Small Screen Gives Jane Campion New Space to Shine
In a review of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake: China Girl, which is currently screening on BBC2 in the UK, the Guardian’s Sam Wollaston says that not only is lead Elisabeth Moss “mesmerising,…
Tag Archives: Guardian (The)
Katherine Mansfield’s Garden Party Puffs Puffed
Katherine Mansfield’s 1922 short story The Garden Party, set around the wealthy Sheridan family’s shindig, inspires Guardian columnist Kate Young to make a dessert from their elegant spread. That meant the cream puffs had come….
Jacinda Ardern Shames TV Dinosaurs
Hours after taking office, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, 37, faced down pundits asking if she planned on starting a family, a question rarely asked of men in politics. The Guardian takes a look at…
New Zealand Mourns Death of Sir John Graham
Sir John Graham, widely known as DJ, has died at the age of 82. Graham was a former All Blacks captain, a respected educator and staunch opponent of apartheid. Graham represented New Zealand 53 times,…
Joshua Wood Shortlisted for Astronomy Photography Award
New Zealander Joshua Wood has been shortlisted for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award – the world’s biggest international astrophotography competition. The Guardian introduces the shortlisted photographers. His shot…
Peter Gordon Likes Shelves Stocked With Memories
New Zealand chef Peter Gordon tells the Guardian’s Anna Wilkins about the characteristics of his home kitchen for the newspaper’s regular column, A Cook’s Kitchen. “I used to come to Broadway Market on Saturdays and…
Jane Campion is a Clever Person Doing TV
From Sweetie to The Piano, New Zealander Jane Campion has made some of cinema’s strangest, strongest films. So why has she switched to the small screen? The Guardian investigates. It is eight years since Campion,…
Standing up for Mince on Toast
After American food website Eater published a recipe for good old-fashioned mince on toast, claiming it was a quintessentially British comfort food, Britons cried foul, that it had nothing to…
Chef Anna Hansen at Home in Her Own Kitchen
New Zealand-born chef Anna Hansen, of London’s The Modern Pantry, finally got to design her own kitchen. The result? She tells the Guardian she likes everything but the kitchen sink. “We didn’t have to do…
Jane Campion on Inspiration Behind New TOTL Series
Fans of the critically acclaimed crime drama Top of the Lake will be eagerly awaiting its return at the end of this month – but writer New Zealand-born Jane Campion admits to the Observer…
Fans From Both Sides Celebrate All Blacks Lions Draw
A draw. A dead heat. 15-15. And the series too, after the epic twists and turns of the last three weeks, is therefore a tie: one win for New Zealand, one win for the…
Team New Zealand One Point From Glory After Win Over Oracle
“Helmsman Peter Burling and his underdog Emirates Team New Zealand won two races on Sunday to reach match point in the America’s Cup against Jimmy Spithill and two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA,” as…
New Zealand Run Away with First Test Against Lions
“The British & Irish Lions must now win both remaining Tests to deny New Zealand a series victory after a sobering loss to the All Blacks in Auckland. The Lions defended heroically at times…
Taika Waititi Tackles Tiny Racists
New Zealand has hauled in its biggest stars in an effort to crack down on rising levels of racism in our famously peaceful South Pacific nation. Hollywood director and New Zealander of the year…
Helen Clark Hit Her First Glass Ceiling at the UN
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark says the rejection of her bid to become the next UN secretary general was a blow for women, but the security council weren’t looking for an “independent-minded…
All Blacks Thrash Samoa 78-0
“The All Blacks were at their sublime best in a 78-0 drubbing of Samoa that will have the Lions hoping the losers had an off night. Otherwise the tourists face a daunting task here…
Local Fundraising Hopes to Save Chocolate Factory
A crowdfunding campaign to save Dunedin Cadbury chocolate factory has raised $3.3 million in less than two days, prompting hopes that locals can continue the tradition of chocolate-making – and eating. Mondalez International announced in…
Susan Te Kahurangi King’s First UK Exhibition Opens
New Zealand artist Susan Te Kahurangi King stopped speaking aged four, and has since communicated only through her acutely detailed drawings. As her first UK exhibition opens at Marlborough Contemporary, London, her sister and…
Jane Campion Says Cannes Needs All-Female Juries
New Zealander Jane Campion, 63, has just shown the full six hours of her new series, Top Of The Lake: China Girl to audiences at Cannes. At the festival, Campion bemoaned that, just three…
NZ Launches Into Space Race With 3D-Printed Rocket
Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space launch company, has just launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3D-printed rocket Electron from New Zealand’s remote Mahia Peninsula. “Made it to space. Team delighted,” Rocket Lab said…
Aldous Harding’s Songs Won’t Be Pinned Down
Aldous Harding, 26, shies away from explaining the quiet, cryptic, utterly arresting songs on Party, her second album and first American release. Harding, who is from New Zealand, was in New York at the…
New Zealand Wants the World to Love Feijoas
At this time of year, New Zealanders in the diaspora will do just about anything to get their hands on ‘green gold’. Now exporters have their eye on a wider market. Guardian Australia journalist…
Lorde Makes Sophisticated Return at Coachella
“Lorde used her late-evening (Coachella) slot to showcase material from her forthcoming album, Melodrama. Starting off with a portion of her lead single, Green Light, she performed staring straight down…
Shoelace Specialist Ian Fieggen Knots The Secure
A new study explains why shoelaces keep coming undone – but it can’t explain why we’re stuck with a centuries-old fudge to fasten our trainers, according to the Guardian’s Gavin Hayes who talks to…
NZ Devises Manuka Honey Test to Fight Fakes
The New Zealand Government has tested 800 samples of honey from around the world to establish a scientific definition of genuine manuka honey and crackdown on alleged fakes, Eleanor Ainge…
MI5 File Lays Bare Case of KGB Spy Paddy Costello
A controversy that has spanned more than seven decades over whether Auckland-born Paddy Costello, a Cambridge-educated diplomat and academic, was a top Soviet spy has been fuelled by the release of his MI5 file. Desmond…
NZ Post Begins Delivering KFC To Beat Mail Slump
“The New Zealand postal service has begun delivering Kentucky Fried Chicken in a bid to stem major revenue losses as the number of people using the postal service continue to plummet,” writes Eleanor Ainge…
First Thor: Ragnarok Trailer Released
The first trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, which was directed by Taika Waititi, has been released, as reported in an article in The Guardian. “Following on from the events of Avengers: Age…
That Wanaka Tree a Social Media Sensation
A crack willow tree, believed to have grown from an old fence post, has been photographed tens of thousands of times, with queues of photographers routinely forming on the lake’s shore to capture its…
Alluring Role for Paris Ballet’s Hannah O’Neill
Hannah O’Neill, 24, a New Zealander who joined the Paris Opéra Ballet company in 2011, is “a beguiling” Titania, Paul Jennings writes in an Observer review of the Opéra Bastille performance of A Midsummer…
Deliberating on the Taika-Esqueness of Thor
Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi talks to the Guardian about joining the Marvel universe with his interpretation of Thor, which is due out in the United States in November. As far as whetting…
How Chef Margot Henderson Cooked and Parented
New Zealand-born Margot Henderson is one of five professional cooks featured in the Guardian discussing how having kids changed their lives, in the kitchen and at home. Henderson, 52, co-owns Rochelle Canteen and catering company…
Dunedin School Offers Same Uniform to All
Dunedin North Intermediate has abolished gendered uniforms for its pupils and replaced them with shorts, a kilt and trousers that can be worn by either sex. The move came after complaints from female students…
Aurora Australis Tourists See Lights of Their Life
The first commercial flight to view the Aurora Australis landed in Dunedin, with 130 star-struck passengers sharing the experience on social media. TVNZ reporter Mark Hathaway, who was onboard the Air New Zealand flight,…
New Book Questions SAS Raids in Afghanistan
A new book by journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson claims the SAS killing of civilians in raids on two villages amounts to a “dark and guilty secret of New Zealand’s recent history.” A botched…
Eleanor Catton’s New Novel a Psychological Thriller
Eleanor Catton, the youngest ever Booker-prize winning author, has sold the rights to her third novel, a psychological thriller set in rural New Zealand where super-rich foreigners face off with ragtag locals on the…
Clive James on Sam Neill’s Richly Sane Career
“Performers do best to do their best every time. By no paradox, it is easier to maintain this attitude if you are not being treated as a deity,” Australian broadcaster and critic Clive James…
Footrot Flats Creator Murray Ball a National Hero
Murray Ball, the creator of the widely read Footrot Flats cartoon that celebrated rural life in New Zealand, has died in Gisborne at the age of 78. Ball’s immensely popular Footrot Flats strip, starring farmer…
Nadia Reid’s Lovelorn Folk Perfectly Crafted
New Zealand singer Nadia Reid, 25, has “decidedly upped the ante” on her second album Preservation, according to Guardian reviewer Dave Simpson. “ ethereal, pensive vocals are cast against plangent folk-guitar shapes, but there is…
Lorde Joyfully Crashes Into Next Chapter
Lorde’s comeback single Green Light, is an “upbeat announcement of change,” according to the Atlantic, one of many international publications praising the “inventive” pop singer’s new direction. “People have been waiting for Lorde’s future for…
Tributes to Tania Dalton
“Former Silver Fern netballer Tania Dalton has died peacefully in Auckland, nearly a week after suffering a brain aneurysm,” as reported in The Guardian. Dalton suffered the internal aneurysm during a social game of…
Living the Fantasy of Gandalf
New Zealand is the backdrop for Indian photographer Akhil Suhas, 21, who spent six months touring the country documenting his 15,000km journey. Suhas featured locals and tourists dressed up as the wizard Gandalf in…
Sundance Grand Jury Winner Stars Melanie Lynskey
The presciently titled I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, starring New Plymouth-born actor Melanie Lynskey, pulled off a surprise victory at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards ceremony taking the grand…
Black Caps Defeat Australia in Hamilton
Australia have relinquished the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy and potentially the No 1 ODI ranking, with Mitchell Starc unable to save his batsmen’s blushes in a dramatic 24-run defeat to New Zealand in Hamilton, Pat Cummins…
Ten Memorable Flying Nun Moments
To mark a new LP from New Zealand’s The Bats, the Guardian takes a look back at ten of the best moments from the label that spawned them. “Founded in 1981 by Christchurch-based Roger Shepherd,…
Thrilling Start to 2017 in Queenstown
Queenstown and its reputation as the adventure capital of the world, is a centre for every kind of extreme sport imaginable – but it is best-known for bungee jumping. New Zealand is included in…
On the Hunt for Illegal Gold Miners
Prospecting for gold in the South Island is growing in popularity by the year, but amateurs looking for a quick fortune can damage the environment, according to Guardian correspondent Eleanor Ainge Roy. When travelling up…
Lost British Birdsong Discovered in NZ Birds
By comparing recordings of yellowhammer accents in New Zealand and the UK, scientists have discovered how the birds’ song might have sounded in Britain 150 years ago. The study, published in Ecography, examined…
Kaitaia Begins the Fight of Its Life
Kaitaia has seen four homicides and six suicides in a single year. Now the locals are trying to save their community. The Guardian’s Eleanor Ainge Roy reports on how the remote community of 5000…
Wellington Airport One Of World’s Most Beautiful Airport Terminals
Wellington International Airport has been featured in a Guardian article that highlights the world’s most beautiful airport terminals. “Created by Studio Pacific Architecture and Warren & Mahoney, this airport, nicknamed ‘the Rock’, was…
New Zealand’s Secret Santa Matches Social Media Strangers
“A New Zealand-wide secret Santa in which complete strangers send each other gifts in the post has had a bumper season, processing more than 2,000 presents in its Auckland hub, writes Eleanor Ainge Roy…
Crowded House Play to Adoring Fans in Sydney
“The decision as to when to call time on a band must be a truly wretched one,” Alexandra Spring writes for the Guardian. “, Crowded House returned to the place where they called…
Hera Lindsay Bird Takes Poetry Beyond the Bookstore
In New Zealand, poetry’s latest “it girl”, Hera Lindsay Bird, is amassing a semi-cult online following for her smart, sassy and explicit takes on everything from female sexuality to Friends. Bird, along with contemporaries…
NZ Folk Singer Who’ll Put A Spell On You
“New Zealand’s Aldous Harding –who was recently recommended by Charlotte Church in the Guardian” is “a folk artist whose performances strike that rare balance between fragility and full-blown possession,” writes Kate Hutchinson in an…
Tape Face Captivates in Milton Keynes
Fresh from a stint on America’s Got Talent, New Zealand comedian Sam Wills, aka Tape Face, recently preformed in Milton Keynes, delivering “a captivating set of skits that the audience on stage and…
Rescue Under Way For Thousands Stranded By New Zealand Earthquake
Following Monday’s 7.5 earthquake near Hanmer Springs on New Zealand’s South Island, which saw two people dead and several injured, “military helicopters and a navy ship dispatched to coastal town of Kaikoura with buildings…
