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Globally pumped
Les Mills International, which exports its exercise-to-music classes to 80 countries around the globe, is a finalist in the New Zealand International Business Awards for best business with revenue in the $10m to $50m category. The company has come a long way since Olympic athlete Les Mills opened his first gym with wife Colleen in Auckland in 1968. Les Mills International now has 90,000 certified instructors teaching its classes in 14,000 licensed gyms and clubs around the world. Les Mills Enterprises chief executive Vaughan Schwass said: “Our classes are very much driven by motivation and results; our brand integrity stands on the fact you will get results doing our classes.” Les Mills will partner with an American fitness video company and launch a home fitness DVD package, based on its Body Pump class, in the competitive United States market in March.
(28 January 2012)
 

Taking back history
New Zealand ambassador Rosemary Banks and French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand presided over a solemn ceremony at Quai Branly museum in Paris where 20 Maori ancestral heads and bones were given back to New Zealand, the largest single handover of Maori heads to be repatriated. Since 2003, New Zealand has embarked on an ambitious program of collecting back Maori heads and skeletal remains from museums around the world. The idea behind getting back the body parts was that they would be returned to their home tribes throughout New Zealand, where tribal elders could mourn them and, if they chose, give them proper burials. “They are, after all, human remains, and in the Maori culture they should not be publicly displayed,” said Pou Temara, a university professor who chairs New Zealand’s repatriation advisory panel.
(23 January 2012)
 

With a cryptic brusqueness
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, 64, stars in Lost creator J. J. Abrams’ drama series Alcatraz, which premiered on American channel Fox this month. “The premise: The orderly closing of the prison on Alcatraz in 1963 was faked. Its inmates were not redistributed to other prisons; they disappeared, along with the guards — more than 300 people, we’re told. And now the convicts are returning, somehow having not aged and apparently on a mission orchestrated by unknown string-pullers. Directing the super-secret investigation into what happened is Emerson Hauser, embodied by Sam Neill with a cryptic brusqueness. The show derives much of its momentum from the interplay between detective Rebecca Madsen trying to drag details out of Emerson, who clearly knows much more about the strange goings-on in 1963 than he is sharing.”
(15 January 2012)
 

Pale ale goes digital
When you purchase a bottle of New Zealand’s Yeastie Boys Digital IPA you can scan in a code from the bottle onto your smartphone, and it will immediately send you to a website where you can access the recipe. Daily News staff writer Norman Miller is a fan. “If you are a homebrewer, this is a great feature,” Miller says. “You can try to recreate this beer in the comfort of your own home. If you are not a homebrewer or do not have a smartphone, it doesn’t matter because the beers from this brewery are pretty much awesome. Yeastie Boys’ Digital IPA is very bitter, but in a good way, because there is enough of a malt body to give it a backbone. The brewery was founded in 2008 by brewer Stu McKinlay and Sam Possenniskie. Yeastie Boys recently started distributing its beers in the United States.”
(19 January 2012)
 

Twin imaginings
As well as remembering things differently, siblings often fight over ownership of the same memory writes the Guardian’s Charles Fernyhough in an article about shared memories and the problems they cause. “A study by Mercedes Sheen and her colleagues from the University of Canterbury asked 20 pairs of twins independently to produce autobiographical memories in response to cue words. Fourteen of the pairs produced at least one memory that was claimed by both twins. A separate study showed that these disputed memories tended to be rated as more vivid and emotionally rich than the agreed-upon ones, possibly because of the imaginative effort that had gone into creating them.”
(14 January 2012)
 

Investing big in hotspots
New Zealand-born Renaissance Group founder Stephen Jennings is betting big on Africa becoming the next global investment hotspot. Having fought through a number of corporate close shaves to amass a fortune worth an estimated $US1 billion, Moscow-based Jennings is overseeing Renaissance’s push into Africa, a continent home to many of the world’s fastest-growing economies but almost none of the world’s major investment banks. Jennings is convinced Africa is in the early stages of a lucrative growth spurt. “When it comes to Africa, we’ve got more invested there than probably any other financial institution in the world,” he said. Since taking a strategic call on Africa five years ago, Renaissance has become one of the largest real estate holders on the continent, building from scratch six new cities in Kenya, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Jennings said that, so far, Renaissance’s push into Africa had been profitable and returns had been “extremely high”. “They’re like the returns we saw in Russia 15 to 20 years ago,” he said.
(18 January 2012)
 

Emphatic win for talented teen
Auckland golf prodigy Lydia Ko has reinforced her ranking as the world’s best female amateur with an emphatic win in the Australian amateur championship at Woodlands in Melbourne. Ko, a gifted 14-year-old, beat Australian Breanna Elliott 4 and 3 convincingly in a high-class match play contest. Ko is considered one of the best talents to emerge in more than a decade but will have to wait at least two years before turning professional due to age limitations. “My goal now is to get more experience in bigger tournaments and play some LPGA events that will build me up more for when I can turn pro,” Ko said. She is also the first non-Australian to claim the title since Briton Julie Hall won in 1995.
(22 January 2012)
 

Innovation nets Branson time
Takapuna business FaceMe has won time with billionaire Sir Richard Branson after winning top entrepreneurial competition, BNZ Presents: The Virgin Business Challenge. FaceMe has developed a video conference system that is compatible with any device and allows users to video conference with quality calls. More than 260 New Zealand businesses entered the competition, 20 per cent of them coming from the internet and technology industry. FaceMe also receives $100,000 cash, a BNZ business education scholarship, mentoring from BNZ and Virgin executives, and flights around the world. The award searched for a company with passion and drive, creativity and innovation and a desire, as well as the potential, to go global.
(13 January 2012)
 

Hi There to the United States
Fashion designer Karen Walker’s Hi There clothing range will sell in up to 164 Anthropologie stores in the United States from February. Landing in stores for the American summer, the deal has a retail value of around US$4 million ($5 million) a year, according to Walker. “It’s completely different to everything else we’ve been doing,” she says. “We’ve been in the luxury market for 14 years, but this reaches a wider audience ... [it’s] a totally different price point, a totally different product and it’s really our first time in the States going en masse.” For Walker, the attraction of Hi There — a collection of “cute dresses, fun prints, and strong colours” — is a no-brainer. “All retailers around the world want that sweet product that they know is going to work.”
(14 January 2012)
 

Inspiring a city’s renaissance
Christchurch, “New Zealand’s bravest and most resilient communities … is re-emerging as one of [the country’s] most exciting cities,” according to Lonely Planet author Brett Atkinson. “If you’re heading to the South Island, definitely spend a few days in the city. There’s still plenty to do, and you’ll be supporting the new businesses inspiring Christchurch’s renaissance. Who knew there were so many uses for a shipping container? While the city’s rebuild is carefully planned, the humble container has emerged as a funky option to kick-start Christchurch’s retail and hospitality sectors. Bringing commercial life back to the fringe of the CBD, the RE:Start development showcases almost 30 retailers in a colourful labyrinth on Cashel Mall. For the best coffee in town, head to the Addington Coffee Co-op or the cool Black Betty perched on the edge of High St, the city’s former hip shopping precinct.” Atkinson also includes his pick of the best online resources to maximise a visit to the city.
(10 January 2012)
 

Hungry lion fascinates toddler
A video of three-year-old Sofia Walker coming face to face with Wellington Zoo’s lion, Malik, has captivated international news media. The Daily Mail described her encounter: “Brave Sofia Walker refuses to back down and instead stares intently at the furious big cat just inches away. Fortunately for Sofia, a thick pane of [33mm] safety glass stood between her and the seven-year-old lion so incensed by her gall. At one point, the fascinated little girl turns to her parents and asks, ‘What’s he telling me?’ Then, once more unable to hold in his frustration, Malik pounced for a second time, wildly swiping his front paws against the glass as he stood on his hind legs. Sofia’s father said: ‘She’s always had this quiet confidence with animals, but she’s certainly more confident with a lion than I would be, that’s for sure.’”
(10 January 2012)
 

Florentine light and dark
New Zealand artist Pete Wheeler, 33, presents his first Italian solo exhibition, ‘Paths of the Destroyer’, at the Poggiali e Forconi Gallery in Florence. Berlin-based Wheeler says that the ‘Paths of the Destroyer’ are “a small part of something larger, a pluralism that you have to recognize yourself.” The 15 large format canvases which make up part of the exhibition depict figurative scenes, with images born of a strong conflict between light and darkness. Wheeler was born in Geraldine. In 2000, he graduated with a BFA from Otago Polytechnic’s School of Fine Art and since then, has held exhibitions throughout the world. ‘Paths of the Destroyer’ runs through 17 March.
(7 December 2011)
 

Spencer drives the thing
The glamorous 48.5m super yacht T6, custom built for New Zealand paper magnate John Spencer, creates a fuss wherever it goes, whether Monaco, the Caribbean or the hazardous North-West Passage in the Arctic. On board is a helicopter that rises from a below-deck hangar, a rarity even among the toys of the mega-rich. The steel and aluminium T6 was built by Flyghtship in Auckland in 2006, said to be New Zealand’s only non-military vessel that could refuel a chopper at sea. In a Daily Mail article on mega yachts in Monaco, Spencer appeared to eschew the show-off factor associated with such vessels, using his T6 to explore the world. “Weatherbeaten paper-pulp magnate John Spencer frowns upon the use of super yachts as fashionable status symbols,” the article read. “‘I don’t want to sit here and drink gin and tonic. I want to drive the thing’,” it quoted him. Now in his seventies, Spencer is heir to his grandfather’s Caxton paper empire founded in 1890. During New Zealand’s summers he spends time at his main residence in Takapuna.
(29 December 2011)
 

Gourmet best on Sundays
Two of the country’s most well known weekend farmers’ markets, Central Otago Farmers’ Market and Auckland’s La Cigale, are represented in a Jaunted article. “On Sundays from 9:00 a.m. — 1:00 p.m. from October-February, you’ll find the restored historic precinct of the 19th-century gold rush town of Cromwell, its streets bustling with local farmers and artisan producers peddling gourmet products all sourced and made in the South Island.” Writer Eric Rosen sampled Earlise cherries, jams and syrups at Wild Thyme Gourmet and Gibbston Valley Cheese. When at La Cigale, Rosen tried “freshly butchered cuts of meat, smoked salmon and fresh fish and seafood, macadamia nuts and hand-rolled pasta.” “Exuberant” La Cigale is open from 8:00 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 9:00 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. Sundays.
(21 December 2011)
 

Real life evil on wheels
The other half of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement’s “delightfully bizarre taste in costumes carries on,” Huffington Post correspondent Jordan Zakarin writes, describing Clement’s latest get-up for his role as the evil Boris in Men in Black III. “Following the New Zealand songster/actor’s nutty, bearded professor turn in 2009’s Gentleman Broncos, he’s going even more heavy on the facial coif. Though Clement was quite lovable in Conchords, he says he’s enjoying playing a bad guy. ‘I’m 90 per cent evil in real life,’ Clement said. ‘It’s hard to be nice most of the time when I’m only 10 percent good.’” Men in Black III hits American theatres on 25 May. Originally from Masterton, Clement, 37, was the voice of parrot Nigel in 2011’s computer-animated Rio: The Movie.
(4 January 2012)

Cliff-top perfection
The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs has been named the No. 1 Lodge in Australia and Pacific Nations on the 2012 Gold List, ‘The World’s Best Places to Stay’ selected by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler, with a high score of 98.4. Guests “feel like royalty” at this plantation-style lodge on the North Island that collects a bevy of perfect scores. “Beautiful rooms,” done in light colours with a country feel, garner a perfect score. Sip on a Kauri Cliffs Kiwi Mojito before indulging in the “divine cuisine” at the blue-and-white main dining room. The staff deliver perfect-scoring service — “they made us feel like we were the only guests they had to take care of the whole time we were there.” Perfect-scoring activities include “one of the prettiest golf courses in the world.” Owned and developed by New Yorker Julian Robertson, The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs is the sister property to The Farm at Cape Kidnappers, Hawke’s Bay and Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown.
(22 December 2011)
 

Appealing to the aesthete
“Wonderfully, Queenstown’s appeal to the aesthete rather than athlete was announced pretty much as soon as the plane began its descent into the Otago region, the south-west corner of the South Island,” the less adventurous Sydney Morning Herald’s Julietta Jameson declares. “This was some landing. Flanked by alpine vistas either side, it was as breathtaking for its seeming precariousness as for its sheer, soaring beauty. The Remarkables ranges were still snow-capped but skirted by lush green, their stony rises cathedral-like in grandeur and presence. It was like flying into the Hall of the Mountain King. It was summer, no ski boots were required, bungy jumping was not on the itinerary and a five-star hotel with a new spa was involved.”
(8 January 2012)
 

Leave your inhibitions behind
“Hector’s dolphins may be the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world, but they will seem larger than life when you are swimming nose-to-nose with them in the Pacific Ocean,” Boston Globe correspondent Kari Bodnarchuk writes. “In this seaside village no more than a few blocks long on Banks Peninsula, you can hop in the ocean and splash around with these playful and curious creatures. Black Cat Group, an Akaroa-based outfitter, runs daily tours year-round to see the dolphins. Leave your inhibitions behind: The dolphins are attracted to you if you sing, hoot, yelp, or make any kind of playful noise underwater. Only 12 people can swim with the dolphins on any one trip, and with no other boats in sight, it did not feel like a touristy experience.”
(18 December 2011)
 

Thank you New Zealand
“Once again I am pleased to thank New Zealand. No country, outside of my native United States, has treated me better than New Zealand. New Zealand has added me to a list of many other people receiving a New Year’s Honour,” senior White House reporter Connie Law writes. “It symbolizes the intense love I have had for New Zealand. Now it is my turn to try to help them. That beautiful island nation, with breathtaking scenery and warm, generous people, continues to suffer from the ongoing string of earthquakes which destroyed a large portion of Christchurch and its suburbs.” Law then encourages tourists to visit. “It is beautiful summer there now; in our sweltering summer, the snow skiing is terrific in New Zealand.” “Thank you Kiwis. May you have a safe, peaceful future.” In 2006 Lawn was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the New Zealand National Press Association.
(3 January 2012)
 

Carterton’s hot air balloon tragedy
New Zealand is in mourning following a fiery hot air balloon crash in the Wairarapa that left eleven people dead. The tragedy occurred when the balloon came entangled in power lines, causing the basket to set alight. Two of the passengers jumped from the balloon, causing it to rise quickly before plummeting to the ground. Pilot Lance Hopping — a man described as experienced and safety conscious — was killed in the accident along with all ten passengers on board. Family members of the victims were among those who witnessed the tragedy. "This is a huge national, significant event - it's a tragedy as bad as tragedies get,” local police area commander Brent Register said. The circumstances of the tragedy are still being investigated, however a report in the New Zealand Herald says that a power line like that involved in the incident could generate heat greater the 2,000 degrees Celsius. “It’s a shock,” says Carterton Mayor Ron Mark. “I have a deep sense of sadness for the victims and their families, and those who witnessed it firsthand — it’s quite a horrific thing.”
(7 January 2012)
 

Toward a takeaway solution
Head of purchasing at pioneer Wellington coffee roaster Cafe L’Affare Zeke Alley says New Zealand is “screaming out for a solution” to the ever-increasing problem of disposing of paper takeaway coffee cups. Cafe L’Affare’s wholesale business alone gets through tens of thousands of cups a month, making it Huhtamaki’s biggest cup customer after BP. Enter a new co-operative effort between New Zealand’s biggest takeaway coffee seller, BP, and Visy, Huhtamaki, Coca-Cola and public recycling cheerleader Love NZ to encourage people to recycle the cups. Love NZ manager Lyn Mayes says New Zealand could eventually build its own recycling facilities, possibly with the help of contestable government waste subsidies. “If we can find a [recycling] solution, why wouldn’t we?”
(30 December 2011)

Startup and power on
New Zealand electricity provider Powershop, a startup company owned by Meridian Energy, the largest electricity generator and retailer in the country, is like eBay for electricity, according to CEO Ari Sargent. Powershop is built with an open, plug-and-play architecture — more like the Internet than the traditional top-down energy architecture. “Powershop’s infrastructure was developed in anticipation of a distributed energy model,” Sargent says. “As the market builds a larger number of smaller power plants like wind and solar we expect them to sell directly to consumers on our website.” Powershop’s revenue model is more like an Internet company than today’s energy industry: to take a per cent of each transaction. They don’t charge “connection fees” like many utilities (cable and telephone companies included) or transaction fees. The number of Powershop customers has doubled from 16,553 a year ago to 33,628 today.
(1 January 2012)
 

Unreal festive spirit
“After 14 attempts I am still unable to reconcile Christmas Day with the hot sunshine of the north-east New Zealand city of Gisborne,” Guardian reader John Darkin writes for the publication’s weekly series ‘Letter from.’ “The juxtaposition of Christmas trees peppered with white cotton wool, and the cooling breeze of air conditioning units, has a surreal effect on my seasonal spirit. Unreality heaped upon unreality. Christmas lunch? Forget roast turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and vegetables. Don’t even imagine a homemade pudding, four months old and slathered in brandy sauce. This is the great outdoors, so think grilled steak or crayfish followed by fruit salad and ice-cream. It really is summer and only by wearing a sun-bleached paper crown am I reminded that it is also Christmas.”
(13 December 2011)
 

Pupils staying strong
Students from Fendalton Open-Air School in Christchurch are the first group members — calling themselves Faultline Fiction — of the Guardian site to vividly recount what happened when earthquakes struck their city, changing their city and lives forever. “When the aftershocks happen at school, we try to guess the magnitude which is fun and helps us stop from thinking if it is going to get any worse,” the pupils write. “Many schools were badly damaged and some schools have to share sites. Students from one school use the school in the morning and then students from another school come and use the site in the afternoon. A phrase which means so much to us all here is ‘Kia kaha’. It is Maori and means ‘stay strong’ and we are and will continue to be strong as we rebuild our lovely new city.”
(16 December 2011)
 

It’s better than ever
The Bay of Plenty region has launched a new tourism campaign in an attempt to erase images of oiled beaches and dead wildlife from the minds of potential visitors, rebranding itself with the slogan “It’s not called the Bay of Plenty for nothing” following the grounding of the Rena container ship 22km off Tauranga’s coast in October. Tourism Bay of Plenty this week announced a new “recovery campaign” to help lure back the visitors who have cancelled summer trips to the area. Campaign manager Linda Macpherson said it’s time to restore the area’s reputation. “What we’re saying now is ‘come’ — the beaches are open and there’s so much to do here, to feast on, to enjoy. In fact, it's better than ever,” Macpherson said.
(14 December 2011)
 

After a hard day’s travels
A Tauranga woman thought she was hallucinating when a clattering noise prompted her to run downstairs to the kitchen and check on the cats, where she found a baby seal, who then waddled into her lounge, onto the couch, where it fell asleep. The seal pup had wriggled through Annette Swoffer’s cat door. After calling a neighbour over to verify what she was seeing was true, Swoffer called the SPCA. “They were giggling away and I’m saying, ‘I’m not drunk, I’m not lying,’ there’s a seal in my house,” she told the New Zealand Herald. The SPCA called the Department of Conservation, which was already on the hunt for the missing seal, who had been spotted traipsing in someone else’s garden earlier in the afternoon. The department removed the stray pup and returned him to the water.
(14 December 2011)
 

Must eats in the south
When visiting New Zealand there are five foods “you’ve just got to try” according to Jaunted’s Eric Rosen. “On our own recent long visit to the South Island, we discovered more and more chefs are putting New Zealand’s unique foodstuffs on display in creative (and delicious) ways.” On his list Rosen includes: green-lip mussels, whitebait, tahr, hot-smoked salmon and Central Otago cherries. “Green-lip mussels [are] enormous molluscs [which] grow all over New Zealand, though the most famous ones come from the pristine waterways of the Marlborough Sounds. We saw one that was a full five inches long — and their meat is especially soft and sweet.”
(6 December 2011)
 

Streaking star trails
A long-exposure image of star trails streaking over Lake Tekapo features on the National Geographic website. The lake was one of the first sites designated as a Starlight Reserve as part of a UN-supported initiative to preserve the quality of the night sky and its cultural, scientific, or natural values. Lake Tekapo’s Mt John Observatory is the world’s southernmost astronomical observatory.
(9 December 2011)
 

Challenging classroom prejudice
New Zealand-born teacher Suran Dickson, 34, felt moved enough to leave her job and launch Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles the worrying incidence of homophobic bullying in British schools, where terms such as “gay boy” and “homo” are playground missiles of choice. The Guardian’s Hugh Muir asked Dickson where these attitudes came from. Mostly their parents, Dickson said. During her 12 years in north London schools, Dickson has been offering teacher friends informal advice on tackling homophobic bullying. She has also visited schools to speak about her life as a gay woman. She said she had been shocked by the prejudices of some pupils. In one class “when I said I was gay one pupil moved away from me. He thought it was contagious and all gay people had Aids.” Dickson takes inspirational role models into classrooms to challenge children’s stereotypes about gay people. The workshops aim to take the pressure off teachers who may feel uncomfortable dealing with the issue: “It’s tough. Initially in these lessons there’s a lot of negativity. These lessons can save lives,” she said.
 

More penguins return home
A photograph of a blue penguin moving toward the sea after being released by wildlife workers in Tauranga is included in the Guardian’s ‘24 hours in pictures’ series for 9 December. The penguins were among those affected by New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster when the Monrovia-flagged container ship, Rena, struck the Astrolabe Reef on 5 October spilling 350 tonnes of oil off the east coast of the country. More than 1300 birds, along with other animals, died as a result of the ship’s oil spill.
(9 December 2011)
 

Observing oceanic responsibilities
New Zealand and Australia have signed a marine observation agreement, which is expected to result in improved knowledge of regional climate systems. New Zealand’s high commissioner Major-General Martyn Dunne and Australia’s Science Minister Kim Carr signed the agreement in Canberra. General Dunne said the agreement was a great opportunity for scientists on both sides of the Tasman. “This signing today is probably symptomatic of the things that go back many years in the relationship between us,” Dunne said. Senator Carr said Australia and New Zealand were two of the biggest marine nations in the world with more maritime territory than land mass. “This program gives us an opportunity to fulfil our responsibilities, and not just to our own people but to the people of the region,” Carr said.
(6 December 2011)
 

Gorge of gold
The Karangahake Gorge, between the Coromandel Peninsula townships of Paeroa and Waihi, features walkways offering a glimpse of goldmining history amidst dramatic scenery. The USA Today’s Liz Lewis describes: “Enormous foundation ruins of the gold extracting batteries sit alongside the walkways, serving as a spectacular reminder of the wealth of the Karangahake gold fields. During their short working life, these batteries extracted over half a billion dollars worth of gold from within the Karangahake mountains. The shortest of the three walkways traces the old Paeroa-Waihi railway line (once used to transport coal and machinery) alongside the Ohinemuri River to the Owharoa Falls.”
(28 November 2011)
 

Alien disappearance
Without any human intervention, the Argentine ant — the world’s most invasive species — is disappearing from New Zealand. The alien ant arrived in New Zealand in 1990 and has since marched across our two main islands. Dealing with the pest was projected to cost $68 million per year. Perhaps no longer. Phil Lester and colleagues at Victoria University say that alien ant colonies in 60 locations are collapsing on their own. Lester thinks low genetic diversity, which is associated with reduced disease resistance, is the most likely reason for the ant’s demise. Research published in Insectes Sociaux in 2009 stated that the “enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society”, and had probably been spread and maintained by human travel.
(30 November 2011)
 

Birds in paradise
About an hour from downtown Wellington is Kapiti Island, one of New Zealand’s most successful nature reserves and a model for wildlife and flora conservation. Award-winning journalist Jill Robinson takes a day-trip there. “On a visit to Kapiti Island, a ferry drops you at Waiorua Bay along the rocky shoreline dotted with shiny paua shells. Immediately, you’re surrounded by the calls of tui, kākā, saddleback, weka, takahē — and the noisy beat of the wings of the large kereru.” Kapiti Island, which is approximately 5km from the mainland, has been used as a bird sanctuary since 1897. In 1987, the Department of Conservation (DOC) took over the administration of the island.
(28 November 2011)
 

Kudos across the Tasman
Hamilton-born singer Kimbra has taken the title of Best Female Artist at the Australian 2011 ARIA Awards, following in the footsteps of fellow New Zealander Jenny Morris who won the title twice in 1987 and 1988. “The fact Kimbra is a New Zealand native scoring kudos at a ceremony specifically designed to honour cross-Tasman adversaries was not lost on New Zealand press, with the Herald penning an article titled ‘Aria triumph — but are the Aussies trying to steal Kimbra?’ Pedestrian TV considers these examples: Ladyhawke, Dragon, Split Enz and Jenny Morris. “Morris won back to back Best Female Artist ARIAs — years before she became a citizen of [Australia] in 2003. Why we claim her? ‘Break in the Weather’ is a great song.”
(28 November 2011)
 

Great Barrier phenomenon
American entomologist Mark Moffett, 53, claimed he discovered the largest weta of the species ever found. International publications, such as the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and Telegraph, have declared Moffett’s find the world’s biggest insect in terms of weight, which at 71g is heavier than a sparrow and three times that of a mouse. New Zealand insect expert, bug man Ruud Kleinpaste, a trustee of Little Barrier Island Supporters Trust, has played down the significance of the find. “There’s nothing unusual to find these weta,” Kleinpaste said, though he thought the publicity for the species could be a good thing. “I think it’s wonderful as long as weta get the attention.” Moffett found the female weta up a tree on Great Barrier Island. The size of the Great Barrier weta is an example of island gigantism, which is a biological phenomenon leading to a larger size than their mainland relatives because of their isolation and lack of large predators.
(2 December 2011)
 

Xena loves geniuses
“You may know her as Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess and, more recently, Lucretia from Spartacus, but you may not expect that Lucy Lawless would fly all the way from New Zealand to California for TEDMED, a conference about great ideas in health care,” CNN health writer Elizabeth Landau says. ‘It’s like a beauty pageant for brilliant people, where you sit in the audience and all these geniuses comes out and parade their incredible brilliance in front of you,’ said Lawless. ‘I’m not a geek, but I love geeks,’ she said. ‘I love these people who have focused all their attention on like, lasers, on some particular area.’ In her spare time, she helps the fund-raising arm of [Starship Children’s Health] in [Auckland], and is involved with Greenpeace.” Auckland-born Lawless, 43, won the 2011 Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
(17 November 2011)
 

Wine producer of the year
Brent Marris’ Marlborough winery Marisco Vineyards, which produced its first vintage just two years ago, has been named New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year by the International Wine & Spirits Competition. Former chief winemaker at both Wither Hills and Oyster Bay, Marris explained his ambitions for Marisco: “I wanted to move away from contract growers so I spent a year trying to find a specific site — I didn’t want a patchwork spread around like everyone else.” So far this model is proving a commercial success. Marris said that he has been approached by a number of large international retailers, as well as securing a deal with the major Chinese distributor, Dynasty Fine Wines Group. “The key players around the world get it,” he remarked. “I can do 100,000 cases of a single vineyard wine.” As for future plans, Marris pointed to a further 20 acres left to plant, expressed a desire to “get more Pinot Noir and Chardonnay planted on the cooler sites”, and enthused about a small quantity of “stunning” barrel fermented Viognier, which he is considering for inclusion in his on-trade focused range, The King’s Series.
(23 November 2011)
 

Upon a breathing planet
“Step into the volcanic crater on White Island, among the steaming fumaroles and geysers, and you’re instantly in a geothermal wonderland,” American journalist Jill Robinson writes for The Washington Post. “The hissing and bubbling sounds that surround you make it seem as if the earth is breathing right under your feet. It’s no Disney attraction. Just [48km] off the north island of New Zealand, this is a real volcano. White Island — also called by its Maori name, Whakāri — is New Zealand’s only active marine volcano. Its age is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 years, though the part of the island seen above sea level has appeared in its present form for only about 16,000 years. About 70 per cent of the volcano is below sea level.”
(21 November 2011)
 

Freedom for little blues
Forty-nine little blue penguins rescued from the Rena oil spill that occurred in October off the coast of Tauranga have been returned to the wild at Mt Maunganui beach. Most of them immediately ran toward the water, while a few lingered on the shore. The oil spill killed more than 2000 birds, and the penguins released were some of the more than 300 blue penguins affected by the disaster. Napier wool store Skeinz was inundated with blue penguin-sized sweaters after mentioning that rescuers needed the knits to keep the injured birds warm. “It’s wonderful to see the first penguins all cleaned up and heading home,” the store wrote on its blog. The release was watched by 350 people. The birds have been micro-chipped and will be monitored to see whether the spill affects their long-term health.
(22 November 2011)
 

Astrophotography first
With only a 25cm telescope, amateur New Zealand astronomer Rolf Olsen has for the first time been able to get a direct photograph of the disk of swirling material forming a planet around a nearby star. Discover Magazine’s Phil Plait, who calls the discovery an “amateur milestone”, explains: “Beta Pictoris is a young star just over 60 light years away. The light from the star itself has been subtracted away, and the two big crosshair streaks of light are called diffraction spikes – they’re caused by light inside the telescope and aren’t real. The fuzz you see above and below the star is real, part of the disk of material forming planets right before our eyes. The dashed line was added by Olsen to show the orientation of the disk.” Olsen wrote on his website: “I must say it feels really special to have actually captured this.” Olsen’s observatory is located in Titirangi in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland.
(26 November 2011)
 

Horse whispering
An image of Hurricanes assistant coach Alama Ieremia working with his horse during a leadership programme run by Talkinghorses in Te Horo, is included in the Globe and Mail’s ‘Day in Photos’. The publication describes: “During the programme, each participant is assigned a horse to work with in a series of challenging exercises designed to improve their leadership and communication skills.”
(17 November 2011)
 

Cycle team signing coup
Takaka native Jack Bauer, 24, represents a “signing coup” for CEO Jonathan Vaughters of Boulder-based cycling unit the 2012 Team Garmin-Cervelo. Vaughters went deep into cycling’s hinterland to find a possible star for Europe’s spring classics. “He’s won quite a few races,” Vaughters said. “He’s a little bit like a guy who’s batting .500 on a Double-A team. Nobody notices him because he’s playing for the Pueblo Padres.” Bauer was an accomplished mountain biker who represented New Zealand in the 2006 world championships and did road racing to stay fit for mountain biking. Signing with British team Endura, Bauer won numerous small races in Belgium and won the New Zealand road race championship last year. “He’s a top, top talent,” Vaughters said. Bauer attended Otago University where he completed a Physical Education degree. He also played bass in Dunedin alternative-rock band Dream Farm.
(17 November 2011)
 

Playing egg-ball in France
“Like many of his contemporaries, Blair Stewart is a valuable commodity: a New Zealand rugby player,” Tadhg Peavoy writes in a profile of Christchurch-born Stewart, 28, for RTÉ Sports. “Stewart began his career playing for Southland, but had always harboured hopes of playing in a different league on the other side of the globe; France gave him that chance when he moved to play for Albi in 2008. New Zealand and France are worlds apart culturally and Stewart acknowledges the differences of playing egg-ball in the European nation as opposed to his homeland. ‘The French take things a lot more slowly than New Zealanders; there never seems to be a rush in France,’ Steward says. The other stop on most Southern Hemisphere players’ career passports is Britain or Ireland and Stewart would fancy a stint in either. ‘I’m not sure what the future holds for me just yet, this is my last season of my contract with Grenoble so I need to concentrate on playing well and hopefully it will take care of itself.’”
(14 November 2011)
 

Warriors rewarded
New Zealand intelligence expert Upper Hutt resident Major Rory McGregor was among 25 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to receive US military medals from visiting Major General Peter Talleri, the Okinawa, Japan-based commander of US Marines in the Pacific. The ceremony, which was held in Wellington, was just the second time New Zealand troops have been awarded US honours since the Vietnam War. Major McGregor said he was “deeply honoured” to receive the prestigious Bronze Star, which was awarded for his work as coalition’s deputy director of intelligence in Kabul from July 2005 to January 2006. The medal is the fourth-highest US combat award, and one seldom given out. General Talleri said: “As far as I’m concerned, we’ll serve side by side with them any day of the week — they’re great, great warriors.”
(15 November 2011)
 

Queens Street firsts
Andrea Hewitt, 29, won the women’s event while Kris Gemmell beat compatriot Bevan Docherty in the men’s race as New Zealanders dominated their home leg of the ITU World Cup triathlon series in Auckland. Cantabrian Hewitt surged away on the run to win the women’s race in 2 hours, 14 minutes — more than a minute ahead of Japan’s Tomoko Sakimoto. “My legs felt a little bit sore starting the run but I just tried to pace myself and managed to get away from [Adachi] straight away so I just kept going and had a good win,” Hewitt said. Gemmell raced to his fifth win in a World Cup event, finishing the a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 58 seconds.
(19 November 2011)
 

Expert slams Shakespeare film
Otago University expert on the works of English playwright William Shakespeare Professor Evelyn Tribble has criticised the film Anonymous — which questions the bard’s authorship of his attributed plays — calling it Hollywood “libel.” Tribble said the star-studded film, which attributes Shakespeare’s works to Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, was an implausible conspiracy theory. Anonymous is being promoted with the poster line “Was Shakespeare a fraud?” Tribble, the author of four books and a series of Shakespeare-related articles in publications around the world, said the assumption of a hidden hand in the bard’s work was “patently false.” “The simple fact is that in the tight-knit gossipy community of theatrical professionals, Shakespeare’s authorship was absolutely undisputed,” Tribble said.
(9 November 2011)
 

Home is where the boom is
New Zealanders and Australians once flocked to the UK for the opportunity to gain experience and return home with some valuable pounds, but the booming Australian economy and a sharp appreciation in the New Zealand and Australian dollars against the pound, has led many to give up on Britain in favour of what’s on offer back in the southern hemisphere. Home Office figures show that the number of New Zealanders has fallen by 40 per cent over the past three years. Karla Chapman, 30, a chartered accountant from New Zealand who moved to the UK in mid-2007, is preparing to move to Australia. “At the moment it seems to be booming,” Chapman said. “I think I can go home and have a better lifestyle, be closer to home and also have a good career.”
(11 November 2011)
 

Competition and camaraderie
New Zealand firefighters Rob Holah and Donny Butters recently travelled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to compete in the 20th annual Firefighter Combat Challenge World Challenge. Holah said camaraderie is one of the biggest elements of the competition, and winning is secondary. “It’s less about racing other people than it is racing yourself,” Holah said. “We always need a personal challenge, and this is as big as that can get.” Before the competition Holah and Butters stopped at the Augusta Fire Department to climb the five-story training tower. In his fastest time ever, Cunningham completed the course in one minute and 22 seconds. To him, the best results come when it hurts the worst and when his heart is fully in it. “Everything you have inside, everything you feel, this is the place I like to feel it,” Cunningham said. About 800 firefighters from around the world competed.
(11 November 2011)
 

Comeback on track
“Here he was, in his 50th year, a successful television boss and New Zealand sporting icon embarking on a comeback he hopes will see him end up playing the first-class game again,” the Telegraph’s chief sports correspondent Ian Chadband writes. “Papa Crowe at Papatoetoe? Having to carry the team scorebook? Forced to warm his hands with a cup of coffee on a bone-chilling morning? Deeply unimpressed at the kids making excessive appeals for his wicket as he ground out a painstaking 15 not out? Was he stark raving mad? ‘Call it a long-shot experiment,’ Crowe says. ‘To see if a 50-year-old can still wield a bat.’ His main sights are set on playing in next March’s English season curtain raiser for the MCC against champions Lancashire in Abu Dhabi. ‘[As for] today’s equipment? Unbelievable. I dread to think of the damage that Ian Botham and Viv Richards would have done with them.” Auckland-born Crowe was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1985, and was credited as one of the “best young batsmen in the world”.
(7 November 2011)
 

Investing for prosperity
A new study undertaken by global network Kea claims that encouraging expatriate New Zealanders to invest in their home country is the best way to “achieve improved prosperity.” The research was based on interviews with around 500 New Zealanders who live overseas. It found that that around 15 per cent of New Zealanders who are based abroad are “strongly motivated” to invest in a New Zealand company, while 72.8 per cent are also keen to help mentor or manage a New Zealand small-to-medium enterprise. CEO and co-founder of Kea Sir Stephen Tindall said: “This research demonstrates that significant increases in investment, and improved connections with global networks, can be achieved from New Zealanders living overseas who remain committed to New Zealand despite their temporary or even permanent residence in another country.”
(7 November 2011)
 

Whirling dervish duty bound
“For the first time in 26 years, a team from New Zealand will make a bid for the Volvo Ocean Race without New Zealand legend Grant Dalton whirling dervishly around deck demanding more effort from his crew,” Kate Laven reports for the Telegraph. “Dalton, 51, is heading back home to Auckland where he is charged with turning Emirates Team New Zealand into a competitive America’s Cup campaign. There is little question where his heart lies, having completed seven round the world races, one as winning skipper in 1993-94 and one America’s Cup. ‘This race is my passion and the America’s Cup is a duty,’ he says ruefully. ‘It is really important to our Emirates Team New Zealand brand that we win. We are sponsor driven so our existence is predicated entirely on us being successful,’ Dalton said. Don’t bet against them.”
(3 November 2011)
 

Building on solid ground
“Newly uncovered details about the earthquake that rocked Christchurch in February may offer grim lessons regarding the potential threat of fault lines running through urban centres,” Our Amazing Planet contributor Charles Choi writes. “Much of the damage came from a phenomenon called liquefaction, where soils are shaken and begin to behave as a liquid, undermining buildings and other structures. ‘Compared to the earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti, the scale of disaster in Christchurch may seem small,’ University of North Carolina geoscientist and editor-in-chief of Seismological Research Letters Jonathan Lees said. ‘Christchurch, however, was constructed using much better technology and engineering practices, raising a very sobering alarm to other major, high density western urban centres.’ Research structural engineer and manager of the National Strong Motion Network with the US Geological Survey Erol Kalkan said: ‘The most important lesson may be to avoid construction on soft soils where liquefaction is a problem.’”
(1 November 2011)
 

From a different perspective
Former Split Enz frontman Tim Finn, 59, plays the Tanks Arts Centre in Cairns on 26 November, which is to coincide with the release of his latest album, The View Is Worth The Climb. “We’ll be playing plenty of new and old,” Finn says. “We have a lot of songs. We play the whole span of my career, from early Split Enz through my Crowded House time and onwards. This gives people a broader picture of the artist. They come to see me now and suddenly realise what the back story is, which then helps merge my new with old.” Finn was born in Te Awamutu.
(3 November 2011)
 

True technie tonic
“Geeks will love the stereoscopic cameras and 3D methods” on Peter Jackson’s fourth video blog and “most people wouldn’t care if it was shot on a hand-held,” according to Guardian film blogger Ben Child. The installment is a “true techie tonic.” “We’re treated to some techie insight into shooting 3D at 48 frames per second, twice the usual rate for cinema. Apparently this required the film-makers to paint Mirkwood in bright red and yellow so that the final shots of the famous forest ended up with a slightly hallucinogenic effect. With the hype surrounding this project, one suspects people will still turn up in their droves next December to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, even if it turns out Jackson shot it on 8mm.”
(4 November 2011)
 

Why kiwis get stroppy
Manukura the six-month-old white kiwi “appears to have regained her mojo after a heart scare during surgery to remove a stone from her gizzard.” “You try to grab her and she kind of karate chops you,” said veterinarian Lisa Argilla (pictured), at the Wellington Zoo, where Manukura is recuperating. “She growls and she grumbles and she’s getting really stroppy,” Argilla said. “So that’s great, that’s normal kiwi behaviour, and we love it when our patients do that.” It’s not unusual for birds to eat stones to help with digestion, but Manukura only managed to pass one of the stones naturally. When she was born on 1 May, Maori leaders took it as an omen. Her Maori name means “of chiefly status” and some believe her arrival heralds a new beginning.
(1 November 2011)
 

Zen-like in the name of Warhol
New Zealand artist Max Gimblett’s exhibition “The Sound of One Hand” brings to focus the world of Zen Buddhism and is on through 27 November as part of Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum’s Word of God series. An artist living and working in New York City since 1972, Gimblett has been focusing on Buddhism since 1965 when he first encountered poet and novelist Kenneth Patchen’s painted “picture poems” in San Francisco. “It has never been the main focus,” Gimblett, 75, says, admittedly “sharing my interests equally with Jungian studies and the history of visual art, particularly painting.” The works on view have an overall zen-like quality, especially the earlier brushworks on paper that date as far back as the 1980s. Here, the work is distinctly divided into two types — enso and koan paintings. “The single stroke does not allow for any modification — the brushed circle,” he says. “In the circle nothing stops, nothing comes to an end, it just keeps going.” Gimblett was born in Auckland.
(26 October 2011)
 

     

Steam research collaboration
New Zealand’s geothermal scientists will be collaborating with the world’s leading researchers after the country is admitted to the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology (IPGT) in Melbourne on 16 November. Established in 2008, the IPGT seeks to develop advanced, cost-effective geothermal energy technologies through international research co-operation. Science and Innovation Minister Wayne Mapp said geothermal energy is one of New Zealand’s most important renewable energy resources with huge potential for growth. “This recognition of our geothermal research programs will allow our scientists to collaborate with an elite group of researchers in the United States, Australia, Switzerland and Iceland,” Mapp said.
(26 October 2011)
 

Deconsecrating deconstruction
Christchurch’s most famous landmark, the 19th-century ChristChurch Cathedral, is to be deconsecrated and partially demolished after February’s devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake toppled the steeple. Church and government representatives have announced that sections of the cathedral would be demolished, at a cost of about $4m, in order to carry out repairs to make other parts of the structure safe and to enable investigation into the longer term viability of the building. The Anglican cathedral, designed in George Gilbert Scott’s distinctive Gothic style will be deconsecrated, making it secular, before demolition work begins. The bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews described the “difficult decision” as a necessary step towards determining “the future of the cathedral, which will combine the old and the new”.
(28 October 2011)
 

Galloper from day one
Young Cambridge trainer Trent Busuttin’s hard work has paid off with Sangster winning the $A1.5 million Victoria Derby at Flemington. Busuttin, who has just turned 32, was almost lost for words when Sangster ($A13) held off Induna ($A5.50) by a head with Sabrage ($A16) 1-1/4 lengths third at the end of the 2500m. “It’s just amazing to be here, I can’t describe it,” Busuttin said. “Everything’s gone according to plan. He was a big skinny horse but we gelded him and he filled out and he showed he could gallop from day one,” he said. It was the second consecutive win for Australian jockey Hugh Bowman. “I’d like to take up New Zealand residency, it’s a terrific thrill and it’s the cream of the crop when it comes to racing in Australia.” Bowman said.
(29 October 2011)
 

Kerr’s final fight
New Zealand Business Roundtable leader Roger Kerr, once described by beer baron Sir Douglas Myers as a “national treasure”, has died. He was 66. Kerr was born in Nelson in 1945 and spent his childhood on his parents’ Appleby dairy farm, attending Appleby Primary and Waimea College. He attended the University of Canterbury, graduating with a Master of Arts, and Victoria University, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration. From 1986-1994 he was a director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand and a member of the Council of Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 1999, and a member of the Group Board of Colonial Limited in Melbourne from 1996 to 2000. Kerr supported free market polices and was a vocal proponent of Rogernomics. Earlier this year he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business. Previous awards included the Tasman Medal in 1994 in recognition of his contribution to public policy and the NZIER Qantas Economics Award in 2001. He paid tribute to his sons when he received his Order of Merit, saying he was delighted to receive it for his family’s sake. “Especially my three wonderful sons, who did not see as much of me when they were growing up as they might have needed to, when I was so heavily committed to my work.” In April he said he had “slain a few dragons in my time, and I’m gonna give [metastatic melanoma] a good old fight.” Sadly, Kerr’s cancer was one dragon he couldn’t slay and he passed away, surrounded by his family.
(29 October 2011)
 

Breathtaking safe danger
“The only thing crazier than bungee jumping itself might be setting up a business helping other people to fling themselves off high surfaces,” Time’s Nick Carbone writes in an article about “destinations that are more than a vacation — they’re life-changing.” “Leave it to the folks down under to think of it. The first commercial bungee jumping operation began at the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown on. It sits 43m above the ground with breathtaking views of the New Zealand landscape. Co-founder Henry van Asch, an adventure sports junkie whose credentials include speed skiing and mountain bike racing created AJ Hackett Bungy with his equally daring pal AJ Hackett, and had a difficult time explaining the activity to friends. “We call it a personal challenge,” van Asch says. In 1988 Hackett and van Asch first experienced the head rush associated with plunging toward the ground — and they knew that people would pay good money for the thrill. “We want danger,” van Asch says, “but we want safe danger. It’s a strange paradox.”
(18 October 2011)
 

Communicating with China
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) administrator Helen Clark has said that China can play a rebalancing role in the current global financial crisis to combat future global poverty and that one of the greatest challenges to eliminating poverty is to avert a global recession. “China’s domestic demand needs to go up to rely less on exporting. In the rebalancing, China has to import more,” former New Zealand prime minister Clark said. “As China strives to achieve even more impressive human development outcomes through its renewed emphasis on the quality of growth, it will also be setting an example for the world.” Clark was officially was officially sworn in to her current position by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 27 April 2009.
(18 October 2011)
 

With familial encouragement
New Zealand rower Emma Twigg’s introduction to her sport wasn’t quite love at first sight. Twigg, 24, who took second place at the recent Championship Women’s Singles event of the 47th annual Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, was urged by her dad, Peter, to try rowing — in particular sculling, which includes two oars per person instead of sweep rowing’s one — at the famed Hawke’s Bay Rowing Club. “It wasn’t what I expected,” said Twigg, a bronze medalist at the last two world championships. “When I first started it was quite difficult. I think the thing that got me going was that the Evers-Swindell twins were going great and more people were noticing my potential, and I always wanted to go to the Olympics.” “Boston is such a great experience,” said Twigg, who is coached by Dick Tonks of Hawke’s Bay. “There are so many turns on the course.” Twigg’s next stop will be Europe, where her training plans call for high-altitude cycling in the Alps.
(21 October 2011)
 

Stricken ship spills contents
The Liberian-flagged container ship MV Rena, which struck the Astrolabe Reef 5 October on its way to Tauranga, continues to spill oil into the ocean. A total of 90 tons of oil have so far been pumped off the vessel onto the bunker barge Awanuia. A stress fracture to the hull of the 21-year old Rena, which triggered fears the boat may break in two, is making efforts to remove oil and more than 1000 containers off the boat difficult. Work continues to protect wildlife in the area, particularly the dotterel, an endangered New Zealand bird. “We have now caught 46 dotterels but we’re hoping to capture 60 to ensure the sustainability of this population,” Wildlife Field Operations coordinator Brent Stephenson said. Already 1300 seabirds have died. Both the captain and an officer of the ship, owned by Greece-based Costamare Inc., have been charged under New Zealand maritime law with operating a ship in a dangerous manner, which could bring them each a year in jail.
(18 October 2011)
 

All hands on the Webb Ellis
“Twenty-four years of Rugby World Cup pain and misery melted away for New Zealand” on 23 October with the All Blacks beating the French 8-7 in a nail-biting final at Eden Park. “It was the first time since 1987 that [New Zealand] had won the World Cup, and it came against the same opponents at the same venue,” The New York Times’ Emma Stoney wrote. “The tense finish — France missed a kick midway through the second half that would have given it the lead — gave way to scenes of jubilation as Andy Ellis kicked the ball into touch to end the game and signal the start of the victory celebration. “It’s hard to describe, I am absolutely shagged,” All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said. “What the boys put out there, we had to dig deeper than ever before and it’s hard to get it to sink in, but I am so proud of every single one of them.” Few in the rugby world would begrudge the New Zealanders their moment considering they have produced some of the finest rugby in the past quarter of a century. All Blacks Coach Graham Henry “It’s something we’ve dreamed of for a while. We can rest in peace.” The Guardian’s Eddie Butler summarised: “New Zealand have won their second title in their third final, by the skin of their teeth. It was all that counted.”
(23 October 2011)
 

Zimbabwe’s Miss September
Hamilton student Ashley Magumise, 19, has won the Miss September round in the ongoing Face of Zimbabwe competition and will go on to battle for the title in December against 11 other beauties. Magumise’s win after attaining the highest public support indicated the teenager’s popular appeal. One of the judges, British model, Caroline Kumbukani said: “Ashley showed a great personality, natural beauty and looked confident with herself, which is what we look for.” The Face of Zimbabwe competition is an online beauty pageant which selects a finalist every month from Zimbabweans all over the world.
(10 October 2011)
 

Making music with muppets
Former Flight of the Conchord Bret McKenzie, 35, has written four original songs for the soundtrack of the new Disney film The Muppets, which will be released on 21 November. McKenzie is also the film’s music supervisor. McKenzie wrote ‘Life’s a Happy Song’, sung by Jason Segel, Amy Adams and new Muppet Walter and then as a full cast finale; ‘Let’s Talk About Me’, which Chris Cooper sings; ‘Man or Muppet’, a duet between Segel and Walter; and ‘Me Party’, a collaboration between Adams and Miss Piggy. Hollywood blogger Perez Hilton wrote about McKenzie’s participation: “You know he’s gonna make sure this thing is fantastic.” The Muppets is scheduled for release in the US on 23 November.
(10 October 2011)
 

Wright has the edge
Cantabrian and Black Caps coach John Wright “is the coach best placed to lift the Australian team” and has “an affable manner that conceals toughness and a fund of cricketing sense”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Roebuck. Wright — who is contracted until the end of the West Indies tour in July next year — has coached New Zealand and India with considerable success, Roebuck writes. “[He] handled India well and they rose steadily on his watch. Like most openers worth their salt, Wright adjusts his game to meet varying conditions. Better than most he understands that fashions and fads change, that cricket is a game of skill that favours those able to keep the ball on the ground and on the spot. That Wright is a foreigner, and a New Zealander at that, is of little consequence besides getting the right man for the job. It’s just that the Kiwi has the edge.” Wright is also a former international cricketer representing — and captaining — New Zealand, and, following his retirement in 1993 coaching the Indian national cricket team from 2000 to 2005.
(14 October 2011)
 

Unpretentious infusions
“New Zealand has gone from a foodie backwater to a champion of fresh, unpretentious fare,” CNN reporter Simon Farrell-Green’s writes, suggesting that you “don’t miss out”. “Increasingly, the best places to eat in New Zealand are casual and unpretentious. Since the 1980s, though, the country has changed markedly, and now the focus is on ingredients. ‘Despite New Zealand being small,’ says food blogger, reviewer and comedian Jesse Mulligan, ‘there’s still a distinctive regionality to the food, which means the menus change subtly as you head down the country.’ Plump Clevedon oysters about Auckland, fragrant saffron-infusions in the Hawkes Bay, fresh blue cod in the deep south.’” Auckland restaurants Coco’s Cantina, The Gove and Depot take the top three spots in Farrell-Green’s list of “New Zealand restaurants you shouldn’t miss”.
(12 October 2011)
 

Semi-final of brutal beauty
“This was the All Blacks as they would love the world to see them: tough, mean, committed and ruthless in every department,” the Guardian’s Robert Kitson wrote after New Zealand smashed Australia with “brutal beauty” 20-6 securing their place in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final against France. “This time, surely, a nation can breathe easy. No one will be warier than the New Zealanders of celebrating prematurely but the manner in which they tied the Wallabies down in a one-sided semi-final was deeply ominous for France. “I thought it was an outstanding performance and I’m very proud of them,” said the All Blacks’ head coach, Graham Henry, having left his old adversary Robbie Deans face down in the dust. “We just need to build again for next weekend and do the same thing, hopefully.” The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Clegg called the win “a display of sustained aggression and dogged defense that sent this rugby-mad nation of four million into a night-long frenzy.” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Greg Growden wrote that “in the end, the Wallabies didn’t get close.” “In the only Australia-New Zealand match which really mattered over the past four years, the All Blacks showed how superior they were, how their attitude will constantly win them the big battles, how they can apply the power game with such tremendous effect, and how easy it is to rattle the Wallabies.” All Black Ma’a Nonu scored the only try of the match. Kitson for the Guardian concluded that “Henry and his team will be taking no prisoners until the swag is safely gathered in.”
(16 October 2011)
 

Danger for native dolphins
New Zealand’s Hector’s dolphin population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7000 since nylon gillnets came into use in the 1970s while subspecies Maui’s dolphin is seriously threatened with numbers falling to fewer than 100. Dr Barbara Maas, head of endangered species conservation for German environmental group NABU International — Foundation for Nature has worked to protect the species for more than a decade including for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. Maas warns that the nets, which are pulled through the water from boats, were likely to kill as many endangered Hector’s dolphins as commercial gillnets, bringing the number of deaths due to fisheries to 46 along the South Island’s east coast. “An annual loss of this size will wipe out 62 per cent of the population by 2050,” Maas says. “Only a scattering of animals will survive, potentially pushing the population beyond the point of no return.”
(28 September 2011)
 

          

Rakiura impressions
In 2002, 85 per cent of Stewart Island was designated as Rakiura National Park, named for the Maori word meaning “Land of the Glowing Skies.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Dennis Passa writes that sampling locally caught fish is part of the island experience. Passa’s guide, pilot Raymond Hector, recalls catching some blue cod and taking them into “quaint” local restaurant South Sea Hotel. “They battered them, threw in a few chips and a bit of lemon and we sat down to eat. It was 40 minutes from the time the fish were minding their own business until we were having them for lunch,” Hector said. Stewart Island has only 300 to 400 year-round residents, most around the township of Oban. The number swells to more than 3000 in the summer.
(7 October 2011)
 

Wondering about Kaitangata
Margaret Mahy’s Kaitangata Twitch is reviewed on the Guardian’s children’s book site, a site “by kids, for kids”. “The Kaitangata Twitch is an earthquake that happens regularly,” Bookworm 88 writes. “The island of Kaitangata seems to devour people. People are trying to stop Sebastian, a developer, ruining the island. Meredith thinks there’s a little more to it than a simple island being taking over by a developer. She thinks the island has a voice of its own but only Meredith can hear it. The descriptions are beautiful. I felt like I was Meredith, canoeing to Kaitangata, dreaming her dreams, listening to Lee Kaa play the saxophone. This book still leaves me wondering, thinking about Kaitangata.” Mahy was born in Whakatane in 1936. She has written more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories.
(26 September 2011)
 

Weepu does us proud
New Zealand has secured its place in the Rugby World Cup semifinals with a comfortable 33-10 victory over 2007 third-placed team Argentina at Auckland’s Eden Park, which was packed with a crowd of 57,912. New Zealand had Piri Weepu to thank for their success over a determined Argentina side. The scrum half took over kicking duties in the absence of the legendary Dan Carter and converted 21 points by scoring seven penalties. New Zealand’s first try did not come until 13 minutes from time when No.8 Kieran Read finally breached the dogged Argentine defense, and lock Brad Thorn ran 25 metres for a late score to put the icing on the cake. Six Nations rivals France and Wales will face each other at Eden Park in the first semifinal on 15 October before, 24 hours later, the Auckland ground stages the All Blacks’ sold out showdown against Australia.
(9 October 2011)
 

Squared to power of awesome
Neil Finn’s “Kraut-inspired” Pajama Club recently performed a special set on Later With Jools Holland enlisting Ladyhawke on drums. Pajama Club also features Sharon Finn, Sean Donnelly and Alana Skyring. The band played ‘Tell Me What You Want’ from their self titled debut. It was “New Zealand squared to the power of awesome,” according to Pedestrian TV.
(28 September 2011)
 

Handsome encore
Christchurch-born baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (right) performs with Australian David Hobson at the Perth Concert Hall on 29 October as part of their “encore” national tour. During a lunch where the conversation ranged from singing to audiences, sport and music and of course opera, the two friends foreshadowed their concert tour, explaining the 2009 tour had been so popular they decided to do it again — but with a different repertoire. As Hobson said: “It’s an encore performance. It will be the same but different.” Rhodes: “It will be older.” Hobson: “It’s a vehicle for our talents and things we love doing and things we love doing together. We obviously have totally different voices. Ted’s a very, very beautiful dark baritone and I’m a really light lyric tenor. So the contrast is there.” In 2008 Rhodes received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
(28 September 2011)

Revelling in rugby fervour
“International commentators have revelled in New Zealand’s embracing of the [Rugby World Cup], calling for the small nation to get a chance to host again — regardless of the financial drawbacks for the International Rugby Board,” Michael Dickison wrote for the New Zealand Herald. “Guardian rugby columnist Paul Rees wrote that New Zealand must be allowed to stage another World Cup. ‘This is a rugby country unlike any other and while the sport has to grow, it must not lose what it already has,’ Rees said. Even teams with the fewest travelling supporters had been enthusiastically adopted by locals, he said. Former English rugby international Paul Ackford wrote in the Telegraph that the tournament had seen genuine hospitality and interest. ‘Big games and big teams take care of themselves, but the true test of how engaging a global sporting event is, is whether the sideshows grab you by the short and curlies.’”
(26 September 2011)
 

Tempting players back home
“New Zealand’s incredible dominance of rugby league in recent years is paving the way for a second [local] team to enter an expanded NRL competition,” Daily Telegraph sports editor-at-large Phil Rothfield says. “Exactly 10 years after the Warriors went broke and almost folded, the World Champions, Four Nations trophy holders and now grand finalists are producing enough players in a population of almost 4.5 million to easily support two clubs. The same population in Sydney supports nine NRL clubs. The NRL has plans to expand the competition in 2015 and former Kiwi coach and Test halfback Gary Freeman believes a second New Zealand side should be based out of Wellington in the next three to five years. ‘I’d think you’d find a lot of New Zealand stars at NRL clubs would be tempted to go home,’ Freeman said.” The Warriors take on the Manly Sea Eagles in the NRL grand final day on 2 October.
(29 September 2011)
 

Top of the podium for Dixon
New Zealand speedster Scott Dixon driving for Ganassi Racing, has won the IndyCar Series’ Indy Japan 300 mile auto race at Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi. And if there’s one word that describes Dixon it’s consistent. In each of the past five years, he is the only driver who has been in the top four with two races to go. After a slow start, Dixon recorded his fifth podium finish and fourth in the last five races at Toronto in July, where he finished second. Whatever happens at Kentucky Speedway on 2 October, Dixon figures the championship will come down to the last race in Las Vegas on 16 October. “The championship, I think going back to every year since 2006, has been decided in the last race so I don’t think it’s fair to count anyone out until the last lap of the season,” Dixon said.
(21 September 2011)
 

Nanotech developer expands
Christchurch-based nanotechnology instrument manufacturer Izon Science has opened its US headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts to further support its expanding client base in 23 countries. Izon Science is the developer of the portable qNano and qViro instruments with unique size-tunable nanopores. The instruments offer improvements over previously available techniques and are advancing research in a number of fields including drug delivery, hematology, biomedical diagnostics, and vaccine development. Executive chairman of Izon Science Hans van der Voorn said: “We’ve located ourselves amongst a thriving life sciences community, which is also the premier academic community in the world.”
(22 September 2011)
 

Return of the storm petrel
DNA evidence has confirmed that the tiny New Zealand storm petrel bird, thought to be extinct for more than 150 years, is still alive, meaning its comeback eclipses that of other “extinct” birds like the takahe and Chatham Islands taiko. It was rediscovered in 2003 by birdwatchers Ian Saville and Brent Stephenson in the Hauraki Gulf, but there was confusion about where and how the bird survived, and whether it was actually a separate species, or just a more common species of storm petrel, with odd colouring. But the University of Otago’s Bruce Robertson has now matched DNA from the Hauraki Gulf birds to tissue fragments from three museum specimens in England and France, confirming they are the same species. That confirms that the birds in the gulf are the same as those last seen in the 1800s, and that the New Zealand storm petrel is a distinct species. “I think that’s pretty huge,” Robertson said.
(25 September 2011)
 

On the beach in Devonport
Auckland artist Kirsty Nixon is staging a solo exhibition of 15 iconic beach and coastal paintings at Devonport’s Art by the Sea Gallery from 8 October to 27 October. Nixon paints warm emotive New Zealand beach scenes which evoke memories of summer holidays spanning the generations. Her paintings usually include cabbage trees, toetoe, nikau, flax and pohutukawa. “I just love cabbage trees. They are striking pieces of nature: sculptural and iconic. To me they just scream: New Zealand,” Nixon says. Her exhibition features beaches and coastal scenes in the Bay of Islands, the Coromandel, Mahurangi, Piha, Matauri Bay, Rangitoto and Tauwharanui near Omaha.
(20 September 2011)

Testing theories of existence
New Zealand and Australia are working together to build the most powerful radio telescope ever constructed, the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The international consortium behind the project — 67 organisations in 20 countries — hopes the SKA will help humanity answer two of its most puzzling questions — how the universe was formed after the Big Bang and do we share it with other beings? The square kilometre in SKA refers to the combined data-collecting area of the 3000 radio antennas — each with a 15m diameter dish — located at sites that would stretch 5500km across the Australian outback and New Zealand. All antennas would be linked by fibre-optics to a supercomputer in Perth that would have to process a million trillion operations a second — a speed known as an exaflop. That computer speed does not yet exist. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) astronomer Brian Boyle said the SKA would be used to try to form a full physical history of the universe. “It will test fundamental physical theories. The theories of Einstein, the nature of gravity,” Boyle said. Production of the SKA would begin in 2016 and the first data would be collected in 2020.
(25 September 2011)
 

Milestone made at Eden Park
“After being awarded a special commemorative cap for becoming the first man to reach 100 All Black caps, captain Richie McCaw told over 60,000 fans at Eden Park that now French demons have been laid to rest, the William Webb Ellis trophy is next,” the Telegraph’s Oliver Pickup wrote after New Zealand won over Les Bleus 37-17. “The 30-year-old led his forwards into battle against the French, who had proved something of a bogey side in recent World Cup history, and they won. Reflecting on his achievement of bringing his personal ton up, the Crusaders flanker said: ‘I’m pretty lost for words, to be honest. To reach a milestone like that ... You never want to put personal achievements ahead of the team, but to do it in front of your home crowd, at the World Cup, playing the French — I couldn’t think of anything better.’” McCaw’s debut international test was against Ireland at Lansdowne Road on 17 November 2001. He was born in Oamaru.
(24 September 2011)
 

Lucerne greens up the dry
Farmer of the Year Marlborough lamb and beef producer Doug Avery was a guest at the Queensland Agforce conference in September giving Australians tips on drought proofing their properties. The ABC’s Landline executive producer Pete Lewis caught up with Avery in Brisbane. “Prolonged drought is not exactly a term we normally associate with New Zealand. How did that influence the way you operated your lamb and beef business?” Lewis asked. “For a period of 19 years, we had 17 of those years where we didn’t get our average rainfall and that’s really serious for us,” Avery replied. “What actually happened with us is we ended up running half our capital stock that we normally had and it affected us environmentally, it affected us financially and of course when those two things start to fail it also affected us socially.” One day, Avery attended a seminar at which Lincoln University senior plant scientist Dr Derrick Moot was giving an address. “Our family had been growing lucerne for 80 years and that day Moot dropped the pennies through the slot that connected the lucerne plant to a grazing system, and to basically a process that changed my life,” Avery said. 
(18 September 2011)
 

Comparing notes in Casper
Aucklander Donna Thompson (right) has been writing to Wyoming woman Peg Scott since she was 12-years-old. The pen pals finally met 46 years later over breakfast at Sherrie’s Place in Casper, Wyoming. At school in the mid-1960s, Scott was learning to write letters, address envelopes by corresponding with a pen pal. “I was fortunate enough to choose someone from New Zealand,” Scott said. In her first letter to Thompson, Scott introduced herself, said she was “5-feet-whatever” tall and described Wyoming and Casper. She closed with “’I really hope you answer me,’” she said. “And she did.” While they share a lot in common, they noted differences between the Thompson’s nation and Scott’s state. “We have lots of beaches,” Thompson said. “Everything in America is pretty big.” 
(16 September 2011)
 

Creating social science fiction
New Zealand-born director Andrew Niccol’s new film In Time, out in the United States on 28 October, is set in a world where everyone’s biological clock stops at age 25. Here, time is the currency – the wealthy can live infinitely, while the poor must work for – or steal – enough minutes just to survive the day. Take a glance at Niccol’s body of work, and it becomes apparent that the filmmaker is interested in exploring otherworldly realities. The first movie he wrote and directed, 1997’s Gattaca, presented a society in which children are born with only their parents’ strongest hereditary trait – creating an environment in which people are judged by their gene pools. But Niccol, 47, insists he isn’t as transfixed by science fiction as his resume might suggest. “I never knew I was actually making science fiction, because it was always social science fiction. I was never so interested in the hardware. I was more interested in the humanity,” Niccol says. 
(4 September 2011)
 

Elevating comfort food
“In the global landscape of New York City dining, New Zealand is underrepresented,” The Wall Street Journal’s Lauren Lancaster writes. “Chef Mark Simmons, best known for a stint on the fourth season of Top Chef, brings New Zealand cuisine to Park Slope [with Kiwiana]. The summer vegetable pie ($9) is stuffed with a mix of zucchini, baby carrots, peas and cauliflower. It’s a vegetarian homage to meat pies sold at gas stations in New Zealand. ‘It’s kind of like taking simple comfort food from New Zealand and then elevating it,’ Simmons said. Classic brunch dishes include eggs benedict, featuring perfectly poached eggs served on a thin layer of braised pork belly.” Kiwiana is on 847 Union Street at Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York. 
(17 September 2011)
 

Time to read the tome
Hamilton Doctor Who fan and author of the ultimate guide to the time traveller’s adventures Jon Preddle began work on his two volume epic Timelink: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Continuity of Doctor Who in 1989. A former business banker, Preddle said he first wrote down the hand written guide in school exercise books. “It was originally going to be published in the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club Fanzine, but with the size of it there’s no way it could have been done,” Preddle said. “I self published it in 2000 and then the new series came along and I had to get it up to date.” Doctor Who Magazine said: “Preddle’s stamina, invention and clever observations have the grey matter firing and somehow, he makes this beast readable. Timelink is the answer to everything you never thought you wanted to know.” Doctor Who first screened on November 23, 1963. It is now in its 32nd full series. 
(14 September 2011)
 

Seriously shaken
“By the standards of global hipness, New Zealand – where local food is a way of life and you’re as likely to see a beard on a farmer as on a barista – has been cool for years,” Jason Rowan writes in The New York Times. “Which may be why the windy capital city of Wellington is getting buzz as the Portland of the Pacific. Fueled by an abundance of fishing and agriculture, the restaurant scene is brimming with experimentation. The menu at Boulcott Street Bistro includes dishes like Pukekohe chicken with fennel and cabanossi. Cocktails have gotten serious, too: Matterhorn makes its own tinctures and liquors infused with flavours of geranium and cigar. [At] the ’50s-style lounge Motel drinks are inspired by everything from 18th-century highwaymen to Modesty Blaise. And of course there’s coffee. Eight boutique roasters serve Wellington’s population of 198,000. At Customs Brew Bar, where there are no to-go cups, you’re expected to pause and savour the brew on premises.” 
(15 September 2011)
 

Mutual love of the outdoors
New Zealand-based active-lifestyle clothing company Icebreaker – one of a number of new international fashion and fashion-related retailers operating in Canada – opened a store in Vancouver this year, attracted largely by British Columbians’ love of the outdoors. General manager Cassandra Osborn said their New Zealand merino wool clothing has been selling wholesale in Canada since 2000, but that the company opened its second Canadian store in Kitsilano after opening a Montreal store four years ago. Osborn said the Vancouver Icebreaker store, which competes with companies such as The North Face, Roots, Patagonia and Lululemon, has exceeded sales expectations since opening. “Vancouver represents our ideal demographic [and] we felt Vancouver has the right kind of consumer for our entire line,” she said. “[Vancouver] has a very active lifestyle. Also, there’s a large tourism base.” 
(12 September 2011)
 

Film on the ground in LA
Film New Zealand and Wellington post production outfit Park Road are joining forces to open a Los Angeles-based office. From 2012, head of marketing at Park Road Post Production Vicki Jackways will represent the operation in the US. Film New Zealand chief executive Gisella Carr says the initiative is part of a wider project by Film New Zealand to improve collaboration between separate parts of the New Zealand industry. General manager of Park Road Cameron Harland said: “We look forward to delivering real benefit through a more focused market push into the States.” An “on-the-ground presence” was the best way to get value from the North American market Harland said. 
(13 September 2011)
 

London alternative realm
New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard presents a solo exhibition of her recent works through 8 October at the Kate MacGarry gallery in London. The Guardian describes the exhibition: “[Upritchard’s] recent works — rainbow-hued figures crafted from modelling material — have moved further into an imagined alternative realm. Their tie-dye candy colours suggest rave-era new ageism but their hunched backs hint that reverie is no easy path to enlightenment. And Upritchard’s lost none of her flair for rethinking cast-offs, as teeth necklaces made with fag butts reveal.” In 2012, she will also have solo exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary, Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center, and Salon 94 in New York. Upritchard lives in London.
(3 September 2011)
 

Rediscovering talent
New Zealand singer-songwriter Liam Finn, who is promoting his latest studio album FOMO, plays at Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live on 18 September. Co-producer of FOMO Canadian-born Burke Reid helped Finn avoid the trap of creating an album that was merely I’ll Be Lightning, Part 2. Given its dynamic range of sound and instrumentation, you’d never guess FOMO was written and played by one man, unless you’ve witnessed one of Finn’s solo gigs, which feature him bouncing between instruments, piling on loops and layers and working up the sweat of several men with his head-shaking, body-quaking performance style. “I made I’ll Be Lightning completely on my own, engineered and produced it, and that was quite a cathartic process at the time. This time I wanted to make a record that was truly reflective of where I’m at now,” Finn says. “Making this record, I got to rediscover myself.”
(6 September 2011)
 

Dorsal fin encounters
“Kaikoura is not a name that trips off the tongue when you list those lucky places that offer encounters with nature and a touch of luxury,” The Independent’s Jonathan Lorie reports. “But this township of wooden cabins, ringed by mountains in a rugged bay, is New Zealand’s next big eco-destination. ‘It’s the best place in the world for swimming with dolphins,’ explained Kate Baxter, the sparky concierge who welcomed me to Hapuku Lodge. Kaikoura has two great claims to fame. One is Hapuku — a line of tree houses perched in a grove of wispy manuka trees, between the mountains and the sea. The other great claim lies beneath the sea. Nowhere else in the world has such deep water a kilometre from shore. Here, your chances of seeing a whale are 95 per cent, every day of the year.”
(11 September 2011)
 

Elements emblazoned
Its beauty is dazzling enough by day, but when the sun goes down New Zealand’s seas, caves and starlit skies are another world Jonathan Freedland describes in a Guardian travel article. On an overnight fishing trip near Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty, on deck in the darkness, skipper Mike turned on the ship’s lights. “Suddenly the waters were revealed as throbbing with life — full of silent, almost translucent jellyfish, swelling and pulsing in an elegant ballet around us,” Freedland writes. “The surface of the water was marked by trails of neon-bright green light: the phosphorescent glow of plankton. We were on the water again a couple of nights later — in McLaren Falls Park near Tauranga. We glided on the water, avoiding marshes, steering down a narrow inlet until we were in a gorge lit up like the most dazzling planetarium. What we were looking at was a galaxy full of glow-worms, clinging to the steep rock walls on either side, each one a bright star.”
(9 September 2011)
 

Return to the icy wild
Happy Feet, the “lost” emperor penguin which washed up on the Kapiti Coast, has been returned to the ocean; a BBC article examines how he and other animals are released back into the wild. The plight of an injured wild animal is always poignant. But sometimes there’s a happy ending — a creature nurtured back to health by humans and then released into the wild. Such is the case with Happy Feet. Happy Feet would have been fed with tubes and given antifungals and antibiotics, says Romain Pizzi, a veterinary surgeon at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. Once he’d recovered, he swam in salt water cooled to 0C. Such a test would show whether he was too thin for cold water and if his feathers were waterproof. Pizzi says Happy Feet has made an “impressive” recovery. “He must have been very ill.” The key thing is to understand the skills the animal needs to survive in the wild. And then to try and impart those skills to the creature before setting it free.
(5 September 2011)
 

Bungee-roped canyon beast
New Zealand is home to the world’s largest and highest swing. Located in scenic Queensland, the Nevis swing is a “bungee-roped beast [which] swings in a 300m ark and hangs a lofty 160m above the river on the canyon floor.” The swing has a 120m rope length, with potential speeds of up to 150kph.
(1 September 2011)
 

Top Guns
General Motors (GM) chief financial officer New Zealander Dan Ammann, 39, is one of a number of central figures graded at GM in an article by Fortune Magazine’s senior-editor-at-large Alex Taylor III discussing the recent remodeling of the Detroit-based company. “The first GM CFO to wear a Vandyke and sideburns,” writes Taylor, Ammann took up the job in April, succeeding fellow New Zealander Chris Liddell. The two were similarly paired to lead GM’s 2010 US$20 billion Initial Public Offering, the largest in financial history. “Ammann vows to end what he calls ‘analysis paralysis’ and has declared war on complexity — too many powertrains, too many trim levels, too many models — that saps earnings. With GM’s breakeven point at historically low levels, he believes the company is ready for significant growth. ‘For the first time in five or 10 years, the company is no longer in crisis mode,’ he says. ‘Now we can focus on revenue.’” For ‘Changes at the top’, of which Ammann, CEO Dan Akerson and Akerson’s chief lieutenant, adviser, and troubleshooter Steve Girsky are included, Taylor gives an A-. Ammann was born in Eureka, west of Morrinsville, and graduated from the University of Waikato Management School with a BMS in Economics.
(25 August 2011)
 

        

Ginseng for China
King Country Ginseng growers Maraeroa C Incorporation are working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crops in China under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng. “We’re probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically grown ginseng in New Zealand,” Maraeroa C chief executive Glen Katu said. “China is the market for ginseng,” Katu said. “Most of the ginseng produced in the world is farmed or grown in fields under shade cloths because so little of it grows in the wild anymore. What we’re growing is organic and all natural.” At the present rate, Maraeroa C can plant about 5ha a year for the next 10 years, but with investment, they’re aiming for 40ha year from 2013. “Our ginseng plants have very high levels of antioxidants, which they produce to protect themselves from the ultraviolet radiation; that’s our big point of difference when we market our ginseng in China.”
(31 August 2011)
 

Annual fashion-off impresses
New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) was held at Auckland’s new Viaduct Event Centre this month and showcased the latest collections by the best fashion talent in New Zealand, including Stolen Girlfriends Club, Lonely Hearts, WORLD and the debut show of Ingrid Starnes. On day two, Stolen Girlfriends Club staged their show — a blend of rockabilly and the film This is England — in the venue’s car park. Meanwhile, The Huffington Post’s Ellie Krupnick covered the Huffer show describing the Auckland-based clothing line “that [they] actually really love” as having “rather subdued runways looks … which seemed to channel winter at an American liberal arts college campus — chunky knit sweaters, schoolgirl skirts, dark colours and lots of layers.” The finale was “exuberantly tacky … with a blonde, bikini-clad girl popping out of a cake.” NZFW also held a Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Show on 2 September which featured local designers Kathryn Leah Payne, Sakaguchi, Caroline Moore, Mister, Eclipse and including a new range from stylist Angela Stone. Curator of the New Zealand Fashion Museum Doris de Pont and Nom*D designer Margi Robertson discuss New Zealand’s current fashion identity in the New Zealand Herald: “Dark and moody, or have we moved on?”
(30 August 2011)
 

Once in a lifetime chance
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give a special one-off concert in Ireland’s Ulster Hall as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in October — with one lucky young singer getting the chance to show off their skills alongside New Zealand’s famous soprano. The competition will be held in Glenarm from 9-11 September as part of Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice. The five hopefuls will compete in a grand final on 11 September for a top prize of £2,000 and the chance to sing with Dame Kiri. On 28 August, Dame Kiri performed at Scarborough’s Open Air Theatre, Europe’s largest, alongside Aled Jones and Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall.
(26 August 2011)
 

Roughrider home to play
New Zealand basketball player Jordan Hunter, who is currently a sophomore at Missouri’s Crowder College playing at point guard for the Crowder Lady Roughriders, has received and accepted an invitation to play for her country’s national team. She could potentially be playing in the 2012 London Olympics for New Zealand. “I am very excited for her,” Crowder basketball coach Tina Robbins said. “We are sending her off with our blessing to represent her country and Crowder as well,” Robbins said. Last season, Hunter averaged more than seven points, seven assists and six rebounds per game for the Lady Riders. She earned second team all-region honours at season’s end.
(26 August 2011)
 

Chinese tourists flock
The number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand rose 22 per cent year-on-year to 133,000 in the 12 months that ended 31 July. Associate Tourism Minister Jonathan Coleman said China is one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing tourist markets with massive potential for growth, noting that China Southern Airlines Co Ltd was to increase its scheduled flights between Guangzhou and Auckland from three times a week to daily from November.
(19 August 2011)
 

Understanding diversity
The Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre has won a national award from the Human Rights Commission. The Centre, founded in 2006, received one of 12 New Zealand Diversity Awards, which recognize projects that have made a difference in understanding diversity. “It is a great honor for the center to receive this national award after only five years of our existence,” founding director Inge Woolf said. “Our basic aim has been to tell of humanity lost, of resilience and survival, and to teach tolerance, courage and racial harmony.” The Centre teaches the history of the Holocaust through the lives of the survivors and refugees who came to Wellington.
(25 August 2011)
 

Boasting grand beginnings
Twenty-one-year-old singer Kimbra’s debut album Vows is reviewed in The Sydney Morning Herald by Bernard Zuel. “On Vows, Kimbra leaps from rhythmic, multi-vocal exercises in the style of French artist Camille (a comparison which makes more sense across Vows than the Björk one usually ascribed) to low-impact R&B in the manner of the girl groups Prince used to produce, to bouncing pop choruses and slow, FM radio ballads,” Zuel writes. “So far, though, imagination and adventure are more prominent than telling songcraft, with few songs resonating beyond their genre exercise and sonic play. That’s still more than most of her chart companions can boast, mind you, and she’s only beginning.” Kimbra is from Hamilton. She lives in Melbourne. Vows is out now.
(27 August 2011)
 

Jackson bags the best Bilbo
Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson says there is “simply nobody else” who could star as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit epic but British actor Martin Freeman. “He is fantastic and there is simply nobody else for the job,” Jackson said during a recent break from the production in New Zealand and a whirlwind trip to Southern California. “We couldn’t find anyone who was better than him. He is simply fantastic.” “He’s Bilbo-esque,” the filmmaker said. “You might not always want to say that about you, right? But seriously he has the essential features of this little English gent, this country gent who is slightly old-fashioned and has to go around in the world and try to cope with it.” The Hobbit will be told over two films, the first reaching theatres in December 2012 and the second in December 2013.
(23 August 2011)
 

New Zealand blanketed in snow
August saw freezing cold and snow blanketing virtually all of the country, even typically mild cities such as Wellington and Auckland, which last saw accumulated snow 45 and 72 years ago, respectively. “What began late Sunday afternoon as a few fat flakes — quick, honey, grab the camera, this’ll be gone in a minute! — soon turned into an all-out blizzard as the unusually strong Antarctic front lingered over the island nation like some extremely unpleasant dinner party guest,” Christian Science Monitor correspondent David Cohen wrote from the capital. “As much as two feet of snow [were] reported in some places, with neighborhoods here in the sea-level capital recording several inches of the white stuff.”
(17 August 2011)

Like no place on earth
“The South Island is a lazy paradise of rolling green hills, craggy, glacier-clad mountains and rugged wind-swept beaches,” describes the Mark Johanson for the International Business times. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in the galaxy as beautiful as this remote chunk of land in the South Pacific Ocean.” According to Johanson, the South Island has some of the world’s top tourist destinations like Queenstown, Milford Sound and Marlborough, but to see the real beauty of the region you need to head off the beaten track. Johanson’s top ten places include The Catlins’ “rugged wind-swept beaches”, Lake Tekapo’s “dazzling, pale blue water” and the Doubtful Sound’s “mossy green cliffs [surrounded] by the misty mystery of this other worldly land.”
(24 August 2011)
 

A legacy in literature
Acclaimed journalist Dame Christine Cole Catley has passed away at age 88, leaving behind a legacy in New Zealand literature. After making a name for herself as one of the nation’s first prominent female reporters, Cole Catley shifted her sights to Australia’s ABC network where she established the company’s first news bureau in Indonesia in the mid-1950s. Following several years travelling in Indonesia working as ABC’s news correspondent, Cole Catley returned to New Zealand and became the country’s first television critic before going on to become the tutor-in-charge of New Zealand’s first school of journalism in 1967. Upon accepting this position at the Polytechnic School of Journalism, Cole Catley insisted half of all students were female in an effort to accelerate the number of women employed within the journalism industry. In 1973 she established an independent publishing company, Cape Catley, with the aim of giving young authors the opportunity to be published. Cole Catley was made a Dame Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 for her services to literature.
(21 August 2011)
 

Surge of visitors for World Cup
Despite a strong New Zealand dollar, international rugby fans haven’t been deterred from organising travel to New Zealand for this year’s Rugby World Cup. The most recent figures forecast 10,000 more visitors than previously expected. Over 95,000 people are set to visit the country during the nation’s largest sporting event which kicks off on 9 September. The latest forecast is based on international match ticket sale data released by Rugby New Zealand 2011. Martin Snedden, Chief Executive of Rugby New Zealand 2011, believes the increase in projected tourist numbers is a strong indicator of how beneficial the Rugby World Cup will be for New Zealand. “The upsurge in support from overseas fans is a strong sign of confidence in our ability to host the biggest sporting event New Zealand has ever held,” Snedden says. The Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the world, with more than 4 billion people tuning in to watch the 2007 tournament in France.
(10 August 2011)
 

Apprentices and prodigies
An exhibition of 12 up-and-coming contemporary New Zealand jewellers is on this month at Sydney’s Studio 20/17 gallery. ‘Handshake: Prentice and Prodigy’ is the brainchild of contemporary artist and jeweller, Peter Deckers. The Vine’s Jasmine O’Loughlin talks to Deckers, his mentor Andrea Wagner from Amsterdam and protégé New Zealander Neke Moa, about sewing the seeds of a new generation of jewellery designers and how other aspiring jewellers out there might make their mark. Deckers paired the design graduates with their ‘hero’, providing the newcomers with the opportunity for the collaboration of a lifetime. “The result?” Deckers says. “A lively website, touring exhibitions, a catalogue, and an exceptional learning experience for all involved.” ‘Handshake: Prentice and Prodigy’ runs through 21 August.
(10 August 2011)
 

Big names hit slopes
The world’s largest winter competition, the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games, have begun in the Southern Alps with more than 1000 winter sports atheletes from over 50 countries participating in the two-week biannual event. The games have long served as a winter-season warm-up for Northern-Hemisphere athletes, many from Colorado, making the journey to New Zealand. The games feature the first-ever International Ski Federation (FIS) sanctioned freeski big air event and is packed with some of the biggest names in the sport including current World Superpipe Champion New Zealander Jossi Wells. “New Zealand was instrumental in getting freeski halfpipe and ski cross events included in the 2014 Winter Olympics following the 2010 FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships in Lake Wanaka,” according to the games’ press office. The event runs through 28 August.
(13 August 2011)
 

Almódovar’s survivors
The autobiographies of New Zealand’s “greatest” author Janet Frame were part of an “esoteric selection of references” given to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s new leading lady Elena Anaya in preparation for her role as Vera in the new film, The Skin I Live In. The message, it seems, is that Almodóvar saw Vera as a survivor. In the film, Vera spends her life locked up in a sealed room in a plastic surgeon’s idyllic Toledo mansion, a deluxe prison. The surgeon, played by Antonio Banderas, is using Vera as a human guinea pig to test a heat and disease resistant transgenic skin that is still sensitive to the human touch.
(14 August 2011)
 

Mighty tree falls
Former Governor General Sir Paul Reeves has died in Auckland, aged 78. Prime Minister John Key said New Zealand has lost one of its greatest statesmen. “Sir Paul’s contribution to New Zealand did not end when he left Government House. He spent another two decades serving at the highest level. We are indebted,” Key said. Sir Paul was born in Wellington, and his whakapapa is Te Atiawa. He was Governor General from 1985 till 1990, and was the first Maori and the first cleric to fill that position. Former Prime Minister Helen Clark also paid tribute to Sir Paul. Clark said she had known Sir Paul from the time she was a young government minister in the late 1980s and had been with him on countless occasions. “Sir Paul was a great New Zealander who served his country, his church and his iwi with great distinction throughout his life.” Since 2005 Sir Paul had been the chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology and had held many prominent New Zealand leadership roles including a stint as the Archbishop of the Anglican Church. He was also Anglican Observer at the United Nations, observed elections in Ghana and South Africa, helped write constitutions for Fiji and Guyana and chaired the Nelson Mandela Trust. He was an Additional Member of the Order of New Zealand.
(14 August 2011)
 

Illusion of the truth
“I never intended to become an apologist for Tony Blair’s war,” director Lee Tamahori wails down the phone from his home in Wellington. “I just wanted to show that Uday was a psycho.” He says he’s been waiting all his life to make a cocaine-fuelled, machete-waving romp through the heady days of Saddam’s Baghdad but any suggestion that his film The Devil’s Double, which opens on this week in the UK, could glamorise the dying days of Saddam’s regime horrifies Tamahori. The main point of the film, he says, is to entertain. “All film is ultimately entertainment, regardless whether it’s The Battle of Algiers or a documentary about penguins,” he says. “It is all there to manipulate us. I don’t want people to leave thinking they have the truth. What they have instead is an illusion of the truth.” Tamahori directed his first American feature, Mulholland Falls, starring Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith and John Malkovich, in 1996. In 2002, he directed Die Another Day, the 20th Bond film, and the highest grossing Bond film to date. Tamahori was born in Wellington in 1950.
(7 August 2011)
 

Glad to be red
New Zealand-born forward Jeremy Kyne will play a backup role for the Canadian side at this year’s Rugby World Cup. Canada is extremely well stocked in the back row and he beat out some name players just to get into the 30-man squad. “To be honest leading up to World Cup selection, I wasn’t too confident of my chances,” Kyne said. “But I’m glad to be here and looking forward to making the most of my opportunities.” Playing first for the Edmonton Druids and then the Prairie Wolf Pack, Kyne made his mark at the 2010 Canadian Rugby Championship. Canadian coach Kieran Crowley said of Kyne: “Very physical and very rugged.” Kyne says he would like to stay with the game in Canada after his playing career is over, perhaps in coaching. “Canada has plenty of opportunities for rugby to grow,” he said.
(3 August 2011)
 

Walking on the moon
Tongariro Alpine Crossing has been included in the online travel adviser Cheapflights’ top ten hiking destinations list alongside the Appalachian Trail and Mount Kilimanjaro. “New Zealand continuously tops adventure travel lists thanks to its collection of breathtaking terrain. Surprisingly, the bleak and cratered landscape of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is no exception. Many hikers say it initially resembles the surface of the moon, but once underway, it’s evident that this 18.5km hike is anything but bleak. As a World Heritage Site, Tongariro Alpine Crossing encompasses two active volcanoes, piercing aquamarine lakes, mud pools, snowcapped peaks and alpine meadows. Not only has it become a popular spot for hikers and tourists alike, Tongariro plays a spiritual role to New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people. Getting to and from the Crossing is easy and all hikers complete the journey in seven to eight hours.”
(6 August 2011)
 

Making our roads safer
New Zealand has increased its minimum driving age from 15 to 16 in an effort to make its roads safer, as well as banning those under 20 drinking any amount of alcohol and then driving. The country has one of the lowest driving ages in the developed world, the legacy of an agriculture-driven economy in which teenagers are expected to be able to operate farm vehicles from a young age. While people under 25 make up just 15 per cent of all of New Zealand’s drivers, they are involved in 35 per cent of serious accidents. The new policy went into effect on August 1.
(1 August 2011)
 

Defining great on Eden Park
New Zealand has beaten Australia 30-14 to claim a record ninth straight Tri-Nations victory, and the Bledisloe Cup, at Auckland’s Eden Park. The World Cup favourites scored tries through Ma’a Nonu, Keven Mealamu and Sitiveni Sivivatu to take control. New Zealand made seven changes for the clash and fielded the oldest starting line-up in Tri-Nations history. Backs coach Wayne Smith said of mid-field players Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith: “They’re both special players. The characteristic I like about them most is the bigger the game, the better they get.. That’s what defines great players.” The All Blacks next play the Spring Boks in Port Elizabeth on 21 August.
(6 August 2011)
 

Ensuring world nourishment
With a rapidly growing world population New Zealand has a key role in ensuring food security and safety for future generations, according to Mark Ward, general manager of Massey University’s The Riddet Institute, which specialises in research on food innovation and nutrition. As fossil fuel prices rise, driving up the cost for agriculture, such research could be one answer to future global food security, according to Ward, who was in Seoul last month for the Food & Beverage Forum. “The Riddet Institute is really interested in understanding how nature assembles the lowest energy foods — lowest energy in terms of cost of input in nature — so that manufactures can replicate that, still producing high nutritious foods. Ward warned that Asia would ultimately have to produce its own food, new technologies or not. “Asia is going to have to produce more food, it’s not going to come from New Zealand, there won’t be enough production,” he said.
(31 July 2011)

Soprano in the scrum
New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra has been snapped with a number of burly rugby players, after she was named as the official voice of the Rugby World Cup for audiences in the UK. Westenra’s version of World in Union is to accompany the games screened by ITV, which will be broadcasting from the opening match on 9 September to the final on 23 October. Westenra, who has sung the New Zealand national anthem at test matches in the past, is based in London. Her latest album Paradiso, produced by film composer Ennio Morricone, is set to be released in the UK on 29 August. Westenra was born in Christchurch. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.
(28 July 2011)
 

Running them ragged
“New Zealand produced a dazzling display to run South Africa ragged in an emphatic Tri Nations victory at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium,” reported England’s Daily Mail. The All Blacks crushed the Spring Boks 40-7, with “[Dan] Carter regaining the world Test points scoring record despite struggling in tricky kicking conditions. In his first kicking act of the game in the third minute, Carter passed the world record of 1195 points held by England’s Jonny Wilkinson by landing a penalty goal.” The All Blacks next play the Wallabies at Eden Park on 6 August.
(30 July 2011)
 

In love with his TV
Chief executive of Virgin Media New Zealander Neil Berkett has been placed at number 52 on the MediaGuardian annual top 100 guide to the most powerful people in television, radio, newspapers, magazines, digital media, media business, advertising, marketing and PR. The Guardian profile reads: “Berkett has promised to ‘make people fall in love with their television sets again’ with Virgin Media’s next-generation video-on-demand service. Berkett led his cable company to a record three-month turnover of £1bn during the final quarter of 2010, and was rewarded when the share price hit an all-time high. Berkett took over as chief executive in 2008, having been chief operating officer at its predecessor company NTL from 2005. A straight-talking New Zealander, Berkett’s focus this year will be Virgin Media’s superfast broadband offering and its video-on-demand offering backed by Tivo.” Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg took the top spot.
(24 July 2011)
 

Pioneering MP passes away
Whetu Trikatene-Sullivan, New Zealand’s longest serving female MP has died in Wellington, aged 79. Trikatene-Sullivan, of Ngai Tahu, was Labour MP for Southern Maori for 29 years, from 1967 till 1996. She famously travelled up to 40,000km each year getting around her electorate. She was born in 1932, and pioneered educational, welfare, cultural, and community programmes for Maori people for over 30 years. When she was appointed to the Order of New Zealand in 1993, her citation said she had worked towards the “harmonious relationship between the Maori and European New Zealand communities and advocated on behalf of Maori in order to remove disparities between the two cultures”. She was Minister of Tourism, Associate Minister of Social Welfare, and Minister for the Environment. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, was the founding President of the New Zealand Maori Students’ Federation and as Vice-President of the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association in 1960, she advocated the student health counselling service and the instigation of tuition in Te Reo. Minister Chris Finlayson said she was an inspiring leader of her people and a genuinely great New Zealander.
(22 July 2011)
 

Return to Kapiti
Sixty-nine years after he survived a fatal landing exercise off Paekakariki Beach, former marine American Frank Zalot plans to travel to New Zealand in 2012 for a commemoration of American servicemen stationed here in World War II. Ten of Zalot’s friends perished in the accident on June 20, 1943. Zalot wrote an eyewitness account of what happened, and his daughter emailed it to authorities on the Kapiti Coast. They had little information about it, and his story was noted during a flag-raising ceremony there on Memorial Day. “Frank Zalot’s story is very moving and significant,” Mayor of Kapiti Jenny Rowan said. “This is one of the biggest tragedies in Kapiti in the past century, and it’s a story many of us know very little about.” “This was a very difficult story to tell because these men that died that night were like family,” Zalot said. Pearl Harbour was bombed on Zalot’s 17th birthday; he enlisted in the Navy the next day.
(23 July 2011)
 

Back to the place he loves
Los Angeles is losing one of the greatest living jazz pianists, and a composer-orchestrator who has few peers, if any, New Zealand native Alan Broadbent. Before Broadbent moves his family to New York this autumn, he played a final recital as a local resident for Culver City’s Jazz Bakery’s ongoing “Movable Feast” series, Broadbent cautions not to call it a “farewell concert.” “The bulk of my work is as a touring musician, and I can do that from anywhere,” Broadbent says. Broadbent’s orchestrations have enlarged the work of headline singers, including Diana Krall, Natalie Cole and Michael Feinstein, and Charlie Haden’s Quartet West. The move is tinged with nostalgia. As a 19-year-old music student from Auckland, Broadbent got his first glimpse of New York in 1966. “We sailed into the harbour,” he recalls with amazement, “in the middle of a blizzard. But I could just make out the Statue of Liberty and her torch.” Confused and alone, Broadbent was also awed: “New York City is the birthplace of the music that I love.”
(16 July 2011)
 

Getting shirty
The New Zealand Rugby Union says it has no qualms with England wearing a black strip at this year’s Rugby World Cup. The Rugby Football Union said England will wear a black kit in the first of their World Cup matches against Argentina on 10 September. They will wear their traditional red and white strip in their remaining group matches but could revert to the black kit later in the tournament. Designers came up with the idea of a black kit to replace the grey, or anthracite, shirt 18 months ago and, mindful of New Zealand’s historic association with the colour, approached the country’s officials to seek their approval. All Black captain Richie McCaw refused to be drawn into a debate on the issue of shirt colour. “If it comes down to what colour you wear determines how you play, then we’ve got trouble,” McCaw said.
(15 July 2011)

Time for a change
Tiger Woods says goodbye to long-time caddie Steve Williams after twelve years, 13 majors and 72 tournament wins. Woods and Williams, have been together since 1999. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to Stevie for all his help, but I think it’s time for a change,” Woods said on his website. It’s a poor workman who blames his tools, and caddie Steve Williams was certainly one of Tiger Woods’s most important tools. Woods won 13 of 14 majors and 72 tournaments with Williams toting his clubs the past dozen years. That’s a nice living for a golfer and by extension, for his caddie. Williams will now caddy for Australian Adam Scott.
(22 July 2011)

Raiding the global pantry
Martha Jeffries, producer/director of New Zealand-made food and travel series World Kitchen is a self-confessed foodie with wanderlust, who had a “very Hutt upbringing”, growing up in Pinehaven and attending Sacred Heart College before heading to Europe. A former Otago University student and now based in New York, Jeffries says: “When I came back and got into television, I was very attracted to the travel genre.” She joined the World Kitchen team three years ago after working on Intrepid Journeys and family travel show Are We There Yet? Jeffries says we are fortunate in New Zealand to have a wealth of choice in food. “We can have a different cuisine every night and that’s a big change from fish ‘n’ chip Fridays.” Jeffries’ favourite places to film have been New Orleans and Italy for its ingrained eating culture — “I love how it’s normal to spend four hours on one meal.” World Kitchen is presented by Nici Wickes.
(12 July 2011)
 

Welcome to Limboland
“The once bustling central business district resembles a wasteland,” Jonathan Hutchison reports for The New York Times. “Office furniture can be seen sitting inside partially collapsed buildings. Piles of bricks and steel lie along the closed, empty streets. Ten months after a powerful earthquake hit New Zealand’s second-largest city, residents have experienced more than 7300 aftershocks. It is the second deadliest natural disaster ever and has also become the costliest natural disaster in New Zealand history. Engineers have been surveying land throughout the city to determine which parts are too dangerous to live and build on for the foreseeable future. The government has offered to buy houses and land in these red zones, a deal that could cost up to $685 million. More than 5000 houses are affected so far. The continuing aftershocks are an unpleasant but unavoidable reality that is likely to persist for some time. Scientists estimate that in about a year, they should slow to about one a month.”
(14 July 2011)
 

Petunia precedent
A few years back, several New Zealand scientists began tinkering with petunia pigment genes developing biotech varieties with lush dark leaves. The scientists wondered if they could sell their flowers. They wrote to regulators in the United States, the country most open to genetic engineering. The Agriculture Department responded, saying the petunias, because of the technology used, did not require its oversight — a promising decision. Before the biologists went further, however, the work fell to a reorganisation. Everyone moved on. They had no idea they’d blown open a huge loophole in US biotech regulations. “It wasn’t really considered an enormous deal,” said Roger Bourne, the communications director for the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research, which developed the petunias. In 2007, the biologists, Bourne said, innocently wondered what “the commercial situation would be with this? And asked the question.” Despite its low profile, USDA’s petunia decision is set to revolutionize the way genetically modified crops from trees to fruit are regulated in the United States.
(15 July 2011)
 

Winning ways in Edmonton
Taupo double Olympic medalist Bevan Docherty has won gold at the Edmonton ITU Triathlon World Cup. “This course seems to treat me well. I enjoy racing here,” Docherty said. “But the reality is I am starting to hit good shape and I’m just happy with how things are going.” A total of 76 men began the race with a 2-lap wetsuit swim in the Hawrelak Park lake. Docherty surged ahead as the pack neared the finish chute to secure his fifth career World Cup title. “Four weeks out from our selection race which is in London,” he said. “It is just reassuring to know that all the training that I’ve been doing is starting to pay off.”
(11 July 2011)
 

Quitting his day job
New Zealand-born Stephen Daisley, winner of Australia’s 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, said the AU$80,000 tax-free prize would finally enable him to quit his weekend job selling second-hand clothes and focus exclusively on writing. Daisley is a married father of five whose working life has included stints in the New Zealand army, on sheep and cattle stations, cutting bush and scrub, driving trucks, road work, bar work and on oil and gas sites. Such experiences have informed his literary debut, a war novel entitled Traitor about patriotism and friendship that starts on the beaches of Gallipoli. Daisley said his family had generously accommodated his literary aspirations, but his wife once lamented that she “wished she’d married a plumber rather than a trapeze artist”. Traitor won the Glenda Adams Award for New Writing at this year’s NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was shortlisted for the regional Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book.
(9 July 2011)

Upside Downside
New Zealand film producers Michael Bennett and Maile Daugherty are collaborating with Beijing’s Xing Xing Digital Corporation to produce a NZ$18.1 million animated feature film in English and Mandarin. Downside Story is set in Shanghai and follows the adventures of a teenage sewer rat as he tries to save a lost kitten. “This is an exciting co-production project and well-positioned to take advantage of the New Zealand/China Film Co-production Agreement signed last year,” said Michael Stephens, entertainment lawyer and New Zealand’s international delegate to the Shanghai festival. Bennett has directed episodes of Outrageous Fortune and feature film Matariki. New Zealand American Daugherty has worked as a feature film and short film producer, line producer and EP.
(7 July 2011)
 

Sharks on holidays
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Department of Conservation (DOC), and University of Auckland have discovered that the great white shark, can travel thousands of kilometres on seasonal migrations, returning to exactly the same home area. The six-year study tracked the movements of great white sharks around New Zealand’s remote islands. In April, the scientists tagged a record 27 great white sharks around the Titi (Muttonbird) Islands off the northeast coast of Stewart Island, adding the 31 sharks previously tagged since 2005. NIWA principal scientist Dr Malcolm Francis said: “The pieces of the puzzle are gradually coming together. We knew that most of our white sharks emigrate from New Zealand during winter. Now we have discovered that many, perhaps most of them, make the return trip to exactly the same place in New Zealand.”
(7 July 2011)
 

Shot putting machine
Auckland 16-year-old Jacko Gill has smashed his own world youth shot put record by nearly half a metre with a throw of 24.35m at the world youth championships in Lille. Gill had three throws that went beyond 24m. He was so dominant that even his weakest throw in the final at 21.99 was still better than the 20.35 by American Tyler Schultz for silver. “The crowd was great and they really helped me, they were on their feet for my last throw,” Gill said. Gill is the first athlete to breach the 24m distance with a 5kg shot in official competition. “I want to break the junior world record again and I’ve got a few other goals,” he said. “I just want to train up for London and I really want to get a medal in London.”
(8 July 2011)
 

Talent exported
Lead singer of The Naked and Famous, Thom Powers tells The Irish Independent’s Ed Power that he thought the band could pretend they were from some obscure part of Europe. “It must annoy you that most Europeans only know New Zealand for two things: rugby and Lord of the Rings,” reporter Power says. “The Naked and the Famous are a really big deal in New Zealand. And yet you’ve turned your back on that in order to start again in Europe. You must want to be successful rather badly. ‘You can only get so big at home,’ Powers says. ‘At the same time, it’s almost impossible to get out of New Zealand, or even Australia for that matter. We are privileged in that our music has actually crossed oceans.’” The Naked and Famous begin their US tour in August.
(1 July 2011)
 

Bewildering benevolence
Janet Frame’s novel Living in the Maniototo is included in a Wall Street Times ‘Novel Approaches to Kindness’ ‘Five Best Books’ feature as one of the “oddest acts of kindness in fiction.” “It seems not even to have happened in the story being told,” Linda Grant explains. “The unnamed narrator is lent a house in Berkeley by admirers who want to give her the peace and quiet she needs to write while they are on a tour of Italy. Alas, she has to share the place with two other couples — Americans — whom she describes with characteristic economy: ‘If it hadn’t been for the practice known as the Great Californian Confession (the G.C.C.) I might not have gleaned so much about my guests.’ Then news comes that the owners have been killed in an earthquake and have left the house to her. The legacy turns into a squabble over ownership, until you realize that the other houseguests are imaginary and that the house itself may not exist. The narrator has made them up to distract herself from the anxiety of composition. This is one of the great novels about the act of writing — complexities abound, but there is no missing the clarity of the central passion. ‘I have to cry out here,’ the narrator says, ‘that language is all we have for the delicacy of truth and telling, that words are the real heroes and heroines of fiction.’” Living in the Maniatoto was published in 1979.
(25 June 2011)
 

On V in LA shoot
“Television’s hottest vampire bait” Anna Paquin features in the July issue of V Magazine. In the exclusive interview, Paquin explains her character, the mind-reading waitress Sookie Stackhouse, and the fiends out to get her: “Sookie is always in distress, it wouldn’t be True Blood if someone wasn’t trying to kill her.” She also confides: “While I have always, felt like an outsider, it’s because of the professional choices I have made, so it’s not like I am planning to throw myself a giant pity party.” True Blood season four debuted on HBO in the US on June 26.
(01 July 2011)
 

Jones’ cerebral legacy
Upper Hutt-born neuroscientist Dr Edward “Ted” Jones, who was an expert on brain anatomy and the causes of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, has died in Los Angeles, aged 72. Jones retired in 2009 as director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience but remained a professor in the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology. His studies showed that seemingly minute abnormalities in human brains can cause chemical imbalances and lead to schizophrenia and other long-term nervous disorders. His research formed a basis for understanding recovery of function after strokes or cerebral trauma. Jones earned a medical degree from the University of Otago and a doctorate in neuroanatomy from the University of Oxford in England. He built his reputation as a top neuroanatomist in academic posts in New Zealand and at Oxford, Washington University in St. Louis and UC Irvine (where he taught from 1984 to 1988). After leading brain research at RIKEN science institute in Japan, he joined UC Davis in 1998. Jones belonged to a group of scientists working on the international Human Brain Project. A former president of the international Society for Neuroscience, he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
(15 June 2011)
 

Empire covers Middle Earth
“In honour of [Peter] Jackson’s long-awaited return to Middle-earth for two dragon-and-dwarf-laden prequels — as a “good luck charm” according to the director — Empire takes its symbolic and rightful place as the first magazine in the world to put The Hobbit on its cover. Peter Jackson’s much-anticipated film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel and serving as the prequel to The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is currently shooting the two part series in New Zealand. Jackson assures Empire he is once again reaching for the mighty spectacle of Lord of the Rings, but also bringing a certain ‘Hobbity-ness’ all its own. “The tone is actually the part of it I’m enjoying the most,” he laughs, casting a fond eye upon his rabble of exotic dwarves, clattering about set like they own the place. “They have a healthy disregard for the icons of Middle-earth.” The Hobbit cover story features in the August issue of Empire.
(26 June 2011)
 

Living his dream
At the age of 12, Wellingtonian Cole Peverley, who currently plays at midfield for Charleston Battery in South Carolina, travelled to Europe for a youth tournament in 2000. He played so well that professional teams from France and Germany recruited him to attend their youth academies clubs. “My dream was to be a professional football player,” Peverley said. “The best coaches and the best players in the world train and play in Europe, so I knew that’s where I had to go to realize my dream.” Peverley signed with Hansa Rostock, a powerful club in the former East Germany. Peverley returned to New Zealand in 2006 and played the next five seasons for Auckland City, Hawke’s Bay United and Team Wellington. Now with Battery, coach Mike Anhaeuser said: “He’s got a lot of skill, his technical skill is very high. When he’s got time on the ball he can drive a 40 - 50-yard ball right onto a guy’s foot. That’s a rare skill.”
(25 June 2011)
 

Enough room for everyone
The New Zealand company behind Toyota people-carriers Spaceships — in the UK now for 18 months — is recommended by the Guardian in a travel feature about campervanning in Britain and mainland Europe. “The four-person van goes all safari with a tent on the roof and a ladder leading up to it … Unusually, Spaceships allows its vans out of the country, and its daily rates reduce the longer you rent, so it would be churlish not to take off for Europe.” Spaceships has been operating for over 20 years. In 2008, the company launched Spaceships campervan rentals in Australia.
(24 June 2011)

Kirwan’s Japanese goal
“It’s been five years since coach John Kirwan, an All Blacks hero from the rugby stronghold of New Zealand, took the helm of the Japanese team,” Shuhei Nomura writes for Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. “The World Cup will be the biggest stage for the team to showcase what it has gained under Kirwan’s leadership. Japan has not won a Rugby World Cup match since the 1991 tournament. With that in mind, Kirwan has made his goal for the upcoming World Cup to get ‘two wins or more’ from an early stage.” Kirwan previously coached the Italian national rugby team from 2002 to 2005. He was appointed coach of Japan in 2007.
(26 June 2011)
 

Jumping the gap
With New Zealand still reeling from the effects of the Christchurch earthquakes, and its economy struggling to shrug off the turmoil caused by the global financial crisis, many people are making the trip across the Tasman with no intention of going home soon. Departures to Australia were the main culprit in New Zealand’s net migration falling to 4600 for the year ending May 31, down from 18,000 in 2010. Campbell Reeve was part of those statistics. The quantity surveyor moved to Sydney, from Hamilton, with his fiancée, Renee Strickland, in August last year. “We were in for the long haul when we decided to move. We sold up everything and cashed up completely,” Reeve said. Career opportunities were a key motivation, with money and lifestyle also playing a part. “The big factor for me was the scope of the projects I would be able to work on,” he said.
(25 June 2011)

On a whole other level
“Getting to rub shoulders with world-class rugby stars like Richie McCaw and Dan Carter is just one of the many benefits young players from around the world are experiencing at the Canterbury and Crusaders International High Performance Unit,” New York Times correspondent Emma Stoney writes. “The unit, which is based in Christchurch, has had a stream of players and coaches come through its doors over the past couple of years to learn from and experience rugby at one of the country’s most successful provinces and Super Rugby franchises. Jeremy Chacon, a 20-year-old prop for the University of Northern Colorado, has taken a semester off from his studies to come to the unit for two months. ‘I’m very surprised at the level that players are at,” said Chacon, whose ambition is to become a professional rugby player. It is at a “whole other level" compared with the United States, he said. ‘New Zealand is the rugby Mecca and it’s awesome. I love it. I’m passionate about rugby.’”
(20 June 2011)
 

Lit by the might of another
Mt Taranaki features in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ‘News of the World Pictures’ section, the snowy peak lit by a “warm glow” as the ash cloud from Chilean volcano Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle drifted across the Pacific, on Sunday, June 12, 2011. Flights between New Zealand and Australia were cancelled because of the cloud, which travelled some 10,000km across the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
(12 June 2011)
 

Audain’s professional legacy
Thirty years ago this month Auckland-born Olympic middle and long distance athlete Anne Audain accepted $10,000 for winning a 15km race in Oregon, launching a lucrative road-racing career while forever changing the sport of running. Audain was banned from international competition for openly challenging the sport’s amateur rules. But in 1982 in Auckland, Audain set the world record in the 5000m, a record the IAAF refused to certify until later that year after she had her eligibility reinstated for the Commonwealth Games in Australia. With a sanctioned trust fund to pay her expenses, Audain’s path was cleared for a professional running career. She did herself proud, winning 75 races and finishing in the top three 90 per cent of the time. Audain was inducted into the Running USA Hall of Fame in 2008 and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Audain — who founded a race in Idaho now the largest road race for women and children — bemoans the loss of the competitive side of road racing. “In the ’80s there was a huge professional circuit with runners coming from all over the world,” she says. If corporate sponsors can be found, Audain would willingly lead another road-racing revolution for the next generation.
(18 June 2011)
 

Dallas represents
“New Zealand’s finest” hip hop star Aucklander David Dallas, who recently signed with US label Duck Down Records, reveals plans for a return to America in July and says that he’s not troubled by those who may doubt an Antipodean in the rap game. “With his recent free release, The Rose Tint, gaining video plays on MTV, a shout-out on Kanye West’s blog and backing from Duck Down, Dallas seems to be attracting buzz in all the right places. After immense success locally — his debut, Something Awesome, reached No. 1 on iTunes in New Zealand and won best Urban/Hip Hop Album at the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards — Dallas is now looking to bridge that success to American shores.”
(16 June 2011)
 

Living in a postcard
There are no cars in New Zealand according to the Telegraph’s Tarquin Cooper, on holiday experiencing “a country unlike any other on Earth.” “As someone who is used to battling Britain’s congested traffic, being able to enjoy the open road is a novel sensation,” Cooper writes. “And a welcome one, not least for the spectacular vistas that New Zealand throws up at every turn. At a wildlife habitat on the Otago peninsula I meet a farmer, Perry Reid, who is dedicating his life to restoring the land to how it was before humans arrived. ‘We live in a postcard,’ he tells me. ‘The grass is green, the water is blue, the mountains are white. It’s a wonderful place — real fairytale stuff.’”
(15 June 2011)
 

Ahead of season four
As anticipation builds for the June 26 season premiere of True Blood, New Zealander Anna Paquin, spoke with The New York Times about her maturation on the show as Sookie Stackhouse, an increasingly central figure on this increasingly popular, explicit-in-all-kinds-of-ways HBO series, who has comfortably outgrown her former status as a precocious phenomenon. “My job’s been my whole life. I have, almost to a fault in the past, prioritized my job over everything,” Paquin says. “It’s appropriate when you’re younger and you don’t have other things in your life that require your attention as much. I’ve always worked incredibly hard.” Paquin has received critical acclaim for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood, for which she won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress — Television Series Drama.
(16 June 2011)
 

Coronet Peak effects
“I’m at the base of New Zealand’s Coronet Peak,” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Marissa Calligeros writes. “I’m seeing and touching snow for the first time. I’m soon jumping up and down and grinning with eagerness, much to the amusement of my guide Dickon. He looks at me with a knowing smile. The Peak is having its effect. And, I’m still in the car park. At the base of the mountain a mix of glamorous skiers, backpackers and adrenaline junkies with snow boards in tow mill about. In my hired, oversized, bright blue and yellow gear, I’m clearly the new kid on the block. By the end of the day I’m tackling an adult run, where you take a chair lift to the top, rather than a child-friendly conveyer-belt called the “magic carpet”. The sense of accomplishment is great.”
(6 June 2011)
 

Out of Africa
New Zealander Stephen Jennings, industrialist, investment banker and CEO of Moscow-based Renaissance Group, discusses the issues surrounding wealth creation in Russia, and doing business in Africa, on BBC Hardtalk. Jennings contends that Africa is the world’s fastest growing economy and the source of immense resources – mineral, agriculture, and people – in the coming decade. Jennings says his company has over 25 projects across the continent and will continue investing as much as US$2 billion as infrastructure develops. While continuing to invest and manage projects in Russia, it is clearly Africa that has his passion. “We have promoted the African story to investors globally. What does Africa need from the West? Africa needs trade flows and capital flows. Africa is driving huge market development, but if we all sit on the sidelines and say it’s too difficult and it’s too dirty and we can’t get involved, that isn’t going to happen.” Elsewhere he remarks that “it’s hard to imagine now, but in 1970, per capita GDP in China was less than that of Africa.” Asked about his label as the “Kiwi Oligarch”, Jennings replies “half right”.
(6 June 2011)
 

Keeping germs at home
An editorial written by Victoria University sociologist Professor Kevin Dew and published in the British Medical Journal says “presenteeism”, prevalent among health workers and those in other caring or teaching occupations, was associated with negative health effects and could help spread infections. “Presenteeism increases morbidity, including musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, depression, and serious coronary events. It leads to exhaustion and in a spiralling fashion exhaustion leads to more presenteeism,” Dew said. He said health promotion programs should emphasise the power workers had to resist demands from management. A Newspoll survey this year found 77 per cent of workers would still go into work if they were feeling sick.
(11 June 2011)
 

Inspired by nature
The stunning landscape of Waiheke Island (off Auckland’s east coast) is home to over 7,500 residents. Regenerating bush, an indented coastline, vineyards and olive groves are some of its defining characteristics. When architect Dave Strachan was enlisted to design Erin and Gary Clatworthy’s home on Owhanake Bay, he applied his signature style of using surrounding nature as design muse. “I like to think the moves we make are driven by that particular place, by that particular landform and climate. These moves are driven by what’s around you. Just open you eyes, feel the breeze, watch the light dancing off the water—that’s what informs. Hopefully when you do that, you can then say ‘yes this building has a sense of place,’ it feels like it belongs,” Strachan said in Habitus magazine. The end result for the Clatworthy’s is a gorgeous home that highlights the natural beauty of New Zealand and the coast with environmental aspects—solar panels for heat and a system for catching rainwater. With meticulous environmental planning and ingenuity, the home can help advance forest regeneration by decades, leaving a sustainable-living legacy for generations to come.
(June 2011)
 

Pioneer territory emerges
The sumptuous depiction of New Zealand in the 1950s and ‘60s trumps the weepy story at the heart of one of the most expensive Dutch films ever made writes New York Times reviewer Stephen Holden. “Bride Flight is a 130-minute fictionalized quasi-epic inspired by an actual contest known as the Last Great Air Race. The winner of the roughly 12,000-mile flight from London to Christchurch in October 1953 touched down 41 minutes ahead of its closest rival. Bride Flight is best enjoyed as a lavish period travelogue whose story is dwarfed by its panoramic overview. When the drama stalls, you can always sit back and soak in the scenery, confident that nothing in the movie is likely to disturb your sleep. New Zealand in the 1950s has the look and feel of pioneer territory emerging into modernity.” Rutger Hauer stars.
(9 June 2011)
 

With light in mind
A design by a group of Victoria University students, inspired by the New Zealand bach, is the first southern hemisphere entry in the international US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition held in Washington DC from September 23 to October 2. The FirstLight House has a strong focus on outdoor living, lots of natural daylight and a big emphasis on using locally sourced New Zealand materials. Construction is complete on the home, which was on display to the public throughout May in Wellington. The Solar Decathlon is a competition that challenges 20 collegiate teams to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house.
(31 May 2011)

Heavy on the wonders
The South Island may be spectacular, but the North Island’s got its share of amazements too according to International Business Times’ travel writer Mark Johanson. “The North Island is the spot to soak in traditional Maori culture, bathe in geothermal wonders, and sun along the country’s best beaches. Dominated by towering volcanoes at its centre, the coastal regions boast some of the world’s best wine. You can ski, swim, and sip your way across this four seasons island any time of year. Hike through wild microclimates, catch shows in two of the country’s bustling urban centres, or gape at stunning natural beauty from the window of your car — this whale-shaped island has got something for everyone.”
(3 June 2011)
 

Frankfurt guest of honour
New Zealand will be the guest of honour at the world’s biggest literary gathering next year, the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair. Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair Juergen Boos said the New Zealand literary scene offers “a profoundly intense cultural experience,” shaped by European, Polynesian and Asian experiences. “The multicultural identity of New Zealand has been built upon inspirational stories, through both its oral tradition and in writing, as well as in songs and films,” Boos said. “We are looking forward to exploring this creativity and presenting it to a broad international audience.”
(2 June 2011)

Up, up and away
Glenn Martin’s jetpack has set a new flight record this month climbing at a rate of 800 feet per minute, reaching an altitude of 5000ft, then soaring back to earth safely on an emergency parachute. “This successful test brings the future another step closer,” Martin said in a statement. “This test also validated our flight model, proved thrust to weight ratio and proved our ability to fly a jetpack as an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will be key to some of the Jetpack’s future emergency/search and rescue and military applications.” Christchurch-based Martin Aircraft Co. said the $100,000 jetpack was easy to fly and took about 20 hours to learn to operate.
(30 May 2011)

Master of Sports
Sonny Bill Williams is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to sports. “SBW,” who has played in both Australia and France, turned down big money offers from other teams to join the New Zealand Rugby Union. Off the field, he’s been able to pursue another passion — boxing. A recent profile in The New York Times showed rock-solid SWB’s drive and enthusiasm for both sports. SWB said, “Sometimes, finishing rugby training or having a bruised arm or niggling injuries, you’re a bit sore to do boxing. But you’ve got to manage yourself and do different things to keep the body moving or keep the hand-eye coordination going. It’s been a real juggling act. I’ve always tried to push the sporting boundaries and push my limits. You’re only young once, so why not have a go?” Fans of the star rugby player shouldn’t worry, he’s not giving up the sport that made him famous. In fact, boxing has been an added complement to his rugby playing. “Because I’ve been doing rugby or rugby league since I was 17, boxing kind of motivates me and gets me up, and I feel that I need it to carry on in the sport. It’s definitely something I want to continue in the future.”
(6 June 2011).

Leonine frontmen like it nice
“If there’s one thing the Phoenix Foundation won’t abide, it’s dicks,” The Guardian’s Toby Manhire writes. “When it comes to dealing with other bands, says Luke Buda, the leonine frontman for the Wellington six-piece, all you ask is that they’re ‘friendly and nice’. ‘Yeah,’ agrees Samuel F Scott, leonine frontman No 2, ‘you should not be a dick.’ There is a discernible national flavour to this anti-dick stance, part of a laconic, diffident character that, Buda says, resists ‘the attitude of being able to really talk up what you do … It’s just not very New Zealand.’ As they set off to Europe for a second time this year, these thirtysomethings look to Jarvis Cocker — the quintessential non-dick, it is agreed — as something of an inspiration. ‘He’s done the same thing,’ Scott says. ‘He’s been in a similar world to us — he toiled away his entire 20s, trying to make the best music he could, and it wasn’t really until he was in his 30s that things started to pay off.’ The Phoenix Foundation tour the UK through July 16.
(26 May 2011)

Living up to its nickname
Crewing an America’s Cup 80-foot yacht, NZL41, on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour is the crowning glory of Edmonton Journal travel editor Karen Booth’s North Island trip. “With more than 100,000 private yachts, Auckland lives up to its nickname, City of Sails. Although our first choice would have been to take part in a match race, we’re content to settle for a two-hour harbour sail. We get a good upper-body workout as ‘grinders,’ winding the winches in pairs to either raise or lower the sails. Mother Nature turns on a stiff breeze as we sail directly beneath the Auckland Bridge. At one point, we’re even given the chance to take the helm for a few minutes.”
(28 May 2011)

Leading lights of architecture
Auckland architecture firm Patterson Associates has been named as one of the five practices set to shape the future of architecture. World Architecture News, the top international architecture journal, announced the win as part of their prestigious 21 for 21 awards. The practice’s portfolio has a strong New Zealand feel, with ideas relating Te Reo heavily influencing their designs. The range of projects Patterson Associates have worked on is reflected in their submission which includes residential gems such as Mai Mai Folly and Parihoa in Auckland, along with the commercial AJ Hackett Bungy Centre and Michael Hill Golf Clubhouse in Queenstown. Founder Andrew Patterson believes the award is an outstanding accolade for the firm. “It is hugely rewarding to present our portfolio of work and have our New Zealand-inspired ideas and philosophy recognised by some of the great minds in world architecture,” Patterson says. Patterson Associates stands alongside Norwegian, Japanese, Danish and Spanish practices as winners of this award.
(16 May 2011)
 

Tough cookie’s fit tips
True Blood actress New Zealander Anna Paquin reveals her exercise regime secrets — and about the pressures to stay thin in Hollywood — in the June issue of American magazine Health. “I’ve always been a tough cookie. I just didn’t do it in short shorts and a blonde ponytail. I mean, if you’re going to be spending literally every single day of your working life wearing clothes that barely cover your body, you’re gonna be extra-diligent. There’s also a really big difference between looking healthy and being healthy. People in this town have a weird tendency to say, if someone’s lost weight, ‘Oh my God, you look amazing.’ And you’re like, ‘I just had my tonsils out and didn’t eat for three weeks.’” The fourth season of hit HBO show True Blood debuts in the US this month. Paquin plays telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse.
(June 2011)

Little Blues find help
At Christchurch’s International Antarctic Centre 24 Little Blue Penguins are being cared for having been found injured and with no chance of survival in the wild. “Most of them have broken or paralysed flippers, some have eating disabilities so I have to assist them, others have broken beaks,” penguin keeper Mallorie Hackett said. Inhabitants include Elvis, who is completely blind and locates his food by following the rustle of the fish bucket on his enclosure’s gravel, and Bagpipes, a one-legged penguin who sports a modified neoprene beer cooler to keep his stump dry. Conservationist Shirleen Helps who runs eco-tours at a penguin colony on her South Island east coast property said the refuge at the Centre provided an important service by housing injured birds. The Little Blue, also known as the Fairy Penguin, is the smallest of the world’s penguin species, measuring about 25 centimetres tall and weighing one kilogram.
(20 May 2011)
 

South Pole misadventures
A new book by New Zealand journalist and respected author on Antarctic explorers John Thomson says Edmund Hillary “cheated” his way to the South Pole in 1958. Thomson, author of Climbing the Pole, says Hillary was so desperate to cement his reputation as a great adventurer he double-crossed Dr Vivian Fuchs, his British expedition leader, and the New Zealand body that had hired him. Surprisingly little has been made of Thomson’s allegations in New Zealand. “Just a deathly hush,” Thomson says. For many, particularly in Britain, Hillary v Fuchs was a replay of the heroic race between the “sneaky” Amundsen and their fallen hero Scott. Thomson believes the Antarctic detour tarnished Hillary’s reputation. “But the average plain-speaking Kiwi probably regards Fuchs as a poncy Pom with a stiff collar who had to be shown the way … Hillary will be remembered at home as knocking another bastard off … and few will be caring what the rest of the world thinks.”
(18 May 2011)

Blue takes best short in Cannes
New Zealand short film Blue, made by Aucklander Stephen Kang, has won the Canal Plus’ Grand Prix and Du Meilleur Court Metrage Best Short Film award at the Cannes Film Festival’s 50th Critics’ Week. Financed by the NZ Film Commission and Creative NZ Blue, about an out of work children’s icon working in an Asian restaurant, was one of 10 films chosen to be screened at Cannes from 1250 entries from around the world. NZ Film Commission short films spokeswoman Lisa Chatfield said the award was aimed at identifying emerging talent. “It gives [Kang] great international profile,” Chatfield said. “To have your film screened in front of that sort of jury is fairly extraordinary and to be an alumni of Cannes, whether it’s on the main competition of Critic’s Week is always a positive for your career.” Kang has already shot two feature films with the low-budget Desert currently screening in Auckland. Kang was born in Seoul, Korea. He moved to New Zealand in the early 1990s.
(20 May 2011)

Sunshine beats pneumonia
Researchers at Waikato University have found that sunshine can help save the lives of pneumonia patients. Medical scientists at the University have found that vitamin D, which is absorbed through the skin and produced with exposure to sunlight, is a major factor in the survival rate of pneumonia patients. The University collaborated with doctors at Waikato Hospital to study blood samples of 112 patients admitted to the hospital with pneumonia during the winter. Dr Bob Hancox, of the hospital’s department of respiratory medicine said: “There is accumulating evidence that we need vitamin D to help fight infections, such as pneumonia as we have shown, as well as improve bone health.” The research findings are published in the journal, Respirology.
(13 May 2011)
 

Peacekeepers a symbol of success
Former deputy prime minister Jim McLay, now New Zealand’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes an opinion piece for The Kansas City Star about May 29 — International Day of UN Peacekeepers and a day which honours the 2876 peacekeepers who stood in harm’s way and lost their lives. “Peacekeeping is central to the work of the United Nations,” McLay writes. “Yet it’s something of an anomaly because nowhere does the UN Charter even use the word ‘peacekeeping.’ It’s a role the United Nations quickly carved out of its mandate to maintain international peace and security — and arguably, for a less-than-perfect organization that suffers much criticism (some deserved, some not), the blue-helmeted peacekeeper symbolizes one of its real successes.”
(10 May 2011)

City on the edge of the Pacific
“Nestled in tree-covered hills at the head of a spectacular harbour, Dunedin’s rise to prominence as the gateway to the Otago region came with the discovery of gold at Gabriel’s Gully, to the south-west, in 1861,” Sebastian Kretz writes in a travel piece for Monsters & Critics. “The subsequent gold rush not only led to a rapid influx of population but the region’s wealth also saw the construction of some superb Victorian and Edwardian architecture, including First Church, Larnach Castle, Olveston and the Dunedin railway station. The city on the Pacific is also a centre for ecotourism thanks to the world’s only mainland royal albatross colony and several penguin and seal colonies.”
(10 May 2011)

Beauty in clamorous times
Tim Radford is the only person British writer Peter Forbes can think of who has been both literary and science editor of the Guardian. Forbes continues, in a review of Radford’s new book: “He has been a journalist all his working life, and in The Address Book he brings his literary and scientific perspectives to bear on ‘our place in the scheme of things’. The structure of the book follows the old schoolkid’s game of writing one’s address as house, street, town, country, continent, earth, solar system, the universe. Radford writes of the cosmos without the straining for effect that its inhuman scale often induces. The Goldilocks enigma (why are the physical constants of the universe so finely tuned to allow the chemistry of life to have evolved?) and the multiverse theory inherent in some interpretations of quantum mechanics are unsensationally explored with admirable clarity. Radford is a valuable witness because he is a balanced man, at home in science, respectful, but not intoxicated by it. Or by anything else. His beautiful, meditative book is a surprise in these clamorous times: one good deed in a naughty world.” Radford left New Zealand for Britain at the age of 19. He worked for the Guardian for 32 years and has won the Association of British Science Writers award for science writer of the year four times.
(7 May 2011)
 

Coup for moving images
The Natural History New Zealand (NHNZ)’s archive sales arm has been chosen by National Geographic Channels Worldwide to represent its footage from the past 20 years. The National Geographic archive adds thousands of hours of new footage to NHNZ Moving Images’ existing collection, including fresh HD material. The catalogue spans genres ranging from natural history and science to culture and engineering, with content including Living Edens, Known Universe, Megastructures and Shark Men. “This is a real coup for NHNZ Moving Images,” said the unit’s manager Caroline Cook. “There is a significant market crying out for archive HD material and to date there hasn’t been a lot of it out there.”
(10 May 2011)
 

Te Kairanga sold to American
Martinborough’s Te Kairanga Wines, renowned for its pinot noir, has been purchased by American businessman Bill Foley. Te Kairanga is the largest holder of vineyard land in the Martinborough region. The price was not disclosed, but the winery was established more than 20 years ago and owns or leases about 100 hectares of premium vineyards. The purchase provides a counterweight to Foley’s other New Zealand wineries. Vavasour and Clifford Bay, both located in Marlborough, are best known for their sauvignon blancs. “TK’s extraordinary pinot noirs will be a great addition to our New Zealand portfolio plus the historic Martinborough location will allow our customers to take advantage of our nearby luxury resort, Wharekauhau,” Foley said. Foley, who chairs two US Fortune 500 companies, started his wine business in 1996 with the acquisition of Lincourt Vineyards in California’s Santa Ynez Valley.
(4 May 2011)

Burgers and fries to Iraq
New Zealand-listed gourmet burger company BurgerFuel Worldwide has sold the Master License agreement for the rights to BurgerFuel Iraq. It is the company’s fourth new territory in the Middle East. The brand is already in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Dubai-based Chris Mason, BFW chief executive of international markets, said the store will open in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish-speaking region of northern Iraq known as Iraqi Kurdistan. “Whilst Iraq poses new challenges — it’s another important region and we think early establishment will allow time for us to eventually open a number of restaurants there,” Mason said. Mason established the first BurgerFuel in Auckland on Ponsonby Road in 1995.
(6 May 2011)
 

One opportunity to get it right
“Martin Snedden the former international cricketer now charged with delivering the Rugby World Cup to New Zealand, is clock-watching; has been for the best part of three years,” the Telegraph’s Paul Ackford writes. “‘We’ve used it a lot to generate urgency across the board,” Snedden says of the countdown clock in his Auckland office. ‘We’ve celebrated 1,000 days to go, two years to go, 500 days to go, and we’ve got 100 days coming up shortly. We’ve had this event planned month by month from 2½ years out and we’re constantly measuring against that.’ But here’s the thing. Snedden is not concerned one jot about stadiums being ready. Nor he is worried that the final ... Nor is he anxious about opportunistic hoteliers making the most of limited accommodation by ratcheting up rates. Snedden is not even bothered about the fact that the tournament is set to make a loss. No, what niggles away at Snedden, what exercises him more than any of the other issues when it comes to the 2011 Rugby World Cup is what will happen if the All Blacks go belly up around the quarter-final stage, as they did in 2007. And how best to involve the people of Christchurch.”
(7 May 2011)

Sans guide in wine country
“I’ve travelled to New Zealand about a dozen times from the US and one of my favourite areas is Marlborough, aka wine country (natch), which is found on the north part of the South Island,” Huffington Times blogger Meg Hemphill explains. “I suggest going into Blenheim for a couple of days ... sans guide so you can stop at tasting rooms when the mood strikes. One of my favourite little finds that I decided to pop into on a trip last year is River Farm Wines, a little boutique winery with beautiful wines. Highfield Estate has stunning views of the area and beautiful food made with local ingredients. Once you’re wined-out, check out the Omaka Aviation Centre, which is funded by Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, who is a World War I aircraft enthusiast.”
(2 May 2011)
 

Left past the fumaroles
After a 20-minute helicopter ride from Whakatane airport to White Island, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Keith Austin’s “first aerial impression is of a volcano from a movie, albeit with one side completely, awesomely, blown out.” “The steam rising from the greenish lake in the middle accentuates that impression,” Austin describes. “It’s a smouldering giant, all right. Once on land and equipped with orange hard hats and lightweight respirators, we set off towards the lake. Off to the left dozens of volcanic fissures, or fumaroles, constantly vent gases into the air in the form of great billowing clouds of steam that hiss and rumble and bellow. Never before has the Earth’s crust seemed so thin or fragile — or so exhilarating.”
(7 May 2011)
 

Don’t ask about the price
Auckland yacht manufacturers Diverse Projects’ 31.5m boat Black Pearl headlines this year’s Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in Queensland. The hull of the superyacht is modelled on a rare Tahitian black pearl. The boat is one of several multimillion-dollar superyachts to be unveiled at the Sanctuary Cove show this year. Diverse Projects co-owner John Vitali was tight-lipped on the price of the boat but said it would be disclosed on application at the show which runs from 19 through 22 May. Black Pearl was launched in December 2010.
(1 May 2011)
 

Positively bucolic township
Russell is a town of some 800 permanent residents, tucked into a beautiful, protected cove in the Bay of Islands, a stunningly beautiful stretch of rocky islets dotted with pines and thick grasses and dotted with empty beaches that edge up against aquamarine waters, writes The Star’s travel editor Jim Byers. “The Duke of Marlborough pub sits perhaps 20 feet from the bay, with glorious al fresco dining and cosy hotel rooms. It’s the oldest pub in New Zealand, dating to 1827. It’s also said that Charles Darwin was in Russell for eight or nine days when the church was being built. The church’s fundraising ledges list includes ‘Captain Fitzroy, Mr. Charles Darwin and officers of the HMS Beagle.’ [The town] is positively bucolic, with bright lavender agapantha flowers lining the fence of the old police station and brilliant sailboats dotting a bay that’s fronted by a series of small shops and restaurants.”
(27 April 2011)

Winning race plan
Whangarei-based professional triathlete Samantha Warriner’s greatest moment came just three months after undergoing surgery to fix a career-threatening case of super ventricular tachycardia. Somehow fortune and great doctors smiled on Warriner. At the age of 40, Warriner won the 27th annual Ironman New Zealand held in Taupo earlier this year. “I just knew what speed, what cadence I had to do and I stuck to and executed my own race plan,” Warriner explains. “I just had the confidence I could ride at these watts and at these speeds. I just went for it. That’s what my coaches said. Go do this. And I did it.”
(28 April 2011)
 

Return of the yeti hand
Adventurer and Air New Zealand pilot Mike Allsop is in Nepal to return a replica of what some believe is the hand of a yeti to a remote monastery in the Everest region. Allsop flew from Kathmandu to the Everest region to take the models to Pangboche Monastery, which sits at 4,000m. The originals were stolen from the monastery in the 1990s. “I will take these replicas back to the monks so they can replace the ones that were stolen,” Allsop told the BBC. Allsop said that he decided to make replicas of the hand and skull after trekking in the Everest region and approached Wellington’s Weta Workshop. Allsop hopes that they will now be able to attract more trekkers to Pangboche, who will pay a small fee to see the artefacts. “I want to help the monastery have an income again — I want to help them out.” Allsop climbed Mt Everest in 2007.
(28 April 2011)
 

Breakers outdo Taipans
The New Zealand Breakers have thrashed the Cairns Taipans 71-53 to claim Australia’s National Basketball League title in front of a capacity crowd at Auckland’s North Shore Events Centre. The Breakers are the first New Zealand team in any sport to win an Australia-based competition. The team scored the first six points and never trailed at any stage in the final game of the three-match grand final series. A 16-4 run swelled New Zealand’s lead to 15 and they maintained a double-digit advantage for the remainder of the game. Guard and Australian Boomers representative CJ Bruton topscored for New Zealand with 14 followed by import American forward Gary Wilkinson 13 and guard Kirk Penney 11.
(29 April 2011)
 

Limitless adventure
“If hurling yourself off of a bridge is not your thing, then how about jumping out of a plane from 15,000 feet?” Malaysia Star reporter Wayne Johnson suggests. “You may, like me, be so shocked at the speed of the 200kph freefall that you can’t scream — only wonder why you ever decided to undertake such an activity to enjoy the sweeping views of the mountains and meadows. For a relatively small country, New Zealand boasts a list of thrilling outdoor activities that is almost limitless. Nowhere else in the world can you bathe in volcanic mud, hike up glaciers, jump out of a plane, explore underground rivers and go whale-watching — all in the space of 48 hours.”
(23 April 2011)
 

Staying connected with home
Online networking site Kea New Zealand has launched a global ‘census’ of expatriate New Zealanders, dubbed ‘Every Kiwi Counts’, and aimed at connecting the estimated one million of us living overseas. “New Zealanders living outside the country are some of our most talented people and already make a big contribution to the country’s future development,” global chief executive of Kea New Zealand Sue Watson says. “Every Kiwi Counts is focused on finding out more about these important citizens, and enabling them to make even stronger connections with home,” Watson says. “The OECD says New Zealand is the developed country with the highest proportion of its educated population living overseas.” As an extra incentive, all who complete the survey or “tell a friend” go into the draw to win prizes from Air New Zealand, the All Blacks and Billi Tees. Complete the online survey at www.everykiwicounts.com.
(18 April 2011)
 

Equally sarcastic and charming
“A sizable flock of admirers was left adrift after HBO grounded Flight of the Conchords in 2009 after only two seasons,” Susan Wloszczyna writes for USA Today. “Turns out these Kiwi lads were a band with a plan. After infiltrating the world of pay cable, the duo simply set their warped sights on another entertainment target: family films. While McKenzie is working behind the scenes supervising the music and contributing songs to Disney’s November relaunch of the Muppets movie franchise, Clement has claimed a showstopping role as the voice of the villain in Rio: The Movie. Clement plays Nigel “a cockatoo who is both molting and revolting.” “‘I love animation as an art form,’ says the actor, whose résumé includes TV’s The Simpsons (he and McKenzie were depicted as camp counsellors) and the 3D comedy film Despicable Me. Clement takes on a different kind of villain for Men in Black III. ‘I’m an evil alien named Boris the Animal.’ No New Zealand-flavoured vocalising this time. ‘I speak with a British accent — that is the standard in evil-alien accents.’”
(17 April 2011)
 

Swimming by the stars
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position, Earth’s magnetism and even star maps to guide their journeys. Research leaders Travis Horton and Richard Holdaway of the University of Canterbury, confirmed the whales can travel in straight lines for thousands of kilometres despite strong sea currents. “One whale, moving southeast from Brazil towards the South Sandwich Islands, swam over 2200km during a 28-day period along a heading that varied by less than half a degree,” Horton said. The team published their findings this month in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
(19 April 2011)
 

Shift in strength
Following this year’s World Cup, All Black and Crusaders lock Mosgiel-born Brad Thorn will play for Japanese club Fukuoka Sanix Blues. Thorn, a key component of the All Blacks’ engine room for 50 tests, has signed a two-year deal with the Japanese side which takes effect from the end of the 2011 season, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) confirmed. All Blacks coach Graham Henry said Thorn was “one of a kind, a special man and a special All Black”. “He is a tower of strength to the All Blacks and New Zealand rugby and is the ultimate professional — professionalism which has been honed over 17 years of top-level football,” Henry said. Thorn, whose uncompromising style has made him a favourite of the fans, first made a name for himself in rugby league with NRL side the Brisbane Broncos, before switching codes after seven seasons to play Super Rugby in New Zealand in 2001.
(21 April 2011)
 

Personal race track antics
New Zealand racing competitor and vehicle designer Rod Millen has unveiled his new mile-long asphalt driveway — which doubles as a hillclimb racetrack — in a video which shows Millen behind the wheel of his Pike’s Peak Toyota Celica “attack[ing] the stretch as if here were in the midst of a sanctioned event.” In celebrating his 60th birthday, Millen invited several friends to his estate, where they were each given some quality time on the unique track. Guests were asked to not only arrive in classic cars, but also dress in period clothing from the 1950s and 1960s. Millen used the occasion and track unveiling as a dry run for what may later become the “Leadfoot Festival.” Millen won the Transsyberia rally 2007. He owns MillenWorks which develops vehicles, high performance parts, and technology for racing, concept cars, and the military.
(12 April 2011)
 

Mister Pip makes big screen
New Zealander Andrew Adamson will direct the film adaptation of Wellington author Lloyd Jones’ award-winning book Mister Pip, with Hugh Laurie, of television drama House to star. Adamson, who’ll direct the project from a script he wrote, plans to start production on Mister Pip next month in New Zealand and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, where the story is set. Mister Pip centres on an eccentric schoolteacher, played by Laurie, who reads Great Expectations to his class. One pupil, 14-year-old Matilda, begins to imagine character Pip into real-life to help her endure the hardships of her own life. “I read Mister Pip on a transAtlantic flight and, by the time of landing, knew I would make the film,” Adamson said. Adamson was director, executive producer, and scriptwriter for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He also directed Shrek and Shrek 2. Mister Pip was published in 2006.
(13 April 2011)

Return of one precious book
The bible of New Zealand World War One soldier Private Richard Cook, which he dropped as he came under heavy fire during the Battle of Messines in Belgium in June 1917, has found its way back to his family 94 years on. The bible lay buried for several months before being found by Private Herbert Hodgson, who credited it with saving his life and kept it until his own death many years later. Only moments after laying his hand on it, Pte Hodgson was knocked unconscious by a shell, but survived and credited the book for his luck. One of Hodgson’s three sons has flown 12,000 miles to New Zealand to hand it over to its rightful owners after they finally traced it back to Pvt Cook. Major Alister McColl, Pvt Cook’s great-nephew, said: “This means a great deal to us. It is not only a part of family history but it signifies the coming home of one of my family from long ago.” Private Richard Cook was from Colac Bay, Southland, and served with the 14th Company, 3rd Battalion of the Otago Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
(13 April 2011)

Perkier versions of the xx
“The Naked And Famous go one better than [US group] MGMT by having a girl in the band — the spectacularly named Alisa Xayalith, whose dreamy yelps combine with the hazy utterings of co-singer Thom Powers to prismatic effect,” the Guardian’s Kitty Empire describes in a review of the band’s concert at Koko in London. “‘Punching in a Dream’ still sounds as fresh as a daisy, just as it did last summer when its release amplified the buzz around the band and earned TNAF a slot on the BBC Sound of 2011’s shortlist. Since then, they’ve released their rather nice debut album, Passive Me, Aggressive You; their forthcoming May gig at the 2000-capacity Shepherd’s Bush Empire has already sold out, and that can’t just be filled with partisan antipodeans who would normally be at the Walkabout bar next door. Thanks to Xayalith’s intercessions, they can sometimes sound like a perkier version of the xx; like introverts playing hard at extroversion.”
(10 April 2011)

Don’t mention reconditioning
“Mention the words rest, reconditioning and Rugby World Cup in the same sentence to New Zealanders, and they are likely to break out in a cold sweat,” New York Times reporter Emma Stoney writes. “In a country where rugby is king, no one has forgotten, and very few people have forgiven, New Zealand coach Graham Henry for the controversial decision in 2007 to withdraw 22 leading All Black players from the first seven weeks of the Super 14 competition before the World Cup in France. It was a harsh lesson to have learned, but Henry, a former school headmaster, has certainly done that. The man who was the architect of New Zealand’s conditioning plan in 2007, Graham Lowe, is now the Scottish Rugby Union’s director of performance. And perhaps surprisingly, given the backlash after New Zealand’s failure four years ago, he has backed a move by Scotland coach Andy Robinson to withdraw five of his key World Cup players from their club duties in the lead-up to the tournament this year in New Zealand, which begins September 9.”
(4 April 2011)

World Cup one big carnival
Former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick recommends his favourite haunts ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup, which he says “will be not so much a sporting event as a national carnival.” Take, for instance, the number of festivals that have been rescheduled in order to coincide with the tournament. “There’s so much going on, things that normally take place at other times are happening at the same time as the World Cup. Food festivals, wine festivals, arts, music ... One of the things fans really enjoyed when the British & Irish Lions were here a few years back was to take a camper van and go and explore,” he says. “When I was a kid, we spent our summers in the Bay of Islands; it’s only three hours’ drive from Auckland and I believe it’s the most beautiful spot in the world.” Fitzpatrick’s top five must-dos are playing a round of golf; whale watching in Kaikoura; wine-tasting in Marlborough; scaring yourself in Queenstown; and tramping the Milford Track or Abel Tasman.
(8 April 2011)
 

Toppling the big gun
Raglan’s Billy ‘The Kid’ Stairmand knocked out American 10-times world champion surfer Kelly Slater from the Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Surfers Point in Western Australia inflicting the shock upset on the superstar after a 16.5 to 15.5 result in three to four metre waves. Stairmand, ranked 58 in the world, clinched the round-of-24 matchup with a 9.0-rated ride after both surfers had scored 7.50 in their first attempts. Slater could only manage an 8.0 with his final attempt, handing the young New Zealander the biggest win of his career. Stairmand is no stranger to success having won a six-star event on the secondary tour in Spain late last year that signalled his potential. Stairmand said: “Beating the best surfing athlete in the world is pretty crazy. Just surfing with him is amazing so it was pretty much a dream come true.”
(8 April 2011)
 

NZPA to close after 132 years
New Zealand Press Association Chairman Michael Muir said the board of the 132-year-old agency has ordered a review to determine whether it could keep operating, and that NZPA would be closed within six months. The agency was founded in 1879 as a cooperative that collected local stories from newspapers around New Zealand and distributed them amongst its members, saving each paper the cost of providing its own coverage in other parts of the country. In 2006, the copy-sharing agreement ended and the agency became responsible for producing all of its own content. Fairfax said it was ending its association with NZPA because it was bolstering its own newsgathering and no longer needed the agency. “We are the biggest funder of NZPA. We have provided a lot of our content for a number of years,” Fairfax executive editor Paul Thompson said. Andrew Little, national secretary of the Engineers, Printers and Manufacturers Union that covers journalists in New Zealand, said: “It’s a very sad day for New Zealand journalism. But in many ways it’s been a case of death by a 1000 cuts. There has been a progressive move towards this decision with questions having been asked for some time about NZPA’s future viability.”
(6 April 2011)
 

Brooklyn’s NZ pie man
New Zealander Gareth Hughes owns the Dub Pie Shop, in New York, an Antipodean oasis, where lattes come second on the menu to flat whites, good old Kiwi meat pies fill the pie warmer and door-stopper-sized lamingtons and jars of Vegemite are for sale in the cabinet. It’s a strange scene: New Yorkers wrapped in long coats and scarves lining up to warm themselves with the kinds of things we enjoy in our jandals. Most are regulars, says Hughes, who opened this shop three years ago. “Our biggest-selling pie is the curry vegetarian,” he says. “It outsells all the meat pies. But that’s largely because we have more meat pie options and we need to offer more vege options. It tells you a little bit about the neighbourhood. It could work well with a grass-fed organic option.”
(31 March 2011)
 

Bold, courageous and anarchic
Te Aroha-born actor and co-founder of London’s Common Stock theatre group Frank Whitten, who died in February at the age of 68, was “a giant beanpole of a man who only seemed to open his mouth when it was wrapped around a Woodbine,” screenwriter and Common Stock member Martin Stellman remembers. “When we began to work, I noticed the extraordinary loyalty he commanded from the actors ... he made you feel that, come hell or high water, he was going to make your fragile material not only come alive but be something special.” In the 1970s Whitten, along with his colleagues Dorothy Bromiley, Chattie Salaman and Andrew McAlpine, founded Common Stock, an Arts Council-funded company dedicated to community theatre. A friend from Common Stock days, Julie Hudspeth, declared that Frank’s greatest legacy was to be found in the number of young people’s lives he had affected: “They respected him. He took them seriously. They almost treated him as if he was one of them – bold, outrageous and anarchic.”
(27 March 2011)
 

Zowie likes left-field types
Electro pop star Aucklander Zowie — who opens Katy Perry’s shows in Australia and New Zealand during May — talks to MTV Australia about her idol Michael Jackson and about her debut album set for release in the middle of the year. “Genre wise, ‘Bite Back’ is the first single from it, so there’s a lot of that kind of moody, heavy kind of stuff, and then there’s bursts of punk and then Japanese pop,” Zowie says. “I’m really proud of it, so I hope people like it.” MTV asks: “You’ve got a pretty unique sense of style — who’s your fashion icon?” “People like Michael Jackson, Prince and Grace Jones. Really kind of left-field people, those who, when they came out, people were just like ‘OMG what are they wearing? They’re insane.’ Those kinds of artists really inspire me.”
(30 March 2011)
 

Remembered always
The Prince of Wales has joined a congregation of some 1900 — mainly made up of London-based New Zealanders — at a Westminster Abbey memorial service for the victims of February’s Christchurch earthquake. At least 166 people died in the magnitude 6.3 quake. Prayers were said by former All Black player Anton Oliver and actor Kerry Fox; soprano Hayley Westenra broke down in tears as she read out a testimony. Prince Charles laid a wreath of white and yellow roses carrying a Maori message reading: “You will be remembered always”.
(27 March 2011)
 

Focus on food
The Gascoigne Associates-designed Japanese restaurant Cocoro in Auckland features on the World Interior Design Network site. “The interior décor features large squares of woven charcoal and chocolate carpet that resemble subtle tatami-style matting. All the materials selected to build the place are recyclable. The ceilings are sandblasted exposed concrete, lined with Macrocarpa batons. Various battens hang against the raw exposed concrete ceiling and above the banquet seating on each sidewall and the table in the centre. It subtly hides LED downlights which place the focus on food.”
(24 March 2011)
 

Easy on the planet
Sisters Andrea and Robin McBride’s eco.love is the first carboNZero Cert™ winery in the world; the pair tell American sustainable business innovator Paul Smith how it can be, coming all the way from New Zealand. “Among its many sustainability minded touches is intentionally having longer rows in the vineyard,” Smith explains. “Why? That means less turns for the tractors, which results in decreased fuel consumption. Heat and water get reused in different areas of production. Its ‘cold cellar’ system enables the units to pull cold air from the outside, reducing the need for refrigeration/air conditioning on the inside. Their buildings are temperature isolated via insulation, reducing the need to raise and lower the temperature in other parts of the building.” Andrea was born in Los Angeles and raised in Marlborough; Robin is originally from Monterey, California.
(25 March 2011)
 

One and only Topp Twins
Lynda Topp, one half of the “one-of-a-kind” Topp Twins, talks to Susan Cole of Now Toronto about the pair’s career and how they rode the wave while keeping their values intact. “It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are or your sexuality — as long as you’re honest and down to earth, New Zealanders will accept you,” Lynda says. “Our audiences were more radical when we started out, but eventually we were lucky because we could put our message across in an entertaining way. We learned how to yodel by listening to old 78rpm wind-up records. When we went to the Vancouver Folk Festival, we got to meet Patsy Montana, the first woman to sell over a million records in the US in the ‘30s with a song called I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” The Twins star in The Untouchable Girls screening this month at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox.
(24 March 2011)
 

Just like everybody else
“The world’s best rugby player” Dan Carter talks exclusively to The Telegraph about how he fled for his own safety during last month’s earthquake in Christchurch, and about how he helped the city in the aftermath. “The New Zealand fly-half, who is in London with his Crusaders team-mates for the unique Super 15 game on March 27 at Twickenham, has talked of the fear, the sense of helplessness and his shock at witnessing scenes which will live with him always. Didn’t the sight of New Zealand’s sporting poster boy, their answer to David Beckham, rallying to the cause cheer his neighbours? ‘I don’t think they were surprised but I guess seeing us giving a helping hand was a bit of a morale booster. As All Blacks, we are kind of held on a pedestal here in a nation of rugby fanatics. So you’ve got to make sure people know that you’re just like everybody else, you’re just human, going through the same emotional roller-coaster. Just because you’re an All Black doesn’t mean you’re not going to get your hands dirty to help out when needed.’”
(21 March 2011)