New Zealand travelogue (at level of Bill Bryson's "Down Under")

I'm a Brit, currently travelling in Australia, and have really enjoyed
reading Bill Bryson's book, Down Under. It's veryt witty, with plenty
of good stuff about Oz, aimed at the foreigner.

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

(As well as light-hearted books, I'd also be interested in any more
weighty histories of the place.)

Cheers
Simon

Hi Simon,

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

If you're not after the Lonely-Planet-kind-of-guide book, I'd
recommend Kiwi Tracks by Andrew Stevenson (*).

It's a travelogue covering both the North- and South Island. Gets a
bit historical at times, but its really strong point is the authors'
numerous encounters with other travellers and, of course, the Kiwis.

Also an easy read; you'll probably be able to finish it in a day or
so.

Find it he
http://www.thesavvytraveller.com/ins...iwi_tracks.htm


(*) Yes, I'm aware that Lonely Planet is the publisher, but still this
one's very different from their well-known guide books :-)


Cheers,

Carsten

"The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific" by Paul Theroux. I can't
recall how much of it (if any) is actually about NZ itself, but it does tell
funny stories about the region (South West Pacific). Somewhat more laid back
humour style.


"Scoggy" wrote in message
om...
I'm a Brit, currently travelling in Australia, and have really enjoyed
reading Bill Bryson's book, Down Under. It's veryt witty, with plenty
of good stuff about Oz, aimed at the foreigner.

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

(As well as light-hearted books, I'd also be interested in any more
weighty histories of the place.)

Cheers
Simon

We used the rough guide to New Zealand - excellent with lots of good info.

Peter Webb wrote in message
u...
"The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific" by Paul Theroux. I
can't
recall how much of it (if any) is actually about NZ itself, but it does
tell
funny stories about the region (South West Pacific). Somewhat more laid
back
humour style.


"Scoggy" wrote in message
om...
I'm a Brit, currently travelling in Australia, and have really enjoyed
reading Bill Bryson's book, Down Under. It's veryt witty, with plenty
of good stuff about Oz, aimed at the foreigner.

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

(As well as light-hearted books, I'd also be interested in any more
weighty histories of the place.)

Cheers
Simon

"Scoggy" wrote in message
om...
I'm a Brit, currently travelling in Australia, and have really enjoyed
reading Bill Bryson's book, Down Under. It's veryt witty, with plenty
of good stuff about Oz, aimed at the foreigner.

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

(As well as light-hearted books, I'd also be interested in any more
weighty histories of the place.)

Certainly not a weighty history or in the league of Bryson (nice chap, met
him twice).
BUT...here are a couple of travelogues I wrote while in NZ/Aus.
I've also made a couple of videos from my trips round New Zealand and
Australia -
bearing in mind that the source material was from a "stills" camera that
could do 20 second silent clips, I reckon they're not bad at all.

They really show what fun and beautiful places Aus and NZ are.
The movies and diaries are he

http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/travels/NZ/ - 25Mb
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/travels/Aus/ - 9Mb

There are also large photo galleries:
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/gallery/NZ
http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/gallery/Australia

At some point in the future I'll subtitle the videos to give a bit more info
in the NZ one.

*Watching the video:

1: You need a fast PC, at least 500Mhz processor, otherwise it will run a
bit jerkily.
2: You need sound
3: You need Windows Media Player 9 (or something that can play the wm9
codec)
4: Broadband would help - if you are on a dial-up (or in any case), try
Getright from http://www.getright.com/ - there's no spyware or anything in
it. Just install it, and then right-click the movie links and choose "save
as" (or "save target as") and save it to your hard drive before watching it.
5: Enjoy!

--
www.digitaltoast.co.uk/ - photos and travelogues from around the world.
www.digitaltoast.co.uk/utils/ - guide to free software and security tips.
2 Months FREE web-hosting: http://tinyurl.com/k6z3
Free UK Directory Enquiries: http://tinyurl.com/ovi2

Scoggy wrote:

I'm a Brit, currently travelling in Australia, and have really enjoyed
reading Bill Bryson's book, Down Under. It's veryt witty, with plenty
of good stuff about Oz, aimed at the foreigner.

I'll be off to New Zealand in November, and was wondering if anyone
could recommend any good books about that country?

I can't think of any good travelogues - the closest that come to mind
are the two books by English MP Austin Mitchell - "Pavlova Paradise
Revisited" and "Half-Gallon Quarter-Acre Pavlova Flavoured Paradise".
He actually taught here in the 1960's and wrote the second mentioned
book as a Kiwi version of "My Year in Provence", then came back and
wrote the first mentioned a couple of years ago. They have been heavily
criticised as being highly subjective, downright inaccurate even, but
are light=hearted enough.

More serious - look for the two books written by James Belich ("Making
Peoples" and "Paradise Reformed") - they take you through to 1900 and
2000 respectively. Then there is Keith Sinclair's "A History of New
Zealand" - a handy wee paperback.

Thanks everyone for your tips. I'll be scouring the second hand shops
for these books now.