Ironwoman
Lynley Allison won her first Ironman title at the 2004 Ironman USA Coeur d’Alene triathlon in Coeur d’Alene. She finished a full 10 minutes ahead of second place getter Heather Gollnick (US), after taking an unshakeable lead…
Tag Archives: United States
BECA at the Helm
NZ engineering company BECA International has won a lucrative contract from the Marshall Islands government to oversee US-funded construction projects worth US$14 million. Most of the funding has been assigned to new educational and healthcare facilities.
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…
Earthsea in Aotearoa
NZ is to act as ‘best supporting location’ for yet another cult fantasy series; this time for an adaptation of Ursula Le Guin’s acclaimed Earthsea novels by the creative team behind Dune. The miniseries will screen…
100 Years of Class
Worldwide centenary celebrations for Rolls Royce were launched in NZ January 25, with a commemorative dinner for fans and owners held in Auckland. 50 of the company’s luxury cars – including a 1912 Silver Ghost and a…
New Frontier
The NZ government’s multimillion dollar media campaign in the US aiming to lure wealthy Americans to “the new California” is the subject of a December Voice of America feature. Major selling points are the clean/green…
Alternative Slopes
Scotsman feature urges snow bunnies further afield than the Alps and Rockies, recommending NZ alongside Iran, Alaska and Chile as a desirable alternative. “The Alps that run spine-like through the South Island are dotted with ski resorts. Mt…
Talking Turkey
Evolutionary biologists at Auckland University have made ivory tower headlines by providing compelling evidence of the origins of the Indo-European language family. Associate Professor Russell Gray and PhD student Quentin Atkinson applied a complex computer program modelled…
Nukes Not the Issue
State Department spokesman, Phillip Reeker, dismissed claims that NZ’s anti-nuclear policy was a barrier to a free-trade agreement with the US on his recent trip to Wellington. “If you want to re-examine that policy, that would be…
The World Breaks left to Raglan
The final of the 2003 Oxbo World Longboard Championships was held near Raglan, November 6-16. The prestigious US$50,000 event saw top competitors from the US, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Hawaii surf Manu Bay’s famed left-hand…
Making Waves Out of Raglan
Kerry Black and his Raglan-based company, ASR (Artificial Surf Reef Ltd), are the focus of a SunSpot article on improving surf on America’s East Coast. A former Waikato University lecturer, Black is at the forefront of artificial…
Shining Happy People
NZ was ranked 15th happiest nation overall in a World Values Survey of over 65 countries – ahead of the US (16th), Australia (20th) and the UK (24th). The study is a global examination of sociological…
Flat-out Fouhy Takes Kayak World Champ Gold
NZ’s Ben Fouhy won the individual 1,000m kayaking event at the flat-water world championships held in the US last month, qualifying him for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Trained by NZ Olympic legend Ian Ferguson, he raced…
Zambesi: the Story of a New Zealand River
Australian Financial Review Magazine devotes 5 pages to edge fashion label Zambesi. “They have been called the Belgians of the Asia-Pacific region . Over a quarter of a century, cult fashion…
Bottoms Up
CNN feature reveals a hemisphere-reversal in wine appreciation and availability in America. New World wines are doing a roaring trade in the US, in many cases outstripping their European counterparts in sales. “One of the…
Kiwi Juice Goes Global
Auckland-based kiwifruit juice manufacturers – Nekta International Limited – have made a successful entry into the US market. Sales have “exceeded expectations” since the product was lauched there in June. Nekta is already sold in Australia, Asia,…
Wahine Takes Manhattan
Pania Rose, Australia’s latest supermodel has an Aotearoa genetic advantage: “After securing local campaigns for Country Road and the all-Aussie undies label , the 19-year-old has hit the big time in the US, scoring…
Pooling Resources
NZ’s Fisher & Paykel Appliances has formed a technology-sharing alliance with US white-ware company, Whirlpool Corporation. Fisher & Paykel managing director, John Bongard, predicts greater access to global markets to result from the union: “Whirlpool offers us…
Jobs for (Almost) All
Unemployment in NZ is at a 16-year low of 4.7% thanks largely to net gains in permanent and long-term migration. Employment Minister, Steve Maharey: “We are now experiencing lower unemployment than all our major trading partners, including…
Edge Therapies in Demand
Virionyx – the NZ company behind an experimental new AIDS drug – has been hired by two US organisations to develop therapies for diseases such as SARS. Said PM Helen Clark, at the opening of Virionyx’s…
Promoting Inter-polar Understanding
NZ Antarctic scientists are joining Bulgarian and American researchers at the Canadian high Arctic this year in a bid to exchange information about their respective poles. By pooling their findings, the scientists hope to better understand the…
Third Way Talking Points
PM Helen Clark discusses republicanism, Iraq, same-sex marriages, prostitution reform, and The Lord of the Rings in a forum with BBC News Online’s Talking Point. Clark was in London attending Tony Blair’s ‘Third Way’ summit – a gathering…
Two Good
Four NZ whites won double gold medals at the San Francisco International Wine Competition – widely regarded as America’s premiere wine judging event. Babich Wines 2002 Sauvignon Blanc, Kim Crawford 2002 Sauvignon Blanc, Mt Difficulty 2003 Sauvignon…
Home Away From Home
A proposal to build the first functioning marae in America has been put forward by Maori citizens of Lehi, Utah. The state has one of the highest ratios of NZers per capita in the US, and includes…
Reconstructionist
Esteemed facial surgeon and dental safety innovator, David Poswillo, has died aged 76. Born in Gisborne, Poswillo’s career took him to Australia, England, Wales, Canada, and the US. As well as his role as a surgeon, Poswillo…
Bravo Blumenfield
NZ brand, Blumenfeld, was judged Best International Olive Oil at the LA County Fair Wines of the World Competition – the longest-running, largest and most respected event of its kind in the US. Blumenfeld NZ Classic Blends…
On Father Figures and Wayward Teens
New Scientist profiles the work of Canterbury University psychologist Bruce Ellis, who has recently published a study on the effects of absentee fathers on teenage girls. Ellis has monitored 700 girls from pre-school to high-school, in an…
Little Brother
New Zealand ranks near the top in an international index ‘Ranking the Rich’, published by Foreign Policy and the Centre for Global Development, gauging how rich nations help out poorer nations. NZ toppped the list with The…
Battle of the Bulge
Auckland University is at the forefront of new medical research linking malnutrition at the time of conception to instances of premature birth. Pediatrician Dr. Frank Bloomfield has conducted a study using sheep which ” suggest that…
Belated Acclaim for Unsung Edge Hero
“The Wright Brothers get all the credit, but a little-known NZ farmer and self-taught aviation pioneer deserves some recognition too.” Richard Pearse featured in LA Times as both NZ and America approach the centennial celebrations of their…
Australasian Appeal
“Out US and UK, in Australia and New Zealand.” Indian emigrants and students are favouring a move Down Under over the traditional destinations of old, thanks to easier entry procedures and cheaper education facilities.
NZ Provides Aid To Iraq
The NZ government is contributing NZ$3.3 million in humanitarian aid to war-torn Iraq. The announcement by Foreign Minister Phil Goff came just days after the U.S and its allies commenced war in the Middle East. The…
Bush Backlash Begins Down Under
A global wave of protests against America’s proposed war on Iraq began in New Zealand, with thousands taking to the streets across the country. In Auckland, a Greenpeace plane with a banner reading “No war, peace now”…
Satisfaction Guaranteed
NZ was voted third most popular holiday destination in the NFO Plog 2002 American Travel Survey of over 9,000 U.S households. The report gages the most rewarding vacation experiences, as opposed to a head-count of visitors. The…
Keeping Up Appearances
New York Times heads to NZ to find out if the hype is for real and are pleasantly surprised. “Always seen as ‘clean and green,’ NZ is enjoying a special premium at the moment as Americans…
Trans-Tasman Trippers
SMH‘s summary of Australia and her people for the year 2002 notes a 14% rise in holidays across the Tasman. The dramatically increased figure made NZ the most popular travel destination for the year, ahead of…
Fur-envy
Inspired by the success of NZ possum-fur products, Australian designers have incorporated the “soft, mink-like” pelts into their own winter collections. Most notably, Lisa Ho imported NZ skins for her range of winter stoles…
The (Edge) Spirit of a Sailor
USA Today ponders Kiwi dominance of the America’s Cup. “No matter that the boats will fly the flags of Switzerland and the United States. The men at the helm are Kiwis, New Zealanders, “mates.” Kiwis are…
“Read This and Weep Some More”
Anonymous Kiwi makes an impassioned plea to US citizens in the Baltimore Chronicle. “America dips its toes in the water and my nation gets flooded by a tidal wave … such is the power and…
NZ Condé Nast Hot Spots
US Conde Nast Traveler’s influential “hot list” names the Auckland Hilton, Eagle’s Nest in the Bay of Islands, and the lodge at Kauri Cliffs as the premier places to stay in NZ. Auckland’s
NZ Press-ganged In The Australian
Greg Sheridan, using some sobering cliches, gives his views on the trans-Tasman relationship: as well as comparing NZ to Tasmania he invokes ghosts of ANZUS past and our “unreliable” unwillingness to join Australia in Pax-Americana, as reasons…
Celebrations on Ice
NZ and US scientists in Antarctica recently celebrated the centenary of the first midwinter stopover by British explorers. Fun and games included swimming naked in an ice hole and hurling a (frozen) turkey in Scottish Highland-style games….
IT – NZ Untapped
Columnist for leading US IT Industry zine InfoWorld raves after visiting NZ, “New Zealand is a marvelous country populated with some of the most talented people in computing. Part of the irrational exuberance [of the dot…
The Price of a Degree
New Zealand rates as the cheapest study destination, in terms of living costs and tuition fees, from an IDP Education Australia survey of 168 universities in the “Big 5” major education destinations: the US, Canada, UK, Australia,…
NZ: Stroppy Sheilas & Mana Wahines
Hauling a caravan behind a vintage Valiant, the Adventure Divas crew do New Zealand. Along the way they shoot pool with young film-maker Sima Urale, chill in Wellington with documentarian Gaylene Preston, are welcomed into the…
A Pub Crawler’s Guide to Philosophy? Yeah Right.
US tour New Zealand “via its breweries, pubs and hard-case taverns”, finding barmaids who “pour the purge with a scowl that could compete with the hog trophies on the walls”, and brewers who freely offer insight into…
Flooring the Market
Forty-one companies, mainly from the US, confirm they will exhibit high-end Wools of New Zealand branded carpets at Surfaces 2002. The giant US flooring trade fair, which last year attracted more than 60,000 trade visitors…
Kiwi Couture
Kiwi fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph, Hilary Alexander, pushes the New Zealand Edge into euro fashion: ” may be half a world away from Europe and America, but its half a year ahead…
Virtual Magic
US-based Kiwi Mark Billinghurst has won the entertainment section of the Discover Magazine Innovation Awards with his ‘magicBook’ virtual reality invention. ‘magicBook’ looks like a normal book, but when seen through a hand-held viewer, 3D images pop…
Wading In
Robert Wade, Professor at the London School of Economics, gave NZ a “developing” status at the Knowledge Wave Conference. “The comparative position of New Zealand today is more serious than many think,” Dr Wade said, adding that…
Free Farming
New Zealand leads the world with a fully deregulated agricultural sector – but big players like the US still protect and subsidise farmers, talking the free-trade talk but not walking the walk.
Edge to Travel TV
US Travel Channel radically overhauls its image with “a new TV spot showing skate kids mountain-boarding down a sheep-studded slope in New Zealand”. “For the first time, the excitement and feel of a commercial really matched our…
Kyoto Controversy
New Zealand will not give up on the Kyoto Protocol states Helen Clark. “New Zealand and Japan worked very hard to get it and we hope to find a way to bring the US back into…
Golden Drop Standard
New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA are on the way to mutual acceptance of differing wine standards, making market access easier for everyone.
Renewable Energy
The US could look at New Zealand’s hydroelectricity as a model for cleaning up its act.
Right on NZ
Come to New Zealand, one American’s all-huntin’, no (school) shootin’ right-wing paradise.
