More the merrier
The number of overseas visitors arriving in New Zealand has hit an August record, with strong growth from China who more than doubled from 46 in August 29 to 97 this August, exceeding the…
Tag Archives: Sydney Morning Herald (The)
Long Tan hero dies
Former New Zealand Vietnam war hero Morrie Stanley from Campbells Bay in Auckland, who was recently presented with an Australian Unit Citation for Gallantry, 44 years after the renowned battle of Long Tan in…
Familial trail-blazer
New Zealand director Jane Campion’s daughter Alice Englert, 16, has her sights set firmly on a career in music rather than film writes Kristie Lau for The Sydney Morning Herald. “I love my mum…
Without Peer
Wallabies coach New Zealander Robbie Deans says there is no doubt Richie McCaw is the greatest modern skipper in All Blacks history. McCaw has led New Zealand in more rugby Tests than any other….
Spunky wonky donkey
Queenstown-born children’s author Craig Smith is currently touring Australia promoting his best-selling book Wonky Donkey. Smith began his tour at Hobart Library where a crowd of 5 children danced and clapped as he read…
Otago tourism mined
The Otago Rail Trail is New Zealand’s first dedicated long-distance cycleway, following part of the course of a former railway 15km into Central Otago from Dunedin, and used by some 2, cyclists a year….
One of the best
New Zealand’s listed stock exchange NZX has been included in a Forbes list of the 2 ‘Best Under a Billion’ top-performing companies in Asia for the fourth consecutive year. The NZX was listed by…
When, Will I, Will I be Famous
SMH art critic Peter Hill muses on art, fame and celebrity, praising the playful personas of NZ artist Patrick Pound. He compares Pound to English YBA chief Damien Hirst: “For a decade he has been working…
Death of a genius
Thames-born scientist and obstetrician Sir Graham Collingwood Liggins has died at the age of 84. Liggins was described as one of New Zealand’s greatest scientists who undertook groundbreaking obstetrical research. Known to his friends…
Laughing at the edge
Director Taika Waititi says the humour in Boy is both colonial-outpost and self-deprecating Maori humour. “You’ve just got to laugh at awkward, crazy, painful stuff when you’ve been banished to the nether regions of…
Chaucerian find
University of Otago English lecturer Dr Simone Celine Marshall has discovered a previously unidentified edition of the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, sometimes referred to as the father of English literature, and best known for…
Taking the Sting Out
Gisborne-based Dive Tatapouri is defending the reputation of the short-tailed stingray, offering plucky tourists the opportunity to hand-feed the sea creatures. “They’re incredibly good-natured,” owner Dean Savage says. “It’s extremely rare for them to…
End of an Era
New Zealand businessman and former chairman of Fletcher Challenge, Sir Ronald Ramsay Trotter, who was a vocal advocate of economic deregulation and personified big business in this country for nearly three decades, has died…
Fear the Cone
“The big daddy of New Zealand’s South Island fields has a reputation for being big, bad and nasty — in a good way,” Rachael Oakes-Ash writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. “Some whisper about…
London to Gaza
Six New Zealanders, calling themselves the “Kia Ora Gaza” team, will make up part of an aid convoy taking humanitarian assistance to Gaza departing from London on September 18. Queen’s Service Medal recipient, Aucklander…
Our pick for ICC
Chairman of New Zealand Cricket Alan Isaac, 58, has trumped former Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the region’s nominee to take the ICC’s vice-presidency, which after a two-year term leads to the top…
Broadening horizons
A 13,6-kilometre sub-sea fibre-optic cable linking New Zealand, Australia and the US will be ready for service in 213. The US$4 million Pacific Fibre cable will be laid jointly by Pacific Fibre and Asian…
Sell-out in Soweto
The All Blacks’ historic test against the Springboks in Soweto at Johannesburg’s famed Soccer City — now called the National Stadium — has sold out, with nearly 9, fans to attend the match on…
Record for Rocket Man
All Blacks star Joe Rokocoko, 27, is the team’s most-capped winger surpassing national treasures John Kirwan and Jonah Lomu. “It’s a huge honour for myself considering the players who have gone before me — it’s…
Thawing an icy tipple
Canterbury Museum is slowly thawing out a crate of Scotch whisky which was found in Antarctica earlier this year beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The New…
Changing family units
Couple without children in New Zealand are expected to surpass two-parent families as the most common household formation by next year, according to Statistics New Zealand figures. National Family and Household Projections released on…
Rex means possibility
New Zealander Hayden Allen, 23, is learning to walk again with the aid of a pair of robot legs after a debilitating car accident five years ago. The device, dubbed “Rex”, is the work…
Against the grain
“An act of real political courage by the National Party would be to increase its commitment in the dangerous areas of Afghanistan and to announce that New Zealand was rejoining the ANZUS Alliance, which…
Strings to His Bow
Sonny Bill Williams, 24, who has signed an 18th-month contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union, is considering a return to NRL after the next season or to the ring, “if the boxing bug…
Mammoth Melt
The effects of a change in global wind patterns which helped to end the last major ice age were first seen on New Zealand glaciers, according to Columbia University scientists. Mountain glaciers in New…
Back in the Saddle
Michael Walker, 26, has returned to the race course after a life-threatening pig-shooting accident resulted in the Rotorua-born jockey suffering a serious head injury when he fell 7m down a bluff in 28. “As…
Stopping the skim
BNZ fraud initiatives manager Michael Turner’s software-based technology for reducing credit-card fraud has been patented world-wide. The “liquid encryption number” (LEN) technology is used on all BNZ credit and debit cards, and has cut…
Titillating Tries
“The true mark of a man is in his swagger, according to Dunedin folk,” writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Marissa Calligeros. “And there is no better indication of this than rugby played in its…
America’s teen idol
True Blood star New Zealander Anna Paquin, 27, has been nominated for a Teen Choice award. The competition is run by American TV network Fox and recognises teen idols across the high-profile fields of…
Peace reigns supreme
New Zealand has been named the most peaceful nation for the second year running in the fourth annual Global Peace Index (GPI). Compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace, the report…
To Sign or Not to Sign
Twenty-four-year-old Aucklander Sonny Bill Williams is facing a sporting dilemma: does he play for the All Blacks at next year’s Rugby World Cup or sign a $6 million three-year deal with French side Toulon?…
Wacky Winter Stunts
Queenstown’s Winter Festival hits the southern town for the 35th year this June with an estimated 6, revellers expected to attend the week-long festivities. While there are big-ticket items — free concerts (Dragon headline…
Day tripping
Oft considered more English than England, Christchurch, New Zealand’s oldest city offers a preferable moderate climate, fresh contemporary Antipodean cuisine and a host of outdoor activities in and about the city limits. The Sydney…
Great Barrier secrets
Escaping the New Zealand mainland, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Rob McFarland takes a four-hour boat trip to Great Barrier Island and “a ruggedly beautiful wilderness”. “The Barrier, as it’s referred to by the locals,…
Most beautiful of all
Fiordland’s Routeburn and Greenstone Tracks, combined at 7km and both within the World Heritage-listed area of Te Wahipounamu in south-west New Zealand, make for “what might be the most beautiful walk in the world’s…
Backcountry Best
“New Zealand offers some of the best, and most extreme, heli-skiing on the planet”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Craig Tansley who surveys New Zealand’s world-class fields. “There are over 400 runs to choose from…
Ahead of the Best
Taupo-born Olympic triathlete Bevan Docherty, 33, has won the opening race of the ITU Dextro Energy World Champs Series in Sydney. Docherty, a two-time Olympic medallist, pulled away from the chase pack halfway through…
Not Humpty Dumpty
Should the New Zealand-bred champion horse Phar Lap be “put back together again” asks The Sydney Morning Herald. Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls is seeking to “re-unify” the skeleton (from Wellington) and the heart (now…
Final Season Strength
Warriors prop Steve Price, 36, has announced he will retire at the end of the season. His battle-weary legs may have forced his hand, but it is a simple message inscribed on his wrist…
Division Debate
“There has always been sense in New Zealand and Australia being one country,” writes the Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW George Williams in an opinion piece called, ‘A nation…
Best Northern Beaches
The North Island’s top beaches are named by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Bruce Elder, who writes that those suggested are so good that no trip to New Zealand would be complete without visiting them….
Developing football
Wellington property developer Terry Serepisos, “who decided three years ago to save professional football in New Zealand, is the talk of his home town” writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Michael Cockerill. “Wellington Phoenix are…
Sculptured Meaning
At Timaru’s Phar Lap Raceway, a bronze statue of the famed Big Red and his regular jockey, Jim Pike takes pride of place. Today, the South Island city is making full use of the…
Unique Fine Dining
Pipis, paua, tuatua, feijoas, kumara, cervena, puha and horipito are just some of the unfamiliar items found on the menu in New Zealand restaurants, Winsor Dobbins of The Sydney Morning Herald discovers….
Phoenix Survive Playoff
With Phoenix goal keeper Liam Reddy fending off an attack by Perth in a penalty shootout in front of a record crowd of 25,000 at the Cake Tin, the Wellington team prevailed 4-2 to…
Gusty But Gourmet
“With more than 300 bars, restaurants and cafes in the city alone, Wellington is certainly not short of options,” recommends Winsor Dobbin for The Sydney Morning Herald. Dobbin explores the best dining…
Barclay a big presence
Auckland actress Emily Barclay, 25, “is in no danger of not being cast” and “right now is one of the hottest new talents in the business — on stage and on screen”, writes The…
Top of the World
Air New Zealand has been named Airline of the Year, with judges of the Air Transport World magazine awards, “amazed and surprised at the degree of innovation that was occurring at a remote relatively…
In Father’s Strokes
New Zealand adventurer Shaun Quincey, 25, hopes to follow his father Colin Quincey into the history books by becoming the second person to row solo the 2200km from Australia to New Zealand. His father…
Knighthood for Jackson
Director Peter Jackson was among five New Zealanders to become knights or dames after a return to New Year’s honours. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark — who axed British honours while in office —…
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…
Walker the Idol
New Zealand-raised eighteen-year-old Stan Walker has been crowned Australian Idol winning a AU$200,000 artist’s development fund and a recording contract with Sony. Described as a soul singer, Walker, who is a shop assistant in…
If it Ain’t Broken
New Zealand has been named by travel gurus The Lonely Planet as one of the ten top countries to visit in 2010. The travel bible named New Zealand on the basis of the adage…
Blumsky’s selling point
Former Wellington mayor, shoe salesman and business mentor Mark Blumsky has written a book promoting the secrets to success for small business owners: differentiation and attitude. Slippers: Service and Selling begins with an allegory…
Same but Different
On the eve of talks between Australian and New Zealand cabinets in Sydney last week, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Andrew Tink looks back to 1840 – when New Zealand was briefly a dependency of…
NZ Wine a Popular Drop
New Zealand wine is becoming increasingly popular for Australian drinkers with exports across the Tasman up by 31 per cent to $323 million in the 2008/09 financial year, according to the New Zealand Winegrowers…
