With sincere gratitude I would like to thank a number of individuals and organisations. Firstly, a special thanks to my supervisors Prof. Pip Forer, followed by Dr Burn Hockey. Pip's early enthusiasm towards this study was particularly appreciated, as well as his ideas and feedback. Burn took on the particularly difficult challenge of supervising me after Pip's departure to Auckland. He met this challenge very well and the quality of the final product can be attributed much to him. Thanks Burn. I would also like to thank Assoc. Prof. Doug Pearce for his time in helping me to formulate a topic, and Dr Eric Pawson for reviewing the first couple of chapters.
A special thanks to the technical staff in the Geography Department, and in particular John Thyne, James Guard, and Graeme Glen for computer support, and Janet Bray, Fiona Clark and Michelle Rogan for their assistance.
Many individuals from outside the Department also showed interest and gave valuable advice. This included Dr Simon Swaffield from the Department of Landscape Architecture (Lincoln University), Steve Thompson from the Ministry of Forestry, and Allan Rackham from Boffa Miskell.
Part of my research was conducted from the Department of Physical Geography, University of Oslo, Norway, and I am very grateful to this Department for accommodating me. It was during a visit to this Department that I met Dr Richard Dikau, and his work subsequently influenced the direction of my Ph.D.
Landcare Research Ltd. provided many of the databases used in this research in exchange for nominal costs and a copy of this thesis. I am very grateful to them for this assistance. The Ministry of Forestry, and Statistics New Zealand also provided useful databases. The support and generosity from these organisations is very much appreciated.
Lastly, a special thanks to my friends and family for their support.