Innovative From Back To Back
New Zealand band The Renderers’ new record A Rocket into Nothing is reviewed on music site Pop Matters. “Even among the angular, bizarre likes of the Clean and the 3Ds, the Renderers have always been outliers….
Blog Archives
Memories Of Travel To The Sea
Auckland-born DJ and BBC Radio 1 presenter Zane Lowe describes his life in travel with the Independent. Lowe’s first holiday memory is driving to the Bay of Islands. “I remember being packed into my dad’s…
Dubai Strut For Top Model
New Zealand’s Next Top Model’s newest winner Brigette Thomas made an appearance at Dubai Fashion’s Longest Catwalk on 3 February. The event featured 100 models walking a ramp at The Dubai Mall showcasing the…
Trench Living Makes Big
A ‘supergiant’ crustacean measuring 34cm has been found 7km deep in the Kermadec Trench north off the coast of New Zealand. Seven specimens, of which usually measure between 2-3cm, were caught in a trap…
Piece Of Hollywood In Wairarapa
Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron has spent $20 million buying more than 1000ha of farmland in South Wairarapa. According to application documents, Cameron and his family “intend to reside indefinitely in New Zealand and are acquiring the…
Monster Trout Down South
New Zealand trout dwarf their Californian relatives writes American fisherman Alistair Bland for the Marin Independent Journal. “Indeed, to raise a New Zealander’s eyebrows one must catch an eight- or 10-pounder,” Bland says. “Suffice…
Fortunately For Paul
In his spare time, when not drumming for Canadian singer Feist, New Zealand-born musician Lucky Paul “makes densely hypnotic, drum-heavy dream-pop for label somethinksounds.” “Elephant Island, the follow-up to last year’s well-received The Slow…
Supergiant Amphipod Discovered in Kermadec Trench
Scientists have discovered a ‘supergiant’ amphipod in waters north of New Zealand which dwarfs the Antarctic ‘giant’.
Hot Premiere Signing
New Zealander Ryan Nelsen, 34, who led the All Whites at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, has signed with Tottenham Hotspur. Ryan was released by Blackburn after the club agreed to…
Miramar’s Awakening
“Until Sir Peter Jackson and his producer Jamie Selkirk made films in Miramar in the 1990s, the Wellington suburb was sleepy,” David Burton writes for Monocle. “‘There was tumbleweed, rolling down the street,’ jokes…
Reflecting Life Of The Beach
Piha’s Butler Beach House designed by Herbst Architects is the company’s “most ambitious project to date,” according to Monocle. “Herbst Architects is renowned in New Zealand for its signature remodeling of the classic Kiwi bach….
Seattle Rowing Appointment
New Zealand rowing coach Richard Parr, 49, has been hired by the Vashon Island Rowing Club (VIRC) in Seattle. He comes to Vashon from the University of Otago, where he spent the past 15…
Record Exports Into UAE
New Zealand Natural premium ice cream chain is one of a number of local businesses fuelling a record volume of exports from the country into United Arab Emirates (UAE). Last year, the value of…
Believe In Oyster Bay
“Hawke’s Bay is producing some of the world’s greatest red wines at the moment,” according to the Leader-Post’s James Romanow. “Enormously fine, well structured wines that will go the distance, they are tremendous in every sense…
Celebrating Deco Heritage
On the third weekend of every February, Napier celebrates its unique Art Deco heritage with age-old fashions, wine, dance and song. The official programme of events has grown so much over the years that…
Engines Off For Clean Hulls
Scientists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and Auckland University have found a possible answer to a multi-million-dollar problem for shipping companies around the world. Switching off a vessel’s generator…
Pacific Edge To Pennsylvania
Dunedin-based biomedical company Pacific Edge, which has developed an easy and accurate method for detecting bladder cancer, plans to open a facility in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Pacific Edge Diagnostics should open by the end…
Teenage Dream Come True
Fourteen-year-old North Harbour amateur Lydia Ko has become the youngest winner of a professional golf tour event, taking the women’s New South Wales Open by four strokes. South Korean-born Ko, the world’s top amateur,…
Globally Pumped
Les Mills International, which exports its exercise-to-music classes to 80 countries around the globe, is a finalist in the New Zealand International Business Awards for best business with revenue in the $10m to $50m…
Canterbury Gardens Enchant
From the grand estate of Otahuna Lodge, which was built in 1895 as the home of parliamentarian and horticulturist Sir Heaton, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Julietta Jameson views the heritage gardens of the Canterbury region. “Americans…
Debating Foreign Investment
New Zealand Federated Farmers chief executive Conor English speaks from Wellington with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move Asia” about Shanghai Pengxin Group Co.’s plan to buy 16 New Zealand dairy farms….
Caps Bowl Mammoth Victory
The Black Caps bowled out Zimbabwe for 51 and 143 at Napier’s McLean Park to win the one-off Test by an innings and 301 runs — New Zealand’s biggest-ever victory margin. Pacers Chris Martin…
Roadmap For Understanding
Mt Eden’s private Ficino School has a Sanskrit Language Studies program and claims that learning one of the world’s oldest languages accelerates a child’s reading ability. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has applauded the school…
Uncompromised Magic
The Royal New Zealand Ballet performed Angelina Ballerina’s Big Audition, which featured ballet, hip hop, contemporary dance, tap dancing and “a little bit of magic”, at Sydney’s State Theatre in January. “Children know…
Beats Picking Tomatoes
Wellington-based filmmaker Tusi Tumasese, 35, director of Oscar-nominated feature The Orator, explains to The West Australian why he left Samoa at the age of 18. “My mum sent me over to New Zealand because I was getting…
Seaside Serenity
The historical naval village of Devonport, just across the harbour from the centre of Auckland, is the place to be for a gentle pace according to Julia Kirchner writing for Monsters & Critics. “While…
It’s Gone To His Head
Bret McKenzie celebrated his Oscar nomination for best song with some Vegemite and toast. McKenzie, who wrote the meta-power ballad ‘Man or Muppet’ for The Muppets, is up against ‘Real in Rio’ from Rio: The Movie,…
Lucretia Is Back For More
Auckland-born actress Lucy Lawless, 43, returns to the American small screen as Lucretia in Spartacus: Vengeance, and the writers were “really rude” to her this season she says. “They were really rude. Usually, they are…
Sami And Fraser Play Canada
Auckland-born actress Madeline Sami stars in Toa Fraser’s award-winning No. 2, a play the pair first collaborated on in 1999 and which is currently touring Canada. When No. 2 opened in Calgary’s Epcor Centre’s Engineered Theatre in…
Taking Back History
New Zealand ambassador Rosemary Banks and French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand presided over a solemn ceremony at Quai Branly museum in Paris where 20 Maori ancestral heads and bones were given back to New…
Emphatic Win For Talented Teen
Auckland golf prodigy Lydia Ko has reinforced her ranking as the world’s best female amateur with an emphatic win in the Australian amateur championship at Woodlands in Melbourne. Ko, a gifted 14-year-old, beat Australian…
Documenting Innocence
Director Peter Jackson believes former Death Row inmate Damien Echols would be dead now if not for 1996 documentary, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, that cast doubt on the man’s guilt…
Maiden Into Milford
“My first sighting of New Zealand is from the balcony of my cabin as Sun Princess sidles up to the rugged cliffs of Fiordland,” The Australian’s Helen McKenzie describes from aboard the ship for her maiden…
Good For American Cinemas
Dunedin director Mike Wallis’ budget western Good for Nothing will become the first self-funded New Zealand film to be released in United States cinemas from next month. Wallis used the landscapes of Central Otago…
Mega Auckland Police Sting
New Zealand police arrested four of seven file-sharing firm Megaupload executives, including founder Kim Dotcom, 37, in an early morning sting at his $30 million rented mansion in Coatesville, 30km north of Auckland. The…
Fully-Booked And Beautiful
“Why if the is so fully-booked, expensive, and logistically unfriendly, would so many people choose to trek it?” asks Gadling blogger Kyle Ellison. “Because, to put it simply, it might actually be…
Pale Ale Goes Digital
When you purchase a bottle of New Zealand’s Yeastie Boys Digital IPA you can scan in a code from the bottle onto your smartphone, and it will immediately send you to a website where…
National Treasure On Tour
“Beloved at home but never exactly part of the mainstream, McGlashan has maintained a level of consistency over both group and solo releases, which has earned him great respect within his peer group…
These Cats Kick A**
New Zealand heavy metal band Legacy of Disorder are an “exception” to the “formulaic” and “pointless growls” of the last decade or so according to the Examiner’s David Garlow. “This band has parts Pantera,…
Big Investments In Little Bank
Kiwibank’s announcement it will purchase Gareth Morgan Investments for an undisclosed sum is expected to bring high-net-worth investors to the New Zealand government-owned bank and improve its margins. Kiwibank Group, with around $14 billion…
Scouted And Signed
Seventeen-year-old first baseman Pita Rona is the first New Zealander to sign with an American Major League Baseball team. Auckland-born Rona has signed a seven-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles. Rona, who has played…
Investing Big In Hotspots
New Zealand-born Renaissance Group founder Stephen Jennings is betting big on Africa becoming the next global investment hotspot. Having fought through a number of corporate close shaves to amass a fortune worth an estimated…
Sticks And Stones
On tour in “the luscious land of New Zealand,” British comedian Ed Byrne writes his weekly column for Metro. “They’re a bit fed-up at the moment over here: earthquake-ravaged Christchurch continues to be a drain…
Wooly Olympic Potential
New Zealand Federated Farmers says sheep shearing has the potential to become an Olympic demonstration sport. The “time has come to elevate shearing’s sporting status to the ultimate world stage,” the organisation said. New…
With A Cryptic Brusqueness
New Zealand actor Sam Neill, 64, stars in Lost creator J. J. Abrams’ drama series Alcatraz, which premiered on American channel Fox this month. “The premise: The orderly closing of the prison on Alcatraz in 1963 was…
Hi There To The United States
Fashion designer Karen Walker’s Hi There clothing range will sell in up to 164 Anthropologie stores in the United States from February. Landing in stores for the American summer, the deal has a retail value…
Twin Imaginings
As well as remembering things differently, siblings often fight over ownership of the same memory writes the Guardian’s Charles Fernyhough in an article about shared memories and the problems they cause. “A study by Mercedes Sheen…
Latham Takes Gold
Te Awamutu-born Peter Latham, 28, has won the men’s 4000m individual pursuit race at the UCI World Cup event in Beijing. Latham produced a time of 4:25.964 to beat Mitchell Mulhern (4:26.267) from Australia…
Small, Green And Phenomenal
“What’s small, green, comes from New Zealand and is incredibly popular with Britain’s brewers?” The Independent’s Will Hawkes asks. “No, not Kiwi fruits, although someone will surely make a beer with them sooner or later. The…
Lads On Film Make Festival
Duncan Sarkies’ film Two Little Boys, featuring Bret McKenzie and Australian actor Hamish Blake, will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, screening in the Generation section, in February. The film is described as an irreverent…
Innovation Nets Branson Time
Takapuna business FaceMe has won time with billionaire Sir Richard Branson after winning top entrepreneurial competition, BNZ Presents: The Virgin Business Challenge. FaceMe has developed a video conference system that is compatible with any…
Critic’s Choose McKenzie
Wellington-born comedian Bret McKenzie, 35, has trumped Elton John and Mary J. Blige to win the Critics’ Choice best song award for ‘Life’s a Happy Song’, which he penned for the recently-released The Muppets movie as…
Ribboned Rakaia From Space
An image of the braided Rakaia River has won an online vote through Facebook for best satellite image of 2011. The image was captured by American commercial satellite imaging firm DigitalGlobe. The river, shown…
International Cluster Deal
University of Waikato computer science doctoral student Paul Hunkin’s software has been picked up by Google and NASA. Hunkin created ClusterGL to connect multiple screens to form one huge image for the university’s display…
Spinning For Sixes
Dunedin-born Black Cap right-arm spinner, and “more than handy batsman,” Nathan McCullum, 31, has signed with the Sydney Sixers for the remainder of the Big Bash League as a replacement for West Indian import…
Hungry Lion Fascinates Toddler
A video of three-year-old Sofia Walker coming face to face with Wellington Zoo’s lion, Malik, has captivated international news media. The Daily Mail described her encounter: “Brave Sofia Walker refuses to back down and instead stares…
