Wellington

The Carter Observatory stands at the top of the Botanic Gardens in Wellington, New Zealand. It re-opened in March 2010 following a NZ$5 million... refurbishment, with a new exhibition and digital planetarium celebrating the culture, heritage and science of the Southern Skies. The name commemorates Charles Rooking Carter, who gifted his estate to what later became the Royal Society of New Zealand for the purposes of establishing an astronomical observatory in or near Wellington. Parliament established the Carter Observatory in 1937; it opened in 1941, following some delays caused by the beginnings of World War II. The observatory became a base for astronomical research in New Zealand. Research began with solar investigations and when new staff joined during the 1970s it expanded to variable stars, galaxies, comets and asteroids. The observatory has had formal research programmes and assists amateur astronomers to perform their own research. The Carter Observatory became New Zealand's National Observatory in 1977. In recent years, its role "shifted from a focus on research to increasingly concentrate on public education about space" .
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Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for... romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. He is also the founder of the British charity Comic Relief. Curtis was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Glyness S. and Anthony J. Curtis, who was an executive at Unilever. Curtis and his family lived in several different countries during his childhood, including Sweden and the Philippines. Part of the family still lives in Sydney. Curtis has lived in England since he was 11. He began school at Papplewick School, Ascot ,Richard also spent time Warrington, wher he attended Appleton grammer school in the 70's. before he won a scholarship to the prestigious Harrow School in London. He achieved a first-class degree in English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, and it was at Oxford that he met, and began working with, Rowan Atkinson.
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Karl-Heinz Urban is a New Zealand actor. He is known for playing Éomer in the second and third installments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the... Rings trilogy, Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 film Star Trek and Caesar on Xena: Warrior Princess. He played Vaako in The Chronicles of Riddick, the Russian assassin Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy, and Ghost in Pathfinder and won acclaim for his performances in New Zealand films The Price of Milk and Out of the Blue. Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand. His father, a German immigrant, owned a leather goods store, and his mother once worked for Film Facilities in Wellington, through which the young Urban was exposed to classic New Zealand cinema and developed an interest in the film industry. Urban attended St Mark's Church School, where he showed an early love for public performance. His first acting role came at age eight, when he had a single line in one episode of the New Zealand television series 'Pioneer Woman'. Though continuing to take part in school stage productions, he did not act professionally again until after high school.
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Michael King, OBE was a New Zealand popular historian, author and biographer. He wrote or edited over 30 books on New Zealand topics, including The... Penguin History of New Zealand, which was the most popular New Zealand book of 2004. King was born in Wellington to Eleanor and Commander Lewis King, one of four children. Educated at Sacred Heart College in Auckland and St. Patrick's College, Silverstream, he went on to study history at Victoria University of Wellington before working as a journalist at the Waikato Times newspaper in Hamilton in 1968. King earned degrees in history at Victoria, and the University of Waikato , and gained his Ph.D. at Waikato . In 1997 he received an honorary D.Litt. at Victoria. He was Visiting Professor of New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and taught or held fellowships at six other universities. Although not Māori himself, King was well known for his knowledge of Māori culture and history. New Zealand Listener, one of New Zealand's most popular weekly magazines, dubbed King "the people's historian" for his efforts to write about and for the local populous.
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Jane Campion is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and director from New Zealand. Campion is the second of four women ever nominated for the Academy Award... for Best Director. She also is the first female filmmaker in history to receive the Palme d'Or for direction. Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the daughter of Edith, an actress, and Richard Campion, a theater and opera director. She graduated with a degree in anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975. In 1976 she attended Chelsea Art School in London and travelled in Europe. She graduated with a painting major at the Sydney College of the Arts in Australia in 1979. She made her first short film, Tissues in 1981. In 1982 she began studying at the Australian Film and Television School where she made further short films. Campion started making films in the early 1980s at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. Her first short film, Peel won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, and other awards followed for the shorts Passionless Moments , Girls Own Story and After Hours .
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Sala Baker is an actor and stuntman from Wellington, New Zealand. He was married to Stefany June Baclaan on April 11, 2010 in Hollywood. Originally... hired as one of several stunt performers for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, he ended up landing the part of Sauron. In addition, he also played several Orcs, a Gondorian, and one of the Rohirrim. Outside of the trilogy, Baker has performed in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Baker was also a part of the miscellaneous crew in the making of The Last Samurai in 2003.
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Sally Erana Martin is an actress from New Zealand. She has appeared in a range of television series, including The Strip, Shortland Street and in... Power Rangers: Ninja Storm as Tori Hanson/the Blue Wind Ninja Ranger. She has also worked in several other shows such as Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, The Killian Curse and in the TV movie Murder in Greenwich. Born in Wellington, Martin attended Chilton St. James School, where she performed numerous festivals and productions including the national Shiela Winn Shakespeare festival, the New Zealand College Theatresports competition and a variety of school plays. Martin started acting at the age of 15 in The Strip as Gemma in 2001. Then she did Revelations as Annie in 2002, followed by Power Rangers: Ninja Storm as Tori Hanson in 2003. After that she did the movie Murder in Greenwich. She got a part of Tory in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior in 2006. Then she did Welcome to Paradise as Sasha in 2007.
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