Sport, Travel & Leisure

Matt Calman's most consistent tool for dealing with problems throughout his life was alcohol. But it got to the stage where he was no longer willing to put up with the dark side of his drinking. So he quit. But the problems that had been simmering away for most of his life merely... came to a head. It led to a major depressive phase with panic attacks and thoughts of suicide. After reaching rock-bottom, Matt began the slow climb to rebuild himself with a much stronger foundation. Finally he was ready to find something, or for something to find him. It could have been anything. It just happened to be the Coast to Coast Multisport World Championships, the toughest endurance race in New Zealand. The Longest Day outlines Matt's path back from the depths of depression, his struggles to learn to run, cycle and kayak at an elite level, and the culmination of all that training: his Coast to Coast race. The book explores the parallels between the inner landscape (his journey to wellbeing) and the outer landscape (the world around him and tackling the Coast to Coast). Through his training he learns about process rather than outcome, and how true success and enjoyment is embedded in the journey (not the destination). Matt is a brave, honest writer with a talent for articulating what is going on inside his head.
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Funny, honest, confronting, wise, this is a compelling and bitter-sweet true story of breaking up and breaking through. 'I hear you're divorced?' a friend greets me. 'Congratulations!' The Divorce Diaries outlines the difficult and often heart-breaking process of leaving a marria...ge and beginning again. Sarah Quigley has garnered numerous accolades, including Column of the Year in the MPA Awards, for her magazine articles on the subject. Now she revisits the tumultuous months leading up to exiting her marriage - and the equally confusing emotions that follow. Living in a tiny rooftop apartment, surrounded by glossy millionaire neighbours. Overcoming grief, guilt and regret, while learning to enjoy being alone again. Taking the first tentative steps into a changed world of dating. Quigley shares both her darkest and most hilarious moments as a divorcee, all played out against the colourful bohemian backdrop of her adopted city, Berlin. Ultimately, this book traces rediscovering a belief in love.
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The New Zealand All Blacks are one of the most recognisable and formidable teams on the world sporting stage. They are the record setters, the keepers of tradition, and the icons of the game of Rugby Union. They have been the benchmark for skill and execution ever since the oval ...shaped ball first arrived on New Zealand's shores, and are a team the rest of the world aspire to beat. They also hold the most victories of any Test nation, and the best win percentage overall, and can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder alongside some of the greatest sporting teams in the world of any code.Much has been written about the All Blacks and their legacy, but in this one book you get the full picture the Tests, the players, the results and the history - recollecting those memorable moments and marvelling at the exploits of some of world-famous All Blacks. From the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987, when it was still an amateur game, through to their record-breaking exploits in 2016 at the height of professionalism, the All Blacks have enjoyed one of the highest levels of sporting success in the world. But the modern era is not the whole story.The New Zealand Rugby Companion fills in the essential gaps, provides the historic context and completes the total picture for all rugby lovers. Up to including the 2019.
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The seat of the Trelawney family for over 700 years, Trelawney Castle was once the jewel of the Cornish coast. Each successive Earl spent with abandon, adding and extending, turning the house and grounds into a sprawling, extravagant palimpsest of wings, turrets and follies. But ...as the centuries passed the Earls of Trelawney, their senses and ambition dulled by generations of pampered living, failed to develop other skills. Now in 2008 the house - its paintings and furniture sold off to pay death duties, its grounds diminished, the gardens choked with weeds - has begun to resemble its owners: faded, crumbling, and out-of-date. A relic. A remnant. A folly. Jane, the dowdy, unhappy wife of the current Earl, Kitto, scraping a life for her children and in-laws in a few draughty rooms of the big house, is trapped by Trelawney Castle; and Blaze, Kitto's sister, making a killing in the City - and a complete turkey of her personal life - is exiled from it. Long-estranged, the two women are brought back together when a letter arrives; and soon after it, an unwelcome young guest. Grudgingly reunited by this strange turn of events, Blaze and Jane must band together to take charge of their new charge - and save the house of Trelawney. With formidable sharpness, delicious irreverence and a very wicked wit, House of Trelawney is a glorious send-up of recession Britain and its carnival of bastard bankers, down-at-heel toffs, reality TV gawkers and clipboard-wielding local planning authorities; an eccentric and radiant gem of a satire that asks how we are connected, what we owe to one another, and how to carry on existing in a world which has outgrown us.
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For a short time in the 1980s NZ had its very own supercar, the Heron MJ1. This is the story of Ross Baker, an A-Grade mechanic from Rotorua, who designed and built the car and whose vision and persistence led to it going into production.