Dieback

by Des Hunt

Peter MacNeill’s life is turned upside-down when his family is forced from the house he has lived in all his eleven years. The ‘new’ place is a decaying dump awaiting demolition. And yet Peter finds much of interest in the wilderness backyard and nearby bush reserve: an old henhouse that becomes a secret den; a tree hut; and lots of huge protected native trees.

But Gary Oxley, their landlord, plans to build a luxury apartment block with expensive views, and those trees are in the way. Gary’s plan to kill the trees involves blaming everything on Peter MacNeill, the new kid in town. Soon Peter is accused of all sorts of crimes from killing animals to spreading kauri dieback disease.

When Peter fights back with the help of a local girl, Tui, Gary responds with extreme action that will kill everything: the trees and the creatures who live in them or on the ground below. As Peter and Tui scramble to save the animals they begin to realise they will first have to save themselves.

248 pages, Paperback

Published November 26, 2025

About the author

Des Hunt was a science and technology teacher for many years, interspersed with periods of curriculum development both in New Zealand and overseas. During this time he had several textbooks published to support the New Zealand curriculum. In recent years he has looked at other ways of interesting youngsters in science, creating computer games and writing non-fiction and fiction with scientific themes.

After living in Auckland for much of his life he moved with his wife, Lynne, to Matarangi on New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula. He retired from the classroom in 2007 to concentrate on writing fiction for children. He continues his aims of fostering young peoples’ natural interest in the science of their surroundings by visiting schools and libraries where he runs workshops and presentations.