Alumni around the globe

Amelia Butler: Los Angeles, US

When Amelia Butler (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Awa) spent six months in the US as an exchange student, it confirmed a long-held pull she’d felt to live on Turtle Island (one of the Indigenous names for North America).

So, a year after graduating from the University of Auckland with a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Laws degree, she moved to Tongva territory (Los Angeles) to pursue a career in hip-hop dance. Nearly two decades later, however, she has another calling.

Amelia is the founder and director of Learn Māori Abroad, a global online and in-person community that teaches Māori language, culture and traditional performing arts to people living outside Aotearoa New Zealand. She also leads a Los Angeles-based kapa haka group, travels the US delivering kapa haka workshops and cultural experiences, and has taught at leading institutions including Yale, UCLA and the University of Hawai’i.

“Living on Turtle Island has opened doors I never imagined,” she says. “From giving a TEDx talk on Māori culture to teaching haka to corporate organisations and universities across the continent.”  

Amelia says majoring in Māori studies at University ultimately laid the foundation for her current career. “It gave me the knowledge and confidence to share our language and culture with others. And while I didn’t end up practising law, my law degree has also given me credibility in different spaces.”

She says there’s a growing international interest in Māori culture. “I think it’s because people want to connect to something traditional, authentic and real. They’ve been inspired by seeing haka online and want to try it, or they are looking for ways to heal from the impacts of colonisation and Western culture, as well as to reconnect with their own indigeneity.”

Los Angeles is “incredibly creative and diverse, which I love”, she says, but she remains connected to Waipapa Taumata Rau; she’s completing a Master of Indigenous Studies online and is considering a doctorate.

She’s also raising her children in the US and ensuring they grow up with a strong connection to their Māori identity.

“My ‘why’ has changed over the years. Now it’s about my children, my ancestors and helping ensure our language and culture continue to flourish for generations to come.” 

Al Jeffery: Tuscany, Italy

Living in the Tuscan countryside near Siena, restoring his family’s 16th-century villa, Al Jeffery likes to say he’s “living within history, rather than merely looking at it”.

Raised in Dunedin, Al completed a bachelors degree in mining engineering at the University of Auckland before earning a PhD at Imperial College London. He then moved into investment banking in London before moving again to Sydney to found financial services company Bluestone.

Like most start-ups, Bluestone faced early challenges. However, with a focus on financial services and lending technology, the business grew rapidly, prompting another move, back to the UK, to the group’s new headquarters in Cambridge. But when Covid hit, Al and his family decided they wanted a slightly slower pace of life.

“Siena was particularly appealing because it’s extraordinarily beautiful but slightly off the beaten track. Similar in size to Dunedin, it’s small enough to be manageable for a family while remaining culturally rich and fascinating.”

Siena moves at a gentler pace, where relationships, family and community tend to take precedence over efficiency. “Not everything is treated as a problem of optimisation here,” he says. 

Al is now chair of Bluestone and its financial technology subsidiary Fignum and says modern technology makes remote work straightforward. He still travels once or twice a month, mainly to the UK, but also to the US and Mexico following his 2025 investment in Wills Wing. The Californian hang-gliding brand manufactures gliders in Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

“Wills Wing was a fascinating opportunity to combine business, aeronautical engineering, manufacturing and a sport I’ve been passionate about for many years.” He says it was also an opportunity to help rebuild and expand a historic business.

Al says he uses his engineering education almost every day. “Engineering teaches you to define a problem, break it into manageable components, identify the important variables, test possible solutions and keep going when the first answer fails. Those skills have been enormously valuable.”

Al remains closely connected to the University, regularly attending alumni events and exploring opportunities to strengthen links with Wills Wing. “Last year I was lucky enough to be invited by the University to McLaren’s manufacturing facility near London, a fascinating and memorable occasion.”

Despite living in many different locations, Al says he’s always retained what he sees as characteristics of a New Zealander – “curiosity, independence, an ambivalence to hierarchy and a willingness to give it a crack!” 

James Blick: Madrid, Spain

When James Blick and his Spanish wife, Yoly, decided to move to Spain in 2011, it marked the beginning of a new chapter. Fifteen years later, the former lawyer and filmmaker has built two successful businesses and helped thousands of people discover and relocate to the country he now calls home.

The founder of Spain Revealed, an online education business helping people navigate the realities of moving to Spain, James uses online courses, videos and a YouTube channel (watched each month by more than half a million people) to help others build a new life in Spain.

It’s a long way from the career he imagined while completing a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Laws degree at the University of Auckland.

He practised law for a year after graduating but, realising it wasn’t for him, joined the family’s filmmaking business as a production assistant – “I made a lot of coffees,” he laughs. He went on to direct a couple of award-winning short films but then decided to take a break and moved to France to teach English, where he met Yoly.  

They returned to Auckland for a stint, but a future directing television commercials didn’t appeal, so they moved to Madrid. Once there, he fell in love with the history, culture and food, but struggled to make ends meet as a travel and food writer, he says, so he co-founded Devour Tours. He grew it to become one of Europe’s leading food-tour companies before selling it in 2021 to concentrate on Spain Revealed.

“My law degree taught me how to think clearly and explain complex issues simply. At the same time, my arts degree sparked a real love of history and writing. So, looking back, everything I’ve studied has found its way into what I do now.”

That blend of interests continues to shape his life. “I love the culture around food here – sharing meals, gathering with friends and family – while raising our daughters in a bilingual, bicultural family is incredibly rewarding,” he says.

He remains close to several University friends but misses New Zealand’s lack of crowds and proximity to nature. That partly explains the family’s recent move from central Madrid to Torrelodones, a small town north of Madrid in the foothills of the mountains.

“Right now, I simply want to dig in, keep growing Spain Revealed and enjoy this beautiful place with my wife and daughters.”