News

September 2021: (SOLD OUT) The Wild birds of New Zealand 2022 Calendar is available to preorder, with invoice for payment and calendar sent in October 2021. The 2022 calendar features the stunning wild Nankeen night herons from Ūpokongaro as well as 11 other native New Zealand birds. Large A3 (297mmX420mm) portrait calendar on 150gsm gloss art paper, with the cover on 300gsm gloss art board. Printed on one side and spiral bound, this means that each month and the cover are a frameable art-quality high resolution print for you to cut out when the month is finished. Excellent Christmas gift for the bird-lover in your life.

Email Louise if you would like one, NZ$28 each inclusive of GST. PDF preview available. Cash on pick-up from Woburn, Lower Hutt or deposit to bank account when ready to ship.

Nankeen night heron. Image: Louise Thomas.

September 2021: A limited amount (only 20) of stunning kererū/wood pigeon prints drawn by Caitlin Thomas-Riley are now available. Slightly smaller than an A3 size, these cost $50.00 each inclusive of GST, plus postage at cost (or free pick-up from Woburn, Lower Hutt). Ten of this limited print run will be given away to people who have pre-ordered our calendar. All prints numbered and signed. ONLY FIVE LEFT

As we only have limited offerings available to the public we don't have a shopping cart or buy now button on this website. Do things the old fashion way - send Louise an email on louise@louisethomas.co.nz with your address for shipping, etc. and we will send you an invoice for payment.

Image: Caitlin Thomas-Riley.

Client: IRANZ

September 2021: A round up of research news from New Zealand's independent research organisations, including the Cawthron Institute, Malaghan Institute, Lincoln Agritech, BRANZ, Motu, MRINZ, and many more.

I compile, write, edit, take some photos, and design the Connections newsletter for IRANZ, as well as creating and maintaining their website.

Image: Louise Thomas.

Client: Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge

September 2021: Research news from the Building Better National Science Challenge.

I compile, write, edit, take some photos, and design the Building Better newsletter for the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge, as well as looking after the newsletter mailing list, and creating and maintaining their website.

Under construction. Photo: Louise Thomas.

February 2021: A rare sighting on Valentine's Day made the local paper.

July 2020: Caitlin Thomas-Riley, a second year graphic design and computer science student at Victoria University of Wellington, is now helping me out with design work and tech support. More of Caitlin's images can be seen on our design page.

A study examining the voices of kiwi in the Paparoa Range hopes to identify unique voices of individual birds and shed new light on their territorial roaming and other interactions. Image drawn by Caitlin Thomas-Riley.

June 2020: My photo of a tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) in the rain, taken December 2019 featured on the cover of the 2019 New Zealand Garden Bird Survey published 19 June 2020.

June 2020: This stunning bellbird (Anthornis melanura), aka Korimako, feeding in rare flowering red mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala) has just been provided to the Ōhau Conservation Trust for use in an interpretation panel to be published in September 2020.

May 2020: This job was a favour for a school-teacher friend who is trying to get her junior school (five and six year olds) students moving. We came up with a coffee-card style idea where students get a star clipped or a small sticker on their card for every 500m completed. Completed cards can go in the draw for a prize. Apparently it was a hit.

July 2019: Co-hosted by the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge, the Shift Aotearoa Conference in early June was a catalyst to provide a clearer picture to those in the government and the housing sector of what needs to happen to see all New Zealanders well-housed. One of the key-note speakers, Paul Hunt, the Chief Commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, outlined a human rights approach to housing and provided a way forward for action in the New Zealand context.

I drafted this article and took photos at the event.

Key-note speaker, Paul Hunt, the Chief Commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, at the Shift Aotearoa conference in June 2019. Photo: Louise Thomas.

May 2019: Southern black-backed gull (Larus dominicanus) with party balloon fragment - highlighting the dangers of plastics and party balloons in marine environments. Image published in Artists Down Under magazine - May 2019.

January 2019: Overhaul of the Centre for Minerals and Environmental Research (CMER) website to make it mobile friendly.

CMER members have been doing some amazing research into how to regenerate, restore, and detox old and existing mining sites. Did you know, that despite our clean, green image, New Zealand had one of the most arsenic-contaminated sites in the world at the old Prohibition Gold Mine site on the West Coast? CMER members have been involved in the research to clean it up. They are also currently working on the Bellvue Mine site near Greymouth, cleaning up acid mine drainage using, of all things, mussel shells. The results are looking good.