Reel Pianos
The Piano, Jane Campion’s “hard to ignore” and “genuinely strange” masterpiece is the star in Jerusalem’s Festival of piano-films – celebrating the filmic attraction of tormented pianists.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Clean Fingers
European consumers can’t wait to get their hands on sustainably fished New Zealand hoki fish-fingers, but some groups strongly dispute the fishery’s right to the “sustainable” label.
Mega-Catch
New Zealand Envirosafe Technologies’ mega-catch mosquito trap looks like a “harmless, black plastic birdcage”, but, to a mosquito, it looks and smells exactly like a juicy human target.
Singing High
New Zealand soprano soloist Rebecca Ryan sings world premier of re-discovered Handel work.
Gourmet high
“Air New Zealand announces a culinary partnership with Chef Katsuo “Suki” Sugiura of the legendary Polo Lounge at The Beverly Hills Hotel.”
Sock it to Him
Returning from Britain, Agricultural Minister Jim Sutton handed in his shoes for decontamination – accidentally also handing in a pair of dirty socks. These were also “decontaminated” by customs, returning to the minister freshly washed.
Restitution Advance
The New Zealand Maori Council became the executors of the estate of a long-dead ancestor, enabling them to regain his head for burial, and opening a legal channel for other groups to claim remains from museums…
Garageland USA
Jeremy Eade, lead singer of New Zealand peppy-punkers Garageland, tours the US doing acoustic from latest release Do What You Want.
Kiwi Burger?
“If you were in a position where every family could eat kiwi for lunch, then you would have solved the problem, wouldn’t you,” says John Wamsley, head of the private Environmental Sanctuaries group. But, “our aim…
Rock Face
“New Zealand is one of the few places on earth where a novice can partake in the wild and woolly sport known as canyoning: an odd combination of hiking and rock climbing.”
Writer’s birthday
The 13 of March is the birthday of novelist, Sir Hugh Walpole, born in Auckland in 1884.
Right on NZ
Come to New Zealand, one American’s all-huntin’, no (school) shootin’ right-wing paradise.
Strenuous Endeavour
“How a poor Yorkshire farm boy became a saltwater giant is an incredible tale. Formally speaking, 4-year-old Cook wasn’t even a captain when, over considerable objection, he was appointed master of a naval ship…
…you take Finn with you
One Nil is the result of a musician “looking for collaborative work, where someone else is bringing something to the table”, but it’s still vintage Finn: still “rooted in the form and structure of…
Elegant Astelia
A New Zealand silver astelia adds elegance to Irish garden designer Dominick Murphy’s small garden.
Properly Done
New Zealand designers Ashley and Wende Fogel know how to get it right for this season’s “lean and proper” look.
Sexy Collette
Wellington-trained Aus-based designer Collette Dinnigan’s international reputation makes her Australasia’s most prolific fashion designer, conjuring for all shapes and sizes “unashamedly feminine, decorative and sexy creations that hug your body and delight your spirit”…
Edge Eden
Cornwall’s bio-dome Eden Project houses vegetation from every part of the planet – including the edge.
Rower Cola
University of Otago scientists says caffeine consumption prior to exercise boosts output, making you rower faster, run further and jump higher without even realising it.
Trek Milford
The Milford Track is one of the world’s top ten walks – up there with Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and Snow Lake, Pakistan.
Double life
UK Poet Charles Boyle’s The Age of Cardboard and String features “a poet who leads a double life in England and New Zealand”.
Cold Daring
What better guide through the frozen continent that “a New Zealander who, in younger days, had driven motorcycles across the ice pack and sampled the 80-year-old cocoa from the stores left in the hut of the…
Wahine Remembered
March 10 was the thirty-third anniversary of the day the ferry Wahine ran aground on Barrett’s reef.
High Brag Value
New Zealand’s rise in popularity with Indian tourists has two sources: massive exposure as background in Bollywood films and exclusivity: New Zealand has “high brag value” once you’re back home.
“Foreign Britain”
“And then there is my ridiculous fantasy that if we are to become a foreign land it might be New Zealand, where, unlike our own benighted Scotland, they know how to play rugby. (Big Hint to…
Peaceful PM
PM Helen Clark sat on the selection committee for the Millennium Peace Prize for Women, alongside writer Alice Walker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta.
In From the Cold
Former New Zealand PM, now WTO-head Mike Moore plans to see China a WTO member in time for the November meeting in Qatar.
“I Will Herd Sheep”
“Never doubt you can accomplish the task given to you,” says Canadian film-maker Sean Buckley. “I had barely been on a horse before, but there I was in New Zealand, needing a job. I…
Happily.Married
Wellingtonians Rob and Liz Flavhive.Hill say ditch the hyphen – the dot is so much more 2001.
Furry Good Idea
The fur is soft, warm and stylish. The leather feels so good you can wear it as underwear; Tiger Woods refuses to play with a glove made of anything else. It’s true: the best…
Throwing Down the Gimlett
Terroir – it’s French for “good wine grows here”. Gimlett Gravels in the Hawkes Bay, a patch of gravelly soil that supports 34 wineries, is New Zealand’s first venture into this elite area of wine marketing….
Rating Well
Standard and Poors lifts New Zealand’s long-term foreign currency credit rating to stable on the back of a government surplus and declining debt burden.
I’m Looking for a Holy Man: Green, Short, Talks Kinda Funny?
The full force of the law is against them: despite attempts to have Jedi registered as an official religion on this year’s census form, it won’t happen unless adherents can produce solid evidence the religion exists. …
Bored? Zorb!
“Over the years, Kiwis apparently have become bored counting sheep and have amused themselves by coming up with some extreme sporting activities. They pioneered bungee jumping and zorbing (literally rolling down a hill strapped inside a ball). Also,…
Co-operation
The time is right for co-operation between India and New Zealand on food processing, IT and forestry, says Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Phil Goff.
Use the Force
The force of email is being tested by a New Zealand group attempting to get Jedi recognised as an official religion.
Travel Gets Edgy
Being on the edge means being “enroute to nowhere,” but good cocktails in hot bars, great views from hot baths, wine, alps, adrenaline and Auckland’s revolving restaurant “make this one you must go to sometime”. Also,
Awesome Dame
New Zealand thoroughbred superpower Sunline receives “spine-tingling” farewell from Sydney. “She is the best horse I will ever train,” states trainer Trevor McKee.
Do the Funky Mushroom
Malborough pinot noir smells like “funky mushroom” – that must be a good thing, because “New Zealand’s Pinot Noirs are as good as anyone’s outside Burgundy”.
Russ of the jungle
Russell: Charismatic, attractive and talented, but also fearless, said Sharon Stone years back. He proves her right on the screen and in the jungles of Ecuador.
Gene Out of the Bottle
A gene identified by Auckland National Women’s Hospital researchers may help woman at risk of early menopause to plan children or have eggs frozen for later.
Everybody on Board
“Kiwi Experience, a hop-on-hop-off backpacker bus service that was created in New Zealand in 1998 proved such a successful concept that it became a blueprint for imitators around the world.”
Cyberreads
Denis Dutton’s “admirable venture,” Cybereditions, allows publications to be constantly updated, exploiting the interactivity and flexibility of the net to deliver superior content.
Caught on Film
Father of Polaroid George W Wheelwright III had eclectic interests – including the fodder potential of “exotic grasses from New Zealand”.
Antipodean Greatness
Aussie journalist ponders greatness, noting New Zealand’s “two truly international figures,” Sir Edmund Hillary and Ernest Rutherford.
The Win
New Zealand racing legend Grant Dalton brought giant Club Med in to Marseilles 62 days after leaving Barcelona – winning The Race by over 900 miles and clocking the fastest circumnavigation ever.
Wine of Human Kindness
New Zealand brand In the Black chardonnay contributes to Comic Relief in Scotland.
History revised?
Controversy and acclaim for edge-director Roger Donaldson’s nuke-spook Kennedy paean 13 Days.“Yet, despite these difficulties, the film works and ought to be essential viewing for those too young to have been around in October 1962,…
Lord of nations…
“Barton’s encore – her own variations on the New Zealand national anthem, inspired by a tour of that country made at the invitation of James Judd – was full of devilish pyrotechnics, skittery bowings…
Vagana Bio
New Zealander Joe Vagana, “one of the best packmen in the world”, is set to be a star with English club Bradford Bulls.
Flying Feeling
Air New Zealand is highest-ranked Holiday Which? airline, beating out Britain’s “no-thrills” EasyJet.
Fine Drinking
Palliser Estate Sauvignon with “real intensity, poise and class”. “Brilliant reds” are “the undiscovered splendors of New Zealand”. Wine of the week: Stoneleigh Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
