Latest Issue

Special features
Regular articles
Columnists

Issues, Inspirations, Entertainment, Sport, Music, Art, Beauty, Food, Fitness, Nutrition, Travel & so much more.

In our first issue for 2009, we begin the year with a brand new look and masthead design for SPASIFIK, SPASIFIK Sport & Leisure and SPASIFIKmag.com.



Our cover feature for SPASIFIK Issue 30 January/February focuses on the fashion world and how our evolving Maori and Pacific identity is helping to influence what New Zealanders wear. We profile two award winning designers, KIRI NATHAN and VISESIO LOUIS THOMSEN, the respective winners of the 2008 Westfield Style Pasifika and 2008 Villa Maria Cult Couture fashion awards, who are trying to make their mark in a competitive global industry. Can they transform their passion into a viable full-time profession? Editor PETER REES finds out.

Gus Hunter is our MOVER AND SHAKER. As one of the most in demand concept artists in Hollywood, he has worked on big film projects such as King Kong and Lord of the Rings. We trace his rise from Porirua, raised by Samoan migrant parents, to bringing to life his Pacific influenced creations with Oscar winning director Peter Jackson and special effects maestro Richard Taylor at Wellington’s Weta Studio.

In business, we profile the successful JOHNSTON BROTHERS, the sons of migrant Samoan parent, who have each made their mark in law, real estate and business. But as publisher INNES LOGAN finds out, it was their mother Ida, who laid the foundation for them in their early years and kept them striving to achieve their potential during a difficult and hard upbringing in Auckland.

Qantas Award winning columnist PAEA WOLFGRAMM analyses the aftermath of the New Zealand and U.S general election, comparing the mood for change that swept both National’s John Key and democrat Barack Obama into power, while pondering what the demographic shift in the political allegiances of the Pacific community means for the future.

Get another humorous dose of Tickled Pink with IRENE PINK as she takes you back on a year of living dangerously in her quest to live up to the New Year’s Resolutions she rarely honours!

We then move into the Pacific region where the HIV-AIDS threat grows on our doorstep. Experts continue to disagree over solutions to deal with a global problem which claimed over 2 million lives in 2007 alone. Millions of donor dollars have had little effect in curbing the rate of spread, particularly in the region’s most affected nation, Papua New Guinea, where it’s believed that 60,000 and 150,000 cases reside.

In art, Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Award winners, IGELESE ETE and JAMES IOELU are both musicians making their mark and adding their own Pacific flavour.

Pacific artists and how they evolved to transform the New Zealand arts landscape is the focus of our PHOTO ESSAY which looks at Dr Karen Stevenson’s visually engaging The Frangipani is Dead, a historical look at the emergent Pacific art movement from 1985-2000.

In MUSIC, reviewer Feleti Strickson-Pua gets up close with LADI 6 and the KORA brothers, a band at the forefront of the Aotearoa Roots music wave which is taking Europe by storm. From playing at family parties to being described as one of the best live acts going around, they are set to rock Raggamuffin in Rotorua in February.

In food, JOE LAM joins rugby star turned businessman Va’aiga Tuigamala and friends for a festive season treat, with a tasty new twist to the traditional stuffing used for the meat.

As well, we have our usual popular features including EDUCATION & CAREERS, BOOKS, HEALTH and much more.

Our world champion NEW ZEALAND KIWIS league team rightfully grace the cover of our new-look SPASIFIK Sport & Leisure. After beating Australia in a major upset in last November’s final, and winning New Zealand’s first ever world league cup title with a team dominated by Maori and Pacific players, the players and experts have their say on what the impact this will have on the world game. Can New Zealand stay on top?

Not far behind the Kiwis is the all-conquering ALL BLACKS. A year after their World Cup capitulation in France, Graham Henry’s troops hogged all the world’s major trophies in 2008, the Tri Nations, Bledisloe Cup and swept the home unions in the end of year Grand Slam to boot. And at the forefront of that colossal effort were two comeback kings; hard running Samoan, Ma’a Nonu, and Niuean/Maori halfback Piri Weepu, who were in inspirational form after not being wanted at last year’s World Cup.

CHRISTIAN KAREMBEU is the Pacific islands greatest sporting export. After winning the football World Cup with France in 1998, and European club titles with Spanish giant Real Madrid, he returned to his native New Caledonia where he is now the face of Oceania football promoting the region to the world and using his pulling power to bring to the region, global celebrities such as DAVID BECKHAM.

TONY JONAS is not a household name, but as a top golf course green keeper, he is living an enviable lifestyle travelling the world to exotic places and rubbing shoulders with the celebrities and the world’s best golfers.

In fitness, SARAH COWLEY takes you back to a time when skipping was the in craze with youth, and brings it back to the present where the health benefits remain.

Then in nutrition, SERU MAR shows you how to lighten up your barbecue so you don’t stack on those unnecessary pounds.

In HOMES, we travel to west Auckland suburb of PIHA which is the perfect home for award winning Maori Television producer and journalist, Te Kauhoe Wano, a man who loves surfing and living the outdoor life with his family.

In CARS, Sam Woods checks out a classic looking white Mercedes E200 BENZ owned by his Cook Islands mate JASON TAVIONI, who cruises in style whenever he can get the chance.

In TRAVEL, we fly to Tahiti for the cultural extravaganza of the MOOREA MARATHON, then to neighbouring Rarotonga, where VAKA EIVA 2008 proved again to be the Cook Islands biggest sporting event which keeps on growing.

SPASIFIK and SPASIFIK Sport & Leisure is distributed throughout New Zealand by Gordon & Gotch. The print copy magazine is available for purchase at all good books stores including the major supermarket chains, Whitcoulls, Borders, Paperplus, NZ Post Shops and numerous independent books stores. If you can't find the magazine to buy it … EMAIL us your location and we will email you back with a list of retailers closest to you or … SUBSCRIBE to on-line digital version by becoming a SPASIFIKmag.com VIP member