I Spy with My Little Eye
NZ wines scored a slew of major awards at America’s largest and most prestigious wine show – the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Best in Show awards went to the 2002 Lake Hayes ‘Amisfield’…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Designs on Nike
NZ company Designer Textiles has won a contract with sports apparel company Nike. Nike has agreed to use Designer Textiles’ merino advanced performance program (MAPP) in manufacturing its ACG range of outdoor sports shoes. The AGC range will…
From Shack to Chic: The Not-so-humble Bach
Wallpaper* pays homage to the Kiwi bach, in its most highly evolved form. “Baches built today reflect the increased value of the land – they’re less rustic and more expensive to build – but…
Pushing the boundaries
Dunedin born dancer/choreographer Carol Brown has won two major European awards; the NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) Dream Time Award in the UK, and the Ludwig Forum International Art…
Wine Boom Continues
NZ wine producers are going for quantity as well as quality, with 2004 officially the largest vintage on record. At 166,000 tons, the national harvest was 40% higher than the previous high of 118,700 tons in 2002….
All Blacks 3-0 Start for 2004
Two crushing wins over England and a scratchy performance against Argentina started the Graham Henry-coached, Tana Umaga-led 2004 All Blacks. Coverage from The Independent on the victories at Carisbrook, Eden Park, and Hamilton. Next…
“The estimable John Clarke”
Telemovie adaptations of Shane Maloney’s novels Stiff and The Brush Off by NZ comic John Clarke were a critical and ratings success in Australia, the former netting more than 1.3 million viewers on…
Junior All Blacks Victorious
Ireland was “forced to acknowledge New Zealand’s continuing supremacy” at the IRB U-21 World Championships in Scotland, going down 47-19 to the junior All Blacks. NZ’s stellar performance included a hat-trick of tries by flanker Tony Koonwaiyou….
Garland Coma
New Zealand-born political cartoonist for the Daily Telegraph since 1966, Nicholas Garland has provided 40 woodcut illustrations for the new Novela by son Alex “The Beach” Garland. The book describes the dream-like interior life…
Edgy heroine
Fay Weldon’s autobiography – Auto Da Fay – featured in the New York Times‘ New and Noteworthy Paperbacks section. “Unlike many of the female characters in her dozens of breezy novels, Weldon comes off…
Ironwoman
Lynley Allison won her first Ironman title at the 2004 Ironman USA Coeur d’Alene triathlon in Coeur d’Alene. She finished a full 10 minutes ahead of second place getter Heather Gollnick (US), after taking an unshakeable lead…
“Crazy Kiwi” Charges Hard
Christchurch surfer Doug Young won the ‘Deep Throat’ award at the 2004 Red Bull Big Wave event in South Africa. The ‘Deep Throat’ prize goes to the “hardest charger” – the surfer who braves the biggest, messiest waves without…
In Enduring Memory
The NZ Antarctic Society has bestowed a belated but heartfelt honour on Scotsman Harry McNeish, who was the carpenter aboard Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance on its ill-fated Antarctic voyage. A life-size sculpture of McNeish’s pet cat – Mrs…
New World Edges In
Kim Crawford’s 2003 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc took top honours at the Sélections Mondiales des Vins in Montreal, winning the Grande Médaille d’or (grand gold) in its category as well as the Prix du Jury décernés par pays…
Moko Mokai Return Home
Three preserved heads (moko mokai) of Maori warriors have been returned to NZ by the Kelingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The action comes after a worldwide search for Maori remains by Te Papa Tongarewa. Maori specialists…
He Maimai Aroha
Haere atu koutou hei whetu te rangi, tiaho mai mo ake tonu atu. He tohu aroha ki tenei morehu kuia. Rahera Windsor, spiritual leader of Britain’s Maori community, died May 3rd 2004 Born in Pupuke, 1925, she married…
Google and Froogle
Waikato University graduate Craig Nevill-Manning is Director, New York & Senior Staff Research Scientist for the world’s leading search engine company, Google. Nevill-Manning completed a PhD in computer science at Waikato before taking up a post-doctoral fellowship…
Long and winding road
The Statesman talks to nomadic NZ writer, Will Marks, about his ongoing love affair with India while reviewing his debut novel, The Highway. “I didn’t have a lot of expectations of India but when…
Short & sweet
Two NZ short films have been selected to compete at both the Montreal World Film Festival in August and the Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain in October; Boy,…
Picturesque Plunge
In a feature on celebrity hobbies, the Observer advises fans of sky-diving enthusiast Nicole Kidman to head to Queenstown. After all, “if you’re going to take the plunge, you might as well do it at one of…
Warner devours Cannibal Dog
Marina Warner recommends Anne Salmond’s The Trial of the Cannibal Dog: Captain Cook in the South Seas as essential holiday reading in the Guardian‘s annual summer poll of leading authors, journalists, and critics. “The historian…
Charlie Champions NZ
British celebrity gardener, Charlie Dimmock, named NZ as her preferred home-away-from-home in an interview with The Independent. “If I had to to New Zealand. They have an’outdoors’ lifestyle,’ and people are more active.”
Kai a la Kiwi
A NZ themed restaurant – The Kiwi Grille – is doing a roaring trade in Newburyport, Massachusetts. According to owner Bruce deMustchine (ex-Hawkes Bay), the Grille served 10,000 happy customers in its first 8…
World’s Best Head 42-Below
The first ever Cocktail World Cup was held in Queenstown over the Winter Festival, which began June 25. The 5-day event is the brainchild of NZ’s 42- Below vodka, which recently won gold at the World Spirits…
A Race of Extremes
John O’Loghlen (NZ investment banker at Goldman Sachs, NY) and Rosa Volz (Wellington IT worker) were the first non-Mongolian man and woman respectively to finish the 42km Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset Marathon, “one of the toughest and…
Back on Track for 2007
Team NZ has finally announced its challenge for the 2007 America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain, thanks to a multimillion dollar sponsorship deal from Dubai-based Emirates Airlines. The syndicate has missed two previous confirmation dates due to lack…
Craig Puts Middlesex to the Spear
Ex-Black Cap Craig Spearman broke W.G Grace’s record for the best ever innings in an English county cricket match, hitting a staggering 341 runs for Gloucester against Middlesex. The legendary Grace made 318 not out for Gloucester…
King More than Qualified for Role of National Historian
C.K Stead reviewed the late Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand for the Times Literary Supplement, making some keen observations of his own on the subject. “If it were possible to subtract…
Anderson wins reviewer’s heart
Barbara Anderson’s latest novel, Change of Heart, warmly reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement: “With the authority of experience Anderson captures perfectly the foibles, prejudices, anxieties and joys of the kind of septuagenarian who…
Prime slot for Kiwi production
In My Father’s Den opened this year’s Sydney Film Festival – the first time a NZ feature has done so in the event’s 50-year history. Directed by Brad McGann, the film is based…
Rat-tracker
Groundbreaking research into the origins of Polynesian people by Auckland University’s Lisa Matisoo-Smith has been published in the New York Times, National Geographic, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Matisoo-Smith used the DNA of Pacific…
Honey Power
Professor Peter Molan of Waikato University’s Honey Research Unit was the subject of a BBC feature on the healing power of honey. Molan hopes to take his area of expertise to the world via revolutionary wound dressings,…
Kiwis Make it 5 in a Row
NZ held on to its world series rugby sevens crown for the fifth year in a row, despite losing 22-19 to England in the final of the London leg. The Kiwis had already reached an unassailable position…
Epic Moments Remembered
The world commemorated the 60th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, with war veterans and international leaders (including PM Helen Clark) gathering in France to pay their respects. NZ lost more soldiers proportionately than any other country…
Power in Numbers
Minister for research, science and technology, Dr Pete Hodgson, headed an impressive delegation of NZ scientists and executives at the annual Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) meeting in San Francisco. In the course of the conference NZ and Australia…
Beach houses
“Self-catering in NZ has never been sexier.” The Observer rates four of the North Island’s most luxurious retreats; the Glass House on Waiheke Island (“this is a beach house in the same way that…
Jackson Gets the Youth Vote
The Return of the King won the coveted prize for Best Film at this year’s MTV Awards in LA. Other big winners were Pirates of the Caribbean and Kill Bill Vol.1.
Jack Foster, 71
Legendary marathoner Jack Foster died after a cycling accident south of Rotorua. He was the marathon silver medallist at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, where he set his personal best time at the age of…
Back to Back Wins at ‘The Glens’
Kiwi driver Scott Dixon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing has won the Watkins Glen Indy Grand Prix for the second consecutive year. Dixon’s win – his first for 2006 – moves him up two…
Raw power
Adoptive Canterbrian, Leslie Kenton, has published her 35th book: The Powerhouse Diet. The comprehensive guide to eating raw foods is the award-winning author’s latest contribution to the field of health and well-being.
World Class
Dr John Bedbrook, President and CEO of American GM crop developer Verdia, has returned to his native NZ as part of the government’s World Class New Zealanders business advisory program. Bedbrook recently spoke at the Bio2004 convention in…
Harry Potter gets Edge makeover
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has received reviews far outstripping the first two films in the franchise, thanks largely to its radical new director cinematographer team of Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama…
Edge to the curve
NZ artists Claire Hammon and Nadia Hunt took part in the inaugural Curvy Exhibition, organised by Australia’s Yen magazine and M-One-11 clothing. Curvy was set up to promote the best of female design…
Lovin’ Lovemarks
CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, Kevin Roberts, launches Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, in the USA, UK and Australia. “Roberts new book is not just another one of a multitude of works about…
“A fascinating man”
The Scotsman profiles Brian Turner – NZ’s poet laureate, brother to Brian (golf) and Glenn (cricket), and part-time caddie. Turner takes two months off writing each year to hit the greens, this time alongside…
Puckish Psathas
NZ composer John Psathas applauded in the Guardian‘s review of his collaboration with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in Bath. “This concert, entitled Zeibekiko, threw a puckish girdle round the world as … John Psathas…
Professor Roy Crawford
The Guardian attributes Professor Roy Crawford leaving Queen’s University Belfast to take up the post of Vice Chancellor at Waikato University to NZ’s current It status: “Oh, Australia must be annoyed. For centuries it’s been top dog…
Greenbacks for green ogre
Shrek 2 (directed by Kiwi Andrew Adamson) confounded US box office analysts by taking an incredible US$104.3 million on its first weekend of release – $20 million more than predicted. This makes it the…
Kiwi cuisine
The NZ Film Commission party provided the best food at Cannes, according to a festival in the Age. The NZFC flew in six top chefs from Auckland for the event.
Ulmer, Henderson, Cycle to Victory.
New Zealand cyclist Sarah Ulmer took control of the hotly contested 300m individual pursuit when she broke the world record by two 10ths of a second in 3:31.157, to win the World Championship. Greg Henderson also…
Oil or nothing
NZ olive oil producers won 5 gold medals at the annual LA Country Wines and Olive Oils of the World competition in May. Serendipity Olive Company won a gold each for its barnea and extra…
Bruce Reihana: Players’ Player
Former All Black wing, Bruce Reihana, was named the English premier league’s Professional Rugby Players’ Association (PRA) Players’ Player of the Year in May. The 28-year-old Northampton Saints star was the English Premiership’s joint top try-scorer at the…
Go Speed Racer
NZ director Roger Donaldson is bringing the life of Invercargill’s legendary motorcyclist Burt Munro to the silver screen, with Sir Anthony Hopkins in the starring role. Entitled The World’s Fastest Indian (after the 1920…
Humdinga
Alan Gibbs launches the Gibbs Humdinga at the Motor Show in Birmingham. A V8 350 bhp five seater go-anywhere machine, the Humdinga reaching 160 km/h on land and 48 km/h on the water. Says Gibbs, “There…
Walking the South Island
Berni Moestafa, contributor from Jakata, walks part of the South Island. “New Zealand has many faces. It is a sub-tropical forest with lush ferns and unusual old trees, or a strip of perfect white beach, an…
Stead’s dazzling portrait
CK Stead’s novel about Katherine Mansfield succeeds on several levels, portraying Mansfield as human, flawed, in love, highly intelligent and excited about her career. He believes that what is important is the life and…
