News of New Zealanders via Global Media

George Johnson’s Captivating Canvasses Exhibited

George Johnson’s Captivating Canvasses Exhibited

Nelson-born George Johnson is a giant of Australian “geometric abstraction” and his work, along with that of local heavyweights Jon Plapp and Trevor Vickers, was recently exhibited at Melbourne’s Nancy Sever Gallery. In a review…

Antarctica Travelogue Gorgeously Photographed

Antarctica Travelogue Gorgeously Photographed

“Anthony Powell’s Antarctica: A Year on Ice is a gorgeously photographed travelogue about the harshest terrain on Earth,” writes Star Tribune reviewer Colin Covert. “Powell’s feature-length documentary is a trove of time-lapse shots and…

Yacht Designer Ron Holland Keeping an Eye on the Wind

Yacht Designer Ron Holland Keeping an Eye on the Wind

Ron Holland is the mega-yacht designer behind the world’s largest sloop, the M5. The former Aucklander, who lives in Vancouver, had the 60-million-euro vessel built in fibreglass at the Southampton, England yards of Vosper…

Stars Dazzle At The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies World Premiere

Stars Dazzle At The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies World Premiere

Oscar Winning New Zealand director Sir Peter Jackson and his stars arrived on a green carpet for the world premiere of his latest film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The premiere was…

Maori Portraits Lining the Walls of Berlin’s National Gallery

Maori Portraits Lining the Walls of Berlin’s National Gallery

For the first time, Berlin’s Nationalgalerie, in association with Auckland Art Gallery, presents the Maori portraits of Bohemian artist Gottfried Lindauer, whose works are all but unknown outside of New Zealand. The paintings…

Karen Walker Says Collaboration Key to Growth

Karen Walker Says Collaboration Key to Growth

Launched in 1989 with two t-shirts and the paltry sum of $100, Karen Walker – often called the designer for “anti-It Girls” – has grown into a globally recognised fashion brand, worn by Natalie…

Biking New Zealand’s Wine Country

Biking New Zealand’s Wine Country

New Zealand is known for its Great Walks, but now it has Great Cycles – a series of 23 bicycle trails across the country with several local outfitters, like Nelson’s Gentle Cycle Company offering…

NZ-China Sign World-First TV Co-Production Agreement

NZ-China Sign World-First TV Co-Production Agreement

The New Zealand and China governments have signed what’s said to be a world first television industry co-production agreement, which is in addition to a feature film treaty signed in 2010 and is the…

Stone Street Studios to Produce Pete’s Dragon

Stone Street Studios to Produce Pete’s Dragon

Walt Disney has confirmed that production of Pete’s Dragon, a remake of the 1977 film and starring Robert Redford, will be based at Peter Jackson’s Stone Street Studios. The live-action and CGI film…

Storyteller Wayne Mills Celebrates Reading with Kids’ Lit Quiz

Storyteller Wayne Mills Celebrates Reading with Kids’ Lit Quiz

In a quaint old theatre in Falmouth, Cornwall, a tall gentleman in a top hat stands facing the stage, like a conductor. The man is not just the ringmaster and question-setter for the

How New Zealand Nearly Ditched the Haka

How New Zealand Nearly Ditched the Haka

An exclusive Telegraph report reveals that in 2004 many All Blacks felt the haka was no longer appropriate, and how management and senior players ensured it was maintained. The choreography itself was not a problem;…

Maori Martial Arts Rule the Big Screen in The Dead Lands

Maori Martial Arts Rule the Big Screen in The Dead Lands

Matthew Metcalfe’s feature film The Dead Lands, shot entirely in Te Reo Maori and the first to showcase the ancient Maori martial art mau rakau, is due for official worldwide release early next year. The…

Peter Jackson to Get Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Peter Jackson to Get Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

New Zealand filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson is set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ahead of the release of his new film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Jackson…

WWII Spy Phyllis Doyle Receives France’s Highest Honour

WWII Spy Phyllis Doyle Receives France’s Highest Honour

Ninety-three-year-old former British secret agent Phyllis Latour Doyle, who lives in New Zealand, has received France’s highest decoration for her courage – 70 years after parachuting behind enemy lines in preparation for D-Day. Motivated in…

Artist Max Gimblett to Conquer London with Love

Artist Max Gimblett to Conquer London with Love

One of New Zealand’s most renowned and successful contemporary artists, Max Gimblett will be the subject of his first solo exhibition in the UK, “Love Conquers All,” at Kashya Hildebrand…

Ironman Legend Cameron Brown Legs It in Taiwan

Ironman Legend Cameron Brown Legs It in Taiwan

New Zealand ironman legend Cameron Brown has won the Ironman 70.3 Taiwan, an international professional half ironman triathlon competition that took place in early November. Brown, who has won 10 Ironmen titles in New Zealand,…

New Zealand Travel Secrets

New Zealand Travel Secrets

“Travel Enthusiast” Tom McLoughlin of The Huffington Post discusses his top three travel secrets from his tour of New Zealand. “The world’s finest adventure playground with sweeping mountain panoramas, bright white beaches, unbelievable city skylines;…

Lorde’s NYC A&R Man’s Lucky Day

Lorde’s NYC A&R Man’s Lucky Day

How does a teenager from Devonport, Auckland get plucked from relative obscurity to become a worldwide chart-topping phenomenon? Once-in-a-generation talent helps, but those gifts need to be paired with music execs who have the…

Rosie Project Author Graeme Simsion Plans Third Novel

Rosie Project Author Graeme Simsion Plans Third Novel

Author of hit novel The Rosie Project, New Zealand-born Graeme Simsion, 58, says he envisages a third novel with an uncontracted fourth novel on the drawing board. The book, about an eccentric man in want…

Valerie Adams is World Athlete of the Year

Valerie Adams is World Athlete of the Year

Shot putter Valerie Adams, unbeaten since August 2010, has been named female World Athlete of the Year for 2014, the first New Zealander to win the award. Two-time Olympic champion Adams, who this season enjoyed…

Estère – the New Face of Soul Music

Estère – the New Face of Soul Music

An example of soul music’s possible future is 22-year-old New Zealander Estère, who recently played at the annual Australian World Music Expo (AWME) in Melbourne. The Wellington-based bedroom artist – she literally writes and records…

Tongariro Crossing One of the World’s Best One Day Walks

Tongariro Crossing One of the World’s Best One Day Walks

“Believe the hype.” Andrew Bain writes about the Tongariro Crossing for Traveller magazine, in a list of eleven of the world’s best walks you can do in one day. “Regularly billed as the best day…

Noosa Gets Its Rhythm on with Drummer Nathaniel Combs

Noosa Gets Its Rhythm on with Drummer Nathaniel Combs

Waikiri-born percussionist Nathaniel Combs, 31, has played with world-famous ensembles such as Les Percussion de Guinea, Les Visage de Guinee, and the prestigious Kaloum Lole during time spent in Guinea, West Africa in 2004. Now,…

Lorraine Moller Extols Lydiard Technique in Canada

Lorraine Moller Extols Lydiard Technique in Canada

Four-time Olympian and multi-marathon champion Lorraine Moller visits the Canadian city of Saanich for three days in November to teach the famed Arthur Lydiard method of run training. The philosophy is widely used among elite…

NZ Welcomes China’s President in Style

NZ Welcomes China’s President in Style

“They say you can’t beat Wellington on a good day and that’s exactly what greeted China’s president in the New Zealand capital,” writes Jacqueline Le for The Daily Telegraph. President Xi Jinping, along with his…

Equine Artist Peter Willams a Kentucky Fixture

Equine Artist Peter Willams a Kentucky Fixture

New Zealander Peter Williams is the resident artist at Keeneland racecourse in Kentucky, a gentleman with an easel, canvas and palette of paints quietly working as the pageantry of the meet swirls around him,…

New Zealand Scientists Discover Ancient Toothless Whale

New Zealand Scientists Discover Ancient Toothless Whale

Scientists from the University of Otago have discovered two previously unknown ancient whale species, rewriting the history of marine mammals in the Southern Hemisphere. The 25 million year old whales, dubbed Tohoraata raekohao and Tohoraata waitakiensis, translating…

New Zealand to Rural Iceland – Extreme Commute

New Zealand to Rural Iceland – Extreme Commute

Every year, several dozen butchers make a lengthy commute – from provincial New Zealand to rural Iceland – for just two months’ work. Shawn Parkinson (pictured, far left), one of the butchers, explains that the…

Lorde’s ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack

Lorde’s ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack

The Wall Street Journal’s John Jurgensen reviews the soundtrack Lorde curated for the latest blockbuster Hunger Games movie, in an article titled “How Lorde Played God on the ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack’.” ““The Hunger Games” has another…

Waikato Gang Tribal Huks Feeding Hungry Kids

Waikato Gang Tribal Huks Feeding Hungry Kids

Ngaruawahia gang Tribal Huks has been making approximately 500 sandwiches daily and dropping them off at 25 local Waikato schools, just as American gangs have responded similarly in the past, according to a Christian…

New Zealand, Germany to Cooperate in Bionic Arm Project

New Zealand, Germany to Cooperate in Bionic Arm Project

Scientists from New Zealand and Germany are to collaborate in developing a bionic joint they say will reduce workplace injuries and help people disabled by strokes. The exoskeleton a machine fitting over the outside of…

Kiwis Win Four Nations Title in Wellington

Kiwis Win Four Nations Title in Wellington

New Zealand secured their second Four Nations title as Shaun Johnson shone in a thrilling 22-18 win over Australia at Westpac Stadium in Wellington. New Zealand have proven that they are worthy of calling themselves…

NASA Reveals New Zealand “Untouched Sanctuary”

NASA Reveals New Zealand “Untouched Sanctuary”

Nasa has released a series of images of ‘sanctuaries’ around the globe as part of a new book released this week, which includes a stunning image of Mt Taranaki in New Zealand. “Sanctuary: Exploring the World’s…

All Blacks Beat Scotland in Tough Challenge

All Blacks Beat Scotland in Tough Challenge

The All Blacks have managed to continue one of the longer streaks in world sport, as Scotland failed for the 30th time to beat the world champions. But it was only just, in a…

Lydia Ko Becomes Youngest LPGA Rookie of Year

Lydia Ko Becomes Youngest LPGA Rookie of Year

New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko has become the youngest winner of the LPGA’s Rookie of the Year award in a season in which she has won twice, secured two runner-up finishes, and gained nine…

Shane Cotton Solo Exhibition Opens in Hong Kong

Shane Cotton Solo Exhibition Opens in Hong Kong

One of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary artists, Shane Cotton will present “The Voyage Out”, a solo exhibition of new works on at Hong Kong’s Rossi Rossi gallery until 27 December. The gallery explains: “Part of…

New Zealand Cricket Fan Wins Fame with One-Handed Catch

New Zealand Cricket Fan Wins Fame with One-Handed Catch

Andrew McColloch is $5000 richer and slightly famous after his incredible one-handed catch at a Twenty20 cricket match went viral. Michael Bracewell hit a six in the match between Otago Volts and Wellington Firebirds, and spectator…

Swedes Are Funnier than They Think Says Al Pitcher

Swedes Are Funnier than They Think Says Al Pitcher

“One of Sweden’s hottest comedians,” our own Al Pitcher, 42, has launched his new comedy show, Nääämen: It’s Al Pitcher, in Stockholm. Educated in Rotorua, Pitcher has won numerous comedy awards in his new…

New Zealand: The Best Tourist Destination in The World?

New Zealand: The Best Tourist Destination in The World?

“As an Australian, there are certain things that are hard to admit,” writes Ben Groundwater for Traveller. “New Zealand is… Awesome. Incredible. Beautiful. In fact for travellers looking for an overseas experience, it might just…

General Motors Dan Ammann Drives for Change

General Motors Dan Ammann Drives for Change

General Motors President Dan Ammann is leading the push to change how the century-old Detroit automaker sells and produces cars around the world. Born in New Zealand, raised on a dairy farm at Eureka in…

‘What We Do In the Shadows’ Wins Hawaii Audience Prize

‘What We Do In the Shadows’ Wins Hawaii Audience Prize

“What We Do In the Shadows,” Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s New Zealand-made documentary-style comedy about three flatmates who happen to be vampires won the audience award for best narrative feature at the Hawaii International…

New Zealand Tourism Eyes 33% More Indians for World Cup

New Zealand Tourism Eyes 33% More Indians for World Cup

Tourism New Zealand is eyeing a massive 33 per cent growth in Indian travellers to the island Pacific nation this fiscal as it expects an influx of visitors for the World Cup Cricket it…

Richie McCaw: The Man Behind The Genius

Richie McCaw: The Man Behind The Genius

“What makes the New Zealand captain the world’s greatest player?” asks The Telegraph in a lengthy feature article. At Twickenham on Saturday, Richie McCaw eclipsed Sir Colin Meads as the most capped player ever to…

Sandra Nunnerly Making an Impact with Interior Design

Sandra Nunnerly Making an Impact with Interior Design

A favored interior designer among the New York City’s cocktail party set, New Zealand-born Sandra Nunnerley has brought her distinct eye and original aesthetic to projects as varied as Park…

Weta’s Richard Taylor Takes on Thunderbirds Challenge

Weta’s Richard Taylor Takes on Thunderbirds Challenge

The idea to adapt half-century-old television series Thunderbirds began 12 years ago when New Zealander Richard Taylor an Oscar-winning visual effects, makeup and costumes wizard, went to the UK to ask for creator Gerry…

All Blacks Reign Supreme Over England

All Blacks Reign Supreme Over England

The All Blacks gained a fifth consecutive win over England, after the home side led 14-11 at half time. But the English side made error upon error and suffered a long, slow black death in…

Teen Star James Rolleston on Why He’s “Nothing Flash-As”

Teen Star James Rolleston on Why He’s “Nothing Flash-As”

The New Zealand actor James Rolleston who impressed in Taika Waititi’s smash hit Boy is back with two new homegrown films that wowed at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. In The Dead Lands Rolleston,…

PM John Key Pushes National Rebranding with New Flag

PM John Key Pushes National Rebranding with New Flag

Prime Minister John Key, recently re-elected to a third term, is a cast-iron monarchist, the Economist writes. “Even so, he is bent on coming up with a new flag for New Zealand, one in…

Mark D’Arcy, Facebook Creative Shop CCO, Speaks About Creativity

Mark D’Arcy, Facebook Creative Shop CCO, Speaks About Creativity

Mark D’Arcy, New Zealand born VP and chief creative officer of Facebook Creative Shop, was interviewed by Campaign about the ways new technology has aligned creativity and business. “We grew up with linear forms of…

Artist Stephen Mulqueen Reviving Memory of Poppy Lady

Artist Stephen Mulqueen Reviving Memory of Poppy Lady

Dunedin jeweller and sculptor Stephen Mulqueen was in Athens, Georgia recently to drum up support for a memorial to one of the American city’s forgotten heroes – humanitarian Moina Michael, the “Poppy Lady.” Michael made…

Taika Waititi Pens Disney Animation Film Moana

Taika Waititi Pens Disney Animation Film Moana

Disney’s 56th animated film Moana has magic written all over it, according to the Latin Post and New Zealand writer and director Taika Waititi has a hand in it. The film is the studio’s…

Indie Stars Dean Wareham and Luna Announce Reunion

Indie Stars Dean Wareham and Luna Announce Reunion

After a decade apart, indie rockers Luna, fronted by New Zealand-born Dean Wareham, have “insouciantly” announced their reunion with a string of dates in Spain and vague hints at US dates, planned for next…

Curator Wayne Tunnicliffe Assembles Blockbuster Pop Exhibit

Curator Wayne Tunnicliffe Assembles Blockbuster Pop Exhibit

The Art Gallery of NSW’s art curator New Zealander Wayne Tunnicliffe has spent more than two years assembling a pop art collection of 200 artworks from Australia, Britain, Germany, Portugal, France, Spain and the…

Hayden Tee One of Melbourne’s Hottest Musical Stars

Hayden Tee One of Melbourne’s Hottest Musical Stars

New Zealander Hayden Tee is one of Melbourne’s East End Theatre district’s hottest stars, playing Javert in Les Misérables, which then tours Australia over the next 20 months. Tee, who is based in New York,…

Lorde Dishes up Pre-fame Secrets for Billboard

Lorde Dishes up Pre-fame Secrets for Billboard

With the Lorde-curated Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack coming out on 17 November, the soon-to-be-18-year-old pop singer is proving her taste in collaborators – Kanye West, Chemical Brothers, Miguel and more – are…

Rena Owen’s Hollywood Revival

Rena Owen’s Hollywood Revival

On the telephone from her West Hollywood apartment New Zealand actress Rena Owen says the biggest misconception about her life in Los Angeles is that she leads one of movie-star luxury. “The amount of people…