Author(s): Neville Peat

New Zealand Non-fiction

The New Zealand high country holds a special place for us all: it's New Zealand's equivalent of the 'Wild West': a rugged, rustic, spectacularly beautiful frontier. The relationship we have with the hills, mountains and lakes resonants within us all when we hear the words HIGH COUNTRY. Its steep mountains, tumbling rivers, moss-bedecked beech forest, and snow and ice in high places speak of 'a mountain fastness and wilderness dramatically arrayed' - we call it 'Middle Earth'. The characters who roamed the hills, old prospectors like Arawata Bill, are like our own Jessie James or Kit Carson. It ought to be a haven for wildlife: for the mischievous kea and for the haunting song of the kakapo. Author Neville Peat takes us into the Head of the Lake area - that's head of Lake Wakatipu. Into Paradise - yes it's a real place - up the Rees Valley, into the Dart, the Greenstone and Caples valleys. We roam the hills and meet up with the Lark, an itinerant free spirit. He knows a thing or two, the Lark. We meet possum hunters, old identities, high country farmers, tour guides, shearers, botanists and conservationists, high country horses... we even go the races at Glenorchy. We also visit the past where Neville blends the history of the area and the characters of the past with the concerns of the future. Land tenure review is high on the minds of the high country farmers. The demise of native birds is everyone's concern. First published October 2008.