One Courageous Dolphin
Moko the dolphin, who resided at Mahia Beach for two and a half years from 27 to September 29, has been included in a Time magazine Top 1 list of history’s most courageous animals….
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Just Like Everybody Else
“The world’s best rugby player” Dan Carter talks exclusively to The Telegraph about how he fled for his own safety during last month’s earthquake in Christchurch, and about how he helped the city in…
One-of-a-kind Parrot
The kakapo, Strigops habroptilus, also known as the owl parrot, is the Guardian’s “Mystery Bird” this week. “This stunning but rare species is so unusual that it is the only member of its genus…
Fabled Serenity Endures
Despite the tragedy of February’s catastrophic earthquake, New Zealand still delivers sublime travel experiences, writes Chris Leadbeater for The Independent. “Since 1884 has played a role as a lone token of man’s…
Turquoise Currents
As New Zealand’s summer draws to an end, blooms of tiny ocean plants swirl in turquoise and green along the shores of the South Island. NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image on February 1…
Mysteries Remain
“Days after the quake, a friend returns home to the eeriness of a place that’s undergone incredible violence,” author Emily Perkins writes for an article in the Guardian. “Everything is upended, on its side,…
Unflagging Optimist
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has been there in front of the news cameras almost from the moment the deadly earthquake struck the tourist city of Christchurch. At 57, Parker is Christchurch’s Earthquake Mayor. It’s…
Sense of Community
The White House deployed disaster-response and urban-search-and-rescue teams to Christchurch following the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that rocked the city on February 22. They were greeted there by Timothy Manning, a deputy administrator at the US…
Looking at Tectonics
The devastating earthquake that tore through Christchurch on the afternoon of February 22 is the product of a new fault line in the Earth’s crust — an offshoot from the Alpine fault — that…
In The Press Building
“I was on the phone to a man whose earthquake-damaged home burned down in Pines Beach when the earthquake hit,” eyewitness Nicole Mathewson writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. “At first I thought it…
Glacier Collapses
A huge vertical slab calved off the front of New Zealand’s longest glacier, the Tasman Glacier, into Tasman Lake after the 6.3-magnitude quake hit Christchurch on 22 February. The chunk is estimated to have…
Google Responds
New Zealand-born Google executive Craig Nevill-Manning, who lives in Tribeca, New York, has been using his high-tech skills to help anxious relatives locate loved ones in earthquake-ravaged Christchurch. Nevill-Manning first created the Google Crisis…
Goal Overshadowed
West Ham defender Auckland-born Winston Reid has spoken of his sadness at the deadly earthquake that rocked Christchurch hours after the Hammers had booked their place in the last eight of the FA Cup…
World Transformed
Author David Haywood describes the earthquake that destroyed his home and killed scores of New Zealanders in an eyewitness account for the Guardian. “The first jolt knocked me off my feet. A desktop computer…
Enduring Friendship
New Zealand has the “enduring friendship and support of many partners around the world,” President Obama said in a White House statement. Obama offered his “deepest condolences” to the people of New Zealand and…
Year for the Kereru
A project to help the kereru and native forests thrive once more throughout the Wellington region has received new funding from the Nikau Foundation with support from the Willscott Endowment Fund, and WWF-New Zealand…
Into the Stormy Pot
Outdoor adventure instructors taking shelter from a storm in Kahurangi National Park on Mt Arthur have stumbled across what may prove to be the country’s deepest cave. Instructor Kieran McKay and four others took…
Ecosystem Fragility
University of Canterbury researchers say they have linked the modern-day decline of a common forest shrub with the local extinction of two pollinating birds — the bellbird and stitchbird — over a century ago….
Behold the Pink Terraces
Scientists exploring Lake Rotomahana say they have found part of the famed Pink Terraces which were feared destroyed when Mount Tarawera erupted 135 years ago. The Pink and White Terraces, once described as the…
The Promiscuous Hihi
A team of researchers has found that reintroductions of a small New Zealand bird, called the hihi (Notiomystis cincta), onto the tiny islands around the North Island and into reserves on the mainland have…
Richard Henry Lives On
Legendary kakapo, Richard Henry, whose genetic material helped recover the species of rare flightless parrot, has died at the ripe old age of 80. Researchers believed the kakapo had been nearly wiped out and…
Breath of Fresh Air
“It’s an extraordinary place, New Zealand,” British writer and journalist Daniel Hannan writes in a blog for the Telegraph. “Its pure air gets to work on even the most casual visitor. No country is…
Human Footprints
The effect of early humans on New Zealand forests is being studied by scientists from Montana State University in a project titled “Ecosystem resilience to human impacts: ecological consequences of early human-set fires in…
Ozone Hole Shrinkage
Auckland-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) studies have found that the ozone hole over Antarctica has shrunk to the smallest in five years, decreasing about 22 million square kilometres from 24…
Underground Stars
“The world renowned Waitomo Glowworm Caves should be high on any visitor’s wish-list,” recommends Monsters & Critic’s writer Jennie Radue. “The most obvious difference between the Waitomo Glowworm and its European counterpart is that…
Native Methuselah
“The animal that may well be New Zealand’s most bizarrely instructive species at first glance looks surprisingly humdrum,” writes The New York Times’ Natalie Angier. “The tuatara — whose name comes from the Maori…
Help from Afar
A conservation awareness “Kakapo Parrot Day” event in Greenwich, Conneticut organised by a local teenager keen to help with the endangered bird’s survival will be held on December 11. Aaron Friedman, a student at…
Southern Surprises
Southern surprises “The Chatham Islands off the coast of New Zealand offer a unique ecology rich with opportunities to discover plants and birds that live nowhere else,” American horticulturist Daniel Hinkley writes for the Seattle…
Shaky Lessons
In the aftermath of the earthquake that rocked Christchurch on September 4, an Arizona State University (ASU) geotechnical engineer says the US should learn from what New Zealanders did to withstand a recent powerful…
Land Apart
Garden editor for the New Zealand House and Garden magazine Gordon Collier was recently in Seattle giving a lecture on the flora and fauna of the remote Chatham Islands. Collier’s illustrated lecture, “A Land…
Taking the Sting Out
Gisborne-based Dive Tatapouri is defending the reputation of the short-tailed stingray, offering plucky tourists the opportunity to hand-feed the sea creatures. “They’re incredibly good-natured,” owner Dean Savage says. “It’s extremely rare for them to…
Lucky for Some
Whitianga-based vet Alex Elson, 58, has completed Britain’s 117km South West Coast Path 13-years after she began it in the coastal town of Minehead. Elson and her British friend Sandra Fairchild met about 17…
Following Frodo
Fiordland’s Routeburn track may attract significantly fewer visitors to it than the Milford Sounds, but the “majestic, snowcapped peaks in every direction, along with waterfalls and hidden tarns” are well worth the hike says…
Kiwis Relocate to US
New Zealand Ambassador Roy Ferguson officially presented America’s National Zoo with a pair of rare kiwi. The handover took place in Front Royal, Virginia at the Zoo’s Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. The Zoo will…
Sedimentary Strata Studied
Waipaoa River was recently visited by a team of international scientists gathering data for research into how materials from land are moved through and accumulated in the ocean and, in particular, how floods carry…
Mellow and Beautiful
The South Island of New Zealand may appear insignificant on a globe for those who can find it at all,” Karen Baker writes for Oregon Live. “But the island boasts natural grandeur that leaves…
Mourning Moko
Tauranga’s favourite dolphin Moko has been found dead on an island off the coast of the port city. Department of Conservation area manager Andrew Baucke said Moko’s death was a sad loss. “The way…
Feathery Dilemmas
“For some insight as to why rapid development is important to nesting birds, especially small songbirds, visit New Zealand, where native birds have had some challenges,” suggests the Mail Tribune’s Stewart Janes. “New Zealand,…
Mammoth Melt
The effects of a change in global wind patterns which helped to end the last major ice age were first seen on New Zealand glaciers, according to Columbia University scientists. Mountain glaciers in New…
Sublime Sale
A single brown and white feather from the extinct huia bird has sold for a record sum at Webb’s Auction House in Auckland for $8. Managing director of Webb’s Neil Campbell said that the…
Peak Design
En-route to Mount Aoraki, India’s Economic Times’ reporter Bidisha Bagchi stops off at Lake Pukaki and, “after admiring the majestic blue of the lake that came from the rock particles in the glaciers —…
Wwow What a Wwoof
From their wwoofing holiday in Northland, Californian couple Jacob and Kendall Madden describe their time spent working on five organic farms in the region in a guide about what it means to be a…
Kaikoura Ethnohydrology
Writing from Blenheim, Arizona State University student Marie Manning, a global health major, describes her time spent on a Kaikoura wild dolphin encounter and the research she is undertaking in New Zealand for an…
Mucking In
The Olivenhain garden of New Zealanders Maury and Heather Callaghan in Southern Californian is an “expanse of lawn and beds of perennials” with a tall, fragrant banana shrub and burgundy-leaved smoke tree “creat a…
Realm of the Karearea
The documentary Karearea: The Pine Falcon, an audience favourite at the 29 Tallahassee Film Festival, is screening as part of the Tallahassee Film Society’s annual “bird movie” Saturday at the All Saints Cinema this…
Sizing Up Pacific Atolls
Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University’s environment school and coastal process expert Dr Arthur Webb of the Fiji-based South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission have found that despite rising sea levels some Pacific Island coral…
Best Northern Beaches
The North Island’s top beaches are named by The Sydney Morning Herald’s Bruce Elder, who writes that those suggested are so good that no trip to New Zealand would be complete without visiting them….
Multi-tasking Birds
Two female royal albatrosses at Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Centre on the Otago Peninsula have successfully incubated a chick, after the father — one of scores to recently leave the Centre — disappeared. “It’s…
Brown Trout Capital
Mataura River, just outside of Gore, is “the world capital of brown trout” and a “world-class fly-fishing destination”. The Mataura extends for an impressive 140 miles of trout water in the heart…
On the Floral Trail
New Zealand municipal botanical gardens, including Hamilton Gardens and the Whakarewarewa Forest and Government Gardens in Rotorua, feature in a travel article written by Ray Boren for the Desert News. “Indeed, the…
Hatchery to Home
In the last eight years, 89 chicks have been returned to the wild by the Whakatane Kiwi Project, and on a recent holiday to New Zealand, Vancouver-based freelancer Jennifer Laidlaw joins a crowd of…
Icy Conundrum
New Zealand is one of the dozen founding members of the Antarctic Treaty, along with the United States, Russia, Britain and others, and is among those leading the push for shipping regulation – particularly…
Out Damn Pests
New Zealand’s possum population has halved over the last 20 years down from 70 million in the 1980s to approximately 30 million. Possum control is carried out over 13 million hectares, which is about…
Haka and the Birds
The origins of New Zealand’s Ka Mate haka are traced and birds discovered by the Telegraph’s Sue Attwood who travels to Kapiti Island, the composer Te Rauparaha’s stronghold in the mid-1800s. Hunted by a rival tribe,…
Kanohi Ki Te Kanohi
Whale Watch Kaikoura has been named overall winner of the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2009. The Telegraph’s Mark Chipperfield travels to the seaside town to spot some southern cetaceans. Whale Watch Kaikoura is…
South Island Sauropods
Proof that dinosaurs did roam the South Island 70 million years ago has been found with the discovery of 20 footprints across a 10km stretch in northwest Nelson. The footprints were found by geologist…
