Edge of Menace
New Zealand-born lawyer Denise Kingsmill, new deputy chairwoman of the UK’s Competition Commission, relishes her title as “the most feared woman in Britain”.
Tag Archives: New Zealand
Slow Potato
New Zealand researcher Graham Harris’s potato digging made him a finalist in the “Slow Food” 2000 awards.
Thatcher Revisited
Ten years after the fall of the Iron Lady, her policies still reverberate around the globe: “More than £4bn of assets have been privatised in countries as diverse as the Czech republic and New Zealand.” …
Hardie-Boys’ China Adventure
NZ Gov-Gen Michael Hardie-Boys will wrestle alligators and leap from speeding sampans as the guest of President Jiang Zemin.
Maori Shakespeare
Te Tangata Whai Rawa O Weneti, (usually known as The Merchant of Venice), currently filming in New Zealand will “introduce the Maori language to the world,” as well as making Shakespeare more accessible to…
The Porn’s on You
“New Zealand Member of Parliament Winston Peters lashed out at Wellington’s National Library of New Zealand, painting its provision of free Internet access as an invitation for unrestricted surfing of porn sites and for foreigners to check…
Digital Planet
New Zealand is the leading edge of the digital planet, with the highest IT spending (per capita) in the world.
Orphans of Poland
Schoolteacher Krystyna Skwarko survived the death camps of Stalinist Poland, fleeing to Persia and eventually resettling in New Zealand with her two children and 700 Polish orphans.
Nuke Free
New Zealand continues to play a key role in the call for a New Agenda, successfully co-sponsoring wider acceptance of Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments at the UN.
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…
Travel Edge
“Bungee jumping got its start here, and if dangling off a bridge by your ankles isn’t your idea of fun, there’s hiking – or “tramping” as the locals, known as Kiwis, call it – along with…
Power Dressing
The Powerhouse Museum’s Fashion of 2000 features New Zealand designer Karen Walker’s “it” broken pearl dress, alongside work by Stella McCartney, Galliano and Versace.
Lazarus
New Zealand First’s annual conference saw leader Winston Peters returning to traditional themes of nationalism, battling on behalf of the battler, equal rights for all New Zealanders and anti-political correctness. He also mentioned that NZF is still…
Edge Jet
“Created in New Zealand, Jet Sprint Racing places over-powered engines into undersized boats and blasts racers through swampy, shallow and tight cornered courses.”
Tumeke Te Nana
Karl Te Nana picked up Man of the Tournament and R10 000 after New Zealand’s winning sevens effort in Durban.
Wave of Light
National Children’s Memorial Day is dedicated to families mourning a child. The event is marked by twenty-four hours of candle light, starting in New Zealand.
Leia Skyjumper
Carrie Fisher on drugs, Thai food and going stratospheric: ‘I was in New Zealand recently, on one of those bungee catapults, which I was far too old to go on, and just as we were about…
Milk Flows South
Kiwi Milk, one of New Zealand’s big dairy players, has swallowed Kaikoura Co-operative Dairy Co. The merger will “assist with increased milk flows”.
Location location
New Zealand is hot property, drawing location scouts who scour the planet looking for the perfect waterfall or mountain stream.
Maine Marine
The US Conservation Law Foundation calls for marine sanctuaries, citing New Zealand’s flexible marine conservation scheme.
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?
Tuna Tussle
How much is too much? New Zealand, Australia and Japan have brought in independent scientific experts to settle the row over tuna quotas.
Godzone/Godawful?
Australian-based Kiwi Bernard Lagan trashes New Zealand’s health, wealth and spirit. Helen Clark exercises the right of reply.
Power Dressing #2
Dress for Success provides smart clothes for UK, US and NZ women looking for jobs. “This isn’t about ‘ladies who lunch’ sprinkling love and charity on the poor. The Dress for Success thing is…
Ice and Cannibals
Alan Gurney details three mid-nineteenth century voyages to Antarctica. Included is a “grisly description by a New Zealand missionary of the cannibalistic Maoris’ method of creating shrunken human heads.”
Milford Magic
“Awesome!” screams Eric Forseter, 23. “The sheer power of being under a natural phenomenon like that is unbelievable.” Milford Sound, “a virtual catalogue of natural wonders of the Southern Hemisphere,” awes and exhilarates visitors.
Location #2
“As globalisation impacts mainstream Indian cinema, one of the early fall-outs is a flight of locations, with Indian film-makers snapping up every excuse in the book to shoot everywhere – from Alaska to New…
Whale of an Appetite
Whales eat up to five times as much fish as humans, therefore protecting them is absurd, according to Dan Goodman of the Japan Institute of Cetacean Research, speaking at a whaling conference in New Zealand. …
Geeks Downunder
“Geeks have a great chance Down Under” states the Economic Times. This, and other such headlines, are drawing high-skill immigrants to New Zealand where “living conditions are definitely better than elsewhere”.
Versatile Machine
Pakistani engineers have developed a “bed shaper cum seed drill”, and are exporting the all-purpose agri-tool to Uzbekistan thanks to New Zealand sponsorship.
Sauvignon Temptation
Former Scots Rugby rep Rob Wainwright recalls a New Zealand tour run along the lines of a temperance society outing. The players escaped the coach for a day of deep-sea fishing, which swiftly “degenerated into deep…
Green-edged Canada
“The Green Party is part of an international movement of environment-centred parties that began in New Zealand in 1972.” – Values Party perhaps?
Burmese Campaign
From New Zealand to Burma, and then into prison for playing pro-democracy songs. Londoner James Mawdsley used his OE to fight SLORC.
Role-model Winslet
As well as being every New Zealand director’s actress of choice, Kate Winslet can handle a baby.
Kosher Washer
Dishdrawers by Fisher & Paykel are taking the American Jewish market by storm. The separate compartments make them the kosher washer of choice according to New Zealand sources close to the Paykel family.
Global Peddlers
250 bike-riding globe-circumnavigators are on their way to New Zealand as part of Odyssey 2000, an official Millennium event.
Special League
The New Zealand team “ran out of juice” in the final, according to Frank Endacott, but they received praise from England’s coach for their semi-final performance: “I thought New Zealand were a bit special,” said John Kear….
One Love
Bob Brett used to correct Boris Becker’s backhand. Now he’s formed a Paris academy to coach young stars, including fourteen-year-old New Zealander Eden Marama.
Southern Travail
“The temperature will drop as low as minus 10 degrees, waves will be as high as 4 meters and the wind will be as strong as 40 knots.” None of which deterred winning home team Propeller…
Hrithik era
Indian tourists are awarding New Zealand an Oscar. Visitor numbers have shot up on the back of a high-profile film starring mega-hunk Hrithik Roshan and New Zealand as the backdrop.
Whitewash
Maori cut from crowd scenes in Her Majesty, US-funded feature film set in New Zealand c.1953-54. Producer Walter Coblenz (All the President’s Men), said historical accuracy motivated the cutting.
NZ-edged NuTech
Matt Michalewicz, 24, founder and CEO of NuTech Solutions Inc fled to New Zealand from his native Poland at age six. He became “the only student I know of who drove to class every day in a…
New Zealand Pride
Not as bursting with hubris as the Algerians, don’t think we’re as great as the Greeks, not as frank in our appreciation as the French, but we’re in the top twenty countries that inspire pride in their…
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.
Relative Connection
“Groove is a Windows application that lets you swap ideas and information in the same way that Napster lets you swap songs … if you could get your cousins in New Zealand to use it, staying in…
Kiwi Cannibal Hookers
“We were shocked. The male would come ashore, grab the pup, swim out 5 or 1 metres with it, shake it around, kill it, and then bite off chunks and limbs and eat them,” said Dr…
SPF15+ Orchards
The phrase apple-red cheeks will no longer apply to New Zealand apples coated in kaolin clay to ward of the sun. “The kaolin-based product has cut sunburn damage on apples in half.”
Ali-Khan Do It
New Zealand born McGill (Canada) student, Sarah Ali-Khan, wins Quebec Athletic Excellence Award for All-Canadian Track and Field.
Idiosyncratic Mambo
Designer Reg Mombassa, “the quintessential idiosyncratic Australian artist, even though he’s from New Zealand,” is a key part of Mambo’s international success.
Home Brew
New Zealand horse takes out the Melbourne Cup. “Brilliantly ridden by 20-year-old South Australian jockey Kerrin McEvoy, the regally bred Brew made light of 49kg when scoring a two-length victory after starting from the outside barrier.”
Dog Eat Cat World
Felines are unwelcome at Macquarie Island. New Zealand cat-hounds are cleaning them up.
Pain Buster
Dr Abbey recommends New Zealander Robin MacKenzie’s Seven Steps to a Pain-Free Life to tame the back pain of Chicago.
International Treasure
Enterprising techno-toy hounds have devised a use for hand-held GPS systems: geocaching. 120 caches have been laid in 31 states and 13 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
Magical Mystery Tour
Bus till you bust with Magic Travellers Network, winners of “Best Scheduled Transport” in the 2000 NZ Tourism Awards.
Senior Junior
Anne Martindall (86), former US Ambassador to New Zealand and long-time companion of Sir Toss Woollaston, returns to college to complete her degree. “I believe in finishing what you start,” says Martindall.
Honey Cures Tummy
New Woman confirms a “traditional New Zealand cure”: eating manuka honey to banish stomach ulcers.
