Photo of the Day 372

Ice Hikers, South Islands, New Zealand, 2002

Photograph by David McLain

Hikers negotiate a crevasse on Franz Josef Glacier in South Island, New Zealand. This highly accessible river of ice begins in the peaks of the Southern Alps, but flows some 8,000 vertical feet (2,400 vertical meters) into the lush rain forest of New Zealand's Westlands National Park.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Action New Zealand: 12 Days and 12 Adventures on the South Island," May/June 2002, National Geographic Traveler magazine)

Photo of the Day 368

Islands, Wellington, New Zealand, 2002

Photograph by Frans Lanting

New Zealand is one of the world's richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life. Today more than a third of the country's land, including offshore islands, is protected as parks and reserves.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Hotspots: New Zealand," October 2002, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 364

Thermal Vent, New Zealand, 2004

Photograph by Peter Essick

Scientists believe that forests, grasslands, and the waters of the oceans act as carbon sinks—stealing back roughly half of the carbon dioxide we humans emit, slowing its buildup in the atmosphere and delaying its effects on climate.

Eons pass before carbon, buried in the Earth's crust, issues as a gas from a volcanic vent in New Zealand (above), or locked up in limestone, erodes off mountains. Carbon cycles faster when decaying from a leaf or traveling as wind-tossed pollen.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Case of the Missing Carbon," February 2004, National Geographic magazine)