1953 – Hillary’s Year
“It was also a year in which a white man and a brown man, held together by a light nylon rope, climbed the highest mountain. In this feat of the New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary,…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
E-tax
IRD sets a dodgy precedent, requiring Dominz to hand over personal details linked to all .NZ domain names.
Price of Milk
“So this film is my dream about New Zealand, this make-believe country that seems almost empty of people” – director Harry Sinclair on his dairy-tale romance, The Price of Milk.
Cut Short
Can you catch apotemnophilia, the desire to become an amputee? A spate of recent “voluntary amputations” performed in Britain take their cue from work by ground-breaking but controversial New Zealand sexologist John Money.
Turbulent Fiordland
“Fiordland has been twisted, buckled, and tilted. It has been buried beneath ocean sediments for millions of years, then thrust above the waves for wind, sun, and ice to carve and erode. It has been fragmented…
Christina Conrad: edge poet and outlaw of the tribe
Noted poet Billy Marshall Stoneking writes about New Zealander Christina Conrad for art journal alicubi, locating the genesis of her expression in the New Zealand edge: “Conrad studiously disdains mediocrity, fashion and safety ……
“It’s Ok I’m Wearing Really Big Knickers”
NZ-Edged Louise Rennison, author of hilariously funny and best-selling novels for teens documents such existential provocations as angst ridden days, erupting spots and bickering with parents. Rennison spent her teenage years in New Zealand…
Sweaty Surgeons
Operations are hot work: surgeons sweat, drop skin flakes and contaminate their patients, according to an Auckland study. Space suits are a possible solution.
Jewels Valued
A New Zealand testicle is worth £4 500, but the Australian version is valued at £130 000.
Conner On
Dennis Conner will skipper the New York Boat Club’s 2003 challenge, hoping to end the Cup’s twenty-year residence away from the NYYC.
Menopause Rescue
University of Auckland scientists have identified a gene potentially responsible for thousands of cases of premature menopause world-wide.
Sun-kissed Pasta
Trials are underway to improve the colour of New Zealand pasta by creating yellower strains of wheat.
Meteorologist Dies
James M. Austin, Dunedin-born and educated TV meteorologist, MIT teacher and D-day weatherman, died in Boston aged 85.
Berry Good
“Tall, dapper” New Zealander Martin Brown runs centuries old vinters Berry Brothers & Rudd. He’s turned Lord Byron’s purveyors of the liquid muse into Britain’s top wine e-tailer.
Tabloid Corner
Reports of a Mandy Smith-Dean Barker romance cause international consternation as dreams of a super-child assail NZ sport fans.
Deported to the Colonies
London’s had enough of Generals Sir Charles Napier and Sir Henry Havelock, but their New Zealand namesakes would be proud to have them.
Star Detective
Newbie Hamilton security man Gillie Henare explains his efficient lifter-nabbing techniques: “they use a lot of tricks to smuggle stuff out. You look for things like the bulging stomach, loose sleeves, bags. Once you’ve seen it…
Suterble supporter
Las Vegas casino king Glenn Schaeffer puts dollars into art, supporting Nelson’s Suter Gallery.
Centrist Thinking
Geographical isolation meant New Zealand’s “great experiment” with “radically liberal economic ideas” was bound to fail…
Millennial Change
Canon Paul Oestreicher “embodies the Church of the 2th century and its struggles”. Converted during his schooldays in New Zealand, Canon Oestreicher held controversial views on pacifism, Marxism and the ordination of women.
Pot Luck
Marijuana causes disease, phlegm and coughing fits, as well as mild euphoria. The wacky backy is as damaging to the lungs as tobacco according to research studiously carried out at Otago University.
Orca Warning
Orca in Wellington Harbour are a treat for onlookers, but authorities warn water users that the whales “don’t eat cucumbers”.
Kiss and tell
British politician John Prescott retains the edge bestowed by his starring role in New Zealander Fleur Adcock’s 1996 poem: “Our eyes had locked/we were leaning avidly forwards/lips out thrust…”
Minus Fours
Nude golf will be swinging at the January Mackenzie Muster naturist festival near Lake Tekapo. Hole in one?
Chiat/Day Edge
New Zealand “tough guy” David Fong gets Toronto ad agency into shape: “We have to be world class.”
Because it’s 50 Years
June 2002 will see Nepal begin year-long celebrations marking a half century since Tenzing and Hillary knocked the bugger off.
Habitat for Humanity
Global Village volunteers spend holidays helping some of New Zealand’s least-fortunate citizens.
Punitive Damage
New Zealander Helen Todd’s documentary inditing the Indonesian military for the Dili massacre screens at the Las Vegas CineVegas festival.
Come Here, Deer
Deer velvet’s aphrodisiac properties are being scientifically tested. Positive results will lift an already firm export market.
Miracle Bang
After a decade of blindness, Auckland woman Lisa Reid went to bed, bumped her head and woke up sighted in the morning.
Coin Fever
Tennis ace Dominik Hrbaty is a New Zealand coin buff in his spare time: “They are so beautiful, so nice. Every year there is a different picture(?) and on the other side is Queen Elizabeth.” …
Edge Music
“Folk and traditional tunes” from New Zealand feature on the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus’ new CD, Flights of Song.
15% Pure
All ingredients in New Zealand and Australian food are to be labelled by percentage. “Meat” pie anyone?
Howdy Mate
“Seems like American people are just too lazy to work,” says Colorado farmer Bruce Markham, who’s been using Kiwis to bring in the corn.
Slow Potato
New Zealand researcher Graham Harris’s potato digging made him a finalist in the “Slow Food” 2000 awards.
John Bull (& Kiwi)
Michael Wills’ mother was a New Zealander, and his father an Austrian. Today he is charged with putting British patriotism on New Labour’s agenda.
Murder on the Street
Shirker, penned by New Zealander Chad Taylor features a murder on Shortland Street – the place, not the programme.
Vowels of Allegiance
The Kiwi vowel slur might be a solidarity mechanism, adopted to make late-arriving, open-vowel enunciating Poms feel uncomfortable. Give us fush or give us duth.
Mahy magic
Margaret Mahy’s 24 Hours, her latest teen novel released in America, is “compelling and emotionally satisfying”.
Dream note
New Zealand-based Indian singer-songwriter Lucky Ali talks about his “upbeat, perky and positive” album and his two wives.
Edge of Menace
New Zealand-born lawyer Denise Kingsmill, new deputy chairwoman of the UK’s Competition Commission, relishes her title as “the most feared woman in Britain”.
Root Problem
ICANN, the US agency that registers regional suffixes like .nz, is trying to charge for its services. The Internet Society of New Zealand has threatened to look elsewhere for root service, raising the spectre of an…
Circus Ribbons
Wellington performers staged a twelve hour festival in support of international White Ribbon Day, organised to raise awareness of violence against women.
Thatcher Revisited
Ten years after the fall of the Iron Lady, her policies still reverberate around the globe: “More than £4bn of assets have been privatised in countries as diverse as the Czech republic and New Zealand.” …
Hardie-Boys’ China Adventure
NZ Gov-Gen Michael Hardie-Boys will wrestle alligators and leap from speeding sampans as the guest of President Jiang Zemin.
Oracle Speaks
Flippin heck, the Chris Dickson-skippered boat for Larry Ellison’s Oracle America’s Cup challenge does an unchartered turn during a training run on the Waitemata. The boat’s 21- ton keel “inexplicably sheared off”.
Maori Shakespeare
Te Tangata Whai Rawa O Weneti, (usually known as The Merchant of Venice), currently filming in New Zealand will “introduce the Maori language to the world,” as well as making Shakespeare more accessible to…
Meat and a Green
Matthew Norman munches steak, savours Cloudy Bay Sauvignon and wonders if the man next to him has former Gov-Gen Lord Arthur Porritt’s edge vintage in his veins.
The Porn’s on You
“New Zealand Member of Parliament Winston Peters lashed out at Wellington’s National Library of New Zealand, painting its provision of free Internet access as an invitation for unrestricted surfing of porn sites and for foreigners to check…
Travel Edge
“Bungee jumping got its start here, and if dangling off a bridge by your ankles isn’t your idea of fun, there’s hiking – or “tramping” as the locals, known as Kiwis, call it – along with…
Sauvignon Savvy
Stoneleigh Vineyards’ ’99 Sauvignon Blanc: “this wine manages to have lots of tropical fruits in the nose, while maintaining the dry, herbaceous character that the grape is known for.”
Grief Vultures
“At a conference in Auckland, New Zealand, Dr. Simon Wessely called for an end to grief counselling, which he denounced as ineffective and even voyeuristic, tossing counsellors with otherwise-humdrum lives into the same dreaded category as ambulance…
Orphans of Poland
Schoolteacher Krystyna Skwarko survived the death camps of Stalinist Poland, fleeing to Persia and eventually resettling in New Zealand with her two children and 700 Polish orphans.
Digital Planet
New Zealand is the leading edge of the digital planet, with the highest IT spending (per capita) in the world.
