The Story of Nelson Aviation by Richard Waugh & Graeme McConnell

$40.00 NZD

Category: Aviation

Aviation's influenece on Nelson has been profound. With challenging road access, no rail link and the barrier of Cook Strait, Nelson had the reputation of being a 'sleepy hollow'. It was isolated and in some way still is, yet has never been the same since the first aircraft visit in 1921. After aero clu b beginnings, a pioneering scheduled airline was established at the Stoke Airfield in 1935. The opening of Nelson's new airport at Tahunanui in 1938, close to the city centre, was a key milestone for the region's social, economic and tourism future. The airport led to a wartime air force station and a growing post-war airline scene. It became the main commercial aviation centre for the upper South Island, including helicopter work. Illustrated by many rare photographs, this book tells the story of Nelson aviation - its aircraft, personalities, innovations and events - and how it helped develop the whole sunny province. Nelson Airport serves more than 750,000 passengers annually, is the hub for the country's largest regional airline and is the fourth busiest airport for scheduled flights in New Zealand. ...Show more

Meet You at the Church Steps: A Social History of a Nelson Landmark by Karen Stade

$42.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Meet You At The Church Steps captures the unfolding social tapestry that has played out on Church Hill and its historic steps since the arrival in November 1841 of the New Zealand Company to establish the colony of Nelson. Published to mark the 2013 centennial of the Cawthron Steps, the ornate granite s tairway gifted to the city by philanthropist Thomas Cawthron in 1913, the book also covers the history of the original flight of wooden steps built on Church Hill in 1858. As a landmark of Nelson City and a natural rendezvous point, the Church Steps have borne witness to gatherings of celebration, thanksgiving and commemoration. They have hosted generations of royalty and other VIPs and revelled in the pomp and circumstance of military and civic pageantry. It was on the steps that Nelson farewelled soldiers on their way to war and where it welcomed some of those men home again. They have long been the platform for protest and public demonstration, while also a favourite spot to sit and take in city views. The rich photographic collections of the Nelson Provincial Museum, the Nelson Mail and private collectors, are the core of the book, partnered with newspaper reportage of the events which have played out with the steps as their backdrop. The call "I'll meet you at the Church Steps" continues to echo across generations. ...Show more

Nelson : Now and Then by Peter Lukas

$40.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Hard Country: A Golden Bay Life by Robby (Robin) Robilliard

$40.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Robby Robilliard and her husband Garry arrived in Golden Bay in 1957. Married in their early twenties, and with a child on the way, they longed to own their own sheep station. When they bought Rocklands, a marginal farm on the fringe of the Takaka Valley, bordering Abel Tasman National Park, their dream had come true - but it wasn't the life they had envisaged. It was a property no one else wanted, described by the agent as 'one hell of run-down place'. Robby even came to call it 'nightmare land'. The three previous owners of Rocklands had gone bankrupt. Yet it was all they could afford. Sixty years on, Robby and Garry still call Rocklands home. In fact, Garry is referred to as the 'oldest sheep farmer in Golden Bay'. This engaging book is Robby's story of the decades in which she and Garry eked a living out of Rocklands and of her encounters with the many and the varied local characters of Golden Bay. ...Show more

Nelson Pine The Story

$45.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Nelson Pine Industries was established in 1984, as a manufacturing facility to add value to the Nelson region’s renewable resource of Pinus radiata plantation forests. Production of Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) started in 1986, with a second line commissioned in 1991. The third line, commission ed in 1997, made Nelson Pine Industries one of the largest single site producers of Medium Density Fibreboard in the world. ...Show more

Driven by the Wind - The Memoir of Captain Henry Rose by Karen Stade

$50.00 NZD

Category: NZ - Biography

...Christmas Day 1847 we were in a gale of a wind in the Bay of Biscay, the ship being deeply laden made rather bad weather of it. One of the boats was struck by a heavy sea and smashed and the First Mate had his leg broken. The Cook... told me that I would never see my mother again... So began the adve ntures of Captain Henry Rose, who went to sea as a 14-year-old apprentice and rose through the ranks to command some of the fastest clipper ships in the world. He sailed the trade routes between England and China, the West Indies and the American seaboard, carrying soldiers and horses to the Crimea, slavesand coolies to American plantations and convicts to Australia. He was aboard the tea clipper Collinsburgh when she raced her rival Truce around Cape Horn from China to Gravesend, and in 1870 he captained the immigrant ship Merope on her record-breaking voyage across the Southern Ocean to New Zealand. ...Show more

Nicotine Flavoured Scones for Smoko by Shirley Heath Bastin

$38.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Old Nelson : A postcard history, 1900-1940 by Rob Packer and Barney Brewster

$50.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Motueka Wharf - 100 years by Carol Dawber

$45.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

The waterside town of Motueka has always been heavily dependent on its port. Over the years passenger services have operated between Riwaka, Motueka and Nelson, fishing fleets have worked the tides, fertiliser has come in shiploads and hops, tobacco, timber and livestock have gone out over the wharf. In 1955, when shipping was at its height, 276 vessels entered the harbour. There have been two wharves at Motueka and their history involves not only extremes of weather and tide but also intense local politics and a petition to Parliament to enable the formation of the Motueka Harbour Board. This book was commissioned to celebrate the centennial of the present Motueka wharf built in 1916, rebuilt and extended in ferro-cement in 1924 and now owned by Talley's Group Ltd. It records the ships that worked the Tasman Bay port, the people who provisioned, loaded and went to sea in them and the families whose lives were bound up with the wharf. ...Show more

California House

$35.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

How is the River?: A Takaka Valley History: 2017 by Jane McDonald

$50.00 NZD

Category: Nelson

Family-based history covering pioneering settlement in Golden Bay. Includes farming, timber and marble industries, infrastructure development, local body politics. church and community life.

The Heaphy Track by Chris Petyt

$42.00 NZD

Category: NZ - History

The Heaphy Track has a long and rich history that stretches back to pre-European times. Archaeological evidence from the mouth of the Heaphy River indicates that Maori may have been present from the late 1400s during what is referred to as the Moa-hunter period, but perhaps not continuously. A route whi ch roughly follows the present Heaphy Track was subsequently found through the hills from Golden Bay to the Heaphy Valley and used to access the pounamu (greenstone) further south on the West Coast. Although the track is named after the explorer Charles Heaphy he never actually followed the whole route. He along with Thomas Brunner and Kehu, their Maori guide, travelled down the coast in 1846 from the north and only traversed the coastal section of the track from the Heaphy River to the Kohaihai River. The first Europeans to traverse the route are only recorded as 'Aldridge and his mate'. Following the discovery of gold in the Aorere Valley in late 1865, the route of the Heaphy Track was used by gold miners to traverse between the Aorere Goldfield and those that were subsequently discovered on the West Coast. Author Chris Petyt has dug deep and wide to assemble this first comprehensive account of the human history of the Heaphy Track. Today, the Heaphy is one of New Zealand's premier walking tracks and the longest of the multi-day tracks designated by the Department of Conservation as Great Walks. The struggles to establish and maintain a walkable track and the huts are documented along with the controversies surrounding various road proposals and the more recent saga of whether mountain bikes should be permitted on the track. The natural history of the area is not overlooked with chapters on how the Gouland Downs became a sanctuary to try and protect the large numbers of native birds and the discovery of the special plants and animals that inhabit the area. This book will appeal not only to those who have walked the track but also the armchair recreationists who are curious about the origins of the track and its history, including the various mishaps that have occurred to some people while on the track. Those contemplating a trip over the track will also find it useful as the final chapter is a guide to walking the track. ...Show more