Kevin Iro: from ‘Kiwi’ League Legend to Marine Reserve Champion

‘At first glance’ Kevin Iro, New Zealand rugby league great, ‘seems a somewhat unlikely ocean champion,’ writes Islands Business. But you don’t play for the ‘Kiwis’ without learning about…

Gifted Broadcaster

Broadcaster Phillip Leishman, who’s career ranged from regional television in Dunedin to Olympic and Commonwealth Games, and to game show Wheel of Fortune, has died aged 61. “He was…

One of Our Greats Farewelled

“There are few things I can say about my work that are better than saying nothing,” Ralph Hotere once said. With his death on 24 February, aged 81, art…

Never a Dull Moment

Four years ago, when Charles Turner was just shy of 91, he and his wife emigrated from London to Wellington. “It has worked,” Turner writes in the Telegraph. “We…

What’s it Like in Paradise?

“Even this self-consciously egalitarian society, which was first to give women the vote in 1893, is not immune to social and economic inequality,” writes Michael White for the Guardian….

Economic Aftermath of Canterbury Quake.

Two years ago, an earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, killing 185 people. The city is but one example of how even the wealthiest countries struggle to…

NZ Congratulated for Plain Packaged Cigarettes

New Zealand will follow Australia’s lead in forcing cigarette makers to sell their products in plain packs, writes Dan Harrison, Health reporter for The Age. ‘Associate Health Minister Tariana…

New Zealand Toy Makes World Top 10 List

A New Zealand toy, The Snow Globe, is one of the world’s top ten ‘best creative toys’, according to  Britain’s Independent newspaper. The ‘Snow Globe’ is made by Seedlings,…

Kids TV and Crime Linked

Otago University Professor Bob Hancox has found that the risk of having a criminal conviction in adulthood increases with every hour that children spend watching TV. The New Zealand…

NZ Stays in Afghanistan

New Zealand will keep a small team of military personnel in Afghanistan to help coalition forces after it formally withdraws in April 2013, according to The Washington Post. The…

Samoa Backs Tom Groser

Samoa supports New Zealand’s Minister of Trade, Tim Groser as the next World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director General. Deputy Prime Minister Fonotoe Pierre Lauofo gave Samoa’s support at a…

Clark Discusses Mali’s Future

According to former Prime Minister Helen Clark, head of the United Nations Development Program since 2009, Mali needs a very clear timetable for national dialogue, constitutional reform and improved…

A Damn Good Reporter

Longtime NBC news correspondent New Zealander Tom Aspell has died aged 62. NBC News president Steve Capus described Aspell as “understated, selfless, perpetually cool, shrewd, wry, curmudgeonly, and a…

On Foreign Affairs

Prime Minister John Key spoke with The Diplomat’s Zachary Keck concerning nuclear security, Afghanistan, relations with the United States and China as well as the Trans Pacific Partnership. “New…

Sheep, Lizards and Hobbits

February 6 is New Zealand’s national day. Known as Waitangi Day, it marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between the British Crown and the Maori,…

Howling at the Moon

In real time, Wellington photographer Mark Gee shot this video of the moon rising over the capital with the silhouettes of people gathering to watch the…

Asset Allocation Win

New Zealander Alex Kim (right), a junior at Duke University in the United States, was one of three to win an asset allocation contest sponsored by BlackRock,…

He Leaves a Chasm

Broadcaster Sir Paul Holmes has died at his home in Hawkes Bay. He was 62. Holmes rose through the ranks of media in New Zealand, and not long into…

What’s with All the Padding

Executive creative director at marketing agency RAPP New York, New Zealander Wayne Pick tells Branding Magazine what Super Bowl means to New Zealanders, in an article…

New Zealand Dolphin Faces Extinction

An estimated 55 adult Maui dolphins are left in the world. The Maui is unique to the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It is the world’s rarest…

Penguin Paradise

Farmer Francis Helps and his wife Shireen have converted much of their Banks Peninsula land into a safe haven for one of the word’s smallest penguins, the rare white-flippered…

Lloyd Phillips, Film Producer

New Zealand’s first Oscar winner, international film producer Lloyd Phillips has died in Los Angeles after a heart attack, aged 63. Born in South Africa and raised in New…

Dodson’s Insulin Legacy

Distinguished biochemist and “outstanding x-ray crystallographer”, Palmerston North-born Guy Dodson has died in York, aged 75. Dodson was world-renowned for his research on the three-dimensional structure of biologically important…

Cat-free Isles?

Prominent New Zealand economist and environmentalist Gareth Morgan wants his country 100 per cent cat-free and he’s willing to go extraordinary lengths to make it a reality. Cats are…

NZ to Aid UAE

New Zealand will help improve food security for the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) and particularly the UAE, Murray McCully, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a special…

Futures in the Public Sector

New Zealand’s State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie has called on civil servants across the world to remember to think ahead in addition to addressing short-term challenges. Rennie, speaking as…

New Zealand Extends Hand to Mindanao

Since the 1960s, some 150,000 people have died and more than three million have been displaced on Mindanao Island (Philippines); the result of a bloody conflict between Muslim rebels…

Remarkable Global Firsts

New Zealand has much more to shout about than just global rugby dominance and hirsute heroes of the big screen, according to Kate Rowan of the Irish Independent. “Taking…

Students Give Cyclone Relief

New Zealand volunteers “joined hands” with locals and other foreign aid workers to help Fiji get back on its feet after recent Tropical Cyclone Evan, the biggest such storm…

Whale Attracts Curious

Hundreds of people gathered to take a look at the remains of a 15-metre, 45-tonne sperm whale, which washed up on Paraparaumu Beach this week. This image featured in…

Biking Africa for Acumen

Twenty-four-year-old New Zealander Phillip English has been making his way by bicycle from Egypt to Cape Town, travelling for the past 10 months over some 15,000km through…

Clark Pleads Complexity

Administrator of the United Nations’ Development program Helen Clark is in a philosophical and operational stoush with her governing board over approaches to global poverty reduction. The UNDP board…

Outdoing the Big Guns

“Even when New Zealand isn’t top of the list, they’re outranking and outperforming the United States on just about any index you want to consider,” contributor Nonny Mouse writes…

Weaving the Threads of Life

New Zealander Cassandra Ellis, a quiltmaker who has settled in London, believes a quilt is a great way to mark an occasion, from a birth to a…

Freedom At The Edge

New Zealanders enjoy a higher level of human freedom than anyone else, according to a report written by The Canadian Fraser Institute, which evaluated 123 countries to see how…

Oil Man Bows Out

After 36 years of “distinguished” service, New Zealander Leo Lonergan will retire from his position as chief procurement officer at Chevron in London. Executive vice president Jim Blackwell said:…

On The Road

New Zealand’s five best alternative road trips are included in a Lonely Planet feature this month. From a Caitlins penguin drive to Auckland’s newest winemaking area east of Warkworth,…

From the Streets of Aleppo

Cairo-based New Zealand journalist Glen Johnson writes from the Free Syrian Army-occupied streets of Aleppo. “What began as a series of protests early 2011, demanding human…

Wave To End The War

During the Second World War, New Zealand and the United States conducted secret tests of a “tsunami bomb” designed to destroy coastal cities by using underwater blasts to trigger…

Extraordinary Talent Sorely Missed

Oscar-winning sound editor New Zealander Mike Hopkins, 53, who worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other blockbusters, has died in a rafting accident on the Waiohine…

Home in the Desert

Moving to Las Vegas was a dream come true for New Zealander Jennifer Scott, a former journalist and magazine editor. Scott said she has had an obsession…

Librarians Confer

Under a new five-year Arrangement on Cooperation agreement signed by the National Library of New Zealand and the National Library of China, the two institutions will share…

American Deal For Angels

Wellington company Angel Delivery, owned by Becs Cass, has struck a US partnership that will see the four-year-old freshly made meal and treat delivery service enter the…

Brilliant Ideas Remain

Gifted Wellington-born academic Amanda Rohloff, who has died aged 30, is fondly remembered by her friend, Philippa Chandler in a Guardian obituary. “She grew up in Karori, excelled at…

Big Ears Of The Insect World

The iconic New Zealand weta has ears similar to those of a whale, researchers at the University of Auckland have found. The ears of this 8cm-long Auckland tree weta…

Long Line Of Macs

New Zealander John McIntosh can trace his family lineage to the inventor of the raincoat, Charles MacKintosh and to John Mackintosh, the inventor of Mackintosh’s Toffee. McIntosh is now…

Distinguished Man Of Figures

Wellington-born applied mathematician Professor Bruce Morton has died in Melbourne aged 86. Under his leadership, Monash, where he worked for 25 years, became the leading university for its atmospheric…

Strange Volcanic Goings-On

A peculiar lava spine between 20 and 30m across has appeared in the crater of White Island. Wired’s Eric Klemetti is “not even sure how to describe it.” “The…

Cooking Stones With The Force

Hangi rocks could reveal the magnetic history of the Earth going back hundreds of years, new research from Victoria University suggests. The findings, which were presented at the annual…

Super Plan Most Innovative

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has been named the world’s most innovative sovereign fund, winning the prestigious Sovereign Wealth Fund category in the 2012 aiCIO Industry Innovation Awards…

Canines Take To The Wheel

Dogs rescued by the SPCA are being taught to drive in a campaign to show how intelligent canines, and even those abandoned, really are. Astonishingly, it took three dogs…

Very Clean At The Helm

New Zealand is the least corrupt country on earth, says Germany-based Transparency International. Overall, the top spots are occupied mostly by European countries, with the exception of New…

Balance In The Workplace

“YWCA Auckland and DDB New Zealand lay out the ridiculousness of the gender pay gap reality with a straightforward TV spot that shows you how absurd it is for…

Neighbours Row On Whereabouts

If a New Zealander is called an Australian, is it a racial insult, ponders The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf. “As an outsider, I won’t pretend a sophisticated understanding of the…

Coral Sea Island Undiscovered

Pictorial librarian at Auckland Museum Shaun Higgins has identified the origin of a cartographic error, as a 19th-century whaling ship, which first ‘spotted’ the non-existent Sandy Island in 1876….

Activist Paddling

New Zealand-born Billabong surfer Dave “Rasta” Rastovich, 32, has paddled 350km from Taranaki to Piha to raise awareness about seabed mining off New Zealand’s coast. Rastovich, who lives in…