“New Zealand and Australia have a proud history of co-operation, but now it seems the nations have achieved a more dubious honour: the world’s biggest pot-heads,” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Amy Corderoy writes. “Together the countries…
For the first time, New Zealand is included in Monocle’s index of the top 30 soft power nations, coming in at number 17 and introduced as: “Low on brands, high on beauty and in between on…
Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Graham Henry, 65, has been awarded a knighthood in New Zealand’s annual New Year Honours List. Henry, a former school teacher, who resigned the All Blacks coaching job…
On Boxing Day at Blue Cliffs Beach near Tuatapere, residents witnessed a group of orca whales attacking a shoal of sharks. One shark desperate to escape from the enormous beasts even beached itself on…
The intestinal transplant New Zealander Matisse Reid, 11, received a year ago at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh came with an unexpected surprise. The fifth-grader (Year 6) developed a sophisticated palate: a taste for…
A record number of New Zealanders has crossed the Tasman lured by high salaries in mining and agriculture, breaking the 50,000 barrier for the first time, with 50,115 people making the trip to Australia…
Auckland’s Whitcoulls Santa statue, which was built in 1960, is the world’s most unintentionally creepy Christmas ornament according to American humour website Cracked. Before a 2009 makeover, the statue had a sly winking left…
Nelson-born Jason Richards, V8 Supercar champion “to the last”, has died in Melbourne. He was 35. Peter Kogoy writes Richards’ obituary for The Australian: “His duel at the wheel of the Team BOC Commodore with…
Students from Fendalton Open-Air School in Christchurch are the first group members — calling themselves Faultline Fiction — of the Guardian site to vividly recount what happened when earthquakes struck their city, changing their…
Transgender icon Taumaranui-born Carmen Rupe has died in Sydney, aged 75. Carmen was born into a family of 13 and was known as Trevor Rupe for about the first 20 years of her life….
A billboard outside Auckland’s Anglican St Matthew’s in the City of the Virgin Mary gasping as she examines a pregnancy testing kit has sparked fiery debate. Defending the poster, the vicar, the Rev Glynn…
A Tauranga woman thought she was hallucinating when a clattering noise prompted her to run downstairs to the kitchen and check on the cats, where she found a baby seal, who then waddled into…
“After 14 attempts I am still unable to reconcile Christmas Day with the hot sunshine of the north-east New Zealand city of Gisborne,” Guardian reader John Darkin writes for the publication’s weekly series ‘Letter from.’ “The…
Now living in Rotorua, Canadian Jill Campbell, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is looking for other Capers so they can to get together for a céilidh or a drink at the pub over Christmas….
A New Zealander has been arrested in Australia for alleged embezzling $16 million from Queensland Health. 36-year-old Hohepa Morehu-Barlow — also known as Joel Barlow — had been evading police since Thursday afternoon when…
New Zealand author and entrepreneur Gareth Morgan will join 12 scientists on a 30-day voyage to Antarctica early next year to raise awareness of the importance of the region, and as an “add-on” to…
A photograph of a blue penguin moving toward the sea after being released by wildlife workers in Tauranga is included in theGuardian’s ‘24 hours in pictures’ series for 9 December. The penguins were among those…
A long-exposure image of star trails streaking over Lake Tekapo features on the National Geographic website. The lake was one of the first sites designated as a Starlight Reserve as part of a UN-supported initiative to…
New Zealand and Australia have signed a marine observation agreement, which is expected to result in improved knowledge of regional climate systems. New Zealand’s high commissioner Major-General Martyn Dunne and Australia’s Science Minister Kim…
“For a small place, New Zealand generates a lot of news,” ABC New Zealand correspondent Dominque Schwartz tells Elizabeth Jackson. “Its population is less than that of Sydney, but this year alone there’ve been…
American entomologist Mark Moffett, 53, claimed he discovered the largest weta of the species ever found. International publications, such as the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and Telegraph, have declared Moffett’s find the world’s biggest insect in terms…
New Zealand-born teacher Suran Dickson, 34, felt moved enough to leave her job and launch Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles the worrying incidence of homophobic bullying in British schools, where terms…
The rangers and scientists of the Kakapo Recovery program on Codfish Island are slowly but surely succeeding in their mission to “make more kakapo” by micromanaging the birds’ diet, mating, births, and fledging —…
New Zealand is perceived as having the least corrupt government and public institutions in the world, topping the Corruption Perceptions Index 2011 survey. 178 countries were included in this year’s iteration of the annual survey,…
Without any human intervention, the Argentine ant — the world’s most invasive species — is disappearing from New Zealand. The alien ant arrived in New Zealand in 1990 and has since marched across our…
Almost one in five Maori — or 151,000 of the total population of 815,000 — now live outside New Zealand, with most — 140,000 — calling Australia home. An increasing number were born in…
About an hour from downtown Wellington is Kapiti Island, one of New Zealand’s most successful nature reserves and a model for wildlife and flora conservation. Award-winning journalist Jill Robinson takes a day-trip there. “On…
New Zealand bellbird, Anthornis melanura was the Guardian’s ‘Mystery Bird’ on 24 November. “This bird is named for its gorgeous song, which consists of three distinct sounds that resemble the chiming of distant bells,” evolutionary…
Kerikeri resident Russell Garcia, an California-born arranger, composer and conductor who was an influential figure in the West Coast music scene during the 1950s and ‘60s and whose work in Hollywood included writing the…
Forty-nine little blue penguins rescued from the Rena oil spill that occurred in October off the coast of Tauranga have been returned to the wild at Mt Maunganui beach. Most of them immediately ran…
An image of Hurricanes assistant coach Alama Ieremia working with his horse during a leadership programme run by Talkinghorses in Te Horo, is included in the Globe and Mail’s ‘Day in Photos’. The publication…
Invasive rats are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report in a paper published in a Royal Society journal. “New Zealand offers a really interesting and rare opportunity to…
One of the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins, the Hector’s Dolphin, has been seen in Wellington Harbour, more than two years after the last sighting. The person who spotted the dolphin said it…
New Zealand intelligence expert Upper Hutt resident Major Rory McGregor was among 25 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to receive US military medals from visiting Major General Peter Talleri, the Okinawa, Japan-based commander of…
New Zealand firefighters Rob Holah and Donny Butters recently travelled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to compete in the 20th annual Firefighter Combat Challenge World Challenge. Holah said camaraderie is one of the biggest…
New Zealanders and Australians once flocked to the UK for the opportunity to gain experience and return home with some valuable pounds, but the booming Australian economy and a sharp appreciation in the New…
A new study undertaken by global network Kea claims that encouraging expatriate New Zealanders to invest in their home country is the best way to “achieve improved prosperity.” The research was based on interviews…
An ethereal South Island landscape is captured by German photographer Steffen Schrägle for an Intelligent Life photo essay called, ‘A World of Mist’. Schrägle, who took the photograph in June 2009, said…
Manukura the six-month-old white kiwi “appears to have regained her mojo after a heart scare during surgery to remove a stone from her gizzard.” “You try to grab her and she kind of karate…
“Newly uncovered details about the earthquake that rocked Christchurch in February may offer grim lessons regarding the potential threat of fault lines running through urban centres,” Our Amazing Planet contributor Charles Choi writes. “Much…
New Zealand Business Roundtable leader Roger Kerr, once described by Sir Douglas Myers as a “national treasure”, has died. He was 66. Kerr was born in Nelson in 1945 and spent his childhood on…
Christchurch’s most famous landmark, the 19th-century ChristChurch Cathedral, is to be deconsecrated and partially demolished after February’s devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake toppled the steeple. Church and government representatives have announced that sections of the…
Te Papa scientist Vincent Zintzen and colleagues have been studying the hunting behaviour of the hagfish — or snot-eel — a blind sea creature partway between fish and worm, with a spinal cord but…
A New Zealand Transport Authority advertisement, created by Clemenger BBDO Wellington, is using humour to get the drink-driving message across to its young audience. Rather than rely on the shock tactics and graphic images…
New Zealand-born psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall, who made significant contributions to the understanding of perversions, psychosomatic symptoms, female sexuality, creativity and addictions, has died aged 91. Her clinical insights, theoretical originality, open-mindedness and lack of…
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator Helen Clark has said that China can play a rebalancing role in the current global financial crisis to combat future global poverty and that one of the greatest…
The Liberian-flagged container ship MV Rena, which struck the Astrolabe Reef 5 October on its way to Tauranga, continues to spill oil into the ocean. A total of 90 tons of oil have so…
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard says New Zealand’s reconstruction of the earthquake-devastated city of Christchurch will boost growth and inflation pressures and may mean an increase in interest rates. Bollard is among Asia-Pacific central…
Opera singer, sports administrator and Southern Opera founder Chris Doig has died in Christchurch, aged 62. Former New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive and member of the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) board, Doig…
Christchurch war historian Dr Frank Glen is searching for letters, documents and medals from the war fought by Bendigo volunteer soldiers between 1860 and 1872 across the Tasman against Maori tribesmen. Glen — who…
Hamilton student Ashley Magumise, 19, has won the Miss September round in the ongoing Face of Zimbabwe competition and will go on to battle for the title in December against 11 other beauties. Magumise’s…
President of the Mongrel Mob’s Napier chapter Rex Timu is one of a number of gang leaders rejecting violence and urging members to embrace mainstream values. Speaking over a hot chocolate in the cafeteria…
New Zealand’s Hector’s dolphin population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7000 since nylon gillnets came into use in the 1970s while subspecies Maui’s dolphin is seriously threatened with numbers falling to fewer than…
France will return some 20 mummified heads of Maori warriors still held by its museums back to New Zealand at a ceremony in January. The restitution follows a four-year political struggle which ended in…
DNA evidence has confirmed that the tiny New Zealand storm petrel bird, thought to be extinct for more than 150 years, is still alive, meaning its comeback eclipses that of other “extinct” birds like…
Aucklander Donna Thompson (right) has been writing to Wyoming woman Peg Scott since she was 12-years-old. The pen pals finally met 46 years later over breakfast at Sherrie’s Place in Casper, Wyoming. At school…
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