He kiwi ihupuku, he kiwi rangirua hoki a Kuwi. Kua whanau mai tana hua hou hei tiaki mana, i tana kotahi. Kaore ano ia kia tiaki hua... He paki ngahau he paki whakaaroha tenei ma te kohungahunga, Kuwi is a young and confused kiwi who has found herself alone with her newly laid egg. She has never had an egg before... A funny and heart-warming story for the early learner.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 36

Dimensions: 240 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 01-03-2016

Charlie Douglas ranks as one of the great early European explorers of New Zealand. From 1867 to 1916 the Scottish-born Douglas lived on the west coast of the South Island, spending most of his time exploring, surveying and mapping the coast, the bush and the mountainous inland regions, in hazardous conditions, often for little or no pay. Many years later the noted mountaineer and writer John Pascoe rediscovered and preserved many of Douglas’s writings and sketches. The original book he wrote out of these has long been out of print, but Charlie Douglas’s accounts of discovery and recording difficult country continue to fascinate. Douglas recorded much of the geography and topography of South Westland, its ecology and conservation, at a time when this was scarcely known. He also demonstrated the determined qualities of Pakeha pioneering in New Zealand. As with the original edition, about a third of this book is devoted to an account of the life of Charlie Douglas, and about two thirds to his writings, which have been only lightly edited. Errors have been corrected, new information added, new illustrations added (including many in colour), people identified and the text re-edited for modern readership. Graham Langton’s revised edition of Pascoe’s 1957 book was first published in 2000 and reprinted with minor corrections in 2004, and with further corrections and a new cover design in 2016. It will continue to appeal to all with an interest in the New Zealand outdoors, nature and conservation.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 348

Dimensions: 150 x 230 mm

Publication Date: 20-05-2016

European explorers of the Pacific in the 18th and early 19th centuries faced a problem – how to describe the people they met and report what they had seen and found. From Cook onwards, a serious expedition included artists and scientists in its ship's company. An ambitious journey of the 19th century was the third voyage of the French explorer Dumont d'Urville, from 1837 to 1840. It was just before the invention of photography, when phrenology, the study of people's skulls, was the latest thing. D'Urville chose to take on the voyage an eminent phrenologist, Pierre-Marie Dumoutier, to preserve likenesses of people by making life casts. When the expedition returned to France, the casts were displayed, and later stored in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, to be joined eventually by other casts from Dumoutier's collection, including those of the d'Urville and Dumoutier families. All were overtaken by photography and history. Fiona Pardington first learnt of the life casts in 2007, when a chance conversation initiated a four-year project. It took her from Auckland to the Musée de l'Homme, as she researched and photographed some of more than fifty casts of Maori, Pacific and European heads, including casts of her Ngai Tahu ancestors. This book publishes these photographs and coincides with the opening of a major travelling exhibition. The photographs are extraordinarily beautiful, evocative and spiritually powerful images. They recover likenesses and revive the life force of Dumoutier's subjects, eliciting our empathy and fascination with a world we can never really know. This is a rich and engaging book. With essays by leading scholars in Pacific history, art and photography, on subjects as diverse as phrenology and cast-making, the voyage, and the identity of the Maori casts, it will appeal to anyone interested in nineteenth-century encounters between voyagers and the peoples of the Pacific, or contemporary art and photography.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 245 x 330 mm

Publication Date: 31-12-2011

‘Pay Dirt: ‘The Westland Goldfields’, from the diary of William Smart’ is the fascinating story of how payable gold was discovered in West Canterbury, and of claims to the government’s rich gold reward. It tells how English settler, William Smart, left Christchurch in 1862 to prospect for gold in the uncharted wilderness of the West Coast. Then, in 1887, long after the Canterbury government granted another prospector the reward, which Smart regarded as rightfully his, he was provoked to write his own ‘history’ of the early gold discoveries. ‘The Westland Goldfields’ was his attempt to set the record straight; but, incidentally, he produced a unique eye-witness account of early Pākehā on the Coast, prospecting alongside Māori, braving the hazardous environment, isolation and ever-present risk of starvation – before the region was overwhelmed by the gold rushes of the 1860s. Smart’s account, together with his drawings, is published here for the first time. Hilary Low has done a superb job of presenting Smart’s manuscript, and complementing it with a lively commentary on Canterbury’s quest for its own goldfield, and the extraordinary saga of its gold reward – a tale of hope and persistence, lies and fraud.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 17-10-2016

A fascinating insight into the story behind New Zealand's internationally renowned tourist jet boat venture which launched Queenstown's adventure tourism industry in 1965 and has thrilled over three million passengers in its first half century of operation. Jet boating arrived in New Zealand in the 1950s with the invention of the Hamilton jet unit by pioneer CWF (Bill) Hamilton. Tourism pioneers quickly identified the potential in Queenstown for commercial jet boating and in 1965 the Shotover Jet Boat Service Ltd was launched. During the following 50 years the trip through narrow and challenging Shotover Canyons has developed into a flagship New Zealand tourist activity - billed as the "world's most exciting jet boat ride". Shotover Jet has attracted many celebrities and received the royal stamp of approval and worldwide exposure when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge rode the canyons during their 2014 New Zealand tour. This book is more than just a story about a high profile tourist jet boat company - it is a captivating history reflecting the indomitable New Zealand pioneering spirit and early risk taking tourism entrepreneurs. Accompanied by superb historic and contemporary photographs Shotover Jet - The Story Of Queenstown's Adventure Tourism Pioneer captures one of the most exciting times in New Zealand's tourism history. www.shotoverjet.com

Bind: paperback

Pages: 160

Dimensions: 215 x 245 mm

Publication Date: 15-11-2016

Hospofrofta is a colloquial, autobiographical dialogue centred around the Auckland cafe scene. It dishes dirt, offers conclusions and revels in indignation. It contains checklists for cafe buyers and sellers, a selection of cafe reviews, a rundown on some important figures in the scene and even a political manifesto. There is, of course, the obligatory recipe pages – although presented in a slightly irreverent fashion. Anyone who’s ran a small business, drank coffee or made coffee should find themselves in a literary fugue of empathy when reading Hospofrofta. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hayden Hyams has co-owned five cafes in Auckland over fifteen years and worked in countless others. He has experienced the trials, tribulations and fleeting moments of satisfaction that come with being a small business owner.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 80

Dimensions: 110 x 180 mm

Publication Date: 10-10-2016

‘New Zealand’s Rivers: An environmental history’explores the relationship between New Zealanders and our rivers, explaining how we have arrived at a crisis point, where fresh water has become our most contested resource and many rivers are too polluted to swim in. Environmental historian Catherine Knight reveals that the tension between exploitation and enjoyment of rivers is not new. Rivers were treasured by Māori as food baskets and revered as the dwelling places of supernatural creatures. But following European settlement, they became drains for mining, industrial waste and sewage, and were harnessed to generate power and to irrigate farmland. Over time, the utilitarian view of rivers has been increasingly questioned by those who value rivers for recreation as well as for ecological, spiritual and cultural reasons. Today, the sustainable use of rivers is the subject of intense debate. Thoroughly researched and richly illustrated, ‘New Zealand’s Rivers’is an accessible and compelling read for all New Zealanders, including anglers, kayakers, farmers, environmental practitioners, policy-makers, students and anyone with an interest in our environment and history.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 324

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 10-11-2016

With the soft jingle of bells, a mysterious gift falls from the sky. Kuwi knows just what to do and sets off to give lovely gifts to all her friends so they too can join in her happiness. But things don't go to plan when her friends forget to say "thank you". Another beautifully told and illustrated story by award winning author Kat Merewether.

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 01-11-2016

“Surely the Wairarapa doesn't have a maritime history, there are no ports or wharves and only a few fishermen earning their living from the sea.” This has been a commonly held view, and the reason this book has not been written until now. In fact, the maritime history of the Wairarapa coast is both fascinating – and important. The sea lane from Auckland to Wellington, via the Wairarapa coast, was a critically important highway during the 19th century. Coastal shipping, with its use of surfboats, delivered the essentials of life ashore and took off wool, tallow and timber in the decades before roads were carved through the bush to remote settlements and sheep stations. Rugged Coast, Rough Waters tells the story of shipping – of national and local importance – on the Wairarapa coast. It also document’s the coast’s Maori maritime history and the barely remembered sealing, whaling and flax industries that once flourished The unforgiving, exposed coastline and the storms that rage along it have resulted in over 70 shipwrecks and more than100 lives lost.

Bind: paperback

Publication Date: 31-10-2016

The Dominican Sisters of Aotearoa New Zealand The first 10 Dominican sisters arrived in Dunedin in 1871. The congregation expanded rapidly, establishing schools throughout Otago and Southland, and eventually reaching as far north as Auckland. For most of their first century in New Zealand the Dominican sisters were teaching nuns, living in large enclosed convents cut off from the outside world. In the mid-1960s the Second Vatican Council ushered in a period of radical change. The sisters moved out of their convents and into small homes in their local neighbourhoods; out of their schools and into new roles in education, social justice, pastoral care and spirituality. Today they are an ageing congregation that is diminishing in size. Susannah Grant was given full access to the congregation’s rich archives in order to write this book, from the point of view of an ‘outsider’. She has also completed a large number of oral histories with the sisters. In this moving and beautifully written book she chronicles the astonishing transformation of the New Zealand Dominican sisters from a strictly enclosed body of religious teachers to a congregation of religious women who are integrated in the wider community and engaged in a range of active ministries, while still remaining deeply committed to shared Dominican ideals.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 328

Dimensions: 200 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 17-04-2017