Great Scot
Alex Reedijk is leaving his post as general director of the NZ Opera to take the reins at its Scottish counterpart in March 2006. Reedjik has previously worked for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scottish…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Teddy Fan-club on the Rise
Kiwi baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes continues to set hearts a-flutter in the opera world. The Sydney media have called him “opera’s Brad Pitt,” the New York Times “a cross between Paul Bettany and Viggo…
A Heartfelt Plea
The Wellington Racing Club has asked the help of PM Helen Clark in borrowing the heart of legendary racehorse Phar Lap from Australia’s national museum in Canberra. “I’ve written to the prime minister to see if she…
Wundercoach
Richard Tonks has been named 2005 FISA Coach of the Year by the International Rowing Federation. Tonks, himself a silver medallist for NZ at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is the man behind a spate of recent rowing…
The case for the code
The man behind international best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, will face a High Court action brought by the authors of the non-fictional work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982). The…
Cycling the South
National Geographic Traveller editor, David Swanson, takes in the spectacular alpine scenery – and some icy cold Speights – on a two-week bike tour of the South Island. ” rain stopped, and the world went almost silent….
Coromandel by Kombi
A tour of the Coromandel by Kombi with husband and toddler in tow turned out to be remarkably relaxing for the Guardian’s Jane White. The high point of the trip was a week spent in Hahei,…
Seismic Shift for Psychiatry
A study of schizophrenia by NZ psychologist John Read, as published in leading psychiatric journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, could potentially “trigger a landslide” in his field, according to Guardian columnist and clinical psychologist Oliver James. The traditional…
Doomed for Success
“Doom may be by the numbers … But those numbers add up to the most cleverly engineered video-game movie made to date.” Starring NZ actor Karl Urban and NZ affiliated Dwayne Johnson…
Narnia comes to life
Excitement is growing for the December release of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Filmed in New Zealand and directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson (noted for his Shrek successes), this…
North Country
North Country is Niki Caro’s directorial follow-up to the hugely successful Whale Rider. Set in the iron mining region of north Minnesota, North Country tackles sexual harassment in the workplace…
The people’s Campion
Jane Campion has been lured out of self-imposed retirement for a very worthy cause. She joins fellow directing luminaries Robert Altman, Jodie Foster and Gaspar Noe in contributing to an 8-part feature film outlining…
Government Formed
Just over a month after election night, Helen Clark has formed a government and been sworn in as Prime Minister, making her the first Labour Party leader to form a government in three successive terms. Following…
The lion, the witch and the evangelicals
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will not only be doing battle at the box-office but also for the souls of mankind, according to an article published in the Guardian. US groups such…
Kubrick’s Successor?
The latest Hollywood release by Kapiti-grown, LA-resident writer-director Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show, Gattaca) is Lord of War. Described by the Guardian as “a moral fable treated with a surface realism,” Lord of War…
Food for thought
A lengthy Independent feature examines Auckland’s burgeoning food scene – and NZ’s as a whole. While NZ has embraced café culture (“probably the best espresso experience outside Italy in about 13 years, skipping the…
Building Bridges on canvas
One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving, Ford is best perhaps known…
On living legends and future music
NZ composer and musicologist Robin Maconie has written a meticulously researched autobiography of the man many believe to be the world’s greatest living composer, German electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Maconie is regarded…
Heir to a Legend
Antoni Gaudi’s great unfinished masterpiece – the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona – is finally nearing completion, under the steady hand of NZ architect Mark Burry. Work on the epic scale building effectively…
Continental Drift
Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and…
Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1
New Zealanders may have long been the butt of “fush and chups,” but according to Paola Totaro there are more than a few reasons New Zealand has got one over on Australia. Totaro gives several including…
Who is the Typical Kiwi?
An international study on cultural stereotypes, led by the US National Institutes of Health, has concluded that there is no relation between supposed cultural characteristics and the actual traits identified in real people. “People…
Fat Freddy’s pick up
Wellington dub and reggae band Fat Freddy’s Drop took home four of the top Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. The band won best album and best roots album for…
Sudoku Mania
Retired Kiwi judge, Phil Gould, continues his path to world domination as the man behind current puzzle-page phenomenon, Sudoku. Gould now provides puzzles for 120 newspapers in 36 different countries. “It will fade but I don’t expect…
Twin Peaks
Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Roger Bannister are the inspiration behind Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford’s new feature film – Four Minutes. According to Deford, “the pinnacle of athletic achievement in the 20th century was not to be…
WoWing the Crowds
The 2005 World of Wearable Art (WoW) show – the first to be held in Wellington rather than Nelson – was a huge success, with a record-breaking 30,000 tickets purchased for the event. The show is widely…
Sugarfoot Speaks Up
In a sports-mad country like NZ, how can one of its richest and most successful exponents be virtually unknown? Kickboxer Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo has quietly earned more than $1 million from the sport and is a…
Bullionaire Business Opportunity
A Massey University graduate may soon be striking agricultural pay-dirt after founding the world’s first gold-farming company, Tiaki International. Chris Anderson spent 8 years at Massey developing a chemical process which causes plants to “hyperaccumulate” gold particles…
World’s Rarest Given Kiwi Name
A grove of one of the world’s rarest trees has been named after NZ plant conservation scientist David Given. The Wollemi Pine, believed to be extinct until re-discovered in Australia’s Blue Mountains in 1994, is a…
Bogans go global
New Zealand comedians Matt Heath and Chris Stapp, of Back of the Y and Bogan’s Heroes fame, have taken their special brand of gross-out humour to London, as contributing stuntmen on Channel 4’s …
Helping Hand for Neighbouring Namesake
A Kiwi couple have instigated a sister school relationship between Fiji’s Saint Thomas Aquinas Primary School and the Aquinas College where they teach in NZ. According to the Fiji Times, Brendan and Jane Schollum…
Practice makes perfection
Painter Max Gimblett is the subject of a lengthy article in premiere US art magazine, Art in America. Gimblett’s latest works were recently shown at the Haines Gallery in San Francisco. Critic…
Army Colonel Turned Art Critic
Prince Andrew made a fleeting visit to NZ this month, chiefly to spend time with the army’s Logistic Regiment, which he has headed since 1996. The Prince made international headlines with his humorous interpretation…
Local epic lures Donaldson home
An interview with The World’s Fastest Indian director Roger Donaldson is the cover story for the October issue of Inside Film. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, the feature is described as the culmination of a…
Capital meditation
Wallpaper magazine takes a look at the city-scapes of Wellington through the lens of legendary American photographer Stephen Shore – who had three pictures acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York…
Art in New Zealand
October’s Art in America features a “Report from New Zealand” by Richard Kalina, examining New Zealand artists and their work as well as the art history and institutions of the…
Keeping Up With the Kiwis 2
Meanwhile on a different page …”What do Australians think about New Zealand? Not very much and not very often. ‘We think about New Zealand like we think about Tasmania,’ one Australian tells me with…
Kong is coming
Wired magazine’s October issue features a lavish 16-page look at Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong, due to hit cinemas this December. Wired examines the greatly anticipated film through an…
Great Expectations
Former Black Cap Mark Greatbatch is the new coach for British county cricket side Warwickshire. Greatbatch is also Director of the Warwickshire Academy, and has previously coached at Giggleswick School in Yorkshire and at Edgbaston.
The Amazing Phil
New Zealand presenter and producer Phil Keoghan has continued his winning streak with The Amazing Race. Produced by Hollywood heavyweight Jerry Bruckheimer, the show was named outstanding reality programme for the third time at…
New World Vanguard
NZ doubled its gold medal count from 2004 at this year’s International Wine Challenge in London, picking up an impressive 15. This gold increase was almost entirely due to red wines, showing that the…
Phoenix Rising
NY Times feature on the burgeoning international alternatives to Coca Cola mentions NZ-brewed delight, Phoenix Cola. “This organic, caffeine-free drink from New Zealand is actually made from the cola nut. Refined-sugar shunners can opt for the honey-sweetened…
One to Watch
16-year-old Rebecca Spence is shaping up to be one of NZ’s star triathletes. The Rangitoto College student won the elite junior title at the ITU Duathlon World Championships in Newcastle, Australia, just two weeks after claiming silver…
Slip Away
NZ’s Slipper Island features in a Guardian list hailing the world’s top 5 exotic escapes. “On a private island off the Coromandel Peninsula you can swim off the white-sand beach and fish for snapper. Stay in…
At the Forefront of Disease Control
Professor Neil Pearce, Director of NZ’s Centre for Public Health Research, was elected President of the International Epidemiology Association (IEA) at the recent World Congress of Epidemiology held in Bangkok. The first ever president from the Southern Hemisphere,…
Message in a vessel
NZ sculptor Roger Thompson is one of 400 artists from 65 different countries exhibiting at the second annual Beijing International Art Biennale. His Cultural Vessels/Amphoric Triptych is a collection of three containers representing…
Datsuns in good company
The Datsuns have been invited to play on a tribute album for the late, great BBC DJ John Peel, alongside superstars Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Peter Shelley, David Gilmour and Peter Hook, and fellow…
Nile by Mile
NZer Cam McLeay is co-leading an expedition aimed at accurately measuring the length of the River Nile. The six person team began their journey at Rosetta, Egypt, and will travel through Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and…
Prussia of the Pacific?
A Guardian columnist points out an eerie similarity between the recent elections in NZ and Germany. Both were held on the same weekend and both delivered a spectacularly close finish between the two dominant centre-right and centre-left…
Forecast Fine With a Top of 9.6
The Ministry of Tourism predicts that foreign tourist spending in NZ will increase by as much as 52% in the next 7 years. Spending is forecast to rise to NZ$9.6 billion by 2011 from NZ$6.3 billion in…
Major Campbell
2005 is undoubtedly Michael Campbell’s year. Not content with winning the US Open last month, Campo has snatched a “knife-edge” victory in the HSBC World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. Past winners of the esteemed tournament, which boasts…
Technological Trailblazers
A group of Canterbury University scientists have developed a machine with the potential to revolutionise everything from counter-terrorism and border control to disease detection. Since the early 1980s, Professor Murray McEwan and his CU team have been…
Ka Mate Ka Mate gets an American Accent
An American accent American College football team, the Brigham Young University Cougars have adopted their version of the haka Ka mate Ka mate. Lead by American-born Maori Bryce Mahuika, Utah’s Cougars have adopted the practice…
Poptastic
‘Opera band’ Amici Forever’s clever fusion of classical and pop music continues to win them fans in the US and around the world. The brainchild of Kiwi member Geoff Sewell, Amici Forever’s debut album…
NZ to North America
New Zealand Magazine was launched in the North American market on the 16th of September. The brainchild of Auckland-based American Kiwi Marty Behrens, New Zealand magazine presents an intelligent and sophisticated view of this country to North…
Less is More
In a study released by the World Bank, New Zealand has been named the most business-friendly nation in the world. The study ranked 155 countries and was based on classic American assumptions of economic success, like…
