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Iconic Cardrona Hotel sold to group of New Zealand investors

Iconic Cardrona Hotel sold to group of New Zealand investors

One of the country’s most photographed pubs – and a fixture of the Central Otago landscape – has new owners. A group of New Zealand investors, led by Wānaka-based businessman Warren Barclay, have bought the 162-year-old pub that was listed for sale in July. Barclay is the owner of Experience Group, which runs hospitality for big sports events. He says the group is committed to preserving the Cardrona’s Hotel’s heritage, while exploring ways to improve its boutique accommodation, dining and events. Cade Thornton, who has owned the pub with his partner Alexis and James and Fleur Jenneson since 2013, said the decision to sell had been indescribably difficult. The group decided it was time to step back and focus on their young families, he said. “It’s just such a friendly, happy place. It’s a great environment to work and to be the custodian, the captain of that, is tremendously rewarding, and to see the place change in our time. It’s defined my life, really.” The hotel on the Crown Range Rd between Wānaka and Queenstown included a restaurant, year-round beer garden, and 17 ensuite hotel rooms sleeping up to 44 guests. Its facade dated back to a now-vanished gold rush town that thrived in the 1860s, when Cardrona was a bustling settlement supporting thousands of Otago gold rush miners. Cade Thornton said it employed 40 to 50 staff, and the hotel was often fully booked. “The business is in really good stead. I’ve got some very long-term senior staff who love the pub and their jobs and their roles, and they want to see it through with the new owner,” he said. He said the hotel attracted people from all walks of life. “We’ll have guests arriving by helicopter, all dressed up for a nice meal, and then the local farmers will come in, leaving their gumboots by the door. I don’t think there’s any other place quite like it in New Zealand.” Thornton had said he hoped the next owner would have a “real passion” for the pub. “Fifty % of buying it would be that you’d have to love it. You couldn’t just look at it as a business opportunity. You’d have to be passionate about the business, the pub, its history, its potential,” he said. -By RNZ

A man disappeared while running for office. He might still win

A man disappeared while running for office. He might still win

Petros Krommidas went missing last spring near the shore in Long Beach, New York. Police found a towel among his belongings on the beach, but no sign of the 29-year-old Ivy League graduate who was running for local office in Nassau County as a Democrat. His family believes he may have gone for a swim while training for a triathlon. More than five months later, and after a gruelling search by police and divers, Krommidas has not been found and is presumed dead. Despite that, voters could still elect him as legislator for the county’s 4th District in next month’s election – with the encouragement of his family and local Democrats. If Krommidas wins, it could trigger a special election. The candidacy of a man who has been missing for months has sparked a heartbreaking and morbid debate in this section of Long Island. “It is extremely painful for Petros’ family, it’s unfair to the voters and it’s making a political mockery of a young man’s passion to make the world a better place,” said Joe Scianablo, a Democrat running for Town of Hempstead supervisor and a friend of Krommidas, in an emailed statement today. Initially, the local Democratic Party made efforts to remove Krommidas from the ballot, filing a motion in September to replace him with another candidate. When two voters filed a lawsuit attempting to stop them, Democrats accused their rivals of trying to keep him there for political advantage. “Nassau Republicans forcing our missing friend to stay on the ballot is frankly ghoulish,” Nassau County Young Democrats wrote in a Facebook post. A local judge sided with the voters, saying that Krommidas must remain on the ballot because he has not been declared legally dead. “A ‘missing person’ status does not qualify as a vacancy,” Judge Gary Knobel ruled, noting that a person must be missing for three years before they can be legally declared deceased. Because Krommidas already had been selected as the party’s nominee, he was required by law to be the candidate. The judge’s ruling prompted local Democrats to change tack. “If the Republican Party won’t do the moral thing and remove him from the ballot, then we’ll win it for him,” Nassau County Young Democrats wrote in a social media post on Monday, as the local party mobilised to campaign for him. In a statement shared with local media, the chairman of Nassau County Republican Committee, Joseph Cairo, noted that the local GOP did not file the lawsuit and said he was praying for the family. “It is my sincere intention and desire that the Republican Party and its candidates will show the highest level of sensitivity during these challenging times for the Krommidas family,” Cairo said. His family and local Democrats encourage people to vote for him, which could potentially trigger a special election. Photo / @MarioNawfal via X The Nassau County Republican Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment today. The judge’s ruling noted that a similar scenario had played out in 1972, when Democrat Nicholas Begich went missing in a light aircraft while he was running for election to the US House in Alaska. Despite the fact that he could not be located, Begich was re-elected to Alaska’s sole seat in the US House weeks later. When he was declared dead in December, a special election was held and another candidate took office. Krommidas’ family could not immediately be reached for comment but have encouraged voters to honour his legacy by electing him on November 4. In a Facebook post last week, Krommidas’ sister Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas said there had been “confusion and emotion” surrounding her brother’s disappearance and the upcoming election. “Regardless of what’s happening, his name remains on the ballot,” she wrote as she asked others to vote for Krommidas. “His heart would have brought light and positive change to this community,” she said. “That’s what I’m voting for – honouring the beautiful person he was and the values he lived and led by.”

Board upheaval at PGG Wrightson

Board upheaval at PGG Wrightson

Listed rural trader PGG Wrightson chair Garry Moore and his deputy Sarah Brown have been voted out by shareholders. In a statement to the NZ Stock Exchange, PGW says its two largest shareholders voted against their re-elections without outlining reasons for doing so at its annual general meeting this morning. Following the AGM, remaining PGW directors, U Kean Seng, Dr. Charlotte Severne and Wilson Liu met and resolved to reappoint former director, John Nichol to the board. Nichol was a PGW director and a member of the audit committee from 22 October 2013 to 30 April 2019. Nichol’s appointment addressing the governance requirements of having two resident New Zealand directors in compliance with the NZX Listing Rules and a board of four directors in accordance with PGW’s constitution. The statement says the board planned to reconvene in the coming days and expected to make further announcements in relation to the composition of Board committee composition and other governance related matters. According to PGG’s 2025 annual report, Agria Singapore holds a 44% stake and is the largest shareholder. Australian agricultural trader Elders is the second largest shareholder with a 12.5% stake. Read More: PGG Wrightson declares dividend as profits surge 248% PGG Wrightson increases 2025 earnings forecast amid rural sector growth PGG Wrightson buys Nexan Group for $20 million Founder of Agria Corporation Alan Lai stepped down from the PGW board in 2018, following investigation for alleged securities law breaches in Singapore. In February last year, he tried to remove Taylor and other directors but withdrew the motion. PGW shares fell 7c to $2.50 after news of the board changes. #PGG_Wrightson

Instagram tightens teen safety rules, filters adult posts after California law

Instagram tightens teen safety rules, filters adult posts after California law

Instagram said its teen accounts for users aged 13 to 17 will now only see content that would get a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association, a day after California passed a law requiring social media companies to warn users of “profound” health risks. In addition to an existing automated system that scans content for age-inappropriateness, the app will now serve up surveys to parents asking them to review particular posts and report whether they feel it is okay for teens, Instagram said in a blog post today. The updates will also block teen accounts from seeing posts from people who regularly share what the app considers to be adult content. Teens whose caregivers set up parental controls and opt for even more limited content settings will no longer be able to see comments on posts or leave one of their own. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law yesterday requiring that social media companies show users aged under 18 warning labels declaring that their apps – such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat – come with “a profound risk of harm” to their mental health. In the past, Meta has announced new teen safety features such as its “take a break” reminder just days before its executives have been scheduled to testify before Congress about the app’s impact on young people. Last year, Instagram unveiled teen accounts a day before a key House committee was scheduled to weigh amendments to the Kids Online Safety Act, which would have created a new obligation for companies to mitigate potential harms to children. The measure passed in the Senate but stalled in the House. The new features are the latest in a steady drip of teen safety tweaks the app has rolled out as parents, researchers, and lawmakers urge its parent company, Meta, to stop serving dangerous or inappropriate content to young people. The new system will filter even more content depicting violence, substance use, and dangerous stunts from teenagers’ feeds, the company said. “Our responsibility is to maximise positive experiences and minimise negative experiences,” Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri said on the Today show, discussing the tension between keeping teenagers engaged on the app and shielding them from harmful content and experiences. Advocates for children’s online safety, however, urged parents to remain sceptical. “We don’t know if [the updates] will actually work and create an environment that is safe for kids,” said Sarah Gardner, chief executive of tech advocacy organisation Heat Initiative. Based on a user’s self-reported age as well as age-detection technology that examines a user’s in-app behaviour, Instagram says it automatically puts people between age 13 and 17 into teen accounts with the accompanying guardrails. Parents can use Meta’s parental controls to link their accounts with their teen’s and opt for settings that are more or less restrictive. With parental permission, 16- and 17-year-olds can opt out of some teen account restrictions. Instagram, originally an app for sharing photos with friends, has increasingly shown content from non-friends as it competes with TikTok, YouTube and Twitch for teenagers’ time. Along the way, it has come under fire for showing young people content promoting suicide and self-harm. Beginning with a “sensitive content” filter in 2021, Instagram has introduced a series of features it says are designed to limit potentially harmful posts and protect teens from bullying and predation. Last year, it launched “teen accounts” that come with automatic restrictions on recommended content as well as friend requests and direct messages. A report earlier this year from Gen Z-led tech advocacy organisation Design It For Us showed that even when using teen accounts, users were shown posts depicting sex acts and promoting disordered eating. When my colleague Geoffrey Fowler tested it in May, he found the app repeatedly recommended posts about binge drinking, drug paraphernalia, and nicotine products to a...

Labour’s Willie Jackson believes Te Pāti Māori split ‘inevitable’ if issues not sorted soon

Labour’s Willie Jackson believes Te Pāti Māori split ‘inevitable’ if issues not sorted soon

Willie Jackson believes a split within Te Pāti Māori is “inevitable” if internal conflicts aren’t addressed shortly, but he says it’s too early to discount any future collaboration with Labour. He’s pushing for a meeting with Te Pāti Māori by the end of November in the hopes of getting “some indications on where we’re heading next year” before the election, acknowledging questions of whether the party would be a stable partner for Labour. But Jackson said Labour would not be “forced into a position to make a decision with regards to any future relationships with them”. “That internal stuff has to play out. I think it’s still got some way to go, but it’s getting close to terminal, I would say.” The senior Labour MP has been overseas on a parliamentary trip to Barbados over the past week as trouble within Te Pāti Māori boiled over. He was monitoring it from afar and has spoken with his good friend and Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere in recent days. Now back at Parliament, Jackson told the Herald it was “sad” to see the private issues come out, particularly relating to MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, whom he knew well. “She’s been a good MP. We don’t get any joy in watching them killing each other off,” he said on Wednesday. “From a purely kaupapa sense, I’d like to see them fix it. But if they don’t get together soon, you’d just about think it was all over in terms of a future for her and Te Pāti Māori, which I find sad.” Labour MP Willie Jackson said the situation was "sad". Photo / Mark Mitchell Te Pāti Māori late on Monday night released a batch of documents making several serious allegations against Mariameno Kapa-Kingi and her high-profile son and activist, Eru Kapa-Kingi. They included allegations of overspending by the MP’s office and her son threatening violence at Parliament. That followed Eru Kapa-Kingi, a spokesman for the Toitū te Tiriti campaign group, earlier this month attempting to distance the movement from Te Pāti Māori and accusing it of dictatorship-like leadership. His comments came after his mother was demoted as the party’s whip. Eru Kapa-Kingi is yet to respond directly to the allegations, but posted on social media this morning saying he didn’t “regret a single thing” or intend to “throw stones at anyone”, but instead to “speak truth and stand on kaupapa”. His mother also hasn’t fully addressed the claims but acknowledged to the Herald there was an “incident” that went through the “usual processes” at Parliament. She didn’t respond to the Herald’s phone call on Wednesday. Jackson observed that if the internal issues weren’t fixed “quickly”, it could lead to a split within the party, especially if both sides kept having a crack at each other. “I think it’s inevitable that there will be a split there. I think that’s sad for them. I look at it from a kaupapa Māori perspective,” the MP said. “I think it looks inevitable that, unless they can bring it together really quickly, in the next week or so, ... that relationship looks just about over, which I think is very sad for them.” Jackson acknowledged that Tamihere was a friend of his, but said whatever some people say, he had “won six seats for them”. Asked for his thoughts on Te Pāti Māori’s email outlining the allegations, Jackson said, “Let’s be clear, Eru came out and decided to go after the leadership. “I’m not surprised that the leadership, and that’s [Tamihere, Kiri Tamihere, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer] ... that they would respond. “I think a few people are surprised that they’ve responded so harshly, and obviously it was going to get into the media, but that’s their style.” People in Mariameno Kapa-Kingi’s seat of Te Tai Tokerau “are thinking that it’s probably just about terminal unless they can patch it up,” Jackson claimed. He said there was also “a section who are not happy with the leadership”. There have been reports that Te Tai Tonga electorate branch wanted a vote of no confidence in Tamihere and the executive leadership....

D’Angelo, R&B visionary and godfather of neo-soul, dies at 51

D’Angelo, R&B visionary and godfather of neo-soul, dies at 51

D’Angelo, the visionary singer and musician who blended R&B and soul in landmark albums such as Brown Sugar and Voodoo, mesmerising critics and audiences even as he disappeared from public view for years at a time, died on October 14. He was 51. His family announced the death in a statement, saying he had “a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer”. They did not say where he died. Beginning with his debut album, 1995’s Brown Sugar, D’Angelo helped pave the way for a new era in R&B, nodding to an old-school soul sound while incorporating notes of funk, hip-hop and jazz. Alongside musicians such as Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, Maxwell and Jill Scott, he became a defining artist of neo-soul, a genre that was named by his own manager, Kedar Massenburg. Despite releasing only three studio albums, D’Angelo was hailed as one of the greatest R&B singers and musical talents of his generation. A versatile musician who could toggle between guitar, drums and keyboards, he sang in a sultry, breathy style that could burst into euphoric heights. He drew early comparisons to Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone and Prince, who also displayed a musical obsessiveness and played multiple instruments on his albums. “D’Angelo bears no resemblance to the dozens of sound-alike crooners who populate ‘Quiet Storm’ radio formats; his falsetto yelps, note-bending purrs and stop-and-go phrasing mark him as a one-of-a-kind singer,” Washington Post music critic Geoffrey Himes wrote in 1995. With the success of Brown Sugar, other musicians came into the singer’s fold. The drummer and producer Questlove, who became a collaborator, told Vice in 2014 that before hearing D’Angelo, “I had lost faith in modern R&B”. “Not since Prince had any black singer floored me musically the way D’Angelo did,” he added. “There were plenty of great singers, but their music was mundane. From his keyboard patches to his sloppy, human-like drum programming, I felt like I had a kindred spirit.” D’Angelo spent years working on his sophomore album, 2000’s Voodoo, an eclectic record that was influenced by the birth of his first child; the sounds of gospel, Latin, blues and hip-hop; and bootlegs of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. The album was born out of thousands of hours of musical experimentation at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where the singer collaborated with a free-flowing collective – the Soulquarians – that included Questlove, Badu, Q-Tip and J Dilla. D’Angelo was born Michael Eugene Archer in Richmond, Virginia, in 1974. Photo / Getty Images “It is an album of loose, long, dirty grooves, finger snaps, falsetto serenades, gruff mumbles and bottom-dwelling bass,” the music journalist Toure wrote in Rolling Stone. “It is soul music for the age of hip-hop.” Voodoo topped the Billboard album chart and earned D’Angelo two Grammy Awards. It also turned the singer into a reluctant sex symbol: the music video for one of the record’s standout tracks, the sultry“Untitled (How Does It Feel), featured a shirtless, muscular D’Angelo singing into the camera, and was heavily featured on MTV. “Sometimes, you know, I feel uncomfortable,” he told Toure in 2000. “To be onstage and tryin’ to do your music and people goin’, ‘Take it off! Take it off!’ Cause I’m not no stripper. I’m up there doin’ somethin’ I strongly believe in.” After the album’s release, D’Angelo receded from public view for more than a decade. He was arrested for cocaine and marijuana possession, as well as for disorderly conduct, and later spoke candidly about his struggles with addiction and rehabilitation stints. A mug shot during that time became tabloid fodder for his stark physical transformation from his “Untitled” days. But he found his way back to music. After years of silence, racial justice protests and high-profile killings of black men by police pushed him to release Black Messiah in 2014. The album featured some of his most politically explicit material – “All we wanted...