Mountain: When Land Touches the Sky by Phillip Temple

The most striking thing about his book is the wonderful photographs of gorgeous mountains, primarily provided by hedgehoghouse.com, a New Zealand stock photography agency.  Author PhilipTemple, a long-time mountain climber and historian, gives a brief background of the mountains of New Zealand, using both the native histories and the New World histories of how the mountains were discovered and named.  There is interesting text about the spiritual meaning of the mountains and volcanoes to native New Zealanders, as well as the lack of respect New Worlders had regarding warnings about climbing the mountains in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Each mountain gets similar coverage, including histories of the first climbers to ascend the summits using different routes.  The title and cover give no indication that the book is exclusive in its coverage to New Zealand, and flipping through the pictures on first glance I thought it was perhaps about a mountain range in Alaska with which I was unfamiliar.  Instead, it is about a number of breathtaking mountain ranges on the two islands of New Zealand.  This is a wonderful book for both the background of the region and a visual feast for the eyes.  It's also a wonderful resource for NZ tourism-- I certainly want to go there now!