Review by David Hall

It is a long way from the bottom to the top of the south Island by car let alone by kayak, bike and foot. Yet in 2012 Ginney Deavoll and partner Tyrell Browne kayaked from Te Waewae Bay to Jackson Bay, then cycled to Otira and walked to Farewell Spit. It took them three months, travelling around 2000km, and was a revealing time for a couple of relatively novice adventurers. They did it with minimal support, certainly financially, with family and friends and a large number of people they met along the way providing help and encouragement.

Neither were hardened sea kayakers, although they’d paddled from Hahei on the coromandel Peninsula out to Great Barrier Island and then up to Houhora in Northland in 2009 and believed this to be adequate preparation for kayaking around the southwest of the South Island, up the unpoplutated and decided dangerous Fiordland coast. Neither were they road touring cyclists and Ginney’s feet erupted into blisters almost as soon as they began the walk from Otira, carrying packs, that for Ginney ‘was a boulder weighing me down’ – and they had 500km of walking to go. This is a book about a journey and, let’s face it, there’s a few such books around, but this one is set apart – miles apart – by the talent of the writer, Ginney, who puts it all down as events occur. There is no ego to it, Ginney tells of as many failures as success, as many moments of fear and apprehension as exhilaration in a rather impish, yet questioning acceptance of the extra special world these two found themselves in.

She describes times in the kayak, launches and landings in boisterous or slack water, an inquisitive shark, when to pee, or not to pee with the same calm observation. Partner Tyrell she depicts as the strong, silent type braving sharks, seals and beach landings and launchings, whilst proving himself a fisherman / woodchopper / provider supreme, catching the evening meal seemingly at will, finding fuel for a fire, carrying Ginney across rivers and both egging each other on up never-ending hill climbs, on bike and foot.

The photography is excellent with some beautifully composed images, but the writing, the photography, even the reason for the journey and the record itself, pale alongside Ginney’s true talent which will be the reason many people buy this book. She is an artist of some considerable standing and her paintings of the journey, scattered throughout the book, are exquisite. Gazing at these paintings is a reader’s highlight, somehow private, yet, of course, public, especially as alongside them Ginney tells why she chose that gannet, paua shell, coastline, albatross wing, high country lake, tussock field. The paintings alone are worth the price of the book. So, a written, pictorial and painted reminiscence of a journey that became a challenge, perhaps much greater than either of them could have imagined. At the beginning at Te Waewae Bay, Ginney had sat in her kayak awaiting launching. “My heart hammered in my chest, my skin tingled and butterflies partied wildly in my stomach. Were we being reckless?”

At the end, standing at Cape Farewell, she reminisces over the past months realising that “each day had been a ‘finish’ in itself. We celebrated our successes, always excited when we could paddle, pedal or walk off the end of a map and whisk out the next.” One wonders what will be printed on their next map.