Arrowtown book buyer Miranda Spary continues her regular column about her recommendations for a good read, and life as she sees it ...
There's always excitement when you're living on a boat.
Today's was finding our anchor with about 130m of chain at the bottom of the sea.
Oops.
Actually we didn't find it; we lost it - we had to get a scuba diver in to do the finding bit.
It took ages and our normally very swarthy skipper was ghostly pale until it was finally located and attached to us again.
It's the sort of thing you can lose your job for here, but my darling is the master of boating misadventures and he probably has more sympathy for the odd mistake than other owners.
The diver was fascinating. He does a lot of work around here and says there is masses of ancient stuff on the sea floor, but most things of value have been corroded by the salt.
Everything on the land is still in almost perfect condition and, as there were more than 100,000 people living in this area during the past 3000-4000 years, including Cleopatra, there's still a lot to find.
When it's really hot, we like to go up to the mountains where the air is much cooler.
There's a wonderful site called Tlos, which was a huge city up there.
They have no idea how huge, but everywhere the archaeologists dig, they find more buildings and treasures.
There are always big teams of people digging away - none of this nancypants, careful searching with tiny tools and little brushes.
Turkish style is to do it with spades and diggers.
Last year, they found some huge marble statues which are now in the local museum.
It's bizarre seeing these collections of beautiful things that have all been found under this dusty brown earth. I love old things, which may be why I married my darling.
And on the subject of old darlings, I'm still getting emails from worried readers about Alan Perry after I said he and wife Clare were moving to Feilding.
It's a testament to the optimism of people in the Wakatipu that they are thinking about their garden furniture when it's been so desperately cold the past few weeks.
Alan Perry's outdoor furniture business has been taken over by Todd Quirk and it's in the same place and still called Alan Perry.
Happy now?As I write, our lily-white son who has just finished exams at Otago is sitting on the gangplank washing his clothes. It seems odd to bring your dirty laundry all the way to Turkey from Dunedin, but the workings of a student's mind are not easy to understand.
It's why I loved the marvellous Brain Rules by John Medina.
It's all about what scientists can actually see happening in brains. I wish I could see it for myself, but John Medina does a great job of describing it.
Find out what sleep and stress actually do to your brain.
And the most fascinating bit was about what physical activity does to it. You won't be able to enjoy couchpotatohood at all once you've read it.
My darling has turned into a complete fitness freak here and is eating really healthily (admittedly washing it down with great gulps of rough Turkish red - his favourite is called Dikmen) but has gone all evangelical and is constantly preaching at me to do the same.
I wasn't so keen until I read Brain Rules.
Now our daughter is giving me swimming coaching and I've got kayaking calluses on my hands, and best of all is the stand-up paddleboarding.
Our friend Johnny bought us two boards and we are loving it.
They're a bit like surfboards that you stand on and paddle, and it's a huge workout.
Paul Vanderkaag is the agent for them in the Wakatipu and he gave me a lesson on Lake Hayes.
If I can do paddleboarding, there's not a person in the world who should worry it will be difficult.
If you do want something difficult to do, read Dennis Avey's The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz.
This British soldier was captured by the Germans and was in a POW camp next to Auschwitz.
He was so incensed by the brutality he saw, he wanted to find out for himself what was really happening in there.
It's a horrible read, but it goes a long way to explain why we should all speak out against cruelty in whatever form it appears.
He's an amazing man.
Thanks to everyone for your feedback on Chris Cleave's Gold and I'm delighted you're all enjoying it so much.
