Take an epic journey along New Zealand s most dangerous, infamous, remote and remarkable roads. From spectacular coastal highways to frightening alpine passes, back-country bullies to treasured pathways, these are the roads that dictate the terms of everyday life in New Zealand. Wild Roads features 60 of our wildest routes sometimes a pleasure to drive, other times unpredictable, exposed and treacherous . . . As the author says, this is not a guide, or a history. It is a story of New Zealand roads and, through them, other stories which show that we re a nation of contrasts. The roads have been chosen not just because they are wild, but because they are wildly beautiful, or lonely, or interesting. The author has driven over them all most are accessible by the average car, with only a few demanding something more rugged. Become a tourist in this nation of remarkable wild roads, taking the more indirect and mysterious routes the high roads, long and winding roads, slow roads, low roads, by-roads, roads to somewhere and roads to nowhere . . .

Author Biography

Bruce Ansley s love of New Zealand roads goes back to a boyhood often spent crammed into a Ford Zephyr as his large family cruised far and wide. Slips, washouts, precipitous grades and roads sometimes hardly more than tracks were just part of the day s drive. Since then, a lifetime as a writer much of it for the New Zealand Listener has taken him to every corner of the country. A full-time author since 2007, Wild Roads is his eighth book. His previous book Coast- A New Zealand Journey won a New Zealand Post Book Award in 2014. He now lives on Waiheke Island with his wife Sally and remains addicted to the sense of freedom that comes from being on the road.