Blog Archives

Air NZ liberating customers, becomes top profit performer

Air NZ liberating customers, becomes top profit performer

Within the airline industry, Air New Zealand has plenty of admirers, and is now the most profitable in Australasia with expectations of a full-year pre-tax profit of at least $300 million in August, which…

Rhys Darby Antipodean Answer to Eddie Izzard – “Consistently Funny”

Rhys Darby Antipodean Answer to Eddie Izzard – “Consistently Funny”

Rhys Darby in character as park ranger Bill Napier and Mr Adventure live in Bristol, proves “oddly, surprisingly coherent and consistently funny,” according to Telegraph reviewer Dominic Cavendish, who awards the comedian four out…

Meringue Girl Pipes Bite-Size Treats for London’s Feast

Meringue Girl Pipes Bite-Size Treats for London’s Feast

Growing up in Auckland, co-founder of London’s Meringue Girls Stacey O’Gorman, says from a young age she has always had a passion for food. O’Gorman met Meringue Girls co-founder Alex Hoffler while…

Caribbean Island Getaway Opens Doors

Caribbean Island Getaway Opens Doors

Former music industry executive New Zealand-born Simon Baeyertz is co-owner of El Blok, a 22-room inn which has just opened on a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, and…

Pilot’s Exploits Inspire Music for US Dance Company

Pilot’s Exploits Inspire Music for US Dance Company

Auckland-raised award-winning composer Rosie Langabeer, 34, has been working on the music for Philadelphia dance company BalletX’s production, Sunset, o639 Hours, which was inspired by the true story of Pan Am’s Captain Edwin Musick,…

Aucklander Wins Washington Amateur Golf Tournament

Aucklander Wins Washington Amateur Golf Tournament

Aucklander James Beale has won the 113th Pacific Northwest Men’s Amateur Championship in Washington on the 38th hole, defeating American Cole Madey. Beale, who last week finished fourth in the Sahalee Players Championship, capped off…

Askew One Helping Transform Limerick’s Lost Walls

Askew One Helping Transform Limerick’s Lost Walls

Auckland street artist Elliot O’Donnell, better known as Askew One, the tag he adopted at age 14, is participating in an innovative urban art project, which is using the city of Limerick’s…

Antipodean Superheroes Cross the Bridge onto US Screens

Antipodean Superheroes Cross the Bridge onto US Screens

New Zealand-made television series The Almighty Johnsons, which made its American network premiere this month, is reviewed in the Los Angeles Times and stands out according to Robert Lloyd, for its scenery, its 100…

Luther Creator up for an Emmy

Luther Creator up for an Emmy

Neil Cross, the Wellington-based English screenwriter and novelist figures among the Emmy nominations announced in the United States, up for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special for the third season of…

General Motors President Puts Pedal to the Metal

General Motors President Puts Pedal to the Metal

New Zealander Dan Ammann, 42, president of General Motors is one of the fastest drivers in the company, as reported in The Telegraph, and holds a coveted level-six…

Kenyan Startup Backup the Internet with a BRCK

Kenyan Startup Backup the Internet with a BRCK

New Zealander Reg Orton, one of Nairobi-based BRCK Inc.’s co-founders, is helping to come up with new commercial products specifically designed to address African problems, namely a “backup generator for the Internet.” About a year…

Opera Stars Command Sydney Opera House Stage

Opera Stars Command Sydney Opera House Stage

As Otello, in Opera Australia’s “appealing revival of Verdi’s masterwork”, New Zealander Simon O’Neill cements his reputation as “one of the world’s top heldentenors, a term usually used to describe the largest…

Lagerfeld’s Bride Steps out in Maternity Chanel

Lagerfeld’s Bride Steps out in Maternity Chanel

Maternity wear just got a whole lot chicer – and more expensive – thanks to Auckland-raised model Ashleigh Good who closed the Chanel Haute Couture show in Paris during what appears to be her…

Former Hacker Keeping Secrets Safe at First Look

Former Hacker Keeping Secrets Safe at First Look

For the last month, 34-year-old former Aucklander Morgan Marquis-Boire has been the director of security for startup First Look Media, a website that has become the most prolific publisher of NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s…

Educating Brazilians about the Art of Coffee

Educating Brazilians about the Art of Coffee

Former Aucklander Marco Kerkmeester, owner of Sao Pãulo-based coffee chain Santo Grão, currently employs more than 200 people across seven stores, and he has grand plans for up to 40 more cafés…

DJ Gets Unrivalled Access to Stars on New MTV Show

DJ Gets Unrivalled Access to Stars on New MTV Show

Broadcaster Zane Lowe, the voice of the BBC’s popular Radio 1 show, is trying his hand at television with a new show coming to MTV Music, which – despite its mouthful of a title,…

Project Runway Spot for Taranaki Designer

Project Runway Spot for Taranaki Designer

Fashion designer Sean Kelly, 25, from Hawera, is the first ever New Zealander chosen to compete on hit American television show Project Runway, hosted by German supermodel Heidi Klum. Kelly’s mother Margaret said he was…

From Scotland with Love Narrates a Country’s Heritage

From Scotland with Love Narrates a Country’s Heritage

Compiled from hundreds of hours of archive material, director Virginia Heath’s From Scotland With Love narrates Scottish history and heritage through the lives of everyday people, to a soundtrack by native Kenny Anderson…

Hot Pools Home to Useful Bacteria

Hot Pools Home to Useful Bacteria

Researchers from the University of Waikato and GNS Science will search the country’s picturesque hot springs for the next big breakthroughs in science over two-years in what is called the 1000 Springs…

Couple’s Literary Steampunk Adventure Continues

Couple’s Literary Steampunk Adventure Continues

New Zealand’s first podcast novelist Pip Ballantine, co-author of the steampunk Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series, talks to the USA Today about her and husband Tee Morris’ most recent addition to the anthology, Dawn’s…

Glass Sculptures Capture Raw Power of the Sea

Glass Sculptures Capture Raw Power of the Sea

Self-taught artist New Zealander Ben Young, 31, a boatbuilder by trade and avid surfer, has made a name for himself creating intricate glass sculptures that uncannily resemble moving water. Young crafts his sculptures – all…

Effortless New Zealand Electro Making Waves

Effortless New Zealand Electro Making Waves

Electro-pop duo Broods, comprised of brother and sister Georgia and Caleb Nott, have helped draw the eyes of the music industry to a country that had only rarely troubled the international charts, Laura Barnett…

Auckland’s Greatest Ruin Comes to Life

Auckland’s Greatest Ruin Comes to Life

“Creative enterprises and unique collaborations are flourishing in Auckland thanks to the dramatic renovation of a collection of 1960s city council workshops,” Monocle reports. “Until two years ago, the City Works Depot was a near-derelict…

Lorde Reminds Us of the Intensity of Being a Teen

Lorde Reminds Us of the Intensity of Being a Teen

Grammy winner 17-year-old Lorde, who has urged people to believe that teenagers are wiser than adults think, has made the Telegraph’s Radhika Sanghani pine for the passion of her younger self. “Defender of teens

Flat White Emblematic of Berlin’s Coffee Evolution

Flat White Emblematic of Berlin’s Coffee Evolution

The flat white has transformed cafés in Germany’s capital Berlin, with the city’s “dreary drip brew and morbid Milchkaffee” fast becoming a thing of the past. New Zealander Shannon Campbell – owner of café

Berlin Keeps Acclaimed Author Under Its Spell

Berlin Keeps Acclaimed Author Under Its Spell

New Zealander Sarah Quigley initially came to Germany on a one-year writing scholarship in 2000. Quigley, the author of acclaimed novel The Conductor, arrived with no German and little knowledge of Germany, but was…

Century-Old Photographs of Tennis Star Auctioned

Century-Old Photographs of Tennis Star Auctioned

Rare photographs of New Zealand’s greatest tennis player, four-time Wimbledon champion Anthony Wilding, have emerged for the first time in more than a century, selling for an undisclosed sum to a New Zealand buyer…

Ideal Training Ground for Commonwealth Games

Ideal Training Ground for Commonwealth Games

Rising Christchurch track star Angie Smit, 22, has found a second home in Braunton, North Devon where she is training for this month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In just under four weeks Smit will…

Paralympian Athlete Motivates Essex School Kids

Paralympian Athlete Motivates Essex School Kids

New Zealander Tim Prendergast, a Paralympic gold medalist, had Essex schoolchildren entranced with his motivational speech during Clacton Coastal Academy’s first-ever sports awards evening. Prendergast, who began losing his sight at the age of eight,…

Rare Birds and Rarified Golfers Share Scenic Clifftops

Rare Birds and Rarified Golfers Share Scenic Clifftops

“The world-renowned golf course at Cape Kidnappers is ranked as the 27th-best in the world by Golf Magazine, and for good reason is a bucket-list destination for international duffers,” Janie Robinson reports in the…

Buffet of Landscapes Perfect Backdrop for Escape

Buffet of Landscapes Perfect Backdrop for Escape

New Zealand’s “veritable buffet of landscapes … each one painted with a unique palate of colour” provided the perfect setting for Huffington Post travel writer Charli Moore’s “freedom escape”. “Having just completed an epic 18-month…

Margot Henderson Remembers Childhood’s Odd Foods

Margot Henderson Remembers Childhood’s Odd Foods

“Margot Henderson is a lauded chef, cookery writer and the co-owner of Rochelle Canteen. First establishing herself at the French House in Soho, she is one of the pioneers of the seasonal…

Will Strang’s Efforts Prevail in 21st Century?

Will Strang’s Efforts Prevail in 21st Century?

The man attributed to inventing instant coffee, New Zealander David Strang, is mentioned in a Smithsonian magazine article on the history of the beverage and about the expansion of the instant coffee market into…

Virgin Media Chief Takes on Murdoch in Broadband Duel

Virgin Media Chief Takes on Murdoch in Broadband Duel

News Corporation trouble-shooter, Tom Mockridge, who jumped ship last year to take charge of Liberty Global’s most expensive acquisition, the $23b purchase of Britain’s cable champion Virgin Media, is now taking on his old…

Asians Flocking to New Zealand for a Better Life

Asians Flocking to New Zealand for a Better Life

New Zealand’s vibrant economy and tranquil lifestyle are attracting more migrants from Asia and elsewhere, with 40,000 newcomers expected to settle in the country this year. When Elzerie Alcaide (pictured), 33,  moved to Wellington from…

Banking Chief Works on His Communication Skills

Banking Chief Works on His Communication Skills

ANZ Australia chief executive, New Zealander Phil Chronican, is a numbers man who freely admits the “soft skills” have been his biggest challenge. Chronican has had a stellar career in finance, starting out in Treasury…

Distinguished Service Award for Ref Bob Francis

Distinguished Service Award for Ref Bob Francis

New Zealander Bob Francis has been presented with the International Rugby Board (IRB) Referee Award for Distinguished Service. During a memorable career that began in 1961, the former Masterton mayor, made an exceptional contribution at…

Mt Isa Potter Hopes for Renewed Interest in the Art

Mt Isa Potter Hopes for Renewed Interest in the Art

New Zealand-born potter Anne Dank, who has been a member of Queensland’s Mount Isa Potters Group for over forty years, is hoping to reinvigorate the club with new branding, bringing back the glory days…

Thai Street-Food Heaven in London

Thai Street-Food Heaven in London

Owner of London restaurant The Begging Bowl, New Zealand chef Jane Alty has it “sussed” according to Independent reviewer Lisa Markwell. “We’ve got in just under the wire, as lunch is served till…

Daughter’s Homage to Father Makes US Premiere

Daughter’s Homage to Father Makes US Premiere

Filmmaker Alyx Duncan’s conservationist father is the inspiration for her latest work, a short film mixing puppetry with live action called, The Tide Keeper. The film makes its premiere at the 2014 Palm Springs…

Sculptor’s Disused Detroit Factory Background for Big

Sculptor’s Disused Detroit Factory Background for Big

The new owner of Detroit’s “hulking old” gallery 333 Midland, transplanted New Zealander Rob Onnes, bought the space last year for his studio and this month, “Big Paintings @ the Factory” opens…

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Set to Hit Consoles

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Set to Hit Consoles

Popular zombie survival horror game DayZ, designed by New Zealander Dean Hall, may be coming to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 by the end of 2014. DayZ, which sells between 3000 to 4000…

Melbourne Singer Organises Her Artistic Impulses

Melbourne Singer Organises Her Artistic Impulses

“If you believe in the nurturing influence of parents upon their children, then Jess Cornelius is a worthy example,” says the Sydney Morning Herald’s Craig Mathieson. “The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, who performs with Teeth…

Bright Chelsea Square Home NZ-Inspired

Bright Chelsea Square Home NZ-Inspired

Free, easy, glamorous and family-orientated is how interior designer and architect Alison Henry sums up her style, and because she is originally from New Zealand, she says she always opts for “open,…

Jackson to Be Honoured with Walk of Fame Star

Jackson to Be Honoured with Walk of Fame Star

Sir Peter Jackson will be immortalised in brass as one of the movie world’s greats with the director set to get his name on a Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame star. “Being honoured with a…

Leaders Discuss Progress Report on Trans-Pacific Trade

Leaders Discuss Progress Report on Trans-Pacific Trade

At the White House meeting between Prime Minister John Key and President Barack Obama this week, the two leaders discussed a timeline to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal agreement by November when the…

Lydia Ko Pairs with Famed Caddy at Pinehurst

Lydia Ko Pairs with Famed Caddy at Pinehurst

Professional golfer Lydia Ko, 17, ranked No 3 in the world, has been keeping good company of late, playing a nine-hole practice round at Pinehurst recently with sexagenarian caddie Mike Cowan, who worked for…

Hell Is Love Now Sleeve Catches Grouper’s Eye

Hell Is Love Now Sleeve Catches Grouper’s Eye

New Zealand rockers Dead C are rated highly by Portland musician Grouper in his Inner Sleeve column for Wire magazine. “I bought this 7” because it was by Dead C, whose music I love; also, honestly,…

Literature and the Shopping Cart

Literature and the Shopping Cart

“In a brilliant essay in New Zealand’s Metro, the writer Eleanor Catton, winner of last year’s Man Booker prize for The Luminaries – a remarkable and groundbreaking novel – defines the incompatibility of art…

Gatland Made an OBE in Queen’s Birthday List

Gatland Made an OBE in Queen’s Birthday List

Wales rugby union coach Warren Gatland, who last year guided the British and Irish Lions to a 2-1 series victory in Australia and Wales to the Six Nations title, has been made an OBE…

Journalist Gives His Take on Japanese Cinema

Journalist Gives His Take on Japanese Cinema

Auckland-born Don Brown, journalist and fluent Japanese speaker, is writing a new bi-monthly column for the Asahi Shimbun on Japanese cinema. Brown studied journalism and Japanese at the Auckland University of Technology before moving to…

Princess Anne Unveils Archie McIndoe Statue

Princess Anne Unveils Archie McIndoe Statue

A bronze statue of plastic surgeon pioneer, New Zealander Sir Archibald McIndoe, has been unveiled by Princess Anne in East Grinstead, West Sussex, a short drive from Queen Victoria Hospital where he made his…

Dale Murray’s Secret-Sauce Idea for New-Thinking

Dale Murray’s Secret-Sauce Idea for New-Thinking

New Zealand-born entrepreneur Dale Murray found inspiration for her UK mobile phone top-up company, Omega Logic over drinks one night discussing the shortcomings of the IT industry with one of her co-founders. Murray quit a senior…

First Place with iPhone Travel Photograph

First Place with iPhone Travel Photograph

New Zealand travel, portrait and lifestyle photographer Adrienne Pitts has won 1st place in the travel category at the 2014 iPhone Photography Awards. “My iPhone is the camera that is always on me, and is…

Adams Remains Unbeaten with 50th Consecutive Win

Adams Remains Unbeaten with 50th Consecutive Win

Valarie Adams now has fifty wins in succession, the longest current winning streak in international athletics. The “most dominant athlete” at New York’s Adidas Track Classic Diamond League meet “extended a remarkable streak as New…

Art in New York Explores Where Urban Meets Natural

Art in New York Explores Where Urban Meets Natural

Four New Zealand artists will show their work as part of a group exhibition titled FORTY:67 at New York’s Artifact Gallery in Orchard Street on from 1 – 6 July. The title of…