[1] She has a BA and Post Graduate Diploma in Arts in History from the University of Otago, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the University of Canterbury.
In 2007 Macfie joined the New Zealand Listener as a writer for the South Island.
[1][3] In 2013 she published Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died,[4] a non-fiction work on the Pike River Mine disaster that claimed 29 lives.
[8] In 2018, Macfie won the Voyager Media Award for 'Feature writing – business or personal finance' for two articles, on the environmental and economic risks of climate change, and the development of animal free protein.
In 2012 she won the Bruce Jesson Senior Journalism Grant to develop a book on the Pike River Mine disaster (later published as Tragedy at Pike River Mine).