Caught always between unyielding rock and crushing wave, creatures which try to survive between the tides on Auckland’s fierce west coast need a grip of iron and a thick skin—attributes exemplified by the reef star Stichaster australis....
One of the exciting advances in meteorology over the past 30 years has been the introduction of hourly satellite images of the Earth’s atmosphere. Positioned about 36,000 km above the Equator, the satellites that take these images orbit with the same angular velocity as the Earth, so they remain above the same spot on the […]...
Doctors may soon be prescribing ice cream for sore throats if a recent antibiotic breakthrough goes into production. It has long been recognised that traditional antibiotics, one of the great advances of the 20th century, are losing their effectiveness through over-prescription and misuse. Bacterial populations which were once wonderfully susceptible to a few modest capsules of […]...
Think of fossils and dinosaurs, trilobites and shells may spring to mind, but probably not flowers. Yet since 1992 more than 100 fossil flowers have been collected from 70-millionyear-old rocks near Pakawau, on the western flank of Golden Bay. They are the first flowers of Cretaceous age to be reported from New Zealand, and no […]...
The recent bout of global fuel price increases was an unpleasant reminder of the oil shocks of the 1970s. At that time, the New Zealand government took measures to reduce this country’s vulnerability to the policies of OPEC. Now, 30 years on, the question must be asked: have our energy policies worked? The first oil […]...
Twenty-five years ago, the term “mountain bike” didn’t exist. Today the fat-tyred, shock-absorbing off-road machines outsell their bitumen-bound cousins three to one, and the call of the outdoors is as often answered on wheels as on foot....
With its amalgam of coral-reef-fringed lagoon,gentle hills and high volcanic mountains, Lord Howe Island is considered by some the most beautiful island in the world. Its plants and animals bear intriguing similarities to those of New Zealand as well as showing affinities with those of the tropical Pacific and Australia. In recognition of its unique […]...
Today a playground for canoeists and jetboaters, the Whanganui River was once a major highway serving settler and tourist alike. Stately paddle-steamers and innovative tunnel-dive launches mingled with skiffs and waka, bearing people, good and livestock though the forested interior. But the river was no boating cakewalk, all limpid depths and shimmering beauty. Its many […]...
