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February 10, 2012

New Zealand the Beautiful!

I’d like to welcome Myla Jackson to my blog today. We met when she visited Auckland, and I’m thrilled to have her back in my corner of the world today. Over to Myla!

When Shelley Munro offered up a chance to blog, I jumped on it and knew immediately what I wanted to blog about. You see, Shelley is from the beautiful country of New Zealand, as you all might know. I just happened to get to meet her and spend time in her homeland. It was part of a trip my husband and youngest daughter and I took back in 2006-2007. We spent the first week in Australia (not nearly enough time) and the last two weeks in New Zealand (again, not nearly enough time).

We flew into Auckland on December 23, 2006. It was supposed to be summer there, but we managed to visit during one of the coolest summers they’d had in years. The temperatures ranged around the 60’s and 70’s. We drove south and made it to Rotorua by nightfall, passing all manners of terrain from seacoasts to snowcapped mountain ranges.

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Rotorua is New Zealand’s version of Yellowstone with bubbling pits, hot springs and extinct volcanoes. We also discovered what looked remarkably like a California redwood forest! In the early nineteen hundreds, the people of New Zealand experimented with trees to find the perfect species to grow in New Zealand. The result was a little pocket of redwood forest around Rotorua.

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We traveled to the southern tip of North Island to Wellington, where we caught a huge ferry to South Island. We spent most of our days driving through acres and acres of vineyards, with a two-day stop in Kaikoura to whale-watch and relax. We made it a little farther south than Christchurch and then cut across to the west coast to make our way back. We saw so much fabulous scenery and hardly any people. It’s wild, it’s beautiful and worth visiting many more times. I only wish we’d had time to go all the way to the southern tip of South Island to see the fjords. I truly loved seeing New Zealand and my husband talks of one day moving there. Sigh…An Idyllic dream.

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About the Author

Myla Jackson pens wildly sexy adventures of all genres including historical westerns, medieval tales, romantic suspense, contemporary romance and paranormals with beasties of all shapes and sizes. When not wrangling words from her computer with the help of her canine muses, she’s snow-skiing, boating or riding her ATV.

To learn more about Myla Jackson and her stories visit her website at http://www.mylajackson.com

Current Release

BootsandChaps72LG

Boots and Chaps

Welcome back to the Ugly Stick Saloon!

She gave up stripping to go legit…until three Kiowa cowboys bring on the down-and-dirty.

Blurb:

Ugly Stick Saloon, Book 1

Jackson Gray Wolf is turning thirty, and what does he have to show for it? A ranch. No wife, no kids, no dates. He’s had his eye on the pretty owner of the Ugly Stick Saloon, but their one accidental encounter was interrupted before he could get her out of her take-me-now red cowboy boots.

Audrey Anderson isn’t in the market for a man. Been there, done that, has the scars to prove it. She retired her pole-dancing boots after purchasing the Ugly Stick Saloon, and now manages a stable of strippers. When she winds up one stripper short for a private party, she’s forced to slip on a mask and into the role of the mysterious Kiki.

Jackson didn’t want the birthday bash his twin brothers are throwing him, but his vow to ignore the rented stripper goes awry when she shows him exactly how far she’s willing to go—for all three of them.

Audrey can’t forget the sizzling heat between her and one sexy Kiowa in particular. Jackson. Trouble is, she’s not sure if he wants the bold, brassy Kiki, or if he’s ready for the wounded woman underneath.

Samhain Publishing
Barnes & Noble Nook
Amazon Kindle

17 Comments

  1. Mary Kirkland

    That sounds like a good one and that cover is very nice as well.

    • Shelley Munro

      It does sound like a great book. I added it to my to-read list.

  2. Savannah Chase

    I so want to be there…Those pictures are just amazing…

    • Shelley Munro

      We o have some pretty spots :)

  3. Debra G

    I want to visit New Zealand. I know I will one day.

  4. Amy Gallow

    As an Australian, visiting New Zealand is always a joy, once you get past references to an underarm bowling incident on the cricket ground many years ago. We met Shelley and her husband on our last visit and drank Belgian beer and ate mussels in Auckland and it was great.
    We were house-swapping and spent a month driving around the North Island, from the Bay of Islands south to Rotorua and the Coromandel, yet the most enduring impression was two teenagers in high school uniforms who smilingly gave up their seats to us in the suburban train.
    Our rivalry in sport is fierce and unforgiving and we joke that there are more Kiwis living in Sydney than the whole of New Zealand, but our affection for our fellow antipodeans runs deep.

  5. Shelley Munro

    LOL – we are very serious when it comes to the sporting field!

  6. Barbara

    BEAUTIFUL pics! I’d love to come to New Zealand…someday too! But I think visiting via pics will have to do for a while. I LOVED this excerpt…sexy fab cover too, btw! Thx for the GREAT giveaway opportunity….Happy Valentines Day <3

    barbbattaglia @ yahoo.com

    • Barbara

      oops, left my comment under the wrong article…sorry.

  7. Brinda

    Hi Myla! *waving* I’d love to visit New Zealand. Your pictures are awesome.

    • Shelley

      The photos are gorgeous. I wanted to go and visit myself. :)

  8. Angela Brown

    I’ve noticed that some of the movies I favor most have been filmed in New Zealand because the terrain is so beautiful and fitting for fantasy stories.

    I’d love to visit there.

    • Shelley

      They film a lot of movies here these days because they get tax breaks as well as great scenery.

  9. Sandra Cox

    What breathtaking pictures.

  10. Shelley

    Glad you enjoyed them, Sandra.

  11. Heather

    What a beautiful country. Some day when I win the lottery…