Tag Archives: National Post

Dairy Farmer Richard Watson Embraces AI Technology

Dairy Farmer Richard Watson Embraces AI Technology

In the two months since US-based New Zealand dairy farmer Richard Watson strapped 200 remote-control-sized transmitters around his cows’ necks, an artificial-intelligence system named Ida has pinged his phone with helpful alerts: when his…

Jemaine Clement the Protagonist

Jemaine Clement the Protagonist

New Zealand actor Jemaine Clement’s performance in the “not quite rom-com” People Places Things “is understated, often characterised by the type of deadpan wit familiar to fans of his breakout HBO series Flight of…

North Island a Feast of Exhilarating Activities

North Island a Feast of Exhilarating Activities

Ahipara, on the west coast of Northland, New Zealand’s northernmost region, is a fantastic place to begin a tour of the North Island, the National Post’s Kat Tancock suggests. “It’s late afternoon on a hot…

Lemi Ponifasio Directs Epic Canadian Theatre Piece

Lemi Ponifasio Directs Epic Canadian Theatre Piece

Canada’s most ambitious musical theatre piece had a recent curtain call 35 years after its premiere, as part of Toronto’s 2015 Luminato Festival. New Zealand-based choreographer Lemi Ponifasio was called in to revive…

Interest Mounting in Abandoning Playground Rules

Interest Mounting in Abandoning Playground Rules

Swanson School principal Bruce McLachlan’s unconventional approach to playground rules is making waves around the world with school administrators and parents as far away as the United States and the United Kingdom asking how…

White Island’s Bubbling Features Ever-Changing

White Island’s Bubbling Features Ever-Changing

The most memorable sighting of New Zealand geothermal activity for the National Post’s Maryam Siddiqi was on a trip to White Island, “an active volcano that contains all of those belching, bubbling features, and…

Kauri Forests Charm Canadian Visitor

Kauri Forests Charm Canadian Visitor

Travelling through Northland on a ten-day tour of the country, National Post writer Maryam Siddiqi decides that ultimately, “the rugged west coast and its glittering green water” left the greatest impression on her. “As…

Floating Pumice Raft Intrigues

Floating Pumice Raft Intrigues

A mass of golf-ball-size pumice rocks almost the size of Belgium has been discovered floating 1000km off the northeast coast of Auckland. The 26,000 square kilometre- stretch of pumice was first spotted by an…

Taxing the Habit

Taxing the Habit

Over the next four years, smokers in New Zealand will have to pay 40 per cent more for a packet of cigarettes after the government announced tobacco tax hikes in this year’s budget. Prices…

Bric-a-brac lucky

Bric-a-brac lucky

A painting bought for $5 at a Northland flea market is expected to sell for more than $2, at an auction to be held at Aesthete Gallery in Hamilton on 22 November. The unsigned…

Welsh Prize Shortlist

Welsh Prize Shortlist

New Zealand author Eleanor Catton, 24, has made the short list for the University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize. The award, which is open to writers under the age of 3 who have been…

Harvest Hoppers

Harvest Hoppers

Blenheim’s Montana Brancott Winery hosts Canadian Lindsay Forsey to work “the vintage” between March and May, one of 120 seasonal employees hired from around the world. “I scored the lab position with a bit…

Waste Not Want Not

Waste Not Want Not

New Zealander Richard Gow has built a house in Canada made entirely from recycled and salvaged materials, including a deck built from wood out of a dumpster. Gow, a home renovator with a degree…

Joltin’ with the Jays

Joltin’ with the Jays

Aucklander Scott Campbell, 23, shook hands with Joe DiMaggio in 1995 as a New Zealand representative at the World Children’s Baseball Fair in Japan and this week, 13 years later, Campbell played Dimaggio’s Yankee…

History Lessons in Mood

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,…

Royal Interlude

Royal Interlude

Filmmaker Andrew Adamson’s Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, shot in New Zealand, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, has been released worldwide. The release comes just before Adamson takes a break from what has been…

Academic Superstar

Academic Superstar

The Guardian celebrated NZ-based academic weblog Arts & Letters Daily‘s 100 millionth hit by profiling its founder, Canterbury University’s Denis Dutton. Quoted is Robert Fulford, a columnist with Canada’s National Post: “The idea of Christchurch, NZ, as the…

Lions and Tigers and Keas, Oh My!

Lions and Tigers and Keas, Oh My!

National Post travel article muses on the many similarities between NZ and Canada: “The gracious wooden Victorian houses of Wellington could have been stolen from sea captains in the Maritimes. New Zealand’s endless high country sheep ranches…

Lord of PR

Lord of PR

Pete Hodgson – AKA ‘Minister of the Rings’ – dubbed “the most intelligent politician I have ever met” by National Post journalist, Cleo Paskal, in her article on the government-supported LotR publicity machine. “It…

Sarah-Kate Lynch’s Sure-to-rise Kitchen

Sarah-Kate Lynch’s Sure-to-rise Kitchen

Ex-NZ Women’s Weekly editor, Sarah-Kate Lynch, interviewed in Canada’s National Post about her first novel – Blessed are the Cheesemakers. The tale of a cheese-making couple and their musical cows has been optioned by…

Thinking iInside the Box

Thinking iInside the Box

NZer Chris Moller is one wall of expat architecture firm, Amsterdam’s S333 Studio for Architecture and Urbanism. The firm has won several international competitions. A winning entry currently being completed is a housing…

The B-list of Baaad Has an Axis to Grind

The B-list of Baaad Has an Axis to Grind

International relations satire: bitter after being snubbed for membership in the “Axis of Evil”, peer-conscious nations rush to gain triumvirate status in what becomes a game of geopolitical chairs: “Spain, Scotland and New Zealand established the…

Values Party – BYO

Values Party – BYO

Don’t miss Marlborough’s “tangy, medium-bodied, cranberry-dried” Saint Clair 2000 Doctor’s Creek Pinot Noir.  “Perfect with poultry or perhaps salmon, it epitomizes the remarkable values coming out of New Zealand”.

One Love

One Love

Anna Kournikova, “the tennis temptress whose courtships tend to garner more attention than her shot selection”, completes her 99th WTA tour singles event – the Auckland Classic – in the same way she ended the previous…

Palliser Palate Thriller

Palliser Palate Thriller

“My top pick Vintages white is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that thrills the palate: Palliser Estate 2000 Sauvignon Blanc.”

Miracle Reading

Miracle Reading

Reading Recovery, developed by New Zealand’s Dame Marie Clay, means results at a Toronto Public School where staff “watched miracles unfold” after the programme was introduced.

Docu Prize

Docu Prize

New Zealand co-production Wild Asia: Creatures of the Thaw wins Canada’s Banff Television Festival President’s Prize, worth C$25 000 .

And to Wash it Down…

And to Wash it Down…

Serving salad? Drink New Zealand Sauvignon, also just the ticket with artichokes and asparagus. National Post features refreshing Fairhill Downs Sauvignon and classy Palliser Estate Pinot.

Buzz From Cannes

Buzz From Cannes

“This will be the biggest movie of all time” – John Rhys-Davis in National Post preview and cast interviews; Rings “hottest show at Cannes” in The Age; BBC reports “gargantuan bash”;…

“I Will Herd Sheep”

“I Will Herd Sheep”

“Never doubt you can accomplish the task given to you,” says Canadian film-maker Sean Buckley. “I had barely been on a horse before, but there I was in New Zealand, needing a job. I…

Fine Drinking

Fine Drinking

Palliser Estate Sauvignon with “real intensity, poise and class”. “Brilliant reds” are “the undiscovered splendors of New Zealand”. Wine of the week: Stoneleigh Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.  

Fleet of Foot

Fleet of Foot

Ex-New Zealand detective Cheryl Fleet now runs international tours catering to women on journeys of adventure and renewal.

Fly Away Nanny

Fly Away Nanny

Free trips home to New Zealand are among the perks offered to nannies in London’s tight market.

Greenstone Hit

Greenstone Hit

New Zealand historical drama Greenstone infiltrates Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

Running Tragedy

Running Tragedy

New Zealand’s world record runner and Olympic gold medallist John Walker’s Parkinson’s highlights the increasing incidence of the disease.  

Lost Boys

Lost Boys

Les Blanchard found his long-lost brother in New Zealand – now he searches for the lost families of others.

Vertical Exhilaration

Vertical Exhilaration

NZ-filmed and directed Vertical Limit goes public. The scenery scores universal acclaim: Ottawa Citizen, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, ctnow, entertainmentnewsdaily, National Post, Chicago Tribune, the Star, Washington Post. Scott Glen battled Mt Cook, the…

A Plague on Both Your Houses

A Plague on Both Your Houses

“All the studies that have been done in New Zealand show that the sentiment ‘a plague on both your houses’ motivated the majority who voted in New Zealand’s 1993 referendum … in practice, MMP in New…

Killer Wine

Killer Wine

Wairau River Sauvignon favoured by the Star and National Post Online, “killer” Cabernet Franc in the Washington Post, Villa Maria leaves the National Post reaching for more.

Chiat/Day Edge

Chiat/Day Edge

New Zealand “tough guy” David Fong gets Toronto ad agency into shape: “We have to be world class.”

Grief Vultures

Grief Vultures

“At a conference in Auckland, New Zealand, Dr. Simon Wessely called for an end to grief counselling, which he denounced as ineffective and even voyeuristic, tossing counsellors with otherwise-humdrum lives into the same dreaded category as ambulance…

Woolly Coincidence

Woolly Coincidence

Was it morphic resonance that caused New Zealand sheep to start rolling across cattle girds at the same time as their Welsh cousins? Could a similar force be affecting sisterly novelists?

Unsubsidised Exuberance

Unsubsidised Exuberance

New Zealand farmers are spreading the anti-subsidy word to Canuks: “We were regarded as leeches in society. Now we take our place. We’ve earned the respect of society,” says Fed. Famers’ Pres. Alistair Polson in Ottawa.

Dame Delights

Dame Delights

“Well, little Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a friend of mine. She’s a little New Zealand singer.” Dame Edna Everage of Australia on her illustrious mate, Kiri.

Say Fish

Say Fish

Mi’kmaq Indians look to New Zealand’s lead on fishery settlement deals. “Strong, tradeable property rights in fishing can be powerful economic and environmental force,” argues this article.  

Fine Vintage

Fine Vintage

1978 was a good year for wine in New Zealand. That’s when John Simes, now winemaker at Mission Hill in Okanagan, Canada, began his career. The Kiwi is one of the “trained and experienced winemakers” imported to…

Kiwi President of Iconoclastic Toronto Advertising Agency

Kiwi President of Iconoclastic Toronto Advertising Agency

New Zealander David Fong was earlier this year appointed President of Toronto advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day and along with Creative Director Jamie Way has turned the agencies flagging fortunes around with the attraction of some…

The Outsider: Huck Finn on Heroin

The Outsider: Huck Finn on Heroin

Alison Maclean brings verge vision to the story of an American outsider. Jesus’ Son, an adaptation of a story by cult American author Dennis Johnson, is about a 7’s junkie who finds redemption. The…

Counting on Sheep

Counting on Sheep

A flock of mentally deficient sheep in New Zealand are providing scientists with vital clues in the search to find a cure for Batten disease.  Dave Palmer of Massey university has spent nearly twenty years breeding sheep…

New Zealand Whites the Best

New Zealand Whites the Best

Before you call the PC Police, the reds are pretty good as well: The National Post’s Michael Vaughan pines for New Zealand wines, “The LCBO Classics Catalogue offers slim pickings from a country with a lot…

Expensive as Gold, Rare as Diamonds – Dying Delicacy Revived in New Zealand

Expensive as Gold, Rare as Diamonds – Dying Delicacy Revived in New Zealand

“The truffle’s true future may lie in balmy New Zealand … Do New Zealand truffles taste like Lalbenque truffles? The Kiwis say yes. How can I afford to join the controversy?”.  

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Legend Kiri Te Kanawa Opens on Stage in Montreal

Kiri Te Kanawa enjoys almost unique prestige in the public eye. She attracted a VIP crowd (including Prime Minister Jean Cretien) to the Centre Pierre Peladeau.

Solid Achieving New Zealand Economy – an Oxymoron?

Solid Achieving New Zealand Economy – an Oxymoron?

“In broader terms, the best-performing economies of the 20th century have been the “Western Offshoots” of Western Europe – the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand”.

Nabokov’s Pale Fire Still Smoulders

Nabokov’s Pale Fire Still Smoulders

38 years later, the mystery continues to intrigue… Auckland University’s Professor Brian Boyd attempts to solve the enigma.