Tag Archives: BBC News

Kakapo’s Getting It On

Kakapo’s Getting It On

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…

Diabetes Breakthrough #2

Diabetes Breakthrough #2

New Zealand biotechnology company Diatranz will run clinical trials, in the Cook Islands, of an experimental diabetes treatment which once in place start making diabetes-curing insulin. The controversial treatment involves transplanting cells from pigs…

“Come Together”

“Come Together”

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…

Pleasantly Rough: 7 Worlds Collide

Pleasantly Rough: 7 Worlds Collide

Neil Finn’s latest album, 7 Worlds Collide brings together Pearl Jams’ Eddie Vedder, Tim Finn, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and ex-Smith’s legend Johnny Marr. BBC: “Finn is a consumate master of his craft”.

King of the Rings

King of the Rings

“New Zealand has always reserved its greatest adulation for sporting giants like Richard Hadlee and Jonah Lomu, but a place must now be found on the victory dais for director Peter Jackson What…

Love in a cold climate

Love in a cold climate

Say it with flowers: NZ-born floral designer Nina Sherson’s fashionable West End floral boutique, Earthworks, features in a BBC Valentine’s Day special. As well Sherson tops the list of celebrity speakers at the…

Are You Looking at Us?

Are You Looking at Us?

PJ helmed, NZ-made Lord of the Rings…Russell Crowe in Beautiful Mind…Andrew Adamson co-directed Shrek. The Oscars go antipodean as the edge gives Hollywood a prod in tandem with a strong Australian presence. LotR is…

Giant Icebergs Leave Penguins Stranded

Giant Icebergs Leave Penguins Stranded

NZ scientists involved in penguin dynamics research in Antarctica report on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of baby penguins this summer, caused by the blocking of food routes by giant icebergs.

Oscar Double?

Oscar Double?

Russell Crowe earns his third consecutive Best Actor Oscar nomination for his depiction of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr in A Beautiful Mind. If he were to win, Crowe would join the elite…

Royal Chill

Royal Chill

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts, accompanies Britain’s Princess Anne to Antarctica to celebrate the centenary of Scott and Shackleton’s discovery expeditions, and to launch the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust’s 10 year project to conserve…

Gilding the Director

Gilding the Director

Peter Jackson is nominated for the Best Director award as judged by the Directors Guild Association. Jackson, however, doesn’t seem very interested in taking home any coveted gold trophies: “Its the icing on the…

Master Blasters

Master Blasters

Explosive all-rounder Chris Cairns plays “one of the great one-day international innings in the 22-year history of the game When he is on song, no oval in the world is big enough to contain him”….

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind

Wellington-born Russell Crowe, who last year won an Oscar for his lead role in Gladiator, pulls off the second biggest win of his career – a Golden Globe for best actor, in A Beautiful…

Clean, Green and Safe

Clean, Green and Safe

Condé Nast Traveller recently rated Aotearoa the world’s safest destination and the Government wants to make sure the haven remains safe, committing increased resources to help fight terrorism.

Top Honours and Front-runner in Oscar-quest

Top Honours and Front-runner in Oscar-quest

The Lord of the Rings wins Best Picture, Best Digital Effects, and Best Production Design at the American Film Institute Awards. Closer to home, Peter Jackson is named Companion of the New Zealand Order…

Feel Like Jonah/Never Meaning No Harm?

Feel Like Jonah/Never Meaning No Harm?

Phil Robinson, helicopter pilot and Greenpeace activist, films rare Southern Ocean footage of a Japanese vessel harpooning a whale after a 40 minute chase. “Scientists” responded by targeting Greenpeace inflatables with water cannons.

Kiwi Hero Laid to Rest

Kiwi Hero Laid to Rest

A thousand mouners gather at the parish church of St Thomas a Becket in Warblington to pay their respects to the late Sir Peter Blake. “Peter Blake was a living legend. I believe that he was…

Left-handed Crows

Left-handed Crows

New Zealand scientist Gavin Hunt describes a new theory of “how human beings came to be right-handed” by investigating the “right beakedness” tendencies of crows when “ripping pieces from leaves.” The discovery makes it more likely that…

Olympic Honours

Olympic Honours

The International Olympic Committee will award the Olympic Order to Sir Peter Blake, one of its highest honours. IOC President Jacques Rogge declares Blake “one of the most gifted and successful yachtsmen in the world”.

Celebrity Race

Celebrity Race

Former Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie narrowly beats rugby star Jonah Lomu in a 50m novelty race set up to promote next year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester. “When he pushed out of the block I thought, he’s been…

“Over the Last Five Days They Basically Outplayed Us in Most Departments.”

“Over the Last Five Days They Basically Outplayed Us in Most Departments.”

Australian batsman Justin Langer: “New Zealand proved to themselves and the cricket world that they have the credentials and determination to compete with the best.” In the final test of the series the valiant Kiwi cricketers…

Kiwi Success Not So Ethereal in Melbourne Cup

Kiwi Success Not So Ethereal in Melbourne Cup

Melbourne Cup winner Ethereal continues a proud tradition of winning New Zealand horses as well as opening a new chapter in Cup history. For the first time a female trainer, Shelia Laxon from Cambridge, is behind…

Shakespeare Goes Maori

Shakespeare Goes Maori

The Merchant of Venice is turned into the first Maori-language film of a Shakespeare play. “Shakespeare’s use of language is not dissimilar to the ancient poetic, lyrical and metaphorical Maori style,” explains Scott Morrison,…

Shining White Antarctic

Shining White Antarctic

The environmental state of Antarctica’s Ross Sea region is in pristine condition – “exceptionally so by global standards” – according to a new report from the New Zealand Antarctic Institute. However the reports also points out “significant…

NZ Among Ten Most Competitive

NZ Among Ten Most Competitive

New Zealand ranks amongst the ten most competitive countries in the world, according to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). New Zealand perches at #10 on the index, which the WEF argues is…

Maori 3G Deal Secured

Maori 3G Deal Secured

Pan-African cell phone operator, Econet Wireless, signs a deal with Maori to operate their license for running third generation mobile phones. The license was set aside last year by the New Zealand government for…

NZ ‘No Subsidies’ Model for Europe?

NZ ‘No Subsidies’ Model for Europe?

“New Zealand is one of a handful of countries which have embarked on free trade for agriculture and some say it should be used as a model for changes in Europe.”

The X-factor

The X-factor

From sword and sorcery to the paranormal, Lucy Lawless moves from Xena to The X-Files, where “we’re thrilled to work with Lucy, whose work we’ve admired for a long time,” says X-Files producer…

Easy-over or Sunnyside Up?

Easy-over or Sunnyside Up?

Which ever way you flip it, global warming will affect every part of New Zealand – but perhaps we’re among the lucky ones?

Rat Attack

Rat Attack

New Zealand rat predatation expert Mike Bell called in to save the puffins of Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.

Dawn Ceremony

Dawn Ceremony

Maori dancers performed a traditional dawn ceremony opened by a conch shell in St Mark’s Square, Venice, to celebrate New Zealand’s participation in the Art Biennale.

Subterranean Stars

Subterranean Stars

Caver Dominic Casciani admires the beauty below the surface: “In New Zealand I have splashed through cave water, prompting microscopic glowing to light up the cave ceiling like a second zodiac”.

Buzz From Cannes

Buzz From Cannes

“This will be the biggest movie of all time” – John Rhys-Davis in National Post preview and cast interviews; Rings “hottest show at Cannes” in The Age; BBC reports “gargantuan bash”;…

World Music

World Music

The BBC’s Radio4 celebrates International Dawn Chorus Day by listening to the world wake up via some aural ornithology; singing the sun up is the enchanting “Nightingale of New Zealand” – the Tui.

Packing Their Bags

Packing Their Bags

Britain’s agricultural troubles leaves farmers looking to New Zealand and Australia for a fresh start.

Russell: Our Man

Russell: Our Man

Winning the world from the edge, Russell Crowe walks away with Hollywood’s biggest award. It was the day the boy from the west Auckland suburbs achieved the dream that once seemed “kind of ludicrous…

Cold Daring

Cold Daring

What better guide through the frozen continent that “a New Zealander who, in younger days, had driven motorcycles across the ice pack and sampled the 80-year-old cocoa from the stores left in the hut of the…

I’m Looking for a Holy Man: Green, Short, Talks Kinda Funny?

I’m Looking for a Holy Man: Green, Short, Talks Kinda Funny?

The full force of the law is against them: despite attempts to have Jedi registered as an official religion on this year’s census form, it won’t happen unless adherents can produce solid evidence the religion exists. …

Lamb OK

Lamb OK

I will buy in New Zealand lamb, but I won’t buy anything else says a British butcher feeling the pinch of foot and mouth.

Ciao, Gladiatore!

Ciao, Gladiatore!

Crowe-band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts gig Milan for Children in Crisis fund-raiser.

Crowe’s Upward Flight

Crowe’s Upward Flight

Future films Flora Plum and John Nash biopic will “stretch Crowe to show the extent of his capability and range”.

Sooty Mania

Sooty Mania

New Zealanders respect a real man – or a real guinea pig. Sooty, the rodent famous for fathering 43 babies in one sweaty night, received a large volume of Valentines postmarked New Zealand. “He has…

Lost in Te Anau

Lost in Te Anau

New Zealand-filmed BBC production of sci-fi dino classic The Lost  World set to be “a ripping yarn with some of the most exotic locations we’ve seen in television drama”.

Keep Your Skin On

Keep Your Skin On

A New Zealand-developed vaccine “switches off” debillitating skin disease psoriasis.  

Janet and John Revamped

Janet and John Revamped

Janet and John, the New Zealand-authored, internationally successful learn-to-read books of the fifties and sixties are making a come-back in ethnically-inclusive, non-sexist but still easy-to-read versions.

Christmas in Auckland

Christmas in Auckland

“Then Christmas dinner – Polynesian style – got under way, accompanied by the sound of guitars and the laughter of girls, flowers in their hair, dancing the hula, the siva and the tamoure.”

Brash Blueprint

Brash Blueprint

New Zealand’s Reserve Bank is a model for a proposed independent committee of economic advisors in Britain.  

Newsworthy

Newsworthy

Kelly Russell didn’t shoot himself in the foot – his best friend Stinky did the deed.

Dot.com Dream

Dot.com Dream

Kiwi Victoria Davies is among the silicon dolls burnt by the dot.com crash. She’s now on a $100,000+ salary, but has less confidence in stock options, “I don’t look at it as my ticket to being…

“It’s Ok I’m Wearing Really Big Knickers”

“It’s Ok I’m Wearing Really Big Knickers”

NZ-Edged Louise Rennison, author of hilariously funny and best-selling novels for teens documents such existential provocations as angst ridden days, erupting spots and bickering with parents. Rennison spent her teenage years in New Zealand…

Circus Ribbons

Circus Ribbons

Wellington performers staged a twelve hour festival in support of international White Ribbon Day, organised to raise  awareness of violence against women.

Special League

Special League

The New Zealand team “ran out of juice” in the final, according to Frank Endacott, but they received praise from England’s coach for their semi-final performance: “I thought New Zealand were a bit special,” said John Kear….

PC Lost World

PC Lost World

New Zealand will host BBC’s dinosaur/sci-fi classic The Lost World. Offensive passages, referring to “sub-humans noted for their savage behaviour and low intellects” will be removed, cutting down the number of politicians moonlighting as…

Kiwi KO

Kiwi KO

The Black Caps beat India in the ICC knock-out final, making 265 with four wickets and two balls to spare. Chris Cairns, player of the match, got his century in a “heroic performance” that rescued the…

Terrorist Reaction

Terrorist Reaction

Rumours of New Zealand-based terrorist cells targeting the games in Sydney have been around for a while. Last week New Zealand police discovered a lounge in Auckland piled high with maps of Sydney and…

Sssshhh! Silence is Regulated Golden

Sssshhh! Silence is Regulated Golden

A multiplex in Birmingham banning kissing in its cinemas prompted the BBC to investigate cinema etiquette leading them to uncover the news that an independent cinema in Wellington, New Zealand, banned crisps from its…