Growing up in Alexandra (Central Otago, New Zealand) in the early 1970s it was the family thing to go ice skating on the Manorburn Dam, a short drive from town. It was a very social occasion, with heaps of the rest of Alexandra there too,… Read more
Monthly archives of “April 2014”
Attack of the Forest-Killing Fungi (Kauri and the Elm Decline)
New Zealanders are becoming aware of a new threat to their native forests – as if logging, burning, opossums, deer, ferrets, cats, dogs, weren’t enough. This time it’s a fungus (Phytophthora), and it’s attacking our oldest trees – the giant kauris (Agathis). This pest has… Read more
The Origin of New Zealand in Deep-Time
Anyone who knows anything about New Zealand geology will know that it was once ‘part of Gondwana’. This is true, but how did it become a ‘part’? This is the origin of New Zealand in ‘deep time’. The question was addressed by researchers Li and… Read more
Continental Déjà Vu – the Great Escarpments (Australia, Brazil, South Africa)
Most Australians and many tourists will be aware of a prominent topographic feature not too far from the east coast. For example, the Blue Mountains are a nice day trip from Sydney, while nearly two and a half thousand kilometres to the north, a visitor… Read more
Pacifism in New Zealand: A Ruined Life?
Back in the days when Australia had just seven veterans left from the First World War, I made an effort to meet two of them. One was Ted Smout, and the other was Eric Abraham. Smout was a medic in the First World War, and… Read more
Traditional Christmas in Hamburg
Late 1984, I was booted out of Denmark and hit the next ferry to Puttgarden (this was a condition of the local cops when they gave my passport back), then hitched my way south through the mist-swathed Northern German Plain towards Hamburg. Being the old-days, East… Read more