Sideline Action
With all eyes on Australasia for the Rugby World Cup, an Observer travel feature looks at new attractions on offer in the region. Included is the West Coast’s Wave Watchers Retreat (“a romantic bolthole with great…
Tag Archives: Auckland
Winning Edge
2002 women’s rugby world champions, the Black Ferns, stormed a two-test series against a World XV with two convincing wins; 37-0 in Auckland, 38-19 in Whangarei. Chief point scorers in the second match were Mere Kingi,…
Thinking Inside the Square
Auckland-based graphic design company, Creative Force, has won two awards at America’s Creative 33 competition for the second year running. Established in 2001 by Emma Mann, Creative Force beat thousands of entries from around the globe –…
No Mutinies Here Mate
The British government has named Auckland businessman, Leslie Jacques, as the new day-to-day administrator of Pitcairn Island. According to the British High Commission, Jacques has been hired for an initial 4 month period, during which time he…
Robin Williams: “I Realised I Could Fall Out of Jonah’s Nose …”
Jonah Lomu has announced his withdrawal from this year’s NPC competition, and has given up any hope of making the 2003 World Cup squad. The most famed of wingers has experienced foot and calf muscle problems…
These Wings are Made for Walking …
A team of NZ researchers – led by David Lambert of Auckland’s Massey University – has broken new ground in the field of genetics to reveal previously unknown details about the moa. In a world first,…
Kiwi Juice Goes Global
Auckland-based kiwifruit juice manufacturers – Nekta International Limited – have made a successful entry into the US market. Sales have “exceeded expectations” since the product was lauched there in June. Nekta is already sold in Australia, Asia,…
Charting the Edge
Sydney’s Morning Herald publishes its 2003 top-10 lists for global rovers with Aotearoa again destination du jour. The chart toppers – Wine: Marlborough (“with its combination of bush, mountains and coastline … Cloudy Bay, Cairnrae and Allan…
Kiwi ads bug Cannes
Kiwi ad agencies excelled at last month’s International Advertising Festival in Cannes. Grey Worldwide Auckland won the Outdoor Grand Prix for its innovative insect-eye-view Kiwicare bug spray campaign and Clemenger BBDO NZ and Colenso…
DIY Cruise Missile
One for the z-files surely. Taking the No.8 wire mentality a little too literally, NZ internet developer Bruce Simpson, 49, has attracted headlines across the planet for his plans to build a DIY jet-propelled missle in his…
Walker’s Goes AWOL
Nylon magazine is all praise for Karen Walker’s gender-bending Runaway collection, calling it “a perfect blend of daddy’s old fishing jackets and backless chiffon mini-dresses.” Based in Auckland, Walker attributes her edgy designs to…
NZ Rugby the Winner on the Day
The Auckland Blues emerged victorious in a NZ dominated Super 12 competition. The ACT Brumbies were the only non-NZ team to scrape into the semi-finals. The final saw Auckland beat defending champions the Canterbury Crusaders 21-17. Southern Hemisphere domination…
Iconic Image Auction
A signed photograph of the 1905-6 All Black “Originals” has been sold at auction for $41,000. The photo had been kept in Aucklander David Wright’s family since 1906, when it was presented to his grandfather Charles Victor…
How to Remember Sir Peter Blake?
The government has committed $2.5 million to the construction of a memorial museum in the late Sir Peter Blake’s honour on the Auckland waterfront. Sports Minister Trevor Mallard: “The exhibition will ensure a…
Breaking Waves
The Auckland-based team set to compete in Australia’s National Basketball League has been christened the New Zealand Breakers, after consultations with players and public. According to Tall Blacks star Pero Cameron – who has been lured…
Captain Kirk
Aucklander Kirk Penney is one of the brightest stars on the American college basketball circuit. Penney captains and is the highest point-scorer for the Wisconsin Badgers, a team he has lead into the top 16. A…
Auckland Loves Lucy
American broadcaster CBS is the latest offshore company to take advantage of New Zealand as a production location. Currently shooting in Auckland is Redhead: The Lucille Ball Story, a 3-hour television movie.
Joining the Hoop
A NZ team is to join Australia’s National Basketball League next year, in a move sure to raise the sport’s profile even higher in this country. The Auckland-based franchise is yet to announce its name and…
Auckland: An Urban Paradise
Leap-frogging Sydney, Auckland is the fifth-best city in the world to live in, according to an annual survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting. The ranking takes into account a variety of political, social and economic factors,…
“The America’s Cup is …”
… off to Switerland. Team New Zealand, led by Dean Barker and defending the Cup for the second time, were eventually beaten 5-0 by the Swiss syndicate Alinghi, led by Kiwis, skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth.
Wireless Oscars
Auckland based company, The Hyperfactory, were commended at the 2003 GSM Awards in Cannes this month for their TXTDJ innovation. This was The Hyperfactory’s second consecutive nomination for what is essentially the wireless industry’s Oscar equivalent.
Bush Backlash Begins Down Under
A global wave of protests against America’s proposed war on Iraq began in New Zealand, with thousands taking to the streets across the country. In Auckland, a Greenpeace plane with a banner reading “No war, peace now”…
Animating America
Auckland-based Flux Animation Studio has made impressive inroads to the US market via a reciprocal partnership with New York’s Hornet Inc. The companies first teamed up on Saatchi’s acclaimed Anchorville series, creating a…
Out of the Primordial Mud
NY Times travel writer witnesses first hand the impact of Cup-fever on the cosmopolitan City of Sails and the hotel, restaurant, and entertainment legacy it leaves behind. “Auckland feels like a younger, fresher, smaller version of…
New Jump City
AJ Hackett Bungy is soon to open the world’s first harbour bridge jump site. The latest addition to the Hackett franchise will be located on Auckland’s harbour bridge – already a tourist hot-spot thanks to the…
NZ: Lonely Planet Hot Spot 2003
Proving that NZ is not only destination of choice for Louis Vuitton carrying America’s Cup acolytes, Lonely Planet, bible of the young and Birkenstocked, picks NZ as the grand winner in its annual survey of hot spots….
America’s Cup: Billionaires and Espionage
“Yacht racing has been compared to tearing up $10 bills while standing in the shower. In the case of America’s Cup racing, make that $1,000 bills.” Time Magazine delves into the high rolling depths of…
“Go to the World Girls and Conquer It.”
“Top city dame teaches Brit woman a trick or two”: BBC News series on women in business profiles overachieving NZer and head of City of London, Dame Judith Mayhew.”For a glimpse of Britain’s future, look not to…
Auckland Holding its Breath
The 2002 America’s Cup challengers series has begun (click here for BBC, CNN coverage), launched with fanfare on the streets of Auckland. The competing teams paraded through the central city, the Swedes blasting ABBA,…
“If It’s Made in Auckland It Looks Like the Future”
Spurred by the America’s Cup (“couldn’t be in a more fabulous setting”) Travel + Leisure checks out the evolving new world styles of Auckland: “The city has evolved over the past two decades from…
It’s in the Bag
NZ designers, Emma East and Nicky Harris, have taken their successful accessories line Rosa Bespoke Bags across the Tasman. The pair arrived back from a trip to Europe determined to oust the black leather…
NZ Condé Nast Hot Spots
US Conde Nast Traveler’s influential “hot list” names the Auckland Hilton, Eagle’s Nest in the Bay of Islands, and the lodge at Kauri Cliffs as the premier places to stay in NZ. Auckland’s
Karen Walker: Back Yard High Casual
6 page Observer spread: Walker uses her distance to advantage, preferring the hilltops of Auckland to the glamour and pace of Europe. “Karen Walker’s lived-in fabrics and homely knits evoke her idyllic New Zealand…
From Here to Eternity
“Tinkling ivories, crashing waves, visit volcanoes, rainforests and surf-pounded beaches where you can re-enact scenes from The Piano.” The Independent’s “one hour from …” series spreads its compass around Auckland and as well as soulful beachscapes in…
Sirs and Dames or Sheilas and Cobbers?
Four NZers received our country’s highest award via the Queen’s jubilee year honours list. Those admitted to the Order of New Zealand were; ex-Governor General Dame Catherine Tizard, Auckland anthropologist and Maori leader Sir Hugh Kawharu, former…
Aotearoa Adornment
Auckland artist George Nuku’s mother-of-pearl pendants draw inspiration from his Maori cultural heritage and feature on the cover of June’s American Vogue. “Pile on multiple pendants for a modern, urban edge”, Elle’s ‘make it your…
Postcard-spotting?
Lynn Barber leaves the trains at home and follows the postcard route through godzone, finds it to be “truly paradise” but also close to 100% boring. “To appreciate NZ you need to be all the things…
Best Haul
Ironically for Lynn, NZ was once again voted “Best Long Haul Country” over Australia, Cuba, Japan, Thailand et al by Guardian and Observer readers – they must have got off the bus and visited at…
World Class Metropolis
Good life here and now: Auckland is ranked above Munich, Melbourne, Stockholm and Toronto to win sixth place for overall quality of life in a William M. Mercer survey of 215 cities, topped by Zurich in…
Diabetes Breakthrough
Diatranz of Auckland claims it has conducted a successful trial that could eventually provide a cure for 15 million people around the world with type 1 diabetes who currently need daily injections of insulin. The Mexican…
Commanding Performance
Grant Dalton and his crew hold second place in the Volvo Ocean Race, as the event “reaches its spiritual home”, Auckland. “The World’s premier yachting capital”. according to the Volvo Ocean race website.
Cell-phone Sunblock
SMS sun-safety – who says cell-phones are bad for your health? As the Kiwi summer heats up Auckland’s Hyperfactory, in partnership with telco Vodafone and cosmetics company Nivea has developed a short-message service advising cellphone users of…
This is Your Life: Jonah Lomu
Jonah Lomu is lost for words when Michael Aspel accosts him at rugby training in England with the red “This is your Life” book, before taking him to the BBC studios. A long list of rugby…
NZ Hydro Pioneer Passes On
“Each time a switch is thrown on a toaster, in a woolshed or in a steel mill, there is an odds-on chance that John Malcolmson will have had a hand in generating the necessary electricity.” Malcolmson, originally…
Kiwi Couture
Kiwi fashion editor of the Daily Telegraph, Hilary Alexander, pushes the New Zealand Edge into euro fashion: ” may be half a world away from Europe and America, but its half a year ahead…
Deals Abound in New Zealand
“Wow,” exclaims an article written by an American tourist holidaying in Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Americans are catching onto the favourable exchange rate and the relative equality of prices, making NZ “an adventure playground…
“For You to See Our World the Right Way Round”
Allen Curnow, one of New Zealand’s great 20th-century writers and poets, has died in Auckland. Daily Telegraph: “regarded by many as New Zealand’s greatest poet” Curnow helped define a separate NZ identity in verse,…
Kiwi Koala
New Zealand film company Daybreak Pacific imported actors and animatronic Koala’s to Auckland for the shooting of Ozzie, a New Zealand made film featuring an Australian icon.
And Why…
“There was a moment halfway up the Coromandel Peninsula, only a couple of hours out of Auckland, when I felt that this was as good as it gets. But there was plenty of competition for that…
In the Xbox
Set to revolutionize gameplaying, Microsoft’s up-coming Xbox will have tools and middleware developed by Auckland-based Right Hemisphere. The New Zealand company has signed with Microsoft to create custom versions of its Deep Paint 3D and Texture…
As Good as New?
Age should be no barrier to going under the surgeon’s knife: 85 year-old patients come out of surgery as well as 65-year old patients according to Auckland researcher Dr Falah Haddawi, who believes the elderly are…
Auckland Attractions
“I fell madly in love with Sydney and I thought, ‘I don’t have to live in America!’ My wife was already in love with Melbourne. Then we visited Auckland and it became our compromise. It’s the…
Baby Steps
“The best place I ever visited was probably Australia and New Zealand in 1983 with Prince Charles and Princess Diana when they took William. In Auckland where the tour ended the pictures of Diana and Charles…
The New Millennium
In Auckland, New Zealand, a Maori warrior greets the first sunrise of the year 2000 with a traditional Maori trumpet.
Graniator
“No, no leave him alone, don’t hurt him,” yelled Joy Wemyss, Crowe family matriarch at a private screening in Auckland. Also, Audrey Crowe touched by mention of her husband.
Real Safe
Auckland-based Designer Technology’s Mail Marshal is the Pentagon’s security system of choice.
