People collect all sorts of things, so why not peaks? And as Edith Leigh discovers, peak bagging is great way to get outdoors and see the country
If Jon Povey hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer, the sport of peak bagging might never have got off the ground in New Zealand. Discovering you have Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 32 makes you realise life is short, he says. The former non-outdoorsy couch potato was introduced to peak bagging in Scotland, where it is better known as Munro bagging. Despite the not always enjoyable slog to the top, it proved to be an addictive pastime which turned him into something of a mountain goat. “I just love the feeling of being on top of the mountain. Summits are beautiful, quiet, silent places.” For Povey, “the Munro thing” made mountain climbing more fun. He liked the idea hundreds of other people were out there like him, collecting peaks off the list. Munro bagging has been around for over a century and more than 4000 people have ticked off every peak in the 284-long list of Scottish mountains over 914m, or 3000ft. In fact, some people enjoy it so much, they have ‘done’ the Munro list thirteen times over. Povey found himself wishing there was a similar list back home, but he immediately dismissed the thought as “pretty much impossible” for the average person, given the remote and rugged terrain of many of Aotearoa’s mountains. Yet he couldn’t let go of the idea. He walked up a few peaks close to home and began to have vague ideas of completing a list of great walking peaks in New Zealand and writing a book about it. Then he found himself facing six months of chemotherapy. It was the jolt he needed to stop dreaming and start doing. Instead of writing a book, which would mean doing every peak himself and could take years, he decided to put together a list and post it online to inspire others to get out there. [caption id="attachment_20909" align="aligncenter" width="1280"]

