Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated another book to the club library. 

If the quest for Mount Everest began as a grand imperial gesture, as redemption for an empire of explorers that had lost the race to the Poles, it ended as a mission of regeneration for a country and a people bled white by war. Of the twenty-six British climbers who, on three expeditions (1921-24), walked 400 miles off the map to find and assault the highest mountain on Earth, twenty had seen the worst of the fighting. Six had been severely wounded, two others nearly killed by disease at the Front, one hospitalized twice with shell shock. Three as army surgeons dealt for the duration with the agonies of the dying. Two lost brothers, killed in action. All had endured the slaughter, the coughing of the guns, the bones and barbed wire, the white faces of the dead. In a monumental work of history and adventure, ten years in the writing, Wade Davis asks not whether George Mallory was the first to reach the summit of Everest, but rather why he kept on climbing on that fateful day. His answer lies in a single phrase uttered by one of the survivors as they retreated from the mountain: 'The price of life is death'.Mallory walked on because for him, as for all of his generation, death was but 'a frail barrier that men crossed, smiling and gallant, every day'. As climbers they accepted a degree of risk unimaginable before the war. They were not cavalier, but death was no stranger. They had seen so much that it had no hold on them. What mattered was how one lived, the moments of being alive. For all of them Everest had become an exalted radiance, a sentinel in the sky, a symbol of hope in a world gone mad.

A Walking Guide to Te Aroha – Geoff Chapple
Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated two books to the clubs library.

133 walks from Cape Reinga to Bluff including day walks and long tramps.

An updated guide to Te Araroa, our national walkway system, which now stretches more or less continuously the length of the country.

Geoff Chapple, who has been the driving force in Te Araroa since he outlined the idea in a newspaper article in 1994, gives a brief history of how that dream has been transformed into a reality.

But the main emphasis is on the walkway itself, weaving its way through six cities and 60 towns, its progress illustrated in a series of excellent maps, lots of photos and descriptions of the various sections by Chapple himself (he has personally walked the lot, most more than once).

It's an inspirational work, both for the story of how a small band of enthusiasts managed to create such a wonderful national asset, and for the details of all those tracks out there waiting for people to enjoy what they have to offer.

Himalayan Hospitals – Sir Edmund Hillary’s Legacy: Michael Gill

Sir Edmund Hillary became famous by being the first, with Tenzing Norgay, to climb Mt Everest in 1953. Though this was clearly a remarkable feat, Sir Edmund came to be regarded by many as a great man for the way he chose to use his fame, which was to dedicate much of the rest of his life to building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people of Nepal. The Legacy of Everest tells the remarkable story of the two hospitals he built; Khunde Hospital in 1966 in the Khumbu region at the foot of Mt Everest, and Phaplu Hospital in 1975 in the Solu Valley. These hospitals were staffed by volunteer Doctors and their partners from New Zealand and Canada until they were eventually handed over to Sherpa Doctors. Using letters written by these volunteers, and many subsequent interviews Michael Gill, a Doctor himself who worked with Sir Edmund from the beginning on these projects, has pieced together this fascinating history of a unique aid project. It has many threads: an honest and fresh insight into the life of Sir Edmund Hillary, a rich and real picture of Sherpa culture, and the transformative experiences of the volunteers, whose lives were often completely changed by their time working in the Sherpa communities. Moving, insightful and ultimately inspirational, The Legacy of Everest is a wonderful book, that has at its heart the integrity and humility of Sir Edmund Hillary, one of New Zealand's true heroes.

(Make sure you read this book – it’s great especially if you have been to Nepal, or intend going there.  Trish ) 

Thanks to Roger for donating the following books:

• South Island Weekend Tramps by Nick Groves
  
• Wind from the Distant Summit by Pat Deavall
  
• Summits and Shadows by Jack Clarke

Library books are available at Club Social Nights at the Senior Citizens hall. 

The club has back copies of the Wilderness magazines from the library. If you want FREE back copies of Wilderness please contact Gill Sanders

Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated the book Days Walks in New Zealand to the club library.  The book will be available is available to borrow at club social nights.

Day Walks in New Zealand is the latest tramping guide in the innovative, new Bird's Eye Guide series. Written by Shaun Barnett, the best-selling author and photographer of Bird's Eye Guide Tramping in New Zealand Day Walks in New Zealand also uses latest generation 'bird's eye' computer-generated maps, showing a tramping route in three dimensions something unable to be achieved with a conventional topographical map.

Each walk is supported by relevant route information and there are full-colour photographs throughout from Shaun's own photo-library. Walks are selected from the entire country and include day walks suitable for first-timers and families, as well as options for those with a higher level of fitness and experience. The combination of maps, photography and writing from the country's leading tramping writer arguably makes this the best New Zealand day walk book available. Bird's Eye Guides continue to set a new standard in tramping and tourist publications. 

Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated the book Huts, Untold Stories from the NZ Back-Country by Mark Pickering.  The book will be available to borrow at club social nights.

This from a recent review…….

For those who don't know Mark and his work (why not?)he is the trampers tramper, hut aficionado and author of many guide and tramping books.

The new book takes about 15 huts from around the backcountry and he weaves a social history around each. Fascinating stories of musterers, rabbiters, boundary keepers and water race men etc and how and why the huts are where they are.( Do you know how long the longest water race in NZ is? You will be surprised.)

As he says these are the stories of solitary men who seldom wrote anything down and the huts are perhaps the only evidence left of their passing. Lord Bledisloe did graffiti a hut in the Ahuriri to mark his passing.

If you have ever lain in a hut at night listening to the rain beating on the roof and wondered who has shared this hut over the years, this book is for you

Roger Parsons of Parsons Bookshop has donated the book Classic Tramping in New Zealand to the club library.  The book will be available to borrow at club social nights.

Craig Potton Publishing produced the book and describe it as "a beautifully photographed and sensitively written tribute to fourteen of New Zealand's finest tramping trips. This revised and updated edition now includes superb Bird's Eye maps that show each route in three dimensions and two new tramps: the Frew Saddle-Toaroha Saddle and the Northwest Ruahine Range. The featured tracks are: Tararua Peaks, Hollyford (Fiordland), Nelson Lakes to Lewis Pass, Pouakai Range (Egmont), Kaweka & Kaimanawa, Cascade Saddle (Mt. Aspiring), Dragon's Teeth (Kaharangi), Three Passes (Arthurs Pass), Dusky Track (Fiordland), Makarora to East Matukituki (Mt. Aspiring), Five Passes (Mt. Aspiring), Copland Pass (Aoraki/Mt. Cook and Westland/Tai Poutini), Frew Saddle-Toaroha Saddle and the northwest Ruahine Range. Trips range from moderate three-day hikes to more challenging multi-day adventures for experienced trampers. Sister volume to Classic Walks of New Zealand."