Sitka is different. And yet it isn’t. When I first arrived here, it appeared strange, foreign. And yet curiously familiar. Perhaps because I was a stranger in a foreign land, I was looking for anything that would link me back to my beloved Aotearoa. The mountains encircling the town seemed remarkably like Fordland, the sound [...]

For the first time in a fortnight (or maybe it is the second), the sun comes out. As I glance down at the skunk cabbage at my feet, uncharacteristic black markings lie across the leaves. I look at it for a moment, somewhat stunned by the strangeness of what I am seeing. Then I realise [...]

 Kia ora tatou I have been in training. After a lifetime of being owned by cats, I am free now. I do not have to come at their beck and call. For all their larger-than-life personalities and unique character traits (Beastly was just that, a cunning tormenter of the local dogs, especially smaller ones ,and [...]