Kiwi Flees

Paul Sinclair
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Personal Journals

New Zealand's a world champion at exporting its people to almost every country on earth. Nearly a million of us now don’t call NZ home. This is like a million billboards telling a unique New Zealander Story. Kiwi Flees is on a light-touch mission to find a few of them and share their stories – a blend of personal and professional in each conversation. From pioneers to innovators, artists & scholars, chefs & inventors, musicians & physicians, volunteers & athletes, bureaucrats & business leaders.  Our aim is to energise and open the minds of our South Pacific tribe - part booster-shot, part virtual campfire - helping keep Kiwis abroad connected to each other and to their former homeland as we share their uniquely international New Zealander Stories. New releases every fortnight.

  1. 19h ago

    Dani Kiwi Meier - Former Professional Snowboarder, Designer, Inventor, Adventurer, Branded Storyteller

    In this pod I catch up with Dani Kiwi Meier, who joins me from his family's farm in Castetner, in France’s rural south-west, a scant two-hour drive from the fires currently sweeping through the region. Dani left New Zealand in 1988 as a toolmaker with experience in plastics engineering. His first job in Switzerland was building an ice rink. Not bad for a guy who'd never ice-skated before, let alone constructed a rink for the skating aficionados of Europe. Snowboarding then opened the door to an international life. As an elite snowboarder, Dani became an Australasian speed snowboarding record holder, a New Zealand & British champion, competed at the World Extreme Championships in Alaska, and was later a Head Judge on the World TTR Snowboard Tour. But this conversation is about more than medals, mountains, brands, campaigns, and awards. We talk about Dani’s childhood in Lower Hutt, the influence of his German-born Dad and Swiss-born Mum, and an upbringing spent mainly in adult company. We discuss a life shaped by water, land, snow, speed, risk, injury, reputation, clarity, discipline, creativity, trust, parenthood, and what actually matters once the exotic locations, wins, losses, egos, and excitement have been through the wash. Dani’s career has moved from pro riding to product design with leading global brands, to helping build the culture and iconography around snowboarding. His agency’s most recent work includes the internationally award-winning campaign for Moncler featuring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. We touch on what action sport teaches you about authenticity, New Zealanders as islanders, and what parenthood teaches that no mountain, campaign, award, injury, or adventure ever could. A huge thanks to Dani for joining me on Kiwi Flees. This was a generous, thoughtful, and wide-ranging conversation with another remarkable Kiwi Flee doing it his way offshore, while staying keenly connected with Aotearoa New Zealand. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Dani Kiwi Meier - Former Professional Snowboarder, Designer, Inventor, Adventurer, Branded Storyteller

  2. Jul 21

    Winston Cowie - Adventure-Eater, Global Marine Conservation Leader, Author, Film-Maker, Explorer

    In this pod I catch up with Winston Cowie, who joins me from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is a conversation about life-maxxing, adventure, reinvention, conservation, endurance, and one Kiwi’s deep connection to the seas, stories, and people of Arabia. Winston grew up at Campbells Beach on the Tāwharanui Peninsula, about 20km down a gravel road, with teacher parents, not much money, not many people around, but the ocean front and centre. Since then, he’s built an extraordinary life and career across Arabia. An award-winning marine conservation leader, Winston has worked on major projects in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, building a career around the seas, coasts, creatures, and cultures of the region he calls Blue Arabia. We talk about the early decision to step away from law, studying at Oxford & Trinidad & Tobago, five car crashes, an electrocution, and his early steps into the Middle East - first to Qatar and subsequently the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Our conversation tracks across whale shark rescues, diving, filmmaking, and why seeing a place from underwater can change the way you think about it. We also touch on Winston's search for the Arabian leopard, and running the Marathon des Sables - a  250km staged ultramarathon across the Sahara. Winston's an award-winning filmmaker, a former UAE rugby and triathlon rep, a commercial diver, a modern-day explorer of the Arabian Peninsula, and someone who has travelled to more than 50 countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica. His latest book, Kiwi to the Kingdoms: New Zealand to Blue Arabia, has just been released into the wild, debuting at No. 1 in the New Zealand category on Amazon.  A huge thanks to Winston for joining me on Kiwi Flees.  On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Winston Cowie - Adventure-Eater, Global Marine Conservation Leader, Author, Film-Maker, Explorer

  3. Jul 7

    Karen Willcox (MNZM) - Aerospace Pioneer, World-Leading Computational Engineer, Relentless Door-Opener

    In this pod I talk to Professor Karen Willcox, a world leader in computational engineering and Director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences at the University of Texas. Karen grew up in a modest household with parents who didn’t finish high school. She was the first person in her extended family to attend university, studying engineering at the University of Auckland while working 27-hour weeks at McDonald’s to pay her way. From there, she left Aotearoa New Zealand for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she completed her PhD in Aeronautics & Astronautics. She went on to spend 17 years as a professor at MIT before moving to Texas to lead the Oden Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute bringing together computing, mathematics, science, engineering, and medicine to help model, simulate, and solve some of the world’s most complex problems. Our conversation tracks Karen’s journey from a girl watching Star Wars who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but wasn’t encouraged into traditionally male worlds of mechanics, racing, engineering, or flight, to nearly becoming the first Kiwi in space. We talk about the teachers who saw her potential, playing women’s rugby in the US, her year at Boeing, and the mentors who helped shape her path. Karen also reflects on mentoring others, the persistent lack of women in aerospace engineering, and why opening doors for the next generation has become such an important part of her work. In 2017, Karen was made a MNZM for services to aerospace engineering & education. She was later elected to the US National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honours an engineer can receive. This is a conversation about class, gender, science, ambition, disappointment, achievement, flight, and what can happen when a young Kiwi is told certain worlds are not for her, but keeps looking to the skies. A huge thanks to Karen for joining me on Kiwi Flees. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Karen Willcox (MNZM) - Aerospace Pioneer, World-Leading Computational Engineer, Relentless Door-Opener

  4. Jun 23

    Nazeel Juvale - The 100-Country Kiwi Running an Invincible Football Club in the Middle East

    In this episode, I catch up with Nazeel Juvale, CEO of Al Ain FC - one of Asia’s biggest football clubs - and a rare New Zealander who has reached senior leadership at the elite level of the global game. Now living in the United Arab Emirates, Nazeel left Aotearoa New Zealand in 2012 after roles with Deloitte and the ANZ.   His career since has spanned infrastructure, tourism, entertainment, private investment, global sport, and now professional football – with the past 12 months including matches against Manchester City and Juventus at the FIFA Club World Cup, as well as a title-winning season in which Al Ain became the UAE Pro League’s first-ever ‘Invincible’ champions.  For a Kiwi who grew up waking at 3am to watch Barcelona from New Zealand, it’s not a bad place to end up.  Our conversation tracks Nazeel’s life through travel, sport, identity, and ambition. His father was a ship’s captain, which led to a unique series of family holidays on the high seas, while his mother still works as a travel agent in New Zealand. Nazeel has now visited more than 100 countries, giving him a perspective shaped by India, New Zealand, the UAE, and a very large chunk of the rest of the world.  We talk about the back surgery at 19 that ended his first sporting love, cricket, and how football became one of the great organising passions of his life. Nazeel shares his World Cup memories from 1994 to today, and how he once found himself with a free ticket to the 2015 Champions League Final. We also get into the business of football, fan culture, representing New Zealand offshore, and what Aotearoa might learn from the UAE’s ambition, long-term planning, and execution in becoming a globally competitive tourist destination. A huge thanks to Nazeel for joining me on Kiwi Flees. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Nazeel Juvale - The 100-Country Kiwi Running an Invincible Football Club in the Middle East

  5. Jun 9

    Marc Checkley - Singapore Storyteller, Beijing Broadcaster, Henson Collaborator, Swiss Wine Guide, Provocateur

    This pod sees me catching up with Lausanne-based Marc Checkley, an Auckland-born writer, host, actor, communications consultant, educator, & WSET-certified wine professional. Marc first left Aotearoa New Zealand in 2000, swapping Papatoetoe for Singapore to work in media education, digital arts, and filmmaking. Since then, his creative life has taken him across Asia and Europe - from newsrooms, studios, and senior television roles, to Olympic Games broadcasting in Beijing, work connected with the legendary Jim Henson, and now Switzerland, where wine, hospitality, tourism, and storytelling have become the next expression of his craft. Our conversation follows Marc through international media, online wine education, and the UNESCO-listed vineyards of Lavaux above Lake Geneva, where he now guides international wine lovers. It’s also a conversation about belonging — and its shadow, not belonging. Marc met and married his husband, Jin, offshore, building a life across countries that did not recognise their relationship equally. We also talk about the Kiwi stories we carry with us: “she’ll be right”, “the smell of an oily rag”, and our sometimes-too-casual way of moving through the world. Marc makes a compelling case that words and stories matter, and that perhaps New Zealanders could stand to revisit some of the things we keep telling ourselves about ourselves. A huge thanks to Marc for his candour, energy, & generosity. This was a rich, funny, thoughtful, and at times provocative conversation with another Kiwi Flee doing fascinating work in the world. Further details on Marc Marc Checkley has worked across Asia and Europe with major media, tourism, hospitality, and commercial brands, and now helps organisations, destinations, and individuals tell better stories. Alongside his storytelling and consulting work, Marc hosts bespoke wine experiences, judges at international wine competitions, writes for publications including GaultMillau, Time Out, and Decanter, and is an adjunct lecturer at Les Roches Hospitality Management School. He is also a UNESCO World Heritage Guide in Lavaux, co-author of The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide to Switzerland, and a finalist in the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Awards 2026. You can find Marc here: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/spillthestory Email: me@marccheckley.com Wine Experiences: @drink.moi On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Marc Checkley - Singapore Storyteller, Beijing Broadcaster, Henson Collaborator, Swiss Wine Guide, Provocateur

  6. May 26

    Darren Sissons - The Kiwi Who Turned $1,500 in Taiwan into a Global Investment Career in Toronto

    In this episode of Kiwi Flees I talk to Toronto-based financier, Darren Sissons, who left Aotearoa New Zealand in 1993, heading to Taiwan with $1,500 in his pocket. Darren spent five years there learning Mandarin, working in a trading company focused on export markets, and doing the sort of long-week, high-pressure apprenticeship that helped shape the resilience and perspective he's carried through the rest of his life. Since leaving New Zealand, Darren has also lived and worked in the UK before settling in Canada. He’s held senior roles at Portfolio Management Corp, Scotiabank, Scotiabank Private Equity, Osprey Capital, and RBC and is now Partner & Portfolio Manager, Global Equities, at Campbell, Lee & Ross Investment Management. His career has spanned venture capital, private equity, public equities, derivatives, mergers & acquisitions, restructuring, financing, strategy, and high-net-worth wealth management. Darren talks about the experience of becoming an amalgam of different national, cultural, and business environments, and what it feels like to return to NZ when some people still see you as the person who left, back in the day. We explore what he calls “paradise lost” - the emotional cost some offshore Kiwis carry through absence from home - and also look at New Zealand through Darren’s global investment lens. This includes our relationship with housing, capital, sovereign wealth, education, and ambition. I found Darren's view on foundation structures - think Denmark's iconic Carlsberg brand - fascinating. These structures can see a foundation hold a controlling stake in a company of national significance, helping keep strategically important businesses from simply being sold offshore to well-heeled bidders. Darren has spent much of his career assessing whether companies, people, strategies, incentives, and numbers stack up. That makes for a candid conversation about New Zealand, the diaspora, and what small countries need to get right if they want to compete. A huge thanks to Darren for joining me on Kiwi Flees. You can find him on LinkedIn here and the book recommendation made during the pod was Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Darren Sissons - The Kiwi Who Turned $1,500 in Taiwan into a Global Investment Career in Toronto

  7. May 12

    Kiwi Flees - Looking Back, Looking Out

    Rather than catching up with an offshore Kiwi Flee, for episode 15 I invited a former colleague and now friend, Sam Prescott, to take over the hosting duties, helping me unpick what I’ve seen, heard, and learned since launching the pod. This was a high-risk moment for me. Sam's a Co-Director of communications consultancy Sixteenth Letter and one of the sharper tacks in the toolbox. He's a successful and seasoned communications professional, a writer (do check out his Slow Comms newsletter on Substack), editor, and former video games journo. And as you’ll hear from his opening gambit, he enjoys giving me a push by ambushing me with a great question straight out of the gate. I should have seen it coming! So far, Kiwi Flees has connected with Kiwis in England, Wales, Cyprus, Japan, the US, Poland, France, Italy, and one just off the high seas. They’ve included an actor, writers, a sports leader, an academic, a lawyer, a podcaster, a trade facilitator, a songwriter, a sailor, a publisher, a photographer, an innovation guru, a film industry veteran, a franchise owner, and a social enterprise creator. Across those conversations, some themes have started to emerge. This episode explores them. This is neither a greatest hits episode nor a glossy success parade. It’s more of a pause at the halfway-ish mark to ask what Kiwi Flees might really be about. My thanks to Sam for joining me and asking sharp questions - for which he mostly had better answers than me - and for letting me think aloud about the valuable and valued tribe that has exported itself from Aotearoa New Zealand.  Please join me in a fortnight when normal service resumes. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Kiwi Flees - Looking Back, Looking Out

  8. Apr 28

    Melisa White - KindStay Founder, Former Corporate Ferrari, Housing Disruptor & Thought Leader

    In this pod I talk to UK-based Kiwi Flee and entrepreneur, Melisa White, whose life outside New Zealand has cut across Denmark, Singapore, and the UK, and across a remarkable range of work: from finance to recruitment, technology sales to corporate sales, performance coaching to behavioural science, mindset training and housing advocacy. Melisa, who joined me from Cardiff, Wales, describes herself as a mixed Kiwi - having a Kiwi Dad and a Singaporean Mum. Despite admitting she wasn't that great at school and not graduating from university, Melisa got into Mensa at 24 and went on to become a top performer in several high-pressure corporate environments. We talk about what it means to be great at the work, but not always an easy fit for the box around it. One former manager told Melisa she was one of the best salespeople he’d worked with, but “a nightmare to manage”. Her response - one she likely wouldn't use today - referenced Corollas and Ferraris to silence the criticism. Our conversation tracks Melisa’s move to Singapore; a period of running at 150%, making good money and living hard; and the point at which she began to realise that speed, money, and performance are not the same thing as being well. We discuss trauma therapy, silent meditation, self-awareness, and a personal and professional journey that eventually led Melisa away from corporate "ego-land” and towards helping leaseholders and residents in the UK housing system who are often left navigating unfairness, complexity, stress, and power imbalance on their own. At the heart of the episode is Melisa’s current venture, KindStay, which she describes as the culmination of much of her life and career: sales, systems, trauma, performance, self-awareness, and a belief that old-school industries can be disrupted by paying far more attention to human beings. This is a brave conversation about intensity, ambition, sexism, burnout, resilience, and reinvention - and the power of turning hard-won self-knowledge into something that helps other people and organisations navigate uncertainty. A huge thanks to Melisa for joining me on Kiwi Flees and for sharing this candid and very human story. On behalf of OFNZ, thank you for listening and sharing the pod. My huge thanks to the Kiwi Flees for candid conversations, and to my sound engineer Robbie Mulligan and the team at Matrix Digital (Wgtn). Thank you, too, to Kea for promoting the pod. If you're a Kiwi Flee or know someone who should be, please get in touch at: kiwiflees@onlyfromnz.co.nz Please subscribe, leave a review, and join me in a fortnight for our next episode.

    Melisa White - KindStay Founder, Former Corporate Ferrari, Housing Disruptor & Thought Leader
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About

New Zealand's a world champion at exporting its people to almost every country on earth. Nearly a million of us now don’t call NZ home. This is like a million billboards telling a unique New Zealander Story. Kiwi Flees is on a light-touch mission to find a few of them and share their stories – a blend of personal and professional in each conversation. From pioneers to innovators, artists & scholars, chefs & inventors, musicians & physicians, volunteers & athletes, bureaucrats & business leaders.  Our aim is to energise and open the minds of our South Pacific tribe - part booster-shot, part virtual campfire - helping keep Kiwis abroad connected to each other and to their former homeland as we share their uniquely international New Zealander Stories. New releases every fortnight.

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Sinclair
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    21
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Kiwi Flees
  • Show Website
    Kiwi Flees

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