I'm doing a trek to the South Island with my book Wiremu Weka Treks the Alps, following his footprints as he travelled from Greymouth to Christchurch along Route 73, the Arthur's Pass highway.
I'm going into 16 schools, me and my taxidermied weka, to inspire children in creative writing and hopefully sell my books. I have 180 in our basement that need to go. Covid has held me up.
Here's the original miscreant at Lake Brunner near Greymouth.
I was painting on the edge of the lake when it stole one of my brand new purple crocs from under the table and rushed off into the scrub nearby with it. Of course I screeched at it and a man appeared from nowhere, gave chase and rescued it.
I wrote a short story about the incident and send it in to a PowerTalk contest. The judges wrote such nice things about it and said they'd like to see a book.
Eventually I obeyegd, using my experiences travelling SH73 myself. That incident became chapter 2.
I have 15 schools to go to, with such a huge response from the West Coast that I've had to stay there extra days. As an Indie author (self-published) I've organised the whole tour myself. 200 schools to phone and email several times!
I'm paying for it all myself, using the money I've earned from journalism. I'm flying down, (with the weka as excess baggage) and renting a car for 35 days, long-term rental rates but being over 80-, they wouldn't give me insurance! I'll have to be very careful but i'm a good driver.
I'm staying with the aunt of one of the Tauranga Writers when in Christchurch. Such kindness!
In Greymouth, I'm staying at an Air BnB. I've given the schools a discount on my time as many of them are little schools with not much spare cash.
If anyone would like to donate petrol money, I'd really appreciate it. It's like Give-a-little. My bank account number is TSB 15-3973-0110365-10. Please leave your name so I can thank you.
I'm also a dummy when it comes to putting a blog together. Excuse the disorder.
