Brilliant Ideas Remain
Gifted Wellington-born academic Amanda Rohloff, who has died aged 30, is fondly remembered by her friend, Philippa Chandler in a Guardian obituary. “She grew up in Karori, excelled at hockey as a teenager and…
Tag Archives: Guardian (The)
Banking on Dancing Colours
Christchurch-born Len Lye’s “deliriously jazzy 1930s animation for the Post Office Savings Bank shows public information films needn’t be dull,” Judith Mackrell writes for the Guardian. “The colours might look late-60s-psychedelic; some of the…
Coral Sea Island Undiscovered
Pictorial librarian at Auckland Museum Shaun Higgins has identified the origin of a cartographic error, as a 19th-century whaling ship, which first ‘spotted’ the non-existent Sandy Island in 1876. It was a remarkable story:…
Change At the Top
Former AIA head New Zealander Mark Wilson, 46, has been appointed chief executive of Britain’s second-largest insurer, Aviva. Wilson ran AIA – the Asian arm of US insurer AIG – between 2006 and 2010….
Impressive Role Reversal
On 10 November New Zealander Glen Jackson will jog out at Twickenham to referee England’s opening autumn Test versus Fiji. It will be Jackson’s first tier one international and represents one of sport’s more…
Unexpected Welcome
Over the next few months at Wellington Airport, a giant 13m Gollum diving for 4m fish, will welcome visitors to ‘the middle of Middle Earth’. Designed by Weta Workshop, and built by Japanese artist…
Epic Story About Epic Men
A new book about New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Mt Everest “is one of courage, perseverance and jingoism”, author Justin Cartwright writes for The Observer. “Mick Conefrey’s moving book…
Honouring the Greats
Prince Charles is greeted with a hongi by Bruce Simpson from the Ngati Ranana London Maori Club during a reception at St James’s Palace for prominent New Zealanders, Australians and Papua New Guineans….
Best of Both Hemispheres
Wellington-born composer Lyell Cresswell has lived in Edinburgh since the early 1980s writing regularly for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO). “His latest piece for them, a triple concerto premiered here with the Swiss Piano…
Inspired by Home
Senior sous chef at Le Gavroche restaurant in London, New Zealander Monica Galetti recently answered questions from Guardian readers about, amongst other culinary things, cooking seafood and gender barriers in professional kitchens. “I went…
Middle Earth Mania
The country’s national tourism slogan “100% Pure New Zealand” has become “100% Middle-earth”, and in the days leading up to the premiere of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Wellington will be…
Big and Small Comparisons
In an appearance at the Mipcom conference in Cannes, New Zealand director Jane Campion explained that she was attracted by the creative freedom in television, in comparison to film. Campion was at Mipcom to…
Storytellers Converge
In an image from the Guardians’ “best news pictures of the day”, New Zealander Metini Mitai Ngatai poses prior to the official opening of the book fair in Frankfurt. The world’s largest book…
Anti-corruption Pioneer Remembered
Wellington-born activist and writer Jeremy Pope, who has died aged 73, “was one of the pioneers in what is now a global movement to curb corruption and improve integrity in government,” friend and colleague…
Hitting ‘Em With Enthusiasm
“Kimbra throws every angle of modern fem-pop at the wall with such ball-lightning enthusiasm that all of it sticks,” the Guardian’s Mark Beaumont writes in a review of the New Zealand singer’s London performance at…
Profiting From Here On In
Chief executive of Virgin Media New Zealander Neil Berkett, 56, is at No. 51 in the Guardian’s annual Media 100 list which ranks the industry’s most powerful people. It has been a landmark year for…
Looking Out For Archey
Archey’s frog, which is found on the Coromandel peninsula and in Whareorino Forest, finds itself on the full list of the planet’s 100 most endangered animals, as compiled by the International Union for Conservation…
Cry Over This
Crowded House song Together Alone is what British music blogger Paul Sinclair wants played at his funeral. Sinclair chose the track as part of the Guardian series ‘Six Songs of Me’. “The…
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…
Award-winning Silence
New Zealand comedian Sam Wills, 34, who’s solo act The Boy with Tape on his Face has been filling the 700-seat Pleasance Grand theatre since the Edinburgh Fringe Festival started, as won…
This Way for a Laugh
Auckland-born Rhys Darby, 38, features in the Guardian’s ‘Portrait of an Artist’ series in which he talks about his best experience performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at which this year Darby staged This…
Pyjama Police Alerted
“The city of Gisborne is divided and people are angry,” John Darkin writes in a letter to the Guardian. “It’s not the issue of water ownership that threatens the peace of this normally unflappable…
Brilliantly Immature
“Bounding along without a care in the world, this New Zealand band are aptly named,” the Guardian’s Michael Cragg posts in the website’s ‘New Music’ section. “If the joyously carefree and brilliantly immature Baby…
We’re All Invited
The first recipe New Zealander Margot Henderson tried was the ginger crunch from the Edmonds Cookery Book, the New Zealand household bible, The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke writes. And then there were the snails. “I…
Appealing to the Crowds
New Zealand-born screenwriter Mark Staufer has hit his $75k target on crowdfunding site Kickstarter for a project called The Numinous Place, which will be released as an ebook and app for iPhone,…
Wartime Pianist Remembered
The New Zealand-born pianist Colin Horsley, who was among the last links to the era of British music-making dominated by Sir Henry Wood, has died on the Isle of Man. He was 92. “From…
Lapping Up the Medals
New Zealand supporters in London have been enjoying the unusual experience of being ahead in Olympic medals over Australia. At Kiwi House Jessica Middleton, 24, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the colours of the…
Small Business Expansion
New Zealand business software company Greentree featured in the Guardian’s ‘Small Business Network’ section. “Greentree is special,” CEO Peter Dickinson says. “What makes it special is the wonderful community of…
Settling the Score
“Jane locked me in a hotel room with a piano and said she wouldn’t let me out until I’d finished,” British composer Michael Nyman, explains to the Guardian about his task to complete…
Pioneering Potter Remembered
New Zealand-born decorative ceramicist Kenneth Clark, who has died aged 89, was to tiles what James Dyson is to vacuum cleaners, Sarah Hosking writes for the Guardian. “He took a domestic product that had…
Writing Like a Virtuoso
New Zealand author Sarah Quigley’s latest novel The Conductor “reads like a proper up-all-night page-turner, but it also goes deeper than that, conveying the extraordinary life-saving properties of music, and hope,” Guardian reviewer Bella…
Out of Step with Her Peers
“Gin Wigmore, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from New Zealand, is a one-off,” Paul Lester of the Guardian declares, introducing Wigmore as ‘New Band’ No 1305. “Utterly unique. A maverick who dares go against the grain,…
Steeped in Melancholy
Former New Zealand-based author Kapka Kassabova’s latest “odyssey” Twelve Minutes of Love begins “in the enthusiastic, though limited, tango scene in Auckland” continuing across “three continents in search of the perfect dance (or ‘tangasm’).”…
In the Mood for China Girl
The Guardian recommends David Bowie’s China Girl video, featuring New Zealand model Geeling Ng, as one of seven music video recommendations “for every mood.” “Ng plays the China girl in scenes that toy with…
Inspirational Outlook
American novelist David Vann’s desktop picture is a view from his land in New Zealand. “We rented a place in Taupo Bay in 2009, for nine weeks, and that’s where I wrote the first…
Saving the Arctic at all Costs
New Zealand-born actress Lucy Lawless, who was recently in Rio de Janeiro to launch Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign alongside Sir Richard Branson, talks to the Guardian’s Susanna Rustin about her latest…
Mr Fix-it in the Running
Arguably the best-placed candidate to head News Corporation’s new publishing company is New Zealander Tom Mockridge, the safe pair of hands that Rupert Murdoch parachuted in to lead News International out of the phone-hacking…
He Makes Stuff You Want
Professor of mechatronics at Massey University in Auckland Olaf Diegel’s bespoke nylon-bodied guitars are attracting interest from all over the world. An exponent of 3D printing, Diegel’s zany guitar bodies are created using computer-aided…
Connecting the Health System
General manager for planning and funding with Canterbury District Health Board Carolyn Gullery explains how the city’s healthcare workers responded so quickly and effectively to last year’s devastating earthquake. “The transition towards a more…
Prize for Elegance and Economy
Wellington author Emma Martin has won the £5,000 Commonwealth short story prize for Two Girls in a Boat, which chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo described as “gorgeous, elegant and spare”. The story was chosen,…
Not for Children
Aucklander Chelsea Nikkel a.k.a. pianist and vocalist Princess Chelsea, is the Guardian’s recommended ‘New Band’ for 1 June. “Princess Chelsea is the solo project of Nikkel, a classically trained pianist and former…
Hall’s Racy Debut Feature
New Zealander Regan Hall is the director and producer of Fast Girls, a new film about the UK athletics team. Directing his first feature film, Hall was determined to find young actresses…
Super Image of Cosmic Lunar Event
Auckland photographer Simon Runting captured this once-a-year cosmic event which lit up the New Zealand night sky as the full moon passed at its closest point to Earth, making it appear 14 per cent…
Introducing a Guardian Fan
New Zealander Roger Cowell, a UK-based freelance writer and registered nurse, features in the Guardian’s reader series, ‘Good to Meet You’. “In 1974, aged 23, I came to the UK from New Zealand and…
Headrushing Pop Fusion
Ladyhawke’s May concert at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester is reviewed in the Guardian by Dave Simpson who says that “the verdict from the front row is a shouted: ‘This is good…
Short Sequence, Sharp Response
A 10-minute sequence from Peter Jackson’s forthcoming two-part Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been shown to conference goers at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The conference featured a presentation from…
Mad for it in Wellington
Wellington’s St James Theatre heaving with a full-capacity crowd features in the Guardian’s ‘24 Hours in Pictures’ as One Direction fans watch the British boy band perform. One Direction’s 2012 tour of New Zealand…
Recommended Listening
The release of Ladyhawke’s second album Anxiety is one of Guardian reviewer’s Alex Petridis’ “top picks of the spring.” Petridis writes: “The second album by this self-styled ‘pop superwoman creating radio-friendly songs with a single bound’ — aka…
Challenge of Mandarin Libretto
Dunedin-born opera singer Jonathan Lemalu, 36, tells the Guardian how he learnt to sing in Mandarin for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts premiere of Three Poems by Mu Xin, which he and the New Zealand…
Final Leap Beneath Blue
Teenager Alex Colvin features in the Guardian’s regular gallery ‘24 Hours in Pictures’, competing in the under-17 men’s long jump final on day one of the 2012 New Zealand National Athletics Championships…
Betty Fondly Remembered
New Zealand freshwater algae expert Dr Elizabeth Flint, known as Betty, who was still at the wheel of her 1958 Ford Consul in her 90s, has died, aged 102. Flint’s friend Catherine Haines writes…
Worth The Wait
Ladyhawke, a.k.a. Pip Brown, 32, features in the Guardian’s ‘The Week in Music — in pictures’ gallery performing a free in-store gig at Rough Trade, east London. The release of Brown’s highly-anticipated second album Anxiety has been postponed…
Coney Lights Up The Stage
Ex-New Zealand cricket captain and stage lighting designer Wellington-born Jeremy Coney, 59, lights up a London production of The Leisure Society, starring former British model Agyness Dean. “An air of glamour surrounds this French-Canadian import…
More Tintin Adventures
Peter Jackson will direct the second film in the planned Tintin trilogy, following the success of the first film in the series, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Director Steven Spielberg said…
Celebrating Women Top Chefs
New Zealander Anna Hansen, 42, chef-owner of the highly lauded Clerkenwell restaurant The Modern Pantry, is a participant in next month’s inaugural Girls’ Night Out — three evenings in London designed to celebrate…
Anxiety Android App Out
Ahead of the March release of her second album Anxiety, Masterton-born musician Ladyhawke has an app out in advance to promote it available on Android and iPhones. Guardian weekly apps review column writes: “Besides news, tweets and…
