Top of the world
Former NZ Treasury official, Graeme Wheeler, has been appointed one of two managing directors at the Washington DC based World Bank. Wheeler, along with former finance minister for El Salvador Juan Jose Daboub,…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Starlet with Edge
Kiwi actress Emily Barclay (In My Father’s Den) has the starring role in Suburban Mayhem, an Australian film currently screening at Cannes. A very black comedy, Suburban Mayhem revolves around an amoral young…
One to Watch
Debbie Tanner claimed the first major victory of her career at the 26 ITU Ishigaki World Cup triathlon in Japan. UK veteran Michelle Dillon and fellow Kiwi Samantha Warriner came second and third respectively….
Too much too soon?
The release of United 93 – the first Hollywood film about 9/11 – has sparked controversy in the US, as well as further afield in NZ. Directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday,…
Impeccable balancing act
Anna Paquin is back in the news with a spate of new film projects nearing release. A Times profile, reprinted in The Australian, charts her “impeccably navigated career path,” from The Piano to her…
Potential for History Making
Dame Silvia Cartwright has been confirmed as a judge on the upcoming Cambodian war crimes tribunal. NZ’s Governor General headed a list of seven judges submitted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from which Cambodian…
Te Rapa creams the opposition
Cream cheese from Fonterra’s Te Rapa site won a silver medal at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin; its 97.55 out of 100 score less than half a point behind the winner….
Up the Nile in 80 Days
Two New Zealanders and a Briton have redrawn the map of Africa by following the Nile River to its true source – something no explorer in history has managed before. Lake Victoria was generally believed to…
Brian Barratt-Boyes
Internationally acclaimed New Zealand pioneering heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes has died aged 82. Educated at Wellington College and Otago University Medical School, Barratt-Boyes battled against bureaucracy for more funding and staff to do what…
Liquid Gold
One of NZ’s most respected wineries, Waiheke Island’s Goldwater Estate, has been sold to the NZ Wine Fund for $10 million. The Wine Fund, which also purchased Marlborough’s Vavasour Wines in 2003, is predicting combined sales this…
Little Snail vs. Big Business
NZ environmental groups are at war with Solid Energy over the power company’s intention to mine the only known habitat of the endangered brown snail, Powelliphanta Augustus. The entire snail population, believed to total just 800-1000, is…
Dinosaurs of the South Pacific
The first proof that dinosaurs lived on remote South Pacific Islands has been revealed by Dr Jeffrey Stilwell of Monash University, Melbourne. Stilwell, who trained at Otago University under NZ’s leading palaeontologist Ewan Fordyce, has discovered a…
Pride of the Asia-Pacific
Sam Neill is the inaugural subject of Peschardt’s People, a 13-part BBC series hosted by veteran foreign correspondent Michael Peschardt. The series aims to introduce global viewers to “some of the most famous…
Exhibiting art with Edge
Always at the cutting edge, Wellington’s City Gallery is using an interactive website and podcast in its current exhibition, Patricia Piccinini: In Another Life. An Australian artist, Piccanini is renowned for her sometimes creepy studies of…
Grey Lynn on the silver screen
South Pacific Pictures’ feature Sione’s Wedding has received rave reviews in NZ and Samoa following its February premiere. Written by Oscar Kightley and James Griffin, the comedy revolves around a group of first…
New World Order
A British travel site predicts big things for the NZ ski industry, as more and more international tourists head south for their holidays in the snow. The article focuses on Treble Cone, which has had a…
Buddha Wild On
The distinctive and original film “Buddha Wild Monk in the Hut” by LA/Christchurch director and actress Anna Wilding (Carpe Diem Films) premiered at the Laemmle Cinema Los Angeles on March 24. Shot in…
No.1 fan turned majority shareholder
Russell Crowe has teamed up with businessman Peter Holmes à Court to buy a 75% share of the South Sydney “Rabbitohs” rugby league club. A lifelong supporter of the Rabbitohs, Crowe has contributed large…
Online Authority
New Zealand raised, former TVNZ reporter Robert Freeman has been appointed Head of Multimedia at Press Association, UK. “I am heading up this team at a critical time when the publishing industry is looking…
A life in pictures
NZ born artist Derek Ward was the subject of a retrospective exhibition recently staged in Norwich, England. Ward was born in Richmond, NZ, in 1922 and relocated to England with his family aged 7….
Vet Feted
Animal welfare and ethics scientist Professor David Mellor has become the first New Zealander to be elected an Honorary Associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the highest honour conferred by the College….
Race with a Difference
February 22 saw the official launch of Earthrace, a 100% biodiesel fuelled boat aiming to set a new world record for circumnavigating the globe. The brainchild of Pete Bethune, Earthrace is a charitable foundation promoting the…
Records Broken, Legends Born
New Zealand won 31 medals – 6 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze – at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. 200m butterfly victor Moss Burmester became the first NZ man to win gold in the…
Verdict Reached
Dual British/NZ citizen Flight Lieutenant Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith has been found guilty on five counts of disobeying orders and has been sentenced to 8 months in prison and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs…
Dusty Down Under
Already triple platinum in NZ, Bic Runga’s third album – Birds – is now making waves across the Tasman. The Age: “Dark and majestic… is without a doubt Runga’s best album -…
Simple Pleasures in Spectacular Surrounds
Stewart Island is now home to NZ’s 14th national park – Rakiura, named after the anchor stone of Maui’s canoe (the South Island). A Toronto Star writer visited the rugged outpost and was won over by…
Craze Hits New Heights
Czech accountant Jana Tylova has won the inaugural sudoku world championships held in Lucca, Italy. The Japanese game of logic has been popularised by NZ judge-turned-entrepreneur Wayne Gould, whose syndicated games now appear in over 400 newspapers…
Keoghan Living Large
LA Times interviews Phil Keoghan, the Kiwi host of Emmy Award-winning reality series The Amazing Race. The “savvy NZ native” discusses everything from his lucky break into TV (“there was no degree that you…
Out in the Open
An interview with mystery author Anne Perry in the Times inevitably brings up her former life in NZ as Juliet Hulme, one half of the murderous teenage duo portrayed in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures….
Three more for the C.V
Edge artist Julian Dashper continues to make inroads in the US, after his 2001 Fulbright residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. His first solo show in New York (at the Esso…
Welcomed to the fold
Wellington band Recloose earned a positive plug in the Hamstead & Highgate after a packed gig at the Jazz CafÈ. Recloose was formed around the Detroit born producer/DJ of the same name,…
Die! Die! Die! in Arizona
Auckland art punk trio Die! Die! Die! forms part of an impressive Australasian contingent heading to this year’s South By Southwest music festival in Arizona. Tipped as one of NZ’s most promising new bands, Die! Die!…
Another lovable monster for Letteri
Weta Digital head Joe Letteri is to be visual effects supervisor on the upcoming children’s feature, The Water Horse. Letteri was part of the Oscar-winning visual effects team for Peter Jackson’s King Kong. Based…
Learning Made Easy for All
According to the Guardian, a NZ designed alternative to the computer mouse was one of the highlights of Bett 2006, the annual ICT in education show held in London. “Lomak (light-operated mouse and keyboard) from NZ…
Buy-now Price $700 Million
John Fairfax Holdings has bought New Zealand internet auction site Trade Me for $700 million. What started as one young Wellingtonian looking to buy a second-hand heater to warm his drafty Mount Victoria flat in…
Top Gun
New Zealand has its first Maori defence force head with the appointment of Major-General Jerry Mateparae. Mateparae will be promoted to lieutenant general when he replaces Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson in May. “I’m immensely…
Her mother’s daughter
Linda Carroll, therapist, writer and mother of Courtney Love has written her memoirs, which include an account of the family’s unconventional attempt to live an alternative lifestyle in Nelson and their struggle to deal…
A master of confrontational cinema
The March issue of Inside Film includes a lengthy feature on the latest project by edge writer/director Andrew Niccol – Lord of War. Starring Nicolas Cage and Ethan Hawke, Lords of War is…
Expat angst
Hamilton artist John Hurrell writes about NZ artists living internationally in the February issue of Art Monthly Australia. He discusses last year’s exhibition ‘The expatriates: Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates’ in the context…
Guantanamo Report
NZ human rights lawyer, Paul Hunt, is one of the authors of a new UN report on the US-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, which calls for a dramatic improvement in its conditions if not…
Blast From the Past
Ornithologists the world over have been fascinated by recent confirmed sightings of the NZ Storm Petrel, which was thought to have been extinct for more than a century. In November 2005 a NZ fisherman took the…
2005 Campbell’s Year
Golfer Michael Campbell has been named NZ’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2005 after winning both the US Open and the World Matchplay Championship in Britain. It is the second time Campbell has won the country’s…
Tourism’s Holy Grail
A Guardian Film article on cinema-inspired tourism points to NZ as the ultimate example. “Every country wants its own Lord of the Rings. The extra-ordinary pulling power of the trilogy – the perfect shop window for the…
Hansen Homeward Bound?
MTV Europe’s head, New Zealander Brent Hansen has retired after nearly two decades with the company. Hansen joined MTV in 1987 as a news producer and soared through the ranks to become the President…
Keith gets the Grammy
Whangarei-born country music sensation, Keith Urban, has won his first Grammy Award. Urban was named best male country vocal performer ahead of Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Delbert McClinton and Brad Paisley. This…
Pride of the south
Speight’s Gold Medal ale gets a big thumbs up from the Journal and Courier’s (Indiana, US) resident ‘Beer Man’. “It poured a nice head and was an absolutely crystal clear, light amber…
Kiwi Wine Takes US by Storm
An extensive article on NZ’s burgeoning wine industry examines its history and development in an American context, interviewing US importers and connoisseurs of NZ wine as well as ex pat US vineyard owners such as Barbara…
Nature’s best
New Zealand enjoyed success at the 2006 Black & White Spider photography awards, with Jason Boa winning third place in the Nature category for “Field Waimate” and Jocelyn Carlin gaining an honourable mention in the same…
Bra Fence Here to Stay
A US immigrant has been thwarted in his attempt to rid the Cardrona Valley of its “world famous in NZ” bra fence. Andre Prassinos, who resides for part of each year in Cardrona, petitioned…
No.2 No.1
Toa Fraser’s debut feature No.2 won the World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic at the 25th Sundance Film Festival in February. ” a humble backyard in Mt. Roskill in the Pacific, on behalf of…
All Features Great and Small
Debate over the effects of big budget US films such as King Kong and the Narnia series being filmed in NZ continues, with most in favour of the Hollywood blockbusters. “The blockbusters have been…
Roast with the most
Edge establishment Batch Espresso is cutting it in Melbourne’s razor-like café scene, with more stellar reviews in the city’s leading newspapers. Herald Sun: ” works the coffee machine and the room, making…
Top Ten Showing
New Zealand was listed in the top ten in Forbes‘ recent ranking of the world’s most foreign investment friendly economies. NZ scored 88.5/100 taking tenth place in the list of 135 countries. The Top places went to…
JK on Growing the Game
The Observer talks to All Black legend John Kirwan about his globetrotting ways and aspirations to coach in the UK. “Kirwan was a travelling rugby player long before it became the fashion it is today ……
Karate vs. Kea
Organisers of a vintage car rally near Mt Cook took an unusual defensive stance against marauding local kea, which are notorious for damaging cars in alpine areas. The car club hired 40 karate practitioners to protect…
Spotlight on Niki Caro
North Country director Niki Caro was interviewed before a live studio audience by the Guardian’s Sandra Hebron, alongside the star of her film (and new best mate) Charlize Theron. ” was a script…
