Variously known as the “coathanger”, the “steel ribbon” and the “big Meccano set”, held together by 205,000 high tensile steel bolts and requiring over 15,000 litres of fresh paint every year, the Auckland Harbour Bridge serves more than 120,000 vehicles a day, and has become the city’s most distinctive icon....
As November draws on, we see less and less of the core of the Milky Way, and progressively lose sight of the Scorpion as it plunges headlong below the horizon. Over in the east Orion and his dreadful opponent Taurus, the long-horned bull, are emerging from the pre-dawn twilight, preceded by the Pleiades, the Seven […]...
What drives hundreds of seals on to the rocks around Cook Strait, brings jubilation to skiers up and down the country and can threaten the Canterbury rugby team with a loss to West Coast Buller, albeit by default? The answer, of course, is a winter southerly. Tuesday, June 5, this year saw the onset of […]...
Nearly all of the world’s few surviving kakapo, Strigops habroptilus, are now confined to two offshore island sanctuaries: Codfish Island, off the west coast of Stewart Island, and Little Barrier Island (or Hauturu) in the Hauraki Gulf. A few have also been released on Maud Island in the Marlborough Sounds, and there may still be […]...
Paul Caffyn lives on the West Coast and paddles the world. He has already become the first person to kayak around Britain, New Zealand, Japan and Australia. Now he is set to chalk up another great circumnavigation: the coastline of Alaska.He tells the story of the journey so far…...
New Zealand has around 1000 species of native land snails, yet most people have probably never seen a single one. Warren Judd reveals something of the glory of these creatures and their shell-less relatives the slugs....
New Zealand’s geothermal areas are world renowned for their spectacular displays of colour, texture and raw power. In a new book photographer Craig Potton focuses on the jewels in our geothermal crown....
Once valued for its antiseptic qualities, sphagnum moss is now finding a new use as the world’s best potting medium for expensive hothouse orchids. And nowhere does the giant moss grow better than in the swamps of the West Coast, where the fiercely independent locals are fuelling an industry with a future as impressive as their own landscape....
Harbours and estuaries are some of the most productive ecosystems on earth. Their sheltered waters support a flourishing growth of marine plants and animals, and an especially rich bird fauna, as photographer Brian Chudleigh reveals....
