Storylines Auckland School Tour

Category: Book Tour, Storylines

September 10-14th, I had the privilege of joining three brilliant NZ authors, Raymond Huber, Raymond McGrath and Kelly Wilson (wild horse taming extraordinaire) on the September Storylines Tour of Auckland. Over the week, we visited 53 schools, libraries and venues, engaging with over 6246 students and adults. Phew! What a whirlwind of events. It was completely exhausting and completely wonderful all at the same time. I personally visited:

Rutherford College

Rangeview Intermediate

Kelston Girls College

St Kentigern Boys School

Marcellin College

Epsom Girls’ Grammar

Orewa College

Whangaparpaoa College

Albany Junior High School

Edgewater College

Pakuranga College

Macleans College

We were blown away by some schools who spent time preparing students for our visits. The students were engaged, interested and excited to listen, learn and take away some inspiration for their own creative writing. It was a particular highlight for me to visit Whangaparaoa College who put on an amazing shared lunch. I got to sit with the students and chat about books and writing while we ate. Sincere thanks to their brilliant librarian Samantha Martin for all her great work, enthusiasm and generosity in making me so welcome.

We had an exciting full day event at the Vodafone Event Centre with over a thousand students attending.

We also had a wonderful turn out at the Howick Library evening event where I was excited to catch up with NZ author, Leonie Agnew.

The biggest highlight was travelling, presenting and hanging out with the Raymond’s and Kelly whose creativity, experience and insights left me so inspired. We also shared lots of great food and laughs.

Finally, my thanks to Storylines for providing me with such a tremendous opportunity, Vicki Cunningham who co-ordinated our epic schedule, Christine Dale our lovely guide, time keeper and go-to and of course Pete our brilliant driver who kept us on the road and on time for all of our drop offs and pick ups.

And to top it all off, Kelly became a Spark fan, reading the entire trilogy in 5 days on tour! I’m not sure if she got any sleep. Check out her wonderful review here.