In 1951, an 18-year-old Kiwi lad named Tony Armit decided to build a 28-foot wooden yacht. Three years later, he christened her Marco Polo, then with a former school rugby mate, Brian ‘Tig’ Loe, set sail from Auckland on an epic voyage... and whatever adventure may await. In the process, Tony and Tig became the first New Zealanders to circumnavigate the globe.

Tony always intended to write a book, and now – about 70 years later – he has, telling the story here for the first time in full – a vital addition to New Zealand’s proud sailing heritage.
Through near disaster, good fortune, storm and calm, it's a yarn full of humour, drama, can-do Kiwism, romance and adventure, as Tig, Tony and Marco experience the world as it was in the 1950s.
First heading to Australia, then across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, round the Cape, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, North America, the Panama Canal, the Galápagos, the Pacific Islands – and points between – encountering a host of colourful and unique characters along the way.

NZ$45.00 + delivery.

An off-grid house on Aotea Great Barrier Island promises to fulfil one man’s dreams, but he discovers to his cost that nothing can be taken for granted.

Award-winning science writer and advocate for the wilderness Tim Higham, has written a memoir that draws inspiration from some of the great nature writers, while establishing his own distinctive and informed voice and a sense of place that could only be Aotearoa.

Part Man Alone, part love story, Island Notes explores questions of belonging, loss and impermanence and whether the life, seas and forests of a wild island can offer a reconciliation with our past.

NZ$35.00 + delivery.

But a diagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis) threatened his world. He kept it secret and was strategist in two more America’s Cups. In 2012 Rick co-founded Kiwi Gold Sailing to compete at the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games.

Storms Ahead – Rick Dodson: America’s Cup Champion to Paralympian is a story of determination and relentless optimism, written by award-winning yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter. Including interviews with Sir Russell Coutts and other members of Team New Zealand, it captures the extraordinary mateship that won the America’s Cup in 1995 and 2000, and was a major factor in Rick Dodson’s Paralympian campaign.

NZ$40.00 + delivery.

When New Zealand ocean racing skipper Ross Field retired from professional sailing, he was already looking for his next, unusual adventure. In a dusty boatyard in France, he bought a 20-year-old aluminium yacht. She was a mess, but he knew the yacht was immensely strong. Ross named her Rosemary, refitted her for the high latitudes and set his sights on the Northwest Passage.

Yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter followed his refit in detail, and then she signed on as crew.

In this book, Rebecca recounts life on board, the highs and lows of ocean cruising, and her own personal challenges.
She shares Ross's war stories from famous yacht races, laughs at his jokes and observes his boat handling skills in the storms of the North Atlantic.

The central part of the story is set in the chilling vastness of Greenland Fjords: icebergs, whales and 'fishing boats that munch growlers for breakfast'

Rebecca also shares excerpts from Sheila in the Wind, written by her father Adrian Hayter, who sailed around the world single-handed in the 1950s and 60s. He set sail out of desperation with virtually no sailing knowledge, navigating by sextant, communicating ship-to-ship by Morse code.
It’s a poignant juxtaposition to Rebecca’s experience, sailing with one of New Zealand’s most experienced ocean skippers, with instant navigation, communication and highly skilled in weather routing technology to avoid North Atlantic storms.

NZ$40.00 + delivery.

A few words from Sir Graham Henry in the forword to this memoir...
Peter'Penguin' Blackwell to his mates. Why 'Penguin?', well, he has the body of a penguin, walks like a penguin and loves the sea - like a penguin. So penguin he is....

Peter is a descendant of one of early settler families- The Blackwells. He grew up on the island and has been a long standing member of the community all his life.
His book is laced with fantastic stories of his early days on Great Barrier Island, tales of where his Barrier 'can do' attitude has taken him and the unequivocal changes the island and NZ have seen throughout his lifetime.

This is a marvellous, highly illustrated memoir (part history)with many wonderful photographs.
Immensely readable and a joy to read, Peter pulls no punches and calls a spade a spade...We loved it!

Was NZ$45.00 + delivery.
Now NZ$35.00 + delivery.

"This book is written primarily for dreamers, and they don't mind if a man can write or not as long as the facts are there. It is written for the man who works in a city office and dreams about sparkling blue waters and coconut palms and white sails bellying to the warm trade-winds. It will, perhaps, show him how it is possible to break away from the ties of civilization, build himself a boat and sail in her wherever he wills. I was a dreamer once, but now my dreams have come true, and I am satisfied and happy." ~ excerpt from the preface of South Sea Vagabonds by Johnny Wray

When unemployed Aucklander Johnny Wray wrote and published South Sea Vagabonds in 1939 he probably had no idea of the effect his story would have on generations of New Zealand back-yard sailors. The book charted his building of the 35 foot yacht Ngataki in his backyard from materials scavenged throughout the city, his cruises around the Hauraki Gulf and subsequently with crews of young New Zealanders, his adventures in the South Pacific, cruising the Islands, racing, trading, even hunting for treasure.

Johnny’s tale of those adventures, South Sea Vagabonds, is funny and unafraid. Not surprisingly, it was an instant success. Four editions and seventy five years later the book is fondly remembered and often sought

Johnny died on Waiheke Island in 1986 but the legend he created for New Zealand sailors lives on: with spirit and determination they can do anything. The Ngataki survived, number eight wire and all, and has been restored by the Tino Rawa Trust.

NZ$30.00 + delivery.

Top quality blue-grey T- Shirt featuring the NGATAKI (Johnny Wray/ South Sea Vagabonds) line drawing on the back and Tino Rawa Trust and NGATAKI Logo on the front. Plus Johnny Wray's Rum and Boat Books logo on the sleeves.

Available sizes:

Womens Classic: Small & Medium
Mens Classic: Small, Medium, Large, XL, 2XL

(Please specify required size on the order form. Note that the sizing is 'generous')

NZ$40.00 + delivery.

NZ$35.00 + delivery.

Passages is a personal, yet universal story of a life in harmony with nature. When Linda Trubridge, her husband David, and their two small boys, Sam and William, bought a yacht called Hornpipe and set sail for tropical waters, they cast off from all security.
So began a nomadic adventure when they had to depend on their own resources, navigating by the sun and stars.

This beautifully illustrated book presents a thrillingly honest, yet poetic reflection on the challenges of fulfilling a dream, as seen from a mother's perspective. Those ocean passages were a non stop roller coaster ride: "There were times when they plunged into the deepest trough of the wave and there were times when they rode, in exhilaration, the highest crest".

NZ$40.00 + delivery.

NZ$35.00 + delivery.

Sailing form New Plymouth (New Zealand) to Mooloolaba near Brisbane (Australia) it has spawned a rich harvest of great stories from the athletes, eccentrics, daredevils, sportspeople and visionaries who have competed, including the first woman to compete in a singlehanded ocean race and, somewhat confusingly, a one-legged, singlehanded sailor.

The races have been both exhilarating and terrifying. There have been a number of dramatic rescues, a stranding on Middleton Reef and several boats have been lost.

Every race is covered and most chapters include race participants’ own accounts of their race. Readers are given an insight into what makes people want to sail alone across one of the roughest pieces of water in the world and how individual skippers have tackled loneliness and the practical aspects of sailing, as well as cooking, keeping dry and finding time to sleep.

Lindsay Wright has been Secretary of the Race Organising Committee since 2006. He is also a former race entrant but had to abandon the race after suffering serious damage to his small yacht from hitting a whale. He has raced yachts out of Wellington, sailed round Cape Horn and worked as a professional raving skipper in the Caribbean. He has worked on oilrig supply vessels, as skipper of research ships, on seismic survey vessels, Greenpeace vessels and as a yacht and fishing boat delivery skipper. He is the author of Blue Water (see entry below), Red Sails, No Sunset and numerous articles for Boating New Zealand, Trade A Boat, NZ Listener, North and South and overseas magazines. He and his partner Kay live aboard their yacht Southern Cross.

$40.00 + delivery.

This collection of stories includes a novella inspired by a lifetime of sailing adventures and misadventures.
Lindsay Wright is a sailor whose love of the sea has brought him back time and time again, despite mishap, mayhem and the occasional life-threatening disaster.
A book for those with saltwater in their veins, this personal selection is the perfect book to take on board - or to read at home when you can't make it to the sea.
In all, a collection of 23 autobiographical stories from Lindsay Wright's working life as a professional yachtsman, delivery skipper, charter skipper and shipmaster.

NZ$45.00 + delivery.

Kiwi yachtsman Graeme Kendall was the first person to sail the Northwest Passage solo non-stop. Sailing east to west, he knocked off the "Everest of sailing" in just 12 days - the fastest recorded - as part of his extraordinary solo circumnavigation of the globe. This is a story of determination, meticulous planning and rugged courage. All alone for 193 days in his purpose-built yacht Astral Express, Kendall crossed 28,000 miles of ocean, facing some of the Earth's most terrifying seas. An enthralling adventure, To The Ice And Beyond is an inspiration to all of us to live our dreams, and never to give up.

Graeme Kendall MNZM (Member of the New Zealand order of merit) is a highly experienced sailor who has sailed in many different parts of the world, including ocean racing. Born in Christchurch, he has sailed since he was a teenager and as an adult has owned several well-known classic heritage yachts including Galatea and Pastime. In 1986 he sailed in the Whitbread Round the World Race with Digby Taylor aboard NZI Enterprise. The following year Graeme and his friend Stan Pearson sailed his yacht Astral Rose in the inaugural two-handed Melbourne-to-Osaka race. He has been self-employed since the age of 25, with a business career that culminated in farming and residential property. Graeme currently lives in Auckland where he is a charter yacht skipper. His boyhood dream has always been to sail solo through the Northwest Passage.

NZ$35.00 + delivery.

This story is not so much about the weathering of storms rather than it details the day to day lives of the couple and how they dealt with the wins and losses that go with the cruising life. A good 'splash' of nautical fare is documented with an equal sum of the 'down & dirty' life of living in a foreign port, town and city. There are many characters depicted that shape and influence their lives both aboard and ashore, (and for better and for worse). This is a factual account written in a style that is endearing, honest, and often just out and out funny!

After the circumnavigation, Te Kaitoa skippered by Geoff Nevill's stepson Richard Raea, and with a crew of six, she joined the 1995 flotilla protesting French Nuclear testing at Muroroa.

Te Kaitoa now lies at Gulf Harbour and is owned by Grant Stone. who helped his father build her.

NZ$45.00 + delivery.

JUST SEA & SKY
By Ben Pester, Softback, 0.26kg, 129mm x 198mm, 192 pages. Full colour and black & white photographs. Reprinted 2011.

Ben Pester’s enchanting account of his epic voyage from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 provides a fascinating glimpse into the bygone age of traditional seamanship. Without the modern luxuries we take for granted today, Ben and his crew, Peter Fox, set off with no onboard radio, GPS, electronics or even cabin lights, lifejackets or liferaft. Instead, they embarked on their 14,000-mile voyage aboard the 39ft gaff yawl Tern II relying solely on hand steering, cranking the engine by hand and navigating with sextant, oil lamps and torches.
As Tern II made her way around the world ben and Peter stumbled across drunken harbourmasters, encountered the mafia, witnessed the legacy of slavery and experienced lost civilisations in the Pacific. This delightfully personal and very engaging account is a true adventure story, told in captivating detail and enriched with colour photographs and route maps of the voyage.
Just Sea & Sky shows how it was, and still is, possible to appreciate the simple pleasures of traditional sailing without the complications of modern-day equipment. It will enchant the landlubber and transport today’s sailor back into the different world of only a few decades ago.

NZ$25.00 + delivery.

It is about life on board their 'tiny ship' Starlight, calling into beautiful exotic ports, and indeed one or two hell holes.
But Barbara describes the extraordinary places and wildlife they encountered - from undisturbed remains of WWII Japanese submarines and zeroes to grizzly bears gorging themselves on salmon. It is a story of friendships formed and extraordinarily genereous locals who helped them along the way.

NZ$50.00 + delivery.

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BOOKSELLER AT THE END OF THE WORLD
By Ruth Shaw. Hardback, 0.47Kg, 140mm x 220mm, 320 pages, full colour photographs, published 2022.

Ruth Shaw weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops(In Manapouri), musings about her favourite books, and bittersweet stories from her full and varied life before bookshops.
She sailed through the Pacific for years, was held up by pirates, worked at Sydney's King's Cross with drug addicts and prostitutes, campaigned on numerous environmental issues, and worked the yacht Breaksea Girl as an expedition/tourist boat with her husband, Lance.

But underlining all her wanderings and adventures are some very deep losses and long-held pain. Balancing that out is her beautiful love story with Lance, and her delightful sense of humour.

This memoir will make you weep and make you laugh and make you want to read more books - and make you want to visit Ruth and her two wee bookshops.

NZ$40.00 + delivery.

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YARNS, NARRATIVES AND BIOGRAPHIES. Page One. See also Shipwrecks and Maritime Disasters

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