Or, hey I was supposed to finish all of these articles in 2025 but then life happened so I guess we’re doing little quests in 2026 as well. [Warning: This piece talks about disease, war and death.] Matiu / Somes Island is the ever-present spectre looming in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, one of three islands that the harbour […]
In 2015 I was living at Weir House. It was my first year of study and the first time I’d spent any longer than two weeks away from my parents. I was mooning over a girl who didn’t like me back, bad at being a person and making connections and pretty sure I wasn’t into […]
This week’s profile takes us to the other side of the Remutaka Ranges for a very good cause. 1. Hello! Who the heck are youse and what are you up to? I’m Kylie, and collectively we’re the Parry/Hannen whānau. My 17-year-old daughter and I are walking across the Wairarapa into Wellington to raise money and […]
Tom’s been walking again. Follow his latest tramping adventure from traversing the Hutt Valley to Kāpiti via the Akatarawa Road here.
Last week Zealandia published a glorious little photo-essay An Enchantment of Fungi, alerting us to the fact that after a long dry summer, the recent rains have brought forth a rich crop of fungal fruiting bodies. I went for a walk there last Friday and found plenty of variety amid the damp forest, especially on the Valley View and […]
Up the back of Newtown — past the hospital, past New Zealand’s first branch library, past the community display-window where the Conscientious Objectors’ memorials absent from Pukeahu Park quietly underscore ANZAC celebrations — runs a narrow path marking the spine of Tangi-te-Keo (later Mt Victoria). Māori knew the spine of Tangi-te-Keo as Te Ranga-a-Hiwi, the Ridge of […]
Abandoned railway stations. Precarious swingbridges over precipitous chasms. Hidden valleys full of lush forest. Remnants of ancient kāinga. Those might not be what you’d expect from the recently-opened Paekakariki Escarpment track. I certainly expected rugged landscapes and magnificent views, and you get those in abundance, but there’s much more here to be discovered than you might imagine […]