Taming a path over the Tararuas earns award
Ian Argyle builds pathways.
After 20 years chipping away with shovels, picks, chainsaws, wheelbarrows and teams of volunteers, prisoners and soldiers, his efforts in the hills beyond Palmerston North have been recognised with a Queen’s Service Medal in the New Year Honours list.
As a volunteer and fount of local knowledge, the Palmerston North man has worked on and advocated for the development of a network of tracks centred on Arapuke Forest, a recreation hub that owes him its very name.
The land has been farmed, it has been forested, and is now a reserve richly-endowed with the preserved and regenerating native bush, mountain bike trails and walking tracks that make up the Kahuterawa outdoor recreation area.
Once known as the Woodpecker Block, the city council proposed a change of name to Waipuna Forest Park in 2011, but Argyle fought for his proposal of Arapuke.
As well as honouring one of the area’s pioneering families, the name translated as ‘‘pathway in the hills’’.
Argyle said the name was now even more authentic, for an area networked with a series of pathways, many making up part of the Te Araroa Trail.
It was also criss-crossed with some 20 kilometres of popular mountain bike trails.
‘‘The name has become even more authentic, with all those pathways.’’
Argyle, 83, still works on the tracks a couple of days a week, and would like to say he knows the area like the back of his hand, but it is not quite true.
Absorbed in his tasks, he is the volunteer who sometimes relies on a timely burst of a chainsaw to find his way back to the teams at morning tea time.
The Sledge Track was the first triumph for the area, opened by then prime minister Helen Clark in 2003 in one of Argyle’s proudest moments.
Other pathways followed including Burton’s Track, and the Mangahao-makahika Track linking to Horowhenua.
The most recent is the Naenae Track, which creates an east-west crossing over the Tararua Range, creating a link between Wairarapa and Manawatu¯.
It followed part of an old formed road leading up past several water falls, over the top and down to the Sledge Track.
Argyle said he was delighted and humbled by the award, which he felt also gave recognition to the countless volunteers who had shared his vision. He also paid tribute to mayors and council staff from Palmerston North and Horowhenua who had seen the area’s potential and encouraged his efforts.
He has documented the history of the Sledge Track in his book Beyond the Black
Bridge and has published three other books covering aspects of the region and its history.
He was presented with a Palmerston North City Council Civic Award in 2002.