Floating Pumice Raft Intrigues
A mass of golf-ball-size pumice rocks almost the size of Belgium has been discovered floating 1000km off the northeast coast of Auckland. The 26,000 square kilometre- stretch of pumice was first spotted by an…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Sleeping Giant Awakens
Mount Tongariro, dormant for more than a century, roared into life on 6 August erupting boulders and spreading an ash cloud over the centre of the country. The spew of rocks, fine particles and…
Notable Beauty
“New Zealand contains an impressive series of national parks and other wilderness areas that are famous for their exquisite natural beauty and abundant, and often unique, wildlife,” Brian Clark Howard of National Geographic News…
Searching for Dark Skies
A view of Lake Tekapo features in the USA Today’s Photo Friday under the theme ‘Stars’. Though American journalist Chris Gray Faust’s plans to star gaze at the Mt John Observatory were thwarted by…
Puttin’ ‘Em Back in the Trees
A mammoth conservation effort stretching back decades is offering hope for one of the world’s rarest birds, the kakapo, lifting its numbers from about 50 in 1990 to 126 this year. The kakapo was…
Windows to the Soul
New Zealand’s blue-eyed triplefin fish is one of American National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry’s “amazing pictures from beneath the waves” featuring in the Daily Mail. The triplefin fish is commonly found around…
Startlingly Beautiful by Boat
An image of a local tour boat taken in the Milford Sounds, Fiordland National Park, is featured in the USA Today’s ‘Photo Friday’. “The whole park is part of the Te Wahi Pounamu UNESCO…
Shakier Isles Than First Thought
A study has found earthquake-prone New Zealand is even more unstable than previously thought, after Victoria University scientists discovered deep tremors lasting up to 30 minutes along the country’s biggest fault line, the Alpine…
Meet Our Distinguished Worm
New Zealand’s velvet worm shares the title of a new book by British palaeontologist and writer Richard Fortey. Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms describes “the distinguished groups of organisms that are still recognizable and…
One Fast Growing Underwater Volcano
Scientists have discovered a submarine volcano in New Zealand waters, 1000km northeast of the North Island, that has undergone the fastest episode of collapse and growth ever recorded in a volcano. The Monowai Cone…
Super Image of Cosmic Lunar Event
Auckland photographer Simon Runting captured this once-a-year cosmic event which lit up the New Zealand night sky as the full moon passed at its closest point to Earth, making it appear 14 per cent…
Feral Cats Out Tuatara In
Sixty tuatara have been released on Motuihe Island, which lies between Motutapu and Waiheke islands in the Hauraki Gulf. The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Motuihe Trust spent many years ridding…
Finding the Famous Five
When he was last in New Zealand British zoologist Mark Carwardine spent two weeks travelling the length and breadth of the country, “in search of an outlandish menagerie of animals known as the ‘Small…
Ribboned Rakaia From Space
An image of the braided Rakaia River has won an online vote through Facebook for best satellite image of 2011. The image was captured by American commercial satellite imaging firm DigitalGlobe. The river, shown…
Ship Splits In The Rough
A Maritime New Zealand image of the stricken container ship Rena split in two features in the Seattle Post Intelligencer ‘News of the world in photos’ series. The Greek-owned ship ran aground on Astrolabe Reef off…
More Penguins Return Home
A photograph of a blue penguin moving toward the sea after being released by wildlife workers in Tauranga is included in theGuardian’s ‘24 hours in pictures’ series for 9 December. The penguins were among those…
Streaking Star Trails
A long-exposure image of star trails streaking over Lake Tekapo features on the National Geographic website. The lake was one of the first sites designated as a Starlight Reserve as part of a UN-supported initiative to…
Great Barrier Phenomenon
American entomologist Mark Moffett, 53, claimed he discovered the largest weta of the species ever found. International publications, such as the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post and Telegraph, have declared Moffett’s find the world’s biggest insect in terms…
Magical Parrot Meetings
The rangers and scientists of the Kakapo Recovery program on Codfish Island are slowly but surely succeeding in their mission to “make more kakapo” by micromanaging the birds’ diet, mating, births, and fledging —…
Alien Disappearance
Without any human intervention, the Argentine ant — the world’s most invasive species — is disappearing from New Zealand. The alien ant arrived in New Zealand in 1990 and has since marched across our…
Birds In Paradise
About an hour from downtown Wellington is Kapiti Island, one of New Zealand’s most successful nature reserves and a model for wildlife and flora conservation. Award-winning journalist Jill Robinson takes a day-trip there. “On…
Spellbound On Tiritiri Matangi
New Zealand bellbird, Anthornis melanura was the Guardian’s ‘Mystery Bird’ on 24 November. “This bird is named for its gorgeous song, which consists of three distinct sounds that resemble the chiming of distant bells,” evolutionary…
Freedom For Little Blues
Forty-nine little blue penguins rescued from the Rena oil spill that occurred in October off the coast of Tauranga have been returned to the wild at Mt Maunganui beach. Most of them immediately ran…
Rats Not Such Pests After All
Invasive rats are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report in a paper published in a Royal Society journal. “New Zealand offers a really interesting and rare opportunity to…
By Heck It’s Back
One of the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins, the Hector’s Dolphin, has been seen in Wellington Harbour, more than two years after the last sighting. The person who spotted the dolphin said it…
Shy Morning Feeling
An ethereal South Island landscape is captured by German photographer Steffen Schrägle for an Intelligent Life photo essay called, ‘A World of Mist’. Schrägle, who took the photograph in June 2009, said…
Why Kiwis Get Stroppy
Manukura the six-month-old white kiwi “appears to have regained her mojo after a heart scare during surgery to remove a stone from her gizzard.” “You try to grab her and she kind of karate…
Building on Solid Ground
“Newly uncovered details about the earthquake that rocked Christchurch in February may offer grim lessons regarding the potential threat of fault lines running through urban centres,” Our Amazing Planet contributor Charles Choi writes. “Much…
Living Fossil Bewitches
Te Papa scientist Vincent Zintzen and colleagues have been studying the hunting behaviour of the hagfish — or snot-eel — a blind sea creature partway between fish and worm, with a spinal cord but…
Stricken Ship Spills Contents
The Liberian-flagged container ship MV Rena, which struck the Astrolabe Reef 5 October on its way to Tauranga, continues to spill oil into the ocean. A total of 90 tons of oil have so…
Danger for Native Dolphins
New Zealand’s Hector’s dolphin population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7000 since nylon gillnets came into use in the 1970s while subspecies Maui’s dolphin is seriously threatened with numbers falling to fewer than…
Return of the Storm Petrel
DNA evidence has confirmed that the tiny New Zealand storm petrel bird, thought to be extinct for more than 150 years, is still alive, meaning its comeback eclipses that of other “extinct” birds like…
Dorsal Fin Encounters
“Kaikoura is not a name that trips off the tongue when you list those lucky places that offer encounters with nature and a touch of luxury,” The Independent’s Jonathan Lorie reports. “But this township…
Return to the Icy Wild
Happy Feet, the “lost” emperor penguin which washed up on the Kapiti Coast, has been returned to the ocean; a BBC article examines how he and other animals are released back into the wild….
Fed, Feisty and Homeward Bound
Some 1700 people turned up at Wellington Zoo to farewell Happy Feet, the emperor penguin who captured New Zealand’s heart after being washed up sick and starving on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka beach 3000km…
New Zealand Blanketed in Snow
August saw freezing cold and snow blanketing virtually all of the country, even typically mild cities such as Wellington and Auckland, which last saw accumulated snow 45 and 72 years ago, respectively. “What began…
Kakapo Star in Rat Island
New Zealand’s Kakapo are the focus of a new book telling the stories of the world’s best cases of predator eradication. Written by William Stolzenburg, Rat Island tells the stories of two heroic rescues…
Mt Cook Ridge Renamed
Mt Cook’s South Ridge will be renamed the Hillary Ridge in honour of Sir Edmund Hillary, the Everest conqueror. Announcing the change, Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson said: “Sir Edmund made an enormous contribution…
Drilling for Silence
Seventy scientists from around the world will gather in Gisborne from 1-5 August to discuss proposals to study “silent” earthquakes by drilling into the seabed. Silent quakes, also known as slow slip events, occur…
Fluffy Emblem of Hope
An expectant silence hangs over the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Sanctuary as hundreds of spectators await a glimpse of a rare white kiwi, a bird held sacred by Maori, describes The…
Fattening Up for the Swim
Happy Feet, the lost emperor penguin who turned up alone on Kapiti Coast’s Peka Peka Beach a month ago, has been eating up to 2kg of high-grade salmon each day — funded through donations…
Sharks on Holidays
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Department of Conservation (DOC), and University of Auckland have discovered that the great white shark, can travel thousands of kilometres on seasonal migrations,…
Right Whale Returns to NZ
More than one hundred years after it was hunted to local extinction, the right whale is finally finding its way back to its ancestral calving grounds in New Zealand, with seven whales now migrating…
Relief for Christchurch Residents
Thousands of Christchurch home owners are breathing a sigh of relief following John Key’s announcement on the future of their properties. Entire suburbs of Christchurch are to be abandoned due to unstable ground following…
Exploring Emperor Intrigues
For only the second time in recorded history, an Emperor Penguin has swum 3km from Antarctica to New Zealand, making landfall at Peka Peka beach on the Kapiti Coast. Program manager for biodiversity at…
Lit by the Might of Another
Mt Taranaki features in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ‘News of the World Pictures’ section, the snowy peak lit by a “warm glow” as the ash cloud from Chilean volcano Puyehue-Cordon-Caulle drifted across the Pacific, on…
Return of the Warrior
The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior made the converted fishing trawler a campaigning icon. Now, in its 4th anniversary year, Greenpeace is launching its first purpose-built protest ship — one of…
Escaping the Clippers Forever
New Zealand’s celebrity merino Shrek — who evaded muster on Bendigo Station for six years and carried 27kg of fleece — has been put down at the age of 16. Shrek gained international fame…
Extraordinarily Special Kiwi
A rare white kiwi chick has been born — the first to be hatched in captivity — at the Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre, 24km north of Masterton. The chick, named…
Heart-to-Heart in Red Zone
Bob Parker is taking advice from former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos, who was mayor when the Californian city was struck by a devastating earthquake in 1989. Agnos has come to Christchurch to advise…
Little Blues Find Help
At Christchurch’s International Antarctic Centre 24 Little Blue Penguins are being cared for having been found injured and with no chance of survival in the wild. “Most of them have broken or…
Unrecognisable Love Songs
Saddlebacks, native to the North Island, seem to have developed various regional ‘accents’ over the last 5 years after humans relocated the species to small island refuges to aid in their preservation,…
Swimming By the Stars
An eight-year University of Canterbury-led study that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. Humpbacks use a combination of the sun’s position,…
Helping His Hometown
New Zealander Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race and chief marketing officer of drinks company Gatorade, along with New Zealander Sarah Robb-O’Hagan have organised a video titled ‘Christchurch Stay Strong’, using the power…
To Curb Or Not To Curb
New Zealand is among several regions in the world where geese are in the crosshairs, Renata D’Aliesio writes for The Globe and Mail. “As the population of Canada geese continues to increase, so does…
Remembered Always
The Prince of Wales has joined a congregation of some 19 — mainly made up of London-based New Zealanders — at a Westminster Abbey memorial service for the victims of February’s Christchurch earthquake. At…
