Diversionary Tactics
Victoria’s government is using New Zealand’s successful diversion scheme to “break the cycle of crime” for young offenders.
Blog Archives
Williams Foundation
Kiwi super-caddie Steve Williams will auction “stuff” from Tiger Woods and other top golfers to fund promising New Zealand talent.
Different way of seeing
“It’s generally accepted that what really great artists do is change the way that we see things, and Rosalie . . . changed the way we see our country,” says Australian arts writer Hannah…
Too Tricky Poneke
The King William’s College quiz is “fiendishly” difficult – but one question should be easy for Wellingtonians.
Pooch Smooch
New Zealand firefighter Trevor Hill has a new best friend – Oscar, the dog he revived with the canine kiss of life.
Private Giant
Dozens of giant squid have washed up on New Zealand beaches, but no one has yet sighted the monster alive.
NZ film in NY
“2001: A New Zealand Film Odyssey” currently running in New York festures “new, rediscovered and undiscovered” New Zealand films, including hot-now The Price of Milk and classics Utu and War Stories Our Mothers Never Told…
Good Mooves
“New Zealand’s dairy industry enjoys a strong position from which to attain leadership status in the global marketplace, especially with the recently inked merger pact between its two biggest players,” says Alan Jackson of Boston Boston Consulting…
Virtual COO
New Zealand sport-viewtechies Virtual Spectator have appointed veteran sports exec Alexander Brown as President and Chief Operating Officer.
Coastal Edge
Victoria looks to follow New Zealand’s lead on marine reserves, seen as a “back-up” for species conservation, and a way of replenishing fishing stocks. Prince Charles supports a similar idea in the Bay if Biscay.
Big Job for McKinnon
“Turbulence in Zimbabwe, civil war in Sierra Leone, the violent overthrow of prime ministers in Fiji and the Solomons; the Commonwealth’s programme of improving the quality of democracy ran into political setbacks in 2000. On the other…
Old play, new tricks
1975 New Zealand play Mothers and Fathers gets a convincing makeover for Sydney’s Fringe – “even though it’s slightly archaic to think that $50,000 could buy you a dream home in this town”.
Greenstone Hit
New Zealand historical drama Greenstone infiltrates Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
Cup Challenge
Seattle telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is sending a team to challenge for the cup – American sailors well leavened with ex-Team NZites.
Take Your Kit
Tourism New Zealand has a handy pack for travelling Kiwis, useful for defecting question about the number of sheep at home or the name of that atom-splitting guy…
The authors’ luck
The selection of New Zealand novels Baby No-Eyes, The Vintner’s Luck and Believers to the Bright Coast on the short list of six for the new A$40,000 Tasmanian Pacific Region Prize for best novel…
Midsumma Dream
New Zealander Nigel Higgins is the man in charge with making Midsumma, Melbourne’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender festival, the queen of events.
Tax Miles
Is the New Zealand system of an odometer-based tax on diesel vehicles the best option for funding roads?
Keep Your Skin On
A New Zealand-developed vaccine “switches off” debillitating skin disease psoriasis.
Royal Bird
“No one who has seen an albatross on the wing is ever likely to forget the experience,” says Prince Charles. New Zealand’s Chatham Island albatross is down to 4000 pairs.
Extreme Edge of Life
Thermophile archaeons thrive at temperatures hot enough to boil the flesh off your bones. Layers of extremophile life form flourish in multi-coloured rings in Rotorua’s thermal springs.
Neil plugged in
New Zealand maestro Neil Finn talks live, performs and announces the launch of his new website.
Beating the Sheep
New Zealand’s legendary 20:1 sheep to human ratio is in decline, expected to fall to 10:1 by 2005.
Trailer Lords
“There’s an advert currently going out on Virgin radio encouraging listeners to go to the cinema this Friday. It does urge you go to a film but only because this is the first opportunity…
First Baggins off the rack
“The most ambitious undertaking in the film world recently has been Peter Jackson’s filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand. If the results are as epic as the production, the first…
Youth Voice
Wellington’s youth council is part of the international phenomenon of youth engagement, pushing youngsters into leadershipand decision making roles.
Janet and John Revamped
Janet and John, the New Zealand-authored, internationally successful learn-to-read books of the fifties and sixties are making a come-back in ethnically-inclusive, non-sexist but still easy-to-read versions.
Get out of the Water…
8 people, 21 of them in serious trouble, were rescued or ordered out of the water on a single day after unusual currents hit the Bay of Plenty.
Running Tragedy
New Zealand’s world record runner and Olympic gold medallist John Walker’s Parkinson’s highlights the increasing incidence of the disease.
Deva Diva
New Zealand-born Cherry Bishop’s signature fashion boutique is a headline act in New York’s East Village, a place with a history of “anarchy, counter-culture and edginess”.
Maximum Coverage
Prodigy frontman Maxim sports New Zealand-made jewelry – two Ms, also the cover art on his new album Hell’s Kitchen.
Scary candy
“Watch out for the scary-sounding Mega Perky Nana from New Zealand,” now starring at Cybercandy, along with co-Kiwi sweet, the Pinky bar.
More Cate
“I’m so excited to be doing all three movies,” says Blanchett. “It’s thrilling. I wanted this project so badly. We’re talking Peter Jackson. And Tolkien – my God! That man, Tolkien, created a whole…
Baby Step
Researchers at Auckland University have uncovered a gene that may be linked to premature menopause, a condition that prevents up to 1% of women from bearing children.
Holiday high
New Zealander Russell Brice plans to build the world’s highest hotel – at base camp on Everest’s Tibetan flank. The hotel aims to be “a flagship of green construction techniques,” using solar power and…
Blue Star Buyout
International book-giant W H Smith is in negotiations to buy Whitcoull’s, New Zealand’s largest book-sellers.
Kingsley Link
Phil Kingsley-Jones manages Jonah – his son, Kingsley Jones, has been likened to All Black Josh Kronfeld.
Splitting the Difference
Grant Dalton’s playing canny in the Race, “splitting the difference between east and west,” lying comfortably in second place.
Change your life
Get prepared for Rings-mania: Brush up on your Tolkien makes number 16 on the list of 99 ways to change your life.
Law-man
The New Zealand state schooling system set Jolyon Maugham on the path to barrister-hood in London – a profession he describes as “a great intellectual challenge”.
Dolly Good
Ron James, managing director of PPL and the closest thing Dolly has to a father, got his start at New Zealand-spawned pharmo-giant Glaxo. Now PPL is using New Zealand cows in research aiming to produce drugs to…
Blinding Brilliance
New Zealand sociologist James Flynn is unconvinced that increasing IQ results (‘the Flynn effect’), actually means we’re getting smarter: “If people were really getting as smart as the test scores suggest, we should be…
Rings v Potter
“If the budget on Lord of the Rings is sky-high, so are expectations surrounding the films. Fans of Tolkien’s 1,000-page trilogy about hobbits and elves in the fantasy land called Middle Earth are truly…
Robber Robbie
That’s “my intellectual property on his shoulder,” says leading haka specialist Pita Sharples, referring to the tattoo sported by Brit singer Robbie Williams.
Major Milk Player
New Zealand’s newly-minted Global Dairy Company has the size to “become a serious challenger to the likes of Nestle, Danone and Kraft” in world diary markets.
Ocoloco in the Wairarapa
Wairarapa company Siliconblue has scooped venture funding for its Ocoloco software, designed to replace physical Web servers with a combination of software and service.
Burn Out
Earth hits the nadir of its orbit in summer – the mere 147 million kilometres between us and the sun mean New Zealanders face “extreme” ultra-violet levels.
Bank on Campbell
Michael Campbell, in “irresistible” form, caps a brilliant year by claming the title of New Zealand’s best-paid sportsman from Steve Williams, caddy for Tiger Woods.
Anzacs?
New Zealand voice in Sydney Bernard Lagan dissects the question of Federation with Australia: “It is unlikely that what modern New Zealanders most define themselves as – a nation of Pacific peoples – could have come…
Hunter Becomes Hunted
Diving for crayfish off the Coromandel, British diver Peter Fuller was hooked by a passing fisherman: “the idiot was rigged for marlin but caught me,” said Fuller, still nursing the hand he was hooked through.
