Arthur’s Pass is a tight-knit community where the regular population can fit into a small bus, but the small village has great ambitions to produce a richly-illustrated book to mark the 100th anniversary of Arthur’s Pass National Park in 2029.

The project is partly funded by the Selwyn District Council Community Fund and been in the works for over a year now, says Pete Neale, committee member of the Arthur’s Pass Association.

Arthur’s Pass, the local community and the National Park have a rich history, so the book subcommittee will need a couple of years to cover all the territory. Neale says the committee is in the final stages of lining up a publisher and financing this significant community publication.

Arthur’s Pass village itself is tiny with a permanent population of 42 at last count, spanning young children through to residents aged 65 and over. That number swells during the summer holidays as families return to holiday homes.

“We have seen a pattern that the younger generations are now coming more often and taking a more active interest in using and maintaining properties that have been in the family for several generations.

The Arthur’s Pass Association was established about 60 years ago, representing bach owners and residents, to provide a collective voice in conversations with the Selwyn District Council, Te Papa Atawhai Department of Conservation and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.

Over the years, the association has taken on some of the roles for the government agencies that are stretched thin in rural areas.

Neale explains that DOC once ran popular summer programmes in the village, ”but as everyone knows the department is ridiculously underfunded at the moment”, so 12 years ago locals stepped in to keep the programme alive.

The summer calendar now mixes education, entertainment and the odd touch of theatre: guided walks focused on alpine plants; sessions on kiwi tracking; and a costumed “alpine pirate” who leads children on a treasure hunt around the village, clues in hand, for about an hour and a half.

Many of the events are backed by council funding, like a travelling mountain film festival screening that drew significant crowds and model-building workshops that proved a hit with children and adults, painting and decorating their creations.

Alongside the association, the local wildlife trust draws large numbers of volunteers to check traplines and support predator control work.

The local conservation work also includes monitoring kiwi around the village.

Neale explains that the monitoring no longer uses transmitters to reduce the disturbance of the sensitive birds and not having to swap batteries every three to six months. Instead, local volunteers conduct kiwi “listening surveys” every second year in August, climbing into 20 listening posts around 9pm to record bird calls by triangulating the location between listening posts.

To record 100 years of National Park and the local village the book subcommittee has decided to avoid a single narrative, and instead creating 14 stand-alone chapters written by different authors to let readers dip into topics “for different interests”, from huts and artists to environmental change.

Neale explains that most contributors are unpaid, “because they love Arthur’s Pass”, but two specialist chapters are particularly complex and will need professional authors to put those parts together.

Each author has been asked to deliver about 5,000 words and 10 to 15 photographs. Chapters will then be reviewed by two editors, with volunteers also tasked with cross-checking to avoid duplication and ensure the final manuscript covers the promised ground.

Neale won’t be one of the writers but will be responsible for funding the project.

“My role was to find money to finance this book because publishing a book does not come cheap,” says the owner of the Alpine Motel who is very hopeful to complete negotiations with a prospective publisher.

Funding, however, remains the constant challenge — whether for a glossy centenary book or ongoing conservation. Neale says that the association relies on a patchwork of support, including replace SDC Community fund, SDC Predator Free 2050 Fund and the SDC Heritage Protection Fund.

“We are really grateful that Selwyn council has made their funding applications a lot more accessible than some national funding agencies, so we are really thankful for all their support

For the centenary organisers, the book is meant to do more than sit on a coffee table. It will be a record of who has carried the place through lean years — the residents who front up to meetings, the volunteers who sit in the cold listening for kiwi calls, and the locals who keep finding ways to put on events that ties the community together.