NZ’s Role in Zhivago Affair
An unnamed New Zealand diplomat has played a role in the Cold War literary intrigue that became known as the Zhivago affair. It was a New Zealand diplomat stationed in Moscow who smuggled out…
Blog Archives
Fyfe a Great Fit for Icebreaker
Rob Fyfe, the man who engineered the turnaround of Air New Zealand after the airline’s Government bailout, is the ideal candidate to take over the reins at Kiwi global outdoor clothing retailer, Icebreaker, says…
Blair Peach’s Alleged Killer Identified
The fight to bring to justice the British police officers believed responsible for the unlawful killing of New Zealand schoolteacher Blair Peach has been given impetus with the publication of a new pamphlet examining…
Picton: The Place Where Jurassic Fossils Still Live
A sea animal thought extinct for four million years has been rediscovered in, of all places, Picton, New Zealand. Previously unknown outside of Europe and the Middle East, fossilised remains of the sea animal…
World’s Number One Innovator: Xero
Influential US business media Forbes has declared New Zealand start-up Xero as the world’s most innovative growth company, beating out much bigger and well-established companies, ASOS and NetSuite. The Wellington-based cloud accounting firm, which has…
Callaghan Chief Star Witness in Terrorist Trial
The head of Callaghan Innovation, Mary Quin, has told a New York court about her abduction by Islamic radicals connected to “handless hate preacher” Abu Hamza al-Masri in Yemen. Quin later confronted Abu Hamza…
The Excuses Begin
A month is a long time in sport, apparently. As spring thaws English soil and the domestic Aviva rugby competition reaches its zenith, the British press are beginning to air doubts about the Red…
Adams’ Tough Guy Reputation Grows
Steven Adams is developing a bruising reputation in his debut season with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. Adams has been the cause of five incidents that have resulted in an ejection, suspension,…
Unorthodox Bubble Deflating
First it was a Forbes columnist poking the borax at the New Zealand economy; now Goldman Sachs is having a go at our property market. The Goldman report is a look at central bank…
Dolphins Protect Swimmer from Great White
A pod of New Zealand dolphins has protected a British swimmer from a Great White Shark during a crossing of Cook Strait to raise money for charity. A video of the encounter on…
Our Salmon is Better
The South China Morning Post is touting New Zealand’s credentials as the next “Canada” for rich mainland Chinese seeking fresh pastures. “An influx of deep-pocketed mainland Chinese has helped New Zealand reach its highest…
Aussies Shocked at Star Kiwi Omissions
Australian eyebrows are being raised quizzically at the Kiwi league team announced to face the Kangaroos in the annual Anzac Day test match this Friday. With an injury list as long as a video…
Hillary and Tenzing: Friendship at the Roof of the World
Everest conquerors Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed the world’s highest mountain together and ascended its peak “almost together”. Yet the controversy surrounding which of the climbers took the first step on to the…
Ko’s Classic Swing Wins Skirts in San Fran
Kiwi golf prodigy Lydia Ko has earned her biggest prize purse of her short professional career when she took out the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in San Francisco at the weekend. The 17-year-old displayed…
Lorde Gives Foo-Fighter Dave Grohl Hope for Music
Music legend Dave Grohl, founder of the Foo Fighters and member of Nirvana, has told Rolling Stone magazine that Lorde gives him hope for the future of music. Dismissing most music on the radio…
Darby’s Sexy Leg Confuses Variety
Rhys Darby’s new eight-episode mockumentary Short Poppies is being praised for its “whimsical and winsome” charms ahead of its debut on American screens on Netflix. The LA Times’ Robert Lloyd describes the series as…
Kiwi Powers Oxford to Biggest Victory in 40 Years
One of Southland’s finest, world champion and Olympic medallist Storm Uru, has played a critical role in continuing Oxford University’s domination of Cambridge University in their hotly contested annual boat race this month. Oxford…
Teen Environmental Animation Premiers at US Festival
A short film by 16-year-old Nastasha Bishop has had its US premier at the prestigious Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC at the weekend. As the Washington Post notes, the festival is misnamed. These…
The Female Punchline: Don’t Ask that Question
A little bit of comedian Michele A’Court dies when she is asked this question: Are women funny? A’Court is asked this question so often that deep inside her, nestled somewhere near her heart, is…
Kiwi Royalty Thrills Chicago
21 March 2014 – The long and the short of it is if you’re a Kiwi in America you support one another. New Zealand’s two most famous US exports – basketball prodigy Steven Adams…
China Ties with NZ Get Closer
China has announced that for the first time it will allow direct trade between the renminbi and the New Zealand dollar, only the fourth currency permitted to do so. The move further strengthens the…
Not Since 1974: Kiwi Dollar to Hit Parity with Aussie
The last time it happened Dick Taylor won gold at the 10,000m Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, Hone Tuwhare was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship for poetry and Bunny Walters topped the charts with his…
McGeechan picks England to beat All Blacks
If it was anyone else saying it – a froth-filled Stephen Jones broadside, perhaps – Kiwis would ignore it. But Sir Ian McGeechan, the decorated Scotsman, respected Lions player and venerated coach, is a…
It happened in NZ first: Oceanic Apocalypse
At first it was dismissed as a freak event. In 1998, a mass of jellyfish carried by the tide into Big Glory Bay, Stewart Island, became pinned against the netting of salmon farm pens:…
NZ Prepares to Wear ‘Big Boy Pants’
British BBC readers overwhelmingly support New Zealand ditching the last official remnant of its colonial past. A referendum will be held at this year’s election on whether to change the flag, which features the…
Warriors Season Full of Hope. Again
Every year it’s the same: this time could be the season when the New Zealand Warriors finally deliver on all their promise. The world’s toughest league competition, the NRL, kicks off on Thursday, with…
Air NZ Soars Above Qantas
The last time Air New Zealand invested in the Australian aviation market, the airline required a Government bail-out to stave off bankruptcy as its subsidiary Ansett fell apart. This time round, it’s Air New…
International Stage for NZ Writing
Acclaimed literature almanac, the Griffith Review, has devoted an entire issue to New Zealand poetry, fiction, non-fiction, art and photography. Award-winning author of Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones, has been brought in as guest editor…
Kiwi Whisky Judged One of the Greats
A top-shelf tipple from the planet’s southern-most country has been named as one of the world’s best by a global whisky expert, Jim Murray. The flagship 21-year-old South Island Single Malt has been adjudged…
Lorde & the Perfectly Formed Sentence
Ella Yellich-O’Connor stares at the reader from the pages of Vogue magazine looking wraithlike, almost like another famous alien fallen to earth. This Lorde looks quite unlike the girl from Devonport who improbably conquered…
Black Caps on the Rise
What a summer. Three test victories, two test series wins and a 4-0 drubbing of the No. 1 ranked one-day side in the world. New Zealand has risen one place to seventh in the…
Epic Innings Earns International Acclaim
Black Caps captain Brendan McCullum’s magisterial triple century – the first ever achieved by a New Zealander – has been hailed by Indian media as one of the greatest innings in cricket history. As…
NZ Farm the Basis for Winning London Butchery
Nothing tastes better than grass-fed beef and lamb, as anyone raised on a New Zealand farm can tell you. But for those poor souls who flew the coop in search of a different life…
Cricket’s Hottest Property Nearly a Millionaire
Black Cap Corey Anderson is only 23-years old and nearly a millionaire. Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians paid $866,000 for the young all-rounder, who set the cricketing world alight with the fastest one-day…
Booker Judge Explains Catton’s Genius
Eleanor Catton’s Booker-winning The Luminaries is a novel in which almost everyone is obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, writes Robert Macfarlane in Intelligent Life, the sister publication to The Economist. But of all…
A Test Win for the Ages
Test cricket’s status as the most important and exciting form of the game was given a resounding endorsement with New Zealand’s win over India at Eden Park, Auckland. Sports journalists thumbed the thesaurus in…
New Zealanders’ Discovery Defended in London Review of Books
New Zealander Constant Mews’ academia-shaking discovery of the lost love letters of legendary lovers Heloise and Aberlard is being defended in the London Review of Books after a new book cast doubt on their…
Toddler’s Golf Swing a Match for Tiger’s
A New Zealand toddler has just placed third in an international competition for junior golf swings. William Tye, who modelled his golf swing on Tiger Woods after watching a video of the famous athlete,…
Top Innovation Prize Goes to Kiwi
Auckland-based designer Nelson Rayner has won an international prize for innovation run by Google and the Advertising Club of New York. Rayner, Australian-born but raised in New Zealand, won the Young Innovators Award for…
Clark Tipped for Top UN Job
Introducing UN Secretary General … Helen Clark? The Guardian is tipping the former prime minister is the prime candidate to replace incumbent Ban Ki-Moon when he steps down in two years. Clark was New…
Nautical Hot Rod Breaches like a Whale
It looks like an Orca breaching the water in pursuit of its favourite stingray prey. But it is in fact the high performance “hot rod for the water” that is the brainchild of California-based…
Waititi’s Vampire: Mind the Furnishings!
Acclaimed New Zealand auteurs Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement are garnering rave reviews for their vampire mockumentary, What We Do In The Shadows, which has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, America’s finest showcase…
Kiwi Heroine Among the Greats
22 January 2004 – New Zealand World War II heroine Nancy Wake has been named by Global Post as amongst the greatest female warriors off all time. In Jessica Phelan’s article – Seven of…
Top Match and Black Caps Pip India
Parochialism in news always meets its apogee in sports reporting. So, in the wake of the Black Caps’ victory in the opening one-dayer at McLean Park in Napier, New Zealand media crowed (Black Caps…
Lorde Makes the Cover of Rolling Stone
“The thrill that’ll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone,” sang Dr Hook in 1972, a blatant but ultimately successful act of musical sycophancy that earned the band…
Leaving on Length Critical for India’s NZ tour
Indian cricket sides have historically struggled on tours to New Zealand and one of the reasons is to do with the bounce of the ball and movement off the wicket. In India, where the…
Australians Unhappy at Avatar Deal
The Government has delivered a huge boost to the New Zealand film industry by cutting a deal with 20th Century Fox that will see the three James Cameron Avatar sequels filmed Downunder. Prime Minister…
American eyes Downunder
A foreigner’s perspective on home is valuable insight into aspects of our culture we often take for granted. The outsider’s view can also be funny. Read two recent adulatory articles about New Zealand in…
Global Recognition for Biofuels Pioneer
Loss-making biofuels innovator LanzaTech’s quest to raise more capital next year has been given a boost after it was named second “hottest” biotech company in the world. Industry bible Biofuels Digest also named the…
NZ Innovation Shines on World Stage
New Zealand’s reputation for world-leading innovation has been significantly burnished in the latest Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Index, which ranks the top 500 tech companies across the region based on triennial revenue…
Kiwi Women Lead Cultural Renaissance
Once upon a time New Zealand cultural values were based on the unholy trinity of rugby, racing and beer. Then the marketing concepts – clean and green; 100% Pure – were added to the…
NZ Public Institutions Trustworthy
New Zealand has been declared the least corrupt nation on earth, equal with Denmark. Rounding out the top four are usual Scandinavian suspects Finland and Sweden, according to Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index….
Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber
Pressure will be mounting on the American Museum of Natural History in New York to return sacred Maori remains to New Zealand after USA Today gave prominence to the issue of toi moko (tattooed…
How do NZ Teams Get out of Jail?
The last seconds, last-gasp victories by the Kiwis and All Blacks at the weekend have prompted English writers to wax philosophical about fine lines and the nature of success. Make no mistake, both the…
Alone It Still Stands
The All Blacks are like a vampire – “you have to stick two stakes through the heart at the crossroads to make sure they are dead and buried,” says John Breen. The proud Irish…
How US Soccer is Helping the NZ Game
In the US, football is called soccer and the major tournament is Major League Soccer (MLS), which has its own website. In a recent fascinating feature-length post, the website highlights how the “MLS fingerprints…
