All that Jazz
The rapid growth of New Zealand’s premium new apple variety Jazz has reached another milestone this year with over 1.2 million cartons of apples forecast to be exported in 2009. Revered for its outstanding…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Surprises from the Bay
Craggy Range winemaker Rod Easthope was up at London’s Penthouse Suite of New Zealand House promoting Gimblett Gravels varietals and astonishing the attending 30 or so UK Masters of Wine, sommeliers, wine buyers and…
Wine’s a Winner
Marlborough, on New Zealand’s South Island, “doesn’t offer much to the nine or ten people on the planet who still smoke, but for cognoscenti of quality sauvignon blanc, it may well outrank King Bordeaux…
Height Of Fashion
Kate Sylvester is approaching this year’s Australian Fashion Week with bold and colourful designs based on the lives of adventurers called, Take a Hike. Last year’s collection Royally Screwed caused a stir angering ANZACS…
Painting Piha
Tauranga-raised Lancôme artistic director Aaron De Mey, who featured in the October edition of Mindfood magazine and whose past clients include Winona Ryder, Keira Knightly and Kate Moss, has released his debut colour collection…
Designing the Future
British-born, Hawkes Bay-based designer David Trubridge, takes part in a Q&A for the latest issue of Dwell, where he quizzed about number of things like his ideal working environment, what music keeps him…
Particles in Motion
Fonterra’s latest foray into “smart” water “Whole”, is advertised in a continuous 650-frame shot leaping and transforming from brains to bridges to bananas and was created as a joint project by Auckland-based animation studio…
Prophetic words
Thirty years ago, founder of Montana wines Frank Yukich planted the first commercial vineyard of the modern era in Marlborough introducing the world to the delights of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. A commemorative sculpture…
One Fine Fishing Boat
New Zealand naval architect and multi-hull specialist Roger Hill has designed the Montebello, a luxury 12.5m planing power catamaran for a group of Gold Coast businessmen who – headed by industry identity Gary Zamparutti…
Taste the Day
Cloudy Bay winemaker Tim Heath is putting a “sense of glass”. Heath – a tall, athletically…
Barbie The Muse
New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker has recreated several outfits from her Autumn Winter ’09 collection ‘she’s cracked’ to dress Barbie in celebration of the iconic doll’s 50th anniversary. The ensembles include a bronze…
A personal charm
Hermann Seifried was laughed at when he arrived on the South Island 40 years ago, looking to make wine. Today, he is the proud owner of an outstanding winery, and the father of an…
Spare Time For Fine Wine
“I imagined this is how it was in Napa in the thirties – an intimate winemaking community that the world hadn’t yet discovered,” writes Chang-Rae Lee as he tours through Central Otago. Lee takes…
Changing Face
New Zealand-based foundry JY&A Fonts, established by Jack Yan in 1987, has announced a new, classically inspired typeface family, JY Alia created to complement previous his 1994-5 release, JY AEtna. Yan, who is also…
Karen Walker Cracks
“We love the beauty that comes out of catastrophe, and the brittle nature of things,” said designer Karen Walker of her new show. “Cracked,” as the show was themed, had beginnings in the designer’s…
Tomcat Temptations
Auckland chocolatier Hanna Frederick, a former food scientist, has injected a male aphrodisiac into her chocolate treats for Valentine’s Day. Frederick, who made headlines by feeding beer-flavoured chocolate to brewers and deer antler chocolate…
Pursuits of Happiness
“Beyond the wild, raw landscapes, another New Zealand beckons: one of sophisticated restaurants, silvery olive groves, and the most lush, grape-heavy vineyards this side of Bordeaux” writes Condé Nast writer Chang-rae Lee, who spent…
Dream Covered
Auckland-based designers Stolen Girlfriend’s Club — a pop culture label co-founded by Marc Moore, Luke Harwood and Dan Gosling — are represented on the cover of Nylon Japan’s latest issue, with Japanese singer and…
Hot pasties on demand
Gisborne butcher Heath Raggett, 39, owns a shop on Bow Street, near Aberystwyth in Wales where he sells lamb reared on the hills above Cardigan Bay, encouraging locals to eat locally-produced meats. Raggett has…
Making Space With Light
New Zealand-born architect David Hovey discusses the designs of his 30-year-old Chicago-based business Optima Inc., which he says are influenced by an appreciation of the outdoors. A trace of an accent reveals his roots….
Effervescent Bargains
New Zealand sparkling wines Cloudy Bay Pelorus and Lindauer were top sellers over the Christmas period in the UK according to the chief executive of Britain’s biggest wine warehouse chain Majestic Wine – Steve…
Seven and Rising
Auckland model Zippora Seven, 17, who has been lauded as the fashion industry’s new Kate Moss, is the new face of Swedish clothing label H&M’s spring/summer 2009 campaign. A topless shoot of the teenager…
Swamp Style
Auckland-based fashion designer Karen Walker is included in Russh Australia’s January/February edition as one of the magazine’s “favourite creatives” asked to share her current obsessions and influences. The inspiration for Walker’s last collection ‘The…
Creative King of Berlin
Paul Snowden – a New Zealand creative director and designer based in Berlin – has just completed the visual identity and overall design for the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale. The Berlinale…
Dining with the Birds
For one month from 9 January until February 2009, in a redwood plantation north of Auckland, between Puhoi and Warkworth, and 10m up a tree, the Yellow House restaurant will serve three-course meals…
Possums Made Good
Founder and CEO of fashion label Untouched World Peri Drysdale – who has an MBE for services to manufacturing and export – began selling garments blended fom possum and merino in 1996, later catching…
Northern Expansion
08 December 2008 – Wellington clothing company Icebreaker has engaged a distributor in Germany, Sweden and Norway, having also opened its first Eastern European sales and marketing office in the Czech Republic earlier…
Melbourne’s King Pin
Taranaki-born Ben Shewry, 31, is executive chef at Melbourne restaurant Attica, where he was named Best New Talent at the 2007 Gourmet Traveller Awards, and where he earned this year’s Melbourne Age Good Food…
Contained Holiday Spots
New Zealand-produced port-a-bach, made by Wellington company Atelier Workshop from shipping containers, are reviewed in multi-medium technology magazine Gizmag, which describes the relocatable dwellings as “the perfect home for a disaster situation.” All that…
Made for Manhattan
New Zealand designers are now represented at essenze, a store within a store at the Metropolitan Design Center on Broadway in New York, which opened on November 19. Exporting to the US since 2005,…
Judd Mixes It Up
Chief winemaker at Cloudy Bay Kevin Judd’s 2008 sauvignon blanc has just hit British shelves and in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Judd explains the complexities of blending wine. “In the old days…
Easy Street in Rawene
New Zealand-based designer Lise Strathdee’s company Outpost Hokianga, located in Rawene, is a “hip concept store that mixes fashion, books, art and fine food,” according to Time magazine. The notion that fashionable shopping…
The Wild Edge
New Zealand’s dramatic scenery is the backdrop for an 11-day “fall” fashion shoot in the latest issue of National Geographic Adventure, which takes the writer/photographer and his models from Auckland to Te Anau. “This…
Let Cones Be Licked
Chief judge for the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards and sensory scientist at Massey University Kay McMath has proved the dessert tastes better when licked from a cone. McMath said that the flavour in…
Truth from Wood
New Zealand furniture designer David Trubridge and his lighting fixtures feature in a Time photo essay. Trubridge is the antithesis of those rock-star product designers who turn up at “design art” auctions in…
Back to the Basics
“New Zealand is a wonderful combination of all the good cuisines from around the world with a special touch of freshness,” writes The Economic Times in an overview of the country’s food and wine…
Rachel for a Song
Model Rachel Hunter, 39, has launched an affordable range of clothing for budget store the Warehouse, called Rachel. “I could see a real gap in the New Zealand fashion market for stylish, well cut…
Essence of Jade
Dunedin jeweller Jamie Fergus took a trip to the largest jade-deposit in the southern hemisphere, to Cowell in South Australia, after which he taught jewellery students in Adelaide how to carve the mine’s particularly…
Dedicated Follower
Wellington-born designer Rebecca Taylor is better known in New York than New Zealand according to The Epoch Times, “where she has made a huge impression on the fashion scene” dressing celebrities like Sarah Jessica…
In Sheep Code
New Zealand clothing label Icebreaker is enabling its customers to trace their purchased merino garment back to one of the 120 sheep stations where the fibre was grown by entering the individual ‘Baacode’ number…
Boutique at the Bach
Auckland-based lifestyle fashion label FEW is showing its spring 2009 collection – inspired by the New Zealand bach – at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show in San Diego. The spring designs are…
Provocative on Paper
Designer Karen Walker’s ‘Masters of Disguise’ eyewear shoot has inspired the editor of hip New York-based publication Paper Magazine to base an entire issue on the collection. Walker’s creative and quirky take on…
Luxurious Technology
New Zealanders Jeremy, Simon and Dareen Doherty have won first prize in an international design competition for their swan-shaped ‘Swarovski Mouse’, beating some 4074 individuals and institutions from 92 countries. The ‘Crystal Vision’ competition…
Cool on the Catwalk
The 2008 Air New Zealand Fashion Week in Auckland is followed by Australian Vogue who review the second day of the event at Trelise Cooper, Stolen Girlfriends and Deborah Sweeney shows. Cooper supplies “something…
Cooking by Numbers
Wellingtonian Matt Moss, 36, left New Zealand 16 years ago to play rugby in Britain, Germany and the United States winding up in Beijing working for catering company, Aramark as operations manager at the…
Must Have Di Stagione
Wellington design company Ataahua, owned by Bernadette Casey, has created a range of sustainable products made from repurposed coffee sacks, and Casey’s Cuban coffee roasters’ Trilby is gathering some fashionable followers. The hat is…
Snug as a Bug
Merino Kids founder Amie Nilsson designed the award-winning Cocooi Babywrap with biblical swaddling in mind, keeping babies safely on their back and asleep longer. Swaddling creates a slight pressure around the baby’s body that…
NZ’s Cup of Joe
Pavlova and flat whites are on the menu in Washington D.C. thanks to American policy analyst Art Hauptman who opened Cassatt’s restaurant after holidaying in New Zealand. And for this Washington Post reviewer it…
Diamond Crafted Illusions
Christchurch jeweller Jessica McCormack is recommended in July’s Harpers Bazaar magazine, which describes the London-based designer’s diamond creations as “strong and meticulous.” “Driven by a desire to make precious objects accessible and wearable with…
Cooking from Scratch
Bridal Falls provides a spectacular setting, and outdoor market, for chef Charles Royal’s Maori feast made with bush asparagus-flavoured pikopiko fern, horopito and supple jack vine. On Royal’s food tour, which he offers from…
Touring the Terroir
New Zealand wineries are preferable to those of France and California, for first-class tastings, scenery and cuisine, according to the Telegraph’s wine correspondent Robert Joseph. “This is a great place for wine tourism. In…
US Discovers Oil
Far North Olive Oil, a premium extra-virgin oil, from New Zealand is on sale in farmers markets in the North West United States thanks to the efforts of locals Charles and Gayle Pancerzewski, who…
Chocolate Carbon Credits
New Zealand graphic designer Giles Barker and his wife, trained chef Vanessa Kettelwell established confectionary company Bloomsberry & Co in 2001 and already they’ve have had their chocolate bars whipped out “from under…
By the People for the People
Auckland trio, Tim Tregonning, Dan Phillips and Danis Roberts are crowd pleasers; their project, OurBrew is currently recruiting beer drinkers to unite and develop a collective drop by signing up online, voting and then…
Kosher in Canterbury
Christchurch is visited by some 20,000 Israeli backpackers annually, and to cater for these numbers, the city will soon be home to New Zealand’s first kosher restaurant. Rabbi Mendy Goldstein, formerly of Brooklyn, New…
Geometric on the Bay
The 1931 Napier earthquake devastated the Hawkes Bay region, but two years later Napier was rebuilt and an Art Deco masterpiece. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Rebecca Lancashire pays a visit and “wanders the city…
