Cruisin’ Taranaki
Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow are both currently on location in NZ. Paltrow is in Dunedin filming scenes for Christine Jeff’s adaptation of the life of Sylvia Plath, while Cruise has set…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Precious Acclaim: Two Films Tower Over Rest
“For the first time in a century, Hollywood was beaten in the big budget fantasy stakes. Jackson and his team delivered better special effects and better story-telling in what could be the new millennium’s…
Satisfaction Guaranteed
NZ was voted third most popular holiday destination in the NFO Plog 2002 American Travel Survey of over 9,000 U.S households. The report gages the most rewarding vacation experiences, as opposed to a head-count of visitors. The…
Two Films Tower Over Rest
The Piano and The Fellowship of the Ring both made SMH‘s list of the top 100 movies of all time. “For the first time in a century, Hollywood was beaten in the big budget…
Deco-dence in Napier
“I feel as though I’ve popped a 78 on the phonograph and stepped into my grandmother’s photo album. This is the bee’s knees.” Boston Herald comes to Napier for the annual Art Deco Weekend….
Shacking Up in Macetown
The Times takes a tour of the world’s ghost towns and stops off in Macetown, NZ. You could be forgiven for not knowing the name: all that remains of Otago’s 1860’s gold-rush town is the old…
Best supporting instrument
LA Times names The Piano as one of the instrument’s most memorable cinematic tributes in the history of film. “In a category of its own is Jane Campion’s modern-day classic The Piano… [Campion is one who…
Science Cynics and Bad News
Denis Dutton plays scientific advisor to the president in Edge.org‘s hypothetical survey on issues facing governments in 2003. His counsel? Do away with the scare-mongering and cynicism typifying science (and its media coverage) today in favour of “…
Pick of the critics
Peter Jackson has received a nomination for best director from the London Film Critics Circle for his work on Lord of the Rings. The prestigious awards are chosen by London reviewers and are to be presented…
We salute you
The Datsuns’ popularity in the U.K shows no signs of diminishing. The boys from Cambridge took out Best Live Band at the New Musical Express annual showcase of rock’s best. Other winners included…
Back to the Future
Canterbury University’s Andy Cockburn is leading a team of computer scientists in redesigning the back button function on computers. In a bid to up the popular button’s efficiency, Cockburn and co. have reprogrammed web browsers so that…
Addicted to rock
The Datsuns’ popularity in the U.K shows no signs of diminishing. The boys from Cambridge are soon to headline NME‘s annual showcase of “the forthcoming year’s thrusting new talent” in what will be their fourth U.K tour…
Big Ted gets bigger
NZ baritone Teddy Tahu-Rhodes is receiving great acclaim as the Don to Opera Australia’s Don Giovanni. “He sings like an angel but there the resemblance ends. He does a nice line in depravity …
Keeping Up Appearances
New York Times heads to NZ to find out if the hype is for real and are pleasantly surprised. “Always seen as ‘clean and green,’ NZ is enjoying a special premium at the moment as Americans…
Couch Potato Paradise
Fellowship of the Ring wins “hands down” the best DVD of 2002 according to a New York Times review. “A movie of 208 minutes takes some tall explaining, but here we develop sympathy for the notion…
Biculiterature
The US readers’ magazine Pages (‘the magazine for people who love books’) focuses on literature from Aotearoa-NZ in its monthly global focus. Contributing editor Bethanne Kelly Patrick focuses on biculturalism and asks, “Maoris and Pakehas are…
Habit-forming
Habitual – brainchild of Kiwi designer Nicole Garrett – is officially the coolest denim line on the street. The range is now stocked by big-gun retailers including Barneys (New York and Japan), Colette (Paris),…
In high demand
Fresh out of London’s Royal College of Music, NZ-born Samoan Jonathan Lemalu is being widely touted as “the next big thing in opera.” A qualified lawyer and accomplished (former) rugby player – “I kind…
Washington Wine Win
NZ wines cleaned up at the 7th Annual Wines for Oysters competition in Washington. Marlborough vineyards won five of the ten awards, with Charles Wiffen’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2001 taking home the Grand Champion Trophy.
‘Queen of Literature’
Easy Jet In-Flight profiles Liz Calder, co-founder of Britain’s most successful independent publishing house, Bloomsbury Plc. Dubbed the ‘Queen of Literature,’ Calder is credited with discovering the likes of Salman Rushdie, Anita Brookner and Julian Barnes. The…
Eichardt’s en Vogue
Australian Vogue‘s A-Z of deluxe travel destinations includes the historic Eichardt’s Private Hotel in Queenstown. Built in 1873 and recently refurbished by new owners, Eichardt’s contains “a series of luxurious interiors, with a clever melange of…
Interislanders Cruise to Victory
Kevin Biggar and Jamie Fitzgerald of Team Holiday Shoppe won the epic Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race from the Canary Islands to Barbados in record time, despite their boat being capsized 40 hours into the event. The pair’s…
Edge of the alphabet conjurer has cancer
SMH pays tribute to Janet Frame – “one of New Zealand’s most celebrated and enigmatic writers” – who recently revealed she is terminally ill with cancer. Frame’s biographer Michael King (Wrestling with the Angel)…
Epilogue Written to a Life of Words
NZ lost one of its edgiest inhabitants with the death of Janet Frame from acute myeloid leukemia on January 29. Frame, the author of 11 novels, 5 collections of short stories, a poetry collection,…
“The Boot” Remembered
Rugby fans around the world farewell Don “the Boot” Clarke, an incomparable All Black legend. Business Day calls him “an icon for a generation of NZers,” while The Australian remembers his match-winning conversion against France at Athletic Park…
News Lexicon
“The real Middle Earth” features in the annual BBC round-up of new additions to the media lexicon. The official definition: “The country formerly known as New Zealand. An NZ government minister has been appointed unofficial ‘minister for…
Taylor electrifies critics
NZ writer Chad Taylor impresses international critics with his new noir novel, Electric. Pulp: “Dark, intense, fast-paced, and perceptive, both noir literary thriller and pulp crime fiction Cool, surreal and sexy – make…
Marketing Middle Earth
“Historically isolated by geography, NZers are working to reap a publicity bonanza from , marketing their nation around the world as a destination for family tourism and ‘a second Canada’ for…
Screw Convention
“There’s nothing romantic about a corked bottle of wine,” says NZ winemaker Kim Crawford in Time. Crawford is one of many Kiwi vintners thumbing the nose at tradition, preferring screw tops to corks despite a recent international…
Trans-Tasman Trippers
SMH‘s summary of Australia and her people for the year 2002 notes a 14% rise in holidays across the Tasman. The dramatically increased figure made NZ the most popular travel destination for the year, ahead of…
Canterbrian Miss October
NZ takes out the October slot of Lonely Planet‘s year planner for 2003. “Take one of the world’s great train journeys, the Tranzalpine, across the southern alps the varied scenery takes in the Canterbury Plains,…
“Fairway to Heaven”
“Spectacularly gorgeous NZ a bargain for golfers” (Detroit Free Press). Golf-mad travel writer scours the length of the country for the best greens available – from the golden beaches of Kauri Cliffs to mountain views at Lake…
Jackson: Hobbit or Wizard?
Boston Globe: “Who would have guessed that it would take a woolly bear horror-flick director from New Zealand to restore our faith in epic moviemaking?” Praise for Peter Jackson reaches epic proportions of…
Edenic Eye Candy
In-depth spread on NZ in The Philippine Star dubs us “the adventure playground that thinks it’s a country”: “The beauty, the serenity, the vivacity of the greens, the freshness of the blues and the translucency of…
Muss vs. Hollywood
“It is not just Lord of the Rings that is ushering in a golden age of Kiwi cinema. Everywhere you look, NZers are taking over Tinseltown.” From Peter Jackson, Lee Tamahori and Vincent Ward,…
Rings blitzes box-office
The Two Towers has set new box-office records around the globe, breaking those set by its predecessor last year. The film made $5.2 million on its first day of release in Australia, and
Leading the field
“Never before has technology played such a pivotal role in bringing an animal back from the brink, setting the stage for computer-based rescues of endangered species elsewhere.” SMH feature documents the radical efforts of NZ scientists and conservationists…
Schnack Attack
“They have lured away many of NZ’s best sailing minds and talents in the quest for the Cup, but they are all still chasing one Kiwi who did not budge and whose mind and talents may…
Good clean ball
“Small but perfectly formed.” Lloyd Jones’ The Book of Fame included in SMH‘s tribute to the short novel, or novella. Jones joins the likes of Michael Ondaatje and Jeanette Winterson as one who achieves…
Scholarly Send-off
The Times pays tribute to W.J.B Owen, academia’s pre-eminent Wordsworth scholar. Born in NZ in 1916, Owen forged a distinguished career in England and Canada. “Owen was a scholar’s scholar – meticulous, exact, exhaustive and always reliable…
Farewell to Leading Lady
The death of NZ’s acting doyenne Davina Whitehouse has been mourned at home and abroad, with obituaries appearing in The Boston Globe and The Independent. Her prolific career spanned stage, film, and television, and…
Golden Boy
In a rare coup for a Kiwi, Warrior Stacey Jones has been awarded rugby league’s top honour: the Golden Boot. The trophy represents the sports media’s pick for best player in the world. Andrew Johns, Golden Boot…
Giovanni Intra Remembered
We are diminished to report the death of Giovanni Intra in New York City on December 17th 2002. Giovanni, artist, critic, gallerist went east to stir up the LA art scene and established the gallery, China…
“A Little Madness Helps”
In an NYT essay Peter Jackson describes the 14 months it took to film the Rings trilogy as a “protracted bout of willful madness with seven units shooting multiple elements simultaneously for the…
Karen’s Kiwi Christmas
Observer “unwraps Christmas in NZ” from the comfort of Karen Walker’s Waitakere Ranges home. “It’s a guaranteed white Christmas … the manuka trees are frosted with delicate white blooms so that the hillside appears…
“What a Beauty”
Confessions of a (former) one-eyed Aussie: “Abandon all those negative clichés. NZ has changed To go to a country so deeply etched in the Australian consciousness by cliché and misinformation is to spend most of…
Corporate Edge Makes Global Player
Businessman Graeme Hart – “the New Zealander with aspirations to take on the world” – has joined the bidding war for Australia’s major food group, Goodman Fielder. If successful, he will helm a $4.3 billion combined…
Co-host Clark
Helen Clark appeared on America’s top-rating Today Show to promote an upcoming Discovery Channel program on NZ. New Zealand: The Royal Tour sees the PM take American presenter Peter Greenberg on a guided tour…
Intellectual Grand Slam
John Clarke – the NZ comedian who “rates as a national institution” across the Tasman – delights critics with his latest book, The Tournament. A blistering satire, The Tournament involves a fictitious tennis contest…
Frodo Air
An Air NZ Boeing 747 has become the latest (and largest) Lord of the Rings billboard. The plane sports a 36m image of the hobbit leads down either side of its fuselage. The advertising is part…
Environmental Oxymoron
NZ’s possum epidemic has made unlikely bed-fellows of environmentalists and fur-trappers. New Scientist looks at a globally unique situation, where groups such as WWF actively support the trapping of an animal for its fur and meat as…
“The Prospero of NZ letters”
“Take a Las Vegas gambling magnate who believes in the usefulness of books, add a distinguished poet and a betting pool of natural talent. What do you get? A literary renaissance that has floored…
Big Tex Inspiration
Leading NZ artist Julian Dashper is currently on show at the Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery. The varied and interactive works (created during his residency at the Chinati Foundation in Texas) include a reproduction…
Lord of FX
Wired profiles Stephen Regelous, the Wellingtonian behind The Two Towers‘ jaw-dropping battle scenes. Regelous created a program – Massive – which would supply “smart crowds” to supplement the on-screen action. Each agent has an individual brain, with…
Cleaner Greener NZ
The Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions came one step closer to enforcement after its ratification by the NZ and Canadian governments. Although both countries are relatively minor industrial polluters their signatures are vital in making up the…
The Big Break-up
“Somewhere east of New Zealand, where Gondwana’s break-up may have started some 130 million years ago, with New Zealand splitting from Australia, ‘the last resources of mankind’ could be awaiting discovery. So say a crew of German…
