Canuck Farming Luck
“In 1985, New Zealand stopped bailing out farmers. Today, its rural areas are thriving. It’s a ‘brutal process,’ experts say, but it would work in Canada.”
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Fairy tale ending
Xena meets her doom in the finale of the wrapped series that turned Lucy Lawless stellar.
Buzz of It’s Own
And, “Auckland has a buzz of its own, with enviable dance music, fashion and restaurant scenes and the largest Polynesian and Maori populations in the South Pacific.”
Best Oscar Hunter
The greatest winners of all time. For best actress: Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, Simone Signoret and Holly Hunter in The Piano.
Cross-course Appeal
“Sunline, a huge bay five-year-old, is one of those rare beasts to have jumped the fence between her sport and the wider public. She has her own website, an official fan-club and a range of merchandise.”…
Hot Lodge!
Old-world charm is losing out to “far-flung destinations favoured by the elite such as game lodges in South Africa, Caribbean idylls, palatial hotels in India and New Zealand lodges.
August Florist
A flowering of beauty takes place under the hands of top international florist, New Zealander Maurice August.
Cisco of the South
Funky Wellington’s natural glories make the city “a superior urban roost with a view, a mini-San Francisco”.
The Legend of Steve Williams
Tiger’s clubs net the “amiable Kiwi” over $1 million – making Williams an international top-dollar caddy. Also, will Williams bring Tiger down under?
Dolly, the Next Generation
PPL Therapeutic, the company behind Dolly and the cloned piglets, seeks backing to buy a farm in New Zealand. If all goes to plan, Dolly#2 will be a good kiwi girl.
Cup Buzz
The City of Sails is still high on the America’s Cup – and not showing any signs of slowing down before the next one.
Bye-bye Brierley
New Zealand business legend Sir Ron Brierley steps down as director of the eponymous Brierley Investments.
Spotte-y Research
Prolific writer Stephen Spotte’s latest collection ranges from “academia to the Maori cannibals of New Zealand and everywhere in between”.
Kidnappers couldn’t take me
Russell Crowe laughs off kidnap threat: “Quite frankly, if they had to spend that much time in a small room with me… one of them might end up saying, ‘Look, pass the hat around,…
Dishy
Sam Neill transmits tension in The Dish, the story of how Neill Armstrong came to be broadcast from a giant dish in the middle of the Australian desert.
ATC in Manila
German-based lolli-pop group ATC, including Kiwi member Joe, hit Manila with their Europop/R&B blend.
Directory of Excellence
Every entry in a New Zealand winery guide has one thing in common: “passion for excellence in their field”.
Breaking in Privacy?
Will new anti-hacking laws breach the bill of rights? Parliament tries to walk the tightrope between security and invasion.
Fashioning the Seams
“My work always tends to be about throwing extremes together,” says edge-designer Karen Walker. “I always find that the most exciting thing is when you take a $5 T-shirt and elevate it into something…
Everywhere you go…
Neil Finn, international star and “nice guy” of New Zealand pop, has invited a few friends to perform his “unmistakable” sound in Auckland.
Musical extravaganza
“The concept for these shows is to invite friends whose music I admire to collaborate with me in presenting a week-long musical extravaganza which I optimistically expect to be a blast.”
Clean Fingers
European consumers can’t wait to get their hands on sustainably fished New Zealand hoki fish-fingers, but some groups strongly dispute the fishery’s right to the “sustainable” label.
Reel Pianos
The Piano, Jane Campion’s “hard to ignore” and “genuinely strange” masterpiece is the star in Jerusalem’s Festival of piano-films – celebrating the filmic attraction of tormented pianists.
Whey Better
New Zealand investment and technology turns Israeli cheese run-off from environmental hazard to valuable protein supplement.
Mega-Catch
New Zealand Envirosafe Technologies’ mega-catch mosquito trap looks like a “harmless, black plastic birdcage”, but, to a mosquito, it looks and smells exactly like a juicy human target.
Singing High
New Zealand soprano soloist Rebecca Ryan sings world premier of re-discovered Handel work.
Gourmet high
“Air New Zealand announces a culinary partnership with Chef Katsuo “Suki” Sugiura of the legendary Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel.”
Sock it to Him
Returning from Britain, Agricultural Minister Jim Sutton handed in his shoes for decontamination – accidentally also handing in a pair of dirty socks. These were also “decontaminated” by customs, returning to the minister freshly washed.
Restitution Advance
The New Zealand Maori Council became the executors of the estate of a long-dead ancestor, enabling them to regain his head for burial, and opening a legal channel for other groups to claim remains from museums…
Rock Face
“New Zealand is one of the few places on earth where a novice can partake in the wild and woolly sport known as canyoning: an odd combination of hiking and rock climbing.”
Right on NZ
Come to New Zealand, one American’s all-huntin’, no (school) shootin’ right-wing paradise.
Writer’s birthday
The 13 of March is the birthday of novelist, Sir Hugh Walpole, born in Auckland in 1884.
Garageland USA
Jeremy Eade, lead singer of New Zealand peppy-punkers Garageland, tours the US doing acoustic from latest release Do What You Want.
Kiwi Burger?
“If you were in a position where every family could eat kiwi for lunch, then you would have solved the problem, wouldn’t you,” says John Wamsley, head of the private Environmental Sanctuaries group. But, “our aim…
Strenuous Endeavour
“How a poor Yorkshire farm boy became a saltwater giant is an incredible tale. Formally speaking, 4-year-old Cook wasn’t even a captain when, over considerable objection, he was appointed master of a naval ship…
Sexy Collette
Wellington-trained Aus-based designer Collette Dinnigan’s international reputation makes her Australasia’s most prolific fashion designer, conjuring for all shapes and sizes “unashamedly feminine, decorative and sexy creations that hug your body and delight your spirit”…
…you take Finn with you
One Nil is the result of a musician “looking for collaborative work, where someone else is bringing something to the table”, but it’s still vintage Finn: still “rooted in the form and structure of…
Properly Done
New Zealand designers Ashley and Wende Fogel know how to get it right for this season’s “lean and proper” look.
Edge Eden
Cornwall’s bio-dome Eden Project houses vegetation from every part of the planet – including the edge.
Rower Cola
University of Otago scientists says caffeine consumption prior to exercise boosts output, making you rower faster, run further and jump higher without even realising it.
Elegant Astelia
A New Zealand silver astelia adds elegance to Irish garden designer Dominick Murphy’s small garden.
Trek Milford
The Milford Track is one of the world’s top ten walks – up there with Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and Snow Lake, Pakistan.
Cold Daring
What better guide through the frozen continent that “a New Zealander who, in younger days, had driven motorcycles across the ice pack and sampled the 80-year-old cocoa from the stores left in the hut of the…
Double life
UK Poet Charles Boyle’s The Age of Cardboard and String features “a poet who leads a double life in England and New Zealand”.
Wahine Remembered
March 10 was the thirty-third anniversary of the day the ferry Wahine ran aground on Barrett’s reef.
In From the Cold
Former New Zealand PM, now WTO-head Mike Moore plans to see China a WTO member in time for the November meeting in Qatar.
“Foreign Britain”
“And then there is my ridiculous fantasy that if we are to become a foreign land it might be New Zealand, where, unlike our own benighted Scotland, they know how to play rugby. (Big Hint to…
“I Will Herd Sheep”
“Never doubt you can accomplish the task given to you,” says Canadian film-maker Sean Buckley. “I had barely been on a horse before, but there I was in New Zealand, needing a job. I…
High Brag Value
New Zealand’s rise in popularity with Indian tourists has two sources: massive exposure as background in Bollywood films and exclusivity: New Zealand has “high brag value” once you’re back home.
Peaceful PM
PM Helen Clark sat on the selection committee for the Millennium Peace Prize for Women, alongside writer Alice Walker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta.
Furry Good Idea
The fur is soft, warm and stylish. The leather feels so good you can wear it as underwear; Tiger Woods refuses to play with a glove made of anything else. It’s true: the best…
