Press Releases

New Zealand movie-goers flocking to see the recently released 'Julie and Julia', based on the life of Julia Child, have discovered that the US celebrity chef’s former personal assistant is now living on their doorstep.

Life revolves around the sea in Kaikoura on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, and once a year the rich harvest of local seafood becomes central to a now internationally renowned festival.

The population of the world’s rarest parrot – the New Zealand kakapo – has reached a record high of 125 with the 2009 breeding season being hailed the most successful since the recovery programme began.

Some call it the “flightless national bore” and others a “biological oddity” but New Zealand’s iconic bird, the kiwi, has topped polls to become NZ Bird of the Year

Kiwi Experience, the New Zealand tour company that pioneered the hop-on hop-off bus network for backpackers, has won a significant Australasian tourism award.

New Zealand charcoal technology company Carbonscape is one of five companies to make the shortlist in a global competition, the FT (Financial Times UK) Climate Change Challenge.

Sweet-toothed Kiwis rolled out one of the world’s most unusual charity events when 30,000 Jaffas – an iconic New Zealand sweet – hurtled down the world’s steepest street.

Kiwis are reputed to be great global travellers but the discovery of New Zealand’s national icon in the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy in outer space has to be off the planet in anyone’s book.

Americans have a better idea of where New Zealand is but have questions about the local lingo after New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s guest appearance on David Letterman’s Late Show.

Three enterprising students, soon to be winging their way from Christchurch in New Zealand’s South Island to Los Angeles to meet US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, are the latest beneficiaries of online social networking.