When I first moved to Wellington I used to walk around the bays of the Mirimar Peninsula. My favourite bay was Worser Bay. I liked its name (worser than what?) but primarily I liked it because of a modest, single story house. The house was ordinary in everyway except forRead more
This weekend the City Gallery, Wellington opens Crown Lynn: Crockery of Distinction, a celebration of New Zealand’s most iconic home ware producers. Drawing on public and private collections, the exhibition ‘considers the company’s vital role in a history of home-grown creativity, international influence and innovative design, and the nature ofRead more
53 years ago – Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole (4 January 1958) 54 years ago – Scott Base opens in Antarctica (20 January 1957) Having reached the summit of Everest with Tenzing Sherpa in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary completed another extreme feat in January 1958. Early in theRead more
As part of a project to publish the wildlife diaries of Edgar Stead (see blog of 15 December 2010), I am revisiting some of the islands that Stead camped on during the period 1929-1947. The main focus is describing how the ecology of the islands has changed since Stead’s time.Read more
While exploring the subalpine flora around the Otira Valley during the field trip at the end of the Australian Systematic Botany Society 2010 Conference I recently attended, I came across some plants that I have studied in the past, as well as others that I’m about to begin researching. AfterRead more
Since 2009, Roger Rasmussen, alongside his role as a Te Papa host, has vounteered to re-house, measure and photograph a collection of to’i ma’a (stone adze) from Sāmoa which were gifted to the museum by Rhys Richards in 1991. Because of Roger’s important work, the images of the collection are nowRead more
In December last year I was contacted by Department of Conservation staff on Stephens Island reporting that they had found a bone that looked like a parrot’s beak in their vegetable garden, and asking if I could help identify it. Stephens Island Nature Reserve lies off the northern tip ofRead more
Some of my favourite social history images in Te Papa’s photography collection are of trampers taken by Leslie Adkin (1888-1964). A man of many talents and interests, Adkin was a founding member of the Levin-Waiohepu Tramping Club, which was established in the 1920s. This was one of the first tramping clubsRead more
Right now, on New Zealand’s southernmost island group, a team of 11 researchers and their support crew are wandering around the cold, windswept Campbell Island, studying the island’s rich ecology and history, and its recovery from decades of grazing and the world’s largest island rat eradication. And you can followRead more
57 years ago – Queen Elizabeth arrives in Auckland, becoming the country’s first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand (23 December 1953) The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, arrived in New Zealand just before Christmas in 1953 for a 39-day tour. In the past, only sons or brothers ofRead more
Edgar Stead (1881-1949) was a Canterbury naturalist famous (among other things) for exhuming the enormous Okarito blue whale skeleton now in Canterbury Museum, breeding the Ilam strain of rhododendrons and azaleas, and being an astute observer of New Zealand birds. His magnificent homestead ‘Ilam’ is now the Canterbury University staffRead more
The blessing for the painting of Poedua (Poetua), a princess from the Society Islands, by John Webber (1751-1793) was a much needed bright spot at Te Papa last week – a week when New Zealand reeled from news of the Pike River mining disaster. This remarkable painting, recently purchased by Te Papa,Read more
Does the plant in the above photo look familiar? That’s probably because the tree in the photo is in the same genus—Sophora—as the kōwhai. There are about 45 species of Sophora worldwide, including the toromiro tree from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) shown above. There are eight different species of SophoraRead more
On Friday I posted a blog on the subject of darning inspired by the items of clothing that survived the Depression loaned by Rosemary McLeod for the Slice of Heaven exhibition. A couple of comments in response to that made me think further. My mother taught me to start a darn with slipstitchRead more
An exhibition of Māori fish-hooks (matau) made from wood, bone, stone, and shell opens at Te Papa on Saturday December 4th. While early European explorers considered these fish-hooks to be ‘ill-made’ and ‘of doubtful efficacy’, research has shown that the design was highly effective. Unlike modern steel hooks, the MāoriRead more
