The life of wanderer, long-distance tramper and legendary hut-bagger Paul Kilgour Paul Kilgour has had a life-long obsession with New Zealand's back-country huts. He's 'bagged' a record 1159 of them in total, and he's still going. He grew up in rural Northland. It was a different... time. His father would watch on proudly as the boys jumped from tree-top to tree-top in the old macrocarpas, 30 metres off the ground. Paul began going on epic trips as a young boy, beyond the farm and along the coast. During these wanderings he would meet elderly folk living in tiny huts out the back of farms, on cliff tops, in remote and beautiful locations. All along the coastline were inconspicuous places with even more inconspicuous huts. There were also many small baches, always unlocked. Paul would use them as a place to bunk for the night, leaving a note to say 'thank you', as was the custom of the day. Even at school, Paul would drift beyond the school yard, up valleys, over hills ('mountains in his my imagination'), along ridges, though farm paddocks, across streams and creeks, over sand-dunes and along miles of wild and rugged west coast beaches. Deep inside him stirred the spirit of adventure, the desire to go further. All Who Wander is a book about one man's lifetime spent with a pack on his back, off the beaten path, and finding shelter in the wilderness.
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