Green Sea: Lost in the New Zealand Bush

John Summers’ worst nightmare is getting lost in the bush.

He has always carefully – myopically, even – followed the track. Death lurks at the edge of his fear, as well as cold, hunger, loneliness and even humiliation. But what is the experience of being lost in the New Zealand bush actually like?

Summers talks to those who have survived – from a man who was found near death after 29 days in Kahurangi National Park to a woman who covered herself with earth to stay warm in the Orongorongo Valley. He explores what ‘lost’ really means, a metaphor for everything from addiction to a midlife crisis.

Part reportage, history and personal reflection, Green Sea looks closely at what keeps us going through the tangle of ordinary life – and at the mercies others show us when we feel most alone.

‘A compelling investigation into human vulnerability in the face of nature’s indifference. Haunting, absorbing, and deeply close to home.’ —Naomi Arnold, author of Northbound

John Summers is the author of The Commercial Hotel (2021) and The Mermaid Boy (2015). His writing has also appeared in Sport, North & South, New Zealand Geographic, Sunday Star-Times, Landfall, New Zealand Listener, Newsroom and The Spinoff. He was the winner of the 2022 Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Imaginative Prose, a finalist in the Voyager Media Awards, and winner of the nonfiction category in the 2016 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Awards.