Until recently most New Zealanders were resigned to never seeing a kiwi except in a glassed enclosure. Few even knew of the existence of whiteheads, stitchbirds or North Island robins. Then came the idea of the mainland island. Get rid of the rats, stoats and possums in an area—as conservationists had on some offshore islands and […]...
The database of citations for New Zealand terms and usages that is held at the New Zealand Dictionary Centre at Victoria University, Wellington, reveals more than a mere collection of words and the way in which they are used over time. We refer to our 45,000 term-strong database as a pataka of social and historical data, […]...
Studying Astrophysics and believing in ghosts might seem incompatible at first glance, but anyone with an ear to the scientific ground knows that this pact is obligatory in the physical sciences. Ask a cosmologist to identify the bulk of the Universe’s mass and she’ll tell you it isn’t found in the stars—less than one per cent—or […]...
On Friday, May 11, this year, a tornado whipped through Greymouth, ripping off roofs, scattering corrugated iron down streets and knocking over fences and letterboxes, all the while accompanied by heavy rain and lightning....
A few years ago Auckland made international news—and caused widespread bemusement—when a major motorway rebuilding project was threatened with delay on account of a handful of uncommon shorebirds nesting within the site....
In this issue we again visit the ever-expanding universe of climate change. Recently, even the Americans and Australians have shown some governmental interest in the subject and our own political parties are revamping their policies. I have to agree with the Greens that our initiatives have hitherto been feeble. A target of 3.4 per cent of […]...
Purple, pungent and pricey—and here growing in Napier’s Esk Valley in all its splendour....
To mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, a former student of taxonomy considers the life and legacy of Sweden’s most famous naturalist....
What role should government have in providing affordable housing? The issue has been tossed back and forth between rival political parties for a century now, and with housing becoming less affordable for many, it’s likely to be debated for a while yet. Refugees, such as Nay from Myanmar, are among those who benefit from state […]...
As temperatures around the world slowly rise, glaciers steadily retreat. New Zealand has over 3000 glaciers in its mountains, among them two of the fastest moving, most accessible and spectacular in the world—the Fox and Franz Josef. While thousands of annual visitors are impressed by the glaciers’ immensity, fewer get close enough to examine the beauty of […]...
