Author, educator and explorer Jo Patti returns to New Zealand today to tour her new book and give back to the Kiwis who have a special place in her heart.
Ms Patti was born and raised in New Jersey but became a New Zealand citizen in 1994 after she was employed by Kahurangi national Maori Dance Theatre in Hastings and says she has "deep connections with Aotearoa".
She returns with two books, Kismet , which is a volume of poetry, and Getting Off the X , a collection of non-fiction stories about risk-taking and getting out of danger which speaks of her own personal tragedies.
In 2013, Jo lost her son, Denali Schmidt, who was killed along with his father climbing the K-2 in Pakistan.
Neither body has been found, and her daughter, Sequoia has since returned to the site to look for the pair.
"Getting Off The X means getting out of the line of fire and moving off the target area which can be danger in a physical, emotion or even spiritual sense," Jo says.
Over the next two months, Jo will tour both the North and the South Island, starting tomorrow in Auckland at Time Out Bookstore.
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