Archive >> April 2010

Fame becomes them

Tickets for The Flight of the Conchords’ two May shows at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre sold out in a record 12 seconds. “It’s all just weird,” Bret McKenzie says. But…

Island Paradise

Waiheke Island’s Mudbrick Vineyard & Restaurant is recommended by the Wall Street Journal in an article about worldwide wine tours. Waiheke Island features alongside the Barossa Valley, Australia; Western…

Opshop: Pins & Needles

Opshop’s long awaited single, Pins & Needles.

Collaborative honour

Director, Peter Jackson, has been knighted by Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, at an investiture ceremony in Wellington. Jackson’s knighthood was for services to the arts in New Zealand. “The…

Controversial Precision

“New Zealand is joining the global race to meet a surging demand for energy and minerals, with a plan to open up highly protected conservation areas to mining,” writes…

Smart Move

Auckland-based technology firm, NextWindow, has been bought out by privately-owned Calgary company, Smart Technologies. NextWindow, which employs 125 staff in offices in New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and…

Police Found Culpable

The death of New Zealand anti-fascist protestor, Blair Peach, in a London demonstration against the National Front in April 1979, “marked one of the most controversial events in modern…

Call Him Breathless

New Zealand freediver William Trubridge, 29, has set the world record for the longest dive without using fins by plunging 116m into world’s deepest underwater sinkhole, in the Bahamas….

Ironman Gusto

Days after coming second in New Orleans, Aucklander Terenzo Bozzone this time crossed the finish line first winning the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston. Bozzone, 25, stopped…

Tentative ten

Wellington’s Weta Digital effects house has begun pre-production on the sequel to Peter Jackson-produced District 9, the “tentatively titled” District 10. Filming is scheduled to begin in South Africa…

Walters finalists named

The finalists for this year’s $50,000 Walters Prize are: Dan Arps, Fiona Connor, Saskia Leek and Alex Monteith. Named in honour of the late New Zealand artist, Gordon Walters,…

Passage to the edge

From the Other End of the World: Memories of post war immigrants to New Zealand from Great Britain is an “enlightening read” bringing “to life an often forgotten period…

Philanthropist Awarded

Owner of Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnapper’s golf courses Julian Robertson Jnr., 77, named New Zealand first honorary knight in January this year, has been awarded the recipient of…

Happening anew

Former supermodel Rachel Hunter, the voice of shampoo manufacturer Pantene’s famous early ’90s catchphrase, “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”, will promote the product again, this time…

Dairy giant expands

New Zealand’s Fonterra Cooperative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, expects a double digit jump in Middle East and Africa sales over the next year as the region’s thirst…

Davenport’s coup

New Zealand-born chef Phillip Davenport, group executive chef at Bali’s popular Ku De Ta restaurant and bar, discusses his “must-buy ingredient of the moment”, his “best recent dining experience”…

Killer Pinot

“A decade ago, New Zealand growers targeted the bottom 50 per cent of the global pinot noir market, stating it simply wasn’t worth drinking (we agree),” writes The Vancouver Sun’s Anthony…

Widow’s Wish

Jan Arnold, the widow of legendary mountain guide Rob Hall, who was one of eight people to lose their lives on Mt Everest during a severe storm in 1996,…

Happy Birthday

“New Zealand has marked the Queen’s 84th birthday by rejecting an attempt to abolish the monarchy,” writes Paul Chapman for The Telegraph. A bill that would have set up a…

Crowded House: Don’t Dream It’s Over

The video for the classic Crowded House track, Don’t Dream It’s Over.

Latvian leanings

Nelson-based landscape photographer Craig Potton is holding an exhibition of his works at the Foreign Art Museum in Riga Castle, Latvia. The Riga exhibition takes a journey through New…

Especially select

New Zealanders have a love of coffee, wine, water and an extraordinary, “relentless” particularity for those beverages, for dogs, sport, even driveways and beech trees, writes Peter Miller for…

Shared Heritage

“Canada and New Zealand may lie at opposite ends of the earth, but we are bound together by a common history,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared during John…

Phoenix Live On

Wellington Phoenix will remain in the A-League until the end of the 2015-16 season. Doubt over the team’s future emerged in November last year when AFC president Mohamed bin…

Ash brings business

New Zealand orchid and salmon suppliers were working overtime after the volcanic eruption beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier caused ash-related delays across the planet. “The phone started ringing hot from…

Boarding school magic

New Zealand comic and fiction writer Karen Healey’s debut novel Guardian of the Dead has been released. Guardian of the Dead is a young adult fantasy novel set around…

Heated Win

Whangarei-based Olympian Sam Warriner has won the Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans, “thanks to impressive half-marathon performance in the heat”. Despite coming off of the bike in fifth…

Inspired Simplicity

Remuera boutique interior design studio Monochrome Inc is profiled in Malaysia’s online version of The Star. “Would you consider an interior design colour scheme that’s predominantly black and white? It…

Lebanon for Baldwin

Former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin has announced he has taken up the position as coach of Lebanon’s national team. Baldwin, 51, will gather his first squad together at…

Mercury’s Avatar

“Lorraine Moller, now 53 and living in Boulder, Colorado, won the first marathon she ran — a race she hadn’t even intended to finish — and the next eight…

Cowboy paramedic

Trauma star New Zealander Cliff Curtis, who plays “the cowboy paramedic who’s equal parts Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I in the hit NBC…

She’s a Sensation

Fifteen-year-old wildcard Sarah Mason surprised the crowd at New Plymouth’s Fitzroy Beach beating current surfing world champion Stephanie Gilmour in the third round of the TSB Bank Classic. Mason…

Octopus Steals Divers Camera in Wellington Harbour

Wild octopus steals while recording in the Wellington Harbour.

Top Prospect Signed

Tall Blacks centre Rob Loe, 18, the youngest player on record to represent the Tall Blacks, has signed with Saint Louis University team Billikens. Loe will have four years…

Niccol the man

Kapiti Coast-born director Andrew Niccol, 45, of Gattaca and Truman Show fame, has written a new sci-fi screenplay, called I’m Mortal, reportedly in negotiations for purchase. The premise of…

Creepy plot wins Emmy

The makers of Wellington-made interactive drama Reservoir Hill, KHF Media, have won New Zealand’s first ever Emmy in the Digital Program: Children & Young People category. Reservoir Hill  -…

Power of Passion

Auckland born singer Gin Wigmore, 23, has been described by PBS Melbourne music manager Peter Merrett as a “waif-sized girl” with “indefinable power and passion combined”. Wigmore says if…

Backcountry Best

“New Zealand offers some of the best, and most extreme, heli-skiing on the planet”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Craig Tansley who surveys New Zealand’s world-class fields. “There are over…

MTV’s Guide to NZ

New Zealand musicians Liam Finn, Scribe and The Mint Chicks feature in three four-minute Tourism New Zealand documentaries created with MTV describing their favourite dim sum restaurants, music studios…

Ahead of the Best

Taupo-born Olympic triathlete Bevan Docherty, 33, has won the opening race of the ITU Dextro Energy World Champs Series in Sydney. Docherty, a two-time Olympic medallist, pulled away from…

Not Humpty Dumpty

Should the New Zealand-bred champion horse Phar Lap be “put back together again” asks The Sydney Morning Herald. Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls is seeking to “re-unify” the skeleton (from…

Pavlova in a Glass

New Zealand’s capital city was the grand final host and inspiration for the 42BELOW Cocktail World Cup winning beverage, Wellington Fizz. American Sean Hoard, 23, wowed the judges with…

The Zorb

Rotorua’s famous Zorb in action.

Pure Tax

In a CNN article titled, ‘Why the US can learn from New Zealand when it comes to taxes,” Dody Tsiantar writes that American tax experts and economists are pointing…

Oregon Legal Beagle

New Zealand-born, US-raised Kevin McCulloch, 27, is Linn County, Oregon’s newest deputy county attorney. In 2002 and 2003, McCulloch returned to New Zealand to study political science at the…

Rite of passage

“Having a towering, tattooed man press his nose against mine has to be one of the more unusual and enjoyable greetings I have experienced,” describes Victoria Mitchell for Scottish…

Sussex Signing

Dunedin cricketer Brendon McCullum, 28, has signed with Sussex for this season’s Twenty20 competition. The big-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman replaces Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan. “Brendon was always on our shortlist for 2010 and once…

Final Season Strength

Warriors prop Steve Price, 36, has announced he will retire at the end of the season. His battle-weary legs may have forced his hand, but it is a simple…

Chronicle of Pace

Sir Richard Hadlee’s Changing Pace – A Memoir is reviewed by The Hindu’s W V Raman who writes, “The modesty and dignity with which Sir Richard, 58, fulfilled his responsibilities as…

Seattle tie tightens

“The unlikely New Zealand-Sup Pop connection just keeps getting stronger,” writes Anand Balasubrahmanyan for Seattle news site Publicola. “First, the label that once brought you Mudhoney’s Superfuzz/Bigmuff and doom/drone…

Affectionately Known As

Using digital technology, a woman’s skull, found on the Wairau Bar archeological in 1939 and now thought to be 600 years old, has been recreated. Facial anthropologist Susan Hayes…

Exercise Habits Studied

University of Auckland researchers have compared the exercise habits of 84 first-time mothers in a study which has shown that exercise during pregnancy may help babies start life at…

Organic as mechanic

Auckland artist Lisa Black mixes taxidermy with machinery some sites calling her method “steampunk” modifying a fawn, a turtle, a duckling and a baby crocodile, transforming the once dead…

Voice like hot treacle

New Zealand-raised jazz sensation Leila Adu is returning home to perform a series of nationwide concerts throughout May, her first in five years. Of Ghanian descent, Adu is touring…

Taite for Milne

Lawrence Arabia has been crowned the first winner of New Zealand’s equivalent to the annual UK Mercury Prize, the Taite Music Prize. UK-based Lawrence Arabia ó whose real name…