Modest Wrecking Ball
“Put simply: when Richie McCaw plays, New Zealand tend to win; when he doesn’t, they don’t,” states Telegraph sports writer Paul Ackford as part of a week-long debate in the publication to decide who…
October 2009 Archives
Rare Privilege
Napier-born Dr John Hood has given his retiring Vice-Chancellor’s Oration at the University of Oxford after a five-year term. In his final address, Dr Hood reviewed the 2008-09 academic year and reflected on “aspects of…
With a Hiss and a Roar
When visiting Rotorua, “think Yellowstone or Lassen, but with some key differences,” describes The Sacramento Bee’s Mike Melnicoe. “For one, the mud pots, hissing vents and hot springs do not, for the most part,…
Poetic challenges
Bright Star director Jane Campion, 55, says she was always terrified of poetry. “It wasn’t poetry that brought me towards this story; it was my ignorance about the subject. I hit 50 and decided…
Sweet Solutions
Researchers at the University of Auckland are working with dairy company Fonterra to develop a “medical dessert” which is proving to be useful in reducing the side-effects of chemotherapy in cancer sufferers. The ice cream, called ReCharge,…
Best Shape Yet
Jonah Lomu, 34, returns to rugby this month playing for French amateur side Marseille-Vitrolles and he says he is in the best shape ever. Once the most feared man in world rugby, Lomu, who…
Carbon Paw-Prints
Wellington-based eco-architects Brenda and Robert Vale, authors of Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living, include in their controversial book figures for carbon footprints of pets compared with other more…
Slump looks likely
New Zealand economist Robert Wade, a professor at the London School of Economics, predicts a further slump into global recession in 2010 or 2011. Wade, who made his name analysing East Asia’s economic…
Dengate Thrush Translates
New Zealander Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), has been in charge of reviewing what is being touted as the “biggest change” to the…
Txtn2quit
A New Zealand study has shown providing motivational support through daily text messages may help young cigarette smokers kick the habit. It is estimated that only about 5 per cent of smokers are able…
Tracking Morrison
Actor Temuera Morrison stars in the Ian Sharp film Tracker, set in New Zealand in 1903. Tracker also stars Ray Winstone (The Departed, Nil by Mouth) who plays Arjan, an ex-Boer War guerilla sent…
Tourist Bucket List
The six best things to do in New Zealand are, according to The Observer: attending Gisborne’s Rhythm and Vines Festival for New Year’s Eve; walking the four-day Hillary Trail; staying the night at Franz…
Best Role of All
Rotorua-born actor Cliff Curtis, 41, talks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about his role as flight medic Rabbit in NBC show Trauma. Curtis says it is “the most fun character” he has ever played. “He’s…
Antipodean partnership
Director Jane Campion’s Bright Star is “almost certain to be among this year’s leading Oscar contenders” and, according to The Times’ Tom Charity, “one of Campion’s best films, on a par with The Piano,…
Symbol of Renewal
“If you believe clouds have silver linings, Napier’s is surely rimmed with neon and chrome, the shiny new materials of the art-deco age,” describes the The Observer’s Nigel Tisdall. “For this was an earthquake…
Discovering risk
Dr Rob Young, director of New Zealand-based Respiragene, developers of a genetic test designed for smokers, says that fear is a powerful motivator for smokers to quit the habit. The Respiragene test gives smokers…
Funksters Release Second
The Flight of the Conchords have released their second album in the UK, I Told You I Was Freaky. The Guardian’s Will Dean says “we told you they were funky” and offers readers some…
Bilingual in Kansas
Auckland exchange student Fallon Simchowitz, 17, is spending a year abroad in Olathe, Kansas with a local deaf family. Simchowitz is deaf as are host family Ron and Kim Symansky and their three children. Normally, that…
Basically Extreme
An image of a New Zealand base-jumper against a backdrop of Kuala Lumpur’s skyline is one of the BBC’s ‘Week in Pictures’. Ninety-eight base jumpers took part in the annual International Tower Jump leaping…
Jurassic Park Tramps
“One of the best and most economical ways to see New Zealand is to tramp your way through it,” suggests Canadian freelance writer Vawn Himmelsbach, whose favourite tramps include: the Northern Circuit & Tongariro…
Soap’s Scottish success
Wellington opera director Colin McColl was interviewed by The Scotsman on the eve of the opening night of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. Has Scottish Opera lost its marbles…
#120: The Global Life of New Zealanders
Edge Message #120 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM SAMOA AND TONGA TSUNAMI RELIEF – Help NZ’s…
Big and buzzing in NY
Auckland band Surf City played six shows in New York as part of the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon. The Washington Post’s David Malitz writes: “For a band with just an EP to its name,…
Lunchbox Aesthetics
Christchurch art commentator Denis Dutton is invited by The New York Times to discuss beauty and the Japanese bento box. What does the care devoted to the visual details in a packed lunch suggest…
Spontaneous breeze
“In person, Campion is neither gorilla nor goddess,” writes Guardian correspondent Peter Conrad. “The breeze derives from her quirky humour and the mercurial play of expression on her face; her greying hair and her…
Talking to the trees
New Zealand business and IT consultant and author Claire Bulman, 41, has released her first book, aimed at children aged seven to ten, The Answer Tree. Maldon-based Bulman is hoping her target audience will…
In Hot Water
Despite New Zealand’s growing prosperity, the country’s natural beauty has been preserved says Hindustan Times travel writer Vir Sanghvi, who describes his seven-day adventure from Rotorua, by chopper to White Island and then across…
Anniversary Apology
Air New Zealand will apologise to relatives of the victims of the 1979 Mt Erebus plane crash which killed all 257 on board in Antarctica during a sightseeing flight. Chief executive Rob Fyfe is…
Bones for the Queen
Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones has been selected to screen at November’s Royal Film Performance in London’s Leicester Square. Jackson said he is “honoured” it has been selected, adding its making has been “an…
Conceptual Costs
Professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury and author of The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution Denis Dutton writes an opinion piece for The New York Times on the surprises conceptual…
Instant Appeal
“Pinot noir from New Zealand is gaining a foothold in America because of well-made wines like the 2007 Stoneleigh Marlborough Pinot Noir,” writes John Foy for New Jersey’s largest local newspaper The Star-Ledger. “Stoneleigh’s…
Streak Down South
Dunedin is promoting itself as New Zealand’s quirkiest city in a bid to encourage more visitors to the southern centre. The wackier tourist activities include the June staging of the nude rugby international tournament…
Appreciating the green
Second generation Zimbabwean immigrant Myfanwy van Hoffen describes her move to Auckland leaving behind her citizenship, her vote, her passport and her husband, “cancer taking its too-early toll” . “I landed in a clean,…
Quietly Heralded
Tauranga-born peace campaigner Alyn Ware, 47, has been awarded what is commonly known as “the alternative Nobel prize” for “his effective and creative advocacy and initiatives over two decades to further peace education and…
Accuracy Under Fire
The Silver Ferns have won the inaugural six-nation Fastnet World Series against Jamaica in Manchester 32–27. The world number-two seed beat off stiff competition from an ever-improving Jamaican side to take the trophy at…
Reed Takes Crown
Palmerston North-born triathlete Matt Reed, 34, now based in Boulder, Colorado, has won the Toyota US Open triathlon and the Toyota Cup series crown having taken first place in the Dallas Triathlon on October…
Compensation comparisons
New Zealand “has some good ideas” when it comes to tort reform writes Newsweek blogger Katie Connolly, who uses this country’s government-operated Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) as an example of a system the US…
Distinguished Discourse
The New Zealand accent has been declared the most attractive and prestigious form of English outside Britain. In the BBC survey, Britons responded to an online survey rating the prestige and social attractiveness of…
Worth His Weight
“Daniel Vettori is a prime example of what talent coupled with hard work can achieve,” writes Partab Ramchand for DreamCricket.com. “A cricketer is obviously gifted when he is thought good enough to make his Test debut at…
Rugby’s Adonis
“Ladies and gentlemen – introducing the new Jonah Lomu,” announces Alison Kervin in an article for The Sunday Times. “The awesome New Zealand wing who tore the England defence to pieces on a memorable…
Winning Pair
New Zealand showjumper Samantha McIntosh, 34, has won the closing class of the day at Britain’s Horse of the Year show in Birmingham. McIntosh, who lives near Cologne, Germany, took the Zinc Management Trophy…
Taking home the loot
Masterton-born singer Ladyhawke has won six Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, won the album of the year for Ladyhawke (Modular/Universal) and single award for ‘My Delerium’ at the…
Burt’s Fine Wine
“It was 1962 and Burt Munro had somehow managed to get his suped-up Indian motorcycle from New Zealand to the Salt Flats, where he hoped to set a record,” writes Tom Wharton for The…
Youth will prevail
“Of the finalists in this year’s Champions Trophy, though, it should be New Zealand that England look to for a degree of inspiration and not without a little shame,” writes The Times’ chief cricket…
Power to the people
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide and nzedge.com co-founder, Kevin Roberts, appeared in an interview with Alixis Glick on FOX Business during the recent World Business Forum at Radio City Hall in New York, talking…
Parrot’s Love Affair
Sirocco the kakapo has caused a stir in cyber space after he was captured on camera mating with the head of a British zoologist. The footage, which has received more than half a million…
Cold-Blooded Chic
New Zealand clothing manufacturer Rodd & Gunn have designed the country’s priciest piece of luggage ever made, from the skins of ten crocodiles. With the price for the large bag set at AU$30,250 and…
Amidst the peach trees
“My favourite destination in the world will always be Coromandel in New Zealand,” says British author Fay Weldon in an interview with the Telegraph. “There I can go back to my golden age and…
Home in Iraq
New Zealand’s family-run Atconz Real Estate Development will spend $1 million on a housing development in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, near the regional capital Erbil. Plans for the “New Azadi” project call for the…
Dressed In Art
World of Wearable Arts founder Suzie Moncrieff, 60, was a single mother on the DPB and a struggling sculptor when she decided she wanted to “take the art down off the walls” of her…
Back in the Ring
Heavyweight champion David Tua, 36, returned to the ring in “smashing fashion” knocking out fellow countryman Shane Cameron, 31, in the second round after seven seconds obliterating his opponent with combinations, crushing him with…
Progeny of genius
New Zealand musician Liam Finn, 26, recently performed in Wisconsin at Madison’s Majestic Theatre with his childhood friend and current musical collaborator Eliza-Jane Barnes. In a review of the performance on Madison.com Aaron Conklin…
From serious to sassy
Actress Anna Paquin says she was the “most serious 15-year-old ever” but she has certainly grown up with a vengeance. “Oh, is a really full-on sexy show,” Paquin agrees easily, taking a…
Homemade Impresses
Wellington reggae seven-piece Fat Freddy’s Drop is compared to 70’s funk groups the Average White Band and War in a Guardian review of their latest nine-track album Dr Boondigga & the Big BW. The…
Pesky Boy Inspires
Beano character Dennis the Menace was based on a New Zealand boy called Robert Fair who was a childhood friend of the cartoon character’s creator David Law, and a frequent visitor to the Law…
Our Feathered Friends
“New Zealand’s island ecology – from the kauri trees to the kiwi, the country’s emblematic bird – is unique,” writes The Independent on Sunday’s Ben Ross. “Twenty years ago, Douglas Adams – the man…
