Society

Kava: Elixir of the Pacific

The tradition of kava has brought people together and consummated important social occasions in the Pacific for 3000 years. The use of kava is growing in New Zealand, with some 25,000 drinkers consuming up to 32 times the recommended pharmacological limit on any given weekend, then driving home. What is kava, and what role does it play in our society?

Magazine

ISSUE 141

Sep - Oct 2016

Kākāpō genome

Mt Owen tragedy

Kava

Darran Mountains

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Travel & Adventure

First ascent: finding unclimbed walls in the Darrans

The Darran Mountains lie deep in the marrow of northern Fiordland—a chunky, perplexing range of diorites and sandstones, gneisses and granites. This is a land of extremes, with the country’s most remote summits, the greatest rainfall and the longest, hardest-to-climb alpine rock walls. Adventurers have been coming here since William Grave and Arthur Talbot in the late 1800s, to test themselves and forge new routes through this vertical landscape.

Living World

Decoding kākāpō

In a world first, the entire genome of every individual of the kākāpō species will be sequenced, giving researchers the ‘code’ to all living birds (and a few long-dead ones, too). This is vital information in the quest to solve the kākāpō’s biggest problems, granting the world’s weirdest parrot its best chance at long-term survival.

Society

Without a trace

In the wilds of Kahurangi National Park, a tramper disappears two days before Christmas, sparking a huge search and rescue effort. Several years later, Alistair Levy has still not been found.

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