Creative New Zealand Visual Artist 2010/11 Alicia Frankovich arrives in Berlin.

New Zealand-born performance and installation artist Alicia Frankovich has taken up the 2010/11 Creative New Zealand Berlin Visual Artists Residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. 

Alicia visited the Embassy earlier this week to introduce herself to the Ambassador and Embassy staff. She has been to Berlin before but is still excited to be living in this pulsating city for a whole year. Alicia sees Berlin as an excellent place for young artists to build up a network and experience the visibility of the city.

Die Welt profiles Hobbiton

On 31 July the German daily newspaper Die Welt published a feature article about the Matamata farm used as the set for Hobbiton in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The farm, with its picturesque rolling hills and concrete hobbit holes, has become a leading tourist attraction and is now set to appear in the film version of The Hobbit.

Twenty young Germans off to New Zealand for their civilian service!

This week the new Ambassador in Berlin, HE Peter Rider, had the pleasure of welcoming a group of twenty young men from all over Germany who will be doing their civilian service in New Zealand.

The exchange is arranged through ADiA (Anderer Dienst im Ausland) programme. ADiA, also called “the other service abroad”, provides assistance to young Germans who wish to carry out their civilian service in a foreign country as an alternative to their compulsory service in Germany.