UFC 317: The narrative leading to Kai Kara-France's flyweight title shot
As the Kiwi flyweight has made his rise into the spotlight, so too has his division which, when Kara-France joined the UFC in 2018, was rumoured to be on the way out with the promotion.
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NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Travel Alerts: Food, pride, nature and culture in Aotearoa and abroad
Champagnes and opera Champagne and Opera Fridays at Bellini Bar offer an elegant escape for Kiwi travellers seeking a touch of Europe right in the heart of Auckland. Set against the glittering Waitematā Harbour, this free event at Hilton Auckland brings together live opera, Champagne Pommery and gourmet bites in one unforgettable evening. Every Friday from 6.30 to 7.30pm, guests can sip fine bubbles while rising stars from the New Zealand Opera School serenade the room. It is a rare chance to experience world-class music in an intimate waterfront setting. Whether you are an opera aficionado or simply curious, this is a refined way to start your weekend. Entry is free, but seating is limited, so reservations are recommended. Enjoy champagne while listening to opera at the Bellini Bar event. Photo / 123rf Pride at the slopes Winter Pride Queenstown returns from August 15 to 24, with an action-packed lineup of over 40 events celebrating love, diversity and community. Set in New Zealand's alpine playground, this Southern Hemisphere rainbow festival promises 10 unforgettable days of parties, ski adventures and heartfelt moments. Festival-goers can hit the slopes during themed ski days at Cardrona and The Remarkables, dance through epic après-skis and enjoy nightly events like Balls & Bingo, Enigma F2F Strip Night, and drag shows at SkyCity. Daytime favourites include the Pride Park Run, Fierce Farmyard at Walter Peak and Superhero Day. Unmissable night parties include Hotel Lavender Lounge, Wig'It Just a Little Bit and the Hawaii Honeymoon closing session at Sundeck. Visit for tickets and updates. Tickets are on sale for the Winter Pride Queenstown events. Improved Skyrail Soaring above one of the world's oldest rainforests is about to get even better. Cairns' iconic Skyrail Rainforest Cableway has announced an ambitious $85 million redevelopment to mark its 30th anniversary, securing its place as a must-visit attraction for decades to come. The upgrade will feature whisper-quiet gondolas with floor-to-ceiling views, new high-tech cable systems and a staged construction plan to minimise disruption while preserving the fragile ecosystem below. With more than 100,000 hours of operation since it opened, Skyrail is one of the most complex gondola systems in the world and a symbol of Australian eco-tourism. This new chapter, set to be completed in 2027, reaffirms Skyrail's commitment to sustainability and innovation and offers Kiwis an upgraded way to explore the Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforest in spectacular style. Learn more at The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway gondola runs above Kuranda Range Rd. Photo / Tourism Tropical North Queensland More great food at sea Ponant Ex;lporations is setting the table for a truly extraordinary voyage. In January 2027, its polar exploration ship Le Commandant Charcot will sail through the icy Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland for a one-of-a-kind culinary and cultural journey. This immersive cruise brings together the world's most elite chefs and diplomats through a partnership with the Club des Chefs des Chefs: the exclusive society of chefs who cook for heads of state. Guests will dine on iconic dishes once served at White House and Élysée Palace State Dinners, enjoy behind-the-scenes stories from former presidential chefs and experience first-hand how food bridges cultures. With former White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and French culinary ambassador Guillaume Gomez on board, this journey blends high gastronomy with Arctic adventure.
Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
‘Son of Queenstown' remembered
The late Bruce Grant. PHOTO: SUPPLIED If Queenstown's the world's adventure capital, no-one epitomised that better than Bruce Grant. That even applied to the tragic end of his life — succumbing to "the mother of storms" after becoming the first Kiwi to summit the world's second highest mountain, K2, without oxygen. Only 31, this 'son of Queenstown' — as he's described on a plaque in the Gardens — had already packed in a lifetime of adventures. Born in the Sydney St maternity home his family once lived opposite, Bruce's mum Ros, who's 93, was a teacher and his dad, the late John, a builder. The youngest of four siblings, he started skiing earlier than the others — "he sort of got dragged along", sister Christine, one year his elder, says. He attended primary and secondary school on Ballarat St, finishing at the latter's new Fryer St campus. Christine says then-skifield owner Mount Cook provided schools with ex-rental gear which Bruce started with. The pair would later miss a lot of school as they ascended the ranks to national ski team selection. New Zealand downhill champ for five years, he and Christine skied that discipline, under the influence of a Canadian coach, at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Bruce finished 31st and was also chosen for the '88 Calgary Olympics, but an injured leg didn't recover in time for him to compete. He got into parapenting soon after it was introduced to Queenstown, first flying solo before becoming a commercial tandem pilot for eight years. After summiting many mountains, including Mt Cook seven times, he'd often ski or parapente off them, sometimes for films he starred in. One was The Leading Edge, for which Queenstowner Mathurin Molgat hired him after watching him ski The Remarkables. "He was an exceptional athlete, and he never said 'no'. "If you said, 'you want to do this, Bruce?' it didn't matter what the adventure was, he was in it." They even tried, before crashing, to mountain bike down The Remarkables' 'Elevator' chute. Mathurin found him the strong, silent type. "We drove up to Mt Cook and I think there were about four words exchanged. "He was a very content, self-contained character." Christine says he also meditated — "he was contemplative". A sculpture in his memory in the Queenstown Gardens. PHOTO: PHILIP CHANDLER In terms of extreme adventure, skiing down Austria's long and difficult Hahnenkamm run put him in elite company. His main mountaineering buddy was then-Queenstowner Kim Logan, who marvelled at some of his amazing Fiordland climbs. Although about 10 years his senior and more experienced, he says Bruce was mentally and physically the better mountaineer. "His safety margin was higher than mine." The pair were among rescuers who saved the life of a German backpacker on the Routeburn Track in extreme conditions, winning them all Royal Humane Society bravery medals. Kim recalls the police afterwards shouted them breakfast at Queenstown's then Gourmet Express and they got "absolutely smashed" on Irish coffees — "forget about the coffee, just bring us the Irish [whiskey]". The pair's '95 assault on K2, considered the world's most dangerous mountain, was preceded by a major community fundraising effort. Kim says he turned around just after Camp 4 —"it was my own condition and the weather" — and a few hours later expedition leader Peter Hillary did, too. Bruce and five others subsequently reached the summit, but all perished soon after when "the mother of storms" blew through, Kim says. Christine's sure if they'd had an inkling they wouldn't have summitted. "There was a very strong wind which was unforeseen really, in my understanding it came from the bottom up." Ironically, at the same time his brother Andrew, nicknamed 'Buzz', was experiencing a huge storm after summiting Mt Cook. When Kim returned to Queenstown, a memorial service was held in the Anglican church, after which hardy souls ventured in very wild weather to the Gardens where Christine's husband Dan Kelly's sculpture of a hand grasping an ice axe, in Bruce's memory, had been installed that day. At the time, Christine told Mountain Scene: "Bruce achieved a majority of his goals, there's not many people who could ski off Mt Cook, let alone fly. "He was aware of the fragility of human life in nature, he understood the reputation of K2 fully. "He achieved this goal, who knows what he would have achieved next?" Bruce Grant won every Dash for Cash he entered. Thirty years after his death, Sunday's Dash for Cash on Queenstown's Coronet Peak — a fundraiser for the Bruce Grant Youth Trust — is being held in his honour, from 2pm.
NZ Herald
5 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Formula 1: Liam Lawson qualifies inside top 10 again, to start ninth at Hungarian Grand Prix
Hungary marks just the second time Lawson has bettered Hadjar in qualifying, with the only previous time resulting in his career-best finish of sixth in Austria. And, as was the case with Monaco earlier this year when Lawson finished eighth, Hungary's tight nature and low speed corners makes overtaking increasingly difficult. In the build-up to this weekend's grand prix, Lawson himself highlighted qualifying as the area he needs to improve the most. As the clock began ticking in Q1, none of the 20 drivers immediately left their garage to set an early lap time, even with the threat of rain, as clouds came in to help cool the track down from over 50 degrees. With just over 12 minutes left in the session, Lawson emerged from pit lane, and set a first timed lap of 1m 16.350s, good enough for ninth place at the time, with drivers still yet to cross the finish line on their starting efforts. By the time all 20 drivers had set a timed lap, Lawson was 14th, and 0.225s clear of the drop zone. When he returned for his last laps of Q1, Lawson's gap to elimination had been cut to 0.119s, with the cooling track seeing more and more drivers improve on their times. Williams' Carlos Sainz and Alpine's Pierre Gasly both improved their times, which pushed Lawson down to 17th by the time he started his final lap, as the Kiwi improved his lap time to 1m 15.849s to advance in 14th, at the expense of Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, by just 0.50s. Liam Lawson arrives at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Photo / Red Bull Into Q2, and there was no delay in seeing cars immediately leave the pits, as rain started to fall over parts of the track. With that in mind, Lawson's first lap in Q2, 1m 16.156s, was enough for ninth by the time the 15 remaining drivers had set their first lap, 0.045s clear of elimination, ahead of both Ferrari cars. As the session wound down, though, the rain over turn six dissipated, Lawson was one of the first cars to return for his last laps of Q2. That, though, left him vulnerable to the track improving for the drivers who had started later than he had. Those fears didn't eventuate, though, as Lawson's final Q2 time of 1m 15.630s saw him advance to Q3 for the second week in succession, safe by 0.057s, and 0.072s clear of Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in 12th. With 12 minutes to push for as high a place on the starting grid as possible, Lawson managed 1m 16.649s on his first timed lap, which while slower than his best effort in Q2, was enough for seventh, before improving for one last time gave him ninth. The Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 1am on Monday (NZ time), as the final race before Formula One's month-long summer break. Hungarian Grand Prix starting grid Charles Leclerc - Ferrari Oscar Piastri - McLaren Lando Norris - McLaren George Russell - Mercedes Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin Lance Stroll - Aston Martin Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber Max Verstappen - Red Bull Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls Isack Hadjar - Racing Bulls Ollie Bearman - Haas Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari Carlos Sainz - Williams Franco Colapinto - Alpine Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes Yuki Tsunoda - Red Bull Pierre Gasly - Alpine Esteban Ocon - Haas Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber Alex Albon - Williams Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.
