93 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines February 7

New Zealand headlines in this week's sampling of global media appearing in New York Times, Times, Wall St Journal, BBC, Guardian, Financial Times, The Age, ABC News, Monocle, Tatler, St George Leader, NDTV India and New Eurasia include:

• Janet Frame’s “rare state of freedom” recalled by Jane Campion
• Poet Hone Tuwhare (No Ordinary Sun) dies, Dunedin, 86
• Blenheim’s Aquaflow Bionomic proposes global fuel solution
• Tauranga transforms from Pleasantville to gutsy export tiger
• Alexander Vineyard, Martinborough, taps Kazakhstan
• Paige Hareb, Taranaki teen, surfs into Billabong World Pro final
• Outram Paralympian ski racer Adam Hall wins US Huntsman Cup
• GG Anand Satyanand on commitment to overcome race disparities
• Kate Dewes appointed to UN Advisory Board on Disarmament
• Daisy Wilkie, Te Rauparaha kin, sits for Archibald Prize portrait
• Matakana Village gets global rep as gourmand’s delight
• NZ luxury lodges and “flashpacks” make best-in-world lists
• Brendan MacFarlane's remake of 13th arrondissement in Paris
• Black Beauty driver Jonny Reid wins A1 Grand Prix in Taupo
• Te Haumi Maxwell, 13, “best prospect since Ian Thorpe”
• Liam Finn’s solo debut, I’ll Be Lightning “spare, melodic” – WSJ
• Jonny Reid races Boeing 777 for A1 Grand Prix stunt: draw

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-08.

Photos: ski racer Adam Hall, swimmer Te Haumi Maxwell, and Kerry Fox as Janet Frame in Jane Campion’s Angel at My Table.

My thanks to Clare Marshall who has edited the newzedge pages of nzedge.com since 2002. She has tracked and filed about 4,000 stories about the international achievements of New Zealanders. A great contribution to a unique resource. Clare commences as an editor with Melbourne University Publishing. Our best wishes. Brian Sweeney

92 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines January 17

New Zealand headlines in this week's sampling of global media appearing in New York Times, Times, Guardian, BBC, Financial Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Toronto Star, Tehran Times, Telegraph and Entertainment Weekly, include:

• Kate Webb, war correspondent, and her edgy story in NY Times
• Edmund Hillary, mountaineer, leader, dies, Auckland (88)
• Greater Escaper Mick Shand RAF pilot, dies, Masterton (92)
• Edwin Marr receives highest honor for China’s broadcasting role
• Brendon McCullum 80 off 28 balls for Black Caps in record smash
• Beautiful-bio-speed-boat Earthrace for second race around world
• Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh secure rights, will produce The Hobbitt
• Hayley Westenra’s Pure greatest recent classical record in UK
• Rhys Darby, international comedian, named in Guardian awards
• Operation Nest Egg to hatch 1000th kiwi chick egg in early 08
• NZ private schools outperform UK, US – “best value on planet”
• Richard Hayes, Te Anau helicopter pilot, Aeronautique award
• TranzAlpine Christchurch-Greymouth world top 10 train journey
• AirNZ serves 850k bottles NZ wine pa to international travelers
• Gates, Nicholson, Theron, Depp reported holidaying in North

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-08.

Photo of Kate Webb: UPI/Bettmann/Corbis via New York Times. Gracias.

Ed Hillary 1919-2008

BY KEVIN ROBERTS. On January 11 a great New Zealander passed away. Sir Edmund Hillary died at the age of 88 having never recovered from a fall he took in Nepal 8 months ago.

Ed lived up the road from me. (Only in New Zealand heroes/icons live “up the road”.) I got to know him 10 years ago when we were writing our first book on Peak Performance. We talked to Ed for hours and got lots of private footage of him talking about his experiences, his attitude, his beliefs. We use these to this day as the core of our Peak Performance Inspirational Leadership Program. Ed wrote the foreword to the book.

He then helped us enormously when Toyota took a Rav 4 to Everest and we shot commercials and a documentary around that. Ed was the voice.

I asked him what were his first thoughts on summiting Everest. He told me, “Well, firstly I was buggered but then as I caught my breath and saw that other great mountain right next to me. I could see right there that there was a new way to the Summit. No one had ever climbed it that way but from Everest I could see my next challenge right there.”

That’s what Peak Performance is all about. Getting to the top and then finding the next challenge. On challenges, Ed told me that a challenge wasn’t a challenge if you actually thought you could achieve it. What was the point fooling yourself with challenges that were in reach. The only fun was to constantly go after something that seemed unattainable. A true Nothing is Impossible spirit.

Ed conquered Everest in 1953 and was immediately knighted. I asked him what the impact of a knighthood was to “a pretty average New Zealander.” He said, “I use to walk around Papakura in my tattered overalls and the seat out of my pants. But that’s gone forever now. I’ll have to buy a new pair of overalls.”

Once over a bottle of wine and an early dinner I asked Ed about all the debate about whether Mallory had indeed conquered Everest many years before. (There was great excitement when his old Kodak Brownie was finally discovered and everyone was looking for proof. As it turned out the film was spoiled and there was no proof one way or the other.) Ed, in his typically laid back way, said to me “I’ve never thought it was getting to the top that counted. It’s getting back down that matters.”

A couple of years ago I was very honored to accompany Princess Anne on a special trip to Antarctica for three days to visit Shackleton’s huts and track his great adventure. I talked to Ed about this as, of course, he was also another Antarctica hero. He told me he was determined to make one last visit. He did in January 2007. Mission accomplished.

Ed was the greatest of New Zealanders.

Heaven will be a better place today.

Link to New York Times obituary.
Picture of Hillary, 1953, permission of Royal Geographical Society, London.

91 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines December 21

New Zealand headlines in this week's sampling of global media appearing in New York Times, BBC, CNN, Guardian, Telegraph, Observer, Variety, Citizen-Times, news.com.au, Melbourne Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Salt Lake City Tribune, Sunshine Coast Daily, Orange County Register, Herald Sun include:

• Haka in Utah via Dave Atkinson (Kaeo) for Marae Cttee NZ-US Soc
  
• Henry whistles ref for RFU exit, back as ABs coach, Deans to OZ
  
• Splash with splatter: NZ horror films entry genre for first directors
  
• NZ War Memorial in Hyde Park wins UK communications award
  
• NZ Police uses wiki for global input to update of 1958 Police Act
  
• CanterburyU’s Annie Potts on vegan-to-vegan love: cruelty-free
  
• NZ-Melbourne Cantonese Seamstress wins critics, diners
  
• Book charts tumultuous Earthrace bio-fuelled speedboat journey
  
• North Carolina realist Robert Johnson paints NZ’s edge evolution
  
• Australian travel guide tips Aotearoa’s top 30 lake experiences
  
• NZ voted world’s best holiday in Telegraph: 300k UK visitors
  
• Pro surfer Dave Rastovich in protest over Japan’s dolphin killings
  
• Wellington student Landen Hale-Brown lead role in OZ Billy Elliot
  
• Climate change key issue on Clark-Rudd inaugural PM meet
  
• John Daniell’s French pro-rugby book “a gem off the beaten track”
  
• Balclutha-born Dean Tahana crowned Australia’s sexiest man (px)
  
• Peter Gordon shreds “food miles myth” on UK TV, backs NZ food
  
• Auckland feted for “stunning natural setting”, wineries, architecture
  
• Kohanga reo centres triples fluent Maori speakers; hailed worldwide
  
• 09 NZ Winter Games prop’d for elite PacRim athletes pre-Olympics
  
• Beckham heaven: LA Galaxy, Wellington Phoenix charm Capital
  
• Bob Charles’ adrenalin flows on M.Hill’s Q’town NZ Open course
  
• Jesse James film “classic Americana” from Andrew Dominik
  
• Neil Finn “Lennonish” at sellout UK concerts: “big, warm and tingly”
  
• Dave Henderson turns IRD nemises into luxe-modern hotel SO
  
• NYNZ psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson on cats vs birds rights debate
  
• Pietra Brettkelly at Sundance for Art Star and the Sudanese Twins

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-07.

90 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines December 7

New Zealand headlines in this week's sampling of global media appearing in The New York Times, The Times, Globe & Mail, Salon, Guardian, The Age, Monocle, Undercover, China View, Telegram, BBC News, Canberra Times, Times of India and The Observer include:

• Wellington’s Ponoko pioneer virtual personalized manufacturing
• Rotorua microbiologists reveal methane-buster from Hells Gate
• New 50 Facts That Should Change the World from Jessica Williams
• Nurse Lisa French Blaker writes Heart of Darfur from Sudan
• NZ “wine producing country of the year” – Observer’s Tim Atkin
• OtagoU scientists patent squid gel to reduce surgical scarring
• BEE (Beauty Engineered for Ever) cleaning products make Monocle
• Carbon-neutral Arthur’s Pass Wilderness Lodge gets Times aok
• Guardian has “thrillingly wild, jaw-dropping” tour of NZ back country
• Lloyd Jones talks up raging character of Wellington wind in Times
• Digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy Conchords score in Capital
• Auckland artist Dane Mitchell selected for Miami’s Art Basel 2008
• Peter Boggs compared to Edward Hopper in Canberra exhibition
• Chills, “set apart by geography,” in Guardian’s greatest music acts
• B+W photographer Stefanie Young in Chelsea NYC show
• Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes shows character range in OZ Opera
• Lauren McKee and Wynne Pirini reinvent Tshirts in Vancouver
• Windsurfer Barbara Kendall earns fifth Olympic Games spot
• Buck Shelford scores 15th in Times’ list of sport’s worst injuries
• All Black and NZ Maori legend Pat Walsh dies, Auckland, 71

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-07.

Photos clockwise from top left of Dane Mitchell at Miami's Art Basel, Ponoko pioneers David ten Have and Derek Ellery in the NY Times, BEE cleaning products, Dafur nurse Lisa French Blaker, patent squid gel and baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes.

89 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines November 18

New Zealand headlines in this week's survey of global media appearing in The Times, New York Times, Reuters, The Observer, SFGate.com, Daily Telegraph, Open Democracy, Lonely Planet, Undercover, London.net, include:

• SurfAid wins global Humanitarian Award for Mentawai Islands work
• Stephen Chan charts hubris of Mugabe in Auckland Uni lectures
• Anne Geddes sells 20m books worldwide, new autobio published
• Split Enz for NZ tour March 08, new album One Out Of The Bag
• NZ fifth in world for gender equality - World Economic Forum
• Speight's Ale House sails Dunedin-London in 75-day passage
• NZ-bred horses make clean sweep of Melbourne Racing Carnival
• Pinot Gris hailed in San Francisco as our new sauvignon blanc
• Whakatane reggae band Kora in sell-out Camden London show
• NZ String Quartet on 8 city US East Coast tour, Bach to Harris
• Julian Robertson adds Cape Kidnappers Lodge to luxe portfolio
• Six NZ tourist attractions in Lonely Planet Bluelist, incl White Island

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-07.

Photo of SurfAid International founder, New Zealander Dr Dave Jenkins, with Mentawai Islanders.

88 – New Zealanders in Global Headlines November 9

New Zealand headlines in this week's survey of global media appearing in the New York Times, Reuters, Chicago SunTimes, The Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Age, earthtimes, 365 gay, AdWeek, Wallpaper and Conde Nast Traveller, include:

• Max Gimblett for Guggenheim show on American art and the East
• Peter Dengate Thrush to chair Internet’s chief governing body
• NZ’s white aromatic varietals to rival sauvignon blanc - Telegraph
• Global mobile marketing hotshop The Hyperfactory wins investors
• Neil Berkett tipped as new CEO of UK’s Virgin Media
• Self-governance vote by Tokelaus falls just short, to stay NZ colony
• Civil unions in NZ reach the 1000 mark, “a comprehensive success”
• Dutch academic on impact of Once Were Warriors on NZ culture
• Researcher Chris Wheeler denounces artificial sweetener aspartame
• 1963 Janet Frame novella Towards Another Summer published
• Aramoana massacre Out of the Blue debuts NY-“deep and moving”
• Dominic Bowden fronts Fox reality series Next Great American Band
• Tarantino muse Zoe Bell wins Lost role, MTV projects upcoming
• Pre-sales for Niki Caro’s film of Elizabeth Knox’s The Vintner’s Luck
• NZ-born director Andrew Dominick “a genius” for Jesse James
• Six NZ ceramic artists exhibit at Craft Victoria festival in Melbourne
• Annabel Alpers’ Bachelorette “beautifully odd, inter-planetary pop”
• Mike Twist juggling up a storm at the Tokyo Bay Hilton
• Bay of Islands “most beautiful place on earth” - Conde Nast Traveler
• Relaxing Rotorua replicated in booming Nanjing housing compound
• Auckland young but arrogant with huge potential – Wallpaper Guide

For full stories see http://www.nzedge.com/media, a 6,000-story storehouse of international activities by New Zealanders 2000-07.

Image of Max Gimblett by Frederic Brenner; detail of Pohutukawa, 2007, 60" diameter, gesso, acrylic and vinyl polymer, epoxy, palladium leaf / canvas. http://www.maxgimblett.com/