The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa which roughly translated means the Land of the long white cloud.
It is an incredibly beautiful country which has some similarity to Scotland (although frequently it has significantly better weather).
Christchurch 2009 |
This trip did not include a visit to South Island but we visited Christchurch on a previous visit and it is a beautiful city, which hopefully it will be again.
With the help of the New Zealand Book Council I was able to visit nine different primary and secondary schools in various locations in North Island. It was fascinating to see where the similarities are with schools here in the UK, and where things are quite different.
![]() | ||||||
Elm Park School - Pakuranga - Auckland NZ |

I was surprised to find that books are very expensive in New Zealand. Especially in a place where other things are often cheaper than they are here, books cost much more. This must make it very difficult for families with young children to have many books of their own.
![]() |
The first school I visited was AWATAPU COLLEGE in Palmerston North |

In fact teenage problems seem universal so my teenage books, Spider and Dead Boy Talking with their themes of car and knife crime seemed to have equal relevance to the students there, as they do here in the UK.
Students at Rangikura School in Porirua
It was a delight and a privilege to be invited to visit these and other schools in New Zealand where the welcome was always warm and generous.
I was also invited to speak to children's writers from SCWBI Australia in Sydney, before returning home to Scotland (sunny but cold!) just in time for World Book Day & Night events.
I will be posting more about the trip and my recent events on my blog BOOKWORDS and on my website www.lindastrachan.com over the next week or so, why not drop by and have a look!
Writing for Children (A & C Black) For all aspiring and newly published writers
For younger children : The Hamish McHaggis series (GW Publishing)
What Colour is Love?
For teens / YA - Spider (Strident Publishing)
Dead Boy Talking (Strident Publishing)
Follow Linda's blog - Bookwords - writingthebookwords.blogspot.com
Visit her website -www.lindastrachan.com
No comments:
Post a Comment