Australian Women’s Weekly NZ January 2021

Take a bow, pat yourself on the back, raise a glass, dance a jig, high-five a friend, share a cuddle, do whatever makes you happy. Congratulations, we made it! The time has finally come to bid farewell to 2020, a year like no other. For me personally, 2020 was a 12-month-long emotional rollercoaster. Like so many others out there, it started with such hope and optimism. 2020 was going to be “my year”. That was quickly followed by what can only be described as a “crash and burn” period when life as I knew it changed forever after I lost my job of 20 years. Eeek! That was most definitely not in the life plan. The following four months were an angsty combination of soul searching, endless questioning, forced reinvention…

Learn from Sam Neil… to appreciate the joy and liberation of just “being in the moment” and “making the best of the day”. See our exclusive interview with the star on page 18. Embrace Jupiter being in the house… and focus on my relationships. I should probably also take a look at my finances, but that’s not as fun. Check out your astrological outlook on page 67. Makeover my midweek meals… There’s only so many times you can cook spag bol! This year, I’m going to try to be more creative in the kitchen. There are lots of new ideas on page 100.…

When asked what’s giving her hope for 2021, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn’t beat around the bush. “That it’s not 2020,” she says with a small grimace. “I just hope we keep proving what we can do and it gives me confidence that we’ll get through, no matter what. But I think everyone is hoping for a year that feels more up than down.” On the day of her cover story with the Weekly, our time with the PM has slotted in between a day of appointments that started at 6am and will finish at 4am. That is the life of a leader – and when we sit down with Jacinda, it’s on a good day. There is no breaking news and no ominous 1pm broadcast that we all have…

AFTER A YEAR LIKE no other, we’re all looking at 2021 with renewed optimism – and the annual family Christmas portrait released by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge fills us with hope that better things are to come. In the cosy snapshot, an ecstatic Prince Louis steals the show, while Prince George and Princess Charlotte appear very happy to be cuddled up with their parents. The two senior royals ended the year with a train tour to thank key workers who helped the UK endure a most challenging year. Royal intrigue LOVE DELAYED The Japanese princess who gave up her crown to marry her commoner boyfriend has delayed her wedding for a second time. Princess Mako, 29, said she and her fiancé remain “irreplaceable to each other”. UNHAPPY OUTBREAK…

While all the Cambridge children faced the media as newborns, just hours after they entered the world, the Duke and Duchess have kept public exposure for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to a minimum. Prince William knows only too well what it feels like to grow up in that spotlight and it’s not something he wants for his own family. So to see Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five and two-and-a-half-year-old Prince Louis make their joint red carpet debut attending a pantomime performance at The London Palladium just before Christmas was a notable royal landmark. The special panto was for Britain’s key workers and their families to thank them for their phenomenal efforts and underlined the Cambridge family’s personal commitment to lifting spirits as Britain continues to battle…

When Sam Neill left his vineyard in the Southern Alps of New Zealand to work on the Apple TV+ series, Invasion, last February he couldn’t have anticipated how long it would take to get home again. Or what was to follow. That borders would close and the world would stop; that there would be a season and a vintage on the vineyard he wouldn’t see. And he certainly didn’t plan on becoming a sort of kindly global uncle amusingly reassuring anxious, uncertain people as the pandemic spread and lockdown became the reality. To his half a million Twitter followers, there he was playing Radiohead and Randy Newman songs on the ukulele, reading poems and children’s books, duetting with Jeff Goldblum on jazz piano and bringing us Cinema Quarantino: comedy short…