In the Pink of Elf
“Cate Blanchett is looking particularly ethereal…perhaps it’s just a little leftover glow from the four months spent in New Zealand playing the Lady Galadriel…”
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Chathams Hungover
“We blew our budget last year and walked away with a huge headache, but we had a lot of fun,” says Chathams man Robin Preece, predicting a quiet New Year for the first place to see…
Cold Shoulder
Warming-swarming says Wellington scientist Vincent Gray, whose anti-global warming beliefs challenge scientific orthodoxy.
Backwards Into the Future
“The past is not found in the days gone by, but in the days that sit in front of us,” says Moana Jackson, stating the Maori view of the past during the opening address…
Vertical #2
“Vertical Limit has its flaws – but they’re not enough to dim rousing, old-fashioned escapism which uses modern techno-skills to really put you in the picture and on the mountain peak.”
Roaring Fun
“In Australia and New Zealand, long ago, it was called a ‘bull roarer’ and used to scare away evil spirits; Native Americans made it hum during rain ceremonies; South American fisherman swirled it over rivers to…
Campbell’s Leap
“The biggest move outside the top 10 was by New Zealander Michael Campbell who leaped from 108th to 14th” in the golf world rankings.”
Birth blocked
New Zealand website Calendargirls’ planned broadcast of a live birth on Christmas day was stymied by a high court ruling.
Christmas in Auckland
“Then Christmas dinner – Polynesian style – got under way, accompanied by the sound of guitars and the laughter of girls, flowers in their hair, dancing the hula, the siva and the tamoure.”
Escape from Middle Earth
With a $100 000 budget and all the glamour Wellington could muster, the Rings wrap party was like “something straight out of Tolkien”.
Brain Gain
“We’ve made the decision to go home, and I urge other New Zealanders to do the same. Let’s stop helping the economy of a country where we’re not welcome,” says Phillipa Hawkes, packing to come home following…
Whistle-blowing
After ten years of play on an unregulated field, an umpire has been appointed for the New Zealand telecommunications industry.
Bombs Away
Foreign Minister Phil Goff has ruled out allowing high-level nuclear waste to travel through New Zealand waters.
Domestic goddess
Christmas brings out the “Nigella domestic goddess” in New Zealand lesbian-crime writer Stella Duffy.
Kiss Off
Don’t pick the mistletoe – it’s endangered, but you can take a chainsaw to the holly – a noxious weed.
Flat Out
Chaos and interacting sound waves power new-generation flat speakers. New Zealand’s Soundlab is at the head of the pack, in sound-delivery technology.
Wildlife Sting
Flora and fauna around the world are competing against introduced animals – New Zealand’s kaka is losing the battle over food sources to wasps, but island sanctuaries are a success story.
Flight Patterns
“The best of the work in “Flight Patterns” examines the surface detail of social, urban and environmental landscapes to present timely portraits of contemporary life in the Pacific Rim region… Gavin Hipkins’ two dozen…
Shears, Mate
Among elections, space-stations and UFO conventions, Masterton’s 40th annual Golden Shears competition rates a mention.
Putting Meat on the Table
“Inexpensive frozen New Zealand lamb enabled Glaswegians to put meat on the table during the misery of the 1930’s. Galloway’s “Empire Lamb Shop”, at the end of Jamaica Street, was open just four days a week,…
Go Babies
Two babies per woman is the minimum for population stability – New Zealand, Iceland and the US are the only wealthy nations reproducing at or above replacement rate.
Lost Boys
Les Blanchard found his long-lost brother in New Zealand – now he searches for the lost families of others.
Skin Jewels
Seen on Gwyneth, Bjork and Lauren Hill, New Zealand-educated J Maskrey’s Skin Jewelry described as “one of the most original innovations of recent years”. Also check out the fashionUK feature.
3G in 3rd M?
The auction of New Zealand’s 3G radio spectrum frequencies has been an on-again, off-again affair – will it take till the third millennium?
Pharming Drugs
“Pharming” is the name for growing drugs in transgenic animals, like PPL’s New Zealand sheep.
Privy Decision
Attorney-General Margaret Wilson flags the government’s intention to abolish the right of appeal to the British Privy Council, instead creating a highest right of appeal based in New Zealand.
Fatter But Fitter
New Zealander’s average weight is increasing, but so is the general fitness of the population.
Sunshine for Sunline
It’s official – Sunline is the Russell Crowe of the racing world. The New Zealand and Australian horse of the year, Kiwi Sunline is also Australasia’s biggest money winner. After her December 17 Hong Kong mile…
PPL Piggies
PPL (Scotland, US, NZ) presented the world with five cloned piglets – the beginning of interspecies organ donation and top five important science event 2000.
Year of the Crowe
What sparked Crowe-mania? “I don’t know mate. Luck?” suggests the man himself, Entertainment Weekly‘s entertainer of the year. Proof of Life co-star David Caruso disagrees: “Once in a generation an actor will come along and…
Land Ahoy!
Karen Hesse’s teen novel Stowaway chronicles the life of Nick Young, a stowaway on Cook’s ship and the first of the crew to spot Aotearoa
Sea Dog
Sailing legend Grant Dalton’s a professional: ‘Treat Dalton like a wizened old sea dog and your hand will disappear into gritted teeth. “Romance of the sea? Doesn’t mean a shit to me,” he says. “You get…
First Time
Christchurch Casino has placed a clock in its gaming room – a first for the industry, which usually likes punters to forget the outside world exists.
AL&D ‘indispensable’
“Arts and Letters Daily triumphantly confirms its founder’s original hypothesis – that there is a cornucopia of wonderful writing out there on the web…but its success is mainly due to the way it met…
Professional Holiday
New Zealand is a top destination for young professionals seeking “cultural interest” and somewhere they’ve never been before.
Who Supervises the Supervisors?
New Zealand economist Tim Hazledine detects over-supervision – a proliferation in the ranks of “pseudo-managers monitoring their underlings”.
Museum commerce
“In terms of the interconnections between commerce and culture, the most interesting example is the new national museum of New Zealand, called Te Papa … seen as a model of current museological thinking and…
Immaculate Duffy
New Zealander Stella Duffy, creator of lesbian crime-fighter Saz Martin, tackles God and redemption in her latest Immaculate Conception: “I think it’s ground-breaking to write about miracles as if they’re real. It’s not very…
Walker Chases Health
1976 Olympic 1500m champion John Walker was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago. “I would give up all my medals and all the world records for my health,” says the New Zealander who cracked 100…
Sane Dolly
PPL Therapeutics, the company that brought the world Dolly, hooks up with New Zealand company Celentis to clone cows in a BSE-free environment.
Fruity Retraction
Ten years ago, Rod Stewart declared to Rachel “I found the girl I want, I won’t be putting my banana in anybody’s fruit bowl from now on”.
Manly, subtle Crowe
“We already knew from The Insider that Crowe was a fine, subtle, vanity-free actor, happy to ruin his looks to play pudgy and useless. But Gladiator and Proof of Life prove that he’s also a great movie…
Locally Better
Staying awake with a local anesthetic may reduce surgical complications by 30% states an Auckland University study published in the British Medical Journal.
Bill Doesn’t Pay
Enjoying a New Zealand-sourced organic beer in London, President Clinton left without clearing his tab.
Romper Stomper
Crowe’s “breakthrough film” released on DVD: “Crowe is electrifying as the brutal head of a group of neo-Nazi skinheads who harass the Vietnamese community in contemporary Melbourne”.
Nail ’em Up
Calcium supplements don’t prevent broken nails according to an Auckland study. Back to the snake oil…
Colour in Ireland
Belfast’s Queen Street Studios Gallery is hosting Colour, a group exhibition of New Zealand artists.
Finding Forrester
“I knew that if Gus Van Sant was wanting to make the movie, then it definitely meant there was something special about it,” says Anna Paquin. She plays opposite co-Oscarites Sean Connery and F….
Robbie Not Guilty
Too guilty to keep a Ferrari sports car, but OK with flying his New Zealand tattoo artist to Glasgow to create his tenth tattoo…
Nuclear Protest
ANZAC protest flotilla to confront Tasman-bound shipment of nuclear waste in early 2001.
