Retreating glaciers and thinning snow and ice are the future of New Zealand’s mountains. Climate change is predicted to warm the country’s atmosphere by 1–4°C by the end of the century, altering the ...

In April 2000, a small boulder that had for decades graced the garden of the old St Stephen’s Presbyterian manse in Dunedin was ceremoniously welcomed home by the people of Moeraki. The rock had begun ...

Poachers are raiding fragile caves to make a quick buck flogging moa bones to the highest bidder. Is it right? “This is the cave,” says Greg Pickford, and at first, I don’t believe him. It’s the ...

The tradition of kava has brought people together and consummated important social occasions in the Pacific for 3000 years. The use of kava is growing in New Zealand, with some 25,000 drinkers ...

The migration of Oceania’s humpback whales, and their final destination in Antarctica, has remained shrouded in mystery. This year, a team of scientists travelled north to intercept and track the ...

Sea lions are coming home to the coasts of southern New Zealand, returning to their former territory after more than 300 years in exile. The big question is: Can we make room for them? A curious New ...

When circumpolar currents surge from the Pacific through the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica, scientists have discovered that they strike underwater remnants of the Andes creating ...

A scything ridge of sand—very emblem of desert lands—runs into the great wilderness that is Kokota, the bull-nosed southern head of Parengarenga Harbour. The Far North is a region built on sand, much ...

Nightfall, and the forest comes alive with squeaking. Or it used to. Lesser short-tailed bats are clinging on in a handful of places, their populations blinking out of existence. Yet researchers are ...

In the late 19th century, news of a strange antipodean bird with beautiful tail feathers, orange wattles, and a long curved beak spread around the British Empire. To Māori, it was a tapu bird—a sacred ...

On a tiny island lost since the dawn of time, we can glimpse a world long past. Here are creatures from another age. Giant armour-plated insects called wetas and huge land snails that still browse the ...

Kairara: one blink and you will miss it. It’s nothing more than a few farms scattered at the base of Tutamoe Mountain, about 20 km north of Dargaville. Not a tourist in sight on the day I passed ...