This week, we’re loading up the LeafSalon jalopy and driving northwards, first to Tutukaka and then to Cooper’s Beach in Doubtless Bay.

We’ll be hanging out with family and friends, listening to Breaks Co-op and Boards of Canada, and sipping cheapo chilled Pinot Gris bought in bulk from Blackmarket.

So there won’t be much going on with LeafSalon, although we’ll post the odd update if we can find convenient internet cafés. If you’re interested, the holiday reading list comprises:

• How To Read A Book by Kelly Ana Morey

• How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton

• Tree of Threads and Metal by Terence Hodgson

• Café Wars by Barbara Strathdee

• Pohutukawa and Rata - New Zealand's Iron-hearted Trees by Philip Simpson

• Parihaka - The art of passive resistance by Te Miringa Hohaia, Gregory O’Brien & Lara Strongman

Having said that, with a total of twelve children in attendance at various stages, it’s not looking good for quiet, sustained reading sessions. So we'll also be packing a couple of slim but enticing-looking poetry collections from VUP, for the odd dip when time permits:

• Beauty Sleep by Kate Camp

• The Violinist In Spring by Anna Smaill

We’ll be in touch – but don’t hold your breath. Thanks for all your emails (you know who you are), your wonderful comments, and your votes for us in the NetGuide Awards.

Have a great break, and all the best for 2006.

Kathy Well - that goes for me too. It's been fantastic working on LeafSalon this year, from doing my first occasional postings, to writing almost full time. Having the opportunity to read and find out so much about NZ writing and writers, and meeting some of the best in the country at the annual Going West festival have been highlights of my year. I'd just like to say it's been absolutely brilliant, especially your feedback – some of those ongoing comment discussions just kill me. Thanks for reading us, big ups to NZ Lit, and most of all – Happy New Year!

PS If you're scouting for good holiday reading material, Vantastic is just $29.95 at The Warehouse and PaperPlus. [Wink.]