Sam Neill Wants to Ban the Plastic Bag
Actor Sam Neill is the latest recruit on board Greenpeace’s campaign against plastic bags. He joins Dr Jane Goodall and former NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark in the quest to ban single-use plastic bags,…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Why New Zealand and Australia Should Bid To Host The Winter Olympics
“The five interlaced rings on the Olympic flag represent the five continents of the world, but the Winter Olympics has only been hosted on three continents by just 12 countries. No southern hemisphere country…
Karl Rock Surprises Locals With Grasp of Hindi
Karl Rock, a New Zealander currently living in Delhi, has won many Indian hearts with his fluent Hindi, and in his video “Foreigner Surprising Indians with Hindi” specifically. On his website India Survival Guide, Rock…
How NZ Peanut Butter Inspired This Couple to Make Their Own
After returning to the UK in 2012, after seven years in New Zealand, Stuart Franklin and his wife Kathryn “found they were missing one thing about New Zealand more than anything else: peanut butter.” …
National Serviceman Ross Cameron’s Close Call
Ross Cameron never saw the bloody conflicts of Vietnam but he almost got the call. The New Zealand-born National Serviceman, who lives in Townsville, Australia, had his birthday come up in his country’s compulsory…
New Zealand One of the Friendliest Countries for Expats
“Many experienced expats will tell you that the friendliness of the locals should be one of your key considerations in your search for a new home abroad,” writes Sam Gardner in an article for…
New Zealand on Passport Power Rank Eight
The New Zealand passport has been allocated passport power rank eight in this year’s Global Passport Power Rank. Singapore and South Korea took the first spot in the ranking with their…
How Bisexual Goose Thomas Became an Icon
A memorial was recently held for Thomas the goose, a “New Zealander who spent most of his life as a loving partner, caring father and an icon of the LGBT community”, Yvette Tan writes in a…
New Zealand’s Role in Apocalypse Now
“If you’re interested in the end of the world, you’re interested in New Zealand. If you’re interested in how our current cultural anxieties – climate catastrophe, decline of transatlantic political orders, resurgent nuclear terror…
Why New Zealand Has So Many Gang Members
“For a quiet country, New Zealand has a peculiar problem with gangs. It is reckoned to have one of the highest membership rates in the world. In a population of 4.7m, police count over…
Pirate Involved in Peter Blake’s Death Recaptured
Brazilian police on a remote Amazon River island have arrested a man involved in the murder of round-the-world sailor New Zealander Sir Peter Blake in 2001. José Irandir Cardoso had been a fugitive for the…
Former PM Bill English Quits Politics
Former New Zealand prime minister Bill English, 56, has resigned as leader of the National Party, quitting politics after a 27-year career. “Now is the right time for me to step aside and embark on new professional…
Perpetual Guardian Announces Shorter Work Week
New Zealand trustee company Perpetual Guardian is on the cusp of granting its employees the ultimate in work-life balance: four days work for five days pay, Eleanor Ainge Roy reports for UK newspaper The…
Frisky Spokesbird Sirocco Comes out of Hiding
Sirocco, New Zealand’s superstar kakapo, is alive and well in Fiordland, according to the Department of Conservation. The conservation ‘spokesbird’ shot to fame after he got a bit too friendly…
Cricket Legend Bevan Congdon Leaves True Legacy
Motueka-born Bevan Congdon, who captained New Zealand to its first Test win over Australia in 1974, has died a day short of his 80th birthday in Auckland. In total, Congdon played 61 Tests and captained…
Politicians Must Earn Back Trust Says Ardern
Jacinda Ardern is not your average prime minister, Times political journalist Alice Thomson quickly learns. The second prime minister after Benazir Bhutto, in 1990, to be pregnant while running a country, is down to…
New Zealand the Perfect Place to Shape Ed Hillary
“I ended up in boat-drunk summery Auckland because I wanted to figure out, 10 years after Sir Edmund Hillary’s death, how the first person to climb Mount Everest ever happened. I promise that is…
World’s Loneliest Bird Nigel Dies on Mana Island
Nigel, a handsome gannet who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly last week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse, Karin Brulliard…
PM Talks about Her Particularly Public Surprise
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talks to Guardian contributor and Spinoff editor Toby Manhire about her surprise pregnancy and why she won’t stay quiet on sexism. “I did think about her quite a bit…
British and US Migrants Flock to New Zealand
The number of American and British residents choosing to live in far-flung New Zealand has risen sharply since the election of Donald Trump and the UK’s Brexit vote, according to new migration figures. The…
Celebrating 125 Years of the Female Vote in NZ
New Zealand Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter recently called for communities across New Zealand to celebrate women fighting and gaining the right to vote, 125 years ago. “New Zealand was the first country in…
Country Swelters Through Hottest Ever Month
January was the hottest month ever recorded in New Zealand, according to figures released by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and experts say climate change is one factor. The heat has…
New Zealand Fourth Best Democracy in The World
New Zealand has been named the country with the fourth best democracy in the world in a new report ranking countries by how functional their political systems are. According to the report by The…
Ollie Dale Aims to Help Solve Earhart Mystery
Auckland filmmaker Ollie Dale is joining former US Navy intelligence officer Guy Noffsinger to investigate how Pan Am flight 229 inexplicably vanished over the Pacific in 1938 – and how the plane’s disappearance may…
Etihad’s Andrew Fisher Breaks Fastest Trip Record
New Zealander Andrew Fisher, 42, who works in Abu Dhabi as Etihad’s vice president of fleet planning, has broken the world record for flying around the world in the shortest time on scheduled commercial…
PM’s Pregnancy Sparks Knitting Movement
New Zealander Heather McCracken, who is based in the United States, has kicked off the knitting movement #KnitForJacinda inspired by the news that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is pregnant. Ardern recently announced that she and…
How the Queen Was Almost Killed On Royal Tour Of New Zealand In 1981
“A new report reveals how the government of New Zealand attempted to conceal just how close a young man came to assassinating the Queen during a diplomatic trip to the country in 1981,” writes…
Peter Jackson Brings WWI to Life With New 3D Film
“A new 3D film by director Peter Jackson is set to bring the First World War to life in a way never seen before,” writes Laura Lambert in an article in
Roger Shepherd Shares Love for Korea’s Mountains
Roger Shepherd, 52, a former police officer from New Zealand who has lived in the rustic southern county Gurye near Mount Jiri since 2011, said Korean mountains have plenty of hidden delights. Shepherd, 52, is…
PM Jacinda Ardern Plays down Her Pregnancy News
Jacinda Ardern, who became New Zealand’s prime minister in October, attracted international attention when she denounced television interviewers who had asked whether she planned to have children if elected. Ardern, 37, told a television…
Extinct Giant Burrowing Bat Fossil Found in NZ
The fossils of a massive bat have been discovered near the historic mining town of St Bathans in Central Otago. The 16- to 19-million-year-old bat’s body mass was just 40g, but its teeth and…
Craft Beer Makes Inflation Gauge as Tastes Change
New Zealand has added craft beer to the basket of goods it monitors to measure inflation, reflecting changing tastes and consumer spending in the country, Bloomberg reports. “New Zealand used to be called a country…
What André Spicer Reveals about Self-Help
New Zealander André Spicer and Swede Carl Cederström, business-school professors in a field called “organisation studies,” recently set out to chart their progress, count their steps, log their sleep rhythms, tweak their diets, record…
Harley Neville’s Wild Shave Gets Him on Ellen Show
Two years ago, Aucklander Harley Neville shaved off half the hair on his body and photographed the result for his followers on social media. The picture sat on the internet, gestating, clicks multiplying like…
Struggling Kiwis Get A Little Help From Friends
“The Farm Cape Kidnappers, a luxury resort in the North Island, sits inside one of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the country, the privately-owned Cape Sanctuary. There, efforts are underway to save the native…
Experts Develop Roadside Gym for Endangered Kea
Conservationists want to stop New Zealand’s kea – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food, so they have designed a special gym for the country’s playful…
UAE-Based Professor Nick Ashill Back on His Feet
Five months ago, the dream of United Arab Emirates American University of Sharjah (AUS) dean New Zealander Nick Ashill was to run 5400km across America. The 52-year-old was hoping to spread the word of pulmonary…
Largest Underwater Eruption Discovered off NZ
Researchers have found that the world’s largest deep ocean volcanic eruption happened 1000km north east of New Zealand. Named as Havre, the deep ocean volcanic eruption was first discovered in 2002. A solidified volcanic rock…
Adorable Penguin Melts Hearts in Bluff
Footage of a Fiordland crested penguin in Bluff waddling up to his awaiting human friend Rodney Clark has delighted the internet and amused many New Zealand locals. The video shows Bluff local Clark standing on the…
Misfiled Piece of Brontë Brother’s Work Found in NZ
The first Brontë manuscript identified in New Zealand has been restored to its place in literary history thanks to university researchers. The fragment of Branwell Brontë’s work was misfiled as a letter in the…
Paving Hamilton’s Streets with Beer Bottle Sand
Hamilton has launched a pilot programme that’s repaving roadways with old beer bottles. No, you can’t see a bunch of Budweiser labels when you come to a stop. Instead, the bottles are crushed into…
The Global Search for Skilled Workers
“New Zealand is undergoing the biggest infrastructure build in the nation’s history,” writes Jeff Kerns in MachineDesign. “As such, a group of private companies and government organizations has launched a…
Anna Wilding Recalls Time in The White House Press Corps
“Marine One had just landed on the South Lawn and Anna Wilding was standing 20 feet away among the press with her camera in hand, ready to capture the 44th president head back into…
Secrets of Real-Life Game of Thrones Revealed
A team of British scientists are set to make the trip to New Zealand this month, all in the hopes of unlocking the secrets hidden in the 600-year-old Canterbury Roll, the only genealogical scroll…
Mt Taranaki given Same Legal Rights as a Person
The sacred mountain in the North Island is the third geographic feature in the country to be granted a “legal personality” entitled the same legal rights as a person, Eleanor Ainge Roy reports for…
Anniversary of Ed Hillary’s South Pole First
It was the first few days of 1958 and the two teams of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition were converging on the South Pole. Although it was not meant to be a race, New Zealand…
Jim Anderton a Towering Figure in Politics
One of New Zealand’s senior political figures, former deputy prime minister Auckland-born Jim Anderton, has died in Christchurch, aged 79. The idealistic former president of New Zealand’s progressive Labour Party became disillusioned with the organisation’s…
Waiheke Commute One of the More Unusual
Whether it’s skiing, snowboarding or skating, Guardian readers from around the world, who opt to take an alternative route to work, share their stories, including Aucklander James Scroggins who commutes daily from Waiheke Island…
Fond Memories of Flying Pioneer Jean Batten
“Jean Batten was the first woman to be awarded the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s highest award, the FAI Gold Air Medal. Awarded 80 years ago in 1937 she got it for the remarkable feat of…
Southern Hemisphere Christmas Variations
“As the resident southern hemispherian, my colleagues had a lot of questions about what Christmas is really like down under. Spoiler: we eat the same things as you,” UK-based digital and lifestyle reporter Laura…
Miriam and Peter Lancewood Living Off the Grid
For seven years, Dutch woman Miriam Lancewood and her New Zealand-born husband Peter have lived a nomadic life – she is the hunter and he is the cook. Five years into a nomadic life…
Life and Times of Apia Identity Bob Moore
If you’re driving around Apia gazing at the many, multi-storeyed government and company buildings, chances are you’re looking at some of the work of well-known, local identity, Motueka-born Robert (Bob) Arthur Garner, who has…
Human-Sized Penguin Remains Found on Hampden Beach
Remnants of a 1.77-metre-tall penguin who walked on earth 55m to 60m years ago have been found south of Christchurch on what is now Hampden Beach. Measurements of the partial skeleton show that the flightless…
NZ’s Film Industry Worth a Billion to Economy
The International New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG) is a key contributor to the nation’s economy according to a new economic study released by the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC). The New Zealand screen industry…
More Women Needed in Politics Says Ardern
This has been a year dominated by women speaking out and fighting back. The Financial Times spotlight those who have made waves this year, from prime ministers (including New Zealander Jacinda Ardern) to World…
Former MP Maurice Williamson a Gay Icon in Japan
Former MP Maurice Williamson’s rising popularity as a gay icon among many Japanese people is thanks to a video of a speech he made during the third reading and vote on the Marriage Equality…
