New Zealand Geographic

The 188th issue of New Zealand Geographic is out in stores and online now! In stores and online at nzgeo.com

It's your turn to vote. Submit your votes for the Ockham Residential People's Choice Award ➡️ nzgeo.com/photo

With a storm approaching, members of Youth Search and Rescue struggle to raise a radio mast ahead of a weekend of intensive training. Though it was February, it was cold and windy on the tops of the rugged Kaimai Range. “It was difficult even standing up,” says photographer Adrian Malloch.

📷: Adrian Malloch, 2024 EcoFlow New Zealand Adventure Finalist

It's your turn to vote! The Ockham Residential People's choice award is open for voting. Pick your favourites ⬇️
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Tori Harp was on her morning commute to work—on skis—when she caught sight of this frozen chairlift. A cold, windy morning combined with fresh snowfall had encased the chair in ice. “Luckily, I skied with my camera clipped to my pack, along with a telephoto lens,” she says.

📷: Tori Harp, 2024 Resene Built Environment Finalist

The finest images of 2024 have been announced!

Vote for your favourites in the Ockham Residential People's Choice award.

From nearly 6000 entries, judges have assembled a gallery of 68 images that tell the story of an exceptional year in Aotearoa. Now is your chance to vote!

Thanks to our family of sponsors, each of them committed to fostering the craft of photography in New Zealand.

Nikon New Zealand, MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology), Resene, Metlifecare Retirement Villages, Sony New Zealand, EcoFlow New Zealand, Ockham Residential, Heritage Expeditions Kiwi Mobile

Photographer of the Year 2024 — Finalists The finest images of 2024 have been announced. Now is your chance to vote on your five favourites.

We live on the brittle edge of two tectonic plates. Were it not for these forces, there would be no New Zealand, but they also define our relationship with this archipelago.

Last week, ongoing activity at Whakaari/White Island has disrupted flights and raised the volcanic alert level to 3 on the island, a situation that "could continue for some time", says Simon Barker, a senior researcher at Victoria University of Wellington. The ash spirals into the atmosphere, and depending which way the wind is blowing, can pose a hazard to the jet engines of aircraft.

Nature doesn't owe us early warnings, but in 2016 Whakaari erupted at night, giving us all a useful heads-up. We didn't listen. Four years later the volcano claimed 22 lives. Geoff Chapple's feature, below, tells the story of that unheeded warning, if we ever needed a reminder.

What happened on Whakaari? In 2016, our most active volcano warned us of its impulsive and devastating power. We didn’t listen.

A story of bitterness and betrayal at the South Pole.

📷: Scott Polar Institute

“Evans is not to be trusted” A story of bitterness and betrayal at the South Pole.

For a long time it was a good place to be an endangered skink—a vertical sheet of rock at the head of Milford Sound/Piopiotahi, too snowy and steep for mice to bother with. But as the climate warms, the mice are moving in. For the skinks, it’s now a race to evacuate.

📷: James Reardon

Off the wall For a long time it was a good place to be an endangered skink—a vertical sheet of rock at the head of Milford Sound/Piopiotahi, too snowy and steep for mice to bother with. But as the climate warms, the mice are moving in. For the skinks, it’s now a race to evacuate.

We put bears in zoos and the bears bit back.

The first bear in New Zealand had a special trick. He would eat meat from his trainer Syd Rose’s mouth, muzzle to lips in a death-defying kiss.

📷: Lisa Truttman Collection

On the attack We put bears in zoos and the bears bit back.

Which cover would you want to take home?
Vote ➡️ nzgeo.com/cover-189-reader-poll

Every issue we try different images and cover-lines... but often it's a close-run contest between covers that are not better or worse, but just different.

A vicious strain of myrtle rust is burning through our bush. Dozens of native species—and the ecosystems they support—are at risk. Scientists think we have three, maybe four years before the biggest pōhutukawa start to fall. They’re racing to find a way to stop the rust—and to save seeds from plants we stand to lose forever.

📷: Adrian Malloch

The forgotten pandemic A vicious strain of myrtle rust is burning through our bush. Dozens of native species—and the ecosystems they support—are at risk. Scientists think we have three, maybe four years before the biggest pōhutukawa start to fall. They’re racing to find a way to stop the rust—and to save seeds fr...

A new experiment suggests the human perception of time is influenced by what we’re looking at.

📷: Arno Gasteiger

This is your brain on clutter A new experiment suggests the human perception of time is influenced by what we’re looking at. To test this, scientists from George Mason University in the US state of Virginia sorted dozens of images into various categories—a full pantry was “high clutter”, for example, while shots of cloud...

An invisible mathematical thread connects most creatures that fly, Danish physicists have found—and even those that “fly” underwater.

📷: Rob Suisted

Sorry, Batman: Physics says no An invisible mathematical thread connects most creatures that fly, Danish physicists have found—and even those that “fly” underwater. The group from Roskilde University hit on a universal equation that predicts how fast a creature has to flap its wings in order to lift off. (It’s proportiona...

Scientists build a 2000sqm high-tech playground. Kids go berserk.

Since the centre opened recently, she says there has been a significant visitation increase at MOTAT and visitors are spending longer than average in the galleries, which shows it is striking a chord.

Power play Scientists build a 2000sqm high-tech playground. Kids go berserk.

When Jennifer Bannister was growing up, girls were secretaries, or teachers, or nurses. She persevered.

📷: Craig McKenzie

Homecooked science When Jennifer Bannister was growing up, girls were secretaries, or teachers, or nurses. She persevered.

Behold the evolution of flowering plants, painstakingly put together by gene sequencing thousands of species, including some 200 from New Zealand.

Bloom time Behold the evolution of flowering plants, painstakingly put together by gene sequencing thousands of species, including some 200 from New Zealand. Scientists published the “tree of life” in Nature and say it can be used as a sort of periodic table for plants, or a roadmap for researchers working...

In 1909, Robert Falcon Scott convinced renowned photographer Herbert Ponting to board Terra Nova for Antarctica. “The quiet force of the man,” Ponting wrote. “He talked with such fervour.”

📷: Scott Polar Institute

Life and death in Antarctica In 1909, Robert Falcon Scott convinced renowned photographer Herbert Ponting to board Terra Nova for Antarctica. “The quiet force of the man,” Ponting wrote. “He talked with such fervour.” On the ice Ponting was a man elated. A clear day “made the very drawing of the breath of life a joy.....

Queenstown, Wānaka and the surrounding region have set an audacious goal of becoming carbon zero and creating a regenerative visitor economy by 2030. Right now it might look impossible, but the district remains determined.

When you look back at the history of Queenstown, Wānaka and the Southern Lakes region, it has always been a place of pioneers. Early Māori ventured inland to find pounamu; early Europeans opened the land to farming and gold mining; and the people who followed their outdoor passions eventually turned them into a tourism industry.

“There is an entrepreneurial spirit here,” says Mat Woods, the CEO of Queenstown NZ. So, when it came to developing a Destination Management Plan, it wanted to embody that spirit and “do the most ambitious thing possible”: the region has committed to creating a regenerative visitor economy and becoming carbon zero by 2030.

“I’m delighted every day to see the small incremental changes that are happening … You can’t wish your way out of this. You need tangible solutions. But I truly believe the solutions are there. We just need to exploit them.”

How low can they go? Queenstown, Wānaka and the surrounding region have set an audacious goal of becoming carbon zero and creating a regenerative visitor economy by 2030. Right now it might look impossible, but the district remains determined.

A magnificent moth, unseen for 65 years, has popped up on Stewart Island/Rakiura.

Entomologist Robert H***e, writing about the “sensational rediscovery” for the Entomological Society Newsletter, calls the frosted phoenix the “Holy Grail of New Zealand moths”.

📷: George Hudson

Rise of the phoenix A magnificent moth, unseen for 65 years, has popped up on Stewart Island/Rakiura. Entomologist Robert H***e, writing about the “sensational rediscovery” for the Entomological Society Newsletter, calls the frosted phoenix the “Holy Grail of New Zealand moths”. The phoenix staged its dramatic ...

MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology)'s new Te Puāwananga Science and Technology Centre represents the biggest investment in visitor experience in more than a decade. Since it opened recently, Senior Exhibition Developer Esther Tobin says MOTAT has seen a significant visitation increase and visitors are spending longer than average in the galleries, which shows it is striking a chord.

As for the kids, "they are charging around the centre with their bodies in exactly the way we hoped. They are taking ownership of the space in a very visceral, loud way and this shows it is a great base for play and learning".

Power play Scientists build a 2000sqm high-tech playground. Kids go berserk.