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#WeekendRead
In the heart of the Waikato there’s a multimillion-dollar industry based on a gnat. Glowworms are big business, attracting well over half a million people a year to Waitomo and prompting some to shift from working the land above ground to commercialising the creatures below it. But keeping the caves and their thousands of tiny performance artists in good health requires round-the-clock care.
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Swap a forest park for an irrigation dam
In February, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry took Forest and Bird to the Supreme Court to defend her intention of giving protected conservation land to an irrigation scheme. Dave Hansford asks if this type of land swap should be permitted.
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Guiding light
It was Martha Ash’s debut caving trip, and she had just reached the top of a waterfall in Gardner’s Gut at Waitomo when her light went out. She glanced across at her two companions, and the moon-shaped glow of their lights. But all of a sudden, their lamps extinguished in rapid succession, plunging the trio into darkness.
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After the deluge
In the first week of March, a low began to crawl across the Tasman Sea, bringing a humid northerly airstream to the North Island. A warm front swept down, pushing heavy rain ahead of it. On the Coromandel Peninsula, uplift over the ranges made the rain torrential.
Autumn rainfall looks set to break records, and ‘teleconnections’ may be to blame.
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#SundayDoco
Tsunamis can cross entire oceans, unleashing their destructive energy on coasts thousands of miles from their source, and in exceptional situations reach dizzying heights of over 1700 feet. Using archive footage, computer animation, and expert interviews, Mega Disaster: Tsunami exposes the science behind some of the most destructive events of modern times. Watch this week's SundayDoco—Tsunamis
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'THE MAURI OF OUR NATURAL WORLD HAS BEEN DIMINISHED'
The government has outlined its plan to deal with New Zealand's "unenviable record of extinction". At the moment, 800 native species in New Zealand are classified as threatened.
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DRILLING WELLINGTON HARBOUR TO ACCESS UNDERSEA FRESHWATER
A barge is about to begin drilling in Wellington harbour in a first-ever attempt to find fresh water below the seabed. The aim is to find an aquifer that could help the city avoid the effects on the water supply of a catastrophic earthquake.
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CALL FOR MORE PRIVATE TOURISM OPERATORS
Thousands of operators already make money from running businesses on conservation land, but more want to invest—and want doing so to be easier.
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![145_Viewpoint_shutterstock_227311084-[Converted]](https://www.nzgeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/145_Viewpoint_shutterstock_227311084-Converted-336x336.jpg)
