"Garry is the hero of the book," author Robin Robilliard told the audience at a meet-the-author talk held at Stratford Library last week.
Robin's memoir, Hard Country, is about her life and the farm, "Rocklands" she and her husband Garry owned and worked on in Golden Bay.
"The property had a history of bankrupting its owners," she says, making it miraculous that she and Garry spent "almost 60 years on that bloody awful land".
The extraordinary beauty of the Golden Bay region fed my soul daily.
"We lived in isolation, hidden behind the great Takaka Hill, but there is no class system in Golden Bay, you can be yourself, and that saw many of us who live here achieve things we may never have done if we lived in a more conventional area."
Members of the audience took the opportunity to ask Robin questions at the end of the talk, as well as having copies of the book signed by her.