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This Week’s Issue

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July 1, 2025

Looking a the books ‘The Long Way Round’, ‘The Abundant Garden’ and ‘The Abundant Kitchen’

Ginney Deavol, author, with Leo Magri and her book ‘The Long Way Round’.

Paddle, pedal and foot – a long way round

Ginney Deavoll, Author of The Long Way Round, is an accomplished local artist who has illustrated two children’s books all whilst being an avid adventurist. Miss Deavoll’s enthusiastic love for adventure was self-evident at the conference.

“I just love being out on a journey and an adventure long and slow. Being there with all of the incredible landscapes it’s really inspiring.”

The Long Way Round documents through writing, photography, and painting Ginney’s and her husband’s 2012 journey as they travel by “Paddle, pedal, and foot” around New Zealand’s South Island.

Along the way they encountered stormy seas, Great Whites, and hiked and carried their kayaks through thick, relentless bush, often times not coming in contact with other people for days or weeks.

“What struck me about the people we met was that money wasn’t a thing. You’d meet someone and it was instantly about sharing. I think to be in that area, you have to be a really interesting person.”

Ginney carried a dry bag with her supplies and at the end of the day would write and visually record her experiences.

“We never looked at the whole journey. We never knew what was coming next.”

However, there were two rules to the adventure. “If it wasn’t fun we’d stop. It’s gotta be fun. The second rule was, we’d always stick together.”

Later, when facing particularly dangerous seas, they would add a new rule – “Choose the safe option. If any one of us were feeling uncertain. Choose the safe option.”

Asked about her inspiration to undertake such a daunting adventure, Ginney cited another book written by three Kiwis, “Unclaimed Coast” which she had read multiple times as a teenager. The book chronicles the adventures of three friends as they became the first persons to sea kayak around South Georgia Island. “I read it and re-read it over and over again and I always thought, ‘I’d like to make something like that.’ Ironically, Mark Jones, one of the authors of the book later contacted Ginney to seek advice about kayaking around Fiordland.

While her preferred academic subjects were maths, science, and art, Ginney admits that she is not a natural writer. “I am the least likely person to have written anything out of my class in school,” she stated. However, Ginney has found her work to be rewarding and is currently developing plans for a new book featuring art, stories, and of course lots of adventure.

Ginney Deavoll spoke at the third interview session of Meet the Authors as part of the Peninsula Writers Conference and was interviewed by Leo Magri.

Niva Kay, author, with interviewer Fabian Roberts, holding The Abundant Garden and The Abundant Kitchen.

An abundant gardener with an abundant kitchen

Niva Kay, alongside with her husband Yotam Kay, is the co-author of two books, The Abundant Garden and The Abundant Kitchen.

She is the founder of the award winning, Coromandel based, organic market garden and education centre, Pākaraka Permaculture. She is also a professional multi-disciplinarian who has worked in digital media, photography, film (establishing The Rebel Film Collective as well as producing/directing the film High Tide Don’t Hide) and is currently working on a PHD in video game design with an emphasis on sustainable futures.

“Everybody eats, it really does touch all of us,” says Niva who has travelled the world and worked at various organic food collectives and who spoke about the injustices and inefficiencies of various commercial food growing and distribution systems.

“We can learn how to produce things. We can advocate for ways of changing the food system but also at the same time, literally be growing soil and growing food.”

Originally Miss Kay had not thought about writing a book until she was approached by an Allen & Unwin publishing agent at one of her home gardening workshops where she had a pamphlet, and was asked if it could be turned into a book.

“Can you write it in three months?” “Sure,” replied Miss Kay to the amusement of the audience. Her and her husband eventually asked if they could take an extra month.

“It was pretty intense. We were writing like crazy. The good thing is there was two of us, so we basically tag teamed it. One person was writing while the other person was reviewing it. We were basically writing around the clock to meet the deadline.”

When speaking about the recipes in the books, Niva spoke about the challenges and importance of getting the measurements right for a wider audience.

“When I’m generally making food, I don’t know, I don’t usually follow a recipe, I often go by feel. But when writing a book you have to be on top of it. Everything has to be precise because you need to make sure that someone who doesn’t already know how to do it can follow your recipe and definitely get a good result.”

Currently Niva is focusing on her PhD with a heavy focus on a sustainable future. Without a doubt, a third installment to the Abundant series is highly anticipated.

Niva was one of our featured local authors in the Peninsula Writers Festival 2025. She was interviewed by Fabian Roberts as part of the ‘Interview the Authors’ series of the Peninsula Writers Festival.

The books written by these two local authors are available at Paper Plus, Whitianga.