Insight into Dotcom
“Across an ocean, hours before Operation Takedown began, the US Department of Justice had already tipped off a select group of journalists about the raid’s planned highlights. If you know nothing else about Kim…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Not Alone at Being Alone
A message in a bottle tossed into the sea by a group of children from Katikati Primary School has washed up over a year later in Oceanside Harbor, California. Seventy-seven-year-old Sonja van Hall, who…
Other Side of Paradise
“New Zealand, a country that routinely tops international lifestyle indexes, may not be the first place you would associate with gang culture – but violent gangs have deep roots in society,” Rebecca Kesby writes…
With the Push of a Button
New Zealand’s first-ever controlled building implosion executed in Christchurch brought down the earthquake damaged Radio Network House in seconds. American demolition experts detonated 130 pounds of explosives to blow up the 14-story building, which…
British Make the Move
The latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show that in June almost 40,000 New Zealanders left for Australia, the same amount as April 2012 and the highest ever recorded. But helping to stem this…
Modern Christchurch Planned
Plans for a new-look downtown Christchurch have been unveiled, with a convention centre, sports stadium and performing arts complex among the big projects. The blueprint for the city replaces office towers with green spaces,…
Climbing the City Ranks
Auckland rises four places to rank at nine in Monocle’s annual list of “Top 25 Liveable Cities”. “What a difference a Rugby World Cup and a new political structure makes,” the magazine writes. “Aucklanders…
Brightening the Bridge
The Wanganui City Bridge is sporting a refreshing new look at night as a result of new GE80W R150 LED luminaires, the Financial describes. “The 14 new fittings on the bridge will save the…
New Zealand’s Great Indoors
New Zealand’s temperate climate, stunning scenery and lower cost of living make it an attractive option for young Irish people and families who are looking to find a new home. According to Quotable Value…
Connecting the Health System
General manager for planning and funding with Canterbury District Health Board Carolyn Gullery explains how the city’s healthcare workers responded so quickly and effectively to last year’s devastating earthquake. “The transition towards a more…
Experiencing Activism in Thames
Thames was the first stop in New Zealand for American Deborah Swift, author of The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women. On a three-week book tour of the Antipodes, Swift writes…
Solving the Jam
Auckland businesses have come out in favour of a surprising solution to finding the cash for mayor Len Brown’s $12bn transport improvements, Monocle correspondent Simon Farrell-Green explains: “A daily toll on the city’s motorway…
Walking Amongst the Dead
South Island cemeteries intrigue visiting USA Today correspondent, Liz Lewis, who stops in at Collingwood cemetery and the idyllic Church of the Holy Innocents graveyard at Peel Forest. “New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh…
Lake Views To-die-for
A seven-bedroom home with unobstructed views of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables features in the online property pages of the Wall Street Journal. “They’ve got quite a bit of land, a stream a…
One of the Best Places for Mothers
New Zealand has been rated the fourth best place in the world to be a mother, in line after Norway at the top followed by Iceland and Sweden. Just ahead of Mother’s Day, Save…
Spotlight on Adolescent Health
New Zealand has the second highest overall mortality rate and the highest suicide rate in those aged 10-24 years among developed countries, according to recent analysis undertaken by medical journal The Lancet. In the…
Cup Makes Television History
Last year’s Rugby World Cup final, in which the All Blacks beat France, was the most-watched event in New Zealand television history “attracting a 98 per cent audience share,” Rugby World Cup Limited (RWCL)…
Mad for it in Wellington
Wellington’s St James Theatre heaving with a full-capacity crowd features in the Guardian’s ‘24 Hours in Pictures’ as One Direction fans watch the British boy band perform. One Direction’s 2012 tour of New Zealand…
Reflections on Survival
Mayor of Wellington Celia Wade-Brown has opened the capital city’s Holocaust Centre on Holocaust Remembrance Day — an “asset for all New Zealanders to reflect on the importance of harmony, diversity, resilience and survival.”…
Emergency Place of Worship
“Christchurch, New Zealand, where an earthquake last year killed 185 people, is still struggling with how to treat another of its casualties, the city’s Anglican cathedral,” Wall Street Journal reporter Eric Felten writes, beginning…
Dangerously High Salt Levels
New Zealand’s fast foods on average contain 8 per cent more sodium than comparable foods in the UK and a massive 18 per cent more than those in France, as shown in an international…
Crowned Mr Gay World
Andreas Derleth, 32, from Auckland was crowned the Mr Gay World in a gala event that took place for the first time in Johannesberg, South Africa. Originally from Germany, Derleth moved to New Zealand…
Gauging Health Performance
New Zealand has rated sixth worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialised nations. According to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs, Ellen Nolte and Martin…
Locking Up The Problem
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the world and imprisons people at a rate second only to the United States, according to a study conducted by the…
Harmonious Sanctuaries
Woodbridge, Hortensia House and Ayrlies Garden are three of New Zealand’s “stand out” gardens, which Go Upstate’s Betty Montgomery visited on an “unforgettable trip” to summer south of the equator. “Woodbridge was started in…
Reversal Of The Right
“New Zealand is finally yielding to the rest of the world when it comes to its unique set of road rules, after decades of confounding drivers from overseas,” Nick Perry writes for…
Marmageddon Strikes
This month, the manufacturer of Marmite says its supplies of the yeast-extract product ran out, four months after earthquakes forced it to close the only factory that made New Zealand’s version. “Don’t…
High Life On The Edge
New Zealand is becoming a favourite place to live for wealthy foreigners, with American Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel, Russian steel billionaire Alexander Abramov, and New York Empire State Building’s Tony Malkin among those recently…
Welcome To New Zealand
New Zealander Dana Wensley returns home for a short visit from Canada where she claims to feeling like “an immigrant.” “In some ways, anyone who is not part of the indigenous Maori population will…
Unprecedented After-Shock
Deon Swiggs, 25-year-old director of the fledgling nonprofit Rebuild Christchurch, talks to the Los Angeles Times about how New Zealanders are coping one year after a massive magnitude 6.3 earthquake killed 185 people and…
Discussing Democracies
New Zealand and the United States are open and democratic societies with British colonial origins, a frontier legacy, a history of mass immigration and widely remarked-upon senses of optimism, but New Zealanders, by contrast,…
Onward To The Future
“In the big picture is bigger than the destruction,” SF Gate reporter Spud Hilton writes. “I had come to Christchurch to better understand how a series of quakes can turn a metropolis upside…
Ruminating On A Skirmish
While stand-up paddling above a grey stingray languishing in the tidal shallows of Golden Bay, Gadling’s Kyle Ellison ruminates on the violent history of the waters and its former name. “An expedition from the…
Piece Of Hollywood In Wairarapa
Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron has spent $20 million buying more than 1000ha of farmland in South Wairarapa. According to application documents, Cameron and his family “intend to reside indefinitely in New Zealand and are acquiring the…
Celebrating Deco Heritage
On the third weekend of every February, Napier celebrates its unique Art Deco heritage with age-old fashions, wine, dance and song. The official programme of events has grown so much over the years that…
Mega Auckland Police Sting
New Zealand police arrested four of seven file-sharing firm Megaupload executives, including founder Kim Dotcom, 37, in an early morning sting at his $30 million rented mansion in Coatesville, 30km north of Auckland. The…
Sticks And Stones
On tour in “the luscious land of New Zealand,” British comedian Ed Byrne writes his weekly column for Metro. “They’re a bit fed-up at the moment over here: earthquake-ravaged Christchurch continues to be a drain…
Wooly Olympic Potential
New Zealand Federated Farmers says sheep shearing has the potential to become an Olympic demonstration sport. The “time has come to elevate shearing’s sporting status to the ultimate world stage,” the organisation said. New…
Hungry Lion Fascinates Toddler
A video of three-year-old Sofia Walker coming face to face with Wellington Zoo’s lion, Malik, has captivated international news media. The Daily Mail described her encounter: “Brave Sofia Walker refuses to back down and instead stares…
Inspiring A City’s Renaissance
Christchurch, “New Zealand’s bravest and most resilient communities … is re-emerging as one of most exciting cities,” according to Lonely Planet author Brett Atkinson. “If you’re heading to the South Island, definitely…
Carterton’s Hot Air Balloon Tragedy
New Zealand is in mourning following a fiery hot air balloon crash in the Wairarapa that left eleven people dead. The tragedy occurred when the balloon came entangled in power lines, causing the basket…
Justice Reserved For
Justice is the name most often refused by New Zealand registrars in the past ten years, with 49 sets of parents prevented from doing so according to the department for internal affairs. Next on…
Friendliest Place On The Planet
New Zealand is the world’s friendliest place according to the results of HSBC’s Expat Explorer Survey. “New Zealanders as a whole seem like happy people, and that translates into friendly, helpful and kind people,”…
Region Of Potheads
“New Zealand and Australia have a proud history of co-operation, but now it seems the nations have achieved a more dubious honour: the world’s biggest pot-heads,” The Sydney Morning Herald’s Amy Corderoy writes. “Together the countries…
Henry Receives Knighthood
Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Graham Henry, 65, has been awarded a knighthood in New Zealand’s annual New Year Honours List. Henry, a former school teacher, who resigned the All Blacks coaching job…
Taste For The Finer Things
The intestinal transplant New Zealander Matisse Reid, 11, received a year ago at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh came with an unexpected surprise. The fifth-grader (Year 6) developed a sophisticated palate: a taste for…
Frighteningly Festive
Auckland’s Whitcoulls Santa statue, which was built in 1960, is the world’s most unintentionally creepy Christmas ornament according to American humour website Cracked. Before a 2009 makeover, the statue had a sly winking left…
Unreal Festive Spirit
“After 14 attempts I am still unable to reconcile Christmas Day with the hot sunshine of the north-east New Zealand city of Gisborne,” Guardian reader John Darkin writes for the publication’s weekly series ‘Letter from.’ “The…
Planning Christmas Capers
Now living in Rotorua, Canadian Jill Campbell, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, is looking for other Capers so they can to get together for a céilidh or a drink at the pub over Christmas….
Alleged Fraudster Arrested
A New Zealander has been arrested in Australia for alleged embezzling $16 million from Queensland Health. 36-year-old Hohepa Morehu-Barlow — also known as Joel Barlow — had been evading police since Thursday afternoon when…
Reporting From New Zealand
“For a small place, New Zealand generates a lot of news,” ABC New Zealand correspondent Dominque Schwartz tells Elizabeth Jackson. “Its population is less than that of Sydney, but this year alone there’ve been…
Competition and Camaraderie
New Zealand firefighters Rob Holah and Donny Butters recently travelled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to compete in the 20th annual Firefighter Combat Challenge World Challenge. Holah said camaraderie is one of the biggest…
Investing for Prosperity
A new study undertaken by global network Kea claims that encouraging expatriate New Zealanders to invest in their home country is the best way to “achieve improved prosperity.” The research was based on interviews…
Deconsecrating Deconstruction
Christchurch’s most famous landmark, the 19th-century ChristChurch Cathedral, is to be deconsecrated and partially demolished after February’s devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake toppled the steeple. Church and government representatives have announced that sections of the…
Good Kids Making Bad Choices
A New Zealand Transport Authority advertisement, created by Clemenger BBDO Wellington, is using humour to get the drink-driving message across to its young audience. Rather than rely on the shock tactics and graphic images…
Boosting Activity in the South
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard says New Zealand’s reconstruction of the earthquake-devastated city of Christchurch will boost growth and inflation pressures and may mean an increase in interest rates. Bollard is among Asia-Pacific central…
