Channelling Ancestral Paths
Sailors on the Pacific Voyagers project steered a fleet of seven ocean-voyaging traditional Polynesian sailing canoes or vaka moanas from New Zealand to San Francisco — guided only by the stars that once helped…
August 2011 Archives
Sir Jerry Takes the Oath
Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae has been sworn in as the 2th Governor General of New Zealand. The 56-year-old was sworn-in to a five-year term in a formal ceremony in front of Parliament. Following…
Ginseng for China
King Country Ginseng growers Maraeroa C Incorporation are working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crops in China under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng. “We’re probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically…
Annual Fashion-off Impresses
New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) was held at Auckland’s new Viaduct Event Centre this month and showcased the latest collections by the best fashion talent in New Zealand, including Stolen Girlfriends Club, Lonely Hearts,…
Algae Potential
New Zealand-based algae technology developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corp. is collaborating with Texas-based CRI Catalyst Co. to further develop a process that can potentially convert algae and other feedstocks into renewable fuels. The…
Smashing Out a World Record
Rotorua-born Valerie Adams has won shot put gold at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea hurling a huge 21.24m, a world championship record-equalling throw and Adams’ third successive world shot put title. The…
Fed, Feisty and Homeward Bound
Some 1700 people turned up at Wellington Zoo to farewell Happy Feet, the emperor penguin who captured New Zealand’s heart after being washed up sick and starving on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka beach 3000km…
Improving What We Have
President of the Tertiary Education Union at Victoria University, senior lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, Sandra Grey writes that calling for expatriate New Zealanders to put money into the tertiary sector is possibly…
Boasting Grand Beginnings
Twenty-one-year-old singer Kimbra’s debut album Vows is reviewed in The Sydney Morning Herald by Bernard Zuel. “On Vows, Kimbra leaps from rhythmic, multi-vocal exercises in the style of French artist Camille (a comparison which…
Once in a Lifetime Chance
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give a special one-off concert in Ireland’s Ulster Hall as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in October — with one lucky young singer getting the chance to…
Roughrider Home to Play
New Zealand basketball player Jordan Hunter, who is currently a sophomore at Missouri’s Crowder College playing at point guard for the Crowder Lady Roughriders, has received and accepted an invitation to play for her…
Surf Lover and Journo
Highly respected veteran journalist Graeme Moody has died while surfing at New South Wale’s famed Angourie Point. He was 60. Wellington’s Newstalk ZB cancelled regular programming the day Moody died, such was the level…
Towering Leader at Inside Centre
Tana Umaga is named at inside centre for the Telegraph series ‘Greatest Rugby World Cup XV’. “ status as a towering leader is not in doubt, as he captained the side to 19 wins…
Top Guns
General Motors (GM) chief financial officer New Zealander Dan Ammann, 39, is one of a number of central figures graded at GM in an article by Fortune Magazine’s senior-editor-at-large Alex Taylor III discussing the…
Artists of the Week
Auckland folk-fusion hip-hop-electronic foursome Sola Rosa recently secured the coveted spot as MTV IGGY’s Artist of the Week, edging out the likes of Rocktigers, Los Hollywood, Dama Do Bling, and Scarab. Their victory is…
Understanding Diversity
The Wellington Holocaust Research and Education Centre has won a national award from the Human Rights Commission. The Centre, founded in 26, received one of 12 New Zealand Diversity Awards, which recognize projects that…
All Eyes on New Zealand
Social media is being used to help ensure the whole planet can keep up to date with Rugby World Cup action. As New Zealand seems like the end of the earth to many people,…
Like No Place on Earth
“The South Island is a lazy paradise of rolling green hills, craggy, glacier-clad mountains and rugged wind-swept beaches,” describes the Mark Johanson for the International Business Times. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in…
For Explorers at Heart
New Zealand is the focus of CNN’s weekly Destination Adventure series “for the explorer at heart” featuring favourite regional foods, secrets from the locals and the best photos and stories from readers. Highly recommended…
Rugby Jersey Ruckus
When the All Blacks revealed late July the shirts the team would wear for the Rugby World Cup, which begins in September, it was a proud moment for Adidas, the designer of the uniform…
Jackson Bags the Best Bilbo
Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson says there is “simply nobody else” who could star as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit epic but British actor Martin Freeman. “He is fantastic and there is simply nobody else…
Christchurch’s Cardboard Cathedral
The quake-ravaged Christ Church Cathedral is set to be rebuilt – using cardboard. Since the destruction of the iconic building in February’s deadly earthquake, rebuilding the Cathedral has been deemed a priority for the…
A legacy in literature
Acclaimed journalist Dame Christine Cole Catley has passed away at age 88, leaving behind a legacy in New Zealand literature. After making a name for herself as one of the nation’s first prominent female…
Everyone is in on It
From Nelson to Dunedin, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Mark Chipperfield nominates the highlights of the Rugby World Cup — on and off field. “New Zealand may not be the birthplace of rugby union football…
Rewriting the Focus
A million-dollar investment in gold bullion has kept Wellingtonian Theresa Gattung, 49, financially secure for the past four years out of the spotlight, but now the former chief executive of Telecom New Zealand (TNZ)…
Back to the Island of Crete
No guns were firing when the New Zealand Herald’s Jim Eagles assembled quietly at the bottom of the steep road to the hilltop village of Galatas on the storied island of Crete. “Seventy years…
Chinese Tourists Flock
The number of Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand rose 22 per cent year-on-year to 133, in the 12 months that ended 31 July. Associate Tourism Minister Jonathan Coleman said China is one of New…
Topping Life Lists
New Zealand features in Washington Post series ‘Going Our Way’ which this week describes the best way of working to see the sights of the country. Orlando traveller Dara Curran asked the newspaper for…
Taste of Kiwiana in New York
This month New Zealand chef Mark Simmons, a former contestant on US television show Top Chef , opened Kiwiana in Park Slope, New York. The Village Voice spoke to Simmons about his new restaurant,…
Quake Expert Remembered
World-renowned earthquake engineer and inventor of the base isolation technique Dr Bill Robinson has died in Christchurch aged 73. The seismic protection and damping equipment developed by Dr Robinson is used in buildings located…
Luke Skywalker Island Minted
The tiny South Pacific nation of Niue, population 1311, will soon be accepting Star Wars coins as legal tender. Each coin will be minted with a fully colored image of Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker,…
New Zealand Blanketed in Snow
August saw freezing cold and snow blanketing virtually all of the country, even typically mild cities such as Wellington and Auckland, which last saw accumulated snow 45 and 72 years ago, respectively. “What began…
Back to the Big Screen
New Zealand actress Anna Paquin is to star alongside Ryan Phillipe in independent comedy Straight A’s which is set in Louisiana. Phillippe portrays a man who’s been in and out of rehab for 1…
Boy to Play US Cinemas
The American distribution rights to Taika Waititi’s Boy, which had its world premiere at the 21 Sundance Film Festival, have been acquired by indie outfit Paladin. Since playing at the Sundance, Berlin…
Almódovar’s Survivors
The autobiographies of New Zealand’s “greatest” author Janet Frame were part of an “esoteric selection of references” given to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s new leading lady Elena Anaya in preparation for her role as…
Kakapo Star in Rat Island
New Zealand’s Kakapo are the focus of a new book telling the stories of the world’s best cases of predator eradication. Written by William Stolzenburg, Rat Island tells the stories of two heroic rescues…
Portuguese Win for Emirates
Emirates Team New Zealand, with Dean Barker at the helm, won the first America’s Cup World Series (ACWS) regatta in Portugal with a dramatic come-from-behind move in the winner-take-all fleet race on 14 August….
Mighty Tree Falls
Former Governor General Sir Paul Reeves has died in Auckland, aged 78. Prime Minister John Key said New Zealand has lost one of its greatest statesmen. “Sir Paul’s contribution to New Zealand did not…
Big Names Hit Slopes
The world’s largest winter competition, the 1% Pure New Zealand Winter Games, have begun in the Southern Alps with more than 1 winter sports atheletes from over 5 countries participating in the…
Comic Capers in LA
Director of acclaimed film Boy Wellingtonian Taika Waititi was part of a large New Zealand contingent who worked on comic-book blockbuster Green Lantern in Los Angeles, starring as aircraft engineer Thomas Kalmaku, best friend…
American Underdogs Join In
“With the zest notable to rugby players on and off the field, the Americans are delighted to be heading to the home of the All Blacks, with their Maori in-your-face war dance, the Haka,”…
Southern Storytelling
New Zealand singer/songwriter Jackie Bristow, who is based in the United States, recently played a solo acoustic set at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. On her most recent release…
Surge of Visitors for World Cup
Despite a strong New Zealand dollar, international rugby fans haven’t been deterred from organising travel to New Zealand for this year’s Rugby World Cup. The most recent figures forecast 1, more visitors than previously…
South Pacific Role for Rhodes
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes will star in an Opera Australia production of South Pacific to open at the Sydney Opera House this month ahead of a nationwide tour. Opera Australia’s artistic director…
Apprentices and Prodigies
An exhibition of 12 up-and-coming contemporary New Zealand jewellers is on this month at Sydney’s Studio 2/17 gallery. ‘Handshake: Prentice and Prodigy’ is the brainchild of contemporary artist and jeweller, Peter Deckers….
Police Good Deeds in Stencil
“The New Zealand Police are hipper than you might think” with a new nationwide ad campaign that aims to tell true life stories of police officers through stencilled street art by Otis Frizzell. In…
Mt Cook Ridge Renamed
Mt Cook’s South Ridge will be renamed the Hillary Ridge in honour of Sir Edmund Hillary, the Everest conqueror. Announcing the change, Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson said: “Sir Edmund made an enormous contribution…
Transactions Over Canapés
The Auckland Art Fair was held from 4-7 August at the Viaduct Events Centre where “a transactional air of confidence and optimism permeated the space, which was filled with the usual opening-night mix of…
Doing Business Like Conchords
“As the duo behind the comedy and musical group Flight of the Conchords, you might be wondering what a folk band from New Zealand can offer by way of business advice,” Forbes contributor Deborah…
Farewell to the White Mouse
New Zealand heroine and NZEdge hero Nancy Wake has passed away in England, three weeks shy of her 99th birthday. Born in Wellington in 1912, Wake moved to Australia with…
Cheap and Cheerful
Auckland is the seventh-cheapest tourist-friendly city in the world, cheaper than Marrakesh in Morocco, rated eighth. The website Tripadvisor has launched TripIndex, which compares the cost of 5 tourist cities around the world. The…
Illusion of the Truth
“I never intended to become an apologist for Tony Blair’s war,” director Lee Tamahori wails down the phone from his home in Wellington. “I just wanted to show that Uday was a psycho.” He…
Absent From the Circus
Wellington has been home to British thriller writer Neil Cross for the past eight years since he moved away from the wearying “circus” of the UK and a 24 Booker nomination for his novel…
Walking on the Moon
Tongariro Alpine Crossing has been included in the online travel adviser Cheapflights’ top ten hiking destinations list alongside the Appalachian Trail and Mount Kilimanjaro. “New Zealand continuously tops adventure travel lists thanks…
