Book cover: Under the Himalayan Sky

CAROLINE HARKER

Amongst the mountaineers speaking at the Mountain Book Festival in Wanaka last weekend was a different kind of adventurer - Wanaka’s Marg Jefferies, who went to live in the remote Khumbu region of Nepal in 1979 with her husband Bruce and three young children.

With no electricity or running water, living on a traditional Nepalese diet dominated by potatoes and tea, at an altitude of 3,500m, the two-year sojourn was an adventure the Jefferies family all loved.

Nearly 40 years later Marg has finished writing a book about it. That seems a long time, but Marg has had a busy life. She and Bruce have lived in Wanaka for the past 11 years - which is the longest they have lived anywhere together.

Their married life started with eight years at Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park where Bruce was a park ranger. During that time their three children were born. After that they went to Wellington for two years where Bruce worked for the NZ National Park Service, and then to Nepal to help establish the Sagarmatha National Park - which includes Mount Everest and is home to the Sherpa people. This is the period Marg’s book Under the Himalayan Sky is based on.

After Nepal, the family returned to Whakapapa for seven years. Marg and Bruce’s globe trotting with Bruce’s conservation work continued - with three more years in Nepal, two in Gisborne (where Bruce was the Department of Conservation Regional Conservator), five in Papua New Guinea, and five in Laos.

So why did it take Marg so long to write Under the Himalayan Sky - Establishing the Sagarmatha National Park - A New Zealand family’s experience? One reason is that as well as raising her family, she was busy writing five other books.

They include two editions of The Story of Mount Everest National Park, a third on the same area (2006), one on Chitwan National Park, A Visitor's Guide to Taupo, and two editions of Adventuring in New Zealand for the Sierra Club (1993, 2000).

"I wrote the NZ adventuring book when we were based in Gisborne. I drove all around the country doing it, sometimes on my own, sometimes with company. I realised I knew far more about our country than most DOC people did.”

Under the Himalayan Sky is the first time Marg has written a personal book. When she and Bruce took their family to Nepal in 1979, daughter Lynda was 10 years old, and sons Nevan and Kerry where eight and five. She has based her memoir on diaries written during their two years in the Khumbu, letters she wrote to her mother during that time, and information she has gathered during many return trips to Nepal.

"I wrote it on and off and put it down for up to 20 years at a time, when I got busy with other things. It never seems quite the right time to publish a book about something that happened in the 70s, but with the advent of e-publishing everything seemed easier. Vajra Books [in Kathmandu] said yes to the book straight away.

"In May last year the manuscript was ready and [husband] Bruce got a World Heritage job in the [Sagarmatha National] Park. It seemed like karma, so we went. I left the manuscript in Kathmandu and went to the Park for a week and when I came back the galley proof was ready. We did the rest by email, so it was easy.”

The book offers a great insight into a family adventure in this once remote area, now visited by 35,000 tourists and mountaineers annually. It is a compelling read, whether Marg is describing the difficulties of feeding her family, the saga of installing an aga, the many treks the family embark on, friendships with the locals, or the dramas of helping establish the national park.

For a taster, here’s the first paragraph:

"My fingers and toes were numb. Sweat generated by the effort of climbing from our house to Syangboche airstrip at 3600 metres had dampened my clothing and now, after an hour of inactivity, I felt cold and fidgety. The morning was still young, with that cold crisp clarity found only in the mountains. Stretching before me, south towards India, was the short airstrip carved across the rolling hillside. Beyond it the blue sky faded to a faint distant haze. On both sides jagged peaks soared skyward in picture perfection, their toothed ridges, stark black spires and snowy glaciers creased by crevasses glittering in the sunlight. It was a scene I would never tire of."

While they love going back to Nepal, after 11 years living in Wanaka Marg and Bruce still love it here. "There’s something about the mountains here,” Marg said. Son Nevan lives here with his family, which was a big drawcard, while daughter Lynda lives in Hamilton, and Kerry in England.

Although they now have a long-term home, Marg and Bruce don’t stay still for too long. In September they are off for another adventure, this time to China and Pakistan.

PHOTO: Supplied