Showing posts with the label New Zealand

Mokomokai: Tattooed Maori Heads And The Musket Wars

Nov 11, 2022

In the early 19th century, a deplorable trade developed in New Zealand between the indigenous Maori people and the European merchants. The w...

Wellington’s Private Cable Cars

Dec 21, 2021

The iconic Wellington Cable Car between Lambton Quay and Kelburn is one of Wellington’s most beloved landmarks, but it is not the only funic...

Bob Semple’s Tank: New Zealand’s Homegrown Tractor-Tanks

Nov 26, 2021

In 1941, war hysteria gripped New Zealand and its neighboring country of Australia. The Japanese army was advancing rapidly across South Eas...

The Buried Village of Te Wairoa

Dec 10, 2020

Until the late 19th century, the shores of Rotomahana, in northern New Zealand, were adorned by one of the most spectacular travertine terra...

Pelorus Jack: The Dolphin Who Piloted Ships

Jul 30, 2020

The northern end of New Zealand’s South Island is a chaos of bays and sounds, and within this intricate coastline lies a narrow and treacher...

New Zealand’s Castaway Depots For Shipwrecked Sailors

Oct 9, 2018

An old castaway hut in the North of Antipodes Islands, New Zealand. Photo credit: LawrieM/Wikimedia Before the Suez and Panama Canals open...

How A Single Cat Hunted to Extinction The Entire Species of Stephens Island Wren

Jul 6, 2018

David Lyall held his breath as he made the first incision straight down the belly of a little mouse-like olive brown bird that lay on his de...

The Hill With The Longest Name

Jun 9, 2018

Photo credit: itravelNZ/Flickr Near Porangahau in southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, stands an insubstantial hill with a very substant...

John Cleese’s Rubbish Dump in Palmerston North

Apr 14, 2018

Just outside the city of Palmerston North in the North Island of New Zealand is a rubbish dump named Mt Cleese. It’s perhaps the first time...

The World’s Loneliest Tree, And The Clues it Holds to a New Epoch

Mar 6, 2018

In the remote Campbell Island, situated more than 600 km south of New Zealand’s mainland, grows a solitary Sitka spruce that has gained dist...