Blog Archives

Compudigm is Watching You

Compudigm is Watching You

Wellington compu-data wizards Compudigm nominated for prestigious 2001 Computerworld Honours (Smithsonian). The nomination recognises the “spectacular success” of Compudigm’s Telstra Sydney Olympics Project.

Orchid Can-do

Orchid Can-do

Volunteers at the new International Orchid Centre in Florida will “communicate their enthusiasm for orchids and an attitude of ‘Hell, if I can grow them, you can too’,” says American Orchid Society director of education, Kiwi…

Oh Lovely Olearia

Oh Lovely Olearia

New Zealand olearias feature in celeb-gardner Penelope Hobhouse’s top picks.

Everybody Wants a Piece of You

Everybody Wants a Piece of You

“New Zealand has given us plenty of stuff. Russell Crowe, Crowded House, Maori bouncers who scare the crap out of you. They can have it all back if they will only let us have…

Fine Drinking

Fine Drinking

Palliser Estate Sauvignon with “real intensity, poise and class”. “Brilliant reds” are “the undiscovered splendors of New Zealand”. Wine of the week: Stoneleigh Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.  

Victory: The Aftermath

Victory: The Aftermath

More stories from across the globe: “this moment is directly connected to those childhood imaginings” quotes The Advertiser; Crowe “shocked and emotional” in the LA Times; “I was thinking this is one of those bad…

Here with Lee Majors

Here with Lee Majors

NYNZer Brendan Donovan scores Best Cinematography award for his short film Here at the Angelciti Film Festival LA and his star Lee Majors wins Best Actor at the Santa Monica International Film Festival. Majors…

Protest Flotilla

Protest Flotilla

“The people who live around the Japanese reactor that the plutonium is destined for don’t want it, Australians and New Zealanders don’t want their seas being used to transport it and Pacific Islanders are vehemently opposed,” says…

Flying High

Flying High

The contemporary kite industry is still riding the buzz generated by New Zealander Peter Lynn’s 80’s creation, the kite-powered buggy.

Science Star

Science Star

New Zealand planktonologist Allison Joy Haywood is one of ten international recipients of a UNESCO-L’OREAL Fellowship for developing research talent.

Bad Bird

Bad Bird

“Even in New Zealand there are sheep farmers that lose stock to wildlife, namely the Kea, a large native and protected parrot. It may seem incredible, but it’s true.”

Circus Life

Circus Life

New Zealand Olympic gymnast David Phillips has given up the competitive grind for life as a circus performer.  

Lamb OK

Lamb OK

I will buy in New Zealand lamb, but I won’t buy anything else says a British butcher feeling the pinch of foot and mouth.

She’s Right

She’s Right

New Zealand business confidence hits two-year high.  

Sweet Tooth

Sweet Tooth

Dental-wise, honey’s sweet as says Waikato scientist Dr Peter Molan.

Environmental Energy

Environmental Energy

A proto-type has been built for New Zealand’s first alternative power plant, using water to power a dual-cell hydrogen power station designed to supply energy to a timber company.

Kiwis in Oz

Kiwis in Oz

Taking the edge to the world, Russell Crowe and former Australian Channel 9 boss, now Telstra board member Sam Chisholm are examples of Kiwi excellence that “will always float to the top”.

Furry Love

Furry Love

Wellington residents disturbed by amorous possums engage in chemical warfare to keep the peace.

Great Spinner

Great Spinner

New Zealand-born Clarrie Grimmet’s 216 wickets from 37 tests earned him a place in Australia’s pantheon, despite a rift with the big man of Australian cricket.

Fleet of Foot

Fleet of Foot

Ex-New Zealand detective Cheryl Fleet now runs international tours catering to women on journeys of adventure and renewal.

Ciao, Gladiatore!

Ciao, Gladiatore!

Crowe-band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts gig Milan for Children in Crisis fund-raiser.

Gene Genie

Gene Genie

Edge Gene Therapist and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Jefferson Medical College Philadelphia Matthew During, releases a first and major step forward in the prevention and possible treatment of stomach cancers through a technique involving oral doses…

Classical Stirrer

Classical Stirrer

“By instinct a man of the left and no respecter of reputations,” influential Cambridge Classical scholar Professor Robert Coleman “brought from his native New Zealand a suspicion of the great English institutions and took delight in expressing…

Living Well

Living Well

Buzzy Auckland hits the big time, ranked 7th best-living city world-wide. Wellington also cruised high, beating London, Paris and New York at 23rd equal.

View From an Ass

View From an Ass

Masterton man Geoff Roder will fight for his right to watch the drive-in from his donkey.

Sea of Faith

Sea of Faith

What do edge theologian Lloyd Geering and Lisa Simpson have in common?

Natural Edge

Natural Edge

New Zealand’s innovative network of marine reserves are seen as a prototype for international action to preserve the health of the ocean.

Urban Vine

Urban Vine

Fast-food outlets and urban life now surround Babich Wine’s Henderson vineyard, but Joe and Peter Babich go on producing fine westie wine.

Crowe’s Upward Flight

Crowe’s Upward Flight

Future films Flora Plum and John Nash biopic will “stretch Crowe to show the extent of his capability and range”.

One Neil

One Neil

Neil Finn tours the UK and Ireland later this year in support of his album One Nil. His current mini-tour is rarking it up in London: “This one-off gig felt like a party where…

Garageland sale

Garageland sale

Auckland indie-poppers Garageland team with UK distributors foodchainrecords to release Do What You Want Stateside. PDF Copy

Love Who You Are

Love Who You Are

High spirits and grief at Hero, New Zealand’s premier gay pride event.

Adventure on Air

Adventure on Air

The mini-series of the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race, run in the South Island last November, will air on the Discovery in late April, showcasing some of the New Zealand’s toughest terrain.  

Travel Bug

Travel Bug

Travel is at the top of the spending list for young UK professionals. Exotic New Zealand is among the choicest destinations on offer.

Altogether a delight

Altogether a delight

The new Museum of Scotland launches itself with Altogether a Delightful Country, a display focusing on immigrant Scots in Otago.  

Argument Success

Argument Success

The New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team carried their point, finishing sixth at the World Schools’ Debating Championships in Johannesburg.

Intimacy and success

Intimacy and success

New Zealander Kerry Fox wins Silver Bear (best actress) at the Berlin Film Festival for her “searing and explicit” performance in Intimacy, winner of the Golden Bear for best film. Fox was unable to…

Tolkien Talk

Tolkien Talk

‘I’ve never met or worked with a director with a more comprehensive artillery of qualities for a big project like this than Peter Jackson. Someone should give him a medal pretty damn quickly” -…

Sydders Running

Sydders Running

The Sydney Half-Marathon turns ten. Back in 1996, New Zealand woman Nyla Carroll won the women’s section so fast the official nearly missed her dash over the finish line.  

Cyber-verse

Cyber-verse

Cultural export poet Andrew Johnston pushes poetry on the web.

Hollywood outgrows itself

Hollywood outgrows itself

Gladiator, filmed in Morocco, Malta and the UK, directed by a Brit, scored by a German and “sexed up by the hottest New Zealander on the planet” is a new breed of block-buster, a…

Making Waves

Making Waves

“Where once New Zealand seemed bent on shrinking the public sector to anorexic proportions, it is now pumping it full of new blood. New Zealand has a long record of setting global trends. It was first…

Down Right Funny

Down Right Funny

“I’m sure New Zealand has its own sense of humour. I know so, because I once wrote a preview of the rugby world cup for a satirical magazine here, a piece which represented what I hoped…

Big, Bad Bird

Big, Bad Bird

“A San Francisco Zoo employee was injured yesterday when a 5-foot tall bird native to New Zealand tore into his leg with its powerful claws … The animals are found in the rain forests of New…

US Feels the Edge

US Feels the Edge

The US needs a fillip if it is to maintain inventiveness and compete with up-and-coming centres of innovation like New Zealand.  

Snow Queen

Snow Queen

New Zealand snowboard star Juliane Bray crowned world champ at Japan’s World Cup Snowboard.

Capital Style

Capital Style

“Deregulation and the cosmopolitan tastes of a new generation of globe trotting Kiwis have transformed Wellington from a gray town for civil servants into a cultural haven with a thriving cafe scene, a budding movie industry, a…

No talk, just sex

No talk, just sex

Intimacy is a smouldering film about a man who is living in a basement in south London who has a sex affair with a woman at his place every Wednesday afternoon. They don’t talk,…

#35 The Global Life of New Zealanders

#35 The Global Life of New Zealanders

Edge Message #35 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Today’s download of news, views, provocations and affirmations includes: NEWZEDGE 120 stories of New Zealand Edgers scorching the globe: Russell Crowe gets Oscar nom…

Bank On It

Bank On It

Here it comes – the People’s Bank. Lower fees, more branches, but there is a risk.  

Into the Black

Into the Black

New Zealand leads the pack in debt reduction, cutting government debt from 65% of GDP in 1993 to 31% in 1999.  

Face the Message

Face the Message

New Zealand tech-designers LifeFX’s Facemail programme spreads the word about a deal with major photo company Kodak.

Cold shoulder

Cold shoulder

Historic moment: the first shipment of frozen meat left New Zealand 119 years ago.

Milk magic

Milk magic

Director Harry Sinclair explains the magic behind The Price of Milk: “We put a window frame on a dolly and sat Danielle Coramck and the camera on the dolly. And they were moving along Karl…

Sooty Mania

Sooty Mania

New Zealanders respect a real man – or a real guinea pig. Sooty, the rodent famous for fathering 43 babies in one sweaty night, received a large volume of Valentines postmarked New Zealand. “He has…

Nick Heir to Jack, Peter, John

Nick Heir to Jack, Peter, John

Hutt Valley high school miler Nick Willis has become the fastest miler in New Zealand history, beating the times of Jack Lovelock, Peter Snell and John Walker at the famous Wanganui Cook Gardens.