Blog Archives

Vine Delights

Vine Delights

Check out “petroleum-charged, aromatic, oily” Villa Maria Reserve Riesling.  

Big Money Beware

Big Money Beware

The Government seeks to implement a “code of conduct” for foreign investors, leading to “higher standards of investment”.

Serve Up Sam

Serve Up Sam

Sam Neill, currently showing in The Dish, is major star material: “Like Harrison Ford, he’s an Everyman with gravitas. Like Tom Hanks, he engages our sympathy innately. He’s masculine without being macho, handsome without…

Along came Lee

Along came Lee

Along Came a Spider, edge-director Lee Tamahori’s Kiss the Girls follow-up “skillfully builds the action” and “gives sequels a good name”.

#37 FutureNZ

#37 FutureNZ

Edge Message #37 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM TO NZEDGE AUCKLAND COMMUNITY FYI, I am making a presentation this Wed 11 April on The New Zealand Edge as part of the FutureNZ seminar series http://www.futurenz.com/ 5.45pm…

Baby Steps

Baby Steps

“The best place I ever visited was probably Australia and New Zealand in 1983 with Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they took William. In Auckland where the tour ended the pictures of Diana and Charles…

Vets’ Rights

Vets’ Rights

New Zealand’s Vietnam vets are to gain more recognition for their service.  

Finn-cast

Finn-cast

The Finn and Friends concert goes live over the web.  

Finn in Review

Finn in Review

“One Nil grows in stature with each listening.”  

Knox them out

Knox them out

The Vintner’s Luck takes the Tasmanian Pacific Region Prize, Australasia’s richest literary prize. “There’s all this stuff in Vintner about anxiety and authenticity that’s very New Zealand,” says author Elizabeth Knox, noting that, like…

Pohutukawa Brouhaha

Pohutukawa Brouhaha

“New Zealand Christmas tree” defended by Cape Town fans.

Fast and Blur

Fast and Blur

New Zealand Olympic playmaker Mark Dickel, shooting it up for Australian NBL team the Victoria Titans moves at two speeds – “fast and blur”.

Tiger’s Edge

Tiger’s Edge

“Stevie has been in my ear about it and he has definitely told me about his auto racing … I would maybe like to possibly catch one of his races,” says Tiger Woods, commenting on a…

Never a Softie

Never a Softie

Colin Meads played 55 games for New Zealand, with “not a soft match in his entire 14 years at the pit face. No wonder the legend lives on”.  

Try the venison, deer

Try the venison, deer

New Zealand venison is among the top choices at Atlanta’s Buckhead Brewery and Grille. Also, New Zealand venison fills the red meat gap in Europe.

Future Drink

Future Drink

“Fast-forward to the year 21. You shop eBay, toy with the PlayStation 2, drink wines from New Zealand and Texas and watch NYPD Blue on a flat-screen TV.”  

Flamin’ Right?

Flamin’ Right?

Fire poi are “trendy, hypnotizing and arty”, if a little confused: “The toys draw their name from the Maori people of New Zealand. Barred from speaking around men, Maori women invented poi dancing as a way…

Kind of Milk

Kind of Milk

New Zealand Milk (Malaysia) looks to introduce “non-dairy formats” into the local market, following extensive R and D.  

Smokin’ Gun

Smokin’ Gun

New Zealand anti-smoking study reveals passive smoking’s deadly aim and gives Massachusetts legislation breath of life.

Perfect Pitch

Perfect Pitch

Need good grass? Call in the experts from the New Zealand Institute of Turf.

Good Background for Conciliation

Good Background for Conciliation

South African immigrant Gregory Fortuin, New Zealand’s new race relations conciliator, has his experience of “ugly and oppressive racism” under apartheid to motivate him in his new job.

Majors Story (Almost)

Majors Story (Almost)

The amazing story of Travis Wilson: “A New Zealander needing only four years to reach the highest level of America’s national pastime? That would have been a made-for-TV movie.” Also, Wilson has a “huge future,” says 

Thin Red Tape

Thin Red Tape

A significant part of setting up a new business is time and money required to negotiate government red tape. New Zealand has the world’s cheapest procedures, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurs.

Designer Fruit

Designer Fruit

With the lifting of import restrictions, labelled and polished New Zealand apples have Hyderabad’s prestige fruit market cornered.  

No Free Trade Free Lunch

No Free Trade Free Lunch

“There is no short cut, and we should not fool ourselves that some deal will come down from above. The only round we can launch is one that WTO members across the spectrum can identify with…

Angst in Oz

Angst in Oz

Australian business needs a hurry-up: “…even the New Zealanders are giving us a spanking in certain areas. Even the New Zealanders! Well I never…”  

Still The Best

Still The Best

Leilani Joyce remains squash #1, trailed by New Zealand-based world champion Carol Owens.  

What the Hell is That Smell?

What the Hell is That Smell?

Touring Canadian Chris Atchison notes Rotorua’s characteristic odour, but finds “the sheer wonder of the natural show makes the stench a bit easier to tolerate”.

Pre-natal Aerobics

Pre-natal Aerobics

“Aim for a flet tummy,” says the kiwi instructor.

Young Crusader

Young Crusader

New Zealander Ruby Haazen, 13, sails the high seas fighting for a cleaner earth.

Kyoto Outcry

Kyoto Outcry

Phil Goff, Minister for Foreign Affairs and trade, voiced New Zealand’s condemnation of the Bush back-down on Kyoto after a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Camera king

Camera king

‘Khmer Kings’ won New Zealander Matthew Kearns first prize in the Nikon Photographic Competition run by the Dubai International Arts Centre.

Groundbreaker Gov-Gen

Groundbreaker Gov-Gen

“As one of the few female law students of her generation,  Cartwright was barred from the Law Students association, denied access to textbooks and told she was only at university to find a husband.”…

Jumping Jackie Flash

Jumping Jackie Flash

Australia’s Sports Minister and Howard political protégé, New Zealand-born Jackie Kelly ducks the limelight after “a huge year”.

Phone Re-conversion

Phone Re-conversion

New Zealand MP and respected pillar of the Samoan community, Philip Field, retrieved a stolen car – by ringing the car phone and demanding the thieves return the vehicle.

The New Millennium

The New Millennium

In Auckland, New Zealand, a Maori warrior greets the first sunrise of the year 2000 with a traditional Maori trumpet.

Eiffel? non. Blobby? oui!

Eiffel? non. Blobby? oui!

Brendan MacFarlane, Kiwi half of design duo Jakob and MacFarlane continues to dazzle the Parisian architecture scene: “The only work of architecture raising Parisians’ eyebrows was Jakob and MacFarlane’s “blobby” rooftop restaurant, crowning the…

Still Flying High

Still Flying High

Air New Zealand continues its good run, ranking in the top ten international airlines in a Zagat survey covering 31 500 flyers.

First in Sevens

First in Sevens

The sevens boys had the Hong Kong final all wrapped up, taking them to the top spot in overall series standings.  

Galloping gourmet still in the saddle

Galloping gourmet still in the saddle

Graham Kerr cooks up a storm on his new programme, Swiftly Seasoned.

Take a Break

Take a Break

Lunch breaks are best – eating at your desk makes the office “sound like the boiling muds of New Zealand”.

Netjetters in New Zealand

Netjetters in New Zealand

Two of the Guardian’s globe-trotting “Netjetters” are lassoed by Aotearoa’s lures and both have trouble getting back on the plane. Sue jetboats in Queenstown, visits her first rodeo and is “very sorry to leave” and Milly finds…

Southern Edge of Life

Southern Edge of Life

Get April’s GQ off the stand for Stewart Island savvy: “Stewart Island, on the Southern edge of life, where the foam is white, the hills are green and the necks are red, is a blast” and…

Kiwi batter?

Kiwi batter?

Will Russell Crowe step up to the crease for Somerset this season, or is it just that funny time of year?

Must do Today: Production, Script, Light

Must do Today: Production, Script, Light

Wellington-born Richard Curtis penned the Bridget screen adaptation: one of Britain’s “cleverest screenwriters” in LA Times and “a virtuoso at devising horrific embarrassments for his protagonists,” in Slate. Rounding out the kiwi trio, Stuart…

Mystified About Money

Mystified About Money

Don Brash, the world’s second-longest serving central banker, admits he finds current currency fluctuations as baffling as the next guy.  

Poker Philosophy

Poker Philosophy

Did Wittgenstein threaten Popper with a red-hot poker in Cambridge 55 years ago? New Zealand academic Dr Peter Munz was there…

Not Bully for You

Not Bully for You

New Zealand study underlines the importance of early intervention to prevent young bullies becoming violent offenders.

Finn and Games

Finn and Games

Playing with Neil Finn: “It may well be hair-raising, disastrous, funny or sublime, but it will certainly be an adventure…” Finn on the Auckland all-star band: “The idea is that over the course of…

More Knox

More Knox

“Very different and very daring” – Auckland University Professor Albert Wendt. “For a New Zealander to win an Australian prize seems absolutely incredible,” says Knox.  “The only time we can ever get…

Star-jumps for Gran

Star-jumps for Gran

Seniors who perform supervised exercises at home reduce the risk of falls and serious injury report two studies from Otago Medical school.

Flaxen Splendor

Flaxen Splendor

New Zealand flax gives British gardens a spiky edge.

Do They Have Sheep There?

Do They Have Sheep There?

Scotland’s national collection of New Zealand Olearia attract visitors to Inverewe Gardens on the shores of Lake Ewe.

Smashing Record

Smashing Record

New Zealand batsman Craig McMillan smashed 26 off one over – a new world record. “I love hitting boundaries and I love taking on spinnners,” said the man of the season, speaking after “the most perfect…

Russell’s leg up

Russell’s leg up

Russell’s main rival for the little naked gold man was “Tom Hanks, who wears very little for much of Castaway. To the Academy this shameless overexposure smacked of desperation, an all-shorts-off attempt to counter…

Edge in the heart of Tinseltown

Edge in the heart of Tinseltown

Russell Crowe and Crouching Tiger herald a takeover of Hollywood by the rest of the world.