The spring of 2002 was a cold one, with Jack Frost making many an unwanted visit to the country’s fruit and vegetable growers.On Friday October 4, 2002, an intense low east of New Zealand moved away and a weak ridge of high pressure spread over the country. Strong southerly winds on the western flank of […]...
The spectacular escapee known as Chilean rhubarb or giant rhubarb (Gunnera tinctoria or chilensis) is rapidly becoming a major weed problem on South Taranaki’s coastal cliff faces. Despite its common name, it is unrelated to the domestic rhubarb, although both have large leaves.Taranaki has the greatest density of wild Chilean rhubarb in New Zealand, with approximately […]...
In august 2002, a scientific cruise to geologically map an area of seabed off the coast of North land uncovered evidence of a series of ancient but now submerged islands which scientists believe may have been part of a land bridge once used by organisms to reach New Zealand. The area in question lies just seaward […]...
Introduced over 150 years ago as the basis for a fur trade, the Australian brush-tail possum has instead become an ecological plague, chomping its way through millions of tonnes of forest foliage a year. In 1992, when New Zealand Geographic first covered the possum problem, the fur market was moribund. But now, as global fashion […]...
The adventure of Pioneer Motoring in New Zealand...
Politicians enjoy the limelight of public attention for a season or two and are then forgotten—apart from a few, such as premier John Ballance, immortalised in stone outside the Parliamentary Library. But Parliament, the theatre in which they strut, endures. Imposing, sometimes grand, it is more than just these buildings in downtown Wellington. It is […]...
Dawn finds a palisade of anglers knee-deep in surf at the mouth of the South Island’s Rangitata River. When rivers are low, chinook salmon, known locally as quinnat, linger at sea, waiting for higher flows before running upstream to spawn. On foot, by farm bike or in jet-boats, anglers will give chase, eager for the […]...
