August brought remarkable snowfalls to parts of the country. In Christchurch, still coping with earthquake damage and power outages, the snow compared with historic falls in 1992 and 1945 although, ...

The Mokohinau stag beetle is one of the world’s most endangered species, occupying less than an acre of scrub on a rocky tower in the middle of the ocean. Its habitat is so precarious that Auckland ...

One of the world’s smallest nations is transforming its economy from subsistence to sustainability. Will Niue’s brave new plan work? Each year between August and October, humpbacks rest in the calm ...

Here we are—a nation of parents, grandparents and children all in the same boat, together at home. He waka eke noa. Every day of the lock-down we will post a story or video and set of activities that ...

Sea lions are coming home to the coasts of southern New Zealand, returning to their former territory after more than 300 years in exile. The big question is: Can we make room for them? A curious New ...

The forest canopy is home to all kinds of flora and fauna, some of which have only just been discovered. Canopy species are integral to soil health and climate regulation, but we don’t know exactly ...

According to anthro­pologists, hankering for the blemish-free look that only make-up can give goes back 1.5 million years, when our ancestors began plastering each other with red and yellow ochres, ...

Nightfall, and the forest comes alive with squeaking. Or it used to. Lesser short-tailed bats are clinging on in a handful of places, their populations blinking out of existence. Yet researchers are ...

Travellers in some parts of New Zea­land could be excused for thinking they’d taken a wrong turning many of the names of our streets seem to be pointing somewhere else. In most cases that other place ...

Why did hundreds of dead kororā—little blue penguins—wash up on beaches around the country two summers ago? Has their fate got anything to do with the weather? Or has it got something to do with us?

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 ...

A stonefield containing evidence of 1000 years of Maori and Pakeha horticul­tural, agricultural and social history has been made a reserve in South Auckland. Auckland once had more than 8000 ha of ...