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An ode to Harriet
Deep brown eyes, still vibrant Despite the pain Despite the indignity Despite the crumbling limbs. x Moments before she left us Those eyes looked into mine Knowingly, As if to comfort me.x x Rest in...
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Undoing environmental history (with a spade)
Though my implement of choice for environmental history is the pen (or more accurately, the keyboard), I am known to pick up a spade from time to time. Specifically, to plant native trees on land in...
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Manawatu history talk: Totara Reserve
Dr Catherine Knight will be presenting a talk on November 2nd about the history of Totara Reserve as part of this year’s Manawatu Local History Week [click here to download programme]. Entitled “Totara...
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Upper Pohangina Valley farmscape
On the same trip on which we met the “horse for sale” (see previous post), we also passed through the Pohangina Valley, travelling from north to south. Like Apiti, the upper Pohangina Valley is...
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Environmental histories of New Zealand – Making a New Land
A new edition of the New Zealand environmental history classic, Environmental Histories of New Zealand, is out this month. Entitled Making a New Land, it has six new chapters with the existing ones...
View ArticleExploring our environmental history though the remarkable photos of Wildbore
Now that ‘Beyond Manapouri’ is safely out into the world, some of you may have been wondering what my next book project is. Well, since you asked ;-), it is a book exploring the life and works of a...
View ArticleReading the landscape via photographs of the past
In a post last week I talked about my next book project, a book entitled WILDBORE: A photographic legacy, showcasing the photographs of pioneering farmer and bee-keeper of the Pohangina Valley. One of...
View ArticleThe school that moved: Wildbore geocache no. 1
In 1977, an entire school house moved from its existing location on a country road in the shadow of the Ruahine Range in the Manawatu to the main street of Palmerston North City, nearly 30 kilometres...
View ArticleHauling logs across Te Awaoteatua Stream: Wildbore cache no. 3
The third cache in the Wildbore geocache series is hidden near the site of this photograph, taken by Charles E. Wildbore, showing two Valley men pulling a milled log across the Te Awaoteatua Stream...
View ArticleThe church that moved: Wildbore cache no. 4
The fourth cache in the now “Wildly-Famous-in-Pohangina” Wildbore geocaching series is at the top of Church Hill, near the site of the eponymous church. By the end of the 19th century, the population...
View ArticleCan you help solve the mystery behind this photo?
Can anyone help us track down the original print (or even better, the negative) of this photograph? This is a scan of a scanned image (on an A4 sheet of paper) contained in a folder compiled several...
View ArticleScorched forest farm – Wildbore cache no.7
Number 7 in the Wildbore geocache series is on No. 1 Line on the eastern side of the Pohangina Valley. It was on No. 1 Line that Charles E. Wildbore took one of his earliest surviving landscape...
View ArticleTotara Reserve: from exploitation to preservation
Totara Reserve is situated in the Pohangina Valley on the eastern side of the Pohangina River, in the Manawatu [click here to view location]. It encompasses an area of 348 hectares, much of it podocarp...
View ArticleExploring our history through the wonderful world of geocaching
A window into the long lost, densely forested lowlands of Manawatū has been opened by an author using antique glass plate negatives and new geocaching applications. Pohangina author Catherine Knight’s...
View ArticlePohangina wetlands: Wildbore cache no.22
While researching the clues for a cache at Pohangina wetlands the other day, I stumbled across this not-so-fun fact: scientists estimate that more than 98 of percent of kahikatea forest, which grew in...
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