Articles by Rebecca Glover

Wild horses galloping through wild country, manes and tails flying as they bound through the tussock, snow capped volcanoes in the background. It’s a romantic image, one that appeals to our love of the landscape and wide open spaces and speaks to the freedom we all yearn for. But the horses of the Kaimanawa ranges have had a long struggle that’s been far from romantic, not only…

Bees are the world's most numerous and arguably most essential livestock. Going quietly about their buziness in farms and gardens all over the country, honey bees are directly responsible for earning us billions of dollars in gross domestic product. They make honey, of course, but more importantly they pollinate horticultural and specialty agricultural crops, and by pollinating…

In June 1914, when a rebellious student shot a member of the Austrian royal family on the other side of the world, most people in New Zealand would barely have heard of Serbia, the scene of the assassination. Even less would New Zealanders have imagined that within weeks their young men would be volunteering in droves to lay down their lives for king and country as a result of…

Every year we celebrate the attempt by a group of English dissidents to blow up the English parliament over 400 years ago. Every November the letting off of fireworks results in a flood of claims to ACC, sends horses through fences and terrorises cats and dogs, keeps fire brigades busy battling blazes and has insurance companies running for cover. Why do we do it? Well,…

Cats have a habit of popping up into people’s lives at the right moment. Mary Medricky and her husband David had been thinking of getting a feline friend after being catless for a while. David favoured the Maine Coon breed, a large and handsome long haired pedigree cat who can grow to 10kg in weight. What they ended up with was quite the opposite. Instead of an enormous, finely…

Managing director Andrew Butts spends all his spare time chasing big game fish, but the catch he's most proud of is the stash of awards the company netted from the Master Builders' House of the Year awards. Already successful in 2015 and 2017, last year they scooped the pool by not only winning gold and gold reserve in their category but also taking out the national title for new…

There’s never been a better time to be old in New Zealand. Baby boomers, the generation born after WWII, are enjoying longer and better twilight years than ever before. And they are enjoying those years thanks to better health, better living conditions and greater wealth than their predecessors. Courtesy of government-provided, universally available superannuation, today’s…

Making those big financial decisions can be easier than you thought with Counties Home Loans and Insurance. Making those big financial decisions can be easier than you thought. Okay, hands up who loves supermarket shopping! Hmmm....thought not. So much choice, so many products, what's on special and what's not, what's the best deal, can I afford it and do I really need it…

Friday, April 13th didn't seem a particularly inauspicious date to Irene and Marinus van Wijk, but it turned out to carry all the traditional bad luck for their Jack Russell terrier, Roxy. “We were up north, leaving neighbours to keep an eye on our property and feed the animals,” says Irene. “But on the Saturday morning the neighbours rang us, very concerned that they hadn't…

A few months ago elocal brought you the little-known story of Port Waikato's 1891 earthquake. Now a local woman has done a bit of moving and shaking of her own with her history of the sleepy seaside town. Actually it's the author herself, Glennis Paton, who's been shaken up the most. The success of her newly published book, The Way We Were - Port Waikato, has taken her completely…

During 2018 there could have hardly been a soul who wasn’t aware that this year is the centenary of the end of World War I. Sadly, and inevitably, it turned out not to be the war to end all wars, but its horrific nature and consequences changed the way conflict was regarded for ever. Living at the bottom of the world, the horror of war is something most New Zealanders are…

When Michael Walters' father arrived home with his son's birthday present, it wasn't just Michael who got a surprise. For his mother, Helen, it was a day she wouldn't forget in a hurry. “I'd taken Michael to school the morning of his birthday but had a call at lunchtime asking me to pick him up. He'd come down with chicken pox. “I collected Michael, picked up our other son,…

Not many people have heard of Zonta, but the world is bound to hear about a couple of young women who have just received awards from the organisation. Zonta exists to help women worldwide, but like all good things, it begins at home. In south Auckland, Zonta raises money to fund local projects which include supporting teen parent units and women's refuge, and providing breast…