Dawkins was here first – promoting his latest book, and giving a talk on the origin of life – and how amazing it is. How we have to “give thanks” (to who(m)?), how incredible it is that we are here at all etc. He talked about “A great knob twiddler in the sky” in relation to a God. While his talk was interesting – and there was little I disagreed with – I did think his.. ego and vanity got the better of him. I mean if you want to talk about Bubbling Metaverses and so on – as a substitute for God – fair enough.. but neither he nor any other atheist will come any closer than First Cause than can the rest of us.
So there.
On the other hand – I am just back from hearing Professor Rees talk – and he was simply incredible. He’s the president of the Royal Society of London (the oldest scientific society – celebrating 350 years this year). He has an incredible talent for distilling knowledge and then dispensing it in a way that the rest of us could understand. He was humble, interesting, witty (rather than Dawkins’ often crass / provocative offerings) and supremely passionate about his chosen subject.
It just made me want to go back to university and study astronomy / cosmology – or to quit work and try to find something vaguely useful to do with my life. I mean it seems to me that it’s obvious looking around that there are real pressures on our world and that we all need to do more to help out.
So I bought Professor Rees’ book Our Final Century: Will Civilisation Survive the Twenty-first Century?.. I’m sure humans will survive- but in what state? Do we have the capacity to be altruistic now – for the future children? What are we doing about the oil & water & population pressures? Or are we just a blip on the history of our planet – and something else is bound to take our place once we wipe ourselves off the map (so why worry?)
I dunno – but I am certainly looking forward to reading the book. He inscribed it for me:
I hope that this book is too pessimistic
I think hope is wonderful, but perhaps it’s well beyond time to think about how to act.
Glynn was off for Oracle induction in the US – so he and Jayne came down with little Isla for a week. Had a lovely lovely evening with the proud parents – and Graham and Myra came by too.
Last weekend headed up Avalanche Peak with Kylie, Maaike and Simone. It’s great to be able to drive just a couple of hours and be well up into the hills.
It’s quite a grunt up to the summit – the track climbs steeply from the valley floor in Arthurs Pass village.
So, the valley floor is at about 700m, and the top of the bush line is about 1200m… so, very roughly, everything in The Netherlands would fit within the area marked in red. Well, everything physical – obviously the personalities would never fit in such a space ;)
Ehem.
Onwards and upwards we went – the ridges can be quite spectacular.
There is quite the view from the top – though the cloud could have been a little kinder. Mind you, I tend to fry in the sun here – so a bit of cloud cover is probably quite a good thing for me really.
And a quick video of the panorama from the top.
All in all it took us about 3 1/2 hours to get to the top.. and then there’s about another hour to walk down from the top and further along the tops until you get to a scree slope you descend to the valley floor. There are *lots* of different scree slopes coming off – so it’s quite important to find the right one – otherwise you end up being caught by cliffs. Which is never a good thing.
On the left one of the scree slopes you don’t want to descend – and on the right – the one you do want to.
Running down a scree slope is a practised art – and one I’d not tried until coming to NZ. On nice scree (which this wasn’t today) with small sandy / pebbley scree it’s extremely pleasant. Basically you rest on your heels and slip and slide down the hill. It’s a fast convenient way to descend rapidly. This slope sees a lot of traffic, so it’s not quite so pleasant to get down.
At the bottom Maaike and I realised that our friend Mike had caught up with us (he said he would probably join – but not definitely) so started a little chant pf ‘we have a secret, we have a secret‘ – which Kylie and Simone didn’t quite understand (understandably) to begin with.. Simone looked at Mike for a good 10 secs when he did finally catch up with us. Hilarious.
Also, and at least as importantly – Mike had been testing cakes for his wedding, and brought along a delicious (and miraculously intact) cake for desert. Very very impressive.
Not the best nights sleep (brought my winter sleeping bag when it definitely should have been the summer one) – but a great trip nonetheless, and great to be out stretching the legs before solid socialising for 7ish weeks. Can’t wait.
So – there’s a very cool kiwi bloke about to go off on travels – Jo Jagush. Not quite sure what his travels will entail – but I’m quite sure that it’ll be an excellent (and undocumented!) story.
Here’s a film of Jo dancing last night..
Actually – last night was great… besides a great leaving party – and seeing Michelle dressed up as a squid…
.. Maaike and I headed out to the Christchurch Polytech (where she works) exam restaurant. Basically it’s a silver service setup – staffed and chef’fed by students. Our waiter was quite a nervous 18 year old – but it was a very enjoyable time – and the food was delicious. I think regular visits will have to happen. I mean it’s only right to track their progress through the system! ;)
Finally.. here’s a sculpture outside of the Canterbury Museum.
Haven’t stretched my legs in quite a while – but that has been changing a little. Played squash (with Warick) for the first time in 4 years last week – loved it. (even if I lost!) ;)
Anyways – this weekend it was off to Lake Mavis (Arthurs Pass) with Maaike, Berit and Amy. Here’s a map:
It’s part of the route that Shelly ran a couple of weeks ago during the Coast to Coast event.
So up the Mingha valley we walked, quite pretty beech forest and very very green!
There were some beautiful waterfalls (Kennedy’s)
And then we had to climb the 500m up to Lake Mavis. Basically about 4 minutes walk *before* you reach a well appointed hut – you turn your back on it and walk up hill for an hour and a half. Still – worth the effort we thought.
There were some purty alpine flowers out.
It was a pretty stunning place to park ones tent for the evening. We had to tie the guy ropes (sp?) around large rocks as the wind wasn’t the quietest it’s ever been. Still – beautiful light as the sun went down.
Not the deepest of nights sleep – as I kept feeling that the tent was about to be blown away (it wasn’t – and it probably wasn’t that terribly windy at all).. In the morning it was a bit foggy – which worked out quite nicely as it meant we didn’t fry in the sun on the way back again.
The decent back down from the lake was a little tricksy – well, you just had to find the right bit of scree to run down. Once we’d done that – it was plain sailing back to ChCh.
It was a lovely weekend – really great to get out and stretch the legs. Hopefully some more of that before heading to Europe – and then straight into the Snowboarding when we get back. Fun!
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