Colin Heinz has been an active tramper and climber for over fifty years. He grew up in Cobden on the South Island's west coast. Its lofty mountains, lush native bush, and stories about gold prospectors and other explorers enticed him into the backcountry and fostered complementary interests in history and geology. Colin was educated at Greymouth High School, Victoria University in Wellington, and the University of Otago Medical School in Dunedin, which he graduated from in 1972. After two years as an intern in Auckland and two years in general practice in Northland and the United Kingdom he became a specialist anaesthetist and worked in Christchurch for 40 years until his retirement. Tramping was a great way for him to unwind from work and introduce his children to the bush and mountains that became so familiar to him when he was growing up. His interest in history was nurtured by family stories going back three generations in Westland and Canterbury and further back to Australia and Western Europe.