Ray the Negotiator
Accused of taking illegal photos from the roof of her truck, Englishwoman abroad Lindsay Hawdon found herself at the mercy of the Ugandan Army while touring Africa. It took the calm thinking of her Kiwi driver…
Blog Archives
How to Command Attention, Change Minds, and Influence People
Yes! we can finally tell you how to be the better you: the Dallas Morning Herald business section offers their guide to summertime self-improvement, including this “top investment” from Harry Mills of Lower Hutt, Artful Persuasion: How…
Ian Athfield: last of the intelligent bohemians
As if the rugby wasn’t enough: renowned Australian playwright Alex Buzo advances our architect fair, calling Athfield a member “of a species now extinct in Australia, the intelligent bohemian.” Getting all postmodern about phonebooks,…
New Zealand weaned spin-king appointed to Buckingham Palace
We are amused – a colonial has been given the job of putting spin on the damming corgi stories (head of public relations for HM the Q). Currently head of communications for British Airways,…
Fcuk Judge Graffiti
Singapore is in uproar over an advertising campaign for a British clothing company that uses a certain four-letter word, yet as the Straitstimes reports, judges in New Zealand have been scribbling it on their folders for…
“I Never Thought the World Cup Was So Important to So Many People.”
Call it Kiwi modesty, call it naive call of the week, but we had to mention it somewhere. After all it may not be New Zealand’s proudest, or smartest, moment, but in terms of international achievements…
Sign of the Times
A Transit New Zealand road sign in the South island, linking the towns of Clinton and Gore, is attracting the attention of the White House.
Sun, sea, sand and … guns: Palm Beach Hotel (Gaza)
New Zealand journalist Phil Reeveson, writing for the Independent, visits the chaotic and ‘screwed up’ Gaza Strip – the conflicted strip of land between Egypt and Israel. Including a visit to a Jewish luxury…
John Clarke Throws a Gumboot at Australian PM
New Zealand comedian John Clarke has demonstrated “speechwriting at its finest” in the ABC TV spoof about the Sydney Olympics, The Games. Penning the words for John Howard, actor, Clarke showed John Howard, Prime…
Te Whaea opens Options
Options, a tertiary dance festival for Australian and New Zealand students held in Sydney, was joined on its gala day by the New Zealand School of Dance. The Kiwi dancers shone in a generally…
New Zealand High School Dropout Blazes a Trail in Bit Valley
Terrie Lloyd runs one of Bit Valley’s (Tokyo’s answer to Silicon) most successful start-up companies, Daijob.com, the largest on-line recruiting firm in Japan, as well as his English- language J@pan Inc magazine, which has virtually no competitors….
Human Gene in Kiwi Sheep
We get enough flak for our supposed close relationship with sheep, but this is ridiculous. Thousands of sheep are walking around with a gene inside them which, it turns out, came from a blood sample donated…
Japan Harpoons ANZAC Conservation Efforts
Japan has gestured towards restarting ‘scientific’ whale-killing, despite stern objection form New Zealand and Australia and environmental groups. New Zealand IWC Commissioner Jim McLay, who is seen as a key anti-whaling speaker inside the commission, said the…
Chris Cairns Nominated for International Cricketer of the Year
Daniel Vettori was also nominated for International Young Cricketer of the Year. Unfortunately the Aussies took out the double with Glenn McGrath and Brent Lee taking the respective awards.
Classy Champagne
New world producers, with the help of the champagne houses, are producing great tasting sparkling wines that are making the originals uncomfortable. Leading the bunch is Daniel Le Brun, making “some rich, classy Kiwi bubbles.”
Gung Ho Tourism
After China agreed to grant New Zealand “approved destination” status, Air China, the national carrier, will begin direct flights to Auckland, a move likely to spur further the growth of New Zealand tourism and NZ-China friendship. For…
Bilbo buzz spawns rumour about a hoard of treasure
The Lord of the Rings folklore continues to spread. Fox chronicles the Ring rage: the record breaking previews, websites, esoteric and precious fans, mammoth investment and eager anticipation that the project has spawned. “To…
The Outsider: Huck Finn on Heroin
Alison Maclean brings verge vision to the story of an American outsider. Jesus’ Son, an adaptation of a story by cult American author Dennis Johnson, is about a 7’s junkie who finds redemption. The…
#20 Celebration of New Zealand
Edge Message #20 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE.COM COMMUNITY In NEWZEDGE today, the Kiwis who are upsetting assumptions, rocking equilibriums and putting edge back into the globe include: Romance, roadkill in Alison Maclean’s new film…
Sheep Joke
Alliance MP Grant Gillon faces being baa-ed from parliament after making a wise-crack (more commonly used by Australians) about the relationship between sheep and opposition politicians. The remark was made during a debate on the experimental use…
New Zealand Seeks New Relationship with Korea
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Phil Goff said his country will seek to support the process for peace on the Korean peninsula “through a developing dialogue and new relationship” with the Democratic People’s Republic…
Kiwi Killer Lady of Kingairloch
In a shooting career from 1930 to 1999 the huntress of the highlands Patricia Strutt shot more than 2000 stags. With her death, aged 89, the Scottish highlands lost one of its most formidable…
Fortified Cereals May Reduce Heart Risk
Researchers from University of Otago report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that folic acid supplements and fortified cereals are more effective than a diet rich in naturally occurring folates in reducing levels of the heart…
New Zealand Not Giving Up on South Pacific Whale Sanctuary
A bid by New Zealand and Australia to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds failed at the International Whaling Commission Meeting in Adelaide. Despite securing two-thirds of the vote, they were blocked by the hard-lobbying…
The White Sox’ Hurling Hope
As the New Zealand women’s softball team hopes to reclaim glory at the Olympics, they place a great deal of expectation on the shoulders of Gina Weber as the Vancouver Sun reports: “There was a -time…
Cate’s Elvish Ways: standing up for the sisters in
Cate Blanchett, playing the role of the enigmatic and beautiful elf queen Gandriel in Lord of the Rings, found a unique way of keeping up with the lads on set – she wore platform…
The Edge Beckons
The Financial Times ponders years of reform, New Zealand’s loss of confidence in its ability to survive in an era of globalisation and evaluates the context: what is the role of a small western economy on the…
War and Peace: Kiwi UN Official Warns of Half-job Solutions
As the United Nations administration in Kosovo prepares to shut down, its job of emergency relief deemed to be over, Kiwi UN special envoy Dennis McNamara has some advice for the next great international mission to rebuild…
Stead and Knox star at Melbourne Writer’s Festival
New Zealand writers CK Stead “whose new novel has earned rave reviews in Britain and the US” and Elizabeth Knox feature among global talent including Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson, Zadie Smith (White Teeth), Alain…
Want Twins? Ewe May be in Luck
New Zealand scientists at the AgResearch Institute have found a gene responsible for twins in sheep, a discovery that could lead to understanding human fertility treatments and contraceptives, as well as increased agricultural production. Sue Galloway…
Frozen Tomb of Kiwi War Pilot Uncovered
The RAF has never forgotten a Kiwi pilot, flight officer Arthur Round, and his crew who died when their aircraft crashed in a glacier in northern Iceland during a World War Two mission. An…
Delightful Dowderwell’s Delphiniums
The Scotsman’s gardening writer Carolyn Spray recommends an esoteric Wanganui website: “If you’re as passionate about delphiniums as I am, you’ll love this site … All about growing, pests and diseases likely to occur, it also has…
“Absence of Cutting Edge” Proves Scots Undoing
The All Blacks proved the theory and continued with breathtaking conviction to erase uncomfortable memories when they trounced Scotland 48-14. As Andy Nicol, the Scotland captain remarked later, “that is as ruthless a team as I…
Big cheese #2
New Zealander Errol J. Baird runs a food importing business in Jamaica. “He offers to the discerning gourmet New Zealand cheese and wine.”
Enjoy: Lattes and Colas Not as Dangerous as Thought
A study by the Australian and New Zealand Food authority has found that the caffeine pick-me-ups effect in tea, coffee, and soft drinks did less harm than previously thought. “We have been drinking tea, coffee and…
TimeOut Gets into NZ’s Real Crown Jewels
Time Out’s Mary Ann Percy provides an insider’s guide to New Zealand’s recondite attractions. Everybody knows about New Zealand’s tourist standards (Jonah and the whales), but “get your A into G: have you slipped…
Piecing Together the WTO After Seattle
Kiwi World Trade Organisation head Mike Moore urges resolve and ponders the failure to launch a new round of trade talks in protest-ridden Seattle. “The WTO is at the heart of a passionate debate about the defining…
Out of Africa Theory of Evolution
The Economist ponders the ‘where did we come from’ question, referring to the out-of-Africa theory first developed by New Zealand biochemist, the revolutionary Allan Wilson, and his colleague Rebecca Cann. They studied genetic material from a variety…
Mandy Smith: Hockey’s Answer to Anna Kournikova
In an article deploring the emphasis on sex over substance in the sporting press, the Irish Times compares New Zealand hockey’s Mandy Smith to Anna Kournikova. This, following a 3-0 drubbing of World and Olympic champions Australia….
Cuizean
Kiwi super-chef Peter Gordon is one of the “illustrious visitors” concocting culinary creations at Henrietta Green’s Food Lovers’ Fair. The fair brings together specialist food producers and suppliers hand-picked by the redoubtable Miss Green…
Otherworldly Sauvignon Blancs
The New York Press predicts a sauvignon blanc summer – great for when the mercury rises. “The genuinely good stuff–particularly the world-class sauvignon blancs of New Zealand’s Marlborough region – tastes like alcoholic Fresca. Tastes almost otherworldly,…
Jesus and the Second Coming
Kiwi director Alison Maclean wowed Cannes with the moody Crush, then took a seven year maturing process, through Sex and the City, Homicide and a Natalie Imbruglia music video, to release the indie-hit Jesus’…
Peter Jackson: “One of the Most Creative Directors Around”
Chicago Tribune, backs the talent of Jackson and a “top notch cast” as Hollywood indemnity for the Lord of the Rings. Jackson was recently voted 7th most promising director for the 21st century in…
Lisa Harrow brings Wit to the stage in New York
Kiwi Lisa Harrow plays the lead in what the Times calls “a theatrical experience of which legends are made”. She plays Dr. Vivian Bearing, an uncompromising professor of literature who learns that intellectual brilliance…
Harold Williams
New Zealander Harold Williams was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s greatest linguist. He is said to have spoken over 58 languages fluently, as well as some of their dialects….
Robert Burchfield
Dr Robert Burchfield was a world-renowned scholar. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “the greatest living lexicographer”, he played a crucial role in the study of the sources and development of the English language. Born…
Cyborg creatives
New Zealand artists working with cutting edge computer-based new media technology feature in Art Asia Pacific’s feature “Interface: visions of the body and machine”. Mauren Lander and John Fairclough are integrating traditional Maori weaving…
Whatever you do don’t go in the water
More bloody innovation saw Colenso pick up a Golden Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival. The campaign to promote the opening of the movie Scream, unlike another Kiwi winner at Cannes, involved a little…
Phil Keoghan Spot on as Adventure Crazy Host
Remembered in New Zealand as host of Spot On, 3.45pm Live, Phil Keoghan has made a name for himself in the US as host and executive producer of Phil Keoghan’s Adventure Crazy, a popular…
Breath of fresh air from ideas company wins Cannes award
Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland won a Golden Lion at the renowned Cannes Advertising Festival for its innovative solution for the Auckland Regional Council Anti-Pollution campaign. The campaign involved local artists decorating stormwater grates to…
Stories from the Diaspora
“I write to give voice to those who are otherwise lost or forgotten completely in Pacific literature: young girls and women.” Pasifika Press in New Zealand snapped up Sia Figiel’s where we once…
Building Rome and other literary Pastimes
“I like computer games – of the world domination kind.” She-Devil/New Zealand reared novelist Fay Weldon, in the Independent’s 50-best list, admits she has a soft-spot for empire building, channelling her desires through computer…
New Zealand Edges into the Top-twenty, but Gives Women a Fair Go
For the seventh consecutive year, Canada ranks overall as the best place in the world to live according to the UN Human Development Report 2000. New Zealand is in twentieth place behind Austria, Ireland…
Kiwi Bomb Victim Determined to Rebuild His Life
Gary Reid, whose body was devastated by a nail bomb explosion at the Admiral Duncan Pub (London) last year, vows to recover fully and without malice, “I am looking forward to getting an artificial…
Giesen Estate Best White of the Show at Prestigous US Awards
Giesen Wine Estate Double Gold 1999 Sauvignon Blanc, from Marlborough, has won best white of the show at America’s most important wine-judging event, the San Francisco International Wine Judging Competition. With 2,800 wines from around the world entered, it…
Rogue Anna Paquin is Premiere Cover mutant
Playing the character of ‘Rogue’ in Bryan Singer’s (Usual Suspects) blockbuster adaptation of comic legend X-Men, Anna Paquin makes the special edition cover of July’s Premiere. Like Paquin’s Oscar winning acting talent, Rogue is…
