It’s a proud tradition that goes back to 1991. At the end of each year, the New Zealand Herald nominates Our Heroes across news, sport, business and entertainment, honouring the men and women who we think deserve the widest possible recognition.
Some of our winners over the years have become household names, like Sir Peter Jackson (2001) and Lorde (2013). Others, like Austin Hemmings (2008), are better known for their brave deeds – Hemmings was the “Good Samaritan” who gave his life in trying to defend a woman from a brutal attack on an Auckland street.
We’ve honoured sports teams, such as the Black Ferns (2022) after their magnificent Rugby World Cup victory, capped off by Ruby Tui’s waiata across the stadium, and artists, such as Taika Waititi (2017) after cinema crowds rose to applaud Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Campaigners have featured too, including Louise Nicholas (2007) on sexual violence and Lecretia Seales (2015) on euthanasia law reform.
There are only a few hard and fast rules in our selections – no politicians, no repeat winners and in close calls we lean towards the efforts of volunteers instead of professionals who are paid for their good works.
As usual, our judges have this year recognised a wide range of human achievements, ranging from acts of one-off heroism to a lifetime’s achievement – sometimes well-known like the names above, sometimes well out of the spotlight.
We hope you enjoy the stories behind our choices.
FINALISTS
THE CREW OF DOUBLE DOWN
When he and mate Doug Ahnne heard the crew of HMNZS Manawanui calling mayday from their stricken Royal New Zealand Navy ship in October, there was “no hesitation”, Trevor Meredith says.
They knew conditions off Samoa’s Upolu Island, where Manawanui had grounded, were rough, the New Zealand-raised commercial diver says.
“We knew it’s not the kind of conditions we would normally go out in. But we were listening on the radio and we could hear them calling ‘mayday’, we could hear everything happening so we just jumped on the boat and went.”
Meredith is uncomfortable with the word hero, but heroes – acknowledging all four men on Ahnne’s 6.4m boat Double Down, as well as the many others who came to help, including police and Fire and Emergency teams - sat a little better.
The two friends were joined on Double Down by Shalom Tapusalaia and a mystery police officer waiting on the beach to help.
All 75 aboard Manawanui were in life rafts or rigid inflatable boats (RIB) when the rescuers reached the scene, but after towing a life raft and RIB to cable ship MS Lodbrog, stormy conditions forced them to pull 10 people on to Double Down, Meredith said.
“It was too unsafe for them to be on the liferaft next to the cable ship, [The weight] almost sunk our boat … half our engine was in the water.”
Double Down eventually reached a sheltered bay, waiting out the storm till sunrise.
“Everything was a risk, but I think we took the right one.”
LISA CLARK
Her brother died six months ago, but Lisa Clark is still collecting aluminium cans and unwanted scrap metal to raise money for blood cancer medicine for others battling multiple myeloma.
“I’ve got to help others, because we wouldn’t have got where we did without the help of others.
“It’s so important that I keep going, because I think it’s part of my healing … I like the idea of cans for cancer, making it a bit bigger and having some collection points set up around the community.”
The Herald met Clark in January when she was selling donated aluminium scraps to raise money for the drug – daratumumab – keeping her brother Simon Clark alive. Other friends and family also chipped in, including his mum, Cheryll Clark, who knitted toy mice.
The private cost of the drug at that time was $240,000 for the first year, with the bill halving in subsequent years because fewer doses are needed.
Simon Clark died aged 48 in June, days before the Government announced an extra $604 million over four years for Pharmac, which will enable funding of 54 new medicines, including for four different blood cancers.
Lisa Clark, of Huapai in West Auckland, earns about 1.6 cents per crushed can and has raised about $5000 overall.
“It’s not a lot of money”, the 57-year-old said when Simon Clark and his family went public in January about the desperate measures they were taking to fundraise for daratumumab, with the married dad-of-four’s story sparking Government changes.
“But when Simon’s kids are older I have to look them in the eye and say, ‘I did everything I could.’”
THE COLEMAN FAMILY
It was seized, then sold, over $221 in unpaid rates.
But more than five decades later, a historic Ngāpuhi pā is being given back to Māori by its Pākehā owners.
John and Lily Coleman have been farming near Kaikohe since the 1960s, and in 2002 bought the land that is home to Pākinga Pā, built by great Ngāpuhi chief Mahia and later central to the story of famed chief and warrior Hongi Hika.
But early efforts to formally preserve the 4ha site the family had fenced off from stock collided with bureaucracy and lack of support before the couple’s son Rick Coleman suggested the land be returned to Māori.
They agreed and Rick Coleman met with friends from Ngāti Tautahi and Ngāti Uoneone, determined by the Maori Land Court early last century as the hapu that rights to the pā should go to.
After various public and other meetings, a trust was formed before the pā’s return was celebrated on Waitangi Day last year, although the small print is still to be rubber-stamped by the Māori Land Court.
The land was seized under a 1967 law described by a contemporaneous Government minister as enabling “a good deal more Māori land to be brought into production”, and took place without the 24 owners being consulted.
Its return is “healing”, says John and Lily’s daughter Sue Coleman.
“[This is] bringing us together to move forward. For me the mana goes to mum and dad, because they’ve seen the value in it, to leave their legacy.
“And it’s always going to be protected by everybody.”
PETRA EDGAR
There was a time when the future didn’t look too bright for young Aucklander Petra Edgar.
She’d gone from a happy and successful member of her high school’s advanced learning programme to developing anxiety, seeing her grades plummet and skipping her year 12 classes after becoming the target of severe bullying.
But when she tried to make a fresh start at a nearby school in 2020, her enrolment was turned down because she lived out-of-zone – despite the Ministry of Education speaking with the school.
“I was really wanting to learn … and it just seemed like no one wanted me”, she said in August, after a Herald report on three schools defying ministry directives to enrol certain students in the past year.
She worried some schools still weren’t looking closely enough at each student’s situation.
“It’s a stereotype that directives are for bad students.”
Before her family could complete the process to apply for a ministry directive, Edgar was taken in by Ormiston Senior College, a “second chance” that culminated in her studying robotics engineering at the University of Canterbury.
“Don’t give up”, the 21-year-old says, in her latest message to others “shunned” by schools.
Now an intern in Fisher & Paykel’s refrigeration team after three years of university study, Edgar – who is Te Waiariki – is aiming for a graduate role next year.
“I love it, it’s amazing. It’s like everything you learn at university coming to life.”
MIKE WELLINGTON and the group that saved 8-year-old Mackay Blaikie
As the power of the river tried to push him away from the trapped boy he was holding just above the water, Mike Wellington kept his arms around the 8-year-old and made him a promise.
“I said I’d be there until the end and not leave him”.
Mackay Blaikie nearly drowned in January when he was swept over a waterfall and became wedged in rock with his face inches above the water at Minaret Burn on Lake Wānaka.
Mackay had been exploring the river with Wellington’s sons, and the dad – first on the scene – braced himself against a rock, battling slippery rocks and “the relentless power of the freezing water” while fearing both would die alone in the remote waterway.
But help was on the way.
“I can see how [others] see me as a hero, however the true heroes were all the approximately 20 people that slowly managed to arrive at the scene.
“The first three people that arrived I’m certain saved my life, as they took over from me. They are my heroes.”
Eventually, up to 20 people were involved in the 30-minute rescue, including his friend Simon Beirne, 10 teenage girls who formed a human chain to reduce water flow, and “Rarotongan God” Ben Main, who ducked underwater to push and twist the now “turning purple” Mackay free as four people pulled from above.
“Without every single one of them, this would be a completely different story, an absolute tragedy that would’ve ruined the lives of many.”
DR JANE GREVILLE and DR DANA WENSLEY
When two experts worried their role reviewing assisted deaths was too limited to detect potential wrongdoing, they didn’t hesitate to take their concerns to ministers.
Palliative care specialist Dr Jane Greville and ethics expert Dr Dana Wensley were two of three members on the inaugural review committee set up just before the End of Life Choice Act came into force in 2021.
Wensley later became concerned about the unequal distribution of assisted deaths – noting more occurring in small, rural areas than expected – but the Assisted Dying Secretariat denied her request for more data, she said in a letter to former Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.
Officials took the question seriously, but it’d be several years until there was enough data to measure equity and access, a Ministry of Health spokesperson said in October.
Meanwhile, Greville wrote to Health Minister Shane Reti in March that while the introduction of the new law had been smooth, the committee was “constrained to the point of irrelevance” as they didn’t have access to information such as a patient’s diagnosis, prognosis and assessment of capacity, nor how long they took to die after receiving their lethal dose.
In one case a patient suspected of having frontal dementia, who didn’t speak English, was approved for assisted dying despite not having an interpreter at their assessment.
The ministry and ministers say the experts’ concerns will be addressed in an ongoing review of the law.
Greville applied to be reappointed to the committee but was told in March her term wouldn’t be extended.
Wensley’s final straw – culminating in her resignation when her two-year term ended in October last year – came when the ministry responded to her complaint about malfunctioning IT, which meant some assisted death reports were produced with blank sections. Committee members were told they should “assume no issues”.
Doctors have since been told to manually enter the data until a new IT platform comes in next year, a ministry spokesperson said.
Greville couldn’t be contacted, but Wensley told the Herald she’s honoured to be a finalist.
“But the real honour goes to all the people who provide assisted dying services, the brave people and their whānau who have utilised this service, and the teams at the Ministry of Health who will progress the review findings to make assisted dying safer for all concerned.”
REBECCA RUSSELL
Her leadership exposed alleged conflicts of interest and fraud and earned her a new nickname – The Duchess – as she pushed back against the old guard of a long male-dominated sport.
And she’d do it all again, former Auckland Rugby League (ARL) chief executive Rebecca Russell says.
“I was doing this massive transformation of the organisation at the same time as I was dealing with all of these other issues that were really underlying just systemic, long-standing ways of behaving.
“It was incredibly difficult – I really had to compartmentalise everything day by day.”
The first female chief executive in Auckland Rugby League’s then-113-year history, Russell started in 2022 to discover a paper-based office with “no processes, no procedures, no standards”.
She hired PwC, whose $500,000, 14-month review raised questions over $7.2 million of spending, and found alleged conflicts of interest, poor decision-making and allegations of $183,798 fraud by a staff member.
Three directors of ARL were suspended, with long-time administrator Cameron McGregor the highest-profile among those singled out by name in the PwC report. He denies any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Rugby League organised meetings with Auckland clubs without ARL involved, with the national body’s independent appeals committee also attempting to over-rule ARL’s suspension of directors.
Russell left ARL last month in good shape, with Auckland clubs voting on a new constitution demanding greater rigour at board level, an appointments panel to screen applicants, more independent directors and ending voting rights for life members.
“It’s [been] pretty crazy, but I always just felt I had to do the right thing.”
LYALL CARTER
It would’ve been easy for Lyall Carter to disappear into anger.
Record-smashing rainfall had washed away the life he’d built for his young family in suburban West Auckland.
Instead, Carter helped set up West Auckland is Flooding (WAiF), becoming chairman of an organisation aimed at finding fair and sustainable solutions for those forced out of their homes after the deadly floods of January 27 last year.
Through that process, Carter earned a reputation for working constructively with council staff and elected representatives while still being a strong advocate for affected homeowners.
He describes it as “recognising the humanity of the person across the aisle … especially in the political climate we find ourselves now” while also remembering you’re there to represent the people of your communities.
And it’s far from a solo effort, Carter says.
“I see this as recognition of the work of the WAiF team … I’m surrounded by people way more intelligent than me that work through policy details and basically tell me in very simple terms, ‘This is where we need to go’.”
As of last month, 319 of the 862 properties eligible for a buyout from the council and the Government’s joint $2 billion storm recovery fund have been settled, among them Carter’s.
But work remains, he says.
“There’s still some sticking points for me … especially around those [affected homeowners] that are in negative equity.”
SONJA COOPER
When Sonja Cooper started working with abuse in care survivors, Jim Bolger was Prime Minister, Jonah Lomu was bowling over Englishmen at the Rugby World Cup and Mt Ruapehu was blasting rock and ash into the sky.
Almost 30 years later, the Wellington lawyer’s firm Cooper Legal represents more than 1600 people, is dealing with around 2000 claims, has settled more than 600 and has paid out more than $13 million to clients.
And last month, Cooper and all those fighting for recognition of the harm done to so many heard Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and others in Government leadership roles, say sorry.
The national apology was among recommendations from this year’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which detailed the scale of abuse and neglect that occurred in the care of New Zealand state and faith-based institutions from 1950 to 2019.
It was, Cooper says, “deeply satisfying ... for the truth to be finally in the open”, apologies made and redress obtained – “albeit still at unacceptably low levels” and with advocacy continuing.
She’s thankful for her husband David, colleagues and all who’d “trusted us with the horrific experiences they have suffered”, she says.
“[They] allowed us to tell their stories and advocate for them to achieve recognition and justice.”
There’s Olympic gold, and then there’s blue-riband Olympic gold.
Of all the contenders for our top sporting honour of the year, Hamish Kerr was probably the least well-known to the public at the start of 2024. And today many of the names that appear further along our list will be more recognisable in households around New Zealand.
Yet Kerr’s remarkable achievement in securing Olympic high jump gold puts him at the top of our podium for sporting achievement this year.
High jump is one of the pinnacle events of the Olympics, a staple of track and field.
When he cleared 2.34m in an exhausting jump-off against eventual silver medallist Shelby McEwen, Kerr placed himself in a pantheon of New Zealand’s athletics greats, earning a spot alongside Jack Lovelock, Yvette Corlett (nee Williams), Norman Read, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, John Walker and Valerie Adams.
The jump-off had been tough on both of the final competitors. On a hot Paris evening, the two exhausted men had clipped the bar at 2.38m, and then again at 2.36m. When McEwen failed at 2.34m, leaving the path to gold open for Kerr, the Kiwi later described a sense of “clarity”.
“I knew the jump was in me. I was a little bit hurried in a few of those earlier ones, so it was just about calming it down and executing each footstep.”
Kerr soared over the bar.
His celebratory dash through the Stade de France infield matched the stunned mood of surprise and joy felt by sports fans in New Zealand. His form leading into the Games had been strong, but New Zealand has no rich legacy in this sport.
The victory felt sweeter given the fact Kerr and McEwen agreed to turn down the opportunity to share the gold, as had happened at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In that event, Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim (the bronze medallist in Paris) chose to share the gold medal rather than have a jump-off.
Kerr had said he wanted to “add to high jump lore, not duplicate it”.
“I was happier coming second and adding to that history than I would have been actually taking the shared gold,” Kerr told the Herald.
In adding to high jump lore, he also enriched New Zealand’s incredible Olympic legacy. Like those before him, Kerr competed fiercely against much-fancied opposition from countries with vast athletics programmes.
The Herald’s Michael Burgess was part of the global press pack that caught the new Olympic champion for interviews after his triumph.
“Just as he had finished the final one and was ready to leave, New Zealand’s latest Olympic champion was approached by a group of excited volunteers and spent the next few minutes signing caps and shirts, proving that yes, nice guys can finish first,” Burgess wrote.
FINALISTS
BLACK CAPS
If, on the eve of the first clash in Bengaluru on October 24, you had told Black Caps fans that the three-test series would end up as a 3-0 whitewash, most would have accepted the inevitability of an Indian clean sweep.
And rightly so – India were wild favourites playing at home, in a country notoriously difficult to tour. Yet the Black Caps have become a potent mouse that unsettles the elephant of the Indian men’s team.
New Zealand’s run of success against India – a true cricketing superpower – is one of the modern wonders of the sport. The latest triumph takes its place proudly at the pinnacle following a dramatic win in the 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal and victory in the World Test Championship final of 2021.
Going 1-nil up was remarkable; winning the series with the second test in Pune: unheard of. By the time Ajaz Patel bowled the side to victory in the third test at Wankhede fans were strictly in the realm of the unbelievable. The greatest test sides in history – the West Indians of the 80s, the Australians of the 90s – could not manage a three-test sweep on Indian shores.
The fact they did it without Kane Williamson, the greatest batter New Zealand has ever produced, makes the triumph even more surreal. The Black Caps heroes of the series – Patel, Rachin Ravindra, Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner and Will Young – were efficient, effective and unassuming. A perfect embodiment of what made the side so great.
LYDIA KO
From a 10-over 80 at the US Open, to golden tears in Paris.
Lydia Ko turned around a form slump earlier in the year to produce two brilliant victories in August. She overcame plenty of nervous moments in her final round at Le Golf National in Paris to claim gold and become the first golfer to complete a full set of Olympic medals in what will be her final Games.
Ko’s victory also guaranteed her an induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame, getting the final point after achieving a medal set that may never be equalled by man or woman.
And she wasn’t done there. She capped off a remarkable August, winning her third career major with a two-shot victory in the Women’s Open at the home of golf, St Andrews in Scotland.
It was her first major since 2016 and her maiden Women’s Open title to go with the Evian Championship in 2015 and Chevron Championship in 2016. Just the US Open and the PGA Championship elude Ko now.
Ko sat in a three-way tie for the lead walking up the 18th and then birdied the final hole to move to seven under. She then had to wait 34 minutes as defending Women’s Open champion Lilia Vu and world No 1 Nelly Korda stumbled on the final holes.
“I’ve had the most Cinderella story this past few weeks and this is almost too good to be true,” Ko said.
LISA CARRINGTON
At this point, Dame Lisa Carrington claiming gold medals is just the default setting.
Already New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian heading to Paris, the Goat (greatest of all time) in the boat added three more golds to her incredible haul.
Backing up from the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Paris marked Carrington’s first Games as a Dame, and she was not weighed down by her title in the slightest.
Despite her formerly favoured K1 200m – in which she won gold in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo – dropping out of the Olympics, Carrington showed her class in the longer disciplines.
Alongside Alicia Hoskin, Carrington defended her K2 500m gold from Tokyo, then claimed another in the K4 500 with Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan for company.
However, she saved the best for last in toppling compatriot Aimee Fisher and won an incredible ninth Olympic medal – her eighth gold – in the K1 500.
Carrington and Fisher had shared a strong rivalry in the lead-up to Paris and made it anyone’s guess as to who would claim gold there.
But ultimately, Carrington’s power and class shone through.
Now, we wait to see whether or not she goes again at Los Angeles 2028.
BLACK FERNS SEVENS
Two hundred words are too many to describe the Black Ferns Sevens in their gold-medal match when just one will do: Ticker.
Down a player and then down on the scoreboard at halftime, the Ferns had to search themselves for an answer – and they found gold. Their Olympic win sent some of the game’s greats into their next chapter as immortals.
Their season leading up to the Games had been far from perfect, beaten by Australia in the final seconds of the season-ending semifinal in Madrid. It’s a shame they never got to avenge that defeat at the Olympics, as the Aussies were bounced out by the Canadians, but I wonder how much of that heartbreak they took with them on the plane to Paris.
In 34C Parisian heat, they did not wilt. Trailing 12-7 they not only weathered the Canadian onslaught but responded with defensive brutality of their own.
Stacey Waaka’s crossing to score the winning try from a move started in their own 22m is not only an all-time Olympic Games moment, but one of our nation’s sporting finest.
WHITE FERNS
Of all the unlikely events to take place in 2024, mark the White Ferns winning a world trophy at the top of the list.
But as part of a stellar year for cricket in Aotearoa, New Zealand’s women did just that by lifting the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
Despite coming into the tournament after losing 10 straight matches in the shortest format, and dropping their second game to Australia, Sophie Devine’s side peaked at the perfect time and ended a 24-year wait for silverware.
As England and Australia crashed out early, the White Ferns defeated the West Indies in the semi, and then South Africa in the decider – and never looked like losing.
The victory rewarded senior players Devine and Suzie Bates, who’d played in the 2010 final defeat for Australia and been through some of the darkest days in New Zealand cricket, as the White Ferns came up against sides with more depth and resource than the New Zealanders could dream of.
It also showcased the White Ferns’ emerging young core, led by player of the tournament Amelia Kerr, with a host of this side being on the right side of 25.
With the landscape of cricket, and women’s cricket especially, leaning towards Australia, England and India, this won’t happen often.
So, celebrate it while you can.
ELLESSE ANDREWS
Just two Kiwis have enjoyed a better single Games – Lisa Carrington (twice) and Ian Ferguson – than Ellesse Andrews in Paris.
Nine races, nine victories, few of them in doubt as the finish line flew into view as she became the first woman to achieve the sprint-keirin gold double.
What is even more remarkable than those numbers is her age; she’s only 24. That is great news for Kiwi sports fans and should be terrifying for any woman who aims to compete in those two events at the Olympics – for Andrews, this is just the start.
Germany’s Lea Friedrich had swept her aside at the two world championships previous to Paris, but it was Andrews who got the broom out at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in the sprint (an event she says she is still not an expert in). The Kiwi made the German powerhouse look slightly out of place as she needed just two out of the allotted best-of-three races to etch her name in gold for a second time in Paris.
The world is now on notice, but with her father Jon – a Commonwealth Games medallist – as coach in her corner, the title of world’s fastest woman doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
FINALISTS
SOPHIE MOLONEY, Sky TV chief executive
Sophie Moloney came into 2024 facing numerous challenges but will finish the year having achieved several milestones.
Under her leadership, Sky Network Television has navigated tough market conditions, posting a solid full-year net profit of $49.2 million with a slight increase in revenue to $766.7m.
Moloney, who has been CEO of Sky since January 2020, has ensured the company continues to innovate and expand, focusing on enhancing its streaming services, broadband and advertising revenue.
She spearheaded the development and rollout of the new Sky Box and Sky Pod products, while also making sure the company renewed key broadcasting deals.
Those included an expanded Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) deal for content at a lower cost. Analysts saw this as evidence of Sky’s improved deal-making ability under Moloney and said it bodes well for the key NZ Rugby deal.
The WBD deal, which heads off the danger of HBO’s Max app launching in New Zealand, provides enough programme cost savings for analysts to be more confident that Sky will generate enough free cash flow to meet its target dividend payout of 30cps for the 2026 financial year.
Under Moloney, Sky looks to be in good shape to fend off the might of Jeff Bezos-owned companies like Amazon or juggernauts like the Tim Cook-led Apple, as Big Tech players focus more and more on live sport.
BILL FOLEY, billionaire backer of Auckland Football
Arise Bill Foley, the saviour of Auckland football.
With poor results on the pitch, and even worse on the balance sheet, Auckland’s first flutter with professional football 20 years ago saw the Kingz (later Knights) end embarrassingly quickly with mounting losses.
But a couple of decades later, with the addition of a Texan billionaire, Foley’s Black Knights have rewritten history.
While he made his money in financial products in the United States, Foley has had a local presence in New Zealand for the past 20 years through Foley wines and boutique lodge and restaurants.
Over the past decade, he has leaned into international professional sports on a path that led to Auckland FC.
He bought top-flight franchises in football (EPL’s Bournemouth) and ice hockey (NHL’s Golden Knights) and is building a feeder network for the former with stakes in French, Scottish and Belgian teams.
Auckland is just the latest section of conveyer-belt in Foley’s globe-spanning football machine, but its success has proved miraculous and may yet prove key in finally motivating the city to build a user-friendly stadium for a sport other than rugby.
Foley has not only brought professional football in Auckland back from the dead, but he’s also seen Lazarus himself sprint downfield towards goal as the Black Knights unreeled five straight wins to start the season, setting the A-League alight and leaving critics agog.
ROSS GEORGE, managing partner Direct Capital
Over the past 30 years, a private equity firm based in Auckland has been quietly raising $1.7 billion to acquire and grow more than 80 of New Zealand’s most iconic businesses.
Direct Capital, led by Ross George, who started the firm in 1994 with Mark Hutton and Bill Kermode, this year notably purchased home cleaning products company Wet & Forget from its founders, couple Rod and Leigh Jenden.
While the purchase price was not made public, the acquisition represented Direct Capital’s fourth investment from its latest fund, Direct Capital VI, which raised $425m in March 2020.
Other recent investments from that fund and the earlier Direct Capital V fund include Beca Group, Perpetual Guardian, Mondiale VGL, AS Colour, Qestral Corporation, TR Group and Caci Group.
“If there has been a singular reason for our success over 30 years (other than common sense investing), it has been our belief in maintaining a genuine partnership with the owners and managers of the companies in which we invest,” director Gavin Lonergan wrote for the firm’s 30th anniversary.
MIRIA FLAVELL, founder Hine Collection
Māori entrepreneur Miria Flavell (Ngati Rangiwewehi) told the Herald in 2023 that to give more energy to her kids and business, she had to prioritise her own health and wellbeing.
That philosophy is paying off, as her business Hine Collection continues to maintain a robust growth trajectory.
The limitations of women’s activewear and a health scare were leading inspirations for Flavell, who founded the business in 2018 out of her garage with just a single design.
Hine Collection aims to create an inclusive space in the activewear industry, offering sizes ranging from XXS to 8XL, providing options that celebrate all body shapes, sizes and ethnicities. It also offers workout supplements.
EY described Hine Collection’s growth as mainly organic, driven by a trusted product that resonates deeply with its community. Flavell won EY’s award for the Product Entrepreneur category at this year’s ceremony.
Hine Collection has significant engagement in foreign markets like Australia and the United States, with the business' growth recently bolstered by a partnership with retail giant Rebel Sport.
Her success has not come without its challenges, with Flavell acknowledging how important her community’s support was through 2022, a year she described as the toughest in the business' lifespan.
For Flavell, Hine is more than just a clothing brand, it’s a movement that’s built to inspire change.
Tell your own truth and the world will catch on – that’s the message Robyn Malcolm has taken from the runaway success of her latest drama After the Party.
The much-loved actor was already a household name for her long-running roles in Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune and her new series has received widespread acclaim in Aotearoa and abroad, sweeping up a record-breaking nine wins at this year’s New Zealand Television Awards.
The show, co-created by Malcolm and Dianne Taylor, broke the record set by 2020’s The Luminaries, based on Eleanor Catton’s novel, and 2022’s The Panthers.
As well as acting awards for its stars Malcolm, Peter Mullan, Tara Canton and Elz Carrad, it won Best Editing, Best Script, Best Cinematography, Best Director and New Zealand On Air Best Drama.
Released in 2023, the gritty drama gained momentum this year and sparked global reviews lauding its storytelling and performances, particularly Malcolm’s.
She portrays high school teacher Penny Wilding – a woman in her 50s who believes her ex-husband (Peter Mullan) sexually assaulted a teenager.
“The success of After the Party here in Aotearoa and then progressively in other countries is continuing to blow us all away,” Malcolm tells the Herald.
“We made a story very specifically about a Kiwi family and our expectations were local to begin with.”
Those expectations were surpassed when the show earned rave reviews – including two five-star reviews from the Guardian in Britain – and Malcolm couldn’t be prouder.
“For a small show about a middle-aged woman to do that is phenomenal, but for it to be a small Kiwi show is mind-blowing to us and really supports the notion that if you stick to your own truth, your own story and your own sense of integrity around these things, then the world meets you,” she says.
She describes every individual involved in bringing the show to life as “exceptional”.
“I’m sure people will get sick of my crowing soon, but at the moment it’s too amazing not to crow ... I’ve been in this business in Aotearoa since 1987 and to have a highlight like this now is nothing short of magical.”
Elsewhere, Malcolm is a strong advocate for women’s health, sharing her own experience with menopause to help break the stigma for others.
At 59, Malcolm is determined to represent real women not just on screen, but in her own life too. She’s spoken openly about her experience with the “massive life shift” of menopause and hopes to encourage other women to do the same.
Now, she tells the Herald, it’s a “no-brainer” to talk about it.
“For centuries, the experience of women from girlhood to old age was considered something barely worth noticing,” she shares.
“Now, fortunately, this is no more, and my generation in particular are not travelling through life quietly; and nor should we.”
While menopause is “challenging, difficult and downright unpleasant at times”, Malcolm says it’s essential to talk about it, so others don’t feel alone.
“I’m just part of a bigger conversation. And I’m getting a sense that at the other end, the lived life of women in their 50s and beyond is better than it’s ever been. I don’t WANT to be younger. That’s the wonderful discovered truth of all of this.”
FINALISTS
SHIHAD
When the news first broke that Shihad is set to split up in 2025 after nearly four decades, their longtime fans reacted in shock – and awe at the grace with which the band’s members navigated their breakup.
In an exclusive interview with all four band members, bassist Karl Kippenberger told the Herald’s Karl Puschmann, “It’s been a long time coming”, before admitting that what he was feeling was “grief. It’s been quite a time of grief”.
Tom Larkin and Jon Toogood first formed the group in 1988, soon joined by Knight and Kippenberger. Six of their 10 albums, including their most recent – Old Gods, released in 2021 – hit No 1 in New Zealand. They’ve won 18 Aotearoa Music Awards together and were inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame in 2010.
Now, they’re set to play their final tour of New Zealand, Loud Forever, starting on December 29 in New Plymouth and winding up in early 2025 with a show at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
As Toogood told Puschmann, “What better way to go out?”
MADELEINE HAKARAIA de YOUNG
As director of the annual Māoriland Film Festival, Madeleine Hakaraia de Young (Ngāti Kapu) is one of the youngest film festival directors in the world.
The Ōtaki festival, the biggest indigenous film festival in the Southern Hemisphere, was first established by De Young’s auntie Libby Hakaraia and her partner Tainui Stephens in 2014.
Now, every year indigenous filmmakers from all over the world flock to the small town, fresh from the likes of Berlin, Sundance and Cannes.
De Young told the Herald in March this year that taking up the mantle of director was “something I’d been training towards for 10 years”. Now, she hopes to continue to make film more accessible to all.
“We’ve worked really hard to keep out the hierarchy and noise of our industry that separates people from connecting with each other,” she said.
“We never want films and filmmaking to feel elite, because it’s about sharing our stories with each other.”
SAM NEILL
In 2024, iconic actor Sir Sam Neill has continued to earn praise for his role in hit Australian drama The Twelve, which landed on TVNZ+ this year and has won five Logies and two AACTA awards.
While he’s in remission following his 2022 cancer diagnosis, he’s continuing to raise awareness of the disease, telling the Herald this year, “I’m very pleased to be alive.”
Elsewhere, Neill has used his voice to chime in on the Government’s plans to cut funding for the Dunedin Hospital project.
In October, Neill described the plans as “short-sighted, careless, heartless, ruthless” and threw his support behind Dunedin City Council’s Save Our Southern Hospital campaign.
He’s also shared his concerns for Otago if the proposed Santana Minerals exploration goes ahead at the end of the year, telling the Herald this year: “If it’s legitimate and there’s no harm done, then fine, but fast-tracking is worrying me a lot.”
GEORGIA LINES
In recent years, singer/songwriter Georgia Lines has opened for the likes of George Ezra and Pentatonix, played shows around New Zealand, the US and Australia, and topped charts – and in 2024, her star is continuing to rise.
She was named Best Pop Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards in May this year. The following month, she released her debut album, The Rose of Jericho, and performed during iconic Kiwi artist Brooke Fraser’s one-off Spark Arena show to a crowd of 12,000.
In October, she was shortlisted for an Apra Silver Scroll for her single The Letter.
In July this year, she told Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan, “This year has felt in particular quite big, and the last few months have felt even bigger.”
The response to her album has confirmed that music is where she wants to be, she told the radio host.
“I want to make art and bodies of work that mean something deeply to me, that capture points in my journey or things I’ve learned along the way – and hopefully that then means something to someone else.”
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.