High in the back-country hills a string of six rafters threads its way along a narrow mountain stream, hemmed in by sheer rock worn smooth by the action of a thousand floods. Ferns, vines, grasses and trees close in darkly above the slick papa rock, forcing daylight to retreat to...

Pete Shaw is a Trustee of the Forest Lifeforce Restoration Trust, a privately-funded organisation providing direction and funding for the restoration of threatened species of fauna and flora: Garry was just one badly-tied knot away from lying broken and twisted at the foot of the cliff against which he was...

It’s carnage out there It’s dead. Very dead, judging by the stench and the smooshed appearance of the remains – all fur, bones and black-brown gloopy stuff. A possum, maybe? A rabbit? “It’s not just townies,” Simon says, smiling at my obvious disgust. “There’s plenty of debate among farmers and...

Stomachs churn in unison as the chopper clears the ridge and the ground beneath us falls away to reveal a hillside cleared of the ubiquitous pine trees that seem to march forever through the rugged remoteness of inland Hawke’s Bay. To our north lies the vast Te Urewera. Way over...

NZ-leading enviro education programme finds its feet in the Bay Deep in the Bay of Plenty back-blocks 24 youngsters scramble up a forest trail. Breathing heavily after their climb from the valley floor they stop and look around, tilting their heads as if straining to hear something. But the dense...

A burst of crimson gave the game away. There, clinging to the cliffs towering above the rushing waters of the Mohaka River deep in the rugged wilderness of inland Hawke’s Bay, was what they’d trekked all day to find. For hours the hunting party had scanned the sheer walls of...

From mountain forests to coastal bush: He was a typical Kiwi bush-dweller. No nonsense, a bit rough around the edges, unused to attention and certainly not fond of the limelight. His defiant, bright-eyed stare spoke of a hard life lived well. It told of constant work and unrelenting routine. A...

The ongoing struggle to free Hawke’s Bay hillsides It’s cold. Slowly, reluctantly, the camp comes to life in the pre-dawn darkness. Wrapped up against the early-morning chill, men start to converge slowly on the central living area. Its facilities are protected from the elements by just a single tarpaulin strung...