​© 2024 ROB BROWN PHOTOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Shelter from the Storm
By Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint
One of the defining and unique features of the New Zealand outdoors is the backcountry hut. New Zealand has a remarkably diverse network of these huts, unparalleled anywhere else in the world, and for those who venture into our wild places there is often a passionate attachment to these humble structures.
Shelter from the Storm is a landmark publication, the first wide-ranging history of our hut network. The authors provide an overview of who built the huts – tramping and mountaineering clubs, the Department of Internal Affairs, Lands and Survey, New Zealand Forest Service, National Park Boards and DOC – as well as why they were built, which includes farming, mining, tourism, tramping and climbing, hunting and deer culling, science and as monuments. For each of these sections the authors profile a wide range of representative huts, and recount the fascinating stories that invariably surround them.
This is a wonderful book, meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with a huge range of historic and contemporary photographs. Its significance and appeal is far-reaching, as this is a subject that has a genuine resonance with many, many New Zealanders.
Shaun Barnett is a landscape photographer, writer and editor. He has published a number of books, including Classic Tramping in New Zealand (co-authored with Rob Brown), the best-selling Tramping in New Zealand and Day Walks in New Zealand, and North Island Weekend Tramps. For some years he was the editor of Wilderness magazine. He lives with his family in Wellington.
Rob Brown is a landscape photographer and writer. His work has appeared in many publications including a number of books, including Classic Tramping in New Zealand (co-authored with Shaun Barnett), Rakiura: The Wilderness of Stewart Island, and New Zealand: The Essential Landscape. He lives with his family in Christchurch.
Geoff Spearpoint is a writer and landscape photographer, with an unparalleled knowledge of the New Zealand backcountry. He is the author of Waking to the Hills: Tramping in New Zealand, and the editor of Moirs Guide North: The Otago Southern Alps. He lives in Canterbury.
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http://www.pottonandburton.co.nz/store/books/history-biography/shelter-from-the-storm
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New Zealand: The Essential Landscape
By Rob Brown
For nearly two decades Rob Brown has been carrying his camera all over the wild parts of New Zealand, and New Zealand: The Essential Landscape is the stunning record of his work. With huge dedication and patience, Rob has set up his tripod in a breathtaking range of New Zealand's most beautiful and spectacular places, returning time and time again until he has produced an image that captures the essence of that place.
Consequently this book presents a magnificent roll-call of what can truly be claimed as the essential landscapes of Aotearoa: Fiordland, Stewart Island, the Catlins, Mount Aspiring, Aoraki/Mt Cook, the glacier country of South Westland, the Paparoas, Kahurangi, Abel Tasman and Nelson Lakes National Parks, and in the north, The Tararua and Ruahine Ranges, Taranaki, the volcanoes of the Central North Island, and the coastal landscapes and kauri forests of the upper North Island.
A dedicated conservationist, Rob Brown's belief in the ability of wilderness to enrich the human spirit shines out through his photographs. He is clearly one of the finest landscape photographers working in this country, and New Zealand: The Essential Landscape is a superb insight into the power of his work.
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http://www.pottonandburton.co.nz/store/books/photographic/new-zealand-the-essential-landscape
A Bunk for the Night: A guide to New Zealand's best backcountry huts
By Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown & Geoff Spearpoint
New Zealand has a huge range of backcountry huts, most of which are available for public use. Some can sleep 80 people, while others are tiny two-bunk affairs with not even room to stand up in. They are located in our mountains, on the edges of fiords, our coastlines and lakes, beside rivers, in the bush and on the open tops. Together they form an internationally unique network of backcountry shelter, and these huts, so often full of character and history, are fantastic destinations in their own right.
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A Bunk for the Night offers a guide to over 200 of the best of these huts to visit. This inspirational book has been written by Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown and Geoff Spearpoint, the authors of the seminal, best-selling history of New Zealand’s backcountry huts Shelter from the Storm.
Featuring well-known huts from the main tramping areas in both the North and South islands, the authors have also scoured the country for other interesting huts in out-of-the-way places, such as those in the Bay of Islands, on Banks Peninsula, in the Whanganui hinterland, the dry ranges of Marlborough and Stewart Island/Rakiura. This is a wonderful smorgasbord of must-visit huts, and an essential book for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors.
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http://www.pottonandburton.co.nz/store/books/adventure-and-outdoors/a-bunk-for-the-night
Classic Tramping in New Zealand
By Shaun Barnett, Rob Brown
Note: Out of Print
Classic Tramping in New Zealand is a beautifully photographed and sensitively written tribute to fourteen of New Zealand's finest tramping trips. This revised and updated edition now includes superb Bird's Eye maps that show each route in three dimensions and two new tramps: the Frew Saddle-Toaroha Saddle and the Northwest Ruahine Range.
The featured tracks are: Tararua Peaks, Hollyford (Fiordland), Nelson Lakes to Lewis Pass, Pouakai Range (Egmont), Kaweka & Kaimanawa, Cascade Saddle (Mt. Aspiring), Dragon's Teeth (Kaharangi), Three Passes (Arthurs Pass), Dusky Track (Fiordland), Makarora to East Matukituki (Mt. Aspiring), Five Passes (Mt. Aspiring), Copland Pass (Aoraki/Mt. Cook and Westland/Tai Poutini), Frew Saddle-Toaroha Saddle and the northwest Ruahine Range. Trips range from moderate three-day hikes to more challenging multi-day adventures for experienced trampers. Sister volume to Classic Walks of New Zealand
Rakiura: The Wilderness of Stewart Island
By Rob Brown
Note: Rakiura is out of Print but available on demand. Please contact me direct.
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Stewart Island, or Rakiura, is one of New Zealand's special places - an island whose remote atmosphere and character is cherished by many people worldwide. In 2002 most of the Island was gazetted as New Zealand's fourteenth national park and Rakiura - The Wilderness of Stewart Island celebrates all of its remarkable beauty with a stunning collection of photography by Rob Brown.
Rakiura features over 80 large format photographs of Stewart Island's extraordinary and distinctive landscape. These range from the windswept granite peaks and outcrops around the southern harbour of Port Pegasus, the huge sweep of sand dunes behind Mason Bay, the cliffs and islands around its rugged, weather-beaten coastline, the primeval podocarp forest and windswept manuka, and the abundant wildlife, including species such as great spotted kiwi and kakapo. The photographs are supported by thematically arranged essays on stone, forest and sand, as well as an introduction which provides an historical overview of Stewart Island beginning with Maori settlement, whaling, failed farming attempts and the challenges of preserving its flora and fauna.
There are also notes for trampers. These photographs are the fruit of Rob Brown's 10 year love affair with Stewart Island, and they evocatively convey so much of its mood and character. This is true 'wilderness' photography in every sense of the word, hard-won by the author on many ardous trips, laden with large-format camera gear, through Stewart Island's infamous mud and rain. Rob Brown's large format photography is of exquisite quality, and in Rakiura it is presented to the highest standard. Stewart Island is a precious refuge from an overcrowded and pressured world and this book is a stunning memento both for those who have visited this beautiful place, and also for those who are simply comforted by the knowledge that such a place exists.