A Land Of Two Halves - Joe Bennett

After ten years in New Zealand, Joe Bennett asked himself what on earth he was doing there. Other than his dogs, what was it about these two small islands on the edge of the world that had kept him - an otherwise restless traveller - for really much longer than they seemed to deserve? Bennett thought he'd better pack his bag and find out. Hitching around both the intriguingly named North and South Islands, with an eye for oddity and a taste for conversation, Bennett began to remind himself of the reasons New Zealand is quietly seducing the rest of the world.



I was looking forward to reading this book, having not much knowledge of the land of New Zealand I wanted to find out from someone who had travelled it, what the place was really like and if it was different from how I imagined it.  However this book was of a slight disappointment.

Bennett hitchhiked across the country and stopped off in many small towns.  The south island being a lot more quite and country side than the north.  However it seemed he did a lot more in cars than in each area, and a lot of the time he would get dropped in a town then head straight back on the road.  When he did eventually stop he did not much exploring, he didn't want to visit any tourist attractions, take any tours and any amazing views he took in he got bored after five minutes and moved on.  Infact the only thing he seemed to enjoy was to stop in a bar get drunk and wake up in some odd position with the door open to his motel room.

The writing style, seemed a bit dreary and a bit slow and i found it very hard to get involved with the story or even warm to his character.  He found it difficult to describe his surroundings and every place he stopped seemed like the previous.  I wanted to like this book but just did not enjoy it very much.