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Summer, 1981. A youngish Neville Peat set out from Cape Reinga on his newly-acquired 10-speed touring bike 'Blue', aiming to ride through the small towns and rural communities of New Zealand, north to south on a route with many byways. Three months and 4,000 km after leaving Cape Reinga, he reached his destination, Stewart Island, and wrote a book about the epic journey: Detours: A journey through small-town New Zealand. The story was also broadcast on radio. Now, in the faster age of the personal computer and cell phone, a very different world, he has revisited many of the towns and regions, not on a bicycle but by car. In Detours - A generation on, he reflects on how small-town New Zealand is doing in a perceptive opening essay that introduces the original text.
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