Kia ora,
I had a wonderful time at the Mountain Film & Book Festival! The talks were so full of energy and excitement, and the audience buzz was so much fun to be around. And of course I picked up (quite a few) new books.
At the Words & Wine event, five authors read extracts from their books:
- Naomi Arnold read from Northbound. This is a fantastic read!
- Beth Rodden read a handful of passages from her memoir A Light Through the Cracks. This is next on my to-read list. Beth’s writing is just gorgeous.
- Andrew Fagan put on a show for his book Swirly World: Lost at Sea. If his writing is anything like his speaking, this will be a very fun story!
- Cassidy Randall Zoomed in from the US to read from Thirty Below, the story of the first all-women team to climb Denali. It sounds wild. Can’t wait to dig into this one.
- Dave Hansford talked us through his writing of Kahurangi: The Nature of Kahurangi National Park and Northwest Nelson, and he gave a beautiful tribute to NZ stalwart Shaun Barnett.
On Monday night we heard from Hazel Phillips and Andrew Fagan. Hazel spoke about her most recent book, Fire & Ice: Secrets, histories, treasures and mysteries of Tongariro National Park. I followed her writing and research process on Instagram – and her talk went into more detail about how she researched and wrote this book. She’s got a dedication to contacting people and sources that I really admire, and all that detail has paid off in this fantastic book.
I highly recommend another of her books too, Solo: Backcountry adventuring in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Then Andrew Fagan took the stage for a second evening and regaled us with the trials of his boat, Swirly World, and his reluctant mid-ocean rescue. Andrew’s experience of sailing the Southern Ocean did nothing to relieve my fear of deep water. That place is for the creatures.
Wanaka really put on a show for me with two frosty, blue sky days. Until next year! I’ve got a lot of reading to get through before then!
Cheers,
Deborah
📚 What I’m reading
High Risk – Climbing to Extinction, by Brian Hall. I’ve just got a couple of chapters to go. This has been a wonderful read – much more uplifting than I was expecting!
To Shake the Sleeping Self, by Jedidiah Jenkins. I listened to most of this book while driving to and from Wanaka. I’ll finish listening to it while I garden and quilt this week. Great adventure writing about the realities of cycling from Oregon to Patagonia. Loving it.
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Deborah Shaw Adventure Editing 