I'm Clyde Macfarlane, an NCTJ qualified journalist and illustrator.

Hitchhiking is an intense, deeply personal way to explore a country. Anyone and everyone can pick you up, and you naturally collate all this information into a demographic portrait.

I revisited the list published in Renegade by writing three line poems to expand on each hitch. It’s amazing how much I can remember nearly ten years on. I’ve found that in time the bits that have stuck are the bits worth writing about- editing by nature, I call it.

More than just stand alone poems, I’ve tried to give a rough narrative to my journey. Patterns emerge in farming regions, for example, or in the feel of differing landscapes- rolling hills, mountains, plains, coast.

The resulting poetry book, Across New Zealand in 140 Hitches, is published by Paekakariki Press, a London-based publisher that takes its name from a New Zealand town. Paekakariki Press is a letterpress publishers, which gives the book a unique artistic dimension. Images have been provided by my mother, Barbara Macfarlane, a landscape painter who is represented by the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London and New York.

Here is a sample page from Across New Zealand in 140 Hitches: NZSample