Contents

COVER : New Zealanders have taken to mountain biking in a big way, using their fat-tyred machines for everything from solitary forest rambles to mass endurance events, such as here, at the start of the 1999 Taupo day/night ride.
CONTENTS - Features :
A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE [the same rollers which draw surfers to Auckland’s rugged coast make life tough for the intertidal organisms which choose to call its rocks home];
SMOKESTACKS AND PADDLE-WHEELS [New Zealand’s “Rhine Maidens,” the riverboats of the Whanganui, carried tourists, settlers and supplies in the Edwardian era. Now, thanks to a small army of dedicated steam buffs, paddles are turning on the river once more];
ISLAND OF PALMS AND PETRELS [Draw a line between Wellington and Brisbane and two-thirds of the way to Australia it will cross Lord Howe. Politically, this quiet and lovely island is a fragment of New South Wales, but biologically it has many affinities with New Zealand];
RIDE EVERY MOUNTAIN [With cycle tracks springing up across the country, New Zealand is becoming an El Dorado for mountain bikers];
CONTENTS - Departments :
LETTERS; EDITOR’S COMMENTS;GEONEWS [the petrol news; our oldest flowers; a fresh approach to antibiotics]; WEATHER [cloudspotting from space]; BOOKS [War books; a spider guide and the country from space]; COMING UP [what’s in store];