Community Justice
“Canada’s criminal justice system should mirror that of New Zealand’s,” an Edmonton Journal article suggests. “New Zealand has incorporated the use of community conferencing, a restorative justice programme, that has returned to…
April 2011 Archives
Grand and Green Design
WoJo™, a revolutionary upholstery fabric created by Wellington company The Formary, has been named one of UK television presenter Kevin McCloud’s ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’. McCloud, who fronts Grand Designs, personally chose ten products…
Staying Connected with Home
Online networking site Kea New Zealand has launched a global ‘census’ of expatriate New Zealanders, dubbed ‘Every Kiwi Counts’, and aimed at connecting the estimated one million of us living overseas. “New Zealanders living…
Maori Forefathers Return Home
The remains of three Maori people, kept for 13 years in boxes in Lund, south Sweden, have been returned to a delegation from Te Papa led by the museum’s Kaihaut? Michelle Hippolite and representing…
Morrison Heads for the Hills
Temuera Morrison stars as Maori seafarer Kereama in the colonial, “pretty much your classic Western,” Tracker, which is reviewed by The Independent. “It is ostensibly the story of a manhunt: Kereama is…
Breakers Outdo Taipans
The New Zealand Breakers have thrashed the Cairns Taipans 71-53 to claim Australia’s National Basketball League title in front of a capacity crowd at Auckland’s North Shore Events Centre. The Breakers are the first…
#127: The Global Life of New Zealanders
Edge Message #127 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM Greetings. NZEDGE.COM resumes regular newsletters. We publish daily on Facebook and Twitter. This newsletter summarizes this week’s…
Winning Race Plan
Whangarei-based professional triathlete Samantha Warriner’s greatest moment came just three months after undergoing surgery to fix a career-threatening case of super ventricular tachycardia. Somehow fortune and great doctors smiled on Warriner….
All Blacks May Win Again
Graham Henry’s team will end their series of Rugby World Cup chokes when they host the global tournament for the first time since 1987 believes former Springboks coach Jake White, the man…
Return of the Yeti Hand
Adventurer and Air New Zealand pilot Mike Allsop is in Nepal to return a replica of what some believe is the hand of a yeti to a remote monastery in the Everest region. Allsop…
Shannon’s One and Only Lord
While European nobility gathered in Westminster Abbey for April’s royal wedding, one British lord was content to watch the nuptials on television in Shannon, the small New Zealand farming town he calls home. Lord…
Indefatigable Portable Style
The contents of New Zealand designer Karen Walker’s handbag are perused in NBC New York’s weekly ‘Purse Purge’ feature. Walker is “one of few fashion folks creating clothing in two time zones…
Positively Bucolic Township
Russell is a town of some 8 permanent residents, tucked into a beautiful, protected cove in the Bay of Islands, a stunningly beautiful stretch of rocky islets dotted with pines and thick…
Enduring Legacy
This year marks the 96th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who fell in 1915 the annual Anzac Cove dawn ceremony took place…
Bunny Hunt Sparks Debate
The 211 Great Easter Bunny Hunt at Alexandra’s Pioneer Park rid the local farmland of 23, bunnies over the Easter weekend. Billed as a charity event, some animal welfare groups saw the hunt, made…
Limitless Adventure
“If hurling yourself off of a bridge is not your thing, then how about jumping out of a plane from 15, feet?” Malaysia Star reporter Wayne Johnson suggests. “You may, like me, be so…
Sailor Makes Sporting Rich List
CEO of Oracle Racing Russell Coutts is New Zealand’s highest paid athlete and the only sailor to make the ESPN sporting rich list of athletes from 182 countries. Wellington-born Coutts has won the America’s…
Shift in Strength
Following this year’s World Cup, All Black and Crusaders lock Mosgiel-born Brad Thorn will play for Japanese club Fukuoka Sanix Blues. Thorn, a key component of the All Blacks’ engine room for 5 tests,…
Trading Yoghurt Secrets
Family owned Piako Gourmet Yoghurt, which operates out of Auckland, was the inspiration behind a new gourmet yoghurt range for the UK market, called Little Melton Gourmet Yogurt and produced in Norfolk. The company…
Intrinsically Us
New Zealand-based documentary maker Leanne Pooley describes how she came to tell the award-winning story of the Topp Twins in an article featured in the Winnipeg Free Press. “ was well established as a…
Future in a Gold Shirt
Little-known New Zealand back Mark Harris, that Reds coach Ewen McKenzie recruited to the club this year, has been earmarked as a future Wallaby after a fine start to the year and because his…
NZ Well Perceived by Indians
The number of migrants coming to New Zealand from India has continued to increase rapidly in the last three years, despite the global economic downturn that saw significant reduction in the flow of foreign…
Interior Feelings of Happiness
The Auckland home of New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker she shares with her husband Mikhail Gherman, features this month on the American fashion site StyleCaster. “ known for her sweet, quirky ready-to-wear…
Medal of Honour for Doctor
Aucklander Dr Alan Kerr (left) has received Palestine’s highest honour, the “Medal of Honour”, from PNA President Mahmoud Abbas for saving more than 6 children’s lives in the West Bank and Gaza…
Smeltz Joins Perth Glory
New Zealand international Shane Smeltz has “ended weeks of speculation about his future by joining Perth Glory as the club’s marquee player,” Peter Kogoy writes for The Australian. “In one of the recruiting coups…
Swimming By the Stars
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position,…
Pregnancy Breakthrough
Scientists at Auckland University’s Liggins Institute and the Crown Research Institute AgResearch have helped find a link between a woman’s diet during pregnancy and her child’s chances of becoming overweight. Professor Peter Gluckman, who…
Top of His Game
All Black Dan Carter has been offered a near-£4million, three-year deal by Jacky Lorenzetti, the millionaire owner of Paris club Racing Metro, which would make him the highest paid player in rugby. Lorenzetti, who…
Jennings Keeps it Under Wraps
New Zealander Stephen Jennings’ Moscow-based company Renaissance Group is included in a Guardian list of 1 invisible corporate giants you probably haven’t heard of. “Renaissance Group has quietly emerged as one of the world’s…
Honoured by Opera News
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was one of five artists recognised for their international musical achievements at the Opera News Awards held in New York at the famed Plaza Hotel on 17 April. German tenor…
Equally Sarcastic and Charming
“A sizable flock of admirers was left adrift after HBO grounded Flight of the Conchords in 29 after only two seasons,” Susan Wloszczyna writes for USA Today. “Turns out these Kiwi lads were a…
Another Star Has Been Born
Twenty-one-year-old Stone Brothers Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen had a day he will remember forever earning his maiden victory in the Hamilton V8 Supercars race. Auckland-born Van Gisbergen has come agonisingly close to his…
Diving Without Boundaries
“Shouts of ‘Breathe! Breathe! Breathe!’ pierced the tropical air and echoed off the limestone precipice around Dean’s Blue Hole, a vertical cavern plunging 66 feet, a cobalt blue pool of seawater surrounded by crystal-clear…
Luxurious Isolation
By helicopter to the Southern Alps, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Tricia Welsh discovers Minaret Station, a soft landing in a luxury tent on a sheep and cattle station. “We’re having the ultimate New Zealand…
Facebook Hobbit Updates
Peter Jackson has posted his first video blog from the set of The Hobbit showing production starting on his 3D epic which is being filmed in New Zealand. The video on his
It Will Probably Be a Smash
New Zealander Nico Evers-Swindell, who plays the role of Prince William in the forthcoming film William and Kate: The Movie, is “saddled” with some rather dubious lines according to Guardian reviewer Stephen Bates. “Evers-Swindell,…
Mother of all Mother Tongues
University of Auckland psychologist Quentin Atkinson has undertaken a first-of-its-kind linguistic analysis suggesting that human language arose only once. Atkinson traced language’s origin by breaking down 54 world languages into their smallest components, called…
Mister Pip Makes Big Screen
New Zealander Andrew Adamson will direct the film adaptation of Wellington author Lloyd Jones’ award-winning book Mister Pip, with Hugh Laurie, of television drama House to star. Adamson, who’ll direct the project from a…
Zumwohl Means Medals
Upper Hutt-based Aotearoa Distillers has won a gold and silver medal for its Zumwohl schnapps at the World Spirits competition in San Francisco. German-born founder Ulf Huhrer said a trip home played a part…
Singular Artistic Vision
Singer-guitarist of The Naked and Famous Thom Powers wasn’t as temperamental as Orson Welles but he did have a singular artistic vision his Auckland peers apparently could not comprehend. “I had a real difficulty…
Flight Company Sold to Canada
Nelson-based Helicopters New Zealand (HNZ) has been bought by Canadian Helicopters Group for $16 million. HNZ operates 33 helicopters at 11 bases in New Zealand, Australia, Laos and Cambodia. “The acquisition of HNZ represents…
Return of One Precious Book
The bible of New Zealand World War One soldier Private Richard Cook, which he dropped as he came under heavy fire during the Battle of Messines in Belgium in June 1917, has found its…
Unique Creative Sensibility
New Zealand’s “famously scenic locations are a big draw for Hollywood filmmakers — but they’re not the only one,” Sangeeta Anand writes for Time. “New Zealand’s Large Budget Screen Production Grant offers a 15…
Personal Race Track Antics
New Zealand racing competitor and vehicle designer Rod Millen has unveiled his new mile-long asphalt driveway — which doubles as a hillclimb racetrack — in a video which shows Millen behind the wheel of…
The Exponents: Why Does Love Do This To Me
The classic New Zealand song, Why Does Love Do This To Me by the Exponents.
Home and Away Favourite
Singing star Brooke Fraser — described as New Zealand’s answer to Adele — reveals to News of the World’s Dan Wootton how she’s lent some of the songs from her impressive new album Flags…
Perkier Versions of the xx
“The Naked And Famous go one better than MGMT by having a girl in the band — the spectacularly named Alisa Xayalith, whose dreamy yelps combine with the hazy utterings of co-singer…
Helping His Hometown
New Zealander Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race and chief marketing officer of drinks company Gatorade, along with New Zealander Sarah Robb-O’Hagan have organised a video titled ‘Christchurch Stay Strong’, using the power…
Loved By Robins and Kakapo Alike
Internationally renowned conservationist Don Merton has died in Tauranga, aged 72. “Forest and Bird is extraordinarily grateful for the work Don did over several decades,” Forest and Bird executive member Dr Peter Maddison said….
Formerly Good-Looking In Rio
Actor Jemaine Clement is the voice of a villainous cockatoo called Nigel in animated film Rio — The Movie, created by the makers of the Ice Age series. “Talk about ad-lib heaven,” director Carlos…
London Olympics Prospect
Christchurch-born professional triathlete Andrea Hewitt has placed third in the Dextro Energy ITU World Championship Series triathlon in Sydney. Hewitt is currently ranked sixth in the world. Hewitt, who was sixth after the 15-metre…
Retaining Our Competitive Edge
Executive director of the Lowy Institute in Sydney Dr Michael Wesley was in Auckland in early April addressing the Australia/New Zealand Leadership Forum. The latest in a string of bilateral gatherings which aim to…
World Cup One Big Carnival
Former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick recommends his favourite haunts ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup, which he says “will be not so much a sporting event as a national carnival.” Take, for…
Toppling The Big Gun
Raglan’s Billy ‘The Kid’ Stairmand knocked out American 1-times world champion surfer Kelly Slater from the Telstra Drug Aware Pro at Surfers Point in Western Australia inflicting the shock upset on the superstar after…
Mobile Muscle Power
Auckland Bioengineering Institute’s Biomimetics Lab scientists are developing “wearable energy batteries” capable of converting human movement into battery power. These would be light, soft, form-fitting, stretchy materials with mechanical properties that match human muscle….
