There is a competition running in the land which is more popular than Lotto, more intense than rugby and more regular than horse racing. It is the nightly showing of the day’s maximum temperature at the beginning of the weather forecast on television. The reward for winners seems to be the reassurance that they live in […]...
On August 7, a three-kilometre stretch of central Hawke’s Bay coastline became New Zealand’s 14th marine reserve. Named Te Angiangi Marine Reserve, it is situated between Aramoana and Blackhead beaches, about 30 km east of Waipukurau. Despite its small size (446 ha), it is significant as the first marine reserve on New Zealand’s east coast south […]...
Tall oaks from little acorns grow, but until recently no spreading Moreton Bay fig trees sprouted from the seedy fruit that local trees produce. Now, thanks to a tiny wasp—the tree’s indispensable pollinator—the situation has changed....
“After weeks of hard labour we were ready. We cut the wires connecting the island with the mainland and set a barracks a fire. That created the diversion we needed. Everybody, guards and all, flocked to put the blaze out. When the excitement was at its highest, we stole away singly and boarded the motor boat. The engine purred, and we were […]...
In the calm before another storm, a fishing boat noses towards the rocky arms that flank the entrance to Wellington Harbour—a haven from the fierce weather that has earned Cook Strait a reputation as New Zealand’s most treacherous stretch of water....
While spilt beer and cigarette ash were being mixed to a stale slurry in the carpets of our pubs and lounges, Viggo Dufresne was outside in the blue light of sea pebbles on bare puckered knees, intent. Before him dangled a fruit crop of rare beauty and purity: bunches of luminous grapes lovingly wrung from […]...
