Contents

COVER : The finger of God adding the touch of perfection to a begonia bloom? Perhaps not, but Ailsa McCrone has had an eternity of experience in her 40 years of tending the glasshouse plants in Pukekura Park. Here she dabs sulphur on a cut stem to prevent infection.
CONTENTS - Features :
PUKEKURA : THE PEOPLE’S PARK [Imagination and hard work over the past 125 years have transformed an unwanted gully into one of the most diverse and well appointed parks in the country];
THE ROCKS OF CASTLE HILL [Buried among the foothills of the Southern Alps is a valley studded with strangely sculpted limestone boulders - an area treasured by Maori and Pakeha alike];
COUNTRY DOCTOR CALLING [Buzz Burrell’s medical practice may be situated in the small West Coast town of Reefton, but it provides healthcare to those living in an area twice the size of Greater Auckland. Like many rural GPs, Buzz finds the going tough at times];
THE FLAVOUR OF THE PACIFIC [That distinctive blend of tradition and colonial influence so characteristic of many Pacific Islands is nowhere better illustrated that in architecture and design];
FOR THE LOVE OF HEDGEHOGS [Although hedgehogs have lately been found guilty of environmental misdemeanours, these slow, snuffling slayers of garden pests retain a hold on our affections];
THE BIRDMAN OF UPPER WAITOHI [Was he the first to fly? The answer to that question may never be known, but the aeronautical endeavours of eccentric South Canterbury farmer-inventor Richard Pearse, one derided, are now hailed as visionary];
CONTENTS - Departments :
LETTERS; VIEWPOINT [Extinction and biodiversity]; GEONEWS [rare flightless teal; new imaging technology; first fossil locality]; OPEN COUNTRY [there’s money in pigs]; BOOKS [Floods and Droughts]; WEATHER [forecasting the America’s Cup]; COMING UP [what’s in store];