News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Sailing into the US

Sailing into the US

New Zealand global procurement company Unimarket is in the process of finalising a move to Annapolis, Maryland in the United States, where it plans to hire 100 new employees by 2011. Founder and chief…

Football Ambassador

Football Ambassador

6 April 2009 – Christchurch professional footballer Ryan Nelsen, 31, is a pivotal member of English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, one of a number of teams fighting against relegation this season. Nelsen has…

Pride of place

Pride of place

According to the third national Quality of Life survey, nine out of ten New Zealanders rate their quality of life as good or better. Wellingtonians thought they had the best quality of life at…

Questioning change

Questioning change

New Zealander Bob Rigg has published an extensive analysis of the Obama administration’s initial approach to foreign policy in a paper for the South Asia Strategic Forum, a recently launched thinktank on global geo-political…

Time Well Spent

Time Well Spent

Lieutenant-Colonel John Darwin Maling, awarded an MC on the North-West Frontier and a DSO in Burma has died at the age of 94 in Waikanae. Born in Timaru in 1915 and educated at Christ’s…

Return to the Overlooked

Return to the Overlooked

Now Sydney-based, New Zealand photographer Rebecca Wiig, 27, has documented the city’s RSL clubs for an exhibition of 26 photographs called ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ held at Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery. She began shooting…

Flattery Gets you Places

Flattery Gets you Places

“Undoubtedly when God created the world He made two Edens. New Zealand is the second one,” writes Betty McCoy for Alabama newspaper The Gadsden Times, describing the country as “a pristine landscape drenched…

Memories of millions

Memories of millions

Dame Silvia Cartwright, former New Zealand Governor-General and now serving as one of five international judges on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh, has recently criticized Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s disdain for…

Study With Leisure

Study With Leisure

A recent New Zealand Education Fair held in New Delhi attracted hundreds of Indian students eager to discover the merits of study in this country, many surprised to see New Zealand was more than…

Wine’s a Winner

Wine’s a Winner

Marlborough, on New Zealand’s South Island, “doesn’t offer much to the nine or ten people on the planet who still smoke, but for cognoscenti of quality sauvignon blanc, it may well outrank King Bordeaux…

Potential Pro

Potential Pro

Christchurch student James Meredith, 19, is a freshman at Boise State University and since joining the university’s tennis team in January, Meredith has been called “unbelievable” and “one of the best talents” the squad…

In good company

In good company

US Amateur champion Rotorua-raised Danny Lee, 18, joins two other teenagers on the field at the US Masters in Augusta, Georgia prompting golfing great Tiger Woods to comment on the “new bloods” and the…

Next Stop: South Island

Next Stop: South Island

The Pangaea Expedition is making a welcome visit to the fjords of the South Island, heading straight over from a brief stop in South Africa. Eight New Zealand explorers will meet the crew of…

Educating Through Dance

Educating Through Dance

Atamira Dance Collective’s production ‘Ngai Tahu 32’ has made its Australian debut, performing in Tasmania’s premier arts festival — Ten Days on the Island 2009 — and is reviewed by Kylie Eastley, writing for…

Tours in Make Believe

Tours in Make Believe

“When Florida native Michele Maro became captivated by The Lord of the Rings movies, she never imagined she would one day be walking around in the Shire, touring Hobbiton and peeking into hobbit holes,”…

Fish over sea

Fish over sea

Eighty-four goldfish flew over the Tasman Sea on March 21 as part of the New Zealand-wide One Day Sculpture series of temporary public art works, this conceived by Italian artist Paola Pivi entitled…

Vying for the ultimate

Vying for the ultimate

Radio host and television personality Clarke Gayford is one of 16 finalists for the ‘Best Job in the World’ organised by Tourism Queensland. Queensland Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor on Friday telephoned 15 finalists across…

Dogs Sacked

Dogs Sacked

British supermarket Tesco has ordered its largest suppliers in New Zealand, Silver Fern Farms in Fairton, Canterbury to stop using dogs to herd sheep into the abattoir. Tesco wants the shepherds to wave their…

Sixties renewal

Sixties renewal

Auckland-based fashion designer Kate Sylvester and her partner Wayne Conway chose New Zealand architect Belinda George to design the renovations to their 1960s Westmere home, remaining true to that decade’s form, combining new with…

Making more milk

Making more milk

New Zealand scientists at AgResearch have discovered some keys to dramatically increasing milk production in the country’s cows. Researchers investigated the potential of epigenetic regulation, or changes in gene expression caused by chemical changes…

Height Of Fashion

Height Of Fashion

Kate Sylvester is approaching this year’s Australian Fashion Week with bold and colourful designs based on the lives of adventurers called, Take a Hike. Last year’s collection Royally Screwed caused a stir angering ANZACS…

Pass the Wallaby

Pass the Wallaby

The increasingly ubiquitous wallaby may be the newest presence on the New Zealand dinner table, as municipalities around the country are being encouraged to consider different strategies to control their booming populations. The Australian marsupials…

Rugby’s Return

Rugby’s Return

Rugby Sevens might be only seven years off when it comes to the Olympics, thanks to an effort to reinstate the sport spearheaded by the Oceania National Olympic Committee. During a recent committee meeting…

Painting Piha

Painting Piha

Tauranga-raised Lancôme artistic director Aaron De Mey, who featured in the October edition of Mindfood magazine and whose past clients include Winona Ryder, Keira Knightly and Kate Moss, has released his debut colour collection…

Home sweet home

Home sweet home

“The time has come to learn from Down Under,” where homes have sustainable features “light years ahead of the curve,” are “modestly scaled and unpretentious, employ an original aesthetic language, and without fail, offer…

Designing the Future

Designing the Future

British-born, Hawkes Bay-based designer David Trubridge, takes part in a Q&A for the latest issue of Dwell, where he quizzed about number of things like his ideal working environment, what music keeps him…

Island Choreography

Island Choreography

Dance troupe Black Grace are in Guam performing a series of workshops in local schools and at the Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort for an audience at a gala dinner. Black Grace was founded in…

Universal access

Universal access

High-speed broadband Internet access is coming to over three quarters of the country over the next decade, in a 3 billion dollar project jointly funded by the private and public sectors. “This model aims…

Writing from abroad

Writing from abroad

New Zealand-born, Bryan Gould’s latest column for The Guardian Newspaper identifies governments as the only organisations in a position to take the necessary long-term approach needed to stimulate the global economy and counter the…

Rating a medical return

Rating a medical return

American Doctor Jackie Underwood seems to prefer the American medical system, after spending a year spent practicing at a rural New Zealand hospital. Having recently returned to her home in Newark New Jersey, Underwood…

Dark Past Revisited

Dark Past Revisited

New Zealand-born Zak Feaunati, a former Samoan international rugby player, has been selected to play All Black legend Jonah Lomu in the upcoming film The Human Factor. The film includes the Springboks’ victory over…

Slave-driven

Slave-driven

Former Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless has been cast in the new action series Spartacus: Blood and Sand as Lucretia, who with her husband Batiatus own a gladiator camp called the Ludus. The…

Shocking and pleasing

Shocking and pleasing

Palmerston North teenager Levi Sherwood, 17, has shocked the freestyle motocross world (FMX) by winning the first event of the 2009 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in Mexico on debut, in front of 43,000…

Advocating radical change

Advocating radical change

A “ground-breaking” report has been developed by the United Kingdom’s Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), an expert watchdog group chaired by Jonathan Porritt, the son of New Zealand Olympian and 11th Governor General Arthur…

Auckland Calling

Auckland Calling

New Zealand could be one of the world’s last havens as climate change fundamentally changes the planet according to the scientist and creator of the Gaia theory James Lovelock, and for this reason, on…

Musiq Makers Win

Musiq Makers Win

R&B group Nesian Mystik have won the “Best Kiwi” category at the Australian MTV Awards on March 27. The four other New Zealand acts nominated were: Ladyhawke, Cut Off Your Hands, P-Money and Goodnight…

Switched Off for Change

Switched Off for Change

New Zealand was one of the first countries to switch of its power for this year’s Earth Hour event aimed at highlighting environmental problems caused by excessive use of energy. Forty-four New Zealand cities,…

Particles in Motion

Particles in Motion

Fonterra’s latest foray into “smart” water “Whole”, is advertised in a continuous 650-frame shot leaping and transforming from brains to bridges to bananas and was created as a joint project by Auckland-based animation studio…

Money in bank

Money in bank

Billionaire investor and philanthropist Richard Chandler, who heads Singapore-based investment fund Orient Global, has bought a 3 per cent stake in Russian commercial bank Sberbank for $430 million, reports The Guardian. Chandler’s Sovereign Global…

Win on Lake Rotorua

Win on Lake Rotorua

Chairman of Blind Sailing New Zealand Dick Lancaster won a silver medal in a 25-foot yacht at the 2009 World Championships held on Lake Rotorua in March. Lancaster told CNN that sailing for the…

Stormy Outlook Ahead

Stormy Outlook Ahead

New Zealand’s economy contracted in the fourth quarter at its fastest pace in 16 years as the global turmoil worsened a domestic slump, putting interest rate cuts back on the agenda. The Reserve Bank…

Clark’s UN role confirmed

Clark’s UN role confirmed

26 March 2009 – Helen Clark’s nomination to lead the United Nations Development Program has been officially announced by Michele Montas, spokeswoman for the UN secretary general, in New York today. As the former…

Hot competition

Hot competition

Blenheim-based company Carbonscape — one of only five companies to make the shortlist in the Financial Times global Climate Change Challenge — makes charcoal from biomass for the sequestration of carbon using industrial microwaves….

Beauty Reigns

Beauty Reigns

National MP Korean-born Melissa Lee has been voted one of “the most beautiful women in politics in the world” by Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos, a poll which also included Hillary Clinton. Photos of 60…

Reserved for the Solomons

Reserved for the Solomons

Last year, New Zealand Territorial Forces machine gunner Private Adam Friend, 33, left the Marlborough Museum where he had been putting together an exhibition on the history of grape growing in the region, to…

On the Cheap

On the Cheap

Rotorua hotpool Kerosene Creek, Rangitoto Island, Waitomo Caves, the Tongariro Crossing and Te Papa are the “five best freebies” on offer for tourists “with strained budgets” writes journalist Xavier La Canna who has lived…

Tramp of all Tramps

Tramp of all Tramps

New Zealand boasts more “swoon-worthy tramps per square mile than anywhere else in the world,” according to  Backpacker magazine, and the notorious Milford Track is at the top of the list. “From Glade House…

Sirens Call from Russell

Sirens Call from Russell

Luxury 70-acre retreat Eagles Nest, located on the Tapeka tip of the Russell peninsula, is one of Paradizo’s “emerging hotspots”, which writes that “the team behind Eagles Nest works around the clock making sure…

The power of the pedal

The power of the pedal

New Zealand is considering building a 3, km bike path winding through the country in an attempt to stimulate tourism and maintain an industry central to the country’s economy. The project would cost around…

Electric Rules

Electric Rules

“In New Zealand, an idea has been floated to convert up to 60 per cent of the country’s automobile fleet to electric vehicles, which would be e charged with wind power,” writes daily trade…

Clark First Choice for UN Role

Clark First Choice for UN Role

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has been tipped to head the United Nations Development Programme, according to an unnamed UN official. If confirmed in this posting, Clark will be responsible for the…

Love, Hope and Light

Love, Hope and Light

Whangarei-born, country music superstar Keith Urban, 41, is interviewed by The New York Times’ Alan Light about his latest album, ‘Defying Gravity’ — his first since his admission to the Betty Ford Center. Urban,…

Top Honours for Bell

Top Honours for Bell

New Zealand dancer Rodney Bell earned an ‘Izzie’ at the 23rd Isadora Duncan Dance Awards in San Francisco last week, for his part in the Axis Dance Company’s ensemble performance ‘To Color Me…

Catch Him if you Can

Catch Him if you Can

Whitianga self-confessed hacker Owen Thor Walker, 19, who was alleged to have been involved with a criminal network which infiltrated more than 1 million computers worldwide, has been hired by TelstaClear as a cyber…

Cold Comparisons

Cold Comparisons

Ladyhawke, who this month made her New York debut at the Bowery Ballroom and Studio B, said in an interview with The Village Voice, that New Zealand “is like being in Iceland, or something. …

Golf enhanced

Golf enhanced

The “scenic but challenging” Cape Kidnappers course is played by Golf Digest’s Max Adler who describes in an online diary that “unlike a lot of courses that encompass improbable geography, Kidnappers is laid out…