Simon Burt decided it was time to take the road less travelled.
On the road, he found the book he thought he’d never write.
With his caravan in tow, and fox terrier Meg as company, Burt set out on Route 52, the back road through Central Hawke’s Bay, Tararua and Wairarapa, wanting to capture the lives and stories of those living on it.
Burt, who has past experience in film, advertising, publishing, and writing, gravitated towards Route 52 - its charms and its ruts - as a geographical boundary for his storytelling.
“I met some really interesting and really nice people, and a couple of ratbags, and just wrote about them.”
With more than 300 pages his now-published book ‘Route 52 - A Big Lump Of Country Unknown’ weaves together the stories of “people of the earth”, places, music, and architecture of the rural route.
“It’s (about) the wonderful old shepherd at Ākitio who has hardly worked anywhere apart from around there... and an old guy in Herbertville who is 90-something and still fit as a fiddle with his dogs on the back of the quad, and people running pubs and campgrounds.”
Burt wrote about what he found and didn’t “sugar-coat” any of his interactions over the fours years it took to write.
He couldn’t pick a favourite place he visited along the way nor could he recall how much had been spent on fuel.
“That’s a bit like choosing your favourite child - you can’t do that.”
Burt’s travels took him from Martinborough in South Wairarapa to as far north as Waipawa in Central Hawke’s Bay.
He initially set his sights on Ākitio and Pongaroa, towing a 1978 caravan, which was later upgraded to an older model, from 1975, with more space to spend time and write in the evenings.
He visited a range of small rural and coastal communities including Porangahau which he wrote in his book as being “about as Kiwi as it gets”.
There was Wanstead for the polo, Flemington to learn about the mud run, Wallingford with its church, and Herbertville for the pub and campground.
“It was finding places to park up and hang out for a day or two and go to the pub, talk to people and see what was going on.”
He said the route itself was “pretty bad”, during the time he was writing and had “dealt” to his caravan, during the travel.
“If you’re not in a hurry and just want to take your time it’s a nice quiet road, apart from logging trucks.”
Burt said the worst part of the road was between Weber and Wimbledon, although the route was very “twisty and windy”.
“It’s a painful drive, at times I’m slowing to a crawl to navigate potholes and subsidence caused by both logging trucks and biblical quantities of rain during 2022,” Burt said in his book.
Burt said there is “a lot of dark green hills with pine trees” growing next to the roadside.
“They call it a scenic route, but I never found it particularly scenic, to be honest.”
His travels were loosely planned and the weather threw in a few unexpected challenges.
It took him three attempts to get to Cape Turnagain and the rough road meant he had to park up his caravan rather than tow it along with him.
Burt said he had always wanted to do something creative for himself but had doubts he would finish the project, saying “I couldn’t possibly write a book”.
“I didn’t know if I had it in me to complete this, my life has been full of starting things and not finishing them.”
He said through his former work he had spent his life “pretty much producing other people’s creative ideas”.
Burt said it felt good to have his book published with Deborah Coddington, owner of Ugly Hill Press.
The book will launch on January 22 in Waipukurau at the Library and on January 24 in Masterton at Hedley’s Books.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.