Having spent four years between Asia and Australia and with no inclination to return back home to the UK, Jamie Desplaces opted to give Aotearoa New Zealand a try. That was way back in 2012, and he’s still there.

Just a few weeks after arriving, he secured an assignment to write about the country’s fracking industry, a two-month investigation that was hailed by environmental and political organizations, and won a feature of the year award. Jamie quickly discovered the sacred connection between Kiwis and their land, a connection that he now feels. From the glistening beaches of the subtropical far north to the majestic fiords of the deep south and the volcanoes and vineyards and vast alpine backcountry that stitch it all together, he has explored every corner of this country – and continues to do so.

It’s also somewhat poetic that Jamie, having attended the same school as J.R.R. Tolkien, whose tomes of Middle-Earth tales inspired the movies that have so promoted the majesty of Aotearoa New Zealand, now has the opportunity to share its legend with others.

Jamie’s work has been published in Beats, Escape, Massive, and on USAToday.com. He has published a novel and is head writer at Verve magazine in Auckland, where he lives with his wife and two sons.