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NZ Climbing Info
NZ Climbing Info
Guides to NZ Climbing Areas
The Canterbury Mountaineering Club
Willie Butler 1949-2003
Paynes Ford, Takaka, New Zealand
Photo: Simon Middlemass
It all rolls in to one
and nothing comes for free
There's nothing you can hold for very long
and when you hear that song
come crying in the wind
it seems like all this life was just a dream
Stella Blue, The Grateful Dead.
On January 29th 2003, New Zealand climbing lost one of it's real characters. Willie Butler (53) died from severe head injuries sustained from an accident whilst lowering off one of his many routes in the area,"Stella Blue" at Pohara a few days earlier. The end of the rope slipped through the belay device and he fell about 10m.
How do you describe him? A real individual, a character, an eccentric and loveable rogue and ribaldly funny. He was always ready to challenge convention and thrived on debate. He had his own way of doing things and somehow it worked. No one else could circumvent bureaucracy like Willie could. The bottom-line however was he really cared about people and spent a lot of his life giving, particularly to young people.He introduced many of the Bay locals old and young alike to rockclimbing .
In the past 15 years Paynes Ford has moved from a local to an International climbing destination. This rise in popularity caused a lot of accommodation issues in the area in the early 90's. Hangdog Camp arose out of Willies affinity for the weird, wacky and free attitudes of the climbing community. Willies way of dealing with these issues was to let us camp in his front paddock. When this got up the nose of the District Council he put money into toilets and widened his driveway and before we knew it we had a climbers camp.
Many, many visitors from overseas have passed through Hangdog and the unexpected surprise would have been how this man could touch almost all those people in some way. He was as much the Paynes Ford experience as the climbing was. It was (and still is) the sort of place where people would arrive for 2 weeks and stay for two months.
Determining that there was a need in the area for climbs of a more moderate nature Willie almost single-handedly developed many new areas including the Seagrass Wall, Dr Livingstone Wall, Twighlight Zone and the Little Lost Wall amongst a myriad of other climbs.
Photo: Kirstie MacLeod
Many visitors would have been swept up in some of his "schemes" - The Pine tree Liberation Front always had a New Years rendezvous with the Memorial to Abel Tasman. He used nom de plumes for his first ascents including P.Bear, The Toad, King Henry the Fifth and Giorgio de Maziola. The latter recently had an Italian gentleman requiring where he could meet this "other Italian gentleman who had put up these new climbs"....somehow the humour was lost on him (if not us) in the translation when he found Giorgio didn't really exist.
Not long before I left Golden Bay this summer after a long overdue spell Willie and I iinstalled a bell made from an old Fire extinguisher atop one of his climbs " Franklins Tower" (another Grateful dead inspired route name). Worried that it might still have some explosive gases Willie assuaged my fears by testing it in the backyard - by shooting it with his .303 . If you climb the route, ring the bell and think of him.
Many a fun night was had at the Mussel Inn Quiz nights , watching Rugby in the local pub, playing Uni-hockey (nearly killed me) and dangling over cliffs in the dark armed with various pyrotechnics to burn marauding swarming Bees from their misplaced nests on climbs. Surprisingly he pre-deceased the accident prone Floppy (his dog) which he would have thought quite ironic.
Needless to say the funeral was huge, reflecting his involvement in many areas of the Golden Bay Community as well as climbing. His coffin was a replica boat and many dignatories attended including the Wizard of Christchurch , Alf's Imperial Army and the Aunt Fanny’s Sewing Circle. There was a 18 gun salute, a cannon blast and we laid him to rest in the East Takaka cemetery.
We love you and miss you mate.
I wrote this for all those people around the world who have met Willie to let
you know of his passing.
Simon Middlemass
My New Zealand climbing pictures can be found on theWebshots Community
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