Papatowai woman Mary Sutherland has put together her father Jack Bickley's experiences and her travels with husband Fergus, to produce a ''tete-beche'' book, two books in one - Please Send Home, and Far From Home and Family.
One story is read from the front cover, and the book can be turned around and flipped upside down to read the second.
Please Send Home features the war diaries and letters of Jack Bickley from 1941 to 1945, while Far From Home and Family tells of the Sutherlands' journey through Greece, Crete, Egypt and Italy.
At the launch, Mrs Sutherland said her father's diaries and letters recorded boredom, frustration, and a sense of wondering what was going on.
''Reading these diaries I had a real need to see these places. I wanted to feel those warm winds, the dust, the sands.''
The couple travelled through Greece, Crete, Egypt and Italy in 2010, using Mr Bickley's diaries and photographs to follow in his footsteps.
''We searched for the places which were significant to the thousands of New Zealand soldiers who served overseas in the war of 1939 to 1945.
But in particular, we wanted to walk the long strides of Fergus' uncle, whose footsteps came to an end near an olive grove in Greece early on in the war, and to find Dad's footsteps in the deserts of Egypt and the later trudge that covered the length of Italy,'' Mrs Sutherland writes in explanation of the journey.
The diaries and letters give a detailed account of Mr Bickley's experiences on the front lines.
''Could hear the shrapnel whistle over from that salvo. He doesn't give you much time to get up for some air. A still quiet for a minute and then away we go again.
Trucks leaping and roaring over the desert. Can't see anything from here, just the burst of the shells ... Something has burst on the burning truck over there, and a great black plume of smoke is pouring up,'' he writes on June 27, 1942.
''It's important to remember these stories,'' Mrs Sutherland said.
The diaries and photographs gave the Sutherlands an opportunity to stand in the same places Mr Bickley had been during his service.
''Fergus took a photo of the cathedral in Sienna [Italy] and when we got back and looked at Dad's photos we realised Fergus must have been standing in almost the exact spot.''
Mr Sutherland also used Mr Bickley's photographs to paint wartime scenes, which are displayed at the Owaka Museum alongside the book.
Only 350 copies of the book have been printed.
They are available at the Owaka Museum, or directly from the Sutherlands.
