At the top of the South Island a sandspit stretches out with the wild Tasman Sea on one side and kilometres of mud flats on the other. This is Farewell Spit, New Zealand’s most notorious “whale trap”. It acts as a formidable obstacle for pilot whales, which frequently […]
A belated Happy New Year! As some of you may have noticed, unfortunately all has been quiet on the ‘History Geek’ front for a while now, partly due to the demands of having a glamorous job in television and partly because much of my research time has been […]
The destruction of the White House is a scene most commonly associated with fictional alien invasions or terrorist plots on the big screen, but today marks two hundred years since an enemy force marched on Washington and set fire to the famous residence. This is the relatively unknown […]
It is a warm summer day and the young city of Wellington is celebrating its anniversary. A military band entertains crowds on the shore as waka and whaleboats compete in races out on the water. After the musical performance finishes a group of soldiers and band members from […]
One hundred years ago today the Fairfield Freezing Works held a fancy dress ball in the Orange Hall in Ashburton. The men paid three shillings and sixpence each and the women provided the food. They were entertained by the tunes of Terris’s band, local favourites who played everything […]
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Last year I shared some of my experiences exploring Omaha Beach, to mark the anniversary this year I thought I’d share some of my photos from a D-Day commemoration I attended in Portsmouth five years ago. I was actually […]
Last month I was thrilled to receive a copy of Jim’s Letters, a new children’s book published by Penguin. They had approached me last year asking for permission to include images from my First World War postcard and postal history collection as elements within some of their illustrations. […]
Cavalry units seldom saw combat in open terrain during the New Zealand Wars of the nineteenth century. The Māori had no wish to confront the British and colonial forces in conventional European battles in open fields, but instead usually fought in the bush, the hills, or behind the […]
As my regular readers will already be aware, among my collection of historical ephemera, military memorabilia and postal history are several albums of postcards sent by soldiers during the First World War. This year marks the centenary of the start of that conflict, so I’ll be sharing more […]
Prime Minister John Key recently reignited the debate about New Zealand’s national flag. The same old arguments for and against any change are already being trundled out and so I thought I’d add my two pence. I’m not yet entirely convinced that change is needed at all, but […]
