Going Bush

By Kirstie Ross (Auckland University Press, RRP $39.99)

In Going Bush: New Zealanders and nature in the 20th Century, Kirstie Ross has expanded her MA thesis about the cultural history of New Zealand nature into a book.

Chapters cover knowing nature, landscapes for leisure, "bitten fiercely by tree-mindedness" and "peaks, packs and mountain tracks".

I found this book frustrating the illustrations were interesting but the captions often shorter than the credits. Generally, those present or localities are not identified.

While I wouldn't like to dismiss the author as a desk-bound academic in her North Island ivory tower, this book seems to have little to say about the South and Stewart Island nature culture.