The setting for Daddy's Belt
Writing Daddy's Belt was a personal journey for me in some ways - it's set on a (fictional) farm in the actual place where I grew up! Recently, I took a trip down memory lane and returned to the area I spent my childhood in, and took some photos of the farmland that inspired this story. Blake Howard's family farm is made up of rugged, rolling hills and backs onto the wild Tasman sea - visible in the distance in the photos below. As I was sitting in the passenger seat, driving along the winding, rural roads of the Awhitu Peninsula, it was so easy to imagine what Melanie must have been thinking. The way her heart would have been in her throat as she looked out the window, seeing nothing but hills, the town - and shops - getting further and further away. She must have felt utter despair. I loved growing up in this area, but I'm a country girl at heart. It would have been an incredible culture shock for a city girl, and would take a huge amount of getting used to! ...