Tag Archives: Guardian (The)

To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine

To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine

NZ-raised canon emeritus of Coventry Cathedral and Quaker chaplain to the University of Sussex, Paul Oestreicher, writes about guilt and forgiveness in the Guardian, using both WW2 and the modern day ‘War on Terror’…

International Hot Spot

International Hot Spot

Rotorua’s Polynesian Spa was listed on the Guardian’s top 50 Best Spas. “The hot springs at Rotorua are said to cure arthritis in three months. We can’t vouch for that, but after lazing in the hot…

Edge Connection for Leading Scientist

Edge Connection for Leading Scientist

Pioneering archaeologist Lady Aileen Fox has died aged 98. Born and educated in England, Lady Fox held a visiting lectureship at Auckland University from 1972 to 1983. She conducted excavations at Tiromoana Pa (where…

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Gourmet Burger Kitchen

London’s Gourmet Burger Kitchen – the brainchild of three Kiwi entrepreneurs – is credited with starting the trend for  fast food for the organic generation” in a lengthy Guardian piece. Now boasting 8 restaurants,…

Spoiled for choice

Spoiled for choice

Kiwi chef Rex Morgan takes Guardian food writer Jonathan Ray on a culinary tour of Queenstown. The eating extravaganza takes place at Morgan’s recently opened boutique hotel, The Spire (competitors will be “hard-pressed to…

Brits Back Fat Freddy

Brits Back Fat Freddy

Incessant European touring appear to have paid off for Wellington band Fat Freddy’s Drop. The dub/reggae/roots collective won worldwide album of the year at the annual BBC Radio 1 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Music Awards for their…

A thing of wonder

A thing of wonder

Released in December, Peter Jackson’s King Kong has received near unanimous praise from critics and movie-goers around the world. “This new King Kong is a folie de grandeur with real grandeur; in its power,…

Crash Claims Liquor Chiefs

Crash Claims Liquor Chiefs

NZ liquor innovator, Michael Erceg, was killed in early November when the helicopter he was piloting crashed south of Auckland. As the founder and managing director of Independent Liquor, Erceg was one of the country’s richest people. Grolsch…

All Black Domination

All Black Domination

The All Blacks have continued their domination of their Northern hemisphere tour with a 23-19 victory over England. Easy victories over Wales and Ireland were useful opportunities for trying out new playing combinations, but…

The new jazz order

The new jazz order

Stuart Nicholson, author of Is Jazz Dead (Or has it Moved to a new Address)?, names Kiwi Aron Ottignon as one of the six best new players on the international jazz scene. “Without anyone…

Five Million in the Stands

Five Million in the Stands

Despite widespread international media opinion that we would be out in the first round, New Zealand has won the bid to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup. After South Africa’s unexpected removal from the running, New…

On the Mark

On the Mark

The Guardian hails the rise and rise of Mark Baldwin, Fijian-born NZ-raised artistic director of London’s renowned Rambert Dance Company. After just three years in the job, Baldwin has significantly increased the Company’s…

A Life’s Work

A Life’s Work

NZ born education pioneer and author Dion “Darcy” Dale has died. Dale devoted his life to the teaching and studying of deaf and partially hearing children. He was particularly prominent in promoting the use of lip…

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Evolution in an Egg Shell

Massey University’s David Lambert has published his findings on the microevolution of Antarctica’s Adélie penguins in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lambert’s research shows a marked difference between the genetic make up of modern…

Jail Over War

Jail Over War

New Zealand doctor Malcolm Kendall-Smith may go to jail for refusing to obey the orders of the British Royal Air force and return to duty in Iraq. After already serving two tours in Iraq and one in…

Serial thriller

Serial thriller

October saw the UK premiere of hit NZ play, Serial Killers. Written by former Shortland Street scriptwriter, James Griffin, Serial Killers is a black comedy which takes place behind the scenes of…

Challenge to a War

Challenge to a War

Brisbane born, Dunedin raised and educated Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the man who refused to return to fight in a war that was “manifestly unlawful”, stood by his decision at a court martial hearing on 27 October at…

Coromandel by Kombi

Coromandel by Kombi

A tour of the Coromandel by Kombi with husband and toddler in tow turned out to be remarkably relaxing for the Guardian’s Jane White. The high point of the trip was a week spent in Hahei,…

Seismic Shift for Psychiatry

Seismic Shift for Psychiatry

A study of schizophrenia by NZ psychologist John Read, as published in leading psychiatric journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, could potentially “trigger a landslide” in his field, according to Guardian columnist and clinical psychologist Oliver James. The traditional…

The lion, the witch and the evangelicals

The lion, the witch and the evangelicals

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will not only be doing battle at the box-office but also for the souls of mankind, according to an article published in the Guardian. US groups such…

Kubrick’s Successor?

Kubrick’s Successor?

The latest Hollywood release by Kapiti-grown, LA-resident writer-director Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show, Gattaca) is Lord of War. Described by the Guardian as “a moral fable treated with a surface realism,” Lord of War…

Building Bridges on canvas

Building Bridges on canvas

One of NZ’s most respected Maori artists and pioneer of indigenous art in schools, John Bevan Ford, has died aged 75 from cancer. While tremendously skilled in traditional Maori wood carving, Ford is best perhaps known…

Slip Away

Slip Away

NZ’s Slipper Island features in a  Guardian list hailing the world’s top 5 exotic escapes. “On a private island off the Coromandel Peninsula you can swim off the white-sand beach and fish for snapper. Stay in…

Datsuns in good company

Datsuns in good company

The Datsuns have been invited to play on a tribute album for the late, great BBC DJ John Peel, alongside superstars Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Peter Shelley, David Gilmour and Peter Hook, and fellow…

Prussia of the Pacific?

Prussia of the Pacific?

A Guardian columnist points out an eerie similarity between the recent elections in NZ and Germany. Both were held on the same weekend and both delivered a spectacularly close finish between the two dominant centre-right and centre-left…

David Lange 1942-2005

David Lange 1942-2005

Former Prime Minister David Lange died on Saturday 13 August aged 63 after a long battle with ill health. He was regarded as “the best loved New Zealand political figure of the last 20 years” (Guardian Unlimited). Elected…

Book World’s Reigning Queen

Book World’s Reigning Queen

Literary doyenne Liz Calder, co-founder of Bloomsbury Press and nurturer of such talents as Salman Rushdie, Anita Brookner, Julian Barnes and J.K Rowling, has continued her success with the establishment of the Festa Literaria…

Mrs Peace Leaves Her Mark

Mrs Peace Leaves Her Mark

Political activist, peace campaigner and renowned author, Sonja Davies, has died aged 81, leaving an inspiring legacy in her wake. According to her Guardian obituary, Davies – known to many as ‘Mrs Peace’ – ranks…

More than just a pretty face

More than just a pretty face

“Ah, NZ. Land of outdoor beauty, fresh air, long walks over rugged terrain – but, come on, do you really want to fly halfway around the world for something you could find in Cornwall?” The  Guardian…

Southern Wine Hub

Southern Wine Hub

A new development in the South Island’s Hurunui region hopes to provide a focus for the area’s flourishing wine industry. The Waipara Wine Village will eventually comprise a hotel, villas, wine bar, ale house and a food…

Dishing the Dirt

Dishing the Dirt

NZ scientists at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research have developed a high-tech yet cost-effective new crime -fighting technique. The revolutionary system uses DNA analysis of the bacteria in soil to match a database of samples…

All in a Day’s Work

All in a Day’s Work

The Economist reports on ructions to repair the dire finances and arcane structure at Oxford University. Proposals by new vice chancellor John Hood to centralize decision-making and change the way in which dons’ work…

Rugby Stalwart Farewelled

Rugby Stalwart Farewelled

Former All Black captain, agricultural economist, and leading NZRU administrator – Bob Stuart, OBE – died in May aged 84. Although Stuart’s best playing years were taken up by military service during WW2, he successfully lead NZ…

Closing the Gap

Closing the Gap

NZ ranks sixth overall in a new study measuring the gap between genders by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. The top five positions went to Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. The WEF appraisal of 58 countries…

Academia and Industry United

Academia and Industry United

Cambridge-MIT Institute director, NZer Michael J Kelly, speaks about the importance of combining entrepreneurial and business skills with academic learning in the Guardian.”Governments around the world realise that it shouldn’t be left to chance as to whether…

Leading the Radio One renaissance

Leading the Radio One renaissance

Zane Lowe, the NZ-born DJ single-handedly credited with making BBC Radio One cool again, was named Music Broadcaster of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in London. He also picked up the…

Kiwis Climb Ranks at Oxford

Kiwis Climb Ranks at Oxford

Julie Maxton will join former Auckland University colleague John Hood at Oxford University next year, as the institution’s first ever female registrar. The 550 year old post is similar to that of a company secretary, with…

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

In a show of commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, NZ became the first country in the world to levy a public carbon tax. NZers will now pay an extra $2.90 per week for electricity, petrol and…

Analysing the “Yucky Side of Life”

Analysing the “Yucky Side of Life”

John Crace interviews Joanna Bourke, lecturer, historian and author of numerous academic books including the controversial An Intimate History of Killing and her most recent publication, Fear: A Cultural History. “Historians tend to come…

Mark the Great

Mark the Great

Mark Greatbatch comes in at number four on the Guardian‘s list of all-time greatest Test cricket rearguards. “He was better known as the man who invented pinch-hitting at the 1992 World Cup, but Mark Greatbatch could knuckle…

Sporty

Sporty

The Guardian profiles Rachel Hunter, host of new reality TV show Make Me a Supermodel. “In the 1980s, the age of the supermodel, she was as ubiquitous as Linda, Christy, Naomi and Cindy -…

Cutting Edge Electronics

Cutting Edge Electronics

NZ GPS innovators, Navman, showed off their latest creations at Germany’s prestigious CeBit electronics trade fair. These included the PIN 57, a Windows-based PDA, and the X300, which uses GPS to tell joggers, skiers and cyclists how…

Right Royal Stand-off

Right Royal Stand-off

The Guardian ran an overview of NZ media coverage of Prince Charles’ recent tour of the country. Commentary ranged from the Christchurch Press dismissing the Prince as “a faintly comic participant in a toffee-nosed soap opera” to…

Modesty Blaize

Modesty Blaize

Magazine editor, Auckland native and former Craccum muse, Louise Chunn, interviewed in the Guardian. Since leaving NZ in the early 1980s, Chunn has worked on such esteemed titles as Fashion Weekly, Just 17, Elle,…

Academic Superstar

Academic Superstar

The Guardian celebrated NZ-based academic weblog Arts & Letters Daily‘s 100 millionth hit by profiling its founder, Canterbury University’s Denis Dutton. Quoted is Robert Fulford, a columnist with Canada’s National Post: “The idea of Christchurch, NZ, as the…

Simple is Best

Simple is Best

The British government is officially considering modeling its pension system on NZ’s current superannuation scheme, which is described in the Guardian as “a model of elegant simplicity compared with Britain’s multi-layered mixture of private and state provision, means…

A Toast to Martinborough

A Toast to Martinborough

Toast Martinborough features in a Guardian overview of the world’s greatest wine festivals. “Martinborough is one of the few ‘old world’ wine villages in the southern hemisphere and home to much- lauded pinot noir and sauvignon blanc….

Science’s Conscience

Science’s Conscience

John Ziman, NZ-born scientist and humanist, has died aged 79. “After a brilliant youthful career in physics research he turned increasingly to reflection on the values and societal entanglements of the scientific endeavour as a whole ……

Long-haul Rivalry

Long-haul Rivalry

Australian-born Guardian columnist, Andrew Mueller, can’t understand the ongoing attraction of NZ to British holidaymakers. “Australia is worth spending 30 hours in a plane for,” he says. “NZ is Wales with more sheep.”

Tales of the Heart

Tales of the Heart

Colonel John Blashford Snell tells of “losing his heart in NZ” in a Guardian travel feature: “We are so overcrowded here but they have the most beautiful empty country with scenery that is stunning, like a high-altitude…

Seaside Hideaway

Seaside Hideaway

A Guardian travel special on remote retreats features Bethell’s Beach Cottages, run by Trude and John Bethell-Plaice. “The cottages have decking for alfresco dining, private gardens and sea views. A short walk away is Bethell’s beach: huge,…

Healer of Body, Mind and Soul

Healer of Body, Mind and Soul

The Guardian pays tribute to Duncan Forrest, NZ born surgeon and renowned anti-torture campaigner. An “outstanding and innovative paediatric surgeon,” Forrest spent his career at the vanguard of surgical developments in spina bifida, hydrocephalus and cleft palate….

A Task of Biblical Proportions

A Task of Biblical Proportions

David Norton, associate professor at Wellington’s Victoria University, recently completed the decade-long task of re-editing the English speaking world’s most important religious text: the King James Bible. The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible is accompanied…

Plays Hard, Plays Fair

Plays Hard, Plays Fair

All Black captain Tana Umaga received the Pierre Coubertin Trophy from theInternational Committee of Fair Play on December 9. Previous awardees include Martina Navratilova and Nelson Mandela. The trophy recognised his good sportsmanship in helping Welsh…

On Top of the World

On Top of the World

The All Blacks resumed their world No.1 ranking after a compelling 45-6 victory over European champions France. “I felt powerless,” said French coach Bernard Laporte. “I had the feeling that we could play for hours and…

Whinge Benefits

Whinge Benefits

Research undertaken at Victoria University suggests a positive side to gossiping and whining at work. According to the report, “whingeing to a sympathetic co-worker both reflects and constructs the close relationship between team members, thus consolidating the…