NZEDGE Society — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

Technologically Outnumbered

Mobile phones in New Zealand outnumber the country’s population, according to a study conducted by global market research firm TNS, which surveyed 48,000 people in 58 countries finding that almost half of New Zealanders…

Time to Pause for Thought

An estimated 15,000 flocked to this year’s dawn service ceremony at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland to mark the 97th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to remember fallen servicemen and women….

Mad for it in Wellington

Wellington’s St James Theatre heaving with a full-capacity crowd features in the Guardian’s ‘24 Hours in Pictures’ as One Direction fans watch the British boy band perform. One Direction’s 2012 tour of New Zealand…

Reflections on Survival

Mayor of Wellington Celia Wade-Brown has opened the capital city’s Holocaust Centre on Holocaust Remembrance Day — an “asset for all New Zealanders to reflect on the importance of harmony, diversity, resilience and survival.”…

Emergency Place of Worship

“Christchurch, New Zealand, where an earthquake last year killed 185 people, is still struggling with how to treat another of its casualties, the city’s Anglican cathedral,” Wall Street Journal reporter Eric Felten writes, beginning…

Dangerously High Salt Levels

New Zealand’s fast foods on average contain 8 per cent more sodium than comparable foods in the UK and a massive 18 per cent more than those in France, as shown in an international…

Feral Cats Out Tuatara In

Sixty tuatara have been released on Motuihe Island, which lies between Motutapu and Waiheke islands in the Hauraki Gulf. The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Motuihe Trust spent many years ridding…

Well-being in Advanced Age

Older Maori who are engaged in cultural practices and connected to their traditional community have a higher quality of life, according to a ground-breaking study by researchers at the University of Auckland called, “Life…

Tilly the Force of Nature

Wellington actor and artist Grant Tilly, well remembered for his performance in The Daylight Atheist, has died, aged 74. Having starred in many stage and television productions including Foreskin’s Lament and Gliding On, Tilly is known for being…

Crowned Mr Gay World

Andreas Derleth, 32, from Auckland was crowned the Mr Gay World in a gala event that took place for the first time in Johannesberg, South Africa. Originally from Germany, Derleth moved to New Zealand…

Currency Sharing Insanity

Perhaps the most “absurd” thing to cross Forbes’ contributor Tim Worstall’s desk on this particular morning was a report on how New Zealand and Australia might merge their currencies to create a single trans-Tasman currency…

Gauging Health Performance

New Zealand has rated sixth worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialised nations. According to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs, Ellen Nolte and Martin…

Banking on International Fees

International education is now New Zealand’s fifth biggest export, annually worth $2.5 billion. Chief executive of Education New Zealand Grant McPherson said China, Japan and South Korea were New Zealand’s top markets for international…

First For Parliament

New Zealand features as part of the Oceania briefing of Monocle this month in which the publication highlights issues surrounding foreign land purchases and the election of New Zealand’s first deaf minister…

Well-Respected Senator Farewelled

Picton-born Western Australian senator Judith Adams has died in Perth, aged 68. The former nurse, midwife and farmer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. “Senator Adams had many friends in the Australian Parliament,…

Finding the Famous Five

When he was last in New Zealand British zoologist Mark Carwardine spent two weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country, “in search of an outlandish menagerie of animals known as the ‘Small…

Fair Shake For All

“There is a place in the world where moderate Republicans still exist – unfortunately, you have to take a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to get there,” New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman writes. “Indeed, to…

Locking Up The Problem

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world and imprisons people at a rate second only to the United States, according to a study conducted by the…

Distinguished Scientist

Molecular physicist Sir Paul Callaghan, who was best known for his work with magnetic resonance, a field that has practical applications in everything from health care to industrial production, has died. He was 64….

Harmonious Sanctuaries

Woodbridge, Hortensia House and Ayrlies Garden are three of New Zealand’s “stand out” gardens, which Go Upstate’s Betty Montgomery visited on an “unforgettable trip” to summer south of the equator. “Woodbridge was started in…

Reversal Of The Right

“New Zealand is finally yielding to the rest of the world when it comes to its unique set of road rules, after decades of confounding drivers from overseas,” Nick Perry writes for…

Betty Fondly Remembered

New Zealand freshwater algae expert Dr Elizabeth Flint, known as Betty, who was still at the wheel of her 1958 Ford Consul in her 90s, has died, aged 102. Flint’s friend Catherine Haines writes…

Marmageddon Strikes

This month, the manufacturer of Marmite says its supplies of the yeast-extract product ran out, four months after earthquakes forced it to close the only factory that made New Zealand’s version. “Don’t…

Life Spent Winning

Former All Blacks captain and New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Christchurch-born Jock Hobbs, has died of cancer in Wellington, aged 52. Hobbs played 21 Tests for the All Blacks as an openside flanker between…

High Life On The Edge

New Zealand is becoming a favourite place to live for wealthy foreigners, with American Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel, Russian steel billionaire Alexander Abramov, and New York Empire State Building’s Tony Malkin among those recently…

Welcome To New Zealand

New Zealander Dana Wensley returns home for a short visit from Canada where she claims to feeling like “an immigrant.” “In some ways, anyone who is not part of the indigenous Maori population will…

Matchless Legend Remembered

Former All Blacks lock Richard “Tiny” White, regarded as New Zealand’s finest rugby players in his position, has died in Gisborne aged 86. White played 30 matches, including 23 consecutive tests for New Zealand…

Nationwide Smoking Ban

New Zealand is aiming to eradicate smoking across the country by 2025. In an article published in the international Tobacco Control journal, health researchers at the University of Otago have said the government needs to set…

Unprecedented After-Shock

Deon Swiggs, 25-year-old director of the fledgling nonprofit Rebuild Christchurch, talks to the Los Angeles Times about how New Zealanders are coping one year after a massive magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed 185 people and…

Challenging Reputations

Despite the prevalence of foreign-chartered vessels (FCVs), which in 2010 earned $274.6 million in export revenue and hauled in 62.3 per cent of New Zealand’s deepwater fisheries catch, some companies have determined they are…

Paradigm For The Future

Bronwen Evans, former Radio New Zealand economics correspondent and co-owner of Faasai Resort and Spa, an award winning eco-resort in Thailand, will be one of the international speakers at the inaugural IncrediblEdge…

Servant of Cricket

New Zealand cricket commentator, coach, administrator and former Canterbury offspinner, Peter Sharp has died aged 72. Sharp played eight first-class matches over two seasons, taking 21 wickets at an average of 26.90. He began…

We Bought a Marina

Three years ago, Wellingtonian Boyd Tomkies, 38, combined his childhood passion with a way to support his family – buying what he described as a “failing” inflatables business and recently becoming the owner of…

Discussing Democracies

New Zealand and the United States are open and democratic societies with British colonial origins, a frontier legacy, a history of mass immigration and widely remarked-upon senses of optimism, but New Zealanders, by contrast,…

Buying Up the Grammar Zone

The campus of Auckland Grammar School, designed in the Spanish style of the California missions, is one of New Zealand’s largest, oldest and most prestigious schools for boys, established in 1868. By…

Lifestyle Comes At A Price

Auckland and Wellington have risen in their rankings of the most expensive cities to live in, with Auckland jumping nine places to rank 15 and Wellington rising 16 places to rank 17th with London….

Land Sale Stopped In Court

High Court Judge Forrest Miller has halted the first ever sale of dairy farms to Chinese investors, Shanghai Pengxin, the latest twist in a saga that’s dividing a country reliant on agriculture for much…

Getting Back to Basics

The Topp Twins, who are touring the UK in February, say the secret to their longevity and success is because of their strength and independence, and that because they are “old-fashioned” entertainers they appeal…

New Zealand Farewells A Leader

Lloyd Morrison, Wellington businessman, founder of infrastructure investment company Infratil, philanthropist and patron of the arts, has died in Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, aged 54. Speaking from Seattle, his brother…