A Maverick Traveller

"Read one of New Zealand author Mary Jane Walker's informed and richly entertaining travel books and the thirst for more adventures leads to searching for additional volumes. " So begins a five-star review of A Maverick USA Way, by Top 100 and Hall of Fame Reviewer Grady Harp. HERE is the first of Mary Jane's titles. With 93 maps and photographs, A Maverick Traveller begins with an account of an epic voyage on a Chinese junk, followed by Mary Jane's early life in New Zealand and her later adventures worldwide. Whether she was eating dog unintentionally in Indonesia, meeting the rapper 50 Cent before he was famous at a back-packers, or kicking a US nuclear submarine in New Zealand, it's all there in A Maverick Traveller, a book filled with Mary Jane's unique stories and experiences. She has travelled to all corners of the globe: to large cities, rural villages and tiny unknown islands off the coasts of continents. The junk Mary Jane joined as a budding explorer had a French name, La Dame de Canton. It was built in the old way, to revive dying crafts. La Dame sailed from Canton, now Guangzhou, to Paris in the early 1980s. Just as in the old days of exploration by sail, the voyage took a couple of years to complete, with many stops along the way for fresh water and supplies, and, yes, for repairs as well. Mary Jane joined the junk expedition because she had fallen in love with the captain, a young man from a family of famous artists named Niels. Before long, they found themselves sailing into the secretive American mid-ocean base of Diego Garcia under a flag of emergency. They had run out of food apart from rice and had had to drink salt-contaminated water for ten days. The sails were ripped, and everything was soaked. Mary Jane travels with no real plans and decides where to go and see next when she gets there. She likes to explore the culture and history of places that are off the beaten track as well as places that are well known, and to talk to the local people. By the time she sat down to write her books, Mary Jane had travelled the world, from the Arctic Circle to working as a park ranger on an uninhabited island administered by New Zealand's Department of Conservation. She had spanned two years (mostly naked) on La Dame de Canton; drunk hallucinogenic tea in the Amazon rainforest; and got so lost she ended up at Robin Hood's hiding-place. Among other adventures, Mary Jane has also walked to Mount Everest Base Camp and seen the work and life of Sherpas; respectfully observed the life of many churches, temples and mosques; traversed various parts of the pilgrimage trails of Europe; explored the stunning landscapes of New Zealand; visited remote parts of the Arctic while pulled by a team of dogs; travelled around Cuba the hard way; examined the downfall and renewal of the American inner city, and interviewed protestors at Standing Rock. All the while, meeting amazing people along the way. Mary Jane's books contain an abundance of photographs and geographically-organised chapters. But they are more than travel guides. Instead, they are readable narratives, that complement the standard travel guides. You couldn't read a travel guide for very long on a plane, or in a caf , without becoming distracted. But any one of Mary Jane's books will while away the hours, while imparting knowledge of new destinations to explore BY THE AUTHOR OF A MAVERICK NEW ZEALAND WAY, FINALIST IN TRAVEL AT THE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS, 2018.