Welcome

Welcome to The Upcycologist – where curiosity leads you to wander, discover, and create. Here, you’ll find travel stories that celebrate hidden corners of Aotearoa/New Zealand and beyond, op-shop guides that help you uncover secondhand treasures, and creative inspiration that comes from seeing the world in a fresh way. Love exploring quirky towns, hunting for vintage finds, or dreaming up your next art project? This is a space designed to spark your imagination and invite you to look at the ordinary with new eyes. 

About Jenny

I’m Jenny – the person behind The Upcycologist, someone who genuinely cannot walk past an op shop without going in. I started this little corner of the internet because I kept noticing things other people overlooked: a quirky town that doesn’t make the tourist brochures, a piece of vintage furniture with a past life worth saving, a secondhand find that just needed a bit of imagination. I wanted a place to share all of that — the wandering, the hunting, the creating.

These days I write about travel through Aotearoa and beyond (with a particular soft spot for hidden NZ towns and international thrift store trails), share op shop guides for fellow secondhand hunters, and document the upcycling projects that come out of all that treasure finding. I’m also an artist — my word art prints capture New Zealand towns through photography, turning the places I love to explore into something you can hang on your wall.

I run a small resale business from my base in South Auckland, which means I spend a probably unreasonable amount of time in op shops — and I’m completely fine with that.

I’ve built a community of fellow hunters and wanderers on social media, created original artwork celebrating NZ towns that people hang in their homes, transformed more than a few unloved pieces into something worth keeping, and written guides to help you get the most out of secondhand shopping across New Zealand. Whether it’s a vintage globe that’s been around the world more than once, or a piece of furniture that just needed someone to believe in it again, I’m always on the lookout for the next great find.

If you’re the kind of person who finds magic in the overlooked and ordinary, you’re in the right place.

Follow Along

Come find me on Tiktok, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook and Instragram – links below