Memorable In Margaret
New Zealand-raised True Blood star Anna Paquin, 29, graced the cover of LA Weekly’s Winter Film Issue, which named Margaret — Paquin plays the lead as teenager Lisa — as the best film of the year. The film was shot…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Cliff-Top Perfection
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs has been named the No. 1 Lodge in Australia and Pacific Nations on the 2012 Gold List, ‘The World’s Best Places to Stay’ selected by the readers of Condé Nast…
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…
Frighteningly Festive
Auckland’s Whitcoulls Santa statue, which was built in 1960, is the world’s most unintentionally creepy Christmas ornament according to American humour website Cracked. Before a 2009 makeover, the statue had a sly winking left…
Gourmet Best On Sundays
Two of the country’s most well known weekend farmers’ markets, Central Otago Farmers’ Market and Auckland’s La Cigale, are represented in a Jaunted article. “On Sundays from 9:00 a.m. — 1:00 p.m. from October-February,…
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…
Oddball Wins Over Director
The Peter Jackson-produced and Steven Spielberg-directed 3-D performance-capture film The Adventures of Tintin opens in the United States this week just ahead of the film’s New Zealand release. The Adventures of Tintin arrives in the US as…
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…
Ridiculously Handsome Nomads
The biggest thing to happen to New Zealand since Peter Jackson’s makeover is Auckland band The Naked and Famous according to Aidin Vaziri writing for the San Francisco Chronicle. “ a…
Leave Your Inhibitions Behind
“Hector’s dolphins may be the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world, but they will seem larger than life when you are swimming nose-to-nose with them in the Pacific Ocean,” Boston Globe correspondent Kari Bodnarchuk writes….
Executive Eye For Detail
Auckland-raised executive chef Ryan Arboleda shares some two of his favourite recipes with the Bangkok Post: Slow cooked New Zealand lamb breast with shaved fennel and pureed peas and Tiramisu ‘Verrine’. Philippines-born Arboleda has worked…
Courageous Man To The End
Nelson-born Jason Richards, V8 Supercar champion “to the last”, has died in Melbourne. He was 35. Peter Kogoy writes Richards’ obituary for The Australian: “His duel at the wheel of the Team BOC Commodore with…
Tales Of Vineyards And Vintners
Four days are not enough time to fully immerse yourself in the land of the long white cloud, writes Kari Gislason for Adelaide Now. Gislason spends two of her three nights visit at the “outlandishly…
Heirlooms Of Past For Future
‘Maori — Their Treasures Have a Soul,’ an exhibition of Maori art and artifacts at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris on through 22 January, juxtaposes ancestral heirlooms with contemporary art, architecture, photography, film…
Pupils Staying Strong
Students from Fendalton Open-Air School in Christchurch are the first group members — calling themselves Faultline Fiction — of the Guardian site to vividly recount what happened when earthquakes struck their city, changing their…
Hansen Replaces Henry
The New Zealand Rugby Union have appointed 52-year-old former policeman Steve Hansen as their new coach, replacing Graham Henry who stepped down after winning the World Cup. Dunedin-born Hansen was widely tipped to get…
Whimsical Fashion Wanderings
Twenty-two-year-old Christchurch woman Jo and photographer partner Barnaby have begun a fashion blog in which the couple show off vintage finds against “picturesque” New Zealand landscapes. In late 2011 the blog partnered with local…
Magical Early Christmas
The Black Caps celebrated “an early Christmas” with front-page media praise for a seven-run cricket victory in the second Test over Australia in Hobart. Captain Ross Taylor’s remark that the historic win “was for…
One Legendary Queen
Transgender icon Taumaranui-born Carmen Rupe has died in Sydney, aged 75. Carmen was born into a family of 13 and was known as Trevor Rupe for about the first 20 years of her life….
Foo Fighters Make Earth Move
Auckland GeoNet scientists have said that the recent Foo Fighters concert at Western Springs caused geological vibrations on par with “volcanic tremors”. The vibrations emitted “a strong low signal,” geologists at GeoNet reported. “The…
It’s Better Than Ever
The Bay of Plenty region has launched a new tourism campaign in an attempt to erase images of oiled beaches and dead wildlife from the minds of potential visitors, rebranding itself with the slogan…
Festive Season Realities
A billboard outside Auckland’s Anglican St Matthew’s in the City of the Virgin Mary gasping as she examines a pregnancy testing kit has sparked fiery debate. Defending the poster, the vicar, the Rev Glynn…
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…
Big Crowds In The Bay
“At the close of 2010, members of Auckland rock combo The Naked and Famous were innocents abroad, wide-eyed New Zealanders who — thanks to sudden international interest in their debut Passive Me, Aggressive You — finally…
Dual-International In Charge
Allrounder Suzie Bates, 24, has been appointed captain of the White Ferns succeeding Aimee Watkins, who retired in July. “I knew there was a chance of leading this team but there are obviously other…
Funny Man Loves It Live
New Zealand-born comedian Rhys Darby, 37, who played manager Murray in the in Flight of the Conchords series, recently performed five shows at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco. Darby says live comedy remains his passion…
After A Hard Day’s Travels
A Tauranga woman thought she was hallucinating when a clattering noise prompted her to run downstairs to the kitchen and check on the cats, where she found a baby seal, who then waddled into…
Unreal Festive Spirit
“After 14 attempts I am still unable to reconcile Christmas Day with the hot sunshine of the north-east New Zealand city of Gisborne,” Guardian reader John Darkin writes for the publication’s weekly series ‘Letter from.’ “The…
Planning Christmas Capers
Now living in Rotorua, Canadian Jill Campbell, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is looking for other Capers so they can to get together for a céilidh or a drink at the pub over Christmas….
Alleged Fraudster Arrested
A New Zealander has been arrested in Australia for alleged embezzling $16 million from Queensland Health. 36-year-old Hohepa Morehu-Barlow — also known as Joel Barlow — had been evading police since Thursday afternoon when…
Jumping Back On Court
Rotorua-born basketball player Taki Te Koi plays as a senior for California’s Dominican University women’s team and after a torn ligament injury “is ready to put it all out on the court again in…
Exploring The North
Cathedral Cove, “the looming limestone archway seen in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” was one of the scenic spots The Tribune’s Sarah Linn stopped at on her tour of New Zealand. “Travelling along State Highway 25,…
Grass-Roots Campaigning
Bret McKenzie is in Utah, where he’s “picked up some sort of Mormon cold” while filming a scene with a foal for Austenland: he delivers a foal. “We shot it in England this summer, and…
Store Openings In California
New Zealand-born fashion designer Rebecca Taylor is “on a roll” according to the Los Angeles Times’ Melissa Magsaysay who was at the opening of Taylor’s West Coast flagship store on Robertson Boulevard. “The designer just celebrated…
Hope Yet For Happy Feet
New Zealand author and entrepreneur Gareth Morgan will join 12 scientists on a 30-day voyage to Antarctica early next year to raise awareness of the importance of the region, and as an “add-on” to…
Where Fear And Awe Collide
Greymouth-born filmmaker and painter Vincent Ward’s exhibition Breath, which is on at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Gallery through 26 February 2012, is the first survey of Ward’s work within an art museum context and rests,…
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…
More Penguins Return Home
A photograph of a blue penguin moving toward the sea after being released by wildlife workers in Tauranga is included in theGuardian’s ‘24 hours in pictures’ series for 9 December. The penguins were among those…
Tolkien Tourism In Matamata
The Lord of the Rings franchise is partially responsible for a tourism windfall in New Zealand with global visitor numbers up 40 per cent since 2000. At least five official LOTR-themed tour companies are in operation….
Streaking Star Trails
A long-exposure image of star trails streaking over Lake Tekapo features on the National Geographic website. The lake was one of the first sites designated as a Starlight Reserve as part of a UN-supported initiative to…
Moving On From Terrible
Naked and Famous guitarist and vocalist Thom Powers admits to have been part of several “terrible, terrible bands” in his time. “Everything that was terrible about ‘90s rock music — I did that,” the…
Weta Leads The Charge
“Wellington: once you come, you stay,” Crave Online’s Grae Drake is told on a visit to Weta Digital. “This is both a threat and a promise, uttered by the geniuses employed at Weta. The…
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….
Florentine Light And Dark
New Zealand artist Pete Wheeler, 33, presents his first Italian solo exhibition, ‘Paths of the Destroyer’, at the Poggiali e Forconi Gallery in Florence. Berlin-based Wheeler says that the ‘Paths of the Destroyer’ are…
Album Upbeat She Swears
Ladyhawke has announced the release of her second album, Anxiety, which will be out on 19 March 2012. It has been recorded over the past year at producer Pascal Gabriel’s house in the south of…
Surviving A Day Of Fun
“In one day I jumped from a bridge, rode at breakneck speeds in a canyon on a jet boat, took a helicopter flight over a mountain range, survived four hours on Class IV white…
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…
Observing Oceanic Responsibilities
New Zealand and Australia have signed a marine observation agreement, which is expected to result in improved knowledge of regional climate systems. New Zealand’s high commissioner Major-General Martyn Dunne and Australia’s Science Minister Kim…
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…
Must Eats In The South
When visiting New Zealand there are five foods “you’ve just got to try” according to Jaunted’s Eric Rosen. “On our own recent long visit to the South Island, we discovered more and more chefs…
Reporting From New Zealand
“For a small place, New Zealand generates a lot of news,” ABC New Zealand correspondent Dominque Schwartz tells Elizabeth Jackson. “Its population is less than that of Sydney, but this year alone there’ve been…
Physicality Earns Top Award
All Blacks loose forward Jerome Kaino, 28, was named New Zealand player of the year at the Steinlager Rugby Awards held in Auckland. Kaino played all but 55 seconds of New Zealand’s seven World…
Great Barrier Phenomenon
American entomologist Mark Moffett, 53, claimed he discovered the largest weta of the species ever found. International publications, such as the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and Telegraph, have declared Moffett’s find the world’s biggest insect in terms…
Documenting Recovery
While an exchange student in New Zealand, American Peter Hoffman, 27, discovered his passion for photography, and for the country. This year, Hoffman plans to return to Christchurch, where in February this year an…
Stay At The Furthermost Edge
Tucked up in the high country of the South Island, Mount Aspiring teetering to the rear, Lake Wanaka far down below, the 65,000-acre Minaret Station is not so much the middle of nowhere as…
Challenging Classroom Prejudice
New Zealand-born teacher Suran Dickson, 34, felt moved enough to leave her job and launch Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles the worrying incidence of homophobic bullying in British schools, where terms…
