Once a Land of Birds

"a delicious taste of life in New Zealand" - Monica, Amazon

Told with grace and style, alive with insight and intriguing facts, Once a Land of Birds captures the joys and challenges, struggles and awakenings experienced by a Canadian family that hits the ground running in New Zealand and finds its feet in a land of volcanoes, giant trees, mammalian pests, and endangered flightless birds.

In 2000 Magi Nams was a harried home schooling mother who yearned for a big travel adventure, a glorious trip somewhere far away where she could walk beneath the canopies of unknown trees and identify exotic birds. And where she and her family could spend months exploring an intriguing foreign culture. Would the dream ever come true? She had one hope… her ecologist husband was a weasel expert, and New Zealand had a lot of weasels to get rid of.

On New Zealand’s spectacular South Island, Magi and her family scramble through tangled bush, hike over windswept hills, and dive head and heart into New Zealand life, history, and ecology. Travel and hiking adventures take them to verdant rainforests in the island’s northwest, over ancient volcanoes on the east coast, and into the majestic mountain country of the Southern Alps. Throughout it all, Magi and her husband and two sons develop a growing understanding of and affection for New Zealand's maverick persona and its beleaguered, long-isolated native flora and fauna.

Once a Land of Birds is the first book of Magi Nams’ Cry of the Kiwi: A Family’s New Zealand Adventure series.

What readers say about Once a Land of Birds:

“In her book Once a Land of Birds, Magi Nams serves up a delicious taste of life in New Zealand… Well-written, well-researched and well-documented, it's well worth the read.” - Monica, Amazon

“An adventure of mind, body and spirit” - Tara, Amazon

“After reading Once A Land Of Birds, I came away with a yearning to visit the beautiful country of New Zealand. Magi’s writing has such lyrical quality; I thought her prose could be put to music.” - Amazon customer

"I really enjoyed this book - it really was an immersive experience. The author paints a brilliant picture of the landscape, their experiences and I learned alot about a place I've often fantasized about visiting, which is a bonus. It's non-fiction, and a very pleasant and yet compelling read." - Michelle, Goodreads

Buy Once a Land of Birds today and revel in an exciting and heartwarming travel adventure in one of the most beautiful countries on earth!

Magi Nams is an award-winning nature writer with a B.Sc. in zoology and an M.Sc. in high arctic plant ecology. She is the author of the family travel adventure trilogy Cry of the Kiwi: A Family's New Zealand Adventure. She lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband, and enjoys birding, gardening, exploring the natural world, and travelling to faraway places with spectacular landscapes and fascinating wildlife.