In 1975 an amateur paleontologist made a discovery that rewrote the prehistory of New Zealand. Forty years later, Ngāi Tūhoe are leading a project that could open up a whole new chapter in our understanding of when dinosaurs walked this land. Prior to 1975, it was widely believed that there were no dinosaur fossils in New Zealand. There had certainly been marine fossils discovered, but terrestrial dinosaurs - the stuff of nightmares that we...

Korean man missing from Te Urewera   Wednesday, 8 February 2017 - 7:39am Eastern Wairoa Police and Search and Rescue are searching for a 59-year-old Korean man who was reported missing from the Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk in Te Urewera.    He was last seen at the Panekire Hut on 7 February 2017 and was expected to be at Onepoto by 1pm for a scheduled pick up. The alarm was raised when he was not there...

Hours into a six-day tramp in Te Urewera, an experienced tramper became injured and needed rescuing. Jost Siegfried 69, and Jaden Kaemfe, 14, planned to tramp from Maungapohatu to the Waimana River over six-days, beginning on...

The family of a Japanese tourist who died in a hut blaze in the former Te Urewera National Park has been able to find closure to his death after visiting the site where he died.    Katsuya Tsuchida and his fishing guide, New Zealand resident Toshiya Babe, died when the Department of Conservation hut they were sleeping in burnt down in December 2007.   An investigation by Police and the Fire Service found the...

Rescuers say two trampers did everything right after one was injured and the pair were forced to spend a night in the Urewera ranges.   The trampers - a 69-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy - released a distress beacon at 4.30pm yesterday after the man dislocated his shoulder.   A senior search and rescue officer at the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, Geoff Lunt, said the man, an experienced tramper, had registered his...

Indigenous battles to defend nature have taken to the streets, leading to powerful mobilizations like the gathering at Standing Rock. They have also taken to the courts, through the development of innovative legal ways of protecting nature. In Ecuador, Bolivia and New Zealand, indigenous activism has helped spur the creation of a novel legal phenomenon—the idea that nature itself can have rights.   The 2008 constitution of...