End of an Era
NZ lost its last WW1 veteran with the death of Victor “Bob” Rudd aged 104. Born in London in 1901, Rudd served with the British Army’s 9th Lancers regiment in the final…
Tag Archives: Age (The)
Lord of the Dance
Wellington born Kristian Fredrikson, one of the most celebrated theater and dance designers in New Zealand and Australia has died in a Sydney Hospital of complications from pneumonia at the age of 65. His career began in Wellington…
Milk and Money
Fonterra has announced plans to build an AU$15 million dairy innovation centre in Melbourne. “By investing significantly in innovation we are ensuring that we remain at the forefront of developing specialty ingredients and consumer products that will…
Continental Drift
Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and…
Rainbow Resonates 20 Years On
July 10 marked the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland Harbour. The Greenpeace flagship was targeted by French agents under the orders of then President Francois Mitterand, in retaliation for Greenpeace protests against French nuclear…
Norris Ready for Take Off
Ralph Norris is leaving the helm at Air NZ to return to banking as managing director and CEO of Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. Norris is credited with turning Air NZ’s fortunes around. “Air NZ’s financial position has never…
Sail Away
The Age showcases five of the best NZ cruises on offer; Milford Sound, Hole in the Rock (Bay of Islands), Lake Wakitipu, Inter-Islander crossing, and the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise.
One for the mantelpiece
Sam Neill won the Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Actor in a Drama for his role in Jessica at Australia’s 47th annual TV Week Logie Awards. Neill also presented the Gold Logie, which was…
Double All Black
The Age profiles Eric Tindill; the world’s oldest living Test cricketer, NZ’s oldest living All Black, and one of the hallowed few to represent the country in both sporting disciplines. “The elderly gent watching the TV isn’t…
Perky paradise
A Kiwi oasis in the midst of Melbourne is winning the hearts of critics and customers alike. Batch Espresso, owned and operated by ex-Wellingtonian Jason Chan, earned a rave write-up in Melbourne food bible Cheap…
You Say Chappell-Hadlee I Say Hadlee-Chappell
Sir Richard Hadlee had his audience in stitches at the launch of the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series in Melbourne. Among other quips, he noted that the event was called the Hadlee-Chappell Trophy back home. The Black Caps…
Worthy mentor for worthy cause
NZ filmmaker Christine Rogers helped a group of Broadmeadows Secondary School (Melbourne) students make the short film By the Light of the Moon. The film tells the stories of two refugees who have settled…
Making it on their own
The Age profiles ex-pat band Betchadupa and finds that despite their “pop-star pedigree” (Liam Finn is son of Neil and Matt Eccles of Angels drummer Brent), they are more likely to eschew parental advice…
Kiwi scoops top Australian award
Slow Water by Annamarie Jagose won the prestigious AU$30,000 fiction prize at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in October. Jagose has lived in Australia for 12 years and is currently on leave from the…
Kong
The three principal stars of Peter Jackson’s King Kong are raving about the film and its Wellington location before shooting has even begun. Adrien Brody: “The facilities here are incredible … I…
Sterling edge
Leading contemporary jewellers from both sides of the Tasman took part in a Melbourne exhibition entitled Cross Pollination. Curated by Vicki Mason (NZ) and Anna Davern (AUS), the brief was to design a modern…
Super-mini
Age profiles Paul Hakes of Wellington’s Hakes Marine: the man behind super-maxi yacht, Zana. Hakes’ latest project is a 12m racing boat, which he hopes to successfully export to Australia. “It is a modern design, a fast…
“The estimable John Clarke”
Telemovie adaptations of Shane Maloney’s novels Stiff and The Brush Off by NZ comic John Clarke were a critical and ratings success in Australia, the former netting more than 1.3 million viewers on…
Google and Froogle
Waikato University graduate Craig Nevill-Manning is Director, New York & Senior Staff Research Scientist for the world’s leading search engine company, Google. Nevill-Manning completed a PhD in computer science at Waikato before taking up a post-doctoral fellowship…
Prime slot for Kiwi production
In My Father’s Den opened this year’s Sydney Film Festival – the first time a NZ feature has done so in the event’s 50-year history. Directed by Brad McGann, the film is based…
Kiwi cuisine
The NZ Film Commission party provided the best food at Cannes, according to a festival in the Age. The NZFC flew in six top chefs from Auckland for the event.
Ulmer, Henderson, Cycle to Victory.
New Zealand cyclist Sarah Ulmer took control of the hotly contested 300m individual pursuit when she broke the world record by two 10ths of a second in 3:31.157, to win the World Championship. Greg Henderson also…
Café Crawl
An Age tour of Wellington’s thriving café scene includes stops at Fidel’s, Pravda, Red Square, Espressoholic, and Lido. According to interviewee and Fidel’s owner, Roger Young, “There are some of the best cafés in the world here. It’s because the…
Jonah, His Story
Rugby icon Jonah Lomu is back in the news thanks to the release of his highly-anticipated autobiography, Jonah My Story. The Age praises the “simple yet emotionally taut language” Lomu uses to portray his rise from troubled and…
Multi-tasker
“Double internationals – people who represent their country at more than one sport – are rare. Someone who represents his country on the sports field and also stands on it to sing the national anthem is…
Concord Dawn shifts base
Leading drum’n’bass act, Concord Dawn, have moved their studio from Christchurch to Vienna in a bid to win over the European dance scene. According to the Age, Matt Harvey and Evan Short are “one…
Brothers in arts
An opinion piece in the Age asks: “Why don’t Australian and New Zealand arts sectors cooperate more?” The lengthy article examines the difference between the two nations in regards to arts funding, profiles the…
You Say Shiraz, I Say Syrah
The Age praises NZ syrah – not to be confused with Australian shiraz. “Like the name itself, Kiwi syrah – see-rahhh – has a wistful quality to it. Delicately perfumed, intensely rich in colour, it is generally…
Opus Goes Trans-Atlantic
NZ firm Opus International Consultants has expanded its business in Canada with the purchase of Geoplan Consultants Inc. Opus already has offices in the UK, Malaysia and Australia, and in 2002 won the Trade New Zealand Services Exporter of…
Call of the Wild
A combined BBC and ABC production team has spent 3 years filming the first comprehensive nature program on Australasia. The 6-part series – Wild Australasia – uses state-of-the-art technology and daring camera-work to…
Sir Bob Farewelled in Almost Perfect Symmetry
NZ golfing great, Sir Bob Charles, made his last ever appearance at the NZ Open – an event he won for the first of 4 times as an 18-year-old amateur in 1954. Said Charles, prior to…
Taranaki’s Hollywood ambassador
Tom Cruise sang the praises of Aotearoa to the US on his promotional tour for The Last Samurai, the Japanese military epic filmed largely in Taranaki. As well as the beautiful scenery and friendly…
Mother of Invention
Age feature charts former Thompson Twin Alannah Currie’s career trajectory from 80s popstar to the face of MadGE (Mothers Against Genetic Engineering) – NZ’s most visible opponent of genetically modified crops. Currie is credited with making the…
From sea to sky
Witi Ihimaera – “debonair 59-year-old, multi-award winning author, playwright, librettist, anthologist, university lecturer, former foreign diplomat and Maori activist” – interviewed in the Age about his latest novel, Sky Dancer. Following on the successful formula…
Would the real Middle Earth please stand up?
“Tolkien may have intended The Lord of the Rings as an epic myth for England, but even he would acknowledge … that the world of Middle-earth and the tiny nation of NZ had become…
Galloping Grylls
NZ jockey Gary Grylls won the AU$90,000 Geelong Classic astride Penitentiary, despite lagging nearly 20 lengths behind leader North Face rounding the home turn. Grylls on his steed: “He was travelling well and I could see…
“Dark fairytale” played out on the edge
Gaylene Preston and Rachael Blake NZ director and Australian star of Perfect Strangers speak to the Age about filming on the South Island’s rugged West Coast. Preston used the sense of…
Clean Dealings
An annual survey by global anti-corruption campaigners, Transparency International, ranks NZ as the world’s third cleanest business environment (equal with Denmark) on 9.5 points. Finland topped the list with 9.7 points, followed by Iceland on 9.6. The…
Littler fish to fry
Fresh from US horror flick The Ring and Bollywood musical Bride and Prejudice, Kiwi actor Martin Henderson is to star alongside Cate Blanchett in the Australian film, Little Fish. Set in Sydney’s ‘Little Saigon’…
Time Travellers Beware
NZ relativity expert, Professor Matt Visser, attended a Cambridge University discussion on the troublesome issue of time travel, in honour of Stephen Hawking’s 60th birthday. “Most physicists view time travel as being problematic, if not downright repugnant,”…
Break In
Coach Jeff Green is confident that the NZ Breakers’ status in Australia’s National Basketball League will be similar to that currently enjoyed by rugby league team, the NZ Warriors. “One team, one country … The country’s…
Big Ups for “Small but Perfectly Formed” NZ Fashion Week
The Age calls L’Oreal NZ Fashion Week a thorn in the side of its Australian counterparts, warning that its “peculiarly talented protagonists” are in danger of showing up bigger fish across the Tasman. “Fashion…
Face Maker Brought to Screen
The pioneering methods used by NZ facial surgeon, Sir Archibald McIndoe, and his Canadian partner, Dr Ross Tilley, during WW2 are the inspiration behind a new Canadian documentary, The Guinea Pig Club. McIndoe and Tilley used radical…
Being Beryl Fletcher: the life of a “feminist firebrand.”
NZ author, Beryl Fletcher, was a guest speaker at the Melboune Writers Festival in August. Fletcher’s latest work – The House at Karamu – is a personal memoir, which “attempts to map the identity…
Like Father, Like Son
NZer Steve Richards – the younger half of the “most successful father-son duo in Australian motor sport” – interviewed in the Age about his new three-year contract with Castrol Perkins. At 31, Steve has 25 years to…
Edge Meets Fringe
Kiwi comedy act, Flight of the Conchords, was dubbed the “unlikely hit” of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival by the Guardian, and narrowly missed out on the event’s prestigious top award. The satirical folk…
An edge rediscovered
Pacifier – the NZ band formerly known as Shihad – interviewed in the Age about their tour of wartime America. Says singer, Jon Toogood; “In hindsight, watching it all go on internally was really…
Henwood plays Burton
Welsh-Wellingtonian actor, Ray Henwood, thrilled Melbourne audiences with his portrayal of theatre legend Richard Burton, in Mark Jenkins’ Playing Burton. The Age: “Henwood’s fine performance, beautifully paced, movingly builds real tragic stature for his…
What Lies Beneath…
A month-long exploration of the Tasman Sea by NZ and Australian scientists has uncovered hundreds of new species of fish and invertebrates. Previously unknown critters trawling the depths include gelatinous sea cucumbers, fish resembling globs of mucous…
“Snap, crackle and grace”
SMH: “Black Grace, New Zealand’s all-male company of Maori and Pacific Island dancers, is the most engaging and entertaining company to visit Sydney for years. Maybe since the last time they were here…
Cycling Success
NZ athletes made a strong showing at the track World Cup held in Sydney last month – boding well for the coming world championships. Cycling star Sarah Ulmer won the women’s 3,000m individual pursuit, and the men’s…
Iconic Image Auction
A signed photograph of the 1905-6 All Black “Originals” has been sold at auction for $41,000. The photo had been kept in Aucklander David Wright’s family since 1906, when it was presented to his grandfather Charles Victor…
The art of myth-making
Whale Rider director Niki Caro speaks to The Age about the intricate cultural process involved in a “white woman” making a Maori film. Despite early resistance to her involvement, and her subsequent self-doubt, Caro…
Whale Raves: Part 2
Whale Rider‘s Australian release has unleashed a second wave of glowing tributes. The Age: ” sharply observed, warm portrayal of a community … of an indigenous people moving between certainties and uncertainties.” Sydney…
“Sex is cheap, but domination isn’t”
Former NZ university lecturer and academic, Jody Hanson, interviewed in The Age on her newfound role as a dominatrix and writer in Melbourne. Known on the dungeon circuit as Mistress J, Hanson conducts seminars,…
Big Win for Dark Horse
NZ trainer Katrina Alexander shocked bookmakers and delighted racing fans when her “lightly raced” mare Honor Babe won the $800,000 Sydney Cup. The Matamata-based mother of two – who describes herself as “falling into racing by accident”…
