August 2016 Archives

Mad Mike Whiddett Drifts into Swindon

Mad Mike Whiddett Drifts into Swindon

If you are a hesitant driver, if T-junctions make you shudder and merging makes you quail, New Zealander Mad Mike Whiddett’s antics are not for you, warns Scotland newspaper the Daily Record. The notorious

Roger Shepherd Promotes Charms of Korea

Roger Shepherd Promotes Charms of Korea

After spending eight years as a safari guide and wildlife ranger in Africa, New Zealander Roger Shepherd, 50, left for the mountains of Korea where he began a hiking business. Baekdudaegan is the mountain ridge…

Ride With Pete’s Dragon in 360 Flyover Experience

Ride With Pete’s Dragon in 360 Flyover Experience

Walt Disney has given fans an opportunity to ride with Pete’s pet dragon Elliott (Pete’s Dragon) in a VR/360 experience that was created with the help of Air New Zealand, Nokia; Tourism New Zealand…

Rhys Darby Gets Wrecked

Rhys Darby Gets Wrecked

Rhys Darby is keeping busy. When IndieWire got the Aucklander on the phone, he was in Vancouver filming an unspecified role in the upcoming series adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was…

Jamie Turner Unfurls Triathlon Magic in The Gong

Jamie Turner Unfurls Triathlon Magic in The Gong

In the late 1990s New Zealander Jamie Turner, Triathlon Canada’s current coach, earmarked the beachside mecca of Wollongong in New South Wales as an ideal locale to train a squad of elite triathletes, who…

Fat Freddy’s Drop Chat Ahead of BoomTown

Fat Freddy’s Drop Chat Ahead of BoomTown

Internationally regarded as one of the world’s finest live draws, seven-piece band Fat Freddy’s Drop has a sound that has developed over the years, TNT Magazine reports ahead of the group’s show on the…

Behind the Scenes of Clooney’s

Behind the Scenes of Clooney’s

Have you always wanted to go to Clooney’s? Watch this clip to get a glimpse behind the scenes of one of New Zealand’s top restaurants.

New Zealand’s ‘ATM for Mood Deposits’

New Zealand’s ‘ATM for Mood Deposits’

A cash machine-like terminal that asks people about their feelings instead of dispensing money has been installed in New Zealand city Whangarei as part of an art project called Moodbank, as reported in an…

#227: Hurricanes, Local Eateries, Accidents, Blunders & Calamities, Chris Amon, Aaradhna, Astrophotography Prize + NZ Chardonnay and more ++

#227: Hurricanes, Local Eateries, Accidents, Blunders & Calamities, Chris Amon, Aaradhna, Astrophotography Prize + NZ Chardonnay and more ++

News of New Zealanders…

Escape to Wellington Where Life’s a Breeze

Escape to Wellington Where Life’s a Breeze

Wellington is one of 10 cities to feature in Monocle’s annual “journal of places less explored,” The Escapist. The New Zealand capital is home to incomparable coffee, exceptional seafood and a strong cinematic pedigree…

DJ Zane Lowe Queues Up His Summer Faves

DJ Zane Lowe Queues Up His Summer Faves

From a moody duet to a Mac Miller joyful four-on-the-floor groove, Auckland-born DJ, producer and poptimist Zane Lowe shares the songs he’s got queued up this summer for the Guardian’s regular column, The Playlist. Lowe,…

Triathlete Aaron Fleming Defies the Odds

Triathlete Aaron Fleming Defies the Odds

Blenheim-born Aaron Fleming, 32, will line-up for his eighth Ironman start in Malaysia this November achieving his triathlon goals despite suffering from a collapsed lung, undergoing two major surgeries, and being told he would…

Fond Farewell to Formula 1 Hero Chris Amon

Fond Farewell to Formula 1 Hero Chris Amon

Chris Amon, regarded as one of the best Formula One racing car drivers of his generation, has died in Rotorua at age 73. Toronto Star “Wheels” editor Norris McDonald reflects on the life and…

Top Local Eateries Make International List

Top Local Eateries Make International List

Auckland restaurant Ortolana and Wellington’s Olive are included in Monocle’s annual journal The Escapist’s 2016 Restaurant Awards, a list of 50 establishments from around the world. “Tucked away in downtown Auckland, Ortolana is…

Parris Goebel – Friday

Parris Goebel – Friday

Listen to Parris Goebel’s first music single ‘Friday’. The New Zealand choreographer is known for choreographing New Zealand’s first hip-hop dance film Born to Dance and her work with Jennifer…

Hurricanes Clinch 2016 Super Rugby Title

Hurricanes Clinch 2016 Super Rugby Title

“After 20 years of waiting, Hurricanes fly-half Beauden Barrett dived on a loose ball with little over 11 minutes remaining to score the winning try and secure his side’s first Super Rugby title with…

How To Dad Shows Parents How to Get Out the Door With Kids In The Morning

How To Dad Shows Parents How to Get Out the Door With Kids In The Morning

“When you have young children in tow, getting fed, dressed and on the road in the morning can be hard,” writes Josh Hanrahen for the Daily Mail. Daddy blogger How To Dad has…

Aaradhna: Brown Girl Review

Aaradhna: Brown Girl Review

Sometimes you hear a song and “you feel the passion, dance the groove and, for a split second, the world makes glorious sense. Affirmation, validation; that’s all many of us are seeking.” Among “the…

NZ Chardonnays Taking on Burgundy

NZ Chardonnays Taking on Burgundy

New Zealand chardonnays can be a great substitute for expensive burgundies, as reported in the South China Morning Post. In a New Zealand vs Burgundy blind tasting in London last year, Kumeu River…

Kiwi Photographers Shortlisted in Astrophotography Prize

Kiwi Photographers Shortlisted in Astrophotography Prize

New Zealand photographers Andrew Caldwell (Napier), Lee Cook (Mackenzie District) and Stephen Voss (Invercargill) have been shortlisted for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016 Prize, as reported on Mashable. Caldwell was shortlisted…

VR – Air NZ Inspiring Voices

VR – Air NZ Inspiring Voices

Watch this 360° interview with Guy Norris (world renowned Stunt Coordinator & 2nd Unit Director), Harrison Norris (Proxi VR), Barry Sandrew (Ph.D, Founder of Legend3D), Catherine Patterson (Global Director…

Isaac Burrough Concept Catamaran a Luxury Statement

Isaac Burrough Concept Catamaran a Luxury Statement

New Zealand-born designer Isaac Burrough has inaugurated a new yacht design studio in Amsterdam with the release of a 60m sailing catamaran concept, featuring an infinity pool, a 12-person cinema and a glass-bottom jacuzzi. A…

Ballet World’s Rising Star Harrison James

Ballet World’s Rising Star Harrison James

Some dancers take more than a decade to rise through the ranks of a professional ballet company. Others, such as the New Zealand-born Harrison James, manage a swift ascension in three quick seasons. The…

MAALA Rolls out Debut Album Composure

MAALA Rolls out Debut Album Composure

The past few years has seen Aucklander Evan Sinton, better known as MAALA, transform from New Zealand’s Got Talent star to brooding, mysterious electronic artist. With his debut album, Composure just out, Rolling Stone…

‘Accidents, Blunders & Calamities’ Wins Best Animated Film at Comic-Con

‘Accidents, Blunders & Calamities’ Wins Best Animated Film at Comic-Con

Kiwi short film Accidents, Blunders and Calamities produced by students from Auckland’s Media Design School, has taken out the prize for Best Animated Film at the 2016 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival…

Poet Hera Lyndsay Bird Speaks to a Generation

Poet Hera Lyndsay Bird Speaks to a Generation

Millions are turning to poetry in response to a year of troubling news stories – with previously excluded voices, like Thames-born writer Hera Lyndsay Bird, in the field now going viral, the Guardian’s Rhiannon…

Singer Mukuka Musowa Keeping Her Roots Close

Singer Mukuka Musowa Keeping Her Roots Close

Hamilton singer-songwriter Mukuka Musowa, 22, talks to Zambia’s Lusaka Times about her latest single “Just Fine”, her musical inspirations, and New Zealand television show Both Worlds, in which she features. Musowa, who was…

#226: Predator Free NZ, Archibald McIndoe celebrated, Baldwin St Dunedin,  Matt Smith Shearer, John Danaher’s Jiu-Jitsu + Broods and more ++

#226: Predator Free NZ, Archibald McIndoe celebrated, Baldwin St Dunedin, Matt Smith Shearer, John Danaher’s Jiu-Jitsu + Broods and more ++

Pete’s Dragon – Trailer

Pete’s Dragon – Trailer

Watch the new trailer for Pete’s Dragon, the reimagining of the beloved 1977 live-action/animated film. The movie was filmed in New Zealand.

Archibald McIndoe Patients Pay Tribute

Archibald McIndoe Patients Pay Tribute

Surviving members of New Zealand-born plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe’s Guinea Pig Club, which was formed in 1941 to cope with the ever-rising number of young pilots left with life-changing injuries, talk with the Telegraph…

Step into Hayden Fowler’s Dark Ecology

Step into Hayden Fowler’s Dark Ecology

A huge biodome constructed by New Zealand-born artist Hayden Fowler has been set up outside the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at Circular Quay in Sydney. “Dark Ecology”, a walk-in installation, is part of…

Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen Seduces

Margot Henderson’s Rochelle Canteen Seduces

New Zealand-born Margot Henderson’s London café Rochelle Canteen “wears its fabulousness lightly.” It is “nourishing for body and soul, and huge fun”, according to Guardian reviewer Marina O’Loughlin. “This canteen may come on…

New Zealand to Exterminate All Introduced Predators

New Zealand to Exterminate All Introduced Predators

The New Zealand Government has announced a “world-first” project to make our country predator free by 2050, aiming to wipe out all introduced species of rats, stoats and possums. According to the government, introduced species…

Broods Video Brings Technology to Next Level

Broods Video Brings Technology to Next Level

New Zealand indie electropop duo Broods incorporates technology in an unexpected and intimate way, with its enthralling new music video for the latest single, “Heartlines,” off their sophomore album, Conscious, according to Entertainment Tonight. In…

NZ Seniors ‘Shake It Off’

NZ Seniors ‘Shake It Off’

Watch this special tribute to Taylor Swift’s hit song ‘Shake It Off’ made by a group of 50 senior citizens, staff and grandchildren from NZ retirement home Julia Wallace…

Matt Smith Shears World Record in Cornwall

Matt Smith Shears World Record in Cornwall

New Zealand-born cutter Matt Smith, 32, has posted a world nine-hour shearing record of 731 ewes in Cornwall. Smith took an average of 44 seconds to shear each sheep on his way to beating…