Thursday, June 09, 2011
My romantic suspense (Lethal Refuge) that I'm doing final edits for now, is set in the Auckland area of New Zealand. I've downloaded a couple of images of the area where it takes place. It's called the Waitakeres i.e. the Waitakere Hills outside Auckland. Okay, hard to say, huh? It's a Maori word that's pronounced "Whytackuray." That's the closest, as a European, I can get.
In Arthur Lydiard's coaching days (the great runner coach), good runners used the Waitakere Hills as an exacting weekend run. Hills like you wouldn't believe, not too much traffic if you start early enough, and bushland as far as the eye can see, dotted here and there with houses. That bushland is very, very thick. It's not like the Australian bush for example where you can see through sparse groups of gum trees. No, it's more like Canadian bushland. Believe me, you can easily get lost in bushland in New Zealand.
In LETHAL REFUGE, Celie runs away to evade a killer and ends up going round in circles in the Waitakere bushland. She comes very close to being killed there; in fact someone is killed, but it's not Celie.
In Arthur Lydiard's coaching days (the great runner coach), good runners used the Waitakere Hills as an exacting weekend run. Hills like you wouldn't believe, not too much traffic if you start early enough, and bushland as far as the eye can see, dotted here and there with houses. That bushland is very, very thick. It's not like the Australian bush for example where you can see through sparse groups of gum trees. No, it's more like Canadian bushland. Believe me, you can easily get lost in bushland in New Zealand.
