At the Big Sound music conference in Brisbane last month, 150 hot young acts were strutting their stuff by night and hoping to catch attention and step into brighter lights. Tash Sultana – who is currently on a sold-out US tour – is one who had done just that after performing at Big Sound last year.

The best player in the NRL right now started the season as, perhaps, the fourth-best player at his club.

Checking back through old emails this morning, after Emirates Team New Zealand had won the America’s Cup, I was reminded that I reached out to their communications manager, Hamish Hooper, on March 24 last year.

We have a concept in New Zealand known as mana, which we have inherited from Maori culture (Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand).  While there is no direct translation into english, mana has been defined as “authority, control, influence, prestige, power, and also honour”.