Samuel Marsden was one of the most influential Europeans in early New Zealand. He brought Christianity and agriculture to the Maori and tried to stop the sale of muskets to them and the trade in ...

Plantations of exotic timber trees, especially pines, are looked on with disdain by many as alien monocultures, an unpleasant accommodation necessary to protect precious indigenous forests from the ...

The North Otago limestone country holds one of the world’s most important fossil cetacean records, a coherent story of how whales and dolphins evolved in the Southern Ocean. It’s a story that one ...

A cave beneath Mt Albert, was found to have become a dumping ground for rubbish. One hundred kilometres below Auckland, a vast reservoir of magma seethes, still testing the crust that keeps it captive ...

Fifteen years after methamphetamine use exploded in New Zealand, the drug remains a serious problem in many communities. Now, amid reports of large international drug busts and figures showing ...

The delicacy and brilliance of a hummingbird wedded to an industrial-strength beak that would do a woodpecker proud, the chimeric little kingfisher stakes a claim in our hearts. Returning with a snack ...

The planting of Russell lupins as sheep feed in the Canterbury high country is triggering a clash between farming and conservation values. In early summer, photographers jostle for space on the ...

Auckland is a thirsty city. It has always been that way. Whether water is required for washing the car, water­ing the garden, taking a shower or just a making a cuppa, Auckland’s demand seems ...

In April 2000, New Zealand honeybees received a death threat in the form of the varroa mite, an insect parasite which, if left uncontrolled, is capable of destroying hives and wiping out bees from ...

Early Development of nuclear-pow­ered thermal stations was driven by rising demand for electricity and the need for security of supply. The oil crisis of the early 1970s moved France and some other ...

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 ...

The New Zealand that Charles Darwin dismissed as “the land of cannibalism and all atrocity” after his short visit in 1835, later featured prominently in his writings on evolution. When Charles Darwin ...