Friends of Flora and diving memoir take top honours

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July/August 2026

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Leigh Hopkinson

Leigh is our deputy editor. She spends weekends in the hills and weekdays as a journalist and editor.

By Leigh Hopkinson

Stories of community conservation and underwater adventures have taken top honours in this year’s New Zealand Mountain Film & Book Festival book awards.

Caring for Kahurangi: The inspiring story of Friends of Flora by Sandy and Robin Toy won the Mountain and Adventure Heritage Award. Illustrated with photos by Ruedi Mosimann, it is about the successful 25-year effort to restore biodiversity on the eastern edge of Kahurangi National Park.

Whales, Snails and Lobster Tales by Andrew Penniket won the Mountain and Adventure Narrative Award. The underwater cameraman’s memoir draws on five decades of adventures across the South Seas, from Antarctica to Milford Sound and including encounters with whales, orcas and giant cuttlefish.

Mountain and Adventure Heritage finalists

Aotearoa Light: Moments of wonder and realisation in New Zealand wilderness by Peter Laurenson

Mountains to Climb: The Canterbury Mountaineering Club, 1925–2025 edited by John Wilson

Caring for Kahurangi: The inspiring story of Friends of Flora by Sandy and Robin Toy

Mountain and Adventure Narrative finalists

Whales, Snails and Lobster Tales by Andrew Penniket

Kim: A journey between worlds by Kim Logan

Bill McLeod: Mountaineering legend by Ross Cullen

Highly commended titles:

Emilie Walks Te Araroa by Emilie Bruce and Victoria Bruce

Eden: A portrait of mountain biking in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Stevenson

The High Pathways by Paul and Shelley Hersey

About the author

Leigh Hopkinson

Wilderness deputy editor Leigh Hopkinson spends the weekends in the hills with her whānau and weekdays as a journalist and editor. She has a Graduate Diploma of Journalism from the University of Canterbury. A keen tramper, rock climber and newbie mountaineer, she has written for magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Tasman. She’s originally from the West Coast and now lives in Ōtautahi Christchurch.