I purchased Slipping into Paradise on the recommendation of a friend since I am planning a trip to New Zealand. Now that I have finished the book and am closer to my travels I find that I have very mixed responses to the publication and continue to be very excited about seeing "Paradise" first hand.
The Author is from the United States and is just 4 years older than me which makes connecting with the writing an interesting experience. I like his chatty form - he uses and it is an interesting book, but not the book I expected.
Photo from Amazon site.
His opening section talking about all the places he has lived and his opinions of various cultures and countries might be interesting in some context, but not this one. I wanted to slip in to paradise - not dwell on old wrongs, things he did not like about France, Germany, England and other places where he has lived his globe trotting life. I was not interested in his background with psychology and his personal history - I wanted to read about New Zealand.
Those backgrounds might give another reader pleasure and provide context for his discussions about New Zealand, but what I really enjoyed and what I recommend is his visit with Sir Edmund Hillary - New Zealand's international star and the first to climb Everest. It is the personality that comes out that makes me warm to both Hillary and the New Zealander.
Second is the chapter on the plants and birds of the island. It is the fact that this natural abundance, what is left of two of the most fascinating natural history islands on the planet, meant so much to him, despite that fact that he did not come as a botanist or bird watcher that is telling. Since I am coming as both it means that the beauty and diversity is still there despite the human propensity for destruction. The 800+ years of human habitation is still among the shortest of island development and the land forms isolation would have made it worthy of Darwin's inspiration for evolution.
The author provides a concise history of the island nation and mixes the European and the Moari, but he also points out that he was asked not to tell the more personal story of the Maori - they have had enough non-Moari try to do that already.
At the end he provides insights into his own travels, the places he likes, his perspective on the places he encounters and that is as close to a travel guide as it gets.
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