Archive >> September 2001

Author graced with further award

Author Patricia Grace is honoured with the 21 Kiriyama Pacific Rim book prize for her novel Dogside Stories. The award was established to promote cross-cultural understanding.

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Ceci n’est pas le hype New Zealander Jennifer Flay, owner of one of Paris’s “edgiest contemporary art establishments” – Galerie Jennifer Flay – talks to Interview magazine’s October French flair…

X – Woman

Anna Paquin is playing another complex and haunted character – but this time on the New York stage. “I don’t think it’s anything in my own life,” she says….

More Margaret Mahy Magic

The multi-award-winning author, who was first published and praised in the United States over 30 years ago, has had her books translated into 15 languages. She has won literary…

A Wired Army

The NZ Army is the first in the world to recruit online, and expects to cut the process from 4 to 6 weeks to just 14 days. “If we can offer…

The Person is Political

Voters across the political spectrum have convinced Georgina Beyers not to quit politics after she said she was stepping down. “The fact that a transsexual, a former sex worker and a Labour…

“For You to See Our World the Right Way Round”

Allen Curnow, one of New Zealand’s great 20th-century writers and poets, has died in Auckland. Daily Telegraph: “regarded by many as New Zealand’s greatest poet” Curnow helped define a…

Virtual Spectator is Simply Red

Fans can watch the latest Simply Red concert from all angles live via the internet thanks to rapidly growing Kiwi software company Virtual Spectator. “Watching live footage from the concert…

Praise for Jewish Museum

Praise keeps coming for the new Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the exhibition curated by Kiwis Ken Gorbey and Nigel Cox. Gorbey and Cox realise that sympathy-inducing gimmicks are…

More to Crowe About

Russell Crowe excels on the screen, and now with his band 30-odd Foot of Grunts he is tackling the music scene as well. The bands first album, Bastard Life of…

Johnson and the Whale

Mark Johnson is literally leading the way with research into whale behaviour – part of his work involves attaching digital recorders to 60-foot sperm whales out in the Gulf of Mexico….

Hoop Dream

The Tall Blacks NZ Basketball Team has shocked Australia, winning their 3-game series to earn a place among the world’s top basketball nations at the World Titles next year. Says NZ…

Windows XPerience

All Black Doug Howlett buys the world’s first copy of Windows XP… for his mum.  

The Fox Boy

The 19th-century studio portrait of a young Maori boy aged five or six, dignified but standing taut and uncommunicative, captured the imagination of New Zealand writer Peter Walker, The…

Granted Respect

“About a third of the 96 professional sailors competing in the Volvo Ocean Race are New Zealanders. But only one, Grant Dalton, commands instant recognition and awed respect from his international…

Six Months in a Leaky Boat

Has the round the world race – now the Volvo Ocean Challenge – lost its edge? Sir Peter Blake thinks so. “In the 1970s, adventurers in leaky oilskins set out to…

Whale of a tale

A combination of German and New Zealand investors will finance Whale Rider, the film adaptation …

Kiwi Bashing is No Joke

Air New Zealand’s role in the financial difficulties of Ansett Australia has created heated comment in the Australian media. “In recent days it has not been difficult to come by jokes…

Toddy the Scotsman

Edinburgh rugby eagerly awaits the presence of Canterbury’s finest.  

Famous NZ Plants

The Times explores the unlikely problem of growing tea trees like they do down in New Zealand.

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…

Film Success at Montreal

Still Life, a short film that tells the story of an elderly couple who discover that love defies even death, took out top honours in its category at the…

ANZUS Shmanzus

“The Chinese are not coming, the Russians are not coming, the Indonesians are not even coming. Time has moved on.” Helen Clark doesn’t miss ANZUS – and doesn’t think she will…

Native Art Expert

Noted Maori and Polynesian art expert Terence Tui A Tane Barrow, 78, died Aug. 31 at his Honolulu home. “He was very famous — anyone who wanted to authenticate…

The Odder Rock Tour

Neil Finn has just completed one of rock’s great experimental tours. He started off playing with friends from Radiohead and the Smiths in New Zealand, and ended up on…

Virtual Magic

US-based Kiwi Mark Billinghurst has won the entertainment section of the Discover Magazine Innovation Awards with his ‘magicBook’ virtual reality invention. ‘magicBook’ looks like a normal book, but when seen through a…

Galaxy Star

NZ professional soccer player Simon Elliot kicked his first goal of the season – and ensured his Los Angeles Galaxy team victory in front of 17, fans. …

Lord of the Spin-Offs

“The adventures of Frodo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard are proving so lucrative to HarperCollins that, without spending a penny on promotion or marketing, they have seen sales of…

Archived Story

Drilling and hammering continued right up to opening, but the Jewish Museum in Germany is at last open. It is the culmination of an intense period of work for…

Positive Reinforcement

Researchers from the University of Otago have been published in the totem of scientific veracity, Nature magazine. The paper builds on the notion that positive reinforcement helps the acquisition of…

Corporate Drain

“Forget the brain drain – the Kiwis who leave usually come back; the real problem we face is the corporation drain, the breaking up or moving offshore of our top corporations,”…

Amazing Race amazing TV

“More than a thrill a minute” is packed into The Amazing Race, a “dazzling and fascinating show that brings new…

More Kiwi on Aussie screens

Selling 26 episodes of Street Legal to the Aussies has quadrupled the amount of programming NZ has over the ditch….

Blyth Spirit

“Blyth Tait headed a clean sweep for New Zealand when he rode his Olympic and world champion, Ready Teddy, to win the Burghley Pedigree Horse Trials.”  

Publishing Gem

Author Fay Weldon, who spent her childhood in New Zealand, has divided the literary world with her latest novel, The Bulgari Connection. It’s sponsored by the Italian jewellery company…

Gandalf writes…

“A year’s work abroad isn’t unusual or daunting for an actor – but a year in New Zealand? I’m indifferent to rugby and don’t eat lamb but at least…

Remote Control

Wellington design student Rodney Mackrell has won the top prize in a $46,000 competition, run by Korean giant LG Electronics. His “cellular remote” is a pocket-sized device that operates as a…

Exporting Ex-All Blacks

Josh Kronfeld and Craig Dowd are expected to make a big impact in British rugby.  

Book Now

Providores, the keenly awaited new restaurant from Peter Gordon, has opened to acclaim. Says the Times: “Expect to queue once the reviews start rolling in.”

NZ Red

“That New Zealand can make decent reds is news of the “man bites dog” variety. If this article had been written a mere five or six years ago, it would have…

Nature Film Fest Sucess

Natural History New Zealand walked away with two awards at at the Japan Wildlife Film Festival, one of the industry’s highest-regarded wildlife television festivals. The Crystal Ocean won…

Wgtn Saatchis in world top-10

In a volume compiled by editors of graphic design bible Graphis Saatchi & Saatchi’s Wellington office, originator of the award winning Toyota bugger and Adidas All Black haka campaigns…