Tag Archives: Times (The)

Life in the Crosshairs

Life in the Crosshairs

Man Booker nominee Lloyd Jones talks up his home town of Wellington in a travel article for The Times. He describes the city’s world-famous wind as a source of both embarrassment and pride for its citizens….

Curse of the Perennial Favourites

Curse of the Perennial Favourites

Another NZ Rugby World Cup campaign has ended in tatters, with the All Blacks bowing out 18-20 to France in the quarterfinal. Despite being consistently ranked first in the world, and NZ being the only…

Taking Issue with Food Miles

Taking Issue with Food Miles

A UK Times eco-columnist’s suggestion to reduce food miles by drinking French rather than NZ wine has stimulated a response by NZ winemakers and politicians. She argued that transporting wines from France results in fewer greenhouse…

Tour of Beauty

Tour of Beauty

Times journalist Paul Grogan undertook a two-day kayaking tour of Abel Tasman National Park with local company Wilson’s Experiences. “Gaining in confidence, we rock-hop along the coast, ducking in and out of little lagoons and darting through…

LV Victory Sees America’s Cup Rematch

LV Victory Sees America’s Cup Rematch

Emirates Team NZ has demolished Luna Rossa 5-0 to win the Louis Vuitton Cup. Team NZ will now meet Swiss defender Alinghi in the America’s Cup best-of-nine series, beginning June 2003. In stark contrast to their usual…

Cliff’s time in the sun

Cliff’s time in the sun

NZ actor Cliff Curtis has a starring role in Sunshine, the latest critically acclaimed film by English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later). The film is a futuristic sci-fi thriller about…

Cash Versus Creativity

Cash Versus Creativity

Auckland-raised author Fay Weldon mourns the death of literary creativity in a passionate column for The Times. “Time was when popularity was the mark of artistic failure,” she complains, “These days it’s the other…

NZ research centre opens in London

NZ research centre opens in London

NZ film No.2 received a gala screening at last year’s London Film Festival, which ran from 18 October to 2 November. Festival sponsor Air New Zealand hosted the event, which included a panel discussion…

Lord Cooke of Thorndon: A Legal Great

Lord Cooke of Thorndon: A Legal Great

Robin Brunskill Cooke, NZ’s most renowned jurist, has died aged 80. Educated at Wellington’s Victoria University and Caius College at Cambridge, Robin Cooke made his reputation early on with a high profile libel case…

Dubai Calling

Dubai Calling

Two New Zealanders are at the forefront of a massive property boom currently happening in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates is spending £140 billion to transform the city into an ultra-modern capitalist powerhouse, the business…

Out in the Open

Out in the Open

An interview with mystery author Anne Perry in the Times inevitably brings up her former life in NZ as Juliet Hulme, one half of the murderous teenage duo portrayed in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures….

Battle Cries

Battle Cries

Even more upsetting than giving the World Cup to New Zealand or losing a match to the All Blacks currently seems to be facing their new “throat slitting” haka. British media are feverishly objecting to New…

End of Ancestral Visa

End of Ancestral Visa

A new points-based immigration system could end the door-opening power of the ancestral visa. Many New Zealanders and other Commonwealth citizens have relied on having British grandparents to allow them to settle in the EU. Under…

Prom Date

Prom Date

Jonathan Lemalu and the NZSO were guest performers at this year’s BBC Proms. The prestigious annual event is held at the Royal Albert Hall and reaches a global audience of millions. Times: “Flesh and…

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…

Brits on the Move

Brits on the Move

The Times article explores the current trend of Britons emigrating to NZ, focusing on a young family from Bath who settled in Wanganui a year and a half ago. According to Paul and Estelle Collins, positives…

Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon

The Times profiles NZ’s most famous cooking export, the “arch-exponent of fusion food” Peter Gordon. As well as owning the Sugar Club, Providores and Tapa Room (all in London), Gordon is consultant…

International Man of Mystery

International Man of Mystery

Wayne Gould – retired NZ judge turned “international puzzle star” – is responsible for the latest craze in newspaper teasers, Su Doku. Gould discovered the number-based logic test in a Japanese bookstore in 1997. After six years…

Black Mountain Poet

Black Mountain Poet

Robert Creeley, who helped transform postwar American poetry by making it more conversational and emotionally direct, has in Odessa, Texas. He was 78. Robert Creeley’s association with New Zealand dates from 1976 when he visited at…

Basis for Change

Basis for Change

The British government is considering an overhaul of its outdated pension scheme based on the current NZ system. According to the Times, the state of women’s pensions in the UK is “a national scandal” in urgent need…

Legacy in Letters

Legacy in Letters

Acclaimed author Maurice Shadbolt (72) also passed away this October. Shadbolt burst onto the international scene in 1959 with the publication of his short story collection, The New Zealanders, and is widely regarded as…

Sideline Action

Sideline Action

With all eyes on Australasia for the Rugby World Cup, an Observer travel feature looks at new attractions on offer in the region. Included is the West Coast’s Wave Watchers Retreat (“a romantic bolthole with great…

The Real Deal

The Real Deal

The Times ran a lengthy travel feature on “the real Middle Earth” to mark the opening of the LotR exhibition at London’s Science Museum. “Never mind whether Frodo manages to destroy that ring we’ve all…

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…

Edge Polish

Edge Polish

Saatchi & Saatchi global CEO Kevin Roberts interviewed in Poland on the future of advertising and how Saatchis has triumphed through the recession (Advertising Age named it Global Agency Network in 2002). Roberts is…

Richard’s rocky road

Richard’s rocky road

Rocky Horror man, Richard O’Brien, interviewed about life and love in the Times. The weekly column – ‘Love etc’ – invites celebrities to divulge how different relationships have shaped their lives. A typically candid…

Byow! Cartoonist With Cut Through Remembered

Byow! Cartoonist With Cut Through Remembered

John Kent, well-known political cartoonist, lecturer and illustrator, died on April 13 aged 65. Born in Oamaru, Kent’s work was a familiar feature in Private Eye,  Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun and, finally, The…

“A Life Set to Music”

“A Life Set to Music”

Edwin “Ted” Carr – “grand old man of NZ music” – has died aged 76. At times a conductor, teacher, dancer and animator, Carr achieved his greatest fame late in life as a composer….

Creative Curriculum

Creative Curriculum

A Times article deploring the state of the British education system holds up its New Zealand counterpart as the benchmark for quality and creativity. “Look at New Zealand, which manages to incorporate dance into maths classes, drama…

First Lady of Style

First Lady of Style

Lower Hutt-born Anouska Hempel (Lady Weinberg) featured in The Times‘ list of iconic women over 50 in a piece by writer Paul Theroux on ‘the older woman’. Hempel is the creative force behind ultra-hip London hotels Blakes…

Power Steering for Coutts

Power Steering for Coutts

The victorious Alinghi campaign was described by Larry Ellison, head of Oracle as, “a fine Swiss watch with a few Kiwi parts”, none more influential than helmsman Russell Coutts. The win establishing him as one of the…

More of Southland’s Finest

More of Southland’s Finest

“If the landscape above the Okaka mountain hut had been the work of a garden designer it would have won Chelsea.” Times writer roams the “enchanted forest” of the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track, Southland’s latest “Great Walk,”…

A novel life

A novel life

Margaret Birkinshaw, mother of NZ-edged novelist Fay Weldon and acclaimed author in her own right, has died aged 95. Renowned for her passion, confidence and sense of adventure, many lament her refusal to pen…

Shacking Up in Macetown

Shacking Up in Macetown

The Times takes a tour of the world’s ghost towns and stops off in Macetown, NZ. You could be forgiven for not knowing the name: all that remains of Otago’s 1860’s gold-rush town is the old…

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,…

Scholarly Send-off

Scholarly Send-off

The Times pays tribute to W.J.B Owen, academia’s pre-eminent Wordsworth scholar. Born in NZ in 1916, Owen forged a distinguished career in England and Canada. “Owen was a scholar’s scholar – meticulous, exact, exhaustive and always reliable…

Intrepid Botanist Remembered

Intrepid Botanist Remembered

NZer Betty Molesworth Allen, OBE-awarded botanist and explorer, has died aged 89. Allen made her career in some of the harshest regions in the world; from the rainforests of Borneo, to the cliff-faces of southern Spain….

Bolger on Water

Bolger on Water

In a letter to the Times, ex-PM Jim Bolger cites the role of water in global tensions. Warning against letting War on Terror overshadow basic human needs, Bolger advocates a government-led promotion of water conservation and efficiency:…

Ideas From the Edge

Ideas From the Edge

Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Kevin Roberts talks to The Times about his work guiding MBA students at Cambridge and to The Independent about the age of the idea: “He preaches love but hates management;…

Kea Car-ha?

Kea Car-ha?

Judy Diamond and Alan B. Bond’s spent hours at an Arthur’s Pass rubbish dump working out the evolutionary significance of the kea: “Keas are giant mountain parrots, and they love cars, especially soft-tops. If you leave…

Voice of Rugby’s All-time XV

Voice of Rugby’s All-time XV

Great rugby commentator Bill Mclaren names his all-time greatest XV for The Times. Featuring three All Blacks: the “New Zealand totem” Colin Meads, the legendery skills of Zinzan Brooke, and “one of the great international captains” Sean…

We’re All Royalists Here?

We’re All Royalists Here?

Miss representation? Put that portrait of the Queen back on the lounge wall: “All New Zealanders are royalists, not like the Aussies,” proclaims the Dame (Kiri te Kanawa). Perhaps this is not surprising coming from someone…

Skin Deep

Skin Deep

Ta moko retrospectively finds its way into an icon of colonialism: the museum. The Skin Deep exhibition at Britain’s National Maritime Museum, traces the development and diversity of tattoo over the last two…

School of Hard Knocks

School of Hard Knocks

England casts envious eyes on Lincoln’s NZ Cricket High Performance Centre: “An opera singer and a former primary school headmaster have much to do with New Zealand’s present official ranking as the fifth-best team…

NZ Founding Father of British Anthropology

NZ Founding Father of British Anthropology

Sir Raymond Firth, one of the world’s most prominent anthropologists, emeritus professor at London University, Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and recipient of first Leverhulme medal (given to scholars of exceptional…

NZ Schoolboys Take England to the Wall

NZ Schoolboys Take England to the Wall

“No one can decide who is the best rugby team in the world at present, largely because the two main contenders, England and NZ, circle each other without actually engaging On the evidence at Twickenham…

Coach Blackadder

Coach Blackadder

Former All Black captain, Todd Blackadder, takes his first step into international coaching with the announcement that he will be joining the Scotland Under 21 set-up.  

Great Escape

Great Escape

The Times lists New Zealand a hot destination, due to scenery witnessed in Lord of the Rings. United Kingdom travel companies report 20 per cent increases in travel bookings since the film’s release. .

Lord of the Screen

Lord of the Screen

“The Lord of the Rings is easily the best film of the year” – The Times. “Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the fantasy classic is as near to perfection as makes no difference” -…

On a Wing and a Prayer

On a Wing and a Prayer

Jonah Lomu, “the world’s greatest living player and rugby’s most global individual commodity”, turns to the Bible for inspiration on the rugby field. Says Lomu, “It says there, ’tis greater to give than receive’, so that’s what…

This is Your Life: Jonah Lomu

This is Your Life: Jonah Lomu

Jonah Lomu is lost for words when Michael Aspel accosts him at rugby training in England with the red “This is your Life” book, before taking him to the BBC studios. A long list of rugby…

NZ Leads “Twist and Sip”

NZ Leads “Twist and Sip”

Connoisseurs who once turned their noses up at screw-top wines rethink their opinions after early results from the Australian Wine Research Institute prove categorically that screwcapped wines suffer the least oxidation and are fresher and fruitier than…

Toddy the Scotsman

Toddy the Scotsman

Edinburgh rugby eagerly awaits the presence of Canterbury’s finest.  

Famous NZ Plants

Famous NZ Plants

The Times explores the unlikely problem of growing tea trees like they do down in New Zealand.

The Odder Rock Tour

The Odder Rock Tour

Neil Finn has just completed one of rock’s great experimental tours. He started off playing with friends from Radiohead and the Smiths in New Zealand, and ended up on stage with complete strangers in…

Exporting Ex-All Blacks

Exporting Ex-All Blacks

Josh Kronfeld and Craig Dowd are expected to make a big impact in British rugby.