Good for you Rob!
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to sit in on a class at the local high school during a visit by Fleur Beale
http://www.longacre.co.nz/authors/beale.html She was discussing writing, her methods and how to get started etc. She also answered questions from the floor and it was great to see so much interest from the students. I have dabbled for years with writing and have quite a lot of material gathered but have never got around to doing anything with it. Perhaps my daughter, who is better at it than I will take up challenge sometime.
I also met a woman while doing a digital art class and she was doing the course so she could illustrate her childrens book which has been very successful in Australia..
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=VdY_Gov6-p4C&dq=Bill+the+brush+turkey&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=5AHRYipPg6&sig=sgvZkZ8enW2wfYd7L9Rg8LosINI&hl=en&ei=0N2USsDwGIeAsgOpzfTzCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false (huge link)
I also have another Christchurch friend who I would prefer not to name here who won a writers award recently.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you will keep us up to date with your progress.