The Long Iron Road

Fourteen year old Toby thought the school holidays needed an adventure. He had no idea where it would lead.

When Toby and his three mates, quick witted Rawiri, thoughtful Mack and unpredictable Benny, set out along the old railway routes of New Zealand's rugged West Coast, they're chasing little more than a story about a railwayman named Patrick Sullivan and a box that may have been hidden decades ago.

But Paddy Sullivan left more behind than anyone realised.

Following faded markings, abandoned railway buildings and clues buried in the Coast's past, the boys are drawn deeper into a mystery stretching back generations. What begins as a treasure hunt slowly becomes something far more important, the story of an old friendship, a long forgotten tragedy and a truth someone refused to let disappear.

Along the way there are flooded rivers, railway tunnels, worsening weather and the increasingly real possibility that four fourteen year olds may have seriously underestimated the West Coast.

And when their adventure turns dangerous, finding the truth will no longer be the hardest part.

The Long Iron Road is a distinctly New Zealand adventure mystery about friendship, courage, growing up and discovering that sometimes the greatest treasures aren't worth anything at all.

Four mates. One forgotten truth. A journey none of them will forget.