NZEDGE News — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

WoWing the Crowds

The 2005 World of Wearable Art (WoW) show – the first to be held in Wellington rather than Nelson – was a huge success, with a record-breaking 30,000 tickets purchased for the event. The show is widely…

Bullionaire Business Opportunity

A Massey University graduate may soon be striking agricultural pay-dirt after founding the world’s first gold-farming company, Tiaki International. Chris Anderson spent 8 years at Massey developing a chemical process which causes plants to “hyperaccumulate” gold particles…

Sugarfoot Speaks Up

In a sports-mad country like NZ, how can one of its richest and most successful exponents be virtually unknown? Kickboxer Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo has quietly earned more than $1 million from the sport and is a…

Bogans go global

New Zealand comedians Matt Heath and Chris Stapp, of Back of the Y and Bogan’s Heroes fame, have taken their special brand of gross-out humour to London, as contributing stuntmen on Channel 4’s …

World’s Rarest Given Kiwi Name

A grove of one of the world’s rarest trees has been named after NZ plant conservation scientist David Given. The Wollemi Pine, believed to be extinct until re-discovered in Australia’s Blue Mountains in 1994, is a…

Keeping Up With the Kiwis 2

Meanwhile on a different page …”What do Australians think about New Zealand? Not very much and not very often. ‘We think about New Zealand like we think about Tasmania,’ one Australian tells me with…

Kong is coming

Wired magazine’s October issue features a lavish 16-page look at Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong, due to hit cinemas this December. Wired examines the greatly anticipated film through an…

Army Colonel Turned Art Critic

Prince Andrew made a fleeting visit to NZ this month, chiefly to spend time with the army’s Logistic Regiment, which he has headed since 1996. The Prince made international headlines with his humorous interpretation…

Practice makes perfection

Painter Max Gimblett is the subject of a lengthy article in premiere US art magazine, Art in America. Gimblett’s latest works were recently shown at the Haines Gallery in San Francisco. Critic…

Art in New Zealand

October’s Art in America features a “Report from New Zealand” by Richard Kalina, examining New Zealand artists and their work as well as the art history and institutions of the…

Capital meditation

Wallpaper magazine takes a look at the city-scapes of Wellington through the lens of legendary American photographer Stephen Shore – who had three pictures acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York…

Local epic lures Donaldson home

An interview with The World’s Fastest Indian director Roger Donaldson is the cover story for the October issue of Inside Film. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, the feature is described as the culmination of a…

Helping Hand for Neighbouring Namesake

A Kiwi couple have instigated a sister school relationship between Fiji’s Saint Thomas Aquinas Primary School and the Aquinas College where they teach in NZ. According to the Fiji Times, Brendan and Jane Schollum…

Great Expectations

Former Black Cap Mark Greatbatch is the new coach for British county cricket side Warwickshire. Greatbatch is also Director of the Warwickshire Academy, and has previously coached at Giggleswick School in Yorkshire and at Edgbaston.

The Amazing Phil

New Zealand presenter and producer Phil Keoghan has continued his winning streak with The Amazing Race. Produced by Hollywood heavyweight Jerry Bruckheimer, the show was named outstanding reality programme for the third time at…

New World Vanguard

NZ doubled its gold medal count from 2004 at this year’s International Wine Challenge in London, picking up an impressive 15. This gold increase was almost entirely due to red wines, showing that the…

Phoenix Rising

NY Times feature on the burgeoning international alternatives to Coca Cola mentions NZ-brewed delight, Phoenix Cola. “This organic, caffeine-free drink from New Zealand is actually made from the cola nut. Refined-sugar shunners can opt for the honey-sweetened…

One to Watch

16-year-old Rebecca Spence is shaping up to be one of NZ’s star triathletes. The Rangitoto College student won the elite junior title at the ITU Duathlon World Championships in Newcastle, Australia, just two weeks after claiming silver…

Slip Away

NZ’s Slipper Island features in a Guardian list hailing the world’s top 5 exotic escapes. “On a private island off the Coromandel Peninsula you can swim off the white-sand beach and fish for snapper. Stay in…

At the Forefront of Disease Control

Professor Neil Pearce, Director of NZ’s Centre for Public Health Research, was elected President of the International Epidemiology Association (IEA) at the recent World Congress of Epidemiology held in Bangkok. The first ever president from the Southern Hemisphere,…

Datsuns in good company

The Datsuns have been invited to play on a tribute album for the late, great BBC DJ John Peel, alongside superstars Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Peter Shelley, David Gilmour and Peter Hook, and fellow…

Message in a vessel

NZ sculptor Roger Thompson is one of 400 artists from 65 different countries exhibiting at the second annual Beijing International Art Biennale. His Cultural Vessels/Amphoric Triptych is a collection of three containers representing…

Nile by Mile

NZer Cam McLeay is co-leading an expedition aimed at accurately measuring the length of the River Nile. The six person team began their journey at Rosetta, Egypt, and will travel through Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and…

Prussia of the Pacific?

A Guardian columnist points out an eerie similarity between the recent elections in NZ and Germany. Both were held on the same weekend and both delivered a spectacularly close finish between the two dominant centre-right and centre-left…

Forecast Fine With a Top of 9.6

The Ministry of Tourism predicts that foreign tourist spending in NZ will increase by as much as 52% in the next 7 years. Spending is forecast to rise to NZ$9.6 billion by 2011 from NZ$6.3 billion in…

Major Campbell

2005 is undoubtedly Michael Campbell’s year. Not content with winning the US Open last month, Campo has snatched a “knife-edge” victory in the HSBC World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. Past winners of the esteemed tournament, which boasts…

Poptastic

‘Opera band’ Amici Forever’s clever fusion of classical and pop music continues to win them fans in the US and around the world. The brainchild of Kiwi member Geoff Sewell, Amici Forever’s debut album…

Ka Mate Ka Mate gets an American Accent

An American accent American College football team, the Brigham Young University Cougars have adopted their version of the haka Ka mate Ka mate. Lead by American-born Maori Bryce Mahuika, Utah’s Cougars have adopted the practice…

Technological Trailblazers

A group of Canterbury University scientists have developed a machine with the potential to revolutionise everything from counter-terrorism and border control to disease detection. Since the early 1980s, Professor Murray McEwan and his CU team have been…

NZ to North America

New Zealand Magazine was launched in the North American market on the 16th of September. The brainchild of Auckland-based American Kiwi Marty Behrens, New Zealand magazine presents an intelligent and sophisticated view of this country to North…

Less is More

In a study released by the World Bank, New Zealand has been named the most business-friendly nation in the world. The study ranked 155 countries and was based on classic American assumptions of economic success, like…

Cinematic Landmark

Rowan Woods’ Little Fish has been dubbed “the most important film in a year that’s looking like a dramatic turnaround for Australian movies.” Kiwi actors Martin Henderson, Sam Neill and Joel Tobeck…

Future Craft Flies Thanks to Kiwi Know-how

NZ engineer Bill White has designed an ultra-lightweight engine to power a “back to the future” style mini helicopter for US company AirScooter. Christchurch based company Pegasus Aviation began developing the AeroTwin engine in the 1990s…

Keith Urban up for US music awards

Country music star Keith Urban has four nominations at this year’s Country Music Association Awards. Urban is up for entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year, album of the year for…

Aotearoa: The People’s Choice

NZ has been voted the best country in the world and overall winner of the 2005 Condé Nast Traveller Awards in the UK. “The result is gratifying not just because of the win, but because the…

Dream Team

The All Blacks have added the Bledisloe and Tri-Nations Cups to their increasingly well-stocked trophy cabinet, confirming their status as the number one ranked rugby side in the world. The team is expected to clean up against…

Hayley goes to Hollywood

The career of Hayley Westenra seems set to scale further heights with the release of her second full-length album, Odyssey. In the first two weeks of its launch, Odyssey sales have surpassed international…

Gold Rush

NZ won a staggering four gold medals at the world rowing championships in Kaizu, Japan. The unbeatable Evers-Swindell twins (Georgina and Caroline) won the women’s double sculls, Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater the men’s pairs, Nicky Coles…

Ben Ohau Doing Just Fine

The South Island’s MacKenzie Basin is internationally famous for two things; providing the stunning backdrop to the final battle in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and producing the most consistently high quality merino wool in…

The New Wave

Two NZ companies made international business magazine Red Herring‘s vaunted “Top 100 Private Companies in Asia” list for 2005. Esphion and Argent Networks, both based in Auckland, are rated as companies which could significantly…

Best Put to the Test

Travel & Leisure writer sniffs out the best luxury retreats in NZ – a country where “everyone is a hotelier, or so it can sometimes seem.” After testing the waters at Eagle’s Nest (Russell), Otahuna Lodge…

Wave Watching

The Surfer’s Path features top New Zealand surf spots in its 50th edition. In a gallery of images titled “Aotearoa Light Play”, one of surf photography’s greats Aaron Chang and rapidly rising star Brian Nevins captured…

Home Office

The work of New York based Kiwi architect David Howell scored the cover of September’s Interior Design magazine. Howell’s firm transformed the New York office of London post-production house Framestore CFC (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harry…

Alan Dale heart-attacked from The O.C.

Dunedin-born actor Alan Dale’s role as wealthy Orange County real estate mogul, Caleb Nichol (“deep down, he is a conniving man that won’t stop until he gets what he wants”) in the hit show

Kiwi bunny and the Princess has E! Hit

Former Playboy Bunny, New Zealander Sandra Costa continues to turn vision into reality. Today, an international business woman and entrepreneur, Costa’s clients are amongst the “Rich and Famous”. President of Sandra Costa Development, interior…

Aspirational Apprehension

Aucklander Andrew Patterson features in the new Phaidon showcase of the world’s 100 most exceptional emerging architects selected by 10 leading figures in architecture. “We’re a beautiful natural part of the planet and our…

Drawn to the Edge

Michele Law is currently working the most challenging assignment of her already distinguished legal career. As a lawyer for the UN Office of Constitutional Support, Law is helping to draft Iraq’s first constitution. The Canterbury University graduate…