News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Long Hot Summer puts the heat on readers

Long Hot Summer puts the heat on readers

Kiwi Barbara Anderson’s latest novel gets praise in Times review, “a fine and sharp intelligence infuses Anderson’s characters and dialogue … Long Hot Summer demands attention from the reader, but it is worth it”.

The truth about bed: Fleur Adcock: Poems 1960-2000

The truth about bed: Fleur Adcock: Poems 1960-2000

“This very welcome collection of her verse confirms her status as arguably the most distinctive writer to have come out of New Zealand since Katherine Mansfield.”

Black Holes, Time Travel and Ramjets

Black Holes, Time Travel and Ramjets

Vanessa Collingridge explores the cosmic questions with a little help from Te Papa: “The nearest I’ve ever been to wormholes as entertainment was in a New Zealand museum …”

Film Fatale: Chris Kraus

Film Fatale: Chris Kraus

“Yet by affirming the “weakness” of her under- appreciated spiritual heroes, Kraus may have found an idiot-proof formula for this book to work whether it works or not.” Village Voice book review of Kraus’s…

Kiwi Leads State-of-the-art Earthquake Research

Kiwi Leads State-of-the-art Earthquake Research

Dr Ian Buckle, director of the Centre for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research is leading lab-research at University of Nevada, Reno, intended to help scientists, architects and engineers save lives by designing buildings and bridges that are more…

Testing Stress – Building Safer Highways, Bridges and Homes

Testing Stress – Building Safer Highways, Bridges and Homes

“If we can simulate an earthquake in a laboratory under our conditions on our time scale, we can make progress much faster,” said New Zealander Dr. Ian Buckle director of the Centre for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research…

Bishop Raises Eyebrows

Bishop Raises Eyebrows

A New Zealand prelate yesterday urged young people who ignore the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching that premarital sex is sinful to “contracept themselves to the eyebrows”.

New Zealand Farmers Have a Talent Rare in Agriculture – They Don’t Whinge.

New Zealand Farmers Have a Talent Rare in Agriculture – They Don’t Whinge.

“But they might allow themselves a slight grouse about the billions of dollars of euros, dollars and yen paid out in subsidies elsewhere as their efficient modern industry faces the challenges of the future”.

Dinnigan Takes Hip-elegance to London

Dinnigan Takes Hip-elegance to London

In Australia, Collette Dinnigan is famous. In Europe, it is her clothes – pretty and sexy in the sophisticated manner that is loved by women for whom femininity and style outweigh the need to…

Edge Cracks and the Icebergs Breaketh

Edge Cracks and the Icebergs Breaketh

As record-breaking icebergs are breaking off the edges of Antarctica, Dr. Dean Peterson, science strategy manager at the New Zealand Antarctic Institute, is leading research (with far ranging implications for the global climate) to find out more…

New Zealand Firm Launches Braille CE Notebook

New Zealand Firm Launches Braille CE Notebook

New Zealand – Christchurch-based Pulse Data International has launched a notebook computer with word processing, personal organizer and e-mail software for blind people.

Crack Kiwi Anti-predator Experts Keep Puffin Puffing

Crack Kiwi Anti-predator Experts Keep Puffin Puffing

Bird-counting volunteer Louise Tickle sees positive effects of New Zealand wildlife preservation techniques on British seabird populations.

“Hi-ho hi-ho, it’s Off to Work We Go …” Fay Weldon and the New Ergonarchy

“Hi-ho hi-ho, it’s Off to Work We Go …” Fay Weldon and the New Ergonarchy

New Zealand raised Fay Weldon takes time-out to ponder the future, “We could have the leisure society if we wanted it. But Samuel Smiles won; our lives are ruled by a work ethic and…

Cool Taste from a Cool Country

Cool Taste from a Cool Country

“Make sure the wine is chilled like a winter morning before you open it. Then savour the nose. You get strong whiffs of passionfruit. It tastes divine … It’s got a lovely opulent taste that lasts…

Call me Mr Comedy

Call me Mr Comedy

New Zealand-born Four Weddings and a Funeral/Blackadder creator, Comic Relief co-founder and top scriptwriter Richard Curtis discusses his career on BBC Radio4. Register and search to view Archives

“Put Another Kiwi on the Barbie Mate” New Zealand Scoffs at Statehood Idea

“Put Another Kiwi on the Barbie Mate” New Zealand Scoffs at Statehood Idea

Prime Minister Helen Clark has dismissed a suggestion that NZ should become a part of Australia. Former Australian Liberal Party Leader John Hewson, said it was time to consider incorporating New Zealand into a new independent…

Fine Wineries, Better Views. John Westbrooke Visits a Gourmet Hotspot

Fine Wineries, Better Views. John Westbrooke Visits a Gourmet Hotspot

Martinborough used to be a sunny, sommolent village serving the farmers on the Wairarapa River Valley. It’s still a village, but it’s also the latest hot spot for the New Zealand wine industry.

Talking Computer Opens Net for the Blind

Talking Computer Opens Net for the Blind

Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind demonstrator Marcel Oats said on Friday that the BrailleNote computer, developed by Pulse Data International, was a breakthrough that could be the equivalent of a laptop computer for blind people.

Aspirin is Lifesaver for Patients After Major Operations

Aspirin is Lifesaver for Patients After Major Operations

Dr. Anthony Rodgers of the University of Auckland, is leading an international study that has found that low-dose aspirin can save the lives of people having major surgery.

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Russell Crowe gets inside his character’s head

Jeffrey Wigland, real-life whistleblower says Crowe, 22 years junior and a native of New Zealand “did a remarkable job .. he did things that made it feel very surreal for me, emotionally retching and…

Vital Ingredient in Hong Kong Gourmet Kebab

Vital Ingredient in Hong Kong Gourmet Kebab

“The doner kebabs – with pure New Zealand lamb, insists marketing director Mongoa Jabeur – are $59 …”  

A sting in the tale

A sting in the tale

“When the New York Times says of your second novel that it “constructs a sturdy web of silken prose”, you might reasonably conclude that, as a novelist, you have arrived. When into the bargain,…

Colette Dinnigan Brings Down-under Chic to Chelsea

Colette Dinnigan Brings Down-under Chic to Chelsea

Designer Collette Dinnigan is bringing a slice of Sydney chic to the Northern hemisphere, with the opening of her Chelsea store, the first outside of downunder. You may find you have to fight off…

Doh! Homer the Seal Goes Home

Doh! Homer the Seal Goes Home

The seal who has made a New Zealand fishing town his home for more than two weeks has finally gone back to the sea. But people who own property on the wharf will be relieved that…

Forget About the Brass Ring

Forget About the Brass Ring

Some 1.7 million fans hit the movie’s new website in its first 21 hours up, compared with only 1 million downloads the first day the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace site was open for…

Kiwi Chef to Star at World Gourmet Summit, Singapore food festival

Kiwi Chef to Star at World Gourmet Summit, Singapore food festival

Little is known about New Zealand cusine here, but if chef Rick Rutledge- Manning’s cooking is anything to go by, it’s something to take note of: “… refined and light, yet – most important of…

Editor Wright Returns to Cricket Bible Wisden

Editor Wright Returns to Cricket Bible Wisden

Cricket’s bible, Wisden, has got a new editor, New Zealander Graeme Wright, who returns to the position after a break of eight years. Skysports.com cricket reporter Alex Sharratt asked him what had changed.

New Zealand at Forefront of ‘World Citizenship’ Project

New Zealand at Forefront of ‘World Citizenship’ Project

The World Citizenship Curriculum is to develop and implement in Bangladesh a pilot plan, led by Dr. Muhammad Nur Nabi, to educate people to become true citizens of the world and also to promote social justice….

New Zealand Puts British-based Honorary Titles to the Sword

New Zealand Puts British-based Honorary Titles to the Sword

New Zealand has scrapped the use of the titles ‘Sir’ and ‘Dame’ in favour of a local system of honours. But those with titles, like the mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and the diva Dame…

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Kiri Te Kanawa enjoys almost unique prestige in the public eye. She attracted a VIP crowd (including Prime Minister Jean Cretien) to the Centre Pierre Peladeau.

Kiwi Lamb Aims for UK Ready-meal Market

Kiwi Lamb Aims for UK Ready-meal Market

“In one of many initiatives, a New Zealand meat company is expected to announce soon that it has completed the first successful trace of meat sold in England back to a single farm in New Zealand…

Sex and Art

Sex and Art

Cantab Professor Denis Dutton considers art, sex, and evolutionary psychology, suggesting the brain can be seen as a kind of home-entertainment system; a status symbol, like a big new stereo, designed to make potential mates feel…

Kiwi blows her bassoon as single-sex barriers make the news

Kiwi blows her bassoon as single-sex barriers make the news

New Zealand woman Rosamund Allison became the first woman to be recruited to the previously all-male Scots Guards Band.

NZ Company to Introduce CNG to Pakistan

NZ Company to Introduce CNG to Pakistan

Lahore: Prescon Technology Company, of New Zealand, has announced to introduce state-of-the-art technology-based compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations in Pakistan.

The Good-old No.8 Goes Electric to Protect People from Zoo Animals Hyderabad:

The Good-old No.8 Goes Electric to Protect People from Zoo Animals Hyderabad:

“Following the mauling to death of Mohammed Khaja by a tiger last October and other similar accidents over the last decade where trespassers have paid with their lives, the zoo authorities decided to go in for…

Our Trans-tasman Neighbours May Have More of the Amber Gold Flowing at After-match Celebrations Lately, but Guess Where the Money’s Going?

Our Trans-tasman Neighbours May Have More of the Amber Gold Flowing at After-match Celebrations Lately, but Guess Where the Money’s Going?

Toheeys and Hahn is going to be the new tap-beer in over 300 Victorian pubs as New Zealand’s Lion Nathan announces an aggressive A$100million pub buy-out in an effort to gain leverage in the Melbourne beer…

Sweet and Sour at the Sugar Club

Sweet and Sour at the Sugar Club

The Sugar Club and its sister restaurant Bali Sugar, epitomise the radical, cosmopolitan and mainly beneficial changes that have transformed London’s restaurants over the last decade.  

Bodytalk: It’s All in the Hands

Bodytalk: It’s All in the Hands

Do gestures help us find the right word, or is there a deeper meaning? Michael Corballis from the University of Auckland studied primates and children to find the answer to why we can’t keep our…

A Cool, Crisp, Refreshing Dip: Oyster Bay

A Cool, Crisp, Refreshing Dip: Oyster Bay

“Fondle a bottle of sauvignon blanc on a hot day. There are beads of cool condensation on the outside and the label says “Oyster Bay”…”

‘Gardeners Get out Your Pruners’ –  New Zealand is the Leading Destination in Booming Garden Tourism Market

‘Gardeners Get out Your Pruners’ –  New Zealand is the Leading Destination in Booming Garden Tourism Market

In the English-speaking world, New Zealand (with a much lusher climate than Australia) is becoming popular because you can enjoy gardens from October through February, thanks to the equitorial inversion of seasons.

0800 GAZZA – Personalised Phone Numbers Up for Sale in Britain

0800 GAZZA – Personalised Phone Numbers Up for Sale in Britain

Henry Newrick, a New Zealand entrepreneur, who brought the idea to Britain, says, “They will change the way people think about phone numbers and make them more memorable and certainly valuable”.

Wisden Cricketer of the Century/Cricketer of the Century announced

Wisden Cricketer of the Century/Cricketer of the Century announced

Hadlee 10th equal (with Imran Khan); Cairns – Wisden Cricketer of the Year and tops the Price-Waterhouse all-rounder rankings.

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

New Zealand Wilderness a Hit with Big-budget Filmmakers

Ever since Jane Campion brought the surging savage West Coast of Auckland’s Karekare beach and the rain-soaked bush to the world in her award winning film The Piano nearly a decade ago, more and…

Aussie Museum to Return Maori Heads

Aussie Museum to Return Maori Heads

The return of heads from the South Australian Museum in Adelaide later this month marks another milestone in an ongoing campaign to repatriate all the tattooed heads of Maori from museums and galleries all round the…

Diplomatic Ingratiation: US Ambassador Consigned to Paradise

Diplomatic Ingratiation: US Ambassador Consigned to Paradise

Mosely-Braun, who came from her New Zealand post just to attend the Feminist Expo 2000 … called New Zealand and Samoa, where she is now the U.S. Embassy official, “about as close to paradise as I…

Tolkien Teaser Runs

Tolkien Teaser Runs

“Attention fantasy fans: New Line Cinema is about to lift the veil of secrecy — just a little bit — that has shrouded Peter Jackson’s massive adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the…

Wall of Tyres to Check Sea-erosion

Wall of Tyres to Check Sea-erosion

Indian Minister of State for Minor Irrigation Kumar Bangarappa, in an effort to find a simpler, cost-effective alternative to a full-fledged concrete sea-wall, has come up with this idea, following the example of New Zealand.

Your Place or Mine? NZ Cabinet Backs Gay Property Rights

Your Place or Mine? NZ Cabinet Backs Gay Property Rights

Gay and unmarried heterosexual couples are to given the same rights as married people under proposals approved by the New Zealand government.

Theo Ray – Kiwi Indie singer hits LA

Theo Ray – Kiwi Indie singer hits LA

From Indie chart success in New Zealand and Australia, to a #2 single ‘Smell’ in Europe, to the darker side of Asia and beyond, Theo Ray is now based in Los Angeles, playing with…

Democracy Challenge for Commonwealth Chief

Democracy Challenge for Commonwealth Chief

New Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Don McKinnon, takes up his post formally on Monday, his main task being to make the 54-nation organisation “more relevant and useful” to its 1.6 billion citizens.  

If You’re Setting for a Stylish Sail – Point Your Compass to Auckland

If You’re Setting for a Stylish Sail – Point Your Compass to Auckland

Global style bible Wallpaper launches its on-line version with a global navigator ‘consular service’ that profiles the world’s most chilled destinations for the urban explorer – including a prominent guide to Auckland, advising on…

Playing Possum with Beachwear

Playing Possum with Beachwear

New Zealand has finally found a use for their pesky marsupial pest. Possum leather bikinis are the sexy, fashionable and expensive Kiwi import about to hit Australian beaches.

White Mouse Roars Again

White Mouse Roars Again

New Zealand-born hero of the French Resistance during WWII, Nancy Wake, is considering moving to France or Britain, despite belated suggestions of recognition by the Australian government, “I am an Officer of the Legion of…

Fat-Pig New Zealand Speedsters Bring Home the Bacon

Fat-Pig New Zealand Speedsters Bring Home the Bacon

Pig racing has taken off in Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells. Pig trainer Mike Foley’s favourite pigs are the Kune Kune (pronounced Koonie Koonie) from New Zealand.

If You’re Setting for a Stylish Sail – Point Your Compass to Auckland

If You’re Setting for a Stylish Sail – Point Your Compass to Auckland

Global style bible  Wallpaper launches its on-line version with a global navigator ‘consular service’ that profiles the world’s most chilled destinations for the urban explorer – including a prominent guide to Auckland, advising on such essential issues…

Sir Peter Blake and Louis Vuitton Score on the Rebound for UNICEF

Sir Peter Blake and Louis Vuitton Score on the Rebound for UNICEF

Peter Blake is among the stellar collection of artists, writers, stars of show-business, sports, politics and business who have posed for a unquie collection of portraits called Rebonds, published by fashion house Louis Vuitton. The…