Ocean Without End

Kelly Gardiner is a professional writer and editor of NZ Lifestyle Block magazine. The first book in her ‘Swashbuckler!’ children’s adventure series, Ocean Without End, is set in Malta and will be published by HarperCollins next May. She lives on an island in New Zealand's Hauraki Gulf and has now posted her travel notes from a trip to Malta in May. From Day One of her Malta travel notes in Ocean Without end:

I really should not be left alone in a city of wooden boats, knights and really good door knockers. I know I'm supposed to be doing very serious research but it's gorgeous and you can't help falling in love - the cities glow yellow, and sea and sky are ridiculously blue. The limestone is crumbling now, but it's warm and honey coloured, and even the most impressive ramparts seem somehow welcoming (unless you're a Turkish corsair, of course). Flew in a circle around the islands and it all seemed terribly familiar, except for the high rise apartments, which don't feature in my unique 1798 picture of the archipelago. Then the first things I saw when I arrived was a restaurant called Il Pirata and a house called Lily [the name of the main character in Swashbuckler!]. Mind you I have since seen houses called Eileen, Doris and Elvis. Then I opened the curtains in my hotel room and a schooner sailed past.

Malta research trip: Day four; Malta research trip: Day eight; Malta research trip: Day ten; Malta research trip: Day twelve; Malta research trip: Day thirteen