Elements Emblazoned
Its beauty is dazzling enough by day, but when the sun goes down New Zealand’s seas, caves and starlit skies are another world Jonathan Freedland describes in a Guardian travel article. On an overnight…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Understanding Sporting Passion
Award-winning Wellington-born filmmaker Julian Shaw’s “emotive” 211 documentary Cup of Dreams is recommended to Australians so they may gain some insights on how the All Blacks can be beaten in the Rugby World Cup….
Made in New Zealand
Zambesi’s 2012 collection shown at the recent New Zealand Fashion Week was a fusion of sportswear, workwear and tailoring with unexpected pops of electric blue and acid yellow amid the brand’s signature black. Models…
Gulls Lift Off Over St Clair
Seagulls take off in the early at morning St Clair Beach in a photograph included in the Guardian’s ’24 hours in pictures’ series. St Clair Beach, located ten minutes from Dunedin’s city centre, is…
Rediscovering Talent
New Zealand singer-songwriter Liam Finn, who is promoting his latest studio album FOMO, plays at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live on 18 September. Co-producer of FOMO Canadian-born Burke Reid helped Finn avoid the trap of…
Scottish Dairy Venture
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, the largest processor of milk in the world, has made its first move into Europe by forming a joint venture with Scotland-based First Milk, which supplies and markets 15…
Return to the Icy Wild
Happy Feet, the “lost” emperor penguin which washed up on the Kapiti Coast, has been returned to the ocean; a BBC article examines how he and other animals are released back into the wild….
Synthetic Highs Banned
A 12-month ban of 43 synthetic cannabis products has come into effect in New Zealand. Some retailers believe that other legal highs will continue to flood a very popular, and lucrative, market. Manager of…
Fun With Dirt in Caterpillars
Dunedin-born businessman Ed Munn is making a living in Las Vegas with Dig This hiring big toys out to big kids, with enthusiasts paying up to NZ$885 for a few hours reliving their childhood….
Creating Social Science Fiction
New Zealand-born director Andrew Niccol’s new film In Time, out in the United States on 28 October, is set in a world where everyone’s biological clock stops at age 25. Here, time is the…
Food Friendly, Easy to Drink
“With more than 5 wineries and 1 wine regions, New Zealand has a vibrant and interesting wine industry,” executive editor of Wine Access magazine Shelley Boettcher writes for the Calgary Herald. “Canada is one…
London Alternative Realm
New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard presents a solo exhibition of her recent works through 8 October at the Kate MacGarry gallery in London. The Guardian describes the exhibition: “ recent works — rainbow-hued figures…
World Cup Road Trip
“Ox and his mates are hitting the road to watch their beloved All Blacks play in the Rugby World Cup, making a trip they’ve been working on for months,” Nick Perry explains. “Shortages of…
Serene Silence by Turquoise
“What I was really looking forward to over the next few days was this: jet-boating across the freezing Rakaia river and visiting Lake Tekapo, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world with…
Wellington Makes a Point
“Once a flyover city for tourists as they jetted between the thermal regions of the north and the cloud-scraping mountains of the south, or at best a pass-through destination for those taking the ferry…
Bungee-Roped Canyon Beast
New Zealand is home to the world’s largest and highest swing. Located in scenic Queenstown, the Nevis swing is a “bungee-roped beast swings in a 3m ark and hangs a lofty…
Norwegian Inspiration
Helen Clark, the first woman to be elected prime minister of New Zealand and now an administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is included in an Intelligent Life special called ‘Inspiring Women’,…
September’s Best Track
Wellington-based musician Jon Lemmon’s “opus” Exodus I is the Guardian/Music Alliance Pact (MAP) New Zealand selection for September included in a list of best tracks from around the globe. Every month, 35…
Channelling Ancestral Paths
Sailors on the Pacific Voyagers project steered a fleet of seven ocean-voyaging traditional Polynesian sailing canoes or vaka moanas from New Zealand to San Francisco — guided only by the stars that once helped…
Sir Jerry Takes the Oath
Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae has been sworn in as the 2th Governor General of New Zealand. The 56-year-old was sworn-in to a five-year term in a formal ceremony in front of Parliament. Following…
Ginseng for China
King Country Ginseng growers Maraeroa C Incorporation are working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crops in China under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng. “We’re probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically…
Annual Fashion-off Impresses
New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) was held at Auckland’s new Viaduct Event Centre this month and showcased the latest collections by the best fashion talent in New Zealand, including Stolen Girlfriends Club, Lonely Hearts,…
Algae Potential
New Zealand-based algae technology developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corp. is collaborating with Texas-based CRI Catalyst Co. to further develop a process that can potentially convert algae and other feedstocks into renewable fuels. The…
Smashing Out a World Record
Rotorua-born Valerie Adams has won shot put gold at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea hurling a huge 21.24m, a world championship record-equalling throw and Adams’ third successive world shot put title. The…
Fed, Feisty and Homeward Bound
Some 1700 people turned up at Wellington Zoo to farewell Happy Feet, the emperor penguin who captured New Zealand’s heart after being washed up sick and starving on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka beach 3000km…
Improving What We Have
President of the Tertiary Education Union at Victoria University, senior lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, Sandra Grey writes that calling for expatriate New Zealanders to put money into the tertiary sector is possibly…
Boasting Grand Beginnings
Twenty-one-year-old singer Kimbra’s debut album Vows is reviewed in The Sydney Morning Herald by Bernard Zuel. “On Vows, Kimbra leaps from rhythmic, multi-vocal exercises in the style of French artist Camille (a comparison which…
Once in a Lifetime Chance
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give a special one-off concert in Ireland’s Ulster Hall as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in October — with one lucky young singer getting the chance to…
Roughrider Home to Play
New Zealand basketball player Jordan Hunter, who is currently a sophomore at Missouri’s Crowder College playing at point guard for the Crowder Lady Roughriders, has received and accepted an invitation to play for her…
Surf Lover and Journo
Highly respected veteran journalist Graeme Moody has died while surfing at New South Wale’s famed Angourie Point. He was 60. Wellington’s Newstalk ZB cancelled regular programming the day Moody died, such was the level…
Towering Leader at Inside Centre
Tana Umaga is named at inside centre for the Telegraph series ‘Greatest Rugby World Cup XV’. “ status as a towering leader is not in doubt, as he captained the side to 19 wins…
Top Guns
General Motors (GM) chief financial officer New Zealander Dan Ammann, 39, is one of a number of central figures graded at GM in an article by Fortune Magazine’s senior-editor-at-large Alex Taylor III discussing the…
Artists of the Week
Auckland folk-fusion hip-hop-electronic foursome Sola Rosa recently secured the coveted spot as MTV IGGY’s Artist of the Week, edging out the likes of Rocktigers, Los Hollywood, Dama Do Bling, and Scarab. Their victory is…
Understanding Diversity
The Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre has won a national award from the Human Rights Commission. The Centre, founded in 26, received one of 12 New Zealand Diversity Awards, which recognize projects that…
All Eyes on New Zealand
Social media is being used to help ensure the whole planet can keep up to date with Rugby World Cup action. As New Zealand seems like the end of the earth to many people,…
Like No Place on Earth
“The South Island is a lazy paradise of rolling green hills, craggy, glacier-clad mountains and rugged wind-swept beaches,” describes the Mark Johanson for the International Business Times. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in…
For Explorers at Heart
New Zealand is the focus of CNN’s weekly Destination Adventure series “for the explorer at heart” featuring favourite regional foods, secrets from the locals and the best photos and stories from readers. Highly recommended…
Rugby Jersey Ruckus
When the All Blacks revealed late July the shirts the team would wear for the Rugby World Cup, which begins in September, it was a proud moment for Adidas, the designer of the uniform…
Jackson Bags the Best Bilbo
Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson says there is “simply nobody else” who could star as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit epic but British actor Martin Freeman. “He is fantastic and there is simply nobody else…
Christchurch’s Cardboard Cathedral
The quake-ravaged Christ Church Cathedral is set to be rebuilt – using cardboard. Since the destruction of the iconic building in February’s deadly earthquake, rebuilding the Cathedral has been deemed a priority for the…
A legacy in literature
Acclaimed journalist Dame Christine Cole Catley has passed away at age 88, leaving behind a legacy in New Zealand literature. After making a name for herself as one of the nation’s first prominent female…
Everyone is in on It
From Nelson to Dunedin, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Mark Chipperfield nominates the highlights of the Rugby World Cup — on and off field. “New Zealand may not be the birthplace of rugby union football…
Rewriting the Focus
A million-dollar investment in gold bullion has kept Wellingtonian Theresa Gattung, 49, financially secure for the past four years out of the spotlight, but now the former chief executive of Telecom New Zealand (TNZ)…
Back to the Island of Crete
No guns were firing when the New Zealand Herald’s Jim Eagles assembled quietly at the bottom of the steep road to the hilltop village of Galatas on the storied island of Crete. “Seventy years…
Chinese Tourists Flock
The number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand rose 22 per cent year-on-year to 133, in the 12 months that ended 31 July. Associate Tourism Minister Jonathan Coleman said China is one of New…
Topping Life Lists
New Zealand features in Washington Post series ‘Going Our Way’ which this week describes the best way of working to see the sights of the country. Orlando traveller Dara Curran asked the newspaper for…
Taste of Kiwiana in New York
This month New Zealand chef Mark Simmons, a former contestant on US television show Top Chef , opened Kiwiana in Park Slope, New York. The Village Voice spoke to Simmons about his new restaurant,…
Quake Expert Remembered
World-renowned earthquake engineer and inventor of the base isolation technique Dr Bill Robinson has died in Christchurch aged 73. The seismic protection and damping equipment developed by Dr Robinson is used in buildings located…
Luke Skywalker Island Minted
The tiny South Pacific nation of Niue, population 1311, will soon be accepting Star Wars coins as legal tender. Each coin will be minted with a fully colored image of Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker,…
New Zealand Blanketed in Snow
August saw freezing cold and snow blanketing virtually all of the country, even typically mild cities such as Wellington and Auckland, which last saw accumulated snow 45 and 72 years ago, respectively. “What began…
Back to the Big Screen
New Zealand actress Anna Paquin is to star alongside Ryan Phillipe in independent comedy Straight A’s which is set in Louisiana. Phillippe portrays a man who’s been in and out of rehab for 1…
Boy to Play US Cinemas
The American distribution rights to Taika Waititi’s Boy, which had its world premiere at the 21 Sundance Film Festival, have been acquired by indie outfit Paladin. Since playing at the Sundance, Berlin…
Almódovar’s Survivors
The autobiographies of New Zealand’s “greatest” author Janet Frame were part of an “esoteric selection of references” given to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s new leading lady Elena Anaya in preparation for her role as…
Kakapo Star in Rat Island
New Zealand’s Kakapo are the focus of a new book telling the stories of the world’s best cases of predator eradication. Written by William Stolzenburg, Rat Island tells the stories of two heroic rescues…
Portuguese Win for Emirates
Emirates Team New Zealand, with Dean Barker at the helm, won the first America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) regatta in Portugal with a dramatic come-from-behind move in the winner-take-all fleet race on 14 August….
Mighty Tree Falls
Former Governor General Sir Paul Reeves has died in Auckland, aged 78. Prime Minister John Key said New Zealand has lost one of its greatest statesmen. “Sir Paul’s contribution to New Zealand did not…
