NZ Wine’s Quantum Leap
In the 21st century, on-the-edge New Zealand towers on the global wine map with what is acknowledged as some of the world’s best sauvignon blanc (pinot noir is on the way). Europeans sit stunned by the…
Blog Archives
An Iron Wool
John Milner, a New Zealander noted for successfully opening the Eastern Bloc to the international wool trade, dies aged 84. During the cold war, a period when bureaucracy and suspicion were rife, Milner’s “exceptional charm and approachability”…
Tattoo Culture
Renowned photographer Chris Rainier travels to New Zealand for his latest project on the culture of tattooing and scarification. Rainer features Maori tattoo art in his latest National Geographic spread.
Golden Weather
Brian Sweeney address to Long Bay College Prizegiving, North Shore, Auckland, November 14, 2001. I am honoured to be here. It’s great to be with such a large group of people. Congratulations to the prize winners…
Apocraphylactic Realism
Another Aussie icon from Godzone: NZ-born Reg Mombassa is best known for the distinctive designs he creates for the Mambo surf-wear brand: bright, surreal visions of suburban life and beach culture. He is frequently…
More than Mansfield in Bloomsbury Group
Liz Calder, the NZedged head of Bloomsbury publishing (publishers of such literary luminaries as Michael Ondaatje, Will Self and John Irving), talks to The Guardian about the touted blockbuster battle, book and film drawn…
Lego Abandons Maori Names
Danish toymaker Lego is to stop making a multi-million-dollar range of toys after protests from New Zealand Maori groups, claiming the company had appropriated their language and images for the toy range. “Future launches of Bionicle sets…
Land of the Safe White Cloud
In a survey of travelers carried out by Condé Nast, New Zealand scores the highest for safety, with a reassuring 94.69. It is also voted the ninth most popular destination, beating out traditional favourites like Greece,…
South Sea’s Cruising
“… Come aboard … we’re expecting you”. NZ makes the Top Ten Winter Cruise destination listing in November’s Condé Nast Traveller.
NZ Dominates Transatlantic Race
New Zealand continues its domination of long distance rowing with two outstanding results from the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge. Matt Goodman and Steve Westlake arrive in Barbados after 42 days at sea. They were greeted by…
Jackson Wizard Director
Kiwi film guru Peter Jackson is in Empire Magazine’s poll of the top 50 directors.
Photography Master
American Photo Magazine lists New Zealander Regan Cameron as one of ten “photographic masters” throughout the world alongside such legends of the lens as Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz. The October edition features Cameron’s…
East side story
The famously diffuse art scene in LA seems to have finally found a centre, with galleries and artists increasingly coalescing around the east-side regions of Highland Park and Mount Washington. Much of the east-side’s…
Upside down-under architect
Paris-based Brendan MacFarlane and partner Dominique Jakob talk concept with Interview magazine. “At Georges (the applauded restaurant atop the Pompidou Center), we deformed the floor”, says MacFarlane. “Here … [referring to the duo’s concept…
Jet-powered Beer Cooler
Washington Post columnist Dave Barry raves about Kiwi inventor Simon Jansen: “this guy, using science, has found a new, innovative and, above all, loud way to cool beer, by using a jet engine.”
Frucor’s “V” for Victory
The fast-growing Kiwi success story Frucor is showing no signs of slowing. Forbes declares it among the top 20 small companies in the world – “the cream of the crop”. This international exposure garners international interest with…
Adopted Lambs for Japan
School children in Amagase, Japan have adopted lambs resident in Dunedin, Amagase’s sister city in New Zealand. The lambs have their own websites for the children to access and catch up on what’s happening with their…
“Gale From the Sea” Laid to Rest
More than 6ft tall, handsome and with the build of a rugby lock forward (which he was), John Platts-Mills blew into the English House of Commons as Labour MP in 1945 “like a gale…
NZ Leads “Twist and Sip”
Connoisseurs who once turned their noses up at screw-top wines rethink their opinions after early results from the Australian Wine Research Institute prove categorically that screwcapped wines suffer the least oxidation and are fresher and fruitier than…
Green Party Turns Red
The Green Party briefly turns red after the party swallows a report posing as part of a campaign to ban the substance Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO). Convinced it was genuine the party responds enthusiastically requesting more information to…
Kiwi Couture
Kiwi fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph, Hilary Alexander, pushes the New Zealand Edge into euro fashion: ” may be half a world away from Europe and America, but its half a year ahead…
Greener Than You Think
University of Canterbury’s Professor Denis Dutton (Arts and Letters Daily) reviews Bjorn Lomborg’s controversial new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, in the Washington Post: Dutton concludes that the “richly informative, lucid book” containing “bad news for Green…
Deals Abound in New Zealand
“Wow,” exclaims an article written by an American tourist holidaying in Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Americans are catching onto the favourable exchange rate and the relative equality of prices, making NZ “an adventure playground…
NZ Among Ten Most Competitive
New Zealand ranks amongst the ten most competitive countries in the world, according to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). New Zealand perches at #10 on the index, which the WEF argues is…
Maori 3G Deal Secured
Pan-African cell phone operator, Econet Wireless, signs a deal with Maori to operate their license for running third generation mobile phones. The license was set aside last year by the New Zealand government for…
Stella food in New York
Stella, a dark, candlelit bistro garnering acclaim in New York, is owned by Anna Weinberg and Paul Masters, a husband-and-wife team from New Zealand. “It has a comforting niceness about it,” writes food critic…
Adding Inspiration to Education
Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi&Saatchi, is appointed “CEO in Residence” at Cambridge University’s Judge Institute of Management Studies. “My role is to encourage and inspire young people to dream, to believe and to achieve – to…
Alan MacDiarmid
For a hundred years young graduates have been told that “there’s a great future in plastics.” That exhortation continues to have currency today, thanks to the work of New Zealand born and educated scientist…
#46 Alan McDiamond Becomes Nobel Laureate
Edge Message #46 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM GLOBAL COMMUNITY POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE We publish today a new Edge Mailbox, 100- plus messages affirming New Zealandness, celebrating edge spirit and heroes, aroha, being homesick…
Bridging the Gap
The Computers in Homes initiative based in Wellington has received international recognition for helping bridge the digital divide. So far, over 300 computers have been distributed to those who would most benefit. The Stockholm…
New Inventions Limits Environmental Damage
New Zealand, long recognised for its environmental innovation, makes another advance. Researches at Massey University have found a unique technique for the quick and safe treatment and removal of hazardous chemical spills. The portable unit draws effluent…
Kiwi Designers Spruce Up
Zeitgiest wunderkind Tyler Brule, founder of the phenomenally successful Wallpaper magazine, launches an even more exclusive title: Spruce. A bi-annual publication focusing on the very best of global fashion, it’s no suprise that two…
Her Majesty
A preteen girl’s obsessive quest to cross paths with young Queen Elizabeth during latter’s 1953 New Zealand tour provides the charming focus for Her Majesty, L.A based director Mark Gordon’s polished feature debut. New…
America’s Cup 2003
See the ranking of the announced and unannounced contenders for the next America’s Cup as judged by ESPN celeb Gary Jobson. Team New Zealand is the favourite and is ranked number one based on management, funding, design,…
PDF Copy
Ceci n’est pas le hype New Zealander Jennifer Flay, owner of one of Paris’s “edgiest contemporary art establishments” – Galerie Jennifer Flay – talks to Interview magazine’s October French flair special. Flay has gathered a…
Author graced with further award
Author Patricia Grace is honoured with the 21 Kiriyama Pacific Rim book prize for her novel Dogside Stories. The award was established to promote cross-cultural understanding.
A Wired Army
The NZ Army is the first in the world to recruit online, and expects to cut the process from 4 to 6 weeks to just 14 days. “If we can offer a way that is faster,…
More Margaret Mahy Magic
The multi-award-winning author, who was first published and praised in the United States over 30 years ago, has had her books translated into 15 languages. She has won literary prizes in the UK, Italy…
X – Woman
Anna Paquin is playing another complex and haunted character – but this time on the New York stage. “I don’t think it’s anything in my own life,” she says. “Maybe it’s a fascination of…
The Person is Political
Voters across the political spectrum have convinced Georgina Beyers not to quit politics after she said she was stepping down. “The fact that a transsexual, a former sex worker and a Labour candidate could win the historically…
“For You to See Our World the Right Way Round”
Allen Curnow, one of New Zealand’s great 20th-century writers and poets, has died in Auckland. Daily Telegraph: “regarded by many as New Zealand’s greatest poet” Curnow helped define a separate NZ identity in verse,…
Virtual Spectator is Simply Red
Fans can watch the latest Simply Red concert from all angles live via the internet thanks to rapidly growing Kiwi software company Virtual Spectator. “Watching live footage from the concert they can create their own unique…
Praise for Jewish Museum
Praise keeps coming for the new Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the exhibition curated by Kiwis Ken Gorbey and Nigel Cox. Gorbey and Cox realise that sympathy-inducing gimmicks are pathetically unequal to the gravity…
More to Crowe About
Russell Crowe excels on the screen, and now with his band 30-odd Foot of Grunts he is tackling the music scene as well. The bands first album, Bastard Life of Clarity, was released this month.
Johnson and the Whale
Mark Johnson is literally leading the way with research into whale behaviour – part of his work involves attaching digital recorders to 60-foot sperm whales out in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists like Johnson are trying…
Hoop Dream
The Tall Blacks NZ Basketball Team has shocked Australia, winning their 3-game series to earn a place among the world’s top basketball nations at the World Titles next year. Says NZ coach Tab Baldwin: “Today, it’s a…
The Fox Boy
The 19th-century studio portrait of a young Maori boy aged five or six, dignified but standing taut and uncommunicative, captured the imagination of New Zealand writer Peter Walker, The result was The Fox Boy…
Granted Respect
“About a third of the 96 professional sailors competing in the Volvo Ocean Race are New Zealanders. But only one, Grant Dalton, commands instant recognition and awed respect from his international peer group as well as his…
Six Months in a Leaky Boat
Has the round the world race – now the Volvo Ocean Challenge – lost its edge? Sir Peter Blake thinks so. “In the 1970s, adventurers in leaky oilskins set out to sea in yachts that by…
Whale of a tale
A combination of German and New Zealand investors will finance Whale Rider, the film adaptation of…
Kiwi Bashing is No Joke
Air New Zealand’s role in the financial difficulties of Ansett Australia has created heated comment in the Australian media. “In recent days it has not been difficult to come by jokes and derisive comments about New Zealanders….
September 11
New Zealanders and Australians unite in New York City to share their grief at the loss of antipodean lives on September 11th. Kiwi Alan Beaven, a leading environmental lawyer based in California, was on the hijacked plane that…
Famous NZ Plants
The Times explores the unlikely problem of growing tea trees like they do down in New Zealand.
ANZUS Shmanzus
“The Chinese are not coming, the Russians are not coming, the Indonesians are not even coming. Time has moved on.” Helen Clark doesn’t miss ANZUS – and doesn’t think she will any time soon.
