Wine | Conde Nast Traveler
31 January 2009
“Beyond the wild, raw landscapes, another New Zealand beckons: one of sophisticated restaurants, silvery olive groves, and the most lush, grape-heavy vineyards this side of Bordeaux” writes Condé Nast writer Chang-rae Lee, who spent…
New Zealand | Star (The)
31 January 2009
Abel Tasman Park on the northern coast of the South Island is a veritable kayaking nirvana, offering up pristine coastlines of granite headlands, tiny coves of golden sand, and voluptuous hills cloaked in emerald…
Fashion | Nylon Magazine
31 January 2009
Auckland-based designers Stolen Girlfriend’s Club — a pop culture label co-founded by Marc Moore, Luke Harwood and Dan Gosling — are represented on the cover of Nylon Japan’s latest issue, with Japanese singer and…
Music | CMJ Showcase
31 January 2009
The Phase Five Program, led by NZ On Air’s Mike McClung and Brendan Smyth, is exposing international audiences to up and coming New Zealand bands. The Program pairs a Phase Five…
Nature | National Geographic
30 January 2009
Fossils of an 18 million year old ancestor to the tuatara have been found outside of Saint Bathans, Otago, filling a huge void in the fossil record, and casting doubt on a widely held…
Medicine/Health | Tyee (The)
29 January 2009
New Zealand’s health sector is giving a few lessons to its British Columbia counterpart, which sent delegates out in November 2008 to learn about the country’s co-payment system, drug policy and its emphasis on…
Writers | New York Times (The)
29 January 2009
29 January 2009 – University of Canterbury professor of philosophy Denis Dutton’s latest book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution – which supposes that art appreciation stems first from evolutionary adaptions made during…
Music | Galway Advertiser
29 January 2009
Cambridge rockers The Datsuns will play Galway, Ireland on February 5 promoting their latest album Head Stunts, which was recently recorded in Sweden. Formed in 1997 under the name Trinket, The Datsuns have drawn…
Adrenalin | Street (The)
29 January 2009
Queenstown is a land made for thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies, with canyon swings, bungee jumping from bridges, G-force acrobatic flights, and paragliding, just for starters. Say you’re an average mountain biker and you’ll…
Film & TV | Australian (The)
28 January 2009
Wellington’s Weta Digital will develop the effects for upcoming 3D motion-capture trilogy, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the sequel of which Peter Jackson will direct in New Zealand. Recently announced is…
Sport General | News-Banner (The)
28 January 2009
New Zealand netball is the “main ‘girl’s game'” and has a “‘World Championships’ that only Australia and New Zealand can realistically win,” writes Frank Shanly in a profile about the sport in Indiana daily…
Media | Media Life
28 January 2009
New Zealand’s best known trompe l’oeil muralist Marc Spijkerbosch was recently commissioned by ad agency Ogilvy to paint five images promoting pedestrian safety on pavements around Auckland for the city’s council. The images portray…
Film & TV | CNN News | OK! Magazine
28 January 2009
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie of the Flight of the Conchords discuss silly songs, the sweet tooth of success and why Australians are always in the cross hairs, with CNN reporter Shanon Cook. Asked…
Z-Files | Evening News (The)
28 January 2009
Four two-week-old Kunekune-cross piglets are the newest attraction at Five Sisters Zoo near Polbeth in West Lothian, Scotland. A cross between New Zealand and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, they originate from Asia, and are now…
Motorsports | Drivesouth
26 January 2009
Wellington entrepreneur Richard Nowland is the man behind the only jet-powered car ever designed and built in New Zealand. Nowland purchased a Rolls-Royce Avon 206 turbojet engine and intends to transform it into New…
Science/Tech | Telegraph (The)
26 January 2009
Supermarket giant Tesco has signed on to use fruit labeling technology developed by New Zealand packaging specialists ripeSense. The color-coded labels let shoppers know how ripe a fruit is by responding to aromas released…
Rugby | Age (The)
26 January 2009
Wellington-born David Kirk, former All Black captain and chief executive of Fairfax, is now an Australian citizen. Kirk, skipper of the World Cup winners in the inaugural 1987 tournament, confirmed he would always…
Nature | Daily Mail
26 January 2009
A 111-year-old tuatara named Henry has successfully sewn his seed after over fifteen years in solitary confinement. Henry, who lives at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, was assumed over the hill and kept…
Music | NME
26 January 2009
Ladyhawke continues to make entertainment headlines with a 2009 Shockwaves NME Award nomination for Best Solo Artist, alongside Laura Marling, Lightspeed Champion, Jay-Z and Pete Doherty. The Awards will be announced…
Cricket | International Herald Tribune
25 January 2009
At 30, Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori is “a veteran among the greats” according to International Herald Tribune writer Huw Richards, “and like Joe DiMaggio in baseball and the Australian rugby players David Campese…
Writers | Guardian (The)
22 January 2009
Auckland-born poet Fleur Adcock is one of eight names being discussed by the Oxford University English faculty to take up the position of professor of poetry when current incumbent Christopher Ricks comes to the…
Film & TV | The Move Channel
22 January 2009
Auckland actor Martin Henderson, 34, who is based in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, is back in New Zealand filming Home by Christmas, a World War II love story directed by Gaylene Preston due for…
New Zealand | Telegraph (The)
21 January 2009
New Zealand’s Maori namesake, Aotearoa, is captured at sunset in digital by photographer Chris Picking in the form of a lenticular cloud swirling above the Tararua Ranges. Picking said: “The picture was taken in…
Motorsports | nmd.com.au
19 January 2009
New Zealand racing star Christina Orr will be competing in this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour Race, driving for Jim Hunter Motorsport. The 2008 Bruce McLaren New Zealand Driver of the Year will be teaming…
Writers | The Moderate Voice
19 January 2009
New Zealand Herald columnist and travel writer Jill Worrall is interviewed by Iranian freelance journalist Kourosh Ziabari for The Moderate Voice, a widely-read independent political news blog, on the topic: ‘Iran – the most…
New Zealand | New York Times (The)
18 January 2009
The Milford Track – “what Americans call a trail” – is free of mammals and snakes, explains New York Times writer Robert Hershey, but watch out for the “large and brazen New Zealand parrot,…
Sport General | BBC Sport
18 January 2009
Christchurch omnium champion Hayden Godfrey, 30, has won gold at the Beijing UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic series. Godfrey beat Great Britain’s Chris Newton in the men’s 60-lap, 15km scratch race final. New…
Music | Reuters
18 January 2009
Hamilton based rock band the Trons are appreciating a rapid ascent, despite the noted absence of any actual human members. The Hamilton based four-part robot rock band consists of Ham on vocals, Fifi on…
Nature | Connecticut Post
17 January 2009
Maori eel catching methods are related in a new book about migratory animals by American artist and author James Prosek, who spent time in New Zealand studying the fish. Bird, Butterfly, Eel is designed…
Writers | Washington Watch
17 January 2009
Wellington author New York-based John Wareham’s latest book The President’s Therapist and the Secret Intervention to Treat the Alcoholism of George Bush hits US stores on January 20, Inauguration Day. The President’s Therapist is…
Writers | Guardian (The)
17 January 2009
January 17, 2009 – Auckland writer CK Stead’s Collected Poems 1951-2006 is reviewed this week in the Guardian. “The main stylistic influence on Stead is probably Ezra Pound, from whom he has inherited a…
General | Guardian (The)
16 January 2009
“New Zealand remains a comfortably social democratic society, less dynamic but also less brash or polarised than Australia,” writes Guardian political blogger Michael White in a posting which looks at the reintegration of Chinese…
Opera | New York Times (The)
16 January 2009
Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays Antony in New York City Opera’s presentation of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, in a performance the New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini calls “fervent and sensitive,” “the best…
Writers | Arts & Letters Daily | New York Observer (The)
15 January 2009
Denis Dutton, philosophy of art professor at The University of Canterbury, has published a book building off his standard-bearing art theory website Arts & Letters Daily. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution…
Film & TV | Los Angeles Times | New York Times (The)
15 January 2009
Flight of the Conchords “is finally back” on American television screens for a second season. The Los Angeles Times reviews the series opener on HBO: “Mixing the ironic whimsicality of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ with…
General | Yahoo! News
14 January 2009
Queenstown police have caught a burglar by posting footage of a man trying to break into a safe on the social networking site Facebook. The burglar broke into the Franklin Tavern in Queenstown and…
Film & TV | Los Angeles Times | Variety Magazine
13 January 2009
Lower Hutt-raised Hollywood starlet Anna Paquin, 26, has won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama, awarded for her performance as Sookie Starkhouse in HBO’s vampire series True Blood, beating A-list…
Nature | Science Daily
13 January 2009
Paleontology researchers from the University of Adelaide, University of Otago, and the NZDEC have begun to paint a picture of ancient life on the New Zealand islands by investigating the feces of the giant…
Business | Wales Online
13 January 2009
Gisborne butcher Heath Raggett, 39, owns a shop on Bow Street, near Aberystwyth in Wales where he sells lamb reared on the hills above Cardigan Bay, encouraging locals to eat locally-produced meats. Raggett has…
Music | NST
13 January 2009
Christchurch-born musician Bic Runga, 32, has been in Kuala Lumpur performing at the launch of the new BMW 7 Series, having just completed an album for Oxfam with Neil Finn, Radiohead and Wilco. “I’m…
Nature | Age (The)
12 January 2009
A New Zealand man spent one recent Saturday surfing alongside three orcas near a beach on the Taranaki coast, enjoying the perfect waves. Craig Hunter, who has been surfing off the North Island for…
Legends
11 January 2009
For all Burt Munro fans, here’s a short video featuring rare images of the legend himself.
Business | PR Newswire
9 January 2009
New Zealand advertising agency DDB, creators of the pink hugging monster for Pink Batts insulation, has been rated the world’s best agency in the 6th annual Bestadsontv.com rankings; New Zealand agencies Colenso and Saatchi…
Writers | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
9 January 2009
Children’s writer Margaret Mahy, recipient of the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal and a host of other awards, says the shared experience of a parent reading to a child…
Medicine/Health | Daily Mail
9 January 2009
Dr. Simon Thornly, of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, has published a recent study claiming that foods high in refined sugars have the same addictive qualities as tobacco. According to Thornley, heavily processed…
Cricket | Guardian (The)
9 January 2009
Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori, 29, is ranked amongst the top International bowlers on the ICC Player Rankings for One Day International bowlers. The left-arm spinner took six wickets at an impressive average of 12.33 in the…
Business | Examiner (The)
8 January 2009
Wellington-based company “Phil & Ted changed my life,” writes Examiner.com’s Kate Byrd of the New Zealand “stroller gurus”, going on to give ten reasons why she loves her buggy. “I researched double strollers for months….
Wine | Times (The)
8 January 2009
New Zealand sparkling wines Cloudy Bay Pelorus and Lindauer were top sellers over the Christmas period in the UK according to the chief executive of Britain’s biggest wine warehouse chain Majestic Wine – Steve…
Design | Chicago Tribune | Robb Report (The)
8 January 2009
New Zealand-born architect David Hovey discusses the designs of his 30-year-old Chicago-based business Optima Inc., which he says are influenced by an appreciation of the outdoors. A trace of an accent reveals his roots….
Writers | The Metro UK
7 January 2009
New Zealand author Neil Cross discusses his latest novel The Burial in UK publication Metro. “I’ve always been fascinated by guilt,” says the 39-year-old, who divides his time between producing fiction and writing for…
Nature | New York Times (The)
6 January 2009
Large areas in the Pacific near New Zealand territory have been designated as American national monuments by outgoing U.S. President George Bush. The areas include the Mariana Trench and northern Mariana Islands, a chain…
Science/Tech | Times (The)
6 January 2009
The New Zealand Department of Conservation will perform a two-hour necropsy on a 10ft female great white shark at the Auckland Museum in a live operation streamed online, reminiscent of that performed on the…
Rugby
5 January 2009
See why this match was described by many as ‘the best game of rugby ever played’.
New Zealand | Backpacker Magazine
1 January 2009
The Tongariro Northern Circuit and Heaphy Track are two of the world’s best unknown treks, an 82-mile “one-two punch that delivers the full range of Kiwi highlights in nine perfect days — and without…
Fashion | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
1 January 2009
Auckland model Zippora Seven, 17, who has been lauded as the fashion industry’s new Kate Moss, is the new face of Swedish clothing label H&M’s spring/summer 2009 campaign. A topless shoot of the teenager…