Oceania Books

Mr. Harding's creativity provided fresh storytelling through chapter 62 or so. Here his politically commentary seemed shoe horned in. I don't mind his views as a lot of people share them, but the puzzling part was how his adept storytelling was so quickly transformed into such banal political droning. Given the freshness of his characters and storyline, I would have expected more thought provoking commentary on real world matters. Instead, the attempt comes off as someone trying to establish a legacy of opposition in hopes that the future will consider him astute.

Overall an enjoyable read and should Mr. Harding put forth another work, I'll be happy to give it a go as well, though I hope either his political insights (whatever their flavor) match his storytelling skills or he abandons attempts at working them in.

My first experience with John Harding. One Big Damn Puzzler was a great read. This book is really 3 different stories driven into 1 gripping finale. Harding does a good job of examining the West's materialistc culture interspered with a desire to help those who don't ask to be helped. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and did not mind the diversions of other topics Harding poses to the reader. A good light-hearted read that has some touching and emotional moments.

We all imagine a being on a tropical island, in the sun, the roaring ocean, with innocent and beautiful natives giving us everything we need. John Harding gives this to us with plenty of add-ons: Shakespeare, OCD, innocence and its loss, and the Western materialistic mentality.

An American lawyer comes to this untouched island, meets the natives, and tries to obtain compensation for them from injuries as the result of left over land mines. The book turns into an allegory of American values running amok and attempts to give a world vision on today's events.

Harding uses humor, literary license, and great imagination to accomplish this task. I thank him for great and thoughtful entertainment.

Cute story. A lightweight tale for uncritical thinkers but not for serious pondering. Although it is full of humor, unfortunately, it is based on a very false premise; that America is responsible for planting land mines and leaving them there. The US policy on land mines is that the position of each one is mapped and they are removed at the end of any particular conflict. In fact, legal land mines used have a requirement that they become inactive after a short period of time, sometimes just hours, to prevent exactly what this book is based on. Other countries, especially third world countries don't follow these guidelines, and many injuries and deaths have occurred. So, it's too bad the author tries to make America a guilty party in this book. The story could have been told using some facts, and then the impact of it would be truly food for thought. Instead, it is pretty much a joke. But then, there are those who will believe anything as long as America gets the blame.

John Harding has forgotten his civics lesson when it comes to understanding the US constitution and how elections are decided. Any OTHER outcome would have been illegal, but not the one that actually occurred.

I found this book an engaging, funny read. The characters on the island and the island culture are great. A few of the characters are very developed, while others--including all the women--have little to know depth. Harding's conceited attitude comes through clearly in this book. He blames America for everything. He has done no research on the U.S. legal or compensation systems. His characters are supposed to be from New York, yet all sound like they are from rural small town England (Harding's own background). Only men are lawyers in the book. The island culture is supposedly strongly matrilineal, but there are no women on the island who seem to have any power. He only describes women in terms of their physical attributes. So all in all - a funny read, but aggravating, too.

This factual account of the first recorded south-north crossing of Australia, in Victorian times, is more amazing than any fictional adventure would dare be. A film of this book several years ago did surprising little raise awareness of the undertaking. The story recounts the key attempts and the elaborate expeditions involved. The crux of the story really revolves around a series of unfortunate & serious mishaps and incredible near misses. Tragedy was almost avoided numerous times but ultimately...well read the book; the story ultimately has a sad and a happy ending! The fact that the story is known and accurately recorded is in itself an incredible sub-plot. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is a true story -- yet this is a case of real life being more amazing than one would dare write as fiction! The story is quite detailed but hang in there, the threads all come together in an incredible finale.

When I was about 11 my uncle who had spent 40 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, handed me slender volume called Cooper's Creek. Since I had no idea where Cooper's Creek was at that age I left in on my shelf where it gathered dust for the next 25 years, and was lost in one of my many house moves.

Over the course of the years I kept coming across some of Alan Moorhead's books, on bookshelves in Canada, the UK, India, Hong Kong and Egypt and even the United States. I happened to read another book of his "Gallipoli." He is a superb writer.

Cooper's Creek is exactly the same. After reading more of Moorehead's work (including a history of the North Africa Campaign) I resolved to find this book and read it. But even in Australia it had been out of print. I found it in London, England and hand carried it to Canada. The tale of imperial adventure warmed me over a few long, cold Canadian nights.

In the 50s and 60s narrative history was at its pre-postmodern highpoint. Moorehead's narrative flows like a novel, there is plenty to get your teeth into and also interesting tidbits. Also, unlike a lot of 60s historians Moorehead is not afraid to pass judgment on anyone.

The folley and bravery of the Burke-Wills expedition is recouted for all those unfamiliar with Australian history. Attempting to map the interior of Australia was a dauting proceedure, and was the equivalent of travelling twice the distance Lewis and Clark covered overland in their American Odyssey.

Those unfamiliar with 60s narrative may find the contemporary account of the aborigines to be paternal and patronising, but that is projecting our values backward.

It is one of the greatest true tales of adventure written, and ranks alongside the Scott, Shackelton explorations in Antarctica and the first land traverse of the North American Continent by Alexander Mackenzie.

A ripping good read and well worth the effort to track it down.

Moorehead by the way was a very popular narrative historian of the 50s and 60s (a bit like a contemporary John Keegan). He was also one of the foremost war correspondents in WWII and worked for Newspapers in Australia, the UK and Canada. An autobiography of his life has just been re-published but I forget the title.

As a patient and understanding reader, this was a good story. However, I don't feel that the book was easy to read and was slightly boring. By saying this, I'm not saying I did not enjoy learning about the expedition of brave men traversing the Australian continent. In many ways, this is a devastating story. It's sad and true. Unless you are an avid Australian history researcher, it will be very difficult to utilize any of the information from this story. Keep that in mind before attempting to purchase this book.

In 1860 the Victorian Exploration Expedition, under the command of Robert O'Hara Burke, set out from Melbourne to cross Australia to the Gulf of Carpenteria and to explore the unknown centre of the continent. Burke, and his second-in-command William J. Wills, achieved their goal of crossing the continent, opening up a vast new area of Australia. But the expedition ended in disaster, with the death from starvation of both Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek. This book tells the story of the expedition from the historical context and initial planning, to the events of the expedition itself, to the proceedings of the Royal Commission that investigated the expedition's disasterous end. A moving story well written.

The Burke-Wills expedition, which set out from Melbourne in 1860 to explore the still-unmapped interior of Australia, ended in catastrophe. Bad luck, bad planning, and bad decisions along the way led to terrible suffering for every man on the expedition, and death for many of them. As a piece of exploration, the Burke-Wills venture was an outright fiasco. As an example of bravery and endurance under horrific conditions, it's matched only by Robert Scott's fatal 1912 attempt to reach the South Pole.

Moorehead, Australian by birth, knows both the story and the setting well, and his writing does justice to both. His descriptions of the land are rich and detailed, while his descriptions of the explorers are spare and journalistic. The combination evokes, perfectly, the sense of ragged men trudging endlessly through an alien landscape, oblivious to everything but the need to go on.

Moorehead wrote _Cooper's Creek_ in 1963, and the book shows its age in two ways. It judges Burke's dubious decisions fairly mildly, where a later historian might have been more critical. More significantly, it treats the Aborigenes with an air of condecension that carries with it the distinctive stink of racism.

These are small flaws in an otherwise superb book, however. If true stories of impossible journeys appeal to you, take the trouble to seek it out.

Very informative book. Appears to have been well-researched. Lots of specific information.

Looking forward to following this guide to New Zealand.

Full of great information! The one thing it lacks is detailed maps of areas covered in the chapters. Considering that, it is still a great buy!

I am already planning my trip based at the book and it is does a pretty good on job at describing the places and best sites to see..

I'm used to the Fodor's Guides, so this should be another great trip I am planning and will revert back with the comments after the trip. But like I mentioned, I used it before and that is the main reason of why I keep going with Fodor's again...

You will be please with the level of information needed to plan your trip and help you out during the journey..

Way to go...

i used this book on a recent trip to new zealand, and for the most part it was great. my one complaint was with a restaurant recommended by the book in auckland that turned out to cater to large tour groups and served expensive sub-standard food. but on the otherhand, another restaurant recommended (joe's garage in queenstown) turned out to be a highlight of the trip. so, as with all guidebooks, i think the information has to be taken with a grain of salt and it's better to get a second local opinion. the maps and general local information were very helpful for navigation and for deciding what to do each day. worth it overall.

Better than most, but less informative and readable than the Eyewitness Guides. (The one on New Zealand is being updated now for an August release.) I think more guidebooks should start incorporating that format into their titles---sacrifice a few details for more showcasing of locations worth noting. Still, this is a sound source for information and it's one to keep with you when you travel. In one or two instances, I found information in Fodor's that was ONLY in Fodor's and nowhere else, so the research is obviously extensive.

Herman Melville based his gigantic masterpiece _Moby Dick_ on fact. This is one of the most fascinating parts of that magnificent book. As mystical and symbolic as the parts and the whole may be, they are all firmly grounded in fact, in the world of nineteenth century whaling as it was. Facts crowd into the chapters, even the most novelistic ones. Tim Severin has made a career of replicating historic vessels, using them to trace the supposed routes of their historic sailors, and then writing about the results. In _In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale_ (Basic Books), he does not plunder Melville's great work, but actually expands it. Using _Moby Dick_ and other Melville texts, he has gone on an adventure to find the white sperm whale, and although he never brings home the fabulous creature, he does indeed find it in ways that demonstrate that even a century and a half after the white whale entered literature, he still exists as fact as well as fable.

Severin's curious quest takes him first to the island Melville described in his bestseller _Typee_, and then to islands where Melville never visited, but where there are still whalemen who still harpoon whales. The descriptions of the dangers of the hunts on which Severin accompanied the islanders are vivid and memorable. He finds, intriguingly, that the island legends of the white whale are in many ways the same as those of Melville's whalemen. He conveys vividly the excitement of the hunt, both of physical prey by contemporary whalemen and his own search for Moby Dick. The islanders know there is a white whale out there. Ahab was not able to destroy him, and the islanders revere and respect him. Severin's vibrant book shows that the whale hunters will surely pass away before Moby Dick, secure in legend and literature, is ever finally caught, or finally known.

I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it. It has been well reviewed by others here on this page.

I was disappointed to find that the still pictures the author took and the drawings by Patturson mentioned in the credits were not found in the paperback De Capo Press book. I guess one has to buy the hardback. I found it a bit odd that the author often referred to Melville's copying (plagurizing) passages of other texts in the production of his book Moby Dick, but did not mention that in the times of its publication it was not uncommon to plagurize other books. Maybe he just didn't know.

Tim Severin has a gift for creating wonderfully colorful reasons for writing a book -- he sailed in a skin-covered coracle to establish the background to the fable of St. Brendan, and navigated a dhow to recreate the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, in just two of his odysseys. In this one, he searches for the mythic roots of the great white whale that provided the theme and tumultuous climax of Melville's classic, Moby-Dick. In a journey that spans the vast reaches of the Pacific, he first of all explores the island in the Marquesas where Melville deserted the whaleship Acushnet, travels to Tonga in search of the tattooed harpooner, Queequeg, and then moves on to the Timor Straits and the Flores Sea,in particularly haunting passages that describe his encounters with primitive whale-shark and sperm whale hunters, where harvesting great animals from the teeming tropical waters can mean the difference, for clans and families living on the edge of want, between survival and death.

This book is a page-turner. I sat down after breakfast on a lazy weekend morning, and could not put it down until supper time, when every page had been read. His quest rings with a sense of sincerity. Nothing here is contrived. Tim Severin shares with us the difficulties -- and great blessings -- of discerning the links between truth and myth.

Before I describe what this book is, I should describe what it is NOT, because I feel that it is definitely (and perhaps deliberately) mistitled, and if I had known was it was, I probably would never have chosen to read it.

I bought this book without bothering to riffle through it, being under the impression that it was an investigation into whatever facts lay behind the Moby Dick legend upon which Melville based his well-known novel. Although Severin partially covers this angle in the last (and definitely most engrossing) chapter, this is certainly NOT what this book is about on the whole.

Severin himself touches on this [p. 52]: "The animal Melville had in mind was probably inspired by reading a short story in an American magazine, The Knickerbocker, in 1839. The piece was called `Mocha Dick or the White Whale of the Pacific' and it was a yarn about a big bull sperm whale regularly encountered off the coat of Chile. The animal was said to be `as white as wool', though whether because it was an albino or from old age was not known."

But this is virtually the only mention Severin makes of this mysterious beast.

So what is it about? For a period of about a year and a half the author roamed through Oceania staying and talking with various whale-hunting communities, for the most part learning about their lifestyles but occasionally exploring the subject of a white sperm whale, which, as Severin is eager to demonstrate, is not limited to Western literature, but makes an appearance in the myths and legends of societies far different from our own.

Unfortunately, the lifestyles of these primitive whaling communities, for the most part, do not make for interesting reading (the section on Lamalera is especially yawn-inducing), and several times during my reading I wondered why I was even bothering to finish it.

Other sections leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, such as when Severin digs up and exposes Melville's many exaggerations. Every author's worst nightmare! Here's a sample:

"[In Typee], Melville describes how the natives of Taipivai were very keen to tattoo their sailor visitor. They point out that his white skin would make such a perfect canvas for their art. Mehevi also wants him to be tattooed, and suggests suitable patterns. The tattooer-in-chief pursues Melville about the village waving his instruments, the sharp-toothed combs and tapping mallet. Yet somehow Melville avoids the operation, and he does not explicitly state how. It is another example of Melville building up suitably colourful ordeals while `living among the cannibals', but then sidling away from any clear explanation of how he emerged intact. Certainly Melville had no tattoos to display when he returned to new England and told an intrigued audience about his `four months' on the Marquesas, though tattoos were already common enough among Western sailors of his day."

Just what every writer needs. A good deal of the book consists of ill-spirited detective work of this kind, most of which is not even germane to Severin's stated purposes.

Conclusion: if you are looking for extra information on the facts behind white whale legends of the mid 1800's, don't look here. The closest book I know of that addresses the question of whether a white whale actually existed (an actual white whale, not just an ordinary black, though perhaps unusually aggressive, sperm whale-like the one that famously smashed up the Essex) would be Norton's "Moby Dick as Doubloon," and even that book only touches on the matter.

Having said that, the book is far from awful. The writing style is brisk and deft, and what Severin has learned on his travels/studies can on occasion be absorbing. It's just that you should know what you're getting into.

Moreover, the soft cover edition is handsomely printed, though it could really have used some maps.

I should also note that this book can boast a top-notch first paragraph. Don't let that fool you, though.

Severin's varied accounts of South Pacific whaling compliment Melville's novel wonderfully. His book provides excellent supplemental reading to support Melville's classic AND add to the lore of the sea. Like the novel, Severin concludes his searching by recording a whale hunt that has incredible action and danger.
What fascinated me in this short book was his description of the whiteness of the whale. Nature allows white for only a few examples of whiteness and they are esteemed highly; their significance has spiritual and metaphysical associations. Severin states that whiteness and the sea are common, but in the whale, the shark, the manta ray and in other species, the contrast in seeing a white member "contradicts" our assumptions. I endorse this book for several reasons: Severin's anthropological recording is astute; he carefully respects Melville's accounts; and he is an excellent writer in his own right.

I loved this book because, along with Guadalcanal Diary, it is one of the only contemporaneous narratives of life on Guadalcanal. I only wish it were 1000 pages. Most war memoirs are seemingly written 30 years on whereas this book has a great sense of immediacy...read it if you love WW2!

That's the bottom-line message of this short, artfully written book by a distinguished writer who served as a war correspondent in the Pacific early in his career.
America had no choice but to fight World War II, and the Marines profiled in this book had to be where they were. But Hersey shows you the war from close up, not from the lofty vantage point of the generals, with their maps, strategic theories and neatly prepared statistical tables.
These are real people being blown to bits. Human lives and humanity itself are expendable in the quest for a few yards of territory.
You will come away from this book hating war, however necessary it may be under certain circumstances.
The same author capped off his message some years later with his classic account of the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath. If you haven't read that one, your education isn't complete.

This book will disappoint any who are not antiwar liberals. I didn't think this type was around in WW2, but Hersey was. He says he updated it; maybe that was to give it more of that slant.
What you are going to get with this very brief (80 pages!) account is a failure by a Marine company to capture a valley, with emphasis on the wounded and disappointed sied of the conflict, and agnosticism on the moral right of either side. It reads like the liberal press of the Vietnam era or during the present Iraq conflict.
I don't think an author has to sell America the greatest and certainly not the glory of war, but to not recognize the scrifice and the sense of what we were fighting for I think is pretty lousy. Hersey seems to suggest a sense of defending the country at one point ("they fought for home") but then passes over that to say "they were mostly there to avoid the draft" - huh?
For a sharp contrast with just as much emphasis on the frustration and debilitation of combat, get E.B.Sledge's "With The Old Breed at Pelilieu and Okinawa." I read them back to back and the contrast is startling. Wholly different, and in my opinion, much more authentic perspective in Sledge.

I was pretty surprised by how short this book was -- not counting illustrations, there are maybe 45-50 pages of content here. That said, it gives a really good perspective on being in battle and how the every-day must have been. It feels a little "cleaned up" and therefore slightly propagandistic (e.g., no one swears, no one is lazy, everyone is helpful to the writer, etc.), but for me at least, that's also helpful in understanding the time and place. The other issue is that you never for a moment forget that this is being written by a journalist (and not by an infantryman) -- the book never pretends to be anything else, though, and the reporter's POV is still useful and in some ways perhaps better for its "objective" third-partyness.

All-in-all, worthwhile for anyone interested in the subject matter.

bkd

Please do not be put off by fours stars: this is a superb book about early WWII written by someone who 'was there'. The lack of a fifth star merely reflects my desire to have seen a longer, even more in-depth, book. I was born in 1950, so my knowledge of those days is gained mostly by people like John Hersey. Also, my uncle (and namesake) was a member of Edson's Raiders--and he was there, too. I have had the great good fortune to have met many of the Raiders and others on Guadalcanal and I find "Into the Valley" to be most accurate of the descriptions told to me by these veterans. All human, the Marines had to draw on their training and leadership to get themselves through the bitter fighting and to prevail against unsettling odds on Guadalcanal. Hersey allows us to see the Marines as human--young boys and men, for the most part. He paints success and he paints failure with an honest brush. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in WWII and the South Pacific.

This is a spectacularly interesting journal. Cook was an odd sort, that's for sure. But a genius? I'd certainly say so after reading his often-daily account of his activities. Really neat book.

This re-issue of the Beaglehole edition of the Cook journals attests to the enduring importance of Cook as the exemplar navigator and Beaglehole as his nautical Boswell.

The writing is elegant and subtle and the fascination of the recital enduring.

Best there is no other!

I wanted to like this book. I really did. When I saw it online, I thought that it looked interesting. The few reviews were favorable. I enjoy maritime tales, stories and life. I thought that pirates and life aboard ships were interesting decades ago.

This was a slow, monotonous account. At least all that I could read for three days. Then I lost interest. I have read period pieces before. However the abbreviations and some of the words I just could not decipher.

If you want to attempt to figure out this book, I wish you luck. If you do, maybe you could explain it to me. :)

This well prepared abridged edition of Captain James Cook's journals is a specialized book of interest to people studying the exploration of the Pacific and/or the British Navy of that time period. Other people might find sections of it dry reading. The book is recommended for oceanography students as the 17th century voyages of exploration formed the basis for later oceanographic cruises.

Cook's voyages carried scientific personnel of that time period, many of whom died from the harsh conditions along with members of the crews. In addition to bad weather, there were diseases and hostile natives (including cannibals). Extensive charting was carried out and, on the second voyage, the Board of Longitude supplied Cook with Larcum Kendall's copy of John Harrison's H4 watch for determining longitude. Observations were made of prevailing winds, currents, temperature, and other things of scientific interest.

Natives throughout the Pacific would go to great lengths to obtain iron, expecially axes, even prostituting their wives and daughters (willing or not). Natives would attempt to steal items, if they could, leading to numerous confrontations including one in which a boat crew of the Adventure (the consort ship of the second voyage) were killed and eaten by the Maori natives of New Zealand.

Cook's journal ended several weeks before his death. The editor fills in details from journals of other people who were on the voyage, and speculates on the reason he was killed by the natives in Hawaii.

The book includes maps of Cook's routes on his voyages. It also has an index listing the names of the various individuals mentioned, with an indication of their positions on the voyages or their other positions if they were not active participants.

I wish I had read the reviews before paying for this. The key word for this edition is ABRIDGED. According to the editor Philip Edward's introduction, only about a third of Cook's/Beaglehole's text is included.

When I first bought this book, I had planned to emigrate to New Zaland. After I started reading it I decided to go on holiday there first and hitchhike, just like Joe Bennett.
However, reading more and more of the book, I decided hitchhiking might not be the best idea for me. So I will take a bus tour.

Where the book really proves its worth though is when it comes to describing the country. It portays New Zealand for a great nation, but also one that is desolate and for the most part empty. Sure Auckland might be a big city, and Wellington and Christchurch follwoing suit, but the rest of the country?
Sometimes you can taste the loniless of the land. All in all it made me reconsider emigrating there. And reconsider Australia and reconsidering emigration all together.

Being a Brit myself, over here in NZ for good (I hope), after around 4 years living and working here, Joe Bennett's writings struck a real cord. NZ is an excellent place to live and tour, and the real value is in its people - but like all busy folks it's easy to drift into the daily grind and forget why we're here.

The timing of world travel readers dipping into this book is fortunate, against the background of Lord-of-the-Rings-plus-100%-NZ-plus-All-Black-Rugby Domination-plus-America's-Cup-performance-plus-cheap-accomodation-and-decent-flight-prices gloss, so as to show a more down-to-earth view. Bennett's view should not be seen as cynical (as I note critics' views), and an awareness of what the book is about should be allowed to sink in.

Here is an older and settled guy, hitching around a wild and woolly land populated with interesting (and eccentric most times) and kind people, in a young country that's just recently re-forged its own identity as a Pacific Island chain the other side of Asia (or USA, depending on your persective) from the parents that abandoned it. Look at it as a view of NZ drawn from interaction with it's salt-of-the earth locals, and enthusiastic visitors. Bryson meets gnarrly Brit wit - Excellent.

The author's perspective is,at least to me, that he has spent too much time in New Zealand and doesn't really enjoy living there. If it wasn't for his dogs then he would have no real reason to stay. He hitchhikes around alot of New Zealand in search of a reason to stay. He spends alot of his book discussing hitchhiking techniques or potential rides. What he discribes of the scenry or way of life is always in a somewhat bored,sarcastic tone. I'm sure that there are Kiwis that think in those terms, but in all my trips thru out NZ, I never met any locals that were like that. They usually are quite upbeat about where they are.But to put things straight, he is an English transplant and has lived there 15 years. But what I really liked about his book is his descriptions of the details of life in NZ. Just lots of little insights into rugby, youth and travel, bits of history,local politics. Just little stuff that would be missed in larger scope books.

Having been to New Zealand twice my wife and I contemplated moving there. Residing in a country is, of course, much different from being on holiday there. This book gives readers a look at the "Land of Two Halves" beyond what's been portrayed in the movies.

Hitchhiking his way on two separate journeys (divided between the North and South Islands), Mr. Bennett is given a lift from some very colorful characters. Some hard-bitten and jaded, others silent, a few as chatty as magpies. Like Australia, the Kiwis can be a rough-hewn, industrious lot, facing hardship with fortitude and good cheer. Some of the isolated towns, pubs and hotels are downright eerie, reminiscent of places that time forgot. Decor and furniture often dates from the 1950s, '60s or '70s and accommodation can be a bit threadbare.

Where Bennett really shines, however, is in his descriptions of what it's like when he's kept waiting for hours by the road without a ride. He manages to colorfully illuminate how it feels to stand with one's thumb jutting over the asphalt, on an isolated road shoulder with nothing to do but watch a bird hopping in the grass or a horse posing stock-still in an adjacent pasture. It takes talent to make such a situation interesting but that's exactly what he does. The middle-aged author thrives in such settings, having little time for the larger cities like Wellington and Auckland. He gives them short shrift.

Anyone wanting a glowing travelogue will be disappointed. This isn't an episode of Rick Steves' Europe. It's a realistic account of what a lonely traveler experienced by taking a satchel, walking to the edge of town and putting his thumb out. He vividly illustrates how it feels to try and time storm fronts and strategize over the best approach to where you want to go versus where your next driver is headed. It's life on the road by the seat of your pants.

I quite enjoyed this tale, feeling that I gained a more well-rounded perspective on a country I greatly admire.

This book certainly looks good... the idea of hitch-hiking as a way of exploring a country and its society is clever - you meet a lot of different people and get to see parts that are not always up there on the "must see" list of tourist destinations - and, on top of that, Joe Bennett is a skilled and entertaining writer. But despite such promising credentials, it really doesn't work in the way it should.

The problems start with the sequencing of his journey, which is very strange. The first half of the book finds him shooting off from his home in Christchurch to the increasingly bleak far south of the South Island, before heading up the island's equally remote West Coast. Hitch-hiking through these areas, which are notorious for their sparse habitation and bad weather, is a pretty daunting task and, not surprisingly, he gets fed-up with it two thirds of the way round and heads back home. Problem is that, by doing so, he misses out the whole of the north of the South Island which is not only stunningly pretty (with often glorious weather) but which is also one of the most interesting areas of the country. His journey round the North Island is at least more logical, taking in most of the "important" areas. But by now he's clearly getting very bored with hitching (so much so that he rents a car for large sections), a problem that's then compounded by his hitting some pretty appalling late Autumn weather, begging the obvious question of why choose to hitch at this time of year?

Next up, the people he chooses to meet are pretty strange. Not everyone picks up hitch-hikers and those who do are, as he finds, often slightly odd and usually want to talk a lot about their slightly odd lives. Off the road, he clearly likes a beer or two and, as a result, spends huge amounts of the journey chatting to bar-proppers in small pubs and hotels. Nothing wrong with either activity, but as an insight into New Zealand society it's a limited and far from representative cross-section of people.

Finally, Joe's either a pretty morose kind of guy or the boredom & banality of standing by endless roads for hours on end waiting for a lift, followed by a booze-up with some fairly lonely people in a small town pub gets to him. Whatever the reason, he spends increasing parts of the book reflecting on the less attractive aspects of New Zealand life while describing uninteresting parts of the country in bad weather. Not unexpectedly, by the end of it, his & your bottle are most definitely in "half empty" mode.

Which is all very unfair. I've visited New Zealand many times and lived in Christchurch. Sure, it's small country that's a long way from anywhere and its people are continually grappling with an inferiority complex that comes from being small and remote. But it's also stunningly beautiful with, at the right times of the year, quite excellent weather and a population that must rank amongst the most friendly and interesting anywhere. It's a superb holiday destination and, for the right type of person, a quite wonderful place to live. All aspects of New Zealand that our increasingly road-weary and often downright gloomy guide fails to capture and which, as a result, leads to a very unbalanced insight into both the country and its people.

Bad news then? Well not quite, because he can write and his stories are not only enjoyable and often quite funny, but his wet & windy journey becomes, in itself, an entertaining exercise in personal endurance. And, on the way, he experiences a side of New Zealand that most miss which, in turn, stimulates him to ruminate on a number of interesting and important social issues facing the country. Just don't get fooled into believing that it's really like this because, unless you too are mad enough to decide to hitch around the place at the wrong time of the year, it's most certainly not.

Although not required for understanding New Zealanders, this dictionary is great for getting acquainted the local slang. It is written in a way that talks to you. I found some of the definitions to be very funny!!

Even if you don't plan a trip to New Zealand in the near future, you can read this book and spice up your vocabulary. I've rated it four stars instead of five merely because it's now eleven years old.

NZ slang evolves quite quickly, partly due to the prevalence of what's known as the Big OE--the big overseas experience, where young Kiwis take off for England and the Continent for a period of years, some never to return. This foreign immersion results in the inclusion of English slang expressions into the NZ idiom.

As a 30-year expatriate Kiwi, I found myself enjoying again the colorful language I heard and used in my youth. A new edition would be greatly appreciated, and a must for every traveler planning on spending more than a couple of weeks in NZ.

This is too much fun. To be able to learn a language for travelthat is only a slang slant to your own. Already the little guide hashelped to acclimate me to telephone and chat line conversation for the lands down under. The book is fun and informative and easy. To be informed makes the trip so much more fun for me from start to finish. And as usual I have found this guide nowhere else in the major local bookstores. But on line its here at my door to have read before I leave on my vacation. This book is quite entertaining just to read if you just want to be familiar with the culture of a very unique and friendly land. If I had not seen it for sale at Amazon . Com I would never have imagined such a special guide was available for purchase.

By defining English words and phrases unique to New Zealand, author Leland effectively describes at least a bit about New Zealanders and New Zealand culture also--and his affection for them, and for language, comes across well. Provides a look at the country and people through examination of their use of language. Humorous, good-natured, informative, and very enjoyable, I was given this book by a friend and just wish it were longer and updated to include any recent additions.

This book is dated (c.1975) sexist, racist and vulgar. Be warned if you are a woman, a person of color or have anything approaching a 21st century sensibility.
Sample quote: "bum - is what you sit on. Les femmes in New Zealand appear to have an unusually high proportion of broad ones and sturdy legs to match. Pioneer heritage?"
Not my idea of amusing.
If you want to find out about New Zealand, there are many websites that will give you a clearer idea of the place and the people than this book.

This travel guide is one of the best, detailed books on Sydney. I have many Eyewitness Guides for other locations around the world. The detailed maps in the back of the book are very useful when in an unfamiliar place.

Just spent a week in Sydney and found the book helpful in terms of the downtown area and Sydney proper. But I really wished it had more in the Outskirts section. There isn't a ton to see in Sydney proper but lots to see on the outer edges, an hour away, etc. Perhaps they need a New South Wales guidebook since the Australia guidebook tries to put too much into it. Anyway - if you're going to spend your whole trip right in downtown, this book works fine. If you get a little antsy for a little more color, keep looking. (And, btw, I usually LOVE Eyewitness travel guides. I have at least 10 others.)

I just got back from 10 days in Sydney, and I took this book and also the Rough Guide to Sydney. This book is vastly superior to the other.

The book has a lot of good information, and I really like the format. Every page is color, and full of illustrations and excellent maps. Call me a child of the media age, but it's so much easier to flip through this book, compared to reading through long blocks of text.

The maps are really worth emphasizing. I used the maps to follow various walking trails through different parts of the city, and they were excellent in terms of mentioning things to look out for.

The only disappointment I had was that this book hardly covered North Sydney, which is where I was staying. Now, granted, there aren't really too many tourist activities in North Sydney, but it is an interesting area, and the entire north side of the harbor is worth exploring, in my opinion. The restaurants are great, the neighborhoods are beautiful. Also, there are really some incredible views of the opera house from the north shore.

Best of all, this book fits (snugly) in a back pocket. I highly recommend this book.

I must say I am pretty impressed by this travel guide to Sydney. And I can doubly assure you of that it is excellent because I live here in Sydney! The reason I got this book was because in my experience the best travel guides are generally the ones from DK and this one didn't dissappoint. A travel guide like this is great for people who come to Sydney and stay with me. I can lend them this book to get around town during the weekdays while I am at work - but that said, even I find it useful.

I do a fair bit of travelling around internationallly and tend to take Sydney for granted. Reading through this book there are great little accounts of it's history as well as interesting suggestions for good restaurants and bars. When you've lived in a place for a long time you tend to frequent the same favorite spots over and over so it's nice getting tips for 'best restaurants and bars' that differ from those from other sources. One of the best things here are the walks at the back. I know most of the areas on them modestly well but I must say they are brilliantly planned. Also, as always, the maps of every suburb listed here are excellent for the novice to navigate around this city.

As for shortcomings, these are few and far between but even then it seems you can't please everyone. You can easily list things that could have been covered in better detail - but then again most people who visit here just won't have enough time to cover them all. Chinatown for one gets covered rather superficially. Also there is excessive coverage of St Mary's Cathedral - you can find plenty of far older and architechturally grander churches in any town in Europe. Churches of this size are rare here in Australia so for Australians it is considered worthy of mention but otherwise don't even bother going there. Ditto for the Art Gallery of New South Wales - compared to Boston, New York or any major European city it is laughable, except of course for the wonderful Aboriginal section there. As for the rest of it, I find it an embarrassment that the authors insist on dwelling on it.

Lastly, as for budget restaurants, there are plenty of them listed in this book. There is a book here in Sydney called 'Cheap Eats' if you really wanted a book that listed the best budget restaurants in town. Also if you really think about it, an exceptionally expensive top notch restaurant here is regarded as costing around $70-100 Australian per person, which is around $50-75 US dollars. By European and especially by UK standards - this is pretty damned cheap. Reviews I have read of the finest Sydney restaurants in the international press have all been glowing as well. The ones listed here are pretty good picks although the Sydney Morning Herald guide provides a more up to date view of Sydney cuisine. It's all also a matter of taste and opinion too.

So if you are thinking of visiting this beautiful city buy this book with confidence. Even I learned more than a thing or two from it.

this got a lot of good reviews and I was a bit disappointed. The format is easy to read, and there IS a lot of good information in the book. This book isn't going to help you find good cheap restaurants. Most of the restaurants and bars listed are expensive. This book is far better than the Rough Guides or Lonely Planet for sure BUT I'll be ordering Frommers to take with me when I go to Australia...

tarawa was the first of the murderous and, for the most part, unnecessary island assaults that dominated the history of the pacific war. the policy of 'rolling up' these many fortress islands culminating with the disastrous invasion of the phillipines', which cost over one million lives just to soothe macarthur's ego, demonstrates clearly the disregard for the lives of the fighting man which typifies american military history. the effectiveness of the submarine campaign almost by itself brought the japanese to a standstill militarily, let alone the famine it brought on to the civilian population. granted the sub campaign took a while to get fully in gear but the massive carrier force was already appearing and making itself felt by the end of 1942. the simple way is the best way in war and a direct drive on the japanese home islands could have been mounted without the need for the majority of the island assaults. the race for prestige between macarthur and nimitz caused the slaughter of thousands of american lives, just as pershing's incompetence in the great war ran up a similarly staggering butcher's bill.

I found this book very informative of a battle I did not know much about. The photos, maps and illustrations were wonderful as I got to understand this battle. It was a very costly battle for the Marines as they took this island with over 3,000 casualties against 5,000 defenders. It also showed what was about to happen later in the war as the Japanese got more fanatical and used "banzai" charges against the Marines. A very informative book.

British amateur historian Derrick Wright has written a thorough summary of the US Marine Corps landing on Tarawa Atoll in November 1943. The subtitle, "the turning of the tide" is not appropriate however, since the tide of victory had already turned against the Japanese a year earlier at Midway and Guadalcanal.

The author covers the battle in succinct but thorough day-by-day detail, from the marine landing to the conquest of the island three days later. There are three appendices covering US and Japanese orders of battle and USMC casualties. The three-D maps are good, but propably should have been zoomed in a bit more, since the area of fighting was quite small.

There are no major flaws in the book, which does cover well-travelled ground after all, but there are several areas that could have been given better elaboration. First, since this was the first major opposed landing for the US Marine Corps in the Second World War, a bit more space should have been given to amphibious doctrine. Was the landing conducted in accord with existing doctrine and how was doctrine modified? Second, the US Army landings on Makin should have been given a map and a little more detail.

Otherwise, this is another useful, if not ground-breaking, Osprey Campaign summary. The photographs are quite good also.

Tarawa 1943: The Turning of the Tide is a well written, but short history of the invasion of the island. It is misnamed, since the author himself correctly describes Midway as the turning point. But that aside, this is a good book.

In fact Tarawa is a perfect battle for the Osprey series since the battle was basically fought over a three day period. The book does an excellent job describing not only the troop movements but the human toll that the invasion caused. One is continually reminded that the conquest of Tarawa was paid for in too much human blood.

This is a good read. Excellent maps are an added bonus.

As I say in my Amazon's Profile: "I am a science fiction fan and a history buff (especially WW II, Napoleon, Civil War, Ancient Rome), I read omnivorously on these subjects."

Osprey's different collections are a great resource for History "aficionados". In a very compact book series with excellent presentation, first quality paper and nice reproductions gives the reader a succinct and complete view of the subject.

Mr. Derrick Wright starts with a synopsis of the events preceding war's break out and then he follows with opposing Commanders, Armies and Plans in roughly 20 pages.

Next a compact but detailed day-by-day chronicle ensues.
Here the author sagely intercalates personal recounts with cold description of the battle in progress.
The photographic material is outstanding; each photo shows the shocking reality of the battlefield. The color plates are realistic and painted with vivid tonalities.
There are two and three dimension maps, showing very clearly how the combat evolved.

Finally a brief section is dedicated to the four Medal of Honor winners.
The appendix showing the casualties suffered by both sides is appalling and the 97% of dead Japanese military will prove the rule and not the exception all along the Pacific Campaign.

The only weak point of the book is the almost inexistent description of the Makin landings.


This book may suites as an introduction for neophytes or as a graphic resume for students and researchers.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.