The Death of the Dinosaurs When New Zealand first began to rift away from Gondwana, dinosaurs still walked amongst the shade of giant conifers, the ocean was ruled by vicious marine reptiles and the skies were dominated by flying pterosaurs. But around 65 million years ago a meteorite roughly 10 kilometres wide crashed into the Yucatan peninsula. The shockwave, the ensuing tsunamis and firestorms, … Continue reading A Land Without Teeth
William Colenso was a missionary, a printer, an explorer and perhaps one of New Zealand’s most important botanists. In 1834, at 21 years of age, he travelled to New Zealand from England to serve as printer for the Church Missionary Society. He became fluent in Maori, schooling other missionaries about the language and printing Māori translations of the bible. Though he was well aware Europeans … Continue reading William Colenso
Developing The Theory When Darwin returned from his voyage on the HMS Beagle he became an instant scientific celebrity, with his various collections of rocks, fossils and zoological specimens earning him acceptance into the scientific establishment. He began writing papers, mainly on geological topics, and conversing with leading scientists of the day. As Darwin published accounts of his voyages and analyses of his various finds, he began … Continue reading Charles Darwin – Part 2
When Charles Darwin arrived in New Zealand in December of 1835, he was near the end of his legendary round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. The trip turned out to be monumentally important; not only for Darwin who described it as “by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career”, but also for the world as it provided him … Continue reading Charles Darwin – Part 1
History & Culture There are Pūriri alive today that were standing well before the first humans set foot in New Zealand. There are some that may even be older than the most ancient Kauri trees, as they have a remarkable stubbornness when it comes to survival. Pūriri can be found uprooted, grazed by stock, cut in half, mostly rotten and still producing new shoots. The … Continue reading Pūriri – Vitex lucens
Gondwanan Heritage Gondwana was a large southern hemisphere super-continent that could essentially be thought of as the birthplace of New Zealand. It was composed of the modern day landmasses of Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India, Madagascar and New Zealand and existed as an entity for hundreds of millions of years before being rifted apart by volcanic activity under the earth’s crust. Many species of extinct and extant plants … Continue reading The Story of New Zealand
History & Culture In the early Miocene (around 23 million years ago) New Zealand had a much warmer climate and contained distinctive tropical elements in its flora. Palms were common at this time, and even included species of Coconut – such as the small fruited Cocos zeylanica. As a result of glaciation and cooling, these species have been removed from the landscape, with only one … Continue reading Nīkau – Rhopalostylis sapida
The Meaning of Trees 