News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Interest Mounting in Abandoning Playground Rules

Interest Mounting in Abandoning Playground Rules

Swanson School principal Bruce McLachlan’s unconventional approach to playground rules is making waves around the world with school administrators and parents as far away as the United States and the United Kingdom asking how…

Getting Away from It All on the Coromandel

Getting Away from It All on the Coromandel

The New Zealand way of life, our “fondness for corrugated iron” and how we hang our laundry out to dry, are some Antipodean oddities which charmed a visiting American who was shown around Bill…

China Ties with NZ Get Closer

China Ties with NZ Get Closer

China has announced that for the first time it will allow direct trade between the renminbi and the New Zealand dollar, only the fourth currency permitted to do so. The move further strengthens the…

It happened in NZ first: Oceanic Apocalypse

It happened in NZ first: Oceanic Apocalypse

At first it was dismissed as a freak event. In 1998, a mass of jellyfish carried by the tide into Big Glory Bay, Stewart Island, became pinned against the netting of salmon farm pens:…

Ngai Tahu Investments Pay off

Ngai Tahu Investments Pay off

For generations, the Ngai Tahu tribe resembled many other indigenous people around the world: impoverished, virtually landless and experiencing a steady erosion of its language and culture. However, Ngai Tahu have now turned their situation…

New Zealand Stays 4th in the Women in Work Index

New Zealand Stays 4th in the Women in Work Index

13 March 2014 – New Zealand has held on to fourth place in this year’s PwC Women in Work index; ranking higher than Australia (9th) and far higher than America (16th) and the UK…

Tracing Maori Ancestry for Worldwide Family Tree

Tracing Maori Ancestry for Worldwide Family Tree

Over the past year, Gisborne’s Ngai Tamanuhiri has been participating in the National Geographic’s Genographic Project working closely with Oceania’s genographic principal investigator Lisa Matisoo-Smith who is helping the iwi learn more about their…

NZ Prepares to Wear ‘Big Boy Pants’

NZ Prepares to Wear ‘Big Boy Pants’

British BBC readers overwhelmingly support New Zealand ditching the last official remnant of its colonial past. A referendum will be held at this year’s election on whether to change the flag, which features the…

Overland Journey in a Balloon for the World’s Kids

Overland Journey in a Balloon for the World’s Kids

Hot air balloon pilot Andrew Parker, 30, is attempting a four-year overland journey across more than 100 countries, in which he aims to raise awareness and US$1 million for the UNICEF Flying…

Research Flock Saudi Arabia Bound

Research Flock Saudi Arabia Bound

New Zealand will export a research flock of sheep to Saudi Arabia this year under a breeding project aimed at bolstering the kingdom’s livestock supplies, according to the National. Pregnant ewes and lamb will…

New Zealanders Fight to Pull Back Kakapo from Extinction

New Zealanders Fight to Pull Back Kakapo from Extinction

7 March 2014 – New Zealanders are pulling out all the stops to save the nation’s second most favourite bird, the kakapo – a friendly, flightless, green feathered parrot that teeters on…

New Crustacean Species Could Unlock Secrets of the Deep

New Crustacean Species Could Unlock Secrets of the Deep

Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have discovered a new crustacean species in the Chatham Rise east of New Zealand, that may unlock the secrets of the deep sea. NIWA…

Egg of Bird Thought Extinct for More than a Century Found in NZ

Egg of Bird Thought Extinct for More than a Century Found in NZ

For the first time, New Zealand scientists say they have found an egg on Little Barrier Island of an endangered bird that had been presumed extinct for more than a century. The storm petrel is…

Prince George’s First Royal Trip to Be New Zealand

Prince George’s First Royal Trip to Be New Zealand

Prince George will take part in his debut public engagement next month when he accompanies the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to New Zealand, Kensington Palace has announced. The Prince, who will be…

Air NZ Soars Above Qantas

Air NZ Soars Above Qantas

The last time Air New Zealand invested in the Australian aviation market, the airline required a Government bail-out to stave off bankruptcy as its subsidiary Ansett fell apart. This time round, it’s Air New…

Kiwi Whisky Judged One of the Greats

Kiwi Whisky Judged One of the Greats

A top-shelf tipple from the planet’s southern-most country has been named as one of the world’s best by a global whisky expert, Jim Murray. The flagship 21-year-old South Island Single Malt has been adjudged…

Friends Bid Farewell to an “Outstanding Human Being”

Friends Bid Farewell to an “Outstanding Human Being”

Auckland-born television personality and former model Charlotte Dawson who has died in Sydney, aged 47, was “outrageous, outgoing and outspoken”, said sports presenter Ben Fordham, who worked with Dawson at Channel Nine. “More than anything…

Restoring French Colonial Ruins in Southern Cambodia

Restoring French Colonial Ruins in Southern Cambodia

Chris Connop, a 57-year-old New Zealander with a degree in engineering and a background in horticulture and construction, says he stumbled into his current occupation – restoring and rebuilding Kampot architecture in Cambodia –…

Learning to Stand Upright in New Zealand

Learning to Stand Upright in New Zealand

Historically, geographically, culturally – there are many points of comparison between New Zealand and its neighbour to the west, Australia. But there are notable differences. Victoria University’s Professor Harry Ricketts examines migration in New…

Fledgling Party Giving a Voice to New Zealanders Living Overseas

Fledgling Party Giving a Voice to New Zealanders Living Overseas

An estimated one million New Zealanders living overseas will become a serious political force if the newly formed Expatriate Party of New Zealand gets its way, says the Guardian. Based in Perth, the party says…

Eric Tracey UK New Zealander of the Year 2014

Eric Tracey UK New Zealander of the Year 2014

Eric Tracey has been named the UK New Zealander of the Year 2014 at the New Zealand Society’s Waitangi Day Charity Ball held in London. Announced by the High Commissioner for New Zealand the Rt…

One Summer This Fearless Man Drove off the Luftwaffe

One Summer This Fearless Man Drove off the Luftwaffe

Keith Park was one of the great heroes of World War II, yet years later, when Peter Robb came across the laconic New Zealander, his contributions had still to be truly recognised. Robb recalls…

New Zealand Exports to China Are Soaring

New Zealand Exports to China Are Soaring

Thanks to an ever-increasing demand for milk powder, New Zealand’s exports to China rose 45 per cent last year superseding Australia as New Zealand’s top export market for the first time on an annual…

Rare Red Panda Cubs Open Their Eyes to the World

Rare Red Panda Cubs Open Their Eyes to the World

Rare red pandas, one of Asia’s most threatened species, have been born at Auckland Zoo as part of a global management plan. The two cubs, born on 3 January, each weighing about 100 grams, were…

The World Could Do with More Helen Clarks

The World Could Do with More Helen Clarks

4 February 2014 – Ranked 21st most powerful woman in the world, Helen Clark, 63, New Zealand’s Prime Minister for nine years, and now head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), gives Telegraph…

Toddler’s Golf Swing a Match for Tiger’s

Toddler’s Golf Swing a Match for Tiger’s

A New Zealand toddler has just placed third in an international competition for junior golf swings. William Tye, who modelled his golf swing on Tiger Woods after watching a video of the famous athlete,…

Frigate Deployed for Anti-Piracy Exercise in Gulf of Aden

Frigate Deployed for Anti-Piracy Exercise in Gulf of Aden

New Zealand will become the second non-member state to join a NATO anti-piracy exercise in the Gulf of Aden, with navy frigate HMNZS Te Mana participating in Operation Ocean Shield for three weeks from…

Kiwi Doctor Has the Best Fisherman’s Tale

Kiwi Doctor Has the Best Fisherman’s Tale

A medical degree and a typical ‘South Island’ kiwi attitude has come in handy for one New Zealand doctor who fought off an attacking shark with a knife and stitched his own wounds before…

Clark Tipped for Top UN Job

Clark Tipped for Top UN Job

Introducing UN Secretary General … Helen Clark? The Guardian is tipping the former prime minister is the prime candidate to replace incumbent Ban Ki-Moon when he steps down in two years. Clark was New…

NZ and UK Leading the Public Sector Digital Revolution

NZ and UK Leading the Public Sector Digital Revolution

At the Open Government Partnership (OGP) summit in London in November 2013, New Zealand became the 61st member of a rapidly expanding global movement. The OGP is all about making governments more transparent, accountable…

Ancient Seabird Fossil Found Dating Back 58 Million Years

Ancient Seabird Fossil Found Dating Back 58 Million Years

A fossil of one of the world’s oldest flying seabirds, named Australornis lovei, has been found in in greensand deposits in North Canterbury, linking New Zealand to Antarctica when it was still being formed,…

Dotcom Has His Own Party, and Dance Moves

Dotcom Has His Own Party, and Dance Moves

New Zealand-based Megaupload.com entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, 40, is launching two ventures this month: a new political party to contest in the country’s next general election and a debut dance album, Good Times, to be…

New Zealand Outpaces Crawling World Economy

New Zealand Outpaces Crawling World Economy

In a world still limping its way out of the global financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal has written that New Zealand’s economy is looking remarkably zippy – and even outdoing our much larger…

Nebraskan Children Get Tortoise Buffett Savings Tips

Nebraskan Children Get Tortoise Buffett Savings Tips

Children’s author New Zealander Lucas Remmerswaal took his Warren Buffett-inspired financial literacy campaign to Nebraska recently as part of an international promotion which has taken the Whangarei man to the Frankfurt Book Fair, Turkey,…

From Amidst Highland Heather to Paparata Farmland

From Amidst Highland Heather to Paparata Farmland

This week, as part of the Highland News’ “Friends Around the World” series, the newspaper meets Min Walker, who emigrated to New Zealand in the 1960s to work as a nurse and gain experience…

Auckland Zoo Achieves Circle of Life with Flamingo Chicks

Auckland Zoo Achieves Circle of Life with Flamingo Chicks

Auckland Zoo is claiming a world first after the hatching of two flamingo chicks, the first flamingos ever bred in Australasia and the first successfully bred from an entirely hand-reared flock anywhere in the…

19th Century Plate Depicts Extraordinary Set of Birds

19th Century Plate Depicts Extraordinary Set of Birds

“No country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of birds as are here depicted,” wrote British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace of “the peculiar Ornithology of New Zealand” in The Geographical Distribution…

New Zealand’s Warm Weather Patterns to Continue

New Zealand’s Warm Weather Patterns to Continue

The year 2013 was New Zealand’s second hottest year on record according to Auckland University climate scientist Dr Jim Salinger, with the winter season found to be the warmest and temperatures hitting 1.3 degrees…

New Zealand a Multicultural Model for the EU

New Zealand a Multicultural Model for the EU

January 13, 2014 – Multicultural policies, like those adopted by the immigrant countries of New Zealand and Canada, may be exactly what European Union countries need, according to journalist Kait Bolongaro, writing for Al…

Travelling the Inked Map of Her Father’s Life

Travelling the Inked Map of Her Father’s Life

A coloured butterfly, a pseudo-celtic armband, a giant spiral: the tattoos on New Zealander Nell Frizzell’s father are an inky historical record of his lifetime’s journey through continents, relationships, families, marriages and deaths. Ahead…

New Zealanders Living Life in Berlin

New Zealanders Living Life in Berlin

“When a German realises you’re a New Zealander … they often can’t quite seem to believe it, the implication of the questioning being ‘You’re from New Zealand! Why would you ever want to leave?…

Plenty of Scope for More Art and Enterprise

Plenty of Scope for More Art and Enterprise

The disaster that reduced Christchurch to rubble has given rise to a spirit of art and enterprise, writes Tijana Jaksic for the Herald Sun, and the city is “embracing the change” she says. The

US President Obama and PM John Key enjoy golf game in Hawaii

US President Obama and PM John Key enjoy golf game in Hawaii

In a rare vacation encounter with a foreign official, US President Barack Obama played golf in Hawaii with a new partner, Prime Minister John Key also on vacation, along with Key’s teenage son Max…

Two weeks off the grid

Two weeks off the grid

Newly-former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg and his companion Diana Taylor will spend two weeks holidaying in New Zealand and Hawaii at the commencement of 2014, after 12 years helming the western…

Mutual Interest Means Increase in India-NZ Study Numbers

Mutual Interest Means Increase in India-NZ Study Numbers

Indian studies is attracting more and more students in New Zealand, where seven out of the eight universities offer these courses, according to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, director of the New Zealand India Research Institute (NZIRI)…

Tree Traditions for a New Mexico Christmas

Tree Traditions for a New Mexico Christmas

New Zealander Aly Hyder lives in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico and has a very different Christmas experience to the “barbeque Christmas” of the southern hemisphere. Hyder goes out to the forest for a Christmas tree…

Shipwreck Find Could Alter Our History

Shipwreck Find Could Alter Our History

Timbers from a shipwreck found in Kaipara Harbour have been dated to some 70 years before Captain Cook, identified as having originated in Southeast Asia as early as 1700. Captain Cook’s Endeavour encountered New…

One Small Step for New Plymouth Student

One Small Step for New Plymouth Student

New Plymouth engineering student Hamish Fagg, 21, is preparing to become the first New Zealander in space having won a prize organized by Unilever-owned men’s product LYNX and endorsed by the world’s most famous…

Decorated Lifetime of Service at Sea

Decorated Lifetime of Service at Sea

Rear-Admiral Ted Thorne, who has died aged 89, was a New Zealander who was on hand when female naval personnel suffered their greatest loss of the Second World War. Wellington-born Thorne was under training in…

Oamaru-Made Gingerbread Cathedral Pleases Exeter Locals

Oamaru-Made Gingerbread Cathedral Pleases Exeter Locals

Owners of Oamaru’s Pen-y-bryn Lodge, James Glucksman and James Boussy have built a gingerbread Exeter Cathedral to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the lodge next year. Glucksman explains: “In a nutshell we always make a…

Maori Added to Google Translate

Maori Added to Google Translate

Google has added Maori to the list of languages supported by its online translation service. From today, converting a Maori phrase into English – or vice versa – is as simple as cut-and-pasting it into…

NZ Public Institutions Trustworthy

NZ Public Institutions Trustworthy

New Zealand has been declared the least corrupt nation on earth, equal with Denmark. Rounding out the top four are usual Scandinavian suspects Finland and Sweden, according to Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index….

Island Paradise Enticing Auckland Urbanites

Island Paradise Enticing Auckland Urbanites

“Waiheke Island is now the go-to holiday home destination for wealthy New Zealand urbanites … with the west coast draw the most punters, in particular the beaches near the island’s main town Oneroa and…

Enabling Teens to Learn Through Responsibility

Enabling Teens to Learn Through Responsibility

Fulbright scholar and Victoria University senior lecturer Dr Barrie Gordon was in DeKalb, Illinois this month giving a presentation to students at Northern Illinois University on a teaching model, which is aimed at helping…

Marathon a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Marathon a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Twelve years ago, New Zealand-born endurance athlete Janette Murray-Wakelin was told she had six months to live after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, she’s in the midst of running a marathon every day…

Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber

Maori to NY: Let our People Sleep the Sweet Slumber

Pressure will be mounting on the American Museum of Natural History in New York to return sacred Maori remains to New Zealand after USA Today gave prominence to the issue of toi moko (tattooed…