“What did the kiwi bloke say while cutting down the last tree in Papanui Bush?” Here, I’m just re-phrasing of the question Jared Diamond wrote in his 2005 book ‘Collapse’. The original question Diamond posed was: “What did the Easter Islander say while cutting down the last palm tree?” Diamond was trying to make a… Continue reading The Last Tree in Papanui Bush. And that last palm tree on Easter Island
Author: Mike Pole
From New Zealand. Traveling the weyward path trying to figure out how the world works. I study fossil plants, past climates, travel, walk, hike, read, take photos, struggle with computer graphics and plant trees.
The Invincible Children of Kharkiv – Musicians in the ‘City without Windows’
Kharkiv, in the far north-east of Ukraine, has been described as ‘a city without windows’ (Mayor Ihor Terekhov in a Twitter post of June 27, 2025). The city’s location, just a twenty minute drive from the front line, had seen it occupied early in the Russian invasion, then liberated by the Ukrainians, but it remains… Continue reading The Invincible Children of Kharkiv – Musicians in the ‘City without Windows’
The Hollow Tree Stumps at Curio Bay
A hollow tree stump at the Jurassic fossil forest of Curio Bay, New Zealand. The inside of the stump (the wood is yellow, and has come black, ‘coally’ material inside) has been filled with sandy material (grey). Could this be an in-filled fire-scar? The Jurassic fossil forest exposed on the shore at Curio Bay, southern… Continue reading The Hollow Tree Stumps at Curio Bay
Geography and the Bronze Age Battle at Tollense, Germany
One of the beauties of modern archaeological technique is the ability to analyse ancient battle, or massacre sites, in a forensic way. This has happened at the famous Teutoberg Forest site in northern Germany, and is happening in the also famous ‘Tollense’, site in north-western Germany. It’s become known as the earliest battle site in… Continue reading Geography and the Bronze Age Battle at Tollense, Germany
Was there a Forest before Central Otago’s Kowhai Forest?
When humans arrived in New Zealand, a bit over 700 years ago (Wilmshurst et al., 2008; Jacomb et al., 2014), it seems some of the driest parts of the country, in Central Otago, were under low forest, dominated by kowhai (Pole, 2022). Specifically, this was on the lower slopes of the gorges and slopes of… Continue reading Was there a Forest before Central Otago’s Kowhai Forest?
Dunedin’s Saddlebacks/Tieke and Yellowheads/Mopua
Amateur field observations of species can be priceless. A local Dunedin man (Peter Thomson, 1823-1879), using the pen-name ‘Pakeha’, wrote several accounts of his ‘rambles’ around the area between 1864 and 1879. They appeared in Dunedin’s newspapers the Otago Witness and the Otago Daily Times (see articles by the historian Paul Star, 1998, and by… Continue reading Dunedin’s Saddlebacks/Tieke and Yellowheads/Mopua
Green Island Bush – Divide and Conquer
Green Island Bush is a prime example of a large patch of New Zealand indigenous forest that was essentially annihilated in the late nineteenth century. It lay between today’s Green Island suburb, on Dunedin’s Southern Motorway, and the coast. Today the area is mainly farmland. Its original extent is shown partly on Charles Kettle’s 1849… Continue reading Green Island Bush – Divide and Conquer
The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin
One part of Dunedin is different from the rest…. The Dunedin area is an old volcano. It’s formed mostly from the molten, or semi-molten material that forced its way up from below, or some of the older marine strata that this material pushed its way through. In the few million years since the Dunedin volcano… Continue reading The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin
Ten Years Trapped in Mongolia – Time to get Mo Munshi home to Australia
In 2007, I started work in Mongolia as a geologist with the company, Gobi Coal and Energy Limited. The Chairman was Mohammed ‘Mo’ Munshi – a citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and with a young family in Beijing. The next few years were an amazing time, as I got an… Continue reading Ten Years Trapped in Mongolia – Time to get Mo Munshi home to Australia
The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki
How old is the oldest cultural feature on Aotearoa-New Zealand? Imagine being around when the only way to get anywhere was to walk or take a waka (canoe). That was New Zealand in pre-European times – there were no pack animals. When settlers arrived in what was to become Dunedin, in 1848, there was no… Continue reading The Ancient Footpath from Otepoti-Dunedin to Moeraki