At the national championships of ploughing

In Milton, they line up as the sun rises: gleaming tractors and Clydesdale horses with plaited manes. A church service has already blessed the trophies. The goal: to draw a straight line in the dirt.

The green lights flash and they’re underway. It’s no Formula One start—the important thing here is perfection, not speed. Only one plougher will advance from here to the Ploughing World Championships in Latvia.

Ploughers start at the outside of the plot and work their way in. The aim is to keep the opposing furrows absolutely parallel so that, when they meet, they form one perfect furrow that zips the work together. Keep reading...

How do you move an entire museum?

It’s time to renovate. But first, you’ve got to move your stuff out. And you’ve got a lot. You haven’t had a wardrobe clear-out in centuries.

Your rock collection weighs tonnes; many specimens are beautiful, some are radioactive. You’ve got a lot of taxidermised animals, plus the insects, all of the insects, which are desiccated, fragile, and/or extinct.

A fortune in pounamu. Three hundred guns. Sea creatures floating in nightmare chemicals. Edmund Hillary’s sleeping bag and Kate Sheppard’s silk dress (the one on the $10 note). All the baggage of 19th-century imperialism. Hundreds of koiwi tāngata, human remains.

Oh, and a blue whale. Keep reading...

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ROLEX

Deep impact

Vreni Häussermann's fascination with the underwater world started early in life. Even before she could swim properly, the German-born marine biologist remembers snorkelling during her regular family holidays in the Mediterranean. And for almost 25 years, marine biologist  has been opening people’s eyes to the wonders of the Chilean Patagonia fjords and using her research to push for greater protection of the marine environment. Keep reading...

How guinea pigs helped Hartley Holder

Trixie, the Abyssinian guinea pig, lived in a pet store in Auckland. Though she was for sale, she attacked everyone who tried to touch her. The staff were at a loss. Trixie was about to be put down.

Trixie bit Hartley Holder (pictured above), too, but Hartley took her home regardless. Shortly afterwards, Hartley spotted another guinea pig on TradeMe. It was being kept in a wire birdcage with no hay. Its long fleecy hair was matted; it had mites and ringworm. Hartley took the guinea pig home, shaved it, applied a mite treatment to its shoulders, and rubbed antifungal ointment onto its sore patches.

And as she did all that, Hartley noticed something: she was feeling a little bit better, too. Keep reading...