Bob McKerrow - Wayfarer

Ang Tharkay - the Father of all Sherpa guides and mountaineers

2012-01-28T03:47:00.001-08:00

Ang Tharkay (right) with Bob McKerrow (left) taken at Ang Tharkay's farm south of Kathmandu. at Simbhanjayang in 1975. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Being woken up on a frosty morning at first light by Ang Tharkay with a mug of hot tea at his farm, south of Kathmandu, on 23 April 1975, is a memory that remains vivid in my mind. With a broad smile he handed me the tea, made in the Sherpa manner with tea, sugar and milk boiled together. He greeted me in English and Tibetan.

I somehow had a flashback to photos of Eric Shipton in the 1930s and this is how he must have been woken up on his expeditions by the very same man. We had a breakfast of chapati and eggs from his farm. He had risen before day break and had milked cows and goats. Ang Tharkay was about 69 and I twenty seven.

We talked of the great climbers he went on expeditions with: Eric Shipton, Sir Edmund Hillary, Maurice Herzog, Gaston Rebuffat, Lionel Lachnel, Lionel Terray, Cmdr. Kohli and others. You could see he had a soft spot for Shiption and the French expeditions he had been on.

I wrote the above about a year ago and when I was home in New Zealand in January 2012, I found my diary so I can add further information to my initial story.

“ I left Kathmandu by car about 1230 for Ang Tharkay’s farm with his son Dawa who I had met in Kathmandu some weeks earlier. The first 10 km out of Kathmandu is over a good road then a short climb up to a pass, then the road plunges down into a very fertile valley. About two and a half hours up to Daman which is at about 8,000 feet, and then up to a pass some 200 feet higher, then the road descents to the Terai. It is a 15 minute walk from the road to his farm through beautiful bush. All the way you are kept under survelence of his trusty Tibetan dogs. His farm is surrounded by steep country on three sides, the lower side drops away steeply.

This distinquished mountain guide came out to greet me with a huge smile and gave me a shy hug. He showed me round the farm where potatoes are his main crop and a variety of vegetables and has many fruit trees. A herd of 30 cows graze on the hillsides. I noticed his English was quite broken and preferred to speak in Tibetan to his son Dawa who translated much of the time. He explained how he grows a special millet for making a favouritre Nepali drink, Rakshi and Chang. His house is sturdy and simple, very much in the Sherpa style.

After watching the cows being milked, I pitched my tent and I retired inside with Dawa and his famous Father.

We talked of the great climbers he went on expeditions with: Eric Shipton, Sir Edmund Hillary, Maurice Herzog, Gaston Rebuffat, Lionel Lachnel, Lionel Terray, Cmdr. Kohli and others. You could see he had a soft spot for Shipton and the French expeditions he had been on. He spoke with great pride of the 11 years he spent with Eric Shipton who he described as a very tough man, who ate little and was very strong, starting in 1931.

He spoke of his most famous expedition, the French Expedition in 1950 led by Maurice Herzog to Annapurna. Ang Tharkay spent much of his time carrying of Herzog who contracted severe frostbite. He said that in 1931 they were paid one quarter of an Indian Rupeee a day. They were paid five rupees per joint lost by frostbite and between 500 and 1000 rupees to your family if you lost your life. Then in 1975, he said “ now the family gets paid 100,000 Indian Rupees if a Sherpa loses his life.”

We drank his quality chang late into the nnight talking of all the great climbers, expeditions and significant people he met.

Born and raised in Khumbu, later migrating to Darjeeling, Ang Tharkay’s first expedition was to Kangchenjunga in 1931. He was on Everest in 1933, 1935, and 1938, when he was cook and Sirdar, having been formally made Sirdar for the first time on Nanda Devi in 1934. He was exceptional as both climber and sirdar, and his character won high praise from all who knew him.

I spent the morning with Ang Tharkay helping him with chores around the farm and I left about midday for Biratnagar, where I had work to do.

Photo left: Ang Tharkay at the age of 20 in Darjeeling. Photo. RGSS

Ang Tharkay, who died in Kathmandu on July 28th 1981, belonged to the first generation of elite climbing Sherpas. Born in 1908 in Khunde in the Year of the Monkey (according to the Tibetan calendar) Ang Tharkay went to Darjeeling at the age of twelve in search of work with expeditions

He accompanied Eric Shipton on eight of his pre-war expeditions in the Himalaya, including four on the northern route to Everest. Ang Tharkay had seen the days when high altitude porters were paid six annas compensation for each finger they lost by frost bite. And if the injury was really bad, and a porter could not walk back to Darjeeling, he was entitled by contract to receive a pony and one rupee compensation. Sherpas received blankets for high altitude camps, and sleeping bags were issued only during emergencies.

Mt. Everest and the west ridge, taken from Kallar Pattar 1975. Photo: Bob McKerrow

When Nepal was opened to expeditions, and the first reconnaissance groups traveled up the Dudh Kosi to Solu Khumbu, Ang Tharkay was with them. He had shed his traditional Sherpa pigtail, and dressed in smart woolen breeches, "but had same, shy reticence and quite humour", that Shipton remembered. He joined Eric Shipton, and Edmund Hillary on their 1951 expedition in which they tackled the treacherous Khumbu ice fall, the gateway to the southern route to Everest, and paved the way for the first successful ascent two years later. The expedition then went on to explore the upper reaches of the Imja Valley, the Hongu Basin, and then crossed the Tesi Tapcha into Rolwa Jing. Shipton was impressed by Ang Tharkay, and was moved to remark that he regarded his chief Sherpa as "a man of outstanding character and ability".

Ang Tharkay also took part in another epoch making Himalaya climb, the French Expedition to Annapurna in 1950, lead by Maurice Herzog. He reached the top camp above the "Sickle" on the north face of the first eight-thousander to be climbed.

After this, he was sent for training in technical climbing in Switzerland by the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. Although he was invited by Herzog to bring his wife along to France, it is indication of Ang Tharkey's forthrightness that he refused to take his wife to save his "Bara Sahib" extra expense.

Ama Dablam, taken on the march in to Everest base camp. 1975. Photo: Bob McKerrow

In 1954, Ang Tharkay resigned from the HMI and set up his own business taking trekkers up to Kangchenjunga. In 1962, he became the oldest man to have climbed up to eight thousand meters, when he made it to the South Col with the Indian Everest Expedition. Although he then retired from active mountaineering,

The year I first met him. 1975, Ang Tharkay took a party up to the Annapurna Sanctuary , and sirdared the French Expedition to Dhaulagiri in 1978, at the age of 70.

I remember how active he was virtually running round his farm to do his daily work, always with a smile on his face.As a young mountaineer sitting at the foot of a Guru in every sense of the word, I learnt so much from him. Simplicity, mental toughness, simple diet, hard work, humour, family, friendship, and above all, humility.

At seventy three years young, Ang was still extremely fit, and many remember the cheerful waves he gave from his bicycle on Durbar Marg. (He never rode in cars if he could help it). Ang Tharkay was looking forward to a quiet retirement in his orchard and farm in Simbhanjayang, when he was suddenly hospitalized and died of cancer.

In Eric Shipton's classice, A Blank On the Map Shipton describes his exploration of the Karakoram's Shaksgam and N side area of K2 in 1937. This was a very small expedition that consisted only of Shipton, H. W. Tilman, M. A. Spender, J. B. Auden, seven Sherpas (under Sirdar Ang Tharkay), and four Balti porters. This five-month expedition mapped 1,800 square miles of rugged, glaciated, uninhabited country containing many of the world's most spectacular mountains

Ang Tharkay and a young brother. Tilman commented that his stews and curries were masterpieces, but that cooking was only one of his abilities, as he was responsible for porters, gave advice and invariably carried the biggest loads highest. RGS , 1938.

In a 1954 autobiography of Ang Thrace, Mémoires d'un Sherpa , it says that Ang Tharkay was Tenzing’s landlord in Darjeeling and also his mentor. Ang Tharkay accompanied Shipton on eight expeditions and was also a sirdar [leader] on the 1950 French expedition to Annapurna, led

He went to Annapurna with the French in 1950, to Everest in 1951, to Cho Oyu in 1952, to both Dhaulagiri and Nun in 1953, to Makalu in 1954, and finally to Everest with the Indians in 1962.

In 1955:he joined an an Indian expedition from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling makes the second ascent of Kamet on July 6. Major Narendra D. Jayal led the party; Jayal, Ang Tharkay, Da Namgyal, Ang Temba, and Hlakpa Dorje comprised the summit team. Their route followed the ridge linking Abi Gamin and Kamet.

Crossing the Lumding La (4520 m) with Neema Sherpa. This was a journey I did with Murray Jones and a Sherpani called Domalay in 1975, when we had an unsuccessful attempt on Kwangde. Photo: Bob McKerrow

I was first drawn to Ang Tharkay in my early teens when I saw a photo of diminutive Ang Tharkay, carrying a large, frost bitten French climber, Gaston Rebuffat, on his back down the mountainside from a high camp on Mt. Annapurna.

When I lived in Kathmandu for nine months in 1975, I visited Ang Tharkay on his farm a number of times, and it was always a joy to meet this modest mountain man.

Having been born in the barren Solo Khumbu, (photo below) the lush green grass and trees of his farm in Simbhanjayang, south of Kathmandu, was an oasis. He was close enough to meet old climbing friends from abroad, fellow Sherpa's from earlier climbs, yet being able to go to his farm when he wanted peace, quiet and self sufficviency.

The first time I visited Ang Tharkay was with his son Pemba who I had met in Kathmandu.

Later that year before I returned to Switzerland, Ang Tharkay was very distraught. The wife and daughter of his old climbing partner Ed Hillary, had died in a terrible plane crash in Kathmandu. He had made a special and swift visit into Kathmandu to comfort Sir Ed, Peter and Sarah. I remember that tragic day well as I was in Kathmandu and heard the plane crash and got the news an hour later. I joined a group of friends to give what support we could to a grieving Hillary family.

As a young man I had the privilige of meeting the two greatest early-era Sherpas, Ang Tharkay and Tenzing Norgay. I met Tenzing in 1972 in The Mall in Darjeeling and we sat on a wall talking about his climbing career. Tenzing seemed a much more complex man than Ang Tharkay. At the risk of sounding disrespectful, I felt Tenzing had problems handling fame and status, whereas Ang Tharkay seemed totally unaffected by it, and found simple things like farming, cycling and being with family, more than satisfied his small needs. In my youthful mind, Ang Tharkay was the Father of the modern day climbing Sherpa

Two of my favourite Sherpa guides. Domalay (l) and Neema (r) who accompanied Murray Jones and I on a trip in 1975. They both worked for the Ed Hillary hospital in Kunde. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Birds in Sri Lanka

2012-01-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

On the trip to Jaffna and down the western coast of Kilinochchi in the last few days I came across a lot of migratory birds near Maveliterai on the border of Jaffna and Kilinochchi district . Above and below the Painted Stork
.

This small island contains descriptions of 435 bird species including 110 migratory species. It has 26% of the total number of birds identified world wide.. During the Migratory period from November to February birds visit Sri Lanka. There are three main fly ways, Eastern, Western and via Andaman islands. Sri Lanka is a major migratory bird’s point because it is the last land mass of the world

The great white egret

A pelican on the Lake outside my apartment in Colombo.

Layard Parakeet

One day in the north of Sri Lanka

2012-01-24T05:34:00.000-08:00

I left Colombo this morning at 6 a.m. and we travelled via Vavuniya, Killinochchi over Elephant Pass and down to Jaffna. I love this part of Sri Lanka and my good friend Dr, Mahesh who is with me, lived here as a boy and knows it well.

I first visited the north of Sri Lanka in June 2010 when I first arrived to take up a new poosting with the Red Cross (IFRC) and I travelled with Tissa Abbeywickrama, Mahesh Gunasekera, Col. Madu and Barry Armstrong.

At that juncture, we were just starting the Sri Lanka Red Cross Post Conflict Recovery Programme (PCRP) and I recall vividly visiting villages in Kilinochchi where people were living in hovels or very poor temporary shelter. On that trip we handed out letters saying that the bearer would receive a house, water supply, a toilet and a grant for livelihoods.

The 25 year long war had only finished a year earlier and people were worn-out, still confused and struggling to survive. The Government was doing all it could to help and working with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, JAICA, the UN and other bi lateral partners, infrastructure was being rebuilt after the region was totally flattened by a brutal war.

Barry Armstrong (l) and Tissa Abbeywickrama (r) talking to two villagers in Vivekanandam Nagar in Kilinochchi. Their makeshift shelter in the backgtound. Within a year they had a new Red Cross house. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The first house underway in Vivekananda NagarJuly 2010. Today we have completed 300 in this village. Photo: Bob McKerrow

A year later, Sept 2011, Vima;a Rani with her family at the door of her new houses. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Vimala Rani outside her new Red Cross house. All families get a water supply, a toilet and a livelihood grant. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Today we were back in Kilinochchi with Nadeka Arambewela (Australian Red Cross)
right) with Vimala Rani on her right and three of her five children. She explained how her life had changed with her house, water and sanitation and the livelihood grant she received.

Our two doctors and public health specialists Bhannu and Mahesh found a problem with the well and when I left they were still looking into it.

Thavarani who lost her husband during the war and badld disabled by a mortar, lives in Krishnapuram. Here she is with her three children 1 year ago outside a rough temporary shelter. Today she has a new house and the livelihood rant has enabled her to be self sufficient. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Arrived in Jaffna at 7pm tonight to be met by our team who had been surveying islands off Jaffna where families urgently need houses. The team is led by Nimal Silva 2nd from right. Tomorrow at 7 am we head off to the islands with them.

Photos: Bob McKerrow IFRC

Old Comrade

2012-01-21T03:41:00.000-08:00

"I hope when I die the sky is grey" one of New Zealand's best poets once wrote, and he did die a few years back when the sky was grey. My favourite poet, together with Denis Glover.

I REMEMBER IN 1979 CUTTING ONE OF HIS GREAT POEMS OUT OF THE NZ LISTENER, DATED OCTOBER 27 TO BE PRECISE. Hone Tuwhare was one of New Zealand's most popular, most read and oozing with a sense of who we are as a people.

Old Comrade

Like frightened girls, the years

ran in thickening to panic-stations

and the days ran out for Jim

as he walked past them. and beyond

Why, only a few days ago, hatless

immaculately tied and overcoated,

tied on , Jim shouldered his way out

of the Crown into the wind

at the corner of Rattray Street: he

didn't hear me call out. Jim was

ghosting

Shoulders bunched, tartan scarf whipping

Jim leaned into the wind. The wind leaned

right back and then pulled away. Jim fell.

He didn't feel the hardness or coldness

of the pavement, for, like an old friend

come back, the wind held him as he fell.

Well, there was no magic tolling of the

bell, and the skies never opened up, But

the ground did...

At the graveside, no one wanted to add

or subtract. No one - except the capitalist

who never even looked up from the counting

his worthless paper money. But, you know

I reckon old Marx would make room for him

Lenin, throw another log on the fire,

and, Mao, like a full moon rising poor a bowl

of tea, offer Jim a cigarette. Bet on it

Gujarat earthquake 11 years later

2012-01-20T00:45:00.000-08:00

Buildings collapsed crushing people and destroying livelihoods in Bhuj and for a radius of over 150 km.

In a few days time, 26 January 2012, India will celebrate its Independence Day, and many will remember with great sadness the tragic earthquake which struck Gujarat mid morning on 26 January 2001.

I was based in New Delhi as the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies regional delegation for South Asia and headed the Red Cross earthquake relief and recovery operation in Gujarat and I lived in Bhuj in a tent for 1 month..

6 March 2001

The last 35 days have been the toughest of my life. More difficult than the North Pole expedition of 86, tougher than any mountain I've climbed. The first 5 days I had no sleep and since then for the last 30 days I've survived with a handful of hours every night. God knows how I've kept it up. Finally I am having this weekend off after having spent the last 14 days in Bhuj and Bachau. The dust, the dirt and stench of decomposing bodies permeates every pore of your body. People speak of a death toll of over 50,000 now which I can readily believe.

Running and coordinating a team of over 150 foreign delegates, supervising a 350 bed hospital plus two other field hospitals, getting vital relief goods out to over a million of the worst affected people, organising pycho-social counselling teams, orthoppaedic centres for those 2000 or more children who lost limbs has been a momentous challenge. We now have a team of highly trained professionals from 21 countries working together with the Indian Red Cross.

The Gernman Red Cross water sanitation team provided water for the 400 bed Finnish-Norwegian Red Cross hospital in Bhuj with the most up to date operating theatre and fantastic after care.

Phil Goff, our Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived last night and is travelling today with the NZ High Commissioner and a top level mission from NZ, from Delhi to Bhuj on our plane (which we have chartered for the first 3 months) to see our operation. As I desperately need some time to myself I have sent my deputy, Alan Bradbury, another NZ'er with them to show them round. I have dinner with them when they get back

Ablai my son and Naila are well. Naila's Mum is here at the moment which has been good as she has been able to support her while I've been away. But what was it like: .

In a narrow street behind a school in Bhuj town, a crowd of people wait anxiously for the arrival of an Indian Red Cross truck. It might not sound much but this truck will bring enough tents to provide shelter for a minimum of 2,300 people.

This distribution of tents is the second one of the day by the Indian Red Cross in Bhuj and the supply cannot meet the demand. Wherever one looks in the town, there is rubble. Bhuj has suffered terribly from the earthquake that hit western India two weeks ago. A town with a population of more than 150,000 people, it had one of the highest official death tolls with a minimum of 6,000 people killed while the number of injured was put at more than 60,000.

Among those waiting slightly apart is a woman holding a baby in a bundle. Hina Chanchal's husband is among the crowd of men surrounding Indian Red Cross officials to see if they are on the list of people who will be given tents.

Like all the others there, Hina lost her home in the earthquake. Although none of her family was killed, she saw the teenage daughter of a neighbour die after being trapped under the debris for several hours. She too had a narrow escape after having to run back inside the house to get her baby.

"It is almost as if God had put a protective corridor around me," she says. "Everyone in front of me and behind me had debris falling on them. I and my baby seemed to have a clear escape route."

Now she and her family of 8 that includes her mother and sister, live by the side of a street. The nights are cold in Gujarat at this time of the year and with each passing day spent living in the open, their desperation at their plight increases.

The mother and first baby born in the Red Cross Field Hospital, Red Cross Camp,Bhuj.

The sad tragedy is that there are so many people just like Hina. The crowd at the distribution point are vociferous and jostle each other but a small contingent of policemen keep them in check. The earthquake has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. And all of them have their own desperate story.

One man, a welder who had his own business, no longer has a home or a business. After making sure his family won't have to sleep under the stars in a tent sent by the French Red Cross, he will leave them to search for work in a town 40 kilometres away.

The loss of everything that one has worked so hard for is difficult to take. But amidst the despair, there is a happy smile.

"The Red Cross is doing a fantastic job, keep up the good work," says Vijay Kantilal Mandalia as he leaves the area, carrying a tent in his arms.

He too has lost his building supplies business as well as his home.

"We were happy before, we had achieved something. Now we have nothing and are living on a road. Whatever possessions survived the earthquake, didn't survive the looters. The clothes I am wearing, I have borrowed, even the shoes," he says. "What shall we do? I just don't know."

Nevertheless he is relieved he has a tent. "I knew before the earthquake of the work of the Red Cross. I knew I could go to them for help," he says. "We don't need food, just shelter. Nobody else has given us shelter - until now."

The Indian Red Cross has so far distributed more than 67,300 blankets, 4,200 tents and 6,100 tarpaulins sent from donor Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. With the International Federation targeting 300,000 in its appeal for Gujarat's earthquake victims, the emergency relief operation is set to continue for a few months still.

What was it like in the first few days ? Patrick Fuller, who was our communications man in Delhi at the time, write this:

THE DAY THE EARTH SHOOK
Friday 26th January was meant to be a day of celebration across India. But as Republic Day parades were getting underway in towns and villages across the country at 8:40 am disaster struck. At the time I was making a cup of tea in my suburban Delhi home, looking forward to a leisurely day with my family. Suddenly there was a low rumbling which lasted for about 15 seconds. The kitchen cupboards shook and I could only assume that it must have been a 21 gun salute from the military parade. As I turned on the TV a news flash announced that an earthquake had struck the north eastern State of Gujarat with tremors being felt as far afield as the State of Uttar Pradesh, 1500 kms away. Initial casualties were reported to be low, 40-50 killed in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujurat. I instinctively called Bob McKerrow, the head of delegation and sent a quick e-mail to notify the disaster response unit at the Federation headquarters in Geneva. Information began to filter in from Indian Red Cross branches in the quake zone and by 10:30 it became apparent that the potential scale of this disaster could be awesome. A colleague from Reuters called to say the situation looked a lot worse and the death toll could reach into the thousands. Myself, Bob and Alan Bradbury, our regional disaster preparedness delegate, had already activated our operations cell at the delegation and within three hours of the disaster our colleagues in Geneva had issued an alert to the international donor community and a preliminary appeal was launched later that day for 2 million Swiss francs.

Arriving the next morning on the first flight in to Ahmedabad, Alan and myself couldn’t help wondering whether the disaster had been exaggerated. Buildings along the road from the airport to the Red Cross office appeared untouched and the everyday bustle in the streets seemed normal. The next few hours proved us wrong as we set about assessing the scale of destruction in different pockets of the city. Wherever a building had collapsed tension was high with local residents and police struggling to hold back the crowds of curious onlookers. A ten storey building appeared to have been sliced in two. One half had collapsed, the other half remained standing with bisected rooms open to the sky , exposing the final, private moments of former residents. In one flat an unmade bed, in another a kitchen table with the remains of uneaten breakfasts. Friends, relatives and neighbours scrabbled desperately in the rubble below in the hope of finding anyone alive. Two men rushed into the site carrying a car jack in the vain hope that it would lift a huge concrete slab under which the cries of a child had been heard.

Ahmedabad was bad but Alan and I knew that there was worse to come. The epicenter of the quake was over 400 kms away near the ancient city of Bhuj in the district of Kutch. No information had emerged from Bhuj, but we knew that power and telecommunications were down and the airport was closed. It was decided that I would head off by road to Bhuj while Alan set about establishing a logistics cell at the Indian Red Cross office in Ahmedabad. What followed was a road trip from hell. Our vehicle broke down twice and we finally limped into Bhuj eleven hours later with the driver almost asleep at the wheel. Before we even reached Bhuj, I sensed the worst. Passing the junctions with the towns of Bachau and Anjar hundreds of ghostly figures were encamped by the road. At the sight of our vehicle many leapt into the road, desperately trying to wave us down in the hope that we could provide some help. As we approached Bhuj the driver slammed on the brakes. An overturned bus lay on its side on the road ahead. In the dark the bus had careered into a gaping crack caused by the quake which zigzagged across the road.

At 02:00 on Sunday morning we arrived to what seemed like a ghost town. Empty streets shrouded in darkness, the only signs of life being groups of people crouched around small fires on each street corner. We found the local branch of the Indian Red Cross where the Branch secretary Dr. Morbia and his extended family were sleeping in the backs of cars or on mattresses in the middle of the street. Everyone in Bhuj was too frightened to return to their homes. I joined them in the dirt, but despite being exhausted, sleep didn’t come easily. Adrenalin was pumping through my system and it was bitterly cold. No sooner had I dropped off I was awoken by a violent judder at 06:30. The neighbourhood came alive with a cacophony of children's screams and excited chatter. The people of Bhuj were scared. They had lived through twenty seconds of horror the previous morning and were worried that their nightmare would be repeated.

As we headed to the District Collectors offices the next morning the scale of damage was evident, we passed a girls school which had been flattened, an office building lent precariously out into the middle of the road and an ancient Hindu temple, its pillars dismembered, lay collapsed like a classical ruin. The streets were choked with fleeing residents sat atop their salvaged possessions on trucks and tractor trailers. To add to the chaos anxious relatives were coming in to the town to search for their families. The scene at the district administration based at the collectors offices was pandemonium. I met the State Minister of Health, who was overall responsible for the Governments emergency response operation. The message I got was clear, do anything you want to help but do it fast. Everyone had been traumatised by this disaster. Most had lost friends or relatives and few had slept during the past 48 hours. I asked the Minister for a meeting later in the day, he pointed to his 4-wheeled drive and said ‘come and find me in my office’.

During those initial few days I felt a huge weight of responsibility. It was my role together with colleagues of the Indian Red Cross to feed back information to our teams in Delhi and Geneva. Based on this information they would be guaging their response to the disaster. The immediate needs were evident, the remaining population of Bhuj were camped outside the remains of their homes, in the backs of cars or in small tent cities dotted around the town. Hundreds of thousands of people would need tents or plastic sheeting to make into shelters. Blankets would be a priority as the nights were bitter and the medical needs of those who had been injured during the quake had to be addressed without delay. My only link with the outside world was a satellite-phone that I had carried from Delhi. Plugged into a car battery I made contact with Delhi and reported back on my initial findings. I discovered that an emergency task force had already been assembled by the Federation and was on its way to Bhuj. Then came the press calls. Somehow the international media had decided that I was the first international relief worker to have reached Bhuj and the phone began to ring red hot with interview requests. In between meetings and interviews I found time to visit some of the most stricken areas around Bhuj. The old part of the city had been decimated. A population of 60-70,000 people had simply vanished. Thousands were presumed dead and thousands had simply fled the city. An army bulldozer up ahead was clearing a passage through the narrow lanes which were choked with debris. The odor of decaying bodies had already begun to seep into the air and as I climbed over a pile of rubble my foot sank into something soft. Fearing the worst, I looked down and realised I was climbing over the back of a huge bull that had been crushed by falling masonry. Walking down an empty passageway I heard an alarm clock go off, it was 9 o’clock am. The clocks unfortunate owner had probably been asleep when the quake struck, oblivious to their own fate.

24 hours after my arrival in Bhuj the first of the team had arrived. Helvor Lauritzen, the team leader from the Norwegian Red Cross and a veteran of relief operations in Turkey and Goma, had flown in to take control. The next day the remainder of the team arrived, Colin, a logistics expert sent by the British Red Cross, Inigo a relief administrator from the Spanish Red Cross, Giuseppe from the Italian red Cross and Richard from the German Red Cross who would carry out the medical assessment and Gunther a water and sanitation expert from the Austrian Red Cross. I found it remarkable that within a couple of days of the disaster, this team had come from all corners of Europe to assemble in a remote Indian town to spearhead what would be a huge operation. Realising the scale of the disaster the Federation now issued a revised appeal for 25.5 million swiss francs, with the intention of reaching 300,000 people in the coming four months with non-food relief supplies.

Within 50 hours the first international relief supplies began to arrive from all directions. A convoy of trucks rolled in with 30 tons of blankets and plastic sheeting that the Swiss Red Cross had flown in to Ahmedabad and more trucks were en route with supplies from the Indian Red Cross warehouse in Delhi. On Tuesday the first cargo flights began to arrive directly into Bhuj airport. One of the first flights came from the British Red Cross which was funded by DFID (Department for International Development) loaded with blankets and plastic sheeting. An ERU (emergency response unit) from the Finnish Red Cross landed with a medical team and part of the 400 bed field hospital that would be set up in Bhuj. The logistical hurdles were immense. The lack of lifting gear at the airport meant that we were reliant upon volunteers from the Indian Red Cross to offload the aircraft, many of whom were in a state of shock. Trucks and cars were in short supply as most trucks had been comandeered by the authorities and truck drivers from Ahmedabad were reluctant to travel to Bhuj. During the next 48 hours we were struggling to cope with the influx of flights and took it in turns to maintain a 24 vigil at the airstrip. Every morning I awoke from my bundle of blankets on the cold ground to the sight of Colin Blakemore, our logistician, his boots poking out of the end of a large cardboard box into which he had crept exhausted at the end of each night.

By Thursday the field hospital was up and running with the first patients waiting outside. The camp that we had set up around the hospital site was really taking shape, resembling something from the TV series ‘MASH’. Tents to house the delegates had sprung up everywhere along side giant rub-halls used for storing the relief goods. In the space of a week over 90 delegates from Red Cross Societies around the world had arrived in Bhuj, each with a specific function. The British Red Cross had sent in an ERU of logisticians, the Germans a water and sanitation ERU that provided clean water supply to the hospital. The Norwegian and Finnish ERUs were establishing the field hospital and the Japanese Red Cross had sent in a team with a mobile medical camp. As fresh supplies arrived at the camp, convoys of trucks began to roll out of the compound each morning laden with blankets and tents for distribution in outlying villages.

It had been one of the most intense weeks of my life, an emotional roller coaster with a succession of highs and lows. Perhaps the biggest paradox of such disasters is the level of humour that abounds. Journalists and aid workers alike we were all shocked by what we had seen, but our experiences were shared through moments of laughter - perhaps an instinctive coping mechanism to counter our distress. I knew it was time to go when I got a call from my wife Jo following a live TV interview with Matt Frei of the BBC. “You looked like death warmed up and you sounded so desperate”, she said, and she was right. I looked in the mirror for the first time and hardly recognised myself under the stubble and dirt. Flying back to Delhi I reflected on some of the remarkable people I had met during the week. The volunteer doctors that I met at the soup kitchen where the towns population used to take lunch, rich and poor together. They had had no water for four days and had resorted to drinking the saline drips meant for their patients. The young soldier who walked into my tent to volunteer. It was apparent that he was in shock yet every day he mobilised a force of 50 other volunteers who worked relentlessly at the airport offloading the planes. The two young backpackers Siobhan and Zak who had traveled nonstop for hundreds of miles from Pondicherry in South India. Within an hour of arriving they were putting up tents and loading trucks. The army surgeon who single-handedly had carried out 45 amputations in the first twenty four hours, the list is endless.. . While thousands died, the stoicism of the survivors constantly amazed me and some of the survival stories were almost beyond belief. A man who had been sleeping on his charpoy (wood and rope bed) on a rooftop was catapulted together with his bed into a tree, escaping unscathed. The woman who was taking a bath when the earthquake struck. Together with her bath she plunged through three floors and stepped out with a few scratches. The true scale of this tragedy will never be known. Tens of thousands died on that fateful day and over a million lost their homes. The thousands of freshly shaved scalps that can be seen across Kutch today are testimony to the massive loss. In Hindu tradition, families who have lost loved ones undergo a ritual shaving to mark a ten day mourning period. Ironically there is now a shortage of barbers in Bhuj.

Bill Denz - the coffee jar and Vern Leader.

2012-01-18T00:25:00.000-08:00

Bill Denz - Bold Beyond Belief - the biography.

BILL DENZ (1951-1983)

So here we are twenty eight years after the original hard man of New Zealand climbing was killed in the Himalayas at the age of just 32, the story of this legendary mountaineer has been recorded in a book titled: Bold Beyond Belief: Bill Denz New Zealand’s Mountain Warrior. The book was released in Wellington on 5 December 2011 and is published by Maxim Books.

I was fortunate having tramped and climbed with Bill Denz. The first trip I did with him must have been late 1966 or early 1967 when we were on an Otago Tramping and mountaineering Club trip up the Rees and Dart, and Ketth McIvor took Bill under our wing. But Keith and I were more interested in Bill's sister Abigail and her friend that made up the larger party.

On Boxing Day 1970 when Jim Cowie and I were in Pioneer Hut, we teamed up with Chris Fraser and Bill Denz and climbed Glacier Peak, and then we headed for Douglas with Bill roping up with Jim Cowie, and I with Chris Fraser. I am quoted in the 1991 NZ Alpine Journal and in the book as writing,

" He wasn't a pretty climber but what he lacked in technique he more than compenstaed for with sheer drive and raw guts. We climbed Glacier Peak (3002m( and Mt. Douglas (3007) on Boxing Day, and the next day Bill traversed Mt Tasman with a sixty-pound pack to Plateau Hut, on the east side of the main divide."

I wrote in my climbing diary at that time"that Bill would either kill himself in the next year or go on to be a great climber."

When I lived at Mt Cook from late 71 to mid 1973, I got to know Bill quite well.and was a frequent visitor at the Parks Board House 1 where Kevin Carroll, Dick Whitley, Faye Kerr and I lived. In fact he invited me on some of his outrageous first ascents, but being on standby for mountain rescue I felt guilty taking time off, and sub consciously I wanted to live. I knew Bill was pushing the limits with very basic gear, and I felt his number could come up at any time and I didn't want to go with him. I think that is how many climbers felt about Bill in his first few years.

However on one ocassion he took a large coffee jar from the house which he used as a water bottle on his new route on Mt. Cook. Some weeks later when I did a Grand Traverse with Aat Vervoorn, when we guided 64 year old Vern Leader, we discovered the infamous coffee jar on the ridge. You had to admire Bill for the sheer audacity and guts of this young emerging mountaineer. I enjoyed a number of good evenings with Bill and paying for all the beer, as he loudly told all assembled what he was going to do next.

Vern Leader, 44 years older than Bill at the time, probably identified with Bill Denz better than most, despite the age gap. Vern who did a number of large first ascent solo climbs in the Earnslaw group, had written up his climbs in the NZAJ, and was publicly criticised in NZAC publications for dangerous practices. So when we found Bill Denz's abandoned coffee jar, Vern understood better than most, what solo climbing was about, and the flak you get for being bold.

Aoraki Mt. Cook. The south face, the Hillary ridge, the Caroline face and the east ridge, route well-known to Bill. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Paul Maxim has spent the last three years painstakingly researching and writing this biography. Complete with the full co-operation of Bill’s family, the biography traces Denz’s life from his formative years through to that final expedition to Makalu, the world’s fifth highest mountain. The book covers, in Denz’s own words and from recollections from friends and associates and climbers throughout the world, his ground breaking years in the Southern Alps, the rock walls of the Darrans and Yosemite and his epic mountain adventures in Alaska, Patagonia, Nepal and Tibet.

At 328 pages, with over 100 pictures (including 16 full colour plates) and a Foreword from renowned international mountaineer Greg Child, BOLD BEYOND BELIEF is the story about a kiwi climber whose attitude, passion, drive and vision is unique in the 150 year history of New Zealand mountaineering. For further information go to: http://www.billdenzmountaineer.com/

Bill Denz country: The Balfour. Photo: Bob McKerrow

About Bill Denz

Bill Denz (1951-1983) was a New Zealand mountaineer who enjoyed a short but stellar climbing career that was terminated by an avalanche on Makalu in October 1983. Denz grew up in Dunedin where he displayed a precocious interest in the outdoors. He began rock climbing as a teenager and started climbing big peaks in the Aoraki/Mt Cook area in December 1970. During the next five years Denz completed many new routes, winter firsts and solo ascents in the region, including the first ascent (with Bryan Pooley) of Mt Tasman’s Balfour Face and soloing two extraordinarily bold lines on the South Face and Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook.

The south face of Hicks: Photo: Bob McKerrow

Winter first ascents include the South Face of Douglas, the Sheila Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook and the North and South Faces of Hicks (all via new routes). In 1973 Denz turned his attention to the Darran Mountains where he was involved in the first ascent of the formidable Adelaide Face of Marian, which was the first climb in New Zealand to involve ‘big wall’ climbing techniques. During the next five years Denz put up over 20 new routes in the Darrans. In July 1983 Denz returned to the area to complete (with Kim Logan in epic circumstances) the first winter ascent of the severe South Face of Sabre.

Much of Denz’s final years of climbing were spent abroad. From bases in North America he completed ascents of 15 big walls in Yosemite and Alaska, including early repeats of Tis-sa-ack, Excalibur and Pacific Ocean Wall and the first ascent of Kichatna Spire’s East Face. He also made several first ascents of peaks in the Chugach Range. As a soloist he completed two expeditions to Patagonia (where he came within a whisker of claiming the first solo ascent of Cerro Torre) and in Nepal completed a four day traverse over Kusum Kanguru (6369m), making the first ascent of the high peak along the way. Denz also ventured into Tibet (illegally) to attempt Menlungtse (7181m). His inclusion on Peter Hillary’s Makalu expedition was the first of a series of planned expeditions to attempt 8,000 metre peaks.

Never a top free climber, Denz’s forte was climbing bold ice routes (often solo), difficult big walls and severe mixed alpine climbs. Early in his career Denz was quick to associate himself with climbers such as Bryan Pooley and Murray Judge whose alpine and rock skills were superior to his and from whom he could build his skills. Once considered brash and aggressive, Denz, by the time of his death, had matured into an immensely experienced and extremely capable mountaineer. His death at the age of 32 robbed New Zealand mountaineering of one of its greatest ever climbers.

Each person remembers Bill in his or her own way. Over the Christmas - New year in NZ 2011-12, we had a BBQ with Kim Logan and his charming wife Glennys, and 13 year old boy Inia. While our boys played cricket on the golf course in front of Kim's house, we talked about climbing and especially Bill Denz. Bill and Kim did some great climbs together and the more Kim talked about Bill, I could see his eyes misting a little and the emotion coming through. Kim fetched a small memorial to Bill, a photo of a mountain, a photo of Bill, and Bill's favourite poem alongside written by Thomas Babington which I quote below. I took a quick picture on my mobile and whilst a little blurred and only snaps part of the poem, it says something powerful.

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
`To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods?'”

Thomas Babington

Glacier Peak, Mt. Douglas, Haidinger and Haast was where I first climbed with bill and his partner Chris Fraser in December 1970. Photo: Bob McKerrow

This is the best biography I have read on a NZ mountaineer and the world of mountaineering is more richer, more colourful for the outstanding writing of Paul Maxim.

My first major mountaineering trip 1967

2012-01-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

After boiling water for tea, I dry my socks in the Rockburn valley. Robyn Armstrong (left). February 1967 Photo: John Armstrong.

I dreamed of being a successful mountaineer from my early teens and whilst I climbed small mountains including Turner Peak the year before, I decided to join John Armstrong and Robyn Norton on a 3 week expedition in 1967 into the very remote Forgotten River,/Ollivine ice plateau area, a 4 to 5 day walk from the nearest road.

Robyn crossing Cow Saddle. Photo: John Armstrong

We had five days of inclement weather in Forgotten River and during one slight clearance we climbed up to intervention Saddle at 5,800 feet and got a glimpse into the Barrier valley. I was with John Armstrong and Robyn Nortontwo very competent Dunedin mountain travellers.

During the first part of the trip while I was answering the call of nature during a rainstorm, John proposed to Robyn and they were married a year after our return..With such poor weather, we needed to move as food was running low. We went down the Forgotten River, to the Olivine Flats, up the Olivine River then crossed Cow Saddle, and camped at the foot of Niobe 7645 and Poseidon 7340 feet. These were mighty mountains and I could hardly sleep that night before we set off on the climb. We got away at 5 a.m. on that early morning and found some deer trails that took us to a water fall. From there we scrammbled over rocky slopes until we reached the snow field. We decided to head for the Park Pass Glacier which was quite broken with a number of crevasses. First we climbed two unnamed peaks with spot heights of 6897 and 6710 feet, and then turned our attention to Poseidon. The climb was quite tricky as a thick layer of snow was melting on the rock and beginning to slide. Moving on fixed belays we reached the summit shortly after Midday. It was a thrill to stand on the top of Poseidon Peak, 7340 feet high. The view was stupendous looking over the Dart River, Lake Wakatipu, and over the huge expanse of Fiordland. We could see Mt. Aspiring, the twin peaks of Earnslaw and the majestic Madeline and Tutuko. The descent was arduous and we were tired and dehydrated. According to Robyn who wrote to me a few days ago, I fell down a small crevasse and they hauled me out. We reached our small yellow deerstalkers tent at 8 pm at night.

A view from Park Pass Glacier. Poseidon Peak 7,340 feet on the left, and the two other unnamed peaks 6,897 feet in the centre and 6,720 feet at the far right, that we climbed in February 1967.

I loved the name of Poseidon for according to the Poseidon myths he had a palace under the sea with an enormous stable filled with white horses who pulled his chariot over the ocean. "White horses" is an old expression referring to the white part of a breaking wave, and I suppose since I climbed this mighty mountain in 1967 I have ridden, bucked and surfed the white horses of waves, organisations, political parties and my life has been a series olf breakthrough events and initiatives. Yes this trip and climbing Poseidon was to prove a turning point in my life, and I learned a lot from John, a wise and capable leader.

Sitting somewhere between Fogotten River and Park Pass when I was a totally a carefree 18 year old and the world was at my feet. Photo: John Armstrong.

From Park Pass we made our was down the Rockburn, named by my explorer/surveyor Great Grand Father James McKerrow. It was a treachorous valley with precipitous sides and difficult bluffs to negotiate. We expected to reach the Dart River early on the last afternoon but there was a paragraph missing from 'Moir's Guide book' and it took an extra five hours to reach the flooded river on nightfall, and we had a difficult crossing to safety and comfort on the other side..

Robyn Norton (Armstrong) who was a very strong tramper, with solid snow and ice skills did well on our 3 week journey. John and Robyn's daughters carried on the family love of the outdoors with daughter Jenny the eldest winning gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 470 sailing class. Robyn and John still do a lot of ocean sailing and will be soon off to Stewart Island.

John Armstrong (right) the leader of our 1967 expedition was a strong climber, tramper and navigator. Two years earlier he led the 'freedom walk' on the Milford tarck which broke the Government's Tourist hotel Corporation's stranglehold on the track and opened it up to the average 'Kiwi' to walk theirown land, previously the preserve of rich foreigners. I was on that trip and met Robyn for the first timehoto: Robyn Armstrong..

Sadly, climate change has had a huge effect on our snowfields and glaciers in New Zealand. Poseidon Peak to the left of centre top. The above photo taken in 2006 shows the effect of climate change as a proglacial lake in front of Parks Pass which started to form in 1986 and part of the receding glacier tongue appears to be floating. My good friend from Antarctica Trevor Chinn has been studying and recording this feature for years. (photo: Dorothea Stumm)

A photo I took on January 1st this year of Poseidon Peak from the high point in Pigeon Island in Lake Wakatipu.Photo: Bob McKerrow

One thing I remember clearly about that expedition 44 years ago was a shortage of paper.

How well I remember running out of toilet paper after 2 weeks or so and was carrying rather romantic letters from three girlfriends that I was trying to decide which one I really wanted to develop a serious relationship with. Each of the three letters written to me just before I left were more than 7 pages, so I soon narrowed the three letters down to one as the trip progressed, and I kept it. Jocelyn was the winner and we saw a lot of each other for a year after that. Sometimes romance has to be reduced to a common and practical level.

I got a message from Robyn reminding me of another incident on that trip. "One other thing I remember from that trip. You were reading a book which was the most fantastic book you had ever read, and promised to lend it to me when you finished. You finished as we reached the Dart and was so disgusted with the ending you ripped the book up and buried on the Dart Flats! Do you remember that?"

Unfortunately I do not recall that incident as I love books, and to destroy a book is unlike me. But at 18, the passion, feelings are all part of the maturing process I suppose.

Mt. Chaos left, and Poseidon Peak right from the Dart River.(Permission to use from naturesp)

Note: Many thanks to Robyn and John Armstrong for supplying me these photos over the past few days. Somehow, we had lost contact for 40 years or more.

When you are dog tired and your wife threatens divorce - TGLL.

2012-01-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

When you are dog tired after 3 months of running a disaster relief operation, exhausted from having early recovery planning thrust on you, your wife is threatening to divorce you, then suddenly your boss comes along and in a chirpy mood and says "you will be the right person to run the recovery operation" you crumple on a heap on the ground and look for guidance from above. Having been in that type of situation many times, your first thought is "why didn't we plan this better at the outset?"

So today was an exciting day for me in what I call a crucial part in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami legacy as I am with my Red Cross colleagues Dr Mahesh Gunasekera, Gothami Chandrarathna and Colin Fernandes at a Stakeholder Consultation workshop to review the recovery practitioner handbook.

The whole toolkit process has three components:

# Development of Handbook for Recovery Program Practitioners

#Technical Guidelines on “Build back better”, Scoping Document

# Development of Training course curriculum on recovery program implementation targeted at national and local agencies/institutions responsible for recovery

So seven years after the tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004, most of the tsunami recovery work is over, but capturing the good practices and lessons learned is still continuing and this workshop is trialing the draft handbook. Hopefully this toolkit/recovery handbook will ensure there will be improved recovery planning for future large-scale recovery operations, reduce staff melt-down and avoid divorces from overwork and absence from the family.

In the publication The Tsunami Legacy - Innovation Breakthroughs and Change , the last chapter poses the question, "Will we do better next time?"

We have a moral duty to ensure that future generations have access to our tsunami lessons learned to ensure mistakes are not repeated and good practices improved upon.

The IFRC has contributed US $250,000 towards the development of the below listed Tsunami Global Lessons Learned (TGLL) initiatives and have been active throughout the process.

1. A publication that records cross border experiences, the good practices and lessons learned so that future leaders, practitioners , administrators can learn and use the good practices, especially ones that accelerate recovery operations.

2. To make a documentary to be released on the 5th anniversary of the tsunami that will reach as many people as possible around the world by showing it on Discovery TV, and once shown, as many other TV channels around the world.

3. A toolkit/handbook for practitioners, Government administrators, NGO , INGO and community leaders.

Items one and two have been completed some time ago but the toolkit is the final product.

So how did all this start ? Way back in earlier 2007 Dr.Kuntoro Mangkusubroto (above with Jerry Talbot special adviser to SG of IFRC for tsunami) the Minister of Tsunami in Indonesia had the vision to call together a group of about ten of us working on the tsunami recovery operation in Indonesia, to what he called a tsunami legacy workshop. Out of this initiative over a delicious breakfast, the idea of a Global Lessons Learned steering committee was born.

Leading disaster officials from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives , Thailand and Indonesia were brought to Bangkok where they Decided to come up with 3 key key initiatives:

Today I was the keynote speaker at the meeting and here I am promoting that superb publication that every disaster practicioner should have, 'The Tsunami Legacy.' Zaffran IFRC

So as the tsunami operation nears a close, it really is both exciting as it is reassuring, to see that a learning legacy will be left thanks to the vision of Dr Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Minister for tsunami Indonesia, supported by the governments of the tsunami affected countries, the UN, especially Satya Tripathi and IFRC. I am sure this recovery practitioners manual will guide people to plan for better recovery operations that provide an integrated recovery package to affected communities in a timely manner.

If you want to participate in this project and give your input to the current draft, contact Sudhir Kumar: suhir@adpc.net or gp directly to the website: the ADPC website:

Why and how do we name things?

2012-01-08T03:51:00.000-08:00

During my 3 week holiday I spent time travelling through country that my Great Grand Father explored between 1861-63 at the head of Lae Wanaka and Wakatipu.
Above we see the Routeburn, Caples, Rock Brun, Beans Burn, the Rees and the Dart valleys he explored, surveyed and named. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The west and east peaks of Mt. Earnslaw. Photo: Bob McKerrow.

James McKerrow was a prolific namer of features he surveyed. Over the years I have tried to climb, walk, raft or kayak, or just look and photograph the places he named..The map below conveys the extent of his work over one of the remotest parts of New Zealand.

Since much of the country over which he passed was virgin, McKerrow took on himself the task of naming prominent features of the landscape. The policy employed in this work he described thus:

“ In naming of objects, those already in use in the district were always adopted, they are generally defined to a few creeks or perhaps a hill or two in the vicinity of the respective stations. The other names I either endeavoured to make descriptive or suggestive: this, in the case of the more prominent peaks, appears to me to be of much consequence to the traveller, for they become so many finger posts pointing the way. The great landmarks, Leaning Rock, Double Cone, and Black Peak, I found of much service in determining my whereabouts at the beginning of the survey; their names are legible in characters not to be mistaken”(1).

“ A great number of descriptive names were given thus: Cathedral Peaks, The Monument, the Beehive, the Crown, the Coronet, Tooth Peaks, Twin Peaks, the Minarets, Mt. Sentinel, Titan Rocks, Spire Peak, and so on and so on……

The mountain ranges were named after distinguished men in science, literature, travel and position, such as Kepler, Humbolt, Murchison,. Livingstone,, Forbes ( Professor of Natural Philosophy 60 years ago at Edinburgh, an authority on glaciers), Hunter (John, Anatomist) Sturt (Australian Explorer), Albert ( late Prince Consort)) Eglinton (Lord Lieutentant of Ireland and Lord Rector Glasgow University), Richardson (Sir John),Thomson, Hector, Garvie, Buchanan (local and well known), Goldie Hill and Bryce Burn were after my two men who were true and faithful throughout.” (2)

“ An island in Lake Manawa-pori is Poman, named in 1862 by James McKerrow, after the principal Island or “mainland” of Orkney Islands in Scotland.,” with a view to help the rhythm of the future poets, who will describe in flowing numbers the charms of beautiful Manapouri, as McKerrow prophesises…….

The Freeman was named by Mr. McKerrow in honour of Mr. Freeman Jackson, a very early runholder (3)….When Mr. James McKerrow was engaged with reconnoitring surveys during the years 1861-63, he named a number of places.” A few of these he named in the Wakatipu and Te Anau districts as follows: He gave the name Caples to one of the branches of the Greenstone, rivers….McKerrow named the Lingstone Mountains after Mr. D. Livingstine, the celebrated African explorer. David Peak(6802 ft/)in memory of Dr. Livingston’s christian name, Moffat Peak (5848 ft) , an African missionary and father-in-law of Livingstone. Eglinton River and Mountain after the Earl of Eglinton and Winton at that time Lord Lieutenanr of Ireland. Skelmorlie Peak (5933 ft.) and Larg Peak (5555 ft.)are both Ayrshire names. Mount Christina (8675 ft.) after a girl who was companion to Mrs. McKerrow in his absence. Clinto River, Te Anau, after one of the family names of the Duke of Newcastle, who was Colonial Secretary in 1863. Worsely Creek, North Fiord, Te Anau, named after the sheep farmer who drayed the boar for the surveyors from Manapouri Lake to Re Anau. Nurse Creek, after another sheep farmer, Lakes McKellar and Gunn after David McKellar and George Gunn….. Lake Fergus was named after Hon. T. Fergus in 1863. Bob’s cove was named after Bob Fortune, Mr. Rees’s boatman” (4)

“ In the Doon, Dean Hill, Bean Forrest, Afton and other Scottish names Mr. McKerrow honoured the land of his birth,(5) Mt. Pisgah was taken from the bible. It was the vantage point from which the promised land was seen.(6).

In his book, Otago Placenames (7), Mr. H. Beattie gives an exhaustive list of Mcerrow’s placenames. “ Besides J.T. Thomson, the most popular name giver in our history was probably James McKerrow”, he states. Mr. Beattie goes on to list more than 220 place names which are associated with McKerrow’s labours.

(1) Otago Prov. Gaz. Vol. V, July 23,1862. P 16.

(2) Letter to Hocken.

(3) Roberts, W.H.S. Place Names and Early of Otago and Southland, P.32.

" " Maori nomenclature, Early History of Otago. P.47

(4) Roberts. P.48. Roberts does not make it absolutely clear whether or not McKerrow gives the last two names.

(5) Kilmarnock Standard, 22nd August, 1903/

(6) McKerrow’s Reminiscences.

(7) Beattie, H. Otago Place Names, Pp. 78-86.

By 1861 there were several newly established sheep stations on the south end of the lake, when James McKerrow first arrived to carry out survey work. In 1862 McKerrow surveyed the lake in a whaleboat.

Back in the Southern Alps of New Zealand

2012-01-06T00:11:00.000-08:00

Today I visited the 'Home of Mountaineering' the NZ Alpine Club headquarters in Christchurch for the first time and it was so good to meet Margaret who has been running the HQ for many years and has been so helpful. On my way out I met Pat Deavoll, who recently did an amazing first ascent in the Wakhan corridor in Afghanistan and planning to return for another expedition. I am currently reading her 'book 'wind from a distant summit.' Then I met Kester Brown, the managing editor/director of the NZ Alpine Journal and NZ Climber. Then 'Grubby Knees' breezed in, the one and only Geoff Gabities, with a copy of Paul Maxim's book on Bill Denz in his hand. I hadn't seen Geoff for 20 years or so.

My last posting comprised photographs of the Godley, Murchison, Whataroa, Perth, Tasman, Spencer, Burton and Callery valleys and their mountains, spurs and rivers. This posting is on Franz, Fox, Balfour, Hooker and Tasman.

The recently named Hillary Ridge to the left leading to the low peak of Aoraki Mt. Cook, The Caroline Face and the east ridge ( I did an ascent with Chris Timms on Christmas Day,1971) and Mt. Tasman and Lendenfeld out to the right. Photo: Bob McKerrow

A photo I took about ten days ago looking from Glacier Peak to Douglas. Coincidetally, I am reading the book about Bill Denz 'Bold Beyond Belief'' and am reminded that Jim Cowie and I did a traverse from Glacier peak to Mt. Douglas with Bill Denz Chris Frazer on 26 December 1971. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Mounts Tasman, Torres, Dampier and Aoraki Cook. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Looking down the Tasman Glacier to all highest peaks in New Zealand. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Mt. Tasman and its northern aspects, with the Balfour glacier prominent centre right. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The middle section of the Fox Glacier as it twists seawards. Photo: Bob McKerrow

From Glacier Peak, Douglas, Haidinger round to Haast with the Fox neve in the foreground. Photo: Bob McKerrowh

The summit of Mt. Tasman. Photo: Bob McKerrow

South face of Hicks. How readily I recall John Glasgow guiding the famous eye doctor, Fred Hollows and spending a night with them in Empress Hut after the ascent. They climbed it from the ridge on the left leading up to Harper's Saddle.Photo: Bob McKerrow

The South Face of Aoraki Mt. Cook and an interesting perspective of the three summits and the summit ridge. I recall guiding Vern Leader who was 64 years of age with Aat Vervoorn in 1973. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Minarets round to just past Graham saddle. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Tomorrow I return to Sri Lanka after a most rejuvenating holiday in the South Island of New Zealand. I have seen most of the mountains in the Southern Alps from Lewis Pass down to Mt. Poseidon, at the head of the Rock Burn, close to Mt. Earnslaw. I didn’t climb anything significant, but a few smaller peaks in the foothills. But the joy of being back in the mountains after working hard for the last year in Sri Lanka for the Red Cross on winding up the tsunami operation, and working with internally displaced families and on a large flood recovery operation

My first day in 2012

2012-01-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

I wanted New Year's day to be one we would enjoy immensely, while setting the scene for a year ahead. We drove from Wanaka to Queenstown in Central Otago, New Zealand, then met our friends Kim and Glennys Logan, and son Inia, just north of Queenstown. Our desitination Pigeon Island at the northern end of Lake Wakatipu. What I really wanted to do was introduce my boys to lake fishing, climb a small mountain, and let my family who hardly know New Zealand, experience life on a small remote island in view of our mighty southern Alps. Kim Logan, a close friend and one of New Zealand's leading mountain guides, mountaineers, fisherman and hunter, was a great companion for the day. Being Maori, he has a knack of explaining the flora, fauna and rich history. in such a fascinating manner, as they are a people of oral tradition.

We went to Pigeon Island (centre left) by boat from the Queenstown-Glenorchy road, climbed to the highest point, fished in the lake, played cricket, had a wonderful BBQ with excellent Wanaka white wine, and Kim explained the history and environment. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Ablai, Inia and Mahdi on Kim's boat

Kim and Glnnys Logan at the highest point on Pigeon Island with the east and west peaks of Mt. Earnlaw on the upper right, peaks which Kim has climbed at least 40 times. He climbed Aoraki Mount Cook about 30 times by 13 different routes as well as climbing in the Himalaya and Karakoram,

One of the 'hard men' of the NZ mountains Kim is a legend with his solo ascents, first ascents and extensive climbs throughout NZ. Kim rarely records what he does carrying on the oral tradition of capturing Maori history.

When we were on the summit of the high point on Pigeon Island, Kim and I were looking at the mountains we had climbed at the heads of the Rees, Dart, Beansburn, Rockburn, Routeburn and Greenstoen valleys, peaks all named by my Grandfather, James McKerrow surveyor and explorer. The second mountain I ever climbed was Mt. Poseidon in the Park Pass area at the head of the Rock Burn, and Kim pointed it out with his ever-sharp eye. It is the second peak on the left skyline. I climbed it in February 1967 along with some other unnamed and unclimbed peaks adjacent to it.

When the four of us came down from the mountain, the boys had fashioned out a cricket pitch and were in the middle of a match, Ablai bowling, Inia batting, and Mahdi in at wicket keeper. With Ablai and I having met Muttiah Muralitharan and Brendan and Nathan McCallum the day before at a cricket match in Queenstown, Ablai was greatly inspired. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Kim whose knowledge of flora and fauna is marvellous, took time out to show us the flowering southern beach and the Koromiko pictured above. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Our son Mahdi went fishing for the first time and was a highlight of his life for him. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Relics of early Maori and European settlers were to be seen on various parts of the island. Here is an old gold miner's hut and used later by shepherds. Photo: Bob McKerrow

As we boated across the lake to our vehicles, Mount Earnslaw said 'goodbye' by giving us a perfectly clear view of its snow covered ramparts. What a day to start 2012 and for me it gave me a glimpse of my priorities for 2012: family, exercise, friends, being adventurous and risk taking, and a balanced life like this will make me more committed and productive in my work for the Red Cross. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The Godley, Murchison, Tasman, Whataroa, Butler Franz Josef and Maccaulay valleys and their mountains.

2011-12-30T12:09:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

31 December 2011 will draw to a close in 15 hours with New Zealand being the first country in the world to see the New Year in. What a year for me in terms of work, family and mountains it has been. I feel so proud of the work our International Red Cross (IFRC) team has done in Sri Lanka with the SLRCS in finishing off our tsunami work, building houses and communities for people displaced by the war, and providing housing, livelihoods and water sanitation to those affected by floods earlier in the year. The picture below which I took a few days ago symbolises the braids of my my life in our world, which I am constantly twisting, straightening, bending and and prioritsing, and like this once simple river upstream,, our world has become complex and we have to change to survive, and flourish. I hope your New Year will be one of positive change, and that you develope stronging coping mechanisms to deal with the extra pressure place by climate change, economic recession, employment uncertainty and increasing conflict over scarce resources. May God give you the strength to carry through on your New Year's resolutions.,
Let you hair down tonight and celebrate your acievements. Happy New Year.

Shortly after we took off from Lake Tekapo and at the far end of the lake, we flew up the Godler ricer which is glacial-fed, braided and incredib;le colourful. Photo: Bob McKerrow.

On the mountain front this year, I added a new mountain range to the long list I have walked in over the years, the Elburz mountains in Iran. In July i made a quick trip back to New Zealand to see the heaily snow-capped Southern Alps, and the last week I have been basking in the sun at the foothills of our magnificent NZ mountains. and visited Mount Cook and flew over the Godley, Murchison, Tasman, Whataroa, Butler Franz Josef and Maccaulay valleys and their mountains. Here are some photos of this trip to a remote part of New Zealand.

Peaks at the headwaters of the Godley valley.

Mt. Sibbald on the eastern side of the Godley valley

Tom the pilot with Air Safaris in Tekapo with Ablai my son. Bob McKerrow

The Sibbald range in the Godley valley. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Godley Glacier and the headwaters and beyond. Photo: Bob McKerrow

We flew over the Liebig Range and dropped into the Murchison. Photo: Bob McKerrow

At the headwaters of the Murchison valley looking far afield. Photo: Bob McKerrow

From the head of the Murchison looking towards Elie de Beaumont. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Head of Godley and Murchison valleys. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Head of the Tasman Glacier looking to Aoraki Mt. Cook, Dampier, Tasman and others. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Mt. Darwin at the Tasman saddle end of the Late brun range.Photo: Bob McKerrow

Malte Brun and the cheval ridge slightly left of centre. I first climbed this in December 1967. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Keith McIvor (right) and I left on the summit of Malte Brun almost 44 years to the day when we climbed it. Photo: Jim Cowie

Tasman Saddle Hut ( the orange speck) near the end of the Tasman glacier, a refuge for mountaineers. Photo: Ablai Mckerrow

Elie de Beaumont and to the left of the summit the Maxmillian ridge, first climbed by Ed Hillary, Ed Cotter, Bill Beavan and Earl Riddiford. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Upper Whataroa valley. West Coast, South Island. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Looking from the lip of the upper Franz Josef Glacier into the Spencer Glacier: Photo: Bob McKerrow

From the head of the Tasman Glacier looking towards the Whataroa and peaks at the head of the Butler, Perth and Wanganui Rivers. Anyone recognise the small alpine lake to the centre left of the photo ? I think it is likely to be the small valley to the true right of thesnout of the Whymper Glacier. Photo: Bob McKerrow

St. Mildred Peak at the head of the Franz Josef Glacier, and top end of the Baird Range, looking to Elie de Beaumont. Photo: Bob McKerrow

St. Mildred and Drummond Peaks at the head of the baird Range and at the head of the franz Josef Glacier. I first climbded these peaks on a ski touring trip with Mike browne, Dick Whitley and Mel Lapwood in 1976. When I was living at Franz Josef in 1990-93 running the national park, I climbed these peaks many times and with Bruce White, took a group of students from westland High Scholl to the summit of St. Mildred. see photo below.Photo: Bob McKerrow

Twenty- one years earlier with 6th and 7th form pupils from Westland High on the summit of St. Mildred overlooking the Franz neve. This was sponsored by the Charlie Douglas young explorers scheme. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Taking young people into the mountains has been one of the greatest joys of my life and two days back, I took Mahdi, my 8 year old son, to the top of his first peak, Mt. Roy. Here he is celebrating below.

Happy New Year to you all.

Bob McKerrow

Aoraki Mount Cook visit yesterday

2011-12-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, 27 December, I left Tekapo at 5.50 am for a trip to Aoraki Mt. Cook, home to the highest peaks in New Zealand. I worked for the Natiuonal Park in 1971-73 as a mountaineer-general where I had mountain rescue, guiding and general conservation work. The best years of my life. In the winter, there were 350 women working in the tourist trade and only 90 men. But it was the mountains that called me back and back again since i foirst climbed here in 1966..

My first view of Aoraki Mount Cook looking across Lake Pukaki. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Trees, lake and mountains as I drive closer. Photo: Bob McKerrow

A reak delight to see the NZ Alpine Club. Photo: Bob McKerrow

One of the old cottages at the Hermitage and Mt. Sefton (l) and Footstoll (r). photo: Bob McKerrow

A statue of Sir Edmund Hillary who learnt to climb on ice and snow at Mount Cook and started climbing with Harry Ayres. Photo: Bob McKerrow

A close-up of the summits of Aoraki Mt. Cook. The east ridge is on the right skyline an ascent I did with Chris Timms in Dec 1971 Photo: Bob McKerrow

The south face of Aoraki Mount Cook and to the left of the south face is the Hillary Ridge. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Compare the above photos to the one I took in the winter of 1972 . Photo: Bob McKerrow

Christmas Day at Otipua - New Zealand

2011-12-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas day in New Zealand is like nowhere else. Beaches, cricket, touch rugby, BBQs at the beach, family, shorts and T-shirts, swimming, lamb, new potatoes, ham, green peas, mint, salads and heaps of vegetables, fruits, desserts, beer and wine. It's the informality I love. But above all, it is being together as a whanau (extended family) And when we have had a few too many, we can watch the Boxing Day cricket test and enjoy Australia being whalloped again. Not only did we beat them in the semi final of the rugby world cup, we beat them in the last cricket test played a few weeks back.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our friends out there.

Love to you all.

Ablai I(eft) Jonts and Billy digging the Jersey Bennie potatoes for Christmas dinner tonight. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Harper going for the big hit in our T-Ball game.

Down at the skate park at Caroline Bayha

We couldn't hire the rugby world cup for Christmas but we managed to get a decent-sized ball.

Mahdi has a new friend, Murphy. He is named after Greg Murphy the V8 supercar driver.

Anita, Aroha and Naila chatting in the garden at the farmlet at Otipua.

Swimming at Caroline Bay, Timaru.

The boys enjoying a few games and a chat.

It's 6.15 pm. The new potatoes are cooking, the lamb is in the oven, Jonts is cooking some ham steaks and the table is laden with food and wine.

All photos: Bob McKerrow

Seven years since Indian Ocean tsunami struck.

2011-12-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

What are the Lesson's Learned?

It has been seven traumatic years for those families and friends who lost loved ones in the tsunami. which struck so quickly and silently on 26 December 2004. The grieving goes on, and for many there is no closure as thousands of bodies were never found. But life goes on and if you travel today to the worst affected countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, India and Thailand, life in those affected coastal areas can be described as normal. But the recovery goes on in some countries, mainly Sri Lanka, as the 30 years long civil war, only finished in mid 2009. The conflict delayed many housing and community projects that were promised to the affected people.

I started this article in Christchurch New Zealand early yesterday, 23 December. During the day, four major earthquakes struck. The headlines in the paper merely say:

5.8 5.3 6.0 5.0

My good friend Robin Judkins who we visisted in his severely damaged house perched on a hill side in Sumner only the day before, dislocated his shoulder when the first quake struck yesterday and he dived under a table for safety.

But the story in this morning paper about the Indonesian tsunami seven years on, really moved:

Wati, second right, poses for a photograph with her father Yusuf, right, mother Yusniar, left, and younger brother Aris

A girl who was swept away in the Indian Ocean tsunami seven years ago told today how she broke down in tears after tracking down her parents, who had long lost hope of finding her alive.

The 15-year-old showed up in Aceh province's hard-hit town of Meulaboh earlier this week, saying that not long after the wave hit she was "adopted" by a woman who called her Wati and forced her to beg, sometimes beating her and keeping her in the streets until 1am.

When the teenager stopped bringing in money, she was told, "Go ahead, leave ... go find your parents then, they're in Meulaboh."

With only patchy memories about her past - she was only eight when the tsunami hit, an age where most children do not know their relatives' full names - Wati began her search, telling people she thought her grandfather was "Ibrahim."

She met a pedicab driver in Meulaboh, who brought her to a man by that name. Though she did not look familiar, he, in turn, quickly summoned her parents.

The Red Cross tsunami recovery is about to draw to a close. Just last Monday Kristina Kumpala, secretary general of the Finnish Red Cross opened a hospital in Chavakatcheri in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.. With the war finishing in May 2009, the Finnish Red Cross funded hospital could not be started until June 2009. This a was a fine effort by the Finns working with the Sri Lanka Red Cross to finish a large base hospital in just over two years. As I write the American Red Cross are completing a 22 km water pipleline in Galle, in southern Sri Lanka.

Ten days ago when John Ekelund from the Finnish Red Cross visited Sri Lanka, I knew he had worked in Sri Lanka for almost four years on the tsunami recovery operation so I took the opportunity to get his opinion on a number of issues as I respect him immensely for the work he had done.
" It was the commitment of Red Cross volunteers and staff that gave us the edge," he said. "We also displayed vision, we thought ahead when planning for schools or hospitals and tried to visualise the expanding needs in ten years. So we built for the present and the future and this approach has really paid off."

John was somewhat scornful of organisations that came in and with poor planning, and little liaison with community or local authorities, rushed through construction, took photographs and left, often leaning many liabilities and defects for other to manage.

" The Red Cross built quality houses, hospitals,water systems, schools and clinics and took a holistic approach and when working with communities, we built not only houses but toilets, clean water to each house, livelihoods and even playgrounds for the children." he said.

Since the tsunami struck seven years ago, I have been working on the tsunami recovery operations in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia where I spent four years.

For each of the six solemn years I have been at a commemoration ceremonies in India, Indonesia, Thailand and last year on 26 December, in southern Sri Lanka. .I can recall the grief, emotions, wailing, the blank look on faces as famiies floated candles out to sea on rafts, or tied minature lanterns to kites and sent into the night sky in Phuket

I can repeat what I have said and written hundreds of times in praising the Red Cross volunteers, staff, engineers, day labourers, the affected communities in displaying unpreceedented solidarity and commitment in responding and building back better.

But I want pause for a moments and catergorically say that the most important single thing we can do is to capture the lessons learned so we minimise the effects of future earthquakes and tsunamis. Coincidentally as I write this, I am in Christchurch which was severely damaged in September last year and agaiun in February this year. Yesterday I had a look at progress made in the recovery operation and the challenges ahead. I visited a friend who was badly affected, and saw his house tettering on a cliff top in Sumner.

Lessons were captured from the tsunami and the best publication by far is the Tsunami Legacy, and another cracker, A Ripple In Development. Although good, these two publications did not drill in deep enough to where recovery really goes off the rails, and that is in the poor or weak governance at local, regional and national level.

In the Christchurch Press on Monday 19 December 2011, there is an attack on the 'darling' of Canterbury's Earthquake Recovery Agency, Roger Sutton the CEO.

On June 11 2011, The Press featured an illustration of Roger Sutton (left) in full armour, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, presumably at all those who stood in the way of Canterbury's earthquake recovery.
In hindsight, the metaphor seems a little over-cooked.
Sutton walked into the job as Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority chief executive with a strong public profile, built on his time in the top job at Christchurch lines company Orion. Since June, he has been co-ordinating the quake recovery, including deciding what land will have to be abandoned and which buildings will be demolished. If Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee is the recovery chairman, and effectively the entire board, Sutton is responsible for the nitty-gritty of shaking hands and fronting up to public meetings. After the February 22 quake, the Canterbury public regularly saw Sutton gesticulating at large diagrams on butcher's paper, describing how Orion's power lines had been munted and how they would be fixed.
The lines were repaired with minimal fuss and many people were suitably impressed.

But his performance since taking over at CERA has received a mixed review, with people in broken homes struggling to find answers often targeting him personally. While Sutton still has many defenders, Cera's Facebook page is littered with criticism of his performance, many mocking his much-lauded communication skills.

One post commenting on Sutton's regular newsletters likened him to being wheeled out like "some sort of old aunty at a wedding" before vanishing again.

Other posts expressed disappointment that he had failed to live up to his reputation as grand communicator.

Sitting in his 11th-storey Christchurch office overlooking the battered central city, Sutton was philosophical about his popularity dip. "I knew from the very beginning it was only going to go downhill," he said.

"By definition, in a role like this you're not going to keep all the people happy all the time. There is huge hurt out there. Some people's lives are really pretty crap."
Making these lives better had been harder than expected. Rogers Sutton goes on to outline his challenges.

The biggest challenge had been making clear decisions about what land can be rebuilt on. Sutton said the complexity of classifying land had been a surprise and had taken far longer than expected.

"When I took the job, there was a view by some that some of those land decisions would be made pretty quickly, and they just haven't."

Knights in shining armour such as CERA's Roger Sutton are only as good as the politician's making the decisions and the space and powers CEO are given to run recovery operations.

But where do world leaders learn about earthquake or disaster recovery operations?

World leaders/politicians need look no further than Bill Clinton or Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto (left) with Bob McKerrow on a joint trip to Simeulue Island in 2007. Photo: Aroha McKerrow

Clinton was special envoy for Tsunami to Koffe Annan and the later to Ban ki Moon, SG of the UN. Dr. Kuntoro was the remarkable Minister for Tsunami.who led a brilliant team of practicioners to complete a massive recovery operation within four years. Did the NZ Government look overseas to see where the could get the best expert advice ? If they had of enticed Dr. Kuntoro and his operations manager Eddy Puwanto, I am sure the Christchurch earthquake recovery operation would have been much speedier. Bill Clinton together with Dr. Kuntoro coined the phrases, 'build back better' and 'breakthrough initatives.' Breakthrough initiatives are 'out of the box thinking' that accelerates recovery, something both the Japanese tsunami and New Zealand's Christchurch earthquake sorely need.

Thanks goodness that the special adviser to Dr. Kuntoro, was Bill Nicol, who was at the minister's side for 4 years. The former journalist, TV front man, management consultant who has written controversial, yet highly accurate books on East Timor and malpractice in the Australian medical profession, has just completed a book called Tsunami Chronicles. Having worked with Bill and Dr. Kuntoro for 4 years during the Indonesian tsunami, Bill honoured me by letting me look at the first draft. What an amazing book which is written in a style that will guide Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers, other politicians, CEO and in fact anyone that works in a huge disasters. Bill leaves no stone unturned and visited Haiti to see if any of the tsunami lessons learned were applied.. Sadly little was and the book shows that organisations are superb at capturing lessons learned, but weak in applying them.

Yesterday when four major earthquakes hit Christchurch, I saw Mayor Bob Parker on TV, and also Roger Sutton. Parker communicates clearly and you feel you trust this man. Sutton, on the other hand, came across as being sound techically, but not a man that embues confidence, noe a sound communicator.

I feel it not too late for the Mayor of Christchurch, the CEO of CERA, and the Minister for the Canterbury Earthquake, to seek foreign advice on breakthrough initiatives, that would accelerate recovery. In addition, the Government could look at the number of New Zealanders working overseas with vast experience in earthquake and disaster recovery, to come back and lend a hand. It's not too late. This recovery operation in Christchurch will take 10 to 15 years to complete.

Earthquakes in Christchurch today - 23 December 2011

2011-12-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Damage in today's earthquake in Christchurch was quite bad with liquefaction and water spewing through the ground is an ongoing problem.

Yesterday was our day at the beach, and today was our day at ' Get High in the Adrenalin Forest' some 20 km north of Christchurch at Spencerville...

Mt family and I had just completed 2 levels of high and tight ropes, flying foxes and wobbly suspended steps, and as I was just walking to level 3 of difficulty, when the tree roots I were walking over shook violently for at least 15 seconds. There was a strong upward thrust and iIlooked up, and there was my son, swinging on a high rope, 20 metres off the ground. EARTHQUAKE was my immediate reaction having been involved in 15 earthquake operations in almost 40 years.

It must have been a few minutes before 2 pm. NZ time. While we were at Adrenalin forest, we felt two more aftershocks. Then as we moved to some open ground outside Northland mall, all shops were closed down and workers flooded out, many traumatised from so many earthquakes since september 2010.
25,000 people in Easternm Christchurch are without power. In the 2 hours we awaited for some sort of reading or prediction, at least 5 more significant aftershocks accured.

Roger Sutton the CEO of Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency said a few minutes ago he flew over Christchurch an hour or so agao and said "Liquafaction had affected many areas."

We are on holiday in Christcurch and when we returned to our Motel in Main North road, there were cracks in our room.

I will keep you posted.

Christchurch was still recovering from an earthquake in Sept 2010 and another more devastating one in February 2011.
Latest from stuff:

A swarm of quakes - including a magnitude 6 and three at or above magnitude 5 - have hit Christchurch, toppling already damaged buildings, injuring residents and disrupting power, phone services and retailers.

The first quake - magnitude 5.8 quake, 8km deep and centred 20km north east of Lyttelton - struck at 1.58pm, GeoNet said. It was followed by a magnitude 5.3 quake at 2.06pm, a magnitude 6 quake - the largest - at 3.18pm and a 5.0, just 10 km deep, at 4.50pm.

The quakes were felt as far south as Queenstown and as far north as Lower Hutt, according to GeoNet. People in Greymouth, Ashburton, Dunedin, Hanmer Springs and Oamaru also felt them.

EMERGENCY SERVICES RESPOND

A partly demolished building and a vacant house have collapsed following today's quakes, police said.

There were still no reports of widespread damage or injury, but there had been significant rockfall at Redcliffs, police spokesman Stephen Hill said.

A stopbank on New Brighton Road had also collapsed, and there were reports of major holes on Broadhaven Ave and liquefaction in Avonside.

Earlier today, Hill said four people had to be rescued after they were trapped by a rockfall in Boulder Bay.

One person, who was at the Eastgate Mall in Linwood, had been injured and was taken to hospital.

The WINZ building in New Brighton had suffered some damage and staff had to be evacuated.

Many malls were closed and police patrolled streets for damage.

Roads were gridlocked as people tried to rush home, but police warned motorists to slow down and drive with care. Drivers were urged to stay away from the hill suburbs as there was a risk of further rockfalls.

The Lyttelton Tunnel remained open.

St John Ambulance responded to at least 19 people with various injuries. They included six people who collapsed, two people who had seizures, one person who had a panic attack, and one person who received a knock to their head, St John Regional Operations Manager Chris Haines said.

One person was also treated by St John after having a minor car accident.

Other injuries included chest pain and anxiety issues and six people were treated for "unknown issues", Haines said.

IMPACT ON INFRASTRUCTURE

The National Crisis Management Centre has been activated in response to the quakes.
Phone services were disrupted and about 26,000 Orion customers were without power in the eastern suburbs, including New Brighton and Dallington.

Iran is a much mis-represented country.

2011-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Iran is a much mis-represented country and was once home to the world’s earliest super power.

In 1979 I bought a copy of CROSSROADS OF CIVILIZATION -3000 years of Persian History by Clive Irvine. I was living in Geneva at the time and the book started a lust for learning about Persia, Central Asia, Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and India, all places that were once part of the Persian Empire. In his book Irving says “ The first Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great transformed the scale on which societies were organizised, and reconciled many people under one rule. Persians struggled to preserve their identity, indeed, each invasion was succeeded by a remarkable cultural flowering of an essentially Persian character, manifested in the poetry of Firdausi, the buildings of the Seljuks, the minature paintings of the Timurids, and the mosques of Isfahan.

In 1976 I spent considerable time in Afghanistan working for the Red Cross, first an earthquake, then a flood relief operation. I got close to the Iranian border many times and I understood that Afghanistan was once part of the Persian Empire for thousands of years. Here I began to understand for the first time. the scale and the culture of the Persians.

Bob McKerrow in 1994 at one of the forts built by the Persians in Herat, Afghanistan. Photo: Bob McKerrow collection.
So last week, another dream came true when I visited Iran for the first time and what I saw completely exceeded my expectations. It made me wonder as to why the world media is so biased about Iran for I found the people warm, intelligent and hospitable, and walked freely in all parts of the capital and adjacent Elburz mountains. People went out of their was to be helpful.

In these sad and dirty days of demonization and prejudice few books could be more apposite than Jason Elliot's thoughtful portrait of Iran Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran

Jason’s book is clearly the best book written on Iran for decades and has received brilliant reviews. Jason Elliot stayed with me in Kabul in 1996 when he was working on his first book, ‘An Unexpected Light – Travels in Afghanistan and he came to our wedding in 1998 in Almaty Kazakhstan. We have remained friends ever since and rather than give my fleeting impressions of Iran, it is best coming from a Farsi speaking traveller who lived for years in Iran, and from one of his reviewers, Sara Wheeler.

Focusing on the tradition and spirit of the Persian people and avoiding contemporary politics, Elliot deploys a guileful blend of traveller's tales, topographical description and history - spiced up with a treatise on the meaning of Islamic art - to guide the reader towards an understanding of what that ancient country is, and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not.

A fluent Farsi-speaker, the author has solid experience of the region: his previous book, An Unexpected Light (2000), illuminated his travels in Afghanistan, Iran's eastern neighbour. In this new work he recounts a sequence of journeys over several years and at different seasons. Eschewing, as far as possible, the dismal wastelands of the urban centres, he shapes his voyages around the ruins and glories of old Persia. They embrace Isfahan, the 17th-century capital; the Mongol Ilkhanid northern capitals Sultaniyya and Tabriz in east Azerbaijan; Kurdistan and the remote and vertiginous Iraqi border, a smugglers' route for alcohol and satellite televisions. He takes in the Seljuk-era Assassins' castles near Qazvin, and, south of Shiraz in the heartland of ancient Fars, the pre-Islamic ruins of the first Sasanian palaces. And finally - of course - he inspects the Achaemenid remains at Persepolis.

The Elburz mountains with Teheran in the fireground. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Travelling on boneshakers and sleeping in dives, he drops in on the zurkhaneh, a kind of ritualised martial-arts arena, on Tehrani cocktail parties where he spies tattoos under the chadors, and on the world's first Caspian horse-breeding centre. He conjures the warm, cetacean puffs of steam from a samovar, the crackle of hollyoak branches and the shadowy mass of a Golestan bear, the trembling lamp of frosted glass in a dining car. As always, it is when he homes in on the tiny detail that the travelogue works best: supine on a stone slab in a hamman he describes watching individual drops of water detach from the ceiling, "feeling the tension grow in my forehead at each looming descent before the meteor-like impact". Everywhere he finds a people disillusioned with the broken promises of the regime - a bone-deep weariness and resentment. There is no crowing about uranium enrichment among ordinary Iranians. They are more interested in whether Elliot knows someone at the embassy.

A bazaar in Darband selling fresh meat for Kebabs. Photo: Bob McKerrow

In the early chapters Elliot struggles to find a voice, but as the pages turn he emerges as a sympathetic companion on the dusty road, lying to young women about his age and coping with disappointments with warm good humour (a taxi driver, he says, "robbed me courteously"). In a village near Yadz he spends the evening propped up against a cold stone wall deafened by the shouts of his hosts and the blare of the ubiquitous television. "I had often wondered," he confesses, "what it might be like to shoot a television." Always game for a waterpipe with a Turkman or a coy conversation with a veiled beauty, his puppy-like enthusiasm rarely wanes, yet he also has a sharp eye for the bathetic, missing one major site because he is sitting on the wrong side of the bus.

Elliot is not a stylist, but his prose is clear, notwithstanding a tendency to overwrite. "At midday," he explains, "funnelled through octagonal crowning oculi, the light drives downwards like an incandescent whirlpool, into which anyone passing seems to momentarily ignite like a human filament before being extinguished on the far side." Sustaining the narrative drive with lashings of direct speech, he elsewhere fails to win the war against cliché (an enemy wreaks havoc, the shah's days are numbered and every baleful event is heralded as "fateful"). But he quotes judiciously from his predecessors among travellers to Iran, notably, of course, Robert Byron, an author who has become such a Homeric figure in the consciousness of contemporary travel writers. (Byron, Elliot can't stop himself remarking, "spoke hardly a word of Persian".) He also quotes wisely from Hafez and the other great Persian poets, noting what a vital role poetry plays in the national psyche.

Rezi Ghaderi and his family have been selling quality Persian carpets for centuries. Photo Bob McKerrow

He has a firm grasp of history, whether describing the cavalry assault of Hulegu Khan and the ensuing Pax Mongolica, or Parthian fratricide and the volleys of flaming naptha bombs and jars of bloodsucking flies catapulted at Septimius Severus from within the besieged walls of Babylon. (He is less sure-footed off his patch, locating Herodotus 300 years too late in the second century BC.) As dynasties rise and fall he explores the concept of Persian identity. Any writer seeking to explain a culture east of Italy must be alert to the vital spiritual dimension, that mystical aspect of the human condition so conspicuously absent in the rootless west. Elliot is wonderful on this. In one of the best passages in the book he invokes Kipling's never-meeting twain, rightly regretting the debasing of even the words "mystic" and "spiritual" in our own language. Everyone struggling to understand Iran must grasp the fundamental truth of this gulf. To underline its importance, Elliot has taken as his title a reference to the Persian acknowledgement of an unseen world - ghayb - from which the soul receives its most rarefied nourishment. Everything existing in the visible world is the imperfect mirror of this hidden reality.

Isfahan, the fabled city of superb arhitecture

Through all his travel stories and all his historiography, Elliot traces the influence and development of the visual arts, and it is above all architecture that compels him. Many pages of intricate description reveal how viscerally he responds to "reciprocating melodies of light and colour", sensing pressed behind them "a language longing to be heard". He makes discoveries about site geometry, finding underlying principles of numbers and harmony - at one point he sits up till dawn with a map and a pair of spills, measuring the orientation of the Isfahan mosques. Alongside the physical journey the narrative thread follows his internal voyage towards an understanding of Persian architecture, calligraphy and painting. Mirrors of the Unseen is, above all else, an apologia for the unifying underlying meaning of Islamic art. Elliot leads the reader by the hand along his own trajectory of understanding, showing his presuppositions confounded and his "eyes being slowly retrained". Two hundred pages in (still less than half way), he announces: "I felt that, very slowly, I was actually learning something."

Dates and fruits from all parts of Iran are on sale in almost every street: Photo: Bob McKerrow

His bonnet is buzzing with bees, the noisiest of which concerns the metaphysics of the art he so admires. These have been summarily overlooked by scholars, Elliot reckons. Indeed he claims to have personally discovered layers of meaning ignored by thousands of pages of academic inquiry. "Islamic art as a whole," he states, "is seen by the great majority of art historians as essentially decorative, and lacking in any underlying principles." Only Arthur Upham Pope, author of the magisterial 15-volume Survey of Persian Art and Scholarship, is let off the hook. Otherwise Elliot accuses everyone who has ever thought about an old Persian building of judging that Islamic art cannot possess anything so vague as a "spirit". As the book unfurls he returns obsessively to this theme and becomes increasingly aggressive about it, even suggesting that "nearly all" contemporary studies of Islamic art converge on the verdict that it is "wholly lacking in ontological significance". Perhaps. It is a measure of Elliot's self-absorption that he thinks he is the first to think about meaning. But he does have some fresh ideas, and it is bold of him to make the rubbishing of generations of scholarship the central plank of his book.

Like Byron, Elliot displays a daring approach to form, even including a handful of sorties into fictional recreation of historical scenes. Striving to deliver history with a light touch, at one point he interpolates a footnote about a University Challenge contest between rationalists (Aristotle to Freud) and Mystics (Pythagoras to Gurdjieff), with King Solomon in the Paxman seat. He brings it off triumphantly, overall, though almost every chapter would have benefited from distillation. At 520 pages, few readers will wish this book longer (to be fair, before the longest essay on the origins and history of Islamic art he inserts a caveat lector advising uninterested readers to skip to the next chapter). Mirrors of the Unseen is not without problems. But it is indubitably important. It is a work of profound thought, imagination, passion and ambition. It should be widely read. And not, I hope, as the bombs are falling.

A 75 year old man I met walking up a track in the Elburz mountains. He'd lived all his life in the mountains. Photo: Bob McKerrow

First hand comments on 'The article that changed history."

2011-12-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

Today I read the article on the Bangladesh war on the BBC website titled 'The article that changed history' by Mark Dummett and it brought back a flood of memories: I arrived as leader of a small New Zealand Red Cross refugee team under the IFRC/ICRC umbrella in January 1972, not long after the brutal conflict ended. We were assigned the northern part of Bangladesh covering Nilphamari, Domar and Dimla, with some responsibilities for Saidpur. I was 24 and not prepared for the attrocities I saw and heard first hand from victims. The evidence was still there to be seen. The retreating Pakistan army raped as many women as they could find in villages and many women told their stories to our two nurses, Helene and Julliet. We saw the skeletons of people who were shot and then stuffed 10 or 20 deep into wells. Grown men cried as they told me how soldiers rammed sharpened sticks into the heads of children with the Pakistan flags on the top of the stick and how some children would die immediately, or stagger for a few seconds until they dropped. I have notebooks full of these atrocities. We were there to help the millions of people returning but one couldn't help but note the stories we heard and the evidence we saw. I had seen the brutalities in the Vietnam war of 1971, my first Red Cross assignment for one year. But what I saw in Bangladesh numbed me and left a few scars. I thank Mark Dummett and the BBC for permission to run hius article.

New Zealand Red Cross LandRover about to cross a river. Virtually every bridge between Dhaka and Rangpur was blown up by the retreating Pakistan Army. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Bangladesh war: The article that changed history. By Mark Dummett

On 13 June 1971, an article in the UK's Sunday Times exposed the brutality of Pakistan's suppression of the Bangladeshi uprising. It forced the reporter's family into hiding and changed history.

Abdul Bari had run out of luck. Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake - the fatal mistake - of running within sight of a Pakistani patrol. He was 24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling because he was about to be shot.

So starts one of the most influential pieces of South Asian journalism of the past half century.

Written by Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani reporter, and printed in the UK's Sunday Times, it exposed for the first time the scale of the Pakistan army's brutal campaign to suppress its breakaway eastern province in 1971.

Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed, but certainly a huge number of people lost their lives. Independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died. The Bangladesh government puts the figure at three million.

The strategy failed, and Bangladeshis are now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the birth of their country. Meanwhile, the first trial of those accused of committing war crimes has recently begun in Dhaka.

Who is Anthony Mascarenhas ?
July 1928: Born in Goa
1930s: Educated in Karachi
June 1971: Exposes war crimes in East Pakistan that alter international opinion
1972: Wins international journalism awards
1979: Reports that Pakistan has developed nuclear weapons

There is little doubt that Mascarenhas' reportage played its part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told the then editor of the Sunday Times, Harold Evans, that the article had shocked her so deeply it had set her "on a campaign of personal diplomacy in the European capitals and Moscow to prepare the ground for India's armed intervention," he recalled.

Not that this was ever Mascarenhas' intention. He was, Evans wrote in his memoirs, "just a very good reporter doing an honest job".

He was also very brave. Pakistan, at the time, was run by the military, and he knew that he would have to get himself and his family out of the country before the story could be published - not an easy task in those days.

"His mother always told him to stand up and speak the truth and be counted," Mascarenhas's widow, Yvonne, recalled (he died in 1986). "He used to tell me, put a mountain before me and I'll climb it. He was never daunted."

When the war in what was then East Pakistan broke out in March 1971, Mascarenhas was a respected journalist in Karachi, the main city in the country's dominant western wing, on good terms with the country's ruling elite. He was a member of the city's small community of Goan Christians, and he and Yvonne had five children.

It was terrifying - I had to leave everything behind”
Yvonne Mascarenhas

The conflict was sparked by elections, which were won by an East Pakistani party, the Awami League, which wanted greater autonomy for the region.

While the political parties and the military argued over the formation of a new government, many Bengalis became convinced that West Pakistan was deliberately blocking their ambitions.

The situation started to become violent. The Awami League launched a campaign of civil disobedience, its supporters attacked many non-Bengali civilians, and the army flew in thousands of reinforcements.

On the evening of 25 March it launched a pre-emptive strike against the Awami League, and other perceived opponents, including members of the intelligentsia and the Hindu community, who at that time made up around 20% of the province's 75 million people.

In the first of many notorious war crimes, soldiers attacked Dhaka University, lining up and executing students and professors.

Their campaign of terror then moved into the countryside, where they battled local troops who had mutinied.

Initially, the plan seemed to work, and the army decided it would be a good idea to invite some Pakistani reporters to the region to show them how they had successfully dealt with the "freedom fighters".

Civil war erupts in Pakistan, pitting the West Pakistan army against East Pakistanis demanding autonomy and later independence

Fighting forces an estimated 10m East Pakistani civilians to flee to India

In December, India invades East Pakistan in support of the East Pakistani people.

Pakistani army surrenders at Dhaka and its army of more than 90,000 are Indian prisoners of war

East Pakistan becomes the independent country of Bangladesh on 6 December 1971

Foreign journalists had already been expelled, and Pakistan was also keen to publicise atrocities committed by the other side. Awami League supporters had massacred tens of thousands of civilians whose loyalty they suspected, a war crime that is still denied by many today in Bangladesh.

Eight journalists, including Mascarenhas, were given a 10-day tour of the province. When they returned home, seven of them duly wrote what they were told to.

But one of them refused.

Yvonne Mascarenhas remembers him coming back distraught: "I'd never seen my husband looking in such a state. He was absolutely shocked, stressed, upset and terribly emotional," she says, speaking from her home in west London.

"He told me that if he couldn't write the story of what he'd seen he'd never be able to write another word again."

Clearly it would not be possible to do so in Pakistan. All newspaper articles were checked by the military censor, and Mascarenhas told his wife he was certain he would be shot if he tried.

Pretending he was visiting his sick sister, Mascarenhas then travelled to London, where he headed straight to the Sunday Times and the editor's office.

Indians went to fight in support of East Pakistan Evans remembers him in that meeting as having "the bearing of a military man, square-set and moustached, but appealing, almost soulful eyes and an air of profound melancholy".

"He'd been shocked by the Bengali outrages in March, but he maintained that what the army was doing was altogether worse and on a grander scale," Evans wrote.

Mascarenhas told him he had been an eyewitness to a huge, systematic killing spree, and had heard army officers describe the killings as a "final solution".

Evans promised to run the story, but first Yvonne and the children had to escape Karachi.

They had agreed that the signal for them to start preparing for this was a telegram from Mascarenhas saying that "Ann's operation was successful".

Yvonne remembers receiving the message at three the next morning. "I heard the telegram man bang at my window and I woke up my sons and I was, oh my gosh, we have to go to London. It was terrifying. I had to leave everything behind."

"We could only take one suitcase each. We were crying so much it was like a funeral," she says.

To avoid suspicion, Mascarenhas had to return to Pakistan before his family could leave. But as Pakistanis were only allowed one foreign flight a year, he then had to sneak out of the country by himself, crossing by land into Afghanistan.

The day after the family was reunited in their new home in London, the Sunday Times published his article, under the headline "Genocide".

'Betrayal'

It is such a powerful piece of reporting because Mascarenhas was clearly so well trusted by the Pakistani officers he spent time with.

I have witnessed the brutality of 'kill and burn missions' as the army units, after clearing out the rebels, pursued the pogrom in the towns and villages.

I have seen whole villages devastated by 'punitive action'.

And in the officer's mess at night I have listened incredulously as otherwise brave and honourable men proudly chewed over the day's kill.

'How many did you get?' The answers are seared in my memory.

Liberation War Museum
His article was - from Pakistan's point of view - a huge betrayal and he was accused of being an enemy agent. It still denies its forces were behind such atrocities as those described by Mascarenhas, and blames Indian propaganda.

However, he still maintained excellent contacts there, and in 1979 became the first journalist to reveal that Pakistan had developed nuclear weapons.

In Bangladesh, of course, he is remembered more fondly, and his article is still displayed in the country's Liberation War Museum.

"This was one of the most significant articles written on the war. It came out when our country was cut off, and helped inform the world of what was going on here," says Mofidul Huq, a trustee of the museum.

His family, meanwhile, settled into life in a new and colder country.

"People were so serious in London and nobody ever talked to us," Yvonne Mascarenhas remembers. "We were used to happy, smiley faces, it was all a bit of a change for us after Karachi. But we never regretted it."

Did I meet Santa Claus at the North Pole?

2011-12-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

En route to the North Pole in 1986. Here we are floating a sledge on an ice pan to get across a lead in the polar ice. Photo: Will Steger.

When I returned from the North Pole adventure, my young daughters and their friends asked me if I saw Santa Klaus and his workshop. I said "we were there in the middle of summer and santa and his elves were on holiday."

As I write, my good friend Richard Weber a member of our 1986 North pole Expedition is on his way to the South pole of skiis and using kites. Good luck Richard.

But on the subject of Santa and the North Pole, a piece of Arctic and North Pole history arrived in my in-box this morning from Will Steger who was leader of our 1985 North Pole training expedition and the first unsupported trip to the North Pole using dogs in 1986.

The copy of the letter was written as an update in November 1995 as we were training in Ely Minnesota for the North Pole journey. It was sent by Edward Atkinson who lives in Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic.

This year we had the 25th anniversary of our 1986 North Pole Expedition in Minnesota. The team from the back row, L to R: Bob McKerrow, Will Steger, Paul Schurke and Richard Weber.

Front row. Goeff Carroll, Brent Boddy, Ann Bancroft and Bob (Ironman) Mantell.

Elburz mountains from Turkmenistan to Iran.

2011-12-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Pursuing dreams is something that keeps driving me in my work and life. Having climbed or trekked in almost every major mountain range in the world, when the opportunity came to work with the Iranian Red Crescent and International Red Cross and Red Crescent colleagues to develop a global disaster management degree curriculum, I gladly accepted. We started the three day workshop last Saturday 10 December 2011..

Tehran and the Elburz mountain on the skyline.

With one free day before we started I managed to persuade my old friend and colleague from our days working in Afghanistan, Davood, to take us up to the Alburz mountains, some 20 km north of Teheran. From Teheran situated at 1000 metres, we drove up to Darband at approximately 2000 metres, and a small group of us walked up a mountain trail. An hour from Darband you reach the end of habitation with just a few summer terraces where people plant vegetables.

At the start of the track at Darband, shops of all variety flank each side. The shop in the foreground is selling all parts of chicken and lamb for kebabs.

Photo: Bob McKerrow

In 1997 I had seen the extreme eastern end of the Alburz mountains when I drove up into the Kopet Dagh mountain ranges in Turkmenistan and walked up the tree clad slopes .This region comprises mountainous shrub-like Mediterranean xeric woodlands and includes riparian forests found in the river valleys. The Kopet Dag Woodlands are well-studied and high endemism is exhibited among many groups of organisms, up to 18% in flowering plants. Key endangered fauna include leopard, wild sheep, bezoar (bearded) goat, hyena, Indian porcupine, and a number of other rare species of mammals, birds, snakes, and lizards. It represents the center of origin and genetic diversity for wild relatives of cultivated plants such as grapes, pomegranates, figs, almonds, walnuts, wheat, barley and many others. These areas of woodland habitat continue to experience heavy logging and overgrazing. While these areas are currently under protection, enforcement is not always adequate to promote forest regeneration.

Trails we walked along in the Kopet Dag in Turkmenistan in 1998.

Having walked in the eastern end of the Elburz mountains in Turkmenistan, it was a real joy to be in the central Alburz mountains in Iran. Left: I walked above all the houses to about 3000 metres, where walls or is it terracing for planting show the last remnants of civilisation. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Over the years I have worked my from the eastern Himalayas, Karakorams, Hindu Kush, Pamirs and finally the Elbruz, all high and magnificent mountain ranges. Mountains are my Cathedrals and I am inspired at the foot of them.

The Alburz mountains are a major mountain range in northern Iran, 560 miles (900 km) long. The range, most broadly defined, extends in an arc eastward from the frontier with Turkmenistan southwest of the Caspian Sea to the Khorasan region of northeastern Iran, southeast of the Caspian Sea, where the range merges into the Aladagh, the more southerly of the two principal ranges there. More commonly, however, the westernmost part of the range is called the Talish (Talysh, Talesh, or Tavalesh) Range, or the Bogrov Dagh; the Elburz Range, in its strictest sense, forms part of the central stretch of the chain, which also includes Iran's two highest peaks, Mount Damavand and Mount Alam. The Elburz mountain system traverses virtually all of the northernmost portions of Iran from east to west.

The Elburz mountains showing Teheran at the bottom and how it rings the Caspian Sea at the top.

As I walked higher above the 3000 metre mark, I met an ‘old and wise man of the mountains’ resting at the side of the high alpine track. (photo right) He was 75 years of age and has lived and walked in these mountains all his life. In his basic English he shared his experiences and joy for the Alburz mountains. He told of of the highest peak, Mt. Tocha and of a refuge near the summit he had spent many nights in.

The Elburz chain is not as truly alpine (i.e., resembling the European Alps) in its structure as is often suggested. On the one hand, continental conditions regarding sedimentation are reflected by thick Devonian sandstones (about 360 to 415 million years old) and by Jurassic shales containing coal seams (about 145 to 200 million years old). On the other hand, marine conditions are reflected by strata dating to the boundary of the Carboniferous and Permian periods (about 300 million years old) that are composed mainly of limestones, as well as by very thick beds of green volcanic tuffs and lavas. Orogenic (mountain-building) phases of importance date from the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (between about 23 and 2.6 million years ago). Over large areas they produced only a loose folding; but in the Central Elburz a number of folds were formed into blocks thrust mainly southward but in places northward, with cores made of Paleozoic rocks (more than 250 million years old). Structurally and topographically, the Elburz system is less clearly defined on the southern than on the Caspian (northern) side of the chain, since various off-branching elements interconnect it on the southern side with the adjoining Iranian Plateau.

Sunrise and Damavand from top of the Tochal Mount, Tehran, Iran, that the old mountain man spoke of. Photo: Ashkan Rezvani

The Western Elburz Range runs south-southeastward for 125 miles (200 km). Varying in width from 15 to 20 miles (24 to 32 km), it consists of a single asymmetric ridge, the long slope facing the Caspian. Few of its peaks approach or exceed 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in height. There is a low pass west of Astara, near the Turkmenistan frontier, 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level. The Safid River, formed by the junction of the Qezel Owzan (Qisil Uzun) and Shahrud rivers, is the only river to cross the whole width of the chain: its gorge, giving access to the low pass of Qazvin, offers the best passage through the mountain chain, although by no means an easy one, between the Gilan region on the shores of the Caspian and the inland plateau to the south.

A small alpine refuge near the summit of Mt. Tocha, looking down on the city of Teheran with it 13 million inhabitants. This was the place the old man had told me about.

The Central Elburz is 250 miles (400 km) long. East of the longitude of Tehran, which lies to the south of the range, it reaches a width of 75 miles (120 km). Located among the longitudinal valleys and ridges of the range are some important centres of settlement, with the towns of Deylaman, Razan, Kojur, and Namar located on the Caspian side and Emamshahr (formerly Shahrud), Lar, Damavand, and Firuzkuh on the southern side. There are likewise many gorges, by which the rivers find their way down one or another of the slopes. Only two passes allow a relatively easy crossing in a single ascent—these are the Kandevan Pass, between the Karaj and the Chalus rivers, and the Gaduk Pass, between the Hableh and the Tala rivers. The main divide runs generally south of the highest crest, which—with the exception of the towering and isolated cone of the extinct volcano Mount Damavand (18,386 feet [5,604 m])—culminates in the glaciated massif of Takht-e Soleyman, which rises to more than 15,750 feet (4,800 m).

Josephine Shieldsrecass and I were the fittest on the trip and we went quite high above Darband in the time available on Friday. Josephine is from Jamaica and works on the World Disasters Report in Geneva. Here she is having a cup of tea on a tapchan. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The Eastern, or Shahkuh, Elburz runs about 185 miles (300 km) in a northeasterly direction. Since two ranges branch off on its southern side and no compensatory elements appear on the northern side, its width dwindles to less than 30 miles (48 km). With the exception of the Shahkuh Range proper (which reaches an elevation of 12,359 feet [3,767 m]), the chain decreases in height toward the east. Longitudinal valleys are found less and less frequently east of the Shahkuh. There are several passes at low elevations.

The Caspian and the inland, or southern, slopes of the Elburz differ markedly from each other in climatic and vegetational aspects. The Caspian slope has a distinctly humid climate, thanks to northerly air movements, enriched with moisture from the sea, which collide with the steep faces of the mountains to cause precipitation. This precipitation amounts to more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) annually in the lowlands of the Gilan region and is even more plentiful at higher elevations. Although it decreases toward the east, it still suffices to nourish a humid forest for the whole length of the chain on the Caspian side, where the soils are mostly of the brown-forest type. The natural vegetation of this slope grows in distinct zones: the luxuriant Hyrcanian forest on the lowest levels; a beech forest in the middle zone; and a magnificent oak forest from the elevation of 5,500 feet (1,700 m) up to the levels where gaps in the divide allow the moist air to overflow into the inland basins. In some sheltered valleys there are extensive stands of wild cypress; sheltered valleys adjacent to the Safid River constitute the only olive-growing areas of note in Iran.

The southern slope of the Elburz, by direct contrast, shares the arid character of the Iranian Plateau. This is a photo I took walking up the trail 10 km from Darband. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Annual precipitation varies between 11 and 20 inches (280 and 500 mm) and is very irregular. The soils are mostly of the type associated with steppe (treeless, grassy, or shrubby) vegetation. The slope has become even more steppelike ever since the almost complete destruction of its original dry forest of junipers.

The Hyrcanian tigers for which the Caspian forests were famous are now very rare; but other wild cats, such as the leopard and the lynx, are still numerous in the Elburz. The bear, the wild boar, red and roe deer, the mouflon (wild mountain sheep), and the ibex are also present. Eagles and pheasants are notable among birds.

While large areas of the Elburz Mountains are almost uninhabited—some being occupied only by nomads and others having been depleted by Turkmen raids in the 19th century—there are still several well-settled districts, including Deylaman, Alamut, Talaqan, and Larijan (at the foot of Mount Damavand). The landscape of the Caspian slopes is characterized by forest clearings with shingle-roofed loghouse villages and by lush fields and pastures. The landscape of the inland slopes is of the oasis type. Extensive grain cultivation occurs on both slopes, and cattle raising occurs on the Caspian side. Alpine pastures, seasonally dotted with flocks of sheep, cover an extensive zone yet higher. The land-distribution pattern prevailing in the Elburz includes a high proportion of peasant ownership. The holdings often are much-fragmented.

Many of the traditional ways of livelihood of the mountaineers, including charcoal burning (now prohibited because of devastation of the forests), the transportation of goods (especially of rice and of charcoal for Tehran) by pack animals, and the working of hundreds of small coal mines, have been displaced by the 20th-century modernization of Iran.

Apart from the main line of the trans-Iranian railroad, which links Tehran with Bandar-e Torkeman via the Gaduk Pass, there are several asphalted roads across parts of the Elburz. From west to east, these run between Ardebil and Astara, between Qazvin and Rasht, between Tehran and Chalus, between Tehran and Amol (via Damavand); between Tehran and Babol (via Firuzkuh), and between Emamshahr and Gorgan (via Kotal-e Zardaneh Pass).

The wild (natural or original) forests of the Elburz Mountains cover more than 8,000,000 ac (3,000,000 ha), of which some 3,000,000 ac can be exploited commercially for timber and other wood. There are also a few modern coal mines, as well as some deposits of iron and other ores. But most important is the water of the rivers, which is used for irrigation, for generating hydroelectric energy, and for supplying the fast-growing Tehran. Spectacular dams have been built. These include the Safid Rud Dam, used for the irrigation of the Safid Rud Delta; the Karaj Dam and the Jajrud Dam, used mainly for supplying water to Tehran and partly for irrigation; and a series of dams on other rivers of the Mazandaran ostan (province) also used for irrigation.

Who is killing Afghanistan and the Afghans?

2011-12-06T04:56:00.000-08:00

The Blue Mosque in Mazar-I-Sharif which is a Shrine to Ali and revered by the Shia Muslims. Taken in 1976 when I was working for the Red Cross after a major earthquake in the north. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Bombs kill 58 in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. The BBC's Quentin Sommerville: "It seems this was a co-ordinated attack; it certainly seems to have a sectarian element"

Twin attacks apparently targeting Shia Muslims have killed at least 58 people in Afghanistan.

In the deadliest incident, a suspected suicide bomb struck a shrine packed with worshippers in the capital, Kabul, killing at least 54.

Another blast hit the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif at about the same time, killing four people.

The attacks appear to be of a sectarian nature unprecedented in recent Afghan history, correspondents say.

They coincided with the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura - the most important day in the Shia calendar and marked with a public holiday in Afghanistan.

Ashura is the climax of Muharram, the month of mourning for the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

The police have cordoned off all roads to the blast site in the medieval Murad Khani district where many Shias had gathered to commemorate Ashura at the Abu Fazal mosque.

Here, at an emergency surgical centre just 10 minutes from the site, people are gathered crying and wailing. I have heard women shouting: "My son is dead, my son is dead." I have seen people with charred clothing.

Security forces have been ferrying victims to waiting ambulances. There are many wounded too. Those who were there say there are a lot of casualties. People are gathering in front of the hospital and the police are on the streets around here controlling the traffic.

Though tensions exist between Afghanistan's Sunni and minority Shia Muslims, most attacks in Afghanistan in recent years have targeted government officials or international forces, correspondents say.

When I lived for three years in Afghanistan (1993-96) I visited the Abu Fazal mosque in Kabul one of the places of today's atrocities, and the Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif. The book I wrote on Afghanistan provides prose, poetry and photographs of my favourite country and the peaceful nature of the people. Why this today?

Children hit

The near-simultaneous explosions happened at about midday (07:30 GMT).

In Kabul, the bomb went off near a gathering of hundreds of Shias singing at the Abu Fazal shrine.

Fifty-four people were killed in the blast, said health ministry spokesman Norughli Kargar, while 150 were injured.

"It was very loud. My ears went deaf and I was blown three metres [yards]," Mustafa, who uses only one name, told Associated Press news agency.

"There was smoke and red blood on the floor of the shrine. There were people lying everywhere."

Amid the chaos straight after the blast, a young girl, dressed in a green shalwar kameez (traditional dress) smeared in blood, stood shrieking, surrounded by the crumpled, piled-up bodies of children, AFP reported.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke of the unprecedented nature of the attack, saying it was "the first time that, on such an important religious day in Afghanistan, terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place".

No-one had claimed to have carried out the attacks, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's criminal investigation department.

A Taliban statement said the group had not been behind either incident.

Police said they foiled another attack elsewhere in the capital.

Thanks to the BBC for permission to run this article.

From Adam and Eve, Socrates to the present generation.

2011-12-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

The other day I posted an article about my old friend and mentor James (Jim) Williamson. Yesterday I got another short note from him which I found stimulating. James is OK about me sharing it wider.

Often I speak or write of the value of modern youth (my opinion is positive and I spend a lot of time on FB etc blasting old farts (usually my brothers!) who begin "in my day we didn't have IPads and Blackberries and interactive TV etc. We took a stick and a potato sack and played all day outside in the snow in bare feet... and we were happy..." ad nausea. They don't stop to think that this is the world that our generation has made and it's not the kids' fault they are born into it. "Anyway," I ask the oldies, "who gave your kids their first Gameboy? Look, we - as a generation - found a world where kids worked around the house, made their own toys and had no electronic entertainment apart from the radio. "Lost in Space" and "The Goon show".

But the thing is we evidently DIDN'T LIKE IT like that, because we have been working for half a century to change it into something totally different. We, the generation born just after WW II invented digital technology to make sure no kid in a rich country would ever have to make a trolley with pram wheels again. We gave them 2 cars and 3 TV sets per family, laptops, Iphones and i-games. Through the 1960s and 70s we also made sure they would find grass, hash, horse, coke, speed, LSD ecstasy, crack etc. on the social scene, and in the 80s added AIDS to the mix. So how can we blame the kids of today if they can't "play in the streets"? It's obviously been a long time since these old farts took a good look at your average urban street. Who'd play there? You'd need to be Rambo just to survive. That's what my generation has done. So hey, old man, leave them kids alone. All in all you're just another fart in the hall.

Oops! There I go again Bob, getting off the track. We´re supposed to be looking for issues we don't agree on, but I'm sure you'll agree with this because all NGOs are fuelled by youth volunteers. We (as a generation) did a lot of good things coming mostly out of the hippy ideology: we fought for women's rights, gay rights, children's rights, the rights of the disabled, native people's rights, self-determination, got rid of segregation in USA and South Africa, began environmental protection as a worldwide concern, drove the volunteer movement and proliferation of NGOs (not always to the best ends, but an overall green mark nevertheless especially to the "without borders" groups, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Save the Children and the WWLF not to mention classics like Red Cross/Luna Oxfam etc.) and countless other achievements. Most of these movements arose in response to the world we were brought up in That world is seen today as innocent and it's children (us) as so creative and resourceful that we could spend all day entertaining ourselves in the middle of high street with a Wattie's tomato sauce can. It is now brandished in the face of today’s digital generation as something innately good, a kind of Eden before the fall. But it was our revered parents who formulated and used DDT (my father used to spray it around the section to put down the "dirty old docks" as he called them. Us kids used to help), and napalm, other toxic defoliants, the Bomb itself and upheld apartheid and called anyone from SE Asia a gook. "We" (as a generation) fought to eradicate their sins, but we brought so many of our own -unawares perhaps- that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to develop all that technology. The perversion of technology for evil is always a step ahead of the its potential for good.

Well Bob, must end here and get some work done: 30,000 words on heliostats are waiting to be nicely explained in perfect Kiwi English. Spain is a world leader in solar technology. Just as well we do something properly! At least I am sure - 100% sure - that heliostats and wind turbines are an unmixed good. Biomass is a bit more problematic until we can solve the problem of supplies. The demand for biomass crops is partially to blame for the price of staple grains over the last few years, and partly drives destruction of natural habitats and sustainable subsistence farming methods. The best alternative energies right now are solar and wind-based. But that's another story. Now that I think about it, maybe I specialise in this field not only because it's dynamic, but because it answers my need for absolutes in a world where morality is inevitably relative. Old Socrates would have been hard put to it in his search for "The Good" if he knew what we know.

Un fuerte abrazo,

Jim

We all have our mentor - Jim Williamson was one of mine

2011-12-03T00:16:00.000-08:00

I first met James (Jim) Williamson in 1964. We were teenagers, Jim a year or two older than me. We were both young athletes who our coaches and the media considered had a lot of potential. That was in the age when NZ produced Olympic gold medallists like Norman Reed, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and other world-class runners like Bill Bailly, Barry Magee and John Davies. Athletics had a huge following.

Jim Williamson left, taken when he was a sailing instructor in Spain.

I will never forget one night after the New Zealand junior athletic championships in Dunedin. I had set a new Otago 880 yards junior record and Jim had won the open event over the same distance. Later that night, bored with the party and feeling extremely pleased with ourselves, we decided to drive out to St. Kilda beach and, in our underwear, competed against each other in a beach decathlon. We used driftwood for the high jump, rocks for the shot put, a tree branch for a javelin, drew lines in the sand for the long jump and triple jump take off and sprinted and ran against each other for hours. Simple fun on a beach. Jim was 19 and I, 16 going 17 then. We swam naked in the surf and laughed like children. It was one of those defining moments that don’t seem to have special significance at the time, but that in retrospect are seen encapsulate something of the essence of being. We were similar souls but I felt we would never be travellers on the same path. We were strong-headed people who would take different roads into the unknown but inviting future.

I don't want to give the impression that we were earnest, priggish individuals interested only in athletics and carving out a career. Quite the opposite: it would be some years before we started to take vocational questions seriously, and like all young males in our society we spent more time trying to "make it" with girls than anything else. Jim seemed to have a little more charm than I.

Jim Williamson and I got our share of headlines through our high school days as promising future athletes. Bob McKerrow collection.

We participated in an athletic training camp at Karitane in 1965 where we got close to Warrington Taylor, whose son Brian was running the camp, as indicated in a separate blog article. Warrington Taylor's photo below:

Jim, the son of a milkman, and I the son of a metal worker, felt the world was our oyster and in a country where social mobility was at the core, I knew we would soon go overseas on our individual voyages of discovery.
I remember sharing a quote I found with him , “ If you are young and able, smuggle your talents away and hawk them on livelier markets.
At 19 I left for South America, and when I got back Jim had left for Australia, South-East Asia and finally Europe.

A year later I spent 13 months in Antarctica, and on the last flight before the long autumn and winter sent in, I got a letter from Jim in which he somehow made me examine my life and realise that maybe I had the potential to make a difference , to work for the betterment of the world, and that I should look for the opportunity to do so when I returned from Antarctica. It was a long, philosophical letter that I cherished and read many times during the ten months that I spent with three others at 21 years of age. Jim had become a mentor. We lost contact in late 1971 when I returned from Antarctica and Jim was already on his travels. 40 years later we reconnected. We immediately felt that the old bonds were still strong, and have updated each other on what we are doing and what we think about life, the universe and everything.

Left: My first passport with a photo taken at 19 years of age when I set of to try to scale 13 unclimbed Peruvian mountains with a group of young NZ mountaineers.

Two days ago I got an e-mail from Jim in response to a story on nuclear disarmament I shared with him. He has had a chequered career as a university teacher, antique restorer, owner of a bar in Spain, owner of a successful English academy, sailing instructor and now translator specialising in the field of green energy generation. He is also a member of Translators without Borders. His reply is brilliant and thought-provoking.

Hola Bob,

Great to hear from you, even through LinkedIn. In this case the medium is most definitely not the message. Thanks for the photos. You're still one of the ugliest buggers I've come across.

Nice article about Warrington Taylor. Funny thing about nuclear weapons is that - horrifying as their existence is - they are no longer perceived as a serious threat by most people today. What seems to have happened is that once the cold war was defused the associated paranoia disappeared, and the prospect that the US and USSR would get involved in a nuclear holocaust bringing what we (with increasing irony) call the civilised world to an end was packed away into the souvenir box of history to be studied by uncomprehending school kids. Warrington would possibly have thought that that is where it belongs. The bombs are still there, but don’t seem to do much harm. There are other, cheaper ways of continuing the great tradition of Man’s inhumanity to Man (and to all other creatures if you think about it... as Humans, we are a decided failure. As Sapiens, I’d go even further and say we really never got started)

Jim with his two daughters, Sandra on the left, Betty on the right.

Since the 60’s we have seen so many non-nuclear horrors committed by men against their fellow creatures, from Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia, the Congo, Liberia, Rianda, Bosnia-Serbia-Kosovo, Chechnya, Sudan... you know more about them than I do, many of them at first hand. The depressing thing is not that we can invent nuclear arms and the means to deliver them worldwide (a multi-billion dollar enterprise), but that all we need is a Kalashnikov and a few anti-personnel mines costing a few rupees on the black market to perpetrate the most horrific and wilful mass cruelty. So strong is the beast that lurks beneath the thin veneer of the rule of law that the presence of nuclear stockpiles fades into insignificance beside the prospect of half a million Hutus armed with home-made machetes. The space-arms race was a kind of temporary madness cured as soon as the soviets blinked. It’s no accident that the only manned mission to our satellite was in 1969 and has never been emulated. Today Dr Strangelove is just a funny man with a silly arm, incomprehensible to anyone under 30. However, the world sees daily media exposure of deliberate famine, rape, torture, genocide and the most horrifying array of hands-on face-to-face spit-on-your grave violence that it’s no wonder the bomb is the forgotten ghost in the attic of the 21st century consciousness.

As you can see I have a jaundiced view of my race. Philosophers have often thought that humanity is essentially good and would act in a civilised manner if certain prerequisites were met: if everyone had enough to eat and drink, a safe clean place to keep the family and good prospects for the kids. But that’s not the way it is. If that unlikely situation ever happens, in a single generation we will be back under the thumb of the power merchants and the warlords, who will in turn be controlled by those little pricks that have raked together the most property in the meantime while everybody else was busy looking after the kids. We are an acquisitive, greedy, power-loving and venial species – you choose the epithet – but the worst of these is acquisitive. All the man-made humanitarian disasters from Korea to Somalia have been permitted and even orchestrated by groups that have the power to stop them but the will to keep them happening, with the sole objective of manipulating commodity prices. The real rulers of the world are only interested in controlling the global financial-economic network that owns the politicians and finances their institutions and whose only moral guide is the balance sheet. You know who they are. Their lackeys toss you some funds from time to time for public relations reasons: we must be seen to be doing something! One of their top lieutenants, by the way, was Henry Kissinger, the very model of a modern corporation man. He almost single-handedly orchestrated the Yom Kippur war from the Israeli side to bolster American domestic petroleum prices and disrupt supplies from the Middle East to weaken the rising threat to US economic dominance represented by the emerging - but petroleumless - EEC. The oil crises of the 70’s were his greatest work and set back the the European economy by a decade, provoking runaway inflation and the worst slump since the 1930s. Even then the stupid Swedes gave him the Nobel for sweeping the mess under the carpet afterwards. And what can we say about Iran/Iraq? Kissinger left his successors well drilled. Now the target is shifting from petroleum, which has a limited future, to agricultural land in vast quantities. The major agro-biz, chemical and pharmaceutical corporations and their financial backers are taking up positions in Africa, Asia and S. America and the next 10-15 years will see millions of small subsistence farmers and their families pushed off the land to make room for the mechanised, genetically-engineered mega-crops we will need to feed 8 billion people by 2050. The Amazon is already in a critical state, but then, its all part of a great business opportunity, not to be missed. Strategic management and all that. The fact that it will cause widespread famine in 2 thirds of the world to maintain the other third in the style to which it is accustomed shouldn’t surprise us. After all, it has happened so many times before.

So, atomic bombs? Nah... break too much property. Messy. The insurance claims would be excruciating. Can’t trust those North Koreans though. Stir crazy. But somebody will put up the dough to buy them.

Oh well, got that off my chest. I couldn’t sleep and decided to write you a cheery note about this and that, wife & kids etc. but the reminder that the formerly dreaded A bombs are still around got me started on an unforgivable diatribe that will surely bore you like an oyster, as they say here (if you’re asking why, just think of the exciting social life of your average oyster, his trips to exotic resorts and general social mobility). Well, for better or for worse, no delete key tonight. You have to take it as you find it. An incurable insomniac, I read an atrocious diet of books on palaeontology and astrophysics. The evolution of the various hominoid species and the beginning, development and possible end of the universe as postulated by the general theory of relativity are two obsessions that have occupied my mind over the last few years. I’ve become a crashing bore at party’s coz I want to talk about space-time curvature and black holes, or discuss whether Homo Habilis had language capacity. When I talk about Lucy, friends think I’ve got a lover. Basically I suppose I’m looking for clues at the scene of the crime. Where do Homo sapiens come from? Why is the explosion of cave art 30,000 years ago important today and what’s the relation with the murder rate in Washington? Because there must be a relation, otherwise nothing makes sense. OK, I hear you say, nothing does make sense. Who said it had to? Well, Einstein for one said God doesn’t play dice with the universe. But I’m beginning to think he was wrong.

Meeting with President of Sri Lanka

2011-12-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege of a two hour breakfast meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka this morning. I am grateful to his DG of the media division, Bandula Jayasekara for making this happen, and who was also at the breakfast.

It was an opportunity to promote the work of Sri Lanka Red Cross, supported by IFRC and PNS. He particularly appreciated the work we have done in terms of providing large water pipelines, latrines and hygiene promotion in schools and communities. He is a staunch supporter of hygiene promotion and spoke of when he visits schools, he asks children what they would like to see improved, and they often say “better toilets and clean water.” We also discussed in detail the work Red Cross has done with the displaced population in the north and east and how livelihoods and economic development is crucial to provide employment.

President Rajapaksa is an inquisitive man who obviously values feedback from people who travel a lot in his country and wanted to know what my thoughts were about the development of Sri Lanka in the post-conflict era. I explained to him in detail about the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society post conflict recovery programme and of the 2000 owner driven houses we have constructed, and of the livelihood and water sanitation grants we provide as well. He expressed a sincere wish that we scale up our work in the north.

Here was I man a felt safe to ask difficult questions and I felt his feelings were mutual. Humanitarian diplomacy is about influencing decision makers and I know he genuinely listened to the challenges we face as a Red Cross Movement in Sri Lanka, and I know we can get more support and cooperation from the Government for our humanitarian work in the north and east. I felt I was also able to get across the viewpoint of the wider humanitarian community in terms of challenes of working in the north of Sri Lanka..

Vimala Rani with some of her children outside her new Red Cross funded house in Vivekanandanagar. She nows earns a living raising chickens and selling eggs. Photo: Bob McKerrow

I was able to present the situation of some very vulnerable people such as Vimala Rani the widowed mother of five in Vivekanandanagar, Thavarani (left) the disabled mother in Krishnapuram with two children, and how the Red Cross programme in the north has given them houses, livelihoods, and they can now live in dignity and safety. I also spoke of Aranchalam the potter and Ramaiyah the icecream man in Kilinnochchi who we made a documentary on 14 months ago and have just produced a documentary showing the improvements in their livelihoods.

With his three sons being talented rugby players we discussed rugby and I presented him a pocket watch which commemorates 100 years of All Black rugby. He told me with a broad smile how his three sons attended the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and enjoyed it very much.

For me it was a pleasure to meet President Rajapaksa in his own house, over an informal breakfast and to have his son drop in to talk of the work he is doing for reconcilliation by taking musical concerts to Jaffna, and running sporting events and livelihoods in the north. His son is a well known rugby player so we digressed a little onto rugby.

A lighter moment with President Rajapaksa at the beginning of our meeting today.

Wild weather kills 20 in coastal districts of Sri Lanka

2011-11-27T23:36:00.000-08:00

Latest update: Tuesday 29 November 2011.

Death toll due to bad weather in the south of Sri Lanka has risen to 22 while several missing persons returned bringing down number of missing persons to 19, the Disaster Management Centre said. 66,760 people have been displaced according to report from DMC in the Daily News.
Reports from SLRCS in Matara and Galle show they are doing great job helping affected people clean up damage and debris, first aid and distribution of relief items. See SLRCS website or make donation:
http://www.redcross.lk/NewsProfile.aspx?NewsId=243

Monday 28 November.
The death toll due to heavy rains accompanied by stormy winds in Sri Lanka’s southern coastal areas rose to 20.

Heavy rains and stormy winds that affected several districts in Sri Lanka have affected more than 60,000 people while displacing over 6000 persons.

Sri Lanka Red Cross volunteers helping residents clear fallen trees from their homes in Matara. Photo: SLRCS

The Sri Lanka Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said that 66286 people of 16837 families have been affected, the death toll rose to 20 with 43 persons still reported missing. Most of the missing persons are reported to be fishermen who went on fishing on the fateful day.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross branches in Matara and Galle, the worst affected districts, swung into action immediately assisting with search and rescue, first aid, remving trees and debris and relief supplies. This morning I spoke to the Acting President of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Baratha Jonikkuhewa who is also Chairman of the Matara Branch. "The winds were terrifying and caused a huge amount of damage in Matara district" he said. " We mobilised our volunteers quickly and were able to provide immediate relief to people who lost everything," he said.

Sri Lanka Red Cross volunteers clearing trees and debris brought down by the storm in Matara. Photo: SLRCS

The DMC also said 737 houses have been fully damaged while 6400 partially. 6400 persons who were displaced due to bad weather especially in the southern Matara and Galle districts have been housed in seven temporary camps.

Meanwhile the Department of Irrigation said that 10 main tanks (articial lakes) in several districts are overflowing.

Village relief and coordination centres have been set up in the worst affected villages. Photo: SLRCS.
The Met Department forecasts the rainy weather will continue at least for another week.

We are expecting full reports and photos from Matara and Galkle branches this afternoon.

Bob McKerrow

Nuclear disarmament and Warrington Taylor

2011-11-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

Warrington signed all his cheques, trust account and personal, with the proviso that they be paid provided we weren’t all destroyed by nuclear explosion, and every year at our Annual Meeting of Otago Lawyers, he would politely seek permission to introduce a motion relating to nuclear disarmament only to be told that it was not relevant to the business of the Annual Meeting, a ruling he always accepted with dignity and good grace.(quote from Iain Galloway)

I just wish Warrington Taylor was still alive to be able to attend the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Council of Delegates yesterday in Geneva, 26 November 2011, where a paper was presented drawing upon the testimony of atomic bomb survivors, the experience of the Japan Red Cross and ICRC in assisting the victims of the atomic bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the knowledge gained through the ongoing treatment of survivors by the Japanese Red Cross Atomic Bomb Survivors Hospitals, The paper Working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons focusses on the following key issues:

#deeply concerned about the destructive power of nuclear weapons, the unspeakable human

#suffering they cause, the difficulty of controlling their effects in space and time, the threat

#they pose to the environment and to future generations and the risks of escalation theycreate,

#concerned also by the continued retention of tens of thousands of nuclear warheads, the proliferation of such weapons and the constant risk that they could again be used,
#disturbed by the serious implications of any use of nuclear weapons for humanitarian
assistance activities and food production over wide areas of the world,

#believing that the existence of nuclear weapons raises profound questions about the extent
of suffering that humans are willing to inflict, or to permit, in warfare,Working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons

I am so proud the the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is taking these issues up to the highest levels of Government and appeals to all States:

Warrington Taylor would have cried out with joy in support had he been alive to see the meeting yesterday as he led a lonely campaign in the 1950 and 1960s against the use of nuclear weapons.when most considered him a crank.

He was a friend and mentor of mine when I was a teenager and into my early 20s when I first started working for Red Cross overseas.. What moved me about this man was his compassion and an undying belief that the world should be a better place. He was a key figure in the Dunedin branch of the CND, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and campaigned vigorously for banning the nuclear bomb.He fought against the Dunedin City Council when they made plans to scrap trolley buses, and in 1960 ,he stood as an independent candidate for the Dunedin Central electorate in our general parliamentary elections on the nuclear disarmament platform. Warrington Taylor was a fighter for human rights, truth and a better world.

I first met Warrington Taylor in about 1961. He was a tall, handsome man about 60, with a gentle manner and a warm smile. I was a 13 year old athlete and his son Brian had just started coaching me. Somehow I was drawn to Warrington Taylor as he had qualities I had not found in many people up until then. His general knowldege was astounding from geography to mechanics, law to philosophy, religion to nuclear power, politics to people. In a suit and tie he had the stature of a Statesmen and in his old working clothes, which included worn trousers, brown shoes, a shirt and tie, and a tweed jacket, he still looked like a Statesman.

When he spoke, his words were clear, well chosen and soft. He ran a law firm in Dunedin from an old office in Princess Street, near the Embassy theatre. I loved going into his office and watching him write legal briefs on quarto sheets of paper, which he tied with green tape when completed. When I was at High School I popped in to see him a few times, and this busy lawyer would always welcome me with a broad smile, with at least one gold tooth.

I think he took a liking to me and we often used to sit down together at his crib at Karitane, and tell me about trips he did in Europe as a young man. He talked of the Swiss Alps, the river journeys and going to famous places such as art galleries and museums, but the conversation would always swing to nuclear disarmament.

In 1965 when the Beatles visited Duedin, Warrington joined his son Brian and I and he enjoyed their performance immensely. Most adults of his age were condemning the Beatles as anti-establihment, but not Mr. Taylor. He could see the good in these people and like the lyrics that often promoted peace and love.

Warrington Taylor was a man for all seasons. He was equally at home in a law court, or repairing his old car or lawn mower. His innate ability to break subjects down into component parts, and rebuild arguments or cases, was a technique he used when repairing motors.

I feel that Warrington Taylor was one of those men that somehow the media ignored. Never into self promotion, he quietly did his works behind the scene. I wonder how many clients he did work for and he never charged them ?

The paper working towards the elimination of nuclear weapons http://www.standcom.ch/council_post_docs_2011.shtml appeals to all states to:

.- to ensure that nuclear weapons are never again used, regardless of their views on the

legality of such weapons,

- to pursue in good faith and conclude with urgency and determination negotiations to
prohibit the use of and completely eliminate nuclear weapons through a legally binding
international agreement, based on existing commitments and international obligations,

Warrington Taylor, I dedicate these powerful statements to you as a man who mentored me.to follow the path of humanity and human rights.

The final report on the re-engineering process of Sri Lanka Red Cross titled “New Directions” launched

2011-11-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

SLRCS President Jagath Abeysinghe handing over the report to IFRC Seceretary General Bekele Galeta in Geneva

The final report of the re-engineering process of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society was handed over to the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Bekele Galeta by the President of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) Jagath Abeysinghe at the sidelines of the General Assembly in Geneva today. (23 November 2011)

The report is about the process of change that the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society has undergone over the past 18 months called “Re-engineering the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society”.

During the handing over ceremony the President of Sri Lanka Red Cross Society said that it was in no means was an easy task and, at times, it’s hard to believe we managed to effectively navigate this comprehensive and quite intensive process.

Furthermore the report depicts the transparency of the process and how it was done in order to downsize the scale of operations to a level, which is manageable.

The Secretary General of IFRC Bekele Galeta said “It’s a positive path the Sri Lanka Red Cross has taken to re-engineer its structure at this crucial time. This process depicts the credibility of this national society to be a responsible one and its commitment to be a success”

The Director General of SLRCS Tissa Abeywickrama, The Head of IFRC South Asia Azmat Ulla were also present at the handing over ceremony. To read the full report click here.

One of the many, many meeting we held to discuss and thrash out the process. Photo: Bob McKerrow
Having been personally involved in the re-engineering porocess since I arrived in June 2010, it has been quite a difficult and time consuming process. For any organisations wanting to restructure, the link about will be very helpful.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation

2011-11-23T22:48:00.000-08:00

Had morning tea with Hon. Mahinada Amaraweera, Minister of Disaster Management, Ms. S.M. Mohamed, Secretary of Disaster Management and Subinay Nandy, UN Resident Coordinator (right) after the opening of the 3rd national symposium on Disaster Risk Reductiuon and Climate Change Adaptation this morning. A wonderful opportunity to discuss further Red Cross/UN risk reduction support for Sri Lanka and discuss some of the good risk reduction models developed over the past few years. Photo: Bob McKerrow

With climate change increasing the frequency of flood and landslides, stronger risk reduction measures urgently need to be developed country-wide. This symposium should be a good platform for sharing ideas, better models and techniques and improving preparedness at community level. It should also bring the corporate sector deeper into the RR fold. Photo: SLRCS.

Disaster Management is a cross cutting discipline that involves a large number of agencies It is not possible for one organization to develop and promote best practices and technologies for all aspects of disaster management. “The Third National Symposium on Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change adaptation 2011” that was opened this morning provides a platform to harness the intellectual capital of scientists, economists, administrators, philosophers, politicians and civil society activists towards making the vision for a Safer Sri Lanka a reality. I congratulate the Government and UN for taking this innovative initiative.

Here is more information about the symposium: Organizer: :Disaster Management Centre (DMC); Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights (DMHR)

Other organizer: United Nations Development Programme - Sri Lanka (UNDP Sri Lanka)
Date:24-25 Nov 2011 Location:Sri Lanka (Colombo) Venue:Galle Face Hotel

The Third National Symposium on ‘Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation’, will take place in form of discussion forums, in which participants will be able to actively participate in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation related topics of national importance.

• Panel discussions held on the first day will focus on entry points of Disaster Risk Reduction in development efforts, private sector involvement in Disaster Risk Reduction.

• On the second day, participants will have the opportunity to deliberate on the use of Disaster Risk Reduction tools to minimize the impact of disasters. The day will also feature a media consultative session on Climate Change Adaptation and the launching of the CCA web portal.

Additional information
more information from here:
Although it has started, it still may be possible to register late.
Participation is limited. If interested, kindly send a brief description of your area of work along with your contact details to ganga.samarawickrama@undp.org or by calling 0777809697

Where do the children play ?

2011-11-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

Today was a day for children as we opened the playground at the Red Cross funded Udappuwatta Community housing project at Gampaha in Sri Lanka. Photo: Bob McKerrow

After opening the playground a meal was shared with the 64 families who live in the housing area. Here two boys enjoy their meal. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Today 23 November 2011, as I write this, all 187 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide have gathered at the General Assembly in Geneva to discuss major humanitarian challenges and agree on the way forward in serving vulnerable communities.

The General Assembly is the supreme body of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and opened today and will conclude place on 25 November . Major discussion themes among participants will include community resilience, lessons learned from major disaster responses, promoting a culture of non violence and peace and more.

Right Mohammed Ismail and his two children joined in the fun today. Before the opening, he invited me to see his ground floor appartment. With two spacious bedrooms, a living room and kitchen and bathroom, he said how the quality of life has improved for his family. What he really liked was the back door which opened onto a safe grassy area where his children can play.

Mohammed and his family were from one of four communities on the nearby coastline that were destroyed by the 2004 Tsunami. Most of them were fishermen who struggled to make a decent living. Today with seven tourist hotels within walking distance, many of the resettled community are now employed in the rapidly expanding tourist trade.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society supported by IFRC and member national societies, has built over 31,000 houses for tsunami affected people in Sri Lanka. This housing project was funded by the Hong Kong branch of the Red Cross Society of China.

This Udappuwatta Community housing project has a high quality water supply, reliable electricity and lots of room for children to play, and of course, the new playground we opened today.

What defines successful, resilient communities is the way they are empowered and involved before and throughout the construction and community development process. Today, Udappuwatta is thriving through a robust process of community consultation throughout the development and now a strong community committee ensures that maintenance is carried out, improvements are made, law and order is kept, and regular liaison with local Government.

A typical appartment on the ground floor and it is easy to see individual and community pride in the way they plant flowers, retouch paintwork and grow vegetables. The Red Cross can be proud it built back better and trained and empowered communities to lead a sustainable life. Photo: Bob McKerrow

The Gampaha Branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross is also a continuing partner and in the words of the branch chairman Anton Victoria, " we now conduct a risk reduction programme and are about to train the people in water safety which is so important for people who live close to the sea, and many still fish."

So while the Red Cross Red Crescent General Assembly deals with major humanitarian challenges and agrees on the way forward, including policies, in serving vulnerable communities, more reslient communities are arising every day.

Left: Alice (Szeman) Lai represented the Hong Kong Branch of the Red Cross Society of China today at the opening and was honoured with flowers and acolades. She has done a marvellous job since the early days of the tsunami working in Aceh Indonesia at community level and now covering the tsunami programme management Sri Lanka.

Where do the children play?

Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
``Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Yes, get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
so tell me, where do the children play?

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass.
For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas.
And you make them long, and you make them tough.
But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can't get off.

Oh, I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
so tell me, where do the children play?

Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air.
But will you keep on building higher
'til there's no more room up there?
Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?
Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

Total knee replacements, three years on.

2011-11-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

Orthopaedic surgeon, Ed Newman, examining an-X-Ray of my knees after two years.

A number of people have inquired as to how my new knees are working. Today it is three years ago since I had the operation done and my old knees were replaced with Stryker Orthopaedics, Triathlon Knee System, pictured below. Photo: Bob McKerrow

In 2008 after decades of marathon running, tramping (bush walking), climbing, skiing, triathlons, lugging heavy packs full of hut repair equipment up to tramping and alpine club huts, and later resupplying huts in the Mt. Cook National Park, my knees were on the verge of finally giving up. I had no cartilage, just bone on bone.The pain was excrutiating. I had to do something.

Orthopaedic Surgeon Ed Newman on the day of the operation, marking my legs to guide him during the operation. Photo: Ruia McKerrow

Six months down the track, I was walking 5 to 7km a day and feeling healthy, happy and delighted that I took the plunge and got the operation done. Now that I am able to exercise without pain, I have lost 13 kg in weight.

In St George's hospital, the day I left. Photo" Ruia McKerrow

So what information can I pass onto others planing to get this operation done.

1. Get yourself fit for the operation. Make sure the muscles in your legs are strong. I did a lot of stationery cycling and exercises prescribed by the surgeon.

2. Get yourself well set up at home or where ever you are going to recover, and ensure you have a raised toilet seat and a shower hose to wash yourself. I was fortunate as I stayed with my daughter Ruia, who is a nurse, and looked after me so well.

3. In the weeks folowing the operation, listen carefully to the physios as you need to get movement back in your knees as quickly as possible. They will push you and it will be painful, but you must concentrate on gradually getting a 90 degree bend in the knee, and slowly extend it in excess of 110 degrees.

4.See a top physiotherapist for as long as necessary. My last appointment with Leslie Kettle, was after 7 weeks. After one month, she put me on an Exercycle for 5 minutes and this was a wonderful exercise that helped me get maximum flexibility in my knees.

An X Ray of my knees after two years. Photo: Bob McKerrow

5. Don't overdo it. After being discharged from hospital after 9 days, I built up over the first two weeks, walking one km twice a day, After a month, I increased that a little plus extra short walks and all the prescribed flexibility/stretching exercises. After 6 weeks I was walking at least 2 km 2 to 3 times a day.

6.. Don't carry any heavy loads in the first three months.

7. From month 2 onwards, I mixed cycling with walking. Say 3km of walking, and 2 km of cycling.
The view from my balcony in Jakarta where I cycled a lot in the first 18 months. Photo: Ablai McKerrow

At one stage after about four and a half months, I increased my walking up to7 km a day , but then eased off as I realised that these new knees have limited life, so I eased back to a maximum of 5 km a day.

8. Massage your knees regularly to help circulation and perhaps it helps the nerves to grow and bring back feeling. Even after 3 years I do not have full feeling in my knees, but the feeling is slowly coming back.

9. It is a major operation. Develop a positive attitude. Set small targets and make sure you attain them. In the early and dark days when you are struggling to take ten steps, visualise yourself walking freely across grassy meadows without pain. Even now, I visualise climbing a high mountain soon..

10. And then there was the step counter I bought in late January 2009 in Singapore, almost 3 months after the operation.. I averaged a minimu of 10,000 steps a day. That has kept me competing against the counter and the weight continues to come off.

So after 6 months I was averaging 4 km a day,and leading a very normal life.

Three years later I am exercising every day either swimming, walking or a workout in the gym. I enjoy walking the most as I find gyms boring. Swimming is good as you can do stretching exercises without so much weight. A favourite exercise is kneeling at the shallow end of the pool and sittting back on your haunches. It increases the movement in both knees.

I have kept away from jogging, but I lift heavy items and lead a perfectly normal life. I am planninmg to climb a high mountain next year and believe I can do it.

So if you are in doubt, go for double knee replacements. Don't go for s single replacement and then have to go through all the pain again. Get it done at one go. Contact me if you need advice.

Special thanks to Ed Newman, Surgeon, Leslie Kettle physiotherapist. Ruia and Gavin for putting me up in their home for two months, and Aroha for regular massage on my legs in the first six weeks.

Love wasn't in the contract.

2011-11-09T22:45:00.000-08:00

With Murray Jones the great New Zealand climber in Nepal.

Graeme Dingle describes their initial relationship, " Murray and I were strange bedfellows I think it's fair to say at this stage of our relationship we didn't even particularly like each other. Arguments came over little things of no consequencebut we were on a mission, and love wasn't in the contract."

It was in the high Solo Khumbu that I met Murray Jones again in 1975 and I did a trip for a week with this world reknowned climber to have a look at the unclimbed peak, Kwandge. Photo: Bob McKerrow

I first met Murray Jones in 1965 when I joined the Otago Tramping and Mountaineering Club. A handsome guy, wiry and slightly built, with a scarred face, he was known as a hard man who Otago climbers whispered to me saying he would make an impact on NZ and world climbing. :

Murray Jones - New Zealand's greatest mountaineer?

We both did a lot of climbing in 1966 to 68 but sadly, Murray's climbing partner Howard Laing was killed in a car accident in 1966. When we met again as two stoney broke climbers at the West Arm-Manapouri power project where we could earn big money to pay off previous climbing trips and dream of the new ones. I had just returned from Peru where I climbed for four months and was in debt and Murray was planning to join Graham Dingle on a climbing trip in Europe. We spent many pleasant evenings chatting about mountianeering and life while gazing at Fiordland's steep sided mountains from out huts. Murray spoke of his love for rock and I of my love for snow and ice. We talked of climbing together but our paths went different ways.

"The history of our Otago T&MC says this about Murray and I.

" A number of Club members who went south to the Antarctic during the '60s included Ken Gousmett, Keith McIvor, Bob McKerrow and Frank Graveson. A large number of members have tramped and toured overseas, with some distinguishing themselves on the climbing scene. Two names that spring to mind readily are Bob McKerrow and Murray Jones."

Murray Jones looking up at the western aspect of the Dru, one of the six north faces they climbed in a record one season (1969) in Europe.The Bonnati Pillar rises out of the top of the Dru Coloir , the big snow and ice gulley above Murray's head. The West Face is on the left. Photo: Graeme Dingle.

But our paths parted until we met in the Everest region of Nepal in 1975. Te Ara goes on to explain what Murray did shortly after he left Manapouri.

" New Zealanders first climbed in the European Alps in the 19th century, but made a significant mark only in 1969 when Murray Jones and Graeme Dingle climbed six major north faces in one season, proving that New Zealand’s best climbers were the equal of Europe’s."

Graeme Dingle describes their initial relationship, " Murray and I were strange bedfellows I think it's fair to say at this stage of our relationship we didn't even particularly like each other. Arguments came over little things of no consequencebut we were on a mission, and love wasn't in the contract."

They went on to form one of the greatest ever c;limbing partnerships.

In January 1975 I was seconded from the New Zealand Red Cross to work for the International Red Cross in Geneva. After three months I was asked to go to Nepal for an initial six months to set up a disaster preparedness programme in the remote districts of Nepal. " You may have to walk 5 or 6 days to get to remote mountain villages," said Olaf Stroh Secretary general of the Swedish Red Cross who were funding the programme. To a young mountaineer, being paid to work in the foothills of the Himalaya was a dream. I was based in Kathmandu and Murray, Joan and I spend quite a bit of time together. He was grieving over the loss of his girlfriend Vicki Thompson, who died some months earlier when attempting a 7000 metre peak in the Himalayas on an all women's expedition. Jill Tremain was also killed in the same incident. Then somewhere in the middle of the year Ed Hillary lost his wife and daughter in a plane crash at the Kathmandu airport. I was closeby at the time and heard the crash. Murray was one of a few close friends in Nepal that provided Ed a shoulder to lean on and help him work through his grief. Murray asked me a few times to pick Ed Hillary from the airport a few times when Murray was in Kathmandu and it was touching to see the way Murray reached out to comfort Ed.

After seven months in Nepal, my work had been done so I took three weeks leave in the Solo Kkumbu, under the shadow of Mt. Everest. I met Murray at the Khunde hospital and he suggested a trip to look at a unclimbed peak named Kwandge.

Kwangde Ri is also called Kongde Ri and Kwandge on various maps. This difficult mountain forms an impressive multi-summited ridge on the eastern end of the Lumding Himal, which in turn can be regarded as part of the Rolwaling Himal. Rising south-west of Namche Bazaar above the Bhote Kosi river, the mountain's northern flank forms an impressive barrier that throws down several steep ridges to the north.

I got fit by doing a trip up to Everest Base Camp and climbing Kalar Patar, an easy day climb that is on the ridge to Pumori and overlooks Everest and all the high peaks.

Murray suggested we take with us two of the staff working at the Khunde hospital a Sherpani called Domalay and Neema Sherpa.

Crossing the Lumding La (4520 m) with Neema Sherpa. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Domalay and Neema enjoying a break on the trip. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Another view of Kwandge.

When we left Khunde on about 14 October 1975, Kwandge was an unclimbed peak. Three days later when we arrived we met Prince Bikram Shah who informed us that his expedition had just done the first ascent of Kwangde Lho by an all Nepalese expedition The actual summit was reached on 17 October by Lhakpa Tenzing. Sonam Gyalzen, Shambhu Tamang and Sonam Hisi via the South Ridge.
This was a magnificent achievement and thwarted any ambitions we had of doing a first ascent. We had basic mountaineering equipment and our only hope would have been an alpine style ascent. Althought we didn't have a permit for the peak, Bikram Shah invited us onto the mountain by 'Royal Command: and we climbed up to camp two and had a good look at the mountain. Sadly, Bikram Shah and his wife who I worked with in the Nepal Red Cross, Princess Sharada Shah, were murdered in the Royal Family massacre some years back.

A shot I took of Kwandge in October 1975. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Spending a week with Murray Jones was a privilige as I learnt so much about mountaineering, his climbs in NZ, Europe and the Himalaya. He was a humble man and I liked the way he treated the Sherpas as absolute equals. We exchanged postcards, sometimes Christmas cards for some years than we lost contact. over the years. He built a house along Sherpa designs in Bannockburn Central Otago.

Before I met Murray he had lost a brother who was riding a bicycle in Dunedin and was killed by a drunk driver, and shortly after we left Nepal, his younger brother Alan also a mountaineer, was killed climbing in the NZ Alps.

Murray Jones (right), Domalay, Neema and a porter cooking a meal at our camp under Kwandge. Photo: Bob McKerrow

In August 2006 when I was living in New Delhi, I was trying to contact Murray and wrote to Graeme Dingle and was greatly amused by his reply:" As far as I know Jones he still lives in Bannockburm doesn't have an email but he does drive a Porsche.

I am going back to New Zealand for holidays at Christmas time and I will make an effort to locate Murray Jones again. We have a lot to reminisce over.
.

A young Tibetan girl : Photo: Bob McKerrow

Below are some shots I took on my trip to everest Base Camp.

Everest and the west ridge from Kalar Patar. On the way up I met Chris Bonnington, Doug Scott and Charles Clarke after their successful south face route on Mt. Everest. Back in Kathmandu I met Reinhold Messner, and helped the 1975 New Zealand Jannu Expedition which included climbing greats such as Pete Farrell, Don Cowie, Lyn Crawford, Graeme Dingle, 'Limbo' Thomson and Jim Strang so it was a wonderful time for a young mountaineer. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Pumori taken from the summit of Kallar Pattar. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Heading up towards Everest Base Camp: Photo: Bob McKerrow

One of the reasons I went up on the ridge of Pumori in 1975 was to take photographs of the West Ridge of Everest and the Lho La route as a group of New Zealanders had got permission to climb Everest in 1977. I spent a lot of time photographing and examining the West Ridge of Everest. Photo: Bob McKerrow

All photos were taken on the old Kodachrome 25 ASA. Great film that was!

Martha Gellhorn - war correspondent

2011-11-06T23:04:00.000-08:00

In 1971, sitting in the bar at the Continental Palace in Saigon I met the famous war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn, the woman who changed the face of war reporting by giving accounts of the suffering of real people . A pioneer in journalism, telling the story of war in a unique and personal way, she reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career.Gellhorn covered the Spanish Civil War the Finnish-Soviet winter war, World War II, the Vietnam War and the 1977 Arab Israel conflict.

When I met Gellhorn she must have been 62 going 63 and was a compelling person with a magnetic personality and had just come back from having been with US forces somewhere in the central highlands.; I was 23 on my first Red Cross mission sitting at a table with a few other journalist and she joined us. I was unsure of who she was at that moment but I could immediately see the respect accorded to her by journalists that knew her incredible history. I can recall her commenting on the futility of war and the deeper meaning of life...”That spiritual world up or out there,” she described so wistfully with delicate hand movements, and then she dismissed the comment.

Many years later I found out exactly what she thought about the US engagement in the Vietnam war.
"The American army in Vietnam was an army of occupation, victims and victimizers both," she later wrote. "Victims because they were wrongly sent 10,000 miles from home, to take part - even as mildly as storekeeper, clerk, cook - in a political aggression. Victimizers because they looked on Vietnamese as a lesser breed..."

She was a striking lady at her age and someone you wanted to be alne to find out more about her remarkable life. Magnetic yes, and still so beautiful and elegant. I was so lucky to have met her when I was a young Red Cross delegate. Wikipedia has a section on her marriages and love affairs which may be of interest to some. However, I find her courage and writing ability as two things I will remember forever about this pioneering war correspondent.

Caroline Moorehead, author of Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century Life, says Gellhorn remained undaunted for most of her 90 years. "I think she was fearless but she knew what it was like to be frightened," a toughness she got from her upbringing, Moorehead says.

Gellhorn covered wars in a different way than other journalists. "She didn't write about battles and she didn't know about military tactics," Moorehead says. "What she was really interested in was describing what war does to civilians, does to ordinary people."

In 1939 Gellhorn witnessed the first weeks of the Winter War between Finland the Soviet Union. She was in Helsinki when the Soviet air forces bombed the city, as a declaration of war. "An Italian journalist had remarked in Helsinki that anyone who could survive the Finnish climate could survive anything and we decided with admiration that the Finns were a tough and unrelenting race, seeing them take this war as if there were nothing very remarkable in three million people fighting against a nation of 180 million." (Gellhorn in The Face of War, 1959) Gellhorn also met President Svinhufvud, whose name she wrote "Szinhuszue". Svinhufvud offered his guests small apples from his orchard. At the Karelian front Gellhorn interviewed Finnish fighter pilots, astonished by their age: "they ought to be going to college dances," she remarked. Gellhorn's reports emphasized that Finland was not the aggressor and deeply influenced the public opinion in the United States about the war.

Gellhorn married Hemingway on November 20, 1940, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. (photo left) Hemingway's friend, Robert Capa, photographed the ceremony for Life. The author dedicated his famous novel about the Spanish Civil war, For Whom the Bells Toll (1940), to Gellhorn. Maria in the book was partly modelled after her. "Her hair was the golden brow of a grain field," Hemingway wrote of his heroine. In the film version of the book, Ingrid Bergman played Maria, but hair was darker than Gellhorn's. However, Gellhorn had suggested her for the role.

The first years of their marriage were happy, although Gellhorn was never really attracted to Hemingway, or believed in romantic love. Hemingway taught her to ride, and shoot, and fish. In the afternoon they played tennis.

Gellhorn was sent to China by Collier's to report on the China-Japan war. They met General Chiang Kai-shek ("he had no teeth"), and continued to Burma, where they spent some time. Hemingway returned to Hong Kong and Gellhorn left for Singapore and Java. "She gets to the place,"

Gellhorn was sent to China by Collier's to report on the China-Japan war. They met General Chiang Kai-shek ("he had no teeth"), and continued to Burma, where they spent some time. Hemingway returned to Hong Kong and Gellhorn left for Singapore and Java. "She gets to the place,"

Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway with unidentified Chinese military officers, Chungking, China, 1941
Since she walked out on Ernest Hemingway in 1943, after five years of marriage, Gellhorn had refused to talk much about him. She was a writer in her own right, a woman who had covered the heaviest of wars, and she wished to be remembered for that. Yet all people recalled was the marriage. That obviously was disappointing to such a talented writer.

After the war she served as a correspondent in Java. Her only play, Love Goes to Press (1947), written in collaboration with Virginia Cowles, did not gain much success. Liana (1944) was a story of a mulatto woman. "True, there is a suspiciously Hemingway-like handling of the dialogue," wrote John Lucas in Contemporary Novelists (1972), "but for the rest there is a sharpness, a truth of observation in the studies of Liana herself and of Marc that would make the novel worth reading if there were nothing else to commend it." The Wine of Astonishment (1948) fallowed a U.S. in Europe in World War II. "Anything at all would do," thinks one of the characters, Lieutenant Colonel Smithers, "except this hour to hour hanging on, with time like a rock in your brain." A young soldier, Jacob Levy, confronts man's inhumanity toward man in Germany. The book was partly based on Gellhorn's experiences - she had been at Dachau a week after American soldiers had discovered the concentration camp.

The Continental Palace in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) where I met Martha Gellhorn in 1971.

In 1958 Gellhorn received an O. Henry Award. The sale of a short story to television enabled her to pay in 1962 her own way to Africa. Gellhorn's love affair of the continent lasted off and on for thirteen years. Much of her time she spent in Kenya, where she had a residence in the Rift Valley. Eventually she fond hopeless to try to write about the "natural world where everything was older than time and I was the briefest object in the landscape." One morning she was attacked on a beach - according to her friend, she was raped. Later she wrote a short story dealing with the traumatic experience.

Between 1934 and 1967, Gellhorn published six novels. She covered wars in Vietnam in the 1960s, and the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967 for the Guardian of London. "The American army in Vietnam was an army of occupation, victims and victimizers both," she later wrote. "Victims because they were wrongly sent 10,000 miles from home, to take part - even as mildly as storekeeper, clerk, cook - in a political aggression. Victimizers because they looked on Vietnamese as a lesser breed..." In 1962 Gellhorn made a tour of German universities.

She could describe vividly decades later, how people were dressed and what they discussed on particular occasions. She had a sharp eye for significant details, and her writing was clear, clever, and precise - all qualities of a good reporter. Her article Is there a new Germany ? written in February 1964 shows her accute powers of observation, analysis and committment to truth. She could describe vividly decades later, how people looked like on any ocassion when questioned..

There is an excellent doco on youtube with a Spanish commentary. You'll love it as you see the places she visited and so many photos of her exciting life.

How I enjoy her writings, love her as a person and am so grateful to have met her. R.I. P Martha..

New Zealand's shame 130 years ago. - Fathers of non-violent action.

2011-11-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

Parihaka is a story about Maori bravery and British (Pakeha) shame. Yesterday I thought a lot about that event which occured 130 years ago. Parihaka is a place I have visited to honour those who peacefully protested, fought and died for non-violence.

The History of Parihaka

Parihaka is a small Taranaki coastal Māori settlement, located 55km south west of New Plymouth. Set in a landscape of  volcanic lahar, this unassuming village is a site of immense historical, cultural and political importance.

The events that took place in and around Parihaka particularly from about 1860 to 1900 have affected the political, cultural and spiritual dynamics of the entire country.

Left: Te Whiti o Rongomai

1860 War, Confiscation & Invasion

One must look at the wars of the 1860's waged against Māori if we are to understand the origins of Parihaka, a large village founded during the punitive years of mass confiscation and dispossession of Māori from their lands. By 1870 it had become the largest Māori village in the country. Then in 1881 it was the scene of one of the worst infringements of civil and human rights ever committed and witnessed in this country.

The invasion of the settlement on the 5th of November 1881 by 1500 militia and armed members of the constabulary was the result of greed for Māori owned land and the quest for power by politicians and settlers. Parihaka had become a haven for the dispossessed from througout the country.

1865

Tohu Kākahi (left)_

The Visionary Leaders

Two figures, Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi led the Parihaka movement. Both men were committed to non-violent action in order to resist the invasion of their estates and to protect Māori independence. They drew on ancestral as well as Christian teachings to offer both spiritual and political leadership while the colonial interests sought to portray them as fanatics. Both men advocated good relationships and interaction between all races as long as Māori ownership of lands and independence from Pākehā (European) domination was respected.

Throughout the wars of the 1860's the Parihaka leaders forbade the use of arms and condemned violence and greed. They challenged the Colonial Government over the illegality of the wars, the confiscation of the land and the punitive policies enacted by the Settler Government against Māori.

Left : The Ploughmen Campaign

1866-79 Resistance through Nonviolent Action

They established monthly meetings at Parihaka on the 18th day to which Māori and Pākehā leaders were invited to attend to discuss the injustices and strategise for the resistance to land grabbing and assimilation. The 18th became a consistent institution for the Parihaka movement. It recalled the date of the start of the first war in Waitara which began on March 18. 1860.

In 1879 European encroachment on Māori land threatened all Māori settlements. Te Whiti sent out his people to obstruct the surveys and to plough on confiscated land. When arrested the ploughmen offered no resistance but were often treated harshly.

Young Parihaka women & girls with Poi

1880 Imprisonment and Exile

In 1880 the Parihaka people erected barricades across roads, pulled survey pegs and escorted road builders and surveyors out of the district.

The Native minister John Bryce described Parihaka as "that headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection". Parliament passed legislation enabling the Government to hold the protesters indefinitely without trial.

By September 1880 hundreds of men and youths had been exiled to South Island prisons where they were forced to build the infrastructure of cities like Dunedin.

Pa buildings with Te Raukura at centre

1891 The Invasion and Plundering of Parihaka

Many never returned to Taranaki as they died on average at a man every two weeks. Meanwhile Taranaki Settlers continued to survey and take possession of land. The resistance continued, as did the imprisonments.

On the morning of November 5 1881 the invasion force led by two Members of Parliament, both Cabinet Ministers entered Parihaka. More than 2000 Parihaka people sat quietly on the marae while children greeted the army.
The Riot Act was read and an hour later Te Whiti and Tohu were led away to a mock trial and incarcerationin the South Island. The destruction of Parihaka began immediately. It took the army two weeks to pull down the houses and two months to destroy the crops.

Women and girls were raped leading to an outbreak of syphilis in the community. People suspected of being from other areas of the country were thrown out. Thousands of cattle, pigs and horses were slaughtered and confiscated.

The Armed Constabulary gathers outside Parihaka, 5 November 1881

1882 Military Occupation and Exile

Fort Rolleston was built on a tall hill in the village; four officers and seventy soldiers garrisoned it. The five-year Military occupation of Parihaka had begun.

While incarcerated Te Whiti and Tohu were shown the wonders of European technology. At the Kaiapoi Woollen Mills Te Whiti became perhaps the first person in the country to speak on a telephone and at the Christchurch railway workshops he used a mechanised saw to cut plate steel.

When asked what he thought of the European technology Te Whiti replied that - "indeed the Pākehā did have some useful technology but not the kindness of heart to see that Māori also possessed much great technology which if Pākehā were prepared to adopt would lead to stability and peace and the building of a great new society".

They remained unimpressed and always complained of being there against will

Children and their elders

1883 The Eventual Return to Parihaka

In 1883 the Parihaka leaders were escorted back to Parihaka. Meanwhile hundreds of their men and youths remained incarcerated throughout the South Island. The wives, sisters and mothers of these men often followed them down south hoping to assist their loved ones. These women often lived in poverty and died during their exile

Rangikāpuia

1886 The Resistance is Resumed

On his arrival home, soldiers assaulted Te Whiti in his house for refusing to accept an order not to resume the monthly meetings. He resumed the 18th meetings immediately and used them to mount further protest action on confiscated land.

In 1886 he was imprisoned again along with Titokowaru his protest companion. Days before Te Whiti was released in 1888 his wife and mother of his children Hikurangi died, he was not allowed to return for her tangihanga (funeral)

Parihaka 1882 and comet Orongomai

1888 to 1898 The Survivors Return Home
He returned to Parihaka in 1888 with his future son in law Tāre Waitara. The modernisation of Parihaka continued at a great pace. Elaborate guesthouses were built complete with hot and cold running water. Streets, lighting and drainage were constructed along with a bakery an abattoir shops and a Bank. Parihaka people ran agricultural contracts throughout Taranaki sowing seed, cropping and labouring.

On the 12th of July 1898 the last of the Parihaka prisoners returned to a hero's welcome at Parihaka. Their release brought an end to 19 years of imprisonments of Parihaka men and boys.

Parihaka was described in the 1890's and again in 1902 as being ahead or in line with the most advanced municipal developments in the country.

The Parihaka leaders died during the year 1907.

1920 to 1950

Photograph of Parihaka in the 1980's

The 20th Century Carve Up of Parihaka Lands

The community faced poverty by the 1930's as its land estate was carved up for disposal to Europeans. The Government offered suspensory loans to those who wanted it and they paid nothing for the land itself but these schemes were available only to Europeans.

By 1950 the frenzy to carve up and dispose of their estate was completed. Parihaka was ignored by all, except those who belonged there. Run down and suspicious of further interference, the community continued to hold the 18th day meetings and the work of Te Whiti and Tohu were kept in focus by the people of knowledge regardless of the decades of harsh poverty they and their descendents would endure.

The suffering caused by the confiscation of tribal lands, the invasion and the destruction of Parihaka infrastructure and the imprisonments without trial over the 19-year period to 1898 remains a painful unresolved legacy for the community. The final blows were dealt to the Parihaka people throughout the 20th century with the steady alienation of every scrap of land left to them, effectively leaving the community landless and unable to redevelop.

1970 Reclaiming Parihaka Lands

From the 1970's onward the people of Parihaka have done much to retain their traditions, renovate buildings and to heal relationships within the community itself.

An evocative best selling book ‘Ask That Mountain’ (photo below) by Dick Scott, bought the Parihaka story to the world.

In 1985 the Work Co-ops and Work Trusts held a national hui (gathering) there, assisting with renovation work along side Parihaka descendents.

1990 Te Whiti Monument
Parihaka and Its Place of Pride

The Te Atārangi Māori language revival movement followed with a big national hui in 1990. Then in 1994 Ngā Puna Waihanga, the Artists organisation facilitated another big national event.

By the late 1990's an artistic legacy had already been created by this country's leading artists including Ralph Hotere, Selwyn Muru, Tony Fomison and Colin McCahon. Plays had been written and performed by Harry Dansey, Mervyn Thompson and Brian Potiki. Poets such as Hone Tuwhare, James K Baxter, W H Oliver and Elizabeth Smither had been inspired by Parihaka. Hazel Riseboroughs book 'Days Of Darkness' 1989 introduced a new generation to the Parihaka story. Musicians as diverse as David Grace, Moana and the Moa Hunters, and Tim Finn have recorded and released songs inspired by Parihaka.

Rangikāpuia 2006

2000 Parihaka: The Inspiration

In 2000 a major exhibition of art works, photographs, film, music, writings and lectures was staged at the Wellington City Gallery.

'Parihaka The Art Of Passive Resistance' was successful in creating art, dialogue, education and healing between Māori and other races. An award winning book of the same name accompanied it.

Works by many of the people named above and many others were included in the Exhibition. The Exhibition has since been held in Dunedin and in New Plymouth.

Left: Gandhi/King/Ikeda delegation at Pa with Kaumatua

2003 Recognition and Redevelopment

In 2003 the Parihaka leaders were recognised post-humously by an international delegation of representatives of Martin Luther King Jnr, Mahatma Gandhi and Daisaku Ikeda for their foundational work and sacrifice as fathers of non-violent action.

Parihaka today is a small settlement of unassuming buildings and homes. It is still the meeting place of the peoples of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi. The 18th day of every month is still the pivotal forum of the community wherein the traditions and teachings of Parihaka are maintained. The spiritual legacy is one of living in harmony with the land and humanity. It is also a legacy of nonviolent resistance action and a belief in the peaceful and respectful co-existence of maori and other races.

The Parihaka International Peace Festival

Parihaka people decided in 2005 to launch a festival toward fulfilment of the visions and insights of their spiritual and political leaders. Today the Festival is the people's way of both honouring the teachings of their 19th century leaders and moving Parihaka forward. Taking its place back in the world of nonviolent resistance, the Parihaka International Peace Festival is the culmination of projects aimed at restoring Parihaka. The 2010 festival event was a celebration of the 5th Anniversary of The Parihaka Internaional peace Festival and the teachings of Te Whiti and Tohu.

So the place where the birth of the non-violence methodology started, is an inspiration to all New Zealanders and to all people of the world. Let's remember them.

Thanks to the Parihaka website for allowing me to use some photos and narrative.

First winter ski traverse of New Zealand's Southern Alps

2011-11-03T05:10:00.000-07:00

Queenstown adventurer Erik Bradshaw completed the first ski traverse of the Southern Alps when he reached Fiordland after 800 kilometres on snowy ridges, glaciers and plateaus.

Bradshaw began his journey on August 8 from St Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes and finished on October 26 in Fiordland. He skied along the spine of the South Island - a journey with the vertical-metre equivalent of climbing Mt Everest 6 times.

Elie de Beaumont and the Minarets that Erik passed on skis. Photo: Bob McKerrow

This is the first time the Southern Alps have been traversed on skis and the second ever winter traverse. My old friends Graeme Dingle and the late Jill Tremaine traversed the Alps during the winter of 1971. In 1990,when I was working for NZ Adventure Magazine and NZ Geographic, Mike Abbott did a full solo traverse on foot. We ran his story in the geographic.

To complete the journey Bradshaw invented ski equipment including a unique exoskeleton binding that fits over a walking boot to transform it into a ski boot with crampons.

"Without doubt it is the hardest thing I have ever done," said Bradshaw.

"I had to know what would work and what was too dangerous. If I was too timid I would never succeed, but if I was too bold I wouldn’t make it home. I pushed myself very hard for 12 hours per day, skiing and climbing then camping in sub-zero temperatures."

Mt.Evans in winter. Photo taken from Red Lion peak. The Waitaha Valley and County stream are cold and inhospitable in winter.Photo: Bob McKerrow

The traverse was completed in several legs with Bradshaw stopping to restock and repair equipment. At one point he broke a pair skis and had to make a replacement pair.

During the traverse Bradshaw survived sub zero temperatures and raging storms in a tiny tent.

"Sometimes it was miserable, in a small tent coated in ice being flattened by a storm knowing you are a long way from home. But other times it was breathtakingly beautiful with towering snow capped mountains, blue skies and amazing snow."

Erik Bradshaw would have had stunning winter views of all the high peaks of the Southern Alps from Elie de Beaumont (left) to Aoraki Cook on the right.. Taken from Okarito trig. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Highlights of the trip were remote areas such as the Snowball and Volta Glaciers, the Upper Hunter and Te Naihi Rivers and the Garden of Allah and Eden Ice Plateaus.

“It was a real treat to visit such places and some areas such as the Te Naihi have probably never been visited on skis before. We have fantastic powder skiing in our mountains that I hadn’t experienced before."

One of the reasons I am so thrilled for Erik Bradshaw as I did quite a few winter trips myself on skiis, and one solo one. so I can understand the loneliness, the extreme temperatures and the avalanche dangers he faced. Mounts Haast, Lendenfeld, Tasman and Aoraki Cook, plasterd by heavy winter snows.Photo: Bob McKedrrow collection

Bradshaw started backcountry skiing when he was 15 and has been a keen mountain climber since he could walk. He has climbed and skied throughout New Zealand and Antarctica. In 2006, with partner Christine Ryan, he was awarded a Royal Humane Society Bravery medal for the rescue of trampers in the Matukituki Valley near Aspiring National Park. He and Ryan run a tourism-specific software business which provides comprehensive management systems for some New Zealand tourism companies. They have a 15-month-old son and live in Queenstown.

What a wonderful achievement for such a brave mountaineer.