Peak challenge: the Mt Hutt area. Photo / Getty Images
Peak challenge: the Mt Hutt area. Photo / Getty Images
As a “semi-retired” structural engineer, Andy Buchanan knows the importance of meticulous planning and an eye for detail.
For the native-born Cantabrian, the familiar panorama of mountains lying across the hem of the Canterbury Plains has been a constant presence in a lifetime of tramping, climbing and skiing.
Retiringfrom the University of Canterbury in 2014, Buchanan decided he needed a new goal. What better than to climb every peak from south to north using a remarkable detailed panorama drawn by Ivan Pugh in 1967 – 133 named or numbered summits running from Mt Peel in the south to the Kaikōura Ranges.
Armed with spreadsheets and maps – and more maps – as well as new technology, he embarked on his journey one section at a time. This book reveals what he experienced and saw during the years involved in this long, personal challenge. Handsomely illustrated with his own photographs, evocative paintings and, naturally, Pugh’s panorama, Buchanan emphasises this is not a guide but a personal account of what he saw and felt in his turangawaewae – his place of true belonging.
Alpine Panorama by Andy Buchanan (Quentin Wilson, $59.99) Photo / supplied
