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…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
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…
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…
This Brother to Memorialise
Former champion rower Rob Hamill’s film Brother Number One, which tells the story of his brother Kerry Hamill and two friends killed in Cambodia after accidentally sailing there in 1978, was among…
Uncorking Auckland’s Potential
Mayor of the new Auckland Council Len Brown is profiled in a Monocle report called, “Ten Smart Govenors”, “a selection of inspiring local legislators.” “In just 18 months he has…
Climbing the City Ranks
Auckland rises four places to rank at nine in Monocle’s annual list of “Top 25 Liveable Cities”. “What a difference a Rugby World Cup and a new political structure makes,” the magazine writes. “Aucklanders…
Saving the Arctic at all Costs
New Zealand-born actress Lucy Lawless, who was recently in Rio de Janeiro to launch Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign alongside Sir Richard Branson, talks to the Guardian’s Susanna Rustin about her latest…
Wines Making the Cut
Cinema celebrities New Zealanders Michael Seresin and Sam Neill are two of a growing number of filmmakers turning their knowledge of a good drop into winemaking. The Australian’s Michael Bodey brings his “critical faculties…
New Album with Swagger
Gin Wigmore featured on MTV Australia’s ‘Local Produce’ June special. Wigmore talked to MTV about how she got her start, her plans for the year ahead and her latest album inspiration. “Gravel & Wine…
Cricket Council President Named
New Zealander Alan Isaac has been appointed the eighth president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) succeeding India’s Sharad Pawar. Isaac, the former chairman of New Zealand Cricket, has spent the past two years…
McKellen Show Just for New Zealand
“For the past decade he has been best known as the X-Men antihero Magneto or The Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf, but in more than a dozen sold-out performances in New Zealand, where…
Veterans Remember their Friends
New Zealand World War II airmen were among 800 veterans present at Green Park, London for the Queen’s unveiling of a memorial sculpted by Scotsman Philip Jackson. New Zealand paid for 39 veterans, aged…
Mr Fix-it in the Running
Arguably the best-placed candidate to head News Corporation’s new publishing company is New Zealander Tom Mockridge, the safe pair of hands that Rupert Murdoch parachuted in to lead News International out of the phone-hacking…
Velocity is Everything
Business leaders have things the wrong way round according to New Zealand-based Kevin Roberts, chief executive worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi. They spend far too much time assessing information and making decisions,…
Strategically Repositioning Business
Investment banking faces a shakeup and only large commercial players and boutiques offering outstanding service will survive and prosper, New Zealander Stephen Jennings, the head of Moscow-based Renaissance Group says. “The industry will end…
Devastating ABs Stifle Irish
All Blacks Sam Cane and Sonny Bill Williams each scored double tries to inflict a record 60-0 defeat on Ireland and sweep their three-Test series. “We knew we had to start well and we…
Brightening the Bridge
The Wanganui City Bridge is sporting a refreshing new look at night as a result of new GE80W R150 LED luminaires, the Financial describes. “The 14 new fittings on the bridge will save the…
What This Hotelier Wore
New Zealand-born Sean MacPherson, 47, proprietor of the Bowery, Jane and Maritime hotels and an owner of the Waverly Inn restaurant, is revamping the Crow’s Nest Inn in Montauk, New York. MacPherson…
Off on a Dream Holiday
“In a nutshell,” this is why American Jennifer Thomas went to New Zealand: “I’m driving along some winding country road and a flock of sheep shamble up a hill and cover the road, blocking…
New Zealand’s Great Indoors
New Zealand’s temperate climate, stunning scenery and lower cost of living make it an attractive option for young Irish people and families who are looking to find a new home. According to Quotable Value…
Puttin’ ‘Em Back in the Trees
A mammoth conservation effort stretching back decades is offering hope for one of the world’s rarest birds, the kakapo, lifting its numbers from about 50 in 1990 to 126 this year. The kakapo was…
Windows to the Soul
New Zealand’s blue-eyed triplefin fish is one of American National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry’s “amazing pictures from beneath the waves” featuring in the Daily Mail. The triplefin fish is commonly found around…
Cheap Beginnings and a Title
Little Bridge, bred by Des Hawkins’ Llanhennock Trust at Wentwood Grange in Waikato, has became the first New Zealand-bred horse to win at the Royal Ascot meeting, outgunning a class field to…
Fern Hopes for Place in London
Football Ferns goalkeeper Aucklander Aroon Clansey, 26, who currently plays for English FA Women’s Super League club Liverpool Ladies, is hoping to be in the New Zealand team who will face Cameroon in the…
Radio New Zealand Wins Gold
New Zealand’s top ranking radio station, Radio New Zealand, has won gold at the 2012 New York Festival Radio Awards for their Christchurch earthquake documentary, Broken River. Broken River received the top…
Big Plans for the Pacific Rim
Former president and chief executive of Unilever’s Canadian business, New Zealander Christopher Luxon, 41, has been named Rob Fyfe’s successor as CEO of Air New Zealand. Luxon joined Air New Zealand in May 2011…
Reputation Grows in UK
“We’ve always thought we’d love New Zealand-born New York-based designer Rebecca Taylor, but meeting her yesterday to talk through her holiday collection it became official — Grazia’s got a girl crush,” Grazia Daily says…
Our Great Women Celebrated
New Zealand Women’s Weekly marks eight decades of publication after being launched in the depths of the Great Depression and lists the top 10 women who have shaped New Zealand. After former…
Possums and Their Strings Hit US
New Zealand bluegrass group The Johnny Possum Band have announced tour dates for their 2012 tour of the United States. “The Johnny Possum Band has been delivering their own brand of alt…
Meeting Porgy in Cincinnati
Dunedin opera singer Jonathan Lemalu takes the lead role in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess, which runs through 8 July in Music Hall. During rehearsals, Lemalu tells Cincinnati.com about the character Porgy:…
Golden Oars Row the Isar
New Zealand has taken third place at the World Rowing Cup in Munich, after winning three golds and six medals. Lightweight women’s double scullers Southland’s Louise Ayling and Rotorua’s Julia Edward took gold finishing…
From Meek Geek to King of Cool
New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby, 38, is taking his latest live show, the award-winning This Way to Spaceship, to Leeds on 14 July as part of his first UK tour. “Only Rhys can figure…
Niccol Adapts Meyer Novel
New Zealand-born director Andrew Niccol, 48, has adapted Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, which stars The Lovely Bones’ actress Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder, one of the last people fighting against an invading…
He Makes Stuff You Want
Professor of mechatronics at Massey University in Auckland Olaf Diegel’s bespoke nylon-bodied guitars are attracting interest from all over the world. An exponent of 3D printing, Diegel’s zany guitar bodies are created using computer-aided…
