Blog Archives

Should Australia Follow Suit in Housing Sector

Should Australia Follow Suit in Housing Sector

Is New Zealand’s macro-prudential mortgage tools an option for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), The Guardian’s economics correspondent Greg Jericho writes. The RBA will be watching closely as New Zealand introduces innovative regulations…

Join the Dean Barker Fan Club in San Francisco

Join the Dean Barker Fan Club in San Francisco

Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker is earning devotees at the America’s Cup, says Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I joined the Dean Barker fan club this week,” Jenkins writes. “Whether or…

Plans for Labyrinth-inspired Puppet Musical

Plans for Labyrinth-inspired Puppet Musical

Flight of the Conchords star, Academy and Grammy Award-winner Bret McKenzie, 37, wants to bring back to life the eighties classic storytelling technique of real people and puppets singing and dancing side by side…

Dropping Soul-Dub in to Some Far-Flung Corners

Dropping Soul-Dub in to Some Far-Flung Corners

Wellington septet Fat Freddy’s Drop “are spreading their infectious grooves all over the world,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paris Pompor. In a shrinking, fibre-connected world, the band find themselves in ever more…

Prince George Gets His Own NZ Post Stamp

Prince George Gets His Own NZ Post Stamp

For the first time in its 170-year history, New Zealand Post is issuing a stamp to celebrate a Royal birth, that of Prince George of Cambridge. While Royal children have featured on several New…

Recreating Iconic Doors Mural in Venice Beach

Recreating Iconic Doors Mural in Venice Beach

New Zealand-born painter and sculptor Clinton Bopp, who lives in Santa Monica Canyon, has been working on reproducing the Venice Beach mural incorporating Jim Morrison and band members who made up The Doors. Folk musician…

Ten Pounds Gets You Lots of Funny in Edinburgh

Ten Pounds Gets You Lots of Funny in Edinburgh

One of New Zealand’s youngest professional comedians, award-winning Rhys Mathewson, 22, is making his Edinburgh Fringe Festival debut, with his show “The Best £10 You’ll Ever Spend”. The List asks Mathewson: “What do you think…

Kauri Forests Charm Canadian Visitor

Kauri Forests Charm Canadian Visitor

Travelling through Northland on a ten-day tour of the country, National Post writer Maryam Siddiqi decides that ultimately, “the rugged west coast and its glittering green water” left the greatest impression on her. “As…

Dame Kiri Becomes Dame Melba on Downton

Dame Kiri Becomes Dame Melba on Downton

New Zealand-born opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who has sung for presidents and princes, including in front of a 600-million audience at Prince Charles’s wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, has revealed…

Drive Your McLaren Supercar in Retro-Chic

Drive Your McLaren Supercar in Retro-Chic

From the world of Formula One and Can-Am racing, to road-going supercars like the 3-passenger F1 and current MP4-12C, New Zealand-founded McLaren has been amongst the world’s best for five decades, Nick Kurczewski writes…

Compelling Drama Fantasy Blend to Air in US

Compelling Drama Fantasy Blend to Air in US

New Zealand television series The Almighty Johnsons has been bought by American cable channel Syfy, marking the first time a wholly New Zealand-made television drama has aired in the United States. The NBCU cabler has…

Local Test Flight Gets the Go-Ahead

Local Test Flight Gets the Go-Ahead

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has granted a permit to the Martin Aircraft company, allowing it to test jetpacks with a pilot at the helm in two uninhabited areas of New Zealand. The company…

Grand-Am Victory for Formula 1 Test Driver

Grand-Am Victory for Formula 1 Test Driver

Twenty-three-year-old Palmerston North-born Brendon Hartley has won the 70-lap GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series at Road America in Wisconsin. Starworks Motorsport team owner Peter Baron said the kid can drive. And not just theoretically. “He’s…

All Blacks Crush Wallabies in Opening Test

All Blacks Crush Wallabies in Opening Test

The All Blacks were just too good for Australia, winning 47-29 in the opening 2013 Investec Rugby Championship Test in Sydney, ensuring a torrid debut for new Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie, who took over from…

Smarter Together with Hill Holliday

Smarter Together with Hill Holliday

New Zealander Graham Ritchie, 48, has been named new strategy chief for American advertising agency Hill Holliday, overseeing a department of 38 strategic planners who work on brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Bank of…

Abandoned Sola in the Outback

Abandoned Sola in the Outback

New Zealand-born soprano Katherine Wiles is starring as Donna Elvira in an outback tour of Mozart’s Don Giovanni by Oz Opera, Opera Australia’s touring arm. Wiles said she was excited at embarking on her…

Adding Traction to the America’s Cup

Adding Traction to the America’s Cup

“After a storied career at sea, where Russell Coutts ranked among the most successful skippers in Cup history, the New Zealander now serves as chief executive for the Oracle racing team,” Los Angeles Times’…

Evidence of Genetic Basis to Sense of Smell

Evidence of Genetic Basis to Sense of Smell

After testing some 200 volunteers in Auckland, Richard Newcomb of the New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research (PFR) and his colleagues have found the most convincing evidence yet of a…

How Wilson Plans to Revive Aviva

How Wilson Plans to Revive Aviva

Although the Aviva name will remain, New Zealand-born Mark Wilson is turning the British multinational insurer into is a very different company from that which his predecessor envisaged, The Telegraph’s James Quinn writes. This…

Centenarian Joins Sydney Reunion of WW2 Veterans

Centenarian Joins Sydney Reunion of WW2 Veterans

New Zealand World War II veteran Frank Harlow, 100, joined fellow New Zealanders living in Australia at their first ever reunion at the Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu in Redfern,…

Ready for the Next Leg in Nevada

Ready for the Next Leg in Nevada

New Zealander Callum Millward has placed third at Ironman 70.3 Boulder and is now focused on the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas, which takes place on 8 September. Millward talks to triathlon…

Catton’s Favourite First Line Unfolds Breathlessly

Catton’s Favourite First Line Unfolds Breathlessly

Man Booker nominee New Zealand author Eleanor Catton chooses her favourite first line for a Guardian catalogue, and it’s from another of our own, Janet Frame’s 1961 novel Faces in the Water. Faces in the…

Shifting into Another Gear Ahead of Baltimore

Shifting into Another Gear Ahead of Baltimore

New Zealander Scott Dixon, who has the most wins (31) in the 17-year history of the Indy Racing League and who is the only driver to finish in the top five of both runnings…

America Better Watch Out

America Better Watch Out

The “unflappable” Lorde, 16, “hypnotises” at her first concert in the United States introducing “her collection of immaculately drawn pop compositions with a confidence and demeanour well beyond her years”, Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz writes…

Invaluable Volunteer Helps out in Arundel

Invaluable Volunteer Helps out in Arundel

New Zealander Andrew Wood, 26, who has been in the UK for the past 18 months, has been “the stalwart” of Arundel’s annual nine-day festival, “proving an invaluable volunteer”. Originally from Christchurch where…

It XXXXX XX Up at Sydney’s MCA

It XXXXX XX Up at Sydney’s MCA

Sydney’s latest public artwork created by Dunedin-born artist Mike Hewson, 28, is certainly hard to ignore, covering more than 2000 square metres and spelled out in 14 metre-high upper-case letters on the temporary scaffolding…

Fighting for Recognition in a New Field

Fighting for Recognition in a New Field

New Zealand stuntwoman Zoë Bell’s film Raze is screening at the Imperial Theatre as part of the one of the most influential genre film festivals in the world, the Fantasia International Film…

From One South to Another

From One South to Another

Formerly of Gore, singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow, who has been based in the United States for the past eight years, recently performed two shows at the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse and House of Blues in New…

Artful Combinations Cross Cultures

Artful Combinations Cross Cultures

New Zealand chef, London-based Peter Gordon, “the godfather of fusion cooking,” is the inspiration behind recipes recommended in an Irish Times article, which include a frittata topped with Greek yoghurt and sumac. “Gordon really…

On a Mission to Advantage the Disadvantaged

On a Mission to Advantage the Disadvantaged

New Zealand-born Audette Exel, 50, lives a double life, Bloomberg Market Magazine reports. In New York, London, Bermuda and Sydney, she’s a company director and the owner and head of Isis (Asia Pacific) Pty,…

Big Brownie Takes Rod and Wheel World Record

Big Brownie Takes Rod and Wheel World Record

Tauranga angler Otwin Kandolf, 71, has landed an all-tackle world record for the biggest brown trout taken on a rod and reel. Kandolf caught the massive 19kg brownie in March while fishing in Ohau…

Moore’s Los Angeles Runway Show a Hit

Moore’s Los Angeles Runway Show a Hit

New Zealand designer Andrea Moore’s American debut was a “highlight of the evening”; the runway show part of Los Angeles clothing boutique Stylehaüs’ two-year anniversary celebrations held at the Sofitel Hotel. Dunedin-born Moore said…

James Bond Would Be Impressed

James Bond Would Be Impressed

Ivan Sentch, an Auckland programmer and Aston Martin devotee, has decided to build a full-scale 3D printed replica of a 1961 Aston Martin DB4. “He’s already made considerable progress, with much of…

Famed Computer Hacker Fondly Remembered

Famed Computer Hacker Fondly Remembered

Celebrated New Zealand computer hacker Barnaby Jack, who exposed vulnerabilities in bank ATMs and sparked safety improvements in medical devices, has died in San Francisco. He was 35. Jack was one of the world’s…

McEwan Takes on Politically Charged RBS Leadership

McEwan Takes on Politically Charged RBS Leadership

New Zealander Ross McEwan, 56, has been named the new chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), “one of the highest-profile and politically charged roles in the banking world.” The Guardian’s city…

Do You Pass the Test?

Do You Pass the Test?

Here are some of the 31 signs you are the child of New Zealand expatriates, according to viral news site, BuzzFeed. The site also recommends not forwarding the information to people with Australian parents….

Fairy Tale Television Role for Actress

Fairy Tale Television Role for Actress

New Zealand actress Rose McIver, 24, who starred in Peter Jackson’s 2009 film The Lovely Bones, has landed the pivotal season three role of Tinker Bell on the ABC fairy tale drama, Once…

Déjà Vu for California-based Royal Biographer

Déjà Vu for California-based Royal Biographer

New Zealand writer Susan Maxwell Skinner, who lives in Charmichael, California, “knows much about the doings of England’s royal family”, writes The Sacramento Bee’s Bill Lindelof. As a young writer, Skinner moved to England…

South Africa and NZ Join Film Forces

South Africa and NZ Join Film Forces

Executives from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) have been meeting with producers at the Durban FilmMart (DFM) to research potential development and co-production opportunities. Representatives from the NZFC and the National Film &…

Tastes of NZ Imagined in Pittsburgh Test Kitchen

Tastes of NZ Imagined in Pittsburgh Test Kitchen

Over the next seven weeks, a New Zealand-inspired menu is on offer at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s Taste of Art Restaurant. The menu features traditional dishes from the region including breaded oysters with…

Mystery Making Process Paying off in US

Mystery Making Process Paying off in US

Identified only as her stage name, Lorde, 16, the artist kept her true identity a mystery for months, Wall Street Journal correspondent Megan Buerger writes. The only available representation of her was a drawing…

Stretching the Limit with One Unique Talent

Stretching the Limit with One Unique Talent

Rubberband Boy, aka New Zealander Shay Horay, is one of the world’s most unusual performers, twisting tight rubber bands across his face on stage to the delight of worldwide audiences. “Strangely enough,…

Keeping It Snappy with Local Shorts Screening

Keeping It Snappy with Local Shorts Screening

Eight locally made short films will screen at the one-session New Zealand Short Film Festival held on 14 August in Sydney and 22 August in Brisbane. The films will screen representing the very best…

Lighting Up the Longlist with Her Second Novel

Lighting Up the Longlist with Her Second Novel

New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, 27, has made the Man Booker Prize longlist for her novel, The Luminaries, which will be released in New Zealand on 1 August and in the US in October….

Archaeologist Made Extraordinary Contributions to Field

Archaeologist Made Extraordinary Contributions to Field

New Zealand-born archaeologist Mike Morwood, who was best known for discovering Homo floresiensis, has died in Darwin, aged 82. In 2003, Morwood led a joint Australian-Indonesian team of archaeologists, which uncovered what appeared to…

Jackson Live-Blogs The Hobbit’s Final Day

Jackson Live-Blogs The Hobbit’s Final Day

After more than two years, Peter Jackson has finished filming the final installment of The Hobbit trilogy. With the final scenes shot on 26 July, the award-winning director wrote on his Facebook…

Looking at the Top Figures

Looking at the Top Figures

New Zealand’s rich are getting richer, with the total worth of those who made it onto National Business Review’s 2013 rich list up $3.5 billion on last year, reports The Australian. Graeme Hart once…

Long-Haul Visitor Numbers on the Up

Long-Haul Visitor Numbers on the Up

There has been a significant growth in the number of international visitors to New Zealand this year, with a 10 per cent rise in arrivals during the first half of 2013, compared to the…

Thinking Even Bigger from Google in Silicon Valley

Thinking Even Bigger from Google in Silicon Valley

Scotts Ferry, Harvard University, Wall Street, the White House – Victoria Ransom’s journey from rural Rangitikei to an executive’s chair at the Googleplex is one of New Zealand’s most stunning success stories, The New…

Auric Qualities in Vivid Colour

Auric Qualities in Vivid Colour

Wellington-born Carlo Van de Roer doesn’t just capture a person when he takes their photograph, he captures the colour of their soul, writes the Daily Mail. In his psychedelic collection of images, New York-based…

New Singapore Role for Former Silver Ferns Coach

New Singapore Role for Former Silver Ferns Coach

Ruth Aitken is taking up the role of Netball Singapore’s new technical director and national coach. Mastering the pronunciation of her new charges’ names may be tricky for the New Zealander, but she has…

Ammann Testament to General Motor’s New Culture

Ammann Testament to General Motor’s New Culture

General Motors chief financial officer, New Zealander Daniel Ammann, talks with The Detroit News editorial board about how the automaker’s goal is consistent profitability in a cyclical industry. After a historic bailout and Washington-managed…

Timtimfed Makes Web Films on His Own Terms

Timtimfed Makes Web Films on His Own Terms

Originally from Christchurch, Michael Shanks, 22, otherwise known by his pseudonym “Timtimfed”, is creating some of the best gaming parodies on the web. Shanks was one of the hosts of a recent PAX Australia…

Gibbs Amphibians Expands Across US

Gibbs Amphibians Expands Across US

New Zealand-founded Gibbs Amphibians is on track to build 1000 Quadski amphibious all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in 2013 and expects to have more than 100 major powersports dealers authorised to sell and service…

Skills Drain Reversal with More Work Options

Skills Drain Reversal with More Work Options

New Zealand is currently experiencing its strongest immigration flows in four years, with returning citizens vying with foreign nationals for work, in a “nation whose economy is outperforming many of its developed peers”, writes…

Channelling Tricksters in Plexiglas for Vancouver Show

Channelling Tricksters in Plexiglas for Vancouver Show

New Zealand sculptor George Nuku’s work is part of an exhibition called, Paradise Lost? Contemporary Works from the Pacific, on through 29 September at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The Vancouver…