ABSTRACT
Over time, New Zealanders have both shaped and been shaped by nature. Their evolving relationship with natural heritage has been responsible for important aspects of the national character and identity, forged through responses to a distinctive landscape. This chapter focuses on protected natural landscapes as natural heritage and the human engagement with these landscapes through the practice of mountaineering in New Zealand. The history of this engagement traces the development of a tradition of ‘backcountry’ recreation, which is both a physical and a cultural response to the natural landscape. This tradition encapsulates values such as self-reliance, a preference for encountering natural landscapes ‘on nature’s terms’ and the experience of remote places as the reward for physical effort. These values and the experiences that engender and inspire them depend upon the protection of particular characteristics and attributes of natural landscapes, including ‘natural quiet’ and the absence of certain human technologies and modifications.
