Kanoa Lloyd and Perlina Lau Photo: Culture 101
Kanoa Lloyd Photo: Supplied
TV presenter Kanoa Lloyd is preparing to immerse herself in the world of yoga training. She’s about to embark on a 200-hour yoga teacher training course - split into two blocks. It’s a practice the broadcaster has dipped in and out of for the past 12 years.
“I’m pretty enthusiastic about everyone having some kind of healthy movement available to them.
“It’s done so much for me to keep me well, keep me strong and fit and I’d love to be able to offer that opportunity to people who perhaps don’t think they’re the yoga sort.”
Whether she does teach at the end of the course is another consideration but she’s relishing the time and resources she now has to find out.
Speaking to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau as the Fast Favourites guest, Kanoa recommends the Apple TV show, Presumed Innocent, created by David E Kelly. Based on the 1987 book of the same name by Scott Turow and the 1990 film, this mini-series stars Jake Gyllanhall as a chief deputy prosecutor in Chicago. He’s also the main suspect in the brutal murder of a colleague and fellow prosecutor. It’s a star cast with Peter Sarsgaard and Ruth Negga playing his wife.
Community space, gallery and shop, Moana Fresh, in her local neighbourhood of Avondale in West Auckland is another favourite. The intimate space champions Maori and Pasifika artists. Kanoa believes accessibility is hugely important and it’s a large part of the attraction.
“I think you see art and be around art in order to have a relationship with it. I was lucky enough to have that growing up.
“Moana Fresh cares about art being accessible to everyone and they provide a place for some unsung heroes.”
While most of her reading list has been dominated by yoga-related books, Lloyd is recommending Catherine Chidgey’s Pet. Published in 2023, it’s set in a Catholic primary school in New Zealand, in the 1980s and 30 years later in a care home in Auckland. Kanoa describes it as hugely relatable, remembering school cliques and the adoration and obsession with certain teachers.
“It took me straight back to my school time (in the 90s) and wanting to be the teacher’s pet!”.
