Virgin’s Cable Guy
Neil Berkett has been promoted to a permanent role as chief executive at Virgin Media. Berkett took on the job at the cable company as acting chief executive in August last year when Steve…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Snell’s Still Running
Olympic champion and New Zealand’s greatest athlete of the 20th century Peter Snell looks back over the last 70 years and discusses, age, Auckland and Arthur Lydiard. Now based in Dallas and…
Donaldson’s heist
Director Roger Donaldson’s The Bank Job is the latest flick from the film-maker who began his career in New Zealand with Sleeping Dogs in 1977. Bank Job is “solid entertainment”, according to Los Angeles…
Promises Reviewed
Dunedin indie band Die! Die! Die! is currently touring Los Angeles and Austin, Texas to promote their latest album Promises, Promises released in the US in February. Die! Die! Die! may sound less like…
Skier Continues Streak
Otago paralympian Adam Hall has slalomed to yet another victory at the Wells Fargo Disabled Invitational at Winter Park in Colorado, climbing to the top of the medal table winning gold, his seventh medal this…
All for a Chat Show
Twenty-two year old Christchurch design student Nick Lowe wants to raise $1 million on YouTube in the hope of millionaire-status and a spot on Ellen Degeneres’ talk show. This week Lowe passed the $1,000…
Windy Farewell
Paddy Gillooly owns a tourism company in New Zealand which takes visitors by jeep or all-terrain bus to the tip of the South Island’s Farewell Spit, one of only two companies permitted the…
Slimming with Rachel
Model and reality TV show host Rachel Hunter is the face, and figure, of US weight loss brand Slim-Fast. Advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather chose Hunter because she embraced a more realistic body type….
Tips for the Irish
Irish sheep farmers are looking to their New Zealand counterparts for advice on how to make more money tending their flocks. Lincoln University’s Dr John Hickford spoke at two conferences in Kilkenny and Athlone…
Leap for Frogkind
Thirteen tiny, and extremely rare, Maud Island froglets have been spotted at Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary hitching a ride on the back of a fully grown male. Researcher Kerri Lukis said the frogs have…
Brown the New Nobilo
Wellington golfer Mark Brown has had a successful week in India, winning first the Asian Tour’s SAIL Open then clinching the US$2.5 million Johnnie Walker Classic, making him one of only six New…
Debut at the Met
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes made news again this week with a number of glowing reviews for his first role at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. The New York…
NZ Whaler Doco
The BBC is making a documentary about ex-Royal New Zealand Montague Whaler, the Essex which sunk in the South Pacific in 1819 whilst chasing an aggressive sperm whale. The Essex was twice rammed, the…
Beyond the Ugg
No longer are New Zealand’s fashion tastes being derided for unbecoming tracksuits and shoes, the local fashion industry is pinning the country on the style map. New Zealand is now home to a vibrant…
Godwits Fly
Every year, godwits fly from Alaska to New Zealand in an astonishing six days. A Seattle-based husband and wife team have been following the migratory patterns of the tiny bird and write about their…
Smith’s Cool Design
Massey University Industrial Design student Aucklander Stephen Smith is New Zealand’s top emerging designer winning a $3,000 Dyson Product Design Award for his “Arctic Skin”. The vest stabilizes a sportsperson’s body temperature via a…
Finn unpacked
Auckland artist Martin Ball’s portrait of singer Neil Finn is up for Australia’s most prestigous art award, the Archibald Prize. Ball won the Archibald Packing Room prize, selected annually by backroom staff at the…
Abel Tasman Charms
Sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park is “just gorgeous”, “picture perfect” and definitely not short on assets”, writes travel editor Jeanti St Clair about her three-day paddle around New Zealand’s smallest Park….
Shadows at Pataka
Porirua’s Pataka Museum is building on ties with the American Haille Ford Museum in an exhibition of North American Indian prints called ‘Crow’s Shadows’, put on in conjunction with Wellington’s International Festival of…
Laureate discovers
Wellington poet Bill Manhire is profiled in The Age as a man who quite accidentally fell upon letters, who secretly wrote at school until he read Walt Whitman in his final year at school….
Quick Sale
Two Yorkshire property developers are enthusiastic about the benefits of investing in property in New Zealand; Ian Payling and Dave Rothwell-Wood built the ‘Lemon-Tree house’ on land north of Auckland. Once the sale was…
Bridging the Gap
On New Zealand’s Chatham Islands researchers have discovered the country’s oldest known bird fossils. The find represents four new seabirds dating back some 65 million years when New Zealand separated from supercontinent, Gondwana. Excavation…
Marsh Remembered
Christchurch-born writer Dame Ngaio Marsh has been named one of the Daily Telegraph’s 50 favourite crime writers, with Vintage Murder (1937) recommended. Marsh is described as “a New Zealander who created a quintessentially English…
Full dance card
New Zealand singer/songwriter Liam Finn is in Brooklyn, New York playing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg before an interview on Letterman and a tour as support act for Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder….
NZ Director Airs at Super Bowl
In just 30 seconds, Wellington ad director Paul Middleditch made his mark at this year’s Super Bowl. Sydney-based Middleditch created the NZ$3.4 million one-off slot for Diet Pepsi Max, at his sixth…
Vintner Role for Paikea
New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, has begun filming The Vintner’s Luck, based on Elizabeth Knox’s novel of the same name and directed by Niki Caro. Castle-Hughes told the New Zealand Herald she…
Ngati Filmmaker Remembered
Barry Barclay, New Zealand film director and the first Maori to direct a feature film has died, aged 63, in Rawene. Barclay’s Ngati won best film at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival in 1987 and…
Bursting Into Canzone
New Zealand bass-baritone Paul Whelan stepped out of the audience and onto the stage to sing the part of Raimundo at a London Coliseum performance of Lucia di Lammermoor. Whelan, who is due to…
Greenhouse Boom
New Zealand vineyards are benefiting from a warming planet, prompting traditionally cooler areas of the country to cultivate grapes and a bright forecast for export growth. Pinot noirs from the South Island region of…
West Coast Purity
Sydney Morning Herald writer Anthony Dennis travels to the South Island’s West Coast and marvels the glow-worms beneath a “pristine sky … so starry it looks as if it’s been attacked by a…
New Exec at Opera House
Sydney’s most famous landmark is now presided over by New Zealander Richard Evans, who last month became chief executive at the Opera House. Among the challenges Evans will face, is raising some NZ$790…
Pseudonym on show
Auckland artist et al.’s installation altruistic studies features at the world renowned Swiss exhibition Art Basel 39 in June. Et al. won New Zealand’s prestigious Walters Prize in 2003 for restricted…
Rhodes vies for Bianca
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes performs in Rossini’s Bianca e Fallierio at Washington D.C’s Lisner Auditorium in April. Rhodes stars as Capellio, Fallierio’s rival for the affections of Bianca. Rhodes won New Zealand’s…
Drawn on difference
Preeminent documentary photographer Mark Adams is making his North American debut with the exhibition Tatau: Samoan Tattooing and Global Culture at Canada’s Ontario College of Art & Design. The exhibition explores the Samoan…
Microsoft’s Gatekeeper
Christopher Liddell, Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft since 2005, and the former senior New Zealand business leader is the architect of Microsoft’s recent $44.6 billion takeover offer for Yahoo. Liddell is now dealing with…
Tastebuds Will Travel
Guardian reporter Emma Johns and friend spent a two-week culinary tour of New Zealand “exploring the local flavours before attempting to recreate them ourselves.” From fine-dining in Wellington to cooking lamb fillet off a…
Indian Love Affair
More Indian tourists than ever are coming to New Zealand for the expansive scenery, favourable weather conditions and a bit of romance. In 2006-20007, as many as 20,946 Indians spent an average of 13.8…
The most popular
Wellington comedy pair The Flight of the Conchords won best comedy album Grammy for their debut EP The Distant Future at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The EP…
NZ Studies Awarded
Dr Ian Conrich, director of New Zealand Studies at the University of London, is the 2008 New Zealander of the Year in the UK. Conrich received the accolade at an awards ceremony…
Dialect Mystery Solved
New Zealanders speak an English dialect made up of quarter Scottish, one quarter Irish and 50 percent cockney, northern and west country English according to Scottish linguists. In a five-year study, mathematicians from New…
Written on the Edge
Duncan Fallowell’s latest travel book Going As far As I Can about a trip to New Zealand, is a candid account of three months spent in the country in 2004. And though many…
Beyond Cloudy Bay
Twenty years on from the discovery of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, Washington Times writer Paul Lukacs surveys the latest on the New Zealand wine market. The Times article is particularly praiseworthy of the pinot…
Pianist in Demand
Award-winning New Zealand pianist and current associate professor of piano at Florida State University Read Gainsford has performed throughout the world as solo recitalist, concert soloist and chamber musician. Gainsford performs at Middle…
NZ Makes a Dash
Seachange is primed to be the first ever New Zealand-trained horse to race at Royal Ascot. She will contest the Group Two Windsor Forest Stakes over a mile in June, if she wins…
Holding His Breath
Dispensing with weights, ropes and flippers, New Zealander William Trubridge descended to 82 metres and broke the world record for constant weight diving without fins. Now living and working in the Bahamas, Trubridge…
On Top of the World
New Zealand has been voted Top Country for the second year running in a UK-based travel magazine readers’ poll. Almost 30,000 travellers voted in the annual Wanderlust poll, with New Zealand receiving a…
NZ Scientists Dry Their Eyes
New Zealand’s Crop & Food Research Institute has taken the tears out of chopping onions. In collaboration with Japanese scientists, the breakthrough was made using gene silencing technology. The Institute’s senior scientist Dr…
Sculptured theme park
Since 1992, New Zealand art collector Alan Gibbs has commissioned both national and international artists to contribute to a sculpture park on his farm in Kaukapakapa, Auckland. New York artist Tony Oursler’s video projections…
Blogs in Big Business
Former Aucklander Andy Lark, recently appointed VP of global marketing and communications at Dell, is one of the technology industry’s “Most Influential” communicators according to PR Week. Champion of big business…
Still Steadfast
Anti-apartheid activist New Zealander John Minto has turned down a nomination for an award proffered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Minto organised protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in…
Reclaiming the Moko
Maori heritage claims the walls at the Massachusetts Peabody Essex Museum. Thirty large format images of moko by award-winning Dutch photographer Hans Neleman make up the exhibition. Kimiora Ereatara Hohua describes the story of…
Bilateral War Cries
For 11 years Wairouru has hosted the Singaporean Army who train at the North Island army base under an agreement with the New Zealand Defence Force. This year, 900 Singaporean troops — the largest…
Budding Swim Star
Te Haumi Maxwell, 13, has been hailed as the “best male swimming prospect since Ian Thorpe” in the Australian press. Maxwell was born in NZ but raised in Australia, and is due to become…
Black Beauty Tops Rankings
Team NZ has won its first A1 Grand Prix race on home soil in Taupo, and is now the overall series leader. Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid won the Sprint Race and finished…
Dazzling Debut
Liam Finn’s solo debut, I’ll Be Lightning, has received widespread praise in the US, where it was released this week. Paste magazine calls it “a dazzling solo debut” while The Wall Street Journal praises…
Campion on Frame
Jane Campion writes about her encounters with creative compatriot Janet Frame in The Guardian this month. The NZ-born filmmaker brought Frame’s life story to an international audience with her acclaimed film An Angel at…
