Travellers’ Top Spots
New Zealand took second place after Italy in a Condé Nast Traveler readers’ poll for best destination in the world. Each country was given a mark out of 100, with Italy scoring 95.55 and…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Making to Last Locally
New Zealand-based furniture designer David Trubridge is profiled in Australian art and design magazine Dumbo Feather, pass it on sharing “his story and ground-breaking ideas that could revolutionise the way we buy and consume…
Big Cheers for Danielle
Auckland dancer and Warriors rugby league cheerleader Danielle Miller, 22, has been named Big League’s 2009 Cheergirl of the Year the first time it has been awarded to someone outside NSW or ACT in…
Cinematic claims
New Zealand-born director Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano is included in Vogue Australia’s 50th Anniversary edition featuring alongside Picnic at Hanging Rock, Strictly Ballroom and Lantana as examples of “seminal moments in Australian…
Fox treads the boards
Wellington actress Kerry Fox stars in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues on at Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Fox plays Jane, who witnesses a possible crime and struggles with her decision…
Down and Dirty
A group of New Zealanders are making a film about the US journalist Eric Arnold who spent a year in Marlborough learning how to make wine at the Allan Scott vineyard. Based on Arnold’s…
Dances with fish
New Zealand marine biologist Sunil Kadri, co-founder of Optoswim Technologies, is the O2 X Male Entrepreneur of The Year, awarded in London for technology Kadri created to improve the production of farmed salmon, dubbed…
Jones Hits Big
Auckland teenager Sacha Jones has earned her biggest career win securing the US$25,000 ITF Darwin Challenger tournament with a 6–4, 6–1 win over Western Australian Bojana Bobusic. Showing a cool head in the mid-afternoon…
Still the Greatest
Adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary is the “greatest living New Zealander” according to the results of a recent Research New Zealand poll. Despite his death in January 2008, Sir Ed was named by 15…
New directions
Auckland-based playwright Stanley Makuwe, who is originally from Zimbabwe, recently returned to his homeland where his latest production The New Road premiered. The New Road tells the story of Sammy, a Zimbabwean who has…
Seoul mates
New Zealand’s trade commissioner in Seoul Graeme Solloway, who is responsible for promoting bilateral trade and investment, has been in the South Korean capital promoting technological ties between the two countries. “Both Korea and…
With All the Trappings
Kauri Cliffs is where Golf.com blogger Connell Barrett wants to get married and divorced. “I love, love, love this place. Love it,” Barrett writes. ‘Terrible tragedy of the South Seas,’ a Brit once…
Model Mayhem
Air New Zealand Fashion Week saw former Baywatch bombshell Pamela Anderson, 42, strut the catwalk in a transparent scarf leaving little to the imagination promoting her eco-friendly label A*Muse, developed with designer Richie Rich, who…
Pressure for the Best
All Black coach Graham Henry has told The Independent that though New Zealand’s national team has a much smaller resource than the majority of countries, this is what makes his job so interesting and…
Great Totara Falls
Beloved New Zealand entertainer Sir Howard Morrison has died aged 74. Morrison was born in 1935 into a Rotorua family renowned for its entertainment skills. He had a singing career for more than 50…
One for the history books
Renowned New Zealand historian and writer, James Belich, has his latest book Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Anglo-world reviewed by The Times’ Bernard Porter, who believes Belich’s fresh…
High expectations
“If sheer workload weren’t enough to keep the 47-year-old filmmaker on edge, he’s also grappling with lofty expectations,” writes Sandy Cohen for Associated Press. “Chief among them, his own. ‘You’re always imagining…
Southern celebrations
Auckland-based singer-songwriter Caitlin Smith will perform at this year’s ASB Queenstown JazzFest, a 10-day live music celebration from October 17 to 26. A sensational line-up of more than 50 bands and 200 local and…
Flights of Fancy
Christchurch engineer Glenn Martin, inventor of the Martin Jetpack, recently offered a test flight of the machine on eBay at a starting bid of US$30,000 for six flights. The bidding was open to anyone…
Pure Success
Tourism New Zealand’s 100 per cent Pure campaign has topped an international branding survey published by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation and European Travel Commission. The survey asked 165 national tourism organisations which…
Feast for the Eyes
“If it’s culture you’re after, make a beeline for the North Island,” writes the Examiner’s Molly McCahan, suggesting in particular, a trip to Rotorua, “considered the centre of Maori culture.” “Today around 35 per…
Daring new role
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 41, stars in the NBC medical drama Trauma as daredevil flight medic Reuben ‘Rabbit’ Palchuck. The show premiered in the US on September 28. Acting was always a hobby to…
Consonant clash
The New Zealand Geographic Board has announced the River City, Wanganui should be spelled Whanganui, after considering an application by Whanganui iwi, Te Runanga o Tupoho. This single letter has raised the ire of…
Westenra joins forces
Christchurch soprano Hayley Westenra, 22, will top the bill at the Royal British Legion’s annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 7, replacing glamorous Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins as the…
In His Sights
Scott Dixon, 29, has won the Indy Japan 300 mile auto race at Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, northeast of Tokyo and first place in the IndyCar series with one race remaining. Dixon recorded…
Wairarapa Cheer
The annual Toast Martinborough wine, food and music festival, now in its 18th year, is “a chance to taste new season drops from the area’s renowned boutique producers,” writes Sarah Maguire for the WA…
Best of both tribes
Linda White Wolf, a member of the Chickasaw Tribe from Oklahoma and host of Arizona Native News on the Pat McMahon Show on KAZ-TV, never knew about her Maori heritage until she happened to…
Waving Mad By Camper
The first rule of campervanning around New Zealand is to wave every time you pass a fellow camper, according to the Daily Mail’s Charlotte Gill who travels in a Kea beginning in Christchurch. “The…
Artistic Revolution
For the first time in its 21-year history, the Montana World of WearableArt (WOW) competition, held in Wellington from September 24 to October 4, saw an international artist take the supreme award. Alaskan carpenter…
Remarkable Rail
Taieri Gorge in the South Island is included in the Telegraph’s ‘All you need to know about the world’s most remarkable places in 60 seconds’. Taieri Gorge is special because it features one of…
Wireless lifesavers
Auckland University scientists have developed the technology to power a wireless heart pump which could eventually be an alternative to heart transplants. Scientists from the University’s Bioengineering Institute, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering…
Chopping Champ
Thirty-six-year-old West Auckland lumberjack Jason Wynyard has won the overall title at the Stihl Timbersports Championships 2009 in Brienz, Switzerland. All participants were among the world elite, but the fastest and technically most perfect…
Squat sophisticates
Aucklander Dan Simon, 31, and his art collective ‘The Oubliette’ have been squatting in two 15 million pound mansions in the exclusive suburb of Mayfair, London, transforming the six-story buildings into a cultural centre…
Toronto’s Triple Treat
New Plymouth-raised, Los Angeles-based actress Melanie Lynskey, 32, has roles in three of the most talked-about movies at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Her roles in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, Tim…
Designing winner’s wares
London-based New Zealand jewellery designer Jessica McCormack, was recently invited to design the 2009 winner’s trophy for Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden. The trophy (pictured above) featured an architectural rose as a symbol…
Lomu Gets Ripped
Former All Black great Jonah Lomu, 34, stepped back into the limelight coming second in the Men’s Open over-90kg class at the NZFBB Body Building Championships in Wellington, an exercise in weight-loss before making…
Gorgeous melodrama
Niki Caro’s film The Vintner’s Luck, based on Wellington author Elizabeth Knox’s novel of the same name and starring Keisha Castle-Hughes is, according to entertainment news site Moviehole, “Gorgeous in all facets of visual…
Letters to the Editors
“Small town” New Zealander and self-confessed letter addict, Andrew Prieditis, 30, has been published in over 60 newspapers globally in the past six weeks alone by writing ‘letters to the editor’ and supplying a…
Beer for art’s sake
New Zealand singer Ladyhawke, 30 and painter/illustrator Sarah Larnach, 30, have redesigned labels for Beck’s beer bottles as part of beer brand’s Music Inspired Art project, labels which feature watercolours of a howling wolf…
Holy dedication
This month, Auckland singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore, 23, releases her debut album Holy Smoke which was recorded in Los Angeles with the American band The Cardinals. Wigmore is signed to Universal in Australia, where she…
This way through love
“The Topps defy logic,” writes Variety in a review of The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls — winners of the audience award for best documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. “‘On paper,’ says their…
Ancient Mystery Solved
The now extinct giant Haast’s eagle ruled the skies over New Zealand 750 years ago attacking moa from mountain perches and capable of killing small children. Because of their large size – these eagles…
Living with Fur
New Zealand researchers, including Professor Malcolm Sear of the University of Otago, have found those who lived with dogs and cats for significant periods of time were less likely to develop allergies, compared with…
Tourism by Post
Nick and Val Martin have operated the Pelorus Sound mail boat for the past four-and-a-half years transporting both mail and passengers from the mussel-farming town of Havelock out to the farthest reaches of the…
Preoccupation with Love
Jane Campion’s Bright Star, which recently opened in New York, won much praise at Cannes, some from unlikely sources. “I’m not really into poetry,” said Quentin Tarantino, who also said he believes Bright Star…
By hoki but not forever
Hoki, found in the dark Pacific depths around New Zealand, is the favourite fried meat for McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish burgers, and a fish “whose bounty it seems, is not limitless,” writes William Broad for The…
World Odyssey continues
South Seas Film School graduates New Zealanders Julian Hanton and Camilla Andersen joined forces to film Travel Channel-commissioned television series Julian and Camilla’s World Odyssey; the show’s first season was one of the…
Such deep silence to hear
Christchurch poet Ursula Bethell’s ‘Rock Crystal’ was a recent Guardian ‘Poem of the Week’. ‘Rock Crystal’, travels beyond the garden and celebrates wider nature. It’s a “holiday poem” but one that takes a metaphysical…
Flawless Performance
Palmerston North Formula 3 driver, Brendon Hartley, 19, won his maiden European Championship race at Brands Hatch in England last week, and is delighted to be back on the top step of the podium…
Career beginnings
Tauranga-raised actor and Rocky Horror Show creator Richard O’Brien, 67, has told the Guardian that his career began riding horses in movies, having learnt to ride growing up in New Zealand. “In 1965, I…
Rescuing the Bumblebee
The short-haired bumblebee, Bombus subterraneus, was introduced to New Zealand from England between 1885 and 1906 to help pollinate crops. The bumblebee died out in the UK in 2000 because of loss of habitat and intensive…
Wall Street Suggestions
“The findings of the ‘Emissions Trading Review Committee’ … is green PR gone wild,” writes the Wall Street Journal. “New Zealand already boasted one of the world’s most pristine environments before it passed cap-and-trade last…
Ace Transformer
Aeronautic machinists 23-year-olds Adam Turnbull and Dan Melling have “knocked the bastard off” and crossed the Cook Strait in a converted amphibious 1990 Toyota Town Ace van travelling the 65-km distance in nine hours…
Small Screen Project
Waikato-born executive chef de cuisine, head of Gordon Ramsay’s North American operations and New Zealand’s first Michelin star winner Josh Emett, 36, will document his rise to culinary fame in a documentary called Chef…
Tui time at the Vector
Auckland band Midnight Youth and London-based Ladyhawke — aka Pip Brown — have both been nominated for a number of awards to be presented at this year’s New Zealand Music Awards held at the…
Liquidity rules
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has “become the first authority to pass hard-and-fast rules for liquidity since the crisis”, writes The Economist in an article called ‘Lord of the Ratios’. Locally incorporated banks…
