One part of Dunedin is different from the rest…. The Dunedin area is an old volcano. It’s formed mostly from the molten, …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ten Years Trapped in Mongolia – Time to get Mo Munshi home to Australia
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleIn 2007, I started work in Mongolia as a geologist with the company, Gobi Coal and Energy Limited. The Chairman was Mohammed …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleHow old is the oldest cultural feature on Aotearoa-New Zealand? Imagine being around when the only way to get anywhere was to …
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Today is the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On that day, pandemonium struck. People fled with a …
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Autobiography & Travel
Ukraine: War and Wonders – The Dnipro – Ukraine’s ‘National River’
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleRivers, big rivers. They can be political borders – think of the Rhine – when it marked the ‘civilised’ Roman Empire to …
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When a forest is dead, but somehow still there – either as bleached stumps, and felled, and possibly burnt trunks, I call …
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We owe so much of what we know of early Dunedin to just a few artists! Up till 1850, there’s only a …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
Deans Bush–Pūtaringamotu and the Mystery of the Missing Tree Ferns
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleTree ferns are indicators of a consistently pretty wet climate. In New Zealand-Aotearoa, if you look closely (and not too closely if …
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The Ghost of a young prostitute Locals know that Room 1 of the old Vulcan Hotel, in the tiny village (permanent population …
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Biogeography & Vegetation
The Immolation of Waimate Bush, Canterbury, New Zealand
by Mike Poleby Mike PoleIn the court case following the 1878 fire that virtually annihilated Waimate Bush, a witness described the wind conditions as “a hurricane” …