Contents

COVER : In the footsteps of an ancient tradition, Ope Heremaia gathers flax leaves from the pa harakeke (flax plantation) at Papakura Marae in South Auckland. Used for everything from luxury garments to canoe bindings, medicine to food sweetener, flax was a corncucopia to the tangata whenua.
CONTENTS - Features :
FLAX - THE ENDURING FIBRE [Flax, familiar yet still striking, is not just a feature of our landscapes, but has played a central role in the human history of our country];
LIFE AND DEATH AMONG THE NETTLES [A photographer captures not only the significant moments in the lives of growing butterflies in his back yard, but the many hazards that befall the hapless insects];
THE LONG PATHWAY (PART 2) [More despatches from the backcountry as a new trail - eventually to run the length of the land - is forged from the heart of the North Island to the shores of Cook Strait];
ON THE METAL - THE TIN MINERS OF PORT PEGASUS [When gold prospectors late last century discovered that the heavy brown contaminant in their pans was actually tin, they caused a rush of miners to one of the remotest and least hospitable parts of the country];
THE LAST CRUISE OF MIKHAIL LERMONTOV [The largest Russian vessel to be sunk since World War II foundered in our own quiet Marlborough Sounds while under the direction of a local pilot and with a load of elderly tourists aboard];
CONTENTS - Departments :
LETTERS; GEONEWS [year of the kakapo; coconut connection with the distant past]; SPACE [Black Birch resurrected]; BOOKS [Snapshots of the Century]; WEATHER [La Nina’s deluges]; OPEN COUNTRY [a fishing life]; COMING UP [what’s in store];