‘Beyond Manapouri: 50 years of environmental politics in New Zealand’ traces the evolution of environmental administration in New Zealand since the dawn of the ‘environmental era’ in the late 1960s. The national campaign to stop the government from raising the water level in the scenically spectacular Lake Manapouri for a hydro dam is widely credited with the awakening of environmental awareness in New Zealand.Since then, New Zealand has established institutions and legislation dedicated to managing our environment, and the public’s ability to participate in environmental decision-making has been strengthened markedly. At the same time, New Zealanders’ knowledge and awareness of environmental issues have also increased. Even so, the latest reports on our environment indicate that all is not well: our waterways continue to deteriorate, our biodiversity is in decline and our greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb. ‘Beyond Manapouri’is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand why, in spite of the legislation and institutions put in place to improve the stewardship of our environment, we’re now facing more urgent environmental issues than ever before. In this richly illustrated and engagingly written history, Knight also identifies the cultural shifts that will need to take place if we are to live up to the ‘clean, green’ image we have constructed for ourselves in New Zealand. Catherine Knight is the author of ‘New Zealand’s Rivers: An environmental history’(CUP, 2016) which was long-listed for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2017, short-listed for the New Zealand Heritage Book Awards and selected as one of the Listener’s Best Books for 2016. Her 2014 book ‘Ravaged Beauty: An environmental history of the Manawatu’ (Dunmore Press) won the J.M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Regional and Local History, and Palmerston North Heritage Trust’s inaugural award for the best work of history relating to the Manawatu. Catherine is a policy and communications consultant and lives with her family on a small farmlet in the Manawatu.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 272

Dimensions: 155 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2018

You will be challenged and inspired as you join Neville on board for this real-life, white-knuckle adventure on the high seas. A magnificent account of courage and perseverance as a young doctor takes time off from his busy practice to sail a 31’ yacht (single-handed much of the way) from England to New Zealand. • Mutiny by his crew in Port St Louis, France • Confrontation with the Sicilian Mafia at Marsala • Collision with a freighter near Gabo Island, South Australia • Harassed by a UFO mid-ocean in the Tasman sea? Neville de Villiers comes from an aristocratic lineage of French Huguenot extraction. He completed his studies at Oxford University in 1959 and practiced as a doctor in Loughborough, UK for 11 years before purchasing the Doumar, a 31’ sloop, and sailed it to New Zealand. After the Doumar had logged 14,000 miles, he finally tied up at Marsden Point wharf, Whangarei in 1981. He worked as a GP for various practices and then set up his own, Ruakaka Medical Centre, until retiring in 2014. He now lives at One Tree Point and still sails the Doumar to this day.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 122

Dimensions: 140 x 216 mm

Publication Date: 09-04-2018

The air temperature was probably -35 degrees Celsius with wind chill. We couldn’t stand still for long. Our brains felt taxed and our bodies were running on empty. On the Football Field not far from the summit, Sue discovered a square of chocolate. We shared it, telling our bodies we didn’t need more. As we continued the descent, the air warmed and filled with oxygen. We began to encounter climbers heading up. Most knew who we were, incredulously asking: ‘are you the girls who slept on the summit’? – Karen McNeill, ‘A Ridge Too Far: The first female ascent of Denali’s Cassin Ridge’ A schoolgirl races from class to join a weekend trip to the hills. A mountaineering guide recalls his first weeks on the job during the 1920s. A young climber is shown the best route over the Main Divide by a big bull thar. A climbing party is bombarded by falling rock when Ruapehu suddenly erupts. A mountaineer pays tribute to the Māori guides from south Westland, while a fighter pilot tries to recapture an ascent of the Minarets from his tent in Nigeria during World War II. From the Darrans of Fiordland to Denali in Alaska, New Zealand climbers, both experienced and recreational, have captured their alpine experience in letters, journals, articles, memoirs, poems and novels. Drawing on 150 years of published and unpublished material, Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey, two top contemporary authors, have compiled a wide-ranging, fascinating and moving glimpse into New Zealand’s mountaineering culture and the people who write about it.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 372

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 12-06-2018

The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island arguably boasts the greatest range of the country’s natural attractions. From the warm, temperate nikau palm forests at Karamea to the cool beech forests of Haast, from the alpine heights of Arthur’s Pass to the dramatic Paparoa coast, glaciers that descend into valleys filled with unique podocarp rainforests, plus pristine lakes and lagoons – the West Coast has it all. New Zealand is a centre of endemicity, with over 80% of our native non-marine birds, reptiles, flowering plants, gymnosperms, land-snails and insects restricted to this country, and hundreds of those species are found on the West Coast. The Coast is an essential destination for any overseas naturalist or bird-watcher, and a place New Zealanders interested in nature should return to time and again. This remote part of the country is New Zealand as tourists and many Kiwis imagine it to be. Remote and wild it may seem, yet most of its natural attractions are accessible from sealed roads and well-formed paths, some even wheelchair accessible. This book presents an introduction to the West Coast’s physical environment, plants and animals, and a guide to the walks, lakes and highways of the region. Short easy paths are described in some detail, along with the plants, animals and natural features to look for along the way. Longer, more demanding trails are described in less detail. The lakes and lagoons are best explored by kayak, and guidance is given for the paddling naturalist. An essential guide to the region’s natural attractions since its publication in 2013, West Coast Walking has been reprinted and includes updates and minor corrections.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 368

Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm

Publication Date: 20-01-2018

what did you eat willful Chang’e? – fly to the moon where no one hears you rabbiting on you won’t silence me by chopping the tree its white leaves and a night-dipped pen the fuel of my longevity As one of eight writers, poet Janet Charman was invited in 2009 to take part in a hectic, immersive literary residency in Hong Kong. Written out of this time of stimulating buzz, 仁 surrender chronicles the tensions, translations and literary crushes that ensue, with ever-present comedy. From this intense hothouse and these privileged constraints flow narrative poems that capture the creative and cultural dislocation of travel, with its petty irritants and constant surprises. Charman’s verse has always been distinguished by a combination of astute observation, compassion, pluck, vulnerability and willingness to poke fun at herself. – Iain Sharp In her laconic and original style, Janet Charman writes a body of work which sees [her] exploiting the motif of journeying to investigate the colonised land, past and present. – Siobhan Harvey

Bind: paperback

Pages: 118

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 01-11-2017

Te reo Maori translation of the bestselling title, "Kuwi's Very Shiny Bum".

Bind: paperback

Pages: 36

Dimensions: 240 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 29-09-2017

This book follows the best-selling publication Canterbury Country Houses series and is a collection of seventy-six heritage houses, most of which have been preserved following the Canterbury Earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 This is the second book of Christchurch Heritage Houses, personally selected by artist and author Rodney Wells, showcasing the domestic architecture that is still a rich part of Christchurch's heritage.

Bind: paperback

Dimensions: 220 x 280 mm

Publication Date: 31-08-2017

NEW REPRINT - More praise for the one book that explains New Zealand and the public psyche in 2020, 2021 and beyond like no other. “James has over several decades honed his skills at political and economic analysis, with the result that he is uniquely able amongst our present cluster of political commentators to analyse trends, discern shifts in our cultural values and attitudes and point out defining issues facing our policymakers and societal leaders, whether in government or business.” Ross Tanner, former Deputy State Services Commissioner, in Public Sector Journal In Unquiet Time, Colin James describes a world in disorder as it rebalances politically, economically and demographically with a technology that is changing the way we live and ‘work’ and globalising us in new ways; looming environmental limits, climate change and biosecurity and pandemic threats; a need for new thinking; and likely major shocks such as pandemics. This, tiny Aotearoa/New Zealand must navigate as it goes into the 2020s. Much has changed since the last big social and policy upheaval in the 1980s - how this country conducts itself internationally, its bicultural makeup turning multicultural, its management and mismanagement of a unique but threatened natural environment, its economy and its now unequal society. There are many challenges but also many opportunities. Who will we be? Unquiet Time poses the questions and suggests some answers. Author Colin James is a journalist who has specialised in politics and policy since 1969. He has written six books and many chapters in books and papers, given many briefings to business, not-for-profits and government agencies, including future projections, and has contributed to many conferences at home and abroad.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 320

Dimensions: 163 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 10-07-2017

Sue Bradford is half American and sixth generation Kiwi on her father’s side -- her European missionary genes date from 1820s Northland. Despite her grassroots New Zild twang, she was raised in Auckland by middle class, bohemian intellectuals and survived a childhood made difficult by her brilliant but domineering father. Fast forward through the tumultuous Vietnam War protest era, the 1981 Springbok Tour and 16 years in the invisible community sector where she became, with husband Bill, a loud voice and a highly effective organiser for society’s marginalised, and Sue suddenly and unexpectedly found herself in Parliament. From December 1999, as a hardworking, and much admired Green MP she managed a hefty portfolio and succeeded in getting three member’s bills into legislation, including her contentious bill to amend section 59 of the Crimes Act. Her mainstream political career ended, abruptly and disappointingly, five months after she lost the May 2009 Green Party co-leadership contest. Subsequently she achieved a PhD and transformed herself into Dr Sue Bradford -- activist and academic. Her readable thesis on the need for a major left wing think tank in Aotearoa has been downloaded in full almost 3,000 times and Economic and Social Research Aotearoa (ESRA), the infant left think tank she set up as a result, is growing lustily. Sue Bradford is still evolving but in terms of what matters most, her core social justice principles, she remains constant. -----------------Quotes from Review by Bronwyn Elsmore, Flaxroots Productions - "Jenny Chamberlain’s writing is fluent, polished, and definitely not dry to read.... It needed all those pages to give a full appreciation. Having read them, it leaves me wondering how one woman has fitted so much into her life. My respects to both the subject and the author".

Bind: paperback

Pages: 400

Dimensions: 170 x 240 x 25 mm

Publication Date: 03-07-2017

In his down-to-earth and lively style, Mitchell, who experienced politics first-hand as a long-serving Labour MP for Grimsby, denounces the economic policy of the last three decades as “a long march down Dead-End Street” – a neoliberal experiment that has benefitted the rich and eroded the “good society” with its welfare state and governments’ commitment to the betterment of the people. He charts the development of a neoliberal creed, market-driven and with governments devoted instead to efficiency, cost-cutting and austerity at the people’s expense, and draws parallels between Thatcherism in the United Kingdom, Rogernomics in New Zealand, and all that came after them. Mitchell observes how neoliberalism has failed to deliver on its promises, including that of the “trickle-down” effect, resulting in much greater inequality in both countries. Ultimately, he finds useful lessons in its failure and possible pointers to a fairer society for all.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 116

Dimensions: 210 x 270 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2017