Down South

From the Curio Bay to the Golden Bay, in Down South writer Bruce Ansley sets off on a vast expedition across the South Island. Te Waipounamu, visiting the places and people who hold the clues to the south’s famous character.Not so very long ago, the South Island had most of New Zealand’s people and just about all of the money. Gold minders found fortune in the hills and rivers while sheep barons straddled mountains, valleys and plains. Wealthy southerners ruled the government. Where now lies the South Island’s golden fleece? And what is its future?

Bruce Ansley is one of New Zealand's pre-eminent storytellers. For more than two decades he was a writer for New Zealand Listener, before becoming a full-time author in 2007. He has held fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and has won a number of journalism awards. He is author of ten books, including Coast: A New Zealand Journey which won Best Illustrated Non-fiction Book at the New Zealand Post Book Awards in 2014. His other books include A Fabled Land: The Story of Canterbury's Famous Mesopotamia Station and Wild Roads: A New Zealand Journey. He loves tramping and has roamed the South Island's back country. For many years he lived in a tiny traditional bach in Golden Bay, and once built a house in the far reaches of Pelorus Sound. He has worked as a commercial fisherman in Fiordland and as a deer farmer on Banks Peninsula, but has also called each of the four main cities home. On a good day he can usually be found out on the water in his Norwegian motor sailer, but his favourite occupation is simply poking around New Zealand, which he regards as the wildest, most beautiful, most romantic country in the world. Ansley has three sons and lives with his wife Sally on Waiheke Island. Kevin Keys is an Auckland-based performer. He has a background in music and acting with a BA in theatre and a BMus in performance trombone from Victoria University. He writes and presents scripts for orchestral education concerts for various New Zealand ensembles and for Radio New Zealand Concert. He has written two plays – Fact and Fable, a one-man story of ark-based obsession, co-written with Jamie Standen; and Desperate Antics, an ensemble work specifically designed for a large youth theatre cast.

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