This Land I Love

This is an interesting one. Sort of a step back in time to the early 1960s. Not only in the destinations and the descriptions of these, but also culturally, and in the thoughts put forward by the author. Before my time (I was a child of the 1970's), but the heyday of my parents generation I guess.

I was trying to determine, as I was reading, who the target audience is. Certainly the book is very promotional of New Zealand, which in itself is a bit unusual, as it is not really the done thing to self promote in the NZ culture, but the way this is written, I think it is more targeted at a New Zealand audience than an international audience - a bit of “see your own backyard” before you bugger off overseas on an OE.

This book of thirty chapters covers thirty places in NZ (ok a few more, because some chapters cover two or three towns), and are not all part of a continued travel narrative. The opening chapter tells us they are stories taken from various trips - trips taken for various reasons, and in varying levels of luxury - from fully laid on first class travel, to working travel, to family holidays.

The writing styles vary as much as the destinations, some perhaps more successful than others. Some chapters ended up too far off topic, or on random events for me.

For me the more interesting aspects were the things that are not there to talk about - two brief examples: The Homer Tunnel from Te Anau to Milford Sound - opened in 1954, but despite this book being published in ‘62, the travel story was pre-tunnel. The other was the Manapouri Dam, still an idea, construction didn't begin until ‘64. To imagine things before these two major infrastructure projects were completed would be difficult for most New Zealanders who have visited these places.

Enjoyable reading for its snapshot of the 60s, without being completely captivating. Solid 3 stars.