News of New Zealanders via Global Media

New Zealand Ships Covid Vaccines to Tokelau

New Zealand Ships Covid Vaccines to Tokelau

Tokelau, one of the most inaccessible atolls in the world, has just received 12 precious boxes of vaccine delivered by the New Zealand Defence Force, Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson writes for The Guardian. Inside the boxes…

Older New Zealanders Join Climate Change Fight

Older New Zealanders Join Climate Change Fight

On his early morning bike rides to school, David Yockney would deliberately seek out the crunch and splash of the ice-hardened puddles. It was a winter joy he loved, and one he took for…

Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner Backs Diversity

Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner Backs Diversity

New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner, the first openly gay ambassador to Korea whose same-sex spouse is recognised by the Korean government, was interviewed recently by Korea Times journalist Kwon Mee-yoo about New…

Jenny McGee Resigns from NHS Citing Disrespect

Jenny McGee Resigns from NHS Citing Disrespect

Invercargill-born nurse Jenny McGee, who cared for Boris Johnson when he was gravely ill with Covid-19, says she has handed in her resignation, such is her disillusionment with the “lack of respect” shown by…

Why Billionaires Are Snapping up Second Homes in NZ

Why Billionaires Are Snapping up Second Homes in NZ

While the rest of us may have to wait until 2022 to be allowed in to New Zealand, when the majority of the country has been vaccinated and its success rate has had a…

Drug Testing in New Zealand Without the Penalties

Drug Testing in New Zealand Without the Penalties

New Zealand has enshrined into law a one-year experiment allowing drug users to have illegal substances tested without penalty to ensure their authenticity and to weed out dangerous chemicals, journalist Natasha Frost reports for…

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

“In New Zealand, investigators traced an outbreak to a 50-second window of exposure. The case might be a lesson for countries contemplating a future with no Covid-19,” WIRED’s science editor Matt Reynolds reports. “Authorities investigating…

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

“Concerts, beaches, crowds: Videos of New Zealand enjoying its summer feel like peering into an alternate reality,” Dublin-based New Zealander Brian Ng writes in a story published by The New York Times. “While much of…

Victorian Government Appoints Sir David Carruthers

Victorian Government Appoints Sir David Carruthers

Former chair of the New Zealand Independent Police Conduct Authority and judge of New Zealand family and youth courts, Sir David Carruthers, has been appointed by the Victorian government to oversee the implementation of…

Christchurch Has Come Long Way Since Deadly Quake

Christchurch Has Come Long Way Since Deadly Quake

Christchurch had survived earthquakes before, but the seismic jolt that hit on February 22, 2011, had a shallow epicentre of just 5km on a previously unknown fault that lay directly under the city. The…

What If the UK Had Shut as Quickly as NZ?

What If the UK Had Shut as Quickly as NZ?

“The UK’s physical isolation sets it apart from its continental neighbours, but could its island status have protected it from the full horror of Covid-19, had it closed borders in early 2020, as New…

New Zealanders in Wintry Berlin Cope with Covid

New Zealanders in Wintry Berlin Cope with Covid

Artist Ruth Buchanan is one of a number of New Zealanders “holed up” in Berlin, “in the middle of a long, dreary Covid winter”. Former DJ Emma Jean Gilkson, writing for The Spinoff, is…

New Zealand Tops Lowy List with Covid Response

New Zealand Tops Lowy List with Covid Response

New analysis undertaken by Australian think tank the Lowy Institute has found that New Zealand has handled the coronavirus pandemic more effectively than any other country in the world, Stephen Dziedzic reports for ABC…

Our Covid Response the Best of a Bad Year

Our Covid Response the Best of a Bad Year

Covid may have made 2020 a year to forget, but amid the gloom there were plenty of positive moments, with countries like New Zealand and led by women having “systematically and significantly better” Covid-19…

Time to Reimagine Symbols of Identity

Time to Reimagine Symbols of Identity

“What’s with those jandals, hokey pokey ice-creams, buzzy bees, Swanndris and gumboots? Far from being random and unrelated objects, these icons of so-called Kiwiana tell a story of late 20th-century nostalgia at a moment…

US TV Host Stephen Colbert Revisits 2019 NZ Trip

US TV Host Stephen Colbert Revisits 2019 NZ Trip

Stephen Colbert, host of US television’s The Late Show, has shared footage from his 2019 travels to New Zealand on a recent episode, including a Lord of the Rings-themed adventure and bungee jumping off a…

Kiwi YouTube gaming comedy trio levels up

Kiwi YouTube gaming comedy trio levels up

New Zealand-based YouTube comedy trio Viva La Dirt League – which is behind popular video game skit series like Epic NPC Man and Game Logic – has signed with Creative Artists…

Unilever NZ to follow lead of Perpetual Guardian to Trial 4-day Work Week

Unilever NZ to follow lead of Perpetual Guardian to Trial 4-day Work Week

Unilever New Zealand will be trialling a four day workweek for one year, representing a fundamental change in the way the company views their workforce, reports Azi Paybarah for The New York Times. All 81…

Turn Disappointments of 2020 into Forest of Hope

Turn Disappointments of 2020 into Forest of Hope

To say 2020 has been a year full of disappointments is an understatement, but New Zealand is hoping to inspire some positivity for this coming year with its Forest of Hope campaign, Jessica Poitevien…

Kai Ika Model for Reducing Hunger and Food Waste

Kai Ika Model for Reducing Hunger and Food Waste

Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae has been distributing two tons of fish a week – the parts often discarded in commercial and recreational fishing – to families affected by New Zealand’s sputtering economy. Sam Woolford, founder…

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland is among the top 100 cities in the world to live in or visit during the Covid-19 era, according to a new Resonance Consultancy global ranking. The annual best cities report ranked cities with…

We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances

We’re Remote Even Under Normal Circumstances

What does it feels like to leave New York and “land in a parallel universe of calm politics and good health”? Journalist Natasha Frost arrived in New Zealand last month and investigated for the…

New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot

New Zealand Passport Takes Top Spot

The Passport Index has named a new most powerful passport in the world, and it’s none other than: New Zealand. Stacey Leasca reports on how our passport allows travel to more countries than…

Chur, Russell Crowe Educates Vanity Fair Readers

Chur, Russell Crowe Educates Vanity Fair Readers

From “bugger all” to “jandals”, Wellington-born actor Russell Crowe, 56, star of Unhinged, takes Vanity Fair readers through some “sweet as” phrases from New Zealand and Australia – two cultures he is “very, very…

Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue

Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue

As the Covid-19 pandemic closes borders and grounds aircraft around the world, iconic destinations from Kyoto to Amsterdam are addressing the new reality of fewer visitors and looking for ways to reset their local…

Tony Blakely Advocate for COVID Elimination

Tony Blakely Advocate for COVID Elimination

The professorial fellow at Melbourne University’s School of Population and Global Health, New Zealander Tony Blakely has become one of the go-to epidemiologists for the Australian media trying to explain the complex interactions between…

Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora

Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora

International strategist and insights specialist Aucklander Julia Arnott-Neenee, 27, is one of a number of high achievers “coming home at once”. The Spinoff’s managing editor Duncan Greive interviews the well-travelled Arnott-Neenee, amongst other New…

Peter FitzSimons: “Australia should take back Christchurch killer.” Others disagree.

Peter FitzSimons: “Australia should take back Christchurch killer.” Others disagree.

“Asked by New Zealand media to summate the Australian reaction to the conviction of the Christchurch killer who grew up in Grafton only to murder 51 people in a Kiwi mosque in March last…

“I forgive you: Why victims’ empathy was kryptonite to the Christchurch killer”

“I forgive you: Why victims’ empathy was kryptonite to the Christchurch killer”

Reflecting on four days of victim impact statements prior to the life-without-parole sentence of the Christchurch mosque killer, Sydney Morning Herald columnist and senior journalist Jacqueline Maley wrote “The more I listened, the…

Pete Oswald Skiing to Reforest Madagascar

Pete Oswald Skiing to Reforest Madagascar

New Zealand freeskier and photographer Pete Oswald, 35, speaks with Men’s Journal journalist Eliot Grover about his efforts to reforest Madagascar and alleviate poverty. This June, in a partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects, Oswald…

Though NZ Is Confronting a New Outbreak It Is Still Way Ahead of the USA – WashPost

Though NZ Is Confronting a New Outbreak It Is Still Way Ahead of the USA – WashPost

“Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand has drawn global attention for the effectiveness of its response,” associate professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law Rebecca Hamilton writes…

Journalist Laura Pitcher Chooses NY Over NZ

Journalist Laura Pitcher Chooses NY Over NZ

Friends and strangers told writer, editor, and designer Laura Pitcher she was “crazy” to leave New Zealand after a four-month visit “home” to return to the United States during the pandemic. But the New…

Behrouz Boochani Just Wants to Be Free

Behrouz Boochani Just Wants to Be Free

Recently granted refugee status and now living in Christchurch, Behrouz Boochani fled Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. He exposed Australia’s offshore detention camps – from the inside. He survived, stateless, for seven years. Author and journalist…

London Health Worker Natalie Scott a Free Sister

London Health Worker Natalie Scott a Free Sister

Clinical lead physiotherapist for critical care at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, New Zealander Natalie Scott, has received the Freedom of the City of London – a recognition awarded to people who have achieved success, recognition or celebrity…

New Zealand Grants Behrouz Boochani Refugee Status

New Zealand Grants Behrouz Boochani Refugee Status

Behrouz Boochani, 37, a Kurdish-Iranian refugee who wrote the award-winning book, No Friend But the Mountains on his mobile phone while held in one of Australia’s notorious Pacific detention camps, has been granted asylum…

How NZ Became an Apocalypse Escape Destination

How NZ Became an Apocalypse Escape Destination

In Queenstown – a picturesque ski spot that often attracts comparisons to Aspen, Colorado – rumours about foreigners investing in apocalypse-proof bunkers have been swirling for years, CNN correspondent Julia Hollingsworth writes. They’re referenced by…

Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention

Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention

“Avowed multilateralists” New Zealander Helen Clark and Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a World Health Organization (WHO) panel scrutinising the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic just as international institutions are under…

Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ

Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ

After struggling to find an affordable apartment in Nelson, a Canadian-New Zealand couple signed up to be housesitters, and ended up booking back-to-back sitting gigs for an entire year. But when COVID-19 began, Business…

Geoff Walker a Helping Hand in Uganda

Geoff Walker a Helping Hand in Uganda

Photographer Geoff Walker left New Zealand to escape the haunting memory of witnessing the 2012 Carterton balloon tragedy, and found a new purpose for life in humanitarian work in Uganda, Mariné Lourens reports for…

Boris Johnson Just Another Patient Says Jenny McGee

Boris Johnson Just Another Patient Says Jenny McGee

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was “just another patient we were trying to do our best for”, one of the nurses who treated him has said. In her first public comment since Johnson…

May the US Find Its Ashley Bloomfield

May the US Find Its Ashley Bloomfield

“It’s a dark time, with the days blurring together and the hours crawling by. New Zealanders may be known for our laid-back, generally cheerful demeanours, but truth be told we’re getting pretty ratty, pretty…

How New Zealand Is Coping under Lockdown

How New Zealand Is Coping under Lockdown

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, Forbes hears from their science contributors across the globe, including New Zealand-based Irish writer, Laurie Winkless who, over Twitter, asked a number of New Zealanders to share their stories…

Allbirds for Health Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

Allbirds for Health Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

Around the world, there is a shortage of personal protective gear that will keep health workers safe as they care for patients in COVID-19 wards, Elizabeth Segran reports for Fast Company magazine. While companies…

Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity

Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity

Denis O’Reilly is a New Zealand community leader and activist. This is his 91st essay for nzedge.com. My time as a bouncer on the door at Ali Baba’s in Cuba St Wellington, circa 1975,…

John Platts-Mills QC Stuck to His Principles

John Platts-Mills QC Stuck to His Principles

A journalist for London’s independent newspaper the Camden New Journal recalls the first public meeting he attended as a 16-year-old in Manchester, a meeting at which Wellington-born John Platts-Mills became his hero. “It was a…

Big Future in Tiny Homes Says Bryce Langston

Big Future in Tiny Homes Says Bryce Langston

Some call them small homes, while others prefer ‘tiny homes’ or ‘tiny houses’. Whatever the terminology, more and more people are getting their heads around the idea of creating living spaces that depart significantly…

Escaping COVID-19 Chaos in New York

Escaping COVID-19 Chaos in New York

It started with an ominous email: “We urge New Zealanders currently travelling overseas to consider returning home while commercial options remain available,” the foreign affairs ministry wrote.  For citizens of the nation at the…

OSACO Investigates Global Corruption From Blenheim

OSACO Investigates Global Corruption From Blenheim

The last place you might expect to find the headquarters for a global corruption investigation group is small town New Zealand, Sophie Trigger writes for The Marlborough Express. But after working in some of…

In the Zone with Educator Terrance Wallace

In the Zone with Educator Terrance Wallace

Chicago-born Terrance Wallace founded the internationally lauded InZone Project that has been educating impoverished indigenous students in New Zealand for 10 years. InZone is now being replicated in his hometown. Maudlyne Ihejirika reports for…

How Surgeon Ian Bissett Did Wonders in Nepal

How Surgeon Ian Bissett Did Wonders in Nepal

Every year 33 million people globally are left impoverished after paying for surgery. Others die for lack of treatment. New Zealander Ian Bissett has been operating on desperately poor patients in Nepal for more…

Chief Censor David Shanks Tackles the C-Word

Chief Censor David Shanks Tackles the C-Word

When David Shanks presents himself at international conferences, his peers recoil slightly, Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for The Guardian. “I’d introduce myself as, ‘Hi, I’m David from New Zealand. New Zealand’s chief censor,’” Shanks says. “And…

Dubliner Gavin Lang Loves NZ’s Mountains

Dubliner Gavin Lang Loves NZ’s Mountains

Each week, The Irish Times column “Abroad” interviews an Irish person working in an interesting job overseas. Last week the newspaper met Gavin Lang, who is originally from Glasnevin, Dublin, but now lives in…

What California Can Learn from Christchurch

What California Can Learn from Christchurch

“I went to New Zealand on a long-planned vacation to see the setting for The Lord of the Rings movies and the mountain scenery. But as the earthquake reporter for the Los Angeles Times,…

NZSOF Mission After Disaster on Whaakari

NZSOF Mission After Disaster on Whaakari

The team that recovered bodies from Whaakari/White Island went “to the depths of their endurance and past it,” said the colonel who oversaw the mission. The bodies were almost half a kilometre from shore, some…

In the Shadow of the Mt Erebus Disaster

In the Shadow of the Mt Erebus Disaster

It remains New Zealand’s worst peacetime disaster. On 28 November 1979, a sightseeing aircraft carrying 257 people crashed head-on into the side of a volcano in Antarctica. The tragedy of flight TE901 was a…

Anne Young Improving the Welfare of Horses

Anne Young Improving the Welfare of Horses

It’s 6pm on a freezing winter’s night, the wind is howling and the rain beating down. In the darkness, New Zealander Anne Young, the president and founder of Victoria’s Horse Shepherd Equine Sanctuary,…