Feijoa Fixation with Kate Evans

Kate Evans talks us through the journey of the humble feijoa, from the highlands of Brazil, to the valleys of Uruguay, a museum in Germany and the Riviera in France, to New Zealand. Along the way we meet the dashing and sometimes tragic characters who played a part in its translocation and share Evans’ obsession with the fruit. Maybe she’ll convert some South Islanders in her discussion with journalist Craig Hoyle.

Kate Evans is an award-winning journalist and nature writer who lives on a plot in Raglan with her young family and a much-loved feijoa tree. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Observer, Scientific American, National Geographic, and she is a regular contributor to New Zealand Geographic. Kate has won multiple national media awards for science and environmental journalism and feature writing. She has also worked as a television producer and video journalist for the BBC, ABC, TVNZ, and the Washington Post, reporting from Africa, Indonesia, the Whanganui River and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.

Craig Hoyle grew up in Invercargill within the New Zealand Exclusive Brethren. Separated from public society, he attended Brethren-only schooling and worked in his family’s tyre shop. After facing interrogation and conversion therapy for his sexuality, he was excommunicated from the Brethren and separated from his family in 2009. Today he is chief news director for the Sunday Star-Times. He has worked for newsrooms such as TV3 and RadioLive, and behind the scenes on current affairs shows including 60 Minutes. He lives in Tāmaki Makaurau.