What California Can Learn from Christchurch
“I went to New Zealand on a long-planned vacation to see the setting for The Lord of the Rings movies and the mountain scenery. But as the earthquake reporter for the Los Angeles Times,…
Tag Archives: California
Treading Grapes With Angela Osborne in California
California didn’t always produce top-quality Grenache, but these Central Coast growers, including New Zealand-born Angela Osborne, are changing that by focusing on varietal bottlings to produce terroir-driven wines on par with top-shelf Pinot Noirs…
Gin Wigmore – New Rush (Official Video)
Listen and take a look at Gin Wigmore’s Official video for her single ‘New Rush’ from the album ‘Blood To Bone’. The video was directed by Zachariah de…
Lucy Lawless Plays Evil Queen in Californian Pantomime
Actress Lucy Lawless is currently portraying the evil queen Carabosse in a California-based production of Sleeping Beauty and Her Winter Knight. Through 4 January, at the Pasadena Playhouse, Lawless plays alongside Ben Giroux (Hart of…
Canadian and Californian Pie Shops Loved by Locals
New Zealand-owned pie shops are popping up all over the place with Wiseys Pies & Bakehouse in Toronto, Canada and BurtoNZ Bakery in California the latest to introduce our savoury traditions to the world.
Lingerie Designer Manuka Clarke Reinvigorating US Company
When New Zealand-born designer Manuka Clarke purchased Californian lingerie company Farr West in January, she wanted to reinvigorate the company’s classic designs while keeping all production in the United States at the highest quality…
Challenge Yourself to a Wellness Adventure at Queenstown’s Aro Ha
At Queenstown’s new wellness retreat Aro Ha, five and seven-day retreat programs offer guests “an unexpectedly rewarding journey of denial and depravation.” “I am on an amazing journey that goes beyond the picture-postcard…
Sweeping Seismic Building Review Surpasses US Attempts
After the deadly Christchurch 6.3 magnitude earthquake, city officials responded with the most sweeping seismic review of concrete buildings ever attempted, far surpassing anything achieved in California. Post-earthquake, residents were stunned to learn that two-thirds…
Stand Up Winner at California Paddle Awards
Aucklander Annabel Anderson has been named stand up female paddler of the year at the 2013 SUP Awards in California. Anderson was the 2012 Stand Up World Series champion, Battle of the…
Raglan’s Endless Summer Still Shines
New Zealand’s “surf mecca”, the “legendary” Raglan features this month in both the Wall Street Journal and Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine. “Legend has it this quaint settlement of about 3000 people…
Thanks to This Smart Guy NYC Tech Blossoming
Google’s chief engineer Blenheim-born Craig Nevill-Manning may be responsible for igniting New York City tech and not Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to The Huffington Post. “It’s kind of funny that one of the key reasons…
Alongside Her Idol
Top-ranked amateur golf player in the world, New Zealander Lydia Ko, 15, partnered with American professional Michelle Wie at Mission Hills Country Club in California, where the first major of the women’s…
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…
Californian Appointment
Aucklander Brian Kelly has been appointed president-designee at Life Chiropractic College West in San Lorenzo, California. Kelly owned a chiropractic practice in Melbourne for over a decade before being selected to serve as the…
Indian on Show
Burt Munro’s world famous Indian Scout motorbike, used to set land-speed records in the 196s, was on display at October’s Oildorado Days Rails to Trails Car Show in Taft, California. In 1967, on the…
Kiri’s American Valedictory
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed in Orange County, California, in what is being billed as her North American farewell tour. Michael Rydzynski praised her engaging presence, pure tone and comic touches in a review…
Pure and Simple
NZ mineral water Antipodes was reviewed by Michael Mascha, author of Fine Waters: A Connoisseurs Guide to the World’s Most Distinctive Bottled Waters, in the LA Times. “The soft, light bubbles (it’s artificially…
Not Your Average Winery
Americans can finally appreciate the work of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser on home soil, with the opening of the Quixote Winery in California’s Napa Valley. Owner Carl Doumani commissioned the eccentric Viennese-born artist to design…
Slipping Into Paradise
Auckland resident and former Californian, Jeffrey Masson, a psychoanalyst and ex-projects director of the Sigmund Freud archives, publishes in August his account of emigrating to New Zealand. Slipping Into Paradise, Why I Live in New Zealand encourages…
Surf’s Up
The powerful, curling waves that draw surfers to beaches will soon be breaking inland, thanks to a novel shape-shifting rubber reef that can be fitted to the floor of a swimming pool. The Versareef,…
Pinot Noir’s Paradox
“No other wine conjures up poetic descriptions like pinot noir; no other wine forges as direct a path to the soul. If a wine could make a person cry, it would have to be a pinot…
Shrinking World
Students at NZ’s International Pacific College took part in a live projection teleconference debate with a class at Cerritos College in Long Beach, California. Cerritos teacher, John Haas, wanted to “literally bring the world to his world…
Pass the Watties?
1988 NZ Chef of the Year and Elton John’s former cook, Clive Hitchens, has returned to his roots, opening a meat pie shop in Alameda, California. Hitchens and partner, Donna, had been successfully selling…
“For Many NZ is the New Utopia”
20 April 2004 – The flood of US immigrants seeking a better life in NZ continues – with good reason, according to a lengthy San Francisco Gate article. “It’s like California, it’s like San…
“The New Zealand Native Who Helped Open the Door to the Stars”
17 March 2004 – William Pickering, one of the leading figures in US space exploration, died of pneumonia in California aged 92. A graduate of Canterbury University and the California Institute of Technology, Wellington-born…
Go West … to the Edge
“There is another great shining land out there across the Pacific, far from the madding crowd. And it is all the things the Golden State once was. Onward then, to the New Eden, the New California!” LA…
September 11
New Zealanders and Australians unite in New York City to share their grief at the loss of antipodean lives on September 11th. Kiwi Alan Beaven, a leading environmental lawyer based in California, was on the hijacked plane that…
So Far – So Good
The discerning readers of the Guardian and Observer have voted New Zealand as their favourite long-haul travel destination. “It is the Caribbean and the English countryside, Antarctica and California, Sydney and Gleneagles all rolled into one….
America’s Cup: New Zealand Style
“Is this Monte Carlo, Rio de Janeiro, Cannes or Santa Catalina, the playground of California’s rich and famous?” Auckland, New Zealand’s “City of Sails”, must have been tourism’s best-kept secret destination – the Pacific’s own Riviera –…
