Urban takes lessons
“Like it or not, I’ve become a global citizen,” Auckland actor Karl Urban tells The Kansas City Star. “The challenge is to maintain your cultural identity, especially back in your home country, where it’s…
Tag Archives: Auckland
Edgy roots an asset
Actor Karl Urban, 38, is happy to commute between Auckland and Los Angeles saying that his New Zealand roots are proving to be an asset to his craft. Unlike Hollywood-based actors, those from Australia…
Mobile Learning
Students at Auckland’s Howick College are using free software to convert computer files into mobile phone study notes for a pilot study called ‘mLearning’ which is examining the result of using mobile phones as…
Kitchen for hot shots
One thousand young chefs will compete in the 18th Annual New Zealand Culinary Fare at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland on August 22-24. The three-day ‘hot kitchen’ competition is the largest of its kind…
Judgement day
Wellington-born actor Karl Urban, 38, who played Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy in last year’s Star Trek, will soon play the sci-fi law enforcer Judge Dredd. “Yes, there is a lot of truth to that…
Edgy stroll
The best way to begin your New Zealand adventure is, according to the Telegraph’s Tarquin Cooper, with a walk around the top of Auckland’s 328m Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is the tallest structure…
Smart Move
Auckland-based technology firm, NextWindow, has been bought out by privately-owned Calgary company, Smart Technologies. NextWindow, which employs 125 staff in offices in New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, makes touch…
Ironman Gusto
Days after coming second in New Orleans, Aucklander Terenzo Bozzone this time crossed the finish line first winning the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas in Galveston. Bozzone, 25, stopped just before the finish line…
Walters finalists named
The finalists for this year’s $50,000 Walters Prize are: Dan Arps, Fiona Connor, Saskia Leek and Alex Monteith. Named in honour of the late New Zealand artist, Gordon Walters, the prize was established in…
Power of Passion
Auckland born singer Gin Wigmore, 23, has been described by PBS Melbourne music manager Peter Merrett as a “waif-sized girl” with “indefinable power and passion combined”. Wigmore says if she were to compare her…
Exercise Habits Studied
University of Auckland researchers have compared the exercise habits of 84 first-time mothers in a study which has shown that exercise during pregnancy may help babies start life at a healthy weight. The women…
Organic as mechanic
Auckland artist Lisa Black mixes taxidermy with machinery some sites calling her method “steampunk” modifying a fawn, a turtle, a duckling and a baby crocodile, transforming the once dead into the “cyborg-seeming”. According to…
Cast for glass
“Internationally respected doyenne” of glass casting Aucklander Ann Robinson is profiled in the Spring 2010 issue of German/English magazine Neues Glas. With no one to consult and no recipes to follow, Robinson was as…
Technophobe Now Twit
Auckland mother and self-confessed technophobe Lisa Etheridge, 39, is now an unwitting international Twitter celebrity. Etheridge — @lisatickledpink — was asked to sign up to Twitter for a Unitec design course, and her first…
Compelling qualities
Crowded House will release their first studio album Intriguer in June through Universal Music worldwide. The ten-track album Intriguer, recorded in Auckland, is the follow-up to Time on Earth, which hit No. 1 in Australia and New…
Funding the Flagship
“The turf in Auckland’s Eden Park stadium is freshly laid and verdant green, but three floors up, the corporate hospitality suite remains unfinished,” writes the Financial Times’ David Fickling. “Martin Snedden, chief executive of New Zealand’s…
Top of their game
The Kathryn Bigelow film The Hurt Locker, which earned her a best director and best film Oscars, featured Auckland Isaac Hamon, 33; the scene depicting Hamon running away from an…
Oscar for Kim Sinclair
Auckland production designer Kim Sinclair won the Academy Award for Art Direction on Avatar with American colleagues Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg. “Each virtual set had trees and plants that were moveable, like real…
Solid selection
Porirua-born sculptor Michael Parekowhai has been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Parekowhai, 42, received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2001 and works as an associate…
Albert Lit Up
Auckland’s 11th annual three-day Chinese Lantern Festival was held in February at Albert Park and featured performances by one of Shanghai’s top music ensembles Moon, Beijing-based Mongolian folk rock group Hanggai and rolling lantern…
Kerretta play SXSW
Auckland three-piece Kerretta make their US debut in March with a show at this year’s SXSW, the festival also marking the release of their debut album, Vilayer. Drawing from influences that seem to…
Smokin’ in the US
Singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore makes her US debut in March playing a selection of southern tour dates with US band Citizen Cope. Auckland-born Wigmore, 23, will release her first full-length, Holy Smoke, March 16 via…
Seizing the Spirit
Crowded House are proving popular in the UK as a second concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was added “due to phenomenal demand after tickets for the first night went on sale,” the Express &…
Lounging on Air
Air New Zealand is to introduce 22 “Skycouches” — formed out of three economy seats abreast that fold out to create a lie-flat space — in the first 11 rows in the economy cabin…
Barclay a big presence
Auckland actress Emily Barclay, 25, “is in no danger of not being cast” and “right now is one of the hottest new talents in the business — on stage and on screen”, writes The…
A Man and His Machine
Extreme enduro rider Aucklander Chris Birch, 29, “is expected to be one of the guys to beat in the World Xtreme Enduro Championships (WXEC)” reports The Independent on Sunday. With boyish good looks and a…
Tough cherub
Auckland singer Gin Wigmore, 23, is included alongside Little Boots, Peaches and Megan Washington in Australian magazine Yen, in an article called ‘All the Single Ladies’ , which says: “They may not have rated…
Together in recovery
Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a benefit compilation for the Auckland musician who suffered a debilitating stroke in June, has been released in New Zealand on Knox’s own A Major Label, proceeds of which…
Books come to life
Colenso BBDO are behind a stop-motion animated film developed for the New Zealand Book Council called Going West, which was created by UK design team Andersen M Studio and launched on YouTube in…
Auckland’s Happy Herd
In January 2010, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will film a new series of 10 California “Happy Cows” commercials in Auckland, taking advantage of New Zealand’s low production costs, but much to…
Big and buzzing in NY
Auckland band Surf City played six shows in New York as part of the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon. The Washington Post’s David Malitz writes: “For a band with just an EP to its name,…
Taking home the loot
Masterton-born singer Ladyhawke has won six Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, won the album of the year for Ladyhawke (Modular/Universal) and single award for ‘My Delerium’ at the…
Southern celebrations
Auckland-based singer-songwriter Caitlin Smith will perform at this year’s ASB Queenstown JazzFest, a 10-day live music celebration from October 17 to 26. A sensational line-up of more than 50 bands and 200 local and…
Lomu Gets Ripped
Former All Black great Jonah Lomu, 34, stepped back into the limelight coming second in the Men’s Open over-90kg class at the NZFBB Body Building Championships in Wellington, an exercise in weight-loss before making…
Holy dedication
This month, Auckland singer/songwriter Gin Wigmore, 23, releases her debut album Holy Smoke which was recorded in Los Angeles with the American band The Cardinals. Wigmore is signed to Universal in Australia, where she…
Tui time at the Vector
Auckland band Midnight Youth and London-based Ladyhawke — aka Pip Brown — have both been nominated for a number of awards to be presented at this year’s New Zealand Music Awards held at the…
Henderson Signs with ABC
Auckland-born actor Martin Henderson, 34, has reportedly signed a six-figure deal with network ABC. According to Hollywood Reporter, Henderson is expected to topline an hour-long project for the network. The former Shortland Street star…
All in this Together
The Age of Stupid producer Auckland-born Lizzie Gillett, 31, spent five years working on the climate change drama-documentary with McLibel director Briton Franny Armstrong “working through obstacles as they come up: from difficult…
At Home on the Edge
Artist Judy Millar, 52, explains to the Financial Times that she lives “at the end of a seven-mile dusty road on Auckland’s west coast and overlooks perhaps one of the most untouched beaches on…
Family affair
Neil Finn, his brother Tim and sons Liam and Elroy are just four of the 21 songwriters, 14 backing musicians and a dog collaborating on the album The Sun Came Out just released in…
Badtown do Brighton
West Auckland six-piece ska-punk band Badtown sold their worldly possessions to tour the UK seaside city of Brighton inspired by the city’s own legendary punk rockers Peter and the Test tube Babies. Badtown’s bassist…
Keeping it to Himself
Recent émigré to New Zealand, British media-specialist David Jeffries, 43, says he misses nothing about England in his new hometown of Auckland where he runs the award-winning company Mere Mortals, which also has an…
Sunshine’s sisters
Auckland film maker Christine Jeffs created the independent feature Sunshine Cleaning with sisters in mind, and being one herself, Jeffs told The Age, she wanted to explore the dynamics between older and younger siblings….
Production lift-off
The New Zealand film industry is booming with “local helmers poised to soar again”. Whale Rider director Niki Caro’s The Vintners Luck, in which she reteams with her young Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes,…
Ballroom blitz
Professional ballroom dancers Aucklander Erin Boag, 33, and her partner Briton Anton Du Beke who both starred in the successful UK television talent show Strictly Come Dancing, have just completed a documentary for Sky…
Sixties renewal
Auckland-based fashion designer Kate Sylvester and her partner Wayne Conway chose New Zealand architect Belinda George to design the renovations to their 1960s Westmere home, remaining true to that decade’s form, combining new with…
Home sweet home
“The time has come to learn from Down Under,” where homes have sustainable features “light years ahead of the curve,” are “modestly scaled and unpretentious, employ an original aesthetic language, and without fail, offer…
Slave-driven
Former Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless has been cast in the new action series Spartacus: Blood and Sand as Lucretia, who with her husband Batiatus own a gladiator camp called the Ludus. The…
Particles in Motion
Fonterra’s latest foray into “smart” water “Whole”, is advertised in a continuous 650-frame shot leaping and transforming from brains to bridges to bananas and was created as a joint project by Auckland-based animation studio…
Walking on thin ice
New Zealand’s best known trompe l’oeil muralist Marc Spijkerbosch was recently commissioned by ad agency Ogilvy to paint five images promoting pedestrian safety on pavements around Auckland for the city’s council. The images portray…
In town for love
Auckland actor Martin Henderson, 34, who is based in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, is back in New Zealand filming Home by Christmas, a World War II love story directed by Gaylene Preston due for…
Fondly Remembered
Sir Edmund Hillary is one of 45 individuals remembered in Time magazine’s 2008 ‘Fond Farewell’ tributes. “On May 29, 1953, Hillary, with the help of his Sherpa guide, became the first person to reach…
Zoë the turncoat
Auckland stuntwoman and actress Zoë Bell, 30, stars in American web action series Angel of Death alongside fellow New Zealander, Lucy Lawless. Bell plays a mafia assassin who suffers a catastrophic head wound and…
Stellar win for Brettkelly
Auckland documentary-maker Pietra Brettkelly has won Best Documentary Award for Art Star and the Sudanese Twins at the 2008 Whistler Film Festival. The jury was quoted as saying, “This is a film that…
New Zealander in Ink
Auckland tattooist Nikole Lowe, 36, is one of four London-based artists featured on the Discovery Channel’s six-part reality show London Ink, a series which delves into the world of tattooing. Lowe is interviewed in…
Legendary Cricketer
Former test-cricketer and left-arm spinner Aucklander Hedley Howarth has died, aged 64. Howarth claimed 86 wickets in 30 tests for New Zealand between 1969 and 1974, retiring from test cricket in 1977. He was…
