Elle Hunt 
Summer reissue: In the last year, Benee has taken the world – or at least TikTok – by storm with her viral hit singles ‘Glitter’ and ‘Supalonely’. Ahead of her debut album release, the young star spoke to Elle Hunt about going international from her Auckland home. First published November 13, 2020. This time last … Read more
In the last year, Benee has taken the world – or at least TikTok – by storm with her viral hit singles ‘Glitter’ and ‘Supalonely’. Ahead of her debut album release, the young star spoke to Elle Hunt about going international from her Auckland home. This time last year, Benee won not one, not two, … Read more
People flooded pubs as England celebrated ‘independence day’, but all Elle Hunt wanted was the hairdresser. As unlikely as it recently seemed – and as unsettling as it still feels – something resembling normal life has begun to resume in London. I first felt it when I realised I was running late for my hairdresser’s appointment, … Read more
The chief propagandist of rage against the privileged Westminster elite has proved himself the epitome of the privileged Westminster elite, writes Elle Hunt from London. He is the prime minister’s top adviser, he unambiguously broke the rules around lockdown, and people have already been fired for less. But I never really thought that Dominic Cummings … Read more
Summer reissue: One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt. First published on 22 July, 2019. At the pub one Friday night in London a few weeks ago, I … Read more
Tests on citizenship are very revealing about our ideas of ‘national identity’, writes NZ-British human mashup Elle Hunt. I’d come across a sample “Life in the UK” quiz online – 24 questions on the culture and heritage of the British isles, of the kind posed as part of the application process for citizenship – and idly … Read more
New Zealand has long been the world’s imagined lifeboat – and increasingly for something more than just escape, writes Elle Hunt. One Friday morning in January 1847, Charles Dickens wrote to his friend John Forster that he was “disposed to go to New Zealand and start a magazine”. The quote was circulated in an editorial … Read more
From Shepherds Bush to Acton, Wimbledon to Wandsworth, and even Hackney, London is sprinkled with New Zealander strongholds, writes Elle Hunt. I am a little less than halfway through the Hackney Half Marathon when I realise that I haven’t done enough training, and that that was a mistake. Choosing to listen to Louis Theroux’s Desert … Read more
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt. At the pub one Friday night in London a few weeks ago, I was at the bar with a large group … Read more
Elle Hunt recalls her days renting in New Zealand as a time of suffering and survival. But don’t we deserve better? A case often made in favour of buying a house (as though it were something that you could simply be persuaded into) is that renting is “just throwing money down the drain”. Firstly, that’s … Read more
The metric system might seem obvious to us, but resisting it has started to become a point of extreme pride for Americans. Can New Zealanders help save them? Elle Hunt investigates. With Trump gearing up for his 2020 campaign amid ongoing investigations into Russian interference, it is the question on every honest American’s lips: can … Read more
There are few things New Zealanders love more than walking around the city without shoes or socks on. And now, just maybe, the Northern Hemisphere is ready to get onboard. Betteridge’s law states that any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no’. Though often true, it can sometimes … Read more
New Zealand’s binge drinking culture is notoriously bad, but could change be on the horizon for this little country of boozers? Booze, booze, everywhere, but what does it mean to drink? Alcohol consumption around the world is awash with stereotypes. In France, we might imagine, it’s allowing your stylish young child a glass of wine … Read more
After repeated obscenities were scrawled on the face of the beloved New Zealander near Brick Lane, the artist added a note saying, ‘This is a portrait of a kiwi film director Taika Waititi NOT Jose Mourinho YOU MUPPET!!!’ And now he’s thinking he’ll paint over it altogether Taika Waititi might be world-famous in New Zealand, … Read more
Meghan and Harry have welcomed a new human into the world. And the UK media could hardly be happier, reports Elle Hunt from London. Greetings from London where – you may have heard – a baby has been born. At 5.26am local time on Monday, the duchess formerly known as Meghan Markle gave birth to … Read more
Elle Hunt composes a love letter to New Zealand’s online auction site, with which foreign counterparts cannot compare They looked at the mattress, she and her boyfriend. My two flatmates and I looked at them looking, and with mounting disbelief. We seemed to have reached an impasse. “Is it soft?” she said, uncertainly. The two … Read more
Living in a city polluted with dirty air is among many facts of life that Londoners pay for, not just with money but with our health, writes Elle Hunt. There is a company that sells aerosols of “100% pure Australian air”, “farmed” from pristine locations including Tasmania and the Blue Mountains, for AU $246.24 for … Read more
It’s all relative, sure, but New Zealand’s media has clearly done a far better job at holding the line against Islamophobia than their UK and Australian counterparts, writes Elle Hunt from London. The danger of speaking relatively about race relations is that it risks excusing wrongdoings already being committed and in doing so allowing them … Read more
Is it a bird, is it a plane? Online sleuth Elle Hunt fires up the search engines. What is “the Kiwi way of life”? The question has been troubling me ever since Simon Bridges defined it as definitely not a capital gains tax. OK then. Is that it? Bridges later elaborated that it was “planning reform … Read more
‘Kissing’, ‘necking’, ‘snogging’, ‘making out’ – there are a plethora of ways to describe the locking of lips. But Elle Hunt’s favourite is one that’s deeply unique to the Kiwi vocabulary. After a year and a half in London, my accent is increasingly English, my standards for flat whites have plummeted, and I’ve come to see … Read more
In the latest instalment of her series on life as a NZ expat, Elle Hunt recounts the tedious minutiae of flying halfway across the world. Pull down your suitcase from on top of your wardrobe. Not the compact carry-on for long weekends on the continent, but the one that marks you out as high maintenance or a … Read more
With the March 29 Brexit deadline bearing down on the country at an alarming speed, it’s hard not to wonder whether staying in Britain is really worth it, writes Elle Hunt in the latest instalment of her series on life as a NZ expat. Greetings from Great Brexit – sorry, Britain. It’s hard to think … Read more
You might be excited about IKEA’s possible (though far from guaranteed) arrival on this country’s shores – but just wait until your first self-assembly chest of drawers, writes Elle Hunt in the latest instalment of her series on life as a NZ expat. Congratulations, New Zealand, on your impending Ikea. I wish you all the … Read more
In the middle of the last decade, one man dominated our local music television. Then he disappeared. Elle Hunt tracks down Joel Defries and talks to him about life as a Kiwi TV star, and what he’s been doing since. This was originally published 25 June 2018. Joel Defries was once a household name. Well: … Read more
When she lived in New Zealand, Elle Hunt never really understood the fuss about Christmas. That all changed when she moved to London, she writes in the latest instalment of her Elleswhere series about life as a New Zealander in London. “36 degrees? Yes thank you I WILL get 97% of my legs out,” my … Read more
Flying almost anywhere in Europe for the price of a mid-price restaurant meal? If there was ever a reason to move to the UK, budget airlines are it, writes Elle Hunt in the latest instalment of her Elleswhere series about life as a New Zealander in London. Once I paid several hundred dollars for a … Read more
Almost every Kiwi who moves to London tries to soften the blow to family and friends by claiming they’ll regularly return. But, writes Elle Hunt in her regular Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander, such hopes are rarely borne out. Just before I left New Zealand again, my mother told the rest … Read more
In 1999, Elle Hunt’s dad convinced her that New Radical’s ‘You Get What You Give’ was actually by U2. Today, she revisits the life-changing moment she realised he was wrong. The loss of innocence is a hallmark of growing up. In my personal bildungsroman, mine was precipitated by my dad telling me that ‘You Get … Read more
In her fourth Elleswhere column about life as an expat New Zealander in London, Elle Hunt navigates the lost connections of a 12 hour time difference. I wake up and check my phone. My lock screen is a list of notifications. While I’ve been sleeping, friends on the other side of the world have messaged … Read more