Roger Shepherd has been visiting South Korea on and off for the past ten years. In 2007, with hiking buddy Andrew Douch, he walked the 735km Baekdu-daegan ridge line in South Korea, where they then both wrote and published the first ever English Guide book on this ancient ridge line of energetic topography.  Since then he has walked at least 2000kms of mountain ridges in Korea, photographing and writing about its beautiful landscape, culture, religions and people.

Roger’s left his homeland of New Zealand at 21 years of age and ended up in Central and Southern Africa, where he found himself working in the African Wildlife Services for 10 years. He spent many hot months exploring the savanna’s and jungles of Africa on foot, honing his outdoor and wildlife skills. After Africa, he returned to New Zealand to join the New Zealand Police and Army. There he became a trained Reconnaissance Soldier for the NZ Territorial Army and a Diplomatic Protection Officer for the NZ Police, protecting various world leaders and VIP’s.

He left those roles to fulfill his ambitions of being a photographer and writer, and found that the untouched beauty of South Korea’s mountainous landscape had a lot more to offer than was currently available. Roger believes that the mountains of Korea are some of the most inviting and scenic in the world, and that the religious and cultural history of these ancient peaks are fascinating and need to be experienced! Roger now lives in South Korea during the hiking months of May to November and hikes in New Zealand from December to April. His work has been greatly recognised by the Korean Tourism Organization and he is now an Honorary Ambassador of Tourism for Korea. He recently completed his MA in Strategic Studies from a mountain hermitage in Korea.

He can be contacted at rasnzwlg@hotmail.com

Tel: ROK +82 010 29667612

Tel: NZ +64 0278401969