Atom Spy Claims
New Zealand-born DNA pioneer and Nobel Prize recipient Professor Maurice Wilkins was investigated by MI5 as a possible atom spy who had passed US nuclear secrets to the Russians. Security service files recently released…
Blog Archives
Smiling Assassin Woos Investors
John Key, nicknamed “the smiling assassin” during his time at global exchange in London, is now using his trademark beam to woo billionaire immigrants, foreign investors and high-end tourists according to Bloomberg Markets magazine….
Ski resort purchase
Auckland-based entrepreneur Nick Wood has bought the Teton Pass Ski Resort, west of Choteau, Montana for just under $41, and will spend a further $4 million upgrading the area over the next three years….
Battle of Wool
Te Kuiti’s David Fagan, 48, and Cam Ferguson, 26, from Waipawa have won the teams machine shearing title at the 14th Golden Shears World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Wales, with Ferguson taking out…
Zest for News
BBC current affairs TV producer and executive New Zealand-born Janine Thomason has died aged 63. She was born to Lesley and Jack, her father being director of marketing and technical support at the New…
Feathery Dilemmas
“For some insight as to why rapid development is important to nesting birds, especially small songbirds, visit New Zealand, where native birds have had some challenges,” suggests the Mail Tribune’s Stewart Janes. “New Zealand,…
Gender Surprises
Dr David Rowlands, a senior lecturer with the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University, has found after exercise women, unlike men, showed no clear benefit from protein during recovery. Several…
J. Williams Feat. Dane Rumble: Take Me Higher
The video for J Williams hit single, Take Me Higher, featuring Dane Rumble.
Tracing her roots
Each year, New Zealand Genealogical Society head Aucklander Jan Gow, 7, travels to Salt Lake City to browse ribbons of microfilm and endless volumes of maps, cemetery and property records tucked inside the Utah…
Great Win for Whites
The All Whites, the world’s 78th-ranked team, have beaten the world’s 15th-ranked team, Serbia 1— in a World Cup warm-up match in Klagenfurt, Austria. New Zealand football coach Ricki Herbert has said…
Positive pitfalls
According to a New Zealand 3-year study people from positive family backgrounds are more likely to suffer depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence and drug dependence, tending to suffer more seriously and need more treatment. Researchers…
Nothing but exuberant
Linda and Jules Topp’s award-winning documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls screened as part of the Inside Out LGBT film festival at the Royal Ontario Museum in May. The film is part documentary and…
Crowded House: Don’t Dream It’s Over
The video for the classic Crowded House track, Don’t Dream It’s Over.
Ash brings business
New Zealand orchid and salmon suppliers were working overtime after the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier caused ash-related delays across the planet. “The phone started ringing hot from the East Coast of North…
Cast for glass
“Internationally respected doyenne” of glass casting Aucklander Ann Robinson is profiled in the Spring 2010 issue of German/English magazine Neues Glas. With no one to consult and no recipes to follow, Robinson was as…
Walker’s inspiration
Karen Walker combined The Sound of Music with Bob Dylan and then threw in a snazzy sunglasses to create a collection dubbed “Sun Gods” at this year’s New York Fashion Week. Whether it’s…
Peter Andre’s flat white
“No one knows exactly where the flat white came from,” ponders Guardian columnist Zoe Williams. “Some people say New Zealand, while others believe it’s an Australian invention.” “Has anybody ever seriously had that conversation?…
On the Floral Trail
New Zealand municipal botanical gardens, including Hamilton Gardens and the Whakarewarewa Forest and Government Gardens in Rotorua, feature in a travel article written by Ray Boren for the Desert News. “Indeed, the…
Dishy Beef Cakes
Wellington waiters Strip-of-Meat are a company with “a dress code that involves a lot of skin” writes website Inventorspot. “Yes, we’ve seen plenty of businesses of this sort lately, but with a name like…
Icy Conundrum
New Zealand is one of the dozen founding members of the Antarctic Treaty, along with the United States, Russia, Britain and others, and is among those leading the push for shipping regulation – particularly…
Boondigga takes on US
Wellington band Fat Freddy’s Drop recently played three sell-out shows on the West Coast of the United States. The seven-piece dub outfit has been together for nearly a decade, yet only recently released its…
Watch out for Laulala
New Zealand centre Casey Laulala, 27, signed with the Cardiff Blues in July, having turned down Magners League champions Munster. Samoan-born Laulala is described by many as one of the hardest players to contain in broken-field…
Place for NZ in Chile
The New Zealand government has gifted the Chilean capital Santiago a new plaza in the municipality of Providencia. Plaza Nueva Zelandia aims to represent New Zealand culture, landscape, flora and fauna, and to provide…
Home to Rest
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans heads home to Christchurch for some jet boating and a family catch-up having been at the helm of the Australian team for two seasons. Deans and the Wallabies flew out…
Planet Earth is blue
From Great Mercury Island, 18km off the Coromandel Peninsula, Mark Rocket and Peter Beck of privately-owned company Rocket Lab successfully launched the 6-metre rocke Atea-1 into space. The rocket, which was carrying a 2kg payload of…
Parliamentary eyesore
The Beehive has been rated among the world’s ten ugliest buildings, coming in at number three on a list decided by editors and members of the popular online Virtual Tourist travel network. Virtual Tourist’s…
Travel Trailer Legacy
New Zealand-born entrepreneur Wade F. B. Thompson, who made his name reviving the American Airstream brand of travel trailers, has died at his Upper East Side home, aged 69. Raised in Wellington, Thompson dreamed…
Least bent
New Zealand is the least corrupt country in the world according to the annual Transparency International index which ranked 180 countries on a scale of zero to 10 with zero being perceived as highly…
Secret Chic
Air New Zealand Fashion Week held in late September in Auckland, is reviewed by The New York Times’ blog ‘The Moment’, which deemed designer Kate Sylvester “the country’s best-kept fashion secret”. “Especially noteworthy were…
Into the Void
Photographer Robert Pearson was the sole New Zealander, and one of 18,000 entries, to make the International Photography Awards (IPA) final selections winning second place in the Fine Art: Abstract Pro section for ‘Entrophy…
Fox treads the boards
Wellington actress Kerry Fox stars in the Andrew Bovell play Speaking in Tongues on at Duke of York’s Theatre in London. Fox plays Jane, who witnesses a possible crime and struggles with her decision…
Holy dedication
This month, Auckland singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore, 23, releases her debut album Holy Smoke which was recorded in Los Angeles with the American band The Cardinals. Wigmore is signed to Universal in Australia, where she…
Small Screen Project
Waikato-born executive chef de cuisine, head of Gordon Ramsay’s North American operations and New Zealand’s first Michelin star winner Josh Emett, 36, will document his rise to culinary fame in a documentary called Chef…
Rewire and succeed
Browns Bay neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman, 53, has written a book called The Winner’s Bible which instructs how to rise beyond your natural limits using detailed examples of people Spackman has worked with over…
Henderson Signs with ABC
Auckland-born actor Martin Henderson, 34, has reportedly signed a six-figure deal with network ABC. According to Hollywood Reporter, Henderson is expected to topline an hour-long project for the network. The former Shortland Street star…
Green, green grass
New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra’s “secret weapon is vast acres of clean grass.” “What we’re very good at in New Zealand is growing good, high-quality grass,” says area manager of Fonterra’s South Taranaki site Rod O’Beirne. “We…
Looking for the Lost
Veteran polar expedition leader New Zealander Rob McCallum is leading the search to find the submerged seaplane wreck which had been carrying Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen to the Arctic island of Spitsbergen in 1928….
Strengthening Relations
New Zealand’s outgoing ambassador to Vietnam James Kember has received a medal from the Vietnamese government for his contributions to relations between the two countries. Speaking at the award presentation ceremony in Hanoi, President…
Hands Up For A Smack
New Zealanders have voted overwhelmingly to overturn a law that prohibits parents from hitting children, according to the results of a nationwide referendum, but the government says the law is working and won’t be…
Opportunity Knocks
Napier teenager Rachel Reid, 17, has won a four-year scholarship at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University and is now able to stay in the United States to be with her younger sister Matisse, 8, when a donor becomes…
For his family
Hamilton trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill testified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal trial of Tuol Sleng prison camp chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who is accused of ordering the torture and execution of Hamill’s…
Soprano for life
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is profiled in the Guardian’s ‘Portrait of the Artist’ column in which the soprano says opera is sung by performers from “very ordinary backgrounds”. “I’m not an elitist, so I…
Grand dame’s swansong
After 40 years enthralling audiences the world over, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give her last operatic performance next April at the Cologne Opera in Germany, playing Marschallin in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier —…
Teddy on shortlist
Director Christopher Banks’ film Teddy is the first New Zealand-made film to make the shortlist for the sought-after 2009 Iris Prize Festival, the winner of which receives the largest prize for a gay and…
Deco Pride
Napier’s annual Art Deco weekend celebrates the most complete Art Deco city on earth, writes Times Online travel writer Dan Cruickshank, where even street furniture and signage consistent with the style have become policy…
He’s Lippy
Wellington actor Jemaine Clement is included in Bust magazine’s ‘Fall Preview’ film section showing off “his sugar lumps on the big screen” in Gentlemen Broncos. In the film, directed by the folks behind Napolean…
Keeping it to Himself
Recent émigré to New Zealand, British media-specialist David Jeffries, 43, says he misses nothing about England in his new hometown of Auckland where he runs the award-winning company Mere Mortals, which also has an…
Jet back to Oshkosh
Christchurch inventor Glenn Martin, 49, will make another appearance, albeit without his Martin Jetpack, at this year’s EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to report on the progress of his personal flying machine, to give…
Emerging from underground
New Zealand music icons The Bats and The Clean both release new albums this year and in “anticipation of this sudden surge in Antipodean creativity, rang up the Bats…
Lover of Words Passes
Respected literary scholar and Professor Terry Sturm, who played a leading role in placing New Zealand literature at the centre of the academic curriculum and was awarded a CBE in recognition of his services…
From Lush Pasturelands
“Make it New Zealand lamb every time!” encourages British celebrity chef Delia Smith from her official website. “When treating friends and family to luscious barbecue lamb recipes or feeding the family during the week,…
Under the Influence
Michael Brajkovich, 49, winemaker at Kumeu River was the first New Zealander to claim the title of Master of Wine; he has worked with Bordeaux’s Christian Moueix and is one of the world’s leading…
One for the ladies
New Plymouth-raised, UK-based magazine editor Suraya Singh, 30, has got Europe talking with the launch of Filament, a self-funded quarterly UK magazine that is squarely aimed at turning women on. Tired of being…
Island fortunes
Fifty-four-year-old Aucklander Graeme Hart is the wealthiest man in Australasia with an estimated net worth of $4.7 billion. For the first time since Forbes Asia started keeping track of global fortunes, a New Zealander…
Stepping Back from the Precipice
It’s been grim-times at home in Taradale, and that’s more than the recession or a bit of shitty weather. Last weekend, the first in May, a local bloke, Michael Meehan, was shot dead at…
Upritchard’s new work
London-based New Zealand artist, Francis Upritchard, 32, launched her new book Every Colour By Itself last week, at a reception held at New Zealand House in London by High Commissioner Derek Leask, hosted by…
