One of the things I enjoy about writing stories set locally is that I don’t have to do a ton of research. The other thing is that I get to share some of my favourite spots with readers.

This month I had an added bonus. An online friend from Canada stayed with me with a couple of weeks. We’d chatted online for eighteen years and this was the first time we’d met in person. She’s also one of my beta readers so I was able to show her some of the locations I’d written about.

And of course, after a day in Wellington city we then watched What We Do In The Shadows as we’d been to some of the locations in that too. And another featured in the first episode of the spinoff TV series Wellington Paranormal.

But I digress.

Last year I co-wrote a story with my friend Lou Sylvre called Sunset at Pencarrow, which is mainly set here in the Hutt Valley, apart from a few scenes at Wellington Airport.

Is there anywhere you’d recommend? I don’t want the usual tourist spots…. What’s the one place not too far from here you think visitors should go but rarely do?”

“That’s easy.” Nate didn’t have to think about it. “The Orongorongos.”

So of course one of the places we visited was Rimutaka Forest Park—renamed as Remutaka since the book was published—the starting point of Nate and Rusty’s hike. I took some photos, not just because I love the scenery, but because it was exactly where our guys would have been in the book.

“Orongorongo Track is nice, but it’s the one most people take. The river’s about two and a half hours in, and you cross over it on Turere Bridge. A casual stroll most of the way, right?” He chuckled and was happy to see Rusty smile in return. “The other route, we start out easy for about ten minutes, then head uphill on Butcher Track. It’s pretty steep, but we can see out over Wellington Harbor, so maybe worth it.”

The photo shows the beginning of the track they took, with some familiar names on the signpost. We had a lovely time looking around the area, although we didn’t walk the track as it was chilly and winter instead of summer when Nate and Rusty were there. New Zealand woodpigeons followed us most of the way around the park, keeping watch from a safe distance on nearby trees.

And there’s more to see around here. Good things to see if you wanted something to remember about New Zealand. Like… the sunset at Pencarrow—beautiful. Amazing.” He breathed in sharply as if gathering nerve. “So, if you wanted to stay, I thought maybe I could take you there. We can walk from the south end of town—it’s nice. All the way to the lighthouses, you walk along the beach.”

On another day we went to Eastbourne, which is a seaside suburb that Nate and Rusty visited in the book. We had gelato from the shop they visited, and took a look around the art gallery/bookshop. To finish off the outing we drove to south end of town, and walked to the beginning of the beach walk to the Lighthouse. I took a photo of the sign at the no cars barrier.

We also passed by several locations I used in Prelude to Love but I didn’t take any photos, as I was driving, and I’d taken some reference photos when I was writing the book that I’ve posted here before.

As a New Zealand author, all of this brings home to me that I want to write more stories set here. We have a beautiful country, and it has a lot of potential as a backdrop, plus the added bonus of having an excuse to revisit areas to use as locations. The two stories I’ve referred to in this post are contemporary romances, but I’m planning to write a couple of paranormals set here too. On a side note, I’ve had library patrons ask for stories set in Wellington, and I’ve struggled to find any. Most tend to be set in Auckland, so that fuels my need to do something about that.

Watch this space.