Woods’ own hill
New Zealand entrepreneur Nick Wood, co-creator of internet service provider iHug, which sold for NZ$82 million in 23, is currently in the United States where he has purchased Teton Pass Ski Resort in Wyoming…
September 2010 Archives
Wooing the shuttle
Auckland badminton player Joe Wu, 24, who currently holds the triple national title holder in the sport, is representing the country at the 21 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Originally born in Taiwan, Joe immigrated…
Eclecticism for Finns
The one-woman band Annabel Alpers aka Bachelorette stopped off in Helsinki, Finland as part of her European tour playing at the city’s Club YK. The Helsinki Times wrote: “The live music scene of Helsinki…
Northern resonance
Northern resonance Musician Tim Finn is playing a “best-of” show in Cairns, his first show in the northern Australian city in nearly 3 years. Finn says he’ll be performing music from his 29 album…
Woods’ Own Hill
New Zealand entrepreneur Nick Wood, co-creator of internet service provider iHug, which sold for NZ$82 million in 23, is currently in the United States where he has purchased Teton Pass Ski Resort in Wyoming…
Winning waves
State science company Wave Energy Technology New Zealand (WET-NZ) has won a grant of more than NZ$2 million from the United States Government to develop a wave power prototype design. WET-NZ has developed a…
Peak Performance
New Zealand has paid tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay with their Commonwealth Games logo and unique team-identifier, ‘2928 Hillary and Tenzing’, the figure being the height of Mt Everest. “It’s…
Pleasingly solid week
New Zealand Fashion Week may have lacked in sponsor capital, but it was pleasingly solid in terms of creativity,” The Australian’s fashion editor Georgina Safe writes. “Most of the designers who were in the…
On the Small Screen
Filmmaker Jane Campion has been commissioned by the BBC to work on a television series thriller set in New Zealand called Top of the Lake. The series will follow the disappearance of a five…
Safety indoors
The legislative changes introduced in New Zealand de-criminalising adult prostitution have been a model for Canadian judges to do the same, with courts recently ruling Canada’s adult prostitution laws unconstitutional. Justice Susan Himel considered…
Cool but not too cool
The Flight of the Conchords appeared as camp counsellors in the premiere episode of season 22 of The Simpsons which went to air in the US in September. In the episode, titled…
Tasman trounce
New Zealanders have done it again, bemoans Huon Hooke writing for The Sydney Morning Herald. “They have trounced us in the Tri Nations,” Hooke continues. “Not at rugby but wine. It’s becoming…
Lifetime achiever
Jeweller Doug Erkkila, 83, has won the inaugural Jewellers Association of New Zealand’s (JANZ) Hall of Fame and Lifetime Member Award. When accepting the award, the jovial and popular Erkkila was, unusually, lost for…
Compressed innovation
Fisher & Paykel Appliances (FPA) has claimed a technology breakthrough that will boost the energy efficiency of home refrigerators by 3 per cent and increase their storage capacity. The company has designed a revolutionary…
Land Purchase Backlash
New Zealand plans to tighten controls on foreign land purchases amid fears that the Chinese acquisition of local farms may not be in the country’s strategic interests, in particular after a fierce public backlash…
Seeing the small
University of Otago scientists have made a “major physics breakthrough”, developing a technique to capture the image of a single atom, the Rubidium 85. The process takes a matter of seconds, starting by dramatically…
Icy southern beauty
“New Zealand is the land of all things possible,” Josh Green writes in a travel piece for the San Jose Mercury News. “It’s one of those places where you would like to take a…
Coup for the shweeb
Internet giant Google is granting Rotorua-based company Shweeb Holdings a sum of $1 million to develop a pedal-system monorail for use in “traffic-clogged, skyscraper-strewn cities”. The company has been operating a monorail at an…
Picnic in Boulder
New Zealand dance troupe EyeSoar Performance opened the second day of the weekend Boulder Fall Festival in Colorado with a 3-minute modern-day circus act called, “A Delightful Show”. Shown entirely through a narrative dance,…
Scented feathers
Canterbury University associate professor Jim Briskie is hoping to develop a deodorant for New Zealand’s native birds to stop them falling prey to introduced predators. Briskie says it appears New Zealand birds suffer from…
Calling All Hobbits
An advertisement in Wellington’s Dominion Post has called for diminutive actors to audition for the parts of Middle Earth hobbits in Peter Jackson’s prequel to the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy. Roles for…
On Loan to Barnsley
Eighteen-year-old Aucklander Chris Wood has signed with South Yorkshire’s Barnsley Football Club on a three-month emergency deal. The 6ft 2ins tall New Zealand international, who is a striker for West Bromwich Albion, played in…
Black in the sky
Air New Zealand’s chief executive Rob Fyfe revealed images of the company’s design for a black domestic jet aircraft in Sydney this month. Fyfe said: “In celebration of Air New Zealand’s long running support…
Future Focus
The “All Blacks looking good, and that’s a problem” headlines a New York Times story profiling the team ahead of the 211 Rugby World Cup. Despite all the team’s previous upsets, New Zealand…
Exciting Appointment
Huntly-born rugby league half-back Jeremy Smith, 29, who currently plays for the UK team Salford City Reds, has signed a one-year contract with another British club, the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. Smith, who can play…
Centenary Spread
Marmite is celebrating its 1th year in New Zealand with a competition for New Zealanders living overseas to win one of 1 one-way flights home from anywhere in the world this December. Hayley…
From planet Wow
“Coming on like a teenage Joan Jett with a drum machine, all Pulp Fiction bangs and kaleidoscopic baton swinging, Zowie is a futuristic cheerleader from planet Wow,” writes US culture and entertainment site…
Shrouded statement
Wellington designer Alexandra Owen, 28, sent models down this year’s New Zealand Fashion Week catwalk wearing knit shrouds and fencing masks. Styleite writes: “Perhaps the masks were intended as commentary on the lack of…
Peak to Break
Four of New Zealand’s top ski and surf personalities have completed a first, travelling the length of the country in five days, skiing a different summit and surfing a different break every day. Coming…
Talk like a vampire
New Zealand-raised actress Anna Paquin and British husband Stephen Moyer worked with Los Angeles dialect coach Liz Himelstein to get their accents right for True Blood. Their speech is nothing like wide-eyed Southern waitress…
Cycling the Peninsula
The Otago Peninsula was recently included in a Lonely Planet list of the world’s top ten cycling routes, alongside the San Juan Islands in Washington, The Luberon and Mont Ventoux in Provence and…
Worth the Wait
Wellington-based Maori electronic duo Wai has released their second international release Ora and Guardian reviewer Andy Childs gives it four out of five stars. “Ten years ago, singer Mina Ripia and her partner Maaka…
More the merrier
The number of overseas visitors arriving in New Zealand has hit an August record, with strong growth from China who more than doubled from 46 in August 29 to 97 this August, exceeding the…
Welsh Prize Shortlist
New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, 24, has made the short list for the University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize. The award, which is open to writers under the age of 3 who have been…
Funding local talent
New Zealand On Air is a “generous government-funded programme that’s fast-tracking New Zealand bands on the road to stardom and beyond,” writes Lars Brandle for Australian site The Music Network. “The likes of Kids…
Economical happiness
New Zealand has retained third place in a world economic freedom report carried out by Canada’s leading public policy think-tank, the Fraser Institute. The 21 report takes data from 28 and compares 141 countries…
Long Tan hero dies
Former New Zealand Vietnam war hero Morrie Stanley from Campbells Bay in Auckland, who was recently presented with an Australian Unit Citation for Gallantry, 44 years after the renowned battle of Long Tan in…
Special mention
Actress Melanie Lynskey, 33, gets a special mention in a Tulsa World review of director Tim Blake Nelson’s black comedy Leaves of Grass. New Plymouth-born Lynskey plays Colleen opposite star Edward Norton, who plays…
Giant Rugby Ball in Sydney
Minister McCully outside the Giant Rugby Ball in Sydney, for the promotion of the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
Heavy duty crush
Christchurch tourism company Tanks for Everything is “New Zealand’s latest adrenalin adventure that takes you to the edge and then charges over it, literally,” reporter Rebekah Devlin describes. Created by former IT manager…
Fletchers rebuild city
Though a regional disaster for most, the 7.1 earthquake which hit Christchurch in September will generate some serious business for New Zealand’s largest construction group Fletchers. While acknowledging the tragedy of the earthquake, investors…
Mountains rising
New Zealand’s 45 kilometer-long Southern Alps have been the subject of a ten year American study which has been collating data by GPS in order to determine how fast the mountain range is rising….
Brazil on the Cards
Ricki Herbert has signed a new two-year contract as coach of the All Whites. Herbert, 49, took New Zealand to the World Cup championship for the first time since 1982 guiding the squad through…
Hottest tickets play NY
New Zealand artists Ruby Frost, winner of 42 Below’s 42Unheard competition, Zowie, Street Chant, Kids Of 88, Electric Wire Hustle and Lawrence Arabia performed at the CMJ Music Marathon festival in New York City…
Winning ways
Champion jockey Rotorua-born Michael Walker, 26, has won the $AU7, Sphinx Hotel Handicap (12m) on Venus World at Moonee Valley in Melbourne. Walker started his riding career 11 years ago and in his first…
Familial trail-blazer
New Zealand director Jane Campion’s daughter Alice Englert, 16, has her sights set firmly on a career in music rather than film writes Kristie Lau for The Sydney Morning Herald. “I love my mum…
Close Call in Sydney
New Zealand narrowly beat Australia 23-22 in the final Tri-Nations match sealing an unprecedented clean sweep in the southern hemisphere rugby championship with a record 1th consecutive win over the Wallabies in Sydney. New…
Without Peer
Wallabies coach New Zealander Robbie Deans says there is no doubt Richie McCaw is the greatest modern skipper in All Blacks history. McCaw has led New Zealand in more rugby Tests than any other….
Player of the Year
Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori, 31, has won New Zealand Cricket’s top award: Player of the Year. Vettori also won the Walter Hadlee trophy for being the best ODI bowler. “Daniel is and has…
New Zealand Creative Guns
New Zealand is still hitting its creative stride, and is right up there with the big competitors according the most recent Young Guns Awards. Auckland’s Media Design School has been named 4th best…
Return to the Land
Ethel May Helmbright — for some years a homeless fixture in Waikiki until she was hospitalised last year unable to remember her name — may well be the key to her estranged family’s land…
Historical Appointment
Aucklander Professor Noel Cox has been appointed head of Wales’ oldest law and criminology department at Aberystwyth University. Cox’s main research interests include constitutional, Church-State and cyberspace law. Cox is the author of more…
Comparing hemispheres
New data from evidence found in New Zealand has revealed that the Southern Hemisphere continued to warm its way out of the ice age, even as the north temporarily plunged back into a another…
Aerial Footage of New Fault Line
A video from GNS showing the new fault line and New Zealand’s tectonic plate formation.
Powell Wins Burghley
Christchurch equestrian star Scotland-based Caroline Powell, 37, is the first New Zealand woman to win the prestigious four-star Burghley Horse Trials held in Lincolnshire. Riding 17-year-old grey Lenamore, Powell held off local favourite William…
