I'm a published author!!

When I was a little girl, my family used to holiday with my grandmother in the Wairarapa, and every summer we would go to visit relatives at Waiorongomai.  I remember it well, particularly the raised concrete swimming pool, the large circular lawn and the various sheds that held vague promises of forbidden adventures.  Three of us, to be seen, not heard, would be allowed into the sitting room to say hello to all the rellies, take one thing from the afternoon-tea trolley, and be banished to the outside once again to amuse ourselves.  If we'd been extra good, and we could beg hard enough, on the way home we would have fish & chips to eat in the car.  Perfection!

Many years later, I saw my cousin, Raymond, at a Martinborough Wine & Food festival and chatted to him about the times we spent at Waio where he still farmed.  He said he'd wanted to write the book of Waio for years now, but hadn't been able to get a writer.  I found myself saying I'd do it.  Not having an inkling of what was ahead of me, I plunged in.  Almost 8 years later, the book was published - it was such a long journey as I did this only part-time.  But, as Raymond said, there was no hurry, Waio would still be there.  And I hope it still will be - it is, we think, the only farm that has been continuously farmed by the same family for 7 generations.  That's a long time for New Zealand.

The launch was on Friday evening at the Featherston pub - a long-time watering hole for the southern Wairarapa, including the Matthews' family in previous generations.  Everyone who'd had dirt under his fingernails was there, and probably all related in one way or another.  It was great fun to be the centre of attention, and to be sitting at the book sales table, signing books!  What a hoot!  I wish my journalist Dad were alive to see the latent development of his daughter.