Transit of Fiordland

This book details what is believed to be the first traverse of the Fiordland National Park wilderness area New Zealand in 1973/74. The author Frank Yardley then a hippie and Shorty Biddle a returned World War 2 serviceman completed the traverse as part of a plan to walk the length of New Zealands Southern Alps. These two characters are a generation apart in age and outlook. However the book is not just a story of the experiences of traversing the remote difficult and often-untracked terrain but is a structure to capture details of the history of the region pre- and post-European arrival the lost tribes explorers hermits and eccentrics; the geography flora and fauna as well as the bush-craft skills required to survive in the breathtakingly beautiful but unforgiving terrain. The story meanders as a memoir and reflection examining our changing relationship to wildness nature; the changing lens of our relationship to the world we inhabit. The story was developed from letters and a journal of the journey which enables an immediacy of experience despite the passage of time.