Tag Archives: Sydney Morning Herald (The)

Explosive Photographs Part of a Cinematic Language

Explosive Photographs Part of a Cinematic Language

Auckland-based photographer Geoffrey Short’s photographs – on show in Melbourne this month – of high-powered fossil fuel and gunpowder explosions tread a precarious path between terror and the transcendent, Dan Rule writes for the…

Baldwin Street a Real Doozy of an Incline

Baldwin Street a Real Doozy of an Incline

Baldwin Street in Dunedin, “the world’s steepest street” is “like candy to my stunt-driver-trapped-in-a-conservative-car-owner’s body,” says Fleur Bainger in the Sydney Morning Herald. “The entire city is hilly but this particular slope is a doozy…

Aussies Shocked at Star Kiwi Omissions

Aussies Shocked at Star Kiwi Omissions

Australian eyebrows are being raised quizzically at the Kiwi league team announced to face the Kangaroos in the annual Anzac Day test match this Friday. With an injury list as long as a video…

Cooking up a Supervillain in TV Series Arrow

Cooking up a Supervillain in TV Series Arrow

New Zealand-born actor Manu Bennett, 44, has become an overnight sensation starring as Slade Wilson – and his DC Comics’ alter ego Deathstroke – in recently renewed superhero series Arrow. Bennett, who played the Gallic…

Artist Transforms Car Wrecks into Giant Kangaroo

Artist Transforms Car Wrecks into Giant Kangaroo

New Zealand artist Michel Tuffery is building a 4.5m high sculpture of a kangaroo from car body parts as part of a community project with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. In…

New Zealand Speak Clarified

New Zealand Speak Clarified

Australians are carrying around a dark secret according to the Australian’s Ben Groundwater, and that is that they actually like New Zealanders. And Groundwater, “at least, kinda loves them.” “Forget the forced sibling rivalry, most…

Canyon Road Unbelievably Scary as It Is Beautiful

Canyon Road Unbelievably Scary as It Is Beautiful

The Skippers Canyon road, 25 minutes north of Queenstown, has been deemed one of the world’s 22 most dangerous roads by British firm Driving Experiences, who gave the road an “overall road fear factor”…

Not Since 1974: Kiwi Dollar to Hit Parity with Aussie

Not Since 1974: Kiwi Dollar to Hit Parity with Aussie

The last time it happened Dick Taylor won gold at the 10,000m Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, Hone Tuwhare was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship for poetry and Bunny Walters topped the charts with his…

Crane Brothers One of Australia’s Top Suiters

Crane Brothers One of Australia’s Top Suiters

Sydney clothing store, the New Zealand-owned Crane Brothers, founded by former Zambesi menswear designer Murray Crane, is included in a Sydney Morning Herald feature on the best places in Australia to buy a suit. “No…

Warriors Season Full of Hope. Again

Warriors Season Full of Hope. Again

Every year it’s the same: this time could be the season when the New Zealand Warriors finally deliver on all their promise. The world’s toughest league competition, the NRL, kicks off on Thursday, with…

Air NZ Soars Above Qantas

Air NZ Soars Above Qantas

The last time Air New Zealand invested in the Australian aviation market, the airline required a Government bail-out to stave off bankruptcy as its subsidiary Ansett fell apart. This time round, it’s Air New…

Whare Kea Lodge Amongst the World’s Best Hotel Dining

Whare Kea Lodge Amongst the World’s Best Hotel Dining

Wanaka’s Whare Kea Lodge restaurant is one of the world’s best hotel restaurants according to the Sydney Morning Herald’s Ute Junker. It is included alongside New York’s Nomad Hotel and London’s Mandarin-Oriental Hotel, where…

Neil Finn’s Latest Solo Album His Funkiest

Neil Finn’s Latest Solo Album His Funkiest

“Neil Finn makes pop music, and good pop music at that. He can’t help it,” espouses the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior music writer Bernard Zuel, and he “makes the oddest and, to these ears,…

One Summer This Fearless Man Drove off the Luftwaffe

One Summer This Fearless Man Drove off the Luftwaffe

Keith Park was one of the great heroes of World War II, yet years later, when Peter Robb came across the laconic New Zealander, his contributions had still to be truly recognised. Robb recalls…

Nautical Hot Rod Breaches like a Whale

Nautical Hot Rod Breaches like a Whale

It looks like an Orca breaching the water in pursuit of its favourite stingray prey. But it is in fact the high performance “hot rod for the water” that is the brainchild of California-based…

New Zealand’s cows come home in its own commodities boom

New Zealand’s cows come home in its own commodities boom

The Chinese consumer market’s demand for quality milk products is fuelling New Zealand’s economic growth. Senior Australian economics correspondent Michael Pascoe outlines 2014 economic prospects for New Zealand, based significantly around a “one commodity…

Corey Anderson scores fastest century in ODI cricket history

Corey Anderson scores fastest century in ODI cricket history

23-year-old New Zealand batsman, Corey Anderson, has hit the fastest century in the history of one-day international cricket from just 36 balls. Playing on New Year’s Day against the West Indies in Queenstown, Anderson…

NZ Farewells World Cup Dream

NZ Farewells World Cup Dream

New Zealand football fans have a black sense of humour honed by decades of disappointment and only leavened by occasional World Cup success. So, the joke doing the rounds – “Want to hear something…

Taking His Own Passions into New Sydney Role

Taking His Own Passions into New Sydney Role

Senior curator at the Christchurch Art Gallery Justin Paton has been named as the new head of international art at the Art Gallery of NSW and will take up the position in January. Paton has…

Kiwis: Half a Century of Points Not Good Enough

Kiwis: Half a Century of Points Not Good Enough

Much sterner tests lie ahead but the New Zealand Rugby League team delivered an encouraging start to its defence of the World Cup with a 50-0 romp over the Cook Islands. The one-sided win…

Lydia Ko Goes Pro: Teen Golf Sensation Makes Announcement With Help From Israel Dagg

Lydia Ko Goes Pro: Teen Golf Sensation Makes Announcement With Help From Israel Dagg

Kiwi golf prodigy Lydia Ko has finally announced she has turned professional – but to mix things up a bit she has done so through a YouTube video and Twitter. A two-time winner…

South Pacific Star at Home in Sydney Opera House

South Pacific Star at Home in Sydney Opera House

Christchurch-born operatic baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, 47, shows Sydney Morning Herald journalist Tim Elliot around the Opera House, which is open 363 days a year – closing only Christmas Day and Good Friday –…

SBW: Maybe, No, Yes

SBW: Maybe, No, Yes

The first question, impolitely rhetorical, was WTF? The answer to the second question – will the Kiwis still want him? – will be decided today. Sonny Bill Williams has flip-flopped. Again. After keeping the…

Unearthing a Personal History

Unearthing a Personal History

Is an actual, physical, deadly and devastating earthquake too obvious a metaphor for personal upheaval? Sydney Morning Herald journalist Sally Pryor asks New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. Perhaps, he says, but in his case…

Dropping Soul-Dub in to Some Far-Flung Corners

Dropping Soul-Dub in to Some Far-Flung Corners

Wellington septet Fat Freddy’s Drop “are spreading their infectious grooves all over the world,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paris Pompor. In a shrinking, fibre-connected world, the band find themselves in ever more…

New Zealand’s First Same-Sex Marriages Occur Across the Country

New Zealand’s First Same-Sex Marriages Occur Across the Country

Just hours after same-sex marriage laws came into force, New Zealand’s first gay marriages began taking place across the country. 31 couples plan on tying the knot today, but the number is likely to…

Centenarian Joins Sydney Reunion of WW2 Veterans

Centenarian Joins Sydney Reunion of WW2 Veterans

New Zealand World War II veteran Frank Harlow, 100, joined fellow New Zealanders living in Australia at their first ever reunion at the Sydney Maori Anglican Fellowship Church of Te Wairua Tapu in Redfern,…

Robbie Deans Steps Down as Coach of Wallabies

Robbie Deans Steps Down as Coach of Wallabies

New Zealander Robbie Deans has stepped down as couch of the Wallabies, following the 41-16 series-deciding loss to the British and Irish Lions. The former All Black broke new ground when he was appointed…

Transport Man Made Tough Decisions from the Top

Transport Man Made Tough Decisions from the Top

Nelson-born Frank Baldwin, who died in March aged 81, was “known for a career marked by innovation and a certain amount of controversy,” Mark Juddery writes in an obituary for The Sydney Morning Herald….

Artist Will Light Up Sydney at 2013 NYE’s Party

Artist Will Light Up Sydney at 2013 NYE’s Party

Former guitarist for band Mental as Anything, New Zealand visual artist Reg Mombassa, 61, has been named the City of Sydney’s NYE13’s creative ambassador. This year’s theme will be “shine”. Kylie Minogue had Sydney…

China Overtakes Australia as NZ’s Biggest Export Market

China Overtakes Australia as NZ’s Biggest Export Market

China has overtaken Australia as New Zealand’s biggest export market for the first time, buying more meat, dairy products and pine logs, while shipments across the Tasman have fallen, says the Sydney Morning Herald. …

Marlborough’s Top Dog

Marlborough’s Top Dog

“Never a country to flood markets with bargain swill, New Zealand today boasts the world’s highest average selling price for exported table wine,” Globe and Mail life columnist Beppi Crosariol writes. “I think that…

King-Wall Named Principal Dancer

King-Wall Named Principal Dancer

Ty King-Wall, 26, from Katikati has been named the latest – and youngest – 12th principal artist of the Australian Ballet. The company’s artistic director David McAllister said he was certain King-Wall would make a great…

Cycling Through Spectacular

Cycling Through Spectacular

It’s a stunning experience to pedal 310 kilometres of the Alps 2 Ocean trail from New Zealand’s highest peak to the Pacific Ocean, writes Andrew Bain for The Sydney Morning Herald. “Alps 2 Ocean…

YouTube Whizz-kid

YouTube Whizz-kid

Corey Harris is a 16-year-old high school pupil from Kerikeri, who likes hanging out with his mates, gaming, photography and spending time on his computer. The bright-eyed teen with spiky hair is also New…

That Maybe So, But

That Maybe So, But

Sauvignon blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough region is now Australia’s top-selling white wine. A “savalanche” has left chardonnay and other whites for dust, and that gets right up the noses of Australian winemakers, who…

Big Beauty in Small Town

Big Beauty in Small Town

Queenstown is one of the world’s top 10 best small towns, according to Ben Groundwater of The Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s got all of the adrenalin-charged clichés you can think of,…

Outsider Looking In

Outsider Looking In

“This smart and sophisticated novel by prolific New Zealand writer C.K. Stead surveys the atrocities of our time – the attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, the Balkan and Iraq wars, the…

Holding It In For A World Record

Holding It In For A World Record

Free divers, like New Zealander William Trubridge, 32, are taking extreme sports to new depths, while ever mindful of not being shark bait, reports The Sydney Morning Herald’s Emma Partridge. Trubridge continues to hold…

Improvising Love In NY

Improvising Love In NY

New Zealand filmmaker Florian Habicht, 30, lets the people direct his tale of romance in the Big Apple. In New York he fell in love every few minutes, Habicht says. “Like with life, with…

Unexpected Tourism Drawcard

Unexpected Tourism Drawcard

The international publicity from recent eruptions at Tongariro’s Te Maari crater may actually be helpful, according to local tourism operators. Te Maari crater erupted for about five minutes last week, emitting a plume of…

All Blacks Kick the Scottish

All Blacks Kick the Scottish

The All Blacks have enjoyed a great start to their European Tour, beating Scotland 51-22 at Murrayfield on Sunday. Despite a competitive Scottish side, the experienced All Blacks team played in a different league,…

What’s Not to Like

What’s Not to Like

Raised in the North Island town of Ruawai, Sydney-based actor Roy Billing, 65, lives with his New Zealand wife Linda Tizard, a former entertainment industry executive, in the suburb of Coogee. Coogee, Billing says,…

These Kids are Feeling Good

These Kids are Feeling Good

A song written by The Flight of the Conchords to raise money for medical research for children, soared straight to No. 1 on iTunes within 90 minutes of release. Their song, Feel Inside (and…

Snapping Up the Roles

Snapping Up the Roles

Former Wellingtonian actress Chelsie Preston Crayford, 25, says her career move to Sydney was not about culture or leaving for a bigger city. In fact, given the choice, she would live back in the…

Soundtrack to Youth

Soundtrack to Youth

New Zealander Luke Yeoward, frontman of Melbourne-based band the King Cannons, talks to The Sydney Morning Herald about the inspiration for the group’s debut album, which was released in June. Drawing on…

It’s the Cat’s Whiskers

It’s the Cat’s Whiskers

Auckland’s private Kristin School recently secured the rights to the world renowned musical CATS, spending $85,000 on its annual stage production. Executive principal and show producer Peter Clague said the big-budget show would rival…

New Zealand a Place of Healing

New Zealand a Place of Healing

West of Memphis, produced by Peter Jackson and directed by American filmmaker Amy Berg, has had its premiere in Wellington as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. The…

Triumphant in Sydney Debut

Triumphant in Sydney Debut

Eighteen-year-old Pukekohe jockey Alysha Collett took on the big boys of the Sydney racing scene at Rosehill and emerged triumphant riding the Australian-trained Matiya’s Pride. Collett was invited to Australia by Sydney’s premier trainer…

Story Without Compromise

Story Without Compromise

“I don’t think I’ve read any fiction that marries the strengths of the short story and novel quite as adeptly, and without compromise, as Emily Perkins’ The Forrests,” Sydney Morning Herald journalist and author…

On the Slopes by Lunchtime

On the Slopes by Lunchtime

It’s possible to take an early flight from an eastern capital in Australia and be lining up at the lifts above Queenstown, by mid-afternoon, The Sydney Morning Herald’s online sports reporter Scott Spits explains….

Art the Lifeblood on Waiheke

Art the Lifeblood on Waiheke

“‘There’s something about this stretch of water that changes everything,’ sculptor Chris Bailey says, gesturing towards the Hauraki Gulf. ‘It has an almost cleansing effect.’” “Clambering out of Bailey’s cluttered ute, we…

Time to Pause for Thought

Time to Pause for Thought

An estimated 15,000 flocked to this year’s dawn service ceremony at the War Memorial Museum in Auckland to mark the 97th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli and to remember fallen servicemen and women….

Truly International Ambition

Truly International Ambition

Moa Beer founder Josh Scott’s vision is for Moa “to be New Zealand’s first true international beer”, with Australia and the US as prime export targets. “We recently refreshed the brand, including a redesign…

Well-Respected Senator Farewelled

Well-Respected Senator Farewelled

Picton-born Western Australian senator Judith Adams has died in Perth, aged 68. The former nurse, midwife and farmer was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. “Senator Adams had many friends in the Australian Parliament,…

24 Hours In Rotovegas

24 Hours In Rotovegas

Rotorua set itself up as a tourist destination in the 1800s; its pink-and-white terraces became New Zealand’s first attraction with people having to pass through sleepy Rotorua to reach them. “Today, Rotorua receives 3.2…