Summer reading

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 269, 22 December 1988, Page 6

Summer reading

New Zealand's own geographical journal, New Zealand Geographic, is now in bookshops and publisher John Woods says it promises to be highly successful.

"Before even Teaching the bookshops we've sold 2500 annual subscriptions and we expect that number to steadily increase when people see the quality of the first issue," he says. The quarterly journal, which celebrates New Zealand's unique natural heritage and its people, is aimed at stimulating interest in the New Zealand environment, wildlife and history. The first issue, 128pages of stories and illustrations, features the wild and remote Campbell Island as its cover story. This island, which has winds of up t o 240km an hour and 325 rainy days a year, is still tops with scientists and researchers, says Geo-

graphic editor Kennedy Wame. "Apart from the island's yellow-eyed and rockhopper penguin colony it's the home of the largest bird in the world, the Southern Royal Albatross, and unique subantarctic plants known as megaherbs." Other stories in New Zealand Geographic's first issue include the wild horses of the Kaimanawas, the success of Goat Island Marine Reserve, the making of glass, the newest (and wettest) national park walk, Fiordland's Kepler Track and an interview with the uncrowned champion of endangered birds, Don Merton.