As New Zealanders our natural environment is closely tied to our identity—it’s part of what makes us who we are. It’s no wonder then, that our natural environment serves as a muse for so many of our musicians and artists.
Today, as New Zealand Music Month draws to a close, we delight in this connection with a visual feast of album covers inspired by our natural environment.
The view is worth the climb – Tim Finn
Horizon – Henry Wong Doe
All Mountains are Men – Rosy Tin Teacaddy. The whole album was written and recorded in an isolated DOC cottage beside Lake Tarawera while the ’Caddies were on a Wild Creations artists’ residency.
Stories From Elsewhere – Rhian Sheehan
Atheum’s Way – Solstate
Fly My Pretties Live At Bats – Fly My Pretties
Fight from the Inside – Into the East. Artwork by Hanna Isaac.
Nature’s Best – Various Artists
Garden of Light – The Mantarays
Wai 100% – Various Artists
Some Were Meant For Sea – Tiny Ruins
The Return of Fly My Pretties – Fly My Pretties
Forest: Songs by Hirini Melborne – Dudley Benson. Applique artwork by Florence Dennison.
Home, Land and Sea – Trinity Roots
My Army of Birds and Gulls – Betchadupa
Deadly Summer Sway – The Checks
The Storm – New Zealand Guitar Quartet. Photography: Kapiti by Peter Leask.
Feel the Seasons Change: Live with the NZSO – Salmonella Dub. “A musical journey through Aotearoa landscapes.”
Haunts – Tiny Ruins
True – Trinity Roots
Tūī, Tui, Tuia EP – Dudley Benson
Fatcat and Fishface – Birdbrain
Twist – Dave Dobbyn
Higher Trails – John Hanlon
So many great album covers, so little bandwidth to transport them all to you…
Do you have a favourite New Zealand ‘inspired by nature’ album cover?
You probably don’t need me to tell you that today is Good Friday, but you could be forgiven for not knowing that today—18 April 2014—is also World Heritage Day.
To celebrate, we’re showing off New Zealand’s 3 stunning World Heritage sites.
Representing the best of the world’s natural (and, in some cases, cultural) heritage—and rated alongside places such as the Grand Canyon, the Serengeti, and Mount Everest—these are places that we should be immensely proud of…
Tongariro National Park
Tongariro National Park was the first national park to be established in New Zealand, and the fourth in the world. It is a dual World Heritage area, a status which recognises the park’s important Maori cultural and spiritual associations as well as its outstanding volcanic features.
Mt. Ngauruhoe, Tongariro National Park
Emerald Lakes, Tongariro National Park
Te Wāhipounamu – South West New Zealand
Te Wāhipounamu covers 10% of New Zealand’s landmass (2.6 million hectares) and contains many of the natural features which contribute to our international reputation for superlative landscapes: our highest mountains, longest glaciers, tallest forests, wildest rivers and gorges, most rugged coastlines and deepest fiords and lakes…
If you cast your mind back to August last year, you might remember my blog post asking you to ‘Join me on the Wildside‘ a new social media community run by DOC on Facebook and Twitter.
Today, I’m proud to be one of over 9,000 people who ‘like’ Wildside and aspire to the ‘Aotearoa New Zealand. Live it. Love it. Look after it. Together.’ vision.
Of course, we’d love to have more people join us, which is why we’ve created these beautiful postcards and posters to raise its profile in the ‘real’ i.e. offline world.
As a member of DOC’s web team I see a lot of beautiful images every day, but when I saw that photo on flickr—showing North East Gorge Stream, looking towards Mount Sibbald—I knew it was the one for our Wildside project. Alana McCrossin, the amazing DOC designer who drew the short straw to work with me on the project, agreed.
I contacted the Sydney based photographer, Tim Donnelly, to ask if he’d let us use his image for the cause, and he kindly agreed—sacrificing his own precious time and money to help.
So, as much as this post is a shout out to Wildside—it’s also a shout out to the generous, talented, Tim Donnelly—and everyone else who willingly shares their time, gifts and talents to help grow conservation
Wildcard postcard
Wildcard postcard
On Thursday, Tim’s going to share his story behind that photo with us.