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...

Decorating Fences With Trash, The New Zealander Way

Dec 9, 2017

New Zealanders have a unique way of discarding their trash—they hang them on fences. Bras, boots, toothbrushes, bicycles, everything that ha...

The Kauri Driving Dams

Sep 14, 2017

The Kauaeranga Valley in New Zealand's North Island was once covered in vast kauri forests. The trees were immense with thick, straight ...

This Rocky Wall Was Created By The New Zealand Earthquake

Dec 1, 2016

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that stuck the South Island of New Zealand on November 14, 2016, have changed the geography of the region, part...

The Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park

Nov 29, 2016

Just north of Auckland, overlooking the expansive Kaipara Harbour, is the private park of New Zealand businessman, entrepreneur and avid art...

The Town of Bull Puns

Oct 27, 2016

One hundred sixty kilometers north of Wellington, in New Zealand, at the junction of State Highways 1 and 3, lies the small town of Bulls. Y...

Frying Pan Lake of New Zealand

Jun 18, 2016

The Frying Pan Lake in Waimangu, New Zealand, is one of the largest hot pools in the world. Its acidic waters stay at about 50–60° centigrad...

Mount Taranaki And Egmont National Park

Jan 14, 2016

Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island, is said to be one of the most symmetrical v...

The World’s Most Depressing Place Names

Oct 26, 2015

There are some really sad places on earth. Countries torn by war and violence. Countries reeling under poverty. Those places are truly depre...

The Lost Pink and White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana

Sep 17, 2015

In the Rotorua district, in northern New Zealand, about 25 kilometers to the east of the city of Rotorua, were two small lakes known to the ...

Auckland’s Utility Boxes Get Graffiti Makeover

Jul 31, 2015

Auckland-born artist Paul Walsh has been painting telephone utility boxes around his home city since 2013 with animal characters inspired b...