Best Outdoors & Nature Sports

Experience Maori culture, be wowed by beautiful glaciers or hike through gorgeous scenery; all with your trusted travel companion. Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - Maori culture, history, cuisine, arts, music, landscape, wildlife Free, convenient pull-out touring map (included in print version), plus over 90 maps Covers Auckland, Bay of Islands, Coromandel Peninsula, Central Plateau, Rotorua, East Coast, Wellington, Marlborough, West Coast, Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown, Fiordland, Southland and more. Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing.

Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."

In The Hidden Life of Trees , Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. "The matter-of-fact Mr. Wohlleben has delighted readers and talk-show audiences alike with the news — long known to biologists — that trees in the forest are social beings." — Sally McGrane, The New York Times “This fascinating book will intrigue readers who love a walk through the woods”— Publishers Weekly. "Soon after we begin to recognize trees for what they are — gigantic beings thriving against incredible odds for hundreds of years — we naturally come to ask, 'How do they do it?'. "Wohlleben’s book is at once romantic and scientific, beautifully articulating his personal relationship with the trees he has dedicated his life to. "With colorful and engaging descriptions of little-known phenomena in our natural world, Wohlleben helps readers appreciate the exciting processes at work in the forests around them." Peter Wohlleben spent over twenty years working for the forestry commission in Germany before leaving to put his ideas of ecology into practice.

Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous—two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hidden yet vast world of animal minds. Alex's brain was the size of a shelled walnut, and when Irene and Alex first met, birds were not believed to possess any potential for language, consciousness, or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Together, Alex and Irene uncovered a startling reality: We live in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures. Alex missed Irene when she was away. Alex and Irene stayed together through thick and thin—despite sneers from experts, extraordinary financial sacrifices, and a nomadic existence from one univer­sity to another. Alex is the African gray parrot whose ability to master a vocabulary of more than 100 words and answer questions about the color, shape and number of objects—garnered wide notice during his life as well as obituaries in worldwide media after his death in September 2007. While this book inevitably covers some of the same ground, it is a moving tribute that beautifully evokes the struggles, the initial triumphs, the setbacks, the unexpected and often stunning achievements during a groundbreaking scientific endeavor spent uncovering cognitive abilities in Alex that no one believed were possible, and challenging science's deepest assumptions about the origin of human cognitive abilities.

Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. It is a gripping story of survival that asks fundamental questions about solitude, community, and what makes a good life, and a deeply moving portrait of a man who was determined to live his own way, and succeeded. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Michael Finkel has done something magical with this profound book… [His] investigation runs deep, summoning…the human history of our own attempts to find meaning in a noisy world."

This is the preliminary book to help you understand fundamental concepts such as MOA vs Mils and external ballistics, that can be like a trusted resource at the range. The author has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to take seemingly complex areas of long range shooting and breaking them down so that they're easy to understand. The author has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to take seemingly complex areas of long range shooting and breaking them down so that they're easy to understand. "Whether you're looking to dip a toe into the complex world of long range shooting, or you're a seasoned shooter with years of trigger time, Ryan Cleckner's book will prove to be excellent reference material. Whether you're looking to dip a toe into the complex world of long range shooting, or you're a seasoned shooter with years of trigger time, Ryan Cleckner's book will prove to be excellent reference material. Author Ryan Cleckner is unmatched in long distance accuracy and in this fantastic book, he tells us how it's done. While the subject of this book is hitting a target way out there with a heavier caliber super accurate rifle a small game hunter could even be blessed by this information. For law enforcement and citizens who want to be prepared for any long distance occasion, this book is absolutely a must read. Ryan Cleckner served as a special operations sniper team leader with the U.S. Army's elite 1st Ranger Bn. Ryan has a series of online instructional videos known for their ability to explain complex topics in a simple and digestible way.

The AT offers an astonishing landscape of silent forests and sparkling lakes — and to a writer with the comic genius of Bill Bryson, it also provides endless opportunities to witness the majestic silliness of his fellow human beings. When this American transplant to Britain decided to return home, he made a farewell walking tour of the British countryside and produced Notes from a Small Island . Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin. As Bryson and Katz haul their out-of-shape, middle-aged butts over hill and dale, the reader is treated to both a very funny personal memoir and a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries.

Get in the best shape of your running career with the help of Daniels’ Running Formula, the book that Runner’s World magazine calls the best training book. Premier running coach Jack Daniels provides you with his legendary VDOT formula to guide you through training at exactly the right intensity to run stronger, longer, and faster. “In one way or another, today’s serious runners abide by training principles rooted in Jack Daniels’ research and philosophy and outlined in his famous book, Daniels’ Running Formula.” — Running Times. “In one way or another, today’s serious runners abide by training principles rooted in Jack Daniels’ research and philosophy and outlined in his famous book, Daniels’ Running Formula .”. Jack Daniels has been called the world’s best coach by Runner’s World magazine. Daniels has decades of experience as a track and cross country coach at institutions such as Oklahoma City University, the University of Texas, Brevard College, and the State University of New York at Cortland. Since 1997 Daniels has been the national running coach advisor for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program, which involves coaching thousands of marathon runners each year.

The #1 New York Times –bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany and now the inspiration for the PBS documentary “The Boys of ‘36” For readers of Unbroken , out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It encompasses the convergence of transcendent British boatmaker George Pocock; the quiet yet deadly effective UW men’s varsity coach, Al Ulbrickson; and an unlikely gaggle of young rowers who would shine as freshmen, then grow up together, a rough-and-tumble bunch, writes Brown, not very worldly, but earnest and used to hard work. In doing so, he offers a vivid picture of the socioeconomic landscape of 1930s America (brutal), the relentlessly demanding effort required of an Olympic-level rower, the exquisite brainpower and materials that go into making a first-rate boat, and the wiles of a coach who somehow found a way to, first, beat archrival University of California, then conquer a national field of qualifiers, and finally, defeat the best rowing teams in the world.

Crossing rivers, battling illness and injury, and struggling through some of the toughest terrain on the planet, the team and the dog walked together toward the finish line, where Mikael decided he would save the dog, now named Arthur, and bring him back to his family in Sweden, whatever it took. "Arthur latched onto an extreme sports team during the Amazon race - and what happened next will melt the hardest heart"—Daily Mail.

Gary's lessons and David's writing provide examples of the importance of the mental game." Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes--many of whom he has worked with--you will learn the same techniques and exercises Mack uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle." In Mind Gym , noted sports psychology consultant Gary Mack teaches athletes the lessons he's learned about how the mind influences athletic performance as much as physical skill does, if not more so. Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes--many of whom he has worked with--Mack shares the same techniques and exercises he uses to help elite athletes build mental "muscle."

Agassi writes candidly about his early success and his uncomfortable relationship with fame, his marriage to Brooke Shields, his growing interest in philanthropy, and—described in haunting, point-by-point detail—the highs and lows of his celebrated career. In 1992, when he burst onto the world sports stage by winning the Grand Slam at Wimbledon, he looked like a deer in headlights. Agassi has hated tennis from early childhood, finding it extremely lonely out on the court. Mike Agassi, a former Golden Gloves fighter who never made it professionally, decided that his son would become a champion tennis player. In militaristic fashion, Mike pushed seven-year-old Andre to practice relentlessly until the young boy was exhausted and in pain. He also arranged for Andre, age 13, to attend a tennis camp where he was expected to pull weeds and clean toilets. Only when Andre met tennis star Steffi Graf (whom he eventually married) did things begin to change. Readers will definitely cheer when Andre finally makes peace with the game he once hated and learns to enjoy it. An unvarnished, at times inspiring story [told] in an arresting, muscular style. Open describes Agassi’s personal odyssey with brio and unvarnished candor. Countless athletes start charitable foundations, but frequently the organizations are just tax shelters or PR stunts. Open is a superb memoir, but it hardly closes the books on an extraordinary life.”— The Wall Street Journal. Bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily, Agassi’s is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete.”— The New York Times “Not your typical jock-autobio fare. This literate and absorbing book is, as the title baldly states, Agassi’s confessional, a wrenching chronicle of his lifelong search for identity and serenity, on and off the court.”— Los Angeles Times.

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Above all, he recalls the foundational relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. It’s an amazing tale.”— Bill Gates, one of his favorite books of 2016 “ Shoe Dog is a great American story about luck, grit, know how, and the magic alchemy of a handful of eccentric characters who came together to build Nike. That it happened at all is a miracle, because as I learned from this book, though we are a nation that extols free enterprise, we also excel at thwarting it. I’ve worn the gear, with pride, but I didn’t realize the remarkable saga of innovation and survival and triumph that stood behind every swoosh. " Shoe Dog is an extraordinary hero's journey, an epic tale of faith, unparalleled determination, excellence, failure, triumph, hard earned wisdom, and love. Phil Knight takes us back to the Big Bang of the swoosh, recalls how he first begged and borrowed from reluctant banks, how he assembled a crew of eccentric but brilliant misfits, how they all worked together to build something unique and paradigm changing. "A fresh historical prospective on one of the most profiled companies in the world...[ Shoe Dog ] builds characters of the people behind the brand, many of whom we've never heard of." As Knight collects the misfits and oddballs who become the core of his growing company, Shoe Dog is more like The Lord of the Rings than a typical mogul memoir." As a business biography, it ranks with such recent works as Neal Gabler’s Disney and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs . But as a personal memoir Shoe Dog reaches a depth of emotional honesty that even the best biographies haven’t touched." “A fascinating warts and all account of the company’s early years, a rascally tale of scrappiness and survival, a great read .

If you want to build muscle, lose fat, and look great as quickly as possible without steroids, good genetics, or wasting ridiculous amounts of time in the gym and money on supplements...then you want to read this book. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars per month on the worthless workout supplements that steroid-fueled bodybuilders “swear by.” You don't need to constantly change up your weightlifting exercises to build muscle mass. The exact muscle building nutrition and training methods that make putting on 10 to 15 pounds of quality lean mass a breeze...and it only takes a few months. An all-in-one bodybuilding routine that will give you a big, full chest…a wide, tapered back…bulging arms…and thick, powerful legs...in just 3 to 6 hours of exercise per week...doing weight training workouts that you actually look forward to. With this fitness book you'll also get a free 98-page bonus report that contains a year's worth of Bigger Leaner Stronger bodybuilding workouts as well as Mike’s personal product and supplement recommendations and more! "I am in my 5th week of doing the weight routines and eating methods and I have lost 11 pounds to date and my strength has sky rocketed." "After following this plan for only 5 weeks, I have already lost 13 lbs of body fat while continuing to build muscle mass and strength at 47 years old." "I've been following my program for 10 weeks now and am incredibly happy with my results - I've lost 8 kg and made great strength gains." Hi,I'mMike and I believe that every person can achieve the body of his or her dreams,and I work hard to give everyone that chance by providing workable, provenadvice grounded in science, not a desire to sell phony magazines, workoutproducts, or supplements.

Whether you’re coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by tapping into a newly discovered brain mechanism. Drawing on cutting-edge neurology and firsthand research gathered on journeys to nine of the world’s talent hotbeds—from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York—Coyle identifies the three key elements that will allow you to develop your gifts and optimize your performance in sports, art, music, math, or just about anything. Combining revelatory analysis with illuminating examples of regular people who have achieved greatness, this book will not only change the way you think about talent, but equip you to reach your own highest potential. Providing detailed examples from a variety of different sources, Coyle's work becomes as motivational as the stories he presents. What emerges is both a testament to the remarkable potential we all have to learn and perform and an indictment of any idea that our individual capacities and limitations are fixed at birth."—Dr. I only wish I’d never before used the words ‘breakthrough’ or ‘breathtaking’ or ‘magisterial’ or ‘stunning achievement’ or ‘your world will never be the same after you read this book.’ Then I could be using them for the first and only time as I describe my reaction to Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code. “Daniel Coyle digs deep into the core of the insatiable desire to become ‘better.’ An amazing read with many practical applications for everyday life.” —Apolo Anton Ohno, Olympic gold medalist.

It's been two rough years since Dani Tattrie has seen her husband. Training horses is still her dream job but she's never recovered from her husband's bewildering incarceration. Dex Tattrie has survived being locked up thanks to his biker gang relatives and a job working with horses at the prison farm. However, a conniving cop is lurking, ready to steal both Dani and the ranch at the slightest misstep. Redemption Series: Kirkus Reviews "Bev Pettersen writes with flair and a down-to-earth warmth that will make you smile and sigh with contentment." Each character is believable and by the end of the story you know each one so well if you met them on the street you would know exactly who they were, loving or despising each." - Amazon Reviewer. "The story is great and the ending made me cry. - Amazon Reviewer. "I love a romance where you know the heroine and hero belong together but you just don't know how it's going to happen. He's the bad boy, deep down good guy you want to take home and hang on to for forever. - Amazon Reviewer. "It's cute and sweet and heart throbbing book that all into cowboys will enjoy. What I liked the most about this book though is the way the mystery wasn't overt, but then made total sense when the big reveal happened. In addition to learning much about horses, the story is paced nicely from beginning to end.

The #1 New York Times –bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany and now the inspiration for the PBS documentary “The Boys of ‘36” For readers of Unbroken , out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It encompasses the convergence of transcendent British boatmaker George Pocock; the quiet yet deadly effective UW men’s varsity coach, Al Ulbrickson; and an unlikely gaggle of young rowers who would shine as freshmen, then grow up together, a rough-and-tumble bunch, writes Brown, not very worldly, but earnest and used to hard work. In doing so, he offers a vivid picture of the socioeconomic landscape of 1930s America (brutal), the relentlessly demanding effort required of an Olympic-level rower, the exquisite brainpower and materials that go into making a first-rate boat, and the wiles of a coach who somehow found a way to, first, beat archrival University of California, then conquer a national field of qualifiers, and finally, defeat the best rowing teams in the world.

Soccer iQ is soccer's first text book for players; an almanac of smarter soccer decisions intended to flatten out the learning curve. - Football.com Dan Blank has been coaching college soccer for over twenty years and served most recently as associate head coach at the University of Georgia.

Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. In his sketch of the gridiron arms race, first came the modern, meticulously choreographed passing offense, then the ferocious defensive pass rusher whose bone-crunching quarterback sacks demolished the best-laid passing game, and finally the rise of the left tackle—the offensive lineman tasked with protecting the quarterback from the pass rusher—whose presence is felt only through the game-deciding absence of said sacks. An intermittently homeless Memphis ghetto kid taken in by a rich white family and a Christian high school, Oher's preternatural size and agility soon has every college coach in the country courting him obsequiously. However, while most reviewers are positive, something holds them back.

While playing the talented villain in the NHL, Avery broke far away from his on-ice character in the off-season, and Ice Capades takes the reader inside the other unexpected and unprecedented roles that Avery inhabited— Vogue intern, fashion model, advertising executive, restauranteur, gay rights advocate, and many more. Praise for Ice Capades : "The one-of-a-kind left winger gives an unparalleled inside look at the NHL lifestyle... whether you cheered or jeered him on the ice, any hockey fan will be interested in the stories he has to tell." — Hockey News "Ken Dryden's The Game rewritten by Hunter Thompson...This is the NHL you don't get from post-game scrums."

As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds... Since the 1980s, more and more "marginally qualified dreamers" have attempted the ascent of Everest, as guided commercial expeditions have dangled the possibility of reaching the roof of the world in front of anyone wealthy enough to pay for the privilege. By writing and reading Into Thin Air , Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone-chilling narrative in which the author recounts his experiences on last year's ill-fated, deadly climb.

Over fifty years later, Ben Hogan’s book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf is still considered one of the premier instructional books on the fundamentals of the game of golf. Religions are founded on less, and Hogan's detailed analyses and illustrated demonstrations of grip, stance, posture, and the two basic components of the swing make up a sacred book. Jim Fogerty Professional, Sunset Country Club, St. Louis Most articles on golf deal only in theory, but Ben is to be congratulated on probably the most practical series on golf instruction ever written.

A smart, credible, and accomplished voice from an athlete who is strong and feminine, fiercely competitive, and fashionably cool, Jennie is someone young women will listen to and take to heart. Killion has covered the major national and international sports issues of the past two decades, including the rise of Olympic softball.

Fore more than two decades, legendary trainer Tim Grover has taken the greats—Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and dozens more—and made them greater. Direct, blunt, and brutally honest, Grover breaks down what it takes to be unstoppable: you keep going when everyone else is giving up, you thrive under pressure, you never let your emotions make you weak. This book is the blueprint for discovering what you are capable of achieving, getting results you never imagined, reaching the highest level of success--and then going even higher." "Tim Grover’s insight into leadership and excellence has taken the greats to the top, and his book will do the same for you. "In all the years that I coached, inspired and trained world class athletes there was no better resource to collaborate with than Tim Grover." No one knows more than Tim Grover about competitive intensity, killer instinct and crushing the other guy. "A must-read... Grover calls upon his decades of experience working with the world's most eliteathletes to dissect what it takes not just to succeed, but to be the absolutebest." Tim S. Grover is the preeminent authority on the science and art of achieving physical and mental dominance.

Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball , had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era ( Liar's Poker , The New New Thing ), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. Lewis (Liar's Poker; The New New Thing) examines how in 2002 the Oakland Athletics achieved a spectacular winning record while having the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team.