The Last Cruise of Mikhail Lermontov

At dawn on the morning of February 16, 1986, the luxury Russian liner Mikhail Lermontov steamed past the bush-covered hills of Tory Channel towards Picton, on the last leg of a two-week cruise. The ship never made it out of the Marlborough Sounds. That night, she lay in 30 metres of water in Port Gore, her hull sliced open like a tin of herrings. Miraculously, all but one of her 738 pas­sengers and crew were rescued in a Dunkirk-style operation involving dozens of vessels ranging from fishing boats to an inter-island ferry. Twenty years on, however, suspicion still lingers around New Zealand’s largest shipwreck. Text only. 7000 words. First appeared in NZ Geographic.

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The story of Kakapo, New Zealand's most endearing flightless bird. In a land renowned for its unusual birds, the kakapo—a giant flightless nocturnal parrot with a bizarre breeding system—has to be one of the strangest. Although it has been lingering perilously close to extinction for the past half century, there is renewed hope that this icon of conservation effort has a future after all. Without the extraordinary dedication of a few conservationists New  Zealand’s kakapo would likely have gone the way of the dodo. 6500 words, text only. First appeared in NZ Geographic.

Trekking with Camels in Central Australia. Text only 4600 words. First appeared in Smithsonian.

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The Lure of Trout

Ever since the American writer Zane Grey fished these waters in the 1920s and declared New Zealand to be the “angler’s Eldorado,” trout aficionados have beat a path to our river banks and lake shores to test their skills against New Zealand’s trout: hard-fighting, fine-tasting fishwhose speckled fins and blush of pink make them an alluring, as well as a challenging, quarry.

Definitive story on trout and fly fishing in New Zealand. Text only. 8000 words. First appeared in NZ Geographic.

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