A major biography of arguably New Zealand's greatest modern political leader As Norman Kirk’s body lay in state near the steps of Parliament on the day after his death on 31 August 1974, a kaumatua wailed ‘the mighty totara has fallen’. The lament reflected what many New Zealanders felt about this big, commanding and loved leader, dead at just 51. More than 30,000 people filed past Kirk's casket over two days, and again in Christchurch, in a commemoration that matched only Michael Joseph Savage's for emotional power. Both men died in office, both men were humanitarians. Kirk also worked to move the Labour Party away from its cloth-cap heritage to embrace a much broader electoral compass, for it to become, in his words, ‘the natural party of New Zealand’. Prime Minister of New Zealand between November 1972 and August 1974, Kirk's childhood was blighted with poverty, yet he thrived. He moved into a succession of manual trades, before booming into local body politics. His political rise was rapid, from mayor of Kaiapoi at the age of 30 to leader of the Labour Party within a few years. This book examines Kirk’s political leadership; his successes, especially his stunning performances on the international stage, but also his later difficulties when the country’s economy was rocked by international oil shocks. He deferred the 1973 Springbok tour and sent warships into the French nuclear testing zone near Mururoa Atoll, his government set up ohu and the established the DPB. He was New Zealand’s first truly regionalist Prime Minister, drawing New Zealand closer to Asia and the Pacific, as the ties to ‘mother Britain’ slowly loosened. This landmark book takes the full measure of the remarkable New Zealander who was our last working-class Prime Minister.

The ‘mighty totara' is one of New Zealand's most extraordinary trees. Among the biggest and oldest trees in the New Zealand forest, the heart of Maori carving and culture, trailing no. 8 wire as fence posts on settler farms, clambered up in the Pureora protests of the 1980s: the story of New Zealand can be told through totara. Simpson tells that story like nobody else could. In words and pictures, through waka and leaves, farmers and carvers, he takes us deep inside the trees: their botany and evolution, their role in Maori life and lore, and their current status in New Zealand's environment and culture. New Zealand's largest trees, the kauri Tane Mahuta and the totara Pouakani, are both thought to be around 1000 years old. They were here before we humans were and their relatives will probably be here when we are gone. This book tells a great tree's story, and that is New Zealand's story too.

Craddock has taken themes of nature, time, cosmic consciousness, mysticism, transcendentalism, personalism (which Walt Whitman explored in his esteemed volume of poetry Leaves of Grass) and has pursued their meaning with contemporary scientific discoveries. There are tides in nature and tides in human societies, countries, and civilizations that embrace, interact, or reject changing perspectives of nature. Eagles Soar on High Thermals highlights and explores individual and social awareness sown into contemporary and past perceptions of life and nature. The reader will embark upon a fascinating, refreshing journey into nature encompassed within the cosmic galactic to the microscopic ecosystems of life from natural landscapes to human interactive sentiment and viewpoints of lifestyles, merging into mystic perceptions. This is a must-read for inquisitive minds desiring to pursue poetic expression, thoughts engaging with insights into enduring mysteries of life and nature.

‘It takes courage to be an empathetic leader. And I think if anything the world needs empathetic leadership now, perhaps more than ever.’ Jacinda Ardern Jacinda Ardern was swept to office in 2017 on a wave of popular enthusiasm dubbed ‘Jacindamania’. In less than three months, she rose from deputy leader of the opposition to New Zealand’s highest office. Her victory seemed heroic. Few in politics would have believed it possible; fewer still would have guessed at her resolve and compassionate leadership, which, in the wake of the horrific Christchurch mosque shootings of March 2019, brought her international acclaim. Since then, her decisive handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen her worldwide standing rise to the point where she is now celebrated as a model leader. In 2020 she won an historic, landslide victory and yet, characteristically, chose to govern in coalition with the Green Party. Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy carefully explores the influences – personal, social, political and emotional – that have shaped Ardern. Peace activist and journalist Supriya Vani and writer Carl A. Harte build their narrative through Vani’s exclusive interviews with Ardern, as well as the prime minister’s public statements and speeches and the words of those who know her. We visit the places, meet the people and understand the events that propelled the daughter of a small-town Mormon policeman to become a committed social democrat, a passionate Labour Party politician and a modern leader admired for her empathy and courage.

A tribute to the author's adopted home in New Zealand describes his decision to relocate to a lush bay area near Auckland, where his family and he thrived amid its natural flora and fauna, dolphin-filled waters, and wildlife.

This is a volume of poetry which will appeal to lovers of both simple poetry and poetry of depth and complexity. Craddock writes nature beginning his volume of verse with simple short poems, laced with poetry exploring nature, then extends into human interaction with nature and aspects of human nature probed in contemporary and historical context. Craddock has revisited themes of nature, time, cosmic consciousness, which he explores and pursed in Eagles Soar On High Thermals, while extending ideas found in the esteemed volume of poetry, Leaves of Grass, by Walt Witman into contempory scientific discoveries. Craddock has weaved links in nature crossing between nature and the natural world and the nature of society, descending down through various cultures countries and societies. Brushstroke echoes of William Wordsworth, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath will intermix the beauty of nature with romantic or current issues including pollution, global warming and land rape of prestine wilderness areas. A gothic tribute to Poe's poem annabel Lee is made with a Scottish highland twist. A must read for inquisitive minds desiring to pursue poetic expression, thoughs engaging with insights into enduring mysteries of life and nature.

Payton's account of his 1883-86 tour of New Zealand includes chapters on labour, sport, the Maoris, Dunedin, Auckland, Christchurch, Rotomahana, Lake Wakatipu. His account is especially interesting on the King Country and the Tongariro eruption.