Strike a Pose
Fresh on the fashion scene is 17-year-old New Zealander Emily Baker — “undisputedly, this season’s top new face” — featured in NYMag.com’s The Cut blog. This rising star made her debut on the…
Blog Archives
Te Kanawa to Sing in Israel
“There may be imitators or wannabes, but there is really only one true diva — legendary soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa,” The Jerusalem Post’s David Brinn writes in a profile of the…
Repositioning Long-Haul Travel
Air New Zealand’s “innovative” Skycouch Economy seat has won the Aviation category in Condé Nast Traveller’s 211 Innovation and Design Awards trumping new First Class A38 cabin designs entered by…
Peacekeepers a Symbol of Success
Former deputy prime minister Jim McLay, now New Zealand’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes an opinion piece for The Kansas City Star about May 29 — International Day of UN Peacekeepers and a…
Coup for Moving Images
The Natural History New Zealand (NHNZ)’s archive sales arm has been chosen by National Geographic Channels Worldwide to represent its footage from the past 2 years. The National Geographic archive adds thousands…
Back to Biological Basics
“At Seresin Estate, a winery owned by New Zealand cinematographer Michael Seresin known for such films as Midnight Express and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the past blurs with the…
Passion for the Game
What is immediately obvious about John Kirwan, coach of the Japanese rugby side, is his passion for the game that has given him a living for the past 28 years. Auckland-born Kirwan,…
City on the Edge of the Pacific
“Nestled in tree-covered hills at the head of a spectacular harbour, Dunedin’s rise to prominence as the gateway to the Otago region came with the discovery of gold at Gabriel’s Gully, to…
Solemn Repatriation
A mummified and tattooed Maori head has been returned to New Zealand after spending 136 years in a Normandy museum. This is the first to be returned of a total of 16 in France….
HardTalk With John Key
BBC’s Stephen Sackur tackles PM John Key in London in a 25 minute interview for HardTalk (Part 1, Part 2). Positioning New Zealand as “very small” and “too small”, Sackur…
Beauty in Clamorous Times
Tim Radford is the only person British writer Peter Forbes can think of who has been both literary and science editor of the Guardian. Forbes continues, in a review of Radford’s new…
Left Past the Fumaroles
After a 2-minute helicopter ride from Whakatane airport to White Island, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Keith Austin’s “first aerial impression is of a volcano from a movie, albeit with one side completely,…
One Opportunity to Get It Right
“’Martin Snedden the former international cricketer now charged with delivering the Rugby World Cup to New Zealand, is clock-watching; has been for the best part of three years,’ the Telegraph’s Paul Ackford writes. ‘We’ve…
Structural Snapshots
New Zealand’s best new buildings range from a bus shelter in Queenstown and an office tower in Auckland, to an opera house in Oamaru, houses on Waiheke Island, and an apartment in…
Burgers and Fries to Iraq
New Zealand-listed gourmet burger company BurgerFuel Worldwide has sold the Master License agreement for the rights to BurgerFuel Iraq. It is the company’s fourth new territory in the Middle East. The brand…
Girlfriends in Sydney
A gallery of the Stolen Girlfriend’s Club show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week features on Vogue Australia’s website. The label collaborated with Wellington artist Karl Maughan using his paintings of gardens, bright…
Southee Signs with Essex
Northern Districts bowler Tim Southee has signed with Essex for this year’s Twenty2 campaign, which begins in June. Whangarei-born Southee has played 19 Twenty2 internationals for his country, taking 22 wickets with best figures…
#128: Palestine to Southern Ohio
Edge Message #128 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM Greetings. NZEDGE.COM publishes daily on Facebook and Twitter. This newsletter presents a selection of New Zealanders appearing…
Bringing Life Force to Nevada
Hastings-based full-time Maori dance company Kahurangi recently performed at the Carson City Library in Nevada as part of a theatre in education tour of Canada and the United States. A performance by…
Unrecognisable Love Songs
Saddlebacks, native to the North Island, seem to have developed various regional ‘accents’ over the last 5 years after humans relocated the species to small island refuges to aid in their preservation,…
Te Kairanga Sold to American
Martinborough’s Te Kairanga Wines, renowned for its pinot noir, has been purchased by American businessman Bill Foley. Te Kairanga is the largest holder of vineyard land in the Martinborough region. The price…
Bountiful Inspiration
New Zealand’s exotic landscapes and lush flora were the inspiration behind American artist Mary Powell’s monotype prints she is exhibiting at RiverSea Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. Each piece has been printed several…
All Eyes on the Palace
The popularity of the monarchy has surged in New Zealand since April’s royal wedding, with a big fall in the number of people expecting the country to become a republic. A new poll by…
Weathering the Storm
“This picture was taken on our way to Saint Arnaud, but it could have been the west coast of Ireland, as the weather kept changing from sun to lashing rain,” amateur photographer Arnaud Chevalier…
Sans Guide in Wine Country
“I’ve travelled to New Zealand about a dozen times from the US and one of my favourite areas is Marlborough, aka wine country (natch), which is found on the north part of…
NEW Zealand: NEW Thinking
Brian Sweeney’s Speech at Kea’s “NEW Zealand: NEW Thinking” event in New York. (13 minutes)
Love Letter to Outsiders
New Zealand fashion label Lonely Hearts’ designer and co-founder Helene Morris is interviewed in the May issue of Australian magazine Frankie about their new collection ‘Little Bandits’ — “a love letter to outsiders.” “We…
Don’t Ask About the Price
Auckland yacht manufacturers Diverse Projects’ 31.5m boat Black Pearl headlines this year’s Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in Queensland. The hull of the superyacht is modelled on a rare…
Have a Beer With Them
The world’s first personal brewery, invented by Auckland company WilliamsWarn, features on luxury item website eXtravaganzi. “Of all home appliances, this is my favourite. The WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery is created…
Community Justice
“Canada’s criminal justice system should mirror that of New Zealand’s,” an Edmonton Journal article suggests. “New Zealand has incorporated the use of community conferencing, a restorative justice programme, that has returned to…
Grand and Green Design
WoJo™, a revolutionary upholstery fabric created by Wellington company The Formary, has been named one of UK television presenter Kevin McCloud’s ‘Kevin’s Green Heroes’. McCloud, who fronts Grand Designs, personally chose ten products…
Staying Connected with Home
Online networking site Kea New Zealand has launched a global ‘census’ of expatriate New Zealanders, dubbed ‘Every Kiwi Counts’, and aimed at connecting the estimated one million of us living overseas. “New Zealanders living…
Maori Forefathers Return Home
The remains of three Maori people, kept for 13 years in boxes in Lund, south Sweden, have been returned to a delegation from Te Papa led by the museum’s Kaihaut? Michelle Hippolite and representing…
Morrison Heads for the Hills
Temuera Morrison stars as Maori seafarer Kereama in the colonial, “pretty much your classic Western,” Tracker, which is reviewed by The Independent. “It is ostensibly the story of a manhunt: Kereama is…
Breakers Outdo Taipans
The New Zealand Breakers have thrashed the Cairns Taipans 71-53 to claim Australia’s National Basketball League title in front of a capacity crowd at Auckland’s North Shore Events Centre. The Breakers are the first…
#127: The Global Life of New Zealanders
Edge Message #127 from Brian Sweeney, producer NZEDGE.COM Greetings. NZEDGE.COM resumes regular newsletters. We publish daily on Facebook and Twitter. This newsletter summarizes this week’s…
Winning Race Plan
Whangarei-based professional triathlete Samantha Warriner’s greatest moment came just three months after undergoing surgery to fix a career-threatening case of super ventricular tachycardia. Somehow fortune and great doctors smiled on Warriner….
All Blacks May Win Again
Graham Henry’s team will end their series of Rugby World Cup chokes when they host the global tournament for the first time since 1987 believes former Springboks coach Jake White, the man…
Return of the Yeti Hand
Adventurer and Air New Zealand pilot Mike Allsop is in Nepal to return a replica of what some believe is the hand of a yeti to a remote monastery in the Everest region. Allsop…
Shannon’s One and Only Lord
While European nobility gathered in Westminster Abbey for April’s royal wedding, one British lord was content to watch the nuptials on television in Shannon, the small New Zealand farming town he calls home. Lord…
Indefatigable Portable Style
The contents of New Zealand designer Karen Walker’s handbag are perused in NBC New York’s weekly ‘Purse Purge’ feature. Walker is “one of few fashion folks creating clothing in two time zones…
Positively Bucolic Township
Russell is a town of some 8 permanent residents, tucked into a beautiful, protected cove in the Bay of Islands, a stunningly beautiful stretch of rocky islets dotted with pines and thick…
Enduring Legacy
This year marks the 96th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who fell in 1915 the annual Anzac Cove dawn ceremony took place…
Bunny Hunt Sparks Debate
The 211 Great Easter Bunny Hunt at Alexandra’s Pioneer Park rid the local farmland of 23, bunnies over the Easter weekend. Billed as a charity event, some animal welfare groups saw the hunt, made…
Limitless Adventure
“If hurling yourself off of a bridge is not your thing, then how about jumping out of a plane from 15, feet?” Malaysia Star reporter Wayne Johnson suggests. “You may, like me, be so…
Sailor Makes Sporting Rich List
CEO of Oracle Racing Russell Coutts is New Zealand’s highest paid athlete and the only sailor to make the ESPN sporting rich list of athletes from 182 countries. Wellington-born Coutts has won the America’s…
Shift in Strength
Following this year’s World Cup, All Black and Crusaders lock Mosgiel-born Brad Thorn will play for Japanese club Fukuoka Sanix Blues. Thorn, a key component of the All Blacks’ engine room for 5 tests,…
Trading Yoghurt Secrets
Family owned Piako Gourmet Yoghurt, which operates out of Auckland, was the inspiration behind a new gourmet yoghurt range for the UK market, called Little Melton Gourmet Yogurt and produced in Norfolk. The company…
Intrinsically Us
New Zealand-based documentary maker Leanne Pooley describes how she came to tell the award-winning story of the Topp Twins in an article featured in the Winnipeg Free Press. “ was well established as a…
Future in a Gold Shirt
Little-known New Zealand back Mark Harris, that Reds coach Ewen McKenzie recruited to the club this year, has been earmarked as a future Wallaby after a fine start to the year and because his…
NZ Well Perceived by Indians
The number of migrants coming to New Zealand from India has continued to increase rapidly in the last three years, despite the global economic downturn that saw significant reduction in the flow of foreign…
Interior Feelings of Happiness
The Auckland home of New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker she shares with her husband Mikhail Gherman, features this month on the American fashion site StyleCaster. “ known for her sweet, quirky ready-to-wear…
Medal of Honour for Doctor
Aucklander Dr Alan Kerr (left) has received Palestine’s highest honour, the “Medal of Honour”, from PNA President Mahmoud Abbas for saving more than 6 children’s lives in the West Bank and Gaza…
Smeltz Joins Perth Glory
New Zealand international Shane Smeltz has “ended weeks of speculation about his future by joining Perth Glory as the club’s marquee player,” Peter Kogoy writes for The Australian. “In one of the recruiting coups…
Swimming By the Stars
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position,…
