In the northwest Pacific, a crushing 10 kilometres below the surface, a community of shellfish, worms and anemones is quietly ...

In the last century illegal whisky production in Southland’s Hokonui Hills was a subject of police investigations. Today that shady past is a cause for celebration. The legend of Hokonui leads back to ...

The fossilised fin of an ichthyosaur has given up an ancient secret: it seems the massive marine predators were very, very ...

New Zealanders once consumed more tea per capita than any other nation in the world. A resurgence in the popularity of boutique varieties, and—for the first time­ locally grown tea, may make it time ...

The once abundant Hauraki Gulf is on the brink of collapse, and while science is clear on how to repair it, many are putting rights before responsibilities. Here’s what needs to happen. I’m going to ...

Judges have selected 69 images from more than 6000 entries that tell the story of an exceptional year in Aotearoa. Select five of your favourites to vote in the Ockham Residential People’s Choice ...

“Epic” is an overused word. I’m in the heart of Mount Aspiring National Park. We’re surrounded on three sides by 400-metre cliffs, over which tumble curtains of water. Boulders the size of townhouses ...

The North Otago limestone country holds one of the world’s most important fossil cetacean records, a coherent story of how whales and dolphins evolved in the Southern Ocean. It’s a story that one ...

For nearly two centuries, the origins of a Spanish whaler and trader who founded a dynasty on the east coast were a mystery. Manuel Jose’s descendants are New Zealand’s largest family, and have ...

Introduced over 150 years ago as the basis for a fur trade, the Australian brush-tail possum has instead become an ecological plague, chomping its way through millions of tonnes of forest foliage a ...

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 ...

A resonant whoosh of air and water blasts skywards as a Bryde’s (pronounced “broode­rs”) whale surfaces 60 metres in front of us. The twin blowholes on the top of its head are clearly visible. The ...