Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Podcast: Recent Episodes
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
Whether you’re intrigued by the stories behind New Zealand’s archaeology, the wonder of our collections, or the history and culture of our places, the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga podcast series offer you a new way to experience heritage in the digital age.
Join Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he recounts the story of RMS Niagara, from her maiden voyage in 1912 through to her sinking at the hands of a German sea mine near Whangārei during the Second World War.
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Join John O'Hare as he recounts the story of SS Erlangen, a German cargo vessel that escaped Dunedin at the start of the Second World War.
This story first featured in the Otago Daily Times as "The Great Escape".
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads also feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Sign up here.
Join our Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he recounts the remarkable story of HMS New Zealand, a Indefatigable class battlecruiser that took part in the largest naval battle of the First World War.
This story first featured in the August-September 2025 issue of New Zealand Memories magazine.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads also feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Sign up here.
The personal recollections of a US Navy sailor who was stationed in Northland during the early years of World War II have revealed the human face of the thousands of US servicemen who trained here prior to fighting in the Pacific.
Join our Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he reads his recent article.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads feature in Heritage this Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more here.
An edited live recording of the Open Christchurch 2024 event where four panelists discuss what it's like to live in and care for a mid-century home. Hosted in partnership by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture & City Making.
Join Kaitohutohu Whanake Niki Partsch as she reads her story examining conservation work undertaken at St Faith's Anglican Church.
St Faith’s is built on land gifted by Ngāti Whakaue at Ōhinemutu on the shore of Lake Rotorua. Its rich Māori interior style is attributed to Frederick Augustus Bennett, the first Māori Bishop of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Sign up here.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you paid for electricity by the number of appliances you own rather than usage? (It's just as chaotic as you're imagining!)
Join Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he reads his article on the wild world of do-it-yourself electricity in 1930s Kerikeri.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more here.
Join Outreach Advisor Dr Rosemary Baird as she reads her article on the experience of collecting oral history memories at the Ōtira Tunnel centenary celebrations.
Ōtira Tunnel
The Ōtira Tunnel was commissioned to link Ōtautahi Christchurch to Māwhera Greymouth in 1907. This 8,529 metre tunnel was the longest in the British Empire at the time of its construction. Five years were allowed for the project but in fact the tunnel took 15 years to complete, opening in 1923.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more here.
Join Senior Communications Advisor John O'Hare as he reads his recent article on the boom-and-bust world of tung nut oil in 1930s Northland.
Tung Nuts in Aotearoa New Zealand
The economic potential of the tung tree, whose seeds produce an oil that has been used by the Chinese as a natural varnish for 2,500 years, was identified and promoted in parts of the North Island in the 1930s as a sure-fire investment.
Its future, however, appears to have been cut short by climate, mismanagement, and the dire impacts of the Great Depression.
For Kerikeri resident, Jack Kemp, the tung nut collapse in the 1930s is personal. One of his great aunts – Daisy Herd – invested in the fledgling tung oil industry and felt firsthand the ‘tung lashing’ that happened when the whole scheme collapsed.
Reporter Reads
Reporter Reads feature in Heritage This Month, our regular digital newsletter with the latest heritage news, events, photo essays and more from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Find out more here.
For our 2023 Matariki podcast join Kaitohutohu Whanake Niki Partsch, as she interviews two of our Māori Heritage Team staff.
Dean Whiting and Nitika Erueti-Satish reflect on past Matariki celebrations, and share mātauranga, waiata, and their plans for Matariki this year.
Our first HNZPT Matariki podcast episode features interviews with five Māori Heritage New Zealand staff who share their wide-ranging thoughts and experiences about Matariki.
Kaitohutohu Whanake Niki Partsch interviews:
- Tharron Bloomfield - growing, harvesting and eating taputini; a variety of kumara that were originally cultivated by Māori.
- Millie Harris - Matariki representing a way of life that she grew up with.
- Kellee-Rei Harris - Matariki as way to reconnect with her culture and her whakapapa roots in Te Tai Tokerau after an urban upbringing.
- Nigel Harris – kai gathering and cooking preparations for a magnificent Matariki feast at Te Whare Waiututu Kate Sheppard House.
- Matene Simon - the revival of the ancient Matariki ceremony, Te Hautapu Umukohukohu Whetū, at Taurua Marae Rotoiti in 2021.
This week we talk to Dr Glen Hazelton, Director Organisational Development about Saving the Town, a toolkit that highlights successful experiences and case studies from around Aotearoa, New Zealand that illustrate proactive, contemporary approaches to heritage.
Glen provides insight into the toolkit, the case studies behind it and why it is an invaluable resource on how to facilitate and encourage heritage retention, preservation and reuse in areas, towns and cities of all sizes.
This week we continue our conversation with staff members from different backgrounds across the organisation – asking them the question ‘what does heritage mean to you?’
Our interviewees are Liz Bigwood, Property Lead at the Kerikeri Mission Station, who leads her team to look after the heritage precinct which includes Kemp House, The Stone Store and surrounds; Jim Howden, Visitor Host at Totara Estate near Oamaru, who entertains us with the power of storytelling and performance in bringing heritage to life, particularly with young people, and Dr James Robinson, Northland Regional Archaeologist based in our Kerikeri office in Northland, shedding some light on the role of archaeology in understanding our past.
In our first episode last Sunday we heard a range of responses from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga staff. I’m sure you’ll agree it was fascinating – and this week promises to be just as interesting. So, settle back and relax as we ask the question once again – ‘what does heritage mean to you?’
While in lockdown we have recorded our first episode of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Podcast to take you behind the scenes of the heritage we care for throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand.
In our first episode we ask some of our staff members from different backgrounds the question, ‘What does heritage mean to you?’ Their answers to this question shows the breadth of what we do as an organisation and the role that each New Zealander plays in our shared and individual heritage.
This episode features Caroline Toplis, Program Manager of Tohu Whenua, bringing together significant heritage places across the country; Dean Whiting, Director Kaiwhakahaere Tautiaki Taonga and Kaupapa Maori in the Maori Heritage Team, supporting kaitiaki across the country to benefit their communities and taonga, and Michelle Horwood Manager Heritage Listing, working with two programs our New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero and National Historic Landmarks, highlighting Aotearoa, New Zealand’s most significant cultural heritage that have shaped us as New Zealanders.
Take a listen to hear from our staff members during lockdown.