The 10-year -old Maori boy was conspicuous by his rebellious attitude the moment he stepped off the bus. He was visiting the Tawhiti Museum, on the outskirts of Hawera in south Taranaki, along with eight classes of primary school students. Within seconds, he had scrunched up the worksheet that was to steer the students through […]...
As 2006 came to an end, stories of record warmth around the world contrasted strongly with the cold temperatures New Zealand experienced in December. Averaged over the whole country, the month was 1.9°C below the long-term average. Although nationwide it was not the coldest December on record—December 2004, for example, was 0.3°C colder again—many places […]...
January 26, 2007 marked a special occasion for New Zealand’s royal family. After seventy years of breeding on Taiaroa Head at the entrance to Otago Harbour, the northern royal albatrosses have hatched their 500th chick—a tribute to the dedication of not only the birds, but also the humans who have watched over them....
Part of the Mackenzie Basin may be designated as the very first UNESCO World Heritage Dark Sky Park if a planned submission to DOC is successful....
The kingdom of Tonga has been in the news recently for political instability; but for much longer Tonga has been the subject of another kind of instability—geological. Tonga is a prime cruising destination, and recent geological events there have provided some interesting experiences for sailors....
After unfulfilled hype that surrounded the passage of several comets in recent decades, Comet McNaught was a pleasant surprise. It was impressively visible from mid-January into early February and can likely still be found with binoculars as it heads away from the Sun towards the outer solar system. Its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) […]...
Ben Todhunter farms Cleardale Station in the Rakaia Gorge and is co-chair of the High Country Accord, an advocacy group for high country farmers. He was a 2006 Nuffield scholar and is a former chairman of the South Island High Country Committee of Federated Farmers....
I Wonder how many New Zealand Geographic readers would recognise these lines: “There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold…” It wouldn’t surprise me if some could go on to recite The Cremation […]...
Seafood is healthy and the world wants more. Too bad that most wild fisheries are overfished and collapsing. Over the last few decades, aquaculture has begun to offer a solution to this difficulty, but it’s not a solution that wins universal acclaim. In New Zealand, the black floats that mark mussel farms (above)—our main form […]...
