Verdict Reached

Dual British/NZ citizen Flight Lieutenant Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith has been found guilty on five counts of disobeying orders and has been sentenced to 8 months in prison and ordered…

Simple Pleasures in Spectacular Surrounds

Stewart Island is now home to NZ’s 14th national park – Rakiura, named after the anchor stone of Maui’s canoe (the South Island). A Toronto Star writer visited the rugged outpost…

Top Gun

New Zealand has its first Maori defence force head with the appointment of Major-General Jerry Mateparae. Mateparae will be promoted to lieutenant general when he replaces Air Marshal Bruce…

Guantanamo Report

NZ human rights lawyer, Paul Hunt, is one of the authors of a new UN report on the US-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, which calls for a dramatic improvement…

Blast From the Past

Ornithologists the world over have been fascinated by recent confirmed sightings of the NZ Storm Petrel, which was thought to have been extinct for more than a century. In November 2005…

Bra Fence Here to Stay

A US immigrant has been thwarted in his attempt to rid the Cardrona Valley of its “world famous in NZ” bra fence. Andre Prassinos, who resides for part of…

Karate vs. Kea

Organisers of a vintage car rally near Mt Cook took an unusual defensive stance against marauding local kea, which are notorious for damaging cars in alpine areas. The car club hired…

To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine

NZ-raised canon emeritus of Coventry Cathedral and Quaker chaplain to the University of Sussex, Paul Oestreicher, writes about guilt and forgiveness in the Guardian, using both WW2 and the…

Environmental No.1

NZ leads the world in environmental performance according to the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities measured…

Year of Tibet

2006 is officially the Year of Tibet in NZ and Australia. The Dalai Lama launched the year-long festivities at the Woodford Festival in Queensland on January 1. “On behalf…

Edge Connection for Leading Scientist

Pioneering archaeologist Lady Aileen Fox has died aged 98. Born and educated in England, Lady Fox held a visiting lectureship at Auckland University from 1972 to 1983. She conducted…

For Love and Money

British male accountants are being lured to NZ with promises of work and women. According to top UK agency, Think Global Recruitment, the shortage of men in NZ has…

Conference Finds Common Language

Hamilton hosted the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in late November, an event which drew more than 3,000 attendees from all over the world. The delegation from North…

Aoraki Off Limits?

Mt Cook (Aoraki) has provided yet another example of the effects of global warming, with local guides warning that visitors may no longer be able to climb its famed heights. “We…

Celluloid Fantasy Becomes a Reality

The number of Indian tourists travelling to NZ is on a definite increase according to an Express India article. 17,286 Indians visited Aotearoa in the year ending November 2005…

A Year for Remembrance

2006 has been designated “Year of the Veteran” by the NZ government,with an official launch planned for February. According to Veteran Affairs Minister, Rick Barker, the government will provide…

Going All the Way

John Hood continues to shake the cloisters at Oxford University in his attempts, as Vice Chancellor, to secure the venerable institution’s status as an academic powerhouse for the 21st century. A…

Auckland to be Shia Centre

The International Shia Cultural and Human Rights Organization (ISCHRO) officially opened for business in Auckland on September 8. The Shia Muslim organization aims to propagate and facilitate Shia thought…

Sir Kenneth Reaches Zenith

NZ Supreme Court judge, Sir Kenneth Keith, has been elected to the UN’s World Court, the highest judicial authority in the world. The court, officially known as the International…

Nuclear Discussion Just That

NZ’s iconic 21-year-old nuclear ban has returned to the news, both as a sideline issue in the recent parliamentary elections, and through a National Power Union-commissioned white paper on the pros…

Crash Claims Liquor Chiefs

NZ liquor innovator, Michael Erceg, was killed in early November when the helicopter he was piloting crashed south of Auckland. As the founder and managing director of Independent Liquor, Erceg was one…

End of an Era

NZ lost its last WW1 veteran with the death of Victor “Bob” Rudd aged 104. Born in London in 1901, Rudd served with the British Army’s 9th…

In Memoriam

18 NZ veterans attended the unveiling of a memorial commemorating NZ soldiers who served in the 1950-53 Korean War at the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan. PM Helen Clark…

Homeward Bound

The Glasgow City Council has officially returned the preserved heads of three unidentified Maori warriors to delegates from Te Papa Tongarewa. The moko mokai had variously been gifted to the Scottish…

Battle of Britain Hero

Group Captain Edward Preston “Hawkeye” Wells, one of the RAF’s most outstanding WWII pilots has died at the age of 89. Born in Cambridge (NZ) on 26 July 1916 and educated at Cambridge…

A Life’s Work

NZ born education pioneer and author Dion “Darcy” Dale has died. Dale devoted his life to the teaching and studying of deaf and partially hearing children. He was particularly prominent in…

Lord of the Dance

Wellington born Kristian Fredrikson, one of the most celebrated theater and dance designers in New Zealand and Australia has died in a Sydney Hospital of complications from pneumonia at the age of 65….

“Pragmatic Idealist, Friend of the Earth and a Good Man”

NZ has lost an inspiring political figure with the death of Green Party co-leader Rod Donald. Donald died of a rare virus affecting the heart aged just 48. He…

Jail Over War

New Zealand doctor Malcolm Kendall-Smith may go to jail for refusing to obey the orders of the British Royal Air force and return to duty in Iraq. After already serving two…

Challenge to a War

Brisbane born, Dunedin raised and educated Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the man who refused to return to fight in a war that was “manifestly unlawful”, stood by his decision at a court martial…

End of Ancestral Visa

A new points-based immigration system could end the door-opening power of the ancestral visa. Many New Zealanders and other Commonwealth citizens have relied on having British grandparents to allow them to…

Government Formed

Just over a month after election night, Helen Clark has formed a government and been sworn in as Prime Minister, making her the first Labour Party leader to form a government…

Building Bridges on canvas

One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving,…

Keeping Up With the Kiwis 1

New Zealanders may have long been the butt of “fush and chups,” but according to Paola Totaro there are more than a few reasons New Zealand has got one over on…

Continental Drift

Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the  Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming…

Who is the Typical Kiwi?

An international study on cultural stereotypes, led by the US National Institutes of Health, has concluded that there is no relation between supposed cultural characteristics and the actual traits…

World’s Rarest Given Kiwi Name

A grove of one of the world’s rarest trees has been named after NZ plant conservation scientist David Given. The Wollemi Pine, believed to be extinct until re-discovered in Australia’s Blue…

Helping Hand for Neighbouring Namesake

A Kiwi couple have instigated a sister school relationship between Fiji’s Saint Thomas Aquinas Primary School and the Aquinas College where they teach in NZ. According to the Fiji…

Keeping Up With the Kiwis 2

Meanwhile on a different page …”What do Australians think about New Zealand? Not very much and not very often. ‘We think about New Zealand like we think about Tasmania,’…

Prussia of the Pacific?

A Guardian columnist points out an eerie similarity between the recent elections in NZ and Germany. Both were held on the same weekend and both delivered a spectacularly close finish between the…

Forecast Fine With a Top of 9.6

The Ministry of Tourism predicts that foreign tourist spending in NZ will increase by as much as 52% in the next 7 years. Spending is forecast to rise to NZ$9.6 billion…

Drawn to the Edge

Michele Law is currently working the most challenging assignment of her already distinguished legal career. As a lawyer for the UN Office of Constitutional Support, Law is helping to draft Iraq’s first…

School of Rock

A music teaching program designed by four Christchurch friends has taken off online, selling more than 10,000 copies – mostly in the US – in just two years. Jamorama is a…

David Lange 1942-2005

Former Prime Minister David Lange died on Saturday 13 August aged 63 after a long battle with ill health. He was regarded as “the best loved New Zealand political figure of…

Visionary Remembered

NZ’s scientific and business community has lost one of its brightest stars with the death of Pulse Data founder Dr Russell Smith. Smith and his wife, early childhood specialist Marian D’Eve,…

Kiwi-fight

The LA Times explores the history of Gridley, Kiwifruit Capital of the USA and sister city to Te Puke – Kiwifruit Capital of the World, thank you very much. Of note…

Kyoto Protocol a “Feelgood Gimmick”

Meanwhile, SMH columnist Miranda Devine says “Our Kiwi neighbours, once smug about ecological superiority, face a cost blow-out from the treaty exceeding $NZ1 billion ($900 million). The farcical result is that even…

Top 10 for 100%

New Zealand has ranked 10th in an index of the strongest brands in the world compiled by marketing research firms Anholt-GMI. New Zealand had positive brand values and managed,…

Rainbow Resonates 20 Years On

July 10 marked the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing in Auckland Harbour. The Greenpeace flagship was targeted by French agents under the orders of then President Francois Mitterand, in retaliation…

Brits on the Move

The Times article explores the current trend of Britons emigrating to NZ, focusing on a young family from Bath who settled in Wanganui a year and a half ago. According to…

New Zealand Women Make Nobel Peace List

Four New Zealand women are among a historic collective nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Each of the 1,000 women, nominated from across the world, have worked for justice…

Employment Looking Up

According to new figures released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), NZ has the second highest employment growth rate in the developed world. The report shows that NZ’s labour…

In Defense of Whales

NZ led the anti-whaling nations at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Ulsan. Headed by Conservation Minister Chris Carter, the delegation included officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DoC, as…

You Can’t Buy Happiness

NZ born lecturer of economics at Stanford University, John McMillan, believes that the obsession NZ politicians have with raising the country’s per capita income to equal that of Australia is a waste…

Task-master Cook

As Registrar General for England and Wales, New Zealander Len Cook is heading the massive task of digitising the countries’ birth, death, and marriage certificates. “The aim throughout our plans to…

Mrs Peace Leaves Her Mark

Political activist, peace campaigner and renowned author, Sonja Davies, has died aged 81, leaving an inspiring legacy in her wake. According to her Guardian obituary, Davies – known to many…