Detours - A Generation on

In Summer, 1981, a young Neville Peat set out from Cape Reinga on his new 10-speed bike Blue, aiming to cycle through the small towns of New Zealand from north to south, all the way to Stewart Island. The week before Easter, he reached his destination. He wrote a book about it, Detours: A Journey through Small-Town New Zealand, which sold many copies and was broadcast on the radio. Many times in the intervening years, usually on anniversaries of the journey, he wished to try a repeat journey, but life held other challenges. Now, as a leading author, and in the age of the personal computer and cell phone a very different world he has revisited many of the towns and regions, not on a bicycle, but by car. In Detours A Generation On, an opening essay reflects once again on how small-town New Zealand is doing, followed up by a reprint of the 80's classic account.