The Land Near Oz

In THE LAND NEAR OZ: TWO GAY YANKEES MOVE TO NEW ZEALAND, memoirist and humorist Aaron Allbright examines the mystical fringes of life with a side of love and a little hash. Filled with great affection, indescribable moments of serendipity, and a few cattle calls, this debut is a raucous spot of fun. When Aaron Allbright and his better half, Beau, buy a piece of paradise from the direct descendants of the first English missionaries to inhabit the far side of the Far North of New Zealand, they meet the offspring of whores, convicts, whalers, English pirates and those first missionaries. Their closest seaside neighbor is Australia, 2,000 miles away (known to everyone thereabouts as Oz). From Orange County to the land of cannibals and flightless birds, the Land Near Oz, two gay men decide to chuck it all and light our for the Territory-and to find what's over the rainbow. There are Maoris with traditional full face and body tattoos; a former member of Led Zeppelin; a Texan named Big Mama. And in the wild hinterland paradise of evermore, dreams are made and life is good, just not in the way either Aaron or Beau hoped, planned, or could have ever imagined.