Working class knight
Wellington-born Peter Leitch, known to his fans as the “Mad Butcher”, has received a knighthood in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. Leitch, a butcher, former gravedigger and avid rugby league fan, says…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Developing film ties
New Zealand and China have further strengthened their relations with a film agreement to host more Chinese-produced films in New Zealand. The agreement, made between the two nations in Shanghai and led by a…
Kaikoura Ethnohydrology
Writing from Blenheim, Arizona State University student Marie Manning, a global health major, describes her time spent on a Kaikoura wild dolphin encounter and the research she is undertaking in New Zealand for an…
Spinnakered Win
Emirates Team New Zealand has won its third consecutive Louis Vuitton Trophy in La Maddalenna, Sardinia, in Italy, beating the Russian syndicate Synergy 3—2. The day began with the Russians holding a 1
Anything but the Bungy
Lyttelton-based Joe Bennett, author of Hello Dubai: Skiing, Sand and Shopping in the World’s Weirdest City, tells the Telegraph why Queenstown is his kind of town. “It’s the main visitor town of New Zealand’s…
Splitting Cells
“New Zealand has found a cheap and quick way to build its prisons by converting used shipping containers into cells to deal with a record high number of inmates,” writes Philippa McDonald for the…
Mucking In
The Olivenhain garden of New Zealanders Maury and Heather Callaghan in Southern Californian is an “expanse of lawn and beds of perennials” with a tall, fragrant banana shrub and burgundy-leaved smoke tree “creat a…
Commission Speculation
Former Labour Prime Minister and maritime law expert Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 68, is UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s preferred choice to head a planned international enquiry into Israel’s raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, according…
Healthy advice for kids
Entrepreneur Dr Kate Hersov “was working as a paediatric doctor in her home country New Zealand when she and business partner Dr Kim Chilman-Blair struck the million pound idea,” Kate Lockyer writes in an…
Thrills and Spills
Justin Marshall has ended his rugby career playing for Saracens in the Guinness Premiership final against the Leicester Tigers. The 36-year-old, capped 88 times by his country, describes his last match, unable to hide…
Predicting sadness
New Zealander Professor Michael King, psychiatrist and Head of the Research Department of Mental Health Sciences at University College London (UCL), says reducing the prevalence of depression in the world is a major public…
Realm of the Karearea
The documentary Karearea: The Pine Falcon, an audience favourite at the 29 Tallahassee Film Festival, is screening as part of the Tallahassee Film Society’s annual “bird movie” Saturday at the All Saints Cinema this…
Steep Creek Cracker
New Zealand kayaker Sam Sutton, 21, has won the men’s division of the inaugural steep creek event at the 21 Teva Mountain Games in Red Cliff, Denver, while fellow New Zealander Nikki Kelly placed…
Sizing Up Pacific Atolls
Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University’s environment school and coastal process expert Dr Arthur Webb of the Fiji-based South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission have found that despite rising sea levels some Pacific Island coral…
Death Bowler Signed Up
Middlemore-born fast bowler Ian Butler, 28, has signed with Gloucestershire as their second overseas player for the Friends Provident T2. Butler, who previously played for the county in 23, has played in eight Test…
Unique appeal
The Topp Twins continue their tour of the United States with a performance at Portland’s Mission Theatre, where producer of the Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls Arani Cuthbert will also be in attendance. The documentary…
Saving the Hobbits
Sir Peter Jackson will take up the role of director for the film adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit if it meant he was able to protect Warner Bros’ investment, he has…
Industry Icon
Bay of Plenty-born director Merata Mita has died in Auckland. Broadcaster Joanna Paul told The New Zealand Herald that Mita was an icon and her death, a massive loss. Paul said she met her…
Hollywood Bowled
“In an age of bloated, self-importance and out-of-control celebrity worship, songs of parody and general mirth served as a lively and engaging antidote,” writes Martin Miller for the Los…
Great Win for Whites
The All Whites, the world’s 78th-ranked team, have beaten the world’s 15th-ranked team, Serbia 1— in a World Cup warm-up match in Klagenfurt, Austria. New Zealand football coach Ricki Herbert has said…
Racing Rivals
New Zealand-born IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, 29, discusses his respect for former teammate Australian Ryan Briscoe in an article written by Indy Star reporter Phillip B. Wilson. They had been friends since their days…
Shechita forbidden
New Zealand has banned kosher slaughter after a new animal welfare code mandated that all animals for commercial consumption be stunned prior to slaughter to ensure they are treated “humanely and in accordance with…
Loveable Dame
Dunedin-born actress Dame Pat Evison, who was best known for her Australian roles as Jessie Windom in Prisoner and Violet Carnegie in The Flying Doctors, has died aged 85. She also played Mrs Telford…
Good investment
Crowded House, “the biggest thing from New Zealand until the Lord Of The Rings films shows no sign of flagging”, according to the UK’s News of the World reviewer Dave Freak after the band’s…
Positive pitfalls
According to a New Zealand 3-year study people from positive family backgrounds are more likely to suffer depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence and drug dependence, tending to suffer more seriously and need more treatment. Researchers…
Effortless Shot
Teenage sharp shooter New Zealander Tiffany Piper, who is ranked third in the world for all female shooters, recently competed in the American National Rifle Association National Action Pistol Championship in Hallsville, MO. Piper…
To Sign or Not to Sign
Twenty-four-year-old Aucklander Sonny Bill Williams is facing a sporting dilemma: does he play for the All Blacks at next year’s Rugby World Cup or sign a $6 million three-year deal with French side Toulon?…
Edgy stroll
The best way to begin your New Zealand adventure is, according to the Telegraph’s Tarquin Cooper, with a walk around the top of Auckland’s 328m Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is the tallest structure…
Super Swift and for Sale
Jock Freemantle’s super car company Hulme is now taking orders for 2 of its CanAm cars, which are priced around $64, and can reach speeds of 32kmh. Each car will be numbered and delivered…
Making a stand
The trial of anti-whaler Pete Bethune, 45, of the Sea Shepherd marine conservation group, who was arrested after clambering aboard a Japanese whaling ship in February, has begun in Tokyo. The trial opens as…
On the job hero
Mark “Marko” Cunningham, 39, moved to Thailand 10 years ago to teach English, soon after beginning work as a volunteer paramedic. Cunningham tells CNN’s Julie Clothier about his role as a “body snatcher”. “I…
Illumination in Iowa
Cantabrian author Eleanor Catton talks to American site Eye Weekly about her celebrated debut novel The Rehearsal and how her novel has so far been received. Canadian-born Catton, 25, says the initial reviews in…
Wacky Winter Stunts
Queenstown’s Winter Festival hits the southern town for the 35th year this June with an estimated 6, revellers expected to attend the week-long festivities. While there are big-ticket items — free concerts (Dragon headline…
Top of the box office
Director Taika Waititi’s second feature Boy has become the top grossing local film ever at the New Zealand box office, passing the $7.5 million-mark and overtaking 25’s The World’s Fastest Indian, according to distributors…
Keisha stars in Vampire
Keisha Castle-Hughes, 20, is following in the bloody footsteps of fellow New Zealander Anna Paquin, starring in the film Vampire, the first English-language film of Japanese cult director Shunji Iwai. According to Empire, the…
Nothing but exuberant
Linda and Jules Topp’s award-winning documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls screened as part of the Inside Out LGBT film festival at the Royal Ontario Museum in May. The film is part documentary and…
Football Mayhem
“New Zealand is in the grip of World Cup fever and while the likes of Rory Fallon and Chris Killen might barely raise a glance as players in Plymouth or Middlesbrough, they cannot walk…
National carrier wins
Air New Zealand has won the Australia-Pacific’s best airline and the region’s staff service excellence award and was voted fifth in the world in the annual Skytrax awards. Eighteen million people voted in this…
Soccer Satire
In this tongue-in-cheek article for sports site Bleacher Report, Eoin Redahan examines New Zealand’s “dearth of WAGs”, instead listing examples in a slideshow of the country’s “beautiful celebrity countrywomen”, as the All Whites prepare…
Chicago showcase
Monteith’s Brewing Company, Aotearoa Seafoods and The Lamb Company are among some of the eight New Zealand companies taking part in the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago on May 22—25. The…
Clement’s new dimension
Wellington actor Jemaine Clement, 36, is in the final stages of talks to play the part of the villain Boris in Men in Black 3 alongside Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Clement’s character…
Peacekeepers halved
The New Zealand Defence Force is reducing the number of its military deployment in East Timor to six-monthly rotations of 74 personnel. Because of the improved security environment in East Timor, defence minister Dr…
Masons Make Waves
New Zealand-born surfing sisters Sarah and Airini Mason have finishing first and second respectively at the Billabong Pro Junior in Raglan in May. The Cabarita-based siblings who have grown up surfing the point breaks…
Intimidation Tactics
Ahead of the 21 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the All Whites are included in a Vanity Fair article about the 32 participating teams. The author apologises for “an earlier version of …
Meeting of mooers
Auckland-based Bob Carpenter, 57, creator of Filipino social networking site MooPlace, says the name of the site came about because of the high ratio of cows to people in New Zealand. MooPlace members are…
Recall the puppeteer
Now retired from Test cricket, The Hindu reflects on Christchurch-born bowler Shane Bond’s career describing him as “a once in a generation” who “not since Richard Hadlee” has a New Zealand bowler “tormented the…
Day tripping
Oft considered more English than England, Christchurch, New Zealand’s oldest city offers a preferable moderate climate, fresh contemporary Antipodean cuisine and a host of outdoor activities in and about the city limits. The Sydney…
Great Barrier secrets
Escaping the New Zealand mainland, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Rob McFarland takes a four-hour boat trip to Great Barrier Island and “a ruggedly beautiful wilderness”. “The Barrier, as it’s referred to by the locals,…
Shticking it to them
“The pretence of amateurism was always underpinned by consummate musicianship, and the range of styles they ape is breathtaking, from rap to my favourite new song, a madrigal called…
Harmony and Fury
The BBC’s Sydney correspondent Nick Bryant “reflects on New Zealand’s mix of controlled fury, subtle charm and social harmony, and asks why the rest of the world can’t be more like it” in an…
Feast Your Eyes on This
“Rest, relaxation and rugby. What more could you want?” asks the Telegraph in an article written in the build up to the Rugby World Cup 211. When it comes to breathtaking beauty it is…
Most beautiful of all
Fiordland’s Routeburn and Greenstone Tracks, combined at 7km and both within the World Heritage-listed area of Te Wahipounamu in south-west New Zealand, make for “what might be the most beautiful walk in the world’s…
Papery puns
Rangitikei artist Andrew Reilly has turned bull dung into paper, “perfect,” reflects Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade “for publishing bullshit”. After harvesting the dung, Reilly soaks it in water for a fortnight, explaining that there…
Millar’s better life
New Zealand artist Judy Millar, 53, who lives in Auckland and Berlin, is exhibiting at the Hamish Morrison Galerie in the German capital, her first solo show — entitled ‘A Better Life’ — since…
Future Campaigner
Aucklander Adam Minoprio, 25, who together with his ETNZ/BlackMatch crew won the ISAF Match Racing World Championships in Kuala Terengganu last year, is profiled in Malaysia’s Sun Daily. Growing up in a farm in rural…
New Rules for Teen
Fifteen-year-old Waikato-born Kurt Heatherly “has the opportunity to be the first AFL player recruited directly from New Zealand”, writes Jake Niall for The Age. If Heatherly wears the brown and gold at AFL level,…
