National Ikon
An Independent obituary for Pat Hanly calls him “the jester of modern NZ art … His images – exuberant, colourful, feisty and humorous – reflected the personality of their maker.” The subjects of Hanly’s…
Tag Archives: Independent (The)
White Knuckle Christmas
The Independent lists Queenstown as one of 25 top Christmas holiday destinations. “Work up an appetite for a festive roast lamb dinner by getting the adrenalin flowing among NZ’s stunning mountain scenery … On any day of…
A Long Innings Remembered
Obituaries for Auckland-born British Conservative MP, Sir Trevor Skeet, appeared in both the Independent and Guardian. Independent: “Academia in Britain has been vastly enriched by the infusion of talent from NZ, of whom Ernest Rutherford is…
All Blacks 3-0 Start for 2004
Two crushing wins over England and a scratchy performance against Argentina started the Graham Henry-coached, Tana Umaga-led 2004 All Blacks. Coverage from The Independent on the victories at Carisbrook, Eden Park, and Hamilton. Next…
He Maimai Aroha
Haere atu koutou hei whetu te rangi, tiaho mai mo ake tonu atu. He tohu aroha ki tenei morehu kuia. Rahera Windsor, spiritual leader of Britain’s Maori community, died May 3rd 2004 Born in Pupuke, 1925, she married…
Moko Mokai Return Home
Three preserved heads (moko mokai) of Maori warriors have been returned to NZ by the Kelingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The action comes after a worldwide search for Maori remains by Te Papa Tongarewa. Maori specialists…
Charlie Champions NZ
British celebrity gardener, Charlie Dimmock, named NZ as her preferred home-away-from-home in an interview with The Independent. “If I had to to New Zealand. They have an’outdoors’ lifestyle,’ and people are more active.”
Form vs. function
The possible closure of the famed Freidensreich Hundertwasser-designed public toilets at Kawakawa earned a detailed write-up in the Independent. Officially opened in 1999, the stunning facilities were the final project by the acclaimed Austrian…
“The New Zealand Native Who Helped Open the Door to the Stars”
17 March 2004 – William Pickering, one of the leading figures in US space exploration, died of pneumonia in California aged 92. A graduate of Canterbury University and the California Institute of Technology, Wellington-born…
Getting lippy
“With a vocal arsenal that ranges from crisp rapping to a powerful singing voice, Natalia ‘Tali’ Scott can outstrip any UK competition.” So says the Independent in a glowing review of…
Rings-led Revolution
“New Zealand has had a day like no other”. The world premiere of The Return of the King in Wellington outshone all expectations, with a 100,000+ crowd lining the route of the spectacular…
Fairydown Man Enough for Hillary
NZ outdoor label, Fairydown, is to be re-named ‘Zone,’ after market research revealed Australian men to be uncomfortable with the original tag’s effeminate connotations. Sir Edmund Hillary, who used a Fairydown sleeping bag on his 1953 ascent…
Aquada, Bond Aquada, 0064
International media attention was lavished on The Thames, London, for the launch of NZ-entrepreneur Alan Gibb’s revolutionary Aquada (inspired by inventor Terry Roycroft’s design innovations). The James Bond-style sports vehicle with the amphibian edge can reach up to…
Big Idea: Atomic Imagination
Sir Ernest Rutherford featured in an Independent story, ‘Dawn of the nuclear age.’ “No one has described the atom discovered by Rutherford better than the playwright Tom Stoppard: ‘Now make a fist, and if your fist is…
International Bright Young Thing
Anna Paquin talks dogs, dorm-living, Degas and “living long distance” with the Independent. Currently studying art history – between films – at Columbia University, Paquin will next be seen alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Ed…
A Bridge Over Troubled Water
Judith Piepe – social activist and cultural icon – has died in Levin aged 83. Famous for her mysterious origins and friendships with the likes of Cat Stevens and Paul Simon (she was his agent), Piepe’s door was…
Mike Moore: A View from the Top
Former PM Mike Moore speaks to the Independent about his latest publication, A World Without Walls. The book deals with his experiences as director-general of the WTO; his greatest challenges, mistakes, and success stories, from Seattle forward….
An End to Sheep Jokes?
NZ’s sheep population is at an all-time low, plummeting from 70 million in 1982 to less than 40 million. Cows and fruit – particularly wine grapes – have gradually replaced the woolly icons as more lucrative…
“The Boot” Remembered
Rugby fans around the world farewell Don “the Boot” Clarke, an incomparable All Black legend. Business Day calls him “an icon for a generation of NZers,” while The Australian remembers his match-winning conversion against France at Athletic Park…
Farewell to Leading Lady
The death of NZ’s acting doyenne Davina Whitehouse has been mourned at home and abroad, with obituaries appearing in The Boston Globe and The Independent. Her prolific career spanned stage, film, and television, and…
Giovanni Intra Remembered
We are diminished to report the death of Giovanni Intra in New York City on December 17th 2002. Giovanni, artist, critic, gallerist went east to stir up the LA art scene and established the gallery, China…
Great southern (is)Land
The South Island was ranked fourth on the BBC‘s “50 places to see before you die,” clocking in behind the Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, and Disney World. The list was compiled via a phone…
Ideas From the Edge
Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts talks to The Times about his work guiding MBA students at Cambridge and to The Independent about the age of the idea: “He preaches love but hates management;…
Branson to Fly NZ’s Friendly Skies?
Sir Richard Branson continues his upward trajectory in the world of aviation. Branson’s Australian domestic airline – Virgin Blue – is about to triple its fleet by purchasing 40 new jets. The possibility of extending flights to…
Dick Hubbard: “Messiah of Muesli”
Kiwi entrepreneur, Dick Hubbard, profiled in Independent. “A highly unconventional capitalist,” Cereal evangelist Hubbard is NZ’s chief advocate of social responsibility in business, joining international brands such as Benetton and The Body Shop in his claim to…
Sculling Sisters
NZ twins Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell continue to impress on the international rowing circuit. The pair won gold at July’s World Cup in Munich and are tipped to do the same at next month’s World…
Sevens Heaven
Kiwi dominance impresses at Manchester where they prove themselves masters of the form: “New Zealand dominate seven-a-side rugby the way that Lance Armstrong lords it over cycling, Tiger Woods bestrides the world of golf and…
Psathas & Kiri
NZ composer John Psathas and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa provided some of the high points at Manchester’s eclectic “Pulse Festival.” The concert was the climax to a six month exploration of Commonwealth arts entitled…
Scandanavia Cleans Up
NZ was ranked 19th best place to live according to the UN Development Programme’s annual quality of life survey. The report looks at issues such as life expectancy, per capita income, educational opportunities, and…
“She’s a Go-getter and a Good Chap”
Georgina Beyer interviewed in the Independent in the wake of promoting Georgie Girl in Sydney. A mass of contradictions – “she might judge a sheep show one day, march in a gay pride parade the next”…
Alan Brunton: Mystic Gold From the Edge
NZ performance artist Alan Brunton (57) died while touring Europe with his Red Mole theatre troupe, ” NZ letters of its one truly iconic radical figure.” Coming to prominence in the late 70s as…
From Here to Eternity
“Tinkling ivories, crashing waves, visit volcanoes, rainforests and surf-pounded beaches where you can re-enact scenes from The Piano.” The Independent’s “one hour from …” series spreads its compass around Auckland and as well as soulful beachscapes in…
Rogernomics Resurfaces
He engineered some of the most radical and controversial reforms in New Zealand history, where efficiency clashed with social affect, and Roger Douglas is still a believer, giving his tuppence worth on the English health system in…
Black and White or Rainbow Nation?
Kathy Marks visits Waitangi and gives an outside perspective on the state of the nation 162 years after the treaty: “New Zealand is truly a bicultural nation, and the sense of two races living…
Domination
“It is apparently not enough that New Zealand have just waltzed away with their third successive World Sevens Series title. So complete was their domination of the Emirates-sponsored London leg of the International Rugby Board’s season-long tournament…
Life and Loves …
NZEdged author Fay Weldon traverses a contradictory, but never dull life, in her autobiography Auto de Fay and finds her muse in the edge: “Always! Yes, always! I wanted to see more, it was…
New Zealand: Closer to the Edge
Independent editor at large Janet Street Porter finds she can’t get close enough: “No wonder I’ve been back to New Zealand three times in three years. Sod the 20-something hours in the plane; the end result…
Edge-zone
“One of the greatest ever test innings … unbelievable savagery”. Nathan Astle produced the most astounding display of cricketing artistry in hitting the fastest double-century in test cricketing history in the first test against England, reaching 200 off…
Cometh the Hour
Nathan Astle comes to play with “a superb and dominating” unbeaten 122 for the Black Caps to help them take the series 3-2 over “plucky losers” England and deservedly finish the summer with a trophy. Hitting the…
89 All Out!
“England were routed by an undeniably better team”, proclaims The Guardian, as New Zealand dismisses the poms for their second lowest one-day score ever (80) in the 2nd ODI in Wellington. Meanwhile Stephen…
Most Valuable Harry
“Chris Harris is the bald bloke who must have been in the New Zealand team since they started playing cricket. He hangs around at backward point taking spectacular catches, bats irritatingly in the lower middle order…
Triple Bottom Liners
Janet Street Porter gets down under with the finer points of NZ culture, including food evangelist Dick Hubbard and the socially conscious breakfast cereal. The Triple Bottom Line philosophy = the three Ps of People, Planet…
Supermarket nirvana: Gisborne Woolworths
Street-Porter lauds fusion master Peter Gordon, bemoans some antipodean executions of the theory, but finds solace in Woolworths: “I purchased sun-dried tomatoes, olive and rosemary focaccia bread, and locally made Camembert. Have you picked…
These Limbs Were Made for Climbing
Kiwi mountaineer Mark Inglis successfully completes the journey to NZ’s highest peak, Mt Cook, without a piece of kit he’d come to take for granted on all previous expeditions – his legs. “With my artificial limbs…
Crowe: Edgy Actor
Front-running for repeat Oscar victory Crowe would rather have a beer according to this excellent Independent profile that plays on Rus’s ANZAC roots, “Like the classic guy from Down Under, he’s very happy to…
School of Hard Knocks
Jonah Lomu talks to The Independent about growing up on South Auckland’s mean streets. “I lost an uncle; decapitated in a shopping centre, and a cousin who was stabbed. That’s when my mother said I was…
Commanding Performance
Grant Dalton and his crew hold second place in the Volvo Ocean Race, as the event “reaches its spiritual home”, Auckland. “The World’s premier yachting capital”. according to the Volvo Ocean race website.
The Land of the Rings
“The first thing I thought when Peter showed me the pictures of the locations in New Zealand was: this is Middle-earth,” says Elijah Woods. “I mean, it has every sort of geographical, geological formation…
Camera ‘on the Ball’
Developers at Otago Polytech say they are close to producing a practical version of a video camera capable of being fitted inside a rugby ball. “We thought, wouldn’t it be good to see on the screen…
Lord of the Spin-Offs
“The adventures of Frodo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard are proving so lucrative to HarperCollins that, without spending a penny on promotion or marketing, they have seen sales of the books soar by 400…
Blyth Spirit
“Blyth Tait headed a clean sweep for New Zealand when he rode his Olympic and world champion, Ready Teddy, to win the Burghley Pedigree Horse Trials.”
Gandalf writes…
“A year’s work abroad isn’t unusual or daunting for an actor – but a year in New Zealand? I’m indifferent to rugby and don’t eat lamb but at least it seemed a good opportunity…
Booker long-list Graced
Kiwi author Patrica Grace’s Dogside Story about an East Coast Maori township makes the long-list for the much-vaunted Booker Prize, shunting aside Salman to join such luminaries as Beryl Bainbridge, Peter Carey, Ian McEwan,…
Fit to Fight Tiger
Top Kiwi golfer and World No.15 Michael Campbell answers the Independent’s Q&A about his routine – how he gets into the mental and physical swing of things …
Polished Knowledge
“Digital Libraries hold the possibility that we might regain perspective on the billions of pieces of information in the web ocean.” In particular, DL system Greenstone, created by Dr Witten of Waikato University, offers an online…
Historian Remembered
Professor Neville Phillips – erudite, open-minded “sometimes spiky”. One of New Zealand’s leading historians, remembered for the day he stood up to Rob Muldoon in defence of the university and intellectual freedom. Neville Phillips: Died July 2001
