Hey Prestwick! An Airport
High-flying New Zealand airport developers Infratil snap up Prestwick Airport in Ayreshire, planning to turn it into a low-cost travel hub.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Smiling Like
Smiling Like is apprentice Michael Walker’s lucky horse. The Wellington Cup was her second victory with the “boom” New Zealander in the saddle.
Anti-nuke Action
Rainbow Warrior survivor Chris Robinson and New Zealand-based Henk Haazen and his family form part of the flotilla prostesting the shipping of nuclear waste through the Tasman sea. Australian shipments also raise ire.
Big Breach
Kiwi ex-MI6 operative Richard Tomlinson’s memoirs, The Big Breach hits Russian bookshops and are serialised in the Sunday Times, to the dismay of the secret service establishment in Britain.
Postcards from the Edge
“Dad,” revealed the postcard from New Zealand, “went paragliding”. All it takes is a break from routine.
Fit to Judge?
New Zealand research shows juries have “fairly fundamental” misunderstandings of the law in over 7% of cases.
Acting love
British actor Toby Stephens “sips cranberry and soda in restaurants with his girlfriend, the New Zealand actress Anna-Louise Plowman (Flick, The Adulterer)”, and enjoys “choosing colour schemes for his new north London flat.” …
America’s Cup Turns 150
“It would have felt very wrong to have hosted a celebration of the fact that we lost the cup in 1851, haven’t seen it since and are making no attempt to get it back,” says John…
Wharekauhau Station Seduces
“Included in the rectangular picture window vista is a real sea, Palliser Bay, below the cliffs where the sheep paddocks end, and edged by chalk palisades off to the left.”
Dinosaur amore
Sam Neill confesses to feeling something for his Jurassic co-stars: “There was one little female velociraptor who had a cute haircut, but it was never anything more than holding hands… holding claws.”
Wheezy September
Mysterious medical matter: asthma admission in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad all have an unexplained annual peak in the third week of September.
Tops for Jumps
Guardian netjetter Sam “takes advantage of New Zealand’s position as tops for adrenaline holidays – he’s just done a bungy jump.”
Cross-cultural carving
A display of Japanese netsuke, small carved toggles for pouches, includes “a mythical bird’s head by a New Zealand carver,” which “successfully combines the imagery of one culture with the aesthetics of Japan.”
Group sex
Veiled body parts and explicit pictures on show at Group Sex, One Eye Gallery, Paekakariki.
Ed for Heights
“I was frequently scared and often tired, but there were few moments I would have willingly missed,” says Sir Edmund Hillary in the biography for children, Triumph on Everest.
Different Age
Queen Victoria reigned over an age of adventure and conquest, innovation and development. She was Empress of the Empire on which the sun never set, including New Zealand, her furthest-flung domain.
Saucy Story
“Lee & Perrin’s bottles, with their characteristic long necks, designed to make it easy to Shake Well Before Using, have turned up in shipwrecks, encrusted with barnacles; in the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet; and in…
Still sailing
Ian Tew’s soon to be published In Grandfather’s Wake includes an account of finding Grandpa Graham’s old yacht “in full commission” in New Zealand.
Evidence Compelling
“The economic evidence to support broadened and deepened negotiations is compelling,” states former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore, now trying to kick-start free-trade talks in his role as WTO chief.
Watch for the Splash
MIR is scheduled to descend into the South Pacific “up to 2000 kilometres (1 250 miles) off the coast of Australia…the same distance off the coast of Australia are New Zealand, the French territory of…
Cultural resonance
”Everything I saw in this film I see in my own country,” says Maori Jillian White, speaking of Native Canadian films screened at Canada’s Sundance festival.
Long in the Tooth – at 26
New Zealand researchers have uncovered the biting truth – periodontal disease, which leads to loss of teeth, can be a problem from as early as 26.
Fly Away Nanny
Free trips home to New Zealand are among the perks offered to nannies in London’s tight market.
Dread Drought
New Zealand artist Horace Moore-Jones painted “one of the few pictorial responses to Australia’s Long Drought” (1895 and 1903), a series which included “Dead Drought as ‘a ghastly emaciated figure of doubtful sex, wearing…
World Without Oz
If Australia didn’t exist, “Kiri Te Kanawa would be known as La Stupenda,” “New Zealanders would outnumber sheep” and “the pavlova would be indisputably a New Zealand Creation.”
Trans-oceanic Phone Tag
“After a morning spent hiking in New Zealand’s spectacular Rotorua region – a volcanic area of geysers, thermal pools and surreal landscapes – my tour guide, Jacqui, heard the chirping of her cell phone. Then, with…
Human Rights for All
New Zealand-born and educated John Fisher is Canada’s leading gay rights activist. “Human rights, for me, are universal and transcend national boundaries,” says Fisher. “Everyone knows someone who is gay or lesbian, and a society that affirms…
Lang may his lum reek
New Zealand’s now home for Scottish actor John Cairney but he makes a yearly return to Scotland for Burns night.
Family Planning, Possums!
David Heath of the Wallaceville Animal Research centre is developing a GM bug that secrets a substance designed to curtail possums’ fertility.
Hotel Harridans
New Zealand women using hotels make more noise during sex, watch more porn, leave their rooms messier and steal more stuff than men. “I think women are becoming more assertive,” offered a Novotel spokesperson.
Top Two
Two New Zealanders – Fred Hollows and Whakatane-born Lindy Chamberlain – make it into the list of top 100 influential Australians.
Scraps of genius
New Zealand-born artist Rosalie Gascoigne used roadside ephemera in her work: “from the grasses, pebbles, discarded roadside trophies, road signs and softdrinks crates, she built an extraordinary body of work. In her hands and…
Tools out
Carving New Zealand jade is among the retirement pursuits under consideration by Australian songster Rolf Harris.
Blanchettes
Maybe it was all the fresh air and vigorous activity? Cate Blanchett says “working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand made her feel especially broody”.
Web savvy
Lord of the Rings producers have played it cool with net marketing – giving away photos and info titbits to keep the fans keen. The redesigned Rings site has already clocked over41 million…
Eco-racing Comes Home
Top eco-racing teams have registered for October’s South Island race, including New Zealand’s Team Fairydown. “New Zealand, being the birth place of Expedition Racing, is the perfect location for the top teams in the world to experience…
One Blind Mouse
Following the lead of New Zealand company Pulse Data, Israeli firm VirTouch has developed a Braille mouse for blind computer users.
Smartwool
New Zealand’s long-fibre merino makes “Smartwool” – outdoor clothing that’s itch-proof, and “works better than anything else you can find”.
Catch That Pigeon Now
New Zealander Kent Robertson adds his two cents worth on the Trafalger Square pigeons: “I’ve been coming to London for 30 years and feeding the pigeons has always been a great treat.”
In Search of Lost Crime
How can a society heal itself? Some places, like New Zealand, opt for compensation for victims, a strategy that can be divisive. Europe prefers legal redress and Africa, Latin America and Asia favour commissions of inquiry….
Prehistoric background
New Zealand provided the background – and the KY jelly – for the phenomenly successful Walking with Dinosuars, soon to be followed by The Ballad of Big Al.
Death Deluxe
John Bougan’s Auckland Memorial Park will provide anything “within reason, and within moral and legal bounds and the Building Act”. One customer has already requested a $150,000 building to house himself and his Rolls Royce.
Spence of the sixties
The house of Beehive-architect Sir Basil Spence is described as “the best 1960’s space in Great Britain”.
Girl Power
Women leaders are where it’s at says the The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasian leadership conference.
Country & Urban
New Zealand-born country singer/ songwriter Keith Urban’s “Rollercoaster” gets a Grammy nom, while Keith himself fronts Music Row mag and toasts his top-ten success.
Ringing up the gold
Lord of the Rings has brought the gold into Wellington, the city of “tearooms and sea views”. View the New Zealand setting in the round at the official site.
Lakeside Limerick Learning
The University of Limerick is lending “expertise” to assist Ngati Tuwharetoa and the Taupo District Council in setting up the Lake Taupo University College.
Swinging into History
“Ant Gear guaranteed his place in the record books when, at precisely 12am on 1 January, 2000, he teed off at the Manawatu Golf Club in the North Island.” Gear’s wife stood on the fairways with…
Ice Ice Baby
Extreme sport doesn’t come any cooler: -10º, ice bergs and hurricane-strength winds face three New Zealanders kayaking around the Antarctic peninsula.
Frucor on the Up
“One of last year’s hot floats” in Australia, Frucor, makers of headline energy drink V, have increased turnover by 55%.
Kraus purposes
“If women have failed to make ‘universal’ art because we’re trapped within the ‘personal,’ why not universalize the ‘personal’ and make it the subject of our art?” asks Edge-thinker Chris Kraus.
