Barrier’s best bachs
The improvisational shacks of the Great Barrier Island have inspired a new breed of bachs, collecting rainfall for water treating waste for irrigation, harnessing the sun with solar panels, and generally creating a space…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Cold omparisons
Ladyhawke, who this month made her New York debut at the Bowery Ballroom and Studio B, said in an interview with The Village Voice, that New Zealand “is like being in Iceland, or something….
A bright future
23 March 2009 – New Zealand was breaking its own records for renewable energy production in the final quarter of 2008, creating 74 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Boosted by full lakes,…
Copywronged Righted
New Zealand’s Creative Freedom Foundation, opponents of an amendment to the country’s copyright law, Section 92a, have secured victory with the scrapping of the plan which would have required Internet service providers to implement…
Long Distance Teamwork
Tintin collaborators Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg are in touch across the world via a video-conferencing setup for the first installment of the film, using a custom-made iChat-type system by which Jackson can see…
Passing Through the Idyllic
For three weeks over the summer, private gardens throughout New Zealand opened their gates to a tour group of 28 Arkansas Master Gardeners beginning at Totara Waters, a 2 acre garden owned by Peter…
With glass and steel
David Hovey, the New Zealand-born, award-winning architect who owns Optima Inc. in Arizona says his dream home would be a contemporary home built of steel and glass built near the ocean in New Zealand…
Advice from two experts
Auckland identical twin sisters Matilda ‘Tilly’ Hanlon and Beryl Baguley recently celebrated their 100th birthday, a rare occasion indeed with the mathematical chance of identical twins reaching the age of 100, one in 700…
Coup for Longevity
A one-month old tuatara has been discovered at Wellington’s Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Zealandia, the first baby tuatara to be seen on the mainland in two centuries. “We are all absolutely thrilled with this discovery,”…
The Racing Reverend Rests
Legendary racing announcer Darren Tyquin died in a car crash in Christchurch recently, at 41. Tyquin had been calling races since he was fifteen, when he began covering greyhound and harness meetings for a…
Harbour-side Haven
Hokianga is “the perfect place to build a prototype of a new type of community to model a more visionary idea of how the world can be” writes Kimberley Paterson for The Seoul Times…
Booming Population
The kakapo – star of a recent BBC documentary presented by British actor and raconteur Stephen Fry – is one of the world’s most endangered birds the kakapo, but thanks to the Kakapo Recovery…
One Fine Fishing Boat
New Zealand naval architect and multi-hull specialist Roger Hill has designed the Montebello, a luxury 12.5m planing power catamaran for a group of Gold Coast businessmen who – headed by industry identity Gary Zamparutti…
Prophetic words
Thirty years ago, founder of Montana wines Frank Yukich planted the first commercial vineyard of the modern era in Marlborough introducing the world to the delights of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. A commemorative sculpture…
Where There is Snow
Mt Hutt has acquired three state-of-the-art snow-making snow groomers and new snowmaking compressors to help produce more snow and improve trails for the 2009 season, scheduled to open June 14. Ski area manager Dave…
Tackling Genres
New Zealand band Cut Off Your Hands is interviewed by American indie music publication Sentimentalist Magazine before the four-piece played the United States’ largest music festival, Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009. Their debut…
Nabbed online
Wellington High Court judge Justice David Gendall has granted approval for the serving of papers via Facebook, the first time a New Zealand court has allowed such a step. The social networking site became…
Sensitive Subject
Gisborne-born adventurer Graeme Dingle has said British author Jeffrey Archer is “dreaming” after Archer claimed that George Mallory, not Edmund Hillary, was the first to reach the summit of Everest. Archer’s new book Paths…
Across the waves
Auckland-born Sara Seruvatu, 28, hosts a mid-morning lifestyle show on Fiji’s Legend FM station and says radio has enabled her to meet and greet people from all walks of life. In an interview with…
High on the Piste
Jane Peak is on a remote station in the Southern Alps accessible only by helicopter and “just begging for a beating” in the ski season when the slopes are “covered in fresh, untracked powder”,…
Mother of gore
Peter Jackson’s 1992 zombie horror Braindead — released as Dead Alive in the United States — is, according to the Tri-City Herald’s Ed Robertson, “unless someone has video of the Normandy invasion lying around,…
Small With Might
14 March 2009 – In an unprecedented move, Lincoln University, New Zealand’s smallest with just 2,600 full-time students and 610 staff, will merge with government-owned AgResearch “in order to capitalise on the institutions’ strengths and deliver more…
Accent on Mr Big
Auckland University of Technology language expert Andy Gibson says Australian actor Matthew Newton, who plays New Zealand drug lord Terry Clark in the series Underbelly, is using “fush and chup” vowels where real New…
Marlin mayhem
Weymouth-raised stunt fisherman Matt Watson — who famously dove from a helicopter onto the back of a cruising marlin in the Pacific Ocean wrestling the giant fish to the surface before finally letting it…
Commonwealth win
Auckland author Mo Zhi Hong has won Best First Book Prize for South East Asia and the South Pacific at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2009 in London for his debut novel The Year of…
Taste the Day
Cloudy Bay winemaker Tim Heath is putting a “sense of glass”. Heath – a tall, athletically…
Wing on a Current
Queenstown BASE jumper and cameraman Chuck Berry, famed for the longest unassisted ‘wingsuit’ flight, has leapt off the top of Terror Peak in Milford Stand once again with wings “turning a nine-second freefall into…
Art for all times
Contemporary Pacific art exhibition Le Folauga is showing at Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts until April 5. Le Folauga features a representative sample of the best artwork being created in New Zealand by…
Down but not out
Sir Bob Charles and US amateur champion Danny Lee, 18, were amongst the line-up at the New Zealand Open, with Charles, “believed to be the oldest golfer to make the cut on any of…
Memorial at Shore’s Edge
Missing Warriors rugby league player Sonny Fai, 20, is remembered with wreaths and garlands at a memorial on Te Henga, Bethells Beach, in Auckland, a poignant image included in a Los Angeles Times photo…
Barbie The Muse
New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker has recreated several outfits from her Autumn Winter ’09 collection ‘she’s cracked’ to dress Barbie in celebration of the iconic doll’s 50th anniversary. The ensembles include a bronze…
Victorian Mod-Cons
Greytown in the Wairarapa – population 2001 and New Zealand’s first planned town – is definitely worth a visit writes the WA Today’s Kate Duthie, a town not unlike Berry, on the NSW South…
Scaling nature
New Zealander Paul McCathie is a former arborist who in 2005 founded Goodleaf Tree Climbing Adventures on the Isle Of Wight. McCathie “works with only one tree, a 60ft ancient oak, and in two…
New Black Cap
Newly-appointed Black Caps manager Dave Currie – chef de mission of the New Zealand team for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics campaigns and the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games – has worn many hats…
Tough Guy Mourned
Auckland talent agent and former professional wrestler Robert Bruce has died, aged 65. The Scottish-born villain could enrage the crowd with a mere facial expression. Such were his talents and wrestling style, which saw…
French’s Heaven
It was love at first sight for comedienne Dawn French when she landed on New Zealand’s North Island, falling for a “peaceful, unspoilt and friendly” country that reminded her of Scotland, only warmer. French…
Key Looks Ahead
6 March 2009 – The idea of growing a nation out of recession by improving productivity puts Prime Minister John Key and his conservative National Party at odds with Washington, Tokyo and Canberra writes…
Natasha Likes It
Natasha Bedingfield, 27, the UK singer who has sold over ten million records, is currently back in New Zealand — the birthplace of her parents — finding inspiration for her next album, which she…
A Classical Reaction
Waitakere City has been using classical music to deter vandals and loitering youth, driving them away from a local transit hub with remarkable success. Bob Harvey, mayor of Waitakere, says there has been no…
Fantasy Land
ABC’s new series, Legend of the Seeker, is being filmed in New Zealand, taking advantage of the surreal midland setting. “They have a real respect for nature,”says the shows star, Bridget Regan. “We film…
The News with an Accent
Working as a presenter for BBC World news, Taranaki native Lucy Hockings says her New Zealand accent “is a good reflection of the newsroom, which is very international.” When she became a presenter for…
A personal charm
Hermann Seifried was laughed at when he arrived on the South Island 40 years ago, looking to make wine. Today, he is the proud owner of an outstanding winery, and the father of an…
Link Rethink
A Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences study has found that alcohol abuse may increase the risk of depression, instead of the other way around as was previously thought. This new study included…
Call to arms
Actor Sam Neill, one of the stars of New Zealand/British film Dean Spanley, has told Prime Minister John Key at the premier of the film that: “George Bush declared war on an emotion, a…
Dishwashing debut
Founder of Ecostore Aucklander Malcolm Rands has put his household cleaning product range on the shelves in U.S. chain Meijer Inc.’s 185 stores in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. Rands wants to move…
Big Easy Baller
Auckland local Sean Marks is enjoying regular playing time on the New Orleans Hornets, one of America’s top basketball teams. Recently interviewed by InsiderHoops.com, Marks describes how he grew up in a markedly different…
Girls Don’t Cry
Stuntwoman Zoë Bell, 30, often found it easier to “brawl than bawl” when filming online series Angel of Death, in which she plays assassin Eve. Bell had to display both action and acting chops….
Time has flown
Auckland watchmaker Malcolm Campbell of Timeshop Watch Repairs, who has been in business in a two metre square Lorne Street premises for almost twenty-two years, is now to retire. Campbell told the ABC’s Kerri…
Marvelous Middleditch
Sydney-based New Zealander Paul Middleditch, 40, is interviewed about his success as an advertising director in the March issue of Australian Financial Review. “I believe there was a time when advertising was the stuff…
Peter Jackson in action
Six of Peter Jackson’s Oscars quietly share desk space with a grasshopper model from James and the Giant Peach, a Lancaster Bomber, a cardboard replica of Thunderbird One, and piles of toy soldiers. “I…
Spare Time For Fine Wine
“I imagined this is how it was in Napa in the thirties – an intimate winemaking community that the world hadn’t yet discovered,” writes Chang-Rae Lee as he tours through Central Otago. Lee takes…
Gray’s marvellous mutants
New Zealand comic book writer and editor of the Marvel Collectors’ Edition line of magazines Scott Gray is interviewed by Comic Book Resources about “his take on the second generation of X-Men, the villains…
Promoting Touch
New Zealander Miles Darby, 46, IT project manager at Credit Suisse Singapore, is also president of the city’s amateur Monsoon Touch Football Club. Darby has been playing the sport in Singapore for over a…
A New Deal
Phillip Alder of the New York Times describes “a tied world record,” charting out an exceedingly rare occurrence at last year’s national bridge congress in Hamilton, 60 miles south of Auckland. “New Zealand is…
Sights on California
Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, 19, and her family are in Los Angeles, considering a move to California, but right now “bunking down at a modest hotel in West Hollywood between stints with friends at various…
Not Quite the End
When Tim Finn and Split Enz supported Skyhooks and AC/DC at Sydney’s Festival Hall in 1975, they were booed at by teenager Magda Szubanski. “Years later, Magda admitted that she was booing us —…
