Blog Archives

Luxury Holiday in New Zealand the Perfect Gift

Luxury Holiday in New Zealand the Perfect Gift

The best present you could give your mother would be a “trip of a lifetime” to New Zealand, Los Angeles Times correspondent Amanda Jones recommends in an article featuring “über-luxe lodge” Kauri Cliffs, the…

David Clarkson’s Encoded Opens New Canberra Festival

David Clarkson’s Encoded Opens New Canberra Festival

New Zealander David Clarkson, artistic director of Australian company Stalker Theatre, opened the inaugural SEGUE festival in Canberra with a work called, Encoded. Clarkson says the piece – which combines physical theatre, dance theatre and…

Fjords Crucial to Carbon Burial

Fjords Crucial to Carbon Burial

An Otago University study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, has found fjords could play a very important role as a driver of atmospheric CO2 levels at times when ice sheets are…

Why Grand Designs Kevin McCloud Loves NZ Homes

Why Grand Designs Kevin McCloud Loves NZ Homes

Presenter of popular UK television show Grand Designs Kevin McCloud has visited New Zealand four times because of his involvement in a competition to build a new residential quarter in Christchurch as part of…

Rugby Convert Paul Lasike Lands NFL Contract

Rugby Convert Paul Lasike Lands NFL Contract

Auckland-born Paul Lasike, 24, a former Chiefs back, has signed a contract with NFL team Arizona Cardinals. Branded a “violent” ball-runner, Lasike was picked up by the Cardinals after impressing as a running back in…

Wet Dogs Dry Dogs Captured by Serenah Hodson

Wet Dogs Dry Dogs Captured by Serenah Hodson

New Zealand-born photographer Serenah Hodson’s Wet Dog Dry Dog series captures show dogs in two essential physical and emotional states: dry and pleased, and then wet and oh so grumpy. The idea came about while…

Jess Johnson’s Parallel Realm Finds Home in a Book

Jess Johnson’s Parallel Realm Finds Home in a Book

Tauranga-born visual artist Jess Johnson has drawn inspiration from some lesser-known belief systems like UFO religion Raëlism, to create an art book for the National Gallery of Victoria’s inaugural art book fair. ” movement was…

Simon Denny One of the Top Reasons to Get to Venice

Simon Denny One of the Top Reasons to Get to Venice

Some exhibitors at the 56th Venice Biennale have a shot at changing the art world and New Zealand representative Simon Denny is one of them, according to Bloomberg, which includes the Aucklander in a…

NZ an Appealing Choice for 30-Something Singaporeans

NZ an Appealing Choice for 30-Something Singaporeans

New Zealand is becoming an ever more popular choice for Singaporeans in their early 30s looking to emigrate, choosing our country for its space, value for money, healthcare and cost of living. Freelance journalist Surekha…

John Bracewell Tasked with Leading Ireland to Test Status

John Bracewell Tasked with Leading Ireland to Test Status

New Zealander John Bracewell has been tasked with leading Ireland on the final leg towards Test status, with his experience of playing and coaching his native country at international level seeing him win out…

Heath Cozens Grapples with Controversial Sport

Heath Cozens Grapples with Controversial Sport

New Zealand-born filmmaker Heath Cozens, 41, saw his first Japanese disabled pro wrestling match in 2010. At the time, he didn’t know what to think. Cozens, who spent 18 years in Japan as a video…

Canada Going Wild for NZ’s Grassy Fruity Wines

Canada Going Wild for NZ’s Grassy Fruity Wines

“In New Zealand, wine is in top gear,” Canada’s Globe and Mail reports. “Exports marked a record high of $1.29-billion last year, up 8.2 per cent over the previous 12 months, according to New…

Billboard Gets a Rush on Gin Wigmore’s New Video

Billboard Gets a Rush on Gin Wigmore’s New Video

New Zealand singer-songwriter Gin Wigmore, 28, is preparing for the release of her third studio album Blood to Bone with the “intense and uninhibited” video, “New Rush,” Billboard reports. “ Wigmore is giving her…

Danielle Cormack an Ambitious Currency Trader in New Play

Danielle Cormack an Ambitious Currency Trader in New Play

Award-winning actor New Zealand-born Danielle Cormack, who came to prominence in Australia with her performances in Underbelly and Wentworth, is currently playing an ambitious currency trader in Boys Will Be Boys at

Golf Champion Michael Campbell Calls It Quits

Golf Champion Michael Campbell Calls It Quits

Former US Open Champion New Zealander Michael Campbell, 46, is retiring from golf to concentrate on running his golf academy in Malaga, Spain. Campbell, who won the Open at Pinehurst in 2005, told New Zealand’s…

Paul Ding Signs Mega Deal with S Korean Online Shopping Giant

Paul Ding Signs Mega Deal with S Korean Online Shopping Giant

New Zealand home shopping channel, Auckland-based Yes Shop, has signed a groundbreaking supply agreement with online shopping giant HMall of South Korea, which will see more goods being traded directly between the two countries. HMall…

Scrabble Genius Nigel Richards’ Talent Helping Science

Scrabble Genius Nigel Richards’ Talent Helping Science

The boardgame Scrabble is giving psychologists a better understanding of the underpinnings of complex skill and a clearer picture of the origins of greatness. New Zealander Nigel Richards is widely regarded as the best…

For the Sake of Britain James Cook Amended NZ Map

For the Sake of Britain James Cook Amended NZ Map

In an extract from a paper called, “Political Captain Cook” by Australian lawyer Margaret Cameron-Ash, Cook’s decision in 1770 to misrepresent Stuart Island as a peninsula is discussed. “Like every military man, Cook knew that…

Jess Cornelius Releases New Track Ahead of Courtney Barnett Tour

Jess Cornelius Releases New Track Ahead of Courtney Barnett Tour

“New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Jess Cornelius is the tour de force behind Teeth & Tongue, and returns with a rollicking new track ‘Cupcake’,” Monica Tan writes for the Guardian’s weekly “Mixtape” column. “Although recorded in…

Country Star Marlon Williams Takes to the Road

Country Star Marlon Williams Takes to the Road

New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Marlon Williams will tour Australia and his home country in support of his just-released, critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. “A free-ranging complement to the assured country weirdness of last year’s Sad…

Chilli Head Chris Cullen Concocts New Sauce for NY Expo

Chilli Head Chris Cullen Concocts New Sauce for NY Expo

New Zealand chef-turned-entrepreneur Chris Cullen seems to have hot sauce running in his veins, judging from the passionate way he speaks about one of America’s hottest food trends, the New York Times reports. “I had…

Louis Baker Takes Flight with New EP Birds

Louis Baker Takes Flight with New EP Birds

The “impressive” New Zealand-born songwriter Louis Baker’s new EP Birds will be released in the United Kingdom on 29 June. Clash magazine premieres the title track. Continually observing the world around him, Baker…

Kimbra Plays at California’s Coachella

Kimbra Plays at California’s Coachella

Singer Kimbra was a headline act at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, included alongside big names like Florence and the Machine, Caribou, FKA Twigs and Father John Misty. For the…

Google Doodle Honours Detective Novelist Ngaio Marsh

Google Doodle Honours Detective Novelist Ngaio Marsh

New Zealand-born crime writer and theatre director Dame Ngaio Marsh who wrote during the “golden age” of detective novels was celebrated on 23 April 2015 with a Google Doodle. Marsh, born in Christchurch, would have…

Russell Crowe’s Water Diviner a Story Only He Could Tell

Russell Crowe’s Water Diviner a Story Only He Could Tell

Growing up a New Zealander-Australian, Russell Crowe, 51, was intimately familiar with the Dardanelles Campaign, a veritable slaughterhouse battle over a tiny Turkish peninsula also known as Gallipoli. In his latest film, The Water…

Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf’s Powerful Partnership

Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf’s Powerful Partnership

Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf are included in a list of literary “titans” who banded together as penpals whilst they produced the classics. “Before Woolf was lionised she shared an unlikely friendship with a New…

Sam Neill Remembers Fallen Family in Why Anzac

Sam Neill Remembers Fallen Family in Why Anzac

In one pivotal scene from Sam Neill’s thoughtful and moving examination of the Anzac legend, the ABC documentary Why Anzac, he approaches his grandfather’s grave in Lijssenthoek Cemetery, Belgium for the first time. “This is…

Rocket Lab Deems Space Open for Business

Rocket Lab Deems Space Open for Business

A New Zealand rocket company, founded by inventor Peter Beck in 2007, says it has found a way to drastically cut the cost of satellite launches, by 3D printing rocket components. The Rocket…

All Blacks Thrashing of USA Eagles a Big Money-Spinner

All Blacks Thrashing of USA Eagles a Big Money-Spinner

The first rugby match in the United States for the All Blacks in over three decades helped TLA Worldwide, an American athlete representation and sports marketing business, report a 26 per cent rise in…

Attica Chef and Forager Ben Shewry’s Plates Didactic

Attica Chef and Forager Ben Shewry’s Plates Didactic

New Zealander Ben Shewry’s role at Melbourne’s Attica is lauded in the Sydney Morning Herald, with the restaurant named one of reviewer Terry Durack’s top 12 in Australia. “No, you haven’t made a mistake, that…

Failepou Peni’s Label Lapou to Unveil New Collection

Failepou Peni’s Label Lapou to Unveil New Collection

New Zealand-born designer Failepou Peni’s resort wear label Lapou will showcase new collections at the Sunshine Coast Fashion Festival on 17 October. Lepou specialise in figure flattering resort pieces, luxurious kaftans, swimwear and…

Shushila Takao Stars in Cook Island-Set Thriller Tatau

Shushila Takao Stars in Cook Island-Set Thriller Tatau

Like many of the cast of BBC3’s new supernatural thriller Tatau, Shushila Takao is a New Zealander. She stars alongside British newcomers Joe Layton and Theo Barklem-Biggs as Aumea in the television…

Heath Cozens’ Film on Japanese Disabled Wrestlers Premieres

Heath Cozens’ Film on Japanese Disabled Wrestlers Premieres

A documentary about a small troupe of Tokyo wrestlers with disabilities made by New Zealander Heath Cozens will premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto on 27 April. Five years in the making,…

Auckland May Well Be the World’s Edgiest City

Auckland May Well Be the World’s Edgiest City

Innovation happens on the edge and “you cannot get more on the edge than New Zealand,” according to the CEO of Auckland’s economic development group Brett O’Riley. Auckland may be New Zealand’s biggest city but…

Award-Winning Correspondent Peter Arnett Speaks on War

Award-Winning Correspondent Peter Arnett Speaks on War

Pulitzer-winning journalist New Zealander Peter Arnett spoke to a packed crowd at California State University in Fresno on his 50 years of reporting experience – from covering the Vietnam War to his struggles with…

Lifestyle Coach Sene Naoupu Flexes Her Muscles in Ireland

Lifestyle Coach Sene Naoupu Flexes Her Muscles in Ireland

When fitness and lifestyle coach New Zealander Sene Naoupu came to Ireland with her husband, Connaught Rugby’s George Naoupu, she had no idea that she would end up lining out for Ireland’s Six Nations-winning…

Contemplating the Rebuilding of Christchurch Cathedral

Contemplating the Rebuilding of Christchurch Cathedral

“Henry John Chitty Harper was the first bishop of Christchurch. He battled to build the Anglican cathedral that, for more than a century, was the city’s centrepiece, its greatest landmark and an inspiration behind…

Ian North’s Antarctic Images Evoke Beauty and Terror of Our Era

Ian North’s Antarctic Images Evoke Beauty and Terror of Our Era

The latest exhibition of Ian North’s work, “East Antarctica 1915”, demonstrates the Lower Hutt-born artist’s uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist of our socially fractured and culturally fragmented times, writes Flinders University lecturer…

Stan Walker’s New Album Marks Becoming of Age

Stan Walker’s New Album Marks Becoming of Age

New Zealand soul singer Stan Walker, 24, is about to release his new album Truth & Soul, a collection of songs from icons like Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding. The Australian Idol winner says,…

Kody Nielson Is Another Exciting NZ Music Offering

Kody Nielson Is Another Exciting NZ Music Offering

New Zealand’s “most exciting offerings” of late, according to the Guardian, “have been the warped psychedelia of Connan Mockasin and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Completing this trio of peculiarity is Silicon – also known as…

Rising Star of the Art World Simon Denny Exhibits at MoMA

Rising Star of the Art World Simon Denny Exhibits at MoMA

New Zealand–born, Berlin-based Simon Denny, who is represented by one of New York’s most reputable galleries, Petzel, has opened his first American show “The Innovator’s Dilemma” at MoMA PS1. In…

Sam and James O’Connor Row for Winning Oxford Team

Sam and James O’Connor Row for Winning Oxford Team

New Zealand brothers Sam and James O’Connor have helped Oxford University beat Cambridge in the annual University Boat Races held on the River Thames in London. Sam, 27, (pictured left) who has competed in and…

Leon Grice and Milou Dogged Diplomats in LA

Leon Grice and Milou Dogged Diplomats in LA

New Zealand’s consul-general to Los Angeles Leon Grice and his Bichon Frisé Milou feature in Monocle’s “Ambassadogs” series. “The eight-year-old, named after Tintin’s companion, has accompanied the Grice’s through Leon’s stints as executive of a…

Lydia Ko Budding Superstar of Women’s Golf

Lydia Ko Budding Superstar of Women’s Golf

As a phenomenon so far New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko, 17, is on par with the young Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, according to the Wall Street Journal. Are we on the brink of…

Rebecca Taylor Forgoes the Runway for Digital-Marketing

Rebecca Taylor Forgoes the Runway for Digital-Marketing

After 15 years of runway shows at New York fashion week, New Zealand-born Rebecca Taylor cancelled her autumn 2015 show. She used her roughly US$500,000 annual show budget to deploy a marketing strategy she…

Hannah O’Neill Dances in Paris Opera’s Swan Lake

Hannah O’Neill Dances in Paris Opera’s Swan Lake

A New Zealander is one of the Paris Opera Ballet’s “emerging young dancers” who has brought “style and elegance” to Nureyev’s production of Swan Lake. This was the “sprightly” Hannah O’Neill’s first time dancing…

Astrophysicist David Stevenson Elected Cornell Professor-At-Large

Astrophysicist David Stevenson Elected Cornell Professor-At-Large

New Zealand-born planetary scientist David Stevenson is one of five newly elected professors-at-large in the humanities, social and physical sciences who will visit Cornell University in Ithaca, New York over the next six years. The…

New Zealand’s “Rock Star Economy” Takes Centre Stage

New Zealand’s “Rock Star Economy” Takes Centre Stage

Australians are going to have to get used to New Zealanders going on about how much better their economy is, according to the Guardian. Paul Bloxham, the HSBC economist who first called New Zealand a…

Queenstown One of the New York Times’ Top Trips

Queenstown One of the New York Times’ Top Trips

Queenstown features in an extensive interactive New York Times travel article, which covers 52 destinations to visit in 2015 recommended by its readers. Rattandeep Singh writes: “Queenstown is one of the most amazing places I’ve…

Chef Jamie Hodges Sources Absolutely Locally in Ontario

Chef Jamie Hodges Sources Absolutely Locally in Ontario

New Zealander Jamie Hodges and his partner Amber Thom operate Epicurious Catering in Kingston, Ontario, and will soon open Juniper Café serving food sourced completely locally. Originally from Wellington, Hodges graduated from City…

Reg Mombassa Shows at Mambo Exhibition in Sydney

Reg Mombassa Shows at Mambo Exhibition in Sydney

Auckland-born artist and musician Reg Mombassa’s works dominate the “Mambo: 30 Years of Shelf-Indulgence” exhibition on at the newly opened aMBUSH Gallery in Sydney. His art is now a part of the Australian…

Director Andrew Niccol Shines a Light on Drone Warfare

Director Andrew Niccol Shines a Light on Drone Warfare

Nobody wanted to back a film on the subject of drone warfare, according to New Zealand-born director Andrew Niccol, whose drama Good Kill, about that very subject, is on now in UK cinemas. “We had…

Anna Paquin Developing Miniseries with Husband and Jack Black

Anna Paquin Developing Miniseries with Husband and Jack Black

True Blood star New Zealander Anna Paquin, 32, is set to return to HBO as Madame X in a new miniseries she is developing with husband Stephen Moyer and Jack Black. TheWrap reports…

Daniel Vettori Announces Retirement from International Cricket

Daniel Vettori Announces Retirement from International Cricket

Former Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori has confirmed his retirement from an 18-year international cricket career, declaring that the World Cup final against Australia in Melbourne was his last game for New Zealand. “It was…

Kimbra to Headline Palm Springs Music Festival

Kimbra to Headline Palm Springs Music Festival

Grammy-winning artist New Zealander Kimbra will headline the US music festival, Tachevah: A Palm Springs Block Party, on 15 April outside of the Spa Resort Casino. The Desert Sun reports: “Kimbra, now living…

Dubai-Based Designer Judith Hobby’s Opens Her Home

Dubai-Based Designer Judith Hobby’s Opens Her Home

New Zealander Judith Hobby, who has lived in the Middle East for 22 years and in Dubai for almost 17, is the founder of the Judith Hobby Clothing fashion line. Her modernist…