I love this book! The pictures are wonderful. The authors have taken a very complex ecosystem and presented it in such a way that anyone with an interest in ecology will enjoy this book and find it easy to understand.
I like the way the book is broken down in to large categories. For example, there is a chapter on the sponges common to the fiords, the brachiopods, the echinoderms, the fishes, the mammals and so on. I found the glossary to be helpful when my memory needed a bit of refreshing, and the index is nice because they have listed common and scientific names.
The photographs are amazing. Very high quality and professional. The captions that accompany the pictures are also very well written and informative. As good as they are, however, they almost don't do the beauty of New Zealand justice. The scenery is breath taking and the fiords are a must see should you happen to have the opprotunity to visit New Zealand.

This is a fabulous book to buy if you are interested in learning about the unique ecosystems of the fiords. The pictures are beautiful and the information explaining how this unique enviornemnt exists is easy to read and understand. If you have visited New Zealand and want a book that shows the beauty under the sea, this is a winner.

I bought this book when I was visiting New Zealand in 1988 where people kept recommending it, and I am just now rereading it for something like the fifth time--including one time with a discussion group. This time through I am finding new delights that I must have skimmed over before. Parts of the book are naively New-Agey, but even those parts are personal and honest and fun to read. It is the story of a woman whose job takes her into the middle of an enormous cultural shift, and she manages to stay in the middle--between the world views of American bureaucracy and a traditional people's values, and somehow to walk that precarious boundary and to be receptive to the ways it changes her. It's an amazing story.

One of the most unexpected, wonderful and funny true day to day experiences of a woman who worked for one of the most prestigious museums in the world. Her journey, both physically and spiritually in creating and formalizing a major exhibit of the Maori People of New Zealand on a world tour. Her writing style was easy to read and I am still searching for a copy of my own!

Sarah is enchanted by Mako and they lead a very real like and magical adventure that will find your hearts centre. If you have never seen New Zealand then this is the way to imagine it. But do not be discouraged by the sloppy stuff there isn't much at all and the adventures are what blows you away.

Flight of The Albitross is a very powerful book. It's message is very serious, and the book itself is one very much worth reading. A Maori boy of New Zeland and a Caucasion girl from New York fall deeply in love while helping to save an injured albitross. But racial controversies cause onlookers of the relationship to wonder, and the injured albitross becomes sick. Will Mako, Sara, and the albitross overcome their own personal hardships, or will the summer end only in disaster?

NZ is not littered with large hotels; most tourist accommodation is bed and breadfast and very good at that. This book documents most of the best in the country, with detailed comments, prices and several pictures of each place so that you have a clear idea of what it will be like.

I was in one of the boutique hotels that is featured in this book one night while out of my home town on business. (Dorothy's Boutique Hotel in Christchurch - a must stay place! ) In each of the rooms of this hotel was this fanastic guide to NZ accommodation.

Instead of being one of those typical hotel nights, where you are bored silly, I was fascinated to flick through the pages and see somem of the regions of our great country that have adopted the concept of becoming unique in themselves.

I have since visited many of the Hotels and Guest rooms featured, and in every case it has felt like staying with friends, not that plastic feel that alot of hotels have.

I would seriously recommend this book for all travellers that want to see the "real" New Zealand. Not that NZ is fake, but there are so much more to our country than the central cities.

I have this book on my coffee table at home, representing some of the best NZ places to visit and stay.

In the wake of the Tampa crisis and the appalling problems in refugee detention centres in Australia and the expensive 'Pacific solution' for the processing of asylum seekers, this book is a timely wake up call. It traces how the term 'security' has been used by governments as an organising principle, as a justification for policy, as an emotive term to encourage support for policy positions and military action.

It's an important book with global resonance in this time of the 'war on terrorism' structured by a strong philosophical framework which helps us think in new ways about global politics.

This book is an incredibly important addition to what's available on Australian foreign policy and defence relations. It's particularly timely because of the Tampa crisis of late 2001, the current Liberal Government policy of mandatory detention and the 'Pacific solution' for asylum seekers.

It traces Australian history to evaluate how 'security' as an idea has been an organising force and powerful signifier used by governments for their own purposes. What has happened during and since Tampa proves the thesis of this book in a startlingly contemporary way.

The book also has a solid philisophical underpinning that gives the book wide relevance in international relations studies and should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in global politices.

This book will become influential I think, in how we perceive the current war on terrorism, in general, and Australia's invasion anxiety, in particular.

WHO INVENTED THE MARINE JET? Controversy has raged for years over this question.A New Zealand sheep farmer, Bill Hamilton, has been said to be its inventor, but he himself never made such a claim. He said "I do not claim to have invented marine jet propulsion." was his response to a critic in 1962. The honour probably belongs to a gentleman named Archimedes. This book outlines the development from the 1950's thru to the 1200HP racing boats used today in the sport of JETSPRINT.

A must have.

This is a great book. Les Bloxham and Anne Stark do a very good job of covering jetboating from the very begining. It's an amazing journey and covers racing, sport and just the general evolution of the jetboat. Very entertaining and informative!

The poems collected here were written by Laura Ranger from New Zealand when she was six-nine years old, and have already won her much critical acclaim. No awkwardness or clumsiness here. Laura takes a fresh, vivid and humorous look at things. You'll find here poems about her parents, brother, zoos, pets, school, holidays, the seasons or god. I love the images and sounds which Laura evokes by her poetry. She makes the ordinary special. Laura's delight in- and her wonderful command of language are evident throughout.

I'm certainly waiting for her next volume.

my title says it all this child writes poems that will blow you away keeping in mind her age (6yrs) and her poems in the here and now only can keep you waiting with baited breathe for the next instalment

As a student traveler I found that this book helped out more than any of the other travel books. It gives good recommendations, lists cheap places to stay, and has more descriptions of the small towns than any other travel book. My next journey is to the UK and I have already bought a Let's Go book for it.

this guide is very informative and well-written. it hits allthe major touristy places and a lot of out of the way sites too. ifyou've never been to new zealand, and are on a budget, this is the guide for you. good options for hostels and restaurants. lots of cheap walking tours and affordable things to do. thumbs up!

A must for traveling and truly enjoying the people and countryside. Details of out-of-the-way places as well as the city life. Able to get around without driving (on the wrong side of the road). Will long remember all of the friendly people and the cleanliness of cities and countryside.

This book is great for backpackers and students. It is also helpful members of Hostelling International and VIP backpackers. It explains the cheapest way to travel and the must sees in New Zealand

Australian Aboriginal art is gaining international recognition, and rightly so. It is an art form driven by the culture of the artsists, and this book covers the traditional works of desert Australia, and also touches on more the more contemporary works of urban dwellers. These works are vibrant and alive, and the illustrations do justice to the richness of the work. The accompanying text is detailed and authoritative.

If you are interested in the art works of other cultures, or even art in its broadest sense, you will find many of the works presented in this volume to be quite different, even provocative. Others are as spectacular as any landscape known to the Western world.

This is an excellent introduction to a complex topic, and a worthy addition to any library.

This book was recently reviewed on the Sunday Arts program on ABC television in Australia. The book presents an authoratitive overview of the origins and development of Aboriginal Art and Culture in Australia.

It presents information in an easy to read format with enough detail to satisify most readers. It even includes sections on contemporary Aboriginal artists including Lin Onus. There are many colour illustrations of artwork to illustrate the narrative text.

A must have book for those interested in the history and contemporary state of Aboriginal Art and Culture in Australia.