Top of the Pots
New Zealand plants have a distinctive look to them, and the tree-fern is perhaps one of the most unusual. Ponga trees are a hot item in the UK. Home Front TV gardener Diarmuid Gavin highlights them on…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Dame Kiri at the Meyerson Symphony Centre
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, star soprano, is appearing in a recital in Dallas. “In recitals it’s a partnership—you and your pianist partner performing for each other. I love that give-and-take, that wonderful feeling of…
Fair Go, Mate!
Game theory is used by many branches of the social sciences to help explain some the seemingly irrational behaviour of humans. Paul Walker, a New Zealand academic, has constructed a time-line of the development of games theory…
Are You Reading This Now?
New Zealand ranks among the most literate countries in the world, according to a study released on September 8. The Scandinavians, with their long winters by the fire, ranked at the very top of…
Pask Bask
Where do you go for the top Bordeaux? Edge Hawkes Bay winery CJ Pask makes the best Bordeaux-style wine in the world, according to the world’s premier wine judging event.
Sweet Sugar
Peter Gordon is the man who launched a thousand experiments with seaweed, noodles and kangaroo. His latest book, “Cook at Home with Peter Gordon”, applies the same eclectic principles, offering something for cooks of…
Home Run
Shane Hunuhunu plays baseball for the Ashland (Ohio) Bombers’. The fireplug slugger imported from New Zealand features in “Fastpitch”, a new film by first-time film-maker Jeremy Spears. The footage was shot over a summer Spears spent playing…
Team NZ Pickup Pace
Having carried off the wine prizes, we’re now taking skippers. Bertrand Pace, who skippered the French boat in the last America’s Cup, has signed on with Team NZ. “I am very pleased and excited to join the…
Braces, John
John Bracewell, the New Zealander who has coached the Gloucestershire County Cricket team to the top of the sport in England, says that he has been preparing himself to become an international coach. Though his first loyalty…
Better, But Not Good Enough
Helen Clark addressed a UN meeting of world leaders, stating: “We recently announced that our next governor-general will be a woman, our prime minister is a woman, the leader of the opposition is a woman, the cabinet…
Licensed to Squirt
A unique initiative has seen New Zealand kindergartens offering “licences” for toy guns in a bid to instil the “use guns responsibly” message in youngsters. Police have tacitly endorsed the scheme, but will not…
Does This Man Have a Government Scholarship?
It’s more cost-effective than traditional space-flight, and it’s spiritually enriching … the New York-based International Institute of Projectiology and Conscientiology has been guiding consciousnesses’ astral bodies through the extraphysical dimensions since 1988. Kiwi attorney David Lindsay, who is…
Keep Our Yurts Nuke Free!
Mongolia, inspired by New Zealand, is asking to be declared a Nuclear-Free Zone. No more American warships for them!
Brain Gain: Happy Consultants Flock In
On-island media has been hyping the “Brain Drain”, but check out the opposite story: “Last year, a few of my friends from Gujarat migrated to New Zealand. They are very happy. I was thinking to procure…
Moa Simulation: The Strange World of Canterbury Ecology
New Zealand has more small-leaved, tangled shrubs than anywhere else in the world. Some experts think the plants evolved like this to deter the now-extinct moa from making them dinner, but Canterbury University ecologist Dave Kelly doesn’t…
Malaysia and New Zealand: Becoming Closer Neighbours All the Time
Trade between New Zealand and Malaysia totalled over NZ$1 billion for the year ended June. As well, there are major cultural and social links between the two countries. “Over the years, tens of thousands of Malaysians…
Rena Owen on jury at Montreal Film Festival
Feisty Kiwi actress Rena Owen (Once Were Warriors, What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted), sat on the jury of the of the Montreal Film Festival. The jury awarded the festival’s major award, the…
Temping: A Permanent Way of Life
“Temping” is a phase in the life of many young Kiwis, but some, like Tracey Ward who is profiled in this article, are beginning to see it as a flexible, stimulating career in itself….
Hadlee Awards Trophies, Deplores Fixing and Lauds Lillee
Sir Richard Hadlee, former New Zealand pace bowler, awarded the trophies at the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai earlier this month. He railed against international match fixing, but had congratulatory words for the players in the tournament. Hadlee…
Who is that famous writer living next door?
Michael King spoke about his authorised and hugely successful biography of Janet Frame at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Frame a recluse: she writes under her own name, but lives under a pseudonym. Other Kiwi…
A man of many amenities
Hundertwasser, the Austrian architect who lived out his last years in New Zealand and designed the famous toilets in Kawakawa, also left his mark in the curving lines of Bad Blumau, a spa…
Thigh-deep in Flyfishing
What does New Zealand have in common with Argentina, Russia and Alaska? No, not an “a” in the name – they’re all “flyfishing glamour spots”. Thomas McGuane chronicles his time standing thigh-deep in glamorous rivers in his new…
Rugby: Brits Gush About All Blacks
“To watch the sheer brilliance of New Zealand’s opening passage of play against the Wallabies, and then to have that followed by the marvellous fightback which took Australia to level pegging—and for that quality to be sustained…
Stirling Effort
British energy companies are looking at the Stirling engine produced by NZ company WhisperTech. By 2025, 13m households in Britain could have their own little power station installed with this technology.
Initiative Edge
In a tough call, trust your instincts, says cognitive psychologists Gary Klein. “The best decision makers that Klein has seen are wildland firefighters … They fight fires 12 months a year – in western…
Dean’s Decision
Dean Barker, Team New Zealand skipper, had ten minutes to make up his mind to take the hottest seat in sailing.
Inky Waves
Tattoos have become increasing popular among the men and women who chase the massive waves of the Pacific. For many, a tattoo is an important way of recognising their Polynesian heritage.
Tuaman
”I discovered at an early age that I had something special,” says championship contender David Tua. ”It’s a God-given talent I have to knock people out.” It is a gift rewarded only in one place. Only…
The Piano plays on
Holly Hunter, who played a mute Scottish widow in Jane Campion’s The Piano (1993), muses on the unexpected success of the movies. “It was a $5 million movie in New Zealand, and it ended…
The purloined piano?
The Piano secured Jane Campion as a major director and catapulted her from the art-house to the multiplex, but the Oxford Companion to Australian Film recently cast doubt over the originality of the screenplay for…
Stunts at 25mph in six inches of water help to demonstrate the Audi Quattro A6
The ad took nine days to film at Bethell’s Beach on the west coast of New Zealand.
In Chicago Beach did Fletcher a stately pleasure dome build
Fletcher Construction was the managing partner in the construction of the world’s tallest hotel, the hyper-luxury Burj Al Arab Hotel in the United Arab Emirates. The facade, designed like a giant sail represents an…
Moko-Maori
“Ta moko exposes more than the revival of a tradition – it reveals the beauty of Maori past and the promise of Maori future.” – photographer Hans Neleman in Moko-Maori Tattoo.
Flaming Fox
“It’s difficult to pin down Kerry Fox. For every film-goer who knows her as the murderous medical student in Shallow Grave, there’s another who remembers her as the dumpy author Janet Frame in An Angel…
Kiwi Trout: Once Bitten
Studies at the Cawthorn Institute in Nelson have revealed that trout learn from experience. Fish that have been caught and returned to the water stay out of sight next time. The trout are also smart enough to…
Xena Fights Child Abuse
Xena Princess Warrior has launched a real-life crusade against child abuse in New Zealand. Using her profile, Lucy Lawless has begun a national campaign to raise money for child protection agencies.
Edger takes to fringe
New Zealand actress Giarna Te Kanawa in New York plays all five parts in “Verbatim” by William Brandt and Miranda Harcourt, which played in the New York Fringe Festival. “Verbatim” is based on interviews…
Musicking: an activity not a thing
New Zealander Christopher Small’s books have been paradigm-changing events. His latest “Musicking” focuses on what Small believes is music’s ultimate function: “to provide insight into relationships: between and among notes and chords and rhythms…
Kiwi to Protect London Children
Moira Rayner has been appointed Director of the newly formed Office of Children’s Right’s Commissioner for London. She is a New Zealand lawyer with international experience in the field of children’s right’s.
Genie Rubs Up Well
Genie Systems’ OrderWare is now running in 10 US Babies ‘R’ Us stores, and is set to fully installed by next year. “Australasian software businesses have a unique style of software, and therefore I think there are many…
Flax: A Protective Edge
The Sunday Times garden columnist, Dan Pearson, gets all excited about Phorium tenax: New Zealand flax, or Harakeke. He’s found its adaptation to New Zealand’s harsh coasts makes it the perfect windbreak for a seaside garden…
Banking on Success
39 year-old Stuart Grimshaw used to put his body on the line for New Zealand, playing hockey at top international level. These days, as the new CEO of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, his eyes are firmly…
Flaming Poi at Burning Man
Nevada’s Burning Man festival will have a distinct Kiwi heat. Flaming poi, dubbed an ‘emerging trend’ by Time, will feature in complicated and spectacular night-time routines.
No Time Limit on Retrieving the Dead
In May 1941, a Fairey Battle bomber crashed in remote Iceland. New Zealand Flying Officer Arthur Round’s body, and the bodies of the three other casualties, have just been retrieved from the glacier and returned to England…
Terrorist Reaction
Rumours of New Zealand-based terrorist cells targeting the games in Sydney have been around for a while. Last week New Zealand police discovered a lounge in Auckland piled high with maps of Sydney and…
Striking a Cool Note
The arts festival running concurrently with the games in Sydney features Vaughan William’s Sinfonia Antarctica performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, with narration by Sir Edmund Hillary.
Edge Factor
Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised Anna Paquin is studying English literature of Columbia University and starring in two hot movies X-Men and Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. Winning the Oscar was “pretty much the flukiest cool…
Peerless Mansfield in Chicago
Katherine Mansfield’s intricate and beautiful stories continue to resonante around the world. “The New Zealand-born Mansfield, who died in 1923 at 34, was a peerless observer of the tiny spaces between joy and…
Beefsteaks Ruled by Women
Women currently fill the highest offices in New Zealand. Some people find this rather incongruous. “…this progress might be thought a bit of a shock for a country famous for beefy rugby players, not…
Proteas in Houston
Not aliens brought back by pathfinder, but an exhibition by New Zealand artist Zoe Calder at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. Proteaceae are a large family of spectacular plants native to the…
Legendary Kiwi Credited with Giving Great Journalist His Start
Rex Lopez died late last month, ending an illustrious career as a journalist and critic. Lopez spent much of his life in Australia, but legendary Kiwi journalist, radio commentator, war correspondent, novelist and television personality Eric Baume…
Kiwi on Panel to Improve UN’S Peace-keeping Ability
Dame Ann Hercus represented New Zealand on a special panel formed to examine the UN’s peace-keeping resources. “While stopping short of calling for a permanent U.N. army, the panel appealed to United Nations members to prepare…
Ruskies Clone NZ Lawyers
“A computer programmer from St Petersburg has cloned a New Zealand law firm’s website and changed its details to make it appear Russian. Patent attorney A J Park’s website was plagarised down to the last detail:…
Phar Lap’s Hide on Display Again After Three Years in Storage
“The hide is in Melbourne, the heart in Canberra. The bones are in Wellington, the big delicate skeleton of a horse who used to mean business.” (from ‘Phar Lap’, by Bill Manhire)
All Sewn Up
New Zealand designer Therese Hollingsworth has won the Textile category of the Country Road Design Awards. Her piece, felted was strongly influenced by the “simplicity and symmetry of Japanese design”.
Listen up there, folks!
Jim Cuddy, one of the starring acts at the upcoming Ottawa Folk Festival, praises the depth of folk talent in New Zealand, but claims we’re not sufficiently proud of our “roots music”.
