Mr A H. Reed To Walk The Length Of N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29248, 5 July 1960, Page 13

Mr A H. Reed To Walk The Length Of N.Z.

“The Press” Special Service

AUCKLAND, July 4. r Mr A. H. Reed, the well- J known writer and publisher, f who la 84, will later this year 1 walk the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to | Bluff. He expects to start ' about late September or midOctober, and take about three * months on the journey. By * the time he finishes, he will 1 be 85. < A sleeping bag carried in a c pack on his back will allow him 1 to stop wherever he chooses each night—under a tree, a haystack, < or at a farmhouse. If he happens i to be in a town he will stay at a I hotel. : Also in the pack will be a notebook and camera, so that . another book by Mr Reed should , result. Mr Reed, who recently retired as chairman of directors of the . firm of A. H. and A. W. Reed, , Ltd., has already written two ,

major books on his walks in New Zealand—“ Four Corners of New Zealand,” and "Walks in Maoriland Byways.” Mr Reed has always been a great walker, according to Mr A. W. Reed, in spite of having once suffered from a serious bone infection at the age of 14. Doctors had once wanted to amputate a leg. His parents had left the decision to the boy, and he decided to keep his leg. In time he had beaten the disease. Two years ago, Mr Reed decided to climb ‘ some volcanic peaks and over the last 18 months has climbed Mounts Egmont, Tongariro, and Ruapehu. The decision to make the present walk had nothing to do with walking endurance records recently attempted overseas. Mr A. W. Reed was talking with his uncle one night about walking and suggested that a walk by a 100-year-old man from one end of New Zealand to the other would be good material for a book. The old walker said that he was not 100 but how would an 84-year-old man do? His nephew agreed that that figure would be sufficient.