What will the next phase of COVID look like?

COVID-19 has changed the fabric of life over the last two years, and these changes continue. Next week, New Zealand is leaving its alert levels behind and switching to a traffic-light system for managing COVID. Meanwhile, a concerning new variant has emerged in South Africa, prompting the United Kingdom to ban flights from the south of the continent.

So what does the future look like for New Zealanders? What changes to daily life are yet to come? And what's it's like to actually catch COVID-19? Keep reading...

Too much information

Amidst the deluge of facts about COVID-19, two pieces of important information have failed to surface. The first is that the risk of disability is higher than the risk of death.

The second is that we can’t predict who is most at risk of losing their health from the virus in the same way that we can predict who is most at risk of losing their life. Keep reading...

Give NZGeo this Christmas

A subscription to New Zealand Geographic is a gift for the whole family, and it arrives six times a year! The donor's name is even printed on the address sheet.

You can choose to start with the Jan/Feb issue—which comes with a free calendar—arriving either before or after Christmas, or you can ship the issue to your own address to pass on personally on Christmas day. All the options are in the NZGeo store. Alternatively give us a bell on 0800 782436 during business hours and we'll help.

Check out the options >

Long-distance photography

When immunologist Anna Brooks called photographer Lottie Hedley to say her Auckland lab was ready for their photograph to be taken, Hedley was painting her fence in Raglan, two hours’ drive and a COVID-19 border crossing away.

Hedley sat down amidst her test pots to take the photo. She logged into an app on her phone, as did lab technician John Steemson, and Hedley proceeded to direct the picture with Steemson’s help. Keep reading...

Wild Work: Making the leap

From instructors to scientists, guides to field technicians, there is meaningful work in the environment, and new courses and qualifications available from New Zealand’s leading tertiary institutions for those hoping to protect it. New Zealand Geographic's Wild Work showcase has surveyed some of the best, like Unitec. Its work experience opportunities are helping to propel applied science graduates into jobs. Keep reading...

Better Ancestors: Bringing regeneration home

Untangled Landscapes started off working with domestic jungles, transforming them into well-manicured ornamental spaces. None of what they did was regenerative, however, and eventually the weeds would return. Since then, their approach has evolved and it’s more about untangling people from the need to use chemicals and industrial materials in their gardens. They have stopped using poisons and weed mats – in part because they just don’t work very well – and have instead started using natural principles and techniques borrowed from regenerative agriculture.

As Matt Bates Cummings says: “Too often we see a symptom of something and we go ‘I can’t have that. I need to stop this.’ And then you stop the regenerative process. We need to let things play out a lot more. It needs a bit of trust. You need to trust the process and watch it and observe it until we understand it completely.” Watch the video...