High Hopes & Big Dreams

For High
Hopes and Big Dreams, Peter Janssen and Elizabeth Anderson set out to
profile 165 small historic towns, that had once flourished and have now faded.
But it turned out to be much more than a story of growth and decline because
the history of our small towns is linked to social and political change.

The rise
and fall of farming, ports, mining, timber and rail are common themes, but
there are stories of flourishing Maori communities, religious settlements,
ethnic groups and even a brewery town.

High Hopes
and Big Dreams tells the stories of high hopes and
bitter disappointment in small town New Zealand. Some have vanished completely, while other have now discovered a new
purpose and are again on the up.  The
human history of Aotearoa New Zealand is not, in the scheme of things, that
long. But it is our history and it makes us who we are for better or worse.

With a mix
of historic and contemporary photographs throughout, High Hopes and Big
Dreams is both a guidebook and a nod towards our tumultuous past.

Author Biography

Auckland writer Peter Janssen has
travelled and photographed extensively throughout New Zealand. He is the author
of A Walk a Day, Unexpected New Zealand, Excellent Short Walks
in the North Island and Excellent Short Walks in the South Island,
and New Zealand Pubs.

Elizabeth Anderson is a Senior Lecturer at Auckland University, and this
is her first book.