Birnam Wood a Gripping Explosive Thriller
“It’s taken Eleanor Catton 10 years to follow up on her Booker Prize winning novel of 2013, The Luminaries. Fortunately, her latest offering, Birnam Wood, begins with a bang, quite literally. A series of…
Tag Archives: Washington Post (The)
Jacinda Ardern Gives the World a Lesson in Humility
“Jacinda Ardern and young female leaders – including Finland’s PM Sanna Marin and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen – who have emerged in the last decade stand as a counterpoint to the loud, attention-seeking and narcissistic…
Indy Prodigy Marcus Armstrong Joins Ganassi
Christchurch-born Marcus Armstrong was a Scott Dixon fan his entire life and when he was eight, the aspiring young racer asked his fellow New Zealander to autograph a helmet visor that he hung on…
Anna Fifield Returns to The Washington Post
For the past two years, Anna Fifield, 46, has been editor of the Dominion Post, New Zealand’s capital city newspaper. In January 2023, she returns to The Washington Post, where she worked as Tokyo…
Scott McLaughlin Dominates Portland Indy Race
Two New Zealanders took the podium at the Portland International Raceway with Scott McLaughlin in first place and Indy legend Scott Dixon driving “a brilliant race to climb from 16th to third”, Motorsports.com journalist…
New Zealand Designating Two US Groups as Terrorists May Have Global Impact
“New Zealand recently designated two US far-right groups, the Proud Boys and the Base, as terrorist organisations. This puts them in the same category as groups such as the Islamic State and makes it…
Washington D.C. Out in Numbers for Aldous Harding
New Zealand singer-songwriter Aldous Harding, who is currently on tour in the United States, performed songs from her latest album Warm Chris, to a capacity crowd at Washington D.C.’s Miracle Theatre. The show is…
Singer-Songwriter Emma G Specialises in Empowerment
When Covid-19 closed venues and cancelled concerts, Waikato-born Emma Ghaemmaghamy, like many of her peers, took to new avenues to connect with audiences, including live-streaming and podcasting, Chris Kelly writes in a story for…
Olivia Shivas Helps Those with Disabilities Travel
In a Washington Post story, three travellers with disabilities, including New Zealand journalist Olivia Shivas, relate how they cope with an added layer of worry and logistics. In the podcast “What’s Wrong With You?”,…
Temuera Morrison’s the Only Face for Boba Fetta
New Zealander Temuera Morrison vividly remembers the first time he tried on his Boba Fett suit, David Betancourt writes in a story for The Washington Post. He sat in a meeting room with Star Wars…
Booker Prize Winner Keri Hulme Always a Storyteller
Keri Hulme, the New Zealander whose 1984 novel The Bone People won the Man Booker Prize, has died at her home in Waimate, South Canterbury. She was 74. Hulme worked as a tobacco picker,…
Taika Waititi Behind Triumphant Reservation Dogs
Oscar-winning writer-director New Zealander Taika Waititi is co-creator of the “unforgettable (and caper-filled)” television series Reservation Dogs, a “portrait of a modern-day Native American community”, Inkoo Kang reports for The Washington Post. “From the pilot…
Fortress NZ Looks to Open Borders to Vaccinated
New Zealand, one of the last countries successfully pursuing a zero-tolerance approach to the novel coronavirus, has said it could open its borders for quarantine-free travel early next year. But only the vaccinated need…
Māori-Influenced Umurangi Generation Compelling
“Umurangi Generation is as much a game of hide-and-seek as of photography: just as much time is spent exploring the warren-like scenes in order to locate the next item in the brief,” The Observer’s…
World Cup Giant Slalom Win for Alice Robinson
An aggressive second run lifted New Zealand teenager Alice Robinson ahead of American Mikaela Shiffrin to win a giant slalom that ended the women’s World Cup ski season recently in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The Associated…
Manaakitanga Behind Our Strong Covid Response
There is a deeper reason why New Zealand has “fared so much better”, than say, the United States in combatting Covid-19, and it’s manaakitanga, according to New Zealanders Matthew Milner and Richard Ngata, who…
New Zealand Tops Lowy List with Covid Response
New analysis undertaken by Australian think tank the Lowy Institute has found that New Zealand has handled the coronavirus pandemic more effectively than any other country in the world, Stephen Dziedzic reports for ABC…
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta Charts a Course
The first Māori woman to be foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta is an experienced lawmaker known for her deep roots in Māori tribal diplomacy, Charlotte Graham-McLay writes for The Washington Post. Mahuta has her work…
Kākāpō Claims 2020 Bird of the Year Victory
The esteemed kākāpō has soared past its competition to claim victory in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year contest, a tense race marked by attempted voter interference during a divisive month of campaigning, Jennifer Hassan…
Though NZ Is Confronting a New Outbreak It Is Still Way Ahead of the USA – WashPost
“Since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand has drawn global attention for the effectiveness of its response,” associate professor of law at American University’s Washington College of Law Rebecca Hamilton writes…
Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan on Future of Travel
Los Angeles-based Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, has been working on a new competition show for CBS called Tough As Nails featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the coronavirus outbreak and premieres…
Wayve Genius Alex Kendall Makes Forbes 30 Under 30
New Zealander Alex Kendall, 27, who went to the University of Cambridge to pursue a PhD in Computer Vision and Robotics, and today serves as the CTO (and co-founder) of London-based Wayve, an AI…
Scientists Climb Tane Mahuta to Help Save Kauri
Two arborists, chest-deep in underbrush, secured a rope slung over a branch in the Waipoua Forest, close to the northern tip of New Zealand. Scott Forrest pumped his fist, Per Liljas writes for The…
Irish Rugby Bids Farewell to Coach Joe Schmidt
Failing a second time to lead Ireland to a first Rugby World Cup semifinal will haunt New Zealander Joe Schmidt, who steps down as coach following six transformative years, AP journalist Foster Niumata writes…
Walmart’s Greg Foran Flies Home to Air NZ
Big-box giant Walmart Inc. has announced that New Zealand-born Greg Foran, the CEO of its US division – which makes up the bulk of its sales and operating income – is leaving to become…
Departing Warren Gatland Out for Perfect End
New Zealander Warren Gatland has achieved almost everything during his tenure as Wales coach over the last 12 years, Steve Douglas writes in a story published in The Washington Post. Four Six Nations titles, including…
Coffin Clubs Take Sting out of Death
Across New Zealand, a country of almost 5 million, five major groups like the one Judith Aitken joined in Hastings have sprung up in recent years for people wanting to build and customise their…
Designer Richard Clarkson Looks to the Stars
Intrepid visitors to the Architectural Digest Design Show on in New York during March braved lashings of chilly rain to get there. But inside, the elements were the source of inspiration, and included an exhibition…
New Zealand Farmers Herd Sheep with Barking Drones
In New Zealand, farmers are using drones to herd and monitor livestock, assuming a job that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century, and though the robots have not replaced the…
Team USA Readies to Sail in New Zealand
Stars & Stripes Team USA has been accepted as a challenger for the 2021 America’s Cup, promising to have an all-American squad in a competition where nationality has mattered little in recent decades. However,…
NZ Leader Grieves For Murdered Tourist
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered apologies to the family of 22-year-old Grace Millane, after “the young woman’s sudden disappearance morphed into a murder investigation that has gripped this island nation of…
Artist Peter Waddell Paints D.C. Bird’s Eye Views
“I wanted a fire,” Hastings-born artist Peter Waddell said as he and Washington Post reporter John Kelly gazed upon one of a pair of his monumentally sized paintings. Waddell’s paintings are bird’s-eye views of Washington…
Scott Dixon Wins 5th IndyCar Championship
Scott Dixon has won his 5th IndyCar Championship after finishing second in the season finale, “the same place he started, behind Ryan Hunter-Reay,” as reported in an article in The…
Mountaintops to the Deep Sea in the Milford Sound
“Key Summit is one of many hiking trails – or as locals call them, tracks – that crisscross the South Island near Milford Sound, the green gemstone atop New Zealand’s wilderness crown,” Nevada-based Erin…
Neil Finn and Son Liam Get Dreamy on Lightsleeper
“Lightsleeper is the result of another crowded house at the Finn residence. The album principals, father Neil and son Liam, get the rest of the family involved – mother Sharon, son Elroy, nephew Harper…
New Law Grants Abused Women Paid Leave
Around the world, 1 in 3 women have been physically or sexually abused by their partner, according to the World Health Organization. Forty per cent of all women murdered each year are killed by…
Ashleigh Young Turns a Lyrical Eye
“When I uprooted my family from Seattle this year to move to Wellington, I knew little of the foreign, faraway place beyond its reputation for grey days and great coffee,” Maggie Trapp writes for…
The Queen Names Activist Catherine Healy a Dame
Catherine Healy, 62, a founder of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, was instrumental in helping this country become the first to decriminalise prostitution in 2003. After 30 years of activism, the queen recognised her…
Dairy Farmer Richard Watson Embraces AI Technology
In the two months since US-based New Zealand dairy farmer Richard Watson strapped 200 remote-control-sized transmitters around his cows’ necks, an artificial-intelligence system named Ida has pinged his phone with helpful alerts: when his…
Rotorua the Southern Hemisphere’s Yellowstone
“The Rotorua region, one of the world’s most geothermally active areas, is the Southern Hemisphere’s take on Yellowstone – minus bison, bears and backed-up crowds,” journalist M.L. Lyke writes for The Washington Post. “Gases and…
World’s Loneliest Bird Nigel Dies on Mana Island
Nigel, a handsome gannet who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly last week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse, Karin Brulliard…
War Correspondent Kate Webb Read Her Own Obits
She was sitting on the steps of her hotel, in the middle of Saigon, when the military jeeps zipped by, headed toward the sound of gunfire. So that’s where Kate Webb headed, too. “I…
NZ Lawmakers Apologise for 100s of Gay Convictions
New Zealand lawmakers have unanimously apologised for the “tremendous hurt and suffering” of hundreds of men who were convicted of homosexuality during the years it was treated as a crime. Parliament took the rare step…
How the Outback Shaped Michael Chamberlain’s Life
Christchurch-born Michael Chamberlain, who waged a decades-long battle to prove his baby daughter was killed by a dingo in Australia’s most notorious case of injustice has died in New South Wales. He was 72. Lindy…
Is it Time for Disgruntled Americans to Move?
“The prospect of a Trump presidency led to some prominent Americans – including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – joking, or perhaps half-joking, that they would move to New Zealand,” Washington Post Tokyo…
Beauden Barrett Voted World Player of the Year
“New Zealand flyhalf Beauden Barrett has been voted World Player of the Year as the world champion All Blacks swept the major awards at the end of a record-breaking rugby season,” as reported in…
Comic Artist Roger Langridge Responds to Brexit
For days, Roger Langridge wrote, he was boiling with rage over the United Kingdom’s “stupid, stupid referendum result.” But then someone wrote to ask him: “Why do you hate your countrymen?” And so the…
Paul Barron Championing Artisanal Coffee in Paris
Although Paris is famous for its street-side cafes and artisanal food culture, the city generally serves up an unappetising cup of coffee according to Emma Jacobs reporting for the Washington Post. “So many of…
Getting into Character with Cliff Curtis
Cliff Curtis wasn’t the first choice to play Genesis Potini, admits Dark Horse director James Napier Robertson, who was in Washington recently to promote the film to US audiences. Robertson says he never even considered…
