Melbourne's king pin 
Taranaki-born Ben Shewry, 31, is executive chef at Melbourne restaurant Attica, where he was named Best New Talent at the 2007 Gourmet Traveller Awards, and where he earned this year's Melbourne Age Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year award and best dish. According to Gourmet Traveller Shewry has "come up with a modern style that has caught a lot of people happily off guard with its inventiveness." "Peter Gordon [executive chef of London's The 3 Providores] came in the other night and afterwards he told me it had been one of the best dining experiences of his life," says Shewry. "It was one of the highlights of my career." Peter Gilmore of Sydney's Quay says Shewry is "the most exciting young chef in Melbourne, without a doubt." The Australian reviewer Stephen Lunn writes that "an evening at Attica is no-brainer." Shewry began his career at Government House in Wellington, and has worked under decorated Swiss-New Zealander Mark Limacher of the capital's Roxburgh Bistro. 
(December 2008)

Parliamentary melting pot 
Pansy Wong, 53, is New Zealand's first Asian cabinet minister, having been named Minister for Ethnic Affairs and Minister of Women's Affairs in the new government. Wong, who was born in Shanghai, said her appointment showed New Zealand is an open and tolerant country. She said she had always battled to be treated like any other New Zealander and her electorate win in Botany and her new role as a minister, sent a message to the world. The result was significant Wong said, because it showed that voters had "matured" and could see beyond race to assess a candidate. It was possible, she said, that New Zealand could one day have an Asian prime minister. Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi is New Zealand's first Sikh MP and Melissa Lee the first Korean-born member. 
(19 November 2008)

Ambition at the Stoop
North Shore-raised former All-Black Nick Evans, 27, now fly-half for English side the Harlequins, could be the player the team needs to help them clinch a top four spot in the Guinness Premiership. So what are Evans' strengths? He is quick. Oh yes, very quick. He is a fine tactician and distributor, nails his goals and is strong in the tackle. New England scrum-half Danny Care is going to love playing inside him and Quins will certainly have the fastest half-back pairing in the Premiership. His entire focus will be on his Premiership debut for Harlequins, at Twickenham, against Saracens. "Not a bad place to start is it? It is certainly an inspiration having the great stadium across the road from the Stoop and, with plans to attract 50,000 people to Twickenham for our Christmas game against Leicester, it shows I have joined a club with plenty of ambition," Evans said. 
(29 August 2008)

Te Reo goes Google 
Google Aotearoa has been launched to coincide with July's Maori Language Week (Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori 2008), with more than 8750 words translated. Potaua Biasiny-Tule, 32, and his Puerto Rican wife Nikolasa, 35, of Rotorua have been directing volunteers from throughout New Zealand translating search pages. A spokeswoman from the Maori Language Commission said 29 people had been part of the team working on the project during the last year, including three key translators. "It is a huge resource for Maori living overseas who are raising bi-lingual children or who are developing their own proficiency," she said. The next step would be to allow search results to be translated directly in Maori, although this was not expected to occur for some time. To use the new interface, visit google.co.nz and click on the link to search in Maori. 
(24 July 2008)

The American dream 
New Zealand is an enticing destination for American property developers and investors because the populace speaks English, there are minimal restrictions on ownership and land is still relatively cheap. There are also no property taxes, and land sales other than by people in the real estate business are exempt from capital gains taxes. Chief executive of Equity International Gary Garrabrant says: "Visitors see New Zealand as one of a handful of last spots that are undiscovered. There's a lure." New Zealander Peter Cooper, 56, splits his time between California and the North Island. Cooper's Mountain Landing development targets affluent Americans who want two things: security and a unique environment. The first stage of the development was completed last year, and 8 of the 46 available sites have been sold, mainly to US buyers. American interest in New Zealand as a place to retire or to buy a second home jumped after the September 11 attacks. Residency applications doubled from pre-attack levels. New Zealand is a 12-hour flight from the U.S. West Coast, and Cooper could add to his sales pitch a pristine environment: The Lord of the Rings meets The Piano. 
(21 July 2008)

Cooking from scratch 
Bridal Falls provides a spectacular setting, and outdoor market, for chef Charles Royal's Maori feast made with bush asparagus-flavoured pikopiko fern, horopito and supple jack vine. On Royal's food tour, which he offers from the Treetops Lodge & Wilderness Estate near Rotorua, we are lead into a different world. He stops at a tawa tree and explains that its wood is excellent for hangi, because it imparts a wonderful flavour. He points out the keikei plant, which once a year produces the tawhara fruit: "A delicacy with a flavour rather like a nashi pear," he says. On arrival at the Falls, he creates a banquet with the freshly harvested ingredients including: three-pepper spice (horopito, kawakawa and cayenne pepper), served with h?rore wild bush mushrooms and meringues infused with kawakawa. Royal trained as a chef in the New Zealand army. He has won awards for food innovation and runs Kinaki Wild Herbs which supplies the domestic and international market with indigenous herbs. 
(28 June 2008)

Campbell's beginnings 
Hawera-born, Brighton-based golfer Michael Campbell is eating bacon sandwiches at the Royal Ashdown Forest clubhouse in Sussex where he explains his golfing initiation in Taranaki. "I started playing on a local course where you had to dodge sheep and climb over electrified fences," Campbell says. He turned professional in 1993 and beat Tiger Woods in 2005 to win the US Open. Campbell hopes to repeat the feat, though without competition from an injured Woods, when he tees off at Royal Birkdale in the Open next month. "It will be quite different not to have Tiger," he says. "He adds so much, another dimension to every tournament he plays in. It's a shame, but it gives us more of a chance." 
(29 June 2008)

Between continents 
At low tide in June on the Firth of Thames in Auckland, American traveller Eric Wagner looks for the bar-tailed godwit amongst thousands of waterbirds flocking to feed on uncovered shellfish. Wagner describes the godwits he spies amongst the throng: "They were easy to identify: a loose flock of large, slender birds with long, upswept bills. Their plumage is gray, mottled with brown and black. They stepped with graceful, deliberate precision, and then thrust their heads into the mud in pursuit of some worm or clam." When his time in Auckland comes to an end he returns to Seattle. "Perhaps, our plane would pass over those flocks as they made their way to New Zealand, two groups navigating over the featureless space of ocean, flying toward different homes." 
(29 June 2008)

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 gris produced at Kumeu River, Lawson's Dry Hills and Mt. Difficulty. "...the pinot gris grape is generating considerable excitement - as well it should because the wines are real head-turners," Lukacs writes. Pinot noir is also lauded. "Put simply, outside of Burgundy in France, no place in the world is producing more compelling wines with this fickle grape than New Zealand's South Island." 
(6 February 2008)

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 Tennessee State University where School of Music Director Dr George Riorden is excited at the prospect of Gainsford working with the students before becoming a household name. "From the level of his artistry we know he is going to be an artist much in demand in the very near future," Riorden said. "This will give the middle Tennessee public a chance to claim him before becoming famous." 
(4 February 2008)

Windy farewell 
Paddy Gillooly owns a tourism company in New Zealand which takes visitors by jeep or all-terrain bus to the tip of the South Island's Farewell Spit, one of only two companies permitted the sandy, and windy trip. Some days it's like looking through a "curtain of sand" says Paddy. "Only a mechanic could do this job," he says. That's because his buses, which are continuously deluged by sand, salt water and mud, need constant care. Farewell Spit is a protected area and still growing and changing, mostly due to those strong winds. 
(4 March 2008)

Beyond the ugg
No longer are New Zealand's fashion tastes being derided for unbecoming tracksuits and shoes, the local fashion industry is pinning the country on the style map. New Zealand is now home to a vibrant and steadily expanding fashion industry, with some 50 established labels, up from a handful ten years ago, half of which sell abroad. The Economist cites Karen Walker, Trelise Cooper and Icebreaker as leading examples of the New Zealand fashion industry's value. The World Trade Organisation says clothes exports were worth NZ$315m ($216m) in the year to June 2007, up from NZ$194m a decade earlier. Trelise Cooper says because New Zealanders are geographically remote and have little exposure to mass labels, like Gucci and Gap, designers ignore the rules. "This produces a different, quite edgy style," Cooper says.
(28 February 2008)

NZ whaler doco 
The BBC is making a documentary about ex-Royal New Zealand Montague Whaler, the Essex which sunk in the South Pacific in 1819 whilst chasing an aggressive sperm whale. The Essex was twice rammed, the second blow knocking crew-members aboard the ship off their feet and fatally holing the ship below the waterline. Years later, the almost unbelievable story, including the surviving crew's attempt at reaching South America, was recounted to Herman Melville who used the true story as the basis for Moby Dick. 
(29 February 2008)

Finn unpacked 
Auckland artist Martin Ball's portrait of singer Neil Finn is up for Australia's most prestigous art award, the Archibald Prize. Ball won the Archibald Packing Room prize, selected annually by backroom staff at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney. It is one of 700 entries for the Archibald Prize, which will be announced on March 7. The winning artist said he picked Neil Finn as a subject because "he has an interesting face, I like his music and he is an iconic figure in Australasia." Ball studied at the University of Auckland's School of Fine Arts and completed a Masters degree there in 2001. 
(28 February 2008)

Shadows at Pataka 
Porirua's Pataka Museum is building on ties with the American Haille Ford Museum in an exhibition of North American Indian prints called 'Crow's Shadows', put on in conjunction with Wellington's International Festival of the Arts. Curator of the exhibition, American Rebecca Dobkins first connected with indigenous people from New Zealand when she curated a Hallie Ford exhibition of Maori weaving in the 2005 Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread, which saw Maori weavers demonstrating at the museum. Pataka says they are expecting thousands of visitors for the exhibit, which offers the widest range of work by Native American artists seen in New Zealand for more than a decade. The show opened February 16 and runs through June 8. 
(24 February 2008)

Vintner role for Paikea 
New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, has begun filming The Vintner's Luck, based on Elizabeth Knox's novel of the same name and directed by Niki Caro. Castle-Hughes told the New Zealand Herald she was initially nervous playing her first adult role. "But now I'm really looking forward to it. It is going to be a challenge, but I love challenges," the 18-year-old said. She plays the vintner's wife, Céleste opposite Belgian actor Jeremie Renier. Best known for her role as Paikea in Caro's 2002 Whale Rider, Castle-Hughes was at the recent Berlin Film Festival promoting Australian comedy Hey Hey It's Esther Blueberger.
(19 February 2008)

Godwits fly 
Every year, godwits fly from Alaska to New Zealand in an astonishing six days. A Seattle-based husband and wife team have been following the migratory patterns of the tiny bird and write about their findings in The Christian Science Monitor. The couple write that the first people to discover New Zealand owed much to godwits. "One legend has it that ancestors of the Maori, who were living on a nearby barrier island at the time, observed the annual southward passage of what they called the kuaka. They thought, surely all those birds aren't just circling the earth. Their outriggers, set sail, and found New Zealand." 
(28 February 2008)

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 New Zealanders have complained of his honesty, this Guardian reviewer declares Fallowell's anti-travel book, charming and elegant. "His matter-of-fact encounters include fleeing a gay hotel, sex cellars and financial transactions. Fallowell is constantly ambushed by variations of Englishness, but the reiteration of being in God's own country conveys the opposite as well: insularity and void." The New Zealand Herald said the book "paints a scathing picture of the country." 
(9 February 2008)

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 tattooing tradition of tatau as an example of cross-cultural collaboration and cultural diversity. Gallery curator Charles Reeve says the "beguiling" photographs describe distant cultures while raising relevant issues in Canada. Adams' work has been shown extensively throughout New Zealand, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Brazil. His books include Land of Memories and Cook's Sites. The exhibition runs 15 February through May 18, 2008. 
(14 February 2008)

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 the rejection of that offer and Microsoft's imminent acquisition fight. "You have to be disciplined and ruthless," Liddell told The New York Times before Yahoo's board turned down the offer. "We should see acquisitions as a way of growth. We should not be embarrassed at all." Liddell, who since joining Microsoft has made 50 acquisitions, was previously CFO at forest product company International Paper and CEO at Carter Holt Harvey. 
(11 February 2008)

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 are the latest addition, to what Men's Vogue describes as the most outlandish private art playground on earth. Oursler's images are floating women, writhing snakes and pyrotechnics. Sculpture is Gibb's main interest and artists include: Ralph Hotere, Daniel Buren and Richard Serra. Alan Gibbs told Vogue he wants his sculpture large: "I don't want any wimpy pieces in the landscape."
(February 2008)

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 2006-2007, as many as 20,946 Indians spent an average of 13.8 days in New Zealand, showing a growth of 8.3 percent over the previous year. A glowing article in The Economic Times said it was no wonder New Zealand was recently voted Top Country in Wanderlust magazine. A Rajasthani couple told the Times, "New Zealand gives you space and a chance to spend quiet time together. It is serene, romantic and at the same time adventurous and exciting." 
(10 February 2008)

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 cliff in Arthur's Pass: "One great incentive to roam, on any New Zealand road trip, is the extraordinary proximity of its different landscapes. A few hours' drive can take you almost anywhere, from the coastline to the snowline; you can eat prawns for breakfast on the beach, lunch on farmed venison on the plains, and drink your sundowner atop a 3,000ft mountain." 
(10 February 2008)

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 runs No Fins freediving courses. For Trubridge, diving without aid is a way of severing his attachment to the world above the surface. "In essence, this is about pushing the edge of human experience," he says. Trubridge will attempt another record at the AIDA Team World Championships at world-renowned diving destination Sharm-El-Sheik in the Red Sea, later this year. 
(2 February 2008)

Quick sale 
Two Yorkshire property developers are enthusiastic about the benefits of investing in property in New Zealand; Ian Payling and Dave Rothwell-Wood built the 'Lemon-Tree house' on land north of Auckland. Once the sale was agreed, the two men made the first of three trips to New Zealand. On the first, they had 20 meetings in eight days, got their planning application in, found a builder and pegged out the site. Payling said he couldn't imagine that happening in the UK. "We also opened a bank account and secured a loan within a day to pay the builders' costs," he said. New Zealand has much to recommend to overseas buyers. It has a robust economy, with no capital gains tax, stamp duty or estate duty and no overseas ownership restrictions for residential property. 
(23 February 2008)

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 monumental salt-shaker." Hosted by New Zealand ex-journalist Susan Cook and her partner, American Marion "Weasel" Boatwright at the Rough and Tumble Bush Lodge, Dennis takes a day trip down rusty railway lines. "What lies ahead is the unspoiled world of the Tasman Sea coastline ... mountains never more than 30-kilometers from the sea ... tranquil viewing points where you can marvel at some of the world's most wondrous alpine scenery."
(17 February 2008)

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 Zealand teamed with linguists from the UK and the US to determine why a unique dialect developed so quickly and uniformly across New Zealand. "Scots had quite a bit of influence. They are said to have had a particular role as teachers in New Zealand, so this would have had some effect on the children," Edinburgh physicist Dr Richard Blythe told The Herald. It was previously thought New Zealand English was a derivative of Australian English. 
(8 February 2008)

Past meets present 
Financial Times writer Richard Evans finds Christchurch to be much more than a sleepy replica of an English village. "There is nothing backward about Christchurch, just a happy mix of today and yesterday with the past preserved by a strict eye for conservation," he writes. Evans recommends Canterbury Wine Tours, Hanmer Springs, Orana Wildlife Park, the Charlotte Jane Hotel and restaurants The Viaduct and Hay's to his London readers.
(26 January 2008)

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 fourth in the Feature, boosting NZ ahead of Switzerland and France on the points table. Reid, 27, described his Sprint win as the highlight of his career. "It's huge, absolutely huge. It's the greatest moment in my motorsport career," he said. The next leg in the A1GP series takes place at Eastern Creek, Australia, in two weeks. 
(20 January 2008)

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 an Australian citizen later this month. Maxwell won five gold medals and a bronze at the New South Wales state age championships in Sydney last week, with times that make him the fastest swimmer in the world for his age. "Thorpe is my idol but I want to swim like (US superstar) Michael Phelps," he said in the Melbourne Age. 
(20 January 2008)

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 of the leading figures in the Maori cultural renaissance of the 1970s. Born in Kaikohe of Ngapuhi descent, Tuwhare spoke only Maori until the age of nine. He began writing in 1939, combining ancient Maori myth with contemporary political issues in a uniquely accessible style. Maori Party MP Hone Harawira said Hone Tuwhare was a writer who could "say what people really felt in their bones…You just have to look at his poetry to see his love of people and his deep sadness at the impacts of man on the world." Tuwhare won two Montana NZ Book Awards for poetry in 1998 and 2002, and was given honorary doctorates by the universities of Auckland and Otago. He was made NZ's second Te Mata Poet Laureate in 1999. 
(17 January 2008)

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 his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay. "In the annals of great heroic exploits, the conquest of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund and Mr. Norgay ranks with the first trek to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen in 1911 and the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight by Charles A. Lindbergh in 1927," reads his New York Times obituary. Fame did not sit easily with Sir Ed. He preferred to be known for his philanthropic work rather than his high-profile adventures, and saw his greatest achievement as the founding of the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust. Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala praised Hillary's lifelong devotion to Nepal in an official message of condolence: "The Government and people of Nepal shall always cherish the fond memories of his selfless devotion to the cause of development of the Everest region, his human qualities and courageous spirit as well as his contribution to make Nepal known to the world." NZ PM Helen Clark has announced a state funeral to honour the man she calls "the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived". "Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities," she said in her official statement. "In reality, he was a colossus. He was a heroic figure who not only knocked off Everest but lived a life of determination, humility and generosity ... All New Zealanders will deeply mourn his passing." Click here to read Sir Edmund Hillary's NZ Edge Heroes biography, the most popular in our ongoing series. 
(11 January 2008)

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 a real honour and a huge responsibility. Issues from the Pacific often aren't raised in a forum like that." Dewes, 55, is the co-ordinator of the Peace Foundation Disarmament and Security Centre in Christchurch and a key player in the World Court Project, an international citizens' network fighting for nuclear disarmament. She will attend her first UN session in New York next month. 
(10 January 2008)

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 he hosts in Cronulla, Sydney. Wilkie, 75, was born in NZ and is a descendant of Te Rauparaha. "I've always been terribly proud of my heritage; there is something spiritual that ties me to New Zealand," she says. The AU $35,000 Archibald Prize is Australia's most prestigious award for portraiture. This year's Archibald winner will be announced in March. 
(8 January 2008)

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, continues to have disparities in race and other areas but my appointment is symbolic of this country's commitment to ending those disparities," he says. "Since the first New Zealand-born Governor-General was appointed in 1967, two Governors-General have been women (Dame Catherine Tizard and Dame Silvia Cartwright) and one has been Maori (Sir Paul Reeves) and their appointments in turn reflect other changes within New Zealand." Anand Satyanand succeeded Dame Silvia Cartwright as Governor-General in 2006.
(8 January 2008)

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 the Air New Zealand jet won a race each on the tarmac, with Reid's car reaching speeds of nearly 300 km p/h. Race teams from 21 nations competed for the A1GP Taupo on January 20, with Reid's victories placing New Zealand at the top of the race table. 
(8 January 2008)

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 magazine. At the other end of the spectrum, three NZ establishments feature in The Guardian's top 50 hotels under £50 this month. "Flashpacker" hostel Base Auckland, Pukekohe bed and breakfast No.40 Carlton Gardens, and the ultra-modern Hotel SO in Christchurch all made the cut, alongside the best budget hotels from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. 
(5 January 2008)

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 wild algae. "Wild algae is one of the ubiquitous units of nature," says Aquaflow partner Nick Gerritsen. "If you leave a bucket of water outside, the water will turn green as it is settled by wild algae. We realised very early that we needed to create a model that took advantage of wild algae feedstocks." Aquaflow describes its process as cheap, practical and accessible, and its end product as suitable for both domestic use and transport. The rest of the world is already catching on: Shell has announced a joint algae harvesting venture with HR Biopetroleum, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative is seeking an algae-based biojet fuel, and an "algae summit" held in San Francisco last month drew more than 300 delegates. 
(9 January 2008)

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Arrondissement-on-the-Edge

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 export destinations, which includes Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States. Alexander Vineyard produces just 1000 cases of wine a year, most of which is sent overseas. It is testing the market in Kazakhstan with six cases of premium pinot noir. 
(7 January 2008)

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 wineries, cafes and restaurants, and a popular weekend organic market. "[The market] is no dusty-radishes Birkenstock scene," assures NYT writer Debra Klein. "With uniform chalkboards, resort-style umbrellas and slickly packaged products, it's more like Dean & DeLuca in a country setting." Matakana Village is located in Auckland's Rodney District, the fastest growing region in the north island. 
(13 January 2008)

Master craftsman 
Leading children's book illustrator Graham Percy has died aged 69. Percy was born and grew up in Auckland, where he attended the Elam School of Art. After graduating, he won a scholarship to study graphics at the Royal College of Art in London. Percy went on to be a prolific and much admired illustrator, who was best known for the delightful images he created for children's books. Independent: "His craftsmanship - the later work was mostly done with coloured pencils - was perfect ... People, vehicles, chairs, houses and tables all give the feeling that they have been taken from a toy box and skilfully arranged." Percy's work can be seen in the Sam Pig stories for Faber and Faber, The Wind in the Willows for Pavilion Books, and the full-length animated film Hugo the Hippo. 
(10 January 2008)

Christchurch goes carbon neutral 
Christchurch International Airport has become the second airport in the world to be certified carbon neutral, after Sweden's LFV. According to chief executive Rene Bakx, the airport achieved carbon neutral status by reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced by airport operations and offsetting any remaining through the purchase of carbon credits. "We don't want to be ruled out of consideration as a destination because it is seen as unsustainable to be here at all," said PM Helen Clark. "New Zealand as a country, and tourism as an industry, must go the extra mile to prove sustainability credentials." 
(24 January 2008)

Worldwide appeal 
NZ documentary Sand Dancer has clocked up more than 30 international film festival screenings since its 2006 release. Directed and produced by Valerie Reid, the 10-minute short showcases the work of Christchurch-based sand artist Peter Donnelly. Sand Dancer has been accepted for competition at festivals in Thailand, Taiwan, France, NZ, Australia, Tahiti and the US. It has won awards at the Golden Horse International Short Film Competition in Taipei, the Foursite Film Festival in Utah and the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Reid is currently working on a longer version of her documentary. 
(January 2008)

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 the "spare, melodic sound" that Finn has achieved by recording on an old-fashioned analogue tape. Finn, 24, is the eldest son of NZ music pioneer Neil Finn (Split Enz, Crowded House) and the front-man for Melbourne-based band Betchadupa. He begins a year-long US tour next month. 
(19 January 2008)

Provocative prize-winner 
The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins by Auckland filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly has won an award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Brettkelly's documentary tells the story of contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft's attempt to adopt Sudanese twins. Irena Dol won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award for her work on the film, which has been widely praised by US critics. Variety: "Director Pietra Brettkelly's enigmatic rendering of the situation echoes incendiary questions raised in Beecroft's art and defies the commercial demands of documentary cinema ... [The] provocative result is not a straightforward artist's profile, political commentary or domestic drama, but a poetic fusion of the three." 
(21 January 2008)

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, after knocking the South American, South African and US junior champions out of the competition. Hareb only gained entry to the prestigious event via a sponsor's wildcard. "I think I sneaked up on a few people but I have been working hard behind the scenes," she said in a post-event interview. "It's great to see my name up there, and the words 'New Zealand' after it."
(7 January 2008)

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 1981 when thousands responded to Minto's campaign by taking to the streets. In a letter to President Mbeki on his website, Minto declined nomination for the Companion of O R Tambo Award named after South African anti-apartheid leader Oliver Tambo. "When we protested and marched into police batons and barbed wire here in the struggle against apartheid, we were not fighting for a small black elite to become millionaires," Minto wrote in his letter to Mbeki, "We were fighting for a better South Africa for all its citizens." 
(28 January 2008)

 

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, which is the culmination of the NorAm (North American) disabled alpine ski racing series. The 21st annual Huntsman Cup was hosted by the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah.  
(8 January 2008)

Campion on Frame 

Nepalese tributes for Ed 
In honour of the first two men to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953, travellers to Nepal will now disembark at Tenzing Hillary Airport and will climb to Everest's base camp via the Tenzing Hillary Trekking Route. The Nepalese Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prithvi Subba Gurung says research is also underway to name a mountain after the two explorers. New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary inspired the building of the Lukla airstrip his name now graces in the 1960s. He died last month at 88 and was buried in New Zealand at a state funeral, which was beamed around the world via satellite links. 
(11 February 2008)

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 her own moko with Neleman: "The bottom of the design [on my chin] represents my mountains, the sides my whakapapa, the curls at my lips my children, and the top spirals each side of my family." The 'Body Politics' collection is included as one of Boston's Top Five winter 2008 museum shows and is on view from February 23 through February 1, 2009. 
(25 January 2008)

Debut at the Met 
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes made news again this week with a number of glowing reviews for his first role at New York's Metropolitan Opera in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. The New York Times said in a "notable debut", Rhodes is "robust-voiced and swaggering as Ned Keene, the apothecary who peddles quack remedies to his neighbours." In The Washington Post Rhodes "has generated a lot of buzz for his good looks, but it was his full, healthy singing that stole the show. Indeed, he outsang Anthony Michaels-Moore," who played Balstrode. And in The New York Sun "Teddy Tahu Rhodes was smooth and rich. It will be good to hear him in larger roles. What a triple-decker name!" 
(1 March 2008)

Cross-continental charity ride
Canterbury University alum Rob Thomson, 26, is attempting to break a Guinness World Record by skateboarding 8,000 km across Europe and North America. Thomson's longboard odyssey follows a 12,000 km bicycle journey from Japan to Switzerland that saw him scale 4,600 m high passes and suffer through -23 degrees Celsius temperatures. As well as being a record attempt, Thomson's journey is raising awareness for Lowe Syndrome, a rare genetic condition found only in boys. Visitors to his website can donate funds to the Lowe Syndrome Association, USA. 
(19 January 2008)

Met acquires NZ Pacific artist
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has purchased two works by Auckland artist Shigeyuki Kihara for its permanent collection. Both works - Fa'a fafine: In a manner of a woman and My Samoan Girl - are from Kihara's 2005 photographic series, Fa'a fafine: In a manner of a woman. Kihara, who is of Japanese and Samoan parentage, emigrated to NZ from Samoa in 1989. Her work is believed to be the first by a NZ Pacific artist to be added to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's two million-strong permanent collection. 
(17 January 2008)

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 Otago are fast making a name across the world. Chief Executive of New Zealand Winegrowers Philip Gregan says the big picture for New Zealand wines is very good. "We may be able to expand our range of wine styles or we may be able to grow grapes further up the hillsides," Gregan said. "Our forecast for a 2008 vintage of between 225,000 and 245,000 tonnes, up from 205,000 tonnes last year, is in line with our long-term expectations." 
(18 February 2008)

Promoting type 
Wellington designers get set, the first ever typography symposium TypeSHED11 is coming to the city's waterfront for five days in February next year. TypeSHED11 will host international experts and explore the notions and the voices of typography across the artistic disciplines. The symposium is a creative initiative of New Zealand-based designer and typographer Catherine Griffiths and Simone Wolf from Typevents (a consultancy to the international typo/graphic arts industry, based in Italy and the UK). Christchurch creative director of Strategy Guy Pask believes TypeSHED11 "will be a watershed event for New Zealand design." 
(10 March 2008)

Dale's no loony 
New Zealand actor and Ugly Betty star Alan Dale treads the West End boards in his debut appearance as King Arthur in the comedy Spamalot at London's Palace Theatre. Dale was born in Dunedin in 1947 and made his first major television appearance in the 1980s as Jim Robinson in Australian soap Neighbours. However he says his first big break was in the New Zealand series Radio Waves. "Lovingly ripped off" from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, his latest venture Spamalot tells the tale of the legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Dale says: "Apart from having a yearning for the West End, I've always had a passion for the Pythons - most people of my generation have and if they haven't, well all I can say is they've got no taste." Spamalot runs through September 2008.
(10 March 2008)

Ngati filmmaker dies 
Barry Barclay, New Zealand film director and the first Maori to direct a feature film has died, aged 63, in Rawene. Barclay's Ngati won best film at Italy's Taormina Film Festival in 1987 and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He also wrote and directed Te Rua, a fictional story about a group of Maori who set off for a Berlin museum to claim back tribal carvings. New Zealand Film Commission chief executive Dr Ruth Harley said Barclay holds an honored place in New Zealand film. "His legacy will be not only in his films and creative work but also in his outstanding contribution to the development of New Zealand film though his support for developing filmmakers," Harley said. Barclay was made a Member of the Order of New Zealand in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours and was appointed one of New Zealand's Artist Laureates in 2004, in recognition of his contributions to cinema. Barclay was of Ngati Apa descent and lived at Omapere in the Far North's Hokianga district. 
(19 February 2008)

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 is a collection of six tracks written by the self-declared "Fourth most popular folk-comedy duo", Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. Although neither was present to accept the award, Clement told The Dominion Post the announcement was made at a separate low-key event before the main ceremony. "We were with all the weirder colours of the spectrum - the best polka album and best Hawaiian album." McKenzie was enthusiastic about the win telling the Post it was a great day for New Zealand comedy. "I wish my grandmothers were still alive. They would be so proud and I could call them and say, 'Granny, I've won a Grammy'," he said. A Conchords full-length album will be released in April. 
(10 February 2008)

Massive robotics 
New Zealand software company Massive, famous for its on-screen swarms of pillaging orcs in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, recently showcased new business potential in Hanover, Germany. This included engineering, architecture and robotics. Software used in The Rings enabled characters the ability to react to their surroundings based on sight, touch and hearing. When scaled into a crowd, the characters interacted with each other, creating a more realistic result. Massive now sees this software being used for safe-building design, disaster scenarios, traffic and municipal planning, and possibly for scientific research into the behaviour of species. Massive CEO Diane Holland said it is unclear how many markets the company's technology could serve. "If you can accurately simulate what we as human beings think and do, [the possibilities are] absolutely endless," she said. 
(9 March 2008)

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 access. She is presented at the exhibition by Karangahape Road gallery, Starkwhite. Art Basel is the world's premier international art showcase for modern and contemporary art and includes leading galleries and artists from around the globe. Fifty-five thousand attended last year's Art Basel 38. 
(14 February 2008)

Maconie explains Stockhausen on war
Composer and musicologist New Zealand-born Robin Maconie writes about celebrated German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen's controversial statement after September 9/11, in which he called the terrorist attacks "the greatest work of art" ever. Maconie writes: "Stockhausen's opinion deserves respect as the view of one who knows what war is about, has suffered and forgiven, and does not shrink from confronting the moral ambiguities of international conflict nor from recognizing that actions undertaken for a morally defensible cause can still inflict enormous cruelty on the innocent." Maconie joins American composer Morton Subotnick and Björk, in ultimately discussing Stockhausen's fame as an avant-garde composer of startlingly original and uncompromising music. The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross calls Maconie "Stockhausen's chief chronicler" and this article a "passionate defence". Robin Maconie is the author of Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. 
(14 March 2008)

Pacific mix 
Eleven-piece New Zealand band Te Vaka travelled to Macau where they enchanted the audience with the sound of the South Pacific, just as they have done at venues throughout the world for the past 11 years. Samoan-born, Tokelau-raised songwriter Opetaia Foai started the band in 1997. He saw music as the way of linking his culture with his new life in New Zealand. Band manager Julie Foai said the band is very proud of their Pacific heritage. "With a stage full of instruments from guitars and keyboards to more than five types of drums and a flute, Te Vaka has modernised the traditional South Pacific music while keeping with its roots," Foai said. Most recently, Te Vaka performed at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Paris. 
(16 March 2008)

Bridging the gap 
On New Zealand's Chatham Islands researchers have discovered the country's oldest known bird fossils. The find represents four new seabirds dating back some 65 million years when New Zealand separated from supercontinent, Gondwana. Excavation leader Jeffrey Stilwell of Monash University in Australia said the discovery has implications for the origin of modern seabirds. "It's quite spectacular to have that many birds in one deposit," Stilwell said. "I don't know of any other site in New Zealand like it." In particular, he is hoping the new fossils can provide more evidence for land bridges between the Chatham Islands and mainland New Zealand. 
(22 February 2008)

In love in Fiji 
Hamilton-born Shortland Street star Ben Mitchell, 27, has been in Fiji for the premiere of his latest project, the film Love Has No Language in which he stars opposite Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley. Mitchell takes the role of Lucky Shaman in a romantic comedy about a clash of cultures. "I am Maori but I got to learn a bit of Hindi: kaise he, theek hai and namaste," he told the Fiji Times. Mitchell, who plays doctor TK Samuels in the long-running soap, was not surprised at the fact that Shortland Street is a hit in Fiji but maintained the show was good because they worked hard to make it that way. He next appears in James Napier's psychological-thriller The Devil's Run, which is due to be released mid-2009. 
(21 December 2008)

Easy Street in Rawene 
New Zealand-based designer Lise Strathdee's company Outpost Hokianga, located in Rawene, is a "hip concept store that mixes fashion, books, art and fine food," according to Time magazine. The notion that fashionable shopping takes place only in cities is outmoded thanks to the Internet. And so when Strathdee — who grew up in Italy and New Zealand and then worked in Milan with Romeo Gigli for many years before establishing her own design studio in London-stopped off at the tiny, rural community in search of a lunchtime snack during a vacation, she knew she'd found the perfect place to set up shop. "A general store for the 21st century," describes Strathdee, Hokianga Outpost is thriving. Products include her own designs, such as cargo pants reimagined in opulent Chinese silks, innovative jewellery, and gourmet food, like pesto made by local producers and balsamic vinegar imported from a former fashion manufacturer in Italy. 
(17 November 2008)

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 Game Serena at Flemington. Trainer Mike Moroney first met Childs in New Zealand when Moroney was a travelling foreman for trainer Dave O'Sullivan. He was immediately impressed. "He was very ambitious and competitive and he had this self-belief," Moroney said. "Throughout his career, he's been a real competitor and a perfectionist. He is probably one of the most professional riders going around and he's loyal also. All young riders should look up to him." Childs, who rode 787 winners in New Zealand before crossing the ditch and winning more than 1200 races in Australia and 150 overseas, scored 72 group 1 successes throughout his decorated career. "You can't go on forever and I reckon 30 years is a pretty good run," Childs said. 
(19 December 2008)

Minnie Dean memorialised 
Infamous Winton baby-farmer Minnie Dean, the first and last woman to be hanged in New Zealand, will soon have a headstone erected on her unmarked grave in the Winton Cemetery. Dean's Scottish great-great-nephew Martin McCrae has divided the small Southland community by gaining approval for the memorial. Dean, who was born Williamina Irene McCulloch in Greenock, Renfrewshire in 1844, went to the gallows in 1895 for murder after the bodies of three infants were found buried in her garden. McCrae is on a mission to leave physical clues for future generations of his family who may wish to delve into their roots. "My only concern is for the members of my family in an ancestral sense. What they did is not part of the issue for me at all," he says. "Minnie was like the bogeyman of our town when I was a kid," wrote Helen Henderson, a singer-songwriter originally from Invercargill, on why she composed 'The Ballad of Minnie Dean' three years ago. "If you were being naughty, you were told, 'You'd better watch it or I'll send you off to Minnie Dean's farm and you'll never be heard of again'." 
(21 December 2008)

Goodbye to a good guy 
Former All Black front rower John Drake has died at his home in Mt Maunganui aged 49. Drake was a tighthead prop in the World Cup-winning All Blacks team of 1987. In recent years he was a highly respected television commentator, wrote a weekly column for The New Zealand Herald, and also ran several businesses in the Bay of Plenty. One of Drake's close friends, former All Black Gary Whetton said: "He was not only a successful sportsman but also a business and family man too. He valued friendships so we'll miss him dearly." Drake's former coach at Auckland University John Hart said he was a cornerstone of the team that won the World Cup. "He had a tremendously dry sense of humour, a real fun person, and he had a great balance he enjoyed his life to the full," Hart said. "He wasn't a rugby buff: he went away to France early in his rugby career and I had to spend many times on the phone to get him come back to play for Auckland. He used to have me on about that. He was one of those guys although he was a great All Black, he didn't have to have the game; he lived beyond it." 
(13 December 2008)

Leader for change
Time calls John Key’s election win “an emphatic triumph”, and in a Q&A, Key notes that “we are 22nd out of 30 countries in the OECD for average income. I think this is grossly inadequate. We’re on the edge of Asia, which arguably will be the fastest-growing region in the world for the next decade or two. We’ve got to be able to do a lot better.” And ...“I was blessed to have a mother who understood that education was a liberator and that you get out of life what you put into it. And so one of the things that really concerns me is the long tale of underachievement in New Zealand …” And … “The biggest challenge for any Prime Minister is to stay connected with the people who elect you. Once you lose sight of that, then the end is probably not that far away.”
(1 December 2008)

Stellar win for Brettkelly
Auckland documentary-maker Pietra Brettkelly has won Best Documentary Award for Art Star and the Sudanese Twins at the 2008 Whistler Film Festival. The jury was quoted as saying, “This is a film that makes all documentary filmmakers envious because everything you could ever want to happen in front of the camera did. Real life and tragedy collides with the passion of art before our eyes.” Art Star, for its New York premiere, has also been selected by MoMA to screen at the Documentary Fortnight – an annual event of non-fiction film and video screenings – in February 2009. Art Star was the first New Zealand-made documentary to win a place at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Brettkelly, along with New Zealanders Justin Pemberton and Megan Jones, heads The TV Set, an independent documentary production company set up in 2000. 
(8 December 2008)

Contained holiday spots
New Zealand-produced port-a-bach, made by Wellington company Atelier Workshop from shipping containers, are reviewed in multi-medium technology magazine Gizmag, which describes the relocatable dwellings as “the perfect home for a disaster situation.” All that is required is 40 square metres of relatively flat ground and six concrete pads to serve as foundations. “If we were to manufacture specifically for a natural disaster scenario, we’d use a different set of modules inside the container”, designer Cecile Bonnifait told Gizmag. “We can also manufacture specifically to specific requirements,” Bonnifait said. “If for example, you wanted to have no kitchen and more beds, or the complete sustainable unit with solar panels and all modern conveniences, we can work to any specification. The $100,000 price is for the basic unit, and we have a broad range of modular designs for different needs.” Atelier directors Cecile Bonnifait and William Giesen met in France and have been working in New Zealand for more than five years. 
(1 December 2008)

Top spot for teen
Oakura surf champion Paige Hareb, 18, has earned herself a spot on the professional $US1 million World Championship Tour, one of only 18 places for the world’s top female surfers. From the 2008 Reef Hawaiian Pro competition, Hareb said she has been 90 per cent qualified since she finished second in Rio de Janeiro a couple of months ago. “I’ve been on edge since I worked out while the girls were surfing today that I had qualified, but I had to wait until afterwards when the competition finished for it to be official. I’m stoked,” Hareb said. She has a wildcard entry for the last pro event of the year in Maui next week after which she will compete at the Billabong world juniors (under-20) champs in Sydney on January 2. 
(3 December 2008)

Via the red route
Since its opening in 1995, Karori Wildlife Sanctuary – recently renamed Zealandia – has assisted in halting the continued demise of many native bird species, releasing 15 endangered species back into the wild, including one of the world’s rarest ducks, the brown teal. Covering only one square mile, protected by a unique 8.6km predator-proof fence and comprising a river, two dams and assorted woodland, in 1995 Karori contained only 12 different species of native birds. Numbers were low and the commonest were introduced species such as blackbirds, sparrows, thrushes, chaffinches and starlings. Now there are more than 30 bird and reptile species. Financial Times reporter Sandy Gall writes: “The success of the project was summed up by a young volunteer, who said the dawn chorus was now so loud that local residents were ringing the radio station to complain.”
(6 December 2008)

Rugby’s slam dunk
The All Blacks have won their third Grand Slam and the inaugural Sir Edmund Hillary Shield beating England at Twickenham 32-6. In The Independent Hugh Godwin writes: “The clever clogs who got rid of old-style touring played into the All Blacks’ hands; when those hands are like Dan Carter’s, the error is magnified. It has been punished now by two Grand Slams against England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in four years. To paraphrase the beaten England manager here, Martin Johnson, give them a chance and they take it. ‘It’s an 80-minute game,’ said captain Richie McCaw, by which he meant all England’s efforts in keeping the score to 12–6 after 57 minutes did not amount to a trough of sheep-dip. ‘We have got great self-belief, great character,’ said Dan Carter. His coach, Graham Henry, confessed to scarcely believing the five Test wins on this trip: oh yes, they had beaten Australia in Hong Kong on the way over.”
(30 November 2008)

An astral heritage
Tekapo’s Graeme Murray — director of Earth & Sky at Mt John Observatory — is the driving force behind obtaining UNESCO World Heritage Starlight Reserve status for the pristine skies above the Lake Tekapo and Aoraki Mount Cook area. It is the first time any group has attempted this, and Murray says international interest in the idea has been “immense”. After a 2001 warning estimated the observatory would have to close its doors in just 10 years due to light pollution from house and street lighting and the impending development of the tourist town below, Murray’s major goal is to try and keep the sky relatively untouched. Operated by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury, the Observatory is internationally recognised as one of the best-situated observatories for viewing the southern night skies. “This area would be the first in the world that is in the sky. It encourages people, and UNESCO, to look up as well as around them,” Murray says. All going to plan, he is hoping for UNESCO support to be officiated by next year, which, coincidentally, is the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.
(24 November 2008)

BC health sector move
New Zealand health administrator Nigel Murray has been in Canada this past year having taken up the position of CEO for British Columbia’s Fraser Health Authority, which delivers care to 1.5 million people and employs 22,000. Murray received his medical degree in New Zealand in 1982 and his career has included medical research and military service in hot spots like Iraq and Bosnia. In 1995, he was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the New Zealand Defence Force. Murray is interviewed in The Vancouver Sun and says the Fraser Board “wanted someone who could hit the ground running.” Prior to his Canadian appointment, Murray was chief negotiator for New Zealand’s 21 district health boards. 
(29 November 2008)

With grand applause
Wellington-based author Eleanor Catton's first novel The Rehearsal has been bought by US publisher Granta for a six-figure sum. Currently working on her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop as a 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship recipient, Canadian-born Catton, who is 23, completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in 2007 and won the Sunday Star-Times short-story competition for Necropolis that same year. The Rehearsal is set in a girl's school during the aftermath of a sex scandal, and in a drama college where the students take the scandal as the subject of their end of year show. Granta editorial director Sara Holloway described Catton's writing as "breathtakingly clever and inventive and assured". In an interview with the Sunday Star-Times Catton said of the hype surrounding her work: "I might, in five years' time, think, what did I do? I hope I can trust that the book is going to represent what I want it to represent in 10 years' time." In New Zealand The Rehearsal is published by Victoria University Press. 
(19 November 2008)

Te Rauparaha's war cry 
The all-Maori team first performed a haka against Surrey in Richmond in 1888 where they, according to the Illustrated London News, "cavorted about in ostrich-feather capes and tassell'd caps in a device of novelty and excitement for the sizeable gathering." The all-white first All Blacks prefaced their immortal 1905 epic against Wales in Cardiff, reported the South Wales Daily News, "amidst a silence that could almost be felt, the Colonials stood centre-field and sang their weird war-cry." In the Guardian's sports blog this week, Frank Keating has queried the relevance of this sporting war dance writing that "the haka has had its day" and that "an occasional and once diverting wheeze has long passed its sell-by date." New Zealand reporter Duncan Johnstone has a different perspective writing that before the All Blacks beat Wales 29–9 in Cardiff this week: "The haka was again sensational ... The entire squad stood locked in an eyeball stare with their rivals for a full two minutes and referee Jonathan Kaplan tried in vain to budge them for the kickoff." The All Blacks next play England in London for the final leg of their UK tour, just one victory away from their third Grand Slam.
(18 November 2008)

Women's open confirmed
Wellington golfer Sarah Nicholson and Aucklander Liz McKinnon will be two of 20 New Zealand and Australian players in a total field of 144 to appear at the inaugural New Zealand Women's Open staged at Clearwater Resort in Christchurch from January 30 to February 1 next year. The $150,000 54-hole tournament joins the New South Wales Open, the Australian Women's Open and the Ladies Masters on the ALPG's calendar, and as such will offer points for the women's world golf rankings. The Open will be the first professional tournament for women in New Zealand since 1975. "To see top golf you're going to have to come to the South Island," said New Zealand Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan. "I think it's pretty good news for the sport and also for women's golf." 
(18 November 2008)

In all honesty 
"The curry-scented streets of Pip Brown's east-London neighbourhood Brick Lane are a far cry from her beginnings in New Zealand," writes The Independent on Sunday's Luiza Sauma in a frank interview with Brown, now famous as Ladyhawke and the sixth coolest person in the world according to the NME. "Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome two years ago, it's not the story that the singer wants to be defined by. In reality, Brown's nervy honesty makes a refreshing change from the usual cocksure swagger of today's rock stars (both male and female). She has a certain vulnerability and self-contained strength that anyone can relate to, whether they share her condition or not. 'I'm getting the hang of it,' she says, 'and I think next year will be better for me, because I'll know exactly where I am.' She may not know it yet, but she's already there."
(16 November 2008)

Celebrating two decades 
For over 20 years, since A.J Hackett and Henry Van Asch's first tandem leap of faith in 1988, bungee jumping has poured more than $1 billion into the New Zealand economy. On November 12, 28 thrill-seekers queued up to pay $75 for the chance to jump off the Kawarau 140ft bridge with only a rubber cord tied around their ankles. Despite scepticism that bungee jumping would ever catch on with the wider public, those customers were the first of several million ordinary people who would perform the modern version of an ancient Vanuatuan manhood ritual. Now a global leisure phenomenon, Hackett has opened sites in Europe, Australia and Malaysia, recently targeting Chinese adrenalin junkies by opening the world's highest bungee jump, the 760ft drop from the Macau Tower. Van Asch recalls the first jump: "We didn't have too much time to think about it, to realise what we might have started. Some thought we were mad and that we'd never last, but with the response we started to get an idea we were onto a great thing." 
(12 November 2008)

Regal role for Robins 
Former Shortland Street star Aucklander Emily Robins, 19, has won the lead role of 16-year-old Alex Wilson in Australian children's series The Elephant Princess. In a role in which Robins both acts and sings, she says it was "perfect" for her. "I'd been singing all my life in musical theatre and competitions and stuff like that," Robins said. In the show, Alex Wilson's life changes suddenly after a visit from an exotic visitor called Kuru and a magical elephant. She discovers she is, in fact, Princess Liliuokalani Parasha Khaled Persphone Amanirenas of Manjipoor. Robins was in the Auckland Theatre Company's The Crucible performing as character Susanna Walcott and she played Claire Chisolm on Shortland Street, a role for which she won a TV Guide 'Best on the Box' People's Choice Award. 
(13 November 2008)

Mad for glamour geeks 
Auckland artist Peter Stichbury's acrylic portraits of stereotyped "yearbook" characters feature in the latest Art World magazine, with his 2000 work 'Juvenile' taking the cover. "Stichbury is highly regarded for creating stylish, satirical portraits of his own generation, rendering them with stark precision," John Hurrell writes. "Stichbury's achievement is that he has given the skills of magazine or comic-book illustration the gravitas of studio painting." In a New Zealand Times interview Stichbury says he views his work "as part of the vast historical continuum of the painted portrait but with contemporary themes." Represented by Starkwhite in Auckland, the gallery and Te Tuhi Arts Centre will release a book on Stichbury's work in mid-November. Stichbury won the Wallace Art Award in 1997.
(October/November 2008)

Fame from the field
Wellington-born Singer Will Martin, 24, is one of a number of classical crossover performers who, writes the Times Online, made their "big break" singing the national anthem at a sporting event. Martin first performed before an All Blacks game in New Zealand in 2005, and since then has sung at Wembley, the Millennium Stadium, Ascot and Old Trafford, as well as for the Royal Olympic Association. "I'm not naive enough to believe that record companies watch sports events looking for a new star," says Martin. "But when you're singing to a huge crowd and a TV audience that can be in the tens of millions, it is an opportunity to touch people where it matters most... in the heart." "For a certain genre of artist, performing at sporting events is becoming a more and more important part of their career development," says Julian Marks, of Event 360, which provides on-pitch entertainment for Wembley. "The artist's job is also to heighten the atmosphere and to support the home team." Martin's debut album 'A New World' was released in September.
(9 November 2008)

Tidal promotion 
Christchurch singer-songwriter Anika Moa's third studio album 'In Swings the Tide' has been released in Australia, and with the release Moa, 28, will perform several promotional concerts in Melbourne ahead of shows supporting Crowded House later this month and in early December. "'In Swings The Tide' is well beyond platinum sales in New Zealand, and has cemented Anika's place as one of their most exciting female artists, garnering rave reviews for her sound that has been hailed as 'pop perfection'," writes Generation Q. Moa's first album, 'Thinking Room' was released in 2001, followed by 'Stolen Hill' in 2005. 
(4 November 2008)

With comforts, without pack
Opened in 1992, the 71km Queen Charlotte Track is located between Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sound, and Los Angles Times's reporter Amanda Jones — who considers herself "an outdoorswoman" but for who the "appeal of pitching a tent has lost its lustre" — opts for a guided five-day excursion from sound to sound arranging for her baggage to be "whisked ahead by boat." "Ray Waters would be our guide. Seventy-one years old, he and his leather-tan and sinewy legs smacked of the über-athlete. Indeed, he told us, 10 years before he had run the entire track in less than 10 hours ... By 6 at night we tumbled off the track onto the trimmed lawn of Furneaux Lodge, originally an early-1900s holiday home for well-heeled pioneers. Nowadays, hikers sprawl on the vast porch paying homage to their first Steinlager of the evening." 
(29 October 2008)

Newspaper half mast 
A homage to Sir Edmund Hillary has won this year's best newspaper advertisement at the 2008 Caxton Awards in Australia picking up the top prize, the Quinlivan Black Award.  The Saatchi & Saatchi Australia ad for Foxtel and the National Geographic Channel ran in newspapers the day after Hillary's death and featured an image of the mountain topped by a flag flying at half mast. The Hillary campaign also won the Best Topical Ad. Awards chairman Paul Catmur said: "We saw some really nice ads and, importantly, some really nice newspaper ads." 
(27 October 2008)

R.I.P Harry 
Henry William Bourne Palin, British actor Michael Palin's uncle, was a farmhand in New Zealand who at the outbreak of war in 1914 enlisted in the 1st battalion of the Canterbury Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He rose to the rank of Lance Corporal and died in the Battle of the Somme two years later at the age of 32. In a BBC2 Timewatch series, Palin presents a documentary about the last day of the First World War. He writes: "I'm interested in family history and have always felt rather guilty that I didn't know more about H W B Palin ... I half-hoped that by going out to France, to the fields in which he fought and died, I might glean some fresh information about Harry Palin, something that would help me appreciate how and why he gave his life for his country. I found his name on a wall in the Caterpillar Valley cemetery, close to the village of Longueval." 
(31 October 2008)

Elias on equality 
New Zealand's first female Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, and presiding judge of the country's Supreme Court, recently gave a lecture at the University of New Mexico School of Law on indigenous rights entitled, 'First Peoples and Human Rights: A South Seas Perspective'. Elias explored why addressing indigenous land claims and interests continues to challenge legal systems where first peoples are a minority, comparing contemporary issues faced by Maori with those faced by indigenous groups in the United States, Canada, Australia and the Pacific region. Elias was named Chief Justice in 1999 and is known for her representation and defence of Maori in treaty claims and litigation concerns regarding fisheries, land transfers, elections and other matters. 
(20 October 2008)

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 cliffs." The Sydney Morning Herald's Heather Ramsay travels on the Overlander toward the volcanic plateau and the ski town of Ohakune, crossing some 352 bridges and 10 "magnificent" viaducts. The line was opened in 1908, and once down off the Raurimu spiral, the train races "through a landscape of stark, spiky hills before bursting forth at Te Kuiti into the gently rolling dairy country of the Waikato region. Darkness has fallen by the time we rumble into Auckland's Britomart Transport Centre." Ramsay reflects "that public transport has provided a fuss-free ride from the heritage ambience of Wellington to the modern face of Auckland — and a lot more in between." 
(19 October 2008)

Guardians surface in DC 
Te Papa exhibition 'Whales | Tohor?' has opened at Washington DC's National Geographic Museum. The exhibition features whale specimens including an 18-metre-long male sperm whale skeleton. The cultural significance of whales to the peoples of the South Pacific is told from the Maori perspective through personal narratives and artefacts housed in a stylized pataka taonga. Te Papa's kaihautu, or Maori leader, Michelle Hippolite, said Te Papa hoped the exhibition would help visitors understand how whales evolved, and their interaction with people. "In many respects the Maori people saw that they were caretakers for them," Hippolite said. The exhibition runs through January 2009 before heading to Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas, where it shows until September 2009. 
(15 October 2008)

New kids take on NY 
Four New Zealand bands - The Naked and Famous, Bang! Bang! Eche!, Cut Off Your Hands and The Ruby Suns - "showcase an evening of up-tempo Kiwi-centric jams" at New York's Delancey as part of the city's week-long CMJ Music Marathon. New York music blog LimeWire writes: "If you think 7.30pm on a Tuesday is too early in the day/week to dance, you probably won't have what it takes to throw down with electro-punk-stompers Bang! Bang! Eche! Their tunes sound like they're about ready to burst at the seams, held barely together by the pulsing kick drum." The Naked and Famous are a duo comprised of composer Thom Powers, 20, and singer/lyricist Alisa Xayalith, 21. Sunday Star-Times reviewer Grant Smithies describes them as "a young New Zealand band so brilliant, so thrilling, so daring and delicious that I want to write their name in big red letters on my pencil case." 
(16 October 2008)

KR on Argentinean Edge
nzedge.com co-founder, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO and Lovemarks instigator Kevin Roberts keynoted HSM’s Buenos Aires management conference alongside Harvard U strategy guru Michael Porter, Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz (Economics) and Muhammad Yunus (Peace), and Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales. Speaking to an audience of 2,000, Roberts’s advice for challenged times was “hold your nerve; stay focused; welcome paradox; have consumer foresight; lead with emotion; and have courage to act.” He said that the destruction of old operating systems gave rise to new rules, new markets, new ideas and new technologies. He noted that both Microsoft and Fedex were founded in the mid-70s recession. “Fortune favors the brave – still.“ 
(27 October 2008)

Relaxed in the south 
There is more to Queenstown that diving off bridges and screaming down slopes on snowboards. There is, according to the Irish Independent's Mary O'Sullivan, a "super holiday destination" leaving the visitor "perpetually awestruck." Queenstown is a great base for exploring. Set on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, it's a young town in a young country. There was no Queenstown until the 19th century — when gold was discovered, prospectors came in their droves. Queenstown retains the low-key charm of a prospecting town. Places like Arrowtown, another former mining town which comes complete with a mining museum, has original tree-lined avenues and wooden houses have been preserved. Glenorchy is a delight and the starting point of many well-signposted walks and hikes. 
(19 October 2008)

The wild edge 
New Zealand's dramatic scenery is the backdrop for an 11-day "fall" fashion shoot in the latest issue of National Geographic Adventure, which takes the writer/photographer and his models from Auckland to Te Anau. "This is the country whose most famous and revered citizen Sir Edmund Hillary, was a mountaineer," Steve Casimiro explains, "where they invented jet boats, commercialised bungee-jumping and turned helicopters into backcountry taxis ... Facts which reflect the distinctly Kiwi spirit: clear-headed determination, ingenuity born of extraordinary isolation, and an unbridled and creative approach to adventure." "And of course, there's the land. Whether it's the Maori earth-spirit influence or the simple fact that the country is home to the full gamut of Lord of the Rings landscapes, geography is a fixation that trumps even religion." 
(October 2008)

Fleecing the competition 
New Zealand took home four of the six titles at the 13th Golden Shears World Championships held in Bjerkrheim, Norway, with Stratford farmer Paul Avery, 41 and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, 38, coming first and second respectively in the machine-shearing final. Avery told the crowd after his victory: "I've waited 10 years for this." The contingent also won the individual and team events in wool handling. Around 100 sheep shearers from a record 28 countries, including Australia, Montenegro, France, the United States and New Zealand, displayed their skills in the four-day competition, the first time the event was held in a non-English speaking country. Taihape schoolteacher Sheree Alabaster, 32, won the wool handling title. 
(6 October 2008)

Blondes make blog 
Auckland singer Gin Wigmore, 21, and Wellington's Ladyhawke are both plugged in Perez Hilton's Hollywood gossip blog, who enthuses that if you are blonde and from New Zealand, he is: "LOVING you this week." The site, which daily receives four million hits, introduced its readers to the "brazilliance" of Ladyhawke and then Wigmore, whose voice Hilton describes as "quirky and intoxicating - her tunes fun and charming." And on Ladyhawke, Hilton says: Pip Brown is "like Lady Gaga with a bit more of a rock edge - but just as fab." In 2005, Gin (Virginia) Wigmore won the US-based International Songwriting Contest with her song 'Hallelujah', beating 11,000 contestants from 77 countries to become the youngest winner in the history of the prize. Wigmore supports John Mellencamp at Auckland's Vector Arena in December. 
(October 2008)

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. Born in England and raised in New Zealand and Canada, Guest became a pop star in the late 1960s and early '70s before reinventing himself, first as a television performer, then a musical theatre star. He rose to pop fame in New Zealand in the 1970s when he began performing with Ray Columbus on the television show Happen In. His career gained momentum when he was cast as Jean Valjean in the Australian production of Les Miserables before going on to play the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera a record 2289 times - the world's longest serving Phantom. Broadcaster Paul Holmes, who presented the television biography show This is Your Life on Guest, said his death was "a terrible shock." "His death makes me remember how much I liked him ... He was a hugely talented man, he was a good bloke," Holmes said. 
(3 October 2008)

Beyer receives iconic status
Former mayor of Carterton and Labour MP Georgina Beyer - the world's first transsexual to hold such positions - is interviewed by Boston publication Windy City Times about her recent selection as one of 31 individuals named by the American Equality Forum for the 2008 GLBT History Month. Each year, GLBT History Month highlights the achievements of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender icons. The 31 icons, living or dead, are selected for their achievements in their field of endeavour, their status as a national hero, or their significant contribution to GLBT civil rights. Beyer is included alongside authors Tennessee Williams and Alice Walker, fashion designer Gianni Versace and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. "To be selected as a GLBT icon is awesome and humbling," Beyer says. "It has also helped to restore faith in myself and that the trials and tribulations [of my life] were a worthwhile endeavour." Beyer resigned from parliament in February 2007. Her life is recounted in Cathy Casey's 1999 biography Change for the Better. 
(4 October 2008)

Ditching the dot-matrix
New Zealand's second annual eDay saw more than 15,000 carloads of electronic waste dropped off at 32 centres throughout the country. The event was organised by the Computer Access New Zealand Trust (CANZ). Most of the collection of e-waste, which included monitors, central processing units (CPUs), and printers diverted from landfills, is being shipped to South Korea for recycling. Working computer monitors will be recycled in Auckland. "eDay is helping to plug the gap and buy New Zealand a little more time without generating new problems in our landfills," says Laurence Zwimpfer, national organiser of eDay. Industry-sponsored recycling schemes should be up and running within two or three years, he said.
(3 October 2008)

Top honours in Toulouse
Dunedin-born Byron Kelleher, 31, former All Black and now scrum-half for French team Toulouse, has been voted the Top 14's player of the season, succeeding Stade Francais' Argentinean Juan Martin Hernandez. Kelleher scored three tries for Toulouse, the reigning champions, in their 20-6 victory over Biarritz in September. Of those 15 points scored, Kelleher said: "The opportunities were there and I took them. I was happy with that." He has established himself on the international stage, appearing in 57 tests for the All Blacks between 1999 and 2007. New Zealand back Orene Ai'i, who plays for recently promoted side Toulon, won Division 2 player of the year. 
(23 September 2008)

From dusk till dawn 
Ladyhawke's self-titled debut album has been released in the UK where the former-Wellingtonian is touring through October ahead of dates in the United States and Europe. In this Guardian review: "Not many budding pop women take their names from strange 1980s fantasy films starring Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer, but then Pip Brown isn't your typical next-big-thing. Adored by Courtney Love and Kylie, the 27-year-old arrives in the middle of the synthpop revival like a made-for-Smash Hits star — bold, strange and packing a cargo of melodic, dramatic songs. Smarts to her, too, for making her pop sound so good that it never sounds like pastiche." Watch an ITN 'On Music' interview with Ladyhawke on Youtube where she discusses her musical heritage, influences and song-writing.
(19 September 2008)

Councils make good
Christchurch and Hutt City are model municipalities and inspirations for their Canadian counterparts, according to the president of Canada's Frontier Centre for Public Policy Peter Holle. "Hutt City is winning business excellence awards against private sector organizations and Christchurch is so efficient that other municipalities look to it for guidance," writes Holle, who lists "six highly effective habits that turned these cities from zeros to heroes." One example is "Christchurch's 'traffic light' system for ensuring its goals are met. If the water fails a test, a red light is lit, and the water treatment people are responsible for making it green again. If they fail, their light goes red, and so on until the person with the ability to solve the problem does so. The city's 2007 Annual Report shows what a result-focused organization looks like: More than nine out of 10 (91 per cent) residents say their overall quality of life is good or extremely good." 
(22 September 2008)

Rachel for a song 
Model Rachel Hunter, 39, has launched an affordable range of clothing for budget store the Warehouse, called Rachel. "I could see a real gap in the New Zealand fashion market for stylish, well cut women's clothing that's also affordable," Hunter said. The line is the second brand within the Warehouse's Design for Everyone programme, which aims to make quality design available to all consumers. In 2007, Hunter launched swimwear label 'Lola'. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
(23 September 2008)

Dedicated follower
Wellington-born designer Rebecca Taylor is better known in New York than New Zealand according to The Epoch Times, "where she has made a huge impression on the fashion scene" dressing celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Cate Blanchett and Uma Thurman. Taylor's Spring '09 collection, presented at the recent New York Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, is inspired by memories of growing up in a "fairy tale seaside village in New Zealand where her mother indulged her desire for ethereal ballet costumes and anything soft, sparkly, warm and kitten like." The Taylor label generates an annual turnover of $12 million per year - for a Kiwi chick who arrived in the big apple 11 years ago with NZ$600 in her pocket, that's not bad at all. Taylor studied at Wellington School of Design and got her first foot in the door with designer Cynthia Rowley. The Rebecca Taylor collection has now expanded to include clothing, maternity, shoes, handbags, accessories and hosiery and is sold across the U.S., Europe and Japan.
(12 September 2008)

Renewing the fervour
Auckland's Waitemata Harbour will fill with spectator boats early next year when six America's Cup teams take to the water in a match racing series. Called the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, competitors will race on courses in Team New Zealand's America's Cup Class yachts NZL84 and NZL92. Managing director Grant Dalton said he hoped the series would rekindle support for yacht racing. "We know the public have had enough of the legal stuff ... [but] I still believe there is a lot of latent support out there," he said. Teams have until October 30 to enter the series. 
(15 September 2008)

Alive in New York
Auckland multimedia and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara will make her North American debut at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art with an exhibition called 'Living Photographs'. During the exhibition, Kihara will also perform 'Taualuga: The Last Dance'. The performance combines photography, traditional dance, audio, and historical costume to form a tribute to the many leaders and people of Samoa. "Shigeyuki Kihara was born to defy categorisation, her very existence blurs and challenges the organisation of mainstream thought and practice," Hawkes Bay artist Jim Vivieaere has said. Earlier this year the Metropolitan Museum purchased two works by Kihara to add to their permanent collection. Kihara was born in Samoa and immigrated to New Zealand in 1989 at the age of sixteen. 'Living Photographs' runs October 7 through February 1, 2009. 
(18 September 2008)

Pests transformed
New Zealand possum fur is being imported by Portland-based company Eco-Luxury which produces throws, cushions and bedspreads, "for all of the luxury and none of the guilt." On a trip to New Zealand, owner Chrys Hutchings' husband gave her a fur bedspread, and the idea of using possum fur in the home was born. Possums chomp their way through 20,000 tons of vegetation, and are threatening indigenous plants and animals, including the endangered kiwi. "Fur is sustainable, recyclable, biodegradable," says Hutchings. Others, such as Possum NZ, a company run by Teresa Angliss, have already started making hats, scarves and gilets from possum fur. An easier approach is thought to be possum wool, where the fur is woven into merino wool to create a fibre called MerinominkTM. It's being used to make jumpers by the New Zealand company Untouched World.
(18 September 2008)

Hareb catches some ricos
Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb, 18, the No. 2 ranked women's junior professional (under-20) in the world, has won the Port Stevens Pro Junior Series Event in NSW. Hareb is having a good year with the big guns as well, currently sitting fifth on the World Qualifying Series (WQS) tour and on target to qualify next year. "It's been an amazing week," Hareb said. "We had all sorts of conditions for the Pro Junior from 40 knot howling onshore winds and storm surf through to perfect six foot waves. It was a real test but I was stoked to win." Hareb's 2008 season now includes three Aussie Pro Junior victories, a historic first New Zealand women's win in a round of the WQS and second in the World Pro Junior Championships. 
(7 September 2008)

Edwardian assortment
Sam Neill stars in Toa Fraser's second feature Dean Spanley  which Variety reviews, describing the film as "immaculately cast". "Based on an obscure novel by late Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, Alan Sharp's screenplay is deft; ditto Fraser's helming." The Toronto International Film Festival website writes of the period comedy: "a magical mélange of fine wine, canines and eccentric behaviour, Dean Spanley is a rare pleasure ... the film transports us to Edwardian England, with its elegant rooms, lavish costumes and surprising tolerance for the outlandish. It takes the finest comedic actors to pull off this material, and director Toa Fraser has assembled a cast of the first rank. Neill treads with grace between comic fantasy and real pathos." 
(9 September 2008)

Weddings on ice
Auckland-based bar group Minus5 is opening the first ice-lounge in the United States, in Las Vegas, on September 26. Named for the temperature maintained within its 1,200-square-foot main room - 5 degrees Celsius below freezing, or 23 degrees Fahrenheit - Minus 5 will feature a bar, chairs and cocktail glasses all carved from frozen blocks. President of the chain Craig Ling said the concept has been very successful worldwide, with similar places to chill in Auckland, Queenstown, Australia, Sydney, Gold Coast and Viseu, Portugal. "We believe we can do almost everything in ice," said Ling. "Everything except the floors", he admits, "which will be nonslip masonry." There is certainly no better place to debut the chain's first wedding chapel. Minus5 will offer fur-trimmed white wedding dresses and ceremonies. Further bars also are set to open in Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami and Hawaii by next year. 
(11 September 2008)

Clement's celestial Chevalier
Wellington Conchord Jemaine Clement takes on the role of fantasy novelist Dr Ronald Chevalier in teen comedy Gentlemen Broncos, a film created by Napolean Dynamite's Jared Hess to be released in 2009. According to Cinematical "the cast is an 'indie' affair, but with the addition of Sam Rockwell and Clement there's more 'hipster' cred." In the promotional videos and audio snippets on the film's website Clement portrays Chevalier as a third-rate Orson Scott Card with the voice of Orson Welles. Clement and Bret McKenzie have announced the end of the popular Flight of the Conchords television show after the next season so they might pursue other prospects.
(13 August 2008)

Unconventional movement
New Zealander Grant Harrison, 44, Hutt Valley High School old boy and owner of American health benefits company Humana, one of the largest in the United States, is the man behind bike-share programme Freewheelin which has seen Democrat and Republican delegates getting about Denver and Minneapolis on bicycles during the latest conventions. The New York Times lists Freewheelin as one of the ten things to do in Denver on a 36-hour visit. "You'll be hearing a lot about this convention's efforts to be environmentally sustainable, so do your part to offset all that hot air and borrow one," the Times recommends. Harrison was in Denver for the August convention where he heard former president Bill Clinton, vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden and Obama speak. "It's pretty exciting," he said. "It's about changing things for the future and really impacting how people live their lives. It really is a social movement." Freewheelin is currently in discussions to expand the program to other cities, and plans to leave behind about 70 bicycles in both Denver and Minneapolis-St Paul for public use after the conventions.
(10 August 2008)

Boutique at the bach
Auckland-based lifestyle fashion label FEW is showing its spring 2009 collection - inspired by the New Zealand bach - at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show in San Diego. The spring designs are inspired and influenced by peeling paint, beers around the barbeque pit, musty sheets, chipped plates and everything else a New Zealand holiday experience evokes. "The spring '09 collection is our strongest yet and we are eager to share it with everyone," said FEW founder Kena Lucy. "Our designers are on point with trends and we're excited about the growth and progress of the brand as a whole." In the past year FEW has experienced rapid growth, adding retailers like the trendy California boutique Intuition and Swell.com. 
(2 September 2008)

Four decades with Finn
Musician and songwriter Tim Finn is interviewed by Salt Lake City newspaper The Deseret News about his forthcoming solo album release, 'The Conversation', and a career spanning 40 years. "If you would have told me 20 years ago that I'd be in my mid-50s still making music, I would have laughed in your face," Finn said. "But throughout the years, the fans have seen the history unfold. And what has helped me is the fact that I'm not mainstream. And I just need to have one good song every few years to keep my career alive. However, it is gratifying to me that when I do tour, people are glad to see me." Finn released an eight-track extended play album called, 'Rarities/Demos/Love Performances Vol. 1' in July, which is available for download on www.myspace.com/timfinnmusic.
(29 August 2008)

Telepathic in Louisiana
Anna Paquin, 26, is mind-reading Southern waitress Sookie Starkhouse in the HBO vampire series True Blood, which starts September 7 in the United States. Paquin chats with Women's Wear Daily about going blonde (and tan) for the role, shooting in the South and waiting tables for the first time. "[Louisiana] was hotter than hell," Paquin says. "There's nothing that really prepares you if you're not from there from stepping outside and feeling as if you just opened an oven into your face. But it kind of makes all the tiny, teeny, skimpy outfits seem incredibly justified." Paquin's character is described on the show's official site as having learnt "to serve up a combination of sexiness and sass" though "she has yet to find out whether her bite can back up the bark." True Blood is created by Six Feet Under's Alan Ball. 
(18 August 2008)

West Coast wonder
Fox Glacier is a popular tourist destination for thrill seekers and eco-adventurers who can strap on crampons and trek through crevasses, alongside icefalls, moulins, and into caves. A Bangkok Post reporter books a half-day trek: "The view of the frozen river running down the rainforest was as much stunning as awe-inspiring, a dramatic evidence of the power of ice ... The first part of the 45-minute trek included a death defying walk for 200 metres characterised by a sheer drop down the mountain face. The way our guide, who has conquered Mt Everest twice, moved up and down the glacial path was effortless compared to us first-time ice trekkers. The group was awarded a certificate as a memorabilia for our enduring trek that gave us wobbly legs. However, it was fantastic challenging our will and stamina for in the end it truly left us with a great sense of accomplishment."
(28 August 2008)

Golf's rising star 
Rotorua schoolboy Danny Lee, 18, has the golfing world at his feet after becoming the youngest player ever to win the US Amateur championship, held at the Pinehurst club in North Carolina last week. Lee beat opponent Drew Kittleson from Arizona 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final, capping off a very successful three-week stint in the US, which included another win at the Western Amateur, and a top-20 finish in the Wyndham Championship on the US PGA tour. The Korean-born golfer, who has lived in New Zealand for nine years, will return home briefly next week to attend a ceremony in Rotorua where he will receive New Zealand citizenship. The youngest player to win the US Amateur championship before Lee, who turned 18 last month, was Tiger Woods who was 18 years eight months when he won the first of three successive US Amateur finals in 1994. 
(24 August 2008)

21st century renewal
Wellington's Waitangi Park - transformed in a collaboration between landscape architects Wraight & Associates and Athfield Architects - combines environmentally-sound urban redevelopment with recreation, and includes water purifying ponds, man-made wetlands and a concrete skate park. Australasian architecture magazine Monument writes: "For decades the harbour-front site was a car park known as the Chaffers. Working with specialist engineering and environmental consultants, Waitangi Park is now a model for the future of urban renewal and one of the first of its scale to implement a number of environmental engineering features. The wetlands of native reeds and sedges filter out pollutants through natural processes."
(June/July 2008)

In search of a history
New Zealand film producer and public speaker Anna Wilding is now writing regularly for the TennisGrandStand site, and in her first column, as the US Open approaches, she writes about her great uncle, tennis legend Captain Anthony Wilding and the "hallowed grounds" of Forest Hills, New York. "My 'Uncle Tony' actually played his last match in America at Forest Hills, before being killed in the war in 1915 at the tender age of 32. In that time, he also won bronze at the Olympics," Wilding explains. "In The New York Times in 1915, W. De B. Whyte wrote the following: 'In tennis [Anthony Wilding] was always the soul of honour; as courteous and gallant a player as ever set foot in an American court. He was the last man ever to excuse himself for poor form or indifferent play.'"
(19 August 2008)

Releasing expectations
Auckland-based band Cut Off Your Hands are described as a "vicious and vibrant foursome" and frontman Nick Johnston, "the new Iggy Pop of the New Zealand pop-punk pioneers" on a British news website. The band discuss the UK release of their latest single 'Expectations', their musical influences (including the Buzzcocks, Sonic Youth and Bailterspace) and making music in New Zealand. Johnston thinks the local scene is influenced positively by the lack of industry. "Bands are formed in New Zealand for the sake of creating something the individuals are turned on by, as opposed to kids in London desiring to be the next Razorlight on the cover of a glossy mag. It's naive and pure and idealistic, but at least it's rooted in substance, rather than commerce and fashion." Cut Off Your Hands' debut album, You & I was recorded this year. 
(20 August 2008)

Medal haul in Beijing 
Hastings twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell took gold medals in the double skulls beating their German rivals by 0.01sec, the win on the same day Mahe Drysdale won a bronze in the single skulls and George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle won a bronze in the men's pair. Like the millions of spectators, the Evers-Swindells initially had no idea who had won after crossing the line. "I looked across and the Germans were happy and I thought maybe they'd got it ... and then someone said New Zealand had won," Georgina said. Ashburton cyclist Hayden Roulston won silver in the men's individual pursuit at the Laoshan velodrome. 
(17 August 2008)

Screen Australia hires Harley
New Zealander Ruth Harley - currently CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission - has been appointed chief executive of the newly formed national film agency, Screen Australia. Dr Harley begins the position in November. The appointment is tacit acknowledgment that New Zealand has been, and remains, the role model for national filmmaking outside the Hollywood studio system. The appointment was announced by the Australian Arts Minister, Peter Garrett who commented "Following an extensive global search the government was particularly impressed by Dr Harley's experience and commitment to the development of a successful and sustainable local film industry". Screen Australia is the Australian Government's new screen agency replacing the Australian Film Commission, Film Australia and the Film Finance Organisation. Harley is a former Fulbright Scholar. She was awarded an OBE in 1996 for her contribution to the broadcasting and the arts. 
(15 August 2008)

Science made funny
Auckland's Indian Ink Theatre Company - with co-founder Jacob Rajan in the starring role - performed The Candlestickmaker to Australian audiences at Brisbane's Cremorne Theatre. Rajan, who wrote the play with the other half of the partnership Justin Lewis, "deftly plays all characters; through the frenetic changing of character through mask, he draws the audience in from the beginning. The Candlestickmaker is enchanting theatre. It embraces the themes and narrative of modern New Zealand. The same themes and narrative have relevance for Australia, yet when the performance ends, one is left wondering where these voices are in Australian theatre and do they get enough support or exposure? In the meantime, we await more from Indian Ink Theatre Company." The Company takes their latest "comedy with bite", The Dentist's Chair, to Wellington and Auckland later this month. 
(11 August 2008)

On your marks, get set
Artist Daniel Crooks, who originally hails from Hastings, has won the Australian inaugural $100,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize for 'Static no. 11 (man running)', a computer-modified video of champion athlete Christopher Brown sprinting on a treadmill. Melbourne-based Crooks beat a field of 54 works by 16 artists to win the award established by the philanthropic businessman to unite sport and art. Director of the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Chris McAuliffe, said yesterday that he and his fellow judges were struck by the "visual, technical and historical complexity of the piece", which creates "a lingering, poetic image of the body in motion." Crooks works as a video designer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. His first New Zealand exhibition, 'Everywhere Instantly', is on at Christchurch Art Gallery through November 9. 
(1 August 2008)

Beauty in cold 
Winter in New Zealand is captured in seascape images by Independent photographer Hannah Bills, who travelled through Wellington and then south, taking shots in and around Christchurch, "the Oxford of the southern hemisphere." "Intensely cold, mid-winter days in New Zealand, especially in the south island," writes partner Peter Bills, "often produce vivid blue skies to tempt the photographer. The sunsets can be wondrous, dramatic; nature's fireworks at the end of a day. But the blue skies of day time also offer dramatic backdrops for photos, as is seen with the sculpture of flowers which stands in Christchurch's Cathedral Square. The lack of visitors at this time of year in the southern hemisphere enhances the scenes of natural beauty to be found all over the antipodes." 
(31 July 2008)

Figments of the imagination
Wellington author Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter Duet is reviewed in Canadian newspaper The Star Phoenix. The two "intricate" fantasy titles are highly recommended for young adults, and are described as "intriguing" and "intelligent". The first of the two books, and "a gripping ride", is Dreamhunter. In the second, Dreamquake, "the plot continues to hold, and readers become disturbed by what seems more and more plausible within the context of Knox's fine writing. Rising above a simple mystery into an intense myth of place, some challenging questions are raised about power and freedom, artistic license, and the role of the storyteller ... With these books, Knox takes her place beside fine fantasy writers Susan Cooper, Mollie Hunter, Lloyd Alexander, Kenneth Oppel, Philip Pullman, and Garth Nix." Both titles have won Best Book awards from the American Library Association as well as a variety of honours in New Zealand. 
(9 August 2008)

From the gods in Paris 
Maori art is part of an exhibition called 'Pacific Encounters: Art and Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860' at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris; 250 objects from the "Polynesian Triangle" isles - New Zealand, Hawaii and the Easter Islands - are included. A functional object becomes a work of art when an artisan makes something beautiful when it doesn't have to be, whether it is an elegant fish hook carved out of bone from Hawaii, a nephrite ring made for the leg of a captive parrot in New Zealand, or a fan made of leaves, wood, human bone and coco fibre from the Marquesas Islands. Before coming to the du quai Branly, the exhibition was shown at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and then at the British Museum. "This really is worth going to Paris to see," recommends the Telegraph. 'Art and Divinity' runs until September 14.
(29 July 2008)

Dropping in on Europe
Wellington's Fat Freddy's Drop will tour Europe in November on the back of their latest release, the mammoth nine-minute track 'The Camel', which readers are offered free to download at the Times Online site. "If ever there was an ambitious single, 'The Camel' is it," writes the Times. The seven-piece band, who offer a smooth blend of soul, dub and reggae, are expected to catch the wave of New Zealand musical success currently being surfed by Ladyhawke, Liam Finn and Ruby Suns. FFD's first studio album, 'Based on a True Story', went platinum eight times in sales in New Zealand. 
(24 July 2008)

Leave your hat on 
The Christchurch-designed 2c Solar Light Cap is trialled by a Chicago Tribune reporter who dons the headgear for a camping trip on the Mississippi River. "Part of the appeal of sleeping in the woods for a few days is to turn off the day-to-day gadgetry that consumes our lives," he writes. "But I offer another item, perfect for camping or any outdoor activity where you need to shed a little light in the dark night: a hat with a solar-powered brim that turns into a flashlight. Available online, the 2C Solar Light Cap, which is charged in sunlight, looks like an ordinary baseball hat, but the brim is slightly thicker because two solar-powered lights sit underneath." The hat will be available in American shops later this year. 
(29 July 2008)

Snug as a bug 
Merino Kids founder Amie Nilsson designed the award-winning Cocooi Babywrap with biblical swaddling in mind, keeping babies safely on their back and asleep longer. Swaddling creates a slight pressure around the baby's body that is said to give it a sense of security, because it mirrors the pressure it would have felt in the womb. Made of pure merino, the wool absorbs and releases moisture away from the baby in warm conditions and insulates it when the temperature drops. Merino Kids has won two International Forum (iF) Product Design awards for the Babywrap and the Go Go Bag. In an interview with Idealog magazine Nilsson said the awards mean the product changes from being just a national product to an international product. "It changes the level completely and it opens doors every day," she said. The company now sells in more than 50 boutique baby stores in Europe, Australasia and the US. 
(17 July 2008)

With rapturous applause
Gisborne-born soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, 64, "came, sang and conquered" with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at a Ravinia gala benefit concert. Looking every inch the beauteous diva in a stunning red-and-black ensemble, Te Kanawa was at her very best in three of Canteloube's 'Songs of the Auvergne', sustained in a pastel hush of sound that perfectly caught their dreamy, folk atmosphere. She softly traced the arching cantilena of two arias from Puccini's 'La Boheme', notes touched in lightly, pathos held at arm's length, as is the diva's expressive wont in Puccini. Te Kanawa ended her programme with three encores; roses were presented and standing O's ruled the night. 
(21 July 2008)

God defend NZ 
Of all the nations in the Anglosphere, New Zealand had the proudest and toughest military culture of the 20th Century according to Australian lawyer and author, Hal G. P. Colebatch. In an article in The American Spectator, Colebatch explores New Zealand's contribution to the wars of that century, contributions from an Anglosphere nation which in the 21st Century no longer has a combat Air Force and almost no national defence. "New Zealand has never been threatened by invasion but until now has had a proud tradition of being prepared to contribute—mightily!—to defend the right," he writes. "It is as if previous generations of New Zealanders felt that their uniquely safe and privileged strategic environment gave them a certain responsibility beyond their shores." 
(14 July 2008)

In love with Demant 
Whakatane artist Rozi Demant has her international debut exhibition with 'Lovebirds' at Santa Monica's Tarryn Teresa Gallery. Demant, who holds the rare and enviable position of having produced five sold-out solo exhibitions before reaching the age of 24, has taken almost two years to complete this new body of work which is highly anticipated by her extensive list of collectors worldwide. Demant's surrealized women, who possess something of Modigliani's style in their appearance, reside in dark, opulent, fantasy worlds. When asked to speak about her work, she is reserved. "To talk about my paintings feels like I am exposing too much of myself, this is something I can't and won't do," she said. Her work continues to show great promise and is gifted with a rare, enigmatic and captivating beauty. Demant is represented by Auckland's Warwick Henderson Gallery. 
(13 July 2008)

Against the wind 
Three-time world champion windsurfer Barbara Kendall is off to Beijing and her fifth Olympics. Conditions at the sailing venue in Qingdao would be difficult, Kendall said. "It's just not a windy spot. If we're lucky enough to have a typhoon come past then we'll have some great sailing. If it doesn't, there is going to be a lot of waiting around for a decent amount of wind." Kendall said she had been training specifically for the lighter conditions to try to get her weight down while retaining the strength needed to pump the sail in the conditions. Having won gold medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games, a silver in Atlanta in 1996 and bronze at Sydney in 2000, Kendall, who turns 41 in August, said she had not ruled out the possibility of competing in London in 2012. "I haven't written it off, no. I'm never going to say never because you just don't do that," she said. 
(15 July 2008)

Adventure at speed
Christchurch endurance athlete and orienteering champion Chris Forne, 31, has navigated Team Nike to first place in America's 10-day adventure race, Primal Quest Montana 2008. Over 800km and up heights of more than 30,000m, Forne and his four-time defending team trekked, mountain biked, whitewater kayaked, riverboarded and, in a rare instance, free climbed their way to the finish line. It had been barely a year since Forne joined the team, and for Nike to hand the navigational reigns to him at the time was akin to the Super Bowl champions asking a college star to play quarterback - albeit one who began reading topographic maps at age six. "He's the best I've ever seen on a race course, by far," Nike's captain, Mike Kloser of Vail, would say after the race. What began June 23 as a 56-team competition quickly turned into the latest illustration of why an obscure unit of aerobic mutants can be counted among the most dominant institutions in professional athletics. Forne is "basically king of the thriving endurance-racing world in New Zealand" wrote Colorado paper Summit Daily. "At home, Chris sort of sets the benchmark, and everyone else tries to beat him - in anything," says Aaron Prince, Forne's former teammate and fellow Christchurch native. "If you can get one over Chris, ever, it's a good day." 
(30 June 2008)

Art's urban sprawl  
Christchurch hosts art biennale SCAPE 2008, a city-wide exhibition of new work by New Zealand and international artists all exploring the concept of cities as spaces reflective of social change, "constantly in flux." 'Wandering Lines: Towards a New Culture of Space' is co-curated by New Zealand's Danae Mossman and Turkey's internationally renowned Fulya Erdemci and runs for six weeks from 19 September - 2 November. The title 'Wandering Lines' is drawn from the notion that "indirect or errant trajectories obeying their own logic" can provide new understandings of space. SCAPE director Deborah McCormick says this year's exhibition will challenge people's perceptions of the city. "It will be a response to the changing nature of cities globally," McCormick says. New Zealand artists represented include Pop artist Billy Apple and sculptor Lonnie Hutchinson. 
(4 July 2008)

Facing new partnerships
New Zealand's population makeup may one day number more Asians than Maori according to a new study called, 'Asians in New Zealand: Implications of a Changing Demography', launched in Auckland this month. Authored by Waikato University's Professor Richard Bedford and Dr Elsie Ho, the Asian New Zealand Foundation report has found that the headcount of Asians in New Zealand was increasing due to growing ties with the region. An integral part of the growing relationship with Asia has been the opening up of New Zealand to immigration of talent, capital and visitors from Asia. Statistics New Zealand sees the Asian population reaching 790,000 by 2026, marginally behind the Maori population on an estimated 820,000. 
(8 July 2008)

NZ's cup of joe
Pavlova and flat whites are on the menu in Washington D.C. thanks to American policy analyst Art Hauptman who opened Cassatt's restaurant after holidaying in New Zealand. And for this Washington Post reviewer it is what comes at the end of the meal that is a true test of a good restaurant. Cassatt's, "a Kiwi cafe" in Arlington, has pavlova which is especially tasty, so light that it practically melts in your mouth, writes the reviewer, and rather than your average warm dregs of coffee left over from the lunch rush, Cassatt's serves good and hot coffee. If you really want to be in the know, order the 'flat white'. Served in New Zealand, the Cassatt's specialty is a twist on your standard latte. 
(11 July 2008)

That's Mr Tuatara 
Tuatara have a third eye on top of their heads, they can hold their breath for an hour, though reptiles, they are nocturnal, and recent findings suggest with climate change, that tuatara will all become male. The gender of tuatara is determined by the temperatures that the embryos are kept at when in the egg. Global warming means the reptiles face the threat of dying out in the wild because of a terminal shortage of females. Tuatara evolved 225 million years ago and the two remaining species, the Brother's Island and Cook Strait, cling on to survival in New Zealand. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Researchers suggest that the tuataras could be saved in their natural habitat if conservationists provided nest sites with artificial shade once the embryos have started to develop. "Tuatara are ancient animals. Their ancestors were scurrying around the feet of dinosaurs. It would be a great shame to lose them," Michael Kearney, of the University of Melbourne, said. 
(2 July 2008)

Jennings backs Russia 
Waitara-born Stephen Jennings, CEO of the leading investment bank in Russia and sub-Saharan Africa Renaissance Group, believes that in the coming decades "the world's largest businesses will be from new world economies and the world's most influential businesspeople will be Russian, Chinese, Indian and African. New world investment funds will dwarf their Western counterparts." In light of RenCap's growing role in Russia and many other emerging markets, Russia Blog decided to publish two background articles about its co-founders, Stephen Jennings and Alexei "Boris" Jordan. Potentially the wealthiest foreigner residing in the Russian Federation, Jennings spends more than two-thirds of his time in Africa, according to trade publication the Banker, and has plans to open offices in Nigeria, Kenya and Dubai. Consultant for the New Zealand Business Round Table Bryce Wilkinson says that Jennings's rise to the top of international finance deserves bouquets: "It's a phenomenal story of incredible achievements by an unassuming Kiwi," Wilkinson says. "And he's still going." 
(17 June 2008)

Juniors bag victory 
New Zealand has won the world junior rugby under-20 championships in Swansea, Wales, beating England 38-3 in a four-try match. The young All Blacks may have been the overwhelming favourites from the start of the tournament but they did not expect to win the final with such overwhelming ease. Even with the victory, New Zealand captain Chris Smith said there had been a lot of pressure on his team entering the final. "A lot of preparation went into this, and I'm just so proud, I couldn't be happier," Smith said. New Zealand are bringing out the worst in England this month, sweeping all before them this year with some exhilarating, intelligent rugby. 
(23 June 2008)

Farewell to 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 and the awarding of full confederation status in 1996. Former All Whites player Brian Turner said his teammates from the 1982 era all held Dempsey in the highest regard. "I honestly think that if Charlie wasn't around, we wouldn't have gone to the World Cup," Turner told New Zealand's Radio Sport. "Charlie was the man at the forefront of all the fundraising and was the figurehead of the whole '82 campaign." Oceania Football Confederation general secretary Tai Nicholas said Dempsey's contribution had been enormous: "Not only in New Zealand and the Oceania region but around the world. We consider him the father of Oceania and he's well respected at FIFA. "He leaves a great legacy," said Nicholas, who worked with Dempsey for 12 years. Dempsey will be most remembered for not casting a vote at a 2000 FIFA meeting to decide which country hosted the 2006 World Cup, costing South Africa the right. He was born in Maryhill, Scotland, in 1922 and migrated to New Zealand in 1952. 
(25 June 2008)

Sheep farm vogue 
The Farm at Cape Kidnappers has made the third annual 2008 Travel + Leisure 'It List', one of 30 best new hotels in the world featuring alongside "Europe's most stylish recent opening" J.K. Place in Capri and the Hotel Fasano in Rio de Janeiro. "Pastoral chic has never looked so good" the article writes of the 26-room country hotel, which is located on a 6500-acre working sheep farm. "There are plenty of leather armchairs and heavy wooden tables, but details like black-and-white sheep photographs and barn doors that close off indoor spaces add a nice tongue-in-cheek touch. The Farm navigates the fine line between formality and accessibility." 
(June 2008)

Spontaneous hors concours 
Mark Todd, 51, and his Olympic stead, 10-year-old Gandalf made for a surprise entry at a Lincolnshire dressage show. Trudy Clark, who runs twice-monthly affiliated competitions at Elms Farm Equestrian Centre, could barely believe it when she realised it was the eventing gold medallist, who has come out of eight years retirement to contend the Olympic Games in Beijing. Clark said Todd did the medium hors concours and an advanced medium. "We were all a bit open-mouthed and very excited to see how he would get on," she said. Then "Toddy" posed for pictures and signed autographs for the fans lucky enough to see their hero at such a low-key event. Todd has represented New Zealand at five Olympic Games and has won two individual gold medals. 
(3 June 2008)

Colorado's horse surgeon 
New Zealand-born veterinarian and world authority on equine joints, Dr Wayne McIlwraith is the director of Colorado State University's Equine Orthopaedic Research Center, each year performing as many as 500 surgeries on racing thoroughbreds. In his role at the EORC - the most prominent and largest of the handful of such facilities in the United States - McIlwraith conducts and oversees research in the quest to make horseracing safer. This is done primarily in two ways: firstly, coming up with and refining testing procedures that can detect bone problems in racehorses that can make them prone to breakdowns and secondly, researching racing surfaces, whether dirt or synthetic. "In a perfect world, and I don't think this is unreasonable, I feel that if an owner buys a yearling, he is just as responsible for that horse's well-being as if they had a kid," McIlwraith says. McIlwraith qualified as a veterinarian from Massey University in 1970 and then completed his surgical residency and PhD at Purdue University, in Indiana. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from Massey University in 2003, the first veterinary graduate to receive such an honour. 
(14 June 2008)

Energy beneath our feet 
Over the next three years, New Zealand public research institute GNS Science will explore the potential of harnessing the low-energy geothermal energy produced by underground steam and water systems. GNS Science is to develop technologies for locating and tapping low-temperature heat sources, which refers to temperatures below 150°C, with some below 80°C. Project leader Brian Carey said New Zealand's landmass is a large source of heat, with different types of natural energy available. "Low temperature geothermal resources are widespread throughout New Zealand and there is significant potential to increase their use. They are capable of providing long-term energy and heat supply with low carbon emissions," Carey said. He said the benefits of harvesting energy this way included low environmental impacts and increased security of supply. 
(11 June 2008)

Shocking advance 
Auckland pop band the Shocking Pinks have signed a four-album deal with New York label DFA Records, which also represents LCD Soundsystem and Hercules & Love Affair. Founder and ex-Brunettes member, Nick Harte says the band had just signed with Flying Nun when they were offered the deal. "But living in New Zealand and having a New York label offering you advances, I just wished it was the other way around, but it turned out well." Shocking Pinks are currently supporting Cut Copy on their Australian tour. 
(11 June 2008)

Union man's aria
Christchurch-born singer Max Merritt, who fronted Max Merritt and the Meteors, will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside New Zealand band Dragon. "I didn't expect it - it was an incredible outpouring of love and it was just fabulous to be the recipient of it," said the LA-based Merritt. He is best known for his 1976 hit 'Slippin' Away', which reached number two on the Australian charts. In 2007, Merritt's contemporaries, including Daryl Braithwaite, Jon English and Ross Wilson, raised almost $200,000 at a concert in Melbourne to help the 66-year-old, who suffers from Goodpasture's Syndrome, a condition that attacks kidneys and lungs, get back on his feet. 
(5 June 2008)

Trend-setting in the capital 
Wellington, according to travel newspaper South African, "manages the fine balancing act of city slicker affluence and small town charm deftly." "The undisputed cultural centrepiece of New Zealand packs a lot of punch in its petite city centre. And if you scratch below the surface you'll find a veritable hive of activity, with an abundance of good times on offer." This includes continues the article, Cuba Street, "the number one hang out for trendy, artistic types" and live music venue, the San Francisco Bathhouse, the author's "favourite stomping ground". 
(11 June 2008)

Wellington reunion in KL 
In the 1970s, Malaysian students at Victoria University's Weir House relished the informality of calling each other by their first names, they cooked one another Malay and Chinese dishes, and the Malaysian VUW band played music by the Beetles and the Bee Gees. The 'Wellington Reunion' three-day reunion in Kuala Lumpur of Victoria University and Wellington Polytechnic students, the biggest of its kind outside of New Zealand, will help bring back some of those memories, organiser Teoh Lay Hock says. Teoh, who did his Bachelor of Science degree in Victoria University of Wellington when he was 19, described his time in Wellington as "the best part of my life". "I was the captain of the Weir House soccer team ... We lived and ate together, and things like race or religion were not an issue." 
(10 June 2008)

Running on jatropha 
Air New Zealand and Boeing plan a three-hour test-flight at the end of the year using fuel produced from jatropha, a poisonous tree which grows seeds rich in oil. The airline expects to use biofuels for 10 per cent of its fuel consumption by 2013 - one million barrels a year. The flight could mark one of the more promising - and more unusual - steps by the financially strapped airline industry to find cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuel. Air New Zealand's general manager for airline operations David Morgan is confident in the test results. "It'll be a real milestone not only for Air New Zealand but for aviation," Morgan said. 
(6 June 2008)

Hobbiton revisited 
New Zealand is once again the backdrop for Middle Earth, Peter Jackson and Hobbit director Guillermo Del Toro confirmed in an hour-long live internet chat with fans. Speaking from New Zealand and London respectively, the pair answered 20 of the most popular questions they received online, including the location of The Hobbit, the casting of Bilbo Baggins and whether or not an extended edition of the film would be made. Jackson discusses his role in the production of the films: "Truth is 'Executive Producers' do a range of things on movies from a lot to virtually nothing! I see myself being one of a production team. I see my role as being part of that writing team, which will create the blueprint, and then helping Guillermo construct the movie." The Hobbit will be released December 2011. 
(24 May 2008)

Flaming britches  
James Watson, head of Massey University's school of history, philosophy and politics in Palmerston North and author of agricultural study, 'The Significance of Mr Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers', won an Ig Nobel prize in 2005 for discovering that sodium chlorate becomes violently explosive when combined with organic fibres, such as cotton or wool. In the 1930s, the white crystalline solid was used by many New Zealand farmers as a weedkiller to destroy ragwort. Watson writes: "Numerous farmers and farmworkers discovered for the first time that smoking could be hazardous to their health, as items of their clothing lit up when they did. In a New Zealand version of Blazing Saddles, one farmer found that the seat of his pants was starting to smoulder as he was riding his horse." 
(27 May 2008)

Corporate iwi unite 
Divided into four tribes: kea, ruru, tui, and weka, 200 employees of US firm Seagate Technologies face the elements in the mountains above Queenstown in a week-long "mother of all of team-building events". CEO Bill Watkins spends $2 million making his staff uncomfortable as a way to open their minds, helping build a more collaborative, team-oriented company. "This week is about you doing what you want to do for every week of the rest of your life," Watkins explains to his hard drive engineers, who haka, mountain-bike, kayak and orienteer their way to trust, commitment, accountability, and results. 
(21 May 2008)

Chip off the old block 
Jeremy Coney, as announcer on Sky TV's 'Test Match Special', is "cricket's answer to the poet and critic Tom Paulin", according to Guardian sports blogger Rob Bagchi. A guest on TMS for the last 20 years, Coney's pitch reports for domestic New Zealand consumption have become legendary. Each of his words is measured for effect and the effort of thoughtfulness is etched across his face as he weighs each comment. He never preaches, though, just talks with the ease of an accomplished raconteur in a charming and shrewd, if slightly kooky fashion. If you still miss the master, catch Coney while you can. Based in the UK, Coney recently completed a postgraduate degree in lighting and stage management and had been touring Europe as part of a theatre production team. 
(28 May 2008)

London from home 
New Zealand author Emily Perkins leans out to close a window at her publisher's in Soho and "raising her voice over a building site, takes a deep breath of London air to say, 'It's great to be back'." Perkins spent 11 years in London writing about New Zealand. It wasn't until three years ago, after moving back home to Auckland, that she properly started work on her first London novel, About My Wife. This is also Perkins's first novel about pregnancy and parenthood, written from the perspective of a man. It was another form of distance that she found liberating, she says. "After 10 years I feel I know London now. To be able to write about it from New Zealand is great because I'm really able to inhabit this imaginary London." Perkins teaches creative writing at Auckland University and presents The Book Show on Television New Zealand's TV One. 
(16 May 2008)

Touting the youth 
New Zealand 'the youngest country', is the new focus of Tourism New Zealand's international branding. Tourism chiefs have called in London PR agency Henry's House as they revive the country's popularity post-Lord of the Rings. Tourism New Zealand UK and Europe regional manager Gregg Anderson said: "It was the last country to be settled by mankind, so they've got a different approach to the world." However New Zealand continues to be promoted as a cinematographer's dream with Moviemaker saying: "New Zealand has 13 national parks and reserves protect about one third of its land. These provide many of the locations for some of the most captivating scenery in recent film history." 
(15 May 2008)

Economic hardware 
In 1949, New Zealand engineer and economist Professor William "Bill" Phillips astonished the London School of Economics revealing his "do-it-yourself" creation: an analogue computer model of the workings of the British economy. The Monetary National Income Automatic Computer or MONIAC prototype was an odd assortment of tanks, pipes, sluices and valves, with water pumped around the machine by a motor cannibalised from the windscreen wiper of a Lancaster bomber. Visiting fellow at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research Professor Brian Henry says the machine is far more than a museum piece. "Phillips was a brilliant guy. He came up with interesting ways of providing practical advice on policy." Phillips was born to Albanian immigrants on a farm in New Zealand in 1914. He died in Auckland, in 1975. 
(8 May 2008)

Comedic eclecticism 
Flight of the Conchords have "a gift of genre-blending that makes even David Bowie's efforts pale in comparison," writes London Time Out. Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie shift comfortably from the soft-hitting hip hop of 'Mutha'uckers' to the admittedly vogueish retro-electro of 'Inner City Pressure', in which they movingly address the urban realities of alienation and second-hand underpants. And in the United States, even though many of the jokes were obviously familiar to the audience at two sold-out shows at Washington D.C.'s Lisner Auditorium, the crowd roared anew at songs like 'Business Time' and 'Robots', a song about "The distant future/The year 2000," when humans had been eliminated by machines. "That confirms a theory that I've had about Washington," Clement said of the crowd response. "That you're all robots." The Conchords' debut self-titled album is released this week in the UK.
(6 May 2008)

Union commute 
First five-eighth and fullback Aucklander Nick Evans has signed a three-year contract with English side the Harlequins for the 2008-2009 Guinness Premiership season. Considered the high-quality understudy to Daniel Carter, Evans is one of many New Zealand players leaving for spells in the UK. The New Zealand Rugby Union is considering tailor-made contracts to allow players to skip overseas - in Carter's case to Toulon in France - and collect mega-bucks in short bursts of a few months. It is an arrangement pioneered by Tana Umaga, who commuted between Toulon and Wellington last season. Chief executive of the Crusaders Hamish Riach said: "They are flexible contracts which would make it easier for guys to have their cake and eat it."
(11 May 2008)

Legacy well spent 
In a helicopter from Queenstown and beyond, over Lake Whakatipu and the Remarkables and then down through Milford Sound, The Mail's John Stapleton is spending his son's inheritance on New Zealand scenery. Queenstown is: "Dramatic, visually arresting and full of young people," Stapleton writes. "'Aspen on Acid' is how Pete Hitchman described it. Pete is a former Duran Duran bodyguard who gave up his rock 'n' roll lifestyle to take old wrecks like us on ten-mile walks through Mount Aspiring National Park. There are so many sensational sights and sounds in the South Island you almost run out of superlatives. Maybe next year we will take another slice out of the son's inheritance and explore there. Sorry, Nick." 
(28 April 2008)

New leathers for Lawless 
Lucy Lawless, has been both trawling the back streets of West Hollywood for replacement leather chaps and performing at the Carling Academy in Islington, London. The lesbian icon, just turned 40, talks to Time Out about Russell Crowe, 'cowboy' vs. 'rock 'n' roll', and those chaps. Lawless is also attending a London Xena Convention at the Hilton Metropole Hotel on Edgware Road. What happens at a convention? "We just yak. I never prepare anything - I just go along, answer the fans' questions, or do a silly little song," she replies. Lawless is currently filming an Adam Sandler comedy, Bedtime Stories in Los Angeles. 
(28 April 2008)

Singer performs on ice 
New Zealand singer/songwriter, Mihirangi has returned from a trip to Antarctica where she filmed a video for her latest single No War. "They put me on this iceberg all by myself!" she said. "It was this million-year-old iceberg, in the middle of nowhere. No one had ever stood on it before." The song No War was inspired by Mihirangi's desire to uncover the reasoning behind wars. "I'm Maori. I come from a warring people. We were warriors. I wanted to find out why humans are constantly going to war." Also a passionate environmentalist, Mihirangi is the Australian director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and is based in Melbourne. 
(3 May 2008)

Otago examines obesity 
A University of Otago study has found that obesity in women may worsen the impact of asthma and also mask its severity in standard tests. The findings were published in the first issue for May of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. It's the first prospective study to find a significant comparative difference between obese and non-obese people in how the lungs and airways respond to a simulated asthma attack. Principal investigator at the University Dr Robin Taylor said among women with greater BMI, an asthma-like episode has the potential to cause greater breathing difficulties than in non-obese women. "Obese individuals lose the ability to inhale as deeply or exhale as fully as normal weight individuals," Taylor said. 
(1 May 2008)

Great spirit returns 
New Zealand's favourite wizard, Sir Ian McKellen will return to the country to reprise his role as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit. McKellen had told Empire before he was cast that he was a very lucky actor and would certainly return to the role if asked. "Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf," McKellen said. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Rings, has also been re-cast. 
(28 April 2008)

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, he also invented the tranquiliser gun, the silent burglar alarm and the childproof bottle cap. Born in Christchurch in 1929 and an inventor not many years later, he successfully built a firearm at the age of ten. At 13, he saved a drowning man in the New Brighton estuary and was awarded the Royal Humane Society Medal. Working late at night at the kitchen table or in his workshop Murdoch was to patent 46 inventions. His most famous and influential invention for the well-being of humankind was the disposable syringe which he developed more than 50 years ago. Murdoch designed a range of pistols, rifles, syringe darts and velocity-controlling telescopic rifle sights, he travelled to Africa to field test them on herds of zebra and antelopes, supervised their commercial production at two Timaru factories, and marketed his equipment worldwide. Within a few years of its establishment in 1961, his company, Paxarms, was exporting products worth some $NZ2 million a year to veterinarians, zoos and hunters around the world. In 2000, Murdoch was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to inventing. In a recent television interview, he said: "I have no regrets and I am very pleased with what I have achieved." Who could deny him that? Colin Murdoch's story features on the nzedge New Zealand Heroes page. He generously contributed photographs, archive material and detailed commentary on his life and work. 
(5 May 2008)

From one village to another 
New Zealand journalist Thomas Butson began his career in copy at New Zealand's Truth, followed by positions at The Toronto Star and from 1968 at The New York Times. In 1992 Butson and his wife bought the ailing 59-year-old Greenwich Village paper The Villager and resumed publishing, saving it from vanishing from existence. In the next seven years, the Butsons transformed a moribund paper into a thriving community weekly, he as editor and Elizabeth as publisher. His New York Times obituary opines: "Butson brought journalistic ambition to a paper that had previously been more of a shopper." He also wrote the first English-language biography of Mikhail Gorbachev, which was published on the day Gorbachev assumed power in 1985. Butson died in Brooklyn, New York in 2000, aged 68. 
(30 April 2008)

Bond says it like it is 
Shane Bond, ex-Black Cap fast bowler and now in the money at the Indian Cricket League's Delhi Giants, says the decision to go to India is a "no brainer". Though he will double his income, Bond says the transfer is not only about finances. His first ICL game last month was "full on, with Russian dancers and Bollywood stars wandering around the grounds while the crowds [went] crazy." But Bond is too candid not to concede that playing for the Delhi Giants will never come close to matching the intense thrill of opening the bowling for New Zealand against Australia. "Test cricket is still the ultimate. Even going to a World Cup doesn't compare to getting the creams on for a Test because it's still the best form of cricket to play. That's why Test cricket will survive. There's too much tradition and modern Test cricket is still exciting to watch. But 50-over cricket will become redundant - it's too boring." 
(29 April 2008)

Maori role models 
New Zealand is a model for Canada in improving its relations with indigenous populations. By adopting lessons from the Maori experience, a report by the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy is urging a change in Canadian aboriginal policy. The report's researcher Joseph Quesnel found in a 10-year study of aboriginals from four countries, that Maori made the greatest gains, with better educational attainment and higher incomes. Here's the important point: "There was an understanding that any movement toward indigenous cultural and political self-determination had to be accompanied by economic self-reliance. They could not call themselves self-governing while receiving handouts and massive government transfers." 
(22 April 2008)

Island Calling at Festival 
New Zealand filmmaker Annie Goldson's An Island Calling, featured at the Canadian International Documentary Festival, explores Fiji's infamous 2001 murders of Red Cross boss John Scott and his partner. "The facts are known about the case. So it isn't an investigation," Goldson said. Her film instead goes behind events to reveal hidden contexts. The New Zealand Herald says Island Calling "is a complicated but clearly articulated story of the toll colonialism, homophobia, evangelical Christianity and the tension between indigenous Fijians, Indians and kai valagi (white Fijians) have taken and continue to take on life in the islands." Goldson's Punitive Damage and Georgie Girl have also been internationally acclaimed. 
(23 April 2008)

Thank goodness for spreadable
One of the greatest inventions of all time, according to the New Zealand Post, is New Zealand's spreadable butter, and the Telegraph's Bee Wilson agrees. "If it weren't for the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, I would still be condemned to start each day in a bad mood, struggling to spread lumps of fridge-cold butter on toast," Wilson writes. "Spreadable butter therefore feels like a gift from a benign providence. When it was launched in Britain in 1991 it was a hit, and is now so popular that butter sales are eating into margarine's profits." Spreadable butter was developed in New Zealand in the 1970s. 
(20 April 2008)

Worth the air miles 
New Zealand could be the most "luxurious destination of all" according to Canadian newspaper The Vancouver Sun in an article which promotes Rotorua's Treetops Lodge and Estate, Waiheke Island and Peter Gordon's Dine. "In the past few decades, New Zealand has quietly become a top-notch - if somewhat far-flung - destination for golfers, sailors, gourmets, wine lovers and spa goers. New Zealand is opening the world's eyes to a new sort of luxury, where the food is fine, the wine is flowing, the accommodation is blissfully comfortable and where there is all the time in the world to enjoy it all." 
(15 April 2008)

At large in Sydney 
New Zealand is well represented at this month's Australian Fashion Week with thirteen fashion designers joining together to create a formidable showroom line-up. These include Kate Sylvester, Cybele, Lonely Hearts and Stitch Ministry. Sylvester opted for a more unusual invitation this year, sending Australian editors small ceramic printed teacups. She returns to the runway with a solo show. Sylvester is winner of the recent NZI National SME Emerging Sustainable Business Awards and told the Dominion Post she is not a green campaigner who started the business to promote a cause. "What we are trying to do is bring sustainable practices on board as part of how we run our business." 
(12 April 2008)

Potentially Pinot 
Though Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc continues its global popularity - sales grew nearly 29 per cent last year - New Zealand winemakers seek a new viticulture challenge. This challenge is Pinot Noir. The winemakers' excitement about Pinot Noir is the converse of their boredom with Sauvignon Blanc. Careful control of yields, and not heavy growth, brings out the grape's best. Humans, not machines, have to harvest the delicate fruit. Oak, not stainless steel, helps the wine. However meanwhile, the US market still savours Marlborough's best: "Not a day goes by that someone doesn't order Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, and interest and demand has remained consistent," says Ken Wagstaff, wine buyer and sommelier at San Francisco's Aqua restaurant.
(11 April 2008)

Sir Geoffrey's TV legacy
Celebrated New Zealand journalist and soldier Sir Geoffrey Cox has died in Britain, aged 97. As editor-in-chief of Britain's ITN from 1956 to 1968, Sir Geoffrey built the foundations of 50 years of popular news coverage and, in 1967, founded News at Ten, ITN's half-hour evening news bulletin. Born in Palmerston North and a student at Otago University, in 1932, after impressing the selection committee with his knowledge of pig-breeding, he won a Rhodes Scholarship. He then covered the Spanish Civil War, the Finnish-Russian conflict, the Anschluss and the German invasion of Belgium and France. A distinguished soldier in the New Zealand Army, while in Crete in 1941, as heavily armed German paratroopers rained down, the journalist in Second Lieutenant Cox was thrilled to be on to a great story. "My first reaction was 'I might be dead by tonight, but by God, I've seen the first airborne invasion in history'," he told NZPA in 2001. He was appointed MBE in 1945, CBE in 1959 and was knighted in 1966 for services to journalism. In 2000, Sir Geoffrey was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. 
(4 April 2008)

NZ's hottest beaches 
New Zealand's four most "sizzling" beaches feature in a Forbes Traveler's 'Sexy Beaches Downunder' slide show. These are: Piha, Hot Water Beach, Onetangi Bay, and Abel Tasman National Park, which receives a "'10' rating for beauty and natural sex appeal in New Zealand's smallest but perhaps most outstanding national park." Forbes says for New Zealanders, sex appeal is one of pure and basic unadulterated aesthetics, not of skimpy togs or a "froo-frooey" cocktail. "For much of the year the beach can be theirs - and theirs alone - for the entire day." 
(3 April 2008)

Aotearoa à la mode 
New Zealand lifestyle and design fills 15 pages in this month's Marie Claire Maison. The French publication's spread includes Outpost Hokianga (Rangi Kipa's Corian Tiki pictured), EON, Stevens Lawson, David Trubridge, Black Barn, Dilana Rugs, 42 Below, Gavin Chilcott, Air New Zealand, the Matakana Cinema, Aotearoa Lamour and artagent.co.nz. The article was based on an itinerary put together by Paris-based company Moaroom, who since 2004, has been collaborating with New Zealand artists, designers and entrepreneurs in Europe. In February this year, Moaroom also worked with windowdressers and stylists of the legendary Parisian department store Printemps to combine David Trubridge's most recent work with the latest fashion collections of Lanvin and Stella McCartney. 
(April 2008)

Sound system men 
Hamilton reggae group Katchafire are touring the US "spreading their Aotearoa Roots" to big crowds from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Hawaii, where the band headlines at the One Love Reggae Festival. Lead singer Logan Bell explains that even though New Zealand isn't traditionally considered a hotbed of reggae music, the country's homegrown variety has a deep and rich history. "There was a statistic I heard, that [New Zealanders] were the biggest buyers of Bob Marley records per capita in the world," Bell says. Katchafire was formed in 1997.
(26 March 2008)

Land this good 
Cape Kidnappers is not only home for thousands of gannets, Wall Street magnate Julian Robertson visits his properties on the scenic coastline every US winter. Robertson, who founded Tiger Management Corp, has recently purchased 6000-acres of land for a sheep and cattle ranch, and his second New Zealand luxury lodge. Over the past decade Robertson has built not one but two of the most highly regarded golf courses in the world in New Zealand. He first visited in 1978 searching for an exotic locale where people spoke English. Robertson found it and decided that, "If you've got land this good, you've got no excuse not to build a wonderful golf course." 
(28 March 2008)

Ancestral art in UK 
George Tamihana Nuku, renowned Maori carver and sculptor, is staging his first solo exhibition at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Middlesbrough, UK. Nuku's exhibition ranges from large carved pieces to traditional Maori weapons, and intricate pieces of personal adornment and jewellery, including the only Maori Hei Tiki neck ornament made of Whitby jet. Film footage will also show the artist undergoing tattooing using traditional Polynesian methods. Nuku, who first visited Middlesbrough in 2006, said: "I am so excited to have the opportunity to display my work at the Museum and to provide a direct link between Cook and my ancestors who first met the great explorer nearly 240 years ago in New Zealand." The exhibition runs through June 1. (25 March 2008)

Donaldson's heist 
Director Roger Donaldson's The Bank Job is the latest flick from the film-maker who began his career in New Zealand with Sleeping Dogs in 1977. Bank Job is "solid entertainment", according to Los Angeles City Beat, achieving "just the right blend of plot mechanics." City Beat says "it's the suspense elements that seem to bring out the best in Donaldson, and The Bank Job, despite a fair amount of humour, is pretty much a straight-out thriller." Donaldson's other material includes Smash Palace (1981), Dante's Peak (1997) and The World's Fastest Indian (2005).
(5 March 2008)

Skier continues streak 
Otago paralympian Adam Hall has slalomed to yet another victory at the Wells Fargo Disabled Invitational at Winter Park in Colorado, climbing to the top of the medal table winning gold, his seventh medal this season. Hall, 20, was ecstatic with the results. "It was an awesome way to finish the season. This has been by far my busiest and successful season to date. There is only one way to keep going and that is up!" he said. Hall's final overall world ranking is 2nd in Slalom and 7th in Giant Slalom. His victory marks the third time he has held the title. 
(4 March 2008)

All for a chat show 
Twenty-two year old Christchurch design student Nick Lowe wants to raise $1 million on You Tube in the hope of millionaire-status and a spot on Ellen Degeneres' talk show. This week Lowe passed the $1,000 mark by offering the opportunity to advertise on 10,000 videos for $100 each. Nick set up mywebbybuddies.com because he wanted to do something creative that would lead to fame and fortune. "After covering the cost of my degree and travel expenses that may arise from the interviews, I'd like to invest the rest for a secure future," Lowe said. 
(5 March 2008)

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 perform Red in Sydney, a triple-bill of works by contemporary choreographers. Artistic director Gary Harris says in touring Australia, there is no point bringing classic works long familiar to audiences. The company has performed in Australia before, but Harris hopes to do a Sydney season every two years. "It's important for the general standard of the company to be compared and critiqued by outside eyes," he says. Later this year, the RNZB perform Romeo & Juliet, and in celebration of Sir Jon Trimmer's 50th year with the company, Don Quixote. 
(25 March 2008)

Fondly remembered 
Sir Edmund Hillary is one of 45 individuals remembered in Time magazine's 2008 'Fond Farewell' tributes. "On May 29, 1953, Hillary, with the help of his Sherpa guide, became the first person to reach Earth's highest point. Standing atop the peak of Mount Everest, the New Zealand-born mountaineer beheld a view never before seen: 'The whole world around us lay spread out like a giant relief map.' It is a feat that has been achieved many times since but never with such resonance." Hillary died in Auckland on 11 January 2008 at the age of 88. 
(29 December 2008)

Zoë the turncoat 
Auckland stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell, 30, stars in American web action series Angel of Death alongside fellow New Zealander, Lucy Lawless. Bell plays a mafia assassin who suffers a catastrophic head wound and subsequently decides to kill the people who once ordered her to kill others. "Besides the elation I feel about having a project I wrote actually being filmed, which is huge for any writer, I'm just as thrilled about having Zoë Bell signed on to star in Angel of Death," said Angel of Death creator/writer Ed Brubaker. Bell began her career leaping from a car in soap Shortland Street before going on to star in Quentin Tarentino's Kill Bill films. She and Monica Staggs (Daryl Hannah's double) won Best Overall Stunt and Best Fight for their fight in Budd's trailer in Kill Bill 2. In 2007 she was cast in the lead role in Tarentino's Death Proof. Angel of Death will premiere in 2009 on www.crackle.com/angelofdeath.
(23 December 2008)

Buggin' out in LA 
Manurewa hip hop artist Demetrius Savelio, 27, better known to his fans as Savage, is interviewed by online music site ARTISTdirect in Los Angeles, where the rapper was shooting a video with California's Baby Bash. "If you can get Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen grinding together," the site explains, "you've got some mad skills. That's exactly what Savage did with 'Swing', the chart-topping single that fuels Knocked Up's pivotal and hilarious club scene. The track is one of many booty-bouncing club-starters on Savage's Dawn Raid Entertainment/Universal Republic debut, Savage Island. "Things have been going great," Savage said. "I'm the first Samoan hip hop artist to go platinum in the U.S. That's a great achievement." Savage is a member of hip hop group Deceptikonz. 
(31 December 2008)

Steve enlivens the game 
Wellington-born caddy Steve Williams has "outraged" everyone "in this politically correct world", but not the writers at the New York Daily News who say rather than offending anyone, Williams has "spiced up a rivalry that lately has been as competitive as Knicks-Celtics." "In the process, he may have given Mickelson the kick in the pants he needs to get going," continues the article. 'He feels bad, what happened,' Woods said of Williams. 'It's something that none of us really wanted to have happen, but it's over and done with and we put it to bed.' Only until the next time they're paired together and Mickelson and Williams have to shake hands on the first tee. Clubs in hand, Mickelson's real response might follow." Williams has used part of his earnings from carrying Tiger Woods' bag to start a charitable foundation to assist junior golfers in New Zealand. 
(20 December 2008)

Truth from wood 
New Zealand furniture designer David Trubridge and his lighting fixtures feature in a Time photo essay. Trubridge is the antithesis of those rock-star product designers who turn up at "design art" auctions in New York City or in the front row of Paris fashion shows. In contrast, this rather shaggy 58-year-old is a fixture on the lecture circuit, where he is a passionate advocate for sustainability and responsibility. When it comes to his own work, however, he prefers to let it do the talking. While sculptural seats and other Trubridge creations are an annual attraction at Milan's Salone Internazionale del Mobile, they begin in a rural wine-growing region that is off the beaten track, even by New Zealand standards; the designer develops his ideas in a garden shed. (It would be an exaggeration to call it a studio.) "I've never claimed any of my stuff is art, and I never will," states Trubridge. "I've got years of experience bending, breaking bits of wood, joining them together," he says. "You have to be able to make things in reality." 
(15 October 2008)

Possums made good 
Founder and CEO of fashion label Untouched World Peri Drysdale — who has an MBE for services to manufacturing and export — began selling garments blended from possum and merino in 1996, later catching the attention of Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Sharon Stone. "The thing we really like about [the possum/merino blend] is it creates a light, luxurious, beautifully soft garment and, unusually for a very fine textile, it has very good long wearing qualities," Drysdale said. Drysdale's Snowy Peak and Untouched World companies are among a rising number of New Zealand firms making products under names such as merinomink, eco-possum, possumdown, eco fur and possum wool. This year, Drysdale was the Supreme winner at the World Class New Zealanders Awards. Drysdale's daughter Emily is Untouched World's design director. 
(21 December 2008)

Northern expansion 
Wellington clothing company Icebreaker has engaged a distributor in Germany, Sweden and Norway, having also opened its first Eastern European sales and marketing office in the Czech Republic earlier this year. The new company, called Icebreaker Pure Merino GmbH, will be based in Starnberg, Germany. The acquisition in Europe is Icebreaker's second of the year and continues the company's growth strategy in Europe, which is now responsible for 30 per cent of the company's worldwide business. Icebreaker has its North American headquarters in Portland. Icebreaker was launched in 1994 and was the first company in the world to develop a merino wool layering system for the outdoors. It was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino direct from growers, a system began in 1997. 
(8 December 2008)

Divine dwellings 
Nelson's Lodge at Paratiho Farms is on the market for $14,500,000 and features alongside a $16,000,000 Coromandel property, both properties included as part of a New Zealand promotion in the autumn edition of Century 21's North American real estate quarterly Fine Homes and Estates. "New Zealand is heavenly," describes the publication. "The Southern Alps, massive caves, deserted beaches, boiling mud, rapid rivers, and hissing geysers make it an extraordinary place to explore or settle." The Lodge at Paratiho Farms was built by Americans Robert and Sally Hunt in 1999. 
(December 2008)

The siege of Helengrad
Antony Green, election analyst with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, summed up Election 08 thus (abridged): “Whether New Zealanders wanted change or just a change of government is the mandate question that John Key will face. He has stressed that he wants to run a centrist government and promised, in the face of a Labour scare campaign, that he will limit himself to the moderate promises he made in the campaign … “There has always been a whiff of political correctness about [Helen] Clark. As a feminist and one of the first women elected to the New Zealand Parliament for Labour, there was always much resentment against her intellect and ambition within Labour ranks. Yet while her personal political views were strongly ideological, as leader of a democratic party she was rarely prepared to take on issues she viewed as electorally divisive or as lost causes. She learned the art of compromise in … the coalition-building required to work politics in an MMP Parliament … Hard work on policy formation and a deep understanding of the process of government and politics made her a formidable politician … “Key comes to power at a difficult time for New Zealand. Economic figures released ahead of the campaign revealed that the country’s economy had moved into recession even before the full effects of the global financial crisis had been felt … “The biggest economic problem faced by Key will be New Zealand’s struggle to retain its younger educated workforce, forever lured across the Tasman or further afield by higher-paying jobs. For much of the Kiwi diaspora, returning home is an ever-present but always impractical dream. Now the country has a Prime Minister who has lived the overseas dream and then returned to try to enrich the land of his birth.” Spectator Australia’s report also noted “The last two decades have also seen New Zealand address the unresolved legal problems stemming from the Treaty of Waitangi…New Zealand has become a country more at ease with its indigenous past than its larger cousin across the Tasman.”
(13 November 2008)

Masterful to the end
Dunedin-born professional chess player and writer Robert Wade has died in London, aged 87, bringing to an end a career which famously included a draw with Bobby Fischer at the Havana tournament in 1965, played by telex. Wade learnt chess moves at the age of eight from his father, a farmer, but did not take the game remotely seriously until high school, when academic success led to his being awarded membership of the Athenaeum Institute, Dunedin, where chess was played and chess books available. He won the New Zealand Championship in 1944 and his second victory the following year led to an invitation, as champion of a Commonwealth country, to the British Championship of 1946. Wade settled in England in 1947 and soon became the country’s most active player. In 1950 he was awarded the title of International Master. He represented England in six Chess Olympiads between 1954 and 1972 – as a selector in 1970 he dropped himself in favour of younger players and represented New Zealand instead. One of Wade’s finest achievements was to set new standards in chess publishing, particularly in the field of opening theory during his editorship of the Batsford series of chess books in the 1970s and 1980s. He remained an active player in his late eighties and returned to New Zealand in 2006 for the Queenstown Open, at which he drew with the winner, the Grandmaster Murray Chandler. 
(30 November 2008)

Pouhaki relocated
In 1920, Maori carver Tene Waitere gifted Prince Edward an eight-metre pouhaki, or flagpole, carved from a single tree trunk. The Prince then bequeathed the pole to Portsmouth Naval Base, where for the past 80 years it has stood forgotten in the Base’s rose garden. At a dedication ceremony attended by the New Zealand high commissioner and other dignitaries on December 4, calming Maori prayers were murmured to a spectacular work of art which has now come to rest in Cambridge University Museum. James Schuster, the great great grandson of the Maori artist, ended each stanza with words meaning “settle down, spirit, settle down”. “There’s lots of my koroua’s (great-great grandfather’s) work all over the place,” says Schuster. “He was a prolific carver. There’s even one of his wharenui (meeting house) in the Hamburg Museum.” “It is no exaggeration to describe this as the most important acquisition by this museum in decades,” Professor Nicholas Thomas, of Cambridge University’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, said. Waitere was born in Mangamuku near Kaitaia in 1854 and died in Rotorua in 1931.
(4 December 2008)

Definitely no regrets 
The Kiwis dismissed the sceptics and the Kangaroos to win the Rugby League World Cup in Brisbane, beating the Australians 34-20, their first ever World Cup win. Outside of the New Zealand camp, few gave the Kiwis a prayer of derailing Kangaroos supposedly awaiting their coronation, but the Kiwis were joyously swinging the clunking piece of silverware around their heads after arguably the sport's greatest upset. The Daily Telegraph described the team as "a driven outfit who delivered spectacularly." "We were really gritty, dragged them into an arm wrestle, and we went from there," coach Stephen Kearney said. Captain Nathan Cayless said the win would "take a long time to sink in" and rated it as a clear career highlight. "For sure, that's my grand final, that's the biggest thing for me. I just can't believe it." 
(23 November 2008)

Made for Manhattan
New Zealand designers are now represented at essenze, a store within a store at the Metropolitan Design Center on Broadway in New York, which opened on November 19. Exporting to the US since 2005, essenze has previously had showrooms in Brooklyn and in Miami, the former store described in a New York listing as having “the work of more than 40 inventive New Zealand designers.” The recent move to Manhattan signifies essenze’s desire to be closer to interior designers and architects. Situated in the Flatiron district, essenze is surrounded by  leading North American and global brands. Founder and director of essenze Clare Mora said: “Our designers have a reputation of producing intelligent design: refreshing, quirky, pure and expressive. Visually we create a further point of difference by presenting the collection ‘gallery-like’, emphasising each statement piece with deserved respect.” essenze was founded in 2004.
(November 2008)

Teaming up for culture
New Zealand and South Korea are forging an artistic alliance with a film co-production treaty signed in September 2007 and the forthcoming New Zealand Cultural Diplomacy International Program which will be held over three days in April 2009. The Program will be the first and largest New Zealand event in Korea and will take place in Seoul. A preview event, ‘Celebrating New Zealand’ held this month “allowed guests to get a quick glimpse of New Zealand culture, which is expected to widen perspectives of the island country to Koreans, about which little is known other than it is an English-speaking country.” New Zealand Ambassador Jane Coombs called the film treaty “a true milestone” in Korea-New Zealand relations.
(23 November 2008)

With loppers at the ready
Conservation Volunteers New Zealand is joined by British gap-year blogger Ruth Holliday who writes about her time spent with the group in the Telegraph, “doing what is best described as heavy gardening in the back of beyond”, working on the construction and maintenance of Te Araroa national pathway. Also called the “Long Pathway”, Te Araroa is funded by a charitable trust and will eventually run the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Bluff. “The embodiment of Te Araroa is a man named Noel,” writes Holliday, “the project’s construction manager — a rangy Kiwi standing over six feet tall, 65 years old and still running marathons after a heart bypass. He wears very tiny shorts — the old-school conservationist look. And he is exactly the kind of person who would choose to trek from one end of New Zealand to the other.”
(25 November 2008)

Top spot for tahrs 
New Zealand is one of the world's top hunting destinations according to Men's Vogue, with New Zealand Wildlife Safaris the magazine's featured tour company. Terry and Glad Pierson have operated Wildlife Safaris since 1978 and their company makes the list alongside others in New Mexico, Oregon, Argentina and Botswana. According to the Wildlife Safaris site: "Most trophies taken score high in the Safari Club International Record Book." Potential trophies include: tahr, chamois, wapiti, fallow buck and red stag.
(November 2008)

Mail man has role in US 
Former New Zealand Post CEO and Royal Mail executive deputy chairman Elmar Toime has been appointed to American online postal service Earth Class Mail Corporation's board of advisors. Toime — who also led the establishment of full-service retail bank, Kiwibank Ltd., as a subsidiary of New Zealand Post — is currently an independent advisor to the postal sector, and brings to Earth Class Mail a track record of innovation in mail-services diversification and national-post management. CEO of Earth Class Mail Ron Wiener said: "Very few executives within the postal industry are afforded the global recognition and respect that Mr Toime is." "Earth Class Mail shows a new and original future for an industry that has had a tradition of innovation," said Toime, "from invention of the humble postage stamp to the creation of telecommunications infrastructure."
(14 November 2008)

Rugby's poster boy 
All Black fly-half Dan Carter, who recently made number 11 on American network E! Entertainment channel's list of the 25 Sexiest Men of the World, this week also featured in CNN's Talk Asia series. Profiled on the CNN site, Carter is described as "New Zealand's unstoppable rugby machine... on course to be the country's top points scorer." "Playing as number 10, Carter is the All Blacks' creative talisman and the one player that can catch the eye with his skill and control a match with his reading of the game. Carter will make new records by becoming the best paid player in club rugby. He's set to earn an estimated $50,000 per game, which in a sport that lags far behind football or American sports in terms of finance is big money." Carter heads to France for a six-month contract at the Perpignan club after the current All Black tour of the UK. 
(9 November 2008)

New Zealander in Ink 
Auckland tattooist Nikole Lowe, 36, is one of four London-based artists featured on the Discovery Channel's six-part reality show London Ink, a series which delves into the world of tattooing. Lowe is interviewed in the Times Online column 'Day in the Life Of'. Currently working at Clerkenwell studio 'Into You', Lowe started tattooing in 1991 at Auckland studio Dermagraphics under the tutelage of the late Phil Matthias. The Discovery Channel London Ink biography describes her as "one of the UK's most sought after artists." "Her particular brand of Japanese bodywork, frequently on a large scale, is highly identifiable and much admired by an ever growing fan base." 
(16 November 2008)

Looking back to black 
Former All Black hooker Anton Oliver, 33, is now studying at Oxford University for an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, but he'll play "one more decent game" against Cambridge in the Nomura Varsity Match on December 11 at Twickenham. Thinking back to the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Oliver says he struggled to take off the All Black jersey for the last time, but he understood better than ever what it had meant to be an All Black. "I knew that night my life as a rugby player was finished. Full stop. Leaving the All Blacks is a bit like leaving the Mafia. When you leave, you leave. You're gone. You're not coming back, mate. Football boots removed, concrete boots go on. That's it. No more." Oliver most recently played for the French second-division club Toulon. 
(16 November 2008)

Key in Clark out 
National Party leader John Key, 47, has ousted Labour's Helen Clark from office and a nine-year term, with a mantra of change. Prime Minister Helen Clark conceded defeat. Clark, 58, has led the country since 1999 and was seeking a fourth term. She said she would remain in Parliament but will quit as Labour Party leader. In his victory speech, Key said: "Today, New Zealand has spoken, in their hundreds of thousands, they have voted for change." Foreign affairs and trade policies are unlikely to change under the new leadership — including the ban on nuclear-powered ships entering New Zealand's ports that has rankled the United States. In other publications, Britain's Telegraph described Key's victory as putting "Boadicea to the sword." In the Guardian: "[Key] has taken a more pragmatic approach by accepting many of the Labour government's policies... by moving [the National Party] towards the centre and broadening its appeal to blue-collar workers." And in the Australian: "Far from killing him, Key, the son of a poor Jewish refugee widow who grew up in a housing commission flat, learnt about making money from hard work. On Saturday night, he achieved the second of his two boyhood goals in life. He wanted to be a millionaire — he achieved that years ago — and he wanted to be the prime minister of New Zealand." 
(8 November 2008)

With eyes for art 
New Zealander Jennifer Flay, artistic director of Fiac (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain), is heading a break-through at the contemporary Parisian art fair, a role she was appointed to in 2003. "While location is one of Fiac's trump cards, it has others. French resident and ex-dealer Jennifer Flay is universally praised for adding a more international dimension to the fair," writes The Art Newspaper. "This year 61 per cent of exhibitors were non-French." Flay ran her own gallery in Paris, Galerie Jennifer Flay, for 12 years. Attributed with an expert eye and a flair for discovery, Flay was one of the first people to exhibit the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andrea Zittel, John Currin, Karen Kilimnik, Dominque Gonzalez-Foerster and Claude Closky. 
(30 October 2008)

Gift giving with film 
Auckland-born artist Sriwhana Spong, 29, celebrates her Balinese heritage in "distinctively grainy 'amateur'" Super 8 films like 2005's Muttnik and its sequel Nightfall, works which have been exhibited throughout the world. Interviewed in Art World Spong explains that Muttnik is about offerings to God, "offerings as assemblages" given as "an outsider in relation" to her Balinese heritage. "The way I move with the camera is also important — in fact, someone commented on the 'dance-like' quality of my work," Spong says. She is a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts and is represented by Auckland's Anna Miles Gallery.
(October/November 2008)

Winning ways 
Former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick has been asked to take part in a one-on-one mentoring initiative with a group of young Scotland players. Fitzpatrick will be linked with Ross Ford, the present Scotland hooker who, barring injury, is certain to retain his place for the international on November 8, as part of the 'Winning Mentors' programme. The idea is that former union stars will work with the younger players, helping them to achieve all that they can in the sport. If the pilot programme in rugby is a success, it will be rolled out to other sports, with hockey probably next in line. Winning Mentors manager Scotland and British Isles fly half Gregor Townsend said of those selected: "It is about passing on their knowledge — and the knowledge we have within the programme is fantastic." Fitzpatrick is a motivational speaker and analyst for the BBC and Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. 
(28 October 2008)

In the hot-seat 
New Zealander Geoff Vuleta, co-founder and chief executive of New York-based innovation consultancy company Fahrenheit 212, commutes between the US city, and home to Auckland every 8 weeks. Vuleta discusses his frequent-flyer lifestyle, and long-haul travel mayhem, in The New York Times. "I do try and roll with whatever comes my way. But sometimes my brain morphs into mush from all the travel," he says. Vuleta began a 20 year career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather in New Zealand. Before opening Fahrenheit 212 in 2002, he was CEO of New Zealand's leading advertising company Saatchi & Saatchi. Fahrenheit 212 undertakes assignments for companies including The Coca Cola Company, Warner Music Group, The Hershey Company, Procter & Gamble, Gucci Group, Diageo, and Samsung. 
(27 October 2008)

Lakeside hedonism 
Blanket Bay luxury lodge on the shores of Lake Wakatipu is the starting point for any adventure a guest can imagine, but it is also home to some very fine cuisine, according to The Australian's Michelle Rowe. "Blanket Bay is able to offer a daily changing menu serving the best seasonal produce with no worries about skimping on ingredients, and the flexibility of guests eating at whatever hour of evening they choose. The majority of the lodge's guests are from North America, followed by Europeans. Australians make up about 10 per cent of visitors. The lodge is just far enough away from Queenstown to escape the ski crowds but sufficiently close to take in the best of the central Otago wine region and surrounds." 
(1 November 2008)

Pig cell go-ahead 
New Zealand's Living Cell Technologies, a company founded by Aucklander Professor Bob Elliott, who has pioneered research in the treatment of type-1 diabetes, has been given approval to trial the transplantation of insulin-producing pig cells into humans. Islet cells from the pancreas of pigs are coated with a seaweed gel and implanted into the abdomen of patients to manufacture insulin and help control their blood sugar levels. Professor Elliott said that his reaction was one of huge excitement and relief. "This is a world first," Elliot said. "It will do something that I think all diabetics have been wanting, which is a self-regulating cell able to produce insulin on demand and stop producing when it's not needed." The implants, to be marketed as DiabeCellB, have been tested at relatively low dosages on a handful of volunteers in Russia since June this year. 
(21 October 2008)

Everyman in the lens 
Northland photographer Ross T. Smith exhibits images of subject Hemi Tuwharerangi Paraha at the Visual Arts Gallery of the University of Alabama through November 1. The images [of Paraha] are powerfully elemental. He becomes a sort of everyman who is also unique. His dark skin, tattoos and sullen and brooding countenance project a hostile native wisdom that conveys innermost emotions about being an outsider in his homeland. Curator Brent Levine describes the photographs: "We see a man we will never know, but who is fundamentally a part of all of us. These images call the entire history of the representation of Maori males into question precisely in the manner in which they suggest who Paraha is and, at the same time, react against the traditional representations which have reflected, if not repressed, young Maori males to this day." Smith has a Masters in Architecture from the University of Auckland. 
(26 October 2008)

Sailing event makes NZ 
Lake Rotorua will host the 2009 IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships from 12-21 March. Organizing committee chairman Don McGowan says the goal is to provide a world class regatta, combined with a true New Zealand experience for the crews and supporters. "We are expecting between 15 and 25 crews to compete in the event, and so far we have had interest from the United States, Britain, France, Ireland, Norway and Israel," McGowan says. New Zealand will also be entering a team, following on from its first, second and third placings in the three different categories at the 2006 event held at Rhode Island, New York. "The sighted people essentially perform support roles in the crew. The tactician is a sighted person, but the yacht is skippered by a blind person. A sighted person is not allowed to touch the helm at all." 
(20 October 2008)

Triumph for the Ferns 
The Silver Ferns have won the deciding netball test against England 61-22 in the best of three series final in Palmerston North. Both teams came out firing on Saturday night but it was the Silver Ferns who hit a five-goal streak early on to take the lead. Irene van Dyk, playing her 90th test for New Zealand, showed her class with the elusive 100 per cent game for 41 goals. Ferns coach Ruth Aitken praised her team's success: "It's been a very up and down week ... Obviously, they have done really well and I am very proud of them - I think we were really committed." The team next takes on Australia in the Holden Test Series in Melbourne on October 26, then again in Brisbane on November 2. 
(18 October 2008)

Fonterra’s melamine nightmare
Criminal contamination of the milk supply chain in China embroiled New Zealand’s largest commercial organization Fonterra in a crisis that left four babies dead and 3,000 still in hospital. An estimated 54,000 children were poisoned after consuming milk formula tainted with the waste chemical melamine, which was added to raw milk to increase protein content. Official delays in recalling product and informing the public compounded the human dimensions of this crisis. Fonterra is the world’s largest dairy exporter, responsible for more than a third of international dairy trade. It has written down its 43% investment in Chinese dairy brand Sanlu, and donated $8.4 million to set up a rural healthcare project. Several inquiries are underway to ensure this never occurs again. Commentators have drawn lessons for New Zealand exporters. 
(27 October 2008)

Not just a uniform
The All Blacks will sport new Adidas-sponsored jerseys ahead of the Bledisloe Cup match against the Wallabies in Hong Kong on November 1. The initiative, which was created in partnership with advertising agency TBWA New Zealand, centres around the individual meaning of the iconic black jersey for each of the team's 22 members, as well as their fans. A series of posters bearing the line 'This is not a Jersey', along with star players such as captain Richie McCaw and Milas Muliaina, aim to extend the significance of the garment from that of an item of clothing to one of a symbol of national pride, unity and bravery. 
(20 October 2008)

Eight points up 
Wanganui teenage racing driver Earl Bamber has taken a podium finish at China's Formula 1 Grand Prix meeting in Shanghai, repeating his recent result as part of the A1 New Zealand team in the Netherlands. The 18-year-old proved just as competitive in his GP2 class debut in China, qualifying his My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara ninth and starting Sunday's 120km feature race from P3 on the second row of the grid after finishing sixth in his debut race in the category on Saturday. The result is that Bamber heads to the second round of the 2008/09 GP2 Asia Series at Dubai in the UAE in December fourth overall with eight points. "We know we can compete with these guys, so let's hope we can continue in the next couple of races. It's a very high level of driving," Bamber said. 
(19 October 2008)

On board solo 
Rob Thomson, 28, a Canterbury University arts graduate from Christchurch, has completed the longest unassisted skateboard journey ever made, travelling for 462 days over 12,000km from Leysin, Switzerland across Europe, North America and China to Shanghai. Thomson said other long distance skateboarding feats had involved support teams and he had wanted to do his unaided, carrying his own gear and being self-sufficient. "I took a couple of years of my life to put myself outside of my comfort zone," he told New Zealand's National Radio. After a rest in Shanghai, Thompson will return to New Zealand and bike from Auckland home to Christchurch. He hopes to have the odyssey recognised by Guinness World Records. 
(3 October 2008)

For the animals 
Since 2005, Auckland-born Briar Simpson has worked in Japan for the Tokyo branch of non-profit organisation Animal Refuge Kansai, where she finds homes for animals and coordinates fundraising and educational programmes for children. A resident of Japan for 16 years, Simpson has been directly or indirectly involved in helping find homes for some 120 animals. "It's the single most stressful job I've ever had. It's also the best job," Simpson says. After receiving a business degree in finance in New Zealand, she came to Japan and completed her Masters in international trade at Waseda University. Wanting to volunteer at a shelter, she heard of ARK, contacted them and was offered a job at its then new Tokyo branch. 
(11 October 2008)

Luxurious technology 
New Zealanders Jeremy, Simon and Dareen Doherty have won first prize in an international design competition for their swan-shaped 'Swarovski Mouse', beating some 4074 individuals and institutions from 92 countries. The 'Crystal Vision' competition was run by European e-zine Designbloom in association with luxury Austrian crystal manufacturer Swarovski. The Dohertys describe the mouse as "a play on the form of the Swarovski logo" which was imagined by "manipulating the design of an item used everyday into a sensual and feminine form ... creating a personal gesture for the urban lifestyle of the working woman." 
(1 September 2008)

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 amazing scenery abound in the Land of the Long White Cloud," writes Richard Tulloch. "And when it comes to playing outside, those New Zealanders punch well above their weight. They've done a brilliant job of turning their country into an open-air gym." The nine tracks and their huts are kept in better condition than those on other routes and, in peak periods, a booking system allows hikers to reserve accommodation. 
(28 September 2008)

Big Red excitement 
Queenstown's Shotover Jet is described by Washington Post reporter Barbara Bradlyn Morris, as one of a number of thrilling tourism activities available for kicks in the "Home of Extreme Sports and Hearty Sun-Bronzed Young People in Denim Cutoffs." "The adventurous atmosphere was infectious. It dared us to abandon our café-sitting ways," Morris writes. "The first minute of the 25-minute ride was truly terrifying ... Then something extraordinary happened. Suddenly I was hit by the natural high described in the Shotover Jet brochure: 'a sense of euphoria as your brain takes in a cocktail of oxygen, sugar, adrenaline, cortisol and endorphins.' The 25 minutes flew by. We left the river feeling as vigorous as Kiwis and, like a thrill-crazed kid. I wanted to do it again." 
(5 October 2008)

Willis' photo finish
Olympic bronze medallist Lower Hutt athlete Nick Willis, 25, has won New York's Fifth Avenue Mile, a race which John Walker won in 1984. Michigan-based Willis finished in 3 minutes, 50.5 seconds to edge American Olympian Bernard Lagat by 0.1 seconds. "From my experiences at the Olympics and a couple of other races in Europe, I've learnt that, even in that much pain, I can hold my form in a certain way that can get me an extra inch or two that is needed to win the race," he said. "I just eked it out, dipped over the line, and no-one knew who had won. They thought it might have been a dead heat, but then they looked at photo finish and I'd won by 0.1sec."
(21 September 2008)

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. Wood had been living at his own resort in Fiji when the idea came to him. He has now spent more than $US20 million on 11 properties (including two yachts) that come with concierge, maid service and food and luxury vehicles. Current destinations include a six-bedroom home in Beaver Creek, Colorado, a 17th century, five-bedroom Tuscan villa set among an olive grove and a lodge in Aspen Grove, Queenstown. Wood says his clients crave the multi-millionaire's lifestyle, complete with yachts, sports cars and private jets, but don't want the bill that comes with it. "Our clients are often able to afford numerous international holidays and holiday homes. But they lead busy lives and don't want the burden of ownership," he says. Wood says he and his family do not have to leave New Zealand for California-based DHH to be a success. "We'll always live here permanently because it's home."
(23 September 2008)

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 New Zealand. "New Zealanders are very proud of their indigenous Maori culture," Keoghan says in the interview. "We were looking to get something of that in the show. We ended up having the teams search for Maori warriors on an extinct volcano (near Auckland), and it was the most magical morning when they arrived: As the sun was rising, there were these warriors doing the haka with a magnificent rainbow over the top of the hill." 'The Amazing Race' won an Emmy this year for best Reality-Competition Programme, the show's sixth such accolade. 
(25 September 2008)

Emotional win
The All Blacks have retained the Tri-Nations title for the fourth successive year, beating the Wallabies 28-24 in Brisbane. Sustained by the brilliance of captain Richie McCaw and also Rodney So'oialo, the All Blacks scored three tries in 17 minutes. Dan Carter's three conversions which pulled them clear completed a stellar performance. "It was just a sweet feeling. We have won four Tri-Nations titles but this was probably the sweetest because we had a number of new guys who had never played before," said coach Graeme Henry. Former All Black captain David Kirk, who led the All Blacks to a Rugby World Cup victory in 1987, wrote: "The All Blacks played calm, intelligent rugby while the Wallaby fire raged about them. They won less than 40 per cent of the ball in the first half and spent virtually no time in the Wallaby 22 ... And through it all they kept their composure and they won well." 
(15 September 2008)

Over the Alps
On the TranzAlpine, India's Economic Times reporter's travel from Canterbury, taking in mesmerising views of the Waimakiriri, through the Otira tunnel and on to Punakaiki and Greymouth. "The highest viaduct, 73m above the river, is quite appropriately called the 'staircase'! The views around changed again, with plateaux around and hills in the horizon fading away in the blue sky." At Punakaiki: "We were transfixed by a traffic sign that warned us of crossing penguins! Nowhere in the world had I seen this sign and we craned our necks hoping to see one of these sombre looking creatures!"
(18 September 2008)

Pride in heritage
New Zealand's first Governor-General of Asian descent Anand Satyanand - who recently paid a visit to India - is the subject of an article in The Times of India, which discusses how "the heirs and successors of Indian indentured labour have become the new Establishment." As Satyanand said in his address in Delhi, "I retain with pride the girmitya (indentured labour) shipping papers of my grandparents and the link they represent with my Indian heritage." For Satyanand to pay a state visit to India, as New Zealand's highest representative, underlines the increasingly high profile ethnic Indians enjoy in the countries they now call home. Satyanand replaced Dame Silvia Cartwright as Governor-General of New Zealand on 23 August 2006.
(14 September 2008)

Teen bags four medals
Christchurch 15-year-old Sophie Pascoe - the youngest participant at the Beijing Paralympics - has won four medals: golds in the 200m individual medley, in the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke and a silver medal in the 100m butterfly swim. Pascoe dedicated one of the golds to her late grandfather. "My grandfather passed away four years ago and I said to him, 'I will go to Beijing and win a gold medal for you.' I gave it my best and I got him the gold," she said. Pascoe lost a lower leg in a lawnmowing accident when she was two. Teammate Wellington lawyer and cyclist Paula Tesoriero, 33, won a gold medal in the Women's 500m Time Trial setting a new world record with a time of 43.281 seconds, and a second medal, a bronze, in the individual pursuit. "I feel fantastic. Absolutely fantastic," Tesoriero said after her 500m win. "The race went exactly to plan. It was a bit tight toward the end, but I finished around half a second between gold and silver."
(8 September 2008)

Look up without pain
New Zealander Darrell Poole invented the neck safety-device Necprotech after surviving a rock-climbing accident in 1998 which saw him fall six metres because of a slack rope. Poole fell after his belayer - the climber's buddy who watches the ascent and feeds the rope to ensure that it stays taut in the event of a fall - had stopped looking up because his neck hurt. Poole made the prototypes in his shed at home. Leeds entrepreneur Nigel King and Poole's brother, Brendon then presented Necprotech on venture capitalist show Dragons' Den and received NZ $300,000 (£114,442), the highest sum of money won on the show. The device is marketed at those who spend a lot of time looking up, like those working in overhead power maintenance work, mining, fruit picking and forestry. "The head is very weak - it weighs about 14lb, the same as a bowling ball - and if you lean back it puts a lot of stress on the neck. There are about 1.2m people in the UK with muscular skeletal disorders, and we believe Necprotech will reduce stress on neck muscles by an average of 35 per cent," said King. 
(11 September 2008)

Persistence in love
On Maud Island, evolutionary biologists from the University of Toronto have been studying the mating habits of giant male Cook Strait weta. Not only do males travel more than twice as far as females but small, long-legged individuals walked further, acquired more mates, and transferred more spermatophores to females. Biologist Clint Kelly said the findings are a rare example of sexual selection favouring traits that promote greater mobility in one sex only. "This is exciting because it suggests that sexual selection for smaller, more mobile males could be responsible for some of the impressive sexual difference in body size in this species," Kelly said. This phenomenon may also help to explain why males are smaller than females in some other animals. Male weta can walk over 90 m each night in search of a mate - roughly equivalent to a 7000 m outing by a human male. 
(5 September 2008)

Hill moves into the US 
Michael Hill International (MHI) has purchased 17 stores in the American cities of Chicago and Missouri for a sum of US$5.5 million (NZ$8.1 million). "Chicago is a good market for a newly arrived retailer, partly because of the geographic time overlaps between Chicago and Australasia and because Chicago is a non-coastal, dense, sophisticated metropolitan hub that a lot of retailers consider a good mix," said Chris Ellis, a partner with Boston-based investment banking firm Consensus Advisors, which is representing Michael Hill in the United States. The Michael Hill jewellery company operates 210 stores in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Michael Hill opened the company's first store in Whangarei, in 1979. 
(23 August 2008)

Islands preserved
New Zealand tourism is as much reliant upon maintaining the highest environment standards and preserving the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga - guardianship of the land and the animals - as it is giving visitors a great experience, say industry leaders. New Zealand Tourism chief executive George Hickton said New Zealand was aiming to become the world's first carbon-neutral nation, beginning with offsets through tree planting and working up to the use of technology to minimise emissions. "Kaitiakitanga guides us to preserve and protect Aotearoa for generations to come," Hickton said. "I think we can show how a small country that cares can get it right." Department of Conservation director-general Al Morrison emphasised the more than eight million hectares of public conservation land, one-third of the country's area, didn't just belong to New Zealanders. "Because New Zealand is such an isolated island nation, its plant and animal life has evolved uniquely," Morrison said. "We do not believe that it belongs only to us. We think we have a responsibility to the world to ensure that this place remains for all to enjoy and benefit from." 
(7 September 2008)

Edges painted black 
New Zealand artists New York/Auckland-based Max Gimblett (above) and Judy Millar of Auckland, (below) feature in a group show exploring "different aesthetic angles using black", in an exhibition entitled, 'Edges of Darkness' at Berlin's Hamish Morrison Galerie. The gallery site explains: "Rather than a severe, minimalist or monochromatic standpoint this is a colourful exhibition of black." 'Edges of Darkness' runs 5 September through 25 October. Gimblett's work will also be shown at New York's Guggenheim Museum in a show entitled, 'The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989', in January 2009. 

(25 August 2008)

Filming the Arabian dream
New Zealand writer and director Craig Johnson, who has lived in Dubai since 2003, is about to begin filming an English-language production based on expatriate life in the city, to be released in time for the Dubai Film Festival. "It used to be the American dream but now it's the Arabian dream that modern day emigrants seem to be chasing," Johnson says. To be shot in Bombay and throughout Dubai, Johnson says the film industry has a lot of potential in the City of Gold. "For the canny businessman it could be an investment with returns that can rival and exceed real estate." Johnson's feature-length screenplay Repping was purchased by Hollywood-based Supreme Media Group in late 2007 and goes into production next year.
(25 August 2008)

From within the soul
Lower Hutt runner Nick Willis surged forward in the final moments of the men's 1500m for third place, in a race Willis' University of Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said the 25-year-old "always had the talent to do." "Wow. What a night for New Zealand. What a night for Michigan," said Warhurst. Willis said all the training was worth it. "There's 91,000 people screaming for you. You just get it. It comes back from al the training you've done, the speed work on the track, the 22-mile runs. That's where you get it from." Willis said his mind and soul were split between two continents as he took a long victory lap around the Bird's Nest. John Walker, who won gold in the 1500m at Montreal in 1976, told NZPA it was an "outstanding performance" in a competition where two of the top ranked runners in the world had failed to even make the semis. In cycling news at the Beijing Olympics, New Zealand's men's pursuit team also won bronze. 
(20 August 2008)

Fraser's film premiere
New Zealand film director Toa Fraser's latest feature, Dean Spanley, is to have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 6. The film is part of the 'gala programme' which is described by the Festival as a "high profile showcase of films with major impact." Dean Spanley, a comedy period piece set in Edwardian England, stars Sam Neill in the title role and Oscar winner Peter O'Toole. "The gala screening represents a spectacular launching pad for Dean Spanley," Fraser said. "We put our hearts and souls into making the movie and I can't wait to see it up there on the big screen at one of the world's most prestigious festivals." The movie is Fraser's second feature; his first, No. 2, won the audience prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Apron Strings - directed by Sima Urale and set in Auckland suburb, Otahuhu - has also been selected for screening at the Toronto Film Festival. 
(19 August 2008)

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 past year, Finn has worked towards the show, shaping chicken wire into bodices and bird cages, "scratching myself to pieces in the process". Finn, who is married to Crowded House frontman Neil Finn, has pursued art as a hobby and sometime career. Chandeliers became her trademark several years ago when she helped design a set for one of her husband's tours. She sells her creations at her shop in Auckland, but had to be convinced by her friends to open a show. As the deadline approached, she recruited the same friends to help thread beads and shape wire. "It was all a bit like a sewing circle, except that we drank lots of pinot as we worked." 'The Gilded Cage' runs through August 30.
(19 August 2008)

Ideas of transformation 
Upper Hutt-born painter Shane Cotton recently held a three-month residence at Sydney's Artspace where he prepared works for upcoming 2008/9 shows at Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland and Kaliman Gallery in Sydney. Art World's Laura Murray talked to Cotton in Sydney about his latest paintings and the "idea of change; of something that is about to happen or has just happened." "Dream Number 1 (2008), from a suite of four," describes Murray, "is a confronting yet perversely beautiful painting. Uncluttered. There is, as Cotton remarks, 'space for things to happen, for contemplation'." Cotton is one of six New Zealand artists commissioned by The Pindrop Foundation to produce ten limited edition box sets of screen prints for the 2008 Art of Hearing initiative, which raises funds and awareness about cochlear implants.
(August/September 2008)

Kiwi-pukapuka relocate
Little Spotted Kiwi, the second rarest kiwi species, have been reintroduced onto Fiordland's Chalky Island for the first time in a century. Sponsors of the transfer, South Island tour operators Real Journeys, joined iwi and Department of Conservation staff to move the first of 40 birds from Kapiti Island to the predator-free island. In 1900 Richard Henry who was caretaker of Resolution Island - the world's first island sanctuary for birds - predicted: "I think that the brown kiwi and kakapo will be too strong for the weasels, but the Little Spotted Kiwis will soon go". With the transfer in August, DOC biodiversity programme manager Murray Williams said once established on Chalky Island, the population of kiwi may be used as a source for transfers to other predator-free islands throughout Fiordland. The kiwi join other reintroduced species, including Mohua, Saddleback and Orange-fronted Parakeets. 
(August 2008)

Record without air
Wellington architect Kathryn McPhee, 29, has broken a freediving world record by two metres swimming underwater without breath for 151 metres, in a time of 2mins 48sec. Freediving, also known as breath-hold or apnoea diving, uses no breathing apparatus and McPhee says the challenge is as much mental as physical. "It's definitely mind over matter. The body goes through different phases; you have to continually resist the physical urge to breathe." To prepare for the event, her warm-up routine included 15 minutes of full body stretches and up to half an hour of lung stretches, involving long, deep inhalation. The dive, swum at Porirua's Aquatic Centre, was the last national competition before the world championships in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, in September.
(10 August 2008)

Montreal bound
New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey stars in the Anthony McCarten-directed Show of Hands, which has been selected for its world premiere at this year's Montreal Film Festival. Show of Hands is based on McCarten's novel of the same name and is set in and around a Taranaki car-yard, where an endurance competition with a difference is being staged. McCarten - whose first feature film Via Satellite was adapted from his own award-winning stage play - said: "Being officially selected for a festival like Montreal, consequently, is a great compliment and an endorsement that all the work might not have been in vain." Show of Hands premieres in New Zealand in November. Lynskey next appears in Steven Soderbergh's thriller, The Informant, in which she plays opposite Matt Damon. 
(8 August 2008)

Confronting history
Historian and media commentator Paul Moon's latest book This Horrid Practice delves into the subject of Maori cannibalism, the author arguing that the amount of evidence of the action was "overwhelming" and "too important to ignore." Moon says the widespread practice of cannibalism was not a food issue, rather that people were eaten often as part of post-battle rage. Horrid Practice looks at how explorers and missionaries saw cannibalism, and in the final chapter, Moon discusses why some academics still deny that it ever happened. Moon is Professor of History at the Auckland University of Technology's Te Ara Poutama, where he has taught since 1993. He is author of a number of books, including biographies of Governors William Hobson and Robert FitzRoy, and Nga Puhi chief, Hone Heke. 
(6 August 2008)

Bond director's edge
Hastings-born film and television director Martin Campbell - most well-known for James Bond hits Casino Royale and GoldenEye - begins shooting his latest Hollywood feature, Edge of Darkness, this month. The film, which stars Robert de Niro and Mel Gibson, is based on Campbell's 1985 BAFTA-award-winning BBC television serial of the same name. Shooting of the Edge begins this month in Massachusetts. Campbell also directed the Zorro films and is currently in talks to remake the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds. UK-based Campbell made his directorial debut on the British police action series The Professionals, and continued with the popular BBC series Shoestring and Thames TV's Minder. 
(1 August 2008)

Imagination roars to life
Christchurch inventor Glenn Martin's ultralight aircraft, the Martin Jetpack, a $100,000 "jetski for the sky" able to climb to heights of almost 2500m, has been launched at an aerospace show in Wisconsin. No more traffic jams as you slice through the air at speeds of up to 186mph. Developed in secret over the past 10 years by Martin, his son, Harrison, 16, showed it off without mishap. Buyers of the $100,000 contraption will not need a special licence to fly, and if that sounds alarming, rest assured that Martin's company will insist that every purchaser take a training course before turning the ignition key. One of the test pilots was Martin's wife, Vanessa. "It was really an exciting experience, because at the time it was just a prototype. It was very loud, very noisy, very hot. It was like a beast that roars," she said. "But once you throttle up, you feel it bite, and you leave the ground, and there's this feeling of floating and freedom - you become quite overwhelmed." 
(30 July 2008)

Diamond crafted illusions
Christchurch jeweller Jessica McCormack is recommended in July's Harpers Bazaar magazine, which describes the London-based designer's diamond creations as "strong and meticulous." "Driven by a desire to make precious objects accessible and wearable with anything from your jeans to your little black dress, McCormack is a real gem - creating jewel encrusted pieces which substitute the real world for her own fantasy landscape." McCormack features in the second edition of 'London Rocks', a selling exhibition featuring 18 talents at Sotheby's Bond Street location in September. And in UK trade magazine J-Dex, director of fine jewellery retailer Diamondcelebrations.com Saul Singer is quoted: "We love Jessica McCormack's strikingly creative approach to celebration jewellery. Her jewellery includes delicate earrings crafted from antique pen nibs. Heaven only knows what she has in mind for engagement rings."
(July 2008)

Memories of Bledisloe
In 2000, in front of 109,874 spectators jammed into Sydney's Stadium Australia, Jonah Lomu landed the tenth try in a nerve-racking Bledisloe match beating Australia 39-35. Swerving in towards his wing opponent, Andrew Walker, drawn infield in defence, stepping wide again and surging over for the final score of the game, asked how he felt, Lomu whispered: "Relief more than anything else. Hopefully, we did the country proud." He did, and also the game. It was, as the headline writer penned: "The Night Heaven came to Earth." In 1931, New Zealand's Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, presented the ornate, metre-high silver trophy for perpetual rugby battles between the Anzac nations. New Zealand won the first, 20-13. 
(26 July 2008)

Hart's net worth
Auckland investor Graeme Hart, 53, owner of the world's second-largest drink-carton maker, Alcoa Inc. has surpassed both Donald Trump and Sir Richard Branson in the wealth stakes, doubling his bank account over the past year. According to the National Business Review's 2008 Rich List Hart is worth $6 billion, one of six New Zealand billionaires. Hart's private investment company Rank Group bought Alcoa packaging and consumer business for $2.7 billion in December. The NBR 2008 list includes 178 entrants with a combined wealth of NZ$44.4 billion, up from NZ$38.6 billion last year. Rank Group is the 100 per cent owner of food manufacturer Burns Philp and paper business Carter Holt Harvey. 
(25 July 2008)

Sunshine travels 
Auckland band the Ruby Suns are fusing the sounds of the South Pacific and California, "bridging the gap between world music and pop." Sole permanent member of the band, American Ryan McPhun permanently resettled in Auckland and took up work as a musician, initially playing drums for the Brunettes. "I met a lot of people in New Zealand who influenced what I was listening to," McPhun explains, "which then changed what kind of music I was making." McPhun began moulding the Ruby Suns' eclectic sound, which owes as much to California's musical legacy (most notably the Beach Boys) as to the native Maori traditions of his adopted country. As a two-piece the band is currently on tour in the US, with a number of dates supporting Nebraskan indie pop group, Tilly and the Wall. The Ruby Suns formed in 2004. 
(25 July 2008)

Introducing Tauwhitu 
In a Kerikeri pub sometime in the 1980s, Boston author Christina Thompson met a group of Maori having pints after a day spent diving for crayfish and uses this first encounter with native New Zealanders as the starting point of her travel memoir, Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All. Thompson continues with this meeting-of-alien-peoples theme as the link between the memoir part of her book, in which she is cast as a kind of explorer charting new cross-cultural territory in her relationship with Maori foundryman, Tauwhitu ("I was small and blond, he was a 6-foot-2, 200-pound Polynesian. I had a Ph.D., he went to trade school"), and the history part (the European discovery and colonisation of New Zealand). A Philadelphia Inquirer review writes: "Charming, insightful, honest, balanced, the book offers a unique look at the pressures of marriage across cultural, racial, and geographical boundaries." 
(20 July 2008)

At the helm of Harrod's
Former Wellington business man James McArthur, 48, has been appointed chief executive officer and Group chief of Harrod's, reporting to chairman Mohamed Al Fayed. A 12-year Gucci Group veteran, McArthur was most recently president and CEO of Balenciaga. In his new position—a newly-created role—McArthur will oversee the Knightsbridge department store, as well as the real estate, aviation, and airport terminal retail outlets. Speaking from London, McArthur said he had "the best job in the world". "Harrods is the most extraordinary place. It's special in the hearts of everyone around the world. What other single store is known around the globe?" Al Fayed said of McArthur's appointment that "James will bring a complementary set of strategic and leadership skills to our overall group of businesses that will help us to strengthen and propel the evolution of the organisation and its subsidiaries." McArthur graduated from Victoria University in Wellington with first class honours and completed his MBA at Harvard in 1987. 
(9 April 2008)

Boscombe breaks 
Raglan-based marine consultants ASR Limited have designed a £3 million artificial reef at Boscombe beach in Bournemouth; work will begin on the seabed project in the next few months with a completion date of late October. ASR is then moving on to Kovalam in southern India, where it has carried out a feasibility study for two reefs in Goa. If Boscombe is a success it expects other British seaside towns to be banging on its door. ASR director Shaw Mead said many beaches in the UK and elsewhere have good swell but no natural breaks. "It's rare that Mother Nature creates the conditions for great surfing. But we can help create those conditions," Mead said. ASR also designed the first full-scale movable reef floor, VersaReef, for Florida's Orlando Surfpark and Mount Maunganui's Mount Reef. 
(17 July 2008)

Joltin' with the Jays 
Aucklander Scott Campbell, 23, shook hands with Joe DiMaggio in 1995 as a New Zealand representative at the World Children's Baseball Fair in Japan and this week, 13 years later, Campbell played Dimaggio's Yankee Stadium, as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays in the Futures Game. An annual component of All-Star Week, the event showcases top minor-league prospects in a game that pits a United States club against a team of players from other nations. Campbell, now a second baseman, was nine when his mother saw a newspaper ad for a children's baseball program. "No other sport really jumped out at me, so I just decided to give it a go," he said. He was a natural. In 2006, Toronto made him the first New Zealander ever drafted.
(13 July 2008)

Maori treasure in Ireland 
The extensive Maori art collection - part of a larger ethnological collection of exotic Pacific art - at Dublin's National Museum includes, the Meyler collection, pieces Captain James Cook acquired on his voyages and items donated by Irishmen who were involved in the Maori Wars. One of those soldiers was Captain Meyler, who donated a "particularly attractive" greenstone tiki and a rare whalebone weapon. Irish Arts also describes a "small carved feather box covered with spiralling patterns and a pair of heads linked together by a protruding tongue ... an exquisite example of Maori technical craftsmanship." Other artefacts in the collection range from canoe prow ornaments and utilitarian paddles to basalt and greenstone adze used for tree felling and carving out canoes. 
(June 2008)

Grass court skill 
New Zealand's Number 1 tennis player Marina Erakovic, 20, who has risen 100 places in world rankings to within the top 50, is compared with sporting great Justine Henin on Wimbledon's official site. In her second round match against German Julia Goerges, Erakovic went into the match with "an astonishing statistic." "She is third in the all-time grass court leaders behind Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, with a win percentage of 87.5 per cent, just ahead of Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams. With her 35 wins and five losses record on the surface, she controlled the match. Like Justine Henin, the New Zealander is an amazing striker of the ball and has every shot in the book. Furthermore, she showed great maturity for her age in knowing what shot to play." Later this year, Erakovic will compete in the Beijing Olympics and at the US Open. 
(26 June 2008)

Short lines hide 
Wellington poet Bill Manhire takes the cover of the 2008 spring edition of literary periodical Poetry London, in which his poems 'Song with a Chorus', 'Velvet' and 'The Carpe Diem Poem' appear. Manhire read his verse alongside UK author and poet Frank D'Aguiar at the launch of the summer issue of the publication in London's Gallery of Foyles Bookshop. From 'Velvet': 'For only a deer in solitude can be a 165, / can turn and be this other thing entire, / a great head watching from the wall.' Manhire's Three Poems is reviewed in the London Review of Books. He is director of the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University in Wellington. 
(June 2008)

Vocal ambassador  
Christchurch soprano Hayley Westenra, 21, performed with the US National Symphony Orchestra at the 28th annual broadcast of America's popular 4th of July concert, Capitol Fourth before returning to the UK to continue a hectic 2008 tour. The tour includes the Orwell Park Classical Spectacular and a closing night performance at the Wimbledon Cannizaro Park Festival. Despite her busy schedule, Westenra is also one of the youngest ever ambassadors for UNICEF. She said: "Meeting young people that are the same as me but with such a different world of opportunity has a profound effect on you. I aspire to be a singer, which seems so unessential compared with their simple desire for a regular cup of clean water. You can't go somewhere like that, meet those people and come back unchanged." 
(3 July 2008)

One of five doubles
Opunake-born middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who achieved the 800m and 1500m Olympic double, is included alongside other double victors, Dame Kelly Holmes and Albert Hill, on a BBC blog in a build-up to this year's Beijing games. Snell shot to fame at the 1960 Rome Olympics when he defeated world record holder Roger Moens of Belgium to win the 800m title. And four years later in Tokyo, he won the 800m with ease, setting a new Olympic record of 1:45.1. Five days later on the final lap of the 1500m, he ran away from the field to complete his double. Snell is New Zealand's most decorated track athlete with three Olympic golds to his name. He lives in Texas. 
(8 July 2008)

Touring the terroir 
New Zealand wineries are preferable to those of France and California, for first-class tastings, scenery and cuisine, according to the Telegraph's wine correspondent Robert Joseph. "This is a great place for wine tourism. In fact, having recently spent a year researching my wine travel guide, I would go as far as to say that no wine-producing country does a better job of welcoming tourists. In the South Island you'll find this country's cult Pinot Noir vineyards - and a brilliant set-up called the Big Picture in Cromwell, where, for NZ$20 (£8), you can sit back and watch a film that flies you across the region in a helicopter, dropping into five wineries, including the actor Sam Neill 's Two Paddocks. Maybe one day the winemakers of Bordeaux and Burgundy will come up with an idea this good. Until they do, I'm going to go on telling my wine-loving friends that it's worth spending a day in a plane to get to New Zealand." 
(26 June 2008)

Midas works on merino 
Victoria University researchers have added particles of pure gold and silver to fine merino wool in the interest of haute couture. The researchers demonstrated the first scarf dyed with gold nanoparticles at the 2008 Nano Science and Technology Institute convention in Boston. Lead researcher Professor Jim Johnston said the development would be akin to being clothed in pure gold or silver. "We want to create a fashion icon, like Louis Vuitton or Gucci, where the logo will speak for itself," Discovery News quoted Johnston as saying. He estimated that the scarf made of the wool displayed at the conference "hot off the loom," would cost between up to $US300 ($NZ405). Though expensive, the actual procedure was simple. "This whole area of nanotechnology can be done in a bucket with cheap chemicals at room temperature," Johnston acknowledged, "but what we are getting out is something of a very high-end value." 
(14 June 2008)

Sausage Day cinema 
Janet Frame was a waitress at Dunedin's Grand Hotel when she wrote A Night at the Opera, until now unknown, thought to be written in 1954, and this month published in the latest issue of The New Yorker. A Night at the Opera is set in Park House which squats opposite the door of a hospital kitchen, "like a dirty brick imbecile waiting for food." The patients include a pair of Christs, a Queen of Norway, Millie and Elna. One day in early summer, the Park House Superintendent becomes "determined about the New Attitude" and it is decided to screen films in the dayroom "after the more violently uncontrollable patients had been put to bed." The first screening, the attendant announces on Tuesday, is The Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera. Frame's novel Towards Another Summer - a novel deemed too personal for publication in her lifetime - is released in the UK in early July. Virago editor Donna Coonan says: "I was bowled over by the lyrical beauty of her writing, and by how vivid and alive it is, and how courageous; there really isn't a shred of self-pity. What is most remarkable, though, is her humour." 
(2 June 2008)

Spoilt for shenanigans 
Wellington's Bret McKenzie likes Los Angeles eatery Pie n' Burger because "the name lets you know what you're going to get. No surprises." This is one of a sampling of places McKenzie recommends in the City of Angels. McKenzie has become pretty well-acquainted with Los Angeles over the last couple of years, having relocated here along with Jemaine Clement, his bandmate in Flight of the Conchords, to work on their HBO sitcom. Another favourite, second-hand store 'Squaresville', Los Feliz is where he gets "some good sweatshirts with animals on them." And on Monday nights McKenzie enjoys the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale even though he never learnt to rollerskate. "I was more into doing the moonwalk." 
(22 June 2008)

Big Red mystery solved 
Renowned New Zealand-bred gelding Phar Lap, who won 37 of his 51 starts and the 1930 Melbourne Cup was killed by arsenic poisoning in 1932, scientists have confirmed after decades of speculation. A handwritten notebook of homeopathic recipes used by his trainer Harry Telford, auctioned in Melbourne in April, revealed arsenic and strychnine among the ingredients in the tonics and ointments he used on his horses. Forensic results released at Melbourne Museum showed Phar Lap had ingested a large dose of arsenic in the last 30 to 40 hours of his life in California. His skeleton is displayed at Te Papa, his mounted hide at the Melbourne Museum, and his heart at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. 
(19 June 2008)

Hatched on a poultry farm 
Author Joy Cowley's novel Chicken Feathers is reviewed this month in The Boston Globe, her storytelling described as "effortless mastery". Sweden had Astrid Lindgren, and France its Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Each great writer possesses the genius of his or her own place, and Joy Cowley can lay fair claim to New Zealand's literary landscape. Cowley grew up around animals, and continues to write beautifully, affectionately, and accurately about them in Chicken Feathers, paying fond homage to her fine feathered friends, especially in the weird and eccentric heroine, Semolina, a talking, slightly alcoholic hen. Cowley has written over 600 books. She lives in the Marlborough Sounds. 
(15 June 2008)

Solving the belch 
New Zealand scientists are conducting world-first research into solutions for agricultural methane emissions including genetic engineering, cloning and a vaccine for gassy animals. "Given that we're trying to turn around hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, it's no small challenge," said Mark Aspin, manager of New Zealand's Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium. If the 25 full-time researchers in Aspin's labs discover the secret to making livestock less belchy and flatulent, they could help make billions of farm animals around the world more environmentally friendly. It's up to scientists to give farmers the weapons against global warming, Aspin said. "There's a very strong ethos in New Zealand farmers," he added. "They do feel like they are stewards of the land." 
(7 June 2008)

Ward and Puhi reunite 
Director Vincent Ward, 52, has been in Sydney at the world premiere of his latest feature Rain of the Children, a film which documents the life of Tuhoe woman, Te Puhi who Ward met 30 years ago caring for her mentally ill adult son Niki in the Urewera Ranges. Rain follows on from Ward's 1978 In Spring One Plants Alone, a 43-minute observational film about Puhi, who Ward lived with for 18 months to make the film. Rain was one of 12 selected from 1500 feature films previewed in Sydney. "It's a big honour," Ward said, "and it was great that our Tuhoe collaborators could be here for it," Ward said. "As the overall producer I felt in charge of my own destiny. I was able to get the film I wanted. And it's more than the film I set out to make." Rain premieres in New Zealand at the Auckland Film Festival in July. 
(3 June 2008)

Flight to learn 
Remuera Primary School has classrooms full of South Korean children - "wild geese" - who live separately from their families in order to study in an English-speaking, and less stressful, educational system. South Koreans are the second largest group of foreign students in New Zealand after Chinese and are an important source of revenue, lending an Asian character to the business district and raising home prices in the wealthier suburbs of Auckland. At Remuera Primary, one Korean mother, Ms Kim said she believed that English fluency would increase her sons' chances of gaining admission to selective secondary schools in South Korea and ultimately to a leading university in Seoul. 
(8 June 2008)

Double victory 
New Zealanders Bevan Docherty and Samantha Warriner each made podium finishes in the triathlon world championships in Vancouver, Docherty taking second place in the men's elite and Warriner third in the women's. New Zealand-born Matt Reed, who now represents the US, was fifth. Docherty enjoyed his victory with a burger and fries. "With the sacrifices we make, we've got to treat ourselves once in a while," he said. The triathletes had to contend with unseasonably cool and damp weather; the water for the swim was about 11°C. Warriner couldn't believe her placing. "This is such a big boost to me to claim a medal in these circumstances ... I'm stoked," she said. 
(9 June 2008)

History lessons in mood 
Professor Sydney Shep, senior lecturer in print and book culture at Victoria University, has uncovered the emoticon's "pre-history" stumbling upon emoticons in an 1882 typographic journal at St. Bride's Printing Library in London. There, on the page, were "faces" constructed of punctuation marks. The expressions were labelled: faithful, grumpy, indifferent and astonished. An explanatory note said that contemporary typesetters were creating these humorous punctuation marks in the United States and in Germany. "The emoticon is really - some people cringe when they see them - but it's literally putting the human touch on the text that surrounds us," said Shep, who will present her research this week at the annual humanities congress in Vancouver. 
(2 June 2008)

Rodents settle debate 
The arrival of Pacific rats in New Zealand decides the debate about the settling of the country by Polynesians; the findings confirm that settlers arrived here some 1,000 years later than was previously thought. Radio-carbon analysis of ancient, rat-gnawed seeds preserved in peat bogs and swamps throughout New Zealand, has found that humans arrived in A.D. 1280. Study lead author Janet Wilmshurst, a paleoecologist at the environmental research group Landcare Research in Lincoln, says the new date conforms with Maori genealogy. "The oldest evidence we [now] have for the Pacific rat in New Zealand is in very close agreement with the oldest dated … archaeological sites," Wilmshurst said. "It's also in agreement with the first wave of [plant] extinctions in New Zealand, and with the first evidence of widespread lowland deforestation." 
(3 June 2008)

Fear the flanker  
Forty-eight test veteran, Jerry Collins, 27, has announced his retirement from New Zealand rugby. Collins said: "It's difficult for me to talk about myself but I know I've always been committed to every minute of every game and that's the way I want to go out." Playing with the Barbarians in the UK, the Independent writes that few players, coaches or administrators north of the equator have ever been pleased to see Collins, a ferocious flanker who can stop a man dead with a sideways glance and cut him in two with a trademark big-hit tackle. Of his arrival on UK soil for the match against an Ireland XV, the article says there was no hiding the outpouring of relief at confirmation that Collins was "over here, rather than over there." 
(26 May 2008)

Making rugby Canadian 
Taranaki former All Black fullback and provincial coach Kieran Crowley now heads the national Canadian squad. On the job for a month now, Crowley is in the midst of a cross-Canada tour during which he's surveying the rugby landscape while visiting with players and coaches. He inherits a team ranked 15th in the world, but says: "It's just a matter of developing skills and how to play the game a little bit - game knowledge and that sort of thing. Rugby where I'm from is probably like hockey is here." Crowley was a member of the 1987 World Cup winning All Black side. 
(27 May 2008)

Luxury golf getaways  
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs in the Bay of Islands was voted one of New Zealand's best resorts in 2007 and one of the top 20 resorts in the world by readers of Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report. Owned by New York hedge fund guru Julian Robertson, and conceived by New Zealand lodge designer extraordinaire Virginia Fisher, the Lodge has its own 72 par golf course, which Golf Magazine rates 41 in the world. The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, also a Robertson property, boasts its own Tom Doak-designed course. Mention that you're going to either and a misty look comes into the eyes of those who've played these two remarkable courses perched above the Pacific Ocean on New Zealand's North Island. 
(22 May 2008)

Paquin in beautiful 100
Academy-Award winner Anna Paquin, 25, features on US Men's magazine Maxim's 2008 Hot 100, the "ultimate list of the world's most beautiful women." At number 50, Paquin is described as the: "sexy, troubled, and underutilized Rogue in the X-Men movies." Now she leads a heavyweight cast, including Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick, in the upcoming film, Margaret. In Margaret, Paquin plays Lisa Cohen, a 17-year-old New York City high-school student who feels certain she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman's life. The film will be released later this year. 
(May 2008)

Colonial space rockets 
First published in New Zealand in 1881, the second volume of science fiction novella The Great Romance lay hidden on the shelves of Dunedin's Hocken Library until the 1990s when the work was discovered. Published under the pseudonym 'The Inhabitant', The Great Romance is a hybrid of utopian and space exploration narratives that reaches out to grasp the reader's hand, unexpectedly and vigorously, from the equally remote milieu of late 19th century New Zealand. The novella follows John Hope as he travels into outer space, landing on a satellite of Venus where he meets the native humanoids, or "Venuses". It is has been suggested the meeting with the Venuses is a science-fiction translation of the "more enigmatic and unique attitudes expressed by Pakeha settlers toward the Maori people of New Zealand." 
(18 May 2008)

Constantly gardening 
Auckland greensman Robbie Penny has worked on Bridge to Terabithia, 10,000 BC and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian arranging on-set nurseries, sourcing Belgian lettuce ferns and relocating apple orchards. Feet are Penny's biggest enemy. For instance, "In Prince Caspian, you've got horses running through the sets. So you can imagine the devastation you've got to deal with between takes . . . You're constantly trying to make the set look like it was the first day they walked in. That is the biggest challenge, I find - maintaining continuity," he says. 
(18 May 2008)

An intelligence question 
James Flynn, Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Otago and moral philosopher, says human intelligence has improved over the last century, rather than declined as was widely thought. "But," Flynn says, "we have to rethink exactly what we mean by intelligence. For what the IQ gains really give us is a cultural history of the 20th century and an insight into the gulf that separates our minds from those of our ancestors." Flynn estimates that genetic advantage in individuals accounts for 25 per cent of the variation in intelligence scores, and that the rest is determined by environment. But he goes further to suggest that the environment acts as a kind of echo chamber for genetic endowment, so that such advantage as exists is amplified by social conditions. Flynn's 2007 book What is Intelligence? "Paints a dynamic picture of what intelligence is and the role of a person's genetic background, physiology and neurology, immediate environment and broader social factors." 
(11 May 2008)

Safety in cyber-space 
New Zealand-designed educational software Hector's World, which teaches children about the dangers of online paedophiles with cartoons, has been launched at St Vincent de Paul RC Primary School, in Westminster, Central London. Hector's World has been used in New Zealand for two-year-olds to 10-year-olds since 2005. Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre introduced the tool so children as young as five could learn about the dangers of cyber-stalking, identity theft, cyber-bullying, scams and grooming for sexual abuse. Chief executive of the Centre Jim Gamble said: "It is never too early to start giving children 'safety first' messages." 
(9 May 2008)

Royal interlude 
Filmmaker Andrew Adamson's Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, shot in New Zealand, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, has been released worldwide. The release comes just before Adamson takes a break from what has been an all-consuming but lucrative multi-billion dollar movie ride. Adamson had the same sort of challenge working on both Narnia series: meshing special effects, animated images and real actors' performances into seamless sequences. "What I did last time was shoot a lot onstage using blue screen creating an environment," the writer-director says. "This time, we have a lot more foreground, more location footage, but we ended up with more visual effects because we had more creature shots to blend." In 2001, Adamson's Shrek won an Oscar for best Animated Feature Film. 
(9 May 2008)

Kosher in Canterbury 
Christchurch is visited by some 20,000 Israeli backpackers annually, and to cater for these numbers, the city will soon be home to New Zealand's first kosher restaurant. Rabbi Mendy Goldstein, formerly of Brooklyn, New York, views the restaurant as a first step in building a future for New Zealand where "Jewish living is convenient and enjoyable" for travellers and especially for its general Jewish population. Ten-thousand Jews live in New Zealand. The article also discusses the history of Jews in Dunedin, which bills itself as the "World's Southernmost Jewish Community". 
(12 May 2008)

Chopped, but not out 
New Zealander Mark Simmons, 29, a sous chef at New York restaurant Public and until recently a contestant on popular reality show Top Chef, wants to open his own restaurant in the Big Apple serving antipodean cuisine. Simmons says he wants to introduce New York to more of New Zealand. "I definitely think there's room in New York for that," he said. "The produce and the protein that we have over there; it's from the purest, most pristine waters, and the greenest pastures." On Top Chef, Simmons had to contend with American-themed challenges. "Like a street party: we don't have street parties. And the tailgate - it was a first experience for me, but I had a great time on it. It was pretty awesome." 
(1 May 2008)

Weathering the storm
Rotorua-born and Ruatoria-raised political campaigner and artist Tame Iti has the leading role in a Europe-bound performance based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Iti will perform in Tempest II with the 15-member Mau Dance Company. The Dominion Post quoted choreographer Lemi Ponifasio as saying that Iti was a "really, really beautiful" performer. "His protest experience means he knows the audience and will be able to reach out and deliver. It gives him a platform to speak about what is happening in our own backyard and around the world." On his return from the four-week tour Iti takes up a position as host on an Auckland Maori radio station. 
(6 May 2008)

Reed races for US 
Palmerston North-born Matt Reed is 6-foot-5 and the world's tallest triathelete. Two weeks ago Reed, 32, won the US men's team trials in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and secured a place on the American Olympic team. "It was total exhilaration, a total dream," he says. Reed suffers from severe asthma, and after racing in Beijing in September 2007 doctors determined he had been using less than 50 per cent of his total lung capacity. However he says he never thinks about quitting. "Not once." Reed lives in Boulder, Colorado. His brother, Shane, also a triathelete, is to compete as part of the New Zealand Olympic contingent. 
(2 May 2008)

Lange's working class
Pioneering filmmaker New Zealander Darcy Lange's work screened in New York's Lehmann Maupin gallery as part of group show, You & Me, Sometimes... A "textured" and "cool" show according to The New York Times, "about something, but not", the exhibition is "a dance of history, politics, pop culture and conceptualism, where objects glance off one another without quite touching." Lange is renowned as one of the first artists to use the long take and his prevailing theme 'the worker' includes studies of British factories and coal mines. Lange also made early studies in New Zealand of the Waitara Freezing Works and sheep farming in Ruatoria.
(25 April 2008)

Trade relationship anniversary
In 1983, New Zealand and Australia signed the Closer Economic Relations trade pact, and this year, on the 25th anniversary of the agreement, chief economist of the Australian Trade Commission Tim Harcourt reflects on a first of its kind. Considered a model for dismantling trade barriers and harmonising regulations between two economies, New Zealand and Australia are now more economically dependent than ever before and in some ways operate as a single trans-Tasman market. Trade commissioner in Sydney for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Tim Green, says: "CER has effectively created a single regional domestic market five times the size of the NZ market by itself."
(25 April 2008)

From a common ancestor
Auckland Museum's "most ambitious" travelling exhibition Vaka Moana - Voyages of the Ancestors is currently at Taiwan's National Museum of Prehistory and the National Museum of Natural Science. University professor and editor of the exhibit's companion book, Kerry Howe says: "The human settlement of the Pacific islands is not just a Pacific story. It is also the final chapter in the story of human exploration and settlement of our planet. With the settlement of the Pacific islands, we reached the end of our habitable world." Vaka Moana - Voyages of the Ancestors: The Discovery and Settlement of the Pacific won the history category of the 2007 NZ Montana Book Awards.
(25 April 2008)

Two hobbits of a kind 
Peter Jackson is joining forces with Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro to make the two back-to-back film adaptations of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. Jackson will co-produce the film with fellow director Fran Walsh. Del Toro, who directed Pan's Labyrinth and Hell Boy, said the appointment was a dream come true. "This is a great honour, and I am indeed blessed to become a part of the film-making community that Peter, Fran and their extraordinary team of collaborators have created in New Zealand," he said. Jackson's Wingnut and WETA production facilities will provide digital effects.
(25 April 2008)

Lucky Dagg at the Logies
Comedian and writer John Clarke, born in Palmerston North and famous for creating the "elegantly dressed" farmer Fred Dagg and his seven sons, all Trevors, will be inducted into the Australian Logies Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Melbourne on May 4. Clarke first became known in 1975 for portraying the laconic New Zealander, when he released the singles, 'Traditional Air'/'Unlabelled', and 'We Don't Know How Lucky We Are'/'Larry Loves Barry'. "I'm inclined to regard this as a youth encouragement award," Clarke said when informed of his win. "I'm deeply grateful and will do what I can." Clarke lives and performs in Australia. 
(21 April 2008)

Scaling the opera ladder 
New Zealand tenor Geoffrey Knight is a versatile individual, a former member of motorbike gang Highway 61, a stuntman, actor and deep sea trawlerman, Knight is currently performing Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta Utopia Limited with the Rockdale Opera in Australia. Knight said the next step is work with one of the professional Australian companies. "I'm the last person that thought I'd be doing this, but I love it," he said. Knight graduated from the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art, where renowned international bass and visiting tutor Grant Dickson commented, "I believe you have the talent, intelligence, and the potential to be a highly sought after singer on the international stage." 
(21 April 2008)

WOWed by India 
Wellington's annual Montana Wearable Arts Awards continues to entice greater number of international participants to enter in the "ultimate arts competition". A recent preview of this year's competitors saw the final design entries from India which will participate in the 2008 extravaganza. In 2007, 12 Indian designs were showcased, with a number winning in their categories. Creator and director of World of Wearable Arts (WOW), Suzie Moncrieff says, "I can see that many fashion students in India are very talented and are ready to make their mark internationally." The Awards' nine two-hour shows will be held in September and October.
(19 April 2008)

Masterpieces in ink 
Ta moko is more than aesthetics, it is writes the Los Angeles Times, a solemn declaration of Maori identity and dignity. With a little ink, some stinging pain and a helping hand from the ancestors, modern master of ta moko, Mark Kopua can heal a wounded soul. The centuries-old designs turn the faces and bodies of women and men into testaments to their identity, and offer spiritual healing. "I learned very quickly that moko was therapy for people," Kopua said. "If you ail inside, and you get taken to a grandparent for advice, the elders are involved in your healing. This is very similar to that." Now members of the urban mainstream including Maori police officers, teachers, office workers and businesspeople, are shrugging off any fear of being stared at or shunned by colleagues and are going for full-glory moko. 
(15 April 2008)

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 completing the bridge's heroic Anzac spirit. Premier Morris Iemma said: "The Anzac story belongs to two nations, not just one. It is a precious inheritance shared by both sides of the Tasman." The newcomer will be the same size and in the same "rest on arms reverse" position as the Australian digger and will wear a traditional New Zealand uniform, with a "lemon-squeezer" hat.
(16 April 2008)

Dame Kiri's festival circuit
Soprano Dame Kiri te Kanawa is to perform at three North American summer music festivals - Washington D.C.'s Wolf Trap, Chicago's Ravinia and the famous Ontario Elora Festival on July 13. Elora artistic director Noel Edison said: "It's a first for this festival. Someone of this stature we've never had before." Dame Kiri's Washington programme includes Strauss, Pucini arias and Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, while in Chicago the singer also performs two selections from La Bohème and Cilea's 'Io son l'umile ancella' from Adriana Lecouvreur. 
(16 April 2008)

Slimming with Rachel 
Model and reality TV show host Rachel Hunter is the face, and figure, of US weight loss brand Slim-Fast. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather chose Hunter because she embraced a more realistic body type. EVP for strategy and planning at Ogilvy Public Relations Therese Caruso said: "She could also talk sincerely about her experiences, the pressures of the industry, and people who expected her to be a different type of model, yet she stayed true to who she was." The choice of Hunter has also enabled the brand to reach beyond traditional women's magazines, to the target audience of 30- to 45-year-old women. 
(3 March 2008)

Just to say thank you 
Forty years after the Wahine capsized near Steeple Rock in Wellington Harbour, Queenstown artist Kate Watson, née McGibbon, still searched for the man who rescued her, only to discover he died five years ago. McGibbon, 59, was 19 when medical student Ratu Eroni Vakacegu grabbed and pulled her into a rubber dinghy, directing the 10 people on board to a safe landing at Pencarrow Heads on the desolate eastern shore of the Harbour. "I feel really sad about his death. I feel devastated. I hoped and prayed that he was still alive so that I could say thank you." McGibbon said. The story can be found at http://tinyurl.com/4lbyfc.
(10 April 2008)

A model ambassador 
Auckland model Anna Fitzpatrick, is an official ambassador for the newly established Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation in Australia, named for the daughter of Penrith Panthers assistant coach Mathew Adamson. Fitzpatrick, like Charlotte Adamson, was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder alopecia universalis, when she was seven-years-old. The Foundation's mission is to create greater awareness of alopecia and to raise money to help sufferers buy quality wigs. Fitzpatrick told the Sunday Star Times that being bald is a part of who she is. "People say they are a blonde, brunette. I am a bald girl ... Alopecia is me." Fitzpatrick is presenter of Alt TV's live fashion show The Seen. 
(3 April 2008)

Dispelling the myths 
Black Grace is in Aspen where founder and artistic Neil Ieremia is helping the American public come to grips with a dance company "from a place not especially known for dance." Ieremia has long left behind the notion that a company from an outpost of the dance world can't make an impact. "Our stories, ideas and expression of these are just as valid and important as those from Europe and America. Why can't a New Zealand dance company be the best in the world?" he says on the company's website. Black Grace returns to New Zealand for the 2008 season of Grass Roots, a collection of Black Grace performances from the last decade. 
(28 March 2008)

Taylor-made for shortlives
Richard Taylor's animated children's programme Jane and the Dragon now airs in the US every Sunday afternoon on NBC. Jane and the Dragon is created from drawings so detailed they required even more than the 48,000 props Taylor used to create the special effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He says his own children are his most exacting critics. "Children are a critically discerning audience. There's no grey area at all. They either like it or they don't. Also, there's an incredible need for extreme care to be taken around the moral compass that you build into your show if it's for children." Taylor is the creator and head of Oscar Award-winning prop and special effect company, Weta Workshop. 
(31 March 2008)

Kezia comes alive 
Katherine Mansfield's Prelude and Carnation are amongst four of the writer's short stories adapted for theatre and performed by Toronto's Theatre Smith-Gilmour, celebrated for their stage adaptations of Chekhov. The Mansfield Project was created by Dean Gilmour and Michelle Smith. Gilmour says there is something about Mansfield's life that resonates for him. "She captures the dance of life and death with the same unsentimental eye for essential detail," he says. Co-artistic director Michelle Smith says: "Her passion for life intoxicates with images, scents and the tactile, like a garden in summer." The Mansfield Project opens March 18 at Factory's Studio Theatre, Toronto and runs through April 13. 
(15 March 2008)

 

Fleming's new game plan
Stephen Fleming made a gracious departure from the Black Caps on the fourth day of the final Test against England in Napier. Although New Zealand had a disappointing loss, Fleming left Test cricket much as he came, with his second elegant fifty of the match. England gave him a guard of honour when he came to the crease. "It was a very humbling ... especially as it was from Michael Vaughan, who I regard as a good captain and a nice guy," Fleming said. Leaving the pitch, he removed his helmet and acknowledged the standing ovation given him from all points of the ground - a fond farewell to a great captain, a great achiever and an almost great player. Fleming is set to play for the Indian Premier League and will also pursue a sports promotion and marketing career. 
(25 March 2008)

Lightning success 
Liam Finn is currently touring the United States promoting his 2007 solo album I'll Be Lightning, and is mesmerising critics there. In Texas, former Dirty Vegas frontman, Steve Smith was impressed with how Finn dressed up his songs without burying their elegant melodic foundations. "It's very hard because the world is saturated with singer-songwriters at the moment and you really need to do something unique and special to set yourself apart," said Smith, "I think he's almost single-handedly done that with his songwriting craft." The Boston Globe said the queue for his show was testament both to the strong reviews for Lightning and the excitement surrounding his unique live performance. Rolling Stone magazine named Finn one of their 'Artists to Watch in 2008'.
(22 March 2008)

Company in LA 
Auckland artist Misery, aka Tanya Thompson, best known for her work with New Zealand clothing label Illicit, is part of group show Anything Could Happen... at Carmichael Gallery in West Hollywood. For the exhibition, Thompson created a series of paintings in which Misery characters are lost in the unknown, revelling in the haunting beauty and sadness of their environment. Formally a prolific graffiti artist, Australian-born Thompson, has exhibited her work internationally. In an interview about beginnings with Idealog, she said: "New Zealand is a really good place to start. It's small enough to get known really quickly if you're doing something interesting." In 2006, an award-winning film documented the success of her first Auckland solo show and toy range at the Taipei Toy Fair. In 2004, she opened Misery Boutique on Karangahape Road. Anything Could Happen... runs through 20 April. 
(19 March 2008)

In London cinemas 
Duncan Sarkies' 2006 movie Out of the Blue - a dramatic reconstruction of the 1990 Aramoana massacre - is showing in London this week and continues to receive favourable reviews. The Guardian says the film "opens with a swell of tension as the town goes about its business in the hours before the killing, making for unbearably intimate viewing." While the Observer calls it "a memorable account of a community uniting under pressure." View London says Out of the Blue is one of the best films of the year. "Robert Sarkies' direction is nothing short of astonishing ... a remarkable film that succeeds as both a gripping thriller, a terrifying urban horror story and a profoundly moving testament to a real-life tragedy. Highly recommended." 
(16 March 2008)

Tour of Auckland 
The Flight of the Conchord's manager Murray Hewitt, Aucklander Rhys Darby, introduces the Guardian's Sarah Bourn to New Zealand's largest city and his favourite place, One Tree Hill. "I used to go there a lot as a kid: my Mum would take me up there and I'd do the skateboard track, and then she'd let me loose for a couple of hours and I'd run with the sheep," Darby explains. He gets his bearings from the Sky Tower and heads to Ponsonby Pies for a steak and cheese. Formerly a soldier, Darby performed his first solo comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, after which he moved to the UK. His next big role is as Jim Carrey's boss in the upcoming film, Yes Man.
(15 March 2008)

Memory in bronze 
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, the New Zealander who led the Battle of Britain against Germany in 1940, deserves recognition from the city of London according to British politicians and senior RAF officers. Backers for a memorial of Sir Keith have launched a bid to place a statue of the pilot on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth in London. The campaign is being led by London-based New Zealand philanthropist Terry Smith, who is willing to spend £100,000 on a bronze sculpture of Sir Keith. Smith said the statue would be a more fitting use of the plinth than its current role as a showcase for contemporary art. "It is unbelievable that there is no recognition of a man who made such a massive contribution to Britain's defence," he said. "The Germans called him the defender of London." An online petition can be signed at www.sirkeithpark.com. 
(8 March 2008)

Titillating fantasy 
Artist Hye Rim Lee, graduate of Inter-media from Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts, has her first American solo exhibition at New York's Max Lang Gallery entitled, Crystal City. Originally from Korea, Lee immigrated to New Zealand in 1993. Crystal City involves a series of 15 digital prints derived from a 3D animation projection. Lee's website says the work is rooted in the challenges facing the community of Asian diaspora who have settled in New Zealand. "The work also speaks to the manipulation and perception of female sexual identity worldwide. Furthermore, it challenges the conventions of the traditionally male-dominated worlds of game structure and 3D animation." TVNZ is commissioning a 45-minute documentary film about Hye Rim Lee and the exhibition. Lee currently lives in New York. Crystal City runs March 13 through April 12. 
(12 March 2008)

Portable stories 
Wellington production company Gibson Group's made-for-mobile drama series My Story has been purchased by French conglomerate Lagardère Group from ohm:tv, a Cologne-based developer and distributer of TV formats, programmes and mobile phone content. Produced by Gibson Group and created specifically for the smaller screens, on mobile phones and the Internet, My Story is a two-minute mystery drama series that follows a group of 18-year-old idealists - Clare, Kat, Vina and Isaac - who are just out of high school. My Story was launched in New Zealand in April 2007 and internationally in October 2007 at Cannes. Rights have also been sold to Austrian mobile Mobilkom. Ohm:tv's director of digital media operator Sebastian Burkhardt said: "Apart from its innovative cross-platform concept, the strength of My Story lies in the fact that it has been created to production values formerly only associated with TV and film." 
(11 March 2008)

Kiwi hatched in US
Washington DC's Smithsonian National Zoo has successfully hatched a rare North Island Brown kiwi, their third since 1975. The Smithsonian is one of only four zoos outside New Zealand to successfully breed the national bird. Keepers had been incubating the egg for five weeks, following a month long incubation by the chick's father, carefully monitoring it for signs of pipping: the process in which the chick starts to break through the shell. The sex of the chick is still unknown and is difficult to determine by sight, but with DNA swabs scientists hope to decipher the sex in coming weeks. 
(12 March 2008)

Tips for the Irish 
Irish sheep farmers are looking to their New Zealand counterparts for advice on how to make more money tending their flocks. Lincoln University's Dr John Hickford spoke at two conferences in Kilkenny and Athlone discussing how New Zealand sheep farmers had evolved their business in the absence of subsidies, and about new technologies available to sheep farmers to help increase their profits. Dr Hickford explained that sheep farmers in New Zealand lost all their subsidies in 1987 and were forced overnight to produce in an unprotected environment. The Independent's Michael Gottstein wrote that Irish sheep farmers can learn some valuable lessons. 
(4 March 2008)

Brown the new Nobilo
Wellington golfer Mark Brown has had a successful week in India, winning first the Asian Tour's SAIL Open then clinching the US$2.5 million Johnnie Walker Classic, making him one of only six New Zealanders to ever win a European Tour title. At the Johnnie Walker Classic, Brown took the lead on the 15th hole before sealing victory with a birdie on the 18th, lifting both arms in celebration. He said the win was incredible. "It is amazing to have my name there with other winners. I've worked extremely hard for this, it is a dream come true," he said. This victory gives Brown exempt status on the world's second most influential circuit, the European Tour, until the end of 2010. 
(2 March 2008)

Flying High
Air New Zealand has made a bold move into the world of sustainability, becoming the first commercial airline to fly using an alternative fuel made from the jatropha plant. The airline recently conducted a two-hour test flight, blending the fuel with conventional jet fuel, and using it to power one of four engines on a Boeing 747. CEO Rob Fyfe hailed the project as an industry milestone. "Today we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history," he said. The jatropha plant has been noted by Goldman Sachs as one of the most viable candidates for biodiesel and alternative fuels, with each plant producing 30 to 40 percent of its own mass in oil. The hardy nature of the plant, as well, renders it capable of growing in sandy, saline, or otherwise infertile soil. Given the success of the flight, the airline will be working with its partners to push for the approval of jatropha fuel as a certified aviation fuel. Air New Zealand is the second airline to test alternative fuels in flight, following Virgin Atlantic's test of a Coconut Oil and Babassu Nut Oil blend in February. The International Air Transport Association wants all of its members to use 10 percent alternative fuels by the year 2017.
(30 December 2008)

An honourable year 
New Zealand's 2008 Beijing contingent was well represented in the New Year's Honours list and included Christchurch Paralympics swimmer Sophie Pascoe, 16, board sailor Tom Ashley and shot putter Valerie Vili. In total, seven Olympic athletes received awards. Pascoe won three gold medals and a silver in China and learned of this most recent honour through the mail. "It was really unexpected," Pascoe said. "I opened up this mail from the Government. It's not the sort of thing you open up every day, so I was a bit shocked. Then I read it and I was really overwhelmed and honoured to be nominated." In other fields, cinematographer Michael Seresin whose credits include Midnight Express, Angela's Ashes and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and who established the Seresin Estate winery in Marlborough was made an ONZM for services to film and the wine industries. London-based chef Peter Gordon was made an ONZM and Treaty of Waitangi negotiator Dr Ngatata Love became the eighth person to be made a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. 
(31 December 2008)

Aiding an avian identity 
Though the battle to save New Zealand's famous national symbol the kiwi is "conceded unwinnable on some fronts"; the bird's existence is mounting with the help of Zealandia, Wellington's Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, which expects to count about 40 of the birds by the end of 2009. "The squat, flightless bird appears a bit like a cross between a hamster and an anteater, with fur-like plumage, a long, quill-like beak and a grumpy demeanour. But don't let its looks and ungainliness mislead you. This bird is to New Zealanders what the bald eagle is to Americans," writes the Houston Chronicle. "When we talk about the kiwi — that's our identity," says conservation manager at the Sanctuary Raewyn Empson. "When all of a sudden you're talking about kiwi becoming extinct in our lifetime, it's a bit scary really." The non-profit trust is trying to restore a square mile of river valley to its pre-human state. Empson is undaunted by the damage that needs undoing. "We've got a 500-year vision here," she says. "We're optimists."
(25 December 2008)

Dining with the birds 
For one month from 9 January until February 2009, in a redwood plantation north of Auckland, between Puhoi and Warkworth, and 10m up a tree, the Yellow House restaurant will serve three-course meals for $195 a head. Diners will approach the onion-shaped treehouse along a 60m elevated walkway, while the food takes another route — the kitchens are at ground level, so the chefs will send it up on a winch. The restaurant was created in 66 days as part of a marketing project for the Yellow Pages. "They're a bit vague about what'll be on the menu," writes the Times, "but we're hoping for bird's-nest soup." 
(21 December 2008)

Tall Fern makes UConn 
Auckland basketball player Jessica McCormack, 19, who was the youngest member of the New Zealand team at the Beijing Olympics this year, now plays for the top-ranked University of Connecticut (UConn) as a "versatile" 6-foot-5 centre, having left the University of Washington Huskies in February. McCormack said she informed the UConn coaching staff of her decision to join the program in April. "I think what we saw was a big, athletic kid who had basketball skills,'" UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said. "And more international basketball skills than sometimes what you see, and we like all those things. And she's big. I think she's going to get stronger. And I'm looking forward to having the chance to work with her." McCormack made her Tall Ferns debut at the age of 15 in 2005, helping the team to a silver medal at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. 
(17 December 2008)

Lodge one of the top 
Five New Zealand hotels and resorts have been included in Travel and Leisure's list of 500 World's Best Hotels for 2009 with Rotorua's Treetops Lodge and Estate the highest rated. "This is the list you'll want to use all year long" writes the magazine. Other New Zealand listings include: the Hyatt Regency Auckland, The George in Christchurch and Queenstown's