Afghan Warrior Signs Up
Seventeen-year-old Afghan refugee Omar Slaimankhel has signed a two-year contract with the Vodafone Warriors and “after surviving the kind of dangers his family has endured, playing rugby league must seem like a stroll in…
Tag Archives: Sydney Morning Herald (The)
No thanks to Sir
Actor Sam Neill has turned down a knighthood saying the title was “just far too grand”. His views were echoed by other well-known New Zealanders, including Maori activist and author Ranginui Walker, who said…
Sauvignon Surplus
The New Zealand wine industry is primed to suffer from a surfeit of Sauvignon Blanc in the coming years, as wine production expands exponentially and prices drop. Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up 80 percent…
Flirtatious Fins
Kaikoura’s Dolphin Encounter marketing manager Jo Thompson says the acrobatic and sociable dusky dolphin is the “big tart of the dolphin world” and “unique for travelling in pods of up to 1000.” The Sydney…
Front row seat for Kirk
Former Fairfax boss and All Black great David Kirk is the newly appointed executive chairman of the Pacific Equity Partners-owned Hoyts cinema group. The move, which will also see Kirk invest his own money…
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…
Sports Refugee Remembered
Wanganui-born journalist Jock Veitch who as a student at Wanganui Collegiate was regarded as a slacker and told there was nothing wrong with him that a game of rugger or cricket couldn’t fix, has…
Return to the Overlooked
Now Sydney-based, New Zealand photographer Rebecca Wiig, 27, has documented the city’s RSL clubs for an exhibition of 26 photographs called ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ held at Darlinghurst’s Tap Gallery. She began shooting…
Built to Sway
21 February 2009 – “Wellington, full of steep and newly formed hills held together by grass, gorse bushes and stunted ngaio trees … shares with its better-known counterpart San Francisco an engaging characteristic: it’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…
Enchantment for sharing
Children’s writer Margaret Mahy, recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and a host of other awards, says the shared experience of a parent reading to a child…
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…
Better off before
New Zealand historian David Thomson was one of the first people to write about the “phenomenon” of the “lucky generation” born during the period from the late 1920s through the 1930s according to The…
Out on a Win
Champion Taranaki jockey Greg Childs, 46, is retiring from a 30-year career which began in New Zealand in the 1970s as an apprentice and ended with a win in the Bounty Hawk Handicap on…
In vogue in Sydney
18 December 2008 – Auckland songstress Gin Wigmore, 22, has been named one of ten best up-and-coming musical acts in the Metro section of The Sydney Morning Herald. Wigmore is fairly confident she’s the…
Walking the Wet
Fiordland’s Hollyford Track “lacks the traffic of Milford Sound” according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Jenny Tabakoff who tramps the Valley in a guided tour on a particularly damp three days. Delivered by…
Through Cloud and Snow
From Wellington Railway Station – “a symphony of towering columns, vaulted ceilings and marble terrazzo floors” – travelling by train north up the west coast “the track squeezes between wild, rocky shoreline and precipitous…
One Beloved Phantom
Much venerated entertainer Rob Guest, 58, who was awarded an OBE for his services to the New Zealand entertainment industry in 1994, has died in Melbourne. Guest had been starring in the musical Wicked….
Tramping Pick N’ Mix
New Zealand’s Department of Conservation has designated nine tramping tracks as “Great Walks”, which include the Tongariro Northern Circuit, the Kepler Track and the ever popular Abel Tasman Coast Track. “Fresh air, exercise and…
Villa Away from Chateau
Auckland entrepreneur Nick Wood sold internet service provider Ihug in 2003 to Perth company iiNet for $80 million and set up Distinctive Holiday Homes (DHH), a luxury destination club with property around the world….
Dream with Opera
Auckland five-star boutique hotel Mollies– owned by opera fanatics Frances Wilson and Stephen Fitzgerald– has received a coveted ‘Hideaways of The Year Award’ and is one of Harper’s ‘Longtime Favourite Hideaways…
The Final Lap
Celebrated Taranaki-born swimming coach Duncan Laing – who held a four-decade coaching tenure at Dunedin’s Moana Pools has died – aged 77. Laing is best known for coaching swimming star Danyon Loader to gold in the…
Caged Art Debut
Auckland artist Sharon Finn is illuminating Sydney’s Simmer on the Bay with her first exhibition, ‘The Gilded Cage’, a collection of bejewelled chandeliers and bodiced mannequins, one adorned with antique watchfaces . For the…
Father of Oceania
Soccer administrator Charles Dempsey, life member of both New Zealand football and world football body FIFA, has died, aged 86. Dempsey was instrumental in both the founding of the Oceania Football Confederation in 1964…
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…
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…
The Highest of Achievers
Colin Murdoch, inventor, pharmacist and self-taught engineer, a man who designed something the world could not do without, has died in Timaru, aged 79. Murdoch led an extraordinary life; creator of the disposable syringe,…
Together at Arms
A new sculpture of a New Zealand digger will be unveiled on the Anzac Bridge in Sydney. The digger will stand guard on the other side of the road, opposite its Australian equivalent, thus…
Sydney Sees Red
Established in 1953, the Royal New Zealand Ballet had humble beginnings, performing nationwide with a company of three and a pianist. Now 32-strong, and with an international reputation to boot, the RNZB…
West Coast Purity
Sydney Morning Herald writer Anthony Dennis travels to the South Island’s West Coast and marvels the glow-worms beneath a “pristine sky … so starry it looks as if it’s been attacked by a…
Hollywood Holidays in Aotearoa
NZ was allegedly the holiday destination of choice for a slew of A-list celebrities over the summer. Bill Gates spent Christmas quad-biking at Ahipara with his son, while actors Jack Nicholson and Charlize Theron reportedly spent time…
Renewing Friendships, Broadening Horizons
Helen Clark was the first foreign leader to meet with Kevin Rudd in his new role as Australian prime minister. The pair met for a casual lunch at Rudd’s Brisbane home, where they discussed climate change ahead…
Age No Barrier
Sir Bob Charles made history at this year’s NZ Open by becoming the oldest man to make the cut on a major non-seniors tour. The 71-year-old New Zealander finished four under par and tied…
NZ Proposes Winter Games
An interim board is developing a proposal to launch the inaugural New Zealand Winter Games in 2009. The aim of the Winter Games is to provide elite winter athletes from Pacific Rim countries with off-season training…
The Gift of Sight
A photographic exhibition celebrating the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation opened in Sydney on World Sight Day, October 11. Together with Nepalese surgeon Sanduk Ruit, NZ-born Hollows pioneered a cheap and effective form of eye…
Car-boot Camaraderie
With its own spring carnival brought down by horse flu, the Sydney Morning Herald sent writer Rachel Oakes-Ash across the Tasman to check out NZ’s racing season. Oakes-Ash headed south for the Christchurch Casino Cup and…
Influential Exports
Two New Zealanders made The Bulletin‘s annual list of the 50 most influential businesspeople in Australia. Fairfax Media Chief Executive David Kirk is ranked fifteenth on the list. The former All Black Captain has headed the publishing…
NZ Migrants Top Australian Stats
NZ has surpassed Britain as the source of the largest number of permanent migrants to Australia for the first time. According to Australian immigration statistics, NZ arrivals have jumped by 5000 in the past…
Real Life Mermaid
Aucklander Nadya Vessey has commissioned a custom-made mermaid tail from Wellington’s Weta Workshop. A keen swimmer, Vessey was born with a condition that prevented her legs from developing properly. She had her first leg…
Après Vous
Queenstown has been named one of the world’s top ten après ski destinations in the Sydney Morning Herald. “The 120 licensed establishments in this lakeside town are brought to you by the letter ‘B’ where…
Something to Crowe About
Russell Crowe is gradually proving the naysayers wrong as co-owner of the South Sydney ‘Rabbitohs’ rugby league club. Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court took over and privatised the beleaguered club in 2006, sparking numerous protests from…
Peace of Mind
NZ has been named the world’s second most peaceful country in the inaugural Global Peace Index, a study commissioned by Australian IT entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea and sponsored by peace advocates such as…
In the frame
Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan’s inspiring opening address at this month’s Sydney Writers’ Festival included mention of NZ literary great, Janet Frame. The author of Living in the Maniototo, The Edge of the Alphabet and…
“Substantial Miscarriage” in Bain Case
Britain’s Privy Council has quashed the convictions of alleged mass-murderer David Bain, set down by the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 1995. The Council ruled that a “substantial miscarriage of justice”…
Australia, meet Reg
The first full-length documentary on NZ-born artist Chris O’Doherty (AKA Reg Mombassa) screened on Australia’s SBS in May. Golden Sandals: The Art of Reg Mombassa explores the links between the artist’s NZ upbringing, suburban landscape…
New Era for NZ Golf Open
Jeweller Michael Hill’s private golf club has been unveiled as the NZ Open venue for the next three years. Designed by landscape architect John Darby, the Hills Golf Club covers 202 hectares of land in Arrowtown, just…
A Star Among Men
Frank Bateson, one of the world’s most respected astronomers, has died in Tauranga aged 97. Born in Wellington in 1909, Bateson was the internationally acknowledged expert on variable stars (those which intermittently vary in brightness)….
Being Nice Makes Business Sense
Tourism NZ has launched a new campaign encouraging Australians to travel to NZ at different times of the year. At the same time, it urges New Zealanders to ease up on the traditional taunting…
Triumphant return to the airwaves
Te Kuiti-born comic Tony Martin has made a brilliant return to Australian radio with the success of his Get This show on Triple M. Martin was regarded as one of Australian radio’s leading figures…
Te Matatini: “It Really is That Good”
Australian journalist Bruce Elder spent two weeks in NZ writing a travel blog – TrampaboutNZ – for the Sydney Morning Herald. The highlight of his tour was the Te Matatini kapa haka festival, a…
Stretching the Limits
Bungy pioneer AJ Hackett is to mark the 20th anniversary of his historic Eiffel Tower jump with a new world record attempt. In Kuala Lumpur later this year, the 48-year-old will leap from a…
Funny man finds his feet
In just over a decade, Hawera-born comedian Alan Brough has established himself as one of Australia’s most popular talents. Since moving to Melbourne in 1995, Brough has appeared in films The Nugget and Bad…
Black Caps Victorious
Three famous victories in a row have seen the Black Caps complete a “black-wash” of the world champion Australians and claim the Chappell-Hadlee series. Over a period of six days the Black Caps broke a number of…
Ex-Neighbour a Star in US
Dunedin-born Alan Dale has scored a lead role in yet another hit US TV series. Fresh from his success in The West Wing, CSI: Miami and The O.C, Dale is now playing publisher Bradford…
Doctor vodka
42 Below ambassador and “vodka professor” Jacob Briars discusses dirty drink names, Golden Globe shout outs and the social psychology of bars in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Formerly a bartender at…
Local? Outrageous!
NZ TV series Outrageous Fortune has caused a storm across the Tasman, but not for its adult content. Australian screenwriters are threatening protests and possible strikes over a decision by Channel Nine to include…
