Dangerous embrace
Auckland musician Zowie (born Zoe Fleury) made the best fashion statement of the day when performing at the opening of New York’s CMJ Music Marathon in October, proclaimed New York Times blogger Jon Pareles….
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Market reforms pay off
Korea should follow the example of New Zealand farmers Special Agricultural Trade Envoy Alistair Polson tells the Korea JoongAng Daily on a recent visit to Seoul to meet Korean agricultural industry leaders. Once highly…
Rugby Takes Off in US
New Zealander Craig Knight is the recruiting co-chairman of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Rugby Club and tells the University’s student newspaper that he initially expected American rugby to be a little primitive,…
Professional Profile
Hamilton-born professional triathlete Keegan Williams, 3, is profiled by online triathlon magazine Slowtwitch. Perhaps the best sign Williams might yet follow in the footsteps of legendary New Zealand ironman Cameron Brown was his 21…
Releasing the writer
“It’s a weird thing to call yourself a ‘writer’ before you’ve written anything that others have read,” Lower Hutt-raised Eleanor Catton, 25, tells the Calgary Herald. “I’m not sure why that stigma exists, exactly,…
Urban takes lessons
“Like it or not, I’ve become a global citizen,” Auckland actor Karl Urban tells The Kansas City Star. “The challenge is to maintain your cultural identity, especially back in your home country, where it’s…
Seeing some girls
Lord of the Rings stars Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Elijah Wood discuss their time spent in New Zealand working on the trilogy 11 years ago with Entertainment Weekly. Here they are, in a…
On kissing and reading
Miller’s Flat children’s book author Kyle Mewburn was in Wahpeton, North Dakota, at local schools talking to students about reading and writing. Mewburn’s award-winning 28 book Kiss! Kiss! Yuck! Yuck! won the 21 North…
Starbucks combo
Wellington-based design company The Formary, have developed a new sustainable textile called “WoJo” which will be used by coffee chain Starbucks for chairs in their stores and unveiled as part of UK Wool Week…
Unanimous decision
“New Zealand’s parliament voted unanimously in September to pass the Canterbury Earthquake Response and Recovery Act (CERRA), which gives government ministers the power to override almost any law in the country’s statute books,” Tom…
Height advantage
A study of 2 children undertaken by researchers at New Zealand’s Liggins Institute has found individuals conceived using a certain In Vitro Fertilisation technique were several centimetres taller, by age six, when compared to…
Felapau in Botswana
New Zealander David Felapau has been appointed chief executive officer of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC). Felapau began his agricultural career in New Zealand working on sheep and beef stations in the central North…
Unmistakable humour
Comedian Rhys Darby, 36, has an “unmistakable” voice, retaining his “thick New Zealand accent despite increasingly frequent roles in Hollywood films,” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kylie Northover writes in a profile headed, ‘Darby acts…
In Memory of a Mother
Auckland weightlifter Stanislav Chalaev won a silver medal in the under-15kg class at the 21 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Russian-born Chalaev lifted 15kg in the snatch and 184kg in the clean and jerk. The…
Strength in Numbers
Shot put champion Valerie Adams took gold in Delhi with a winning throw of 2.47m and her coach Didier Poppe predicts Adams is capable of yet another metre. She destroyed a decidedly average field…
Obsessive Beats
Auckland singer Zowie, “New Zealand pop phenom”, is touring the United States during October. Music blogger Arjan writes: “Zowie has already received a steady amount of buzz at home having performed at some of…
Gin and Stan’s night
Singers Gin Wigmore, 24, and Stan Walker, 19, earned four Tuis apiece at this year’s New Zealand Music Awards held at Auckland’s Vector Arena. Wigmore’s folky debut Holy Smoke won the album of the…
Intimacy in Cincinnati
Geraldine-born playwright Gary Henderson’s Skin Tight opens Cincinnati’s Know Theatre’s season. An hour-long memory play, Skin Tight is part theatrical and melancholy tone poem and part showcase of stage combat. Skin Tight, an intimate…
Musical portraiture
Photographic portraits of New Zealand musicians Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn are included in a new international coffee table book, called Music, shot by renowned New York photographer Andrew Zuckerman. Zuckerman flew…
Turning on the ignition
“You know what you’re going to get with Shihad — punchy hard rock, deep grooves, industrial riffing and Jon Toogood’s hypnotic vocals,” The Border Mail’s writes in a review of the band’s latest album,…
Medals on Wheels
Dunedin cyclist Alison Shanks, 26, claimed New Zealand’s first gold medal in the women’s 3m individual pursuit final at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi earning glory over the strong Australian team. The 29 world…
Urban takes on Willis
Actor Karl Urban, 38, plays the role of a CIA agent in the movie Red, which is based on the comic book limited series of the same name and which was released this month…
Indian on Show
Burt Munro’s world famous Indian Scout motorbike, used to set land-speed records in the 196s, was on display at October’s Oildorado Days Rails to Trails Car Show in Taft, California. In 1967, on the…
One of The Dudes
Singer/songwriter Ian Morris, the frontman of Th’ Dudes has died in Napier, aged 53. Morris formed the band with school friends Peter Urlich and Dave Dobbyn in 1975 but left the group in 1980…
Their Own chapter
Dunedin trio Die! Die! Die! is currently touring Australia and are profiled in The Sydney Morning Herald. “Die! Die! Die! is feeling right at home on seminal record label Flying Nun,” Craig Mathieson writes….
Minnesota Exchange
Wellington teenager Madeleine Kwapisz is on a student exchange student studying at Fulda High School (FHS) in Minnesota and is profiled in the local newspaper. Kwapisz, 16, attends Wellington High School and will have…
Perfect introduction
“If you’ve yet to become acquainted with Janet Frame, one of New Zealand’s finest literary exports, then you are in for a treat,” Eden Carter Wood writes in a review of The Daylight and…
Revenue-neutral process
“Killing the lowly was a painless, revenue-neutral adventure for New Zealand, according to a finance official from that country,” Bryn Weese writes for the Toronto Sun as Canada looks at…
Old Market Memories
New Zealand-born Percy Roche, who owned one of the first shops at Omaha’s Old Market shopping district in Nebraska and who is even credited for naming the area, has died in Nelson, aged 88….
Ivy League purchase
A 4ha dairy farm south of Auckland has been purchased by Harvard University for US$2.7 million. The Cambridge institution best known for churning out top college graduates bought the farm with 6 cows as…
Spirited Win for NZ
The Black Caps have been awarded the Spirit of Cricket Award at the recent LG ICC Awards celebration in Bengaluru, India. In total, this is the third time New Zealand has won this award…
Clean Patience
“Legendary masters of pop” Dunedin band The Clean played Portland’s Holocene in October on the final stop of their seven-date US tour. “For all the waiting we’ve done for the band, the patience finally…
Aggressive and winsome
The Naked and Famous song “Young Blood, which recently became the first by a New Zealand band to reach No 1 in their home country for 2 years, is ecstatic, uplifting, thumping, pumping psych-dazed,…
Shaky Lessons
In the aftermath of the earthquake that rocked Christchurch on September 4, an Arizona State University (ASU) geotechnical engineer says the US should learn from what New Zealanders did to withstand a recent powerful…
Who is the Typical Kiwi?
An international study on cultural stereotypes, led by the US National Institutes of Health, has concluded that there is no relation between supposed cultural characteristics and the actual traits identified in real…
Complete with diamond
Jeweller Michael Hill is offering a 22-carat princess-cut diamond to the “world’s best couple” in an international competition which will be launched later this month at New York’s Rockefeller Centre. American reality TV performer…
Roundhouse drama
Wellington seven-piece dub/reggae group Fat Freddy’s Drop played a sold-out gig at the Bristol Academy and at Brighton’s Concorde2 in September on their European tour. Their live experience is now available in their latest…
Wild Frontier Music
New Zealand-born author Garth Cartwright’s More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music has been released in the United States. Cartwright describes the inspiration for the book in the Wall Street Journal: “Growing up…
Los Angeles Win
New Zealander Bevan Docherty, 33, has won the 11th annual Los Angeles Triathlon finishing in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 21 seconds, which was 13 seconds ahead of runner-up Javier Gomez of Spain. A…
Return post-change
Crowded House head to South Africa in October performing concerts in Cape Town and Durban before ending their tour in Johannesburg on the 3th. Neil Finn said he and the band have fond memories…
Best of the vintage
Wellington’s vintage clothing store Ziggurat Fashion Emporium on Cuba Street is recommended in the Guardian by readers who name their favourite places to stock up on retro outfits and vintage pieces, in the UK…
To India for milk
New Zealand dairy conglomerate Fonterra is in talks with Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. to set up a dairy farm in India. The project may cost as much as 1 billion rupees ($225 million)…
On Board Solo
Rob Thomson, 28, a Canterbury University arts graduate from Christchurch, has completed the longest unassisted skateboard journey ever made, travelling for 462 days over 12,000km from Leysin, Switzerland across Europe, North America and China…
Common Goal in Delhi
Gymnast Misha Koudinov, 19, hopes he can help New Zealand take its first ever men’s team medal at the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi. “My goal is to make all of my routines as…
2025 and smoke-free
New Zealand has unveiled an ambitious plan to make the country smoke-free by 225, wiping out smoking in all public places. The only other country with a similar policy is Finland, which plans to…
Merino for New Yorkers
Icebreaker will open its first store in Manhattan, New York in early December. The 25-square-foot SoHo store will be Icebreaker’s flagship. The new TOUCH_LAB retail store will showcase the complete Icebreaker line from its…
Wilderness gold
“Just like the safari camp and the ski chalet, the New Zealand lodge is a triumph of reinvention, the transformation of a utilitarian wilderness refuge into tourism gold,” writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Max…
Edgy roots an asset
Actor Karl Urban, 38, is happy to commute between Auckland and Los Angeles saying that his New Zealand roots are proving to be an asset to his craft. Unlike Hollywood-based actors, those from Australia…
Apprentice Acumen
Paloma Vivanco-Coutts, 29, is the first New Zealander to appear on reality television show The Apprentice UK. Peruvian-born Vivanco-Coutts has been living in London since 2006. She recently married a New Zealander and is…
Woods’ own hill
New Zealand entrepreneur Nick Wood, co-creator of internet service provider iHug, which sold for NZ$82 million in 23, is currently in the United States where he has purchased Teton Pass Ski Resort in Wyoming…
Wooing the shuttle
Auckland badminton player Joe Wu, 24, who currently holds the triple national title holder in the sport, is representing the country at the 21 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Originally born in Taiwan, Joe immigrated…
Eclecticism for Finns
The one-woman band Annabel Alpers aka Bachelorette stopped off in Helsinki, Finland as part of her European tour playing at the city’s Club YK. The Helsinki Times wrote: “The live music scene of Helsinki…
Northern resonance
Northern resonance Musician Tim Finn is playing a “best-of” show in Cairns, his first show in the northern Australian city in nearly 3 years. Finn says he’ll be performing music from his 29 album…
Woods’ Own Hill
New Zealand entrepreneur Nick Wood, co-creator of internet service provider iHug, which sold for NZ$82 million in 23, is currently in the United States where he has purchased Teton Pass Ski Resort in Wyoming…
Winning waves
State science company Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (WET-NZ) has won a grant of more than NZ$2 million from the United States Government to develop a wave power prototype design. WET-NZ has developed a…
Peak Performance
New Zealand has paid tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay with their Commonwealth Games logo and unique team-identifier, ‘2928 Hillary and Tenzing’, the figure being the height of Mt Everest. “It’s…
