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| A Land of Two Halves: An Accidental Tour of New Zealand | 
 enlarge | Author: Joe Bennett
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £2.10
You Save: £5.89 (74%)
New (32) from £2.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 3764
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 314
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 074326357X
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.3044
EAN: 9780743263573
ASIN: 074326357X
Publication Date: May 3, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Well there was one funny bit...... November 19, 2008
I think its the Daily Mail who describe this book as 'hilarious' - but its far from that I can assure you. I was expecting a lighthearted jaunt around the NZ islands but instead got the cynical ramblings from someone who has very little good to say about the country he has made his home for many years. I ploughed through it though and it was worth it when I did come across the funny bit just a chapter or so from the end. So if you're after a book to advise you on all the negative things to look out for then this is just the job, otherwise best avoided I think.....
 Great fun! Laughed my way through it. August 21, 2008
This is a great book. My kiwi wife has always told me going to Invercargill is no good idea. Now I understand why. Joe Bennet writes short sentences, underscoring the puns. That can be irritating, but I find it's great. Reading this book as a New Zealander may be hard going on your national pride, though. This book is more fun than Where Underpants Come from
 A badly written let down that does a beautiful country no justice. July 25, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
As I'm leaving for an extended working/travelling break in NZ I'm trying to poke my nose into as many books written about the country as possible.
This is one I wish I'd never picked up.
I'm not one to not finish a book I start so I literally had to slog, work and force my way through this awful effort from a man whos publisher must've had a hangover on the day he read the script and just waved it through without reading it himself.
The writing style of the book is somewhere between boring, depressing and downright hopeless. The grammar and structure are fine but nothing grabs you and in no way does the writer attempt to keep his audience.
New Zealand, from what I know of it, is one of the most beautiful places in the world... but Mr Bennett seems set on slating both the country and its people at every given turn, as well as 'bigging himself up' for doing his research and writing as a hitch hiker.
Why?
His method of travel and transport is absolutely pointless and takes over where description of land, sea and sights should be in abundance.
Overall, this is just an incredibly cringeworthy and hard to read book and Joe Bennett is a very poor Bill Bryson wannabee.
What a shame......... June 24, 2007
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Having visited NZ briefly and just about to take an extended trip, I dived into the book to pick up tips of 'off the beaten track delights'. Oh dear this book is dreadfull!! It gives you no 'must visit' tips just a long list of things wrong with NZ. Why of why did Joe move there in the first place? Far from being witty and funny as the reviews descibe, Joe does his best to persuade people not to visit the delights of NZ. Sorry Joe this doesn't work on me. In this conservation world this book is a waste of a tree.
 A hilarious and enlightening trip around New Zealand June 9, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Joe did, at 46, what others of his age would think the impossible; to tour the inaccessible vastness of New Zealand in the old traditional way - by hitching. His ability to achieve this feat (considering his age and self-stated physical disadvantages, and the dearth of traffic on many of the roads) is only surpassed by his witty, Bryson-like observations of the people that he met along the way. It really makes me want to pull out the old ruck sack and cardboard placard and head for the road. Let's have another one, Joe!
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