Induction Duets
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs at this month’s Hollywood Bowl’s season-opening gala, which will also serve as the soprano’s induction into the Bowl’s Hall of Fame. Te Kanawa spoke candidly with the Los Angeles…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Pests Busted
Orchard worker Don Sullivan and a team of 30 trappers have been awarded the Forest & Bird annual Pestbuster prize for their work in nabbing 530 pests over the last year in four forested…
From Lush Pasturelands
“Make it New Zealand lamb every time!” encourages British celebrity chef Delia Smith from her official website. “When treating friends and family to luscious barbecue lamb recipes or feeding the family during the week,…
Positive Thinking
All Whites coach Ricki Herbert is confident the All Whites will earn their first ever point in a FIFA Confederations Cup this month in South Africa. “I think we have to believe it’s a…
Winter Bar-Hopping
Queenstown’s “bar scene can match any city for quantity, variety and quality and the disarming sincerity of this cold town’s warm heart is impossible to resist,” writes West Australia Today’s Amy Cooper on a…
Candid in Cork
Doug Howlett, 30, who is based in Cork having signed with Munster in 2008, is profiled in the Irish Times which discusses the Northern Hemisphere team, his family and whether he’ll return to New…
Small But Mighty
The New Zealand Defence Force is reviewed by military publication Jane’s which describes the Force as “always attempting to perform on the world stage at a level that belies the size of its defence…
Teddy charms
“There could not have been a more dashing, roguish Count than the New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes,” writes Janelle Gelfand in a Cincinnati Enquirer review of Cincinnati Opera’s production of The Marriage of…
Sunshine’s sisters
Auckland film maker Christine Jeffs created the independent feature Sunshine Cleaning with sisters in mind, and being one herself, Jeffs told The Age, she wanted to explore the dynamics between older and younger siblings….
Decade of purity
The 100 per cent pure New Zealand campaign is celebrating a decade in business and a decade promoting the “essence” of this country. Well, if New Zealanders can do it then why not the…
Janet’s grace
“To whatever extent the intellectual, emotional, and artistic struggles of Janet Frame’s protagonist mirror those of its author, a wrenching portrait of both emerges, fascinating especially in its exploration of…
All Black Nostalgia
Dan Carter is returning to New Zealand from his time playing in Perpignan, France and in the first of an exclusive two part interview with The Independent, Carter “makes an unequivocal statement about a…
Gene Predictions
University of Auckland researchers have developed the world’s first test to measure the risk for individual smokers and ex-smokers of developing lung cancer with a simple mouth swab, trade named Respiragene. The test combines…
Investing in Breath
Roger Dickie New Zealand Ltd is offering investors shares in Onslow Carbon Forest, an established Douglas-fir forest east of the township of Roxburgh for $25,000 allowing investors the potential to earn carbon credits, and…
High Above the Bay
Bay of Islands luxury self-contained accommodation Cloud9 is reviewed by the International Business Times which describes the $1700 per night hilltop house as about “as close to heaven as you can get.” “This place…
It’s All Turned Sour
Federated Farmers President Don Nicolson has lashed out against President Barack Obama and US milk subsidies in an opinion piece for the latest issue of The Wall Street Journal. Nicolson vented his frustrations in…
King of the Derby
New Zealand jockey Larry Cassidy rode New Plymouth trainer John Wheeler’s Court Ruler to victory in the $500,000 Queensland Derby at Eagle Farm. Wheeler won his first Derby with his champion Rough Habit in…
Investing in New Zealand
A number of New Zealand companies are seeking alliances with the Silicon Valley’s tech investors and entrepreneurs in an effort to grow and extend their reach into world markets. “Everyone realises the best thinking…
Historic battle concludes
David Bain, 37, now a free man “who served almost 13 years in prison for murdering his family, has been cleared after a retrial that was only secured by an appeal to the Privy…
Jackson in the district
Wellington director Peter Jackson will attend this year’s San Diego convention Comic-Con International on July 24 for the first time, the prospect delighting thousands of comic-book, science-fiction and fantasy fans. Jackson, a three-time Oscar…
Sheep jokes abate
Trans-Tasman relationships have warmed in recent times with Australia becoming “far more inclusive” of New Zealand, “no longer pretending we’re not really here” according to the head of the New Zealand Australia Research Centre…
Tongue-twisters charm
New Zealand children’s author Margaret Mahy has won a best picture book award for Bubble Trouble at the 2009 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards for excellence in children’s and young adult literature announced June 2….
Good as gold
Zespri is encouraging Malaysians to eat two kiwifruit a day in a six-month campaign dubbed ‘Extreme Nutrition, Extreme Vitality’. In its promotional flyer, Zespri claims that kiwifruit has immune-boosting qualities; it contains twice the…
Spreading the word
New Zealand is the most peaceful country in the world and Americans might want to consider moving here suggests The Washington Post. According to the 2009 Global Peace Index released by an Australian-based research…
Madcap genius
What were the 1949 “leading thinkers at the London School of Economics” to make of New Zealand inventor Bill Phillips’ hydraulic water system used to predict the economy, wonders New York Times’ columnist Steven…
Awards for inspiration
New Zealand retailer Michael Hill was one of 50 finalists in the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year awards held in Monte Carlo. Last year in New Zealand, judging panel chairman David…
Serene Spar
“If New Zealand were a boxer, it would be a contender for best pound-for-pound puncher on the planet,” according to canada.com. The North American news site describes “New Zealand one of those countries…
Under the Influence
Michael Brajkovich, 49, winemaker at Kumeu River was the first New Zealander to claim the title of Master of Wine; he has worked with Bordeaux’s Christian Moueix and is one of the world’s leading…
Wellington for Women
Wellington’s “glam beer hall” Mighty Mighty, “funky little” BATS Theatre and the “legendary” Slow Boat Records are included in a suggested itinerary for “ladies of the world” in the June/July issue of American popular…
Miliaina to Skipper
Fullback Mils Muliaina will captain the All Blacks home tests against France and Italy in June, taking over from an injured Richie McCaw. “Mils is in the leaders group in the All Blacks,” New…
Beats the Trail
“The Queen Charlotte Track is to the Appalachian Trail what the Ritz-Carlton is to a homeless shelter,” writes Angus Phillips for The Washington Post. Polar opposites. Phillips and a friend wanted to see the…
On Women in Yemen
Former Prime Minister Jenny Shipley has been in Yemen lecturing in a workshop promoting local women’s political participation with a special emphasis on New Zealand women and their role in decision making and development…
Goats the New Carrot
Peter Wilkins of Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand launched an advertising ploy to increase sales of the Mitsubishi Triton with the promise of a goat. Buy a Triton — win a goat! Goats improved farm…
One for the ladies
New Plymouth-raised, UK-based magazine editor Suraya Singh, 30, has got Europe talking with the launch of Filament, a self-funded quarterly UK magazine that is squarely aimed at turning women on. Tired of being…
Identity Theft
A Fiordland kea made off with a Scottish tourist’s passport when the man’s tour bus driver opened the luggage compartment of the vehicle. The passport has not been recovered and, given the 4,600 square…
Harvest Hoppers
Blenheim’s Montana Brancott Winery hosts Canadian Lindsay Forsey to work “the vintage” between March and May, one of 120 seasonal employees hired from around the world. “I scored the lab position with a bit…
Heavenly Pop Hits
Morr Music, an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany, has recently released “a double-disc salute to New Zealand’s ever-influential ’80s indie pop scene”. The album, entitled Not Given Lightly – A…
With breath for peace
Richard Nunns, an authority on Maori traditional instruments or taonga puoro, performed the Gillian Whitehead composed “Hineputehue” at Luther College, Minnesota with the New Zealand String Quartet last month. Dunedin based Whitehead wrote “Hineputehue”…
Out on her own
Annabel Alpers has put New Zealand on the tech-pop map writes Guelph Mercury reviewer Jake O’Connell. Recording as Bachelorette, the Christchurch musician’s first album for the American Drag City label is a pop treatise…
Pip’s Poster Power
Royal New Zealand Navy Lieutenant Commander Pip Gibbons was one of four UN peacekeepers featured on a poster to promote the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on May 29. Lt Cdr Gibbons recently…
Whiteware deal
Fisher & Paykel has signed a US$50 million deal with Chinese appliance maker Haier, which will see the Qingdao-based manufacturer take a 20 per cent stake in the New Zealand company. Haier has signed…
Waste Not Want Not
New Zealander Richard Gow has built a house in Canada made entirely from recycled and salvaged materials, including a deck built from wood out of a dumpster. Gow, a home renovator with a degree…
Mailbox Manoeuvres
Palmerston North City Council has removed the number 13 from its street addresses, jumping from 11 to 15 so triskaidekaphobics, or those who fear the number 13, will still buy homes at that number….
Bully for them
Wellington writers and directors, Sticky Pictures’ Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s short film Six Dollar Fifty Man was awarded a special distinction at the Cannes Film Festival. The pair’s 2007 short film Run was…
They’re Rock n’ Roll
The Flight of the Conchords near the end of their 2009 Spring US tour with a pit stop in Las Vegas, playing at The Joint and reviewed by the local paper, which says the…
Bowden fronts up
Cricket umpire Billy Bowden has backed cricket’s review system by which players will be able to refer umpires’ decisions to a television official for review. The system will be implemented in all Test matches from October….
Holiday reading
Wellington author and high school teacher Bernard Beckett’s novel Genesis is recommended by American bookseller Roxanne J. Coady on the Women On The Web site, which also includes an excerpt from the first chapter…
Safe Haven for Seals
Kaikoura is the first place in New Zealand, and the second in the world, to be Green Globe benchmarked, an international benchmarking and certification program developed for the travel industry in 1992. Kaikoura was…
I Heart NZ
Three senior writers from The New Yorker have been posting rave reviews about New Zealand in blogs on the magazine’s website. Chief political commentator Hendrik Hertzberg, along with colleagues Judith Thurman, Rhonda Sherman, and…
Perfect Pinot
Martinborough is home to Kusuda Wines, a vineyard owned by Japanese former diplomat Hiroyuki Kusuda and opened in 2001. Kusuda came to New Zealand to work as an assistant to his friend Kai Schubert,…
At Nature’s mercy
“If the volcano erupts, don’t try to outrun the lava,” a guide casually instructs Toronto Star freelancer Teresa Pitman who is on a tour of White Island. “Your best bet is to find something…
Tot Takes a Punt
Stanmore Bay three-year-old Pipi Quinlan purchased a full-size excavating digger on auction site TradeMe for $20,000 while the rest of his family slept. “The first I knew of it was when I came down…
Eruption Earns Bafta
Visual effects producer Marie Jones, formerly of Invercargill, has won a Bafta for her special effects work on BBC1’s sci-fi drama Doctor Who in an episode called Fires of Pompeii, as part of London…
Cannes call to arms
From this year’s Cannes Film Festival, director Jane Campion urged her female counterparts — which number only 6 per cent — to “put on their coats of armour” and take on the “old boys’…
Safe appointment
New Zealand-born businessman, David Thodey, 54, has been appointed the new chief executive of Australia’s Telstra Corporation, taking over the role from controversial out-going head, Solomon Trujillo. Thodey, who has been with Telstra since…
Not Much on Television
Birth rates in New Zealand are the highest since 1991 with the average number per woman at 2.2 births. In the 12 months to March 31 this year, 64,160 babies were born Statistics New…
