News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Smiling Like

Smiling Like

Smiling Like is apprentice Michael Walker’s lucky horse. The Wellington Cup was her second victory with the “boom” New Zealander in the saddle.  

Anti-nuke Action

Anti-nuke Action

Rainbow Warrior survivor Chris Robinson and New Zealand-based Henk Haazen and his family form part of the flotilla prostesting the shipping of nuclear waste through the Tasman sea. Australian shipments also raise ire.  

Big Breach

Big Breach

Kiwi ex-MI6 operative Richard Tomlinson’s memoirs, The Big Breach hits Russian bookshops and are serialised in the Sunday Times, to the dismay of the secret service establishment in Britain.

Postcards from the Edge

Postcards from the Edge

“Dad,” revealed the postcard from New Zealand, “went paragliding”. All it takes is a break from routine.  

Fit to Judge?

Fit to Judge?

New Zealand research shows juries have “fairly fundamental” misunderstandings of the law in over 7% of cases.

Acting love

Acting love

British actor Toby Stephens “sips cranberry and soda in restaurants with his girlfriend, the New Zealand actress Anna-Louise Plowman (Flick, The Adulterer)”, and enjoys “choosing colour schemes for his new north London flat.” …

America’s Cup Turns 150

America’s Cup Turns 150

“It would have felt very wrong to have hosted a celebration of the fact that we lost the cup in 1851, haven’t seen it since and are making no attempt to get it back,” says John…

Wharekauhau Station Seduces

Wharekauhau Station Seduces

“Included in the rectangular picture window vista is a real sea, Palliser Bay, below the cliffs where the sheep paddocks end, and edged by chalk palisades off to the left.”

Dinosaur amore

Dinosaur amore

Sam Neill confesses to feeling something for his Jurassic co-stars: “There was one little female velociraptor who had a cute haircut, but it was never anything more than holding hands… holding claws.”

Wheezy September

Wheezy September

Mysterious medical matter: asthma admission in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad all have an unexplained annual peak in the third week of September.

Tops for Jumps

Tops for Jumps

Guardian netjetter Sam “takes advantage of New Zealand’s position as tops for adrenaline holidays – he’s just done a bungy jump.”

Cross-cultural carving

Cross-cultural carving

A display of Japanese netsuke, small carved toggles for pouches, includes “a mythical bird’s head by a New Zealand carver,” which “successfully combines the imagery of one culture with the aesthetics of Japan.”

Group sex

Group sex

Veiled body parts and explicit pictures on show at Group Sex, One Eye Gallery, Paekakariki.

Ed for Heights

Ed for Heights

“I was frequently scared and often tired, but there were few moments I would have willingly missed,” says Sir Edmund Hillary in the biography for children, Triumph on Everest.

Different Age

Different Age

Queen Victoria reigned over an age of adventure and conquest, innovation and development. She was Empress of the Empire on which the sun never set, including New Zealand, her furthest-flung domain.

Saucy Story

Saucy Story

“Lee & Perrin’s bottles, with their characteristic long necks, designed to make it easy to Shake Well Before Using, have turned up in shipwrecks, encrusted with barnacles; in the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet; and in…

Still sailing

Still sailing

Ian Tew’s soon to be published In Grandfather’s Wake includes an account of finding Grandpa Graham’s old yacht “in full commission” in New Zealand.

Evidence Compelling

Evidence Compelling

“The economic evidence to support broadened and deepened negotiations is compelling,” states former New Zealand Prime Minister Mike Moore, now trying to kick-start free-trade talks in his role as WTO chief.

Watch for the Splash

Watch for the Splash

MIR is scheduled to descend into the South Pacific “up to 2000 kilometres (1 250 miles) off the coast of Australia…the same distance off the coast of Australia are New Zealand, the French territory of…

Cultural resonance

Cultural resonance

”Everything I saw in this film I see in my own country,” says Maori Jillian White, speaking of Native Canadian films screened at Canada’s Sundance festival.

Long in the Tooth – at 26

Long in the Tooth – at 26

New Zealand researchers have uncovered the biting truth – periodontal disease, which leads to loss of teeth, can be a problem from as early as 26.

Fly Away Nanny

Fly Away Nanny

Free trips home to New Zealand are among the perks offered to nannies in London’s tight market.

Dread Drought

Dread Drought

New Zealand artist Horace Moore-Jones painted “one of the few pictorial responses to Australia’s Long Drought” (1895 and 1903), a series which included “Dead Drought as ‘a ghastly emaciated figure of doubtful sex, wearing…

World Without Oz

World Without Oz

If Australia didn’t exist, “Kiri Te Kanawa would be known as La Stupenda,” “New Zealanders would outnumber sheep” and “the pavlova would be indisputably a New Zealand Creation.”

MSG 4 U

MSG 4 U

A New Yorker seeks to escape email addiction in New Zealand, but falls foul of txt msging.

Trans-oceanic Phone Tag

Trans-oceanic Phone Tag

“After a morning spent hiking in New Zealand’s spectacular Rotorua region – a volcanic area of geysers, thermal pools and surreal landscapes – my tour guide, Jacqui, heard the chirping of her cell phone. Then, with…

Human Rights for All

Human Rights for All

New Zealand-born and educated John Fisher is Canada’s leading gay rights activist. “Human rights, for me, are universal and transcend national boundaries,” says Fisher. “Everyone knows someone who is gay or lesbian, and a society that affirms…

Winter Bid

Winter Bid

Christchurch and Wanaka are launching a bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Lang may his lum reek

Lang may his lum reek

New Zealand’s now home for Scottish actor John Cairney but he makes a yearly return to Scotland for Burns night.

Family Planning, Possums!

Family Planning, Possums!

David Heath of the Wallaceville Animal Research centre is developing a GM bug that secrets a substance designed to curtail possums’ fertility.

Hotel Harridans

Hotel Harridans

New Zealand women using hotels make more noise during sex, watch more porn, leave their rooms messier and steal more stuff than men. “I think women are becoming more assertive,” offered a Novotel spokesperson.

Chicken Corner

Chicken Corner

Metropolitan Auckland: high rise, IT, yachts – and chickens in the city parks.

Top Two

Top Two

Two New Zealanders – Fred Hollows and Whakatane-born Lindy Chamberlain – make it into the list of top 100 influential Australians.

Scraps of genius

Scraps of genius

New Zealand-born artist Rosalie Gascoigne used roadside ephemera in her work: “from the grasses, pebbles, discarded roadside trophies, road signs and softdrinks crates, she built an extraordinary body of work. In her hands and…

Tools out

Tools out

Carving New Zealand jade is among the retirement pursuits under consideration by Australian songster Rolf Harris.

Suckler

Suckler

New Zealand suckler cows may be the key to enhancing upland beef production in Scotland.

Blanchettes

Blanchettes

Maybe it was all the fresh air and vigorous activity? Cate Blanchett says “working on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand made her feel especially broody”.  

Web savvy

Web savvy

Lord of the Rings producers have played it cool with net marketing – giving away photos and info titbits to keep the fans keen. The redesigned Rings site has already clocked over41 million…

Eco-racing Comes Home

Eco-racing Comes Home

Top eco-racing teams have registered for October’s South Island race, including New Zealand’s Team Fairydown. “New Zealand, being the birth place of Expedition Racing, is the perfect location for the top teams in the world to experience…

One Blind Mouse

One Blind Mouse

Following the lead of New Zealand company Pulse Data, Israeli firm VirTouch has developed a Braille mouse for blind computer users.

Smartwool

Smartwool

New Zealand’s long-fibre merino makes “Smartwool” – outdoor clothing that’s itch-proof, and “works better than anything else you can find”.

Catch That Pigeon Now

Catch That Pigeon Now

New Zealander Kent Robertson adds his two cents worth on the Trafalger Square pigeons: “I’ve been coming to London for 30 years and feeding the pigeons has always been a great treat.”

In Search of Lost Crime

In Search of Lost Crime

How can a society heal itself? Some places, like New Zealand, opt for compensation for victims, a strategy that can be divisive. Europe prefers legal redress and Africa, Latin America and Asia favour commissions of inquiry….

Playing in the Big League

Playing in the Big League

Otago’s Business School makes it into the Financial Times top 100 league.

Prehistoric background

Prehistoric background

New Zealand provided the background – and the KY jelly – for the phenomenly successful Walking with Dinosuars, soon to be followed by The Ballad of Big Al.

Death Deluxe

Death Deluxe

John Bougan’s Auckland Memorial Park will provide anything “within reason, and within moral and legal bounds and the Building Act”. One customer has already requested a $150,000 building to house himself and his Rolls Royce.

Spence of the sixties

Spence of the sixties

The house of Beehive-architect Sir Basil Spence is described as “the best 1960’s space in Great Britain”.

Girl Power

Girl Power

Women leaders are where it’s at says the The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasian leadership conference.

Country & Urban

Country & Urban

New Zealand-born country singer/ songwriter Keith Urban’s “Rollercoaster” gets a Grammy nom, while Keith himself fronts Music Row mag and toasts his top-ten success.  

Ringing up the gold

Ringing up the gold

Lord of the Rings has brought the gold into Wellington, the city of “tearooms and sea views”. View the New Zealand setting in the round at the official site.

Lakeside Limerick Learning

Lakeside Limerick Learning

The University of Limerick is lending “expertise” to assist Ngati Tuwharetoa and the Taupo District Council in setting up the Lake Taupo University College.

Swinging into History

Swinging into History

“Ant Gear guaranteed his place in the record books when, at precisely 12am on 1 January, 2000, he teed off at the Manawatu Golf Club in the North Island.” Gear’s wife stood on the fairways with…

Ice Ice Baby

Ice Ice Baby

Extreme sport doesn’t come any cooler: -10º, ice bergs and hurricane-strength winds face three New Zealanders kayaking around the Antarctic peninsula.

Frucor on the Up

Frucor on the Up

“One of last year’s hot floats” in Australia, Frucor, makers of headline energy drink V,  have increased turnover by 55%.

Kraus purposes

Kraus purposes

“If women have failed to make ‘universal’ art because we’re trapped within the ‘personal,’ why not universalize the ‘personal’ and make it the subject of our art?” asks Edge-thinker Chris Kraus.

Diversionary Tactics

Diversionary Tactics

Victoria’s government is using New Zealand’s successful diversion scheme to “break the cycle of crime” for young offenders.