Hero of the Skies Gordon Vette
Alwyn Gordon Vette, a New Zealand pilot whose independent analysis of the 1972 Air New Zealand airplane crash in Antarctica helped to identify an important hazard in Arctic flying, has died in Auckland. He…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
New Zealand Explains Haka to Turkey in Gesture of Goodwill at Chunuk Bair
“A haka has been performed at a Gallipoli commemoration service for the first time in years after Turkish concerns about “offensive” gestures were resolved”, writes Lloyd Jones for The Sydney Morning Herald. Before the New Zealand…
NZ Announces 40 Potential New Flag Designs
A shortlist with 40 flag proposals has been released by New Zealand’s Flag Consideration Panel after reviewing over 10,000 design submissions. “A great flag should be distinctive and so simple it can be…
Prince Charles Made Honorary Head of NZ Defence
Prince Charles has been appointed Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Field Marshal of the Army and Marshal of the Air Force. “These appointments recognise the consistent and strong support Prince…
Chunuk Bair Battle Remembered
A battlefield centenary service has been held on a hill where nearly 850 New Zealanders were killed in two days of intense fighting during the Gallipoli campaign. Governor-General Jerry Mateparae was joined by hundreds…
Reminders of Home in Abu-Dhabi
Abu Dhabi-based journalist, New Zealander John Henzell, who writes for English-language newspaper the National, says one of the things that often unites the country’s massive expatriate population is a desire to be surrounded with…
The Last Dambuster Pilot
John Leslie Munro, the last surviving pilot and one of the final surviving members of the famous 617 Squadron from the legendary Dambusters raids against Nazi Germany, has died at the age of 96…
New Zealand’s First Cat Cafe
“There’s nothing quite like sitting down to a cup of tea with a cat on your lap. These days, with the advent of cat cafes, you don’t even need your own cat to experience…
New Zealand’s Most Trusted Brands Revealed; Whittaker’s Chocolates Tops the List
Whittaker’s has been chosen as New Zealand’s most trusted brand in the annual Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands survey, which ranked New Zealand’s top 10 trusted brands, 40 category winners and top…
New Zealand FM Calls for Bigger UN Role in Middle East Peace Process
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully called for the United Nations Security Council to have a greater role in the Middle East peace process. “Secretary Kerry has been closely involved in efforts to re- establish…
School Performs Emotional Haka at Teacher’s Funeral
Students and teachers of Palmerston North Boys’ High School have paid tribute to their beloved and long-serving teacher Dawson Tamatea at his funeral. The entire school performed a traditional Haka as the hearse carrying Mr…
Finnian Galbraith’s Hit Te Reo Pronunciation Video
Raumati College pupil Finnian Galbraith’s YouTube video complaining about poor pronunciation of Maori words has proved a hit online, with more than 160,386 views. Galbraith, 15, says in his YouTube video that many people in…
New Zealand Seventh Most Respected Country
New Zealand has been ranked as the seventh most respected country in the 2015 RepTrak Survey conducted by the Reputation Institute, which examines how countries are perceived across the globe. 55 nations were…
New Zealander Wins French Scrabble Championship Despite Not Speaking French
New Zealander Nigel Richards has won the French Scrabble championships even though “his command of the language (…) stretches to “bonjour” and being able to count”. Richards, who has been called the Tiger Woods of…
New Book Spotlights Home of the British Army-Kiwi WWI Connection
Aldershot in the Great War: The Home of the British Army, part of the Your Towns & Cities in the Great War series published by Pen and Sword Military, is the first…
Diplomatic Businessman Sir John Buchanan
Sir John Buchanan, who has died aged 72, was an Auckland-born scientist who rose to be finance director at BP before taking on prominent non-executive board roles in sectors ranging from mining, most recently…
Legacy of Visionary Entrepreneur Catalyzes NY’s Park Avenue Armory
The family of Wade Thompson, the Wellington, New Zealand native who revitalized the US recreational vehicle industry in the 1980s, has gifted New York City’s Park Avenue Armory with an historic $65…
Lecretia’s Fight Lives On
The case brought by terminally ill New Zealand lawyer Lecretia Seales has become part of the larger worldwide right-to-die debate. A feature story in the June 27, 2015, edition of The Economist…
NZ Baby Seals Use Inland Waterfall as Creche
Baby seals in New Zealand have turned the Ohau Waterfall into their personal swimming pool, even though the inland waterfall is more than a mile away from the coast. “It takes the seals about half-an-hour…
Rare White Whale Migaloo Tours New Zealand
A rare white humpback, usually spotted up the eastern Australian coastline, has been seen swimming with a normally dark-coloured humpback in New Zealand’s Cook Strait. “White humpbacks are extremely rare. Only four have been reported…
How Elk Farmer Thom Van Eeghen Became Canadian
Ottawa elk farmer Thom Van Eeghen, “a landed immigrant from New Zealand”, explains how he became a Canadian, and what he thinks Canada should do to celebrate the country’s 150th birthday in 2017. “I came…
New Zealand Steps Up To Chair UN Security Council
Throughout July, New Zealand’s top UN diplomat Gerard van Bohemen will take on the responsibilities of the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council, and his cited his main goal to facilitate…
South Island Skies Illuminated by Aurora Australis
Local photographers Stephen Voss and Blair Pattinson braved freezing temperatures in the South Island to capture images of the Aurora Australis, a natural light display in the sky. A solar storm meant that the Aurora…
Queenstown Airport to Open New International Terminal
“New Zealand’s Queenstown Airport (…) is turning to be the busiest and the fastest-growing in the country (and) is set to become the third bigger as it opens the new international terminal”, writes Kalyan…
Astronomers Hoping for Glimpse of Pluto in New Zealand
Scientists from all over the world will gather in Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island for a rare 90-second glimpse of Pluto on Tuesday June 30. “A stellar occultation (is) an event when light…
New Zealand a Prosperity Index Success Story
While Greece, Spain and Portugal face a bleak scenario as they struggle on their road to recovery New Zealand, Canada, America and Britain emerge from the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index as success stories, Newsweek…
Alan Larsen Is the Duke of Wellington at Re-enactment
The most important man in the Allied camp at the re-enactment of Napolean’s defeat at Waterloo was 55-year-old New Zealander Alan Larsen, known as the Duke of Wellington. Larsen, a historical events coordinator, can be…
New Zealand’s Super Fund – World’s Best-performing Sovereign Wealth Fund
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has outperformed all of its counterparts with its generated returns of more than 17 per cent a year over the past five years according to analysis by JPMorgan. “Acting as…
New Zealand Elderly Protected from Crisis as Income Gap Widens
“Income inequality has risen in most OECD countries” in the last 30 years and the age profile of poverty has shifted “with young people replacing the elderly as the group most at risk of…
Why Kiwis Just Know How to Tell a Killer Story
“The best in Auckland town tell us why Kiwi storytellers are simply irresistible to global audiences” says global creative advertising site The Little Black Book in a series of posts on Auckland. Dave…
Lecretia Seales’ death comes amidst growing momentum for euthanasia
Dutch euthanasia expert Rob Jonquiere hopes the death of New Zealander Lecretia Seales, an advocate who has died from brain cancer, will bring about a law change. Seales, 42, died from natural causes, just hours…
Family Pays Tribute to Dapper Tailor Peter Rigby
Well-known Lower Hutt tailor Peter Rigby, who made clothes for many New Zealand plays and films, including Utu, The Frighteners, Goodbye Pork Pie and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died, aged 81. Born…
Rare Baby Kiwi Named Nutter – “a Ball of Fluff With a Beak”
A rare baby kiwi has been born at the West Coast Wildlife Centre in Franz Josef on New Zealand’s South Island. The baby kiwi named Nutter, described as “90 per cent fluff and 10…
Rugby World Mourns Former All Black Jerry Collins
Reaction has poured in from the rugby world with the death of former All Blacks captain Jerry Collins, a “giant of the world game”, who died in a car crash in France. He was…
New Zealand Scales up Kiwi Breeding Programmes
New Zealand will breed more of the iconic native kiwi in a bid to stop its course towards extinction in the wild, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has said. The national bird is facing a crisis,…
McCullum and Hesson Honoured for New Zealand Success
New Zealand Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum and the team’s coach Mike Hesson have been appointed Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit (NZOM) in the Queen Elizabeth II Birthday Honours list released…
New Zealand Opens Doors for More Support in Baghdad
New Zealand will open an embassy in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad, to be located within the embassy of Australia. New Zealand’s ambassador to Iraq, James Munro, is an Arabic speaker and former military officer…
New Zealanders Have High Sense of Meaning in Their Lives
83 percent of New Zealanders are highly satisfied with their lives while 87 percent feel a high sense of purpose or meaning in their lives, according to a recent survey conducted by…
Book Shop in Andhra Pradesh Eric Baigent’s Literary Gift
The man who played a vital role in making Prabodha Book Centre a part of Vijayawada’s urban culture was a friendly New Zealander named Eric Baigent, who came to the city in the Indian…
Air NZ Completes Sydney Lounge Refurbishment
Air New Zealand has completed the refurbishment of its Sydney Airport lounge with Auckland, Brisbane and Queenstown to follow as part of a $40 million lounge refurbishment program. “The key thing for us though is…
NZ Government Pledges Millions to save the Kiwi
Following warnings that New Zealand’s national bird could become extinct, the government has set aside NZ$11.2m ($8.3m; £5.3m) to stop the constant decline of kiwi numbers. “The aim of the investment is to turn the…
Gary Brain’s Change of Fortune Made Him World-Class Conductor
Internationally renowned conductor and percussionist, Palmerston North-born Gary Brain has died in Paris. He was 72. In 1989 Brain was the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s highly regarded principal percussionist and timpanist. He had already been…
Helen Clark Ranked 23rd Most Powerful Woman
Helen Clark has been ranked #23 in Forbes annual audit – The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. “As the most powerful woman in the United Nations (and first UNDP female head), Helen…
More Australians Moving to NZ than Vice Versa
In April, for the first time in more than two decades, more Australians relocated to New Zealand to live than vice versa. The number of New Zealanders crossing the Tasman has dropped by more…
Strongest New Home Figures for Almost a Decade
The latest official figures show that the house building rate in New Zealand has increased to the strongest in the last nine years with around 25,000 new building consents a year. Auckland and Christchurch are…
Maori Water Rights up for Debate
“Unlike many countries,” The Economist reports, “New Zealand is blessed with abundant fresh water. Its temperate climate, regular rainfall over much of the country, and thousands of lakes and rivers ensure a…
Fifteen Quirky Contenders for a New NZ Flag
New Zealand is appealing to the public to design and vote on a new flag. The Guardian features 15 examples that are are “as weird and wonderful as you’d expect.” “There’s an internet joke, perpetuated…
Jack Body Leaves Us with His Asia-Inspired Music
Te Aroha-born composer and music academic Jack Body, whose work was influenced by the music of Asia, has died in Wellington at the age of 70. Body studied at Auckland University and in Germany and…
New Zealand – One of the World’s Most Peaceful, Least Corrupt Countries
New Zealand has repeatedly been ranked as one of the Top 4 most peaceful countries in the world by the Global Peace Index as well as the second least corrupt country by…
Prince Harry Charms New Zealand Crowds
Prince Harry has been warmly welcomed throughout New Zealand on his first ever visit to the country after a month-long deployment with the Australian military. Arriving in Wellington in a Royal New Zealand Air Force…
New Zealand Listed As One Of The Hardest Countries to Invade
New Zealand, alongside Switzerland and Russia, has been listed as one of the hardest countries in the world to invade. The humorous article in The Independent cited New Zealand’s geographic inaccessibility as the…
Fjords Crucial to Carbon Burial
An Otago University study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, has found fjords could play a very important role as a driver of atmospheric CO2 levels at times when ice sheets are…
New Zealand Property Boom Attracts Overseas Buyers
Auckland’s beaches, clean air and environmentally friendly image are clear selling points for foreign property investors. There is no stamp duty or capital gains tax in New Zealand, which makes the country’s property market a…
Australia Needs to Follow New Zealand’s Example
The New Zealand Dollar is in sight of reaching the same value as the Australian Dollar. While New Zealand has developed structural reforms to secure future economic growth, Australia “is still operating on the…
NZ an Appealing Choice for 30-Something Singaporeans
New Zealand is becoming an ever more popular choice for Singaporeans in their early 30s looking to emigrate, choosing our country for its space, value for money, healthcare and cost of living. Freelance journalist Surekha…
Air New Zealand Celebrates 75 Years of Flying
Air New Zealand, turns back the clock to the 1940s and is taking passengers back to where it all began to celebrate their 75 years of flying. “Air New Zealand’s first flight (on…
