News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Crash Claims Liquor Chiefs

Crash Claims Liquor Chiefs

NZ liquor innovator, Michael Erceg, was killed in early November when the helicopter he was piloting crashed south of Auckland. As the founder and managing director of Independent Liquor, Erceg was one of the country’s richest people. Grolsch…

Battle Cries

Battle Cries

Even more upsetting than giving the World Cup to New Zealand or losing a match to the All Blacks currently seems to be facing their new “throat slitting” haka. British media are feverishly objecting to New…

End of an Era

End of an Era

NZ lost its last WW1 veteran with the death of Victor “Bob” Rudd aged 104. Born in London in 1901, Rudd served with the British Army’s 9th Lancers regiment in the final…

Something old, something new

Something old, something new

The internationally acclaimed NZ String Quartet made an impressive debut in Minneapolis, performing as part of the annual Music in the Part Series in St Paul. The Quartet’s program included the world premiere of NZ composer…

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

18 NZ veterans attended the unveiling of a memorial commemorating NZ soldiers who served in the 1950-53 Korean War at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan. PM Helen Clark was also present. “I came…

All Black Domination

All Black Domination

The All Blacks have continued their domination of their Northern hemisphere tour with a 23-19 victory over England. Easy victories over Wales and Ireland were useful opportunities for trying out new playing combinations, but…

The new jazz order

The new jazz order

Stuart Nicholson, author of Is Jazz Dead (Or has it Moved to a new Address)?, names Kiwi Aron Ottignon as one of the six best new players on the international jazz scene. “Without anyone…

Next Stop Commonwealth Games

Next Stop Commonwealth Games

NZ won the New South Wales 100m Relay Championship at Sydney Olympic Park on November 19, breaking a NZ national record in the process. Led by Olympic representative Chris Donaldson, the winning team also included Dallas…

Five Million in the Stands

Five Million in the Stands

Despite widespread international media opinion that we would be out in the first round, New Zealand has won the bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup. After South Africa’s unexpected removal from the running, New…

Urban philosophy

Urban philosophy

Whangarei-born, Caboolture (Queensland)-raised, Keith Urban is the hottest country music sensation in the world. Urban won entertainer of the year and best male vocalist at the Country Music Association Awards broadcast from…

Hayley hits America

Hayley hits America

NZ’s popera diva, Hayley Westenra, has landed the coveted opening slot for Il Divo on their U.S tour early next year. Touring with the hit operatic boy band could provide the ideal opportunity…

Golden Year for Silver Ferns

Golden Year for Silver Ferns

2005 has proved an incredible year for NZ netball, with the Silver Ferns winning all eight of their international tournaments. The latest came with a definitive Tri-Series victory over Jamaica and Barbados. “We certainly wanted to…

On the Mark

On the Mark

The Guardian hails the rise and rise of Mark Baldwin, Fijian-born NZ-raised artistic director of London’s renowned Rambert Dance Company. After just three years in the job, Baldwin has significantly increased the Company’s…

A Winning Formula on and off the Field

A Winning Formula on and off the Field

Hyde Pride, Washington’s only all-African American school rugby side, has a Kiwi connection that extends beyond its game of choice. Established in 1999, the team at Hyde Leadership Public Charter School has been sponsored by the…

Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound

The Glasgow City Council has officially returned the preserved heads of three unidentified Maori warriors to delegates from Te Papa Tongarewa. The moko mokai had variously been gifted to the Scottish city by collectors of antiquities…

Would You Like Fries with that $25 Million?

Would You Like Fries with that $25 Million?

Three Kiwi entrepreneurs have sold their hugely successful chain of UK burger restaurants for NZ$25.7 million. Greg Driscoll, Brandon Allen and Adam Wills opened the first Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Battersea, south London, in 2001. Similar…

Battle of Britain Hero

Battle of Britain Hero

Group Captain Edward Preston “Hawkeye” Wells, one of the RAF’s most outstanding WWII pilots has died at the age of 89. Born in Cambridge (NZ) on 26 July 1916 and educated at Cambridge High School, Wells was called…

A Life’s Work

A Life’s Work

NZ born education pioneer and author Dion “Darcy” Dale has died. Dale devoted his life to the teaching and studying of deaf and partially hearing children. He was particularly prominent in promoting the use of lip…

Lord of the Dance

Lord of the Dance

Wellington born Kristian Fredrikson, one of the most celebrated theater and dance designers in New Zealand and Australia has died in a Sydney Hospital of complications from pneumonia at the age of 65. His career began in Wellington…

“Pragmatic Idealist, Friend of the Earth and a Good Man”

“Pragmatic Idealist, Friend of the Earth and a Good Man”

NZ has lost an inspiring political figure with the death of Green Party co-leader Rod Donald. Donald died of a rare virus affecting the heart aged just 48. He will be remembered for his…

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Massey University’s David Lambert has published his findings on the microevolution of Antarctica’s Adélie penguins in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lambert’s research shows a marked difference between the genetic make up of modern…

From LA to the Bay

From LA to the Bay

From Waimarama Beach to Napier, the Hawke’s Bay region gets a fantastic write up in the LA Times. The writer had organised a family holiday to her mother’s place of birth, in honour of said mother’s…

Bright Spark

Bright Spark

Auckland University’s Johanna Montgomery has become the first southern hemisphere scientist in history to win a prestigious Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology. Dr Montgomery was one of 4 scientists to be awarded the…

Kiwi Kayak Heralds New Era of Design

Kiwi Kayak Heralds New Era of Design

NZ biochemist Murray Broom’s FirstLight Kayak received a three-page spread in I.D magazine, America’s leading authority on the art, business and culture of design. Reviewer Barbara Flanagan (I.D contributing editor and product designer) hails the…

Jail Over War

Jail Over War

New Zealand doctor Malcolm Kendall-Smith may go to jail for refusing to obey the orders of the British Royal Air force and return to duty in Iraq. After already serving two tours in Iraq and one in…

Underwater Drawcard

Underwater Drawcard

Wellington is adding shipwreck diving to its list of harbour-side activities, with the scuttling of a decommissioned NZ Navy frigate off Tapa Te Rangu Island. The F69 frigate is currently moored at Taranaki Wharf and will be…

Milk and Money

Milk and Money

Fonterra has announced plans to build an AU$15 million dairy innovation centre in Melbourne. “By investing significantly in innovation we are ensuring that we remain at the forefront of developing specialty ingredients and consumer products that will…

Meet Me in Miami

Meet Me in Miami

Christchurch-produced independent film Meet Me in Miami premiered in one of the prime spots at the prestigious Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival on October 29 at The Egyptian Theatre in…

Serial thriller

Serial thriller

October saw the UK premiere of hit NZ play, Serial Killers. Written by former Shortland Street scriptwriter, James Griffin, Serial Killers is a black comedy which takes place behind the scenes of…

Challenge to a War

Challenge to a War

Brisbane born, Dunedin raised and educated Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the man who refused to return to fight in a war that was “manifestly unlawful”, stood by his decision at a court martial hearing on 27 October at…

End of Ancestral Visa

End of Ancestral Visa

A new points-based immigration system could end the door-opening power of the ancestral visa. Many New Zealanders and other Commonwealth citizens have relied on having British grandparents to allow them to settle in the EU. Under…

Great Scot

Great Scot

Alex Reedijk is leaving his post as general director of the NZ Opera to take the reins at its Scottish counterpart in March 2006. Reedjik has previously worked for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scottish…

Teddy Fan-club on the Rise

Teddy Fan-club on the Rise

Kiwi baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes continues to set hearts a-flutter in the opera world. The Sydney media have called him “opera’s Brad Pitt,” the New York Times “a cross between Paul Bettany and Viggo…

A Heartfelt Plea

A Heartfelt Plea

The Wellington Racing Club has asked the help of PM Helen Clark in borrowing the heart of legendary racehorse Phar Lap from Australia’s national museum in Canberra. “I’ve written to the prime minister to see if she…

Wundercoach

Wundercoach

Richard Tonks has been named 2005 FISA Coach of the Year by the International Rowing Federation. Tonks, himself a silver medallist for NZ at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is the man behind a spate of recent rowing…

The case for the code

The case for the code

The man behind international best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, will face a High Court action brought by the authors of the non-fictional work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982). The…

Cycling the South

Cycling the South

National Geographic Traveller editor, David Swanson, takes in the spectacular alpine scenery – and some icy cold Speights – on a two-week bike tour of the South Island. ” rain stopped, and the world went almost silent….

Seismic Shift for Psychiatry

Seismic Shift for Psychiatry

A study of schizophrenia by NZ psychologist John Read, as published in leading psychiatric journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, could potentially “trigger a landslide” in his field, according to Guardian columnist and clinical psychologist Oliver James. The traditional…

Coromandel by Kombi

Coromandel by Kombi

A tour of the Coromandel by Kombi with husband and toddler in tow turned out to be remarkably relaxing for the Guardian’s Jane White. The high point of the trip was a week spent in Hahei,…

Doomed for Success

Doomed for Success

“Doom may be by the numbers … But those numbers add up to the most cleverly engineered video-game movie made to date.” Starring NZ actor Karl Urban and NZ affiliated Dwayne Johnson…

Narnia comes to life

Narnia comes to life

Excitement is growing for the December release of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Filmed in New Zealand and directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson (noted for his Shrek successes), this…

North Country

North Country

North Country is Niki Caro’s directorial follow-up to the hugely successful Whale Rider. Set in the iron mining region of north Minnesota, North Country tackles sexual harassment in the workplace…

The people’s Campion

The people’s Campion

Jane Campion has been lured out of self-imposed retirement for a very worthy cause. She joins fellow directing luminaries Robert Altman, Jodie Foster and Gaspar Noe in contributing to an 8-part feature film outlining…

Government Formed

Government Formed

Just over a month after election night, Helen Clark has formed a government and been sworn in as Prime Minister, making her the first Labour Party leader to form a government in three successive terms. Following…

The lion, the witch and the evangelicals

The lion, the witch and the evangelicals

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will not only be doing battle at the box-office but also for the souls of mankind, according to an article published in the Guardian. US groups such…

Food for thought

Food for thought

A lengthy Independent feature examines Auckland’s burgeoning food scene – and NZ’s as a whole. While NZ has embraced café culture (“probably the best espresso experience outside Italy in about 13 years, skipping the…

Kubrick’s Successor?

Kubrick’s Successor?

The latest Hollywood release by Kapiti-grown, LA-resident writer-director Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show, Gattaca) is Lord of War. Described by the Guardian as “a moral fable treated with a surface realism,” Lord of War…

On living legends and future music

On living legends and future music

NZ composer and musicologist Robin Maconie has written a meticulously researched autobiography of the man many believe to be the world’s greatest living composer, German electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Maconie is regarded…

Building Bridges on canvas

Building Bridges on canvas

One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving, Ford is best perhaps known…

Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1

Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1

New Zealanders may have long been the butt of “fush and chups,” but according to Paola Totaro there are more than a few reasons New Zealand has got one over on Australia. Totaro gives several including…

Heir to a Legend

Heir to a Legend

Antoni Gaudi’s great unfinished masterpiece – the Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona – is finally nearing completion, under the steady hand of NZ architect Mark Burry. Work on the epic scale building effectively…

Continental Drift

Continental Drift

Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the  Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and…

Who is the Typical Kiwi?

Who is the Typical Kiwi?

An international study on cultural stereotypes, led by the US National Institutes of Health, has concluded that there is no relation between supposed cultural characteristics and the actual traits identified in real people. “People…

Fat Freddy’s pick up

Fat Freddy’s pick up

Wellington dub and reggae band Fat Freddy’s Drop took home four of the top Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. The band won best album and best roots album for…

Sudoku Mania

Sudoku Mania

Retired Kiwi judge, Phil Gould, continues his path to world domination as the man behind current puzzle-page phenomenon, Sudoku. Gould now provides puzzles for 120 newspapers in 36 different countries. “It will fade but I don’t expect…

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Roger Bannister are the inspiration behind Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford’s new feature film – Four Minutes. According to Deford, “the pinnacle of athletic achievement in the 20th century was not to be…