Contents

COVER : Animals that seem familiar and friendly to us appear in quite a different light when you happen to be a diminutive bird guarding helpless chicks and eggs. Predators such as cats and hedgehogs are driving several species of once common shorebird towards extermination.
CONTENTS - Features :
BULLER - THE MIGHTY RIVER [Trout, whitewater sports, gold, whitebait, idiosyncratic locals, dire journeys of exploration, interminable gorges, uranium, floods, earthquakes - Buller has it all];
BEYOND THE DESERT ROAD [Between Mt Ruapehu and the Desert Road lies an area where the ground is so porous and the wind so strong that, despite a two-metre annual rainfall, plants have difficulty surviving. Snow and volcanic ash can fall at any time of the year. Welcome to the Rangipo Desert];
THE FORTUNES OF FISHING [Fishing has long been a rugged way of living, appealing to those of colourful and independent disposition. But as inshore fishing has become more regulated over the last decade or so, small commercial fishers are feeling more endangered that the fish];
SHOREBIRDS UNDER THREAT [Those flocks of small birds that once pecked and scurried along our open beaches are becoming a rare sight, as unfamiliar predators carry off their eggs and young and we humans appropriate ever more of the coastline];
CONTENTS - Departments :
LETTERS; GEONEWS [telephones in Tokelau; living off the grid]; SPACE [an abundance of moons]; MUSEUMS [Waitomo’s Museum of Caves]; WEATHER [what use the wind?]; BOOKS [New Zealand Historical Atlas]; COMING UP [What’s in store]; MINI ADS;