UAE presence strengthens
New Zealand will open an embassy in Abu Dhabi, its first in the UAE and second in the Gulf region, where it is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully…
Blog Archives
Changing family units
Couple without children in New Zealand are expected to surpass two-parent families as the most common household formation by next year, according to Statistics New Zealand figures. National Family and Household Projections released on…
All Blacks start afresh
“New Zealand is revolutionising rugby,” according to The Independent’s Peter Bills. “For those with a brain to think, a mind to rationalise, what the All Blacks are doing right now in world rugby terms…
Off with the polar fleece
Top local fashion designers will soon be represented in the centre of the French capital at a concept store owned by Paris-based New Zealander Catherine McMahon. Koko, which will stock Trelise Cooper, Karen Walker,…
Kiwis Relocate to US
New Zealand Ambassador Roy Ferguson officially presented America’s National Zoo with a pair of rare kiwi. The handover took place in Front Royal, Virginia at the Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. The Zoo will…
Sedimentary Strata Studied
Waipaoa River was recently visited by a team of international scientists gathering data for research into how materials from land are moved through and accumulated in the ocean and, in particular, how floods carry…
Rex means possibility
New Zealander Hayden Allen, 23, is learning to walk again with the aid of a pair of robot legs after a debilitating car accident five years ago. The device, dubbed “Rex”, is the work…
Dream team celebrated
The New Zealand Olympic Committee has decided to pay tribute to the world’s most famous mountaineering duo by naming the country’s Commonwealth Games logo “2928 Hillary and Tenzing”. The Games will be held in…
NZ’s own Moss shines
Eighteen-year-old Remuera-raised model Georgia Fowler, who featured in June’s Harper’s Bazaar cover story titled “The Rise of The Australian Supermodel”, has generated interest from Calvin Klein, YSL, Top Shop and Armani. Represented in New…
Hammering out beauty
Metalsmith and jewellery designer New Zealander Amy Bixby, who is based in Seattle, “grew up on a sheep station with parents who instilled the value of making things from scratch”, freelance writer Kathy Schultz…
Igniting efficient burn
Four hundred and fifty tons of New Zealand lignite has been successfully dried in a southwestern Dakota coal drying plant’s first commercial test of the process, which removed 65 per cent of water from…
Do the Dracula
Otago University researchers from the Wellington campus conducted a trial in the capital at the tail end of the swine flu pandemic last August which has found that the majority of people still don’t…
Gifted with melody
Wellington jazz vocalist Tessa Quayle’s self-produced album Whisper Not — a selection of ten jazz and American Songbook standards — is reviewed by US music site All About Jazz, which describes Quayle as a…
Mega mobile sale
The New Zealand-based mobile marketing company Hyperfactory, whose clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, Disney, Kraft, L’Oreal and Vodafone, has been bought by Iowa-based media group Meredith Corporation, publisher of Family Circle and Successful Farming, for…
Te Kano released
On New Zealand’s National Pavilion Day at the World Expo 21 in Shanghai a 1-meter long, three-meter wide canoe made of 35-year-old kauri was gifted to China. At the ceremony, a spiritual leader from…
Second wave cohesion
Crowded House performed with Lawrence Arabia July 13 at Montreal’s Metropolis as part of the band’s North American tour promoting Intriguer, the second album of the “second wave”. Frontman Neil Finn says the band’s…
Anniversary of sinking
Twenty-five years ago two French agents coordinated the bombing of the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior in Waitemata Harbour, a tragedy in which Portuguese-Dutch photographer Fernando Pereira drowned. The attack on the ship was remembered…
More than family
In an article entitled ‘In Praise of Whanau’, the Herald Scotland’s Catriona Stewart writes that “for someone who can count blood relations on her fingers and still have digits to spare, the whanau is…
Control on the Park
The All Blacks have beaten the Springboks in their opening Tri-Nations match 32-12 at Eden Park “with a superbly controlled and aggressive performance”. The All Blacks, who had lost their three previous encounters against…
Where the locals go
“Sometimes in New Zealand the differences between us and them become much greater than a few murky vowel sounds and divided rugby and cricket loyalties,” The Australian’s Nicole Jeffery writes. Driving SUVs in snow…
Mellow and Beautiful
The South Island of New Zealand may appear insignificant on a globe for those who can find it at all,” Karen Baker writes for Oregon Live. “But the island boasts natural grandeur that leaves…
NZ Takeover in US
New Zealanders Joanne Kiesanowski, 31, and Catherine Cheatley, 27, who represented New Zealand at the 28 Olympics in Beijing, finished first and second, respectively, in the 1-lap Senior Women’s Category 1-2 event at the…
Good as gold
Waiheke Island is a prime growing spot for olive trees and each year, in November, the Waiheke Olive Festival takes place on the estate of one of the local producers. Toronto Star freelance travel…
Mourning Moko
Tauranga’s favourite dolphin Moko has been found dead on an island off the coast of the port city. Department of Conservation area manager Andrew Baucke said Moko’s death was a sad loss. “The way…
Tokyo Strategies
Anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune, 45, has been convicted by a Tokyo court of assault and obstruction of Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, receiving a suspended two-year prison sentence. Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd…
One Great Ride
The first legs of the 3km New Zealand Cycle Trail have been opened between Ruapehu and Whanganui. This 242km section of the trail will take four to six days to ride, with varying levels…
Zest for News
BBC current affairs TV producer and executive New Zealand-born Janine Thomason has died aged 63. She was born to Lesley and Jack, her father being director of marketing and technical support at the New…
Undersea utterances
Researcher Shahriman Ghazali of Auckland University has discovered that fish communicate with each other in a secret language of grunts, growls, chirps and pops. Predators may even hunt out prey by intercepting fish talk,…
Against the grain
“An act of real political courage by the National Party would be to increase its commitment in the dangerous areas of Afghanistan and to announce that New Zealand was rejoining the ANZUS Alliance, which…
Sparkling run continues
Former first-class cricketer Aucklander Michael Hendry, 3, has won the million-dollar Indonesia Open at Damai Indah golf club in Jakarta. In-form Hendry, who won the Fiji Open two weeks ago, finished with a four-round…
Fortune Offshore
With local favourite Outrageous Fortune beginning its sixth and final season of 18 episodes this month, its popularity has spread offshore, with the show sold to networks in England, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Australia, Slovenia…
Familiar Green
New Zealander, Indianapolis-based Indycar driver, Scott Dixon talks to Democrat and Chronicle writer James Johnson about racing at the world-famous race track Watkins Glen International in New York. Dixon has three victories in IndyCar…
Gritty becomes hip
Sleepy port suburb Ahuriri features in a New York Times slideshow, with six images of its wharf, the organic grocer Picada, beachfront restaurant Milk & Honey, the classic Ahuriri Café, and a hair salon…
New curatorial role
New Zealand-born Helen Klisser During (right) is the new director of visual arts at Westport Arts Center in Connecticut. Weston-based Klisser During, who moved to the United States in 1985, grew up working in…
Feathery Dilemmas
“For some insight as to why rapid development is important to nesting birds, especially small songbirds, visit New Zealand, where native birds have had some challenges,” suggests the Mail Tribune’s Stewart Janes. “New Zealand,…
Sound Return
Researchers from the University of Auckland have discovered a potent new drug which once injected into the inner ear could reverse hearing loss caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise. The chemical agent ‘ADAC’…
Restless creativity
Wellington’s beloved Fat Freddy’s Drop perform in Hawaii at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centre this month ahead of major gigs in Europe in September. According to DJ Fitchie, bandleader and producer, Fat Freddy’s…
Roots and culture
Reggae groups The Black Seeds and Katchafire recently played at Whistler’s Garibaldi Lift Co. (GLC) as part of a two-day New Zealand showcase. Both Wellington-based bands are among the most celebrated reggae acts in…
Gender Surprises
Dr David Rowlands, a senior lecturer with the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University, has found after exercise women, unlike men, showed no clear benefit from protein during recovery. Several…
Suitcase treasures
New Zealand descendants of a British officer stationed on St Helena, from 1815 to 1821, have sold a number of his collection of Napoleon Bonaparte mementoes at an auction in Auckland, including a lock…
Strings to His Bow
Sonny Bill Williams, 24, who has signed an 18th-month contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union, is considering a return to NRL after the next season or to the ring, “if the boxing bug…
Temple for Story
Prizewinning author Lloyd Jones — whose novel Mister Pip made the Booker shortlist in 27 — has established the Bougainville Library Trust in Arawa, Papua New Guinea, enabling locals to fundraise and build their…
J. Williams Feat. Dane Rumble: Take Me Higher
The video for J Williams hit single, Take Me Higher, featuring Dane Rumble.
Prison fag ban ahead
New Zealand is to ban smoking in prisons from 1 July 211. Corrections Minister Judith Collins said high levels of smoking were a risk to staff and prisoners. Opponents are concerned that violence in…
Mammoth Melt
The effects of a change in global wind patterns which helped to end the last major ice age were first seen on New Zealand glaciers, according to Columbia University scientists. Mountain glaciers in New…
Double Win in Philly
New Zealanders Bevan Docherty, 33, and Nicky Samuels, 27, have taken home the men’s and women’s titles at the sixth annual Philadelphia Triathlon. Due to the disappearance of a 4-year-old male competitor in the…
Inspiring survivor
New Zealand-born Denis Shackel, 68, a professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business and author of Five Seconds At A Time: How Leaders Can Make the Impossible Possible, is…
Own your own town
Remote Southern Alps township Otira, population 44 is for sale. Selling for $1 million, the deal includes a hotel, fire station, town hall and 18 houses. The Otira Hotel, which started life as a…
Whales in Boston
New Zealand’s “Whales Tohora” exhibition continues its North American tour showing at the Museum of Science in Boston through September 14. The Cape Cod Times’ Molly Driscoll explains: “The exhibit focuses on whale behavior…
Back in the Saddle
Michael Walker, 26, has returned to the race course after a life-threatening pig-shooting accident resulted in the Rotorua-born jockey suffering a serious head injury when he fell 7m down a bluff in 28. “As…
Kong is Back
The King Kong attraction at Hollywood park, the first theme park attraction that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand-based f/x shop Weta Digital has created, reopens on July 1 after a devastating fire two years ago….
Heroes Return
Though New Zealand drew – to Paraguay in Polokwane, losing out on a spot in the knockout stage, the team’s “defence was airtight, and goalkeeper Mark Paston was solid on the few difficult chances…
Stopping the skim
BNZ fraud initiatives manager Michael Turner’s software-based technology for reducing credit-card fraud has been patented world-wide. The “liquid encryption number” (LEN) technology is used on all BNZ credit and debit cards, and has cut…
Sublime Sale
A single brown and white feather from the extinct huia bird has sold for a record sum at Webb’s Auction House in Auckland for $8. Managing director of Webb’s Neil Campbell said that the…
Double Trouble
Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell continued their formidable lead-up to Athens with a double-sculls gold medal at the World Cup rowing regatta in Munich. The twins beat English pair Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick by a massive 4.75…
