Back in black
Great style, well put together, or just someone who catches our eye. Every week reporter Carly Gooch gets out and about to discover the people behind the clothes in Canterbury.
These women are aiming to carry on and keep supple, keep travelling, and keep close with their twin, despite living in different cities. Leah Kahika, 26, is a sales assistant living in Wainoni, Christchurch.
She has a twin brother, Jordan, who she says is her “permanent best mate”.
“We are honestly so close”. Throughout childhood, they always got along well, she says.
The pair have three older sisters and an older brother - “we were a surprise”.
She says the entire family is close, but she has a unique bond with her twin brother.
Despite Jordan now living in Wellington, they travel about five times a year to see each other and they “literally talk every day”.
Jordan looks more like her brother than her twin, she says. “People are surprised we’re twins. We look quite different.”
Leah is also a mother to her 6-year-old daughter.
She wears a top and skirt from Ruby and Glassons boots.
Amy Jones,
23, is a university student living in Riccarton, Christchurch.
She is in her final year of uni, having been there for six years doing a double degree in law and arts.
While studying, she also has a part time job and is volunteering at the Community Law centre. She wants to become a lawyer because it’s “one of those things I want to create a tangible change in”.
Crime has increased a lot in recent times, she says.
As a “nice reprieve” from law, she is also studying history and human services - “it feels like it’s more fun”.
She wears a Moochi blazer and pants, a Witchery top, Isabella Anselmi boots and Dyrberg/Kern jewellery. The Michael Kors bag was bought at an outlet store in Hawaii for a fraction of the original price tag.
Rosemary Hogan,
58, is a Country Road accessory brand ambassador living in Templeton, Christchurch.
She says she’s passionate about fashion, yoga, socialising and “having a good laugh”. Keeping fit is part of her regime.
She does yoga five times a week along with gym sessions of weights, and cycling.
Yoga targets mind and body, she says, stretching muscles, keeping you supple, and is “good for the mind” too.
“It’s mentally better for me all over.” As well as eating out and keeping fit, she enjoys frequent trips to Wellington to visit friends and family, since moving from the capital to Christchurch nine years ago.
“I thought I would miss Wellington, but it a lot more relaxed down here.”
Her entire outfit is from Country Road.
The post-Christmas debt hangover has hit households hard with 480,000 people behind on repayments on at least one of their loan and credit contracts.
Credit reporting bureau Centrix said 13% of credit accounts, which included loan accounts as well as power, water and telecommunications accounts, had payments overdue on them at the end of January.
That was nearly 10% higher than the same time last year, and it was also higher than at the end of December when 439,000 people were behind on payments.
Keith McLaughlin, Centrix’s managing director, said there was a traditional post-Christmas high in missed payments, and usually, arrears levels fall in February and March as people catch up with their repayments.
But, McLaughlin said: “I’m nervous. That would be the usual pattern, but this is not a usual environment.”
This year’s January peak was higher than any of the previous six January spikes, and households were facing higher prices in the shops, high mortgage rates, and many were struggling, he said.
The sector with the highest level of missed payments were telecommunications providers, who have 11.7% of the accounts they have with the public and businesses behind on payments at the end of January. For personal accounts, it was younger people who were most likely to be struggling.
The proportion of accounts with missed payments among 18- year-olds was highest, while the lowest level of missed payments was among people aged 50 or over, Centrix data showed.
There was a clear trend for rising pain for business owners whose business debt was secured against their homes, Centrix found. The crunch was felt particularly sharply in the hospitality and construction industries.
The retail trade saw the largest proportion of company liquidations, followed by construction and hospitality, Centrix said.
The South Island continued to have much lower arrears on credit contracts compared to the North Island. However, Wellington and the Thames-Coromandel region bucked that trend, appearing in Centrix’s list of the 10 areas with the lowest level of missed payments on accounts.
Every one of the 10 regions with the worst arrears was in the North Island.
Not every kind of credit contract hit a seven-year high in arrears, Centrix data showed.
While phone accounts and personal loan arrears were at seven-year highs, and car loans are close, home loan arrears have not yet reached the heights of 2017, Centrix reported.
Home loan arrears levels had, however, returned to levels not seen since before Covid-19 made its first appearance in New Zealand.
And while buy now, pay later loan arrears were rising again, they are lower than they were last year after a profitability crunch in the sector saw some lenders close shop, and others get choosier about the people they choose to lend to.
Demand for new loans was rising, except for car loans, Centrix data showed.
McLaughlin said when households faced tougher financial times, many put off replacing their cars.
Turners January car market report showed an increase in the number of used car sales in January compared to January last year, but the number of used cars imported into the country remained depressed. That was forcing up prices for used cars, data from Infometrics included in Turners’ report showed.