Natural historians in New Zealand have long been preoccupied with the antiquity and origins of our native land-dwelling plants and animals, especially our more distinctive icons, such as moa, kiwi and tuatara. New biochemical technologies are providing fresh insights into the genetic lineage of our flora and fauna, and hence their ancestry. But this information […]...
The enduring popularity of Erick Brenstrum’s weather column in this magazine is both a tribute to his skill as a writer and a reflection of our preoccupation with weather. In this column, deputy editor Warren Judd looks at how a thirst for weather inkmation can be quenched online....
When the snow starts to fall on the Desert Road and clouds hang low over the Volcanic Plateau it’s time for another intake of recruits to fall in at the army camp in Waiouru for a three-month introduction to military life known as “winter basic”. Wellington photographer Paul Hitchcock joined the recruits each week to […]...
To 18th-century Europeans, accustomed to bleak weather, overcrowded cities, soul-destroying work and impoverished diets, Polynesia sounded like Paradise. A benign climate, food in abundance, a life of pleasure and ease such was the popular notion and European painters imposed no restraints on their imaginations when it came to depicting this distant wonderland. “Les peuples de […]...
In an age when rivers are managed to satisfy the competing demands of dozens of users, the raw power of a mighty river such as the Waitaki is rarely seen. Draining the central mountains of the South Island from Mt Cook National Park south to the Lindis Pass, the waters of the Waitaki—”water of tears”—now […]...
Pushing through a field of brash ice, an intrepid New Zealand expedition closes in on the bottom of the world. Their goal: the Antarctic Circle. Their route: wherever wind, wave and ice permit a passage along the western shore of the Antarctic Peninsula. Their means: three fibreglass kayaks and a fair measure of grit....
A group of archaeologists and plant scientists have uncovered direct evidence of what plants Maori grew and consumed in pre-European times. They report on how they went about doing it....
The endangered orange-fronted parakeet could be forgiven for having an identity crisis, since the debate over its taxonomic status has spanned three centuries. At issue is whether it is a true species or merely a colour variety of another more common parakeet. Subfossil records show that parakeets were abundant throughout the North and South Islands […]...
