September 2008 Archives

Tramping Pick N’ Mix

Tramping Pick N’ Mix

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation has designated nine tramping tracks as “Great Walks”, which include the Tongariro Northern Circuit, the Kepler Track and the ever popular Abel Tasman Coast Track. “Fresh air, exercise and…

NZSO at Te Papa

NZSO at Te Papa

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performs at Te Papa.

And the award goes to

And the award goes to

Lincoln-born Phil Keoghan, Emmy Award-winning host of television show ‘The Amazing Race’, shares some of his on and off air adventures with USA Today ahead of the show’s 13th season and a stint in…

Back to the Basics

Back to the Basics

“New Zealand is a wonderful combination of all the good cuisines from around the world with a special touch of  freshness,” writes The Economic Times in an overview of the country’s food and wine…

Top Honours in Toulouse

Top Honours in Toulouse

Dunedin-born Byron Kelleher, 31, former All Black and now scrum-half for French team Toulouse, has been voted the Top 14’s player of the season, succeeding Stade Francais’ Argentinean Juan Martin Hernandez. Kelleher scored three…

Interview With Dr. Pita Sharples

Interview With Dr. Pita Sharples

An interview with Dr. Pita Sharples in the lead up to the 2008 election.

Rachel for a Song

Rachel for a Song

Model Rachel Hunter, 39, has launched an affordable range of clothing for budget store the Warehouse, called Rachel. “I could see a real gap in the New Zealand fashion market for stylish, well cut…

Villa Away from Chateau

Villa Away from Chateau

Auckland entrepreneur Nick Wood sold internet service provider Ihug in 2003 to Perth company iiNet for $80 million and set up Distinctive Holiday Homes (DHH), a luxury destination club with property around the world….

Councils Make Good

Councils Make Good

Christchurch and Hutt City are model municipalities and inspirations for their Canadian counterparts, according to the president of Canada’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy Peter Holle. “Hutt City is winning business excellence awards against…

Willis’ Photo Finish

Willis’ Photo Finish

Olympic bronze medallist Lower Hutt athlete Nick Willis, 25, has won New York’s Fifth Avenue Mile, a race which John Walker won in 1984. Michigan-based Willis finished in 3 minutes, 50.5 seconds to…

From dusk till dawn

From dusk till dawn

Ladyhawke’s self-titled debut album has been released in the UK where the former-Wellingtonian is touring through October ahead of dates in the United States and Europe. In this Guardian review: “Not many budding pop…

Over the Alps

Over the Alps

On the TranzAlpine, India’s Economic Times reporter’s travel from Canterbury, taking in mesmerising views of the Waimakiriri, through the Otira tunnel and on to Punakaiki and Greymouth. “The highest viaduct, 73m above the river,…

Pests Transformed

Pests Transformed

New Zealand possum fur is being imported by Portland-based company Eco-Luxury which produces throws, cushions and bedspreads, “for all of the luxury and none of the guilt.” On a trip to New Zealand,…

Alive in New York

Alive in New York

Auckland multimedia and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara will make her North American debut at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art with an exhibition called ‘Living Photographs’. During the exhibition, Kihara will also perform ‘Taualuga:…

Dream with Opera

Dream with Opera

Auckland five-star boutique hotel Mollies– owned by opera fanatics Frances Wilson and Stephen Fitzgerald– has received a coveted ‘Hideaways of The Year Award’ and is one of Harper’s ‘Longtime Favourite Hideaways…

Emotional Win

Emotional Win

The All Blacks have retained the Tri-Nations title for the fourth successive year, beating the Wallabies 28-24 in Brisbane. Sustained by the brilliance of captain Richie McCaw and also Rodney So’oialo, the All Blacks…

Essence of Jade

Essence of Jade

Dunedin jeweller Jamie Fergus took a trip to the largest jade-deposit in the southern hemisphere, to Cowell in South Australia, after which he taught jewellery students in Adelaide how to carve the mine’s particularly…

Renewing the Fervour

Renewing the Fervour

Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour will fill with spectator boats early next year when six America’s Cup teams take to the water in a match racing series. Called the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, competitors will race…

Pride in Heritage

Pride in Heritage

New Zealand’s first Governor-General of Asian descent Anand Satyanand – who recently paid a visit to India – is the subject of an article in The Times of India, which discusses how “the heirs…

The Final Lap

The Final Lap

Celebrated Taranaki-born swimming coach Duncan Laing – who held a four-decade coaching tenure at Dunedin’s Moana Pools has died – aged 77. Laing is best known for coaching swimming star Danyon Loader to gold in the…

Comparisons of Reality

Comparisons of Reality

As an ‘Artist to Antarctica’ in 2  2, Wellington contemporary photographer Anne Noble, saw beyond conventional portrayals of the South Pole, instead focusing on the changing light patterns in whiteouts, swirling ice-crystals and then…

Dedicated Follower

Dedicated Follower

Wellington-born designer Rebecca Taylor is better known in New York than New Zealand according to The Epoch Times, “where she has made a huge impression on the fashion scene” dressing celebrities like Sarah Jessica…

In Sheep Code

In Sheep Code

New Zealand clothing label Icebreaker is enabling its customers to trace their purchased merino garment back to one of the 120 sheep stations where the fibre was grown by entering the individual ‘Baacode’ number…

Look Up Without Pain

Look Up Without Pain

New Zealander Darrell Poole invented the neck safety-device Necprotech after surviving a rock-climbing accident in 1998 which saw him fall six metres because of a slack rope. Poole fell after his belayer – the…

Weddings on Ice

Weddings on Ice

Auckland-based bar group Minus5 is opening the first ice-lounge in the United States, in Las Vegas, on September 26. Named for the temperature maintained within its 1,200-square-foot main room – 5 degrees Celsius below…

Edwardian assortment

Edwardian assortment

Sam Neill stars in Toa Fraser’s second feature Dean Spanley which Variety reviews, describing the film as “immaculately cast”. “Based on an obscure novel by late Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, Alan Sharp’s screenplay…

Green Invasion

Green Invasion

Though New Zealand has 2,065 plant species which grow nowhere else on the planet, 22,000 non-native plants have also made the isles their home. Of those, 2,069 have become naturalized: they have spread out…

Teen Bags Four Medals

Teen Bags Four Medals

Christchurch 15-year-old Sophie Pascoe – the youngest participant at the Beijing Paralympics – has won four medals: golds in the 200m individual medley, in the 1m breaststroke and 100m backstroke and a silver medal in the…

First Powered Flight: Richard Pearse

First Powered Flight: Richard Pearse

Watch this reenactment of the world’s first powered flight by Timaru man, Richard Pearse.

To Cascading Waters

To Cascading Waters

Waiheke Island, home to 8000 people and 30 vineyards, is a “true microcosm of Aotearoa” writes Boston Globe reporter Stephanie Stephens, who is “struck by the endearingly lower-stress pace of New Zealand life” coming…

Series Victory for Dixon

Series Victory for Dixon

Aucklander Scott Dixon has won his second IndyCar Series championship at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Though Brazilian Helio Castroneves won the race by .0033 of a…

Hareb Catches Some Ricos

Hareb Catches Some Ricos

Taranaki surfer Paige Hareb, 18, the No. 2 ranked women’s junior professional (under-20) in the world, has won the Port Stevens Pro Junior Series Event in NSW. Hareb is having a good year with…

Islands Preserved

Islands Preserved

New Zealand tourism is as much reliant upon maintaining the highest environment standards and preserving the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga – guardianship of the land and the animals – as it is giving visitors…

Persistence in Love

Persistence in Love

On Maud Island, evolutionary biologists from the University of Toronto have been studying the mating habits of giant male Cook Strait weta. Not only do males travel more than twice as far as females…

#102 Every Vote Counts

#102 Every Vote Counts

Taking on the Chutes

Taking on the Chutes

The fourth annual Volkl NZ Freeski Open held at Treble Cone in late August, marking the season opener of the international ski calendar, saw Dunedin’s Alastair Eason and Wanaka’s Janina Kuzma take the top…

Understanding Rutherford’s Experiments

Understanding Rutherford’s Experiments

Want to understand Ernest Rutherford’s famous gold foil experiment? Then take a look at this entertaining video by three young men explaining the experiment.

Boutique at the Bach

Boutique at the Bach

Auckland-based lifestyle fashion label FEW is showing its spring 2009 collection – inspired by the New Zealand bach – at the Action Sports Retailer (ASR) trade show in San Diego. The spring designs are…

Let He Who is Without Sin

Let He Who is Without Sin

When I was a young activist in Wellington I attended a function in Auckland at which the lead presenter was a bloke from Brazil called Paulo Freire. At the time I was much into…

Provocative on Paper

Provocative on Paper

Designer Karen Walker’s ‘Masters of Disguise’ eyewear shoot has inspired the editor of hip New York-based publication Paper Magazine to base an entire issue on the collection. Walker’s creative and quirky take on…

Luxurious Technology

Luxurious Technology

New Zealanders Jeremy, Simon and Dareen Doherty have won first prize in an international design competition for their swan-shaped ‘Swarovski Mouse’, beating some 4074 individuals and institutions from 92 countries. The ‘Crystal Vision’ competition…