

15

30 PACIFIC HEIGHTS

MANMADE 78 TRIPLE BAY YACHT CLUB Next Level Luxe

Our Interview with the Kiwi Muso

34 CHRIS HEMSWORTH

82 FOILED AGAIN

42 M2 SUMMIT

84 HOLE-IN-ONE

48 THE BIGGEST SHORTERS

88 BACK TO THE ELECTRIC FUTURE

Candela P-8 Voyager

Thor is Back

The Zion Superyacht

What Went Down At Our 7th Summit

The Delorean Alpha 5

Who Are Wall Street's Most Fearless?

56 A NEW LEVEL Mark Rocket On Going to the Stratosphere

SUCCESS

116 THE FIRST GREAT WANDERER Ben Markby Forging a Path for NZ In VR.

98 DOING THE RIGHT THING SHOULD BE EASY The Importance of Trust

99 TALKING HOMES

The Future of Renting in NZ

100 STRATEGY AND GOOD HABITS TRUMP KNOWLEDGE Achieving Success with Routine

88 30

62 STYLE & TECH 64 ZEGNA WINTER 2022

Rug Up In Functional Fashion

75 STYLE NEWS

Keep Up To Date

122 GADGETS

The Tech you Need

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STAY UPDATED. STAY CONNECTED. Scan code to follow us on Instagram

106 DREAMING BIG

Changing The Future with Wawata Creative

48

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EDITOR'S LETTER

EDITOR'S

LETTER

In this issue, we cover an interview that I did with Mark Rocket at the recent M2 Summit, alongside some other awesome Kiwi entrepreneurs and visionaries. Not only was it an honour to share Mark’s journey with a live audience, but it’s also a privilege to share it here in print. This overt fan-boyness is not so much because Mark has been an early driving force for the New Zealand space industry. Nor is it so much that he is now leading the charge for our aerospace industry and the power of Stratospheric level operation for earth observation – which by the way, have a whole lot of profound implications for climate change mitigation, regen farming, marine monitoring, and the like.

This is all cool, but for me what is most inspiring is that he has drawn a line in the sand based on his ethics that has governed how he conducts himself in business. This has meant that he has walked away from big opportunities because they don’t align. I think for a lot of us, that line can be variable – and I’m including myself in this.

In business, it can be easy to retrofit a line of ethics and then build a story around why it was still important to do a certain deal or work with a certain company even if it was a tough swallow. And while we do seem to talk a lot about ethics in business these days and we have metrics for environmental and social impact and governance factors which we can share with our investors and shareholders and stakeholders, we also have convenient ways of shuffling these when we need to, even beyond loading up on the carbon credit button. To make inconvenient, hard and costly decisions based on set ethics for no other reason than they fit with those ethics and are not part of a press release or corporate positioning, that’s truly next level.

ANDRE ROWELL

E D I TO R , M 2 M AG A Z I N E

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w o w h o THE HEART OF CREATIVITY

YOUR ELEVATED CORDIS EXPERIENCE AWAITS

BY LANGHAM HOSPITALITY GROUP AUCKLAND

BEIJING

HANGZHOU

HONG KONG

CORDISHOTELS.COM

NINGBO

SHANGHAI

CREDITS

JUL/AUG 2022 ISSUE 189 ON SALE 30 JUNE 2022 M2 Magazine Limited Telephone: (09) 377 6290 Read online: M2now.com

EDITOR

Andre Rowell EDITORIAL MANAGER

Amy Thurlow EDITORIAL

Cy Sinderson David Faulkner Dr. Frances Pitsilis Jamie Trower Mark Collins Mike Taylor Richard Conway DESIGN

Isaac Taylor

MARKETING

Jade Humphries Lucie Coppell

HEAD OF SALES

Kate Clausen ADVERTISING

Allie Cuadros Greg Sinclair

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Tim Lawrence

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Andre Rowell

STRATEGIC MARKETING DIRECTOR

Greg Sinclair

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of M2 Magazine Limited or its staff and no liability is accepted. Dates of events were correct on date of publishing.

No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. All letters or materials forwarded to us will be assumed intended for publication unless otherwise stated. ISSN 1176-1660 © M2 Magazine Limited All rights reserved. The contents may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or part, without our prior written permission.

Cover image: Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage

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CULTURE

THE SILVER FOX OF COOL Jeff Goldblum is his own cult classic and somehow he’s transcended the very films he’s in to be even larger than life.

© Universal Pictures

I hate to describe him as “kooky” or any other goofy word for that matter. He is best described by his laugh employed in the helicopter in the first Jurassic Park film. Google it “Jeff Goldblum laugh”, it’s the first thing that comes up and it’s glorious.

He reprised his role in the latest film, Jurassic World Dominion, in cinemas now. He was one of the only things to come out of the film, alongside my hero Sam Neill, not critically panned.

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MANDATE

What could possibly go wrong?

A Glimpse of the Upside Down

WHETHER WE CAN ACCEPT IT OR NOT, WE AS HUMANS ARE WASTING THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE WE CALL EARTH. WITH CLIMATE CHANGE RAVAGING US ON A DAILY BASIS, AND SEALEVELS RISING TO A SHOCKING EXTENT, IT’S UP TO US NOW TO COME UP WITH ALTERNATIVES. WHERE DO WE GO WHEN THE EARTH CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE? IT’S A QUESTION THAT STICKS OUT IN THE MINDS OF MANY. New York-based Clouds Architecture Office have come up with a super-cool solution.

Whilst working alongside its partners, Masayuki Sono and Ostap Rudakevych,

Clouds Architecture have created a concept that contrasts to the traditional and historic shape of buildings. They had decided that, as the world population is growing, architecture nowadays is getting thinner and taller to create more space to expand.

As humans are earth-dwelling creatures, the firms started experimenting with ideas on how to flip that on its head. What if the world can, quite literally, be flipped upside down as we travel upwards to allow the Earth to heal itself. So it was with that idea that Clouds Architect Office came up with a single, suspended city with the capacity to house the entirety of Earth’s population.

Enter the Analemma Tower. Inverting the traditional understanding of how structures should be made, Clouds Architect Office have conceptualised a space-based suspended tower. Also known as a UOSS (Universal Orbital Support System), which is based on the principles of a conventional space elevator.

How can they make that happen? By placing a large asteroid into orbit over space and dangling a super-tall, very cool tower from high strength cables. It is rumoured that the concept would be constructed somewhere over Dubai, which has proved to be a specialist in tall building construction.

KIWIS SPENT $543 MILLION IN TOTAL ON GAMING IN 2021. INITIAL DIGITAL SALES WERE WORTH $225 MILLION WHILE PHYSICAL RETAIL WAS WORTH $121 MILLION.

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TAKE A STAND AGAINST PLASTIC bremworth.co.nz

MANDATE

BILL GATES' TOP 3 BOOK PICKS WHILE WE'RE FREEZING OUR BUTTS OFF IN WINTER, BILL IS CELEBRATING SUMMER WITH HIS LATEST BOOK PICKS.

Thanks for the fish

Sailing Into Space

How the World Really Works

by Vaclav Smil

CREDITS: MACKENZI MARTIN

If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read. It’s a tour de force.

The Ministry for the Future

by Kim Stanley Robinson It’s so complex that it’s hard to summarise, but Robinson presents a stimulating and engaging story, spanning decades and continents, packed with fascinating ideas and people.

The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles Set in 1954, it’s about two brothers who are trying to drive from Nebraska to California to find their mother; their trip is thrown way off-course by a volatile teenager from the older brother’s past.

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Nowadays, everything is near-enough solar powered. Entire houses, automobiles, airplanes, full-sized arenas and sport stadiums. The list, undoubtedly, goes on. Your head would explode if you knew what lengths mankind has gone to utilise the energy of that mighty orb in the sky that produces four billion kilograms of the stuff per second.

Solar science, on the other hand, is a completely different kettle of fish. When the two meet, as it has done since the time of the Ancient Babylonians, the result is undeniably astonishing.

Recently, NASA has been granted funding for Phase Three of the Innovative Advanced Concepts program. This project has been allowed two years of continuing to explore and develop a diffractive solar sail—a literal sail that uses sunlight to move through space. The intricately designed sail would use the photons produced by the sun to create momentum, not using any fuel.

This concept, to be honest, has already been developed and used, to some success. Between 1992 and 2003, the government of India had launched small, solar sail-powered missions on commercial satellites and back in 2005, The Planetary Society attempted to launch the Cosmos 1 probe into orbit around Earth. Unfortunately the orbit never happened, due to a rocket malfunction. The Japanese have jumped on board too, flying sails up to the sun. Even NASA has launched successfully into lower orbit.

So this concept is a bit old-hat, however this smaller project model, which will use smaller grates and thin films, will hopefully be more adaptable and versatile for conceptual solar missions.

ROCKET LAB IS DELIVERING A SATELLITE BETWEEN MĀHIA AND THE MOON FOR NASA, MAKING THIS NEW ZEALAND'S FIRST FLIGHT TO THE MOON.

B

B

R

A I N L L T I O S SA

BR I G H T

AR Samuel’s Collection shines a light on a Barossa of a different kind. Taste the vibrance of the vines and enjoy a glass of a lighter, brighter Barossa wine.

Embrace the Magnificent Unknown

MANDATE

Bigger Is Better

IMAGE CREDIT: MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE

The Future is in Dubai

Located in the South-West region of the United Arab Emirates, the glimmering diamond of Dubai is and will always be one of the most stunning cities in the world. Its landscape seems to be forever changing, with constructions popping out of nowhere and developing almost overnight. Renowned for many different reasons, from the ultra-modern buildings to the stunning architecture, Dubai is the stepping stone to the future.

Dragging the family off on a day out to the museum has always been a particularly arduous task for most. The moaning of the kids that their legs hurt, they’re hungry and that all they want to do is see the ‘cool, but slightly scary’ dinosaur exhibit—the groans when they realise that that exhibit has been changed weeks ago for something less exciting, like 70’s footwear. The Museum of the Future isn’t one of those museums. The kids wouldn’t moan or groan or complain,

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they’d be captivated. Opened in February this year in the heartbeat of Dubai’s business district, the museum has been set to transport all visitors to the year 2071, allowing them to experience the taste, touch and colour of a brand new tomorrow.

Created using the vision of Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as a guide, the museum took almost seven years to create and cost the city around a whopping USD$136 million. The seven-storey, column-free superstructure is something to behold alright. In the shape of a human eye, the museum is designed to represent the vision of the future while the void in the middle represents the unknown that we all collectively seek to discover. Constructed using 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members, with stunning Arabic calligraphy embellished on the stainless-steel facade, the museum serves as a laboratory and a space

to develop the newest technology in big data analysis, Artificial Intelligence, human DNA, space travel and Virtual and Augmented Reality.

On the inside, the museum features a sculptural spiral staircase, an air bridge that traverses across the building and several ‘bubble lifts’ to take visitors into the ‘unknown’. Across the bridges, and up the spiral staircases are several separate immersive environments that aim to give the visitors an empowering look into what the world would look like 50 years from now.

If what they’ve magically created is a glimpse into the next 50 years, we are excited to see what the future has in store. If the museum continues to expand and respond on the possibilities of humankind in its future exhibits, then we can be certain that it will contribute furthermore to the future we all deserve right about now.

MANDATE

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MANDATE

Guns By the Numbers 246

Countries with the Highest Total Gun Deaths 2019

mass shootings in the USA in 2022 (as of June)

Civilian Gun Ownership per 100 People

This is tracking with 2021, the worst year on record with

This was 65.9% of total gun deaths globally in 2019

39.1

Serbia

42.5

New Caledonia

Yemen

52.8

62.1

120.5

The world's most popular pistol

Falkland Islands

Glock 17

The number of times thoughts and prayers have stopped future shootings

United States

13,169

0

Colombia

India

14,710

Mexico

22,116

Venezuela

28,515

37,038

United States

49,436

Brazil

692

The USA has more guns than people In 2017 in the USA there were 393,347,000 firearms in civilian ownership. Total population: 326,474,000. And somehow we catch grief for once having a lot of sheep.

In the United States this number jumped to 45,222 in 2020, 43% were murders, while 54% was suicide. 3% were cops and "misc" unintentional deaths.

Enough about them, here's the New Zealand numbers

7

Kiwis Over 100 years old with firearm licences

490 1,161 10 Firearms stolen in 2021

Licences revoked in 2021, the highest since... 2020

Around the number of guns the police encounter each day nationwide

YOU KNOW YOUR COUNTRY HAS A GUN PROBLEM WHEN OTHER COUNTRIES GOSSIP ABOUT IT AD NAUSEAM.

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240,038 Active licence holders.

NZ SOURCES: POLICE.GOVT.NZ/ABOUT-US/PUBLICATION/FIREARMS-DATA | NZHERALD.CO.NZ/NZ/GUNS-ON-THE-STREET-10000-FIREARMS-ENCOUNTERED-BY-POLICE-ON-DUTY/RMFFKCSQ7YJZMJI7XJ7OE2UC4M/ INTERNATIONAL REFERENCES: WORLDPOPULATIONREVIEW.COM/COUNTRY-RANKINGS/GUN-DEATHS-BY-COUNTRY | WORLDPOPULATIONREVIEW.COM/COUNTRY-RANKINGS/GUN-OWNERSHIP-BY-COUNTRY | EDITION.CNN.COM/2022/06/07/US/2022-SHOOTINGS-PACE-WORST-EVER/INDEX.HTML | PEWRESEARCH.ORG/FACT-TANK/2022/02/03/WHAT-THE-DATA-SAYS-ABOUT-GUN-DEATHS-IN-THE-U-S/

A straight shooter approach

GSHOCKNZ.COM

MANDATE

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MANDATE

AH NOVUS! IMAGE BY RENAN OZTURK / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Alex Honnold solos a crack high up on the American Direct on Les Drus, Chamonix while filming the first season of The Soloist, a VR experience.

Alex is regarded as the world's top free Soloist, note the lack of lines and safety equipment. The only thing that lies between him and certain doom is nerves of steel, fresh air, and a helmet.

The anxiety of watching Alex climb is palpable enough on the printed page, let alone on the Meta Quest 2.

The Aiguilles du Dru, commonly referred to as the Les Drus, is part of the Mont Blanc Massif, and towers 3,754m into the air. Scaling these sheer rock cliffs is a challenge only for the bravest among us.

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MANDATE

FALLING FOR YOU

IMAGE BY DAVID NOGALES / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Aniol Serrasolses conquers three consecutive waterfalls along the Keldus river in Iceland. The stunt was part of the new documentary called Jötunn, shot alongside Mikel Sarasola, and photographers Aleix Salvat and David Nogales as they ventured across the frozen countryside of Iceland.

During the exploration of the various waterfalls the country has to offer one of their friends broke their back after going over a 12 metre fall and landing too flat.

After a couple months he recovered, but it's a wake up call to the crew.

While Iceland is small, it's packed to the brim with dramatic sites worth seeing, and you don't even need to send yourself over a waterfall to enjoy it!

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MANDATE

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FILM

BIG

IN CINEMAS

7 JUL

THOR LOVE & THUNDER KIWI DIRECTOR TAIKA WAITITI SINGLE HANDEDLY MADE THOR THE ONLY MARVEL FLICK WORTH OUR TIME OF DAY WHEN THEY RELEASED THOR RAGNAROK. THE CLASSIC KIWI DEADPAN HUMOUR INFUSED THE ENTIRE FILM WITH PLAYFUL QUIRKINESS. YOU CAN FLICK TO ANY POINT IN THE MOVIE AND BE ABOUT 10 SECONDS AWAY FROM YOUR NEXT LAUGH. THOR LOVE & THUNDER IS THE STUDIO’S ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE THAT LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE ONCE AGAIN, SO GET HYPED! Picking up after the events of the blip, Thor is in somewhat of a aimless midlife crisis. Not every hero has their path set out for them. On his travels, he also comes across Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, who is now The Mighty Thor, an equal able to wield Thor’s hammer. We haven’t seen her since the first film (and sort of in Endgame).

Waititi knows he’s got to bring his A-game to the movie to make sure a love story doesn’t bog down what audiences want out of a Marvel film. “On paper, it feels kinds of cringy to me, but there’s a way of doing it with cool characters making a cool movie, and also having a thing that no fan ever wants in a superhero movie, which is people talking about love, and characters kissing.”

While there are romance and big feelings in this movie, Taikai doesn’t want you to be comfortable in your expectations. “I can’t promise that what people think is going to happen in this film will happen.”

ALSO CHECK OUT: MURINA - 8 JULY - CROATIAN DRAMA, CANNES AWARD WINNER, CLIFF CURTIS, WHAT'RE YOU DOING HERE?

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MANDATE ON NETFLIX

28 JUL

IT'S MORBIN' TIME MORBIUS HAS BEEN HAVING A HELL OF A TIME AT THE BOX OFFICE. CRITICALLY, THE ANTI-HERO SPIDERMAN VILLAIN SONY FLICK WAS PANNED, SITTING AT 17% ON ROTTEN TOMATOES. It bombed fairly decisively at the box office as well. In fact it bombed so hard that it bombed twice thanks to the raw power of meme magic.

THE GREY MAN DIRECTED BY THE RUSSO BROTHERS (AVENGERS: ENDGAME) AND STARRING CHRIS EVANS AND RYAN GOSLING, THE GRAY MAN IS NETFLIX'S MOST EXPENSIVE FILM TO DATE WITH A PRODUCTION BUDGET OF $200 MILLION. The film drops in cinemas on July 15th but it's only a short stint at the cinemas as its quickly going to Netflix on July 22nd.

ON NEON

22 AUG

You can expect a solid CIA cat and mouse thriller with plenty of action from this one.

The setup is paint by numbers CIA's top killer golden boy has the tables turned on him after discovering agency secrets and now he's on their death list. HR really needs to step in with employee grievances at these spook agencies, geeze. The incredible Ana de Armas also backs up the pair. Joe Russo was excited at being able to get Gosling and Evans facing off against each other. "[Evans] reached the stage where playing the villain is more interesting to him than playing a hero, so we’re able to get two mega-stars to compete," he said in an interview.

Morbius has been caught up in a vortex of memes, stretching back to before it was released when someone made the joke that they liked the bit in the movie where he says “It’s Morbin time”. Quickly an ironic legion of “fans” sprouted up, proclaiming that the movie would blow Avengers and every other film to ever exist out of the water. Morbius can cure your STD’s, Morbious can fix your marriage. It’s the best thing to ever happen to cinema. They say that the crew wept every time Jared Leto morbed out. That’s sort of a taste of what people were saying about the film online.

IN CINEMAS

28 JUL The ongoing joke was that despite absolutely nobody watching the movie, they were going to go to their graves defending how great it was.

Google's movie review section for the film has been morbed to bursting with reviews for the film calling it the second coming of christ, and it’s been reverse review bombed on Rotten Tomatoes, giving it an audience score of 71%.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Set two hundred years before the terrible finale of Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon follows George R. R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood”, so at least this one is based on a story that’s been finished.

The series concerns itself with the fall of House Targaryen and stars Matt Smith. The question is, you’ve been burned once, dare you go back again? I think HBO has learnt their lesson on this one.

BULLET TRAIN Deadpool 2 director, David Leitch, brings us some balls to the wall action fun with the help of an ensemble cast, including Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock. Five Assassins on a bullet train at cross purposes with each other. Lot’s of fun and gore. Would recommend to anybody who likes fun.

It was presumably due to this absolute ferver online that Sony decided to rerelease Morbius for a second theatrical run during a lull in film releases. Unfortunately for Morbius, it turns out that people memeing and ironically defending your film doesn’t actually translate to anyone actually going outside and seeing the movie, resulting in a new disastrous weekend for the movie.

The question is, did Sony do this as a way of drumming up some more press for itself?

Or did it genuinely think that the jokes were sincere. We might never know. However Leto was good sport enough to show up on Twitter reading the script for “Morbius 2: It’s Morbin’ Time”. One can only dream.

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CULTURE INTERVIEW

WORDS AND INTERVIEW BY JAMIE TROWER

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ASHLEY ALEXANDER

CULTURE INTERVIEW

Creativity is such a complex thing to grapple with for an artist. It can lurk, almost like a dormant handgrenade, in the back alleyways of the brain. It is one of those traits that every artist seems to have an opinion on and clear understanding of, but can never explain. Its definition is malleable and can be ever-changing. More a nuanced phenomena than anything else.

Moreover, when that perfect balance of creativity and sheer determination sits perfectly together, and the hand-grenade is dropped, as though a delicate pebble into a body of water, the ripple effect is something to truly behold. Something breathtaking happens. An overloud of bright colour, an explosion of soul and emotion.

One of New Zealand’s greatest living award-winning producers— his latest album, The Waters Between is coming out 15 July—is Devin Abrams, whose creative explosions are always phenomenal.

Back in the day, it was whilst attending jazz school that he and three classmates formed one of the most popular and successful drum and bass acts in New Zealand history—Shapeshifter. The seeds for his signature sound were planted there. Achieving a long string of number one hits, sold-out shows both nationally and internationally, platinum albums and singles, and a huge fan-base, Shapeshifter changed the landscape of electronic NZ music forever. Abrams was firmly at the helm, stunning listeners as producer, writer and performer.

After a long stint in the group, Devin departed Shapeshifter in 2015 to focus on a side project of his, Pacific Heights, whilst also completing a master’s degree in music production. Pacific Heights is a big step away from the sounds of full-energy Shapeshifter.

It’s a visceral experience listening to a Pacific Heights track.

His success over the years has earned him numerous awards, nominations and successes and he has collaborated with the best in the business, like Drax Project, Six60, and US singer-andactress Hailee Steinfeld, to name but a few. His latest album The Waters Between does just that. Releasing 15 July, it travels between the waters of the mind, the heart and the soul. As well as being a beautiful body of work, with creative explosions happening at every twist and turn, the album too is graced by guest appearances from national and international artists. Names like local legends Stan Walker, Louis Baker and Gramsci, the breakthrough talents of Foley and Lepani, and upcoming artists Solomon Crook, LANCE, and Jack Page.

On the eve of its recent release, M2 got the opportunity to sit down with Devin Abrams and talk on the new album, creative processes and what he has planned for the future.

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CULTURE INTERVIEW

Is music, for you, a nine-to-five job?

Or do you create only when inspiration hits?

I’d like to think it’s both, but realistically it’s mostly a routine. I get into the studio usually at around 8:30, and finish up at five every day. If I have to work nights and weekends, I will—I’m a full-time producer. Most of my work is producing for other people. So if I get stuck on deadlines, I’ll work beyond.

How did you first find music?

My grandfather—he wasn’t a professional musician—but he was a really, really fantastic jazz trumpet player. My parents came out of that Depression-era and were very much in the mindset of me getting a job, getting a degree— ‘music’s just a hobby’ they’d say. Whereas my grandfather could see that I was really passionate about sound and very engaged musically with lots of creative thinking, so he told me to not listen to my parents and just do my thing.

At about 11, I remember trying to teach myself saxophone, listening to my parents’ records, and trying to play along. It must have been a terrible noise because saxophone’s a horrible instrument when you can’t play it properly. It’s as bad as the violin!

I then went through the jazz school in Christchurch, and that’s where I met the other Shapeshifter lads and started that band. We toured around the world for a long time. But also whilst I was in that band, I started doing my own thing, Pacific Heights. I wanted to explore more ambient-electro music. It started there and then it just progressed as it went on. When I left Shapeshifter, Pacific Heights became more of a focal point for my creative work.

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How would you best describe the shift between the sound you were producing in Shapeshifter to the Pacific Height’s sound?

I’m probably the worst to answer that, mainly because it’s hard to have objectivity in your own work. I can’t see the forest from the trees sometimes when it comes to my own work, whereas I’m sure a listener can probably hear a really big difference.

I listened back to some of the really old material which I’ve become quite detached from and I can hear stark differences. Pacific Heights has a very lush sound to it. Whereas Shapeshifter has a highenergy-impact ‘for the dance floor’-sense to it. I get that by listening to the really old stuff.

Could you tell me who your greatest musical inspirations are?

There are so many. My music tastes, especially in the last five years have gone so wide. Country music to metal to hip hop to soul to R&B to pop. I do naturally lean more towards looking at producers, like Brian Eno, and Quincy Jones.

Those guys are on the pinnacle of the mountain for me.

As far as artists go, there’s John Coultrane, there’s Bon Iver, Tool, Michael Jackson, Prince, Cohen, Joni Mitchell. There’s just too many really. I feel like the older I get, I’ve become more openminded, constantly looking for new things and music. My list is only gonna get wider and wider.

What can audiences expect from your new album?

After 20 years of making music, I’ve always felt every single chapter of Pacific Heights has been quite different from the last. With this

chapter, over the last four years—working with pop-groups (like Drax Project) and living in LA—I’ve gotten quite upskilled in songwriting and production. I’ve brought that back to my own sound, which is very lush and deep.

I’ve been really excited about this album because it feels very cohesive as far as the songwriting and the sound goes. It’s like an album of new-school power ballads. As you can hear with the Louis track, there’s a big guitar solo at the end. There are lots of moments like that on the record.

I’ve also brought back my saxophone! I felt like it’s got a lot of emotion packed on this record.

I’m really, really excited to share it. It’s still very electronic and ‘Pacific Heights’ with deep-lush spacelines and pads. I’m very excited to share this. It’s been a long time in the making—four years.

It started when I took my first trip to LA and I worked with some great writers. A couple of those songs made the record. It’s gone through several iterations over the last four years.

I’ve worked in Australia on it, did a chunk in Wellington, and then finished it up here in my studio.

Was it a good feeling when you finally got all finished after those four years?

I’d say it was a huge release, like walking up a hill with stones on your back. I’d been holding onto this thing for so long trying to get it so right. It was almost like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

As an artist, I get too caught up in my head about what the album should do, or what people will like about it—will it do well commercially?

Will it do well critically? You have all these

CULTURE INTERVIEW

expectations and it becomes a burden. It starts feeling like you’re carrying around this huge bag of stones on your back. I have gotten a lot better at looking at it as a weight off my shoulders.

It’s out in the world. It’s doing its own thing now.

It’s free to run around. It’s free-range. I used to get so worked-up thinking about if it will do well and if people like it. I’m really excited to be able to share it and let it run free. I’ll definitely be getting my manager very drunk on champagne on the release date. He’s also been working really, really hard for a long time on it. I feel like I owe him that.

Who would you say your favourite collaboration has been with over the years?

Oh, there’s been so many. I’ve done multiple songs with Louis Baker, who’s on the latest single. I love working with him. Dallas Tamaira, from Fat Freddy’s Drop; I’m doing his solo project—we have a good resonance in the studio together. Deanne Krieg, I loved working with her.

There have been so many good collabs over the years and that’s the beauty of it. I’m a producerartist, so I don’t have to have the same singer for every song and I like working with different writers. There’s been a whole host of new people I’ve loved working with on this new record.

Could you give me a brief rundown of what your creative process looks like?

My friend lent me a book many years ago and it had the routines of all these iconic 18th and 19th century thinkers, philosophers, scientists, psychologists, poets, and writers. One thing that

they all did was drink coffee and go for long walks. I’ve definitely taken on certain aspects of that. My routine definitely starts with helping with the kids and having a big plunger of coffee. I’ve encouraged the kids to make coffee—they help me, and they get really excited about making my coffee with me.

I like to start my day by trolling YouTube for new pieces of jazz or bits of music I’ve missed from history. Then I’ll go through some of my new music platforms like Band Camp, or Pitchfork, just for new stuff. I’ll usually spend the first hour of the studio day just doing big picture stuff—the macro-decisions I need to make—I find I make those really well in the morning.

If I’m looking at the arrangement of a song, or the style that I’ve produced it in, those kinds of big picture questions. I’m ADHD, so I go into a zone fast. I do like to break my day up with a bike ride at about lunchtime every day. So I get out on my bike for about 20 or 30 minutes. I sprint up a really steep hill, and come back all sweaty.

Quite often find on my bike ride, I have these problem-solving thoughts. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but it’s a solution. I come back and try something.

I find going out of my studio for that little moment, getting some exercise, and getting outside is really good.

Quentin Tarantino does that. He sits in his pool after a hard day of work and comes up with solutions to his scripts and makes adjustments. He is walking in your footsteps!

Oh, I don’t know, it’s probably the other way

around. But I think it’s good. Routine’s healthy for any creative person.

With the release of the album, do you have any tours planned?

I’ve obviously been a live musician for so long.

I think these days for me, I only want to do something if it can be unique, different and exciting me. I don’t want to just get on stage and play my keyboard. I want to find new ways to do things, like collaborating with robotic speakers or have sound-design sets or be a part of an exhibition where I’m collaborating with artists with my music.

If I can find ways to do something different, I’ll do it with this album. But at this stage, there are no plans. I might be looking at doing a couple of DJ sets with more of my own ambient remixes of the record, but I’m not planning anything at this stage.

What is your definition of success?

I personally think success for me is enriching other people. Have I made the world a better place for what I’ve done? Have I managed to do that without being selfish or detrimental to the planet and people?

It’s not always possible to do that all of the time and a hundred percent, but I think for me, if I lived to 70 or 80 and look back at my career, I’ll feel successful. So I think that’s my aspiration, my success is getting to do what I love for the rest of my life and getting to tick all those boxes.

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The Love &

Thunder Of Chris Hemsworth

Amongst the hard-hitting jugganauts of the acting industry—Oscar-winners, A-listers, stars with their thin smiles and erratic (some would even say ‘rude’) gestures of dismissal to the media on red carpets— there sits a secret underground group of acting do-gooders. Of ‘nice guys’. Of actors who seem to be so excited and stoked with life. At whatever movie premiere they’re promoting, they’d eagerly talk to anyone listening (at heightened volume, a dazzling glint in their eyes) about their latest accomplishments. They always share a joke, or a smile. Funnily enough, the majority of this Hollywood group is called Chris.

Chris Pratt, for example—what a nice guy he is. Chris Pine—champion. There is one Chris, however, who reigns supreme, in our opinion, as a true Hollywood nice guy.

WORDS BY JAMIE TROWER

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Maybe it’s his baby-blue eyes, his muscular physique or his ‘tall-poppy’ humbleness that attracts us. Maybe it’s the fact that he too was born, raised and founded in the Southern Hemisphere that we instantly go: ‘oh yes look, one of us…’ Maybe it’s the fact that he’s actually a really cool guy with a heart of gold. Maybe, it could be his style— he is the global ambassador for German luxury fashion-house, Hugo Boss and has garnered the title of Manliest Man by GQ. The ultimate Chris.

The man, the myth, the legend. Our buddy, Chris Hemsworth.

Let’s face it...We all know Chris Hemsworth for his role as Marvel’s Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, and son to King Odin. Whenever we see Chris pop on screen, we are taken back to the time where we first saw Thor, with his long blonde hair, wielding his hammer. We know Thor's originstory pretty well, but what about Chris’? Was he too born amongst the gods?

Hemsworth was born back in 1983 on Melbourne’s Phillip Island to an English teacher

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and social services counselor; Chris spent most of his childhood in the gorgeous back-beat town of Bulman in the mighty Australian outback.

“My earliest memories were on the cattle stations up in the Outback,” Chris told Frank Lovece in a 2011 interview with FilmFestivalTraveler.com.

“Then we moved back to Melbourne and then back out there and then back again. Certainly most of my childhood was in Melbourne but probably my most vivid memories were up there [in Bulman] with crocodiles and buffalo. Very different walks of life.”

Drama was never an ambition of his as a child, nor did he come from a ‘theatre’ family. But it was after a serious shoulder injury whilst playing football (which unfortunately caused him to wave goodbye to his dreams of becoming a professional player), that he decided to start treading the boards.

He thrived in the arts at school, making his mark in local productions and performances, so much so that his parents took notice. His brother Luke had already caught the bug, and suggested that

Chris give it a shot. It was in 2005 that both Chris and younger brother Liam followed their brothers’ suggestion and landed their first acting coach, Louise Talmadge. During an interview with TV Tonight, Talmadge gave some insight into how it felt managing the Hemsworth brothers. “[Luke] used to come in wearing overalls from a job that made him greasy,” she recalled, adding that Chris and Liam would shadow their brother in the back of the class, dressed in their school uniforms. “They would come from Phillip Island at night, after working. They were all a little bit afraid of me because I’d really give them hell if they didn’t know their lines. But the Hemsworth’s were hard workers.”

It was with those classes Chris took with the senior acting coach (and also landing his first agent, Jennifer Hennessy) that he started making a name for himself on TV. His first ever on-screen roles were playing King Arthur in Guinevere Jones and playing Kim Hyde in the infamous Australian soap, Home and Away; the latter role earning him

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a Logie, an amazing achievement for an actor just starting out. And he was (and still is, mind you) effortlessly cool, witty, likable and charismatic, really showing off that true-blue Aussie character.

It was with the role in Home and Away that he was chosen to star in Aussie’s Dancing with the Stars in 2006. If you search up his dance efforts at breaking out in a cha cha chassé on the hit Aussie show on Youtube, you’ll see Hemsworth clad in a black singlet and DIY tights, fully immersed in his character, sashaying around the ballroom to Santana's Smooth with some wayward reckless abandon. Audiences connected to him for a multitude of reasons, and he successfully stayed in the show for many weeks before being voted off.

Awkwardly, it is reported from a reliable source that Hemsworth’s involvement with the show raised some eyebrows around Marvel Universe’s producers catalogue and almost cost him his role of Thor in later years.

“It made me more nimble on my feet, I guess,” Hemsworth said in an interview. “I needed to be with the cape. You might see a bit of that Dancing with the Stars quality in Thor.”

After the days of Dancing with the Stars and playing Kim Hyde in Home and Away, big screen

credits of Hemsworth’s started to slowly roll in—A Perfect Getaway, directed by David Twohy, had him playing hot-headed Kale for one. The movie ended up being a bit of a flop, with a 62 percent rating on movie-review site, Rotten Tomatoes.

One Google review, posted by thilaga raj, gave it a fat ‘LOL…’ and went on to say that both Milla Jovovich and our mate Chris Hemsworth had “wasted their talents for this junk”.

Chris redeemed himself a year later in actionpacked Ca$h starring alongside much-loved Yorkshireman, Sean Bean, that allowed himself to exercise many creative muscles. He was witty, likable and ready to lock into any role that he was given. The work he gave in Ca$h landed him a role in American horror-comedy film, Cabin in the Woods, directed by Drew Goddard and produced by Joss Whedon.

In the film, Hemsworth played one of five kids who take a holiday to a cabin in the woods that is controlled by a bunch of weirdos in an underground lair called the Facility. At the end of his character arch, after escaping from a masochistic-zombie-bunch-o’-rednecks, Chris’ character Vaughan jumped on his motorcycle to try to get help, but died quickly after hitting an invisible wall and falling to his impending doom.

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Bugger. It’s funny to think how this role was the stepping stone for Hemsworth’s entering the Marvel Universe; Thor would’ve never surrendered to such an ill-bequeathed fatality.

It’s at this point, the story took an interesting turn for the young actor. Joss Whedon was interested in Chris from his work in Cabin in the Woods, and was quite chummy with much-loved English Shakespearean-thespian Kenneth Branagh, who was scouting for the titular character for Marvel’s 2011 flick, Thor.

Branagh wasn’t so sure about Chris (maybe the Dancing with the Stars thing had put him off) and was heavily considering Chris’ brother, Liam, and Tom Hiddleston for the role.

Chris had dipped his toes in the Hollywood pond before he was considered, playing George Kirk (father to James Kirk of Starship Enterprise) in the opening sequence of JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek, but only in the opening sequence. Hemsworth hadn’t had a big opportunity to wrap his teeth around a character, and he yearned for the opportunity to play Thor. It wasn’t until Joss had a word with Kenneth that Branagh even reconsidered.

“I was about to go back for the audition for Ken,” Chris told Amy Pascale, author of a biography of Whedon, “and Joss called him just, you know, without me even knowing and said: ‘Hey, look….I really like this guy. He’s talented and fights for the right things.’ Ken really respected his opinion, and I’m sure that helped me get the job.”

It was actually whilst crossing the street in Vancouver that he got the call that he’d scored the role. After being a bit hesitant at first, and considering turning the opportunity down, due to creative concerns on his part, he accepted graciously. It was at that point Hemsworth was crowned Asgardian warrior, hammerless and banished to Earth in Branagh’s Thor.

Cut-scene to the post-credit shot in Jon Favreau’s 2010 masterpiece Iron Man 2. Phil Coulson, high-ranking officer of the special espionage agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers a large hammer - Thor’s Mjöllnir - in a desert.

That little easter egg got every Marvel fan from here to Timbuktuh very, very, very excited.

Though less well-received than the other Marvel characters, Hemsworth’s portrayal of the Freudian-style Norse God was garnered by critics world-wide and was surely the character that introduced Hemsworth to the world stage and the glittering lights of Tinseltown.

Starring alongside acting legends, such as Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, and Tom Hiddleston, Chris was in good company. In the film, after reigniting a dormant war, Thor is banished from Asgard to Earth, stripped of his powers and his hammer Mjölnir. As

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Mighty Thor—to stop Gorr the God Butcher (extra points to the guy who comes up with these names) from massacring the deities.

his brother Loki (Hiddleston) plotted to take the Asgardian throne, Thor made any move imaginable to prove himself worthy.

After the immense financial success of Branagh’s Thor (earning $449.3 million worldwide), two sequels were released - Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World in 2013 and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok in 2017. The character also joined forces with other Marvel superheros in several The Avengers films, most notably in the 2019 Endgame where Hemsworth (spoiler alert) donned a very impressive fat-suit.

Set to be released in cinemas across NZ on 7 July, Hemsworth’s fourth time in the role as the God of Thunder will see him in a bit of a different light—in search, to put it bluntly, for inner peace.

Rumours have been floating around the internet that the Marvel film will also feature Hemsworth ‘partially nude’—lads, hide your mothers.

Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Kiwi Taika Waititi, begins with Thor having put down his hammer following the events of Avengers: Endgame, to have a ‘midlife crisis’ (Taika’s words, not ours). Those plans are squashed, however, when forced out of early-retirement to recruit a team of gods—and Natalie Portman, now the

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“I don’t know that I would’ve done another if Taika hadn’t said yes, he was going to do it.

He had written this beautiful script which was a wacky, crazy, romantic comedy set in space and that I hadn’t seen before.”

“I don’t know that I would’ve done another if Taika hadn’t said yes, he was going to do it,” Hemsworth told Vanity Fair. “He had written this beautiful script which was a wacky, crazy, romantic comedy set in space and that I hadn’t seen before.”

Even though Thor: Love and Thunder may be Hemsworth’s farewell to the Marvel Universe (with this being his fourth run with Thor), in a recent interview with America’s culture magazine, WIRED, he explained how much he loved playing the role. He noted how he loved living in the world created by several of Hollywood’s greatest minds, but now needed to pass the reigns.

“It felt very fresh and it felt like we were trying something we hadn’t tried before. It was, in Taika’s words, a wacky, wild, romantic comedy set in space…I love playing Thor—I played it for many many years and would continue to do so if people wanted me to. The most challenging part of playing Thor is reinventing it each time and not having it be predictable for an audience and having it be something they've seen before…”

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Alongside playing Thor, Hemsworth has successfully kept the ball rolling with other projects, like his portrayal as the Huntsman in the 2012 dark-fantasy film, Snow White and the Huntsman. He appeared in the 2016 Ghostbusters film, alongside Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig. He acquired rave reviews playing Formula One driver, James Hunt in Ron Howard’s 2013 Rush, and gave the world a full-blown degustation on action in his role as Tyler Rake in Sam Hargreaves’ Extraction, available on Netflix. The directorial debut of American stuntman Sam Hargreaves and produced by the Russo brothers (who directed Hemsworth in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), Extraction was Chris Hemsworth at his action finest.

“I got to invent a new character that isn’t held to any restrictions from something done before or a comic book or a real-life figure,” he told Indian news media group, The Hindu.

Chris’ latest gift to Netflix—released in early June this year—is his role as Steve Abnesti in sci-fi thriller, Spiderhead.

Adapted from a short story by award-winning author, George Saunders, Spiderhead follows a prisoner in a drug testing programme run by Abnesti (played by our lad Chris). Within only a month of its release, this film has garnered rave reviews of Chris’ performance.

“Chris Hemsworth really gets to flex his acting muscles,” one viewer wrote, “he’s amazing!”

Abnesti, portrayed as a slack and sleazy, ‘prophet’type character, is (as Vulture.com put it) “the best thing he’s done”. It’s noted on several review sites that Chris’ comedic timing in the film is truly exceptional, paralleling his natural Australian character and his work in Ghostbusters.

And, of course, everyone loves him. He’s Chris Hemsworth, after all. Just think, two decades ago, Hemsworth was just starting out in small television roles, whereas now he’s (in our opinion) Hollywood’s coolest Chris. He’s also one of the most highly paid ones too, earning a whopping $20 million payday in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Money well-earned, I’d say!

As well as working hard on Thor’s latest savingof-the-universe film, Hemsworth is also signed on to starring in the latest Mad Max film for the hit franchise, with the working title of The Wasteland.

In the film, Hemsworth will be starring alongside other brilliant actors such as Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Hardy.

From his early days in Home and Away to Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth has truly become one of Hollywood’s greatest accomplishments. He’s a cool guy, for sure. We all love a ‘rising-from-the-ashes’, superhero origin story with all the key elements leading the central character to saving the world.

We fell in love with Chris as Thor as he embodies just that. He too rose from nothing to save the world.

Whatever the reason, Chris Hemsworth seems to be the coolest of the ‘cool guys’ to come out of Hollywood in recent years, and he’s bringing his hammer along, one last time, to boot.

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LIST FEATURE

The

BIGGEST Shorters They stalk Wall Street looking for dodgy businesses to short, and business is booming. They have shaken finance to its very core with their larger than life attacks and prescience on where the market is going. Are they heroes or villains?

Has morality ever even had a place in finance?

Why should we start now? These are the stories of the biggest and most controversial short sellers in the business.

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Short stocks have been entering the public consciousness more and more these last couple of years. For the uninitiated, shorting is essentially borrowing stocks when they’re priced high and selling them on with the expectation that their future value is going to be lower than what you borrowed them at. You then close your position at the new lower price and pocket the difference of what they were borrowed at.

You’re betting that the company will underperform.

This strategy isn’t as available for retail traders here in New Zealand and I don’t consider that a bad thing. Being able to quickly and easily short a position while sitting on the toilet is inviting disaster for the casual investor. The catch is that if you’re wrong and the stock goes up in value, closing the position gets expensive.

The stock might keep climbing forever and you’ll never get your clean exit. You’ve got infinite losses, my friend. If your provider doesn’t believe you have the capital to close, they’ll do it for you, cleaning out your account in no time at all. This is a particularly fun way to zero out a FOREX account by leveraging 10x/100x while you’re at it.

Now that we’re done with the beginners guide, let’s take a good long look at some of the most famous short sellers today.

Bill Gates Gates has always struck me as a very positive person, so to hear he has a short position in anything at all came as somewhat of a surprise.

The reveal came from leaked texts stemming from the enigmatic Elon Musk, who’s been pissy at Bill for taking out a short position on his company Tesla.

“Do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla?”

Musk queried him in April.

“Sorry to say I haven’t closed it out,” responded Gates. “I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”

“Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change,” Musk texted Gates, seemingly unaware that you don’t need to be all in on every single project to still be all in on climate change.

Elon confirmed the messages were real, noting he hadn’t been the one to leak them and that “I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.”

Musk claimed in May that to close the $500 million position now would

cost Bill “$1.5B to $2B to close it out” due to Tesla’s stocks going up.

Bill has stated that he doesn’t publicly talk about his investments, although he did have this to say about the fracas. “I give a lot more to climate change than Elon or anyone else,” Gates said. “I give a lot of philanthropic dollars, I back companies - you know electric cars are about 16% of emissions, so we also need to solve that other 84%. He’s done a great job, but somebody shorting the stock doesn’t slow him down or hurt him in any way.”

Somehow this entire piece became about Musk, as it always does when he has even the barest whiff of being related to something.

THE MOST SHORTED STOCKS AMZN Amazon.com

LUMN Lumen Technologies

AAL American Airlines Group

18.57%

13.05%

13%

These are the most shorted stocks listed by percentage of their shares shorted. Data pulled in early June 2022.

CHK Chesapeake Energy

TTWO Take-Two Interactive Software

12.9%

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Fahmi “The Assassin” Quadir

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Short sellers are reviled across the board, many see them as vultures feasting off the bones of companies.

This sentiment rose to new prominence during the height of the GameStop short squeeze when r/wallstreetbets retail investors used the sheer power of the crowd to put pressure on short positions.

In a quirk of stale data reporting, it was found that GameStop’s peak short interest was 141.8% of its float, something most people didn’t believe should be even possible. “Overgreedy” was the consensus.

Around this time, short sellers began shutting down their social accounts as mobs started to bombard them with death threats. Gabe Plotkin of Melvin Capital Management took the threats so seriously he had to hire security for him and his family.

Credit Patrick Lewis / Netflix

THE PARIAHS

To gain a nickname on Wall Street, you need to be ruthless and the best of the very best. Fahmi Quadir is both of these things, and she did it all before she hit 30. She worked for two years as an analyst, where she made her most infamous short. She saw Valeant Pharmaceuticals International was pulling some dodgy moves and possible fraudulent practices. She placed her short position in June 2015 near the peak of Valeant’s worth. Between July 2015 and March 2016, the companies stock tanked going from $257 to just $28. The firm she worked for, Krensavage, saw this position she made as their biggest earner. An “untenable” situation with Krensavage saw her leave the company in 2017.

After this, she decided to start her own fund called Safkhet Capital. She started out with just two employees and $6 million to work with, that is not a lot of capital to absorb losses with. She has slowly been building that base fueled by word of mouth based on her reputation and a handy 2018 Netflix documentary called “Dirty Money”. She now manages about $50 million and continues to grow. But it’s still early days, and she has to prove to everyone she isn’t a one trick pony with her Valeant position.

In terms of being a woman in the mans world of Wall Street she says, “Yes, I have faced terrible harassment, but I was always in a position to tell those who belittled me to f**k off.”

After taking massive hits to his short position on GameStop, he adapted his strategy but in May 2022 he had to shut up shop as ironically his slumping long positions in Amazon, Microsoft and Live Nation put the final nails in his firm’s coffin.

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Michael Burry Michael Burry went to stardom after he profiteered hugely off the GFC, shorting the banks and their subprime mortgages, spawning a book and a movie called The Big Short. That’s the short version (ha). Burry saw as early as 2003 and 2004 that the real estate bubble was ready to burst with catastrophic results as early as 2007.

In the years leading up to this analysis, he had continued to beat the market with remarkable results, building up a portfolio of investors who enjoyed nice returns. As things started to heat up and he started to focus more on the subprime market, investors with him got edgy and withdrew their capital. The ones that stuck around to fund the credit default swaps on subprime deals he had persuaded off Goldman Sachs and co, saw over $700 million in profits. He himself saw a personal profit of $100 million.

This win has elevated him to being a celebrity soothsayer, fortelling dark futures and looming collapses of the various companies he shorts. Notably, he held a short position in Tesla at the end of 2020 up until the end of 2021 when he said he was no longer shorting it after it rose 100%.

Not everything he does is shorting though. In 2019, he bought in on GameStop as he saw it was undervalued, even writing letters to the board. In 2021, GameStop would be blessed with meme magic and see an astronomic spike, but we’ll chat a bit more about that one later. But just because he’s gone to the moon with GameStop doesn’t mean he’s onboard with everything else internet bros are investing in. Last year, he was predicting the crash of crypto, and at the time of writing, people’s trashcoins are all heading to zero, and things aren’t looking too good in the short term.

With the current downturn, Burry is also forecasting a further crash in the market, possibly sending the US into a recession. At the end of May, he shared two images, one of declining U.S. personal savings, and another of skyrocketing outstanding consumer credit. His prognosis: “US Personal Savings fell to 2013 levels, the savings rate to 2008 levels- while revolving credit card debt grew at a record-setting pace back to the pre-COVID peak despite all those $trillions of cash dropped in their laps. Looming: a consumer recession and more earnings trouble.”

Activist shorters have to worry about the companies they call out publicly coming after them as well. “Try being a fund manager who goes after organised crime, international money laundering, the Russian mafia, all while managing pocket change,” Fahmi Quadir rhyly told the New York Times. She shares her GPS coordinates with a colleague and her lawyer, you know, just in case.

In 2008, short selling was banned on 1,000 financial stocks with the reason being that it would provide a boost to the shares of banks, brokers and insurers. The rule was dropped eventually and in a post-mortem Harvard study, they found that banning shorting was

more detrimental than anything. “In fact, these stocks consistently underperform during the whole period the ban is in effect. This suggests that the shorting ban did not provide an artificial boost in prices,” the study states.

"Short sellers on a stock have nothing, zero, zilch, nada, to do with the success or failure of the underlying business," Michael Burry tweeted on April 27 of this year. But this doesn’t stop them from being the scapegoats when the bears rule the market.

But Short Sellers see themselves as investigators, and prior to the GFC they were generally seen in a positive light, keeping the market honest.

Whatever your personal opinion on short sellers might be, maybe we should all start thinking like short sellers when considering our investment positions.

“The ideas related to short-selling—the way we approach research, the way we ask questions, this notion of getting to the truth of these companies—I think every investor should do that. If more investors thought about investing like short sellers do, I think you’d have a freer, fairer market,” says Fahmi Quadir. Being a bear about your bullish moves is some good words to live by. Blind optimism just makes you a gambler at the investment table.

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Bill Ackman Bill was in the game as an activist short seller. This means looking into businesses, building a thesis, creating a massive short position, and then publishing their reports for the rest of the market to decide on. A compelling enough report will kick start the decline in the shares they are holding and result in big wins. Letting people know that you don’t believe in a company so much that you’ve put millions of dollars where your mouth is, sure is a pretty compelling way to make an argument. This can be a good way of wiping out dodgy companies, or overinflated businesses.

Ackman may be one of the most famous activist short sellers, but not for any of the reasons he’d prefer. The other player in this story is Carl Icahn, who first interacted with Ackman in 2003. Ackman was in a bind and sold his hedge funds stakes in a real estate company to Icahn on the proviso that Ackman’s remaining investors would get a share of the profits if Icahn ever sold them off. He instantly flipped the real estate company for a 75% gain and declined from sharing profits.

The matter went to court and Icahn lost, having to pay Ackman’s investors $9 million plus interest.

Things settled down and for the next nine years, things were fine. In 2012, Ackman announced a short position on Herbalife, a nutrition supplement company which he accused of being a pyramid scheme. He put a $1 billion short position on that basis.

Icahn saw his chance, and placed himself in the opposing corner to back Herbalife. The next year the pair appeared on CNBC and ripped into each other live on TV, airing their dirty laundry and generally having a go. It’s an entertaining ride and well worth checking out on Youtube if you have the chance.

Following the public spat, Icahn started to throw an inordinate amount of money into backing Herbalife, and in 2014, he put five of his guys onto the company’s board to help it through a newly opened case the FTC opened against the company’s business practices. An investigation like this is exactly what Ackman needed, and the FTC fined Herbalife $200 million and forced it to restructure its multi-level marketing business.

Icahn is filthy rich though, and $200 million is pocket money.

He doubles down, increasing his ownership from 25% to 34.99%.

For years, the spat between the pair continues with Icahn dipping into his own pockets to fund a one man short squeeze.

The problem was, Ackman was using investor money, while Icahn could afford to pay for his own revenge. By 2019, Ackman was ready to admit defeat, painfully closing his position entirely. After this, Icahn would begin to wind down his position in the company and by mid 2021, Icahn had closed out entirely netting himself an estimated $1.3 billion. The only thing that tastes sweeter than a billion dollars is revenge.

BIG SHORT SQUEEZES

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For many of us, a sudden spike in a stocks value will look like dollar signs. For the would-be short seller, it spells certain doom. A squeeze will test a sellers strategy, sell and eat the loss, or hold and wait for a favourable wind.

VOLKSWAGEN

AMAZON

GAMESTOP

Volkswagen became the largest company in the world for a day in 2008, after bears were caught with their pants down when Porsche suddenly announced it owned 74.1% of Volkswagen, a company people thought was an independent entity.

Shares jumped up more than 93%. Short positions liquidated like mad.

Amazon earned a short lived squeeze in January 2022, with a record setting single-day gain of $190 billion based on a tasty fourth-quarter earnings report. Unfortunately for them, they set another new record in April when AMZN stocks dipped 14%, their single biggest single-day loss since 2006.

Fueled by meme magic, Gamestop became the first short squeeze fueled by retail traders tasting blood in the water. The fervour online has irrevocably changed the tenor of retail trading and the fallout is still being dealt with today. The squeeze was so strong it helped ensure the shut down of Melvin Capital.

LIST FEATURE

Jim Chanos Chanos has gathered a number of nicknames for himself over the years, collecting them like the scalps of his enemies. “Darth Vader of Wall Street”, the “Catastrophe Capitalist” and the “LeBron James of short selling” to name just a few. He’s notoriously bearish stating, “I have seen more stocks go to zero than infinity”. It all comes down to fundamentals, going over companies’ financials with a fine tooth comb looking for indescrepencies, rather than just relying on a dismal outlook on the world.

Chanos’s early career actually mirrors the upstart Quadir’s. He too worked a couple gigs as an analyst before striking out and making his own firm called Kynikos, specialising in short selling. The capital he used to start Kynikos came from his early big win betting against Baldwin United, which was cooking the books by basing its value off assumed income and potential revenue. It was a Wall Street darling, but after he revealed its dirty tactics, it quickly folded.

His next big win came with Enron, when the rest of the industry was willfully ignoring their financials in favour of puffed up valuations. He warned that the energy and commodities company was merely a disguised high-risk hedge fund. He wasn’t listened to and a year later in 2001, they filed for bankruptcy after it all came to light that the company was engaging in accounting fraud. This win made him an estimated $500 million in profits.

After a couple wins regarding the usual suspects failing in the GFC, he entered a rough patch as the market entered its long running bull run. This has made him a target for the bulls to take same cheap hits. “Jim Chanos makes money once a decade. While the market rips up, the guy just bleeds money,” Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Chamath Palihapitiya, told CNBC in 2019. “But the reality is being long equities makes sense; being long innovation makes sense.

Betting against entrepreneurs who are changing the world has never been a profitable endeavour. Why start now?”

The answer is because sometimes it can make you a lot of money. A year after that soundbite, Chanos cashed in a reported $100 million after fintech company, Wirecard, collapsed. He’d already built a position against the company in 2019, but after Financial Times uncovered a missing $2.2 billion from the companies books, he pumped his position further, cashing in handily from its collapse and the eventual arrest of the former CEO Markus Braun.

“If you’re a fundamental short-seller, the Wirecard story was a classic,” Chanos told the FT. “The buzzwords, the numbers that didn’t make sense, the business model that seemingly didn’t make sense.”

These days, Chanos is cynical of (surprise, surprise) Tesla, although in recent years he’s had to reduce his short to a put position as Tesla climbs and climbs. “Most auto companies trade at one half of revenues because they’re cyclical. Tesla trades at nine or 10 times revenues, a huge 90 times the estimated earnings,” he said as an explanation of his bearish attitude in a 2022 interview with LiveWire Markets.

Recently, he said that Coinbase was “tremendously overvalued”, although as I write this, there is a massive winter hitting both the bus stop I freeze at before work and the financial markets as a whole, including the cryptosphere.

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LIST FEATURE

ELON VS THE WORLD

Throughout this piece we have seen that there is a trend among short traders to hate on Tesla. In return, CEO Elon Musk is not above returning fire. Here are the list of names who have at some point put themselves into the crosshairs and what Elon has to say about them.

Michael Burry Bill Gates "Burry is a broken clock." “in case u need to lose a boner fast” Jim Chanos “So many reporters gave Chanos airtime when he called Tesla a worthless fraud. Now that he has been proven wrong, silence…”

George Soros You can’t talk about short sellers without talking about George Soros.

He’s become known as the man who broke the Bank of England and earning himself a cool $1 billion in the process.

It all started when the British government decided to join the European Rate Mechanism (ERM) in 1990, as both a move to unify with the other European economies and keep a lid on inflation. The ERM was an interim solution to artificially stabilise exchange rates between member countries until a new fangled thing called the Euro was introduced. Member countries were required to keep their currency from fluctuating by more than 6%, just enough flexibility to create liquidity. If the value dipped to the lower band, governments would be forced to intervene. But the pound was a bucking bronco, and there was no way the government could hold onto it as its value went into free fall. They had also set themselves up to fail, as George Soros spotted.

They had pegged the pound’s value far too high to maintain reliably.

To maintain the value of the pound, the Government started to pump interest rates up from 10% to 12%, even talking about going even higher to 15%. They also started to buy back the sterling with their reserves of foreign currency. But the collapse had started and it was all working towards a day that would forever be known as Black Wednesday.

George Soros, among others, could tell from a mile off that the pound had been overvalued to start off with and that they couldn’t possibly maintain its current position. At first, he was bullish on the pound, but then started to smell things turning just a month before Black Wednesday. He built up a massive short position on the pound. All the while he was surfing the decline by getting his team to sell off UK gilts and then buy them back up at a lower price later on down the line.

Rince and repeat.

On Black Wednesday, the government was buying billions of pound an hour as sell offs came thick and fast. The pressure was so immense, they ended up pulled the plug on their membership entirely. The ripple effects of this blunder was wide reaching. The government in charge wrote itself off as being competent years before the next election.

Tony Blaire’s government that followed gave the Bank of England the freedom to call the shots, allowing it to come out from under the government’s thumb.

Soros’s insight earned him a handy $1 billion in the pocket and cemented his position as one of the preeminent currency speculators in the world.

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Every Other Short Seller “Celebrate summer with Tesla Short Shorts. Run like the wind or entertain like Liberace with our red satin and gold trim design. Relax poolside or lounge indoors year-round with our limitededition Tesla Short Shorts, featuring our signature Tesla logo in front with ‘S3XY’ across the back. Enjoy exceptional comfort from the closing bell.”

Manu Manek Manu Manek has a couple nicknames, all cobra based. “The Black Cobra”, “The Cobra of Bombay”, etc. He rose up the ranks during the 70s and 80s to become one of the most influential figures on the Bombay stock exchange. His incredible reach is rumoured to extend all the way to the officials of the exchange who would pay him special favour. “Manek was a legendary personality and a powerful operator who dictated the market. Without his nod, it was impossible to become the director of a company,” Ratilal Choksey, the founder of K R Choksey Shares and Securities says. “Apparently, on the day of the election, he would send the name or list of directors to the companies and only those people ever got elected.”

At the time, lending was pretty exorbitant in India, especially for investments. Manek ran a credit facility charging 20-30% interest to traders. In the process of doing this, he also had an inside line on which shares his lenders were going to be targeting.

Honestly, the more you hear about Manek the more he sounds less like a businessman and more like a gangster. The nail in the coffin was his Bear Cartel, which was made up of a number of lackeys with enough capital among them to move the market as they pleased. That was until the cartel came up against Reliance Industries Limited, run by one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani.

The Bear Cartel started to put pressure on, and in return Ambani activated a body known as Friends of Reliance Association. This group started to buy back shares shorted by Manek, stabilising the stock at first before pushing the stock into squeeze territory. The bears started to lose large swathes of cash and the whole thing got so out of hand, the exchange closed for three days.

While the exchange experienced some downtime, the pair came to an agreement, resulting in a INR30 million loss for Manek.

Ambani has an estimated worth of US$101.3 billion as of June 2022, making him the richest man in Asia, and the 7th richest in the world.

THE SOLO SHORT SQUEEZE

In the above story, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani was able to fight fire with fire by doing some barely legal practices to squeeze out his rival. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and won’t be the last.

One of the most famous similar examples was leaving just 1128 shares outstanding. He’d on the opposite side of the planet, back in 1923. almost doubled the price of his own stock, The young upstart US grocery chain, Piggly sending it from $39 to $60. There was only Wiggly, was turning heads. It had only started one place short sellers could go hat in hand in 1916 but grew like crazy, revolutionising to settle, and that was to Saunders, and he was going to have his pound of flesh the grocery scene. It was a unicorn, it was a from them. At the time, the NYSE disrupter, it was a business with a stupid as had no Securities and Exchange hell name. It was everything Silicon Valley Commission, so it set its own shoots for today. rules. Having an outsider like After the recession in the 1920s a Saunders come in guns blazing, couple of the franchises folded, leading a country bumpkin by Wall Street’s to short interest in the company, which reckoning, just wouldn’t do.

CEO Clarence Saunders took Insiders complained umbrage to. He swore to take and an investigation revenge, saying he would was launched into his “break Wall Street”, like price manipulation a gaggle of Redditors. (which wasn’t illegal at He took a $10 million the time). loan ($150 mill in He had lent out today’s money) and 42,000 shares to started buying up his short sellers, and now own stocks. Within did a recall. They had a week, he owned Clarence Saunders, the man who took on Wall 24 hours to cough half the shares, and Street solo... And lost. up the dough. Share

by March 1923 he prices jumped even owned 99% of shares,

further as they scrambled to cover, sending the price from $75 to $124. It appears that Wall Street has never been well liked and newspapers around the country crowed at his win. “This Southern ‘rube’ has shown himself smarter at the Wall Street game than the New York professionals,” said one paper.

The exchange stepped in at this point to put an end to his games. Piggly Wiggly shares were suspended from being traded on the exchange completely and short sellers were given another week to buy the remaining shares Saunders didn’t own. The price dipped after all this, but Saunders was able to make a tidy profit.

Unfortunately this wasn’t enough to cover the massive loan he made to start this game and he was unable to offload any of the shares he had hoarded. Creditors came calling and within a year, he had stepped down as president of Piggly Wiggly and filed for bankruptcy, losing all his properties and large wealth he had accumulated.

INNOVATION INTERVIEW

A New We have a space industry now worth a couple of billion dollars, but going back a few years, no one would have thought it. Except for Mark Rocket, that is. Not only was he the first New Zealander to book a ticket with Virgin Galactic, but he was the seed investor and co-director of Rocket Lab. He has now set his sights on the stratosphere with his company, Kea Aerospace.

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Kea Aerospace’s goal is to build a fleet of solar powered aircraft that will globally operate in the stratosphere. This will enable them to collect a whole lot of high-resolution data way more frequently than what we can achieve at the moment. They believe think its going to have an amazing green impact around the world and will open up untold potential for different industries to be able to access high resolution data far cheaper than what is available at the moment through conventional aircraft or satellite.

Not only does this offer up new potential for the likes of agricultural, forestry, infrastructure and marine industries, but also for environmental and climate change focused projects. We talk to Mark Rocket about the future of the stratospheric observation and his own entrepreneurial journey to get there.

INNOVATION INTERVIEW

w Level Do you sometimes wonder what would've happened if you hadn't sold your internet company and got into aerospace?

Yeah, there's that whole sliding doors scenario.

There are so many things that happen through your life and you just randomly connect with someone and I feel like when Peter Beck and I met, that was a really interesting thing. I've had other people that I've met over the years and it changes the whole course of your life. I think it's just better not to think about it too much.

There's that element of seizing opportunity and meeting the right people along the way, but you obviously had in you this inherent drive. Does this go back to an early childhood fascination for you?

I'm a Star Wars generation kid. I grew up in the seventies, Star Wars had such a massive impact on my psyche. I read a whole lot of science fiction books as well, which had a profound effect on me. When I was in high school, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. I actually wanted

to go to Tibet and become a monk, I thought that would be kind of cool <laughs>. But I ended up grabbing a backpack and a guitar and travelling around Europe and Australia. I came back to New Zealand and I was unemployed for a while in a rock and roll band. After about six months, I think they got sick of me being on the dole, so I became eligible for a subsidy and I ended up working at one of the first internet companies in 1994.

That was a huge break for me because previously I'd been mainly working in bars and vineyards and itinerant labour kind of stuff. I thought it'd be

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INNOVATION INTERVIEW

cool to work in an office and so I ended up really having a bit of luck working at one of the first internet companies in Christchurch. I started to learn about internet marketing and I found that to be really intriguing. In ‘98, I set up a couple of companies and they went on to be fairly successful and put a bit of gas in the tank.

Do you have to have a slightly hippie/ monk-like thing going on to be successful in tech? <Laughs>. I think there are lots of different flavours of people doing things, but, certainly for me, I maybe had a bit of an element of that early on.

If we go back to 2007, 2008 when you were doing your thing with Rocket Lab, could you fathom that NZ would be in the position where we are now?

I was doing an entrepreneur's success course in 2000. There was a program where you'd think about your own deathbed and looking back at your life and you think, what are some of the regrets? What are some of the things I wanted to achieve? Out of that, I had a list of key goals and one of them was to go to space. I wrote that down in 2000, my companies weren't going that well at that time. There were no space flights that you could actually buy to get to space so it all seemed a bit far-fetched.

When I did sell one of my companies, I saw that Virgin Galactic was offering tickets and I thought, I've just gotta do it. I've written it down. I know that it's a key goal of mine. I've just gotta move towards that direction.

Being part of that Virgin Galactic group really

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opened my mind to what was happening internationally. I met a lot of really fascinating people. In 2006, I saw Elon Musk speaking in California and he was talking about SpaceX and what they were trying to do. But I noticed that all the activity was happening in one half of the planet, in the Northern Hemisphere. There was nothing going on for aerospace down in the Southern Hemisphere.

So when I came back to New Zealand, I was talking about Virgin and saying, I wanted to see a space industry emerge in New Zealand and Peter Beck heard about that and gave me a call and in 2006 we just started talking about the business plans and we got underway with commercial operations in 2007.

What kind of leader are you?

I seem to get some reasonable feedback, but I think you've gotta balance how you approach leadership. At the end of the day, we're all humans with different motivations and it's about picking people that want to come along that journey with you.

Some people wanna get off the bus earlier, that's fine. But it's about being aligned and making sure that you have the right values and you want to grow individually and as a group.

Have there been any major hurdles along the way where you didn’t think it was possible to continue?

It is ambitious, flying in the stratosphere continuously. There's no commercial operation actually doing this at the moment. It's harder than setting up an orbital space company.

If you think about it, aircraft typically fly to

"I think what a lot of people don't realise is we're actually the first country in the world to have an orbital rocket capability without any militaryindustrial complex behind us."

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INNOVATION INTERVIEW

about 12 kilometres altitude, and then you’ve got satellites orbiting around 300 plus kilometres altitude. There's this big gap in the middle. The stratosphere is part of that where there's just not much flying. Maybe in the Northern Hemisphere, you might get the odd YouTube spy plane or something, or a few balloons. But really there's this big gap in the atmosphere where we don't really have much activity and an awareness of what's going on.

So I think, being 20 times closer to the ground in satellites, for a similar or smaller payload, you can get much better resolution. I'm also really excited about using solar power. Instead of burning all this Avgas or rocket fuel, you can be powered by the sun and have this continuous flight capability.

In the future, we're going to have global fleets of these aircraft that will be providing a full data picture around maritime domain awareness and disaster management.

For example, in Tonga with the volcano, for a week no one knew what was going on there. You could have this type of aircraft to give much faster

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relief to the people and help them navigate things much quicker.

Maritime domain awareness is a huge issue for New Zealand. We've got this massive maritime area where we have very little picture of actually what's going on.

There’s also Antarctic research, where in the summer, this type of vehicle would be amazing for doing a whole lot of Antarctic research.

We've got lots of beautiful sun hours down there in summer, so it means you can continuously fly way easier.

Environmental monitoring is something I'm really passionate about. We've got waterways and our forests and land and coastline, and we don't really have a clear understanding of how that's being used. Month on month, year on year, there are massive changes going on.

If we actually are detecting what's going on in all these places, we'll be able to make informed decisions instead of just throwing darts at a dartboard with blindfolds on.

Do you have any regrets about leaving Rocket Lab? When we started Rocket Lab, it was a New Zealand company and we were very keen to develop that technology. We knew that would have to get international partners in, and it was actually quite hard going early on, getting the commercial support. Even for our first space launch, we couldn't get any New Zealand sponsors to get behind that. They were worried it was going to blow up and make their brand look bad. But to me, that was an amazing opportunity for someone to support this nascent space industry. A lot of people were pretty conservative and they just didn’t see space and New Zealand together. It took quite a few years for people to really understand the opportunity and that we could do things.

After our first space launch in 2009, we started to win contracts with different places around the world. One of them was with America and there were a couple of contracts that I wasn't so keen on, so I decided to get off the bus at that point.

I'm really pleased that the orbital program has started up subsequent to that and it's amazing

INNOVATION INTERVIEW

what Rocket Lab has achieved. The reality is we had to get money from another country to undertake that orbital program in New Zealand.

It's been phenomenal, what's actually happened there has been absolutely incredible.

I think what a lot of people don't realise is we're actually the first country in the world to have an orbital rocket capability without any militaryindustrial complex behind us. You look at all the other 10 countries, they've had billions of dollars put into the military-industrial complex technology development. Whereas in New Zealand, we didn't have that.

We went to Silicon Valley and got some money and started building rockets back here. Rocket Lab has been a key part of building a really flourishing aerospace industry. It's not just about space technology, but it's also about advanced mobility and UAVs; there are way more companies in that area, in New Zealand at the moment.

We've got key aerospace, but there's also a whole heap of really exciting UAV advanced mobility projects that are doing their testing and development in New Zealand and I think that's a fantastic opportunity for the country to support that. It's already creating thousands of jobs and that's all set to grow if we can help support that industry.

Do you think that maybe we haven't learned from the mistakes that we've made on earth? Do you think it's reaching saturation and we need to pull back a little?

I'm the president of Aerospace Christchurch, which is an industry body in Christchurch and

we're starting to move into national projects as well. We had a meet up recently about ethics and there were a couple of really compelling speakers talking about it.

The thousands of satellites that have been put up into orbit, it basically makes astronomy impossible in the Northern Hemisphere and it's crazy. Even in New Zealand, we've got massive issues there. You just got streaks all through the images.

They are looking at mitigating the reflective properties of the hardware and there are certainly things that could be done. New Zealand is leading the way in some of that approach.

I think there's a lot more that we could be doing and we're going to come up with some really big hairy questions that we're going to have to answer.

We've got some really interesting problems to tick through.

You've got different countries that have entirely different philosophies on how they deal with people or the environment. So I think the next 10, 20 years are going to be absolutely amazing to see how we actually get through those things.

Do you have any advice for anyone with a crazy idea about a new industry that we don't yet have?

It's a tricky one. Throughout my life, I found these times when I didn't really believe in myself as much. I think if you really truly believe in what you're doing and really resonate, it makes such a huge difference.

Having that enthusiasm and finding the right people to go on the journey with you and just being open to the possibilities.

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STYLE

STYLE Launching in early June, the adidas x Gucci collection features colourful prints, jacquard fabrics and a range of lifestye products, combining high fashion luxe with functional sportwear.

70S SPORT COOL

Photographer: Carlijn Jacobs

Mixing Gucci's kaleidoscopic aesthetic with adidas of the late 70s comes one the year's most highly anticipated colabs.

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Envisioned by Gucci's Creative Director, Alessandro Michele, the campaign's imagery takes direct inspiration from the 1979 adidas catalogue, a homage to the past that we can definitely get behind.

Introducing Imm1 Defence

The world is open.

Prepare your cells.

Imm1 contains natural glycoprotein isolate to support your immune defences against foreign bodies. It supports the immune system in the gut, freeing up resources which can be redirected to where they are needed. → Supports your immune system from within the gut → Fast acting formula → Unique blend of breakthrough and patented ingredients → Formulated for travellers, people who are frequently exposed to bugs, or are feeling run down

STYLE

ZEGNA

WINTER

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STYLE

We’re truly in winter now, so it’s time to rug up with Zegna’s latest looks. The Winter 22 collection gently yet firmly assesses what a contemporary style should look and feel like: functional and individual, comfortable yet not conformist.

Of the entire collection, we present to you the top pics by Artistic Director Alessandro Sartori.

“The reality we live in today requires adaptability; it asks us all to be fluid.

Translating this idea into clothing means building a language of shapes and textures that grows and consolidates over time, matching the needs of the moment. The notion of the hybrid is one I keep exploring, because there’s progress in erasing staid categories”, says Alessandro.

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Sharp blades, sharp looks It's a cutthroat game to play

Groom Picks 3.

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1. STRATTON, The Winterbourne Beard Brush, $29.99 2. MOOSEHEAD Max Wax 80G $11.99, 3. THIERS-ISSARD Singing Razor 78 Snakewood $429, 4. GROOM MATE Platinum XL Nose Hair Trimmer 25420 $36.99 5. BRAVO SIERRA Deodorant White Vetiver & Cedarwood 6. MUHLE RN46 Black Ceramic Shaving Mug, $61.95 7. MUHLE S81M226SSR Rytmo Safety Razor Shaving Set Black 8. ZEUS Cotton Steam Towel, Black 6 pack $51

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PIERRE CARDIN Structure and form inspire winter’s collection from Pierre Cardin. With a passion for the technical, these newly released ties play with multiple weave structures to create unique textural effects. Together with striking pairing of colour and design, this approach delivers a three-dimensionality that will complement and uplift your winter outfit, be it casual or formal, jacket or jumper.

Available at independent men’s stores throughout New Zealand.

GUCCI STRAIGHT FIT G DOT WOOL SUIT The recent sportswear drops by Gucci, with their splashy bright colours are eye catching for sure, but how about dialing it back juuuust a little. Or at least as much as you can with a dark blue and white wool suit textured with a monogram motif. It has a straight and contemporary silhouette, it does its job well. Details included on this single-breasted jacket with half canvas construction include a notch lapel, front flap pockets and chest welt pocket, two interior pockets and two side vents gucci.com RRP$2,980

Black dial, matt black case, black canvas/leather strap, 10 BAR, luminous numbers and red sweep hand (model 3650-04) White dial, 10 BAR, sapphire crystal, red sweep hand and large date display ar 12 o’clock (model 3580-05)

Available from leading jewellers and watchmakers throughout New Zealand P 07 889 3545 or 021 751 115 for stockist details

MANMADE

MAN MADE

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THE DARK ART OF THE BLACK BADGE GHOST

And this kind of makes sense as, according to the Rolls-Royce marketing team, there has always been a bit of a rebellious subversive streak in their clients. The people that think outside the square, take risks and reap the rewards, no it’s not just chauffeur-driven landed gentry, these are “rebellious women and men who built their success by breaking rules, taking risks and challenging conventions. In the 2020s, these women and men engage with luxury products on their own terms. They reject suits for streetwear, use blockchain, not banks and influence the analogue world through their digital endeavours. In doing so, they have created new codes of luxury that resonate with their sensibilities: darker in aesthetic, assertive in character and bold in design.”

IF ROLLS-ROYCE WAS A SUPERHERO, BLACK BADGE WOULD BE ITS DARK AND BROODING ALTER EGO. NOT ENTIRELY EVIL PERSE BUT WITH A SARDONIC AND CUTTING EDGE. AND IT SEEMS THAT ROLLS-ROYCE CLIENTELE IS LAPPING UP THIS DRIVE ON THE WILDER SIDE WITH 27% OF THE ROLLS-ROYCE COMMISSIONS DONNING THE BLACK BADGE AND ITS INFINITY SYMBOL.

“In the five years since Black Badge became publicly available, this bold family of motor cars has come to symbolise the pinnacle of a new type of super-luxury product, setting in motion a shift across the wider luxury industry. Subsequently, nearly all luxury makers create products that seek to capture the Black Badge spirit.” Says Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

NOW.COM

So it was this understanding that the Black Badge was formalised in 2016.

A way for Rolls-Royce to provide the car for those rebellious new age titans of industry - digital and otherwise.

MANMADE

And out of the dark cool, subversive world has emerged the latest Black Badge offering. Actually, we’ll let Müller-Ötvös do the honours…

“Today, we announce a product that represents a new kind of Black Badge motor car, one that seizes on the minimalist, Post Opulent design treatment that has recast the legend of Ghost but amplifies and subverts it with the application of black. Our most advanced motor car yet has been reengineered to characterise the alter ego of Rolls-Royce: assertive, dynamic and potent. This is the purest Black Badge motor car in the marque’s history.

This is Black Badge Ghost.”

So that is bold talk from the CEO but he’s probably actually underselling it even. For a vehicle that is meant to be minimalist, the level of detail is bordering on psychedelic. We are not trying to be glib here either.

While you can choose one of 44,000 ‘ready-to-wear’ colours or create your own entirely unique Bespoke hue, most people go with the signature Black. And to stare into this paintwork is almost like staring into the abyss of infinity. It is really otherworldly. Rolls-Royce achieve this effect using 45kg of paint which is atomised and applied to an electrostatically charged body in white before being oven-dried. It then receives two layers of clear coat before being hand-polished by a team of four to achieve a high-gloss piano finish.

This depth of darkness is the perfect canvas to then add a high-contrast, hand-painted Coachline. Rolls-Royce hallmarks such as the high-polished Spirit of Ecstasy and Pantheon Grille then get a unique chrome electrolyte introduced to the traditional chrome plating process that is co-deposited on the stainless-steel substrate, darkening the finish. Its final thickness is just one micrometre – around one-hundredth of the width of a human hair.

Each of these components is precision-polished by hand to achieve a mirror-black chrome finish.

This special motor car gets its own bespoke 21-inch composite wheelset with the barrel of each wheel made up of 22 layers of carbon fibre laid on three axes, then folded back on themselves at the outer edges of the rim, forming a total of 44 layers of carbon fibre for greater strength. A 3D-forged aluminium hub is bonded to the rim using aerospace-grade titanium fasteners. This is finished with the marque’s hallmark Floating Hubcap, ensuring the Double R monogram remains upright at all times.

The opulent interior sees an accent base created from multiple wood layers pressed onto the interior component substrates, finished in black Bolivar veneer.

Leaves woven from resin-coated carbon and contrasting metal-coated thread laid in a diamond pattern are applied by hand to the components in perfect alignment, creating a three-dimensional effect.

But perhaps some of the most striking details are the ones unseen. The Ghost gets Rolls-Royce’s proprietary all-aluminium spaceframe architecture that debuted with Phantom. This sub-structure not only delivers extraordinary body stiffness, but its flexibility and scalability allowed Ghost to be equipped with all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and the award-winning Planar Suspension system. The Black Badge gets more voluminous air springs to alleviate body roll under more assertive cornering.

All of this dark opulence is propelled by a twinturbocharged 6.75-litre V12 with a total output of 441kW. The ZF eight-speed gearbox and both front and rear-steered axles work to help things along by working collaboratively to adjust the levels of feedback making for a confident and responsive driving experience.

Although you might well just get as much joy just staring at the endless darkness of that stunning paintwork while pondering the meaning of life.

NOW.COM

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MANMADE

Triple Bay's Future NOW THAT ALL THE RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS HAVE HAD THEIR BOATS NICKED OFF THEM, IT’S UP TO SAUDI ARABIA TO BRING ITS A-GAME FOR SUPERLUXURIOUS YACHT DEVELOPMENTS. THEY HAVE A MUCH BETTER CLIMATE FOR IT ANYWAY.

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Saudi Vision 2030 is a strategic project to diversify the country's dependence on oil money to other sectors and strengthen public service infrastructure. One of their flagship projects is the new ultra-luxury Triple Bay Yacht Club on their northwestern coast. The design is all about making you gawk so hard your eyeballs fall out. Set within the Triple Bay Marina, of the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Nature Reserve, AMAALA’s new Yacht Club features a terrace restaurant, infinity pool deck and rooftop cabana lounge across its 7,900 square metres.

“We anticipate that AMAALA will become an international hub for luxury yachting, and as such, the yacht club required a worldclass design, influenced by the surrounding natural elements and Arabic heritage, and underpinned by our commitment to sustainability,” said John Pagano, CEO, AMAALA. Oh yes, apart from all the infinity pools and jaw dropping architecture, it will have 120 berths for yachts up to 130m and also include a porte cochere for yachts that require a little more discreet arrival for their passengers, with the entrance set within an arch that forms a shaded plaza and frames dramatic views to the Red Sea. The area has a mirrored vaulted ceiling over a star-lit floor which creates an alternative night sky for guests in the evening.

Deepwater superyacht berths, fuel dock and personalised service ensures Triple Bay’s future rating as a destination for visiting superyachts, international regattas and domestic cruising.

The entire area of Triple Bay is going to be a thriving hub of activity over the next couple years as it’s developed into a global wellness hub inspired by the Red Sea. Over 1,000 workers are already on site, with $2 billion in contracts already inked.

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Foiled Again TOUCHING THE WATER IS SO PASSÉ, NOT EVEN THE AMERICA’S CUP BOTHERS WITH THAT ANYMORE, SO WHY SHOULD WE? DESIGNED BY SWEDISH FIRM, CANDELA, THE NEW P-8 VOYAGER IS GOING INTO PRODUCTION AT THE END OF 2022. WHEN IT ROLLS OUT THE OTHER END OF THE PRODUCTION LINE IN SWEDEN, IT’S SURE TO NOT MAKE A SPLASH AS IT SILENTLY ZOOMS ACROSS THE OCEAN SURFACE.

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The P-8 Voyager is designed to be a silent, long-range high performance electric boat.

Blasting at 22 knots, it can reach over 50+ NM on a single charge, out-ranging the competition handily with all credit due to the hydrofoil design, cutting down water friction by 80%. The Candela C-POD boat motor is being touted as a longest-lasting ever built. Submerged, the electric motors emit no sound at all, so there’s really nothing between you and the rolling sea, except perhaps fresh air.

Auto Stability via the onboard Flight Controller maintains a beautifully smooth ride.

Adjusting for weather, you can either pop the sunroof back for an open-yacht experience or keep everything buckled down and pumping air conditioning to be comfortable in any situation for all six passengers.

On a 3-phase outlet, you’re looking at a 2 hour charge time.

Just don’t go expecting any wall plugs out there in the gulf.

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Hole In One DREAMED UP BY INDIAN STUDIO, BHUSHAN POWAR DESIGN, THIS 110 METRE LONG SUPERYACHT HAS ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING SILHOUETTES WE’VE EVER SEEN. CALLED ZION, ITS KEY CHARACTERISTIC IS A LARGE “GLASS EYE” REPRESENTING A BLACK HOLE, WITH THE CLEAN LINES OF THE REST OF THE BOAT FORMING AROUND IT LIKE THE EVENING HORIZON.

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It’s a sweet design and even has practical use as a 360 degree viewing gallery for guests.

You’d think that they’d be packing in the guests with this design, but instead it fits just 20 guests in luxury staterooms. No slumming it in economy class here, except for maybe the 20 crew lodgings.

A garage on board houses jet skis and all manner of toys for mucking about on. There’s a gym and open garden space on the lower deck, which doubles as a sunbathing lounge.

A glass elevator serves all of Zion’s floors, including the helipad located round the stern.

An owner’s suite is located on the main deck, which also encompases the dining space which is illuminated by the glass bottom of the infinity pool on the aft deck. I guess the

idea is to have supermodels paddling about in it while you enjoy your caviar below.

Bhushan Powar Design is the first luxury yacht design studio in India, and has managed to turn heads on a number of occasions already for their designs. “With such vast and gorgeous coastlines on either side of our beautiful country, we couldn't help but notice that India lacked a luxury yacht industry.” they say. “We bring the latest in design and technology inspired and influenced by international standards and are the first to introduce the luxury yacht concept right here at home. Our design studio is based in Goa where the Arabian Sea also directly influences and inspires us and our innovation and creativity.”

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This Boat Tail Is A Pearl LAST TIME THE ROLLS-ROYCE BOAT TAIL GRACED OUR PAGES, IT WAS FOR THE CUSTOM COACHBUILD THAT WAS RUMOURED TO COST UPWARDS OF $28 MILLION AND DELIVERED TO JAY-Z AND BEYONCE. WE’LL NEVER KNOW FOR SURE, UNLESS JAY-Z IS CAUGHT AT THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS WITH THAT BEAUTIFUL MACHINE BUT THE ROLLS-ROYCE COACHBUILD TEAM HAS BEEN BUSY MAKING THEIR NEXT PIECE OF HAUTE-COUTURE CARS.

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The new Boat Tail was revealed at Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d'Este 2022, on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. It’s entirely hand-built with detailing inspired by the racing yachts of the early 20th century.

Reflecting the client of this vehicle, it shows restraint in every regard from its carefully considered materials to precise details.

The interior is a beautifully curated combination of perfectly matched cognac and oystercoloured leathers and Royal Walnut veneer, with rose gold and motherof-pearl accents throughout. The pearl theme is rife throughout the design, as it holds a special place in the heart of the client. At the onset of the commissioning process, the client presented Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers with a selection of four pearl shells,

personally chosen from his private collection for their unique colour and complexity.

deck and adding a glowing warmth to Boat Tail's interior.

This gives us our only clues as to the client’s provenance. Their father’s origins come from the pearling industry, and is an established patron of the arts, owning a “sizeable collection of classic and modern cars, housed in a dedicated private museum,” according to Rolls-Royce.

The rear deck, which houses Boat Tail's unique 'butterfly-design' hosting suite, is swathed in Royal Walnut veneer, inlaid with rose gold-plated pinstripes with a satinbrushed finish to ensure a sensitive and sophisticated appearance.

But enough about the patron, let’s look at these interiors.

The leathers, complete with a pearlescent finish, accentuate the surfaces and forms of Boat Tail's seats and interior design. The transmission tunnel is formed from Royal Walnut veneer with rose gold pinstripes, drawing a direct visual reference to the rear

From the front, the Pantheon Grille, milled from a single, solid billet of aluminium, is graced with a Spirit of Ecstacy fashioned in rose gold.

Alex Innes, Head of Coachbuild Design is proud of what they were able to achieve.

“This is the tale of two worlds: a modern motor car of contemporary design, made possible by historical techniques and timehonoured craft. It is truly, one-of-a-kind.”

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"I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine."

Image Via Nasa

Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut

Best Things Ever Said

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“If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, find something you’re obsessive about, because the journey to building anything of meaning will take years, maybe decades.”

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up."

Tony Xu, Co-Founder & CEO of DoorDash

Thomas Edison, inventor

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“Whether you’ve found your calling, or if you’re still searching, passion should be the fire that drives your life’s work.”

Michael Dell, Founder & CEO of Dell Technologies

SUCCESS

“Innovation: Imagine the future and fill in the gaps.”

Brain Halligan, Co-founder & Executive Chairman of Hubspot

Research Uncovers Economic Principle May Not Be True I’m not sure this is the sort of thing that should be running in a magazine that has a primary focus in success and the accumulation of wealth, but new research is calling into question the economic principle of unlimited want. This principle ties into the fundamental economic problem of having limited resources to scratch the itch that we all presumably have of an insatiable desire for everything.

The researchers asked 8,000 people across 33 countries how much money they would want to achieve their “absolutely ideal life”. The average answer came out to US$10 million.

"Try not to become a man of success.

Rather become a man of value."

Longevity in this business is about being able to reinvent yourself or invent the future.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

“You just have to find that thing that's special about you that distinguishes you from all the others, and through true talent, hard work, and passion, anything can happen.”

Dr. Dre, Rapper & Entrepreneur

Image of Dr Dre by Ed Kavishe

Albert Einstein, physicist

Lead researcher, Dr. Paul Bain from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath (UK) explained: “The ideology of unlimited wants, when portrayed as human nature, can create social pressure for people to buy more than they actually want.

“Discovering that most people’s ideal lives are actually quite moderate could make it socially easier for people to behave in ways that are more aligned with what makes them genuinely happy and to support stronger policies to help safeguard the planet.”

Co-author, Dr. Renata Bongiorno of the University of Exeter and also Bath Spa University (UK), added: "The findings are a stark reminder that the majority view is not necessarily reflected in policies that allow the accumulation of excessive amounts of wealth by a small number of individuals.

“If most people are striving for wealth that is limited, policies that support people’s more limited wants, such as a wealth tax to fund sustainability initiatives, might be more popular than is often portrayed.”

I’m not sure I agree with this quiz. It’s an out of the blue question and I think most respondents probably couldn’t immediately picture how much money they’d require for a lifetime including inflation, let alone need in surplus to hit their life goals.

The true test would be to give these 8,000 respondents their ideal amount of money and then come back in a year and ask if they want more. That’s where the rubber hits the road.

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Doing The Right Thing Should Be Easy, Shouldn’t It? Continuing from this theme, our new tagline emerged a few years later:

RICHARD CONWAY

Founder & CEO of Pure SEO PURESEO.CO.NZ Read his columns at M2NOW.COM

During a strategy day a few years ago, the board at Pure SEO conducted a session to determine what drives us as people and explore why we had surrounded ourselves with this team, culture and environment.

The strongest theme to emerge from that session was trust. Trust is what motivates me as a business owner and as a person. Our team felt the same, and we distilled this into an internal company statement: “At Pure SEO, we believe in relationships that are based on trust. When we work together, we are going to do our best to serve you – going above and beyond and out of our way to do exactly what we say we are going to do. We will act in a manner that we would want and expect for ourselves, and follow an ethical path, always keeping honest and leading by example at every turn.” ​

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“Doing Digital the Right Way” We felt this tagline captured the essence of why members of the Pure SEO team choose to work for us and what sets us apart from our competition.

In October last year, we acquired This Side Up, a specialist eCommerce digital marketing agency. We hashed out the initial terms of the deal over a couple of beers and a handshake.

We did our due diligence but completed the deal on the same terms as that handshake.

No material differences emerged from what we had first discussed.

The acquisition had been built on trust from the start.

Shortly after completing the deal, however, a referral partner ‘suggested’ to a This Side Up staff member that he instead become a part of their collective. That staff member agreed and handed in his notice which, in turn, resulted in that referral partner withdrawing their contact for the client we were servicing for them.

In my opinion, this type of behaviour is exactly the opposite of what we try to foster at Pure SEO. Therefore, I decided to have a frank conversation with the man at the referral partner who had been central to those decisions. Interestingly, he had a fundamentally different perspective (after telling me to put my ‘big boy pants on’). He said the employee was talking about leaving anyway so he simply suggested he would always have a job with them.

Although we found this action was legal after digging in, I still feel it does not fit at all with our ethics, morals and values. Quite frankly,

although the departure costs us financially, we feel we are better off associating with and doing business with people who share those approaches to business and life.

This case and several others through the years have forced me to deeply consider how perspectives can greatly shape what we believe is right or wrong. Through our conversations, I could see that this man truly thought what he did was perfectly acceptable behaviour. After all, it’s only business. In some ways, he is right (although I would never act in the same way with a referral partner).

With all the shades of grey that different people perceive at Pure SEO, we have put together three questions that dictate the actions we will take: •

If you were on the receiving end of this type of behaviour, would you support it?

If the answer is no, then don’t do it.

•

In your gut, does it feel like the right thing to do? If it doesn’t, then don’t do it.

•

If what you did was on the front page, would you be proud of yourself? If not, then don’t do it!

One of the best things about the world and life is our differences as people—how we think, how we behave, and even what we value. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this experience or any of your own.

I may even use them for another column. If you are interested in sharing, contact me at richard@pureseo.com

M2 COACH

Talking Homes: The future of renting in New Zealand DAVID FAULKNER GM of Property Management at Property Brokers Read his columns at M2NOW.COM

As winter bites, many tenants across New Zealand will now see some benefit from the introduction of the Healthy Homes standards. Few will protest the necessity of the Healthy Homes standards; the implementation of the standards, however, has been far from perfect.

Issues around the heating standards have plagued its implementation, especially for homes built to the 2008 building code requirements. This will be of huge frustration for landlords who have had to install top-up heaters under the old standards in many new builds.

As frustrating as it has been to deal with the moving target for the Healthy Homes standards, change was necessary. The quality of much of the rental stock in New Zealand is not where it needs to be. In provincial New Zealand, many towns have aged housing stock, requiring more investment.

Typically, much of the older housing stock is used as rental accommodation. Housing depreciates, and a common mistake many investors make is that they fail to budget for future renovations.

There will be standard repairs and maintenance that a landlord should budget for.

We studied our rent roll to see what landlords were spending on maintenance annually, and the sum was approximately $1,500 per annum. Plumbing, electrical, and general maintenance were the most common expenses. What landlords should also budget for is capital expenditure.

Although we're seeing a slowdown in the housing market, many landlords would have benefited from increased capital gains, especially over the last two years. REINZ (Real Estate Institute of New Zealand) statistics show that the median house price for April 2022 was $875,000. Two years prior, just as the pandemic kicked in, the median price was $680,000. This tells us that many investors will have plenty of equity to play with.

Although tax rules will hurt investors regarding interest deductibility against rental income, a prudent investor will look at using some of these gains to reinvest back into their portfolios.

In doing so, they should look into the future, and the requirements tenants will need. In a recent interview, New Zealand-born Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Michael Kelly, referred to New Zealand as having

a 'Goldilocks Climate' as we are either too hot or too cold. This can explain why housing and renting is such a pulverizing topic. We (too) often see headlines about tenants being exploited and living in squalor conditions.

Anyone looking to renovate their portfolio must now look at the changing environmental climate, both natural and political when they weigh up what to invest in. New Zealand has committed to being net carbon zero by 2050. If we are to come close to achieving this target, everyone will be affected, and our lifestyles will change dramatically. As approximately one-third of the population rent, landlords must ensure that their rental properties reduce their carbon footprint.

This is where the concept of talking houses comes into play.

Significant investment in smart home devices will be required to measure a property's performance.

Technology already exists that can do this.

Brandon van Blerk, the CEO and founder of proptech company Tether, has invented a device that tracks the property's performance, measuring temperature and C02 emissions. Landlords and tenants can be informed when there is an issue at the property, such as rising moisture content identifying a leak. More intelligent and innovative technology will have to become mainstream in our rental stock, ensuring that tenants can run their rental properties with low emissions whilst remaining safe, warm, and dry.

If you are considering renovating your rental property, look to the future demands. Expect to see a Rental Warrant of Fitness introduced and Energy Performance Certification becoming standard on all rental properties as this will grade the energy efficiency of your investment.

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STRATEGY and Good HABITS Trump Knowledge MARK COLLINS

Business Coach

THINKING@MARKCOLLINS.CO.NZ

Read his columns at M2NOW.COM

We are starting to see people getting back into positive routines, supported with good habits.

This alone will deliver a massive shift in a person’s mental state, but is also foundational in you achieving next level success.

Have you managed to get back into a new established routine? Have you managed to shake off any bad habits you may have picked up over the last couple of years of change?

Do a reset It is critical for all of us to know that what we do has value, but even more importantly know the results we achieve. To do this well, we set goals.

In everything we do, the results we get are dependent on the strategies we use and you are not alone if you find more complex strategies harder to manage. A complex strategy will have multiple parts and stages requiring consistent focus and effort. They are usually implemented over a longer time period than simple strategies and

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some sort of progress measurement helps maintain the commitment. An example of this might be the multiple strategies required to take your business success to the next level.

In our business coaching, we help clients to turn as many of these as possible into repeated actions (habits), making success the result. The most successful turn these habits into rituals of pleasure and report they don’t even feel like work.

Some examples of rituals that can make you feel good: Measure, measure, measure and know what your numbers should be and are.

Not knowing how you are going can add to the stress of running your business.

Talk to a random selection of customers every week to understand what they like, why they come to your business, what do they tell their friends (good and bad). When this becomes a habit, you will feel better for knowing and they know you care.

Talk to your staff individually and purposefully to find out how they are doing, what frustrates them, what we need to improve. The consistent repeating of this process makes your connection with your staff amazingly strong and allows you to be able to make a difference regardless of what is going on.

Set your intention and hold yourself accountable for your performance every week - review and write down what you achieved. This can have a huge impact on how you feel when things are good and even when they are not so good.

One strategy to growing your business might be to get some help. In our modern world, we have a lot of choices and we are used to paying for help when we can’t do something. The cost of coaching should pay for itself from your improved results, so pick someone that inspires you to be the best you can.

An example of a multiple strategy would be to engage a coach to learn how to grow your business

to its capacity in two years. Your coach then develops that to be: “I will grow my business by introducing 20 new clients a week and get our existing customers to return more often than they are currently.” This results 1,040 new customers a year with the old ones and the new ones coming more often. Meaning both new and existing business growth compounding on itself until you reach capacity.

5 good habits you can implement today to get great results Look at your goals every day and ask yourself what can I do today to move progress along.

Keep score of what you did towards it each day and if you didn’t manage anything put a line. (It helps motivate you to improve) At the end of each week, measure and track your progress. I.e. Of the people we asked, what % were first time and what were return customers. Of those that were returning, ask them, “when did you last come?” Keep a chart of the results.

Continually implement strategies to encourage new customers to come for their first time and track the results on each strategy.

Continually implement strategies to encourage people to come back with in four weeks. I.e. VIP incentives, special event nights, bring a friend, vouchers with four weeks used by date. Track the results on each strategy.

Habits work because they create a routine of repeated effort and even if initially something seems difficult to do, it will get easier. With dedication these habits become the anchors of your day, so much so that you miss them when you can’t do them. Daily exercise and or meditation are examples that are well documented to show how repeated practice builds strength and achieve results even under incredible resistance.

D I V E R S I F Y. Commercial & residential opportunities available.

Talk to us for more information.

0800 790 790 safarigroup.co.nz

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HOW A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN’S PROMISE SAVED A LIFE

SINCE 2012, THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMEN’S RIDE HAS CONNECTED A GLOBAL COMMUNITY IN OVER 1,000 CITIES, RAISING OVER $38 MILLION FOR MEN’S HEALTH. MOVEMBER IS HUMBLED TO BE THE OFFICIAL CHARITY PARTNER OF THE RIDE. AS OUR PARTNERSHIP ENTERS ITS SEVENTH YEAR, WE REMAIN STEADFAST IN OUR MISSION TO BRING RIDERS TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RAISE AWARENESS FOR MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH AND PROSTATE CANCER.

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Christchurch rider, Andy Burchall, is a big fan of the The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR). A self-professed motorcycle nut who owns a bike shop called “First European” in the Garden City, he even took on the role of Ride Host for the Christchurch Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride.

As you would expect, a push to promote men’s health is a big part of every annual ride.

This year’s message, however, was a lot more personal for Andy.

It all began at last year’s DGR, after a friend’s moving speech on the importance of getting tested for prostate cancer.

Andy took action. Then he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Andy tells us his story…

CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHAT YOU DO? Having been a certified motorcycle nut since a young age, it’s probably not too surprising that I ended up owning a motorcycle shop. Although, Lord knows why I chose to move all the way from the UK to Christchurch to do that.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN DGR OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS AND WHY IT MEANS SO MUCH TO YOU? I attended the first couple of DGR events held in Christchurch, just as a participant, as I believed it was a great way to raise money for a worthy cause and would be a lot of fun. However, in 2016, it became apparent that nobody was going to organise a ride for Christchurch, so I thought, let’s give the team at DGR a call and see if I could help. This was quite late in the piece, as I think we had got to about July, so it was a very hectic couple of months to pull things together. We had a great ride

with a fantastic turnout, so of course I carried on the next year. Here we are now, in 2022, and I’m really looking forward to this year’s ride.

Having seen our numbers exceed 200 riders, it really pleases me to see guys get behind this event.

YOU WERE RECENTLY DIAGNOSED WITH PROSTATE CANCER. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR DIAGNOSIS AND WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO GO AND GET CHECKED? Each year I prepare a pre-ride speech and try to convey an appropriate message to the guys and their partners stood before me. For our 2021

"Here I was, 59 years of age, absolutely no symptoms and yet I had prostate cancer.

After months of research I elected for a prostatectomy and had my operation on 28 April, 2022. This was less than 3 weeks before DGR 2022." ride, a good friend had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and was awaiting his surgery.

I asked him if he would mind talking about this to our riders, and he courageously obliged. As he wound up his speech, he urged all the riders to get checked. Then he turned to me and said “and that means you too”. Well, to be honest, I probably would have brushed this aside and carried on in the old 'ignorance is bliss' way of thinking. However, the comment was made within earshot of Teresa, my wife, who made me go and get a PSA test.

The PSA test is a simple blood test and doesn’t take very long at all. Within 24 hours, my doctor called my mobile to inform me that my PSA score was 15.

A good number is below 4, and she would like to see me. She explained that I would need to

have a second test after 6 weeks. This second test also came back at 15. I wasn’t jumping to conclusions, but I was now worried. I was referred for a prostate biopsy, the result of which confirmed that I had prostate cancer. It consisted of two tumours, one on each side, the right hand one being the more aggressive of the two.

Well, that was a shock! Here I was, 59 years of age, absolutely no symptoms and yet I had prostate cancer. After months of research I elected for a prostatectomy and had my operation on 28 April, 2022. This was less than 3 weeks before DGR 2022.

As part of my journey, I received a letter for an appointment at the hospital. It was to be with a gentleman called Frank Kueppers.

Now, I know a guy by this name because he’s a customer of mine who rides a motorcycle, but I thought it couldn’t possibly be the same guy.

Well, it turned out it was, and after a very deep conversation, I left that consultation knowing that my surgery would be undertaken by a motorcyclist friend of mine. So, thank you Frank.

WERE YOU VERY AWARE OF PROSTATE CANCER BEFORE YOUR DIAGNOSIS? Before my diagnosis, I was aware of prostate cancer and knew how prevalent it is. However, I don’t think anyone truly understands something like this until it directly affects them.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST CHALLENGING PART? Coping mentally and emotionally with the news that you have cancer and that you need to do something about it if you want to stay around.

WHAT IS YOUR MESSAGE WHEN IT COMES TO MEN’S HEALTH? Firstly, get checked. If you are over 50, pop along to your GP and get a PSA test done.

Secondly, if you find that you are struggling, whether mentally or emotionally, reach out and get help. Organisations like Movember exist to support us, so use them. You’ll be glad you did.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO FOR THIS YEAR’S DGR? This year, I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Christchurch DGR 2022 be our biggest and best ride yet!

NB: Since this article was written, the DGR took place on the 22nd of May throughout New Zealand and the world. The Christchurch ride raised over $15,000 and riders throughout the country raised over $150,000 for men’s health.

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TESTOSTERONE ‘GRUMPY OLD MAN’ SYNDROME – MALE MENOPAUSE

MALE MENOPAUSE OR ANDROPAUSE EXISTS IN SOME MEN, AND RESEARCH HAS SUGGESTED THAT LOSS OF TESTOSTERONE IN THE AGEING MALE IS AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTOR TO HEALTH PROBLEMS.

WORDS BY DR. FRANCES PITSILIS

S

ome of the scientific literature calls it Late Onset Hypogonadism, but the implications are now being explained by research, which shows increased health problems, like increased abdominal fat, reduced muscle mass, osteoporosis, increased diabetes, depression, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and higher mortality – all associated with reducing testosterone levels.

And other conditions lead off from these, including Alzheimer’s disease, hypertension, gout, increased autoimmune diseases and sleep apnea syndrome.

It’s called “Grumpy Old Man Syndrome” because the symptoms include irritability, anger, loss of confidence, loss of vitality, depression, reduced mental effectiveness and hot sweats in 30 percent of those affected. It occurs in 20 percent of men over 45 or 40 percent of men over 70 years.

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IN ADDITION TO THESE QUESTIONS, CAN YOU IDENTIFY WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS?

HERE IS A TEST USED BY DOCTORS TO DETECT TESTOSTERONE DEFICIENCY: DO YOU HAVE A DECREASE IN LIBIDO (SEX DRIVE)?

DO YOU HAVE A LACK OF ENERGY? DO YOU HAVE A DECREASE IN STRENGTH AND/OR ENDURANCE? HAVE YOU LOST HEIGHT? HAVE YOU NOTICED A DECREASED “ENJOYMENT OF LIFE”?

ARE YOU SAD AND/OR GRUMPY? ARE YOUR ERECTIONS LESS STRONG? HAVE YOU NOTED A RECENT DETERIORATION IN YOUR ABILITY TO PLAY SPORTS? ARE YOU FALLING ASLEEP AFTER DINNER? HAS THERE BEEN A RECENT DETERIORATION IN YOUR WORK PERFORMANCE?

A sense of being burned out, increased depression, increased irritability, increased anxiety, more nervousness, more joint complaints, increased sweating, a need for more sleep, more sleep disturbances, muscular weakness, physical exhaustion, impaired sexual potency, fewer morning erections, disturbed libido and decreased beard growth.

Women’s estrogen levels drop relatively suddenly when they go through menopause. But men’s testosterone levels drop gradually over a period of time, so that by age 70, it’s half the normal level of a younger man – for some, it’s worse, and they run into more of the health problems already mentioned.

So, the gradual drop in testosterone sneaks up, and the symptoms are not as obvious. It is very subtle and hardly noticed or complained about – that’s what you need to watch out for. What makes testosterone levels drop even more is abdominal fat, which makes estrogen – thereby neutralising the testosterone.

Stress, toxicity, a poor diet with too many bad fats, autoimmune diseases and some drugs can also lead to a drop in testosterone levels.

WHY SHOULD AN AGEING MALE CONSIDER WHETHER THEY MAY BE TESTOSTERONE DEFICIENT?

Testosterone improves mood, cognitive function and prevents Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, heart failure and some abnormalities of cholesterol.

Testosterone improves libido and erectile function (but not in everyone). It also – in both men and women – reduces inflammation and pain. The diagnosis is made from the symptoms and problems the man has, along with a blood test. The doctor may need up to three blood tests to be sure because the results can vary. When in doubt about the diagnosis, look at the person – do they have any symptoms or problems already?

Young men with high testosterone don’t get prostate cancer and researchers have recently stated that testosterone doesn’t cause prostate cancer. However, testosterone therapy mustn’t be used in patients who already have prostate or breast cancer.

WHAT DO YOU DO NOW? The family doctor will discuss the possible diagnosis with the man and may refer him to an endocrinologist. Testosterone is usually prescribed as an injection, but you can also get it as a patch or an implant that goes under the skin. Bioidentical testosterone is used as a cream – it’s rubbed into the perineum (area behind the scrotum). For information about bioidentical hormones go to www.pharmaceutical.co.nz Before he has any testosterone treatment, he needs to have some tests and have a thorough examination. After starting treatment, he will be followed up periodically to ensure there are no problems. Testosterone therapy will become more commonplace as research makes more doctors aware that a community of grumpy, disabled old men can be prevented.

The heart has testosterone receptors – testosterone has been found to dilate coronary arteries, reverse atherosclerosis and help hypertension. Adequate testosterone reduces fat and builds up muscle and bone, etc.

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HEALTH NEWS

The latest, most up-to-date products, innovation and events for a healthier you.

Health News Smelling New Habits

A Joint Operation Our body is full of joints, and not just the few you immediately think of in your arms and knees.

Time and use causes wear and tear on our joints, and if we don’t take care of them properly, it can start to have run-on effects in the future. But how exactly can you take care of your joints?

Our M2 recommendation is to pick up some Skl¹ Mobility by SRW. Skl¹ is specially formulated for both active individuals who may have already experienced an injury, as well as anyone looking at preventative options to maintain movement, strength and flexibility. You don’t want to be the classic old guy getting out of the chair groaning.

Skl¹ is fast acting and helps your body along with its natural healing ability.

The Skl¹ supplement soothes joints with the help of Natural Eggshell Membrane (NEM for short) which contains type 1 collagen, glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid. To give a little extra boost to this, it also contains 5-LOXIN, which takes care and preserves cartilage, collagen and all the connective tissue inbetween.

Find out more at www.srw.co

Breakfast might really be the most important meal of the day, according to University of Otago study , but not in the way we thought.

For the Marsden-funded study, published in scientific journal, Food Quality and Preference, researchers provided breakfast to 61 participants.

Each was served either a plain portion of oats, or one with added vanilla aroma or non-caloric sweetness.

The researchers found post-meal satiety was similar across the different breakfasts. However, those who ate the sweetened breakfast ate significantly less sweet and more savoury snacks throughout the day, compared to those who ate the plain oats.

Using this data, co-author Dr Mei Peng, of the Department of Food Science, believes that these results should be considered when trying to increase diet adherence “Sensory perception has a ‘longlasting’ impact on eating, by directly influencing choices for subsequent meals. Our food choices for a meal can impact on variety seeking behaviour, which is linked to increased likelihood of weight issues.

“While overall food consumption might be driven by one’s metabolism and energy requirements, food choice is an important factor for a healthy lifestyle,” she says.

Fascinatingly, she also believes the study could be pertinent to vapers who act as my personal bubblegumflavoured mist machines in the afternoons.

“Vaping is now a common form of sensory exposure in people’s daily lives. According to what we found, we would think vaping, which is typically associated with ‘sweet’ odours, can potentially increase appetite for savoury foods in subsequent meals.

We’d need to do further research to confirm this, though.”

What is Flexitarianism, why is it such a mouthful and does it work?

Everyone who has ever started a new diet would know, counting your calories while you go can be a right pain in the proverbials.

Yes, it’s empowering. Yes, it’s good to understand where your energy comes from.

But who has enough time in their lives to do it? Luckily for you, there’s an easy way to hit that fast-working diet without having to use your math skills so much. Introducing flexitarianism.

We do realise that you’d be spending more time pronouncing the word than counting those calories, but hear us out. It’s just ‘flexible’ and ‘vegetarian’ combined. That means, dear Reader, that it’s just a flexible alternative to being vegetarian.

You can focus on fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes and nuts, with the ability every now and then to have a cheeky little steak. Depending on your commitment level, you can stretch your meat intake from 255 grams to a more manageable 793 grams of meat per week.

When you first start out, cutting meat completely might be a bit daunting. Start off with cutting two nights a week of having chicken for dinner and see how you go. As you move through the diet, try and eat more fruits and vegetables, keeping check on your meat consumption and stretching it to maybe one night and then none.

The overall goal is to eat a more nutritious diet with plant-heavy foods and less meat.

When you do incorporate meat in, try to buy organic or free-range produce.

CHRIS EVANS HAS SHED 7KG NOW THAT HE NO LONGER NEEDS TO MAINTAIN HIS INSANE PHYSIQUE FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA. "EVERY TIME PEOPLE SEE ME, THEY’RE LIKE 'ARE YOU OKAY, YOU LOST A LITTLE BIT OF WEIGHT.' UM, YEAH, I HAVEN’T HAD TO HIT THE GYM AS HARD."

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Hear more

of the big things in life’s

little moments

Try our FREE online hearing test

It’s often the small things in life that become the biggest memories. For people with hearing loss, this could mean missing out on those little moments where we all find meaning.

Traditional hearing aids are designed to focus solely on speech in front of you. But your brain needs access to the full sound scene to work naturally.1 Oticon More™ hearing aids are designed to support the brain. But what does this mean for hearing aid wearers? The technology inside these hearing aids supports the brain using a Deep Neural Network – a type of advanced artificial intelligence. Trained with 12 million sound scenes, this technology mimics the way the brain works, and has learned how to recognise all kinds of sounds in fine detail – so it knows how they should ideally sound.2 Providing access to the important moments that sound brings to life, Oticon More represents these details with balance and clarity. So, hearing aid wearers can appreciate more of life’s little, meaningful moments – like conversations with family, enjoying a lively restaurant with friends, or even connecting with colleagues in person or virtually.

www.oticon.co.nz 1 O’Sullivan, et al (2019). Hierarchical Encoding of Attended Auditory Objects in Multi-talker Speech Perception. Puvvada, K. C., & Simon, J. Z. (2017). Cortical representations of speech in a multitalker auditory scene. www.oticon.co.nz 2 Brændgaard, M. (2020). MoreSound Intelligence. Oticon tech paper. Sponsored by Oticon.

Always read instructions for use. thefor instructions for use.

Always read the the instructions for use. Follow the Follow instructions use.

Don’t regard the online hearing test as any sort of a definitive result. Only a full hearing assessment by a hearing care professional can provide you with accurate results.

TRAVEL

PINNACLE TOWER

AT CORDIS We share our office with a highly respected business consultant. Unfortunately for those around us, him and I will often pontificate during lunch about the current hurdles of modern business and emerging management theories. It’s all very interesting, believe me. Especially when the A3 sheets of paper come out to display a maze of business function symbols designed to decipher the hidden clues to unlock business growth. In spite of all of this, I think that success is really simply a dance between the details and the big picture. You have to know what it is all for, but at the same time you can’t lose sight of the small things. I think this is relevant for anything in life really.

Exhibit A and a wonderfully tangible example of this is the Pinnacle Tower at Cordis Auckland - the new 17-storey tower which houses 244 premium rooms and signature Cordis Pinnacle Tower suites. Not only is it a large-scale testament to a grand vision, but this vision weaves its way down to the very smallest detail.

Helping guests navigate the tower are corridors designed to create a sense of graduated light “Te whei ao, ki te ao mārama” as guests enter their room. This is cleverly done using dark walls around the central core of the hotel which is juxtaposed with the walls on the opposite side where the doors to the rooms are, which feature light wallcoverings, with a continuous LED light above.

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Inside each room is a spectacular tapestry of detail from the weaving patterns on the carpet, to the patterns on the bathroom blinds that incorporate water ripples and Adze carving patterns that pay honour to the cultural heritage of the land on which the tower stands. Further to this, room panels feature a Paper Nautilus shell - pūpū tarakihi in respect of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.

Another detail in the room panel is a defined central line that runs up through the middle of the carving. A similar strong central line is also highlighted on the façade of the tower.

This Manawa line is the central artery, and represents balance and strength. This line represents the important relationship between Tangata Whenua (people with ancestral links to a place) and Manuhiri (people who visit that place).

So this isn’t just about detail for detail’s sake, it's a depth of thinking that creates a real sense of purpose to the design. At the same time as we are going on about all of this detail, it’s also done in such a way as to create a sense of minimalist luxury. Having all of this deep layering of meaning and detail results in something stylishly minimalist which seems like some sort of voodoo magic on behalf of the designers, but however they have done it, it works well.

And once you have immersed yourself in all of the levels of detail in the various canvases (both literal and metaphorically) that the tower has to offer you might well be quite hungry. And luckily there are a few hot

options, all with incredible attention to detail of course.

If you like your eggs with a view, I might recommend the Cordis Club Lounge on the 14th floor. This exclusive retreat offers complimentary afternoon tea, drinks, canapés, and a live breakfast station for made-to-order eggs for guests.

The hotel’s famous Eight Restaurant has grown in capacity from 180 to 250 which is a good thing because this place is super popular for good reason. The concept here by the way in case you haven’t experienced it yet, is to bring eight different kitchens with different specialities into the one restaurant. It makes for an incredibly diverse dining experience.

And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also the addition of a new destination bar, Our Land Is Alive, which exclusively showcases New Zealand sourced food and beverages.

Oh, and if you crack the business world and IPO, your start-up success might inspire you to upgrade your room to the Chairman Suite.

At 252.6 square metres of pure luxury, the Chairman Suite features a signature Cordis Dream bed, a dining area and spacious marble bathroom with an oversized circular soaking tub bathed in natural daylight, with floor-toceiling windows that look out to stunning city views. Finished with a selection of locally curated bespoke art pieces, custom-made furnishings, a fireplace and a large private balcony with a fire pit. Yes, it really is the little things. And also the big things. You know what I mean.

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GADGETS

DREAMING

Established by Rongopai and Inia Maxwell, Rotorua-based creative agency, Wawata Creative is changing the relationship between advertising and indiginous stories and values.

Rather than being a bolt-on afterthought for a campaign, Wawata incorporates a foundation of Māori culture into not only their creative approach but also long term business.

We talk to Inia about using advertising to share indigenous stories in an empowering way, the importance of humour, a growing distrust of the mainstream and going back home to Rotorua to change the world.

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Can you talk a little bit about the power of advertising for what you do?

There are many forms of advertising and areas where you can get messaging out there and change behaviour, which is usually with government business. And then you've got your product stuff, retail, So not so much a behaviour change. You have to have different approaches in the way that you do it so there are different beasts to attack.

Being creative, you want to go places and it's okay to get lost, it's okay to change your mind, it's okay to be wrong. If you're too afraid to be wrong, then you're not going to go to those places. I think a lot of good creatives are basically big kids that need people to look after them. We don't want to do all the boring stuff, we just want to dream.

There are many different ways of engaging people and you’ve just got to figure out, depending on the campaign and the idea, what mediums you're going to use to get that message. It's very important that you don't just do what you think is right, but take the insights.

It's hard to engage people when there's so much noise out there, especially with Covid. Trying to cut through that for other health messages, there's a lot of brain space that's been taken up by all these other things. You need to try and come up with something to cut through. That's what we’re always looking for, something that cuts through and resonates. Sometimes it might just be to challenge people's perceptions, to get a discussion happening.

I've worked with tourism campaigns. Selling the country, selling what's unique about us. Māori culture is one of those things that cuts through internationally. Being brought up in a cultural family in Rotorua in the village, it's a lifestyle. I've travelled the world, taking our culture offshore and having cultural exchanges.

Having Sir Howard Morrison as an uncle was never going to be easy for us young fellas because he was always asking us to perform, so we were never afraid to put ourselves out there. I'm very glad that he did that, but he also got me into this industry. He was in Wellington and asked if I had a CV. I said, yep and he said, ‘Well, dress sharp and I’ll see you at Saatchi's.’

That was my happy accident into the industry.

It was back in 1998 and it was baptism by fire.

I ended up being a part of the Adidas All Black campaign for the ‘99 World Cup. We infused Māori culture into the All Blacks in a real way for the first time with that campaign. Unfortunately, the boys didn't come up with their end of the deal and win, but at least it began the journey of it being okay to have the Māori culture within me.

Can you talk about the haka and the influence that you had for the ‘99 World Cup? Again, that was another happy accident. I've been fortunate enough in my upbringing, with my parents being successful kapa haka leaders and leading the most successful kapa haka group in my tribe, Te Arawa, for 35 plus years; they won at nationals a couple of times. It's in the blood, I was brought up with it and had some amazing experiences. So when I got to be in front of the All Blacks, I came from a real knowing place.

After getting over the fact that I was in the same room as the All Blacks, Taine Randall, who was the captain at the time, asked me to tell the boys what the haka means. So I kicked out management and it was just me and the All Blacks and I told them the whole story. Then I asked them to perform and that's when my whole attitude changed because it was pretty bad. I said, ‘you guys are representing a whole culture and that's how you perform it? I'd rather you not do it. This is how you do the haka’. And I took my shirt off and cracked into it. I went down each and every one of them and stuck it to them.

From that point, it was an ongoing relationship of making sure the boys kept growing it, kept passing it on to the new ones that were coming in, and using it to embrace them. It's pretty daunting for those that aren't culturally-minded; just because they're amazing sportsmen doesn't mean they can do an amazing haka.

You wouldn't have thought that there would've been much consideration for the cultural side of things in the late 90s advertising world. How did you find that?

I found that revealing, I couldn't believe the lack of knowledge of anything Māori. It was just so far removed, they might as well have come from over in London. It was like you were in another place. But there were the ones who I gravitated to, most of the creators were real people, which was cool.

Then you had the ambitious suits that were career-focused and had no idea. I felt really sorry for them that they had to put on this facade to get up the ladder, it was very dog eat dog.

What I did gain from it was that these guys really kick *** and they don't muck around. When they commit, they really dive in. I took the good bits that I saw back to my kapa haka.

It was a real learning curve to actually see how Māori culture was a bolt-on to that world. It was just a box tick. There was a lack of sensitivity and consideration and when they did do it, it was just lip service. It's definitely changed now, which

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is great. I like to observe and just learn just by watching and I learned so much from some pretty amazing advertising people. And I think vice versa, they learned a lot.

I hope to think that I influenced them too. I gave them some spirit and took them on a journey into Māori culture as well when I could, and slowly it was getting embraced. I don't think they took complete advantage of that, but I took complete advantage of what they had to offer and to understand the advertising world from every department.

The internet was just a thought back then, but they were forward-thinking enough to start exploring that avenue. That's where I saw the game changers because it was similar to what we did in the kapa haka world. We were trendsetters with what we were doing in the kapa haka world, flipping stuff on its head and trying new things. That's why I just really fizzed at Saatchis. I just loved the work ethic there of work hard and play hard.

Over the two decades, from being the bolt-on attachment, to where it is now and being on a panel, there's been a huge shift in meeting and requiring Māori expertise. My timing is probably my best thing. The timing of when my wife, Rongopai, and I made our move and what we are doing now is on the money because from that move, we are right on the field that is happening at the moment.

We've proved that with some of the accounts that we've managed to secure, they're very important ones to us. They're very touchy subjects and we're using all of our insight and our networks to be able to make sure we get the right messaging, delivery, positioning, tone and manner.

I then became a father and I took the chance to take a break. I became a stay-at-home dad, which I get a sense that Māori culture was a privilege, but intrinsically probably the hardest job The future is what informs your I've ever had to do. And creative process. we are all about. then after my daughter Does it also inform Setting up the turned five, I got back your approach to into the business slowly. business, even in next generation, We named it Wawata terms of timeframe? building more Creative, which means We're only the people Māori creativity, to dream or imagine. at the start line, as far as more Māori into My wife and I decided I'm concerned, and that's to get ourselves on the this industry is after 20 plus years in this All of Government industry. We're at the definitely a kaupapa procurement panel. To start line with expertise to I'm very passionate be serious contenders in burn and it's a long game. this game, we needed about.

To us, culturally, time is to get ourselves there. It not what it is today. The was a lot of mahi, but we were supported by Te way that we used to operate in the winter months; Puni Kōkiri. They were amazing in providing we'd harvest around Matariki and then celebrate, us some assistance in the procurement process, have a big kai and then hibernate and learn all of because as creatives, it's not really our fit. We waiata and karakia at that time. couldn't do it in our way visually and how we tell I see us as the pioneers who have been given our stories, so it was quite hard to shift into that. the chance to change things. The future is what we are all about. Setting up the next generation, Can you talk a little bit about that shift building more Māori creativity, more Māori into in government procurement? Because this industry is definitely a kaupapa I'm very there was this major change there to passionate about. I think there's a lot of talent, really open it up to other agencies. imagination, and creativity out there. It's a great medium to be a part of as well.

It meant an amazing opportunity for us to be able to sail our own waka for our own people. It might be 5% at the moment, but after talking through with TPK, they didn't want to overcook it and then over promise stuff from Māori perspective, so that we'd get more arrows and tomatoes thrown at us saying, ‘See, they can't do it’. It was a nice, humble beginning.

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Obviously, there are all the different departments that people can get involved in, but that's definitely a kaupapa at Wawata Creative, for us to grow our people. There are some good designers out there, for example, Te Puia have carvers and they're learning the hands-on stuff. Give them a Mac at the same time so that they're not drawing sketches and then giving it to a designer who's not Māori to then do vector art. Let them become part of that process, have that exchange because it's the same world. We're just trying to tell stories

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through visuals, through audio, through different ways.

It's about communicating and Māori are pretty good at communicating. Some of the top-grossing movies from New Zealand are Māori stories; Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, Boy, all game changers. There's a charm about Māori stuff as well. Taika is showcasing that our humour can be anywhere. It can be accepted anywhere and understood. You don't have to be Māori to get it. We don't mind people like Billy T to take the p*** out of ourselves, but then that allows us to take the p*** out of everyone else.

How would you describe that humour?

Raw is one word. The humour can come from anywhere. Very witty and clever. It's so unique.

People can gravitate to it. It doesn't have to be Māori though. I think it's a New Zealand thing because you’ve got Flight of the Conchords, so funny; you’ve got The Laughing Samoans, so funny. You've got all the movies, like Sione’s Wedding, it's just our flavour.

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I’m very proud of Māori stories and the game changers, like Merata [Mita] who said, ‘No, we are not just going to be the old native in the background in this movie. We're going to tell our stories’. The bravery and leadership and rangatiratanga of those people is what I think we are doing in this space. It's a good space, it's a hard space but there's a lot of clever and creative Māori out there that would do really well in this business.

As a happy accident for me, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time thus far. I wouldn't still be doing it if I didn't have a passion for it. So it doesn't feel like mahi to me, it feels like I'm making a change with something that I know I do well. It's not about awards for me, it's about me getting the creative and the messaging and the outcomes.

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That's my job. I just want to really make sure I do good mahi all the time, because I want to put them all up there.

We are being judged from our people at the same time. They'll always remember that one thing that you didn't get right and that's the harshness of our people and the comedy, they can bring you right down. It gives me the grounding when I go home.

In the nineties, you had to go to Wellington to get into the industry. Was it always a conscious decision to go back home to Rotorua to set something up and be able to create opportunities for the community that way?

Absolutely not. I thought I was going to be living

in Wellington. But when I met my wife, I brought her home to Rotorua and she said, ‘I will move back here if you are in,’ because she just loved it.

I'd been getting a bit of a pull home. Usually I just couldn't wait to get out of Rotorua and get back to Wellington, but then I was starting to delay going back to Wellington, I was hanging out with the cousins a bit more. And then Rongopai gave me an amazing excuse to come home.

Covid really made me go, ‘We've gotta really either do this or not’. I've got all this experience here, it'd be a waste not to, I still enjoy it. It's been baptism by fire and it's been a fast uptake from people when they know that the service that we provide is out there. It's pretty overwhelming sometimes, we’ve had to step back. Because of

SUCCESS

the kaupapa that we're being given as well, it's like having this pēpi you've been given and you've gotta bring it up, raise it.

That's why I do this mahi because there's meaning, there's a change for our people and it's a great medium. I enjoy it and I see it as a challenge. But I never take what we need to do for our people lightly, because it changes lives and saves lives and there are too many of our people that have their different ways of doing things. There are just little hang ups that we have as Māori or Pacific and we know, we just have to alleviate those fears and just get people through it.

It's so hard to boil that down, but do you think part of it is this distrust for authority?

Absolutely, without a doubt. Distrust of the government. The messaging has to come from the right source and at the moment, if you put a government lens on it, for example, “Unite against Covid”, there's a lot of people that look the other way. Coming from the right people is important, that delivery point. Who's the messenger? The messenger has to be from their own and a trusted voice, a trusted face. Māori would engage with it, as opposed to coming from the Ministry of Health. It's that grassroots, granular stuff that really works. That's why Taika's done so well, because he's not sugar-coating any of that stuff.

We will always be ourselves and we will always come from a place of being Māori. Even in the way we approach meetings; it's not a big threehour pōwhiri when we go into meetings, but there are certain practices and a certain way of thinking that we always adhere to when we go into different things. If it's challenging our values too much, then it's probably not the right project for us to be on.

Is it hard to make those decisions sometimes when you've got bills to pay?

"I’m very proud of Māori stories and the game changers, like Merata [Mita] who said, ‘No, we are not just going to be the old native in the background in this movie.

We're going to tell our stories’."

We've got some good systems in place of investment. We feel very secure and safe in that and I don't mean to sound really arrogant or anything, but the hardest thing at the moment is actually learning to say no.

If we have too much on where it'll be at the detriment of other work, because we are very popular at the moment, which is great, but we'll become very unpopular if we don't do the right work.

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INTO THE FOLD PREMIUM CONTENT

FULL ISSUES OF M2 MAGAZINE ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE M2NOW.COM

THE CULINARY EXPERIENCE – UNDER THE OCEAN

SEEKING THE EXCEPTIONAL

In the deep, dark depths of the southernmost point of the Norwegian coast you will find diverse marine life and wild fauna of the sea – and soon the world’s largest underwater restaurant.

HERE’S EVERYTHING TO SPOTLIGHTING FOUR OF DO TO MAKE THE MOST OF THE FINEST RESTAURANTS YOUR NEXT QUEENSTOWN IN THE OTAGO REGION WHEN IT COMES TO THE CULINARY ARTS, VISIT OTAGO IS MOST SYNONYMOUS WITH ITS VAST

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When it comes to the recent sunny weather, there is one thing many of us look forward to all year – BBQs. Perfectly cooked steak, fresh prawns and locally caught fish with fresh salads and perla potatoes. It’s a warmweather tradition, really!

LUXURY

THE URWERK AGGREGAT ODYSSEY IS WATCHMAKING AT ITS WEIRDEST You would’ve thought that with all of the incredible watchmakers out there pumping out new designs seemingly every five minutes, it would be hard to come up with something genuinely conceptually unique, something that we’ve really never seen before.

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WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A WINE CELLAR If you are worried that out of control global inflation might be eroding the value of cash and are looking at other investment options, now might be the time to stock up on some wine.

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DITCH THE GRILL WITH THIS HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE You’ve probably heard about the healthy cooking trend that has taken the world by storm in the past few years. Yes, I’m talking about air fryers, the cooking appliance that sparked a global sensation for fans of cooking blogs and food ‘grams.

For Ethereal | Artisan, Mark has worked with the local Karaka farmers to create a menu that brings out the best in their local produce and changes to highlight the bounty of each season.

THE NATURE OF TIME

THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE OF BAKING IS HERE You might already be well ahead of the curve or you picked up baking for the first time during lockdown. I like to think we all picked up new skills over that time.

THIS MIGHT BE THE MOST GRAND SEIKO TAKES COMPLICATED WATCH ON SPORT WITH THE GRAND SEIKO HAS EVOLUTION 9 COLLECTION Using Grand Seiko’s touchstones dating back to EVER MADE 1967, the new Evolution 9 Collection represents Grand Seiko has been breaking new ground for itself with each passing year. 2022 is no different as they introduce their very first mechanical complication watch, the Grand Seiko Kodo Constant-force Tourbillon.

FORGET THE MORNING RUSH WITH THIS AT-HOME BARISTA Swinging by your local café for a baristamade flat white or cappuccino during your morning commute is part of a daily ritual for many of us.

the future of watchmaking. The collection has expanded to accommodate five new Spring Drive sport watches.

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THE LATEST AND GREATEST YOU NEED TO GET YOUR HANDS ON

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ORAL-B IO

Oral-B iO™, a game-changing, completely reimagined and redesigned rechargeable toothbrush. It is now possible to have a professional clean feeling not just twice a year, but every day, in the comfort of your own home. Oral-B iO strikes the right balance between effectiveness and experience and reimagines how a brush performs, cleans and feels. With improved technology and an all-new and quiet motor, Oral B brings you a quiet, smooth experience and world leading

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IROBOT ROOMBA J7+ ROBOT VACUUM

With PrecisionVision Navigation, the Roomba® j7+ robot vacuum identifies and avoids obstacles like pet waste and charging cords to get the whole job done. Messes are no match for a 3-Stage Cleaning System with unique Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes, an Edge-Sweeping Brush, and 10x the Power-Lifting Suction*. You don’t have to touch dust and dirt for up to 60 days because the Roomba® j7+ robot vacuum automatically empties into the Clean Base® Automatic Dirt Disposal with AllergenLockTM bags.

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BREVILLE AQUASTATION

PURE. SIMPLE. HYDRATION. Hot water or instant filtered water with fast dispensing at the touch of a button. The AquaStation™ Hot delivers cleaner, great tasting filtered water in a sleek compact portable design and a large 3L water tank for less refilling during the day. Use the customised settings to set how you like your water.

With no plumbing required, it is ready to use on your kitchen benchtop or in your home office.

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BREVILLE BARISTA EXPRESS™ IMPRESS ESPRESSO MACHINE

Create third wave specialty coffee at home from bean to espresso in less than a minute. The best of the Barista Express with the Impress Puck™ System.

Helping you to achieve the perfect dose and a precise tamp while reducing the grinds on the machine and bench top. If you are looking to upgrade your current espresso machine, keen to get into home espresso but hesitant at the manual side of dosing & tamping, seeking ease of use & convenience, the new Barista Express™ Impress is for you!

THE RELEASE PRESENTS THE NEW AQUASTATION HOT IF YOU FIND THAT YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE THAT NEEDS WATER TO LIVE THEN YOU NEED THE AQUASTATION HOT IN YOUR KITCHEN YESTERDAY. It’s so effective that you might find that it easily combines pre-existing filters and kettles loafing around on your benchtop into one tidy classy package.

First of all the basics. It instantly filters water at the touch of a button, with a flow and filter rate of about a litre a minute, and has a water tank reserve of 3 litres, which is the perfect amount around our household as the little filter jug we’ve previously kept in our fridge door was just not cutting it. It’s Active360 4-stage flow filtration system strips all of the nasties out of your tap water, including that weird chlorine tang you might pick up in your local reserve as well as microplastics, sediment, pesticides, limescale and heavy metals. It achieves this about 3x faster than most other traditional filters out there. Filter life is good for 90 days, or around about 200 litres. In terms of other technicals your looking at a tidy 2.85kg product with dimensions of 381 x 137 x 286mm.

Now my personal favourite feature is the four Hot pre-set beverage options where you can select your ideal temperature between 45 & 100 degrees plus the cup size to instantly get piping hot water for your coffee. No more waiting around for the jug to boil a ton of water you aren’t even going to end up using, the AquaStation only heats what it needs. No wastage! Settings can be applied via an easy to use LCD illuminated screen.

The water isn’t the only thing that’s hot either, the reviews are great too, so you don’t even need to take just my word on it. “The AquaStation is an absolute joy! It's incredibly easy & intuitive to operate. It has a great user interface with preprogrammed or customisable temperatures & water volume. It's beautifully designed & is surprisingly small for it's big 3L capacity! The filtered water tastes great as do all of my teas & coffees. “ If you enjoy a good hot drink, or deliciously filtered water, then the AquaSation Hot is the water machine for you.

Available from

VISIT THERELEASE.CO.NZ AND WIN ONE. Promotion ends 31/05/22. T&Cs apply.

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THE FIRST

GREAT WANDERER INTERVIEW BY ANDRE ROWELL

THE POTENTIAL OF VIRTUAL REALITY HAS BEEN A PROMISE FOR A LONG TIME, BUT THROUGH THE CONVERGENCE OF TECH AND THE RISE OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY, IT'S LOOKING MORE AND MORE OF A REALITY. FACEBOOK’S SHIFT TO META AND FOCUS ON THE METAVERSE HAS REIGNITED INTEREST IN THE SPACE AMONGST OTHER PLAYERS LIKE MICROSOFT AND NVIDIA, BUT IT’S NOT JUST THE SILICON VALLEY TECH GIANTS THAT ARE SHAPING THE FUTURE. A VR GAME DEVELOPED OUT OF NEW ZEALAND HAS BEEN TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM. 116

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Wanderer is a time travelling adventure game that allows players to not only immerse themselves in an alternate future, but also famous moments from history, including the moon landing. It's been a labour of love for the people behind Wanderer, including co-directors Euge Eastlake, Sam Ramlu, and Ben Markby, but they have taken a great story and grand vision and executed it into a VR experience that has achieved global acclaim. Ben Markby takes us behind the scenes.

The feedback and reviews for Wanderer have been amazing. Game reviewers seem to be a pretty prickly bunch at the best of times, but the response has been phenomenal. Was that something that you had expected?

To be fair, we were a little in the dark. I won't go too much into the trials and tribulations of developing a game of this ambition, but it was a hard year, a really hard year. When you're in the trenches like that, you lose a lot of objectivity.

We had a team of testers playing and received mixed reviews early on. You try to mitigate that by changing things and you do what you can to get the best possible product.

We knew how we felt about the game; we thought it was pretty good and we hoped it would appeal to people. It was something that was true to our hearts; it’s the game we wanted to play, it's the game we wanted to make.

We got it out to reviewers a couple of days early and we started getting this feedback from them; ‘This is the best PlayStation VR game I've played all year’. I remember I was driving and I read that at a stop sign and I just thought, ‘holy hell’. I basically cried. I literally did cry.

I was really into Quantum Leap back in the 90s and this is a little bit like that.

"It was just a hundred miles an hour, just trying to keep the wheels on. VR is the Wild West right now, the rule books are gone."

The game is set in 2061 in a world that basically went to crap in the 1980s. It's a frozen-in-time world where climate change happened way earlier and things went well off-kilter much earlier. You find yourself in this world and you start to understand what's happened to it.

You meet a few people and then the adventure begins and you eventually start time travelling to some of the greatest events and moments in history; you meet [Nikola] Tesla and all sorts of different people.

I've been heavily involved with VR for a long time. More so just as being a massive nerd. We always thought time travel and history was such an epic concept. Why wouldn't you want to use VR for that? I love watching History Channel documentaries, but what if you could actually go there and, rather than being a fly on the wall, you could witness that. Not even just witness it, but take part in it and be a pivotal piece in that experience. That was the initial concept and from there, it evolved.

Do you feel like you were scratching the

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surface of something bigger as well?

Does that start to change the potential of education?

Yeah, for sure. When we started the concept, a lot of it was for funding purposes, but it really did revolve around the educational side. We can put people in these moments and give people the emotion of what it was like to be in a moment.

And then we started to realise, we could turn this into a product that you could play and it should be a game. I've always been a gamer and I've been making games for the last seven years.

We thought we’ll take a lesson from the franchise, Assassin’s Creed; those games are rooted in history. This is a crazy fact, but when Notre-Dame burned down a few years ago, do you know who they went to to get the most accurate model to rebuild that? Assassin’s Creed. It's crazy.

We're looking at that model in the sense of making a game that will appeal to the gaming fan bases, but it's rooted in a context in history and something that can provide real value to players that play it. Not just scratching the surface of your Call of Duty’s and that kind of stuff, but a real immersive and engaging story.

Something that can make people feel like they're going on this wondrous adventure back through time in a way that's executed so that there is an immersion level that feels like they are there.

How do you compete with those bigger

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studios with their bigger budgets?

It's obviously difficult, but I think there are a couple of things there that work in the indie’s [game developers] favour. The big players take less risks and so that's where the small teams can be a bit more creative and come up with ideas that big players just wouldn't want to take a risk on.

The second thing is we purposely wanted to get into the VR market, because we felt that the big players in there weren't doing a good enough job, it was underserved. We felt we could definitely make content for that market that would be in the top calibre. It seemed like a no-brainer for us.

I heard they spent $235 million making Grand Theft Auto?

Yes, that's correct. They made that back four times in 24 hours.

Wow, that's incredible. But how do you compete with that level and put out something that looks comparable?

You just don't try to make that game. You don't try to out-Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto; you don't try to out-Call of Duty, Call of Duty; you don't try to remake Fortnite.

I've been to a million game conventions, they always tell you this; don't look at what's trendy and what's big. You need to find something that you're passionate about and you need to find something that you know can stand on its own

two feet in regards to an offering for an audience that is either underserved, or that you know you can compete in that market.

If you have the capital, then maybe give it a go, but you need to really understand the market and the product you're trying to produce.

Can you talk about some of the moments along the way where you didn't know how you were going to make it through the next month?

Oh, there are many. Making a game involves a lot of people, it's a real orchestra of people.

It involves just about every art form you can imagine; there are writers, voice artists, sculptors, musicians, programmers, designers.

The list goes on forever. It is a small game and it has a long credit list.

For us, we went from zero to a hundred. We'd made some small mobile games. We'd made games for brands and then we suddenly got investment and got the opportunity to make this game. We now had to deal with making a game of this calibre and dealing with all the wonderful people you need to make something like this and manage that.

It was just a hundred miles an hour, just trying to keep the wheels on. VR is the Wild West right now, the rule books are gone. It's a difficult medium to develop for, especially for a green company like we were. We really dived in the deep end.

There were some really challenging moments

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"We built the game in 12 weeks, which was just crazy, and shipped it, and then it just went crazy.

It was on the front page of Rolling Stone, front page of Huffington Post. We made the top 30 in paid games in the US."

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there with running out of money and not meeting our next milestones and facing technical issues.

You're trying to get the attention of all these people that might be able to help you and trying to formulate networks with engine programmers overseas. It was just insane.

How do you deal with that? You've got all these variables.

Well, it broke my business partner and he's gone, so that was pretty gutting. I still have two more business partners, which we rely on heavily for support, but it was tough.

We've said to ourselves, we can't do that again in that way. It's a strange thing, it was the most fun I've ever had, but it was also some of the most horrible times I've ever had, really intense. The head of Studio Ghibli, which is a big animation house in Japan, says that every time they finish a movie, he thinks he never wants to do that again and then a few weeks later, he just can't wait to start the next one. Some strange addiction there.

You cut a good steady job to move into a garage and start your studio. Can you talk through that process and that leap of faith?

I had run a few businesses prior, just on the side of working full time and to marginal success.

I gave those up and was just working. My

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business partner and I did a little game concept together and we won a Best Award for it. So we thought, maybe we're actually alright at this.

We're sick of making stuff of value for other people, we thought we could probably just give this a crack. So we moved into his mum's garage out in Howick and we had nothing at all. We had no backing, no money [laughs], we didn’t even have savings.

We just started taking a few odd jobs when we could and we shipped our first game that year.

That game actually did pretty well and that gave us the opportunity to start and get an office and start hiring a few developers and go from there.

Can you talk about that game?

We built a game in 2016 called Jrump and it was a parody game in the theme of South Park about Donald Trump. We came up with the concept about four months before the US election. We knew we had to ship this game before the elections to really maximise the virality or the potential of it.

We built the game in 12 weeks, which was just crazy, and shipped it, and then it just went crazy. It was on the front page of Rolling Stone, front page of Huffington Post. We made the top 30 paid games in the US.

Wow. What was the gameplay?

It's a stupid game, but basically, you're Donald Trump and you're trying to make the galaxy great again by fleeing earth. You have to draw his favourite thing in the world, which is walls <laughs>, underneath him and catch him as he is falling and dodge things he hates; scientists, other politicians, etc.

And then we did a follow-up to it called The Devil's Ear. You ended up playing as Bernie Sanders and you could shoot tax returns at Donald Trump as a big boss battle.

I’ve read that we are looking at a billion-dollar industry in New Zealand by 2025, in terms of gaming export.

That's potentially a lot of jobs for a wide range of people. What do we need to do to support that and help it grow?

The tertiary institutions here are starting to offer better and better degrees. We have a lot of juniors coming through, a few seniors but there's a massive gap f=or intermediates. I'm not really sure what the answer is there. We basically took on 80% juniors and just had to battle through it. That was again, one of the struggles.

I think educating kids at a younger age in school and really making them aware that game

TECH INTERVIEW

development is a bit like film. It has such a wide array of applications and so if you're interested in being a sculptor or a writer or a musician, there's a career path there for those things.

If you're a musician, you don't have to be out there Justin Beiber-ing it, you can make a really good living from making music for video games. Our music engineer and composer has started his own firm and he's doing really well.

He's making music for a dozen games or so at the moment in New Zealand and it's epic to be able to support him while he supports us.

I think that's a big thing that's happening in the industry here, this growth and this support that's happening within the community.

Is there anything else about being in New Zealand that enables you to succeed?

I think it's a hangover of colonialism, of being a young country. We've got this naive, cowboyish nature where we just go, ‘Oh, we'll just give it a bloody go’. We don't get too bogged down with people asking, what will happen if I do this or too many people telling us ‘no’?

It's this naivety where we're willing to jump into the deep end and give it a crack. Sure, we'll

"Cut the safety nets. That was the thing for me. Just give it a go, there's no right time to do anything.

You can make calculated decisions, but I think you've just got to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘is this really what I want to do?’ and do it."

make mistakes. We'll fail here and there, but I think overall, we get a net positive from that and it means we punch way above our weight, especially creatively.

You look at our film industry, you look at what's happening here in the game industry, our advertising industry. They punch so far above their weight on a global standard. It's phenomenal.

Would you have any advice for someone who’s looking to leave their safe job and pursue their dream?

Cut the safety nets. That was the thing for me.

Just give it a go, there's no right time to do anything. You can make calculated decisions, but I think you've just got to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘is this really what I want to do?’ and do it.

What's your next project?

We've started our next phase already. I can't talk about what that is, but we've got two things in early development and things underway for releasing products over the next three to five years.

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WORDS BY ISAAC TAYLOR

GIVE YOUR APPLE WATCH SOME EXTRA BLING Apple Watches have picked up steam recently, as the idea of wearable tech has fully saturated the public consciousness.

Personally, I put this down to Fitbit forging the way for the less tech savvy to realise the benefits of a mini backup to their smartphone. But the one problem with Smart watches is that they always drip with Silicon Valley nerdom, losing all the classic respectability of their oldworld counterparts.

Serafino Luxury has seen this problem and are addressing it with excessive style. Using silicon, leather and stainless steel milled in Italy.

PIXY DUST Snapchat is keeping things fresh with its very own little dinky selfie drone. This is the second time Snap has ventured into the hardware space, last time with their Spectacles.

Pixy looks more like a toy, and that’s by design, it wants to be your friend, and every good friend you take everywhere can fit in your pocket. It measures 131.7mm x 106mm x 17.6mm and outputs images at 4000 x 3000 (12MP), does video at 2.7k, 30fps. A full charge gets you 40 minutes of selfie airtime, and it has 16gb of flash storage.

Pricing starts at around nz$350 but we recommend splashing an extra $30 for the dual charger.

A SHOULDER TO BLAST TUNES ON On-ear, over-ear, in-ear, all of these headphones have too much head and ear action going on to make me feel comfortable. What if instead you opted for an on-shoulder speaker instead. Sony has got this lucrative market covered with their SRS-NB10 Wireless Neckband Speaker.

Designed for professionals that require awareness of their surroundings but also need to be on calls, and listen to playlists all day long, the SRS-NB10 is built with comfort in mind. It has 20 hours battery life and can dual connect to your phone and PC. It’s IPX4 splash-proof so should handle any stray splashes from you working on chores.

The directional personal audio limits sound leakage to coworkers and family nearby.

Available in black and white.

THE “RAZOR HOUSE” THAT INSPIRED TONY STARK'S HOME IN IRON MAN SOLD FOR $20.8 MILLION.

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THE STUDYPOD

I’M HARLEY MOVING I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ll never get used to the Harley-Davidson name associated to E-Bikes, but this is the world we live in now. The new Serial-1 dropped recently with a super limited supply, so only a couple hundred of these are circulating. It’s completely stripped back to the point that is has no suspension at all apart from the SR Suntour NCX seat post. This is the big sell from Harley “No fussy suspension to tune, no finicky drivetrain to adjust — just two wheels, one gear, and one purpose, to provide the most direct connection between you and the trail”.

Have you ever wanted to work INSIDE a Mac? Well now you can, you weirdo.

The Studypod by Livit is the home office solution for the thrifty but discerning. The StudyPod is about getting you into your back garden into an isolation cell with one whole side being a black-tinted, hardened glass window, allowing you to drink in nature while working, without any of the pesky bits like rain and bugs. Its dimensions are a tight 2.15m by 1.8m and it comes with natural ventilation and adjustable airflow. Options include a detachable desk so you can convert the room into a yoga room or bedroom with the bed taking up 100% of the floorspace. It weighs around 700kg and can come on wheels if you’re keeping it on concrete.

It comes with a 529Wh battery, and can get you between 48-153 km depending on conditions. A 75% charge takes just 2.6 hours and the max assist speed is 32km/h.

“Less is more” Harley says. We don’t know if they’re referring to the limited stock or the super limited design.

A CANNON FOR YOUR MÄNNKITCHEN Do you ever get unreasonably upset that grinding pepper might be making you effeminate for some reason? Well it only costs $200 to protect your masculinity with this ridiculously priced and marketed pepper grinder. Called the Männkitchen Pepper Cannon, it promises to be the Ferrari of pepper grinders. Ordinary mills can only grind pepper in the 12-28 mesh size range.

The Pepper Cannon can grind from 8 all the way past 60 - coarse enough for stocks and roast beef, and finer than the pre-ground pepper you’ve been forced to buy. It’s made of aerospace grade aluminium and delivers pepper at a rate the cheapies can’t compete with. Grind less, get more.

It even allows pre-grind up to ⅓ of a cup of pepper in the base so you can do one-hand seasoning later, perfect for when you’re prepping your steak.

Be warned though, you can’t chuck salt in it, as it’ll eventually corrode the stainless steel internals, and leave you with nothing but a phallic looking paper weight.

SONY'S PSVR 2 WILL HAVE AT LEAST 20 GAMES AT LAUNCH. WOW A WHOLE 20.

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M2woman continues to advocate for diversity, inclusion and encouraging women in leadership in the New Zealand workplace, but the market is demanding more from businesses and the call for greater social responsibility has never been stronger.

Our forums discuss the issues that matter, bringing together big business and busy career men and women to share experiences, advice and the latest insights.

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Small impact, Big fits.

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1. PELACASE iPhone 13 Case, $41.95 2. PALA EYEWEAR Jabali, $211 3. COLLECTIVE CANVAS Bal Black/White, $129.90 4. FINAL FinalStraw, $24.95 5. TRIWA Ocean Plastic Deep Blue, $159 6. MARLEY Rebel True Wireless Earbuds, $129.99 7. KNOW THE ORIGIN Moos Embroidered Art Organic Cotton Men's Socks Navy, $19.99 8. LE CORD Green iPhone Lightning cable, $26.90

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IT’S THE LOGITECH THING TO DO

FROM RING TO GUCCI Oura has teamed up with Gucci to create a premium luxury smart device. Oura has been knocking around for a while, with their health rings that keep a tabs on your heart rate, temperature and sleep health, giving you a score each day to help keep you on target. The app (that needs a subscription) gives you a curated library of audio sessions of meditations, sleep sounds, breathwork, etc, to give you the extra boost. An optional setting allows wearers to even track and predict periods.

What Gucci brings to the table though is their logo… surrounded by a braided trim in 18k gold. Beats just a plain old smart ring, am I right?

I’m part of a household of artists, who have office day jobs. Suffice to say, we’ve all developed some sort of RSI. Not being able to use our hands is our worst nightmare. This has led my wife to spend as much time away from computer mice and game controllers as she can. Logitech is addressing this very issue with their new Lift Vertical Ergonomic Mouse, a wireless mouse built for day-long comfort. It’s designed for medium to smaller hands and sits at a 57 degree angle. Drop your arm on your desk so it lies on its side, the way your hand is sitting is now on the perfect angle taking pressure off your wrists.

It comes with a silent magnetic SmartWheel and uses either a low energy Bluetooth connection or a secure Logi Bolt USB receiver.

Both colour options are made from postconsumer recycled (PCR) plastic - 70% for graphite and 54% for rose.

Pick one of these up for better posture today, RRP$149.90

THE RUGGEDEST LAPTOP Panasonic has released a new laptop called the Toughbook 40 that can be used to deliver blunt force trauma as easily as it can be used to send emails.

Coming in a suitcase formfactor made of a magnesium alloy, it has a handle on the front and plenty of cushioning to handle almost anything. It comes with a 14” display, and is a bit lighter than its predecessor at 3.3kg. Still a lot weighter than a lot of other laptops, but that’s cause it’s gotta be tougher than tough to be considered military grade. It can handle up to 64gb ram, 3TB of storage and has all day battery life. It’s packed with four microphones and has dual SIM support with 4G and 5G. It comes with a bunch of modular expansion slots along the sides so you can slap in extra ports, a barcode reader, drives or a second battery to extend life to 36 hours. Those white panels you see on either side of the touchpad are also expansion slots. Very cool, very heavy, but very rugged. Toughbook 40 Prices should be around $7,000

The ring also comes with a charger, and battery life generally lasts between 4 to 7 days.

The price will set you back $1,585 and comes with the Oura membership as part of the deal.

INTERNET EXPLORER IS NOT RESPONDING

Microsoft is ending support for suresies for most people as they try and shift everyone over to the Chromium based Edge browser (with built in IE support).

If there’s one thing Microsoft might regret, it would be Internet Explorer. Alongside them are millions of devs around the world whose lives are made an absolute misery as they are forced to make workarounds to keep their sites compatible with the venerable browser.

One software engineer in South Korea, Jung Kiyoung marked the occasion with a tombstone for IE, the epitaph ringing true. “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”

Rest in peace IE… But will this stop your nanna from using it? No. No it won’t.

THE STAR WARS MOVIE ROGUE ONE IS GETTING A PREQUEL SERIES ON DISNEY+ CALLED "ANDOR", DEBUTING 31 AUGUST.

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HELLO DOLLY SHOTS Phones already have attachable camera lenses, why not dollys?

The Trexo Slider is a compact and handy 33cm long rail for getting tiny panning shots for your phone or DSLR. The mounting arm allows for any sort of camera you’d really require to use the dolly. It comes with a built in display for programming the pan if you’re unable to use the accompanying app because well, your phone is busy panning away from you.

It works both horizontally and vertically. You can teach it the appropriate movements by doing it by hand first, and then setting a loop point so it can try for the perfect shot more than once. To avoid any jittering or vibrations it uses a lead screw to operate, rather than a belt.

Prices on Kickstarter currently start at around nz$300 kickstarter.com/projects/1592205788/trexo-slider-worldsmost-compact-camera-slider

THE HIGH RØDE Are you even a podcaster if you don’t have three friends that look exactly like you, have terrible hot takes on TV shows and politics, and a soundboard you barely comprehend? We can help you with the latter via the new RØDECaster Pro II. Perfect for musicians, streamers and all manner of content creators, it has four high-quality Neutrik combo inputs for mics, instruments and inputs. Mix with the help of nine individual channels, six physical faders and three virtual ones. It supports dual USB-C for plugging in PCs and mobiles devices, and comes with eight programmable SMART pads for bank switching.

It can do multitrack recording straight to a MicroSD card and you can take control of the whole thing via the 5.5” HD touchscreen.

ON THE ROG

It’s a hot little piece of sound tech, but now if you’d excuse me, I need to gather my mates for our weekly discussion on exactly how many days Biden can go wearing the same suit.

You think you’re so cool with your 120Hz monitor while you try and solo push the cart in Overwatch while everyone else plays Valorant? You’ve got to push those numbers up, Those are rookie numbers! Asus has just announced their very first 500hz monitor, the ROG Swift 500hz. It’s a 24.1” 1920x1080 panel sporting “super low response times”. ROG uses new Esports TN (E-TN) technology, which offers 60% better response times than standard TN panels. It also comes with NVIDIA’s Reflex Analyzer and G-SYNC built-in so pro-gamers can tune their settings for the lowest possible input lag. It also has a Vibrance mode built-in for greater, well, vibrance, I guess.

Now, you might not be super impressed with the resolution, but let’s be real, your GPU is going to be pushed to its limits as it is without having to deal with 4k. There are rumours that to accompany this overkill of a monitor, Nvidea will start launching the RTX 4090 cards later this year.

Pricing and release date on the ROG Swift 500hz is still yet to be confirmed. This is just an early warning for your wallet.

BILL GATES RECKONS NFT'S ARE “100% BASED ON GREATER FOOL THEORY”.

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A ROBOT TO VACUUM, MOP AND SELF CLEAN…

IT DOESN’T GET BETTER THAN THIS! I’d always wondered what a robotic vacuum cleaner would be like. I could see the application would be an awesome way to cut out one of the jobs we all hate and free up quite a lot of time. I’d also heard that they were prone to falling down stairs and getting entangled in anything foreign left on the floor. With all that I’d heard of them, I'd been a bit skeptical - until ECOVACS offered me a trial and now I am a total convert!

ECOVACS are leaders in robot vacuum cleaner technology and with the development of the DEEBOT X1 OMNI, they have raised the bar so high that I can’t imagine any other brand ever catching up, and all of this in a relatively short time.

Let’s start with suction, the core of why you might want a robot vacuum. We can’t talk about power without first mentioning that it features ECOVACS’ strongest suction power at 5000Pa. Add in its most powerful mopping system to-date and you are covered no matter the combination of carpets and hard floors in your home.

With AI technology and a multitude of sensors and cameras the DEEBOT is using, including RGBD sensors and AIVI 3D technology, it doesn’t just build an incredible 3D map of your home’s layout, its object avoidance technology, makes it a breeze for it to avoid objects and make sense of the things it navigates around. It’s tech you might find currently being developed over on the autonomous car side of things, and according to ECOVACS, this is the first time legitimate autopilot technology has been packed into a home service robot.

With the DEEBOT X1 OMNI, I can set it up to mop or vacuum specific areas. With voice control, another industry-first with its inbuilt AI voice assistant called YIKO, I can ask it to clean under the table or the sofa, mop the bathroom or vacuum the hallway. I can customise a certain area or room - perfect to clean up after the kids have thrown their cereal all over the floor. This understanding of ones home is in part thanks to the aforementioned leading AI technology, as well as ECOVACS’ TrueMapping 2.0 mapping and navigation technology which creates a fast and accurate, customisable map of your home.

You can then name pieces of furniture and rooms and edit exactly when, where and how your home should be cleaned.

The DEEBOT X1 OMNI takes care of your floors while also taking care of itself. Every part of its service is fully automated with the power of its all-in-one self-cleaning station that auto

empties the dirt and dust, refills the water after mopping, and even washes and dries the mopping pads while it is docked back at its base station.

I can even operate it remotely from my phone and use the camera to scan the room, find the cat or talk to the kids while I am out of the room - not to mention the security application of having a fully mobile camera in the house.

While Ecovacs are leaders in cleaning and innovation, they also understand that their products need to look good. The robot and station need to be in the open so you want it to look smart in any modern household. This is the best looking robot vacuum on the market thanks to its collaboration with Jacob Jensen Design - the same team behind brands like Bang & Olufsen. Nobody else in the industry commits to this level of design given it needs to be out and about in your home.

The thing I love the most about this is the time it saves. Two hours of mopping and vacuuming every week - not to mention the daily chores of cleaning up after the pets and kids, this has been a life changer. No more arguments over who is going to clean up, we set it and leave the house to enjoy the weekend and come back to a spotless house. We even named it ‘Billy’ and he is now a permanent member of the household.

Oh and a happy wife comes with benefits too…

In New Zealand, the DEEBOT X1 OMNI is available from JB Hi-Fi, Noel Leeming, Godfrey's and Robomate for an RRP of $2,999.

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3 GAMES TO ESCAPE WITH WHETHER YOU'RE INTO VR OR REGULAR OLD PANCAKE MODE, WE'VE GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU TO CHECK OUT.

STAR WARS: TALES FROM THE GALAXY'S EDGE OCULUS QUEST Initially coming out a little underbaked, Tales From the Galaxy's Edge is now a fully rounded Star Wars experience with the new Last Call expansion, bringing you new stories to take part in first hand.

Comfort controls are rock solid and the game offers a decent 6 hours of shooter gameplay interspersed with puzzler elements that take advantage of the VR format. Good addition to the library especially if you're a down and out Star Wars fanboy.

LIVE A LIVE SWITCH Taking advantage of the New HD-2D approach to oldschool RPGs Square Enix is bringing previously untranslated SNES classics to the west. Live A Live plays fast and loose with the RPG genre breaking stories across time and space, done in any order.

Each time has its own twist of mechanics and the stories converge marvellously.

Drops July 22nd

OCTOPATH TRAVELER: CHAMPIONS OF THE CONTINENT MOBILE More HD-2D, except this time free!... With Gacha mechanics. Still a fun single player JRPG experience for mobile, no spending required.

Out Now

RAM RAIDS, & WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM BACK IN MY DAY, KIDS WOULD DO THINGS LIKE PLANK AND FALL OFF BALCONIES, OR MAYBE EAT DISHWASHING LIQUID AS SOME SORT OF VIRAL TREND. THESE DAYS, KIDS ARE DRIVING CARS THROUGH THE FRONT OF LIQUOR STORES FOR $500 IN BOOZE AND CIGARETTES. I DON’T KNOW WHY IT’S A THING NOW, MAYBE A TIK TOK DANCE MADE THEM DO IT, MAYBE VIDEOGAMES AREN’T ADDICTIVE ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM OFF THE STREETS ANYMORE. ALL I KNOW IS THAT I WON’T BE CAMPING OUT IN FRONT OF LIQUOR KING ANYMORE NOW THAT THE CHANCES OF MY TENT GETTING SANDWICHED BETWEEN A CAR BUMPER AND THE CRAFT BREW AISLE IS ROUGHLY 100%.

My only personal experience with ram raiding is my Grandma, who lived on Waiheke. She was a terror on the road, pedal to the metal around those tight corners. Anyway, she was desperate to get to the shops before they closed. Fortunately for her, it’s hard to close up when you’ve misjudged how much time it takes to slow down after ramping your car over the curb and through the front window of the Four Square. I’m unsure whether she casually walked in to buy a loaf of bread and a litre of milk directly afterwards.

Anyway, I’m seeing a lot of complaining about how someone should do something about the recent spate of ramming. Since nobody else is offering any great ideas for what we can do about the situation, I have put the weight of responsibility on my own shoulders to address the problem. You can send all New Zealander of the Year awards directly to the M2 offices to apply pressure to my boss over our ongoing pay disputes.

MAKE SOLID BRICK WALLS LOOK LIKE VERY CONVINCING SHOP FRONTS. I believe we should start honeypotting solid brick walls to look like shop fronts. Dress them up with a of couple curtains, put a pane of glass over a row of cellphones and some bottles of Jim Beam and you’re away. Simply keep an ambulance on hand to scrape up the remains of any would be thieves plowing into it at 80km/h.

OUTLAW CARS When guns are a problem, we get rid of guns. When E-scooters are giving pedestrians surprise colonoscopies, we get rid of most of the scooters. When housing is a problem, we stop making them. We have a track record with all these things. No more cars, no more problems. I don’t know how many HOP cards you’d have to give a bus driver before he’d park the bus inside a shop, but I presume it’s a prohibitive amount.

ALL NEW DAIRIES AND LIQUOR STORES SHOULD BE PYRAMID SHAPED If you build it on just the right angle it’s practically impossible to ram a pyramid, it’d just be a four sided ramp. Vagrants could try all night, but all they’ll be doing is totalling their suspension.

LEAVE THE STORE UNLOCKED Why do brigands use a car to create an egress?

Because the place is locked! Keep the store unlocked all night and you've mitigated the problem. Time and again, thieves have caused more dollars in damage to the store than merchandise stolen, it just makes financial sense. Maybe leave an honesty box by the door to recoup some costs. Business owners will be blown away at how quickly stock will fly off the shelves!

I asked my editor how he felt about this piece and he asked whether I was making light of the grief so many of our businesses have had to endure. I don't take this critique seriously since his only suggestion was "maybe make lava motes" because he's seen his daughter doing it a lot in Minecraft recently.

SITTING ALL DAY ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU, & STANDING DESKS ARE OVERKILL. 5 MINUTES OF ACTIVITY EVERY HALF HOUR IS GOOD.

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