I haven’t posted for a while as I have been on holiday to New Zealand. See obligatory pictures of Milford Sound and a kaka bird below.
The purpose of the holiday was just that – a holiday to see the beauties of New Zealand which, I must say, were well worth the very long journey. Literature definitely took second place. While many towns did seem to have bookshops, which was nice, finding New Zealand literature was trickier, as most shops stocked what you might find in any UK bookshop. The first town we went to was Nelson, in the South Island, and we visited Page and Blackmore where a nice lady recommended a few books, which I hope to get around to reading. It was not till we got to Dunedin that we found a first-class second-hand bookshop, called Scribes (their website seems to be down). It is up in the university area, near the excellent museum. The owner/manager admitted that he did not read much New Zealand literature but, nevertheless, was knowledgeable on the subject and had a good section on it, so I made a few more purchases to add to my list. In particular, I bought a couple of works by my favourite New Zealand writer, Lloyd Jones. Again, I hope to read them soon but…
One New Zealand writer I have yet to read is Janet Frame, though I own several of her books. While staying in Oamaru, we did visit her house at 56 Eden Street, a fairly ordinary house in a residential street, where she lived from the age of six with her parents and siblings, till she left Oamaru after competing secondary school. Photos of her house, typewriter and bedroom below.
