Clay’s Reading Gift
New Zealand-developed remedial programme Reading Recovery, devised by the late educationalist Dame Marie Clay, is proving successful in the UK with 30,000 British children a year expected to take part by 21. Under the…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Let Cones Be Licked
Chief judge for the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards and sensory scientist at Massey University Kay McMath has proved the dessert tastes better when licked from a cone. McMath said that the flavour in…
Rite of Pastry Passage
Mince, steak, chicken and potato top pies are amongst a few of the popular pastry to be sampled in a two-week tasting marathon undertaken by Vancouver Courier reporter Michael Kissinger. According to a 2005…
Elias on Equality
New Zealand’s first female Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, and presiding judge of the country’s Supreme Court, recently gave a lecture at the University of New Mexico School of Law on indigenous rights entitled,…
Alliance Revisited
New Zealand and the United States fought side by side in both World Wars, in the Korean War, Vietnam and in various Cold War conflicts, but with stringent nuclear policies introduced in New Zealand…
Beyer Receives Iconic Status
Former mayor of Carterton and Labour MP Georgina Beyer – the world’s first transsexual to hold such positions – is interviewed by Boston publication Windy City Times about her recent selection as one of…
One Beloved Phantom
Much venerated entertainer Rob Guest, 58, who was awarded an OBE for his services to the New Zealand entertainment industry in 1994, has died in Melbourne. Guest had been starring in the musical Wicked….
Ditching the Dot-matrix
New Zealand’s second annual eDay saw more than 15,000 carloads of electronic waste dropped off at 32 centres throughout the country. The event was organised by the Computer Access New Zealand Trust (CANZ). Most…
Councils Make Good
Christchurch and Hutt City are model municipalities and inspirations for their Canadian counterparts, according to the president of Canada’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy Peter Holle. “Hutt City is winning business excellence awards against…
Pride in Heritage
New Zealand’s first Governor-General of Asian descent Anand Satyanand – who recently paid a visit to India – is the subject of an article in The Times of India, which discusses how “the heirs…
The Final Lap
Celebrated Taranaki-born swimming coach Duncan Laing – who held a four-decade coaching tenure at Dunedin’s Moana Pools has died – aged 77. Laing is best known for coaching swimming star Danyon Loader to gold in the…
Green Invasion
Though New Zealand has 2,065 plant species which grow nowhere else on the planet, 22,000 non-native plants have also made the isles their home. Of those, 2,069 have become naturalized: they have spread out…
To Cascading Waters
Waiheke Island, home to 8000 people and 30 vineyards, is a “true microcosm of Aotearoa” writes Boston Globe reporter Stephanie Stephens, who is “struck by the endearingly lower-stress pace of New Zealand life” coming…
Islands Preserved
New Zealand tourism is as much reliant upon maintaining the highest environment standards and preserving the Maori concept of kaitiakitanga – guardianship of the land and the animals – as it is giving visitors…
Persistence in Love
On Maud Island, evolutionary biologists from the University of Toronto have been studying the mating habits of giant male Cook Strait weta. Not only do males travel more than twice as far as females…
Commendable Position
New Zealand’s refusal to approve of a nuclear deal between India and the United States has been praised in a New York Times editorial. Headed “Let’s hear it for New Zealand”, the newspaper writes:…
Familial Ties
Gisborne has the highest concentration of the surname Blair – and Northland the surname Beckham – in the English-speaking world, according to a new website which enables the names of people to be tracked…
Sea Urchin Reef Concert
Auckland University marine biologists Craig Radford and Andrew Jeffs have discovered that sea urchins are behind loud noises emanating from underwater around New Zealand reefs. The 20- to 30-decibel sound is caused by the…
Kiwi-Pukapuka Relocate
Little Spotted Kiwi, the second rarest kiwi species, have been reintroduced onto Fiordland’s Chalky Island for the first time in a century. Sponsors of the transfer, South Island tour operators Real Journeys, joined iwi…
Beauty in Cold
Winter in New Zealand is captured in seascape images by Independent photographer Hannah Bills, who travelled through Wellington and then south, taking shots in and around Christchurch, “the Oxford of the southern hemisphere.” “Intensely…
Te Reo Goes Google
Google Aotearoa has been launched to coincide with July’s Maori Language Week (Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori 2008), with more than 8750 words translated. Potaua Biasiny-Tule, 32, and his Puerto Rican wife Nikolasa,…
God Defend NZ
Of all the nations in the Anglosphere, New Zealand had the proudest and toughest military culture of the 20th Century according to Australian lawyer and author, Hal G. P. Colebatch. In an article in…
Facing New Partnerships
New Zealand’s population makeup may one day number more Asians than Maori according to a new study called, ‘Asians in New Zealand: Implications of a Changing Demography’, launched in Auckland this month. Authored…
Maori Treasure in Ireland
The extensive Maori art collection – part of a larger ethnological collection of exotic Pacific art – at Dublin’s National Museum includes, the Meyler collection, pieces Captain James Cook acquired on his voyages and…
Between Continents
At low tide in June on the Firth of Thames in Auckland, American traveller Eric Wagner looks for the bar-tailed godwit amongst thousands of waterbirds flocking to feed on uncovered shellfish. Wagner describes the…
Father of Oceania
Soccer administrator Charles Dempsey, life member of both New Zealand football and world football body FIFA, has died, aged 86. Dempsey was instrumental in both the founding of the Oceania Football Confederation in 1964…
Pirate Captain
Thames-born actor Bruce Purchase, a founding member of Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre, has died in Putney, aged 69. Purchase decided to become an actor at the age of five and upon…
Williamstown Whakaeke
Nga Manu Waiata are in dress rehearsal for the Australian national kapa haka competition – the group representative of 110,000 Maori who have made Australia their home. Thomas Rangihuna steps forward and welcomes everyone….
City of Sails’ Top Spot
Auckland is number five in the 2008 Mercer’s WorldWide Quality of Living Survey, making it the most liveable city in the Asia Pacific region. Tourism Auckland’s chief executive Graeme Osborne said he is not…
Wellington Reunion in KL
In the 1970s, Malaysian students at Victoria University’s Weir House relished the informality of calling each other by their first names, they cooked one another Malay and Chinese dishes, and the Malaysian VUW band…
Futures in the Heavens
Bethany Edmonds, 26, is a Maori artist about to leave on a scholarship for New York University to study the conservation of traditional textiles; Kipa Rangiheuea works at the Auckland Museum. Both are proud…
Flight to Learn
Remuera Primary School has classrooms full of South Korean children – “wild geese” – who live separately from their families in order to study in an English-speaking, and less stressful, educational system. South Koreans…
Solomon Islands Position
New Zealander Peter Marshall has been sworn in as the Acting Police Commissioner for the Solomon Islands. Marshall has over 35 years experience across all areas of policing and since 27 has held the…
History Lessons in Mood
Professor Sydney Shep, senior lecturer in print and book culture at Victoria University, has uncovered the emoticon’s “pre-history” stumbling upon emoticons in an 1882 typographic journal at St. Bride’s Printing Library in London. There, on the page,…
Europe Follows Lead
New Zealand is the first English-speaking country in the world to have banned smacking and Europe wants to follow suit. The New Zealand police were reassured when they won the right to apply the…
Search Engine Commemoration
The anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Mount Everest in 1955 has been honoured by search engine giant Google. Google periodically changes its logo to celebrate special events and…
Home Amidst History
Four hours from Auckland, New Zealand developer Peter Cooper’s 400 ha Mountain Landing property boasts white sand beaches, native bush and historical value. “When I first saw the property, I knew that it was…
For the Love of Letters
Thirteen-year-old Hamilton spelling champion Thomas North will compete at the 81st Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., travelling further than any of the record 288 competitors. North competes a year after Christchurch entrant Kate Weir’s memorable…
Peaceful Isles
New Zealand comes in at number four on the second annual Global Peace Index released by Britain’s Economist Intelligence Unit. A survey on the harmoniousness of the world’s nations, the Index evaluates…
Enigma funds school
Though New Zealand tycoon Christopher Chandler keeps a reclusive profile, he has invested $50 million in a business school for students from developing countries in Boston. Chandler, a beekeeper’s son from Matangi who has…
Touting the Youth
New Zealand ‘the youngest country’, is the new focus of Tourism New Zealand’s international branding. Tourism chiefs have called in London PR agency Henry’s House as they revive the country’s popularity post-Lord of the…
Cattle for Capital
New Zealand dairy farmers are benefiting from a worldwide demand for milk and cheese with Fonterra Cooperative Group members promised big payouts for their efforts this year. Never before has the term “cash cow”…
Safety in Cyber-space
New Zealand-designed educational software Hector’s World, which teaches children about the dangers of online aedophiles with cartoons, has been launched at St Vincent de Paul RC Primary School, in Westminster, Central London. Hector’s World…
For the Whales
Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, 19, has joined the Save the Whales Campaign and is urging the New Zealand government to reject Japan’s proposal to resume commercial whaling in its waters before a June 22 International…
The Highest of Achievers
Colin Murdoch, inventor, pharmacist and self-taught engineer, a man who designed something the world could not do without, has died in Timaru, aged 79. Murdoch led an extraordinary life; creator of the disposable syringe,…
Berkett Settles In
Neil Berkett is eight weeks into his role as chief executive at Virgin Media and already has battle scars. Actually, he explains in an interview with Sunday Times reporter Andrew Davidson, he just banged…
Breathing Clean Air
New Zealand is a haven for environmental refugees and in this BBC World Service programme, one of six in the Global Perspective documentary series, four immigrants discuss their new home. In Escape to New…
Exploring the Lab
New Zealand is where the revolution will happen and a “perfect place for an ideas summit,” writes journalist Craig Sherborne in an essay entitled ‘Not all Black and White: Inside…
Investigating a Colossus
Te Papa’s colossal squid, the largest ever caught, has created a worldwide media furore making headlines from South Africa and Germany, to Iran and Uruguay. Very little is known about colossal squid; only…
From One Village to Another
New Zealand journalist Thomas Butson began his career in copy at New Zealand’s Truth, followed by positions at The Toronto Star and from 1968 at The New York Times. In 1992 Butson and his…
Trade Relationship Anniversary
In 1983, New Zealand and Australia signed the Closer Economic Relations trade pact, and this year, on the 25th anniversary of the agreement, chief economist of the Australian Trade Commission Tim Harcourt reflects on…
Global Positioning Sleuths
Rotorua has always been famous for its geothermal activity, now another ‘geo-‘ is making its mark around the city, less the sulphur. It’s the sport of geocaching, a kind of outdoor treasure-hunt practised worldwide….
Maori Role Models
New Zealand is a model for Canada in improving its relations with indigenous populations. By adopting lessons from the Maori experience, a report by the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy is urging a…
Surfing Rhapsody
Raglan may be home to “one of the world’s best left-hand surf breaks”, but the town is also garnering international interest for its relaxed isolation and its arts scene. “Bohemian” Raglan writes the Lonely…
Together at Arms
A new sculpture of a New Zealand digger will be unveiled on the Anzac Bridge in Sydney. The digger will stand guard on the other side of the road, opposite its Australian equivalent, thus…
Masterpieces in Ink
Ta moko is more than aesthetics, it is writes the Los Angeles Times, a solemn declaration of Maori identity and dignity. With a little ink, some stinging pain and a helping hand from the…
