Coasting: The Sea Lion and the Lark

One of New Zealand's finest observers of the natural world takes us on a journey from Otago to the subantarctic and follows the life and migration of a sea lion.
With the taut and accurate prose of a scientist, and the lyrical sense of an artist, Neville Peat's compelling style lures us into gaining an immense amount of information. In a work that is deeply intimate and wonderfully expansive, Peat takes us well beyond the physical. He delves into the emotional origins of myth, and reveals an impassioned respect and understanding of the close relationship between humans and animals.
\While exploring changing coastal habitat - blending ancient beliefs, local history, legend, and the natural sciences - Peat encounters a number of remarkable individuals along the way; sea dogs, old salts, and a mysterious drifter who follows the winds and tides. Here we gain the naturalist's sense of wonder, and the philosopher's contemplation of the mysterious presence we call nature.
In Coasting, the second title in 'the Lark' series, we gain the naturalist's sense of wonder, and the philosopher's contemplation of the mysterious presence we call nature.
'He combines poetic and descriptive skills with a lightness of touch and a profound understanding of how the natural world interweaves. A captivating work.'

Neville Peat is an award-winning author and photographer of over 30 books, covering themes of geography, biography, natural history and the environment. His biographies include the bestselling Hurricane Tim: The Story of Sir Tim Wallis.
In the late 1970s he spent two summers at Scott Base, New Zealand's Antarctica station on Ross Island, as a journalist and photographer, and has written five books on Antarctic themes. In 2007 he was awarded New Zealand's most valuable literary prize, the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers' Fellowship for a book about the Tasman Sea (The Tasman: Biography of an ocean). Wild Dunedin: Enjoying the natural history of New Zealand's wildlife capital (with Brian Patrick) won the 1996 Natural Heritage category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and their Wild Fiordland was shortlisted in 1997.In 1994 he was named Dunedin Citizen of the Year, in acknowledgement of his books on the region and his work in establishing the Dunedin Environmental Business Network.
He has served as a councillor and as deputy chair on the Otago Regional Council, and has chaired its Environment and Science Committee.Neville's other books include: Snow Dogs: The huskies of Antarctica; Detours; The Incredible Kiwi; Land Aspiring: The story of Mount Aspiring National Park; Subantarctic New Zealand: A rare heritage; Antarctic Partners: 50 years of New Zealand and United States Cooperation in Antarctica, 1957-2007; High Country Lark; Seabird Genius: The Story of L. E. Richdale, the royal albatross and the yellow-eyed penguin, and Shackleton's Whiskey.
He has undertaken commissioned work for Otago Museum, and his comprehensive report on the sub-Antarctic islands earned World Heritage Area status for five groups of the islands. Neville is a fifth-generation descendant of Scottish pioneers in Otago. He lives at Broad Bay, Otago Peninsula; the family home fittingly near populations of royal albatross, yellow-eyed penguin, New Zealand (Hooker's) sea lion and New Zealand fur seal, about which Neville has written many times. See www.nevillepeatsnewzealand.com.