Local Wineries Entice Chinese Market
New Zealand winemakers are preparing for a major push in China this month with their biggest-ever road show taking place in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. The New Zealand government and wine industry are…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Banking on Nigeria
Stephen Jennings, the New Zealand-born founder and chief executive of Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital, is setting up a consumer finance business in Nigeria with hopes to tap the fast-growing economy’s rising…
Taking on the World
In the worldwide food shortages that developed at the end of the Second World War, tiny New Zealand grew fabulously rich. New Zealand dairy farmer Thomas Lambie recalls: “ had the second-highest per-capita income in…
Computer Games Raise Spirits
A computer game designed to lift teenagers out of depression is as effective as one-on-one counselling, researchers at the University of Auckland have found. Researchers tested an interactive 3-D fantasy game called SPARX on…
First With Pig Cells
New Zealand company Living Cell Technologies plans to implant pig cells in the human brain in clinical trials to treat Parkinson’s disease and help improve movement and brain functions in patients. The clinical trials,…
Robotic Sex Machines
In their paper — Robots, Men And Sex Tourism — Ian Yeoman and Michelle Mars of Victoria Management School in Wellington, imagine what the sex industry will be like in the future. The year…
Truly International Ambition
Moa Beer founder Josh Scott’s vision is for Moa “to be New Zealand’s first true international beer”, with Australia and the US as prime export targets. “We recently refreshed the brand, including a redesign…
Quintessential Southern Tipple
Being a university town, there is no shortage of places in Dunedin that make beer, and taking pride of place is the city’s Speight’s Brewery. “Since 1876, the Speight’s Brewery has been supplying the…
Stylish in Wedges on Bikes
Gretchen Bunny, 32, owner of Martinborough company March Hare Cycling, which rents bikes to visitors eager to explore the cluster of wineries in this section of the Wairarapa Wine Trail, has a simple rule…
Innovation Drive
Wellington software developers Resn, a “company celebrated worldwide for its creative excellence”, is included in a Monocle feature about the capital city’s drive “to establish itself as a major…
Not From Concentrate, Folks
When Monteiths cider drinkers found twigs in their six-pack boxes their complaints streamed into radio stations and newspapers and the country buzzed with the “contamination” story. At which point Monteiths launched its Colenso BBDO-developed…
Riding Roughshod
Tanks for Everything in Christchurch is offering frustrated drivers the chance to crush a car with a tank, armoured personnel carrier or Jeep, the largest of which can easily flatten a family sedan….
Attractive Investment
“A little bit of PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s wealth will help New Zealand technology businesses thanks to the launch of a new venture capital project,” Lucy Craymer writes for the Wall Street…
Sharing Aviation Abilities
New Zealand, which claims to have the highest per capita ratio of aircraft, one per thousand people, is to assist India in airport development and pilot training to achieve its growth potential…
Source Of Healing Power
New Zealand manuka honey producer Denis Watson features in the Irish Times’ ‘True Characters’ column this week. “My business, Watson & Son was established in 2003, in response to the growing demand for premium manuka honey,”…
Simplifying Change
The ever practical New Zealanders are always tweaking their system, right down to their pocket change, writes Eric Bergeson for the Morris Sun Tribune. “They got rid of the 1-cent and 2-cent coins during my…
Runway Sales
Owners of Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport, New Zealand-based infrastructure investment company Infratil, are putting the property up for sale. Infratil has said it is also looking for a buyer for its British airport, Manston in…
Icebreaker On-Demand
Pioneering outdoor merino apparel company Icebreaker has relaunched its American ecommerce site using on-demand ecommerce platform Demandware, and has plans to expand beyond North America into Europe and the Southern Hemisphere during 2012 and…
Buying Into The Warriors
New Zealand billionaire Owen Glenn has taken a stake in the New Zealand Warriors. Glenn and major shareholder Eric Watson announced the new ownership structure of the Warriors would give them each…
Succeeding With Smarts
In what airline revenue specialists say is a first for any airline, Air New Zealand has ventured into banking, converting its frequent-flier club members into financial services clients, with the OneSmart card. The card,…
Kairuku Comes Alive
The full skeleton of an ancient penguin that roamed New Zealand 25 million years ago has been reconstructed by experts from the University of Otago and North Carolina State University. Standing about 1.3m tall,…
Cleaning Up The Sty
An innovative biogas system developed by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is making Australian pig farms cleaner and greener as well as reducing the smell. Australian pork industry association,…
Chicken Little Might Be Right
Over the past ten years, the height of clouds has been shrinking according to researchers at the University of Auckland. The time frame is short, but if future observations show that clouds are truly…
Compelling Business Software
New Zealand-based small business accountancy software developer Xero has recently expanded its footprint to the United States. Business Insider reporter Ramon Ray talks to the president of the company’s American operations Jamie Sutherland. “Xero is first…
Homes Bring Hope in Cambodia
Palmerston North City Council civil engineer Kelvin Au (left), 25, is putting his skills to good use in Cambodia as part of a Habitat for Humanity one-year placement, organized via Engineering Without Borders, building…
Rings Of Change
“At The Kauri Museum in Matakohe biologist Dr Jonathan Palmer explains a novel approach to assessing global climate change — by analysing the rings of ancient kauri trees,” Chris Kilham writes for Fox News….
Sky is the Limit
Since December, New Zealand-based SkyCity has been in talks with the South Australian government on the redevelopment and expansion of their Adelaide casino. SkyCity, which also has casinos in Auckland, Hamilton, Queenstown and Darwin,…
Taking The Phibian For A Spin
Gibbs Technologies, a company founded in 1996 by New Zealand entrepreneur Alan Gibbs, has demonstrated its newest amphibian vehicle model on land and in the waters of the Potomac River in Arlington,…
Sustainability Success Inspires
Along with its other exports, New Zealand has given us a template for sustainability success according to Huffington Post writer Craig Comstock. “New Zealand, apart from supplying the setting for The Lord of the Rings, is a…
Test Of Willpower
In a “remarkable” long-term study undertaken over 32 years in New Zealand, a team of international researchers tracked 1000 people in 1972 or 1973 from the age of three, rating their observed and reported…
Tasmanian timber investment
New Zealand-born businessman Richard Chandler will inject $194 million into Tasmanian-based timber company Gunns. The investment is likely to wipe out a significant portion of the company’s debt, positioning it to build the $2.3…
Record Exports Into UAE
New Zealand Natural premium ice cream chain is one of a number of local businesses fuelling a record volume of exports from the country into United Arab Emirates (UAE). Last year, the value of…
Engines Off For Clean Hulls
Scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and Auckland University have found a possible answer to a multi-million-dollar problem for shipping companies around the world. Switching off a vessel’s generator…
Pacific Edge To Pennsylvania
Dunedin-based biomedical company Pacific Edge, which has developed an easy and accurate method for detecting bladder cancer, plans to open a facility in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Pacific Edge Diagnostics should open by the end…
Globally Pumped
Les Mills International, which exports its exercise-to-music classes to 80 countries around the globe, is a finalist in the New Zealand International Business Awards for best business with revenue in the $10m to $50m…
Pale Ale Goes Digital
When you purchase a bottle of New Zealand’s Yeastie Boys Digital IPA you can scan in a code from the bottle onto your smartphone, and it will immediately send you to a website where…
Big Investments In Little Bank
Kiwibank’s announcement it will purchase Gareth Morgan Investments for an undisclosed sum is expected to bring high-net-worth investors to the New Zealand government-owned bank and improve its margins. Kiwibank Group, with around $14 billion…
Investing Big In Hotspots
New Zealand-born Renaissance Group founder Stephen Jennings is betting big on Africa becoming the next global investment hotspot. Having fought through a number of corporate close shaves to amass a fortune worth an estimated…
Twin Imaginings
As well as remembering things differently, siblings often fight over ownership of the same memory writes the Guardian’s Charles Fernyhough in an article about shared memories and the problems they cause. “A study by Mercedes Sheen…
Small, Green And Phenomenal
“What’s small, green, comes from New Zealand and is incredibly popular with Britain’s brewers?” The Independent’s Will Hawkes asks. “No, not Kiwi fruits, although someone will surely make a beer with them sooner or later. The…
Innovation Nets Branson Time
Takapuna business FaceMe has won time with billionaire Sir Richard Branson after winning top entrepreneurial competition, BNZ Presents: The Virgin Business Challenge. FaceMe has developed a video conference system that is compatible with any…
International Cluster Deal
University of Waikato computer science doctoral student Paul Hunkin’s software has been picked up by Google and NASA. Hunkin created ClusterGL to connect multiple screens to form one huge image for the university’s display…
Kindness Donated By Strangers
Donors from across the globe have helped fund a New Zealand English teacher’s life-saving liver transplant, which was carried out at Pusan National University Hospital in Yangsan, South Korea. Mick Milne, 47, who has…
Startup And Power On
New Zealand electricity provider Powershop, a startup company owned by Meridian Energy, the largest electricity generator and retailer in the country, is like eBay for electricity, according to CEO Ari Sargent. Powershop is built…
Toward A Takeaway Solution
Head of purchasing at pioneer Wellington coffee roaster Cafe L’Affare Zeke Alley says New Zealand is “screaming out for a solution” to the ever-increasing problem of disposing of paper takeaway coffee cups. Cafe L’Affare’s…
Spencer Drives The Thing
The glamorous 48.5m super yacht T6, custom built for New Zealand paper magnate John Spencer, creates a fuss wherever it goes, whether Monaco, the Caribbean or the hazardous North-West Passage in the Arctic. On…
Pecking Good At Math
Dr Damian Scarf, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, and two colleagues have discovered that pigeons can learn abstract rules about numbers, an ability that until now had been demonstrated only in…
Optically Pure Blue-Violet Hues
Scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) say that Blue Lake in Nelson Lakes National Park might be the clearest freshwater body in the world. The NIWA scientists said the…
Boeing Gets A Paint Job
The new Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300ER, unveiled at Boeing’s paint hangar facility in Seattle, is the world’s largest commercially operated aircraft to be painted entirely in black. The special paint job took Boeing…
Resetting The Global Compass
New Zealand scientists Tony Hurst and Stewart Bennie will travel to Antarctica on 28 December to reset the global compass. The pair, who work for New Zealand’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS…
Impressive Pest Control
Sheep, rugby and kiwi were what the director of Canada’s McGill University’s Office for Science and Society Joe Schwarcz associated with New Zealand, not possum, weasel, ferret or rabbit. “I certainly did not connect…
Fighting Flu In South Asia
Massey University has received $5 million from the World Bank to develop an on-line project which will fight animal-borne diseases that can transmit to humans, such as bird flu and rabies, in South Asia….
New Zealand Facebook First
“New Zealand already has lush rainforests and sandy beaches, bungee jumping and scuba diving, gourmet restaurants and lively night life, even a thriving tech community that has drawn investment from the likes of Peter…
Give Them Authority
Former New Zealand cabinet minister and member of parliament, Maurice McTigue, who is currently vice president of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, comments on changes at the United States Postal…
Xena Loves Geniuses
“You may know her as Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess and, more recently, Lucretia from Spartacus, but you may not expect that Lucy Lawless would fly all the way from New Zealand to California for TEDMED, a…
Radical Award For Professor
Christchurch biochemist Professor Christine Winterbourn has become the first woman to receive New Zealand’s top science award in its 20-year history, the Rutherford Medal. Winterbourn, Otago University pathology department’s director of the Free Radical…
