Brian Bows Out
BBC stalwart, Brian Perkins, has resigned from his post at Radio 4, ending a news-reading career spanning 4 decades. The Guardian describes the resignation of NZ-born broadcaster as a loss: “Perkins’ voice has come…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
International Man of History
C.K Stead is one of the “international sensations” lined up for the Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival in Canada. The Secret History of Modernism author will join E. Annie Proulx, Jasper Fforde, Joan London, and…
Aquada, Bond Aquada, 0064
International media attention was lavished on The Thames, London, for the launch of NZ-entrepreneur Alan Gibb’s revolutionary Aquada (inspired by inventor Terry Roycroft’s design innovations). The James Bond-style sports vehicle with the amphibian edge can reach up to…
Move over Norah
Guardian critic has an “utterly magical” experience watching Bic Runga perform live in London. ” she is desperately beautiful and has a…
Social Climbing at Wellington’s Matterhorn
Wallpaper features newly refurbished Wellington bar The Matterhorn in its global navigator. In a piece entitled ‘The heart of the matter’ the bar is the hub of a cosmopolitan revivified Wellington. Surveying the…
Teen Queens Fly High
The latest designs by Deborah Sweeney and Karen Walker feature in Oyster magazine’s August/September issue. Sweeney’s aviatrix-inspired ‘Fli-Girl’ collection – a salute to original fly-girls Amelia Earhart and Jean Batten – teams mini parachute…
“Kiwi Babe-magnet” Gets Top Billing
New Zealander Zane Lowe is to host one of Britain’s highest rating shows – the evening slot on BBC‘s Radio One. Radio One controller Andy Parfitt: “Zane is one of the most exciting presenters…
Big McCahon: harbinger of art globalisation
In a substantial feature, ‘Spreading the word’, in international art world standard, ArtForum, Thomas Crow talks to Stedelijk Museum curator Marja Bloem about the growing international reputation of Colin McCahon. Crow urges globalisation in…
Art-attack
September’s Art Monthly Australia includes celebratory reviews of Michael Stevenson’s This is the Trekka exhibit at the Venice Biennale, and the Stedelijk Museum’s Colin McCahon retrospective, currently showing in Melbourne. Louise Tegart on Stevenson:…
Glass Master #1
Wanganui artist David Murray has won Australia’s prestigious Runamok Prize for Contemporary Glass Art for 2003 for his work entitled ‘Gatherer’.
Double Success for Twins
At the World Rowing Championships in Milan the Evers-Swindell (Caroline and Georgina) sisters repeated their winning performance of 2002 in the double sculls and are firm favourites for gold at Athens in 2004. Caroline: “To go out there…
ANZACs Legend Lives On
BBC series on the National Health Service profiles Harefield Hospital and its enduring ties with NZ and Australia. Now home to one of Britain’s leading heart surgery units, Harefield was initially established as a medical centre…
Zambesi: the Story of a New Zealand River
Australian Financial Review Magazine devotes 5 pages to edge fashion label Zambesi. “They have been called the Belgians of the Asia-Pacific region . Over a quarter of a century, cult fashion…
Being Beryl Fletcher: the life of a “feminist firebrand.”
NZ author, Beryl Fletcher, was a guest speaker at the Melboune Writers Festival in August. Fletcher’s latest work – The House at Karamu – is a personal memoir, which “attempts to map the identity…
Bottoms Up
CNN feature reveals a hemisphere-reversal in wine appreciation and availability in America. New World wines are doing a roaring trade in the US, in many cases outstripping their European counterparts in sales. “One of the…
Kiwi Juice Goes Global
Auckland-based kiwifruit juice manufacturers – Nekta International Limited – have made a successful entry into the US market. Sales have “exceeded expectations” since the product was lauched there in June. Nekta is already sold in Australia, Asia,…
Kiwi Car Culture Laps Venice
NZ’s representative at the Venice Biennale – Michael Stevenson – praised in Time Pacific for his “finely calibrated sense of irony.” Stevenson’s main installation – ‘This is the Trekka’ – places NZ’s Cold War…
Australia Looks to the Near East
The Australian features a 20 page special report on The Pacific. Strongly focused on NZ, the supplement includes a regional overview (“Australia is said to be the superpower of the South Pacific. If so then New…
World-first opera band
NZEdged tenor Geoff Sewell (2nd from L, above) and his London-based opera band Amici Forever have signed a record-breaking six million pound recording deal. Their first album is to be released in the UK…
Wahine Takes Manhattan
Pania Rose, Australia’s latest supermodel has an Aotearoa genetic advantage: “After securing local campaigns for Country Road and the all-Aussie undies label , the 19-year-old has hit the big time in the US, scoring…
Umpiring as an Art Form
BBC feature on NZ cricket umpire, Billy Bowden, tracks his unlikely rise to the top of the white-coated ranks. Bowden fell into umpiring after rheumatoid arthritis halted his own career as a player….
Scoop: the hard news
Wellington independent new-media news agency Scoop again makes international headlines for its principled media coverage. The Guardian applauds the “fiercely independent news agency’s” boldness during the recent Iraq war: “For several months, Scoop…
Gene-injected Performance
Dr Matthew During of Auckland University is part of a US medical team promoting the groundbreaking use of gene therapy in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Speaking in New York, During emphasised that the procedure was…
Iron Will
Golfer Phil Tataurangi has returned from injury in time to defend his Las Vegas Invitational title in October. Tataurangi was forced to drop out of the professional circuit in May in order to have corrective surgery on…
Cool Kiwis: Why It’s Suddenly Not on the Edge of the World
The Edge metaphor permeates Timemagazine’s 50-page rave on NZ. ‘NZ Journeys’ takes an in-depth look at our designers, scientists, exporters, film industry, Maori language revival, musicians, and winemakers, in a bid to discover “what makes…
Lawson’s Joins Mile High Club
Lawson’s Dry Hills Sauvignon Blanc scored the highest overall marks for a white wine in the Scotsman‘s high-altitude taste test. In conjunction with 6 international airlines, the Scotsman and a panel of expert judges sought out…
Clarke serves up a winner
Kiwi comedian and trans-Tasman icon, John Clarke, talks about his latest book, The Tournament. Clarke admits that his satirical account of a tennis tournament played by artistic and academic legends of the 20th century…
Brake Continues to be Benchmark
Australian photojournalist Paul Blackmore is compared to late great NZ photographer, Brian Brake, in a review by the Herald. Blackmore’s Waters images are reminiscent of Brake’s Monsoon series – “one of the most successful…
Legendary Lance Hangs up the Saddle
Champion NZ jockey, Lance O’Sullivan, has announced his retirement from racing at age 39. O’Sullivan has ridden over 2,470 winners and has been crowned NZ champion rider a record 12 times. His international achievements include…
EasyNZ
Air NZ has responded to increased and heavily discounted competition by introducing a no-frills Tasman Express service. So far, the cheap fares are proving to be a lucrative addition; by mid-August, Air NZ had tripled its average…
Like Father, Like Son
NZer Steve Richards – the younger half of the “most successful father-son duo in Australian motor sport” – interviewed in the Age about his new three-year contract with Castrol Perkins. At 31, Steve has 25 years to…
Pooling Resources
NZ’s Fisher & Paykel Appliances has formed a technology-sharing alliance with US white-ware company, Whirlpool Corporation. Fisher & Paykel managing director, John Bongard, predicts greater access to global markets to result from the union: “Whirlpool offers us…
It’s a Black-out
SMH: “they simply cannot beat the All Blacks”. The All Blacks join England as World Cup favourites after winning both the Tri-Nations’ Trophy and and Bledisloe Cup, making it two out of three thus…
Boy Racer
NZ racing star, Scott Dixon, achieved three consecutive pole positions in the Indy Racing League last month, and broke the track record at Nashville in the process. His winning streak was cut short by gearbox problems…
Behind Every Great Woman…
NZ-born producer, Linda McDougall, interviewed in the Sunday Times about her Channel 4 documentary, Married to Maggie: Denis Thatcher’s Story. McDougall collated interviews with the former British PM and her late husband – many…
Here’s to you Ms Hunter
Rachel Hunter subject of a Sky One documentary and two-part interview with The Sun in early August. She describes the documentary as an attempt to “draw a line under the whole Rod thing” and…
Jobs for (Almost) All
Unemployment in NZ is at a 16-year low of 4.7% thanks largely to net gains in permanent and long-term migration. Employment Minister, Steve Maharey: “We are now experiencing lower unemployment than all our major trading partners, including…
Wellington wordsmiths mash it up
Wellington authors Damien Wilkins and Elizabeth Knox have been nominated for the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Their novels, Chemistry and Billie’s Kiss, are both in the running for a NZ$196,000 prize,…
Living Large
New research undertaken at Auckland University suggests that the tendency towards obesity occurs in the womb, rather than as a result of our remote-control society. The findings – recently published in the American Physiological Society journal -…
The D4: luring the young and hip
The sounds of Kiwi band The D4 are being used in an attempt to modernise the game of baseball in the US. Videos of The D4 and fellow rockers The Donnas and The Ataris…
Tanning Back in Fashion
Fish tanners in NZ, France, and Ireland are peddling their wares to the elite fashion houses of Europe, claiming that fish skin is as durable as crocodile and as strong as any man-made fibre….
Alone He Stands
Christian Cullen’s signing to Irish side Munster after his exclusion from the 2003 All Black squad has created controversy at home and disbelief abroad. One person happy with the outcome is Munster rugby boss, Alan Gaffney, who…
Big Idea: Atomic Imagination
Sir Ernest Rutherford featured in an Independent story, ‘Dawn of the nuclear age.’ “No one has described the atom discovered by Rutherford better than the playwright Tom Stoppard: ‘Now make a fist, and if your fist is…
Ringing Up the Profit
Telecom NZ has made a NZ$703 million net profit for the past year, ending a four-year run of negative growth. The solid progress comes despite a troubled foray into the Australian market.
Neill Keeps it Real
Sam Neill features alongside Sting, Cliff Richard, and Francis Ford Coppola in a Guardian story on celebrity vineyard-owners. Neill is described as one of the more down-to-earth of the bunch, who takes an active role in the…
Tukuitonga Joins WHO’s Who
Nieuean Colin Tukuitonga has resigned as NZ’s director of health to take up a post with the United Nations World Health Organisation. Tukuitonga, a former community health lecturer at Auckland University, will work in non-communicable diseases and…
Down Under Cowboy
NZ-born Keith Urban has been dubbed the new face of country music in the US. With his chiselled good looks, tattoos, and relatively loose jeans, Urban is doing for c&w blokes what Shania Twain…
Paramount Acquires Antipodean Direction
Andrew Dominick – the NZ-born director behind hit Aussie film Chopper – is soon to make his mark on the US movie scene. Dominick has been signed to develop and direct The Demolished Man…
First Nations Clean Sweep
The NZ Maori rugby team emerged victorious from their 3-match tour of Canada, beating the home side 52-11, 65-27, and 30-9. Between 1994 and 2001, the NZ Maori side have beaten 12 international teams, including England, Scotland,…
Edge Therapies in Demand
Virionyx – the NZ company behind an experimental new AIDS drug – has been hired by two US organisations to develop therapies for diseases such as SARS. Said PM Helen Clark, at the opening of Virionyx’s…
Edge: Intellectual Capital
NZ’s nano-tech Nobel laureate Alan MacDiarmid has been appointed to the newly created James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Technology at The University of Texas at Dallas. “Alan MacDiarmid’s move to Dallas is an…
Ka-Pai
Keisha Castle-Hughes continues to win over critics with her star-turn as Pai in Whale Rider. USA Today calls her “the discovery of the summer,” and the Miami Herald hails her performance as “the…
AJ Hackett: Boucing Tiger, Dancing Dragon
King of all things extreme, AJ Hackett, has led the first dragon dance walk across China’s 233m high Macao Tower. Hackett and a Chinese bungy enthusiast each led a team of dancers around the outer rim of…
Edge Meets Fringe
Kiwi comedy act, Flight of the Conchords, was dubbed the “unlikely hit” of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival by the Guardian, and narrowly missed out on the event’s prestigious top award. The satirical folk…
NZ Says No to “Suckle Chuckle”
Apparently, the NZ public is “not ready” for the image of a breast-feeding man. The Ministry of Health vetoed an advertisement designed by the Women’s Health Action group in support of World Breastfeeding Week, stating that it…
Space, Time and Einstein
27-year-old Wellington university drop-out, Peter Lynds, claims to have solved a philosophical paradox which has baffled thinkers for 2,500 years. The broadcasting tutor has taken on such heavyweights as the Greek philosopher Zeno and Stephen…
