Tag Archives: Sydney Morning Herald (The)

Back from the Brink and Here to Stay

Back from the Brink and Here to Stay

The Herald profiles NZ’s master business tactician, Burns Philip head Graeme Hart. “Were it not for Mr Hart’s charm and reputation for ego-free business dealings, it would be easy to mistake that supreme confidence for arrogance. He…

Ferns End 15-year Drought

Ferns End 15-year Drought

The Silver Ferns crushed traditional rivals Australia in a historic 3-0 series win – their first clean sweep against Australia since 1989. The Ferns won the final match 53-46, after trailing for much of the game. Australian…

Fashion’s High Fliers

Fashion’s High Fliers

Air NZ has launched a much-needed overhaul of its flight attendants’ uniforms (last updated in 1991), with Elisabeth and Neville Findlay of Zambesi at the helm. The airline was recently announced as the new…

Far and Away

Far and Away

A team of NZ and Japanese astronomers at Mount John Observatory have discovered Earth’s most distant planetary neighbour. The planet – which is about the size of Jupiter – was located 17,000 light years away, in the…

Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget

Russell Crowe provided the narration for a “ground-breaking” documentary series on Anzac soldiers, recently aired on NZ television and screening in Australia later this year. The series celebrates the bond between NZ and Australian soldiers, from WW1 to…

Star on the rise

Star on the rise

14-year-old Wellington performer Letitia Forbes has a starring role in the latest production by Cirque de Soleil – Quidam. An accomplished singer and actress, Forbes plays the central character of Zoe. The show is…

Down Under Distillery on Top

Down Under Distillery on Top

The international success of NZ’s 42BELOW vodka has dealt big brand owners “a hard lesson in what not to do when wooing a global consumer tribe of super groovers with money to burn.” 42BELOW has joined Grey…

World Gender Role

World Gender Role

Amanda Ellis –  formerly head of women’s banking for Westpac Australia – now has a global role leading the World Bank’s work on gender in Private Sector Development. Ms Ellis also serves on the OECD’s international…

“The New Zealand Native Who Helped Open the Door to the Stars”

“The New Zealand Native Who Helped Open the Door to the Stars”

17 March 2004 – William Pickering, one of the leading figures in US space exploration, died of pneumonia in California aged 92.  A graduate of Canterbury University and the California Institute of Technology, Wellington-born…

Belated Honour for White Mouse

Belated Honour for White Mouse

3 March 2004 – Nancy Wake, the most decorated female veteran of WW2, was made a Companion of the Order of Australia on March 3. Born in NZ and raised in Australia, Wake was a leading…

Kiwi Content for Oscars Loot

Kiwi Content for Oscars Loot

This year’s official Oscars goodie-bag – handed out to every presenter, performer and nominee – included a trip for two to NZ, with accommodation at Treetops Luxury Lodge & Estate in Rotorua. With recipients including Julia Roberts,…

Just in Case You Missed That One..

Just in Case You Missed That One..

The Return of the King picked up yet another prize en route to the Oscars; Best International Film at the inaugural Directors Guild of Great Britain awards.  

Talking Turkey

Talking Turkey

Evolutionary biologists at Auckland University have made ivory tower headlines by providing compelling evidence of the origins of the Indo-European language family. Associate Professor Russell Gray and PhD student Quentin Atkinson applied a complex computer program modelled…

More Glowing PJ Praise

More Glowing PJ Praise

Sydney Morning Herald awestruck by the premiere, wonders how PJ managed to pull off “the trilogy of a lifetime” Operatic high praise from The New Yorker who credits the trilogy with reviving “the…

Metal, Opera, and All that Jaz

Metal, Opera, and All that Jaz

Jaz Coleman – the legendary “madman” behind British industrial rock band, Killing Joke, and a recently naturalised Kiwi (“It’s not safe to have a British or Australian passport, anyway, these days.”) – held court…

McCahon’s Edgy New-world Modernism

McCahon’s Edgy New-world Modernism

Peter Hill’s review of the Stedilijk Museum’s Colin McCahon exhibition – now showing in Sydney – perfectly encapsulates the New Zealand Edge. “Enough time has passed for a shift between the centre and the…

A day like no other

A day like no other

Alone It Stands, John Breen’s play about the infamous 1978 All Black loss to Irish club Munster, ran at Sydney’s Opera House Drama Theatre during the Rugby World Cup – not on match nights,…

Beware the Shaky Isles

Beware the Shaky Isles

The grim travel warning issued for NZ by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has caused derision on both sides of the Tasman. According to the DFAT, NZ is a terrorist target located on a hot-bed…

Get Real

Get Real

Brent Hansen, NZ-born MTV Europe chief executive, criticises the current obsession with ready-made pop stars epitomised by hit reality Television show, American/Australian Idol: “These programs make good TV but from a musical point of…

Gracious in their Success

Gracious in their Success

As their compatriots continue to climb the ranks in Hollywood  think Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts, and Hugh Jackman  the Australian public has decided to toss a few honorary countrymen back…

Kiwis Tie Down Kangaroos

Kiwis Tie Down Kangaroos

The Kiwis convincingly defeated the Australian Kangaroos with a rousing 30-16 victory in a rugby league test at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland. Led by the hat-trick of tries by Clinton Toopi (a trans-Tasman record) and another…

The ‘Rapa’s Best Kept Secrets

The ‘Rapa’s Best Kept Secrets

Herald writer, Tim Dick, extols the many virtues of his Wairarapa homeland – which have thus far escaped the notice of Wellingtonian wine tourists. High on his list of recommendations are having a “three-scoop ice-cream from the…

Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers

Sam Neill, Rachel Blake (Lantana) and Joel Toebeck star in Gaylene Preston’s genre-bending twisted-tale of a pick up gone wrong on the South Island’s rugged West Coast or, “chick flick – deconstructed … subversion…

Antarctic Archives

Antarctic Archives

NZ’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences has received international funding to drill more than a kilometre beneath Antarctica in order to gain access to the “untapped record of climate change” held in its sedimentary layers. Otago…

Tips from the Top

Tips from the Top

Telecom NZ CEO, Theresa Gattung, interviewed in the SMH after figures from the second annual survey by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency show a “miniscule” improvement in the Australian corporate world’s gender imbalance….

Kapiti Creme Anglaise: Finger Licking Good

Kapiti Creme Anglaise: Finger Licking Good

SMH’s ‘Good Food Guide’ salivates over Kapiti Creme Anglaise: “Talk about the perfect dinner party treat. Heavenly drizzled over cakes and tarts. Or on your finger when you’ve got a hankering for something sweet…

In the frame … again

In the frame … again

Janet Frame was again shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature for a second time, despite making the Swedish Academy’s top five finalists and being picked to win by one of the country’s…

42 Below NZSX-y

42 Below NZSX-y

Award-winning NZ vodka label, 42 Below – has enlisted the help of Kiwi supermodel Kylie Bax and San Antonio Spurs basketball player Sean Marks to promote his product in the lucrative US market….

What Will Pinetree Think …

What Will Pinetree Think …

The All Blacks are using Telecom’s most state-of-the-art technology in their bid to win this year’s Rugby World Cup. Coach John Mitchell will be able to view streamed video footage of multiple angles of the game…

Eric “Bueller” Watson

Eric “Bueller” Watson

SMH charts the enviable career of Eric Watson; from butcher’s apprentice to multimillionaire businessman and owner of the NZ Warriors, (who bowed out in the semi-finals of the 2003 NRL to eventual winners Penrith). “See Eric…

Watt’s Up Jackson?

Watt’s Up Jackson?

Peter Jackson has reportedly asked Australian actress Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, The Ring) to play the female lead in King Kong, which begins shooting in Wellington this November.

Robin Williams: “I Realised I Could Fall Out of Jonah’s Nose …”

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…

He is: Looking Edge-ward for Inspiration

He is: Looking Edge-ward for Inspiration

This year’s recipient of Australia’s $20,000 Dobell Prize for drawing, Aida Tomescu cites a work by Colin McCahon as the inspiration behind her winning piece, Negru III and Negru IV. “It triggered a series…

Natural High

Natural High

Sydney Morning Herald journo-cum-adventurer recommends NZ as the perfect training ground for would-be mountaineers: “It’s close, cheap, the inhabitants speak English, and the mountains are world-class.” Particularly highly regarded is the NZ Mountain Safety Council’s 2-day advanced…

Aquada, Bond Aquada, 0064

Aquada, Bond Aquada, 0064

International media attention was lavished on The Thames, London, for the launch of NZ-entrepreneur Alan Gibb’s revolutionary Aquada (inspired by inventor Terry Roycroft’s design innovations). The James Bond-style sports vehicle with the amphibian edge can reach up to…

Glass Master #1

Glass Master #1

Wanganui artist David Murray has won Australia’s prestigious Runamok Prize for Contemporary Glass Art for 2003 for his work entitled ‘Gatherer’.  

Wahine Takes Manhattan

Wahine Takes Manhattan

Pania Rose, Australia’s latest supermodel has an Aotearoa genetic advantage: “After securing local campaigns for Country Road and the all-Aussie undies label , the 19-year-old has hit the big time in the US, scoring…

Brake Continues to be Benchmark

Brake Continues to be Benchmark

Australian photojournalist Paul Blackmore is compared to late great NZ photographer, Brian Brake, in a review by the Herald. Blackmore’s Waters images are reminiscent of Brake’s Monsoon series – “one of the most successful…

EasyNZ

EasyNZ

Air NZ has responded to increased and heavily discounted competition by introducing a no-frills Tasman Express service. So far, the cheap fares are proving to be a lucrative addition; by mid-August, Air NZ had tripled its average…

It’s a Black-out

It’s a Black-out

SMH: “they simply cannot beat the All Blacks”. The All Blacks join England as World Cup favourites after winning both the Tri-Nations’ Trophy and and Bledisloe Cup, making it two out of three thus…

Behind Every Great Woman…

Behind Every Great Woman…

NZ-born producer, Linda McDougall, interviewed in the Sunday Times about her Channel 4 documentary, Married to Maggie: Denis Thatcher’s Story. McDougall collated interviews with the former British PM and her late husband – many…

Down Under Cowboy

Down Under Cowboy

NZ-born Keith Urban has been dubbed the new face of country music in the US. With his chiselled good looks, tattoos, and relatively loose jeans, Urban is doing for c&w blokes what Shania Twain…

The Name Game

The Name Game

NZ pop-art exponent, Billy Apple (nee Barry George Bates,) listed alongside Odd Nerdrum, Hercules Fisherman, and Seymour Likely as one of the “unbeatable names in the art world.” Buy Billy Apple in the…

Charting the Edge

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…

Silver Ferns Strike Gold

Silver Ferns Strike Gold

The New Zealand Silver Ferns netball team emphatically shrugged off a decade of being netball’s bridesmaids to beat arch rivals Australia 49 – 47 and win the World Champion title in Jamaica. “Finally,” said relieved Silver Fern’s…

A View from Down Under

A View from Down Under

A forum for ex-pat NZ, Australian, and South African amateur filmmakers living in London – the UpOverDownUnder film festival – is now in its third year. Over that time, the festival has…

The first, second, and third Noel

The first, second, and third Noel

The trio behind Kiwi comedy act The Four Noels – James Pratt, John Forman, and Jesse Griffin – interviewed in SMH. The group formed in 1996, without any strictly comic ambitions. “We just wanted…

Paddo Pleats to Please

Paddo Pleats to Please

Leading Sydney retailer, Belinda Seper, is stocking hand-pleated designs by “New Zealand newcomer” Rachel Pederson at her new store in William Street, Paddington. Pederson’s work will hang alongside that of Michelle Jank, Easton Pearson,…

Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms

The Turkish government is seeking World Heritage listing for Anzac Cove – where the WW1 battle of Gallipoli took place. Turkey believes the site to be of lasting moral value, in that it embodies a unique bond…

Glamour Girls

Glamour Girls

A photographic exhibition by NZ artist Fiona Clark is creating a stir at Sydney’s Mori Gallery. Go Girl – a series of portraits of NZ’s transgender and transvestite community – is described in the…

Laga’aia Lionised

Laga’aia Lionised

NZ performers feature strongly in Sydney’s highly anticipated production of The Lion King. Vincent Harde plays the lead role of Simba, with Water Rats star Jay Laga’aia as his on-stage father, Mufasa. The Disney…

Edge Location: Best in Show

Edge Location: Best in Show

A personal navigation system produced by NZ company, Navman, topped the Herald‘s list of best inventions at Sydney’s Consumer Electronics and Entertainment exhibition. The handheld device uses GPS satellite tracking technology to steer tourists around foreign…

Slow burner

Slow burner

Annamarie Jagose’s Slow Water – the tale of a gradual unravelling of English class systems and sexual identities on a voyage to colonial NZ – praised in the SMH. “The book has a wide…

Euphoria Against the Odds

Euphoria Against the Odds

The world premiere of Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table was listed as one of the 50 greatest moments in the Sydney Film Festival’s first 50 years of running in a Sydney Morning…

“Australia’s Castaways Are Happier to Call NZ Home”

“Australia’s Castaways Are Happier to Call NZ Home”

SMH profiles the Afghani “Tampa” refugees, who were taken in by the NZ government after being refused entry to Australia. Pacific minded NZ authorities have granted them the right to reunite with their families,…

“Snap, crackle and grace”

“Snap, crackle and grace”

SMH: “Black Grace, New Zealand’s all-male company of Maori and Pacific Island dancers, is the most engaging and entertaining company to visit Sydney for years. Maybe since the last time they were here…