REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Most people have fantasized about sailing off around the world or at least thought envious thoughts when seeing smart yachts anchored off nice exotic locations. Alas, most people also remember that their stomach wouldn't take the motion the moment they'd step aboard anything smaller than the Cook Strait Ferry.

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

I knew nothing about Kahurangi National Park before reading this beautifully presented book, not even that it existed.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Like much of our country, Wanaka is an incredibly photogenic town, with the lake and the light combining to create a natural masterpiece.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Kakapo is a gorgeous hardcover book, detailing the long and arduous process of bringing these lovely, cheeky natives back from the brink of extinction.

REVIEWED BY CHRIS CHILTON - © Fairfax NZ News

Did some moa exist for five centuries after they are thought to have been hunted from the face of the Earth?

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is a beautiful little landscape edition that follows on from the large format edition.

REVIEWED BY DEBBIE JAMIESON - © Fairfax NZ News

Professor Jim Flynn is one of the smartest and most interesting people I have met.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is an interesting and handy quick guide to the main events of the New Zealand Wars conflict period and the places where they happened.

Southland might not be as big, or as flash, or even as cosmopolitan as some other provinces but our lovely little green corner of the world is a pretty awesome place.

REVIEWED BY ROSEMARIE SMITH - © Fairfax NZ News

Aimed at visitors needing a guidebook covering the country, this provides basic information on 200 easy walks, with informative nature notes.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Packed with photographs of stunning artwork, New Zealand Gallery is a portfolio of this country's creativity.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

He's a busy bloke Joe Bennett, managing to churn out a great newspaper column each and every week, punctuated by some of the quirkiest travel writing you could hope to find.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

There is no real information about cruises per se but the guide does deal with the main areas guided travellers are likely to visit. The two authors are, from their resumes, highly qualified to write the guide.

© Fairfax NZ News

Rosemarie Smith took a holiday at home, equipped with an armload of travel books.

REVIEWED BY BARRY HARCOURT - © Fairfax NZ News

Way back in the late 1960s I came across Geoff Moon's first book Focus on New Zealand Birds, which was followed soon after by Refocus on New Zealand Birds.

REVIEWED BY JOSEPH BEAUMONT - © Fairfax NZ News

Few who adventure into the deepest reaches of Africa have been supported by hampers from Fortnum and Mason, let alone an aircraft, a doctor, porters and even a PR person.

REVIEWED BY STEVE MASON - © Fairfax NZ News

Mark Price set out on a personal journey and turned it into an amusing story of misdirections, sore feet and numerous scratches throughout New Zealand and an equal-sized chunk western Europe.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Here's a great book for Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike: if you're planning a trip anywhere in New Zealand, this book is a must-have.

REVIEWED BY MARK HOTTON - © Fairfax NZ News

I was backpacking in Turkey with a couple of mates in April 2004 when I checked New Zealand websites and found a merino sheep dominating the news.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

We all know about the favourite touristy places and events that everyone talks about but what about those that are just a little further off the beaten track and a little less populated by tourists?

REVIEWED BY JOSEPH BEAUMONT - © Fairfax NZ News

This highly readable account of life on the front line with the British forces in Afghanistan is a book for our times. In years gone by, many a soldier recorded the minutiae of his fighting day in a diary, some eventually published to great acclaim.

REVIEWED BY ROSEMARIE SMITH - © Fairfax NZ News

If Southlanders felt shaky after July's earthquake, they should spare a thought for the men atop Farewell Spit lighthouse during the 1929 Murchison quake.

REVIEWED BY BARRY HARCOURT - © Fairfax NZ News

I was immediately intimidated with the thoughts of reviewing a scientific publication on an island I knew nothing about.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Ian Brodie is best-known for his guides to the Lord of the Rings and Narnia locations.

REVIEWED BY ROSEMARIE SMITH - © Fairfax NZ News

This is an update of the popular 2004 title and, as asserted by a quote from Michael King on the jacket, it's an excellent book of its type.

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Anyone considering doing a nature tour of Godzone should take this book with them.

REVIEWED BY JUDY CLEINE - © Fairfax NZ News

You don't have to be a train buff to enjoy this book, though if you have memories of joyful plumes of smoke chugging across the landscape, or of running to stand under a viaduct (Caroline Bay) as a hissing spitting train thunders by overhead, it helps. (In my opinion diesel doesn't cut it.)

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Off the Beaten Track is a guide to a selection of walking tracks from around the country.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

We are fortunate to live in an incredibly picturesque country and that unrivalled beauty is to the fore in this stunning book that shows New Zealand's development since European settlement.

REVIEWED BY JOHN CUTT - © Fairfax NZ News

History, when presented by a writer of Neville Peat's calibre, is an enjoyable as well an informative read.

REVIEWED BY HELEN BISSLAND - © Fairfax NZ News

In Going Bush: New Zealanders and nature in the 20th Century, Kirstie Ross has expanded her MA thesis about the cultural history of New Zealand nature into a book.

REVIEWED BY JUDE MADDEN - © Fairfax NZ News

From Balclutha to Niagara Falls to Invercargill to Lake Hauroko, from Ocean Beach to Ocean Beach, this book is full of interesting facts, history and directions on main routes, less well-known roads, and railways.

© Fairfax NZ News

Fiordland, New Zealand's Untouched Wilderness, is photographer Hallet and journalist Martin's first book together and a record of all the little hidden things, tomtits, moreporks and crested penguins that you don't usually see as you flit by in a bus, and also all the big things that take your breath away. 

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is "Big Al's" fourth title and is sure to appeal to any hunting, fishing New Zealanders, and perhaps many besides.