Local Opinion

Chris Gardner, a New Zealand Outdoor Instructors’ Association Bush Leader, shares tip for journeys into the great outdoors. When hikers and trampers do not come back from the trail a lack of planning and preparedness…

We know that actions and words should be consistent – and when thery aren’t, actions speak louder than words. The gulf between the actions and words of New Zealand politicians over the last 20 years…

“I regret very much”, wrote the Te Rore newspaper correspondent in August 1903, “having to report that Mr Fell, our schoolteacher, is suffering from an attack of pleurisy and inflammation. In consequence the school has been closed…

Looking across our oceans, the world beneath is hidden from view. This hidden world shapes our planet in profound ways. I love learning about the processes, patterns and features that make up the roughly-70 per…

Happy New Year! I am popping back in this week with a quick update on Waipā over the festive season. Between  December 22 and January 12 Cambridge staff were kept busy including dealing with  three…

Rachel, my wife of 100 years, has counted 53 different species of birds around our property over the past few years,  and 33 of those are native. Birds that should be here, and birds that…

Despite popular belief, I am confident that humans are good at faith. We have faith that the sky won’t fall and that gravity will hold us to the earth. We have faith that our employer…

Sam Paul, chamberman, responsible for the movement of miners and material in mine cages, had gone down with the men of Waihī’s Martha mine day shift on November 12, 1901. Sam managed the No 2…

Happy New Year! I hope you celebrated in a way that felt good for you, and that 2026 has plenty of joy ahead, whatever your circumstances. We just passed the anniversary of the 2004 Indian…

Julie Guest Vicar, St John’s Anglican Church There’s an unassuming pot plant in our house that transforms at this time of the year. It’s a miniature Hoya, branches trail over the pot rim, until in…