Small Business Expansion
New Zealand business software company Greentree featured in the Guardian’s ‘Small Business Network’ section. “Greentree is special,” CEO Peter Dickinson says. “What makes it special is the wonderful community of…
July 2012 Archives
Google Buys New Zealander’s Social Media Company
Google has purchased social media marketing company Wildfire Interactive for a reported US$250M. Wildfire Interactive was created by New Zealander Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard four years ago and has gone on to become…
Pint-sized Nude on Plaid
“A weirder, more diffuse sense of humour animates an assemblage by New Zealand-born, London-based Francis Upritchard,” the Los Angeles Times ‘Culture Monster’ describes in a review of the three-artist show ‘Bush of…
Room for Manoeuvre
Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu is calling for youngsters to make a statement and secure a spot for the international season at the start of the team’s four-year cycle. Taumaunu, 49, has acknowledged inexperience…
Settling the Score
“Jane locked me in a hotel room with a piano and said she wouldn’t let me out until I’d finished,” British composer Michael Nyman, explains to the Guardian about his task to complete…
Modern Christchurch Planned
Plans for a new-look downtown Christchurch have been unveiled, with a convention centre, sports stadium and performing arts complex among the big projects. The blueprint for the city replaces office towers with green spaces,…
New Zealand a Place of Healing
West of Memphis, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by American filmmaker Amy Berg, has had its premiere in Wellington as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. The…
Win Over Rivals in London
The Black Sticks have beaten Australia at the London Olympics 1-0 in the opening game of the women’s hockey tournament, a first win over their rivals in Games history. The Black Sticks rode on…
Locking with the Lopez Crew
Twenty-year-old New Zealand hip-hop dancer Parris Goebel has been hired by chart-topper Jennifer Lopez to choreograph moves for her upcoming world tour. Goebel has also appeared with her ReQuest dance crew mates on the…
Scripted Insanity
Wellington-born actress Kerry Fox, 46, best known for her early films, including Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table, Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Michael Winterbottom’s Welcome to Sarajevo, is in rehearsals for the…
Fabled Shirt Replicated for Welsh Club
“There are thought to be only eight rugby jerseys still in existence from the fabled 1905 New Zealand world tour,” Alex Smith writes for the Carmarthen Journal. “Carmarthenshire’s Tycroes RFC owned one of…
Fish For a New Middle Class
More New Zealand seafood is headed to Thailand as consumer appetite grows. The South Pacific nation is poised to capitalise on Thai consumers now having more baht in their pockets and their increased appreciation…
Netball Days Continue in US
New Zealander Shallyn Reeves captained the first American national netball team at the World University Netball Championships in South Africa this month. When Reeves finished high school in New Zealand and decided to continue…
Pounui Cameron’s New Pandora
“It was ultimately New Zealand’s contemporary film culture that persuaded James Cameron to shift his work life, in stages, toward the Southern Hemisphere,” Pete Nikolaison writes for The New York Times. “New…
Magically Marvellous Mahy
“Margaret Mahy, an award-winning children’s author who tested the limits of her readers’ whimsy and courage with fantastical tales of witches, hauntings, infinite fog, and robbers brought to account by peppery grown-ups wielding chocolate…
Watch Out on Dorney Lake
New Zealand rowing pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray are not fully satisfied heading into the London Olympics. Murray says they’ve produced some fast races “but I don’t think we have showed how fast…
Ten Bands You Should Know
“If your knowledge of New Zealand’s music scene doesn’t extend beyond Flying Nun Records and Flight of the Conchords, then rejoice — there’s a shitload of excellent local music just waiting to be discovered,”…
Surfing Strength Studied
A new study led by Oliver Farley from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and published in the August issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looks at professional surfers to analyze the…
Mansfield Stories Uncovered
Four previously unknown stories written more than a century ago by Katherine Mansfield have been discovered by Chris Mourant, 23, a PhD student at King’s College London. Any new material by Mansfield, who had…
Illegal Downloads Halved
Internet piracy rates in New Zealand have halved since the introduction of the controversial “three strikes” rule, the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (Rianz) says. The rule allows fines of up to $15,000…
Triumphant in Sydney Debut
Eighteen-year-old Pukekohe jockey Alysha Collett took on the big boys of the Sydney racing scene at Rosehill and emerged triumphant riding the Australian-trained Matiya’s Pride. Collett was invited to Australia by Sydney’s premier trainer…
More Halal Burgers for UAE
New Zealand fastfood chain BurgerFuel has opened its fifth flagship outlet in the Mall of the Emirates. BurgerFuel Worldwide CEO international markets Chris Mason said: “Mall of the Emirates attracts over 30 million visitors…
Hopes for Gold at Olympic Stadium
Like many of the more than 40 Olympians with Michigan ties who’ll compete during the next few weeks at the London Games, New Zealander Nick Willis — who represented the University of Michigan in…
Safety First with Al Bundy
New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey, 35, appears in cartoon alongside Married with Children and Modern Family star Ed O’Neill in the latest Air New Zealand airline safety video. Melanie seems a little … disappointed…
Dreamscapes Helps Children
Auckland visual artist and art educator Vivien Masters is collaborating with New York’s Brookdale Hospital in July as part of her international non-profit art classes for seriously ill children, the
Reuniting Families with Sons
Bronte artist Darryl Robertson has dedicated the past few years to helping the Dutch town of Markelo track down the families of three RAF airmen who were killed when their bomber, one of three…
Fresh Look for Blackcaps
Mike Hesson has been appointed head coach of the Blackcaps until the end of the 2015 World Cup. Hesson replaces John Wright. Hesson coached New Zealand A sides from 2008-11 and was head coach…
Raising the Frame Rate
“Peter Jackson raised the bar for fantasy popularity 11 years ago with the first of three Lord of the Rings films,” Brian Truitt reports for USA Today. “With his latest J.R.R Tolkien adaptation, he…
Modern Medieval Creatures
Fans of the peculiar will be intrigued by New Zealander Francis Upritchard’s exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary which sees mythical creatures take over the gallery, This is Nottingham writes. Almost life-size figures by…
What Better Role Model
Corporal Willie Apiata, 40, the only living New Zealander to hold the country’s top award for battlefield gallantry, the Victoria Cross, is quitting the military to work with vulnerable youth at Papakura’s High Wire…
Pioneering Potter Remembered
New Zealand-born decorative ceramicist Kenneth Clark, who has died aged 89, was to tiles what James Dyson is to vacuum cleaners, Sarah Hosking writes for the Guardian. “He took a domestic product that had…
Homemade Air Adventure
New Zealand pilots George Richards and Darryn Morgan are participating in America’s largest experimental aviation convention — the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — and are flying there from Chino,…
Prospering in a Free Market
General manager policy and advocacy of the Federated Farmers of New Zealand Mark Ross discusses the benefits of cutting farm subsidies in New Zealand and, together with the editor of the Cato Institute’s
Writing Like a Virtuoso
New Zealand author Sarah Quigley’s latest novel The Conductor “reads like a proper up-all-night page-turner, but it also goes deeper than that, conveying the extraordinary life-saving properties of music, and hope,” Guardian reviewer Bella…
Yarns From the Crease
Former New Zealand cricket captain Jeremy Coney, who now works as a commentator for Sky TV and Test Match Special, shared stories from his career at Ledbury Cricket Club’s 175th Anniversary celebration dinner in…
Portable Home on Sleds
Auckland’s Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects have designed a macrocarpa-clad hut made with a requirement that all structures be removable. The hut measures 40 square metres and rests on two thick wooden sleds…
Edgy Stay on Mars
A group of six New Zealanders recently completed a two-week simulated mission at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Hanksville, Utah. The three men and three women of the KiwiMars team…
Reggae Royalty Play US
Katchafire continue their North American tour with stops in Canada, California and Guam before returning home to New Zealand with their Back to the Roots Tour through August. “There’s a load to bear when…
Solitary Homage to Storytelling
Queenstown-based artist Ivan Clarke’s book Alveridgea and the Legend of The Lonely Dog, co-written by with Stu Duval, is being developed as a feature film, with independent producer Jeff Kleeman. Clarke, previously best known…
Blissfully Witty Trappings
“On his third album as Lawrence Arabia, Christchurch native James Milne perfects the project’s defining balance of dry, writerly wit and classic pop blitheness,” Doug Wallen writes for Mess and Noise. “The…
Out of Step with Her Peers
“Gin Wigmore, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand, is a one-off,” Paul Lester of the Guardian declares, introducing Wigmore as ‘New Band’ No 1305. “Utterly unique. A maverick who dares go against the grain,…
Notable Beauty
“New Zealand contains an impressive series of national parks and other wilderness areas that are famous for their exquisite natural beauty and abundant, and often unique, wildlife,” Brian Clark Howard of National Geographic News…
Herald Goes Weekday Tabloid
The New Zealand Herald will switch to a tabloid format for its weekday issues from September. In announcing the move, the Auckland-based broadsheet spoke of undergoing “the biggest transformation in its 150-year history”. Martin…
Steeped in Melancholy
Former New Zealand-based author Kapka Kassabova’s latest “odyssey” Twelve Minutes of Love begins “in the enthusiastic, though limited, tango scene in Auckland” continuing across “three continents in search of the perfect dance (or ‘tangasm’).”…
Honours at Blackwolf Run
Fifteen-year-old world top-ranked amateur golfer, Aucklander Lydia Ko, has taken low amateur honours in the U.S. Women’s Open, at Blackwolf Run, Wisconsin. Although Ko is still an amateur, she has not only played with…
Shameless Self-Promoter
New Zealand fashion journalist Isaac Hindin-Miller is currently blogging for The New York Times. Hindin-Miller says trends move much faster in New York than New Zealand. “Fashion stores will bring jumpsuits out…
Story Without Compromise
“I don’t think I’ve read any fiction that marries the strengths of the short story and novel quite as adeptly, and without compromise, as Emily Perkins’ The Forrests,” Sydney Morning Herald journalist and author…
In the Mood for China Girl
The Guardian recommends David Bowie’s China Girl video, featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng, as one of seven music video recommendations “for every mood.” “Ng plays the China girl in scenes that toy with…
Now to the Cutting Room
Two of Hollywood’s most anticipated — and most expensive — forthcoming movies have wrapped production in New Zealand. Shot together, a pair of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy book The Hobbit have…
Searching for Dark Skies
A view of Lake Tekapo features in the USA Today’s Photo Friday under the theme ‘Stars’. Though American journalist Chris Gray Faust’s plans to star gaze at the Mt John Observatory were thwarted by…
Taking Australia by Storm
Twelve years on since their television debut on Wellington’s regional TV station, the Flight of the Conchords, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, haven’t changed. McKenzie still looks perplexed and Clement still looks…
Upritchard Pose at V&A
A work by New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard is part of the Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collision exhibition on at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum through 29 July. “An old…
Fuss-Free and on the Cheap
Twenty days, 14 towns and cities throughout the North and South Islands, return flight tickets, return ferry transfer across Cook Strait, lodging, travel pass, two typical Kiwi adventures and shopping for famous local outdoor…
Inspirational Outlook
American novelist David Vann’s desktop picture is a view from his land in New Zealand. “We rented a place in Taupo Bay in 2009, for nine weeks, and that’s where I wrote the first…
#147: 100%
THE GLOBAL LIFE OF NEW ZEALANDERS From Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM | 4 July 2012| #147 |…
Sheer Grit and Determination
New Zealand cyclist Alison Shanks, 29, is profiled in The Wall Street Journal, which introduces athletes from around the world competing in the 2012 London Olympics. “New Zealand’s world champion individual pursuit…
