Summer reissue: After hitting a career-low in recent years, New Zealand’s most successful rally driver ever is ready to once again take on the world. He talks to George Driver from his Cromwell garage about reaching WRC success against all odds, the trauma and disappointment of the last few years, and his plans to build … Read more
Summer reissue: In a leafy park in Queenstown, George Driver discovers why New Zealand produces the best tree climbers in the world. First published November 16 2020 I could hear them before I could see them. The sound of a dozen people hollering rolled across Lake Wakatipu. Entering Queenstown Gardens I soon found the source … Read more
The global pandemic forced millions inside and online, changing the way the world interacts and does business, and accelerating technology adoption. George Driver discovers how this year, New Zealand brought the future a little closer. March 22, 2020: I am standing at the door of my tent in a deserted campground on a Northland beach, … Read more
In a leafy park in Queenstown, George Driver discovers why New Zealand produces the best tree climbers in the world. I could hear them before I could see them. The sound of a dozen people hollering rolled across Lake Wakatipu. Entering Queenstown Gardens I soon found the source – a group dressed in fluro shouting … Read more
After hitting a career-low in recent years, New Zealand’s most successful rally driver ever is ready to once again take on the world. He talks to George Driver from his Cromwell garage about reaching WRC success against all odds, the trauma and disappointment of the last few years, and his plans to build the world’s … Read more
It’s not often that someone graduates from university one year and becomes a senior economist commentating on national media the next. George Driver investigates the meteoric rise of the high-flying Brad Olsen. Google “senior economist Brad Olsen” and you’ll find him quoted in no fewer than 167 articles in the past year, speaking on just … Read more
As the bars reopen and businesses regroup in post-Covid Queenstown, George Driver finds a town filled with bargain prices, eerie streets, fear and hope. A “tourism bloodbath”, a “broke, empty paradise” facing a “tsunami of unemployment”. The headlines about Queenstown have not been positive. Neither are the figures. Unemployment expected to hit 30%. Tourism, 55% … Read more
After moving back home to Clyde in Central Otago for the Covid-19 lockdown, George Driver wonders how the tiny town on the edge of Queenstown’s tourism boom and bust will survive. Growing up, Clyde always felt like a quiet backwater. Cut off from the main road and in the shadow of the 100m concrete wall … Read more