Maori Culture Previewed on USA Today
“The indigenous people of New Zealand are spotlighted at Maori Culture including historical background, portraits and even a cookbook.”
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Neighbours no more: Kiwi pop culture export success reverses the flow
Aussie girl-group Bardot, the most manufactured band in the history of pop, have become a sensation. “Popstars”, the hit TV show that followed their evolution from nobodies to Spice Girls, was born from a…
Global Leader in 3d Paint Technology Brings Texture to Cyberspace
Auckland company Right Hemisphere has released ‘Texture Weapons’ its latest imaging product said, “to represent a breakthrough in 3D content creation for broadcast, game developers and industrial design.” What was once an arduous task is now once…
Maclean movie puts the art before the horse
Feed gets a shot in the arm from director Alison Maclean. “We all know what to expect from ’70s smack movies. So why is Jesus’ Son so unexpectedly good? Maclean’s movie, like the much…
Dotcom Carnage Paves the Way for Kiwi Hard Science
USA Today speculates that the dotcom slump will see investors’ interest return to science-based research companies, including LifeF/x, which is creating realistic-looking, computer-generated talking heads for use on Web sites. The company is building on years of…
Helen Clark: Good Bloke
“Good bloke” politics is playing well in “reform-fatigued” Australian electorates. The new model is not gender-specific. Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand may like to imply that it is, but she has profited from the same…
ANZACS Cautious in South Pacific
New Zealand and Australia in recent years have turned their attention away from the South Pacific, and increasingly cast it towards Asia. Two coups in as many weeks, in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, have re-focused attention,…
Kevin Roberts Punts Saatchi & Saatchi into the Premier League
The ideas shop meets ‘La Difference’ when it was announced that Saatchis was to merge, for £1.24 billion, with French giant Publicis. Celebrating the merger, as well as scooping creative awards at Cannes and the company’s…
Kiwi Comics Turn Fringe Festival Into Laugh-fest
The All New Kiwi Stand-up Experience has gained a reputation as one of the funniest acts in town at Ottawa’s Fringe Festival. But be warned that “the routines of these two comics from New…
Large Natural Gas Field Discovered, NZ’s Second Largest
Newly discovered by Fletcher Challenge Energy, the gas field Pohokura may be New Zealand’s second largest and help underpin a sustainable gas supply for New Zealand’s future.
Dallas Cowboys in the Super 12?
Rugby, the sport of choice in countries like New Zealand and Australia is gaining a strong foothold in the States, and particularly in Dallas, Patricia Lowell finds out why. “Rugby may have a reputation for being…
Kiwi King is Queen of the Waves in Singapore
Jane King may only be 8 years old and 1.45 meters tall, but she is already a wakeboarding champion: in an adult category. She recently out-jumped and out-tricked four adults to win the Seventh…
Walking with the Gods: Tiger Wood’s Kiwi caddy
When Tiger Wood’s completed his historic US Open victory by an absurd 15 strokes the first person he turned to to celebrate was his advisor, New Zealand caddy Steve Williams. Earlier this year commentator Gary Koch…
Kiwi Whispering on Stewart Island
The New York Times experiences the thrill of the chase in Kiwi country. “I realised I had been holding my breath, so I exhaled. The whole experience had lasted less than five minutes, but it had…
Mike Moore Wants to Give Globalisation a Human Face
The cherubic WTO head Moore, readily likened to a panda in caricutures, admitted that the free-traders were losing the PR battle after the “Seattle Debacle” and failed consensus, but vowed to do what it takes to convince…
Tolkien epic is lord of the net
The $200m epic, in production in New Zealand and not due for release for a year and a half, is already burgling box-office treasure and causing a storm on the internet, with a promotional trailer breaking…
j’accuse! Greg Turner and the European PGA
When Greg Turner left last week’s Wales Open before it even started he accused, in his unique way, the European Tour of stifling healthy debate by placing commercial interests before course quality. On the Ryder Cup…
Party-on in ‘one of the Hippest Cities on the Pacific Rim’
The Guardian reports that Auckland, ‘more like the Riviera than the outskirts of Polynesia’, is having a hard time coming down from the highs of the America’s Cup victory. All part of ‘a burgeoning café culture to challenge…
Kiwi Innovation Solution to Indian Sea Erosion
“The State Minister for Minor Irrigation Kumar Bangarappa informed that a permanent solution to arrest sea-erosion in the coastal belt of the Mangalore district would be evolved as per the New Zealand model.”
Elemental Design Lets House Take Care of Itself
Professor Brenda Vale and Dr Robert Vale of the Sustainable Design Centre Research Centre at the University of Auckland, use The Times to forward their manifesto for environmentally friendly housing design. Their ‘Autonomous House’…
Cruising New Zealand: Come Aboard We’re Expecting You …
Cruising is the ideal way to see New Zealand, in nine days The Times correspondent saw things exciting and new: the spectacular Marlborough Sounds, dazzlingly beautiful Picton Harbour, Wellington, “a city impossible to absorb in a day”,…
NZ Study Shows Women on Pill Face Increased Health Risk
Dr Skegg from the University of Otago, (in a study published in medical journal Lancet) found that although the risk of a fatal clot is still extremely low, women on the pill are nearly ten times more…
All Black’s Blunt Edge in 95 World Cup Final Attributed to Poisoning
A former major in the South African Police has backed up claims that the All Black team was poisoned on the eve of the 1995 World Cup final, “I only have the evidence of my eyes but…
Teddy Tahu Rhodes: Kiwi man singing Houston
Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “a New Zealand baritone well known in Sydney for his Opera Australia appearances”, is playing the lead role of Joe in the Houston Grand Opera’s rendering of Dead Man Walking. It…
Raving About Dixon in Detroit
Motown: Scott Dixon has won the first two races of the Dayton Indy Lights series and history indicates that he is well on his way to a championship in his first season with PacWest Racing. “I…
Rebecca Taylor’s Urban Femininity Nominated for Prestigious Perry Ellis Award
New York based New Zealander Rebecca Taylor’s signature brightly colured cardigans with sequin trim have seen her nominated for the reputation-making Perry Ellis Fashion Award. She will be hoping to follow in the fashionable…
Kiwi Wave Expert Helps the Brits Hang Ten in Bournemouth
The stereotype of the stoic sunburnt pommie enduring another much-mocked English summer is all about to change thanks to a world expert kiwi who specialises in making artificial waves. It might still be cold, but Professor…
Kiwi Professor of Pop Crafts Summer Sounds from Nashville
“If there were advanced academic degrees for pop music, songwriter Tim Finn would have achieved professor emeritus status long ago. This Split Enz and Crowded House alum is a craftsman of the first order….
Wilson Picked in All-Star Futures Game
Kiwi baseball player Travis Wilson, who is a rookie with the Atlanta Braves, has been selected to play in the US vs the World All-Star Futures Game – a strong indication that he’s on track to…
Oceania Merge the Edges With Log Drums and Electro Beats
Former leader of Killing Joke Jaz Coleman joins Maori singer Hinewehi Mohi in a high-tech fusion on their eponymous debut. “This isn’t a fashion record for me, or a passing flirtation with another culture,” says Coleman, recently…
Bob Charles in Putting Pantheon
Las Vegas Sun columnist Peter Benton joins the end of century reviews and attempts to evaluate the world’s greatest putter, putting Kiwi left-hander Bob Charles up there with Woods, Nicklaus and Duval.
Give them a taste of Kiwi
“Sometimes expats crave a taste of the familiar – and now they can find it on the net.” A New Zealand writer yearns for Tim Tams and ponders the number of dotcoms, such as…
“He Who Laughs Last …” Kiwi Wines Now the Benchmark
Colonial upstarts from the all parts of the Empire are conquering Britain. As renowned wine merchant Simon Berry ponders regretfully, “We laughed at New Zealand 20 years ago, and now they are benchmark wines.”
“Brain Drain Clouds NZ’s Future” – Refuse the Hype and Get to the Edge
More centric thinking, this time from London’s Observer, “New Zealander’s are leaving their country in droves, placing a strain on the economy and painting a grim picture for the future.” Our opinion: New Zealand Edgers of the…
Bonding Bungee Brings Together Father and Son Film-makers
Award-winning doco “Pop & Me” charts father/son relationships around the world as the father/son makers work out their own. The film’s defining moment comes when Chris persuades his Dad join him in a tandem…
Save Our Sea-mammals : Pacific Plan for Whale Sanctuary
New Zealand and Australian governments are set to pressure the International Whaling Commission into creating a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific, believing that a plan must be implemented to protect stocks already severely depleted by whaling.
Oui Fumer
A political party in New zealand is to hand out free cigarettes in protest at the countires recent increase in tobacco taxes. The Libertarianz Party will hand out free cigarette’s in the city of Roturua, a geothermal…
Sir David Low: “the greatest political cartoonist of the century”
London’s Evening Standard previews an exhibition by the Kiwi cartoonist Churchill called “a green-eyed young Antipodean radical.” His work was banned in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy due to “the savagerealism” of his pen….
The “Most Beautiful Scenery on Earth” … with an Ecological Edge
LA Times travel writer John Fretter has a romantic environmental encounter on Fjordland Ecology Tour’s ketch. “In front of us was a giant geologic amphitheatre, the passengers fell silent and ceased all activity, even breathing, some said. the emotional…
Catch Up Columbus: World Speed Record a Holiday in the Sun for Grant ‘Pure Speed’ Dalton
Dalton, captaining the maxi-catamaran Club Med has smashed the trans-atlantic 24-hour sailing record. Retracing Columbus’s historic East-West Atlantic Crossing, they broke the elusive 600 mile barrier for the first time, travelling at an incredible average speed of…
Reading Recovery Gets Thumbs Up in Baltimore
Maryland: the innovative system, started by New Zealand educator Marie Clay over 20 years ago, is a remedial program targeted to young children struggling with reading. Threatened with loss of funding parents made passionate…
McKinnon and the End of the World
“No sooner had former New Zealand foreign minister Don McKinnon stepped across the threshold of London’s Marlborough House to take over as Secretary-General than all hell broke loose across the Commonwealth. It was a coincidence, of course…
Edge Explorer Revised and Revisited by Aussie Historian
Tony Horwitz revisits the James Cook legend and Cook’s Star-Trek echoing logbook, “I have gone farther than any man has been before me, as far as I think it is possible for a man…
“All You Sweet Girls With Your Sweet Talk”
Known for her willingness to thematically peer over the edge ‘to the centre in her head’, Maclean is attracting attention for Jesus’ Son (starring Billy Cudrup and Samantha Morton). The film, about alienation, ennui…
Odious Vampire’s Kiss: NZ Researchers Investigate Garlic Mystery
Kiwi research team Rex and Christine Munday claimed in New Scientist magazine that eating half a clove of raw garlic a day could help protect against cancer. They believed the key ingredient was a substance called…
Masters class
Jazz legend Ian Chaplin was joined in concert by the Gerard Masters Trio. Young NZ pianist Masters was hailed as an “imaginative deconstructionist” and his trio “a highly individualistic unit.” The Trio released their…
Kiwi’s Big Fightback in the War of Whiteware
They might have won the eponymous netball cup, but at least someone’s beating the Aussies: Fisher & Paykel increased its Australian market share and boosted its annual profit above expectations to A$43 million, a 290% improvement…
Coach Bracewell Has Opponents in a Spin with the All Black Way
Former New Zealand spinner John Bracewell, now in a coaching role, has turned the fortunes of underachieving Gloucestershire a full circle through preaching ‘the All Black way’. They are looking to complete a hatrick of one…
Innovative Computer Mapping to Curb Crime
New Zealand police are, introducing a high-tech solution to beat burglaries. They are using a NZ$6million computer-mapping programme to allow police to zero in on burglars’ homes as well as break-in hot spots, said…
Tim Finn Inspires Repeat of History in Boston
Finn’s Boston show prompts memories at Boston gig-guide Go!. Years ago, ” was introduced to an outstanding New Zealand pop outfit called the Split Enz. A friend’s older sister was showing off a sweat…
Touring Scots Experience Hongi and Other Quirks of New Zealand Culture
Such as this unique local solution to the Fijian Crisis, on observing the Scots training an onlooker reportedly said: “what you should do is use that big fellar as ram on the door of the Parliament…
ANZAC Divers Recover Sunken Vietnamese Treasure
A group of four New Zealand and Australian professional divers spent over 70 days working 12 hour shifts in the cramped quarters of a diving bell to recover a sunken collection of valuable 15th Century Vietnamese ceramics….
Serendipity the Secret to Cyber-Success
“Human beings, by and large don’t know what they’re interested in,’ says Denis Dutton, a professor in New Zealand who started and edits the highly accliamed Arts and Letters Daily, perhaps the most eclectic,…
Kiwi Art Criticism: vol. #1
“The buttock of a dead cow washed up on the beach” was how Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture Torso II was described when it arrived in New Zealand in 1963.
Home and Away: Taking the Edge to London
“If you are passionate about where you come from, working abroad can provide the ideal opportunity to promote your native country.” The Times profiles Anna Kensington who promotes NZ Tourism in London. Anna considers…
World set to discover the rigours of the Southern Traverse
“One of the world’s most prestigious adventure races, and the cornerstone of global media company announce a new partnership in adventure racing. Discovery Channel will be the exclusive media sponsor of the Southern Traverse (New Zealand),…
