Author(s): Mark Pickering

Travel | History

Stepping Back is a book for people who love exploring. It is a guide to the gems of South Island history, designed to help us fossick in our past without getting overwhelmed by it. It's not about museum history, but what's out there in the streets, paddocks and back- country of New Zealand. Behind every site there is a good story, and Mark Pickering has dug deep to uncover the human face of much of the South island's past. His explorations range from the hop kilns of Nelson to a Maori argillite factory high on a misty spur. There is the starlight-and-storms tale of a weather-beaten musterers' hut, a cemetery half-full of children's graves, and a gold-miners' water-race with a story as serpentine as the race itself. There is humour in the yarn of a canny whale-catcher, and tragedy on a lonely and lovely beach where the first European murder took place As in his other books, Mark Pickering shows a keen eye for the landscape, and he melds the hurley-burley of history with descriptions of the enduring landforms of the South Island in a colourful, and eminently readable text. The book details over 50 interesting walks (and sometimes drives) throughout the South Island. It advises on the practicalities of each expedition, with maps of every walk, and is fully illustrated with historical and modern photographs. A must for the adventurous!