Rating: 
Summary: I'm not a fan of travel writing, but ...
Review: I found this to be an interesting book. If you want to learn all about New Zealand, its flora and fuana, or great "tramps" (hikes, for you and me), this isn't the book for you. However, it is an enjoyable light read, giving the reader interesting snapshots of life in NZ. Stevenson meets some interesting people along his journey and I found the way in which he shares their stories much more engaging than most of his descriptions of his walks in the woods. Yes, at times the book strains credulity and some of the characters may seem a bit cliche, but I, too, stood in wonder of many of the situations he encounters. Ultimately what comes through is that New Zealand is a land both unlike any other and exactly like home, too.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not a fan of travel writing, but ...
Review: I found this to be an interesting book. If you want to learn all about New Zealand, its flora and fuana, or great "tramps" (hikes, for you and me), this isn't the book for you. However, it is an enjoyable light read, giving the reader interesting snapshots of life in NZ. Stevenson meets some interesting people along his journey and I found the way in which he shares their stories much more engaging than most of his descriptions of his walks in the woods. Yes, at times the book strains credulity and some of the characters may seem a bit cliche, but I, too, stood in wonder of many of the situations he encounters. Ultimately what comes through is that New Zealand is a land both unlike any other and exactly like home, too.
Rating: 
Summary: tells it like it is
Review: I really enjoyed reading this account of a person's journey. So many travelogues leave me wondering who the author really is and I find Andrew Stevenson's honest writing of his emotions provides an extra dimension that adds interest to what is a poetic description of a journey through New Zealand. I like his sense of humor, his perspective on adventure tourism and the threats it poses to the 'wilderness'. There were times when I laughed aloud, and others when I was moved by the stories of the characters he meets. For me anyway, this is the kind of travelogue I would like to read.
Rating: 
Summary: fwoggy
Review: I really enjoyed reading this account of a person?s journey. So many travelogues leave me wondering who the author really is and I find Andrew Stevenson's honest writing of his emotions provides an extra dimension that adds interest to what is a poetic description of a journey through New Zealand. I like his sense of humor, his perspective on adventure tourism and the threats it poses to the 'wilderness'. There were times when I laughed aloud, and others when I was moved by the stories of the characters he meets. For me anyway, this is the kind of travelogue I would like to read.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting insights that are hard to find on NZ
Review: I sometimes love this book and sometimes I really don't. Basically, the author can come off as a egocentric man who is not only suffering froma broken heart but never lets us forget. I really don't need detail about the relationship he had with some woman. However it did shape the path of his trip and the decisions he made to go off on his own or meet up with other travelers. His comments sometimes were arrogent and insecure and uninteresting. He is heartbroken and his view of New Zealand is often solem and depressing because of it. He was not in the right frame of mind to write a book I think.I do enjoy this book at times because I am new to New Zealand and I am interested in his observations of Kiwis and the country. The book is a great concept but I think they should have got someone else to write it.
Rating:
Summary: Where is New Zealand heading?
Review: I very much recommend Andrew Stevenson's "Kiwi Tracks," equally well for those who do and do not know personally New Zealand's natural and cultural landscape and her Great Walks. I myself fall somewhat in between these categories - having explored the South Island only, during some six visits in the last 20 years, always tramping, always in awe.
He tells well how the Great Walks (the term had not existed in my early tramps) have turned from a few persons in lonely huts to nearly hundreds of packed-in campers on solo or guided tours -in just a few short decades. Also his South Island walks were unusually impaired by a massive snow storm and so come across a bit off-putting.
Stevenson gave me the best-yet view of what I have been missing in the North Island ("away from the Mainland," as he quips).
Overall, his book is a beautiful, honest, and detailed travel narrative (thank goodness for someone taking the time to name by name the many fauna and flora experienced). But it is markedly canted by his own ah, delicate emotional state during the journey. The book's dust jacket warns us: "... whatever you have in your rucksack, the heaviest baggage is what you carry inside." Stevenson's emotional center of mass during his trip clearly is located a bit outside himself and he is prone to tip over emotionally during the journey. His honesty about this both hurts and helps the narrative - it does give the reader a reference point: The author is working hard to discover that which is truly important to himself in his journey, as well as puzzling over that same question for New Zealand - the colonist vs. native Maori views of national politics, natural heritage, and future directions.
While relating the pristine and inutterably amazing natural beauty of this land, not the least being the almost inconceivable human innocence and generosity of its citizens, he gives us a tutorial in NZ's basic dilemma. When he asks a fellow tramper to quote the best and worst of his travels: [I paraphrase] "The worst is to see the landscape so corrupted by commercialism so quickly." (You can guess - the bus tours, helicopters, jet boats, egregious mountain re-landscaping.) "The best is that New Zealand is still so unbelievable beautiful." This echoed within me, watching once-quiet towns transformed at the snap of a dollar into teaming Disneylands.
Stevenson shows us, by example(s), of how New Zealand transforms and helps its visitors. A German therapist suggests that tramping holds more value than health insurance premiums. I am inclined to agree.
Of the highest value to me in the book is that Stevenson gives us some great insight into the NZ national values debate (still-ongoing) contrasting (via his hitchhiker's car-cabin testimonies) the views of the progeny of the more recent Western, rough-hewn pioneers against the natural spiritualism of
Maoris, who also gave him rides, and to whom he related more. He shows us that the people of New Zealand must finally listen to the Maori, and strive to preserve their naturalist vision (in the face of adventure bungee-jumping tourism). Between the lines, he shows us that the dialog must go both ways,
especially when facing the World's money, foreign buyers and the touristic denizens of the new millennium.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible and enjoyable read. Highly recommended.
Review: If you've ever been to New Zealand, the accurate and vivid descriptions in this book will bring back beautiful memories and make you laugh out loud at times. If you're planning to visit, reading this book will leave you thirsting to find out more about the NZ countryside and culture for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my book
Review: Kiwi Tracks is a chronical of the author's journey throughout New Zealand. To a limited degree, he describes the great NZ outdoors, including an account of his experience on the Milford Track. Sadly, this book suffers from the author's apparent lack of focus. He appears to want to write about the beauty of NZ; yet, he frequently writes epics on his criticizms of those around him. Unfortunately for me, the author's knee-slapping humor didn't overshadow his morose tone. Although intended to be a chonological diary, I think the author left too much out. I found myself asking for more information related to his experiences with the Maori, New Zealanders and the tracks themselves. The book would merit from a rewrite that includes more details; many of the author's ideas are lost in the myre of too little information to paint a solid picture. If you are looking for a travel guide to plan a trek in New Zealand, this is not the best place to start. I highly recommend the Lonely Planet Tramping in New Zealand (4th Ed) by Jim Dufresne as an alternative. On the other hand, if you are looking for an easy reading chrononical of a man in time of transition, this might be your book.
Rating:
Summary: Would you like some cheese with that?
Review: The author makes up for all the whining about his failed relationship, how lonely he is, the jetboats on the quiet "wilderness" rivers, and how the Maoris got their land stolen from them (all of which may actually be true), by submitting the reader to weak metaphors, tiresome stereotypes (his and others) and exaggerations. In fact, the only reason I continued reading the book was to see if the author would break out of his (and my) depression by getting romantic with one of the two women he ran into on the trail. Unfortunately (for me and perhaps him, too) the sad tone continued to the end, and although the ending was poetic, it and the book, left me unimpressed and unfulfilled.
Rating: 
Summary: Islands magazine review
Review: This great review is running in the April issue Under New Zealand is so picture-perfect that lots of visitors- including travel writers- can't get past the stunning surface beauty. That's why it's a particular pleasure to open the pages of Kiwi track, Andrew Stevenson's wryly affectionate recollection of his four-month backpacking exploration of the Land of the Long White Cloud. Whether he's enduring a regimented stop-and-go hike on the sodden Milford Track or comparing pakeha (white) and Maori complaints about each other, Stevenson is equipped with an experienced traveler's stark terror he never loses his sense of humor. Funny, perceptive, irreverent yet sympathetic, Kiwi Tracks is both informative and a delight to read. *Sorry, Andrew! The press release says you're Canadian! Amy Hunter Publicity Manager Lonely Planet USA 150 Linden Street Oakland CA 9460
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