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 Zealand's 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.