This is a practical book on growing vegetables under New Zealand conditions and is of special interest to home gardeners and students. All the most important vegetables are covered alphabetically giving details of sowing, cultivation, harvesting, storage, and pests and diseases that might be expected on these crops. In addition there is a simple and helpful reminder of jobs to be carried out month by month. Over 300 photographs clearly illustrate the growing of each crop from planting to harvesting and complement the text in bringing to the reader a clear and concise description of how to be successful in growing their own vegetables.

Ralph Ballinger has spent much of his life in the breeding, selection and testing of flowers, growing flower seed crops and for thirty years flowers commercially under glass. This is a practical book written for home gardeners and the common names have been used mainly for identification of plants. Nearly 200 flowers have been described covering mainly annuals and perennials used for bedding and herbaceous borders. The first section of the book covers the planning of the flower garden plus the raising and propagation of plants. There is a chapter on small glasshouses and special reference is given to growing flowers for the house and the drying of flowers. The second section is an alphabetical listing of these flowers with a description of the propagation of each. Photographs alongside the text assist in the identification of these flowers.

Pages: 52

For over a century rugby has been New Zealand’s national game, an obsession that has helped define a small country and mould its people – Maori and Pakeha Having a Ball looks at the triumphs and disasters, the amateur code that morphed into the professional era, the game at the local park and internationals in huge arenas, as well as rugby’s effect on the national psyche and the agendas of politicians. It is a story brilliantly told in a short introduction and through the perceptive, telling and funny insights of New Zealand’s leading cartoonists. From earlier generations, there are cartoons by Trevor Lloyd, Sir Gordon Minhinnick, Sid Scales, Neville Colvin, Eric Heath and Nevile Lodge. Today’s award-winning cartoonists include Peter Bromhead, Bob Brockie, Chris Slane, Murray Ball, Murray Webb, Garrick Tremain and Tom Scott. Foreword by David Kirk, captain of the All Black team that won the inaugural World Rugby Cup in 1987. Having a Ball also includes a timeline of important dates in NZ’s rugby history and short profiles of the contributing cartoonists.

Pages: 96

Publication Date: 01-05-2011

New Zealand Highlights is a composition of photographic images designed to convey to others the magnificence of this part of the world. It is a landscape book, mostly displaying naturally occurring landscapes and features throughout New Zealand. This book of highlights will serve as a photographic record of many locations visited while in New Zealand and for those who have not had the good fortune to visit New Zealand yet, this book might inspire them to do so.

Pages: 80

In 1863 Henry Whitcombe, a young civil engineer and Canterbury's Provincial Road Surveyor, led an expedition to find a route across the Southern Alps in advance of the West Coast gold rushes. Jakob Lauper, a hardy Swiss goldminer, was hired to accompany him. The journey turned to tragedy. Dogged by appalling weather and half-starved, the two men traversed the Main Divide by a pass that now bears Whitcombe's name, and struggled down to the western beach. There the exhausted Whitcombe drowned while attempting to cross the flooded Taramakau River. Against extraordinary odds, Lauper survived and made his way back to Christchurch. His report on the expedition was translated into English and published mid-1863. Pushing His Luck provides for the first time an accurate translation of Lauper's vivid account, and explains the significance of new information brought to light. Nearly 150 years after the event, the truth about this journey is finally told.

Pages: 144

This fine new collection of poetry, Owen Marshall's second, is rich in the themes and preoccupations that have made his short stories and novels so admired. Here are wise, elegiac poems on love and loss, longing and regret, and ageing; beautifully observed, affectionate poems about New Zealand countryside, where 'clear cold barking comes from miles away' ; sly and sharply witty poems about human frailty - 'Death's an old joke, the Russian said / but comes to each of us as a surprise' ; poems that look back to a distant past whose inhabitants were 'much the same as you and me' - all expressed in language that is superbly balanced and finely judged.

Pages: 144

Dimensions: 148 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-04-2010

Popular title back in print In this lavishly illustrated book, 20 of New Zealand's top landscape architects and designers offer their wisdom and advice on landscaping with native plants. These personal narratives showcase some of our country's most beautiful out-door environments, from private gardens to public recreation land, urban and industrial spaces, and even farmland. Stunning photographs by John Maillard capture the uniqueness and splendour of each location, from Kaeo in the Far North to Queenstown in the south.

Pages: 292

Publication Date: 01-09-2011

This landmark publication draws together all that has ever been written about the role of freshwater fishes in the lives of early Maori. Species such as tuna (eels), kanakana (lamprey), inanga and kokopu were of high importance in the traditional diets of Maori, who were well aware of the places and seasons in which these fish could be harvested. Bob McDowall has made it his life's work to read every word ever written on the subject of Maori fisheries, from passing references in explorers' diaries, to the significant literary achievements of Elsdon Best and Te Rangi Hiroa in the 1920s, to the recent reports of the Waitangi Tribunal. In Ikawai , all the knowledge on record is connected into a coherent account for the first time, and interpreted in the light of modern scientific knowledge of the fish fauna. As well as being highly informative, Ikawai also serves to illustrate the beauty associated with Maori fisheries. Bob has amassed an extraordinary collection of photographs of the fish themselves, of the artefacts Maori customarily used in catching fish, and of artworks by modern Maori practitioners, some reflecting the many legends and stories associated with fish. He has also unearthed some stunning and highly significant historical images that were hidden away in archives, libraries and photographic collections. This compendium is an essential resource for anyone interested in the lives and livelihood of New Zealand's earliest settlers

Pages: 832

Dimensions: 190 x 258 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2011

This volume is the third in the trilogy that provides a review and inventory of New Zealand's entire living and fossil biodiversity - an international effort involving more than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Together, the three volumes list every one of almost 55,000 known species of New Zealand's animals, plants, and micro-organisms. These volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, and international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all described species on Earth into one seamless list - the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online biological telephone directory.

Pages: 616

Publication Date: 01-10-2011