Godzone country
US-based Kiwi hunk Keith Urban keeps pulling the accolades, most recently, Best New Male Performer at the American Country Music Awards in Nashville.
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Too Smug?
New Zealand is making an official effort to cultivate Asia-literacy, but are individuals are unjustifiably smug in their attitudes to Asia?
Goodbye Xena
Xena, shown in 120 countries, focus of fan-mania and Star Trek-like devotion, comes to an end. “We tried to take people on journeys that you won’t go through in your real life,” says Lucy…
Away Damn Spot!
Does a bottle of water keep the dogs at bay? A New Zealand man claims to have made it up to fool his aunty …
Auckland Attractions
“I fell madly in love with Sydney and I thought, ‘I don’t have to live in America!’ My wife was already in love with Melbourne. Then we visited Auckland and it became our compromise. It’s the…
Toasted!
Wellington artist Maurice Bennett toasts fine art – his latest piece, the Mona Lisa, took 2124 slices.
America’s Cup Lead-up
Update on the preparations of the American and British Challengers for the Louis Vuitton cup in October next year.
Sharing the Wealth
Former New Zealand PM now WTO head Mike Moore writes on spreading the gains of free trade to the world’s least-developed countries. Also, Moore warns against bully-boy tactics.
Campion cuts Kidman
New Zealand director Jane Campion nabs red-hot Nicole Kidman for upcoming In the Cut.
Law Lord Retires
Lord Cooke of Thorndon, the man whose decisions changed the face of race relations in New Zealand, retires from the Privy Council. “Lord Cooke’s achievement in being appointed as a law lord on his retirement as…
Election Aid
New Zealand will provide personnel, technical and funding assistance to ensure Fiji’s up-coming elections run properly.
Eye Candy Off Antigua
“Circulating everywhere are professional crewmen and women-nearly all of whom seem to have blond hair, flawless physiques and charming New Zealand accents. They are constantly on the prowl for a better berth.”
Dozing at the Wheel
42% of drivers involved in crashes are affected by lack of shut-eye according to research done by the Wellington School of Medicine Sleep Investigation Centre.
Deeply Convincing
New Zealand screen-techies Deep Video Imaging are nearly ready to bring their 3-D PC screen closer to market. “People have tried like crazy to get the illusion of depth and the closest you could have is wearing…
Magic Lives On
Six years ago the Black Magic team completed their historic 5-0 sweep of the America’s Cup.
Green Tours
Gardening is sexy and the green-groupies flock to Christchurch, New Zealand’s Garden City.
Pinot Edge
New Zealand “can and will” challenge the Cote d’Or for first place in the Pinot Noir stakes, with wineries like Felton Road, Ata Rangi and Palliser Estate producing complex, top-line drinking.
Smell of Success
Ben Powell, STA student travel writer of the year, visits New Zealand as his prize. He samples the delights of Rotorua: the small, the spectacle and the zorb.
Calling Australia
Telecom New Zealand’s major stake in Australia’s 3G mobile network is just the beginning according to Telcom CEO Theresa Gattung.
Insurance Chart for Safe Passage
Former New Zealand Shipping Company employee John Richardson’s 1979 The Merchant’s Guide to Documentary Problems has guided thousands of marine insurance under-writers through the shoals of incoterms, bills of lading, letters of credit and other tricky areas…
Tiger Captured
Tiger Woods is a definite starter for the New Zealand Open next January at Paraparaamu Beach.
Funny Farm
New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research thinks something funny is going on with cow dung…
Tests Blow Up
Were New Zealand troops used as nuclear guinea pigs? Australian lawyer thinks yes, Government asks the tough questions. Also, New Zealand Government refused to allow testing on Kermadec Island.
Lording it at Cannes
Which was hotter – the Rings preview or the bash after? Twenty minutes of Rings footage had seasoned critics standing to applaud; the party, complete with sets shipped from New Zealand, was the one ticket…
Buzz From Cannes
“This will be the biggest movie of all time” – John Rhys-Davis in National Post preview and cast interviews; Rings “hottest show at Cannes” in The Age; BBC reports “gargantuan bash”;…
Shrek at Cannes
Kiwi Andrew Adamson is co-director of Dreamworks’ hit Shrek, the first animated movie to make competition at Cannes since Dumbo 50 years ago. Guardian picks it as a Cannes top ten. Shrek “deliciously…
World Music
The BBC’s Radio4 celebrates International Dawn Chorus Day by listening to the world wake up via some aural ornithology; singing the sun up is the enchanting “Nightingale of New Zealand” – the Tui.
Fusion Capital
The Independent takes a tour through the capital’s cultural collage: fusion cooking, Te Papa, cafes, Mansfield, transexual MPs, colonial history and Pacific awakenings, and finds in the cosmopolitan brew that “It is hard to know which flavour…
Running Man
Adrian Blincoe, promising young NZ middle-distance runner, helps the Villanova Wildcats to a historic victory in the Men’s Distance Medley at the NCAA Penn Relays.
Global Warning
Kiwi LSE economist Robert Wade, tracks the winners and losers in the big-stakes game of globalisation and stirs debate with new thinking: “Growing inequality is analogous to global warming. Its effects are diffuse and long-term ……
Phil’s Crazy Club on Oprah
Kiwi Phil Keoghan chats with the first lady of US TV about how “passion became his purpose” after a near-death experience as a 20-yr old. Talking Oprah through a group bungee, dinner atop a…
Donovan puts a hit on Roger
Inflation may have lowered the stocks of ex-Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors, but his new lease on life as an aging hit-man in NYC Kiwi director Brendan Donovan’s “Here” has helped the film…
Crowe’s Anzac
Stan Wemyss, Russell Crowe’s Grandfather, was a soldier and cinematographer – a key influence on the star.
Marathon Mania
The Times previews the mania of marathon running and the annual London race with a history of jogging and the Kiwi who changed the way the world thinks about running. In advocating that “running is not only…
Captain Cloud
“Captain John Hercus used to be a banker. He used to be a skier. He jumped ship twice from the corporate world to return to his real passion. Sailing. He wandered, sometimes, lonely as a cloud….
Anzac Spirit
“In late April 1915, John Davis, a young New Zealander uncertain even of his own age, stepped off a small boat on the shores of Gallipoli. Moments later he slumped, apparently lifelessly, into the sea.” Two…
Wellington or Dunedin?
Is Wellington wonderful or should you skip the capital for the joys of the deep south?
Returning the Gaze
Early European explorers of the Pacific created a cult of the South Seas – Sir Joseph Banks, for example, had his portrait painted wearing a Maori cloak over his European dress. Now the Pacific refocuses the…
Tests of Nationhood
“If you asked a random person how one can tell China and France are different nations, almost every test they would probably offer-language, culture, race, religion, cuisine, origins – would fail to distinguish the…
Bert Sutcliffe Retires
Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand left-handed batsman “of the highest class”, joins the “Gentlemen of Heaven XI” – a player fit to share a wicket with the late Don Bradman. Sutcliffe was “a superlative cricketer and a very…
RNZAF to the Rescue
The Royal New Zealand Air Force wings its way to Antarctica to rescue sick workers.
Anzac Memorial
The New Zealand war memorial in Canberra was officially opened on 24 April by Australian Anzac veteran, 100-year old Charlie Mance.
In Bed with Matilda
Waltzing won’t cut it says Professor Bob Catley – New Zealand is screwed unless we go all the way with our neighbor. A recipe for bare-foot and pregnant?
Whale of a Debate
Japan gets sharky over New Zealand’s support for a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, but South Pacific nations are right behind the proposal.
Dollar Getting Burgered
The Economist’s Big Mac index indicates the New Zealand dollar is 40-50% under fair value. Burgernomics in more detail.
Have mint-sauce, will travel
New Zealand lamb, herb-crusted and juicy, makes the menu at Bangalore’s “Globetrotter’s culinary festival”.
Antelope Contagion
Professor Roger Morris of Massey University believes he has tracked down the source of the BSE epidemic – an antelope from a wildlife park, probably in south-west Britain. His paper on the subject will be published…
Free Economy
New Zealand has the third freest economy in the world, after Hong Kong and Singapore, according to Economic Freedom in the World 2001 Annual Report.
Reviewing the Guard
Prime Minister Helen Clark reviews the honor guard as she is welcomed to Beijing.
Kiwis in League
Former New Zealand league international Dean Bell eyes fellow kiwi Frank Endacott’s job as coach for Wigan: “When Frank’s finished with the job, I want it”.
Oz Needs Women on Top
Australia needs to heed New Zealand’s example on female politicians, roping more talented women into mainstream parties. New Zealand’s current female dominated political scene is “light years away from Australia’s old-fashioned old boys’ game.”
Get Talking
Foreign Minister Phil Goff will push for a new WTO round during a continental trip, as well encouraging continued European support for East Timor.
Running Hard
Friends of edge-bred Paul Hewitson “lionise his iron constitution. After one bachelor party that ended at 5am, Hewitson slept for an hour then rose for a 15-mile jaunt. When insomnia strikes, he gets up and runs to…
