Geography

A rock and a hard place

Flowering broom gilds the shattered slopes of the wild middle section of the Clarence River, where it runs between the Inland and Seaward Kaikoura Ranges of Marlborough. Paddlers on multi-day rafting trips down this remote river must dig deep to guide their craft through the rapids that dot its serpentine course.

Magazine

ISSUE 074

Jul - Aug 2005

Hatch

Taxi

Stoats

Extraterrestrials

Clarence River

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Science & Environment

Search for extraterrestrials intelligence

Fermi’s Paradox poses a rhetorical question: if there are other intelligent civilisations out there, where are they? Why haven’t we encountered them? If other intelligent species occupy the Milky Way Galaxy, then those with even the most rudimentary space-faring technology and a dash of hubris have had ample time to colonise our neighbourhood.

Geography

Harvest of souls

Joseph Hatch was one of New Zealand's most tenacious entrepreneurs. He set up the southern-most steaming works in the world and the oil it produced brought significant wealth, first to Invercargill, then to Hobart. It was just a pity that Hatch, who listed his occupation as "oil factor", meaning oil agent, chose to extract that oil from penguins.

Society

Taxi

Hail a cab in Auckland or other large New Zealand centre and, chances are, the driver will be from Asia, particularly from the Indian subcontinent. Immigrants have become a major force in taxi industries the world over, but how has this come about locally?

Living World

The menace of stoats

You could say that Selena kept herself warm in the most exotic sleeping bag in New Zealand. Researchers John Dowding and Elaine Mur­phy uncovered her dwelling while working in Fiordland’s Eglinton valley. “When we looked inside,” recalls John, “we found a bowl of feathers from some of the most en­dangered native forest birds in the country, including New Zealand robin, kakariki, kereru, mohua (yellowhead) and kaka.” Selena wasn’t some crazed eco-terrorist; she was a stoat the two biologists were tracking.

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