Kingston’s Gary Patterson is literally a trailblazer.

The 52-year-old has designed and built walking and mountain biking trails around the country, and even overseas.

But he has also introduced NZ’s Great Rides and Great Walks to countless people through free, detailed mobile apps.

And now he has just self-published a travel companion book, Wander, on the country’s 26 private walks, two of which he had a big hand in creating.

Originally from the Waikato, Gary says his passion for trails sprang from his parents taking him walking — “it’s something that’s just been part of me since day one”.

He went to Hamilton Boys’ High then studied environmental planning at Waikato University, topped up by a Masters at Auckland Uni.

He also learnt computer mapping which has become a valuable tool.

After consulting in environmental planning in Whangarei for some years, he worked for Department of Conservation in Fox Glacier village on the West Coast for 10 years.

His brief included designing and building tracks and huts.

Towards the end he was asked by a wealthy individual to design and build mountain bike trails across some of his 17 properties in about eight countries.

Gary hand-cut trails in the Patagonian Andes and in Portugal and mapped routes through coffee fields in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains.

“They employed me to map all their trails around the world.”

Back in NZ, he moved to Kingston for somewhere less remote about 17 years ago, living there with his very supportive wife, Kim.

“I enjoy the walking, the quietness of Kingston, there’s lots of little bike tracks.

“I’ve started wind foiling in the last couple of years and just started skateboarding.”

Over the years he has ridden all of NZ’s 23 Great Rides and walked the 11 Great Walks.

He has painstakingly produced about 2000 pages of app content on the cycle and another 1000 on the walks.

He has kept the apps free through funding from about 550 advertisers.

“A lot of people just write about something and they haven’t actually been there and experienced these things.”

Gary also knows some of NZ’s trails from the ground up — such as, for example, a newish Great Walk, West Coast’s Paparoa Track.

“I helped design a good half of that — I was in a tent for 10 weeks bush-bashing rainforest and working out the alignment for where it’s going to go.”

He says he is used to bush-bashing and climbing without trails, “but there is a certain harmony in how a trail weaves through the landscape”.

There is also psychology behind designing a trail, he adds — you can climb one to the top of a range for the ‘wow’ factor or just get sneak peeks at forests or waterfalls if it snakes around the edge of a saddle or ridgeline.

Closer to the Wakatipu, Gary designed and helped build Garston’s Welcome Rock with landowner Tom O’Brien.

“We spent two years hand-building the [27km] trail.”

He was also involved with another design-and-build, Canterbury’s RockRidge, which opened this year.

Welcome Rock and RockRidge feature in his newly-released book, Wander, on NZ’s 26 private walks, which he not only walked but also stayed with the host families.

He has written eight pages on each, all prefaced by “A Warm Welcome” from the hosts and winding up with Gary’s own “personal highlight”.

Another feature are his detailed maps and illustrations mostly taken by professional photographers.

“These trails are very authentic because you see the families potentially, the farmer knocking in a post, tending to animals, and they provide food to you.”

Keeping it authentic, Gary also had it printed in NZ rather than a cheaper option overseas.

He had 2500 copies printed and has already sold about 1300 in just three weeks and recouped his costs.

Between his website, apps and book, he estimates 100,000 people a year are tapping in to what he has written.

He admits he would earn more driving a truck but says he is driven by passion.

He is also excited about the soon-to-open Kawarau Gorge Trail between Gibbston and Bannockburn which will also connect with the Lake Dunstan Trail.

It will be “transformational”, he says.

scoop@scene.co.nz

  • Gary’s book Wander is for sale for $49.90 via his website, privatewalks.nz