June 2008 Archives

Diamond Crafted Illusions

Diamond Crafted Illusions

Christchurch jeweller Jessica McCormack is recommended in July’s Harpers Bazaar magazine, which describes the London-based designer’s diamond creations as “strong and meticulous.” “Driven by a desire to make precious objects accessible and wearable with…

Maori Treasure in Ireland

Maori Treasure in Ireland

The extensive Maori art collection – part of a larger ethnological collection of exotic Pacific art – at Dublin’s National Museum includes, the Meyler collection, pieces Captain James Cook acquired on his voyages and…

Sheep Farm Vogue

Sheep Farm Vogue

The Farm at Cape Kidnappers has made the third annual 2008 Travel + Leisure ‘It List’, one of 30 best new hotels in the world featuring alongside “Europe’s most stylish recent opening” J.K. Place…

Adventure at Speed

Adventure at Speed

Christchurch endurance athlete and orienteering champion Chris Forne, 31, has navigated Team Nike to first place in America’s 10-day adventure race, Primal Quest Montana 2008. Over 800km and up heights of more than 30,000m,…

Between Continents

Between Continents

At low tide in June on the Firth of Thames in Auckland, American traveller Eric Wagner looks for the bar-tailed godwit amongst thousands of waterbirds flocking to feed on uncovered shellfish. Wagner describes the…

Piercing Revelation

Piercing Revelation

Janet Frame’s 1963 novel, Towards Another Summer, written in London and first published posthumously in New Zealand in 2007, is considered by Guardian reviewer Rachel Cooke. Towards Another Summer is based on a weekend…

Campbell’s Beginnings

Campbell’s Beginnings

Hawera-born, Brighton-based golfer Michael Campbell is eating bacon sandwiches at the Royal Ashdown Forest clubhouse in Sussex where he explains his golfing initiation in Taranaki. “I started playing on a local course where you…

Cooking from Scratch

Cooking from Scratch

Bridal Falls provides a spectacular setting, and outdoor market, for chef Charles Royal’s Maori feast made with bush asparagus-flavoured pikopiko fern, horopito and supple jack vine. On Royal’s food tour, which he offers from…

Coolest Boat in the World

Coolest Boat in the World

New Zealand Earthrace skipper Pete Bethune has circumnavigated the globe in record-breaking time, 11 minutes short of 61 days in a £3 million 24m tri-hull wavepiercer powered on cooking oil. “I am elated,” Bethune…

Grass Court Skill

Grass Court Skill

New Zealand’s Number 1 tennis player Marina Erakovic, 20, who has risen 100 places in world rankings to within the top 50, is compared with sporting great Justine Henin on Wimbledon’s official site. In…

Father of Oceania

Father of Oceania

Soccer administrator Charles Dempsey, life member of both New Zealand football and world football body FIFA, has died, aged 86. Dempsey was instrumental in both the founding of the Oceania Football Confederation in 1964…

Touring the Terroir

Touring the Terroir

New Zealand wineries are preferable to those of France and California, for first-class tastings, scenery and cuisine, according to the Telegraph’s wine correspondent Robert Joseph. “This is a great place for wine tourism. In…

Venice bound

Venice bound

Christchurch sculptor Francis Upritchard and Auckland painter and teacher Judy Millar will represent New Zealand in a six-month exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Upritchard is known for her hand-made figures inspired by the…

Pirate Captain

Pirate Captain

Thames-born actor Bruce Purchase, a founding member of Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre, has died in Putney, aged 69. Purchase decided to become an actor at the age of five and upon…

A Landscape with Too Few Lovers – Ross Harris

A Landscape with Too Few Lovers – Ross Harris

A beautiful piece comissioned by the Wallace Foundation: A landscape with too few lovers by Ross Harris

Juniors Bag Victory

Juniors Bag Victory

New Zealand has won the world junior rugby under-20 championships in Swansea, Wales, beating England 38-3 in a four-try match. The young All Blacks may have been the overwhelming favourites from the start of…

Wood Choppin’ Win

Wood Choppin’ Win

Auckland lumberjack Dion Lane, 31, has sawn and chopped his way to overall victory at the Midwestern Lumberjack Championships held in Rochester, United States, beating fellow New Zealander and brother-in-law Jason Wynyard. Lane…

Spoilt for shenanigans

Spoilt for shenanigans

Wellington’s Bret McKenzie likes Los Angeles eatery Pie n’ Burger because “the name lets you know what you’re going to get. No surprises.” This is one of a sampling of places McKenzie recommends in…

Synthesised on Flying Nun

Synthesised on Flying Nun

Lead singer of Wellington band the Phoenix Foundation, Samuel Flynn Scott released his debut album The Hunt Brings Us Life in 2006 but continues to work with the Foundation which recently promoted their latest…

Williamstown Whakaeke

Williamstown Whakaeke

Nga Manu Waiata are in dress rehearsal for the Australian national kapa haka competition – the group representative of 110,000 Maori who have made Australia their home. Thomas Rangihuna steps forward and welcomes everyone….

Big Red Mystery Solved

Big Red Mystery Solved

Renowned New Zealand-bred gelding Phar Lap, who won 37 of his 51 starts and the 1930 Melbourne Cup was killed by arsenic poisoning in 1932, scientists have confirmed after decades of speculation. A handwritten…

US Discovers Oil

US Discovers Oil

Far North Olive Oil, a premium extra-virgin oil, from New Zealand is on sale in farmers markets in the North West United States thanks to the efforts of locals Charles and Gayle Pancerzewski, who…

Jennings Backs Russia

Jennings Backs Russia

Waitara-born Stephen Jennings, CEO of the leading investment bank in Russia and sub-Saharan Africa Renaissance Group, believes that in the coming decades “the world’s largest businesses will be from new world economies and…

Taranaki has Guests

Taranaki has Guests

Since 2003, thousands have converged on New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park in March for three-day international music festival WOMAD, which from this year becomes an annual event. WOMAD 2008 featured over 300 performers from 14…

Hatched on a poultry farm

Hatched on a poultry farm

Author Joy Cowley’s novel Chicken Feathers is reviewed this month in The Boston Globe, her storytelling described as “effortless mastery”. Sweden had Astrid Lindgren, and France its Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Each great writer possesses…

Colorado’s Horse Surgeon

Colorado’s Horse Surgeon

New Zealand-born veterinarian and world authority on equine joints, Dr Wayne McIlwraith is the director of Colorado State University’s Equine Orthopaedic Research Center, each year performing as many as 500 surgeries on racing thoroughbreds….

Midas Works on Merino

Midas Works on Merino

Victoria University researchers have added particles of pure gold and silver to fine merino wool in the interest of haute couture. The researchers demonstrated the first scarf dyed with gold nanoparticles at the 2008…

City of Sails’ Top Spot

City of Sails’ Top Spot

Auckland is number five in the 2008 Mercer’s WorldWide Quality of Living Survey, making it the most liveable city in the Asia Pacific region. Tourism Auckland’s chief executive Graeme Osborne said he is not…

Trend-setting in the Capital

Trend-setting in the Capital

Wellington, according to travel newspaper South African, “manages the fine balancing act of city slicker affluence and small town charm deftly.” “The undisputed cultural centrepiece of New Zealand packs a lot of punch in…

Shocking Advance

Shocking Advance

Auckland pop band the Shocking Pinks have signed a four-album deal with New York label DFA Records, which also represents LCD Soundsystem and Hercules & Love Affair. Founder and ex-Brunettes member, Nick Harte says…

Ladi6: Walk Right Up

Ladi6: Walk Right Up

Watch the music video for Ladi6’s track, Walk Right Up.

Energy Beneath Our Feet

Energy Beneath Our Feet

Over the next three years, New Zealand public research institute GNS Science will explore the potential of harnessing the low-energy geothermal energy produced by underground steam and water systems. GNS Science is to develop…

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra: The Bucket

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra: The Bucket

The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra perform’s Kings of Leon favourite, The Bucket.

Wellington Reunion in KL

Wellington Reunion in KL

In the 1970s, Malaysian students at Victoria University’s Weir House relished the informality of calling each other by their first names, they cooked one another Malay and Chinese dishes, and the Malaysian VUW band…

Drawing Comparisons

Drawing Comparisons

Masterton-born indie pop rocker Pip Brown, 28, otherwise known as Ladyhawke, is garnering enthusiastic reviews in London – the Guardian dubbing Brown’s sound “exquisitely distracted insouciance over fabulous machine melody.” Her second release ‘Paris…

Futures in the Heavens

Futures in the Heavens

Bethany Edmonds, 26, is a Maori artist about to leave on a scholarship for New York University to study the conservation of traditional textiles; Kipa Rangiheuea works at the Auckland Museum. Both are proud…

Double Victory

Double Victory

New Zealanders Bevan Docherty and Samantha Warriner each made podium finishes in the triathlon world championships in Vancouver, Docherty taking second place in the men’s elite and Warriner third in the women’s. New Zealand-born…

Flight to Learn

Flight to Learn

Remuera Primary School has classrooms full of South Korean children – “wild geese” – who live separately from their families in order to study in an English-speaking, and less stressful, educational system. South Koreans…

Chocolate Carbon Credits

Chocolate Carbon Credits

New Zealand graphic designer Giles Barker and his wife, trained chef Vanessa Kettelwell established confectionary company Bloomsberry & Co in 2001 and already they’ve have had their chocolate bars whipped out “from under…

Solving the Belch

Solving the Belch

New Zealand scientists are conducting world-first research into solutions for agricultural methane emissions including genetic engineering, cloning and a vaccine for gassy animals. “Given that we’re trying to turn around hundreds of thousands of…

Running on Jatropha

Running on Jatropha

Air New Zealand and Boeing plan a three-hour test-flight at the end of the year using fuel produced from jatropha, a poisonous tree which grows seeds rich in oil. The airline expects to use…

NZ Cinema in Beijing

NZ Cinema in Beijing

The 2008 New Zealand Film Festival opens in Beijing and includes screenings of Eagle vs Shark, No. 2 and Out of the Blue. The Festival is a means of offering Chinese…

#100 The Luminary

#100 The Luminary

Edge Message #100 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM “The Luminary” For…

Union Man’s Aria

Union Man’s Aria

Christchurch-born singer Max Merritt, who fronted Max Merritt and the Meteors, will be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside New Zealand band Dragon. “I didn’t expect it – it was an incredible…

Solomon Islands Position

Solomon Islands Position

New Zealander Peter Marshall has been sworn in as the Acting Police Commissioner for the Solomon Islands. Marshall has over 35 years experience across all areas of policing and since 27 has held the…

Delightfully Strange Birds

Delightfully Strange Birds

Take a look at some of New Zealand’s delightfuly strange birds in this segment from the BBC.

Spontaneous Hors Concurs

Spontaneous Hors Concurs

Mark Todd, 51, and his Olympic stead, 10-year-old Gandalf made for a surprise entry at a Lincolnshire dressage show. Trudy Clark, who runs twice-monthly affiliated competitions at Elms Farm Equestrian Centre, could barely believe…

Ward and Puhi reunite

Ward and Puhi reunite

Director Vincent Ward, 52, has been in Sydney at the world premiere of his latest feature Rain of the Children, a film which documents the life of Tuhoe woman, Te Puhi who Ward met…

Highland Rugby Nationals: New Haka

Highland Rugby Nationals: New Haka

A new Haka is unveiled before the Highland Rugby Nationals in Pittsburgh.

Sausage Day cinema

Sausage Day cinema

Janet Frame was a waitress at Dunedin’s Grand Hotel when she wrote A Night at the Opera, until now unknown, thought to be written in 1954, and this month published in the latest issue…

Rodents Settle Debate

Rodents Settle Debate

The arrival of Pacific rats in New Zealand decides the debate about the settling of the country by Polynesians; the findings confirm that settlers arrived here some 1,000 years later than was previously thought….

History Lessons in Mood

History Lessons in Mood

Professor Sydney Shep, senior lecturer in print and book culture at Victoria University, has uncovered the emoticon’s “pre-history” stumbling upon emoticons in an 1882 typographic journal at St. Bride’s Printing Library in London. There, on the page,…

Dean’s Ultimate Crusade

Dean’s Ultimate Crusade

The Crusaders, who have won more titles than any other team in the franchise, have claimed another winning this year’s Super 14 against the Waratahs and coach Robbie Deans, who leaves to coach the…

Thud And Blunder

Thud And Blunder

There’s a scrap between the Mongrel Mob and the Road Knights in the deep South and the Mayor of Invercargill is calling for ‘Sheriff Joe’ style retributive justice. There’s a scrap between…

Changeably Crowe

Changeably Crowe

This is New Zealand actor Russell Crowe on the cover of the June issue of PhotoIcon in “typical mercurial and irreverent mood”. Taken by British portrait photographer Michael Birt in February 2000 at a…