Claire Coleman

The Back of Beyond: a North American Road Trip, Kiwi Style! Claire Coleman

Kiwi -a small, flightless, nocturnal bird which is native to, and the national symbol of, New Zealand. We travelled around the United States and Canada for twelve months towing a camper, touching on all forty-eight contiguous states and eight Canadian Provinces. As we tried to support the American economy the only way we knew how-by sticking to the secondary roads, stopping at all the small towns, and buying beer at all the backwoods bars-we were continually asked the same questions: "What are you" - "We're Kiwis" "Where are you from" - "New Zealand, but we live in Australia" "What are you doing here" - "We want to see every State, learn all the history, and experience what it is like to live as an American" "Why" - "Because America gets such a bad rap around the world, we want to find out for ourselves if it is justified . . . and if you really are as good as you think you are . . "