"Keeping It Real" by Makaia Carr
Inspirational NZ blogger Makaia Carr left school at 16 and was pregnant with her first child a year later. In her own words, she was a ‘Maori teen mum from the ’Naki’ who others expected to end up on the DPB. Instead she worked her way up through the fashion industry, launched her own online fitness community and clothing brand, and is now in demand as a motivational speaker and social media influencer. She has overcome depression and what she now recognises was an unhealthy relationship with her body, to promote a message of self-love and empowerment.
In Keeping it Real, Makaia openly shares her struggles and the strategies that help her to maintain a positive body image and outlook. Her story is a reminder that physical and emotional well-being starts with self-acceptance. As she says, 'self-loathing is imprisonment; self-love is liberation'.
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.7% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.6% Critical thinking
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30% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
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