I recently completed a Storylines tour of the Wairarapa visiting schools in the region including Palmerston North. The tour was led by the marvellous Rosemary Tisdell and our driver, Peter Mercer. My fellow writers were writer / illustrator Paul Beavis from Porirua and Sarah Ell and Pamela Morrow from Auckland. They were great company and we had a terrific if packed time visiting often far flung and sometimes quite small rural schools. There was a lot of travelling each day. Apart from the first night in Palmy, we were based in Masterton. The tour lasted Monday to Friday and we were scheduled individually to visit three schools each day although not necessarily the same school so it was something of a logistical Rubik's cube for Rosemary & Peter. All went very well, no glitches, and the schools were warm and welcoming and the staff and kids were great. The only downside negatively pour moi was my testing positive for COVID immediately on my return to Wellington. Luckily, my fellow travellers all managed to avoid the foul pest.
Here I am talking about Under the Rotunda to a group at Kahutara School.
Here is the team outside Martinborough School (with friendly Wairarapa border collie: from left Paul Beavis, Pamela Morrow, Sarah Ell, me.