Smokin’ in the US
Singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore makes her US debut in March playing a selection of southern tour dates with US band Citizen Cope. Auckland-born Wigmore, 23, will release her first full-length, Holy Smoke, March 16 via…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Sounds of old and new
The New Zealand String Quartet recently performed a programme entitled “East Meets West” at Ithaca College’s Ford Hall. The programme featured music by Beethoven, Shostakovich and contemporary Chinese, Japanese and Cambodian composers. Quartet member…
Unique Fine Dining
Pipis, paua, tuatua, feijoas, kumara, cervena, puha and horipito are just some of the unfamiliar items found on the menu in New Zealand restaurants, Winsor Dobbins of The Sydney Morning Herald discovers….
Mile Win for Willis
Lower Hutt-born middle distance runner Nick Willis, 27, currently based in Michigan, has won the mile run at the 15th Boston Indoor Games. Willis crossed the finish line in a world leading time of…
On the anchor stone
“There’s a flock of noisy kakas on my front lawn, quarrelling over some croissants left over from breakfast,” describes The Independent’s Kathy Marks, holidaying on Stewart Island, “a place so remote that…
Whiskey Windfall
From the ice outside Shackleton’s Antarctic hut a team from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust have found three cases of Chas Mackinlay & Co’s whisky and two containing brandy made by…
To Scrap or not to Scrap
The New Zealand Herald has called for the country’s 108-year-old-flag to be scrapped. Under the banner headline “It’s time for a change”, The New Zealand Herald, the country’s largest circulating daily newspaper, devoted almost its…
Bouncing Success
Christchurch engineer Dr Keith Alexander’s Springfree Trampoline has won the “Children’s Product of the Year” in the largest United States consumer product survey, the Product of the Year Awards. Voted top children’s product by…
Multi-tasking Birds
Two female royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Centre on the Otago Peninsula have successfully incubated a chick, after the father — one of scores to recently leave the Centre — disappeared. “It’s…
Seizing the Spirit
Crowded House are proving popular in the UK as a second concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was added “due to phenomenal demand after tickets for the first night went on sale,” the Express &…
Phoenix Survive Playoff
With Phoenix goal keeper Liam Reddy fending off an attack by Perth in a penalty shootout in front of a record crowd of 25,000 at the Cake Tin, the Wellington team prevailed 4-2 to…
Towards the Moon
Wellington mountain-running and marathon champion Melissa Moon, 40, won the women’s section of New York City’s annual Empire State Building Run-Up, passing 300 runners and ascending 1576 steps to the finish line in 13…
McAlpine Stylish By Design
The international career of Waiuku-born, Elam-educated film designer Andrew McAlpine continues to unfurl in ever-larger circles. McAlpine’s most recently-designed film, An Education (produced by Wellington-born Finola Dwyer) is nominated for Best Picture at…
Gusty But Gourmet
“With more than 300 bars, restaurants and cafes in the city alone, Wellington is certainly not short of options,” recommends Winsor Dobbin for The Sydney Morning Herald. Dobbin explores the best dining…
Weta woos Hollywood
Wellington-based Weta Digital, which was behind the effects work on blockbusters Avatar and District 9, has been nominated for nine Academy Awards; CNET Asia’s Daniel Terdiman says the “accolades may finally make Weta a…
Brown Trout Capital
Mataura River, just outside of Gore, is “the world capital of brown trout” and a “world-class fly-fishing destination”. The Mataura extends for an impressive 140 miles of trout water in the heart…
One and Only
Pauly Fuemana, the man behind the 1995 hit single ‘How Bizarre’, has died, aged 40. Frontman of the band OMC (Otara Millionaires Club), Fuemana’s debut album How Bizarre and its breezy title track topped…
Perfect with Pimms
Worchester Street in Christchurch is the feature promenade in The Age’s ‘Street Smart’ travel section. Christchurch is a walking city and Worcester Street one of its loveliest promenades. Stretching from Canterbury Museum and the…
Getting Stuck In
Rotorua-raised Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley, 23, hopes to play for England in the Six Nations and, according to the Telegraph’s Paul Ackford, “Hartley is a find for England because he plays with a rage that all…
Great Appointment
Former New Zealand Test batsman Mark Greatbatch, 46, has been appointed Black Caps coach joining Mark O’Donnell and Shane Jurgensen on the team’s coaching panel. Greatbatch, who is already on the national selection panel,…
Peter Andre’s flat white
“No one knows exactly where the flat white came from,” ponders Guardian columnist Zoe Williams. “Some people say New Zealand, while others believe it’s an Australian invention.” “Has anybody ever seriously had that conversation?…
Lounging on Air
Air New Zealand is to introduce 22 “Skycouches” — formed out of three economy seats abreast that fold out to create a lie-flat space — in the first 11 rows in the economy cabin…
Barclay a big presence
Auckland actress Emily Barclay, 25, “is in no danger of not being cast” and “right now is one of the hottest new talents in the business — on stage and on screen”, writes The…
Abattoirs maketh the man
Director Martin Campbell is “one of the world’s most revered action directors, twice rescuing the Bond franchise” writes the Guardian’s John Patterson. Now Campbell has returned to Edge of Darkness, the 1980s TV drama…
Beijing Top Spot
Southland sprinter Edward Dawkins, 20, took the men’s individual gold at the Beijing stop of the UCI track cycling World Cup. Dawkins claimed the sprint title with two straight wins against Frenchman Michael D’almeida…
Lonely’s lingerie
Auckland-based label Lonely Hearts has recently released a new lingerie line, Lonely, inspired by vintage corsetry and designed by Aimee McFarlane, Helene Morris and Steve Ferguson. With all bras featuring a Seventies-look soft-cup design,…
Musher Says Hike
Christchurch dog sledder Curt Perano made the list of top mushers for the John Beargrease 150-mile mid-distance sled dog race from Minnesota towns Duluth to Tofte. Perano and his wife, Fleur, began dog sledding…
Campbell’s Big Gun
Hastings-born director Martin Campbell, 66, best known for the 2006 Bond film Casino Royale, has told the Los Angeles Times that “there was nobody else” but Mel Gibson for the role of Boston cop…
Green Hankshake
New Zealand will share its expertise in green technology with India to help the East Asian country produce clean energy and build an eco-friendly transport system. “New Zealand has a competitive advantage in green…
Super scenery
Lochnagar in Otago provided the backdrop for a David Jones fashion shoot featuring Australian super model Miranda Kerr, 26. Kerr made sub-zero sexy, starring in David Jones’ latest winter catalogue dressed in…
Bent to Every Whim
“The beauty of train journeys is that you can appreciate the dominance of New Zealand’s landscape over its inhabitants,” writes The Independent’s Dan Poole post-Tranz Scenic trip down through both islands. “Over…
Part of the whole
New Zealand-born choreographer and video artist Olive Bieringa — who with American Otto Ramstad form the San Francisco-based BodyCartography Project — …
East Coast boy in Utah
Director Taika Waititi’s film Boy, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, “marks a step up in maturity” and “elaborates on a style that primarily belongs to his own unique universe, according…
Christie Gets Loud
Whangarei-raised New Zealand international midfielder Jeremy Christie, 27, has signed a two-year deal with Florida team the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the second tier North American Soccer League. Christie has won 20 caps for…
Togaless
Actress Lucy Lawless “is attracting a lot of attention for her latest character — not that the New Zealand actress isn’t used to recognition,”…
Extreme Shearing
Shearing sheep in New Zealand is included in Time magazine’s list of ’25 (More) Authentic Asian Experiences’. “Schweebing and Zorbing not your thing? While many pumped-up tourists go to New Zealand to…
Courting Kiwis
Prince William, 27, has officially opened the new $80.7 million Supreme Court building on Lambton Quay in Wellington, now the country’s highest court of appeal. Architects Warren and Mahoney modelled the courtroom on a…
Further Accolades for Brown
Ladyhawke is up for another music gong this month having been nominated for a BRIT best International Female Solo Artist award. Masterton-born Pip Brown, 30, will compete with big name stars Lady Gaga, Rihanna,…
Barrier Time
“You won’t find street lights, an ATM or a bank on the Barrier,” a local tells Los Angeles Times reporter Rosemary Macclure. “But we do have two stop signs.” They also have a place…
Improbable classic
Director Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano is considered a “classic” of the cinema by the Times which examines the merits of the film starring New Zealand actress Anna Paquin, Holly Hunter and Harvey…
Stepping off the deck
For the past 20 years, Sir Peter Blake’s widow Pippa Blake has lived on the Chichester harbour sea front in a 1940s bungalow where just recently “a forward-thinking architect tore down walls, built a…
Top of the World
Air New Zealand has been named Airline of the Year, with judges of the Air Transport World magazine awards, “amazed and surprised at the degree of innovation that was occurring at a remote relatively…
Fast friends
Rose McIver arrives at New York’s Griffith Observatory “fashionably on time” to meet fellow Lovely Bones actress Saoirse Ronan for a tour …
Auckland Airport Expands
Auckland International Airports has acquired Westpac’s 24.55 per cent stake in North Queensland Airports (NQA) for AU$132.8 million as part of a strategy to grow beyond its New Zealand business. It sees Cairns as…
Shadows and light
New Zealand choreographer Lemi Ponifasio’s “disturbing, visually beautiful” Tempest: without a body, recently performed as part of the Sydney Festival, is reviewed by The Australian’s Deborah Jones who describes Tempest as a production with…
Missouri Dairy Kings
New Zealander Kevin Van der Poel, 46, remembers the skepticism and suspicion when he moved to Missouri more than four years ago to raise dairy cattle. When Van der Poel started construction on rock…
Together in Song
New Zealand’s national anthem could soon be played alongside the Australian during Anzac Day ceremonies at Queensland schools. Premier Anna Bligh, who is chairwoman of the Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (ADCC), is to send…
McIver learns from best
New Zealand actress Rose McIver, 22, plays the younger sister to Saoirse Ronan in Peter Jackson’s thriller The Lovely Bones. Teen Hollywood talks to McIver about working with stars Ronan, 15, and Susan Sarandon….
Ruthless makes US list
New Zealand romance writer Natalie Anderson’s novel Ruthless Boss, Royal Mistress recently featured in USA Today’s top 150 books sold over the New Year. Her book about a “billionaire businessman who teaches a spoiled…
Likened to Lennon
Christchurch singer-songwriter James Milne, or as he is otherwise known, Lawrence Arabia, “can sound uncannily like John Lennon” writes Times Online reviewer Mark Edwards. “Exactly why Milne chose his pseudonym isn’t clear; this isn’t…
Spartacus Debuts in US
Former warrior princess Lucy Lawless stars as Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, “a sword-and-sandals epic that Starz, the US premium cable network, rolls out January 22”. Spartacus is a flashy, big-budget attempt to…
Ideal weather for tea
Katherine Mansfield’s 1922 short story The Garden Party provides summery inspiration for Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel writer Kristyna Wentz-Graff who includes recipes for making club sandwiches, date scones and pavlova as part of a monthly…
On the Floral Trail
New Zealand municipal botanical gardens, including Hamilton Gardens and the Whakarewarewa Forest and Government Gardens in Rotorua, feature in a travel article written by Ray Boren for the Desert News. “Indeed, the…
Attention seeker
“A little bit of Clement can go a long way,” writes Katey Rich for US entertainment site Cinema Blend.com. Quiet Earth is reporting that Clement, “who was so woefully underused in Gentlemen Broncos”,…
Record Warm
New Zealand has had its warmest decade since records began 150 years ago. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) climate scientist James Renwick said there are plenty of causes. “Natural variations, such…
A Man and His Machine
Extreme enduro rider Aucklander Chris Birch, 29, “is expected to be one of the guys to beat in the World Xtreme Enduro Championships (WXEC)” reports The Independent on Sunday. With boyish good looks and a…
