Zambesi Deals in Dark Delights
NZ fashion house Zambesi lived up to its reputation for thoughtful sewing of the seams with an inspiring show at Sydney Fashion Week, netting a lucrative distribution deal with Canada’s largest department store chain…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Battle of the Bulge
Auckland University is at the forefront of new medical research linking malnutrition at the time of conception to instances of premature birth. Pediatrician Dr. Frank Bloomfield has conducted a study using sheep which ” suggest that…
A winter’s ale: Montieths
“This dark, brooding, Kiwi ale with its deep nutty, malty flavours is the perfect thing – served just chilled, of course, rather than cold – for old fashioned roast…
Ed MTV: Frontrunning Len Lye Revisited
Aussie indie music treasure, ex-punk and co-founder of the Saints, Ed Kuepper, has written music for six short films made by legendary NZ conceptual artist Len Lye over 50 years ago. Lye was setting…
The D4: Up Close and Personal
They say the essence of rock and roll is live performance. It’s a mantra for kiwi rockers D4, who are currently touring the US. Boston Daily Globe: “A knockout band from New Zealand, much…
Nearest Neighbours Worlds Apart?
Gerard Henderson makes a pre-ANZAC Day assessment of current Aussie-Kiwi relations. “The Australia-NZ commercial relationship has never been healthier … However, the trans-Tasman economic co-operation has been accompanied by an increasing disagreement on security issues. The NZ…
The Quiet Life
Observer recommends Paua Cottage in Russell to Britons seeking a seaside escape. “Wake up in wondrous solitude to the sun rising from the Pacific Ocean at Paua Cottage … At the foot of a cliff sits…
Samurais & Surfers: The World Comes to Taranaki
The inaugural Foster’s World Masters Surf Titles were held in Taranaki over Easter weekend, attracting over 450 local and international competitors. The International Surfing Association-sanctioned event was open to any rider over 35. Says organiser Wayne Arthur; “What’s…
Byow! Cartoonist With Cut Through Remembered
John Kent, well-known political cartoonist, lecturer and illustrator, died on April 13 aged 65. Born in Oamaru, Kent’s work was a familiar feature in Private Eye, Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun and, finally, The…
Conchords Take Flight in Melbourne
Kiwi act Flight of the Conchords was voted Best Newcomer at the 17th Annual Melbourne International Comedy Festival, following on from similar accolades at Edinburgh last year. The two-man performance – made up of…
“The Nick Cave of New Zealand literature”
Chad Taylor’s growing international reputation continues to buzz, this time in The Australian. In Electric drug-addled number crunchers negotiate the power cuts of Auckland’s sweltering summer of 1998, “This is a rare and…
Napier Goes Ga-ga for Gingko
Ron Massey, of Napier Council, thinks the city’s onto an export winner after its successful growing of high-grade gingko trees. The Chinese herb is currently the trendiest pill to pop, supposedly offering dramatically increased energy and cognitive…
Free GE or GE-free?
The GE debate steps up a notch as the government prepares to lift its current moratorium on modified organisms. A commissioned financial projection of the pros and cons of going GE (by Business and Economic Research Ltd)…
Lest We Forget in Troubled Times
Due to the current world climate, ANZAC services in Australian and NZ this year carried particular emotional resonance CNN remembers an event “marked by both countries as a tragic turning point in their national development.” The Age: “In…
Evolutionary Edge
Soil-analysis undertaken in a NZ cave has uncovered a rich and previously unknown evolutionary heritage. A team of scientists have found DNA traces of an extinct animal and from plants alive 3,000 years before the first human…
A New Zealand first
NZ Drama School student James Ashcroft has secured an internship at New York’s prestigious theatre and film company, The Wooster Group. The Wooster Group was founded by actor Willem Dafoe in the late…
NZ vs. Wales: The Name Game
A bid by the NZRFU to make “All Blacks” a registered trademark has been called into question after the discovery of a Welsh team playing under the same name. The Welsh club Neath has been known…
Hillary on show
The National Geographic Society’s Explorers Hall in Washington has opened an exhibition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest climb. Curiosities include the ice-axe Hillary used in the last few metres…
“The Greatest Rock’n’roll Band in the World at That Moment”
SMH bows down before “snake-hipped Kiwi axe gods,” The Datsuns. The concert review: “When the lights came up it had been barely 70 minutes since the first note and yet no one felt short-changed….
Teen angst pays off
Wellington actress Michelle Ang has been nominated for Australia’s premiere television award (a Logie) for her role in Neighbours. Ang, who has previously appeared in The Tribe and McDonalds Young Entertainers, is entered in…
Making music behind the scenes
19-year-old New Zealander Martine Hardaker is one of three students featured in an article on the prestigious Violin Making School of America. The four-year program involves more than just sanding and filing; pupils study…
Hey big spender
Australia’s John Fairfax Holdings Ltd has bought NZ’s top media group – Independent News Limited (INL) – for NZ$1.19 billion. The package includes more than 80 major newspapers and magazines, and means that over…
Protecting Shared Heritage
The NZ and Australian governments are making a combined application to the World Intellectual Property Organisation to protect the use of the word Anzac. Both countries have legislated against the unauthorised use of the word at…
Belated Acclaim for Unsung Edge Hero
“The Wright Brothers get all the credit, but a little-known NZ farmer and self-taught aviation pioneer deserves some recognition too.” Richard Pearse featured in LA Times as both NZ and America approach the centennial celebrations of their…
Island for Hire
Observer‘s guide to rock-star living suggests hiring your own island getaway. Featured is Forsyth Island, Marlborough Sounds. “This is a great one for the active – the 2,100 acre island has 35 kilometres of pathways for…
Fashionistas Duke it Out
Home-grown fashion site Lucire has been nominated for a Webby Award; the online equivalent of an Oscar. Lucire is up against stiff international competition, including Dolce & Gabbana and Style.
NZ: Wine Enthusiast ‘Region of the Year’
American-based Wine Enthusiast Magazine named NZ “Region of the Year” at their prestigious Wine Awards for 2002. Said judges of our viticultural edge; “When examining the NZ wine industry, broader themes emerge, encompassing such important concepts as innovation,…
Lately I’ve Been Lost it Seems … Jane Austen Spiced-up
Gurinda Chadha – director of international hit Bend it Like Beckham – has cast Kiwi actor Martin Henderson as Mr Darcy in her musical version of Pride and Prejudice. Henderson, most recently seen in…
Let Them Eat Plate
NZ company Potatopak, which produces edible fast-food packaging, plans to have its product on Australian shelves by 2004. The eco-friendly invention has been selling through organic shops and catering companies in NZ since 1999, and already…
It’s a Dirty Job, but Someone’s Got to Do It.
SMH travel writer tours NZ in the lap of luxury, reviewing the likes of Huka Lodge, Okiato, Kauri Cliffs and Whare Kea. The verdict? “Lodges provide some of the country’s finest accommodation … They are…
Australasian Appeal
“Out US and UK, in Australia and New Zealand.” Indian emigrants and students are favouring a move Down Under over the traditional destinations of old, thanks to easier entry procedures and cheaper education facilities.
Acting up
NZ actor Daniel Gillies (Street Legal) is on the brink of international stardom, with forthcoming roles in Hollywood blockbusters SpiderMan 2 and Head in the Clouds, opposite Charlize Theron and Penelope Cruz. Gillies…
“A Life Set to Music”
Edwin “Ted” Carr – “grand old man of NZ music” – has died aged 76. At times a conductor, teacher, dancer and animator, Carr achieved his greatest fame late in life as a composer….
Scream queen
“Eye-catching” sculptures and drawings by ex-pat Kiwi Francis Upritchard are currently on show at London’s form-setting Institute of Contemporary Art, as part of the annual Beck’s Futures award exhibition. Referencing Mike Kelley and Tony…
A View from the Right
Robert Darwall proffers an aggressive and provocative outsider analysis of NZ’s economic reforms in April’s Policy Review. “Steep cuts in welfare programs and the most radical shake-up of labor law outside Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. On these South…
Wellywood Weighs In
An Anna Fifield Financial Times feature reviews the remarkable growth of the NZ film industry in the wake of its latest coup: Peter Jackson’s King Kong. “For the country’s film industry, the project marks…
Edge and Ivory
Professor Malcolm Grant joins fellow NZer John Hood (newly appointed Oxford VC) in taking over Britain’s ivory towers from the top. Currently the pro-vice-chancellor at Cambridge University, Grant will take the reins as the new provost of…
Shooting from the lip
Legendary NZ-born war correspondent, Peter Arnett, has again found himself in the midst of political controversy. NBC and National Geographic fired Arnett after he stated on Iraqi state television that the initial US war…
Survival of the Hippest
Karen Walker continues her reign as NZ’s leading fashion export, scoring extensive coverage in some of the international media’s hippest publications over the past month. She was profiled in i-D as one of their…
Creative Curriculum
A Times article deploring the state of the British education system holds up its New Zealand counterpart as the benchmark for quality and creativity. “Look at New Zealand, which manages to incorporate dance into maths classes, drama…
Local Film; Universal Message
Niki Caro’s Whale Rider was the star attraction at the annual Boston International Festival of Women’s Cinema. According to organisers, the “breathtakingly luminous” film perfectly captured the festival’s central theme of “becoming the person…
The Book of Fame (and fortune) for Lloyd Jones
Lloyd Jones’ The Book of Fame has won the $40,000 biennial Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize, Australia’s most lucrative literary award. The Book of Fame is a poetic national myth-making account of the 1905 All…
Jackson (and NZ) goes ape
Watch out Sky Tower: Peter Jackson is to direct a remake of King Kong for Universal Pictures. The epic production will be filmed on location in NZ and released globally in 2005. Says an…
Screen-worthy Scenery
Baltimore Sun travel writer discovers the joys of the South Island road trip. “Driving on the South Island is not just to get you from one highlight to another – the whole blessed island is a…
Paddy Meets His Match
Paddy O’Brien became New Zealand’s most capped referee in Test rugby after officiating at the Six Nations game between Wales and France in Paris. The match marked O’Brien’s 27th Test and 181st first class game. O’Brien:…
Winning hearts through stomachs
Noel Turner’s US eatery, Turner New Zealand, continues to attract epicurean praise with it’s gourmet cuisine sourced with principled fidelity from the freshest NZ product. A “wide-waisted wordsmith” reviews for Orange County Weekly….
Icarus Down-under
Richard – “Bamboo Dick” – Pearse profiled in China Daily as New Zealand celebrates the centenary of his (world?) first flight. Says biographer Gordon Ogilvie; “He was an inventive phenomenon in a small community where farming was…
Captain Kirk
Aucklander Kirk Penney is one of the brightest stars on the American college basketball circuit. Penney captains and is the highest point-scorer for the Wisconsin Badgers, a team he has lead into the top 16. A…
Boyens on Rings writing
Writer Philippa Boyens speaks out on her own epic quest; adapting the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the screen. With her collaborators Walsh, Jackson and Sinclair, Boyens battled against political misreadings, weird names…
Fact and Fantasy Collide in The Remarkables
Post-Gazette travel special includes NZ in its homage to Oscar-worthy locations. Special mention is given to The Remarkables, site of Dimrill Dale in The Fellowship of the Ring.
One GPS to find them all
Detroit Free Press feature on Rings tourism recommends Ian Brodie’s Lord of the Rings Location Book. One for the truly dedicated, the guide offers the exact coordinates of incidental sites for those equipped with…
Edge intelligence: Donaldson delivers
Observer reviews The Recruit, the latest Hollywood offering from one of NZ cinema’s pioners, LA-based Roger Donaldson. “Slick and highly enjoyable … scenes of induction and seduction have an almost documentary feel and the…
Voters Under Ring’s Influence
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was voted second most influential movie/s of the last 75 years in a poll for BBC News Online, ahead of Citizen Kane, the Godfather series and 2001: A…
For Those About the Rock the Globe
The Datsuns have mounted a full-scale global aural assault: Boston Daily Globe: “It’s a high-energy assault with mammoth guitar riffs, strutting bass, and raw vocals that cartwheel into tomcat wailing.” New York Post:…
Jackson fan club continued…
Michael Scragow, former staff writer for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, airs his opinions on this year’s Oscars. “I am just floored that Peter Jackson was not nominated for best director … I…
Sacred Hill Win on Sacred Turf
Sacred Hill’s 2001 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay became the first NZ wine to win gold at the prestigious Chardonnay du Monde competition in Burgundy, France. Sacred Hill marketing manager Duncan Elliott: “This is like winning the French equivalent…
