March 2012 Archives

Well-Respected Senator Farewelled

Well-Respected Senator Farewelled

Picton-born Western Australian senator Judith Adams has died in Perth, aged 68. The former nurse, midwife and farmer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. “Senator Adams had many friends in the Australian Parliament,…

Far Flung Fashion Report

Far Flung Fashion Report

Dunedin’s distance from the rest of the fashion world “does not stop it being far-thinking in creativity”, reports the Telegraph’s fashion director New Zealand-born Hilary Alexander, who was front row at the iD Emerging Designers Award…

Finding the Famous Five

Finding the Famous Five

When he was last in New Zealand British zoologist Mark Carwardine spent two weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country, “in search of an outlandish menagerie of animals known as the ‘Small…

Not From Concentrate, Folks

Not From Concentrate, Folks

When Monteiths cider drinkers found twigs in their six-pack boxes their complaints streamed into radio stations and newspapers and the country buzzed with the “contamination” story. At which point Monteiths launched its Colenso BBDO-developed…

Pristine Property For Sale

Pristine Property For Sale

A Queenstown “French-country-style” property on Franklin Road features in the Wall Street Journal’s ‘Open House’ section. Owners, American retired couple Gerald and Carolyne Johnson, are asking $4.5 million for the five-bedroom home. ‘It’s whistle-clean air, whistle-clean…

Women Standing Out in Walker

Women Standing Out in Walker

Karen Walker eyewear is impressing the likes of singers Florence Welch and Rihanna with both stars recently spotted in her frames. “They are for girls who have a fun and flashy style and don’t…

Riding Roughshod

Riding Roughshod

Tanks for Everything in Christchurch is offering frustrated drivers the chance to crush a car with a tank, armoured personnel carrier or Jeep, the largest of which can easily flatten a family sedan….

Conducting Lifelong Love

Conducting Lifelong Love

New Zealand-born conductor Andrew Sewell is in contention to replace the current Illinois Symphony Orchestra’s music director and is profiled ahead of his Springfield audition in the State Journal-Register. Sewell, who lives in Wisconsin, previously…

Lynch Pin Performs Wonder

Lynch Pin Performs Wonder

Originally from Auckland, SF Jazz Collective bassist Matt Penman studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music before relocating to New York in 1995. Penman, 37, is a longtime lynch pin of the Collective, which…

Gifted Goalkeeper Qualifies

Gifted Goalkeeper Qualifies

Christchurch-born Michael O’Keeffe, a junior goalkeeper for Connecticut’s Fairfield University soccer team the Stags, has qualified to play in the 2012 London Summer Olympics as a member of the New Zealand Under-23 team. According…

Fair Shake For All

Fair Shake For All

“There is a place in the world where moderate Republicans still exist – unfortunately, you have to take a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to get there,” New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman writes. “Indeed, to…

Lo-fi Musical Shift

Lo-fi Musical Shift

New Zealand chanteuse Ladyhawke, 32, talks to Vogue Australia about her new album Anxiety and the musical shift between this recording and her self-titled debut. She’s progressed from the synth-heavy 1980s to the gritty guitars of the 90s….

Challenge of Mandarin Libretto

Challenge of Mandarin Libretto

Dunedin-born opera singer Jonathan Lemalu, 36, tells the Guardian how he learnt to sing in Mandarin for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts premiere of Three Poems by Mu Xin, which he and the New Zealand…

Locking Up The Problem

Locking Up The Problem

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world and imprisons people at a rate second only to the United States, according to a study conducted by the…

Distinguished Scientist

Distinguished Scientist

Molecular physicist Sir Paul Callaghan, who was best known for his work with magnetic resonance, a field that has practical applications in everything from health care to industrial production, has died. He was 64….

Harmonious Sanctuaries

Harmonious Sanctuaries

Woodbridge, Hortensia House and Ayrlies Garden are three of New Zealand’s “stand out” gardens, which Go Upstate’s Betty Montgomery visited on an “unforgettable trip” to summer south of the equator. “Woodbridge was started in…

Intense Appreciation

Intense Appreciation

New Zealand filmmaker and artist Vincent Ward’s multimedia exhibition “Breath: The Fleeting Intensity of Life” is drawing attention from China. “During the Govett-Brewster exhibition, we had a professor of art from the…

Final Leap Beneath Blue

Final Leap Beneath Blue

Teenager Alex Colvin features in the Guardian’s regular gallery ‘24 Hours in Pictures’, competing in the under-17 men’s long jump final on day one of the 2012 New Zealand National Athletics Championships…

Attractive Investment

Attractive Investment

“A little bit of PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s wealth will help New Zealand technology businesses thanks to the launch of a new venture capital project,” Lucy Craymer writes for the Wall Street…

Reversal Of The Right

Reversal Of The Right

“New Zealand is finally yielding to the rest of the world when it comes to its unique set of road rules, after decades of confounding drivers from overseas,” Nick Perry writes for…

Betty Fondly Remembered

Betty Fondly Remembered

New Zealand freshwater algae expert Dr Elizabeth Flint, known as Betty, who was still at the wheel of her 1958 Ford Consul in her 90s, has died, aged 102. Flint’s friend Catherine Haines writes…

Marmageddon Strikes

Marmageddon Strikes

This month, the manufacturer of Marmite says its supplies of the yeast-extract product ran out, four months after earthquakes forced it to close the only factory that made New Zealand’s version. “Don’t…

Sharing Aviation Abilities

Sharing Aviation Abilities

New Zealand, which claims to have the highest per capita ratio of aircraft, one per thousand people, is to assist India in airport development and pilot training to achieve its growth potential…

On The Cheap In Auckland

On The Cheap In Auckland

Auckland Art Gallery is one of a “trifecta of frugal activities” recommended by The New York Times’ Seth Kugel on “a day and a half” visit to the City of Sails. “After…

Learning the Ropes

Learning the Ropes

Seventeen-year-old Auckland model Yasmin Bidois was scouted at the mall, the cinema, and then the airport before she gave in to the calling. After doing the modeling circuit in New Zealand, Bidois signed with…

Up and Coming in Los Angeles

Up and Coming in Los Angeles

Auckland-born Celine Wallace is rapidly gaining notoriety as an up and coming actress in Los Angeles, where she performs regularly at The Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica as part of the LA Café…

Pinup For Road Trips

Pinup For Road Trips

“I still haven’t gotten past being wowed by the greenness of the countryside,” Chicago Tribune reporter Phil Marty writes on day three of a four-day driving trip from Auckland southward. “This country…

Source Of Healing Power

Source Of Healing Power

New Zealand manuka honey producer Denis Watson features in the Irish Times’ ‘True Characters’ column this week. “My business, Watson & Son was established in 2003, in response to the growing demand for premium manuka honey,”…

Hohepa’s Fearsome High Notes

Hohepa’s Fearsome High Notes

“Based on a true story spanning nearly 150 years, Hohepa lays bare some of New Zealand’s most painful wounds — and seeks to heal them through music,” Mike Silverman of the Associated Press writes. “The opera,…

Hooking Syllables At SXSW

Hooking Syllables At SXSW

New Zealand singer Kimbra, 21, is on tour in the United States, where she spent four days at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, “playing the biggest sponsored parties along with…

What They’re Reading

What They’re Reading

Katherine Mansfield’s 1918 story Je Ne Parles Pas Français is included in the New Yorker’s ‘What We’re Reading’ column, a selection of notes from the staff on their literary engagements of the week. Andrew Mantz writes:…

Big British Hopes

Big British Hopes

I Am Giant, a four-piece band formerly of Auckland and now based in London, explain their reasons for relocation in an interview with The New Paper ahead of the group’s Singapore gig at Hard…

Life Spent Winning

Life Spent Winning

Former All Blacks captain and New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Christchurch-born Jock Hobbs, has died of cancer in Wellington, aged 52. Hobbs played 21 Tests for the All Blacks as an openside flanker between…

High Life On The Edge

High Life On The Edge

New Zealand is becoming a favourite place to live for wealthy foreigners, with American Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel, Russian steel billionaire Alexander Abramov, and New York Empire State Building’s Tony Malkin among those recently…

Welcome To New Zealand

Welcome To New Zealand

New Zealander Dana Wensley returns home for a short visit from Canada where she claims to feeling like “an immigrant.” “In some ways, anyone who is not part of the indigenous Maori population will…

Phantom Restored In NZ

Phantom Restored In NZ

New Zealand has done wonders for the health of former Phantom of the Opera and Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em star Michael Crawford. Seventy-year-old Crawford said moving to New Zealand had cured him of the chronic…

Deliciously Unique

Deliciously Unique

New Plymouth’s Big Wave Café, the Flying Fox café on the Whanganui River and Dargaville’s Funky Fish are some of the “one-of-a–kind character” cafés worth travelling off the beaten track to find according…

Matchless Legend Remembered

Matchless Legend Remembered

Former All Blacks lock Richard “Tiny” White, regarded as New Zealand’s finest rugby players in his position, has died in Gisborne aged 86. White played 30 matches, including 23 consecutive tests for New Zealand…

Capital Drinking Haunts

Capital Drinking Haunts

“Wellington is famous for its tiny, tucked-away bars, quirky cafes and galleries, fashion boutiques, award winning restaurants and buzzing nightlife,” Lost at E Minor travel site explains. Australian tourist, Patrick Stevenson — a.k.a. The…

Six60: Forever

Six60: Forever

Six60 perform their hit single, Forever.

Tramping The South

Tramping The South

“Our visit to 47 degrees south has come during a seven-day trekking tour on the South Island — a round trip taking in Queenstown, Milford Sound, Stewart Island and the Catlins, a region hunkered…

Simplifying Change

Simplifying Change

The ever practical New Zealanders are always tweaking their system, right down to their pocket change, writes Eric Bergeson for the Morris Sun Tribune. “They got rid of the 1-cent and 2-cent coins during my…

#144: Around the World in 49 Headlines

#144: Around the World in 49 Headlines

  THE GLOBAL LIFE OF NEW ZEALANDERS From Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM | 9 March 2012| #144 |…

Marmite: Don’t Freak

Marmite: Don’t Freak

Graham Henry helps New Zealand’s get through the 2012 Marmite Shortage.

Benefits Of Filming On The Cheap

Benefits Of Filming On The Cheap

Director of Western Good for Nothing, New Zealander Mike Wallis, discusses the benefits of making a film with little money in The Huffington Post’s column ‘The Blog’. “With a limited amount of funds to…

Runway Sales

Runway Sales

Owners of Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport, New Zealand-based infrastructure investment company Infratil, are putting the property up for sale. Infratil has said it is also looking for a buyer for its British airport, Manston in…

Pumas Sign Henry

Pumas Sign Henry

Sir Graham Henry has signed with the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) as a part-time consultant with a particular view to improve coaching at Argentina’s high performance centres. The World Cup-winning coach will help fine…

Icebreaker On-Demand

Icebreaker On-Demand

Pioneering outdoor merino apparel company Icebreaker has relaunched its American ecommerce site using on-demand ecommerce platform Demandware, and has plans to expand beyond North America into Europe and the Southern Hemisphere during 2012 and…

With A Vision For More Gold

With A Vision For More Gold

New Zealand gold medal eventer Mark Todd, 56, one of only two New Zealanders to compete in six Olympics, says he will ride at his seventh Olympics with a horse “as good as any…

Frontiers Compared

Frontiers Compared

New Zealand reveals many similarities with Appalachia — the eastern United States region that stretches from New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia — according to The Washington Times columnist Lisa King. “Isolated from…

24 Hours In Rotovegas

24 Hours In Rotovegas

Rotorua set itself up as a tourist destination in the 1800s; its pink-and-white terraces became New Zealand’s first attraction with people having to pass through sleepy Rotorua to reach them. “Today, Rotorua receives 3.2…

Juke Joint Revelations

Juke Joint Revelations

In the wake of her successful debut album Holy Smoke, Auckland-born songstress Gin Wigmore talks about the process which led to her second, the blues-inspired Gravel and Wine, a sophomore album high on sass with numbers…

Wimbledon Of Shearing

Wimbledon Of Shearing

The 4600 sheep picked for the 2012 World Sheep Shearing Competition in Masterton, and the national Golden Shears championships, were pampered this week, with top clippers from around the globe competing for a top…

Worth The Wait

Worth The Wait

Ladyhawke, a.k.a. Pip Brown, 32, features in the Guardian’s ‘The Week in Music — in pictures’ gallery performing a free in-store gig at Rough Trade, east London. The release of Brown’s highly-anticipated second album Anxiety has been postponed…

Attention-Seeking TV Role

Attention-Seeking TV Role

Fourteen-year-old Porirua actress Stefania Owen will play Dorrit, Carrie Bradshaw’s younger rebellious sister in The Carrie Diaries, the prequel of the iconic television series Sex and the City. Set in the 1980s, the show will follow…

Coney Lights Up The Stage

Coney Lights Up The Stage

Ex-New Zealand cricket captain and stage lighting designer Wellington-born Jeremy Coney, 59, lights up a London production of The Leisure Society, starring former British model Agyness Dean. “An air of glamour surrounds this French-Canadian import…