Bursting Into Canzone
New Zealand bass-baritone Paul Whelan stepped out of the audience and onto the stage to sing the part of Raimundo at a London Coliseum performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. Whelan, who is due to…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Greenhouse Boom
New Zealand vineyards are benefiting from a warming planet, prompting traditionally cooler areas of the country to cultivate grapes and a bright forecast for export growth. Pinot noirs from the South Island region of…
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…
New Exec at Opera House
Sydney’s most famous landmark is now presided over by New Zealander Richard Evans, who last month became chief executive at the Opera House. Among the challenges Evans will face, is raising some NZ$790…
Pseudonym on show
Auckland artist et al.’s installation altruistic studies features at the world renowned Swiss exhibition Art Basel 39 in June. Et al. won New Zealand’s prestigious Walters Prize in 2003 for restricted…
Rhodes vies for Bianca
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes performs in Rossini’s Bianca e Fallierio at Washington D.C’s Lisner Auditorium in April. Rhodes stars as Capellio, Fallierio’s rival for the affections of Bianca. Rhodes won New Zealand’s…
Drawn on difference
Preeminent documentary photographer Mark Adams is making his North American debut with the exhibition Tatau: Samoan Tattooing and Global Culture at Canada’s Ontario College of Art & Design. The exhibition explores the Samoan…
Microsoft’s Gatekeeper
Christopher Liddell, Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft since 2005, and the former senior New Zealand business leader is the architect of Microsoft’s recent $44.6 billion takeover offer for Yahoo. Liddell is now dealing with…
Tastebuds Will Travel
Guardian reporter Emma Johns and friend spent a two-week culinary tour of New Zealand “exploring the local flavours before attempting to recreate them ourselves.” From fine-dining in Wellington to cooking lamb fillet off a…
Indian Love Affair
More Indian tourists than ever are coming to New Zealand for the expansive scenery, favourable weather conditions and a bit of romance. In 2006-20007, as many as 20,946 Indians spent an average of 13.8…
The most popular
Wellington comedy pair The Flight of the Conchords won best comedy album Grammy for their debut EP The Distant Future at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The EP…
NZ Studies Awarded
Dr Ian Conrich, director of New Zealand Studies at the University of London, is the 2008 New Zealander of the Year in the UK. Conrich received the accolade at an awards ceremony…
Dialect Mystery Solved
New Zealanders speak an English dialect made up of quarter Scottish, one quarter Irish and 50 percent cockney, northern and west country English according to Scottish linguists. In a five-year study, mathematicians from New…
Written on the Edge
Duncan Fallowell’s latest travel book Going As far As I Can about a trip to New Zealand, is a candid account of three months spent in the country in 2004. And though many…
Beyond Cloudy Bay
Twenty years on from the discovery of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, Washington Times writer Paul Lukacs surveys the latest on the New Zealand wine market. The Times article is particularly praiseworthy of the pinot…
Pianist in Demand
Award-winning New Zealand pianist and current associate professor of piano at Florida State University Read Gainsford has performed throughout the world as solo recitalist, concert soloist and chamber musician. Gainsford performs at Middle…
NZ Makes a Dash
Seachange is primed to be the first ever New Zealand-trained horse to race at Royal Ascot. She will contest the Group Two Windsor Forest Stakes over a mile in June, if she wins…
Holding His Breath
Dispensing with weights, ropes and flippers, New Zealander William Trubridge descended to 82 metres and broke the world record for constant weight diving without fins. Now living and working in the Bahamas, Trubridge…
On Top of the World
New Zealand has been voted Top Country for the second year running in a UK-based travel magazine readers’ poll. Almost 30,000 travellers voted in the annual Wanderlust poll, with New Zealand receiving a…
NZ Scientists Dry Their Eyes
New Zealand’s Crop & Food Research Institute has taken the tears out of chopping onions. In collaboration with Japanese scientists, the breakthrough was made using gene silencing technology. The Institute’s senior scientist Dr…
Sculptured theme park
Since 1992, New Zealand art collector Alan Gibbs has commissioned both national and international artists to contribute to a sculpture park on his farm in Kaukapakapa, Auckland. New York artist Tony Oursler’s video projections…
Blogs in Big Business
Former Aucklander Andy Lark, recently appointed VP of global marketing and communications at Dell, is one of the technology industry’s “Most Influential” communicators according to PR Week. Champion of big business…
Still Steadfast
Anti-apartheid activist New Zealander John Minto has turned down a nomination for an award proffered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Minto organised protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in…
Reclaiming the Moko
Maori heritage claims the walls at the Massachusetts Peabody Essex Museum. Thirty large format images of moko by award-winning Dutch photographer Hans Neleman make up the exhibition. Kimiora Ereatara Hohua describes the story of…
Bilateral War Cries
For 11 years Wairouru has hosted the Singaporean Army who train at the North Island army base under an agreement with the New Zealand Defence Force. This year, 900 Singaporean troops — the largest…
Black Beauty Tops Rankings
Team NZ has won its first A1 Grand Prix race on home soil in Taupo, and is now the overall series leader. Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid won the Sprint Race and finished…
Budding Swim Star
Te Haumi Maxwell, 13, has been hailed as the “best male swimming prospect since Ian Thorpe” in the Australian press. Maxwell was born in NZ but raised in Australia, and is due to become…
Dazzling Debut
Liam Finn’s solo debut, I’ll Be Lightning, has received widespread praise in the US, where it was released this week. Paste magazine calls it “a dazzling solo debut” while The Wall Street Journal praises…
Campion on Frame
Jane Campion writes about her encounters with creative compatriot Janet Frame in The Guardian this month. The NZ-born filmmaker brought Frame’s life story to an international audience with her acclaimed film An Angel at…
Room in Europe
Anne Noble, one of New Zealand’s most respected photographers, began the European tour of her provocative exhibition Ruby’s Room in Paris at the Musée du quai Branly in January. Part of the museum’s…
Farewell to a Literary Legend
Hone Tuwhare, one of NZ’s most distinguished and best-loved writers, has died in Dunedin aged 86. Tuwhare was the first Maori poet to be published in English (No Ordinary Sun, 1964) and one…
Gourmands Flock to Matakana
The New York Times heads to Matakana Village, a thriving boutique wine town an hour north of Auckland City. Matakana Village is a gourmand’s delight, boasting an award-winning artisanal bakery, scores of boutique…
The World Mourns Our Humble Colossus
Sir Edmund Hillary – adventurer, philanthropist and global icon – has died aged 88. The lanky beekeeper from Tuakau found international fame in 1953 as the first person to scale Mt Everest, together with…
Pacific Perspective on Disarmament
Christchurch anti-nuclear campaigner Kate Dewes is the first New Zealander to be appointed to the UN’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. “It is exciting,” she said in a Christchurch Press interview. “It is…
Aquaflow Ahead of the Curve
A Blenheim-based company could hold the key to the world’s energy crisis, according to a recent Guardian article. Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation has patented a cleansing process known as bio-remediation that extracts biofuel from…
Portrait of a Lady
New Zealander Daisy Wilkie has been immortalised in oil for Australia’s leading portrait prize. Australian artist Malcolm Smith chose Wilkie as his Archibald Prize subject after meeting her at one of the art classes…
Gov-Gen Reflects on Changing Nation
NZ Governor-General Anand Satyanand gave an exclusive online interview to Indian TV station NDTV. In it, he discussed NZ’s increasingly multicultural makeup, as well as his own Indian ancestry. “New Zealand, like all countries,…
Hall Takes out Huntsman
Paralympian ski racer Adam Hall has become the first New Zealander to win the United States’prestigious Huntsman Cup. The 20-year-old from Outram won seven gold medals in a row to claim the Cup,…
Beauty and the Beast
Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid took on a Boeing 777 at Auckland International Airport this month, in a dramatic promotional stunt for January’s A1 Grand Prix event in Taupo. The race car and…
Tapping into Kazakhstani Market
A tiny Martinborough vineyard has become the first NZ winery to establish a presence in Central Asia. Alexander Vineyard, a family-run business headed by Michael Finucane, has added Kazakhstan to its growing list of…
Taranaki’s Silver Surfer
Taranaki teenager Paige Hareb has stunned the international surfing world by reaching the final of the Billabong World Pro Junior in Sydney. Hareb, 17, finished in second place behind Australian favourite Sally Fitzgibbons,…
Worthy Splurges and Brilliant Bargains
Two NZ luxury lodges feature in Tatler’s annual hotel guide for 2008. Otahuna Lodge, Christchurch, and Matakauri Lodge, Queenstown, were named two of the world’s 101 Best Hotels by the British society…
Arrondissement-on-the-Edge
NZ-born architect Brendan MacFarlane is playing a major role in the redevelopment of Paris’s 13th arrondissement. The planning project for the French capital’s “nouveau quartier” is known as Paris Rive Gauche, and has…
