RUN TO THE HILLS

Paul Kilgour has spent the last 50 years hiking in the New Zealand bush. Now he has documented those decades of adventure in the book Gone Bush.

One step at a time - that's the mantra that Paul Kilgour has come to live by as he traverses another forest or mountain.

As the seasoned New Zealand tramper says, that’s really all he can focus on. It’s an approach that has served him well over five decades enjoying the outdoor wonders of this country.

Gone Bush, his forthcoming book, sees Kilgour reflect on the experiences he’s had and the people he has met in the wilderness.

“I’m not one of these people who’s looking at the end goal, I’m just enjoying every moment,” he says. “You see so many people who are like race horses heading for the goal at the end, but they’re missing out on a whole lot of wonderful stuff that’s happening in the meantime.”

Adventurous when he was growing on a North Island farm, the outdoors bug really bit Kilgour in the early 1970s when he was introduced to the joys of tramping in Arthur's Pass.

It was the culmination of something that had been building in him, and when he had that moment of rapture he knew it was going to become an all-consuming passion.

“I remember thinking ‘this is it! This is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life’ - and it still is,” Kilgour says. “I know people who have had a similar experience, but then others who are amazed by being there, but get a bit annoyed by the physical effort involved to get there.”

That’s never been an issue for Kilgour, who says he was never even aware of the physical challenges presented by the hills. He was always focused on the reward of just being out there.

Certainly much has changed in the New Zealand outdoors in the half century he has been tramping. Some tracks have become well trodden, and bookings and hut fees have formalised much of the activity.

Gone Bush is a good cross-section of Kilgour’s life over these years, as both the environment and the gear available to trampers changed dramatically.

While much was drawn from the logbooks he’d kept over the years, there are also tales from those he met along the way.

“Everybody has got their stories,” Kilgour says. “I managed to mention a few there who had great stories in their own right. It’s interesting - a lot of people love solitude but also love meeting people. To me they have got their balance sorted out.”

In 2008, Kilgour embarked on his longest journey, walking the length of the South Island from Fiordland to his home in Golden Bay.

Flying south, it seemed a daunting prospect as he surveyed the scale of the landscape. But again focusing on one step at a time, he resolved to simply enjoy the experience.

“I remember thinking, ‘this is it… this is great!’” Kilgour relates. “And then I’d only gone a few steps and I heard voices through the bush beside me. There were four guys from Invercargill looking for the track. So I didn’t get far before I met someone, in probably the most remote part of New Zealand!”

TOP TRACKS

Paul Kilgour knows the South Island back country better than most. These are some of his favourite areas to tramp.

Kahurangi National Park: It’s near my home, and it has some amazing parts that I love going back to over and over again.

Nelson Lakes-Arthur’s Pass-Mt Cook: I love that country between Nelson Lakes and Arthur’s Pass, and then from Arthur’s Pass to Mt Cook.

Fiordland National Park: Not particular tracks, just past the lakes, over the mountaintops, the big fiords, and just the sheer remoteness of it.

• Gone Bush: A Life in the Back Country and Beyond by Paul Kilgour is published by HarperCollins NZ in late November.