Kayaker Paddles from Australia to New Zealand
“Scott Donaldson has arrived in New Plymouth after spending two months at sea, covering 2000km,” as reported in The Guardian. “The 48-year-old has become the first person to kayak the…
Tag Archives: New Plymouth
NZ Museum Exhibition Includes Unusual Feature
New Plymouth’s Puke Ariki museum is “aiming to offer visitors a realistic glimpse of the perils the first European settlers had to endure on their voyage to the Pacific country includes an unusual feature:…
Will New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘Living Person’ Status Bring Respect?
“Recognition is something Māori communities have been campaigning for over 150 years. In 2013, they achieved a landmark ruling when the Te Urewera national park on the North Island was granted ‘all the rights,…
Toast of Taranaki
Arts, culture, hiking and fine dining abound in New Plymouth, on the west coast of New Zealand. The Australian’s Jane Nicholls recommends some highlights. “New Plymouth is festooned in festivals, including the world music festival…
New Plymouth Firmly on the Cultural Map
“ Lye’s story might well have slipped into obscurity had his 18,000-item archive not ended up in a small seaside city on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island,” Nigel Tisdall writes for…
The Best of Taranaki
“Tucked away on the central west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, the Taranaki region is both overlooked and under-appreciated. But for more intrepid travellers, the area dubbed ‘the ‘Naki’ is definitely worth a…
Best Places To Hike In New Zealand
As the New Zealand summer is quickly approaching, people from all over the world flock to New Zealand. A guest post on Buzzfeed lists some amazing places to go hiking in New…
Melanie Lynskey Acts the Only Way She Can: Honestly
Actor Melanie Lynskey, the “genial” New Zealand-born star of HBO’s comedy-drama series Togetherness, is profiled in the Los Angeles Times. Lynskey’s expressions are somehow familiar, a visage seen in her countless television and film roles…
New Plymouth Boys High Scool Haka
Hundreds of New Plymouth Boys High School students recently banded together to perform the famous haka war dance that would send chills down the spine of the most hardened…
New Zealand Opens First Single-Artist Museum
“If Len Lye didn’t exist, you couldn’t have invented him,” writes the New Zealand Herald’s Adam Gifford about the pioneering experimental filmmaker and kinetic sculptor on the eve of the opening of…
New Plymouth’s FIFA U-20 Football Madness
Just before the kick-off of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in New Zealand, New Plymouth hosted a range of football related events. At the annual New Plymouth Womad Festival, football fanatic Patrick Hay wowed crowds…
New Zealand Final – Rip Curl GromSearch 2014-2015 New Zealand Series
The final stop of the Rip Curl GromSearch saw plenty of action in clean waves at Fitzroy Beach, New Plymouth, Taranaki with six new champions crowned, and two international…
Crossing the Whitewash with Another Win over French
“New Zealand completed a 3-0 series clean sweep of France with a hard-fought but deserved victory at Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth ,” the Irish Examiner reported. “Ben Smith’s first-half try helped give…
Olivia Lefebre’s Modeling Career Takes Off
From being discovered while shopping, at St Luke’s mall in Auckland, New Zealand, to strutting on the Paris catwalk– Cook Islander Olivia Lefebre is making a name for herself in the tough world of…
London Kiwi Chef Brings ‘Balm to the Soul’
Kiwi chef Tyler Martin hails from New Plymouth. His Fulham restaurant is called Manuka Kitchen. The name is entirely apt, according to Independent food writer John Walsh. Martin and his partner Joseph Antippa’s food…
Discovering Sounds of Home
New Plymouth-born saxophonist and composer Hayden Chisholm, 37, toured Germany to learn about its rich folk music tradition – and why the Germans have a problem with it. His back-to-the-roots journey was captured in…
Charming Mixture
Lonely Planet’s 16th New Zealand edition praises Wellington’s “compact and vibrant” CBD for its artsy mix of theatres, galleries, boutiques, museums and a “cocktail- and caffeine-fuelled hospitality scene” that fairly “fizzes and pops among…
Artist of the Week
“Born in New Plymouth, in 1976, the now London-based Upritchard grew up in a hippy environment where the local hub of crafters and alternative therapists was offset by the oil industry,” Skye Sherwin…
Deliciously Unique
New Plymouth’s Big Wave Café, the Flying Fox café on the Whanganui River and Dargaville’s Funky Fish are some of the “one-of-a–kind character” cafés worth travelling off the beaten track to find according…
Running Paths Of History
New Plymouth-based ultra-distance runner Lisa Tamati and Australian travel journalist Chris Ord recently ran 140km from the desert outpost of Hermannsburg to Alice Springs — retracing the route taken by stockman Hezekial Malbunka when…
Where Fear And Awe Collide
Greymouth-born filmmaker and painter Vincent Ward’s exhibition Breath, which is on at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Gallery through 26 February 2012, is the first survey of Ward’s work within an art museum context and rests,…
Home Away from Home
Canadian life coach Karen Miners has made a new home for herself just outside of New Plymouth with her New Zealand partner, Dave. Miners, a former Montrealer, describes her life living abroad….
Ink star in town
New Zealand tattooist and star of Hollywood reality show LA Ink Dan Smith, 3, got his first tattoo in the kitchen of a house of a few friends who lived by acclaimed tattoo…
Too Good in Taranaki
The All Blacks have thrashed Ireland 66-28 in New Plymouth. Outscored by nine tries to four, it was a bad night for the Irish who have failed to beat the New Zealanders in 23…
She’s a Sensation
Fifteen-year-old wildcard Sarah Mason surprised the crowd at New Plymouth’s Fitzroy Beach beating current surfing world champion Stephanie Gilmour in the third round of the TSB Bank Classic. Mason handled the 1–1.5m waves more…
Making her mark in LA
New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey, 32, talks to the Wall Street Journal about being a working actor in Hollywood, her big break in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures and about Up in the Air co-star…
Toronto’s Triple Treat
New Plymouth-raised, Los Angeles-based actress Melanie Lynskey, 32, has roles in three of the most talked-about movies at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Her roles in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, Tim…
One for the ladies
New Plymouth-raised, UK-based magazine editor Suraya Singh, 30, has got Europe talking with the launch of Filament, a self-funded quarterly UK magazine that is squarely aimed at turning women on. Tired of being…
Montreal bound
New Plymouth-born actress Melanie Lynskey stars in the Anthony McCarten-directed Show of Hands, which has been selected for its world premiere at this year’s Montreal Film Festival. Show of Hands is based on McCarten’s…
Smither reveals wild side over tea and cake
NZ poet laureate Elizabeth Smither was a guest speaker at the recent Kuala Lumpur International Literary Festival. A journalist interviewing her for the Malaysian Star was amazed at her calm and easygoing persona, which…
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 High School, Wells was called…
Wind Wand Blows Over Hurricanes as Talk of the Town in New Plymouth
In the rural New Zealand town of New Plymouth rugby-loving citizens are normally attuned to talking about the local rugby team, the Hurricanes, but a 45 metre tall wand erected for the millennium has…
