Rangitoto Island

Sometimes something reminds you of long, long ago! A passing reference to Rangitoto in the media brought back memories of trips as a teenager, via my canoe with some friends, to the dormant volcano. Landing on the scoria beach was no easy task although there were some sandy bits. Vegetation was wresting a living from the black , savage rocks and below the high tide mark shellfish were abundant. We lived in Cheltenham and our house faced directly across at the brooding figure of Rangitoto. 600 years ago it erupted ! 600 years in geological terms is the blink of an eye. The molten lava would have flowed down from the gradually rising summit and the Maori occupants of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf would have been somewhat perturbed, to say the least. My friends and I climbed to the crater at the top and a feeling of wonder crept over us, to think that once it would have been a seething cauldron of molten rock but now was peaceful with trees growing in it. Auckland City sits on 50 volcanic cones, not as young as Rangitoto, but not much older either.
I wish I had a time machine!

Intelligence

I've just read an article in Time magazine about the rapidly increasing volume and speed of artificial intelligence. Computers have passed the intelligence of a mouse, passed the intelligence of a human in specialised areas, like playing chess. The hypothesis is that humans don't need to die. It is projected that by 2045, (unfortunately I won't be around), you will be able to , in effect download yourself into a machine. This strikes me as very attainable. We are, after all , just a series of electrical impulses in a biological computer. What's wrong with artificial computer? That's all we are. A complicated arrangement of electrical impulses- whether that exists in a 98.4°F squishy , wet , wriggly thing or in a motherboard/mainframe/curcuit board- who cares!
I'm all for it! I've often thought a USB in the back of the neck would solve a lot of problems!

Cultures

The thing that I like most when travelling is experiencing a different cultures. I think back to Istanbul when I was walking over a bridge that there was some kind of a fishing competition was going on. I had a 'conversation' with a 10 year old kid for about 10 minutes, neither of us knew what the other was talking about but there was a lot of laughter and smiles and as I looked at his tiny catch in a bucket of water, we made the indications of fishermen the world over , of holding our palms facing with an ever increasing gap to indicate fish size.
On another occasion I was approached by a 13 or 14 year old who wanted to practise his school English. He was with a school group and had a name tag hanging around his neck which said 'Mehmet Konur' on it. I've since found that is a bit like 'John Smith' in Turkey. I've looked to see if he was on facebook but there scores of 'Mehmet Konur' on there.
I don't think I would like a cruise ship, unless maybe it was around the Mediterranean or the rivers of Europe. I need people that aren't like me to really enjoy travel.

Horses

I've just watched an interesting program by Martin Clune on our relationship with horses. Made me think of "Nameless" , my horse on Paihia Farm in Central Hawkes Bay. I knew nothing about horses when I arrived to take up the job of junior shepherd on the station, so it was left up to Frank , the manager, to organise me a horse. When he and the senior shepherd arrived with this horse, I asked what it's name was. They looked at each other then shrugged and said we forgot to ask! Ok, I decided henceforth he shall be "Nameless"! He turned out to be good with cattle and placid when I did my first lambing 'beat'. That was pretty important, as I didn't really know what I was doing! If I dismounted to help a ewe give birth, I would drop the reins and he would just stand, kind of looking over my shoulder but if I took too long his big rubber lips would gently pick off my wooley hat and drop it in a puddle. It took me about a year to be really comfortable in the saddle, especially when working cattle, with all it's fast turn arounds and sharp maneuvers. But I got to love that horse and I often wonder what happened to him and hope he had a good life.

Egypt

I hope things work out for the Egyptian people. They have a heritage that the world will always want to see so tourism is a potential gold mine for them if handled well. I went in 1962, (yes it was a long time ago- and things have changed- but people are people the world over apart from the occasional megelomaniac. They want good things for their families, luckily nature still genetically implants love of one's own progeny and as long as greed is kept at bay there is more tendency to good than evil.
We hope!

2011!

It's been a long time! Last year in fact, since I posted on here! It's been a bit busy , what with grandkids, museum and some time up north and also Norfolk Island. The latter was a spur of the moment thing. Jill was cruising the internet and suddenly said, "Fancy going to Norfolk Island?" I felt like going anywhere! She had seen a good deal going so we went for 7 days of interesting history from families of the descendants of the convicts that were shipped here two centuries ago with the added input of Pitcairn Islanders and their Tahitian wives. As you can see from the picture, the language is a bit strange. A kind of mix of Old West Country English with a touch of Tahitian.

Nowhere can a ship berth here, so everything is lightered ashore, even trucks and buses.

Only one beach is safe swimming but every grassy area on the coast has a BBQ and a stock of wood for you to help yourself and a nice clean toilet!

There's something about playing games with grandchildren that's a bit depressing! Little Jack, who'se four and a half stayed with us last night and most of today. We played a game called 'Matching pairs', where you each get a turn to lift two covers on an assortment of numbers, letters, animals and items depicted on the board below with the intention of remembering where duplicates were. Jack beat me at 5 straight games and it was only afterwards that I realised why. On the back of the box it said "Ages 4 to 8 years"!

Well, at least he went home tired! Fell asleep in the car going home. We also built a castle with lego kind of pieces.