Former MP Maurice Williamson a Gay Icon in Japan
Former MP Maurice Williamson’s rising popularity as a gay icon among many Japanese people is thanks to a video of a speech he made during the third reading and vote on the Marriage Equality…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Benefits of Foreign Owned Property Debated
New Zealand, famous for the mountains that formed the dramatic backdrop to the film The Lord of the Rings, is now known for something else among the super rich: as a possible safe haven…
Courageous Soldier Melanie Childs Awarded
Lieutenant Colonel Melanie Childs, who took charge of soldiers and police to lead refugees to safety through a battle zone in South Sudan, has been named the New Zealand Defence Force Person of the…
Dedicated Pen Pals Look Back over 70 Years
After thousands of air miles, reams of paper and a lifetime of stories, Oxfordshire woman Barbara Finch is marking seven decades of writing to her pen pal Elizabeth Martin, 84, (pictured) on the other…
Andrew Parker Flying High for the Kids
For the past four years, New Zealander Andrew Parker has been travelling the world with his hot air balloon as part of the inspiring project Flying High for Kids, that aims to spread cultural…
New Zealand Getting Left off World Maps
“Last time you looked at a map, it very well could have been missing an entire country. Poor New Zealand,” Cassie Shortsleeve writes in a Condé Nast Traveler piece. “A sub-Reddit thread with more than…
Climate Refugees to Be Welcomed in New Zealand
New Zealand has announced it will create a special refugee visa for Pacific Islanders displaced by rising seas. The country says it is preparing for the possibility of a larger evacuation of island residents…
Chocolate Factory Saved by the Community
New Zealanders have pledged $2m in just over 24 hours to keep the century-old tradition of chocolate-making alive in Dunedin, after Mondelez International announced in February it planned to close its 80-year-old Dunedin Cadbury…
Roger Corbin’s Daughters Salute Their Dad the Hero
To his daughters, Roger Corbin was Dad. But to many, the New Zealand-born helicopter pilot was a hero. His 11-year-old twin girls have been inundated with support since their dad’s sudden and tragic death in…
Tax Reform New Zealand Style
“With tax-law revision now before the US Congress, matters of revenue, efficiency and fairness again occupy American minds. But as one of that country’s most celebrated political writers, T.R. Reid, notes in this passage…
New Zealand’s War on Rats Could Change the World
Before they were brought to New Zealand in the 13th century, the only land mammals in the country were bats and local birds could roam free. Today much of New Zealand, “has been so…
New Zealander Kay Evans Enhances US Holistic Course
New Zealand native Kay Evans is director of the Holistic Health and Massage Therapy programme on the Trinidad Campus in Colorado. Evans, who thinks stress and unresolved pain are probably the root cause of…
Lois Salvisberg Honours Time in Migrant Centre
A New Zealander who had become a Swiss citizen, Lois Salvisberg perhaps wasn’t a typical new arrival to Australia’s Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre in 1969. “I didn’t mind it, we were used…
Trump Forest Countering Ignorant Climate Policy
Founded in New Zealand in March 2017 by British climate scientist Dr Dan Price, American PhD candidate Jeff Willis and French-New Zealander Adrien Taylor (pictured right), the Trump Forest movement has now gone global,…
What the Unfortunate Experiment Can Teach US
For an instructive example of how to respond to abusive medical research, the Boston Review considers New Zealand and its response to the mistreatment of women with cervical cancer at Auckland’s National Women’s Hospital….
NZ’s Winter Shorter by a Month over 100 Years
Studies by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) show that winter has contracted equally at its beginning and end. Winter has gotten shorter by a month over the last 100 years,…
Helen Clark Appointed To Global Commission On Drug Policy
Helen Clark has been appointed to the prestigious Global Commission on Drug Policy” – “one of the world’s leading think tanks on reducing drug harm on society,” reports the New…
Jacinda Ardern One of World’s Most Powerful Women
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made the Forbes 2017 World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, coming in at No 38. The 2017 list identifies a new generation of icons, game-changers and gate crashers who are…
John Campbell Named Top Presenter at Global Radio Awards
“RNZ Checkpoint presenter John Campbell has been named Presenter of the Year at the prestigious Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) Awards in London”, reports Radio New Zealand. “Thank you all. And…
Interview with Mole Valley MP Sir Paul Beresford
New Zealander Sir Paul Beresford, MP for Mole Valley in Surrey, UK, was born in Levin. He came to Britain in the “very early seventies” and worked in East London as an NHS dentist. “London…
Ohio Professor Ian Young Reflects From His Desk
Described as “reserved and thoughtful” by his students, Bowling Green State University philosophy professor, Auckland-born Ian Young appears to be most at home in the classroom. University graduate Cameron Morrissey, one of his former students,…
Compassionate Conservation a Better Alternative
“It’s a well-known fact that New Zealand is at war with much of its wildlife. Of course, not all New Zealanders agree with this onslaught, the goal of which is to remove all non-native…
Kea Soars to Bird of the Year Victory
The kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, has been crowned New Zealand Bird of the Year, beating the kereru and the kakapo with thousands more votes cast for the species than there are surviving…
New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern Gets Set to Govern
Describing herself as “relentlessly optimistic,” New Zealand’s newly sworn in prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, 37, will face a National opposition of 56 members clamouring at the gates – smarting from losing an election they believed…
Coffin Club Throws Glitter on Idea of Dying
The members of New Zealand’s quirky Coffin Clubs, which consist of senior citizens who seek comfort, community, and coffin-making – is gaining popularity among New Zealanders, as well as internationally. Coffin…
Teen Plans to Open Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand
Jack Lanting, from Hamilton, was eight years old when he fell in love with Lily, a rescue elephant he met at the Elephant Nature Park in Northern Thailand while on a trip with his…
Why Golriz Ghahraman Entered NZ Politics
New member of parliament Golriz Ghahraman is having her Twitter feed documented by the national archive as a testimony of New Zealand’s 2017 election. “It will be interesting for others to see what happens when…
Library Solves Mystery of Missing Books
Auckland Library “has finally solved the mystery of why some books were going missing from its shelves,” writes Mark Molloy in an article for The Telegraph. When staff first discovered…
LeRoy Transfield’s Design Makes Commemorative Coin
New Zealand-born sculptor LeRoy Transfield’s winning design for a collectible silver dollar commemorating all Americans who served in the First World War has been unveiled. Available to buy from January 2018, sales of the centennial…
Jacinda Ardern, 37, Will Be NZ’s Youngest Prime Minister
“A minor party holding the balance of power in New Zealand threw its support behind 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern’s bid to become prime minister on Thursday, ending the center-right National Party’s nine-year grip on power,”…
High Commissioner Mark Ramsden Says Fiji Farewell
The outgoing New Zealand High Commissioner Mark Ramsden says Fiji has gone through a lot of positive changes during the time he worked in the country. “The Fiji New Zealand Business Council has been a…
Will Paton in the Front Seat of New UK Trains
It’s hard to imagine being responsible for the safety of 1700 lives, but that’s what New Zealander Will Paton faces every day, when he steps into the high-tech cab of his train. Paton spends up…
New Zealand Wasp Named After Harry Potter Villain
Auckland University entomologist and Harry Potter fan Tom Saunders has named a parasitoid wasp after “redeemed” character Lucius Malfoy in the hope of showing not all wasps are bad. Saunders named and described the wasp…
Lessons from New Zealand on Fiscal Discipline
“New Zealand and the UK are both regarded as pioneers in the use of a more modern system of accounting – accrual accounting, a method that records revenues and expenses when they are incurred…
New Zealand’s Tech Industry Boots Up
Majestic scenery, adventure tourism and agricultural products may be central to New Zealand’s international image, but technology and digital exports are growing fast, prompting industry calls for greater recognition, David Brooks reports for Nikkei…
Rainbow Youth Ad Challenges Casual Homophobia
An advert released by LGBTIQ rights charity Rainbow Youth is calling out New Zealanders over the negative use of the word “gay” through the medium of a dropped pie. The video was created to draw…
Drilling Reveals Secrets of Sunken Lost Continent
The mostly submerged South Pacific landmass Zealandia may have been closer to land level than once thought, providing pathways for animals and plants to cross continents from 80 million years ago, an expedition has…
How to Raise the Rarest Kiwi
“When I first see the kiwi chick, I briefly wonder if I’m actually looking at a real animal. It’s a grapefruit-sized sphere of fluff with an adorably short version of an adult’s long beak,”…
Shearer Kerry-Jo Te Huia Busts the Stereotypes
It’s one thing to shear a sheep, but try fleecing 507 in just eight hours. New Zealand-born South Australia-based Kerry-Jo Te Huia, 29, relishes the challenge and says even though some sheep are “big,…
Octogenarian Wilf Deck’s New Direction
At the age of 82, New Zealand-born Wilf Deck is embarking on a new career as a counsellor and life coach in Australia, where he splits his time between Dee Why and Norah Head…
Reitu Noble Harris, Kahukura
My friend and leader Reitu Noble Harris, pensioner, was downed by winter pneumonia. Marshalled by Hine Nui Te Po he passed into the long night…
New Zealand’s Iconic Kiwi May Be Losing Its Sight
The flightless nocturnal kiwi may be evolving to lose its eyesight altogether, suggest researchers. The blindness was discovered during a study of 160 Okarito brown kiwis (Apteryx rowi) in the South Island’s Okarito forest….
New Zealand ‘Top In World’ For Preparing Students For Future
New Zealand has been identified as the top country when it comes to preparing students for the future in a “major study that assesses the “effectiveness” of education systems,” writes Ellie Bothwell in an…
Translated Moana Bolsters Maori Language
New Zealand writer and director Taika Waititi, who worked on the original English-language version of Moana, also approached Disney early on about translating the film, and his sister, Tweedie Waititi, went on to produce…
The New Politics Of NZ – National Wins 46%
“New Zealand politics seldom grabs international attention. That changed six weeks ago when Jacinda Ardern, the 37-year-old female deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, was gifted the party leadership and a mission to…
Evelyn Marsters Finds Home in Berlin Four Years On
“What has collapsed the barbed edges of my experience and allowed me to feel like I have a community and live in a place where I can not just survive – but actually…
Speaking Te Reo Maori All Year Round
The real question is whether the enthusiasm around the annual Maori Language Week (Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori) can spill into the rest of the year. “Te Reo Maori Week should be an…
Quest to Rediscover Lost Pink and White Terraces
Roughly the size of a city block and up to eight stories high, the Pink and White Terraces were one of the top tourist attractions in New Zealand during the 19th century, Atlas Obscura…
Isaac Giesen to Row Solo Across the Atlantic Ocean
Isaac Giesen, 24, has set his sights on being the first New Zealander to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, an extraordinary mission to raise funds for awareness about depression. All funds raised will be…
New Zealand to Rebuild Christchurch Cathedral
More than six years after being destroyed in the deadly earthquake that struck Christchurch, the city’s iconic cathedral will be rebuilt by the Anglican Church. For many locals, the wreck has become a visual reminder…
New Zealand’s Election No Longer Predictable
No one had expected New Zealand’s 23 September election to be much of a contest. The conservatives were expected to win, again. But that was before Jacinda Ardern and a wave of support that’s…
Richard Wilkins Shares Wildest Backstage Memories
“As an entertainment reporter for more than 30 years, you’d have a lot to talk about,” writes Benjamin Potter in an article in the Daily Mail. He’s referring to Richard…
Paul Cowan Sorts London Transport’s Lost Property
As many as 1200 items arrive at Transport for London’s lost property office on Baker Street each day, revealing what the city’s inhabitants value enough to recover – and what they’re happy to let…
You Never Saw a Dolphin That Looked so Cute
During the summer of 1955-56, the Northland township of Opononi attracted thousands of visitors from across the country. They came because they wanted to catch a glimpse of a visitor who’d appeared on the…
Crawford Falconer UK’s Top Trade Negotiator
The New Zealander in charge of negotiating the UK’s trade deals once Brexit is finalised, has begun his tenure. Crawford Falconer has taken up the post of chief trade negotiation adviser at the Department…
Colin Meads, Revered New Zealand Rugby Star
“Colin Meads, one of New Zealand’s greatest and most revered rugby players, died on Sunday in Te Kuiti, New Zealand, his hometown. He was 81,” writes Huw Richards in an obituary published in the…
