On a hilltop in Wānaka surrounded by one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the country sits 50 hectares of douglas fir and radiata pine. The block was given to the descendents of 50 Māori left landless by a duplicitous Crown purchase. One hundred-and-seventy years...

  South Dunedin is home to the country’s largest low-lying community, with 2700 homes less than 50cm above the high-tide line. As the sea level creeps up, its 13,500 residents are waiting to see whether they have a future, or whether the suburb will be reclaimed by...

  Are farmers doing enough on methane? Methane from Kiwi farms accounts for more than a third of the country’s greenhouse emissions. But exactly how this gas contributes to global warming and to what extent it should reduce is complex. As our methane targets look set...

  New Zealand could one day be burning hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish each year to generate electricity. Advocates say it’s an environmentally friendly alternative to landfill, others say it will pollute the air, endanger people’s health and encourage more...

  Millions of panels could soon be erected across thousands of hectares of the country as an unprecedented solar-farm boom begins. It’s part of efforts to more than double the country’s power generation by 2050. What do we stand to gain, and what might we...

  Beneath famously dry Central Otago are the remains of an enormous, ancient subtropical lake that was once home to crocodilians, turtles, giant parrots, bipedal vampire bats and palm trees. The kilometre-thick layer of lake bed is helping to unravel the mystery of...

 Forty years ago the world’s rarest wading bird, the kakī/ black stilt, teetered on the brink of extinction with just 23 birds left. Its survival has depended on one of the most intensive and successful captive rearing programmes in the country. Will it be enough to...

  Sir Michael Hill was a high-school dropout muso before he became one of the country’s most successful businessmen. While he gave up on his own musical aspirations, for the last 22 years he’s been on a mission to find the world’s best young violinist.

  Lyttelton has a population of 3000, but probably has more award-winning musicians per capita than anywhere in the country. George Driver travels to the port town to find out why... Read here

  In 2019, at the peak of an unprecedented tourism boom, visitors were wearing out the country’s welcome mat. When New Zealand’s borders closed in March 2020, the government was faced with both an industry in freefall and a blank canvas for change. As international...

  After a century of prohibition, it’s now legal to buy cannabis medications from pharmacies. But most doctors won’t prescribe it, the black market is still flourishing and despite local companies raising more than $100 million to grow it, it’s almost entirely...

  A former scarfie reacquaints himself with Ōtepoti’s drinking scene and descends into an existential crisis... Read here Published in the January edition of North & South magazine. 

  The song of the South Island kōkako is said to have been one of the most beautiful sounds of the forest, but by 1900 it was all but gone. The species was finally declared extinct more than a decade ago, yet people keep hearing its haunting call and seeing glimpses...

  For more than 40 years, scientists in a tiny Central Otago pitstop have been studying the ozone layer and the carcinogenic UV rays from the sun. Their critically important work has literally helped save our skins.... Read here Published in the December edition of...

  New Zealand has one of the oldest, least efficient and largest vehicle fleets per capita in the developed world. How did we get here and where are we going?... Read here Published in the November edition of North & South magazine.

  After a youth spent itching to be anywhere but Clyde, no one is more surprised than writer George Driver to find he’s now choosing to raise his own family in the Central Otago town... Read here Published in the October edition of North & South magazine.

  Otago’s earliest cemeteries are filled with unmarked graves. Now some of the skeletons are telling their tales.... Read here Published in the September edition of North & South magazine.

 A new report calls for partnership with tangata whenua to be at the heart of our national parks. Conservationists say this could weaken environmental protections. Iwi say it will bring an end to 135 years of alienation from the land. Who is right?... Read...

 Overseas tech companies are spending billions of dollars building warehouses to store New Zealand’s — and the world’s — information here. Why?... Read herePublished in the July edition of North & South magazine.

  New Zealand’s climate policy is creating a dense forest of winners and losers... Read herePublished in the June edition of North & South magazine.

  It's bloody paradise, it’s a nightmare, it’s a bargain — the residents don’t agree on much, except that Waipori Falls is unlike anywhere else in New Zealand... Read herePublished in the April edition of North & South magazine.