Archive >> April 2011

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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….

#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….

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Trailer: Meet the Feebles

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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’…

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…

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. “…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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….

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….

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…