June 2004 Archives

From Shack to Chic: The Not-so-humble Bach

From Shack to Chic: The Not-so-humble Bach

Wallpaper* pays homage to the Kiwi bach, in its most highly evolved form. “Baches built today reflect the increased value of the land – they’re less rustic and more expensive to build – but…

Pushing the boundaries

Pushing the boundaries

Dunedin born dancer/choreographer Carol Brown has won two major European awards; the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) Dream Time Award in the UK, and the Ludwig Forum International Art…

Wine Boom Continues

Wine Boom Continues

NZ wine producers are going for quantity as well as quality, with 2004 officially the largest vintage on record. At 166,000 tons, the national harvest was 40% higher than the previous high of 118,700 tons in 2002….

All Blacks 3-0 Start for 2004

All Blacks 3-0 Start for 2004

Two crushing wins over England and a scratchy performance against Argentina started the Graham Henry-coached, Tana Umaga-led 2004 All Blacks. Coverage from The Independent on the victories at Carisbrook, Eden Park, and Hamilton. Next…

Junior All Blacks Victorious

Junior All Blacks Victorious

Ireland was “forced to acknowledge New Zealand’s continuing supremacy” at the IRB U-21 World Championships in Scotland, going down 47-19 to the junior All Blacks. NZ’s stellar performance included a hat-trick of tries by flanker Tony Koonwaiyou….

“The estimable John Clarke”

“The estimable John Clarke”

Telemovie adaptations of Shane Maloney’s novels Stiff and The Brush Off by NZ comic John Clarke were a critical and ratings success in Australia, the former netting more than 1.3 million viewers on…

Garland Coma

Garland Coma

New Zealand-born political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph since 1966, Nicholas Garland has provided 40 woodcut illustrations for the new Novela by son Alex “The Beach” Garland. The book describes the dream-like interior life…

“Crazy Kiwi” Charges Hard

“Crazy Kiwi” Charges Hard

Christchurch surfer Doug Young won the ‘Deep Throat’ award at the 2004 Red Bull Big Wave event in South Africa. The ‘Deep Throat’ prize goes to the “hardest charger” – the surfer who braves the biggest, messiest waves without…

Ironwoman

Ironwoman

Lynley Allison won her first Ironman title at the 2004 Ironman USA Coeur d’Alene triathlon in Coeur d’Alene. She finished a full 10 minutes ahead of second place getter Heather Gollnick (US), after taking an unshakeable lead…

Edgy heroine

Edgy heroine

Fay Weldon’s autobiography – Auto Da Fay – featured in the New York Times‘ New and Noteworthy Paperbacks section. “Unlike many of the female characters in her dozens of breezy novels, Weldon comes off…

In Enduring Memory

In Enduring Memory

The NZ Antarctic Society has bestowed a belated but heartfelt honour on Scotsman Harry McNeish, who was the carpenter aboard Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance on its ill-fated Antarctic voyage. A life-size sculpture of McNeish’s pet cat – Mrs…

New World Edges In

New World Edges In

Kim Crawford’s 2003 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc took top honours at the Sélections Mondiales des Vins in Montreal, winning the Grande Médaille d’or (grand gold) in its category as well as the Prix du Jury décernés par pays…

Moko Mokai Return Home

Moko Mokai Return Home

Three preserved heads (moko mokai) of Maori warriors have been returned to NZ by the Kelingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The action comes after a worldwide search for Maori remains by Te Papa Tongarewa. Maori specialists…

He Maimai Aroha

He Maimai Aroha

Haere atu koutou hei whetu te rangi, tiaho mai mo ake tonu atu. He tohu aroha ki tenei morehu kuia. Rahera Windsor, spiritual leader of Britain’s Maori community, died May 3rd 2004 Born in Pupuke, 1925, she married…

Google and Froogle

Google and Froogle

Waikato University graduate Craig Nevill-Manning is Director, New York & Senior Staff Research Scientist for the world’s leading search engine company, Google. Nevill-Manning completed a PhD in computer science at Waikato before taking up a post-doctoral fellowship…

#70: Edge – Every World Needs An Edge

#70: Edge – Every World Needs An Edge

Edge Message #70 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Welcome to new members at nzedge.com, from Aarhus, Adelaide, Apia, Athens and Atlanta as well as Auckland, Akaroa and Ashburton and…

Short & sweet

Short & sweet

Two NZ short films have been selected to compete at both the Montreal World Film Festival in August and the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain in October; Boy,…

Picturesque Plunge

Picturesque Plunge

In a feature on celebrity hobbies, the Observer advises fans of sky-diving enthusiast Nicole Kidman to head to Queenstown. After all, “if you’re going to take the plunge, you might as well do it at one of…

Long and winding road

Long and winding road

The Statesman talks to nomadic NZ writer, Will Marks, about his ongoing love affair with India while reviewing his debut novel, The Highway. “I didn’t have a lot of expectations of India but when…

Warner devours Cannibal Dog

Warner devours Cannibal Dog

Marina Warner recommends Anne Salmond’s The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas as essential holiday reading in the Guardian‘s annual summer poll of leading authors, journalists, and critics. “The historian…

Charlie Champions NZ

Charlie Champions NZ

British celebrity gardener, Charlie Dimmock, named NZ as her preferred home-away-from-home in an interview with The Independent. “If I had to to New Zealand. They have an’outdoors’ lifestyle,’ and people are more active.”

Kai a la Kiwi

Kai a la Kiwi

A NZ themed restaurant – The Kiwi Grille – is doing a roaring trade in Newburyport, Massachusetts. According to owner Bruce deMustchine (ex-Hawkes Bay), the Grille served 10,000 happy customers in its first 8…

World’s Best Head 42-Below

World’s Best Head 42-Below

The first ever Cocktail World Cup was held in Queenstown over the Winter Festival, which began June 25. The 5-day event is the brainchild of NZ’s 42- Below vodka, which recently won gold at the World Spirits…

Back on Track for 2007

Back on Track for 2007

Team NZ has finally announced its challenge for the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain, thanks to a multimillion dollar sponsorship deal from Dubai-based Emirates Airlines. The syndicate has missed two previous confirmation dates due to lack…

A Race of Extremes

A Race of Extremes

John O’Loghlen (NZ investment banker at Goldman Sachs, NY) and Rosa Volz (Wellington IT worker) were the first non-Mongolian man and woman respectively to finish the 42km Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset Marathon, “one of the toughest and…

Craig Puts Middlesex to the Spear

Craig Puts Middlesex to the Spear

Ex-Black Cap Craig Spearman broke W.G Grace’s record for the best ever innings in an English county cricket match, hitting a staggering 341 runs for Gloucester against Middlesex. The legendary Grace made 318 not out for Gloucester…

King More than Qualified for Role of National Historian

King More than Qualified for Role of National Historian

C.K Stead reviewed the late Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand for the Times Literary Supplement, making some keen observations of his own on the subject. “If it were possible to subtract…

Anderson wins reviewer’s heart

Anderson wins reviewer’s heart

Barbara Anderson’s latest novel, Change of Heart, warmly reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement: “With the authority of experience Anderson captures perfectly the foibles, prejudices, anxieties and joys of the kind of septuagenarian who…

Prime slot for Kiwi production

Prime slot for Kiwi production

In My Father’s Den opened this year’s Sydney Film Festival – the first time a NZ feature has done so in the event’s 50-year history. Directed by Brad McGann, the film is based…

Honey Power

Honey Power

Professor Peter Molan of Waikato University’s Honey Research Unit was the subject of a BBC feature on the healing power of honey. Molan hopes to take his area of expertise to the world via revolutionary wound dressings,…

Rat-tracker

Rat-tracker

Groundbreaking research into the origins of Polynesian people by Auckland University’s Lisa Matisoo-Smith has been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, and Proceedings of the National Academy of  Sciences. Matisoo-Smith used the DNA of Pacific…

Kiwis Make it 5 in a Row

Kiwis Make it 5 in a Row

NZ held on to its world series rugby sevens crown for the fifth year in a row, despite losing 22-19 to England in the final of the London leg. The Kiwis had already reached an unassailable position…

Epic Moments Remembered

Epic Moments Remembered

The world commemorated the 60th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, with war veterans and international leaders (including PM Helen Clark) gathering in France to pay their respects. NZ lost more soldiers proportionately than any other country…

Beach houses

Beach houses

“Self-catering in NZ has never been sexier.” The Observer rates four of the North Island’s most luxurious retreats; the Glass House on Waiheke Island (“this is a beach house in the same way that…

Power in Numbers

Power in Numbers

Minister for research, science and technology, Dr Pete Hodgson, headed an impressive delegation of NZ scientists and executives at the annual Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) meeting in San Francisco. In the course of the conference NZ and Australia…

Jack Foster, 71

Jack Foster, 71

Legendary marathoner Jack Foster died after a cycling accident south of Rotorua. He was the marathon silver medallist at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, where he set his personal best time at the age of…

Jackson Gets the Youth Vote

Jackson Gets the Youth Vote

The Return of the King won the coveted prize for Best Film at this year’s MTV Awards in LA. Other big winners were Pirates of the Caribbean and Kill Bill Vol.1.  

Back to Back Wins at ‘The Glens’

Back to Back Wins at ‘The Glens’

Kiwi driver Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing has won the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix for the second consecutive year. Dixon’s win – his first for 2006 – moves him up two…

Raw power

Raw power

Adoptive Canterbrian, Leslie Kenton, has published her 35th book: The Powerhouse Diet. The comprehensive guide to eating raw foods is the award-winning author’s latest contribution to the field of health and well-being.

World Class

World Class

Dr John Bedbrook, President and CEO of American GM crop developer Verdia, has returned to his native NZ as part of the government’s World Class New Zealanders business advisory program. Bedbrook recently spoke at the Bio2004 convention in…