Artist creates path through bush

dogs and their children and their grandparents on this little narrow strip of tar seal,’’ Brady had said to him.

The pair involved some mates and started with a track between Moenui and Linkwater.

‘‘It was just a bit of vacant land close to the road and close to the sea.’’

‘‘As we became more serious and got funding, the infrastructure became far more regimented, and we had to get contractors in to help with bridges and boardwalks and tricky things. We couldn’t just rely on volunteers being there without some sort of compensation,’’ Edmonds said.

Edmonds said he sat down with a map quite early on, and looked at a potential route all the way from Havelock to Picton.

‘‘It was kind of like God intended this pathway to happen, because from way back in the 1860s, there was this corridor of vacant land the whole way.’’

That quickly became the route of the Link Pathway, Edmonds said. ‘‘The problem was looking at a map is one thing, but when you get into the land, you find you’ve got these steep banks, and gulleys and cliffs, and creeks, and thick bush – and you’ve got to somehow make a pathway through it.’’

‘‘Part of my vision – because I want to get people off the road – is that it had to be appealing, and I guess that’s the art thing coming in. The more I could make it a thing of beauty and a work of art, the more people would be attracted to use it, and that was what it was all about.’’

Edmonds spoke about stumbling across old bridle paths that had been built in the 1860s and been abandoned at the turn of the century when the road was built. Some 8km of these have been incorporated into the pathway.

There’s a 2km section of the pathway still to finish near

Linkwater. ‘‘There’s a reason we left it till last, because it’s really, really tricky – we need engineers!’’ Edmonds said.

‘‘It requires boardwalks and bridges and retaining walls and all sorts of tricky and expensive stuff. But I know what I’m doing now, and nothing’s going to stop us. We’ll push through there by the end of the year and then look at what’s next,’’ he said.

Edmonds was recently named the winner of this year’s Walking Access Commission Outdoor Access Champion Awards (an award issued by the Government) for his ‘‘tireless commitment and work with the Link Pathway project’’.

‘‘This award really is for the community in my opinion, because it’s been a community project right from the start. For me the biggest thrill of the pathway is just seeing people enjoying it, and that’s the real reward.

‘‘It’s knowing that if it wasn’t for what I started, they’d be up on the edge of the road still with the traffic and the petrol fumes and the danger, but instead they’re down here enjoying this because of what we’ve done and that’s just so cool.’’

Edmonds said once the pathway was complete, he intended to carry on up the Pelorus Valley and go all the way to Nelson.

‘‘I know what I’m doing now. I’ve figured it out, and I’m having way too much fun to stop now,’’ he said.