Going by Train - The Complete New Zealand Railways Story by Graham Hutchins

$60.00 NZD

Category: Transport

Railways played a pivotal part in the development of New Zealand's economy, towns and cities, and helped shape a distinctive culture. This is a comprehensive account of our railways story, from the earliest days of the colony, through rail's growth and golden days, slow decline and recent resurgence. Go ing by Train details New Zealand's railway development from its beginnings to completion of the main trunk, provincial and urban networks and the numerous branch lines reaching far-flung corners of the country. By the 1930s and '40s, railways dominated travel and became part of the national way of life, with trains for all passengers and occasions. Graham Hutchins, who grew up in a railway town and spent many years working on the railways, recounts the locomotives, the lines, the people and personalities in rail's colourful history. With competition from road transport, rail's golden glow began to fade, with line closures, corporatisation and reduced investment. But with renewed interest, its time has come again, with growth in tourist and commuter travel, line redevelopment and heritage restoration. This fully illustrated work gives excellent coverage of local rail's tribulations, triumphs and tragedies, written in a very readable style. Rail fans and general readers alike will enjoy its wide-ranging topics, generous illustrations, anecdotes and personal accounts. ...Show more

Gottfried Lindauer's New Zealand: The Maori Portraits (Paperback Edition) by Ngahiraka Mason and Zara Stanhope (editors)

$60.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

An exquisite piece of art publishing that showcases Bohemian artist Gottfried Lindauer’s New Zealand in 75 plates and detailed contextual essays. From the 1870s to the early twentieth century, the Bohemian immigrant artist Gottfried Lindauer travelled to marae and rural towns around New Zealand and – c ommissioned by Māori and Pākehā – captured in paint the images of key Māori figures. For Māori then and now, the faces of tūpuna are full of mana and life. Now this definitive book on Lindauer’s portraits of the ancestors collects that work for New Zealanders.The book presents 67 major portraits and 8 genre paintings alongside detailed accounts of the subject and work, followed by essays by leading scholars that take us inside Lindauer and his world: from his artistic training in Bohemia to his travels around New Zealand as Māori and Pākehā commissioned him to paint portraits; his artistic techniques and deep relationship with photography; Henry Partridge’s gallery of Lindauer works on Queen Street in Auckland where Māori visited to see their ancestors; and the afterlife of the paintings in marae and memory. For Māori, the faces that look out from Lindauer’s portraits are tribal leaders and family members. They are tohunga and politicians. They are ancestors and friends. Gottfried Lindauer met Maori tūpuna at the most basic level of human connection by capturing their likeness. This book returns the ancestors and the artist to the people. ...Show more

Aotearoa: The New Zealand Story by Gavin Bishop

$40.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

Over a thousand years ago, the wind, sea currents and stars brought people to the islands that became known as Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. Navigate your way through this sumptuously illustrated story of New Zealand. Explore the defining moments of our history, captured by celebrated chil dren's book creator Gavin Bishop, from the Big Bang right through to what might happen tomorrow. Discover Maori legends, layers of meaning and lesser-known facts. A truly special book, Aotearoa- The New Zealand Storydeserves a space on every bookshelf, to be taken off and pored over, thumbed and treasured, time and again. NZ Listener 50 Best Books for Kids 2017 The SaplingBest Books List 2017 ...Show more

Ko Aotearoa Tātou / We Are New Zealand - An Anthology by Michelle Elvy (Edited by), Paula Morris (Edited by), James Norcliffe (Edited by)

$40.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

In the aftermath of the Christchurch terrorist attacks of 15 March 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared: 'We are all New Zealanders.' These words resonated, an instant meme that asserted our national diversity and inclusiveness and, at the same time, issued a rebuke to hatred and divisiveness. K o Aotearoa Tatou | We Are New Zealand is bursting with new works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art created in response to the editors' questions: What is New Zealand now, in all its rich variety and contradiction, darkness and light? Who are New Zealanders? The works flowed in from well-known names and new voices, from writers and artists from Kerikeri to Bluff. Some are teenagers still at school; some are in their eighties. Maori, Pakeha, Pasifika, Asian, new migrants, young voices, queer writers, social warriors ... Aotearoa's many faces are represented in this unique and important compendium. In a society where the arts, especially marginalised arts, are under threat, this anthology shows that creative work can explore, document, interrogate, re-imagine - and celebrate - who we are as citizens of this diverse country, in a diverse world. A list of all contributors can be found at https://wearenewzealand.org/. ...Show more

Aspiring by Damien Wilkins

$23.00 NZD

Category: Young Adult

An engaging, funny and moving novel about a boy trying to make sense of it all. Fifteen-year-old Ricky lives in Aspiring, a town that’s growing at an alarming rate. Ricky’s growing, too — 6’7”, and taller every day. But he’s stuck in a loop: student, uncommitted basketballer, and puzzled son, burdened b y his family’s sadness. And who’s the weird guy in town with a chauffeur and half a Cadillac? What about the bits of story that invade his head? Uncertain what’s real — and who he is — Ricky can’t stop sifting for clues. He has no idea how things will end up . . . With sunlight, verve and humour, award-winning writer Damien Wilkins brings us a beguiling boy who’s trying to make sense of it all. ...Show more

New Zealand's Native Trees (revised edition) by JOHN DAWSON ET AL

$130.00 NZD

Category: NZ Flora

New Zealand's Native Trees is a landmark book, the kind that is published only once in a generation. It celebrates our unique and magnificent native forests, and describes and generously illustrates more than 320 species, subspecies and varieties. This edition has been completely brought up-to-date with a significant number of botanical revisions, as many new species have been described or reclassified in the years since the book was first published. ...Show more

He Iti te Kupu: Maori Metaphors and Similes by Hona Black

$40.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

He Iti te Kupu contains nearly 500 sayings that draw a comparison between something (often the natural world) and people, events or contexts. Written in Māori and English, this accessible guide explains the use, meaning and context of a host of the principal figures of speech in te reo. Divided int o themes, including birds of the land and sea, parts of the body, acknowledgements, animals and insects. The title derives from the proverb, ‘The words are small, yet their meanings are substantial, highlighting the importance of these sayings in the landscape of Māori language learning and speaking. This volume will be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to use Māori figures of speech — whether in te reo or English — as well as students and speakers of the language.     ...Show more

Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another by Emily Writes

$35.00 NZD

Category: Parenting

Popular blogger Emily Writes gives words of encouragement to sleep-deprived parents everywhere. With two small boys, both non-sleepers, Emily finds herself awake in the wee small hours night after night. Her writing is often done then, and she offers her own often hilarious and always heart-warming exp eriences to other exhausted parents. She describes the frustrations as well as the tender moments of real parenting, as opposed to what you thought it was going to be like, or what well-meaning advice-givers tell you it should be like. A must-have for all new parents and parents-to-be. Emily's blogs have been wildly popular, as have her on-line columns with New Zealand Woman's Weeklyand The New Zealand Herald. ...Show more

The Swimmers by Chloe Lane

$30.00 NZD

Category: NZ Fiction

Erin's mother has motor neurone disease and has decided to take her fate into her own hands. As Erin looks back at her twenty-six-year-old self, she can finally tell the story of the unimaginable task she faced one winter. ‘ 'Chloe Lane's The Swimmers is by turns touching, resonate, fiercely candid, an d beautifully written. In this novel about a daughter's attempt to help her mother receive a merciful death, Lane has sidestepped the clichés, and captured the enigma of what it means to save a life by ending one.' — —Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question   ‘Chloe Lane's The Swimmers has the kind of intelligent and beautiful quiet that explodes a brightness deep within the reader. It's an incredibly humane book that looks closely at love – not the easy, conventional love but the complicated, brutal love that invites us to at once forget ourselves and know ourselves completely. We are faulty and perfect in our faults. Sad and buoyant with our sorrows. I can't remember the last time I read a more generous book about care, courage and figuring it out.’ — Pip Adam, author Nothing To See ...Show more

Sixteen Days in Sikkim - Things to Do While Walking Downhill by Antony B. Shadbolt

$20.00 NZD

Category: Travel

Explore! Aotearoa by Bronwen Wall

$31.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

Explore! Aotearoa features the amazing true stories of New Zealand’s explorers. It follows adventurers like: Kupe, Thomas Brunner and Kehu, Freda du Faur and the Graham Brothers, Tāne Tinorau and Kieran McKay, Kelly Tarlton and Wade Doak. Journey with them over the waves, across the land, up the mountai ns, beneath the earth, and under the sea. The author, Bronwen Wall’s dynamic narrative has made these wonderful New Zealand explorers approachable and exciting. Bronwen is a regular contributor to the Ministry of Educations’ Junior Journal, School Journal and the Connected series. She has also edited and written several adventure books, including Harry Watson: the Mile Eater and the Tararua Adventure Guide.The award-winning illustrator, Kimberly Andrews, has researched and painted stunning watercolours of the adventures, helping capture the excitement, and sometimes desperation, of their adventures. Kimberly was also the illustrator of Tuna and Hiriwa, a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards 2017.Evocative illustrations, maps, photographs and paintings add a rich visual layer to the tales. Chapters begin with cliffhangers that draw readers into the history to learn how each explorer survived their ordeal. The stories are engaging for children and adult readers alike. ...Show more

New Zealanders: The Field Guide by Tom Sainsbury

$37.00 NZD

Category: Pukapuka Aotearoa

A revealing guide to the weird and wonderful inhabitants of New Zealand... and the places you'll find them. After years of mimicking various celebrities and stereotypes on his social media platforms, comedian Tom Sainsbury has now compiled his favourite New Zealand personalities into a book. This array of Kiwi heroes includes the useless farmhand that is forever jack-knifing the trailer, the martyr mother who guilt-trips her children, the officious office-worker who narks on the rest of the staff for low level misdemeanours, and the alpha-male teenager who loiters around Mount Maunganui every New Year's. All these descriptions are lovingly collated into a concise, easy-to-read field guide that'll give you a hilarious, in-depth insight into the people of Aotearoa. ...Show more