Neville Crichton has Transformed Sailing Industry
New Zealand born and bred, Neville Crichton’s humble beginning on a farm in the South Island is a far cry from where he is today, 72 years later. Crichton is the executive chairman of one…
Blog Archives
Trainer to World’s Fastest Drivers is Rob Wilson
When the world’s top drivers need coaching, they turn to coach and veteran pro driver, New Zealander Rob Wilson. At his “second home”, the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground airfield in rural Leicestershire, England, the great…
Ollie Dale Aims to Help Solve Earhart Mystery
Auckland filmmaker Ollie Dale is joining former US Navy intelligence officer Guy Noffsinger to investigate how Pan Am flight 229 inexplicably vanished over the Pacific in 1938 – and how the plane’s disappearance may…
Author Ruth Park Knew Writing Was Life Itself
Auckland-born Ruth Park and Australians Gwen Harwood, Dorothy Hewett, Christina Stead, writers born more or less as the 20th century dawned, followed their flame, each woman, as Queensland-based literary scholar Ann-Marie Priest sympathetically shows…
Vampires Get Their Teeth into Some Small Screen
A television reboot based on Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s 2014 smash hit mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows has landed a pilot-production order at American channel FX. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the…
Writer and Engineer Ben Sanders Ups the Stakes
For a couple of days a week, Ben Sanders, 28, is a mild-mannered New Zealand engineer; the rest of the time he’s dreaming crimes and mayhem on the mean streets of the United States….
Etihad’s Andrew Fisher Breaks Fastest Trip Record
New Zealander Andrew Fisher, 42, who works in Abu Dhabi as Etihad’s vice president of fleet planning, has broken the world record for flying around the world in the shortest time on scheduled commercial…
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie’s New Role Enigmatic
Among the most anticipated films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival has been Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, starring 17-year-old New Zealander Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie. Leave No Trace had its world premiere…
World Cup-Winning Coach Graham Henry Joins Auckland
The mastermind of the 2011 Rugby World Cup success, Sir Graham Henry, has returned to the side where he first came to prominence joining provincial side Auckland to assist head coach Alama Ieremia, the…
Lorde at Home with Billboard Magazine
For a minute, it’s easy to forget that Lorde is over 13,800km away, at home in New Zealand, Billboard journalist New Yorker Brooke Mazurek writes for the magazine’s latest cover story. Before their Skype connection…
PM’s Pregnancy Sparks Knitting Movement
New Zealander Heather McCracken, who is based in the United States, has kicked off the knitting movement #KnitForJacinda inspired by the news that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is pregnant. Ardern recently announced that she and…
Mark Burry Recognised in Australia Day Honours
The Council of the Order of Australia has recognised New Zealand architect and educator Mark Burry, 60, in the 2018 Australia Day Honours list. Melbourne-based Burry was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia…
Rocket Lab Launches the Humanity Star
The glittering Humanity Star satellite, which may be the brightest object in the night sky, serves no purpose other than to “make people look up and realise they are on a rock in a…
Dreams of Packing up Troubles and Moving to NZ
“Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to move away from the US and go to another country where hitchhiking is normal and I can have as many pet sheep as I want,”…
Uninhabited Tiritiri Matangi Where Birds Thrive
Tiritiri Matangi – a 75-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland – is one of several offshore islands that New Zealand has turned into sanctuaries for its native birds. The Independent’s David Whitley visits Tiritiri…
Julia Croft Strips the Layers Off Sexual Stereotypes
In If There’s Not Dancing At The Revolution, I’m Not Coming, New Zealander Julia Croft performs a striptease and dissects the objectification of the female body in pop culture. Croft took the show to…
Roger Shepherd Shares Love for Korea’s Mountains
Roger Shepherd, 52, a former police officer from New Zealand who has lived in the rustic southern county Gurye near Mount Jiri since 2011, said Korean mountains have plenty of hidden delights. Shepherd, 52, is…
Dancer Brendan Cole Readies for Belfast Shows
Ahead of his shows at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast this March, Strictly Come Dancing star New Zealander Brendan Cole, 41, tells Belfast Telegraph journalist Stephanie Bell why he is no longer the bad…
Speed Flyer Jamie Lee Skims Beauteous Landscapes
One of the world’s top speed flyers New Zealander Jamie Lee, 25, was recently filmed zooming down the hills surrounding Lake Wanaka just inches from the ground. Taking off from a hilltop with a running…
WWII Love Story by Heather Morris Reviewed
Out of one of the worst periods of human history comes an inspirational story, a beacon of light amidst the dark ruins of the Holocaust. For three years before his death in 2006, Lale…
Aviva Fixer Mark Wilson on First Five Years in Role
In 2013, New Zealander Mark Wilson, an insurance turnaround specialist hired from Hong Kong to fix a then-troubled Aviva, was wondering how he could overhaul its Irish business in a very difficult market. “When I…
New Zealanders Wary of Impact of Tourism
The number of New Zealanders worried about the impact the booming tourism industry has on the country is growing rapidly, according to a new survey. The survey, commissioned by New Zealand’s tourism industry, found that…
Houston Half Marathon Win for Jake Robertson
Distance runner New Zealand-born Jake Robertson, 28, the new Aramco Half Marathon champion, didn’t know for sure he would be running in Houston, United States until a week prior to the event, when race…
PM Jacinda Ardern Plays down Her Pregnancy News
Jacinda Ardern, who became New Zealand’s prime minister in October, attracted international attention when she denounced television interviewers who had asked whether she planned to have children if elected. Ardern, 37, told a television…
New Zealand’s Glory From a Train Window
Thirty years after the TranzAlpine was launched, Observer journalist Susan Grossman boards one of the world’s most scenic trains in Christchurch, before completing her trip on the North Island’s Northern Explorer. “Completed in 1908, after…
Martin Henderson Reveals He’s Yet to Master Accents
He’s the Auckland-born actor best known for his role on American drama Grey’s Anatomy. But despite the show being filmed and set abroad, former Shortland Street heart-throb Martin Henderson, 43, admits he is yet…
Superyacht designer Ron Holland Pens Memoir
“Given that his single-masted creation M5 is too tall to pass beneath Ron Holland had trouble holding a ‘personal memoir’ to 400 pages…
Exploring New Zealand’s Deserted Dusky Track
For backpackers who like a challenge as big as the reward, New Zealand’s Dusky Track in Fiordland National Park tests the limits. American author Michael Lanza reports from the bog for Backpacker magazine. “Swirling wind…
Extinct Giant Burrowing Bat Fossil Found in NZ
The fossils of a massive bat have been discovered near the historic mining town of St Bathans in Central Otago. The 16- to 19-million-year-old bat’s body mass was just 40g, but its teeth and…
Our Big Cities Add Extra Dimension to NZ Holidays
“In a land of volcanoes, glaciers, fjords and world-leading sauvignon blanc, it’s perhaps understandable that New Zealand’s cities fly under the radar. But the big three – Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – all have…
Craft Beer Makes Inflation Gauge as Tastes Change
New Zealand has added craft beer to the basket of goods it monitors to measure inflation, reflecting changing tastes and consumer spending in the country, Bloomberg reports. “New Zealand used to be called a country…
Wanaka Should Be on Your Next Travel Wish List
Starring Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, A Wrinkle in Time, directed by Ava DuVernay, “happened to set up shop in Wanaka, a small town that is coincidentally a travel hot spot and must-visit for…
Sea Kayaking with the Promise of Glow-Worms
“Slipping away from the earth into the glassy, late afternoon waters of Lake Rotoiti is an action laden with familiarity. Once my two-person kayak, steered by Hilary Munro of Waimarino…
Otago Band Albion Place Head Across the Tasman
Dunedin-based indie-rockers Albion Place had a big 2017, with the group’s debut album Mascuzzi Jacuzzi released in December, and their Australian summer tour about to begin. The release of Easier in May and If This…
What André Spicer Reveals about Self-Help
New Zealander André Spicer and Swede Carl Cederström, business-school professors in a field called “organisation studies,” recently set out to chart their progress, count their steps, log their sleep rhythms, tweak their diets, record…
Harley Neville’s Wild Shave Gets Him on Ellen Show
Two years ago, Aucklander Harley Neville shaved off half the hair on his body and photographed the result for his followers on social media. The picture sat on the internet, gestating, clicks multiplying like…
Struggling Kiwis Get A Little Help From Friends
“The Farm Cape Kidnappers, a luxury resort in the North Island, sits inside one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the country, the privately-owned Cape Sanctuary. There, efforts are underway to save the native…
Luchador Johnny Idol a Pin-Up Star in Mexico
New Zealand professional wrestling buff Niwa McIlroy, aka Johnny Idol, 24, took a leap of faith and flew to Mexico to make it in the high-flying sporting phenomenon that is lucha libre. Now as Johnny…
Praise for Anthony McCarten’s Darkest Hour
Written by New Zealand-born filmmaker, Academy Award-nominated Anthony McCarten – best known for the screenplay he wrote for The Theory of Everything – Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour “is an expertly crafted history lesson…
Chef Analiese Gregory’s New Life in Tasmania
Auckland-born Analiese Gregory is one of Australia’s most-talked-about young chefs. She heads the kitchen at Hobart restaurant Franklin. Sydney chef Peter Gilmore, who mentored her as his 2IC for four and a half years…
Experts Develop Roadside Gym for Endangered Kea
Conservationists want to stop New Zealand’s kea – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food, so they have designed a special gym for the country’s playful…
Enjoy the North Island with These Great Activities
From whitewater rafting on the Kaituna River to visiting the historic Waitangi Treaty Grounds to a geothermal jaunt around Hell’s Gate, “here are wonderful ways to spend quality outdoor time in this extraordinary country”,…
Mural of Whero O Te Rangi Bailey Explained
Canadian artist Kevin Ledo is known for his impressive murals of portraits, and this time it’s a portrait of Whero O Te Rangi Bailey, a Maori elder from Parihaka in Taranaki, originally photographed by…
UAE-Based Professor Nick Ashill Back on His Feet
Five months ago, the dream of United Arab Emirates American University of Sharjah (AUS) dean New Zealander Nick Ashill was to run 5400km across America. The 52-year-old was hoping to spread the word of pulmonary…
Rotorua a New York Times 2018 Must-Visit Place
“Come for the mud baths, stay for the beauty,” the New York Times says of Rotorua in its annual ‘52 Places to Go in 2018’ list. Rotorua is included in the annual list alongside New…
Top 2018 Comedy Acts Include Two NZ Favourites
Flight of the Conchords and Rose Matafeo are two “uproarious” comedy acts Guardian readers are recommended to buy tickets for this year, included alongside the world’s biggest standup Chris Rock and fellow American Maria…
Largest Underwater Eruption Discovered off NZ
Researchers have found that the world’s largest deep ocean volcanic eruption happened 1000km north east of New Zealand. Named as Havre, the deep ocean volcanic eruption was first discovered in 2002. A solidified volcanic rock…
Outsider Fair Preview of Susan Te Kahurangi King
“As the Outsider Art Fair (OAF) – which opens 18 January, and runs through 21 January – rolls into town, the specialised sector it celebrates has plenty to crow about,…
Julian Oliver Mines ZCash in Harvest Project
Julian Oliver is a New Zealander who uses wind power to mine ZCash – a bitcoin cousin – to fund climate research as part of a project called, Harvest. As the poster child for…
Hollywood Directors Like Niki Caro a Force
Never in the history of Hollywood has more than one female filmmaker been at the helm of a feature with a budget of USD$100 million or more – until now. On the heels of…
Beulah Koale’s Role Breakout Performance of ‘17
New Zealand actor Beulah Koale’s role in the 2017 film Thank You For Your Service has been deemed a “breakout” performance of the year by industry publication Variety. “As more people discover this quiet gem…
Christy Prior Wins Snowboard Slope in Aspen
New Zealander Christy Prior (pictured centre) has won the women’s snowboard slopestyle competition at the US Grand Prix in Snowmass, Aspen, boosting her chances at making it to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang,…
Anthony McCarten on the Challenge of Churchill
Darkest Hour depicts Winston Churchill in the crucial weeks that defined him as a wartime leader. Screen Daily’s Jeremy Kay talks to writer-producer, New Plymouth-born Anthony McCarten and Working Title’s Eric Fellner about taking…
There Are English Trees in Neil Finn’s Garden
A recent Guardian reader-curated playlist about trees includes songs from the Beach Boys, Esperanza Spalding, the Shamen and Crowded House. “Since time immemorial trees have provided people with shelter, food, lumber and even medicine. They…
Adorable Penguin Melts Hearts in Bluff
Footage of a Fiordland crested penguin in Bluff waddling up to his awaiting human friend Rodney Clark has delighted the internet and amused many New Zealand locals. The video shows Bluff local Clark standing on the…
Bike Trip in NZ Helps US Woman Realise Her Dream
American woman Maggie Schlarb took her two-year-old son on a five-month biking journey in New Zealand and learned valuable lessons to start a company. She tells Entrepreneur magazine how the trip changed her life. “I…
