Oruatemanu, also known as Arrow Rocks, at the eastern end of Whangaroa Bay, in Northland, has recently become a focus of international scientific attention. This unprepossessing, uninhabited islet, surrounded by a broad rock platform and surmounted by two vegetated crests that resemble inclined arrow heads, may be of passing interest to boaties, but to geologists […]...
Each spring, millions of seabirds congregate on remote Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean to take part in the bustling, confused and hazardous business of reproduction. Waiting for them are one of humankind’s most destructive hangers-on—rats, by the tens of thousands. Of all our species’ travelling companions, these small rodents, which have held the island […]...
The 20th century may not be far behind us, but already it feels like a bygone age. A new book of photographs from an extensive archive shows just how much New Zealand changed during the course of the fastest moving century in history. The appearance and cry of the saleyard auctioneer altered less than many activities, although today he increasingly operates inside a natty pavilion, with the details of the stock […]...
In few of the world’s temperate forests do ferns assume the luxuriance and dominance that they achieve in the damper portions of the New Zealand bush. Fronds decorate every tree-trunk and choke the floor of the forest, while stands of huge tree ferns tower over lesser trees. Little wonder that the fern frond has become […]...
A snap cold spell transforms a waterfall on Wye Creek, near Queenstown, into an icicle cascade, and beckons a special breed of adventurer-the ice climber-to its cold clutches. New formations like this one are difficult and dangerous to climb: the ice, not yet matured by extended cooling, is brittle, and it is not uncommon for […]...
Like a fingerprint on the land, close-spaced sheep tracks pattern the hillsides of the Otago Peninsula. Although the peninsula lies on the threshold of a major city and has a long history of human modification, it remains wild and remote in character, a place where weather and sea hold sway....
