NZEDGE News — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

Cool on the Catwalk

The 2008 Air New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland is followed by Australian Vogue who review the second day of the event at Trelise Cooper, Stolen Girlfriends and Deborah Sweeney shows. Cooper supplies “something…

Commendable Position

New Zealand’s refusal to approve of a nuclear deal between India and the United States has been praised in a New York Times editorial. Headed “Let’s hear it for New Zealand”, the newspaper writes:…

Celebrating the Centurions

Dunedin-born Glenn Turner, one of ten living batsmen to have achieved 100 first-class centuries, was honoured at London’s Hilton Hotel, where Turner’s bat, amongst other memorabilia, was auctioned for charity with a bid of NZ$13,937. The…

Branding Billy Apple

Aucklander Barrie Bates became Pop artist Billy Apple in 1962, and since then – his name now trademarked – has always made art, life. His 2008 solo exhibition ‘The Bruce and Denny Show’ at…

Familial Ties

Gisborne has the highest concentration of the surname Blair – and Northland the surname Beckham – in the English-speaking world, according to a new website which enables the names of people to be tracked…

Ambition at the Stoop

North Shore-raised former All-Black Nick Evans, 27, now fly-half for English side the Harlequins, could be the player the team needs to help them clinch a top four spot in the Guinness Premiership. So…

Four Decades With Finn

Musician and songwriter Tim Finn is interviewed by Salt Lake City newspaper The Deseret News about his forthcoming solo album release, ‘The Conversation’, and a career spanning 40 years. “If you would have told…

Controversial Evidence

Professor David Fergusson, founder and director of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, was one of 20 reviewers of the preliminary draft of an American Psychological Association (APA) paper on the mental health effects…

Filming the Arabian dream

New Zealand writer and director Craig Johnson, who has lived in Dubai since 2003, is about to begin filming an English-language production based on expatriate life in the city, to be released in time…

Edges painted black

New Zealand artists New York/Auckland-based Max Gimblett (above) and Judy Millar of Auckland, (below) feature in a group show exploring “different aesthetic angles using black”, in an exhibition entitled, ‘Edges of Darkness’ at Berlin’s…

Golf’s Rising Star

Rotorua schoolboy Danny Lee, 18, has the golfing world at his feet after becoming the youngest player ever to win the US Amateur championship, held at the Pinehurst club in North Carolina last week….

Hill Moves into the US

Michael Hill International (MHI) has purchased 17 stores in the American cities of Chicago and Missouri for a sum of US$5.5 million (NZ$8.1 million). “Chicago is a good market for a newly arrived retailer,…

On Board for Gold

World champion Auckland windsurfer Tom Ashley, 24, sailed past his rivals, to claim first place in the men’s competition and a gold medal, the third won by the New Zealand Olympic contingent in Beijing….

From Within the Soul

Lower Hutt runner Nick Willis surged forward in the final moments of the men’s 1500m for third place, in a race Willis’ University of Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said the 25-year-old “always had the…

Cocktails After Angkor

Former Radio New Zealand reporter Dean Williams has turned his talents to the world of hospitality in Cambodia’s popular tourist destination, Siem Reap. According to The Phnom Penh Post: “In September, Williams will open…

Releasing Expectations

Auckland-based band Cut Off Your Hands are described as a “vicious and vibrant foursome” and frontman Nick Johnston, “the new Iggy Pop of the New Zealand pop-punk pioneers” on a British news website. The…

Fraser’s film premiere

New Zealand film director Toa Fraser’s latest feature, Dean Spanley, is to have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 6. The film is part of the ‘gala programme’ which is…

In Search of a History

New Zealand film producer and public speaker Anna Wilding is now writing regularly for the TennisGrandStand site, and in her first column, as the US Open approaches, she writes about her great uncle, tennis…

Caged Art Debut

Auckland artist Sharon Finn is illuminating Sydney’s Simmer on the Bay with her first exhibition, ‘The Gilded Cage’, a collection of bejewelled chandeliers and bodiced mannequins, one adorned with antique watchfaces . For the…

Telepathic in Louisiana

Anna Paquin, 26, is mind-reading Southern waitress Sookie Starkhouse in the HBO vampire series True Blood, which starts September 7 in the United States. Paquin chats with Women’s Wear Daily about going blonde…

Four Years Pays Off

Athens silver medallist triathlete Bevan Docherty, 31, took third place and a bronze medal in the men’s triathlon at the Beijing Olympics and is determined to try for the gold in four years time….

Sea Urchin Reef Concert

Auckland University marine biologists Craig Radford and Andrew Jeffs have discovered that sea urchins are behind loud noises emanating from underwater around New Zealand reefs. The 20- to 30-decibel sound is caused by the…

Medal Haul in Beijing

Hastings twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell took gold medals in the double skulls beating their German rivals by 0.01 sec, the win on the same day Mahe Drysdale won a bronze in the single skulls and…

Screen Australia hires Harley

New Zealander Ruth Harley – currently CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission – has been appointed chief executive of the newly formed national film agency, Screen Australia. Dr Harley begins the position in…

Gold in the Bird’s Nest

Auckland athlete Valerie Vili, 23, has won a gold medal in shot put at the Beijing Olympics, the first for New Zealand in track and field since John Walker’s gold in the 1500m at…

Clement’s Celestial Chevalier

Wellington Conchord Jemaine Clement takes on the role of fantasy novelist Dr Ronald Chevalier in teen comedy Gentlemen Broncos, a film created by Napolean Dynamite’s Jared Hess to be released in 2009. According…

Science made funny

Auckland’s Indian Ink Theatre Company – with co-founder Jacob Rajan in the starring role – performed The Candlestickmaker to Australian audiences at Brisbane’s Cremorne Theatre. Rajan, who wrote the play with the other half…

Cooking by Numbers

Wellingtonian Matt Moss, 36, left New Zealand 16 years ago to play rugby in Britain, Germany and the United States winding up in Beijing working for catering company, Aramark as operations manager at the…

Into the Crystal Ball

Mark Todd, voted Rider of the Century 20th by the International Equestrian Centre, is hoping to compete next at the World Championships in Kentucky in 2010 and is not ruling out the London 2012…

Unconventional Movement

New Zealander Grant Harrison, 44, Hutt Valley High School old boy and owner of American health benefits company Humana, one of the largest in the United States, is the man behind bike-share programme

Oriental’s Ohtel

Wellington’s latest accommodation option, the 10-room boutique Ohtel, is ‘Hotel of the Week’ in The Independent on Sunday. Situated on Oriental Parade, a wooden Victorian house was removed to give the Ohtel its central…

Figments of the imagination

Wellington author Elizabeth Knox’s Dreamhunter Duet is reviewed in Canadian newspaper The Star Phoenix. The two “intricate” fantasy titles are highly recommended for young adults, and are described as “intriguing” and “intelligent”. The first…

Record Without Air

Wellington architect Kathryn McPhee, 29, has broken a freediving world record by two metres swimming underwater without breath for 151 metres, in a time of 2mins 48sec. Freediving, also known as breath-hold or apnoea…

Montreal bound

New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey stars in the Anthony McCarten-directed Show of Hands, which has been selected for its world premiere at this year’s Montreal Film Festival. Show of Hands is based on McCarten’s…

Digging Up the Sandpit

Former Dunedin musterer Ed Mumm moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and in November 2007 opened the first earthmoving sandpit in the United States, Dig This, where enthusiasts pay top dollar to operate heavy machinery…

Ode to the Environment

Auckland choreographer Lemi Ponifasio and his 24-member dance troupe MAU performed ‘Requiem’ at New York’s Rose Theater as part of the city’s Mostly Mozart Festival – the company’s first ever US show. Commissioned by…

Capital Connections

Wellington’s green belt, its educated populace and diverse economy is comparable to an extent with Ottawa, Canada’s capital, in that both are ideal illustrations of “younger new-world” cities. “Wellington shares more with Ottawa than,…

Confronting history

Historian and media commentator Paul Moon’s latest book This Horrid Practice delves into the subject of Maori cannibalism, the author arguing that the amount of evidence of the action was “overwhelming” and “too important…

Travel award for editor

Taumarunui travel writer and publishing editor of Inside Tourism Nigel Coventry has been named the 2008 Pasific Asia Travel Association Travel Journalist of the Year. PATA president Peter de Jong said Coventry had been…

Kiwi-Pukapuka Relocate

Little Spotted Kiwi, the second rarest kiwi species, have been reintroduced onto Fiordland’s Chalky Island for the first time in a century. Sponsors of the transfer, South Island tour operators Real Journeys, joined iwi…

Bond Director’s Edge

Hastings-born film and television director Martin Campbell – most well-known for James Bond hits Casino Royale and GoldenEye – begins shooting his latest Hollywood feature, Edge of Darkness, this month. The film, which stars…

21st century renewal

Wellington’s Waitangi Park – transformed in a collaboration between landscape architects Wraight & Associates and Athfield Architects – combines environmentally-sound urban redevelopment with recreation, and includes water purifying ponds, man-made wetlands and a concrete…