And Off He Went

Teenage geek John Cargib escapes school bullying in 2011 to hit the road, meeting living and dead Kiwi legends on a hikoi (trek) along New Zealand’s (Aotearoa) highways and byways. He learns from meeting the ghosts of Kiwi heroes and heroines—Edmund Hillary, Katherine Mansfield, Kate Sheppard, David Lange, Charles Upham V.C., and many more, plus living legends like Peter Jackson, Richie McCaw, Suzanne Prentice and even the Mongrel Mob. John loses his virginity and falls love in an Opunake movie theatre and meets his swagger hero, legendary Otago swagman Barney Whiterats. A book launch witnesses strange cultural, sexual, and literary conflicts amongst ghosts drawn from the last century.

Two Kiwi heroes ghosts manage to shock everyone. A little bit of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Maeve Binchy’s tales of small-town life, the book is a Baby Boomer walk through New Zealand history.