Postcards from New Zealand, by Bob McCree (Craig Potton Publishing, RRP $20):
This picturesque little country we live in could have been custom-made to fill postcards: from the soaring mountains to the flowing rivers to even the sheep, most of it looks pretty good through a camera lens.
And while there are plenty of people out there who reckoned postcards were on their way out with the shift to all things digital, there is still a market for those postage-friendly little travel snippets that we send off to friends and family while we are visiting all sorts of exotic places.
Let’s face it, we all like to get mail that doesn’t involve paying bills.
This little book is like the ultimate collection of very nearly all of New Zealand’s pretty bits. I say nearly because the images from the southern part of the country stop somewhere around Fiordland so the claim that all of the key tourist destinations are covered doesn’t quite ring true. I realise a lot of it is subjective (Invercargill could be classed as a key tourism destination for those interested in attending an awesome, if somewhat blowy, motorcycle rally) but surely Stewart Island should have made the cut?
Apart from that wee omission, the rest of the book is spectacular. Bob McCree has been a lover of the New Zealand landscape and lifestyle for most of his life.
He has spent the past 20 years photographing and documenting it and his passion for the beautiful wee country of ours shines through in this book and at just $20 it is great value for money.