"Son, take a good look around"

Me and Miss M joining some locals for the second-ever
Motueka Beach Reserve parkrun to kickstart Saturday morning

Craig every second Tuesday

Kia ora and gidday everyone,

Greetings from New Zealand! For the first time in far too long (a shade over three years), I'm back in the home country, sending you all best wishes and bookish goodness from the Tasman District in the Top of the South Island. 

I've lived and travelled around many places in the world, but for me this place will always be 'home'. 

I wasn't born here, but moved to Richmond in the Tasman District as a four-year-old, and did all of my schooling locally before moving away for university. My love for books and mystery fiction began here, at my primary school and local public library, along with the bookshelves full of fascinating tales at our home. Since then (yikes, coming towards 30 years ago), I've returned almost every year, often multiple times a year, and sometimes for weeks or months at a time, until fairly recently when things got disrupted by COVID then other life events. 

Without meaning to, I've only been back three times in the past six plus years; that's after having never in memory (since I was pre-4) had any calendar year without some time in the Top of the South, until 2020. 

So, yeah, it's great to be back. Miss M and I have been loving catching up with family and old friends and enjoying autumn weather that's been far sunnier/warmer than London's Spring. In a a few days we've managed to visit parts of the Abel Tasman, Nelson Lakes, and Kahurangi National Parks, along with The Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, the famous 'Pupu Springs' (for much of my life considered the clearest waters in the world),  artisans and creatives like the world-famous Höglund Art Glass and Jens Hansen jewellers (creators of 'the One Ring' from the Lord of the Rings films), and much more, without feeling like we're tearing around or trying to pack too much into our days. 

Here's a wee bit of a photo essay, for those who aren't so familiar with the Top of the South: 

Miss M holding one of the oversized 'One Ring
to Rule them All' crafted for the LOTR films

The sacred Te Waikoropupū Springs (Pupu Springs) in Golden Bay, the largest 
freshwater spring in the Southern Hemisphere, among clearest waters in the world

A tuatara at Brook Sanctuary: an ancient reptile that predates
dinosaurs, and has been around for 200 million years

The shipwreck of the Janie Seddon, which served during both 
world wars, before being abandoned in the Motueka mudflats 

The underside of the Kaponga plant, aka 'Silver Fern', on an Abel Tasman
National Park track - rather familiar for many sports-lovers out there... 

Enjoying an autumnal swim at Tata Beach in Golden Bay

Rainbows and waterfalls (Wainui Falls)
in Abel Tasman National Park

Witnessing the expert artisans craft beautiful
pieces at world-famous Höglund Art Glass 

No Nelson visit would be complete without some medal-winning
Penguino gelato; since 1996, a rotating array of 350+ flavours

Riuwaka Resurgence, or 'source of the Riwaka' where a river emerges from 
a clear spring, filtered for years through marble/limestone of Takaka Hill

That's just a wee snapshot, and we only had a few days in the Top of the South so far. 

Tomorrow we'll visit Mapua, and I've also got a crime fiction author event at the renovated Motueka Library; for the first time since the very first Mystery in the Library event in Takapuna in 2015, I'll be involved onstage for part of our annual series, which now numbers more than 125 events at 50 different libraries in New Zealand (as well as a few overseas). I'm chairing a panel with past Ngaios Best Firast Novel winner Chris Stuart, actor, writer, and director Douglas Brooks (who went to Waimea College with me back in the day), and Motueka policeman, filmmaker, and thriller writer Stef Harris, for a discussion on how they craft or perform gripping tales full of memorable characters and events.

It should be lots of fun, and it's a cool treat for me to be involved in person, after having organised more than 125 free/koha library events in New Zealand over the past decade without getting to attend them. It was really nice too to spy a fair bit of in-library publicity for tomorrow night's panel, when Miss M and I popped in on Saturday after completing the second-ever Motueka Beach Reserve parkrun nearby. 

As much as I appreciate all we can do nowadays from afar, for work or leisure, thanks to technological advances, there's still something special about in-person events and tangible media, I believe. For instance, I've seen plenty of pics or online comments from people about our Dark Deeds Down Under anthologies, but it was still pretty cool to see the first edition in the Motueka Library the other day, part of the same regional library system (Tasman District Libraries) where I did lots of my early crime and thriller reading/borrowing, from Agatha Christie's Poirot tales to the thrillers of Alistair Maclean, etc. 

Full circle moment? Not sure, but fun and feels cool, nonetheless. I'm grateful for this weird and wonderful life, despite all its tough times, twists, and challenges. 

Until next time. Ka kite anō.

Whakataukī of the fortnight: 

Inspired by Zoe and her 'word of the week', I'm ending all my MIE posts by sharing a whakataukī (Māori proverb), a pithy and poetic thought to mull on as we go through life.

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini"

(My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, as it was not individual success but success of a collective)

Our 2026 Mystery in the Library season kicked off on Thursday night in Karori,
with 2x Ngaios winner Jennifer Lane, NZ Booklovers Awards shortlistee Rodney Strong,
2025 Ngaios winner James Hollings, and past finalist Helen Vivienne Fletcher

Sustainable Hope

Sujata Massey

On a recent day that I was missing fresh greens,  I walked into the garden. It was long before I'd planted my first seeds for lettuce. Not much was there. And yet...

I appraised the dandelions. Their gay golden faces are dotted all over the lawn and garden beds. I needed to weed anyway, and as I got down on my knees, I saw how beautiful and crisp and long many of the leafy plants were. They were absolutely fit for a "spring mix." As I dug up a few clusters of dandelions, I saw more and more that I wanted.  I could have a series of salads. I hesitated, wondering if I was depleting my garden of food I might need later.

After I had taken many handfuls of crisp greens, I washed them in a deep bowl, rinsing them over and over until the water ran clear. I dried the greens in a towel and then and mixed them with hearts of palm, red onion slices, a bit of orange, and a little bit of leftover fennel. With a little oil and vinegar and honey, it was a delicious salad.

I have butter lettuce and romaine now, thanks to a couple of businesses that have their own delivery truck service. When I make an order, I get things for my neighbors, too. I am making my own bread and biscuits. I feel like no matter what, I can feed myself.

I was so glad for the dandelions the day I needed to eat them. They're still popping up here and there, and I doubt they'll ever be eradicated. I'm also taking wild chives from the lawn, and feeling grateful for their snap. It reminds me of the stories from elderly Japanese people who recalled eating grass during the war years, when there was no rice and not much of anything else.

I was placing a blueberry bush into the garden today. Turning to get some compost, I noticed a large black bird with a tangerine-colored body was staring at me.  Could this be a Baltimore Oriole, a bird that represents our city and sports team, but that has eluded my gaze in the decades that I've lived here?

The oriole was sitting on the branch of the lilac that I've considered removing because it grew horizontally rather than upward. Now I realize the handicapped lilac make the perfect perch for this bird to watch over the garden. Did he realize the awkward human was planting something that would make exquisite dining for him in the next months?

The makeshift becomes magical sometimes. And as daunting as the next months are supposed to be, I will keep hope in my heart.