The Great Journeys of New Zealand brand of passenger trains geared toward the increasing tourism industry in New Zealand. The new brand, named KiwiRail Scenic Journeys, was launched with a new breed of AK-class carriages designed to showcase New Zealand's scenery, as well as providing long-distance passenger train services. During the transformation, the TranzCoastal train was rebranded as the Coastal Pacific and the Overlander became the Northern Explorer; whereas the TranzAlpine's name was retained. Meanwhile, KiwiRail's ferry brand, Interislander, was building on its core business taking vehicles and freight across Cook Strait and looking to promote the trip as an iconic tourism experience and a scenic
New Zealand mole cricket New Zealand mole cricket The New Zealand mole cricket ("Triamescaptor aotea") is a wingless member of the mole cricket family Gryllotalpidae. Endemic to New Zealand, it lives underground and is rarely seen. It is now restricted to parts of the southern North Island. The mole cricket was well known to Māori, who encountered it when cultivating garden plots and called it honi. Mole crickets collected in New Zealand were assumed to be the European species "Gryllotalpa vulgaris" (a synonym of "Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa"), which has a wingless nymph that resembles the adult New Zealand species. "Triamescaptor aotea" was named and described