An entertaining history of rural life in Aotearoa, told through artefacts, gadgets and ephemera that tell a story that goes deeper than the objects themselves.


The most fun you'll ever have learning about rural life in New Zealand. Told through a varied selection of items from the everyday (apples, Red Band gumboots, milk tankers and ride-on mowers) to the weird and wacky (Godfrey Bowen's pink Long Johns, the Waimate White Horse and wartime tanks made from converted tractors) this book has something to make everyone laugh and to help anyone win the local pub quiz. Find out about historic times and places that shaped our nation and enjoy the nostalgia of looking back at past objects like the meat safe, the mangle and the classic Kiwi dunny. Told with Te Radar's trademark laconic Kiwi humour, each story will surprise you as a picture builds that is so much more than the sum of the parts.