The call of the sea
New Zealand’s connection to the ocean, a history of conservation and a celebration of our iconic sheep stations.
The sea continues to knock insistently at New Zealand’s door. The Pacific brought the first human settlers to these shores. It still has an intimate connection with our lives, as Walt Whitman’s “old husky nurse … indomitable, untamed” continues to nourish, shape and enhance. Sarah Ell’s Ocean (Penguin Random House New
Zealand, $70) is a handsome tribute to the sea that washes against the country’s 15,000km coastline. From the navigational triumphs of the first Polynesians to the voyages of the 18th- and 19th-century European explorers and the eventual establishment of a colonial maritime nation, Ell leaves few pebbles unturned in this fulsomely illustrated voyage. From battleships to beach balls, trade and some of the best racing yachts ever built, Ocean is a highly readable exploration of the sea’s enduring role in New Zealand life.
Paul Bensemann’s detailed history of the hard-fought campaigns to save New Zealand’s native forests leaves the reader with few, if any, doubts about the intensity of the cause. Fight for the Forests: The Pivotal Campaigns That Saved New Zealand’s
Native Forests (Potton & Burton, $69.99) is a valuable lesson in how, from 1970 to 2000, the environmental movement and many thousands of individuals took a stand against mass logging.
Aside from the story of battles won and lost, Bensemann also reveals how the environmental movement evolved into a highly effective lobby group. This lively account also examines the personalities who spearheaded campaigns that swept up from Lake Manapōuri to the West Coast and far beyond. The book leaves us with the sobering thought that although some battles may have been won, this particular fight continues.
There was a time when no New Zealand home was fully complete without four books. One was Peter McIntyre’s New Zealand collection of paintings. The second and third were Colin Wheeler’s Historic Sheep Stations of the South Island (parts one and two) and Historic Sheep
Stations of the North Island. During the late 1960s and early 70s, it was almost obligatory to have at least one, but preferably all three, of these sheep-station books on the shelves. Now, they have been combined into a single volume, Historic Sheep Stations of New Zealand ( HarperCol
lins New Zealand, $100). Wheeler died in 2012, leaving a legacy that distilled the essence of the country’s natural and human geography into his paintings and drawings. Although some art historians might today dismiss him as a second-tier “regional” artist, the books reveal Wheeler as a fine painter who created an enduring and much-loved body of work.