Onion Dip Unites New Zealand
New Zealand is home to many wonderful things, from wacky flightless birds to the real-world incarnation of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. But no matter how great of a country it truly is, New Zealand has…
Tag Archives: USA Today
Blanket Bay Built for Outdoor Lovers
New Zealand luxury lodge Blanket Bay has been featured in USA Today as one of 13 beautiful lakeside hotels around the world. Alisha Prakash reports. “With hiking,…
New Zealand Fifth Most Reputable Country
New Zealand has been named the fifth most reputable country in an annual ranking by Reputation Institute. Sweden, “known for its generous social benefits and commitment to gender equality, is…
See the World’s Smallest Penguins in Oamaru
Life can be tough when you’re a blue penguin. For starters, you are no taller than a house cat and weigh less than a kilogram. That means many other creatures – rats, ferrets and…
New Zealand Clears Historical Gay Sex Convictions
The New Zealand parliament has unanimously passed a bill that is expected to allow about 1000 men to apply to have past convictions for homosexual activity removed from their criminal records. Homosexuality was decriminalised in…
Shortland Street’s KJ Apa Hits US TV Screens
Archie’s certainly not a kid anymore. Or at least not the same kid we knew from the old Archie comics, according to USA Today. He’s a hot, ripped 16-year-old, and a New Zealander –…
Scott Dixon Wins Fourth IndyCar Championship
Scott Dixon has won Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway to clinch the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series championship. He was awarded the title because he had three victories this season as opposed to Montoya’s two,…
Danny Lee Wins Greenbrier Classic
Rotorua golfer Danny Lee has earned his first PGA Tour win at The Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia in a four-man playoff nearly eight years after becoming a U.S. Amateur champion at age 18. “I kind of felt…
Z for Zachariah – Terrifying Post-Apocalyptic Love Triangle
“Surviving the end of the world is stressful enough, but add two guys battling it out over a girl, and you’ve got trouble. But that’s exactly what the characters are stuck with in for Z for Zachariah”,…
Queenstown Voted Top Destination in the South Pacific
Queenstown has been voted the number one destination in the South Pacific as well as one of the top 25 locations worldwide in Trip advisor’s 2015 Traveler’s Choice awards. “These world-class destinations chosen…
Tesla Co-Founder Ian Wright Has More Electric Ideas
A decade ago, New Zealander Ian Wright and a few tech-minded buddies got together bent on creating a fast and cool electric car. They called the company Tesla Motors. Now, Wright is…
USA Today: Breaking Down the All Blacks Haka
USA Today has provided insight into the Haka, which has become a familiar rite to anyone who has watched a New Zealand team play in international sporting events. The Haka, drew headlines this summer as…
Comic-Con Kicks Off Featuring Strong Kiwi Contingent
Comic-Con begins in San Diego today, with the New Zealand representatives ranging from Peter Jackson and the Hobbit producers to a small movie made by an Auckland animation school. The Hobbit will be a major…
Couple’s Literary Steampunk Adventure Continues
New Zealand’s first podcast novelist Pip Ballantine, co-author of the steampunk Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series, talks to the USA Today about her and husband Tee Morris’ most recent addition to the anthology, Dawn’s…
Dixon Tearing Through IndyCar Record Books
While his team struggled with setup and speed, New Zealander Scott Dixon, 33, has flown under the radar during preparations for the Indianapolis 500. It’s exactly how he wants it. It’s how he has…
Ko’s Classic Swing Wins Skirts in San Fran
Kiwi golf prodigy Lydia Ko has earned her biggest prize purse of her short professional career when she took out the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in San Francisco at the weekend. The 17-year-old displayed…
US President Obama and PM John Key enjoy golf game in Hawaii
In a rare vacation encounter with a foreign official, US President Barack Obama played golf in Hawaii with a new partner, Prime Minister John Key also on vacation, along with Key’s teenage son Max…
Ko Wins First Professional Title
09 December 2013 – Just a matter of weeks after announcing that she had turned pro, New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko has won her first professional title. The 16-year-old won the Swinging Skirts World Ladies…
Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber
Pressure will be mounting on the American Museum of Natural History in New York to return sacred Maori remains to New Zealand after USA Today gave prominence to the issue of toi moko (tattooed…
Leading Amateur Award Ahead of Pro Decision
New Zealander Lydia Ko, 16, has received the McCormack Medal as the world’s leading women amateur for a third straight year, which was presented to her by the Royal & Ancient and United States…
All Eyes on Air New Zealand at Paris Air Show
Air New Zealand was the centre of attention at the Paris Air Show with their new black livery on display and world first ‘sharklets’ on display. The airlines new Airbus A320 was officially presented…
New Paint Job for National Carrier’s Aircraft
Air New Zealand has unveiled a new livery for its aircraft, which will feature an iconic silver fern, to adorn its entire fleet by the end of 2014. The new look will phase out…
Sneak Peek at Smaug
New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson has given his fans a sneak online preview of the next Hobbit installment, The Desolation of Smaug. Enthusiastic and barefoot, Jackson gave a little masterclass in Middle-earth filmmaking and…
Undeniably entertaining
New Zealand director Andrew Niccol’s latest science-fiction film, an adaptation of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s book The Host, has premiered in Los Angeles. Meyer specifically asked for Niccol to direct the film. On the…
Call It an Evocative Scowl
Joe Dredd, played by New Zealand actor Karl Urban, 40, “is meant to be the most fearsome judge – but we don’t get to see many more of his kind around,” USA Today’s Claudia Puig writes…
Teen Golfer Makes History
Fifteen-year-old amateur sensation Aucklander Lydia Ko has made golfing history becoming the youngest LPGA champion closing with a 5-under 67 for a three-stroke victory over at Inbee Park to win the Canadian Women’s Open….
Raising the Frame Rate
“Peter Jackson raised the bar for fantasy popularity 11 years ago with the first of three Lord of the Rings films,” Brian Truitt reports for USA Today. “With his latest J.R.R Tolkien adaptation, he…
Searching for Dark Skies
A view of Lake Tekapo features in the USA Today’s Photo Friday under the theme ‘Stars’. Though American journalist Chris Gray Faust’s plans to star gaze at the Mt John Observatory were thwarted by…
Startlingly Beautiful by Boat
An image of a local tour boat taken in the Milford Sounds, Fiordland National Park, is featured in the USA Today’s ‘Photo Friday’. “The whole park is part of the Te Wahi Pounamu UNESCO…
Walking Amongst the Dead
South Island cemeteries intrigue visiting USA Today correspondent, Liz Lewis, who stops in at Collingwood cemetery and the idyllic Church of the Holy Innocents graveyard at Peel Forest. “New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh…
Quintessential Southern Tipple
Being a university town, there is no shortage of places in Dunedin that make beer, and taking pride of place is the city’s Speight’s Brewery. “Since 1876, the Speight’s Brewery has been supplying the…
Deliciously Unique
New Plymouth’s Big Wave Café, the Flying Fox café on the Whanganui River and Dargaville’s Funky Fish are some of the “one-of-a–kind character” cafés worth travelling off the beaten track to find according…
Tolkien Tourism In Matamata
The Lord of the Rings franchise is partially responsible for a tourism windfall in New Zealand with global visitor numbers up 40 per cent since 2000. At least five official LOTR-themed tour companies are in operation….
Gorge Of Gold
The Karangahake Gorge, between the Coromandel Peninsula townships of Paeroa and Waihi, features walkways offering a glimpse of goldmining history amidst dramatic scenery. The USA Today’s Liz Lewis describes: “Enormous foundation ruins of the gold…
Shot Putting Machine
Auckland 16-year-old Jacko Gill has smashed his own world youth shot put record by nearly half a metre with a throw of 24.35m at the world youth championships in Lille. Gill had three throws…
Right Whale Returns to NZ
More than one hundred years after it was hunted to local extinction, the right whale is finally finding its way back to its ancestral calving grounds in New Zealand, with seven whales now migrating…
Equally Sarcastic and Charming
“A sizable flock of admirers was left adrift after HBO grounded Flight of the Conchords in 29 after only two seasons,” Susan Wloszczyna writes for USA Today. “Turns out these Kiwi lads were a…
Mobile Muscle Power
Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Biomimetics Lab scientists are developing “wearable energy batteries” capable of converting human movement into battery power. These would be light, soft, form-fitting, stretchy materials with mechanical properties that match human muscle….
Epic Voyage Via Bora Bora
Cunard’s newest ship, the 292-passenger Queen Elizabeth, will sail an epic, 36-day voyage from Los Angeles to New Zealand and back in early 213, the historic line has announced. Cunard says the trip will…
Football friendly
The All Whites will play against Japan and China in March, beginning its build-up towards qualifying for the 214 World Cup in Brazil. Coach Ricki Herbert said that New Zealand will play China in…
Honoured this year
Golfer Bob Charles, 74, has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), restricted to 2 living New Zealanders, in the New Year Honours. Carterton-born Charles was the first left-hander to…
Covering the dream
Britain’s got Talent star Susan Boyle performed Crowded House classic Don’t Dream It’s Over on The Oprah Winfrey Show in October with the cover also included on Boyle’s new Christmas album The Gift. “Don’t…
Rocking good chat
Juice TV presenter Scotty Rocker, 3, host of the Rocker’s Hell show interviewed American popstar and 29 American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert who was in New Zealand in October on his Glam Nation…
Waving the flag
Wellington-born singer/songwriter Brooke Fraser’s third album Flags is reviewed by Birmingham, Alabama university magazine The Samford Crimson. Reviewer Matt Davidson describes the album as “unlike any other Fraser has put out because it tells…
Sizing Up Pacific Atolls
Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University’s environment school and coastal process expert Dr Arthur Webb of the Fiji-based South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission have found that despite rising sea levels some Pacific Island coral…
Cowboy paramedic
Trauma star New Zealander Cliff Curtis, who plays “the cowboy paramedic who’s equal parts Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I in the hit NBC drama, says ‘Rabbit’ is “probably…
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…
Ruthless makes US list
New Zealand romance writer Natalie Anderson’s novel Ruthless Boss, Royal Mistress recently featured in USA Today’s top 150 books sold over the New Year. Her book about a “billionaire businessman who teaches a spoiled…
Single-minded
New Zealander Mahé Drysdale, 31, has won his fourth consecutive men’s single skulls title at the world rowing championships in Poznan, Poland. “I still can’t quite believe it,” Drysdale said. “This is the first…
Tall Blacks Thump Boomers
New Zealand have beaten Australia 100–78 securing the top spot in the Oceania rankings and a place at the 2010 World Basketball Championships. New Zealand’s 22-point margin – its largest-ever win over Australia -…
Point of Pride
The All Whites have secured their first ever point at a FIFA tournament in the South African Confederations Cup. Though goal-less for all three matches played, the New Zealand team — dressed in black…
Bony buoyancy
Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel The Lovely Bones though “murderous is also optimistic”, headlines USA Today. For all the violence and grief of The Lovely Bones, Jackson believes the movie…
Alongside the Big Guns
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 40, has been in Los Angeles promoting his latest film, immigration drama, Crossing Over and re-shooting Eddie Murphy’s comedy A Thousand Words, in which Curtis stars as charismatic spiritual leader…
And the award goes to
Lincoln-born Phil Keoghan, Emmy Award-winning host of television show ‘The Amazing Race’, shares some of his on and off air adventures with USA Today ahead of the show’s 13th season and a stint in…
Three Ways to See NZ
Three travel articles on NZ appeared in North American newspapers this month, each offering a different way to experience Aotearoa. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Naomi Koppel chose to tramp around the South Island, taking in “one breathtaking vista…
Lions Share
NZ agencies won 18 awards at this year’s Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious advertising awards. Auckland agency TBWA\Whybin won the Grand Prix award in both the Media and Promo categories for its ASB “Pago” and NZ Rugby…
