Local Opinion

When rocks fly

The day this comes out I will be in the field with PhD student Amilea Sork, looking at huge rocks that were violently thrown out of the Ngāuruhoe crater during the 1950s and 1970s eruptions….

The pēpeha

Ko Taupiri te Maunga (Taupiri is the mountain) Ko Waikato te Awa (Waikato the river) Ko Potatau te tangata (Potatau the Man) Waikato taniwha rau (Waikato with its myriad taniwha) He piko, he taniwha! (At…

Eruptions – the complicated basics

In my line of work “I have a dumb question” is usually followed by a great question that has a complicated answer. “How do volcanoes erupt?” is one of these, and really should be explained…

Volcanoes- why do we care?

On 19 February 1975 Ngāuruhoe, our most active volcano at the time, produced one of the more violent recent eruptions in Aotearoa. The seven-hour event launched an ash plume of pulverized rock and hot gases…

Snippets in Time: Trains, white swans and cakes

Meghan Hawkes looks back on the news as it was reported in 1935. Nine train wagons loaded with lime came off the rails near Te Awamutu disrupting rail traffic for the next 12 hours. The…

Celebrating success

My intention with my column has changed in direction somewhat in that I am going to start trying to highlight some of the good work our staff do on a weekly basis. If there is…

Tales from the Past: The sad swaggers

The meat was raw, fresh from Turnwald’s butchery in Ōhaupō, but William Brook immediately started eating it. A swagman, he lived a nomadic life  travelling miles by foot in search of  work, carrying a bundle…

Did you get the memo?

I think God is trying to get our attention. In the wake of natural disasters like earthquakes we see horrific tragedies like mass-shootings. On the back of global pandemics, we see flooding and cyclones. People…

From sales to dampened spirits

Looking back on reports from 1910 New sale yards at Te Awamutu were officially opened by Waikato MP Mr H Greenslade who congratulated the Town Board on their initiative in providing such modern yards.  The…

The value of being prepared

I think we owe a debt of gratitude to all the line workers, roading engineers, fire and emergency staff and the guys and girls out in that cyclone and in the days after who got…

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