Aotearoa Adornment

Auckland artist George Nuku’s mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June’s American Vogue. “Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban…

Pacific mix

Jazz has been described as the “original dance music” and one of the genre’s legendary labels, Verve, has dipped into its vaults and commissioned new mixes for contemporary dancefloors….

Scene stealing

The LA Times surveys an “invasion of American films by directors and stars from Down Under. The biggest star now working in American films who began in his native…

Where is New Zealand again?

Doing the Billie’s Kiss PR, Elizabeth Knox pauses and reflects on the exotic settings for her books with a wry comment on her cultural identity: “I know I’m a…

OE to Go UN

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…

We’re All Royalists Here?

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…

The Native Post

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…

Postcard-spotting?

Lynn Barber leaves the trains at home and follows the postcard route through godzone, finds it to be “truly paradise” but also close to 100% boring. “To appreciate NZ you need…

Best Haul

Ironically for Lynn, NZ was once again voted “Best Long Haul Country” over Australia, Cuba, Japan, Thailand et al by Guardian and Observer readers – they must have got off…

Domination

“It is apparently not enough that New Zealand have just waltzed away with their third successive World Sevens Series title. So complete was their domination of the Emirates-sponsored London leg of…

Some Like It Hot

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 novel is dead, long live the novel

Keri Hulme joins a list of postcolonial booker people ratttling the bones of the form: “The years the Booker Prize doesn’t go to an English novel the winning book…

Young Man and the River

Fly-fishing enthusiast Andy Pietrasik raved about his recent trip to the rivers of the South Island. Following his guide up the river in search of fish made him feel like…

Rain

Christine Jeff’s “sexually potent yet understated” feature debut Rain continues to make splashes as it opens across North America. The Boston Herald reports that Jeffs “easily captures…

Give Me Your Skilled, Your Entrepreneurial

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…

Mount Taranakiyama

Taranaki’s eponymous mountain is a suitable double for Mount Fuji, or so thinks Edward Zwick (Glory, Legends of the Fall) who will direct Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai…

Photographer and philanthropist

Internationally renowned baby photographer, nz-edged Anne Geddes, was honoured at the 38th Annual Childhelp USA Humanitarian Awards in May. As well as marketing a highly successful line of…

On the Edge of Your … Chair

Following in the Popstars tradition of grand contributions to global pop culture NZ’s gift to the gameshow format has former tennis star John McEnroe signed on with the BBC…

Canterbury Crusaders Find Rugby Holy-land

“New Zealand’s Crusaders put up a persuasive case as world rugby’s champion provincial team with their unbeaten sweep through the Super 12 series” … sealing the tournament with a dominant 31-13 win…

Bus-class High Flyer

Kiwi Ray Webster is Chief Executive of pioneering no-frills airline Easy Jet. Touching down in the market in a big way Webster works by the mantra that, “Airlines are about people,…

IT – NZ Untapped

Columnist for leading US IT Industry zine InfoWorld raves after visiting NZ, “New Zealand is a marvelous country populated with some of the most talented people in computing. Part of the…

Bug Movie 2002:

“What do you get when you cross toxic waste with a bunch of exotic spiders? Eaten.” The Washington Post gives the skinny on Eight Legged Freaks – the…

Model Animal Behaviour

An economic model developed by Massey University-based resource economist Dr Robert Alexander and postgraduate researcher Chris Fleming, could improve our understanding of how to help endangered species.  By determining how much money…

Zespri Patriotism

In a fascinating 2-part feature the LATimes slices open the Kiwifruit and looks at the history of NZ’s No.1 horticultural product, from poor crop protection: “Even without a patent, the trademark “kiwifruit,”…

Life and Loves …

NZEdged author Fay Weldon traverses a contradictory, but never dull life, in her autobiography Auto de Fay and finds her muse in the edge: “Always! Yes, always! I wanted…

Possum Fur-y Unfashionable

”I should break your other bloody arm.” At a Prada party Daily Telegraph fashion editor, Hilary Alexander, famously incurs the wrath of a PETA activist Dan Matthews for wearing…

David Low – Century’s Best Cartoonist – On Show

David Low, the New Zealand master satirist “with an outsider’s perspective” and acclaimed as the Twentieth Century’s greatest cartoonist has his work revisited (including his most famous caricature Colonel…

Windbreakers

NZ’s belching animals: Kiwi scientists have worked out how to reduce greenhouse emissions from cow emissions. “Lowering New Zealand’s methane emissions is necessary if the antipodean country is to meet its…

Maori.nz?

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…

New Zealand: Closer to the Edge

Independent editor at large Janet Street Porter finds she can’t get close enough: “No wonder I’ve been back to New Zealand three times in three years. Sod the 20-something hours in…

Real-life Charlotte Gray

“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…

For the People

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…

Off the Sheep’s Back?

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…

The Piano Makes All Time A-List

Jane Campion’s The Piano seated in esteemed company in The A List: The National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films, edited by Jay Carr.

 

Ed from the Edge: “World’s Greatest Living Explorer”

“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…

Sir Peter Blake Honoured at World Sport Awards

Sir Peter has been posthumously given both the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award and the Laureus Sport for Good Award at the 2002 World Sports Awards in Monte-Carlo. Sir Peter, was a…

Utopia: Wild at Heart

“The grandeur of this place is so extreme it makes you want to dive right into the heart of it”, Aotearoa-NZ is May cover country of one of the world’s most…

The Piano

Jane Campion’s The Piano seated in esteemed company in The A List: The National Society of Film Critics’ 1 Essential Films, edited by Jay Carr.

Kiwi Sites in Webby Race

Two Christchurch based websites are in the running for Webbies – the internet version of the Oscars. They are University of Canterbury Philosophy of Art Professor Denis Dutton’s brain-tickling…

WorldEdge: Sydney Fashion Week

The Australian Review headline: “Kiwis upstage hosts at fashion week”. WORLD’s youthful postmodern colour blast made the cover of the all the major papers. And Zambesi’s bomber jackets coupled…

One Giant Leap

“New Zealand newcomer Whiri Mako Black’s haunting and silken soulfulness” joins Robbie Williams, Horace Andy, Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, Nenah Cherry and Grant Lee Buffalo in a celebration of…

Rugby Sevens World Champions

New Zealand won the World Rugby Sevens series title for the third consecutive year, wrapping up the series with a convincing 29-5 victory over South Africa in the Malaysia Sevens final….

Rain: “under the surreal glare of a sunburnt hangover”

“A detached study of sleepy domestic torpor seizing up into tragic desperation, Christine Jeffs’s debut feature, Rain, bears resemblance to The Virgin Suicides and Ratcatcher Jeffs’s compositions are…

The Datsuns: the future of rock’n’roll?

dotmusic revs up Kiwi rockers The Datsuns. “four stick-thin, long-haired, fresh-faced, sinful-souled boys from Cambridge, New Zealand, and the latest genius rock’n’roll band to swarm on London”. Accompanied by…

Ta Moko on Show

Time reviews Skin Deep, a history of Western tattooing currently on show at London’s National Maritime Museum. The exhibit traces the practice back to its Polynesian roots, beginning its official documentation…

Kiri to sing at Palace & Castle

Opera diva Kiri Te Kanawa will sing at Buckingham Palace June 1 as Queen Elizabeth celebrates her Golden Jubilee party. Taking the stage alongside Kiri will be Russian cellist…

Acid Rain

“This New Zealand coming-of-age movie isn’t really about anything. When it’s this rich and luscious, who cares?” Direction and acting applauded in Christine Jeff’s debut feature adaptation of Kirsty…

Karl Popper’s NZEdged Legacy

Roger James in the The Guardian ponders the centenary of the birth of one of the C20th most original (and controversial) thinkers, philosopher Karl Popper. In an affirmation of…

Middle Line Management

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…

From Sea to Sea: Kipling’s Landscapes

Biographer David Gilmour finds chronicler of British imperialism Rudyard Kipling has an affinity for the edges, “his favourite landscapes were in adverse angles of the Pacific (New Zealand and British Columbia) and…

Lest We Forget

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…

Business Class Destination

New Zealand is ranked the fourth best place to do business in Asia, according to prominent think tank – the Economist Intelligence Unit. The rankings took into account 70 factors,…

Soft edge scenery?

BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan-Doyle’s dinosaur romp The Lost World: shot “against the glorious backdrop of New Zealand’s South Island … New Zealand offered diverse landscapes in relatively easy…

AB Old Boy’s Coaching Club: JK, Buck, Gatland

All Black legend, winger John Kirwan, to take over as coach of the Italian national team from NZer Brad Johnstone – this includes touring Italy through his homeland where playing…

Superyacht Supremos

“New Zealand is fast becoming one of the world’s biggest centres for superyacht construction, with its low-cost high-tech designs.” Alloy Yachts is the world’s 2nd largest manufacturer of superyachts: advantages that…

Nanotech NZ – Solutions from the Small?

Front-running nanotechnology expert, NZ-born Michael Kelly, (technology professor, University of Surrey), recently visited Wellington’s MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. Kelly is optimistic of edge innovation in the field, “There are a…