Nature / Sustainable Tourism

A traditional Māori medicine garden planted on an East Coast marae during Conservation Week could be repeated elsewhere in New Zealand, as part of a Department of Conservation campaign to raise awareness.

A global peace movement is set to take its first steps in New Zealand this week when a flame lit during a ceremony in Waitakere, West Auckland begins a journey that will take it to more than 90 countries.

New Zealand’s wide open spaces and unique environment provide a mecca for freedom campers but tourists are being advised to check with the locals before pitching a tent or parking their campervan.

Kiwis (the non-feathered variety) have gone to the polls to elect a new top bird and - in what’s promising to be a closely fought election - some native species have even hired campaign managers to boost their roost.

When it comes to gardens, New Zealand’s Taranaki region has more to show off than most as many public and private gardens ready for the 2009 Taranaki Rhododendron & Garden Festival.

Five rare kākāpō chicks – the last from the 2009 breeding season – have been released from their temporary outdoor pens, and are now roaming free on an island sanctuary in New Zealand’s deep south.

Conservation Week 2009 promises some close encounters of the environmental kind as New Zealand celebrates its unique wildlife, natural areas and historic places with many nationwide events.

The world’s smallest penguins are about to be given a big hand up with their own VIP – very important penguin – nesting area at EcoWorld in New Zealand’s Marlborough Sounds.

Dolphins are renowned for helping humans in trouble at sea but a group of fishermen off New Zealand’s Northland coast have returned the favour by freeing a dolphin caught in a fishing long-line.

A programme to save an endangered bird is having a commercial spin-off for New Zealand’s lucrative wine-growing industry.