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 then he finds a lot…
April 2010 Archives
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 Cape, South Africa and Grover…
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 truth is, making movies is…
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 Paul Cleary for The Australian. The…
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 the United States, makes touch…
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 policing history”, writes the Guardian’s…
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. Trubridge battled nitrogen narcosis as…
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 just before the finish line…
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 and New Zealand in October….
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, the prize was established in…
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 of history”, says the Telegraph’s…
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 the Hedge Fund Industry’s Lifetime…
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 with her daughter, 17-year-old Renee…
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 for milk products grows and…
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” and his “most embarrassing pantry…
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 Gismondi. “Upon that tenet, they…
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, has asked that his body…
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 referendum on the country becoming…
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 Zealand, beginning on the windswept…
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 Seattle news site Crosscut. “Water…
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 Key’s visit to the capital…
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 Hammam said he did not…
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 the East Coast of North…
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 a boarding school in Christchurch,…
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 position, Warriner handled the early…
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 probably would be tedious, wouldn’t…
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 the start of June in…
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 as well,” writes Barbara Matson…
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 drama, says ‘Rabbit’ is “probably…
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 handled the 1–1.5m waves more…
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 of eligibility beginning with the…
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 his latest being: Got too…
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 – which was shot in Porirua…
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 she were to compare her…
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 400 runs to choose from…
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 and corner pubs. Called ‘MTV’s…
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 the chase pack halfway through…
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 Wellington) and the heart (now…
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 a playful kiwifruit vodka fizz…
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 to New Zealand as an…
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 University of Canterbury. “I had…
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 newspaper The Press and Journal….
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 New Zealand’s tour to Zimbabwe…
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 message inscribed on his wrist…
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 a selector and brand ambassador is…
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 masterpiece, Earth 2, went and…
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 from the University of Western…
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 a healthy weight. The women…
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 into the “cyborg-seeming”. According to…
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 to support her most recent…
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 is James Milne picked up…
