Hello Sailor Frontman Graham Brazier
Dave Dobbyn is one of a number of local artists who have paid tribute to Hello Sailor frontman Graham Brazier (pictured centre), who has died in Auckland aged 63. Dobbyn described Brazier as the consummate…
Blog Archives
Coach Joe Schmidt Granted Irish Citizenship
He has long been considered an honorary Irishman in the eyes of rugby fans. But Ireland’s head coach Woodville-born Joe Schmidt, 49, was made an official Irish citizen in a special ceremony organised by…
Racing Star Mitch Evans Proponent of F1 Noise
New Zealander Mitch Evans, 21, one of the leading lights of single-seater junior auto racing, says he believes Formula One’s audiences could accelerate if the series returned to 2.4-litre V8 engines which it dropped…
Flight of the Conchords Musical Is Coming
The upcoming Flight of the Conchords movie is shaping up to be a musical like no other, co-creator Jemaine Clement has promised – albeit tentatively. The film is “definitely a couple of years away,…
Casting for the Elusive Mr Brown on Ruakituri River
“As we cut through the clouds in the small Bay Heliwork chopper, the sky opens to a stunning view of Hawkes Bay and the legendary Ruakituri River where the elusive ‘Mr Brown’…
Janet Frame Travels Home Around the World
Janet Frame’s 1963 novella Towards Another Summer reimagines the New Zealand author’s “roots crisis” and is a sharp drama of fleeing, and missing, home, Catherine Taylor writes for the Guardian. The novella’s theme – taking…
New Zealand Has Some Filmtastic Backdrops
Many of the grander surroundings in Craig Zobel’s new film Z For Zachariah were filmed in New Zealand. Women’s lifestyle site Bustle takes a look back at other notable films shot throughout the country…
Domestic Market Key to Demise of Imperiled Dolphins
American environmental writer Andrew Revkin, in his regular column for the New York Times, says local nets, not faraway markets are the key to the “deeply imperiled toothed whale” New Zealand’s Maui’s dolphin. “The subspecies…
Gin Wigmore Embodies Casual Tough Girl Style
New Zealand-born musician Gin Wigmore has a fashion sense equally eclectic as her sound, according to style site Paste Magazine. With unfussy platinum blonde locks, a beautifully detailed tattoo sleeve and rings for every…
Lips Argue Against Online Streaming
New Zealander Steph Brown and West Virginia-born multi-instrumentalist and producer Fen Ikner are Lips, an electronic pop act characterised by a girl with giant lips for a head. The duo has just relocated from…
Comedy Show Nominee Trygve Wakenshaw Shines
The “angular New Zealander” Trygve Wakenshaw, who was nominated for best show at this year’s Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy awards, “has the audience in raptures with his wonky physical comedy – and a brilliantly inventive…
Teddy Tahu Rhodes Has a Devil of a Time
New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “the drawcard” of State Opera SA’s recent season of Faust, “brings his powerful voice of dark charm to the role of Mephistopheles, an imposing icon of evil,” Adelaide Now…
Locust Jones Permanently Plugged into Chaos
It is a rare and rewarding moment to stumble across an exhibition that is as cohesively considered as Christchurch-born artist Locust Jones’ A Week in the Life of the World, not only in its…
Laura Myers Is Reimaginging ’90s Minimalism
While Laura Myers’ influences are all-American – she cites Carolyn Bessette and Lauren Hutton as totems – the collection has Oceanic roots. Myers, now based in London, was born in New Zealand and spent…
Lydia Ko Wins Canadian Pacific
Lydia Ko has won the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open for the third time and first as a professional, beating American Stacy Lewis with a par on the first hole of a playoff. The 18-year-old Ko…
Rob Hall’s Final Climb Roars to Life in Everest
It’s been almost two decades since the infamous 1996 tragedy on Mount Everest in which New Zealand guide Rob Hall and seven others perished. The world’s highest mountain has seen more destructive seasons –…
Michael Hazlewood Dishing up Outstanding Food
New Zealand chef Michael Hazlewood’s new London venture served Evening Standard reviewer Fay Maschler some “eerily outstanding food” by “charming, wine-savvy staff”. “‘Hazle’ as his friends and maybe even his wife know him is, as…
Marlon Williams Has Had a Crazy Year
If the events of 2015 are anything to go by, New Zealander Marlon Williams could certainly say this has been his year, Jade Lazearevic writes in a profile of the singer for the Newcastle…
Chef Ryan Arboleda Takes Tapas to the next Level
New Zealand-born chef de cuisine Ryan Arboleda, 34, has contrasted “complimentary elements” fusing “traditional and contemporary techniques with cross continent flavours” for his new menu at The Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur’s Saujana Hotel. Arboleda fits…
Singer Tamaryn Celebrating Unpredictable Potential
When a musician describes one of her tracks as “an early Madonna song if it was produced by My Bloody Valentine’, you know you’re in for something special,” online magazine PopMatters writes in a…
What’s in Jemaine Clement’s Library?
In the film People Places Things, New Zealander Jemaine Clement plays a New York City graphic novelist and professor struggling with life as the newly single father of twin girls. In real life, he’s…
Brewer Mark Hatherly’s Ale Wins Bronze in London
New Zealand brewer Mark Hatherly, who lives in Luxembourg, has received positive recognition for his first beer, Red Bridge amber ale, after winning bronze at the London 2015 International Beer Challenge in the ales…
Streaming Service Baboom Changes Tack
New Zealand streaming service Baboom “has a refreshing, possibly promising, approach to its place in digital music – Baboom wants to give the independent artists its focused on courting chances at greater exposure, and…
Memorial to Battle of Britain Hero Unveiled
A memorial to a Battle of Britain hero, New Zealand-born Cecil Henry Hight has been placed at the location he was shot down when his Spitfire squadron was scrambled to intercept German bombers on…
Trygve Wakenshaw Hits the Physical Comedy Jackpot
New Zealand comedian Trygve Wakenshaw’s “near-silent comedy produces loud laughs and a warm atmosphere” at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the List writes in a review of Wakenshaw’s solo show Nautilus. “By the time Wakenshaw…
Meet NZ’s Youngest Fashion Blogger Harley McVicar
Harley McVicar from Christchurch has holidayed with actress Pamela Anderson, made her catwalk debut at the age of two and runs a popular fashion blog – and she’s only eight-years-old. Harley has attended every New…
Brent Martin Serving Some of the Best Brunch in US
The in-house executive chef at Seattle’s Hyatt Regency Bellevue restaurant, Eques is New Zealander Brent Martin. Martin, who came to Eques after two decades of honing his culinary craft over several continents, has been…
Heidi O’Loughlin’s Edinburgh Debut a Delight
For her first solo Edinburgh Fringe hour, comedian Heidi O’Loughlin tries out a variety of topics. The New Zealander’s Tahitian heritage is up first in a spot of family history, as she recounts the…
Coffee Cups of the World by Henry Hargreaves
Though New Zealander Henry Hargreaves thoroughly enjoyed his time as a fashion model, he decided from the outset that his career on the catwalk would have an expiration date and he stuck to it,…
Great Reviews for Jemaine Clement’s Latest Role
Indie world veteran director James Strouse’s People Places Things “gets a lot of its infectious spirit from star Jemaine Clement, 41, the New Zealander best known for being half of the Flight of the…
Appeal to Find Ron Stenberg’s Scottish Wifies
One of Scotland’s leading art galleries is launching an appeal to discover the identity of two elderly Dundee women depicted in an oil painting, which has been gifted to the city by New Zealand…
Xero Scores New Strategic Partnerships
New Zealand cloud accounting firm Xero has used its annual Xerocon conference to announce a host of new partnerships and tools, and says it has passed 250,000 paying customers in Australia. CEO and founder Rod…
Settling in over a Beer at Hobbiton’s Green Dragon
“In New Zealand, even a nondescript cutting in the woods can lead somewhere extraordinary. That magnetic pull to see what’s around the next bend, whether sparkling glacier or primeval forest, is my favourite thing…
Hero of the Skies Gordon Vette
Alwyn Gordon Vette, a New Zealand pilot whose independent analysis of the 1972 Air New Zealand airplane crash in Antarctica helped to identify an important hazard in Arctic flying, has died in Auckland. He…
FitnessLink’s Grant Goes Spreads the Word in Dubai
New Zealander Grant Goes, 34, runs FitnessLink, a Dubai-based health and fitness website which is starting to expand into the wider Mena region. He tells UAE English-language newspaper the National about he spends a…
Turn off Your TVs and Get Rich Urges Glenn Martin
New Zealand inventor Glenn Martin, 55, sold his television to rid himself of distractions in his drive to create one of the world’s first human-controlled jetpacks. Thirty years on from that decision and prototypes of…
All Blacks Play Classic Game in Bledisloe Decider
“Australia knew the All Blacks would be in a vengeful mood after their defeat in Sydney,” the Observer’s Ian Malin reports. “New Zealand duly handed out a rugby lesson to…
Girls Producer Backs Jemaine Clement’s New Show
One of the stars of nineties cult comedy show Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement says he’s excited his new HBO series will be backed by the producer behind Girls, Judd Apatow. Clement is working…
The Phoenix Foundation Give up Their Dreams
The sixth studio album by New Zealand band The Phoenix Foundation has been released and the Guardian offers up readers a track-by-track guide to the record provided by the band. “If the name [of the…
Denver Welcomes Hayden Barrie’s New Coffee Shop
New Zealander Hayden Barnie – formerly a roaster with Coffee Supreme – and his wife American Amy Cohen will open Stowaway Kitchen + Coffee in Denver in September. Stowaway plans to not only…
Kerry Fox Tutors Directors on Actors in Melbourne
New Zealand actor Kerry Fox, who stars in Australian film Downriver, which premieres at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), also gave a masterclass at the event with the film’s writer/director Grant Scicluna about the…
Kim Chambers Makes Swim History in San Francisco
New Zealand’s Kim Chambers has become the first woman to swim the nearly 50km stretch from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge in a feat conquering one of the world’s most dangerous…
Rosie Langabeer Keeping Busy in Philadelphia
Composer and musician New Zealander Rosie Langabeer, who will perform as Diamond Blazer at the Double Decker Music series in Philadelphia where she lives, has also been working with esteemed American ballet choreographer Matthew…
Some of the Best Coffee in the World
New Zealand is home to some of the best coffee in the world, according to the Malay Mail Online, which begins its tour of the country’s finest cafés in Auckland at Espresso Workshop. “Espresso Workshop…
Jane Campion’s Daughter Acting up
As the child of New Zealand-born director Jane Campion and Australian filmmaker Colin Englert, Alice Englert – who stars in the BBC’s magician drama Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – grew up immersed in…
Chunuk Bair Battle Remembered
A battlefield centenary service has been held on a hill where nearly 850 New Zealanders were killed in two days of intense fighting during the Gallipoli campaign. Governor-General Jerry Mateparae was joined by hundreds…
New Zealand Stun Hosts Australia to Top Pool
New Zealand set the Netball World Cup alight when they upset defending champions Australia 52-47 in their pool match in front of a world-record crowd of 16,233. The new-look Silvers Ferns defied pre-tournament sceptics…
New Zealand’s South Island Offers Great Walks
New Zealand’s Great Walks are highly regulated by the Department of Conservation, which maintains the trails, checking for hiking passes and staffing the huts for nightly educational talks. Popular walks include the world-famous Milford…
Walking in the Realm of the Giants
If New Zealand is famous for something, then it’s for nature, begins a German Lonely Planet Traveller magazine feature. The best way to experience the landscape, the publication recommends, is by hiking the Routeburn…
Reminders of Home in Abu-Dhabi
Abu Dhabi-based journalist, New Zealander John Henzell, who writes for English-language newspaper the National, says one of the things that often unites the country’s massive expatriate population is a desire to be surrounded with…
Vienna’s Hundertwasserhaus Sister Loo
“One curved and cobbled path takes me from a strange yet mesmerising building in the former capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to a public convenience in New Zealand’s Northland,” Jill Illnamorati-Varley writes for the…
Rosie Langabeer Flies Across Cultures with BalletX
Hosted by the Vail International Dance Festival, Philadelphia-based contemporary dance troupe BalletX performed New Zealand composer Rosie Langabeer’s “Sunset o639”, a classical ballet in which dancers tell an epic and tragic story. This time, their…
Joan Murphy Is Reframing the Fitness Industry
New Zealander Joan Murphy (pictured left) and Briton Pip Black, founders of Frame gym, explain to the Guardian how they have revolutionised London’s attitude to exercise. It’s 8:30am on a Wednesday morning and Joan Murphy…
Incredulous Anna Smaill on Booker Nomination
One of three debut writers on the Man Booker longlist, 35-year-old Anna Smaill will be unfamiliar to all but the most avid reader of contemporary fiction: her previous publication is a volume of poetry,…
Terrific Top of the Lake Returns to Screens
“Last year came the exciting news that Top Of The Lake, Jane Campion’s terrific TV series, wouldn’t just be a one-off, but would return for a new round of episodes,” Indiewire reports. “Details were…
Blanket Bay Lodge a Hidden Getaway
If you’re looking for the perfect getaway this winter, you should look no further than New Zealand’s best luxury lodge on the north edge of the stunning Lake Whakatipu at Blanket Bay. Blanket Bay is…
