New Zealand Geographic
Off the warming northeastern coasts of New Zealand, a spiky problem is snowballing. Centrostephanus rodgersii, the longspined sea urchin, is a native species, but the comparatively balmy winters underwater are supercharging its reproduction. On top of that, we’ve eaten too many of its probable key predators—big crays.
The meaning of mana - New Zealand Geographic
The meaning of mana. There are more cautionary notes in Māoridom dealing with mana than you could shake the proverbial stick at. It is a source of both personal and collective strength, pride and identity. Mishandled, it becomes the bearer of shame, ridicule and embarrassment. If mana allows us to walk tall, then it also casts a long shadow ...
What went wrong and what are we doing about it? - New Zealand …
Six years and one month to the day after landing at Paihia in the Bay of Islands William Colenso finished a rush job. He was a printer, and in the early evening of January 30, 1840, he completed the last of a hundred invitations asking Northland chiefs to come to Mr and Mrs Busby’s house the next week to meet the “chief of the Queen”, who had arrived from Sydney to be “a governor for ...
Huia, the sacred bird - New Zealand Geographic
Huia, the sacred bird. 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 treasure. And its song was about to …
Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing - New Zealand Geographic
The first Europeans to reach Sāmoa—aboard three Dutch vessels in 1722—reported that the locals who paddled out to them were dressed from waist to heel in fringes and “a sort of artistically made silk cloth”. A later visitor, Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, realised that this “ornament” was actually a series of indelible marks, very likely made permanent by …
Moa: The Life and Death of New Zealand’s Legendary Bird
The Moa were. perhaps the most unusual family of birds that ever lived. Some boasted legs built like an elephant, others laid eggs the size of rugby balls, and the giant moa was the tallest bird ever to walk the planet. They evolved in isolation over millions of years, roaming the forests of New Zealand, but were ill-prepared for humans.
What happened on Whakaari? - New Zealand Geographic
The eruption started at 9.35pm, with big heaves inside the crater. At 10.03pm, it began pelting the walking track with projectiles, but withheld its final energy until 10.11pm when, with a whoomph, it sent the plume sky-high.A scalding current of steam and debris, coloured green by the hydrothermally altered rock it contained, rolled right over …
Tuatara - A survivor from the dinosaur age - New Zealand …
For tuatara are the great survivors in New Zealand. Their ancestors, the first sphenodontidans (a name meaning ‘wedge tooth’), shared virtually all continents with dinosaurs. They appear as fossils from North America, Europe, England and Africa, from 225 million years ago until about 120 million years ago.
Kowhai - New Zealand Geographic
S. chathamica (coastal kowhai) grows in coastal and lowland areas in the northern North Island, around Wellington (on Kapiti, Mana, and Matiu/Somes Is, and at Paremata and Papakowhai) and, as its name suggests, on the Chatham Islands. It has crowded and overlapping leaflets, those near the stem being larger than those near the leaf tip.
Ferns: the glory of the forest - New Zealand Geographic
In few of the world's temperate forests do ferns assume the luxuriance and dominance that they achieve in the damper portions of the New Zealand bush. Fronds decorate every tree-trunk and choke the floor of the forest, while stands of huge tree ferns tower over lesser trees. Little wonder that the fern frond has become a major symbol of the country in popular culture.