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Archive >> July 2008
21st century renewal
Wellington’s Waitangi Park – transformed in a collaboration between landscape architects Wraight & Associates and Athfield Architects – combines environmentally-sound urban redevelopment with recreation, and includes water purifying ponds,…
On your marks, get set
Artist Daniel Crooks, who originally hails from Hastings, has won the Australian inaugural $100,000, Basil Sellers Art Prize for ‘Static no. 11 (man running)’, a computer-modified video of champion…
Beauty in Cold
Winter in New Zealand is captured in seascape images by Independent photographer Hannah Bills, who travelled through Wellington and then south, taking shots in and around Christchurch, “the Oxford…
Imagination Roars to Life
Christchurch inventor Glenn Martin’s ultralight aircraft, the Martin Jetpack, a $100,000 “jetski for the sky” able to climb to heights of almost 2500m, has been launched at an aerospace…
More than shelter
The “Mai Mai” house in Ponsonby (above) and the clubhouse at The Hills golf course in Queenstown (below), both designed by Auckland-based architects Patterson Associates, have been named finalists…
From the gods in Paris
Maori art is part of an exhibition called ‘Pacific Encounters: Art and Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860’ at the Musée du quai Branly in Paris; 250 objects from the “Polynesian…
Leave Your Hat On
The Christchurch-designed 2c Solar Light Cap is trialled by a Chicago Tribune reporter who dons the headgear for a camping trip on the Mississippi River. “Part of the appeal…
Memories of Bledisloe
In 2000, in front of 109,874 spectators jammed into Sydney’s Stadium Australia, Jonah Lomu landed the tenth try in a nerve-racking Bledisloe match beating Australia 39-35. Swerving in towards…
Sunshine Travels
Auckland band the Ruby Suns are fusing the sounds of the South Pacific and California, “bridging the gap between world music and pop.” Sole permanent member of the band,…
Hart’s Net Worth
Auckland investor Graeme Hart, 53, owner of the world’s second-largest drink-carton maker, Alcoa Inc. has surpassed both Donald Trump and Sir Richard Branson in the wealth stakes, doubling his…
Te Reo Goes Google
Google Aotearoa has been launched to coincide with July’s Maori Language Week (Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori 2008), with more than 8750 words translated. Potaua Biasiny-Tule, 32, and…
Dropping in on Europe
Wellington’s Fat Freddy’s Drop will tour Europe in November on the back of their latest release, the mammoth nine-minute track ‘The Camel’, which readers are offered free to download…
Macchiato Marathon
The 182-strong New Zealand Olympic team will have flat whites and long blacks on tap in Beijing thanks to award-winning barista Julianne Frith, 21, from Auckland, who was selected…
Tall Blacks Perform Haka
The Tall Blacks perform a Haka before playing Greece.
With rapturous applause
Gisborne-born soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, 64, “came, sang and conquered” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at a Ravinia gala benefit concert. Looking every inch the beauteous diva in…
The American Dream
New Zealand is an enticing destination for American property developers and investors because the populace speaks English, there are minimal restrictions on ownership and land is still relatively cheap….
Toward NASCAR
Auckland speedway driver and Midget racer Michael Pickens, 25, is on the way to his dream of a NASCAR future getting stock car experience on paved tracks this summer…
Introducing Tauwhitu
In a Kerikeri pub sometime in the 1980s, Boston author Christina Thompson met a group of Maori having pints after a day spent diving for crayfish and uses this…
Must Have Di Stagione
Wellington design company Ataahua, owned by Bernadette Casey, has created a range of sustainable products made from repurposed coffee sacks, and Casey’s Cuban coffee roasters’ Trilby is gathering some…
Snug as a Bug
Merino Kids founder Amie Nilsson designed the award-winning Cocooi Babywrap with biblical swaddling in mind, keeping babies safely on their back and asleep longer. Swaddling creates a slight pressure…
Boscombe Breaks
Raglan-based marine consultants ASR Limited have designed a £3 million artificial reef at Boscombe beach in Bournemouth; work will begin on the seabed project in the next few months…
A thirty year legacy
New Zealand drama teacher Ken Rea – who trained at Auckland’s Gil Cornwall academy and worked at Downstage and the Mercury Theatre – was honoured at London’s Guildhall School…
#101 Glowing Tuatara
Edge Message #101 from Brian Sweeney,…
Against the Wind
Three-time world champion windsurfer Barbara Kendall is off to Beijing and her fifth Olympics. Conditions at the sailing venue in Qingdao would be difficult, Kendall said. “It’s just not…
Lomu in Charity Match
Rugby World Cup’s top try-scorer Jonah Lomu, 33, will play for the International Select XV in a charity match called, ‘Help the Heroes’ at Twickenham in September. The fundraiser…
Yacht Technology for Cars
Auckland property developer and yacht maker Jock Freemantle will launch a 2008 version of New Zealand’s first super car, the 550bhp BMW V8 Hulme named after New Zealand’s 1967…
God Defend NZ
Of all the nations in the Anglosphere, New Zealand had the proudest and toughest military culture of the 20th Century according to Australian lawyer and author, Hal G. P….
Joltin’ with the Jays
Aucklander Scott Campbell, 23, shook hands with Joe DiMaggio in 1995 as a New Zealand representative at the World Children’s Baseball Fair in Japan and this week, 13 years…
Powered by Fruit
Kiwifruit rejected for damage or inferiority is used as cattle feed throughout New Zealand, but Crown Research Institute, Scion and ZESPRI Innovation scientists are reconsidering its use as a…
In love with Demant
Whakatane artist Rozi Demant has her international debut exhibition with ‘Lovebirds’ at Santa Monica’s Tarryn Teresa Gallery. Demant, who holds the rare and enviable position of having produced five…
NZ’s Cup of Joe
Pavlova and flat whites are on the menu in Washington D.C. thanks to American policy analyst Art Hauptman who opened Cassatt’s restaurant after holidaying in New Zealand. And for…
Trailer: Once Were Warriors
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Fred Dagg: More Fred Dagg
The iconic Fred Dagg in ‘More Fred Dagg’.
Facing New Partnerships
New Zealand’s population makeup may one day number more Asians than Maori according to a new study called, ‘Asians in New Zealand: Implications of a Changing Demography’, launched…
Underwear wanderings
Christchurch travel writer and columnist Joe Bennett’s quest to find the origins of his five-pack of Chinese-manufactured underpants, took him to a remote western corner of China and the…
Landing in Hospital
New Zealand company Medtral is attracting American medical tourists 7,000 miles across the globe searching for quality non-acute surgical procedures at cheaper rates than their own system is able…
One of Five Doubles
Opunake-born middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who achieved the 800m and 1500m Olympic double, is included alongside other double victors, Dame Kelly Holmes and Albert Hill, on a BBC blog…
With Unstudied Grace
New Zealand actor Jonno Roberts has the role of Stanley Kowalski in a Seattle production of A Streetcar Named Desire. It may seem a strange quirk, that someone from…
Art’s urban sprawl
Christchurch hosts art biennale SCAPE 2008, a city-wide exhibition of new work by New Zealand and international artists all exploring the concept of cities as spaces reflective of…
Vocal ambassador
Christchurch soprano Hayley Westenra, 21, performed with the US National Symphony Orchestra at the 28th annual broadcast of America’s popular 4th of July concert, Capitol Fourth before returning to…
Low Blow
First, we’ll visit the ossuary. Tam Wong Shi, my friend Harry’s mum, reached her terminal milestone of 103 years a few weeks ago. Her journey in life sounded tough:…
