We’ve come a long way from the papyrus reeds of the ancient Egyptians to the galaxy of paper products we use today. But, then again, not as far as you might think. The essence of papermaking is an elegantly simple process…...
During the month of November, 67 athletes ran, cycled and kayaked their way from Cape Reinga to Bluff in the inaugural Xerox Challenge, billed as the toughest multi-discipline endurance race in the world....
From 1860 to 1864 Samuel Butler chased sheep in the foothills of the Southern Alps, explored unknown mountain passes and propounded his philosophies to the gentlefolk of Canterbury. He left behind a legend and a 100,000-acre sheep station, Mesopotamia. It was there that novelist James McNeish went to discover what it was that inspired one of the world’s great satirists....
The sound of the wind tearing buildings apart woke the inhabitants of Inglewood at 3.30am on Sunday August 12 as a tornado swept through the town. Forty-three buildings were damaged, people were thrown across rooms, hundreds of windows blown in and slivers of glass embedded in a cot, yet, miraculously, no one was killed. The […]...
This story might have begun by saying that Whangarei’s Clapham’s Clock Museum is no more than a display of superfluous anachronism to those of us who don’t wear watches and prefer to tell the time by looking at the sky, listening to our bellies or succumbing to fatigue. But the museum, which houses 1200 clocks […]...
In Summer the nights are dominated by Orion and his attendant dogs, Canis Major and Minor, together with the head of Taurus, the bull. Being south of the Equator, we see the traditional patterns of the stars inverted, so although the shapes remain distinct, their associations are masked; Orion standing on his head is neither […]...
To some people, crabs are ugly, aggressive scavengers that nip the toes of unsuspecting bathers in cartoons. To biologist John Walsby they are beautiful, complex creatures whose lives are full of intriguing secrets....
Deep in the subantarctic, where the Furious Fifties welcome no intruder, aspiring settlers and shipwrecked sailors encountered despair and failure on the Auckland Islands. Today these same islands are regarded as some of New Zealand’s most magnificent wild places....
