Royal Dons NZ Designer
An indigo tweed skirt suit designed by New Zealander Rebecca Taylor was recently worn by the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton when she stepped out for an event at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London. When…
April 2012 Archives
Art the Lifeblood on Waiheke
“‘There’s something about this stretch of water that changes everything,’ sculptor Chris Bailey says, gesturing towards the Hauraki Gulf. ‘It has an almost cleansing effect.’” “Clambering out of Bailey’s cluttered ute, we…
Banking on Nigeria
Stephen Jennings, the New Zealand-born founder and chief executive of Moscow-based investment bank Renaissance Capital, is setting up a consumer finance business in Nigeria with hopes to tap the fast-growing economy’s rising…
Ballistic on AFL Boundaries
New Zealand Olympic hopeful Aucklander Veronica Torr, 24, who is on the brink of qualifying for the London Games in the heptathlon, has been head-hunted by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a boundary…
International Success Story
New Zealand filmmaker Anna Cottrell has been filming the story of Ethiopian refugee Terefe Ejigu since he was 16, when newly enrolled at Wellington College he began running. Ejigu’s talent as a runner was…
Spotlight on Adolescent Health
New Zealand has the second highest overall mortality rate and the highest suicide rate in those aged 10-24 years among developed countries, according to recent analysis undertaken by medical journal The Lancet. In the…
Ultimate Legend Remembered
Rugby legend Fred “The Needle” Allen – who at age 92 was the oldest living All Black and one of the rare group of players to have both played in and coached the national…
Making Records Trumps Study
Kimbra started writing songs at the age of 10 as a “natural way to express myself as a kid” she tells Mel Evans of the Sunday Magazine. “It wasn’t until I started listening to…
Gobsmackingly Good Wine
“Martinborough, at the bottom of the North Island, is alter ego: small, intimate, friendly and with gobsmackingly good vino,” Ian Verrender, business columnist, writes in The Age. “Marlborough produces the bulk of New…
Cup Makes Television History
Last year’s Rugby World Cup final, in which the All Blacks beat France, was the most-watched event in New Zealand television history “attracting a 98 per cent audience share,” Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL)…
#146: The Global Life of New Zealanders
THE GLOBAL LIFE OF NEW ZEALANDERS From Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM | 27 April 2012| #146 |…
Terrifically Exciting Force
When chef and author Robert Oliver was growing up in New Zealand “restaurant culture was just beginning and eating out was considered to be an indulgence, a rare treat.” “Ironic really, considering that, as…
Technologically Outnumbered
Mobile phones in New Zealand outnumber the country’s population, according to a study conducted by global market research firm TNS, which surveyed 48,000 people in 58 countries finding that almost half of New Zealanders…
Short Sequence, Sharp Response
A 10-minute sequence from Peter Jackson’s forthcoming two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been shown to conference goers at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The conference featured a presentation from…
Time to Pause for Thought
An estimated 15,000 flocked to this year’s dawn service ceremony at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland to mark the 97th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to remember fallen servicemen and women….
Taking on the World
In the worldwide food shortages that developed at the end of the Second World War, tiny New Zealand grew fabulously rich. New Zealand dairy farmer Thomas Lambie recalls: “ had the second-highest per-capita income in…
Joyfully Optimistic
“New Zealand is an otherworldly mash-up of climates, geologies, adventures, and luxuries. (Oh, the things you can do!)”, writes Condé Nast Traveler’s Susan Hack, who “tries it all in the Southern Hemisphere’s hot zone”,…
Mad for it in Wellington
Wellington’s St James Theatre heaving with a full-capacity crowd features in the Guardian’s ‘24 Hours in Pictures’ as One Direction fans watch the British boy band perform. One Direction’s 2012 tour of New Zealand…
Computer Games Raise Spirits
A computer game designed to lift teenagers out of depression is as effective as one-on-one counselling, researchers at the University of Auckland have found. Researchers tested an interactive 3-D fantasy game called SPARX on…
Trojan War Maori Style
The director of New Zealand’s version of Troilus and Cressida Rachel House explains how she put Maori culture at the heart of Shakespeare’s Trojan tragedy. Thirty-seven theatre companies from around the world are presenting…
#145: Rock Around the World
THE GLOBAL LIFE OF NEW ZEALANDERS From Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM | 20 April 2012| #145 |…
Reflections on Survival
Mayor of Wellington Celia Wade-Brown has opened the capital city’s Holocaust Centre on Holocaust Remembrance Day — an “asset for all New Zealanders to reflect on the importance of harmony, diversity, resilience and survival.”…
Emergency Place of Worship
“Christchurch, New Zealand, where an earthquake last year killed 185 people, is still struggling with how to treat another of its casualties, the city’s Anglican cathedral,” Wall Street Journal reporter Eric Felten writes, beginning…
Top of the Pops
New Zealand singer Kimbra, 22, featuring on Belgian-Australian Gotye’s single Somebody That I Used To Know, has made it to the top of the American Billboard top 100. It is the first time a…
Acting Against Bullying
Eighteen-year-old founder of Two Face Drama Charlizza Harris from Lower Hutt was one of 33 teenage entrepreneurs honoured at the first annual Dare to Dream awards dinner in New York City on…
Illuminating North America
The first of the two-day New Zealand in L.A. festival at the city’s REDCAT theatre featured eight chamber and solo works by New Zealand composers and renowned performer on Maori instruments, Richard Nunns. Los…
Dangerously High Salt Levels
New Zealand’s fast foods on average contain 8 per cent more sodium than comparable foods in the UK and a massive 18 per cent more than those in France, as shown in an international…
Coffee Without the Schnauzer
Berlin-based New Zealand author Sarah Quigley pays a visit to Antipodes coffee shop in the German capital’s area of Prenzlauer Berg where NZEdge web editor Jane Nye and partner Paul Milne, both…
Emotional Provocateur
Auckland singer-songwriter Sam RB’s song Stand Tall has been chosen from more than 300 entries as the theme of the New Zealand contingent at the London Olympics. The New Zealand Olympic Committee invited songwriters…
First With Pig Cells
New Zealand company Living Cell Technologies plans to implant pig cells in the human brain in clinical trials to treat Parkinson’s disease and help improve movement and brain functions in patients. The clinical trials,…
Loving the Vibes in the Bay
Logan Bell of Hamilton reggae band Katchafire talked to the Examiner’s Alyssa Tomfohrde ahead of their San Francisco show at the prestigious Mezzanine venue. “From humble beginnings ‘jamming’ in a garage, Katchafire is a…
Robotic Sex Machines
In their paper — Robots, Men And Sex Tourism — Ian Yeoman and Michelle Mars of Victoria Management School in Wellington, imagine what the sex industry will be like in the future. The year…
All Aboard for Seal Spotting
The Coastal Pacific train journey runs so close to the coast, for nearly 100km between Picton and Christchurch, that along one section of its route you can almost see the whiskers of scores of…
Feral Cats Out Tuatara In
Sixty tuatara have been released on Motuihe Island, which lies between Motutapu and Waiheke islands in the Hauraki Gulf. The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Motuihe Trust spent many years ridding…
Well-being in Advanced Age
Older Maori who are engaged in cultural practices and connected to their traditional community have a higher quality of life, according to a ground-breaking study by researchers at the University of Auckland called, “Life…
Little Aliens Land in LA Stores
New Zealand eyewear, clothing and jewellery designer Karen Walker – who was recently in Los Angeles to show her 2012 Little Aliens sunglasses collection at the West Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont – talked to The…
Standing Out on Court
New Zealand high school basketball player 2.15m- (7 feet 1 inch) Steven Adams, who plays for Notre Dame Prep in Baltimore, is one of the top-ranked players in the Class of 2012 (No. 6…
Harpooning Hearts in Vegas
Auckland jazz singer Sarah Frances Johnston, 21, is this month beginning a two-month residency performing at Oscar’s Beef, Booze and Broads at the Plaza in Las Vegas. Johnston, who began acting at age 11…
Exposure to Chelsea Crowd
An exhibition of 25 New Zealand artists is on at New York’s Agora Gallery from 24 April through 15 May. “‘Made in New Zealand’ presents a fresh perspective on a country that provides continual…
New American Sci-fi Role
Oscar-nominated actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, 22, who starred in Niki Caro’s smash hit film Whale Rider, takes the role of Priya in an American sci-fi pilot called Rewind. Castle-Hughes will play a “behavioral anthropologist who…
Cool Little Boost in Dubai
Twenty-year-old freestyle motocross rider Levi Sherwood from Palmerston North has won the 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters series opener in Dubai. He finished Australian Rob Adelberg off with a run featuring a mix of old-school…
Tilly the Force of Nature
Wellington actor and artist Grant Tilly, well remembered for his performance in The Daylight Atheist, has died, aged 74. Having starred in many stage and television productions including Foreskin’s Lament and Gliding On, Tilly is known for being…
Stripes Under NZ lights
Early White Stripes footage from a concert the pair performed at Auckland’s Kings Arms Tavern in 2000 — some of the earliest footage of the band outside of the United States — will feature…
Truly International Ambition
Moa Beer founder Josh Scott’s vision is for Moa “to be New Zealand’s first true international beer”, with Australia and the US as prime export targets. “We recently refreshed the brand, including a redesign…
Crowned Mr Gay World
Andreas Derleth, 32, from Auckland was crowned the Mr Gay World in a gala event that took place for the first time in Johannesberg, South Africa. Originally from Germany, Derleth moved to New Zealand…
Recommended Listening
The release of Ladyhawke’s second album Anxiety is one of Guardian reviewer’s Alex Petridis’ “top picks of the spring.” Petridis writes: “The second album by this self-styled ‘pop superwoman creating radio-friendly songs with a single bound’ — aka…
Pursuit gold for Shanks
Dunedin-born Alison Shanks, 29, won the women’s Individual Pursuit title beating Britain’s Wendy Houvenaghel by more than two seconds at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne this month. “It’s a great…
Quintessential Southern Tipple
Being a university town, there is no shortage of places in Dunedin that make beer, and taking pride of place is the city’s Speight’s Brewery. “Since 1876, the Speight’s Brewery has been supplying the…
In His Element
“When it comes to skateboarding, New Zealander Bjorn Johnston has put in work,” ESPN blogger Joel Rice writes. “Though he joined Element’s Australian team relatively recently, his resume runs quite deep. Prior to signing…
Stylish in Wedges on Bikes
Gretchen Bunny, 32, owner of Martinborough company March Hare Cycling, which rents bikes to visitors eager to explore the cluster of wineries in this section of the Wairarapa Wine Trail, has a simple rule…
Currency Sharing Insanity
Perhaps the most “absurd” thing to cross Forbes’ contributor Tim Worstall’s desk on this particular morning was a report on how New Zealand and Australia might merge their currencies to create a single trans-Tasman currency…
Hollywood Star Cellaring Well
An interview with New Zealand actor and vigneron Sam Neill has been Huffington Post freelancer Mike Matthews’ most viewed wine blog entry. To celebrate Matthews’ blog’s birthday, the November 2011 piece, about Neill’s vineyard Two Paddocks,…
Gauging Health Performance
New Zealand has rated sixth worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialised nations. According to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs, Ellen Nolte and Martin…
Big Screen, Big Bucks
The local screen industry contributed $3 billion in gross revenues to the New Zealand economy in 2011, an increase of 4 per cent over 2010, fueled by a boost in feature film production, according…
Less Talking More Chalking
Rocky “The Technician” Lane, world record holding professional New Zealand pool champion, is profiled in Air Macau’s in-flight magazine this month. “Upon agreeing to an interview, Lane suggests meeting at Bar 171 in Taipa,…
