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Rating: 
Summary: Wow, Voyager!
Review: By Bill Marsano. Chris Duff's photos, which are bundled together and whacked a little perfunctorily into the middle of this book, limp under the heading of 'snaps.' Duff belongs to the old school of kayakin' shutterbugs: compose any old how, so long as the bow of the boat is in the frame; shoot in any old light; and shoot, sometimes, any old subject. There's a darn nice snap of a Hooker seal here but what I really wanted was more pix of the damage (and later repairs) to his boat from the surf landing that nearly killed him. I'm just saying. (And the maps are even worse--clear, but seldom helpful.)
Never mind: This is a book of writing. Duff seems to have had no specific reason to try a 1700-mile circumnavigation of New Zealand's South Island (it's not even a first) but he is no virgin. He's looped the British Isles and then Ireland; he's paddled 8000 miles along the east coast of Canada and the U.S.; even now he may be paddling round Iceland.
He, too, gets into a little gauzy mysticism about the Eternal Why and his place in the universe, but most of the time he's a little too busy for that stuff. South Island's coast is a place that goes from bad to worse, and it's instructive to listen in as Duff relates his tactics and strategies for dealing with bad weather and dangerous, even life-threatening situations: You can learn from this stuff as well as be staggered by it. And just for lagniappe there are those occasional moments of perfect weather and following seas that surf him along in solitary joy. These usually come along just after the notoriously perverse Tasman Sea has, as they say south of here, "prit-near" beaten him to a pulp.
A particular pleasure of this book is the human aspect. Despite the solitary aspect of his circumnavigations, Duff is a sociable man who enjoys and appreciates the people he meets--and appears to bring out the best in them. Add that to the fact that Kiwis are notably kind and generous anyway and you are not surprised that Duff makes friends everywhere he goes and they bend over backwards to help him in every way they can.
Judging from the indications in the text, it's clear that Duff prepared extremely well for this voyage, and readers should pay close attention as they go along, because--probably because this stuff is bred into his bones by now--Duff spends very little time discussing equipment at the end. In fact, he's done with the subject in a single page.
There's one incident in this book that commands my admiration and will yours. I don't want to give anything away but at one point Duff receives some help of a rather expensive kind, and his response is to pull out his credit card. "No worries, mate," he's told, officialdom is budgeted for that. All very well, but Duff insists on paying his own way. He is well aware of the fact that a well-behaved guest doesn't batten on his hosts.--Bill Marsano is an award-winning editor and writer whose own kayaking voyages fill only pages, not books.
Rating: 
Summary: Duff does it again!
Review: Chris Duff continues to forge into new frontiers. What I enjoy so much about this book and his previous book "On Celtic Tides" is that he is not only exploring coastlines. He's exploring human limits with nature, with solitude, with culture. Chris has discovered (and vividly describes for us) that some of the most valuable things in life can be found by changing our perspective. Chris' style is very introspective. I think the most profound statement he makes is that 'if you know where you are from, and you know where you are going, the conditions you are in become irrelevant.' What matters is our determination in reaching our destination. Thanks Chris for taking us along for another amazing journey and expanding our horizons.
Rating:
Summary: Duff does it again!
Review: Chris Duff continues to forge into new frontiers. What I enjoy so much about this book and his previous book "On Celtic Tides" is that he is not only exploring coastlines. He's exploring human limits with nature, with solitude, with culture. Chris has discovered (and vividly describes for us) that some of the most valuable things in life can be found by changing our perspective. Chris' style is very introspective. I think the most profound statement he makes is that 'if you know where you are from, and you know where you are going, the conditions you are in become irrelevant.' What matters is our determination in reaching our destination. Thanks Chris for taking us along for another amazing journey and expanding our horizons.
Rating:
Summary: Wow - fun fun fun in the world's most beautiful place.
Review: There are so many wonderful moments in this book - the feeling of being surrounded by massive power everywhere, the stories of the fishermen in New Zealand, and the surmounting of life threatening obstacles. Reading the Duff's description of Fiordland National Park took me back to this wonderful place as few could. But most of all, Duff presents an epic human journey full of wonder and the power of man. Yet at the same time, Duff sees the sea and knows how small man really is. There is also a passage or two where Duff speaks about the meaning of his life - how he wants to look back and say that he took advantage of his short time on earth. After reading Southern Exposure, there is no doubt he did. On the down side, the book's maps could be better. The rudimentary maps in the book have several instances where Duff capsizes but the reader never learns about these instances save for one. I want to know! How did he get back in the boat!? Was he on the ocean?! Also, vast parts of the journey are left off and I want to know more. Like what happened in Christchurch? Tell me more about Fiordland.
Rating:
Summary: Chris Duff's magic...
Review: We're just a few weeks from setting out on a sea kayak expedition of our own, and the stresses and fears grow more intense by the hour. Many times I've wondered why I've taken on this challenge--just planning the trip has been the most complex, consuming project of my life. Then yesterday Chris's new book showed up. I'm going to save it until we're out on the water and in the wilds, but I opened to some random page and read some random paragraph, and what I read instantly vanished the stresses I've been feeling. Everything made sense again, after one little paragraph. That's the magic of Chris's writing. Thanks again, Chris, and good luck to you guys in Iceland. I can't wait to read the rest of the story...
Brandon and Heather
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