New Zealand Geographic

27/09/2025

On a late-night trip to Shakespear Regional Park to photograph the Milky Way, Rob Rodolfo spotted a tree standing alone on a hill and figured it would make an excellent focal point for the shot. The glow at the corner of the frame is the light pollution from Auckland.

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📷: Rob Rodolfo, 2025 Te Whatu Stardome Astrophotography Finalist

26/09/2025

As sea ice melts in a warming climate, the Southern Ocean should be getting fresher. That’s what scientists expected to find when they analysed recent satellite data. Instead, they were astonished to find it’s actually getting saltier.

📷 Richard Young

As sea ice melts in a warming climate, the Southern Ocean should be getting fresher. That’s what scientists expected to find when they analysed recent satellite data. Instead, they were astonished to find it’s actually getting saltier. It likely means the delicate structure of the ocean has been...

26/09/2025

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A mother greets her daughter after receiving her moko kauae as whānau surround them both, performing a haka in celebration. “This was one of many candid photos caught during the entire process of Rangimarie Kara receiving her moko,” says Manihera Te Hei.

📷: Manihera Te Hei, 2025 Society Finalist

25/09/2025

Wet sacks are placed over baskets full of kai, which will be buried under layers of dirt to cook slowly on the piping hot stones beneath. Erica Sinclair woke early to photograph her cousin laying down the hāngī, and make sure her cousin and his friends wore head torches while they worked. “I knew with the fire and the steam, it would make for a pretty dramatic scene.”

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📷: Erica Sinclair, 2025 Society Finalist

23/09/2025

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Two harrier hawks fight for ownership of a roadkill carcass. Martin Barwood was photographing one when, suddenly, a second bird swooped in “at lightning speed” to force the other away. “This young harrier hawk didn’t stick around for long after the larger bird made it clear it was time to move on,” he says.

📷: Martin Barwood, 2025 Heritage Expeditions Wildlife Finalist

22/09/2025

In the early 1970s Wade Doak published a book that would become the bible for a generation of divers, Fishes of the New Zealand Region. Wade wanted a striking photo of a hāpuku for the cover, but even by then they were rarely seen.

📷 Wade Doak

In the early 1970s Wade Doak published a book that would become the bible for a generation of divers, Fishes of the New Zealand Region. I have copy # 21. Wade wanted a striking photo of a hāpuku for the cover, but even by then they were rarely seen. He was desperate. By stealth and a dash of luck, ...

19/09/2025

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A spontaneous portrait of Duncan Innes’s 12-year-old daughter Eva after a morning swim captured a sense of imminent change. “This moment struck me as the first glimpse of adolescence: the makeup, the towel twisted on her head and the way she was sitting, with a poise that feels beyond her age,” he says.

📷: Duncan Innes, 2025 Simplicity Portrait Finalist

18/09/2025

Man versus beast, in a public swimming pool.

On the morning of June 17, 1925, a certain Mr Horne—telegraph operator and “ardent swimmer”—was shivering on the diving platform at Te Aro Baths in Wellington’s Oriental Bay. As he teetered on the edge, about to leap, he happened to glance into the pool’s salty depths. Something was down there, “writhing and squirming about on the bottom of the baths”, as the papers later reported.

📷 Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections

Man versus beast, in a public swimming pool.

17/09/2025

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Nine-year-old Isaia Rapata-Gage and 11-year-old Nico Tia-Faitaua wait outside the Woolston Boxing Club following a training session. Schwoerer was setting up for a portrait of the pair of them outdoors when he noticed their expressions and quickly captured this shot. In March, both boys competed in the South Island Novice Championships alongside around 200 others.

📷: Kai Schwoerer, 2025 Simplicity Portrait Finalist