Farms, friends and family adventures | Taranaki News | Local News in Taranaki

AFTER many years of scribbling notes and outlines of stories it was with great pride that Ron Martin recently hosted the launch of his newly published book – ‘We 3’. 
About 130 people attended an enjoyable evening for the presentation of this local interest book to family and friends. 
Ron’s two brothers were given the opportunity to respond to Ron’s retelling of some of their childhood mischief though were at a disadvantage with not having been allowed to read the book prior to it being published! 
However, they entertained guests with some of their own stories and a couple of tales were a similar version of ones told by Ron in his book – so not too many surprises for them on reading the book, we’re sure.
Ron was extremely grateful to his granddaughter, Lauren Darrah, who initially assisted in typing up some of these stories. Since 2007 Ron has been assisted by Glenyss Old with editing, reviewing and retyping of the rest of the stories that have made it into print.
Glenyss admits that as each story was completed she became more entrapped in the life of this pioneering family and the adventures of the three Martin boys and developed a great connection to their childhood experiences and family challenges.
Marie McGregor (who designed the Eltham Flag) created the Book Cover and has assisted in promotion of the book.
In January this year during the Eltham Jubilee Celebration week, one of the events was a writers’ gathering with guest speakers, a book launch and information promoting self-publishing. Ron attended a portion of the day’s events and both Glenyss and Ron went along to the evening presentation. 
Part of that presentation was a talk by Ocean Reeve of PublishMe – his talk was enthusiastic and encouraging and they were lucky enough to be sitting right next to him which presented the opportunity to approach Ocean to discuss possibilities for Ron to get his book in print.
There are many more stories to be written – and some that will always remain just dinner time tales – but for now we can present 41 of the best that have made it to print.
It is the history of both the Martin family and the local Kupe district, and features stories of determination, financial hardships and pioneering feats faced by many families in the early days. 
Many of the stories are ‘fiction based on fact’ – some of Ron’s imagination (and exaggeration) has gone into making these an easy read with a touch of humour and there is no intention to offend or discredit anyone in the telling of these stories. 
This is truly a wonderful collection of stories that will bring a smile to your face and in some cases a sense of familiarity of similar family tales told through the generations.