NZEDGE News — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

New Era for NZ Golf Open

Jeweller Michael Hill’s private golf club has been unveiled as the NZ Open venue for the next three years. Designed by landscape architect John Darby, the Hills Golf Club covers 202 hectares of land in Arrowtown, just…

Canada, your time is NOW

NZ adventurer Phil Keoghan is about to launch his hit TV series No Opportunity Wasted (NOW) in Canada. In each half-hour episode of NOW – based on his best-selling book of the same name…

Designs on New York

Christchurch-born art director and graphic designer, Jeff Docherty has spent the last seven years making a name for himself in NZ, Australia, and New York. To date, Docherty’s work has appeared in the New…

Ideas of abstraction

New York’s Esso Gallery in Chelsea’s West 26th Street, is holding a second solo exhibition by Auckland artist Julian Dashper. Titled The Abstract Office, the exhibition is a broad survey of Dashper’s work from…

High Price for Anzac Artwork

An iconic Anzac painting has sold for more than twice its estimated price at an auction of wartime artworks in Sydney. Simpson and his Donkey by NZ artist Horace Moore-Jones was purchased for $120,000…

Gates of Hell open in Fulham

Hell Pizza has opened its first UK outlet in Fulham, northwest London. Founders Callum Davies and Stu McMullin decided it was time to test a new market after 11 successful years in NZ….

Short and Sweet

Auckland writer Charlotte Grimshaw has been nominated for the world’s richest prize for collected short stories, the £35,000 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Grimshaw joins 32 authors on the Irish event’s longlist,…

Hunter retains her edge

NZ-born Alexis Hunter features in the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Hunter moved to London in 1972 aged 24 and has lived and worked there…

Inside Perspective on Disarmament

New Zealander Bob Rigg has written an essay for Open Democracy protesting the US manipulation of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and the ousting of its Brazilian director-general, José Bustani, in 22….

Royal Welcome for NZ Flora

The largest collection of NZ native plants in the UK has opened at the Savill Garden, near Windsor Castle in Surrey. The NZ Garden in Great Windsor Park was officially opened by the Duke of York…

Healthy Competition

A NZ healthy fast food chain has opened its first European outlet in Glasgow, Scotland. Owner Conrad van der Klundert believes that Reload, a South Island-based juice, salad and sandwich bar, can take…

Matterhorn Among World’s Best

Wellington institution the Matterhorn has been named one of the world’s top five bars by respected US trade magazine, Bartender. The Cuba St local was ranked fifth behind Milk & Honey (London), Salvatore…

All Black Up-and-comers

NZ has won the world under-19 rugby championship for the first time since 2004, with a decisive 31-7 victory over South Africa in Belfast, Ireland. “To win tonight, and also so resoundingly, was just fantastic,” said NZ…

Phoenix on the Rise

A Wellington-based franchise is to replace Auckland’s NZ Knights in the Australian A-League soccer competition beginning in August. Wellington Phoenix will be the eighth team in the 2007-2008 series, which runs for 21 rounds up until next…

A Star Among Men

Frank Bateson, one of the world’s most respected astronomers, has died in Tauranga aged 97. Born in Wellington in 1909, Bateson was the internationally acknowledged expert on variable stars (those which intermittently vary in brightness)….

Blanket Bay Among World’s Best

Queenstown’s Blanket Bay Lodge has been selected as the best lodge in the world by the US Discovery Travel & Living channel. Blanket Bay will feature on Discovery’s new Five-Star Insider series alongside the world’s best…

NZ Triathletes Dominate at Ishigaki

NZ athletes dominated at Japan’s Ishigaki Island World Cup series triathlon, despite their lack of a gold medal finish. Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell, Shane Reed and Andrew Hewitt finished second, third, fourth and sixth in the…

Fight night

Two New Zealanders have been nominated for the 2007 Taurus World Stunt Awards. Ben Cooke (pictured) and Kirk Maxwell are both up for Best Fight, for their work in Casino Royale and…

Icon and Storyteller Who Inspired All

Veteran actor and filmmaker Don Selwyn has died aged 71 after a long illness. Selwyn was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust and He Taonga Films, and was…

Auckland Pioneers Landing Technique

Auckland International Airport is leading the world in trialling a landing method designed to reduce fuel use and emissions. Beginning April 18, the test landings will see selected Air NZ and Qantas jets glide into the…

Tributes Flow for Reading Expert

Educators the world over have mourned the loss of Dame Marie Clay, an internationally renowned reading expert who has died in Auckland aged 81. Clay was a leading figure in the International Reading Association…

Big pond, big promise

Wellington singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser relocated to Sydney three years ago, hoping to create an Australian following to rival the one she enjoys back home. In NZ, Fraser’s first album – What to do…

Keats Inspires New Campion Film

The doomed love affair between English poet John Keats and his neighbour, Fanny Brawne, is to be the subject of a literary biopic written and directed by Oscar-winning NZ filmmaker, Jane Campion. Keats and…

Something for Everyone

The recent volcanic lahar at Mount Ruapehu has done nothing to put off eager skiers, from NZ or overseas. As a news.com.au article points out, visitors continued to ski and snowboard both during and immediately after the…

Cliff’s time in the sun

NZ actor Cliff Curtis has a starring role in Sunshine, the latest critically acclaimed film by English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). The film is a futuristic sci-fi thriller about…

Planned to Perfection

The Toronto Star reports on the wonder of Victorian-era town planning that is Christchurch, NZ. Prior to its December 1850 settlement, Christchurch was designed to be a replica of the ideal English, Anglican town – right…

Cheap Solar Power a Step Closer

Massey University researchers have developed a novel means of harnessing solar energy, at a fraction of the price. Scientists at the university’s Nanomaterials Research Centre have produced a range of coloured synthetic dyes for use in dye-sensitised…

Te Mata in Dream Opener

Hawkes Bay’s Te Mata Estate will open next month’s London International Wine and Spirits Fair (LIWSF) with a tasting celebrating 25 years of its flagship Cabernet/Merlot, Coleraine. Te Mata CEO John Buck and winemaker Peter Cowley will…

“A Little Savage From New Zealand”

A Telegraph review of Penguin’s Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield celebrates the influential author’s short yet remarkable life. Born in Wellington in 1888, Mansfield made a strong and lasting impression on the London literary…

More Gold for Kendall

NZ sporting legend Barbara Kendall is back in the spotlight after winning the women’s RS:X windsurfing event at the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta in Palma, Spain. The three-time Olympic medallist was also named the overall Princess…

Fresh Perspective on Antarctica

A NZ doctoral student and her Dutch counterpart have initiated a radical new program to involve the humanities and social sciences in Antarctic research. Canterbury University’s Daniela Haase and Machiel Lamers of the University of Maastricht launched…

Zambesi Marches on Moscow

NZ fashion label Zambesi has netted its largest ever international account. Zambesi will be stocked in Moscow’s soon-to-open Cara & Co concept store, which describes itself as a “deluxe boutique for intellectuals.” Label owners…

Praise for Bright and Vital

Ferris South Australian Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris has died after a two-year battle with ovarian cancer. Born in NZ, Ferris studied agribusiness and worked as a journalist and political adviser before entering Australian parliament…

Writing in the margins

Auckland writer Tzeming Mok spoke about globalization and the Chinese Diaspora at last month’s Shanghai Literature Festival. Mok, a published poet, author, blogger and journalist, is known for writing about issues of displacement, with…

Smither reveals wild side over tea and cake

NZ poet laureate Elizabeth Smither was a guest speaker at the recent Kuala Lumpur International Literary Festival. A journalist interviewing her for the Malaysian Star was amazed at her calm and easygoing persona, which…

NZ a Modern Treasure Hunter’s Dream

NZ features in a “21st century treasure map” for entrepreneurial Americans, published by Inc. magazine. The interactive online map is a guide for American business owners looking for international opportunities. The NZ economy is described as one…

Stamps Commemorate Centenaries

NZ Post has issued a series of stamps celebrating the centenaries of four organisations that have played a major role in the country’s history. Released April 24, the stamps pay tribute to Suzanne Aubert’s House of…

Surf Secrets Revealed

Artificial Surf Reefs (ASR) co-founder Kerry Black has been profiled by CNN. Black, a former Waikato University professor, has spent the last few years perfecting the world’s first fully adjustable computer-controlled reef. He expects the technology to…

Herne Bay Haven

Wallpaper’s April issue includes a Pacific-inspired Herne Bay home designed Auckland’s Stevens Lawson Architects. “For us, it’s the ultimate modernist abstraction,” says architect Nicholas Stevens of the impressive structure, which features a…

Mason Wins at Raglan

NZ surfer Airini Mason has scored her second Billabong Pro Junior Series title for 2007 by winning the girls’ division of the $13,000 Raglan leg. The 18-year-old beat pre-event ratings leader Sally Fitzgibbons (Gerroa,…

Fashionable Folk

Australia’s Frankie magazine features an 8-page spread on NZ “fashionable folk” in its April/May issue. Students, models and DJ’s are asked to name their favourite hang-outs, shopping haunts and things about NZ while wearing…

McCarten joins local colour

Auckland-born Donald McCarten is a featured artist in the upcoming ColorField.remix event in Washington D.C. The four-month event celebrates the American capital’s influential 1950s/1960s Color Field visual art movement, of which McCarten…

Toast of TriBeCa

New Zealander Claire Fergusson has become a mainstay of the annual TriBeCa Open Artist Studio Tour (TOAST) in New York. TOAST is a free, self-guided tour of around 100 studios in the TriBeCa…

Incredible Journey Revealed

Massey University ecologists are conducting a groundbreaking study of the bar-tailed godwit’s northern migration. While the 11,000 km southern migration of the godwit from Alaska to NZ is thought to be the longest non-stop flight by any…

Chinese tour for RNZB

The Royal New Zealand Ballet is set for its first tour of China since 1985. The company has been invited to perform at the Shanghai International Arts Festival in November and will stage further…

Schoolgirls Spill the Juice

A science experiment by two Auckland schoolgirls has resulted in a major lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world’s second-largest food and pharmaceutical company. In 2004, Pakuranga College students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo (then 14) tested several…

Clark Visits Oval Office

Helen Clark made an official visit to Washington last month, in what was her second such meeting with President Bush and just the third between NZ and US leaders in the last 24 years. Bush described Clark…

The Future of Fabric

Auckland-based Zephyr Technology Ltd has developed “smart fabric” for the US army which is capable of monitoring wearers’ vital signs. The patented fabric works through flexible sensors which detect and measure displacement, distance, pressure and bio-data. Wireless…