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South Pacific Press has collaborated with Awa Press to offer a special low-price package of 'The Great Earth Magnet' - print and interactive e-book editions - with 'North Pole, South Pole' for schools and families across New Zealand.

Awa mini-blog (Production HQ)

An old dog and some new tricks

13/ 4 / 10; 2:33:10 PM
Last week was a big one. Momentous. Having bought a new mountainbike at the start of the summer, I made the big switch to fancy shoes with cleats. Since then I've racked up more than a few bruises. Big, purple, painful bruises. I hate pain - almost as much as the fear of pain - but I've sucked it up, shed the odd tear, and shown the particularly gnarly ones off to my friends who can't quite work out whether I'm mad, bad, or admirable. Well, I'm declaring myself the latter, because I've stuck with it and last week it all came together in a superlative off-road escapade where I miraculously found myself capable of hopping over large rocks, squeezing at high speed along single-track with hairy drop-offs, and hurtling around tight, downhill right-handers without messing up my underpants. As I said to the lovely Lee, I felt like I was riding in someone else's body. Someone 20 and fearless. I'm currently editing Alastair Smith's Everyday Cycling - everything you need to know to ride safely and confidently, due out in July or August. I'm taking it all in - there's always room for improvement!

Stories from the great big ice block

31/ 8 / 09; 10:47:55 AM
I'm currently obsessed with all things Antarctic, which I guess is what happens when you work on two editions of the Antarctica Cruising Guide (new one out mid October).

I've just finished reading The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis, the story of the crew of Aurora - they who set out to lay supply depots for Shackleton's crossing of the white continent (the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17). Little did they know ....