Maori Manuscripts Memorialised
A collection of 19th Century manuscripts written by Maori to record life before the arrival of Europeans has been officially listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World New Zealand register. The collection of 147…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Sharks on Holidays
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Department of Conservation (DOC), and University of Auckland have discovered that the great white shark, can travel thousands of kilometres on seasonal migrations,…
Midwives Lead the World
New Zealand midwives provide the best care in the world for mothers and newborn babies, described international delegates attending the recent 29th Triennial Congress of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) in South Africa….
Right Whale Returns to NZ
More than one hundred years after it was hunted to local extinction, the right whale is finally finding its way back to its ancestral calving grounds in New Zealand, with seven whales now migrating…
Jumping the Gap
With New Zealand still reeling from the effects of the Christchurch earthquakes, and its economy struggling to shrug off the turmoil caused by the global financial crisis, many people are making the trip across…
Cheer Up, New Zealand
The population of New Zealand is convinced “the future looks bleak … yet by almost every possible metric New Zealand is a success,” says US economist Sebastian Edwards in a paper prepared for a…
Relief for Christchurch Residents
Thousands of Christchurch home owners are breathing a sigh of relief following John Key’s announcement on the future of their properties. Entire suburbs of Christchurch are to be abandoned due to unstable ground following…
Exploring Emperor Intrigues
For only the second time in recorded history, an Emperor Penguin has swum 3km from Antarctica to New Zealand, making landfall at Peka Peka beach on the Kapiti Coast. Program manager for biodiversity at…
Wisconsin Look-Alikes
New Zealand father and son Michael and Mitchell Roberts are the winners of the Wisconsin Green Bay Press-Gazette’s father-son look-alike contest beating 3 other participants. You know it by their faces, but not by…
Jones’ Cerebral Legacy
Upper Hutt-born neuroscientist Dr Edward “Ted” Jones, who was an expert on brain anatomy and the causes of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, has died in Los Angeles, aged 72. Jones retired in 29…
Vision for a Settled Ground
‘“Happy the country that never makes the front page’ we said recently of Australia,’” Auckland Banyan columnist writes for The Economist. “Even more apt for its smaller sibling across the Tasman Sea,…
Lit by the Might of Another
Mt Taranaki features in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ‘News of the World Pictures’ section, the snowy peak lit by a “warm glow” as the ash cloud from Chilean volcano Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle drifted across the Pacific, on…
Return of the Warrior
The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior made the converted fishing trawler a campaigning icon. Now, in its 4th anniversary year, Greenpeace is launching its first purpose-built protest ship — one of…
Escaping the Clippers Forever
New Zealand’s celebrity merino Shrek — who evaded muster on Bendigo Station for six years and carried 27kg of fleece — has been put down at the age of 16. Shrek gained international fame…
KR’s Lancaster MBA
Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts helps nurture tomorrow’s business leaders with the course he teaches at Lancaster University Management School, “Strategy in the Making.” The course is part of the “Mindful…
Chew on This
Offering New Zealand prisoners carrots as a substitute for cigarettes is among measures aimed at helping inmates kick the tobacco habit before a controversial smoke-free prisons policy takes effect on July 1….
Extraordinarily Special Kiwi
A rare white kiwi chick has been born — the first to be hatched in captivity — at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre, 24km north of Masterton. The chick, named…
Heart-to-Heart in Red Zone
Bob Parker is taking advice from former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos, who was mayor when the Californian city was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1989. Agnos has come to Christchurch to advise…
Home Away from Home
Canadian life coach Karen Miners has made a new home for herself just outside of New Plymouth with her New Zealand partner, Dave. Miners, a former Montrealer, describes her life living abroad….
Little Blues Find Help
At Christchurch’s International Antarctic Centre 24 Little Blue Penguins are being cared for having been found injured and with no chance of survival in the wild. “Most of them have broken or…
Trinity Opportunities
University of Canterbury student Bree Loverich is one of 42 from Christchurch studying free at Oxford University for its eight-week Trinity term, after the British university offered places to those affected by February’s earthquake….
Masters of Mustering
“There are only two breeds of sheep in the world,” Jim Murray of Glenmore Station at Lake Tekapo once told Irish writer and photographer Jamie Ball, who is based in Christchurch. “Merinos,…
Deployment to Timor-Leste
A 62-strong New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent has left for a six-month deployment to Timor-Leste to support the Australian-led International Stabilization Force (ISF) in the country. The NZDF has supported various peacekeeping operations…
Peacekeepers a Symbol of Success
Former deputy prime minister Jim McLay, now New Zealand’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes an opinion piece for The Kansas City Star about May 29 — International Day of UN Peacekeepers and a…
Solemn Repatriation
A mummified and tattooed Maori head has been returned to New Zealand after spending 136 years in a Normandy museum. This is the first to be returned of a total of 16 in France….
HardTalk With John Key
BBC’s Stephen Sackur tackles PM John Key in London in a 25 minute interview for HardTalk (Part 1, Part 2). Positioning New Zealand as “very small” and “too small”, Sackur…
Unrecognisable Love Songs
Saddlebacks, native to the North Island, seem to have developed various regional ‘accents’ over the last 5 years after humans relocated the species to small island refuges to aid in their preservation,…
All Eyes on the Palace
The popularity of the monarchy has surged in New Zealand since April’s royal wedding, with a big fall in the number of people expecting the country to become a republic. A new poll by…
Community Justice
“Canada’s criminal justice system should mirror that of New Zealand’s,” an Edmonton Journal article suggests. “New Zealand has incorporated the use of community conferencing, a restorative justice programme, that has returned to…
Staying Connected with Home
Online networking site Kea New Zealand has launched a global ‘census’ of expatriate New Zealanders, dubbed ‘Every Kiwi Counts’, and aimed at connecting the estimated one million of us living overseas. “New Zealanders living…
Maori Forefathers Return Home
The remains of three Maori people, kept for 13 years in boxes in Lund, south Sweden, have been returned to a delegation from Te Papa led by the museum’s Kaihaut? Michelle Hippolite and representing…
Return of the Yeti Hand
Adventurer and Air New Zealand pilot Mike Allsop is in Nepal to return a replica of what some believe is the hand of a yeti to a remote monastery in the Everest region. Allsop…
Shannon’s One and Only Lord
While European nobility gathered in Westminster Abbey for April’s royal wedding, one British lord was content to watch the nuptials on television in Shannon, the small New Zealand farming town he calls home. Lord…
Enduring Legacy
This year marks the 96th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who fell in 1915 the annual Anzac Cove dawn ceremony took place…
NZ Well Perceived by Indians
The number of migrants coming to New Zealand from India has continued to increase rapidly in the last three years, despite the global economic downturn that saw significant reduction in the flow of foreign…
Medal of Honour for Doctor
Aucklander Dr Alan Kerr (left) has received Palestine’s highest honour, the “Medal of Honour”, from PNA President Mahmoud Abbas for saving more than 6 children’s lives in the West Bank and Gaza…
Swimming By the Stars
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position,…
Return of One Precious Book
The bible of New Zealand World War One soldier Private Richard Cook, which he dropped as he came under heavy fire during the Battle of Messines in Belgium in June 1917, has found its…
Helping His Hometown
New Zealander Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race and chief marketing officer of drinks company Gatorade, along with New Zealander Sarah Robb-O’Hagan have organised a video titled ‘Christchurch Stay Strong’, using the power…
Loved By Robins and Kakapo Alike
Internationally renowned conservationist Don Merton has died in Tauranga, aged 72. “Forest and Bird is extraordinarily grateful for the work Don did over several decades,” Forest and Bird executive member Dr Peter Maddison said….
To Curb Or Not To Curb
New Zealand is among several regions in the world where geese are in the crosshairs, Renata D’Aliesio writes for The Globe and Mail. “As the population of Canada geese continues to increase, so does…
Flyer Up for Sale
The 12-year-old steam locomotive Kingston Flyer is being offered for sale on auction site Trade Me. With the locomotive come two beautifully wood-panelled passenger carriages, a kitchen van, several goods wagons, almost nine miles…
Remembered Always
The Prince of Wales has joined a congregation of some 19 — mainly made up of London-based New Zealanders — at a Westminster Abbey memorial service for the victims of February’s Christchurch earthquake. At…
Not All Sweetness and Light
“The beautiful island nation of New Zealand hides something ugly beneath its lush exterior, hundreds of its children under the age of 16, some even as young as 9, are alcoholics,” Pamela Wallace reports…
Bold, Courageous and Anarchic
Te Aroha-born actor and co-founder of London’s Common Stock theatre group Frank Whitten, who died in February at the age of 68, was “a giant beanpole of a man who only seemed to open…
One Courageous Dolphin
Moko the dolphin, who resided at Mahia Beach for two and a half years from 27 to September 29, has been included in a Time magazine Top 1 list of history’s most courageous animals….
Just Like Everybody Else
“The world’s best rugby player” Dan Carter talks exclusively to The Telegraph about how he fled for his own safety during last month’s earthquake in Christchurch, and about how he helped the city in…
Century-Old Tradition To Go On
The All Blacks may continue to perform the haka at international matches after coming to an agreement with the tribe that created it, Ngati Toa Rangatira. There had been fears their chanting days were…
Royal Visit Lifts City’s Spirits
The scale of damage caused to Christchurch by last month’s earthquake is “unbelievable” said Prince William when he visited the city at the start of a tour of New Zealand. The prince walked through…
Taiwan Looks to Closer Relations
The number of Taiwanese visiting New Zealand has increased by 4 per cent since Wellington granted Republic of China passport holders visa-free privileges last year, Taiwanese representative to New Zealand Elliot Charng said. New…
Volunteers Abroad in Pacific
New Zealand’s Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) is expanding its programme in the Pacific re-establishing relationships with Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati, taking the number of Pacific countries it works in to seven. VSA chief executive…
Great Voice of Stories
New Zealand scriptwriter Graeme Tetley, whose body of work included films Vigil, Ruby & Rata, Bread and Roses and the Aramoana depiction Out of the Blue, has died in Wellington, aged 69. A script…
Good Place To Be a Girl
New Zealand is the best place in the Commonwealth to be born a girl, according to a study undertaken by Plan International and the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS). New Zealand took the top spot…
One-of-a-kind Parrot
The kakapo, Strigops habroptilus, also known as the owl parrot, is the Guardian’s “Mystery Bird” this week. “This stunning but rare species is so unusual that it is the only member of its genus…
Fabled Serenity Endures
Despite the tragedy of February’s catastrophic earthquake, New Zealand still delivers sublime travel experiences, writes Chris Leadbeater for The Independent. “Since 1884 has played a role as a lone token of man’s…
New Governor-General Named
Former Defence Force head Jeremiah (Jerry) Mateparae has been named as New Zealand‘s next Governor-General, succeeding Sir Anand Satyanand on August 31. Mateparae joined the New Zealand Army in 1972 and rose through the…
