NZ painter in online art showdown
Nelson-born artist Charles Olsen is one of 12 finalists in the UK-based Saatchi Showdown, established by art collector and impresario Charles Saatchi. Olsen’s oil painting ‘La Sundari’, a portrait of a flamenco…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Home-grown Horror at Frightfest
Two NZ films made the line-up for this year’s Frightfest, the UK’s leading fantasy and horror film festival. “Ovine horror comedy” Black Sheep and “the unclassifiable – and absolutely hilarious” The Devil Dared…
“Imaginative daring” wins literary gong
New Zealander Kirsty Gunn has won the Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year award, one of Scotland’s most esteemed literary prizes. Gunn, a professor of creative writing at Dundee University, received the…
A NZ Space Odyssey
A NZ company has plans to launch rockets into space, carrying scientific packages, DNA and human ashes. Auckland-based Rocket Lab, co-directed by Peter Beck and Mark Rocket, will start sending its 17-foot carbon-fiber “Atea” rockets…
Surf Up-and-comer
Oakura teen Paige Hareb has been ranked fourth in the world in women’s under-18 surfing since the junior world championships in May. The 17-year-old was also the first New Zealander ever to compete…
Maths Prize for Massey Prof
Professor Robert McLachlan of Massey University has become the first mathematician from the Southern Hemisphere to win the prestigious Dahlquist Prize. Presented by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), the Prize is awarded to a…
Fifth Win for Warriner
NZ athletes made another strong showing in the eleventh leg of the 2007 BG Triathlon World Cup Series. The event in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, saw three podium finishes for NZ competitors. Samantha Warriner became the first NZ…
True Romance
Ponsonby Road’s Harrowset Hall was featured in the New York Times travel section this month. Described as “a romantic den of feminine clutter”, Harrowset Hall stocks cotton nightwear, robes and bed linen. The shop…
Highland Habitat Reborn
NZ-born wildlife expert Hugh Fullerton Smith is working at the forefront of British eco-tourism as general manager of Alladale Estate. The 23,000 acre Highland property, owned by Scottish millionaire philanthropist Paul Lister, is soon to become Britain’s…
NZ blues great mourned
NZ blues and soul music great Sonny Day (Hone Wikaira) has died from respiratory complications aged 64. Day launched his career in the late 1950s with his band Sonny Day and the Sharks,…
The Real Deal
The Guardian gave its readers a heads-up on NZ stuntwoman Zoe Bell, in its regular ‘First Sight’ column. The 28-year-old has forged an impressive career doubling actors such as Lucy Lawless, Uma Thurman and…
Booker number two?
Lloyd Jones‘ Mister Pip has made the Man Booker Prize longlist, alongside works by Ian McEwan and A N Wilson. The 13 titles were selected from over 100 international entries. “As for…
Marathon Medal Prospect
Auckland runner Nina Rillstone finished third in the New York City Half-Marathon, just seconds behind Kenyans Hilda Kibet and Catherine Ndereba. The NZ record holder made a career best time of 1:10:35 – three seconds…
Après Vous
Queenstown has been named one of the world’s top ten après ski destinations in the Sydney Morning Herald. “The 120 licensed establishments in this lakeside town are brought to you by the letter ‘B’ where…
LonelyGirl signs off
NZ internet sensation Jessica Lee Rose has ended her starring role on the hit web drama LonelyGirl15. Rose’s character, Bree, was killed off by a sinister religious cult known as The Order, ending her…
Castaway tales from edge of the world
The latest book by Wellington maritime historian Joan Druett uses personal memoirs to recount two very different survival stories on the Auckland Islands, 500km south of NZ. Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked on the…
Te Kopi a Top Spot
The Department of Conservation’s Te Kopi bach at Palliser Bay has been named one of the five best state-run lodges and cabins in the world by the Guardian. “Light-filled and well equipped, the cottage and two…
Stuntwoman turned star
NZ stuntwoman Zoe Bell is described as a “bona fide butt-kicker” in an August Marie Claire profile. Bell has gone from doubling Lucy Lawless in Xena and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill to…
NZ Academic Unlocks 17th Century Secrets
Research by a NZ academic launched a 40-year code-breaking endeavour that has resulted in the publication of an important 17th century English diary. Robin Gwynn, formerly an associate professor of history at Massey University,…
Design Mobel Goes Global
Tauranga bed and furniture maker Design Mobel has launched the first of its Okooko global concept stores in Wellington and Hong Kong, with more to follow in the US later this year. Okooko stores integrate award…
Green Choice for NZ Motorists
NZ has launched its first commercial biofuel – Gull Force 10. Available through Gull Petroleum stations, the “green” fuel blends 90 per cent premium gasoline with 10 per cent bioethanol made from cows’ milk. “We are serious…
Golden Axes
NZ athletes dominated at the 48th annual Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin. Jason Wynyard beat fellow New Zealanders David Bolstad and Dion Lane to win his ninth All-Around Lumberjack title. The Aucklander described the…
Something to Crowe About
Russell Crowe is gradually proving the naysayers wrong as co-owner of the South Sydney ‘Rabbitohs’ rugby league club. Crowe and businessman Peter Holmes à Court took over and privatised the beleaguered club in 2006, sparking numerous protests from…
Popera stars of tomorrow
Rotorua “popera” singer Elizabeth Marvelly has been signed for a rumoured three albums by record giant EMI. The 18-year-old soprano is related to Sir Howard Morrison, and toured NZ with him and…
Top tucker
US economics professor and blogger extraordinaire Tyler Cowen rates fish and chips as being “to New Zealand what barbecue is to Texas-tops in the world” on his popular website marginalrevolution.com. Cowen regularly compiles…
1,3 NZ Finish in Austria
Christchurch Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Andrea Hewitt has won her first World Cup triathlon title at Kitzbuhel, Austria. The 25-year-old beat Austrian Eva Dollinger by three seconds in a sprint finish, after leading the field in…
Two Down, One to Go
The All Blacks have completed the final leg of their World Cup build-up by retaining both the Bledisloe and TriNations trophies, with a 26–12 defeat of the Wallabies…
Queen Bee Uncovered
A University of Otago study has unearthed the secret to queen bees’ dominance in the hive. According to its findings, queens keep their worker bee subjects calm and obedient by secreting a scent that prevents them…
Future of NZ film lies in Asia
NZ filmmakers are increasingly looking to Asia to fill the void left by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Annual production financing in NZ soared from $146 to $402 million between 1998 and 2001,…
Humane and Humorous
Wellington-born character actor Gordon Gostelow has died aged 82. Raised in Sydney, Gostelow immigrated to the UK in 1950 to pursue acting professionally. The classic BBC serial became a staple of his career, and…
Paquin up for Emmy
Anna Paquin has been nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy for her role in the HBO telefilm Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Based on Dee Alexander Brown’s classic 1971 book, Bury My…
NZ to be Nanotech Hub
The NZ government is investing NZ$628 million into new research programs in a bid to position the country at the vanguard of nanotechnology development. More than 30 organizations will receive a share of the funding, including…
NZ a Top Foodie Destination
The past 15 years have seen a seismic shift in NZ gastro-tourism, according to Telegraph wine columnist Susy Atkins. Since her last visit in 1992, NZ has shrugged off its reputation for “unappetising food, grim…
Champion Teen Eyes MX Crown
Hamish Dobbyn, a 15-year-old motocross rider from Warkworth, has won the 250cc four-stroke class at the Yamaha MX National Development Series in Australia. Next on his agenda is the World Junior Motocross Championships in…
Potential World Heritage Sites in NZ
UNESCO is considering three NZ locations as potential World Heritage Sites at the request of PM Helen Clark, who is also NZ’s Minister of Culture and Heritage. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Kerikeri Basin and…
Woods & Williams Still a Team
Steve Williams, Tiger Woods’ NZ-born caddie, has denied reports he is intending to end the pair’s lucrative eight-year partnership. “I have no idea where this has come from,” Williams told NZ’s Sunday Star-Times. “Perhaps Tiger may…
Watch This Space
Former All Black star Jonah Lomu believes he is back to his physical peak and will not rule out a return to rugby – or even a switch to rugby league. “It’s irrelevant what everyone else…
Precious Metal
NZ athletes won four gold, two silver and a bronze medal at last week’s rowing world championships in Lucerne, Switzerland. Gold medals were won by Mahe Drysdale (single scull), Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell…
No ordinary life
A new book about London literary marriages features NZ author Katherine Mansfield and her second husband, John Middleton Murry. Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles (1910-1939) by…
At home in Chelsea
Works by NZ artist Lisa Ferguson feature in the ID Please group show currently on at the Heidi Cho Gallery in New York’s renowned Chelsea gallery district. Her bold, large-scale pieces are described…
Barclay Founder Rates
NZ Barclay founder and president William J. Buechler gives NZ investments the thumbs up in a column for Forbes. Buechler predicts that NZ’s rising short-term interest rates, combined with Fonterra’s 27% share increase, the discovery of new…
Tee King
New Zealander Glenn Jones has won the US-based Threadless t-shirt design competition a record 17 times. Jones, the creative director at Auckland’s Dashwood Design studio, gets regular fan e-mail and has been featured on…
Tech Blogger’s Global Reach
Lower Hutt is home to the world’s 28th most popular blog. Richard MacManus’s Read/Write Web, a social networking site devoted to Web 2.0 issues, receives around 25,000 page views a day. “It takes a lot…
Crowded House on Love and Loss
An LA Times review finds Time on Earth, the new album by the recently reformed Crowded House, to be a moving exploration of love and loss. “Pop music reunions are, more often than not,…
Devastating simplicity
Mister Pip, the Commonwealth Prize-winning novel by Wellingtonian Lloyd Jones, is praised both for its lyricism and its deft handling of post-colonial issues in the Guardian. “The simplicity with which he describes the atrocities…
Health, Wealth and Honey
A NZ health company has teamed up with a German university to promote the use of manuka honey products to heal wounds, treat stomach and skin problems and, potentially, to help in the fight against cancer….
Auld Mug Stays with Swiss
Alinghi has successfully defended the America’s Cup, defeating Emirates Team NZ 5-2 in the best-of-nine series. The 2007 event was the closest in years, with the Swiss team winning the seventh race by a mere second….
A Rebel Remembered
British political figure Anne Gilman, “a rebel from New Zealand”, has died aged 76. Gilman was born in NZ and attended Canterbury University, where she founded the student magazine, Canta. Gilman’s daughter, Catherine, describes…
Soprano scales new heights
Gisborne-born soprano Marie-Adele McArthur graced Opera America’s home page for the month of June, with images and video of her acclaimed performance as Lina in Verdi’s Stiffelio. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune described her as “the…
Kiwi Joker Cracks UK
Hawera-born comic Ben Hurley, 27, has secured a seven-part sitcom with the BBC’s Radio 4. The series will co-star Hurley’s mentor and veteran comedian Andy Parsons, whose writing credits include Spitting Image and…
Fourth World Cup for Docherty
NZ Olympic silver medallist Bevan Docherty has won his fourth International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup at Edmonton, Canada. Docherty’s win is the culmination of seven straight top-eight finishes and boosts him to second place on the…
During Breaks New Ground
A groundbreaking study by NZ neuroscientist Matt During has been applauded in leading British medical journal, The Lancet. During has pioneered a controversial gene therapy for Parkinson’s Disease that involved inserting synthetic copies of human genes…
Jeweller Finds Wonderland in NZ
British jeweller Alice Hughes has created a range of bespoke pieces inspired by NZ plants and sea life. She established Alice in Wonderland Jewellery in 2004 after undertaking an apprenticeship in NZ, where she…
Lions Share
NZ agencies won 18 awards at this year’s Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious advertising awards. Auckland agency TBWA\Whybin won the Grand Prix award in both the Media and Promo categories for its ASB “Pago” and NZ Rugby…
Taking Issue with Food Miles
A UK Times eco-columnist’s suggestion to reduce food miles by drinking French rather than NZ wine has stimulated a response by NZ winemakers and politicians. She argued that transporting wines from France results in fewer greenhouse…
Eslinger in All Things Interactive
Tom Eslinger, worldwide interactive creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi, was president of the Cyber jury at this year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival. He spoke about the importance of ideas and the growing respect for media as…
