Tag Archives: Scotsman (The)

Matchmaker

Matchmaker

Scotsman sommelier, Rose Murray Brown, sheds light on the delicate task of food and wine matching. Not one to be bound by the traditional “white with fish, red with meat” mentality, Murray Brown recommends Kim Crawford Unoaked Marlborough…

Crimewatch goes global

Crimewatch goes global

NZ tourists Olive and Graeme Reed have provided Scottish police with crucial evidence in one of the world’s biggest ever art thefts. The couple used their digital camera to snap shots of the robbers…

Lawson’s Joins Mile High Club

Lawson’s Joins Mile High Club

Lawson’s Dry Hills Sauvignon Blanc scored the highest overall marks for a white wine in the Scotsman‘s high-altitude taste test. In conjunction with 6 international airlines, the Scotsman and a panel of expert judges sought out…

Unemployed at Risk

Unemployed at Risk

Research into suicide conducted by the Wellington School of Medicine has been published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and reported on around the world. The findings – based on the NZ population for three…

Sydney set in stone

Sydney set in stone

Wellington-born Sydney Goodsir Smith is to join the ranks of Scottish poets immortalised in stone outside Edinburgh’s Writer’s Museum. The Makars’ Court attraction is the Scottish equivalent of Westminster Abbey’s Poets Corner, and features…

Fagan Wields His Golden Shears

Fagan Wields His Golden Shears

Legendary NZ shearer David Fagan earned his fifth world title before a crowd of 3,000 at Scotland’s MacRobert Theatre. Fagan’s de-fleecing of 20 sheep in 14 minutes 51 seconds reportedly created “a crescendo of noise and fervour…

Scotsman Sees Red

Scotsman Sees Red

Scotsman feature ‘Best of the Summer Wine’ adds some body to their list with the 1999 Palliser Pinot Noir. Wine critic Rose Murray Brown: “One of New Zealand’s best attempts at this grape so far. Really stylish…

Scientists Ruminate on Ruminants

Scientists Ruminate on Ruminants

NZ scientists have joined the fight to save the planet – from methane. The gas produced by ruminants (cud-chewing animals) is one of the leading causes of global warming, well ahead of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide….

That’ll be 2 Gandalfs and a Bilbo, thanks

That’ll be 2 Gandalfs and a Bilbo, thanks

A series of Lord of the Rings collectors’ coins will be legal tender in NZ by 2004. The gold, silver and cupro-nickel coins are to be struck by the Royal Mint for NZ Post…

Living the High Life

Living the High Life

Sir Edmund Hillary received a hero’s welcome in London at an hour-long signing of his books High Adventure and View from the Summit. Dozens of admirers queued in the rain for a chance to…

For Him

For Him

Winemaker Kim Crawford’s “Pansy” has been released in the UK following its overwhelming success on the NZ gay market. The cabernet blend was commissioned by the owner of Auckland gay bar, SPQR, who had witnessed the popularity…

FAQ: “Why (oh God, why)?”

FAQ: “Why (oh God, why)?”

NZer Simon Jansen profiled as online icon of the week in The Scotsman‘s “lazy guide to net culture.” Jansen is a master of asciimation; making moving pictures out of letters, numerals and punctuation marks….

Best Beach

Best Beach

Waikiki, Daytona, Copacabana … 90 Mile Beach. Northland’s prized stretch was voted one of the world’s top 20 beaches in an Expedia poll of thousands of British travellers. Winning poll-participant Pete Shannon now has the arduous job…

Grand Dame

Grand Dame

Dame Judith Mayhew has been elected chairperson of Scotland’s Royal Opera House, the first time the position has been held by a woman. The NZ-born high-flyer previously helmed the Corporation of London, and remains…

Pleasure Island

Pleasure Island

Scotsman travel writer leaves the Southern Alps to Frodo and heads for the sunny shores of Waiheke Island, where bach culture and Gucci collide. “All kinds of homely structures are clinging to the hillside All have…

We salute you

We salute you

The Datsuns’ popularity in the U.K shows no signs of diminishing. The boys from Cambridge took out Best Live Band at the New Musical Express annual showcase of rock’s best. Other winners included…

Addicted to rock

Addicted to rock

The Datsuns’ popularity in the U.K shows no signs of diminishing. The boys from Cambridge are soon to headline NME‘s annual showcase of “the forthcoming year’s thrusting new talent” in what will be their fourth U.K tour…

Epilogue Written to a Life of Words

Epilogue Written to a Life of Words

NZ lost one of its edgiest inhabitants with the death of Janet Frame from acute myeloid leukemia on January 29. Frame, the author of 11 novels, 5 collections of short stories, a poetry collection,…

Tyler no diva

Tyler no diva

Liv Tyler talks to The Scotsman about making movies Middle Earth-style. “It was a labour of love for everyone. There weren’t a lot of perks. We didn’t have these huge trailers and all these excessive…

Magic + Maths = Inspired Teaching

Magic + Maths = Inspired Teaching

Ken Ring has taken his own special brand of mathematics to the UK. The former teacher is now president of the New Zealand Society of Magicians – a career change reflected in his “eccentric approach to…

Life and Legacy

Life and Legacy

An in-depth look at Peter Blake’s life and (controversial) death makes some interesting observations about NZ society. The article surverys Blake’s mana: “a figure of clear-cut grace and stature” yet reflects on criticisms of…

The novel is dead, long live the novel

The novel is dead, long live the novel

Keri Hulme joins a list of postcolonial booker people ratttling the bones of the form: “The years the Booker Prize doesn’t go to an English novel the winning book tends to be an interesting…

Land of Milk and Honey

Land of Milk and Honey

The Scotman reports on New Zealand’s “white gold rush” – the scramble by milk producers to find new dairying land as world prices continue to rise, and further impetus given to the industry with…

Conquerors’ Offspring in Everest Assault

Conquerors’ Offspring in Everest Assault

Forty-nine years and a generation or two on, Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund, and Tenzing Tashi, grandson of Norgay, will make their own assault on Mount Everest next month to launch a year of celebrations…

Lessons From the Kiwi Experience

Lessons From the Kiwi Experience

The Scotsman praises “small, proud” New Zealand – “the more the government intervenes in industry the less enterprise and boldness there is. By rolling back the frontiers of the state New Zealand has discovered enormous energy and…

No 2, one year on

No 2, one year on

Picked by Observer critics as an Edinburgh Best of Festival 2 and winner of a prestigious Fringe First, Toa Fraser’s No. 2 continues to thrive and garner praise despite a bit of reality-biting about…

School’s dinner

School’s dinner

On the heels of his hotly anticipated new venture Providores, edge fusion food-man Peter Gordon spurns the celeb-chef cliche for knife-wielding cruelty and cooks top notch cuisine to raise funds for a new school…

Ancient forest

Ancient forest

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World filmed in New Zealand “where there are still forests that resemble those of the Cretaceous Period when the great dinosaurs walked the land”.

Talking Turkey

Talking Turkey

New Zealand farmer’s groups are a model of co-operation in preparing for the ups and downs of the agricultural sector.

Knickers name

Knickers name

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang with the late Harry Secombe, who found her name tricky, so re-christened her “Tin Knickers”.

Working for Justice

Working for Justice

Dr Dorothy Millar began to question western values after contact with Maori culture, leading to a life spent working for justice and prosperity for all.

Do They Have Sheep There?

Do They Have Sheep There?

Scotland’s national collection of New Zealand Olearia attract visitors to Inverewe Gardens on the shores of Lake Ewe.

Kiwi Fruits

Kiwi Fruits

“New Zealand wine makers are on the verge of world dominance, but some things are still beyond their control.”  

The Legend of Steve Williams

The Legend of Steve Williams

Tiger’s clubs net the “amiable Kiwi” over $1 million – making Williams an international top-dollar caddy. Also, will Williams bring Tiger down under?  

“Foreign Britain”

“Foreign Britain”

“And then there is my ridiculous fantasy that if we are to become a foreign land it might be New Zealand, where, unlike our own benighted Scotland, they know how to play rugby. (Big Hint to…

Russ of the jungle

Russ of the jungle

Russell: Charismatic, attractive and talented, but also fearless, said Sharon Stone years back. He proves her right on the screen and in the jungles of Ecuador.  

Wine of Human Kindness

Wine of Human Kindness

New Zealand brand In the Black chardonnay contributes to Comic Relief in Scotland.  

Altogether a delight

Altogether a delight

The new Museum of Scotland launches itself with Altogether a Delightful Country, a display focusing on immigrant Scots in Otago.  

Foreign Bird

Foreign Bird

When’s a kiwi not a kiwi? When it’s really an escaped Australian …

Brooke on Board

Brooke on Board

Former AB Zinzan Brooke shucks his rugby jersey and climbs aboard the Team Veritas yacht for a leg of the BT Global Challenge.

Hey Prestwick! An Airport

Hey Prestwick! An Airport

High-flying New Zealand airport developers Infratil snap up Prestwick Airport in Ayreshire, planning to turn it into a low-cost travel hub.

Tartan Edged

Tartan Edged

We all like success: the Scots are not immune, claiming Michael Campell’s edge swing as their own.

Lang may his lum reek

Lang may his lum reek

New Zealand’s now home for Scottish actor John Cairney but he makes a yearly return to Scotland for Burns night.

Suckler

Suckler

New Zealand suckler cows may be the key to enhancing upland beef production in Scotland.

Swinging into History

Swinging into History

“Ant Gear guaranteed his place in the record books when, at precisely 12am on 1 January, 2000, he teed off at the Manawatu Golf Club in the North Island.” Gear’s wife stood on the fairways with…

Scots Bemused

Scots Bemused

“The strangeness of New Zealand is brought home to us the very first night of the tour. We’ve just bought our first round in a bar in Paihia, when this Maori guy rolls up to us…

Putting Meat on the Table

Putting Meat on the Table

“Inexpensive frozen New Zealand lamb enabled Glaswegians to put meat on the table during the misery of the 1930’s. Galloway’s “Empire Lamb Shop”, at the end of Jamaica Street, was open just four days a week,…

Immaculate Duffy

Immaculate Duffy

New Zealander Stella Duffy, creator of lesbian crime-fighter Saz Martin, tackles God and redemption in her latest Immaculate Conception: “I think it’s ground-breaking to write about miracles as if they’re real. It’s not very…

Stunning Success

Stunning Success

New Zealand designed electrical cattle stunner approved in Britain.

Beery Good

Beery Good

“Beer makes people more sociable in an increasingly unsociable world. Beer, particularly for the Aussies, is something of an icon, so I’m very well aware of the responsibility,” says Scot Gordon Cairns, the man taking New…

Sauvignon Temptation

Sauvignon Temptation

Former Scots Rugby rep Rob Wainwright recalls a New Zealand tour run along the lines of a temperance society outing. The players escaped the coach for a day of deep-sea fishing, which swiftly “degenerated into deep…

Tua Much

Tua Much

It wasn’t his destiny this time. Pre- and post-fight opinion on Tua-Lennox.Pre in the Sunday Times, New York Daily News, USA Today and the Scotsman. Tua’s toxic hair at News24. Post in Las Vegas Sun, New York and Daily News.

Wearable Art to Edinburgh?

Wearable Art to Edinburgh?

Nelson’s Wearable Art Awards “come close to sensory overload … dazzling light displays, innovative props … and the exceptional Wearable Arts creations”. Organisers are hoping to show the creations at the next Edinburgh International…

Banking on Success

Banking on Success

39 year-old Stuart Grimshaw used to put his body on the line for New Zealand, playing hockey at top international level. These days, as the new CEO of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, his eyes are firmly…

Scotland Looks for the Edge

Scotland Looks for the Edge

Facing dwindling tourism numbers and the problem of how to overcome the bad service and the apocryphal deep-fried Mars bars, the Scotsman’s Peter Irvine is looking to the edge: “one threat to tourism in Scotland comes from…

Delightful Dowderwell’s Delphiniums

Delightful Dowderwell’s Delphiniums

The Scotsman’s gardening writer Carolyn Spray recommends an esoteric Wanganui website: “If you’re as passionate about delphiniums as I am, you’ll love this site … All about growing, pests and diseases likely to occur, it also has…