I used to shrug off the beauty of New Zealand. Then I drove from the top to the bottom

State Highway One runs from the North Island to the South. It cured Sam Coley of homesickness – and changed his understanding of home

14 September 2015: I’ve been in London for five years, and although I’m often full of sprits, my creative spirit is dampened by heartbreak, unemployment and housing insecurity. I’m homesick, missing New Zealand, so I decide to pack my camera and do a road trip on State Highway One, which runs from the very top of the North Island to the very bottom of the South – a backbone on a road map.

I have the whole journey planned out when I remember I’m broke. My typewriter is gathering dust on my desk; I realise I can fictionalise the trip without ever having to leave my living room. I start writing.