A fifth-generation New Zealander, Christine Cole Catley has forebears from England and Scotland and a Swedish great-grandfather. Most of them were sheep farmers and she grew up on a North Island sheep farm not far from the small town named after another of her great-grandfathers, James Bull. It is 'the only place where you can get milk from Bulls'. She went to university in the South Island, spent most of her working life in Wellington as a journalist, advertising copywriter (it was she who came up with the name kiwiberry), television critic, broadcaster and teacher of journalism, then went south again. Now based in Auckland she writes, runs writers' workshops, reads, works as a book publisher, gardens, and goes out on the water whenever she can - that's when she's not travelling. Her three children all live overseas, and she is on her fifth passport. Simon Nicholson grew up in Rotorua, where a good deal of his early life was occupied with providing instruction on the art of riding Rotorua's famous 'luge'. He also became expert at constructing ad hoc travel itineraries for tourists eager to see as much of New Zealand as possible inside 10 days. At present on his Overseas Experience completing doctoral work in Washington, D.C., he spends his free time fielding questions about The Lord of the Rings, and searching for bars that screen rugby matches.