Underwater Drawcard
Wellington is adding shipwreck diving to its list of harbour-side activities, with the scuttling of a decommissioned NZ Navy frigate off Tapa Te Rangu Island. The F69 frigate is currently moored at Taranaki Wharf and will be…
October 2005 Archives
Milk and Money
Fonterra has announced plans to build an AU$15 million dairy innovation centre in Melbourne. “By investing significantly in innovation we are ensuring that we remain at the forefront of developing specialty ingredients and consumer products that will…
Jail Over War
New Zealand doctor Malcolm Kendall-Smith may go to jail for refusing to obey the orders of the British Royal Air force and return to duty in Iraq. After already serving two tours in Iraq and one in…
Meet Me in Miami
Christchurch-produced independent film Meet Me in Miami premiered in one of the prime spots at the prestigious Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival on October 29 at The Egyptian Theatre in…
Serial thriller
October saw the UK premiere of hit NZ play, Serial Killers. Written by former Shortland Street scriptwriter, James Griffin, Serial Killers is a black comedy which takes place behind the scenes of…
Challenge to a War
Brisbane born, Dunedin raised and educated Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the man who refused to return to fight in a war that was “manifestly unlawful”, stood by his decision at a court martial hearing on 27 October at…
Great Scot
Alex Reedijk is leaving his post as general director of the NZ Opera to take the reins at its Scottish counterpart in March 2006. Reedjik has previously worked for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scottish…
End of Ancestral Visa
A new points-based immigration system could end the door-opening power of the ancestral visa. Many New Zealanders and other Commonwealth citizens have relied on having British grandparents to allow them to settle in the EU. Under…
Teddy Fan-club on the Rise
Kiwi baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes continues to set hearts a-flutter in the opera world. The Sydney media have called him “opera’s Brad Pitt,” the New York Times “a cross between Paul Bettany and Viggo…
A Heartfelt Plea
The Wellington Racing Club has asked the help of PM Helen Clark in borrowing the heart of legendary racehorse Phar Lap from Australia’s national museum in Canberra. “I’ve written to the prime minister to see if she…
Wundercoach
Richard Tonks has been named 2005 FISA Coach of the Year by the International Rowing Federation. Tonks, himself a silver medallist for NZ at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is the man behind a spate of recent rowing…
The case for the code
The man behind international best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, will face a High Court action brought by the authors of the non-fictional work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982). The…
Cycling the South
National Geographic Traveller editor, David Swanson, takes in the spectacular alpine scenery – and some icy cold Speights – on a two-week bike tour of the South Island. ” rain stopped, and the world went almost silent….
Coromandel by Kombi
A tour of the Coromandel by Kombi with husband and toddler in tow turned out to be remarkably relaxing for the Guardian’s Jane White. The high point of the trip was a week spent in Hahei,…
Seismic Shift for Psychiatry
A study of schizophrenia by NZ psychologist John Read, as published in leading psychiatric journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, could potentially “trigger a landslide” in his field, according to Guardian columnist and clinical psychologist Oliver James. The traditional…
Narnia comes to life
Excitement is growing for the December release of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Filmed in New Zealand and directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson (noted for his Shrek successes), this…
Doomed for Success
“Doom may be by the numbers … But those numbers add up to the most cleverly engineered video-game movie made to date.” Starring NZ actor Karl Urban and NZ affiliated Dwayne Johnson…
North Country
North Country is Niki Caro’s directorial follow-up to the hugely successful Whale Rider. Set in the iron mining region of north Minnesota, North Country tackles sexual harassment in the workplace…
The people’s Campion
Jane Campion has been lured out of self-imposed retirement for a very worthy cause. She joins fellow directing luminaries Robert Altman, Jodie Foster and Gaspar Noe in contributing to an 8-part feature film outlining…
Government Formed
Just over a month after election night, Helen Clark has formed a government and been sworn in as Prime Minister, making her the first Labour Party leader to form a government in three successive terms. Following…
The lion, the witch and the evangelicals
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will not only be doing battle at the box-office but also for the souls of mankind, according to an article published in the Guardian. US groups such…
Kubrick’s Successor?
The latest Hollywood release by Kapiti-grown, LA-resident writer-director Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show, Gattaca) is Lord of War. Described by the Guardian as “a moral fable treated with a surface realism,” Lord of War…
Food for thought
A lengthy Independent feature examines Auckland’s burgeoning food scene – and NZ’s as a whole. While NZ has embraced café culture (“probably the best espresso experience outside Italy in about 13 years, skipping the…
On living legends and future music
NZ composer and musicologist Robin Maconie has written a meticulously researched autobiography of the man many believe to be the world’s greatest living composer, German electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Maconie is regarded…
Building Bridges on canvas
One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving, Ford is best perhaps known…
Heir to a Legend
Antoni Gaudi’s great unfinished masterpiece – the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona – is finally nearing completion, under the steady hand of NZ architect Mark Burry. Work on the epic scale building effectively…
Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1
New Zealanders may have long been the butt of “fush and chups,” but according to Paola Totaro there are more than a few reasons New Zealand has got one over on Australia. Totaro gives several including…
Continental Drift
Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and…
Who is the Typical Kiwi?
An international study on cultural stereotypes, led by the US National Institutes of Health, has concluded that there is no relation between supposed cultural characteristics and the actual traits identified in real people. “People…
Fat Freddy’s pick up
Wellington dub and reggae band Fat Freddy’s Drop took home four of the top Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. The band won best album and best roots album for…
Sudoku Mania
Retired Kiwi judge, Phil Gould, continues his path to world domination as the man behind current puzzle-page phenomenon, Sudoku. Gould now provides puzzles for 120 newspapers in 36 different countries. “It will fade but I don’t expect…
Twin Peaks
Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Roger Bannister are the inspiration behind Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford’s new feature film – Four Minutes. According to Deford, “the pinnacle of athletic achievement in the 20th century was not to be…
WoWing the Crowds
The 2005 World of Wearable Art (WoW) show – the first to be held in Wellington rather than Nelson – was a huge success, with a record-breaking 30,000 tickets purchased for the event. The show is widely…
Sugarfoot Speaks Up
In a sports-mad country like NZ, how can one of its richest and most successful exponents be virtually unknown? Kickboxer Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo has quietly earned more than $1 million from the sport and is a…
World’s Rarest Given Kiwi Name
A grove of one of the world’s rarest trees has been named after NZ plant conservation scientist David Given. The Wollemi Pine, believed to be extinct until re-discovered in Australia’s Blue Mountains in 1994, is a…
Bullionaire Business Opportunity
A Massey University graduate may soon be striking agricultural pay-dirt after founding the world’s first gold-farming company, Tiaki International. Chris Anderson spent 8 years at Massey developing a chemical process which causes plants to “hyperaccumulate” gold particles…
Bogans go global
New Zealand comedians Matt Heath and Chris Stapp, of Back of the Y and Bogan’s Heroes fame, have taken their special brand of gross-out humour to London, as contributing stuntmen on Channel 4’s …
Road Trippin’
Welcome to the world my new mokopuna Bella O’Reilly and Te Roera Junovich. Welcome to Aotearoa the land of your mums’ and dads’. Thank you …
