Most Valuable Harry
“Chris Harris is the bald bloke who must have been in the New Zealand team since they started playing cricket. He hangs around at backward point taking spectacular catches, bats irritatingly in the lower middle order…
Blog Archives
Earlier Ellie: “Sweet As”
Ellie finds down under dialect quirks and more: “At the Polynesian Spa I soaked in the thermal pools overlooking Lake Rotorua…I don’t know whether it was the ylang ylang, the lavender, the sandalwood or…
The tyranny of distance
…didn’t stop Russell Crowe…talking at the Berlin Film Festival about his edge: “Growing up in New Zealand or Australia you look outwards, fully aware you’re living in the last two major land masses to…
From NZ with Love
“Spunky New Zealander” Mary Hobbs, editor of NZ Outside, and her mountain guide husband Charlie, use their own money to put together a book from their fellow countrymen to New Yorkers rocked by…
Giant Icebergs Leave Penguins Stranded
NZ scientists involved in penguin dynamics research in Antarctica report on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of baby penguins this summer, caused by the blocking of food routes by giant icebergs.
Are You Looking at Us?
PJ helmed, NZ-made Lord of the Rings…Russell Crowe in Beautiful Mind…Andrew Adamson co-directed Shrek. The Oscars go antipodean as the edge gives Hollywood a prod in tandem with a strong Australian presence. LotR is…
Oscar Double?
Russell Crowe earns his third consecutive Best Actor Oscar nomination for his depiction of Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr in A Beautiful Mind. If he were to win, Crowe would join the elite…
#50 Kiwis Making The Most Of The World
Edge Message #50 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Today we open the doors on an eclectic range of products that celebrate the ready creativity of our South Seas’ paradise. We…
Intellectually Challenged NZ
Record numbers of NZ scholars, researchers, and graduates continue to leave antipodean pastures in search of work overseas notwithstanding another dose of local official hoopla, this time heard at the Innovate Conference in Christchurch. “New Zealand has…
World Class Metropolis
Good life here and now: Auckland is ranked above Munich, Melbourne, Stockholm and Toronto to win sixth place for overall quality of life in a William M. Mercer survey of 215 cities, topped by Zurich in…
Triple Bottom Liners
Janet Street Porter gets down under with the finer points of NZ culture, including food evangelist Dick Hubbard and the socially conscious breakfast cereal. The Triple Bottom Line philosophy = the three Ps of People, Planet…
Everest Celebrations
Sir Edmund Hillary’s 54-year old son Peter will attempt to ascend Mount Everest this month, as Nepal approaches 50th anniversary celebrations of Everest’s first successful ascent in 1953.
“Give Me Red Wine, the Kind That Makes Me Feel Fine”
Two NZ Pinot Noirs – Gibbston Valley’s 1999 Nevis Bluff Pinot Noir and Wither Hills’ Pinot Noir (2000) – are included in Guardian Top 5 “seduction wine” list for Valentine’s Day. “Like love itself, the fickleness…
Paradise Found
The Southern Alps. The Tongariro volcanoes. The Fiordland rain forest. “There is something archetypal about the scenery here, as though someone copied the planet’s most distinctive landscapes and jammed them all on two islands….New Zealand is the…
A Pub Crawler’s Guide to Philosophy? Yeah Right.
US tour New Zealand “via its breweries, pubs and hard-case taverns”, finding barmaids who “pour the purge with a scowl that could compete with the hog trophies on the walls”, and brewers who freely offer insight into…
Man of the Series
Kiwi paceman Shane Bond wins Player of the Cricket World Series, taking an astonishing 21 wickets against Australia and South Africa. Sir Richard Hadlee rates him “the quickest bowler New Zealand has ever produced providing the…
Rings Cleans Up Awards
Lord of the Rings wins Best Film, Best Debut, and Best Actor at the Empire Awards 2001. “It was the greatest experience of our professional lives, going to New Zealand and working with Peter Jackson…
The B-list of Baaad Has an Axis to Grind
International relations satire: bitter after being snubbed for membership in the “Axis of Evil”, peer-conscious nations rush to gain triumvirate status in what becomes a game of geopolitical chairs: “Spain, Scotland and New Zealand established the…
Speaking in tongues
Applauded young Aotearoa actress Madeleine Sami, dodges questions about her involvement with Rings star Elijah Woods (“we kind of hung out and went to the movies a bit”), a day after Woods confesses he’s…
Royal Chill
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide Kevin Roberts, accompanies Britain’s Princess Anne to Antarctica to celebrate the centenary of Scott and Shackleton’s discovery expeditions, and to launch the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust’s 10 year project to conserve…
“Names Will Never Hurt Me?”
Deputy PM Jim Anderton tells the Australian Government to stop its “insults”, after Aussie Defence Minister Robert Hill dubs New Zealand “Tasmania”. “For God’s sake”, Anderton says,”we’re the closest neighbours to each other, so we need to…
Xena tackles Vagina Monlogues
Warrior Princess Lucy Lawless learns “new respect for the vagina, for the power and sacredness of it”, as she stars alongside Madeline Sami and Danielle Cormack in Auckland Theatre Company’s staging of the feminist…
Supermarket nirvana: Gisborne Woolworths
Street-Porter lauds fusion master Peter Gordon, bemoans some antipodean executions of the theory, but finds solace in Woolworths: “I purchased sun-dried tomatoes, olive and rosemary focaccia bread, and locally made Camembert. Have you picked…
These Limbs Were Made for Climbing
Kiwi mountaineer Mark Inglis successfully completes the journey to NZ’s highest peak, Mt Cook, without a piece of kit he’d come to take for granted on all previous expeditions – his legs. “With my artificial limbs…
Rugby Great
Grant Fox is named by The Guardian’s Eddie Butler as one of the ten greatest fly-halves in the history of rugby union.
Stand and Deliver
NZ Post held up as successful post-liberalisation model which British Post could try to emulate. As a “beacon of public service in a privatised world”, NZ Post has remained dominant because, “it has the…
I Can See Your Heart Beat
Auckland University’s Bioengineering Institute leads ground-breaking new research into heart and lung modeling and software development. Led by Dr Peter Hunter, the team of in silico biologists translate human organs “into thousands of mathematical equations and millions…
This Sporting Life
Ben Willis, ex-King’s College and NZ Academy player, is carving out a career as a rugby pro playing off the bench at half back for Leinster, as well as turning out for Ireland A. Unison profiles…
Hem Femme
“She may be the most successful designer New Zealand has ever produced”. NYNZer Rebecca Taylor featured in extensive portrait in Vogue (Australia). Click here. And acclaimed in an emerging designers post-Sept 11 fashion…
Love Trolley Champ
Competing on an indoor erg (affectionately known as the ‘love trolley) Georgina Evers-Swindell wins the Crash-B World Indoor Rowing Championship with a time 0.6 sec off her world record. The win caps off a huge year…
Man with the Hook
NZ-born Sam Chisholm, the man who spent more time in the boxing ring than class room at King’s College, who then went on to become deal maker and right hand man for both Kerry Packer and Rupert…
#49 Hot Kiwis Around The Globe
Edge Message #49 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NEW ZEALAND EDGE GLOBAL COMMUNITY Welcome to New Zealand Edge 2002. Today we bring you hot news, a bright preview, and a deep remembrance. HOT KIWIS AROUND THE…
East to the Edge
A book exploring the distinctly Japanese art of Kabuki has been “beautifully translated into English” by New Zealander Kirsten McIvor. Kabuki Today throws open the door to the mysterious world of the ancient theatrical…
NZ Schoolboys Take England to the Wall
“No one can decide who is the best rugby team in the world at present, largely because the two main contenders, England and NZ, circle each other without actually engaging On the evidence at Twickenham…
Record Tourism Numbers
“Despite the global downturn New Zealand still welcomed a record number of international visitors for the 2010 1,909,391 people visited, a 6.9 percent increase from the previous year”.
Bollywood or bust
Lush locations, talent and technology make NZ an ideal shooting location for Bollywood. Its almost monsoon season down under with the production schedules over-flowing, “the total number of song and dance routines filmed in…
Middle Earth homestay
“I just want to stay in NZ making my stuff.” PJ interviewed by PBS’s Charlie Rose. Listen to the interview here for a fascinating conversation as Peter Jackson talks candid camera for an…
Art for Masses
LATimes cover story on art for the people in Chinatown, LA, features NZ artists and curators, including an exhibition at the Lord Mori Gallery, curated by Tessa Laird and Joyce Campbell, “featuring work…
Wading into a Globalisation Debate
Prospect (“Britain’s intelligent conversation”) hosts a debate between prominent LSE economist NZer Robert Wade and Martin Wolf over whether global inequality and poverty are actually getting worse. Wade: “At the heart of our disagreement, I think, is…
NZ Biologist Battles in Spice Wars
Michael Pearson, a biologist at the University of Auckland, has isolated six different viruses threatening to destroy the world’s second most lucrative spice – vanilla planifolia. “We are the world experts on vanilla virus … that is…
Chopper
Jason Wynyard, New Zealand’s World Champion Axeman, along side countryman and defending champion Dave Bolstad, is featured in an article previewing the STIHL Timbersports Series. “Lumberjacking: the epitome of sportsmanship… gain an understanding…
Taste Sensation
Award winning vineyard – Goldwater Estate – Praised for its 2001 Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc: “This impeccably crafted wine offers a complexity and excitement equal to the finest Sancerre of the Loire Valley, but with a flavour…
Diabetes Breakthrough
Diatranz of Auckland claims it has conducted a successful trial that could eventually provide a cure for 15 million people around the world with type 1 diabetes who currently need daily injections of insulin. The Mexican…
Crowe: Edgy Actor
Front-running for repeat Oscar victory Crowe would rather have a beer according to this excellent Independent profile that plays on Rus’s ANZAC roots, “Like the classic guy from Down Under, he’s very happy to…
Down-underwear
New Zealand-edged designer Collette Dinnigan (trained at Massey University Design School, formerly Wellington Polytechnic) enlists Dane Helena Christensen to model her new ‘supersexy’ collection of underwear, ‘Wild Hearts’ for Marks & Spencer. The collection…
Dead chuffed
The A-list from the cinematic, corporate and consulate worlds turned out for a deliciously irreverent Sam Neil tribute honouring his 25 years in film and his contribution to New Zealand, Australian, and American culture…
I See Red
A New Zealand company, Knights of NZ, wins the contract to make the Australian Olympic team’s opening ceremony coats for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Worth more than $3000 each, the coats are made from 100 per…
Strutting in their genes
New Zealand’s “young kid band with famous fathers”, otherwise known as Betchadupa, tours Australia for the Big Day Out series. Frontman Liam Finn bears the iconic surname of Split Enz and Crowded House…
South Sea’s Start-up
Stephen “Warehouse” Tindall, (Forbes: “the Sam Walton of the South Pacific”) backs NZ technology innovation in Red Herring. Citing do-it-yourself Kiwi advances in biotech, multimedia and software (the world’s leading agricultural bio-tech research and the…
Gilding the Director
Peter Jackson is nominated for the Best Director award as judged by the Directors Guild Association. Jackson, however, doesn’t seem very interested in taking home any coveted gold trophies: “Its the icing on the…
Coach Blackadder
Former All Black captain, Todd Blackadder, takes his first step into international coaching with the announcement that he will be joining the Scotland Under 21 set-up.
Master Blasters
Explosive all-rounder Chris Cairns plays “one of the great one-day international innings in the 22-year history of the game When he is on song, no oval in the world is big enough to contain him”….
Values Party – BYO
Don’t miss Marlborough’s “tangy, medium-bodied, cranberry-dried” Saint Clair 2000 Doctor’s Creek Pinot Noir. “Perfect with poultry or perhaps salmon, it epitomizes the remarkable values coming out of New Zealand”.
A Beautiful Mind
Wellington-born Russell Crowe, who last year won an Oscar for his lead role in Gladiator, pulls off the second biggest win of his career – a Golden Globe for best actor, in A Beautiful…
“All the world’s a stage”
24-year-old Aucklander, Miles Lattimer-Gregory, hits the big time in London’s West End, with the company he founded, the British Touring Shakespeare Company opening its season of Hamlet and the Twelfth Night at the Westminster…
Heckler Good-humoured
500 e-mails, several severed subscriptions, and a visitation by one J.Lomu later, Graham offers an open apology. Planting tongue firmly in cheek, he concedes amongst other things that Split Enz are indeed better than Midnight…
