I’ve had a quiet fascination with New Zealand for most of my life.
I feel that New Zealand is my second home.
I’m from Canada, and New Zealand feels like you took all the best bits of Canada and squished them onto a tiny island like Hawaii. I was absolutely blown away by the beauty of the South Island.
Being in New Zealand, which is incredibly beautiful – I think it’s paradise – it’s just the perfect place. Everything about it I love, and I would love to live there.
I was actually born in Belgium and lived there until I was 11, then moved to Australia for a year, then moved to New Zealand, so I only lived there from when I was 12 to 18.
I can’t choose one favorite place because all destinations have something different to offer. My favorite city to explore is Paris; I love the culture of Morocco and the waterfalls in St. Lucia. I just can’t choose one. I would like to go back to New Zealand to see more of what it has to offer.
I’ve got some real diehards down in New Zealand; I look after them and make sure they always get tickets.
When I was starting out I was way too scared to ask real directors how to do it or ask for advice, I’m really kind of New Zealand like that.
Pete Bethune is a hero in New Zealand. He’s a hero worldwide to people who want to see the end of whaling.
From space, the earth appears predominantly blue; the clouds are brilliant white. Surprisingly, you don’t see much green, although Ireland looks green, and so do Scandinavia and New Zealand. The deserts are brick red and really stand out.
In terms of having views and being prepared to express them, yes, I think New Zealand’s had a leadership role in a lot of things.
The best sheep breeders are in Australia and New Zealand.
I made the New Zealand team, won medals around the world. I thought, ‘I’m blessed. I’ve got a good talent.’ I had no idea, though, how good I might be. But I loved the sport.
I think it’s nice to have New Zealand as a base for me… it’s this little island on the bottom of the Earth. It’s this nice, quiet place.
New Zealand’s been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues.
If it wasn’t for ‘Kill Bill’ I probably would have been back in New Zealand three months after I left, and if it wasn’t for ‘Death Proof’ I don’t think I would be pursuing an acting career right now.
I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.
We are a small, open economy, highly dependent on global flows. It is inevitably a demand that dramatically alters and that is reflected in what we feel here in New Zealand. So there is at its most basic level a limit to what we can do and that is true everywhere.
Fortunately New Zealand doesn’t have land borders so we are able to be somewhat more rigorous on who gets in and out of our country than perhaps some people.
Since 1955, the U.K. has been part of an intelligence-sharing arrangement with the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Intelligence-sharing is, in itself, commonplace.
In ‘The Hobbit,’ there were British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand actors, and Peter Jackson was adamant that we would all sound like we were from Britain somewhere.
My wife and I use a lot of garlic and rosemary with roast lamb. It has to be New Zealand lamb. The domestic variety is too gamy, in my experience.
People just don’t like me, and it’s unfortunate, because I’m trying to get people to come down and visit New Zealand. I’m an ambassador for New Zealand… it’s kind of sad.
I won Formula Four. I went to New Zealand and won the Toyota Racing Series. I won the F3 European championship in 2016.
Everywhere you turn in New Zealand, there’s something exciting to do. It’s the gem of the world. It’s so far away from the madness, and so you get that element. It was just stunning.
‘Slow West’ is a film that I did with Michael Fassbender in New Zealand and Scotland. The director was John McLean. It’s a film set in the 1800s. I play a young Scottish boy brought up in the royal family. I fall in love with someone who works on our land.
Sometimes I think, ‘Why should I care about doing well in New Zealand?’
I was actually in New Zealand studying, and I just got discovered. I was with my friend shopping, and this woman came up to me and was like, ‘Would you like to come in? I own an agency.’
I’ve only been to New Zealand once, about 1989. It was incredibly beautiful, kind of like the ideal of where I live in New England – all that and then some – but I can’t say I was there long enough to get any very clear idea.
The books that really made an impact on me were not set in New Zealand. Some were New Zealand novels, but the New Zealandness of them was not what carried me or excited me.
Unlike New Zealand, which has nothing especially predatory, Australia is full of spiders and crocodiles and all kinds of animals that will eat you and sting you.
We all have to remember that New Zealand is built on these kind of people who are rebels and renegades, people doing it their own way, fighting for freedom, and braving the elements. I think it’s cool to celebrate that.
It’s nearly impossible to believe just how provincial the wine world was in 1978, the year I launched my journal, ‘The Wine Advocate.’ There were no wines exported from New Zealand and virtually none from Australia (including Penfolds Grange, one of the greatest wines in existence).
An interesting thing about New Zealand, you know, literature is that it really didn’t begin in any real sense until the 20th century.
Wales is a lot like New Zealand.
New Zealand is breathtaking.
I was in Fiji for some years. From there I went over to New Zealand to work as a store manager. But I was modeling for various companies at the same time.
The fact is, an America’s Cup team is more than a sailing team. It’s anywhere from sort of 80 to upward of 100 people; of designers, engineers, boat builders, an incredible group of people, and there are a lot of nationalities in New Zealand’s team.
New Zealand has better food – sorry, America.
If you’re making films in New Zealand, you can’t avoid the landscape. It’s certainly more handsome than I am.
I’m not going to head off and do a Marvel film. So if I don’t do a Marvel film, I don’t have any other choice – I’ve got to go make a small New Zealand movie!
God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia.
While living in New Zealand, I usually made or found Korean food nearby, so when coming back to Korea it was just like coming back home.
The New Zealand culture and nature is such that we find it very difficult to celebrate creative achievement. In order to get New Zealanders’ respect you have to dominate the world like Peter Jackson has done. He is absolutely revered.
I’d come back after having served as ambassador to New Zealand and found that I had real concerns about the direction in which this country was headed.
I played to the biggest audience I’ve ever played to in my life in New Zealand. I couldn’t see the end of the crowd. I understand it was over 200,000 people in a park somewhere.
I always think about the settlers who moved to New Zealand in the 1800s. They hadn’t even been to the place before. They just packed their bags and shipped over knowing they’d never see their family again or be able to speak to them – they’d maybe get a letter if they were lucky.
I moved to New Zealand from Winnipeg when I was almost five. I hated it. It was to a city in the south of New Zealand called Invercargill and there was constant rain. There was a depressing sensation in the air.
I had the honor of doing a two-man show with Julie Andrews around Australia and New Zealand.
I would have thought there’s no greater country to watch rugby than New Zealand.
When we visit New Zealand for family holidays, one of my first stops is to buy fresh mussels.
New Zealand’s food and beverage industry is the lynchpin of the country’s prosperity. Which may explain why it has concentrated their governments’ minds.
New Zealand was kind of getting a reputation for making middle-of-the-road films that weren’t really that unique. They were kind of New Zealand versions of overseas films, and for sure, having an Oscar nomination totally helped me get funding.
I went to a state school in Christchurch, New Zealand, and then straight on to the University of Canterbury. But I worked part-time all the way through high school: first with a paper round, then at a fast-food outlet, a video store and a hardware store.
I’ve played such good golf, and it was hard coming up and it wasn’t easy in any matches or any shots. It means a lot. I think hopefully it will mean a lot to New Zealand because I’m the next winner of the U.S. Amateur after Danny Lee.
Every time I go back to New Zealand I live with my Nan, and it is the sweetest thing. I don’t know if she fully understood how much you are catered for on set, so she’d send me to work with like, pavlovas and lemon drizzle cakes and smoked snapper.
My first travel experiences were around New Zealand. The scenery is stunning at Milford Sound and Potts Glacier.
If I have the choice of traveling to Russia, India or New Zealand alone for a week for preliminary discussions or to spend that week with my family, I routinely choose my family.
