Out of Here

Out of Here is the third part of a trilogy called Moments in Time. It is a ‘working class’ romance set on the remote West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Phill’s come home from a failed marriage to an Australian to tend to his dying mother and is working in the freezing works. Rylee has had to care for her father and younger brother since her mother died. She’s working as a checkout operator for a local importer of Chinese goods. They meet at the pub and hit it off - they both know about emptiness. His mum dies and after the funeral, Rylee persuades him to steal a boat from a resort. Helped by her teenage brother, they head for the remote Fiordland. The boat sinks and they almost drown before finding a track through the bush. They start living off the land and encounter some strange people: an East German violinist who’s trying to rediscover the meaning of music, a party of millionaires on a hunting trip, one of whom has a heart episode, a couple of ferals who test their patience, a ranger who has learned some wisdom… The natural world is extreme in this part of the country and their journey is being watched over by the pantheon of lesser gods. Phill is bitten by an eel and it turns septic and he almost dies before they are rescued. She finds she is pregnant and they will return to civilization, having learned some boundaries.