Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Tramping: A New Zealand History - superb new, beautifully illustrated hardback


 New Zealand is a place of rare and challenging beauty and tramping here has developed a unique character and style, even its own language. In this fascinating, highly readable and superbly illustrated book, experienced trampers and backcountry authors Shaun Barnett and Chris Maclean tell, for the first time, how this essentially Kiwi recreation evolved in such a distinctive way.

Tramping – A New Zealand history begins by looking at how Maori and early Europeans lived in and reacted to the landscape, and how the pragmatic walking of the nineteenth century laid the foundations for recreational tramping during the twentieth. The book describes how the first recreational tracks and huts were built for tourists flocking to Maoriland in the 1890s, most notably to walk the Milford Track. Then came the tramping boom of the 1920s and 1930s, when clubs were formed and thousands of city people were encouraged to spend weekends and holidays in the unspoilt outdoors. The growth of an extensive hut and track network in the next two decades, combined with increasing outdoor tourism in the 1980s and 1990s, made New Zealand one of the world’s most popular tramping destinations. Also revealed in this approachable history is the surprisingly strong influence of American ideas, and the seminal role of the state, which has created one of the finest networks of national parks on the planet.

But, as the authors well know, tramping is also a highly personal pursuit, with the potential to create lasting friendships and change lives. Tramping – A New Zealand history will strike a deep chord with the countless New Zealanders, and overseas visitors, who treasure the experience of pulling on their boots, putting a pack on their back and heading into the bush or the mountains in search of inspiration, rejuvenation and peace.

Published by Craig Potton Publishing, Tramping – A New Zealand history is available from bookshops and libraries nationwide 

 About the authors
Since beginning to tramp as a teenager in the Kaweka and Ruahine ranges, SHAUN BARNETT has tramped the length and breadth of New Zealand. After first working for the Department of Conservation, he turned to writing and photography, and co-wrote with Rob Brown the Montana Award-winning Classic Tramping in New Zealand. Shaun has written several other best-selling guidebooks, edited Wilderness magazine between 1999 and 2003, and is currently the editor of the Federated Mountain Clubs’ Bulletin. His most recent book (with Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint) is Shelter from the Storm: The story of New Zealand’s backcountry huts, which won the New Zealand Booksellers’ Choice Award in 2013.

CHRIS MACLEAN is a Wellington historian, writer, photographer and publisher, with a keen interest in the outdoors. He has written a number of acclaimed books, including Tararua: The story of a mountain range, Wellington: Telling tales, and Kapiti, which won the Montana Award for History and Biography in 2000. Chris has also written two biographies, John Pascoe and Stag Spooner: Wild man from the bush. He is the great-grandson of George Whitcombe, founder of Whitcombe & Tombs, and keeps the family tradition alive through his own publishing imprint, The Whitcombe Press.

RRP: $69.99 - 265 x 215 mm, 370 pp, hardback PLC with dustjacket, maps and colour illustrations throughout. ISBN: 9781927213230

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