Call me vicarious if you will, but I love a good travel yarn. I’ve just been booking my Auckland Writers and Readers Festival tickets and I can’t wait to go to ‘Hellbound on my trail’ on the Saturday afternoon. It’s got Eric Hansen, Graeme Lay, and Graham Reid with Peta Mathias chairing it. What a great bunch. Incidentally, better hit Ticketek for your tickets to the Festival, rumour has it the bookings are fast and furious …

Whilst we’re on the subject of travel, the Travcom Media Awards were held at the Heritage Auckland on 6 April. The overall winner was Gantsara – Alone across Mongolia (Harper Collins) by Auckland writer Ian Robinson, who picked up $2000 plus $500 in book vouchers from Whitcoulls. Joe Bennett was the runner up and receives $500 in book vouchers for A Land of Two Halves (Harper Collins) – thanks to the Puke Ariki library for those reviews.

Judges Jill Malcolm, author, lecturer and writer, Susannah Walker, editor of Next Magazine and onHoliday travel editor Yvonne Van Dongen chose Gantsara from eleven New Zealand books published in 2004.

Congratulations also to Polly Greeks (Embracing the Dragon, Awa Press) and Graeme Lay (The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest, also Awa Press) for receiving special mention at the awards.