Can Tourism Help Small Communities?

By Brian Megaw | May 3, 2023

Can Tourism Help Small Communities? Here are a few thoughts and observations regarding the effects of tourism on small communities after having just ridden the Alps to Ocean Cycleway. The Alps to Ocean Cycleway is one of New Zealand’s Great Rides. It starts at either Aoraki/Mt. Cook or at Tekapo. Over the following days of [...]

Fresh Eyes: What a Fantastic Country We Live In

By Brian Megaw | April 6, 2023

Fresh Eyes: What a Fantastic Country We Live In Some friends recently stayed at home with their motorhome for a few days. From Taihape, they journeyed south to explore Cape Palliser, Castle Point and Riversdale Beach, all on the Southeast Coast of the North Island. Amongst the messages, I got from them was this one. [...]

Picking Yourself Up Again

By Brian Megaw | February 21, 2023

Picking Yourself Up Again Picking Yourself Up Again I can only barely comprehend the scale of damage that Cyclone Gabrielle has wrought on parts of the North Island, especially just over the Ruahine Range in Hawkes Bay. There will be a staggering cost in money, materials, time and mental health before the devastation is remotely [...]

A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker

By Brian Megaw | October 6, 2022

A Day in the Life of a Trap Checker For millennia, the islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand were separated from other land masses. This isolation led our endemic species (species found here and nowhere else) to evolve to occupy all the available niches in this pre-human landscape. Unfortunately, this evolution and specialisation made them incredibly vulnerable [...]

2022 Hui for Whio

By Brian Megaw | August 29, 2022

2022 Hui for Whio I have written regularly on the conservation efforts undertaken in the Ruahine Ranges to protect and enhance native bird life, particularly the endemic Whio or Blue Duck. The Ruahine Ranges run up the spine of the southern central North Island, from the Manawatu Gorge until meeting the Kaweka and Kaimanawa Ranges. [...]

Changed By Landscape

By Brian Megaw | July 29, 2022

Who Moulds Who? In landscapes where human beings have resided for a long time, often thousands of years, you can see the impact those many generations have had. Hedgerows, drainage ditches, old stone walls, derelict buildings and, on occasion, much older evidence of habitation. Terraced hillsides and meandering paths, some having been in use for [...]

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