Buying Up the Grammar Zone

The campus of Auckland Grammar School, designed in the Spanish style of the California missions, is one of New Zealand’s largest, oldest and most prestigious schools for…

Lifestyle Comes At A Price

Auckland and Wellington have risen in their rankings of the most expensive cities to live in, with Auckland jumping nine places to rank 15 and Wellington rising 16 places…

Land Sale Stopped In Court

High Court Judge Forrest Miller has halted the first ever sale of dairy farms to Chinese investors, Shanghai Pengxin, the latest twist in a saga that’s dividing a country…

Getting Back to Basics

The Topp Twins, who are touring the UK in February, say the secret to their longevity and success is because of their strength and independence, and that because they…

New Zealand Farewells A Leader

Lloyd Morrison, Wellington businessman, founder of infrastructure investment company Infratil, philanthropist and patron of the arts, has died in Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, aged 54….

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…

All In A Day’s Work

Hahei diver Rhys Cochrane, 20, rescued an orca he found entangled in a fisherman’s rope attached to a crayfish trap several hundred metres off the coast of Coromandel Peninsula….

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…

Trench Living Makes Big

A ‘supergiant’ crustacean measuring 34cm has been found 7km deep in the Kermadec Trench north off the coast of New Zealand. Seven specimens, of which usually measure between 2-3cm,…

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…

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…

Debating Foreign Investment

New Zealand Federated Farmers chief executive Conor English speaks from Wellington with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move Asia” about Shanghai Pengxin Group Co.’s plan to buy…

Roadmap For Understanding

Mt Eden’s private Ficino School has a Sanskrit Language Studies program and claims that learning one of the world’s oldest languages accelerates a child’s reading ability. Hindu statesman Rajan…

Taking Back History

New Zealand ambassador Rosemary Banks and French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand presided over a solemn ceremony at Quai Branly museum in Paris where 20 Maori ancestral heads and bones…

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,…

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…

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…

Ribboned Rakaia From Space

An image of the braided Rakaia River has won an online vote through Facebook for best satellite image of 2011. The image was captured by American commercial satellite imaging…

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…

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…

Ship Splits In The Rough

A Maritime New Zealand image of the stricken container ship Rena split in two features in the Seattle Post Intelligencer ‘News of the world in photos’ series. The Greek-owned ship ran…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Low On Brands, High On Beauty

For the first time, New Zealand is included in Monocle’s index of the top 30 soft power nations, coming in at number 17 and introduced as: “Low on brands, high on…

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…

Orca vs Shark vs Dog

On Boxing Day at Blue Cliffs Beach near Tuatapere, residents witnessed a group of orca whales attacking a shoal of sharks. One shark desperate to escape from the enormous…

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…

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…

Courageous Man To The End

Nelson-born Jason Richards, V8 Supercar champion “to the last”, has died in Melbourne. He was 35. Peter Kogoy writes Richards’ obituary for The Australian: “His duel at the wheel of…

Pupils Staying Strong

Students from Fendalton Open-Air School in Christchurch are the first group members — calling themselves Faultline Fiction — of the Guardian site to vividly recount what happened when earthquakes…

One Legendary Queen

Transgender icon Taumaranui-born Carmen Rupe has died in Sydney, aged 75. Carmen was born into a family of 13 and was known as Trevor Rupe for about the first…

Festive Season Realities

A billboard outside Auckland’s Anglican St Matthew’s in the City of the Virgin Mary gasping as she examines a pregnancy testing kit has sparked fiery debate. Defending the poster,…

After A Hard Day’s Travels

A Tauranga woman thought she was hallucinating when a clattering noise prompted her to run downstairs to the kitchen and check on the cats, where she found a baby…

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…

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…

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…

Hope Yet For Happy Feet

New Zealand author and entrepreneur Gareth Morgan will join 12 scientists on a 30-day voyage to Antarctica early next year to raise awareness of the importance of the region,…

More Penguins Return Home

A photograph of a blue penguin moving toward the sea after being released by wildlife workers in Tauranga is included in theGuardian’s ‘24 hours in pictures’ series for 9 December….

Streaking Star Trails

A long-exposure image of star trails streaking over Lake Tekapo features on the National Geographic website. The lake was one of the first sites designated as a Starlight Reserve as part…

Observing Oceanic Responsibilities

New Zealand and Australia have signed a marine observation agreement, which is expected to result in improved knowledge of regional climate systems. New Zealand’s high commissioner Major-General Martyn Dunne…

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…

Great Barrier Phenomenon

American entomologist Mark Moffett, 53, claimed he discovered the largest weta of the species ever found. International publications, such as the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and Telegraph, have declared Moffett’s find the…

Challenging Classroom Prejudice

New Zealand-born teacher Suran Dickson, 34, felt moved enough to leave her job and launch Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles the worrying incidence of homophobic bullying…

Magical Parrot Meetings

The rangers and scientists of the Kakapo Recovery program on Codfish Island are slowly but surely succeeding in their mission to “make more kakapo” by micromanaging the birds’ diet,…

New Zealand Least Corrupt

New Zealand is perceived as having the least corrupt government and public institutions in the world, topping the Corruption Perceptions Index 2011 survey. 178 countries were included in this year’s…

Alien Disappearance

Without any human intervention, the Argentine ant — the world’s most invasive species — is disappearing from New Zealand. The alien ant arrived in New Zealand in 1990 and…

Calling Australia Home

Almost one in five Maori — or 151,000 of the total population of 815,000 — now live outside New Zealand, with most — 140,000 — calling Australia home. An…

Birds In Paradise

About an hour from downtown Wellington is Kapiti Island, one of New Zealand’s most successful nature reserves and a model for wildlife and flora conservation. Award-winning journalist Jill Robinson…

Spellbound On Tiritiri Matangi

New Zealand bellbird, Anthornis melanura was the Guardian’s ‘Mystery Bird’ on 24 November. “This bird is named for its gorgeous song, which consists of three distinct sounds that resemble the…

Man Of Masterpieces

Kerikeri resident Russell Garcia, an California-born arranger, composer and conductor who was an influential figure in the West Coast music scene during the 1950s and ‘60s and whose work…

Freedom For Little Blues

Forty-nine little blue penguins rescued from the Rena oil spill that occurred in October off the coast of Tauranga have been returned to the wild at Mt Maunganui beach….

Horse Whispering

An image of Hurricanes assistant coach Alama Ieremia working with his horse during a leadership programme run by Talkinghorses in Te Horo, is included in the Globe and Mail’s…

Rats Not Such Pests After All

Invasive rats are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report in a paper published in a Royal Society journal. “New Zealand offers a really…

By Heck It’s Back

One of the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins, the Hector’s Dolphin, has been seen in Wellington Harbour, more than two years after the last sighting. The person who…