A letter penned by Captain Cook announcing his return from Australasian waters has been discovered stuck behind a picture frame at Brancaster Hall, England. The 200-year old missive “recalls the grim hardship of what is now considered…
Judy Diamond and Alan B. Bond’s spent hours at an Arthur’s Pass rubbish dump working out the evolutionary significance of the kea: “Keas are giant mountain parrots, and they love cars, especially soft-tops. If you leave…
“Without a doubt one of the most brilliant journalists and columnists of his generation.” Neal Travis, the “brash, swashbuckling New Zealand import”, legendary editor of The New York Post’s in/famous Page Six gossip column, as well as…
A survey of 102 countries by German-based Transparency International found NZ to be one of the least corrupt states. The annual report claims “to reflect perceived levels of corruption among politicians and public officials.” NZ scored 9.5…
The sale of Te Kuri/Young Nick’s Head to an American financier has not escaped international notice. Symbolic for both Maori and European firsts (reputed to be the first land seen by Captain Cook’s Endeavour), comparisons were…
Mike Moore, outgoing NZ director-general of the World Trade Organisation, makes an impassioned plea for wealthy nations to review their agricultural trade policies, arguing that subsidies are no help to poorer nations. He cites the world sugar…
David Cohen collects the views of international scholars, including Graham Macdonald of the University of Canterbury, to place and demystify one of the university’s most celebrated former lecturers – controversial Austrian philosopher Karl Popper – on the…
NZ was ranked 19th best place to live according to the UN Development Programme’s annual quality of life survey. The report looks at issues such as life expectancy, per capita income, educational opportunities, and…
NZ representative Paul Cotton responds to Greg Sheridan’s criticism of NZ’s independent defence stance in The Australian (20/7). As Cotton avers, “It doesn’t seem that the Kiwis are suffering too much from just being a ‘very,…
Yachts containing more than 50 protesters from NZ, Australia and Vanuatu confronted a ship carrying nuclear waste through the Tasman Sea from Britain to Japan. According to Greenpeace, the cargo contained enough nuclear material for 50 bombs,…
“The clean green reputation of NZ – an image worth millions, according to the environment industry – is under threat.” The GM issue continues to divide NZers, rearing its head in the fields of economics, agriculture, tourism,…
Greg Sheridan, using some sobering cliches, gives his views on the trans-Tasman relationship: as well as comparing NZ to Tasmania he invokes ghosts of ANZUS past and our “unreliable” unwillingness to join Australia in Pax-Americana, as reasons…
Georgina Beyer interviewed in the Independent in the wake of promoting Georgie Girl in Sydney. A mass of contradictions – “she might judge a sheep show one day, march in a gay pride parade the next”…
“… the left prospers.” According to British Labour MP Austin Mitchell (author of The Half-gallon quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise) writing in the ‘Observations’ section of the New Statesman. “New Zealand stands out in the blue horizon”. says…
NZ performance artist Alan Brunton (57) died while touring Europe with his Red Mole theatre troupe, ” NZ letters of its one truly iconic radical figure.” Coming to prominence in the late 70s as…
Kiwi beats the Tigers: “Kiwi businesspeople often speak of their country as a cork floating on the sea of the world economy. At least their cork floats; so many other nations have sunk in the past…
The PMs of NZ, Australia and Canada, all of whom look to the Queen as head of state, were (apparently) extended “the minimum of courtesy” at her mother’s funeral. Seating plans, travel arrangements, and entry times…
Tiny farming/forestry town of Tapawera holds church service in honour of chainsaws. Churchgoers “brought their chainsaws with them, placed them on the altar, and afterwards performed an impromptu ‘chainsaw orchestra,’ complete with Mexican wave…
He engineered some of the most radical and controversial reforms in New Zealand history, where efficiency clashed with social affect, and Roger Douglas is still a believer, giving his tuppence worth on the English health system in…
New to New York: Village Voice features an “industral performing arts collective” remixing Dante’s Inferno using flaming poi. “Poi are a Maori tradition, and backpackers often try spinning on the beaches of Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand….
“Quintessentially NZ story” highlight of Sydney Film Fest. Annie Goldson’s “Georgie Girl” follows the edgy life of Georgina Beyer – the world’s first transsexual MP – from her days as a sex-worker and drug user,…
“This is your country and you have the power to change it and uphold all that is good and right. I am saddened to know that many do not vote and still complain about America…” Although…
A new species of dinosaur has been discovered on a North Otago beach. The 70 million year old fossil is believed to be a type of plesiosaur – a giant, swimming reptile resembling “a…
Four NZers received our country’s highest award via the Queen’s jubilee year honours list. Those admitted to the Order of New Zealand were; ex-Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, Auckland anthropologist and Maori leader Sir Hugh Kawharu, former…
New Scientist features the Kakapo’s claw-back from the brink of extinction: “What’s green, nocturnal, looks like an owl, smells sweet and fruity, and makes strange noises from growls and “skrarks” to metallic “chings” and deep resonant…
Kathy Marks visits Waitangi and gives an outside perspective on the state of the nation 162 years after the treaty: “New Zealand is truly a bicultural nation, and the sense of two races living…
Statistics New Zealand is making census data available online free of charge. Formerly $3,300 to $25,000 for special software, now users can simply transfer data and use their own software. The US, UK and…
Kiwis will have plenty of fellow travellers when they travel to the UK for the two year woring holiday scheme. In the past, 96% of applicants came from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa,…
Miss representation? Put that portrait of the Queen back on the lounge wall: “All New Zealanders are royalists, not like the Aussies,” proclaims the Dame (Kiri te Kanawa). Perhaps this is not surprising coming from someone…
Volcano enthusiasts were recently treated to a bonanza 500 kilometres north east of New Zealand. They discovered three new hydrothermal fields along the Ring of Fire which marks the boundary between the earth’s Australian and Pacific…
Connected to Congo at 56000 bps, former NZ TV reporter Moana Sinclair has been hired by the UN to coordinate the newly-formed Indigenous Media Network, largely linked via the web. Her experience overcoming obstacles and achieving mainstream success reinforces her…
Immigration issues are foremost in a feature interview with Helen Clark in The Bulletin. Clark contributes to the discussion about immigrants’ contribution to growth, or lack thereof, and muses on NZ’s wider place in the world….
A decision is close to being made by InternetNZ on the outcome of an application from the New Zealand Maori Internet Society to consider a new Net neighborhood for Maori-related Web sites.
“The exploits of Nancy Wake, who fought with the French Resistance, make the plot of the film Charlotte Gray look tame.” A new biography of NZ-born Wake by Peter Fitzsimons celebrates the life of the…
Don’t cry for me Argentina. The BBC looks at the progress of KiwiBank: ” New Zealand, more often famed for its sheep population than its financial sector, is attempting to shake-up its banking system with a…
The BBC looks at the changing iconic status and importance of the sheep to the New Zealand economy. Sheep numbers have fallen from 70 million to 40 million in the last two decades and farmers are…
“Humble beekeeper turned world’s greatest living explorer” – Legend Sir Edmund Hillary leads the pack of the ‘ten greatest living explorers’ in an extensive Vanity Fair photo essay. “‘Those magnificent men’ …the men and…
NZ Reserve Bank governor Don Brash, has stepped down after 14 years in the top job as central banker to make a new career for himself as a politician. Widely regarded as the architect of New…
CNN reports on revivified NZ and Australian interest in the memorial of ANZAC Day and it’s importance to trans-Tasman relations: “Tens of thousands of Australian and New Zealanders arose before dawn on Thursday to pay their respects…
A governmental mission to Australia led by PM Helen Clark aims to repair the damage done to already slack perception of NZ business (“yokels”) across the ditch by events such as the Ansett collapse and the…
New Zealand rates as the cheapest study destination, in terms of living costs and tuition fees, from an IDP Education Australia survey of 168 universities in the “Big 5” major education destinations: the US, Canada, UK, Australia,…
New Zealand-born baritone Bryan Drake has died in London aged 76. A “fine musician with an equable temperament and warm personality”, Drake will be particularly remembered for his long association with Benjamin Britten and his…
BBC1 uses the haka amongst a series of segments featuring multicultural imagery used to re-brand the British TV Channel, attracting reaction in NZ. Maui Solomon: “The Western culture, having all their own stories, are starting to mine…
The No.8 gene gets Wired for the 21st Century: “With about 45 million sheep and only 5 million people, New Zealanders hear their fair share of sheep jokes. When it comes to biotechnology and sheep, however,…
“Pretty unlikely”, is the way Helen Clark responds to allegations that her predecessor David Lange received death threats (“liquidate him”) from former US vice-pres Dan Quayle over his government’s anti-nuclear stance.
NZ scientists catch the biggest octopus ever found, a four-meter 75 kg giant hauled from 3,000 feet deep waters near the Chatham Islands. “It’s extremely deep, it’s extremely large, it’s the first recorded in the South Pacific,…
BBC News features research undertaken by Victoria University Tuatara Research Group (Professor Charles Daugherty and student Nicola Nelson) into the habitat of New Zealand’s “living fossil”, the tuatara. “They’ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs, so…
A fantastic resource for exploring over 3000 NZer’s who have ‘made their mark’ on our history. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography puts the entire contents of the previous print Dictionary of New Zealand Biography…
The world’s “rarest, heaviest, and only nocturnal and flightless” parrot, NZ’s native kakapo, enjoys a record breeding season with 22 chicks hatching on Whenua Hou, a small island off Stewart Island. Thanks to the bumper brood, kakapo…
A radical new education model is questioning the relevance of Western/colonial education system and the university model of higher learning. The project is called “Multiversity” and will focus on those supposedly excluded from First World education, Asia,…
Sir Raymond Firth, one of the world’s most prominent anthropologists, emeritus professor at London University, Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and recipient of first Leverhulme medal (given to scholars of exceptional…
Wearing a traditional Maori cloak of native bird feathers, the Queen calls on New Zealanders to work together to resolve lingering differences between indigenous Maori and the Government. Elizabeth II was on her 10th tour of…
Prime Minister Helen Clark joins leaders of “third way” governments from five continents at a Progressive Governance Conference in Stockholm. “The post-September 11 environment requires not just a military response but much broader international cooperation”, says Helen Clark. “If…
Roger Barnard, chairman of linguistics at University of Waikato, argues in The Guardian that sharp increases in enrollments of Chinese students at NZ universities and polytechnics requires an urgent response by staff and administrators to meet the…
One of New Zealand’s best loved screen stars, Kevin Smith, dies aged 38, in a Beijing Hospital. Best known for playing Ares in the hit series Xena:Warrior Princess, Smith suffered head injuries in a…
New Yorkers jaded by the Enron scandal voice their concern on the street and yearn for the paradise in the Southern Seas – writer Alex Bauman: “If I had money, I’d be in New…
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