Status-Q

Today I did the Tongariro Crossing – one of New Zealand’s best-known walks. Very many thanks to Pete Burgers for recommending it! Thanks from my heart, at least; my legs may not be so grateful. It’s a 7-8 hour hike through, onto, and over some amazing volcanic scenery, and I’m now completely exhausted, so am heading for bed.

I’ll be posting some more photos over the next couple of days, but here’s a question for Tolkien fans which has always puzzled Rose and me: Since the great eagles are able to pick up Sam and Frodo from Mount Doom at the end of their mission, why couldn’t they just drop them off there in the first place?

I’ve long admired Hans Rosling’s TED talk; a wonderful demonstration of the importance of being able to visualise data.

Hans is from Sweden, I’m from the UK, but we met tonight in New Zealand. And he’s just as nice as you would suppose from the video.

John thinks he’s worked out why I’m departing tomorrow!

Early on Sunday morning, a tanker truck caught fire on a highway near the Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, it had stopped underneath another section of highway, which then melted.

Click picture for more images.

Next week I’m setting off on a real round-the-world trip. Sadly, Passepartout won’t be accompanying me…

The main purpose of this odyssey is to give a couple of talks at the GOVIS 2007 conference in Wellington, New Zealand – something I’m really looking forward to: they also have some good speakers.

But since NZ is diametrically opposite us on the globe, it doesn’t make much sense to go there without doing a stopover or two on the way, especially since it doesn’t cost any more to do so. Some of these stops are for business, some for pleasure, and some of necessity to connect the others.

If this sounds exotic, let me temper it by pointing out that over a three-and-a-half week period I’ll be making nine flights, four of which will be over 9 hours. Or, to put it another way, I’ll be averaging just over 16.5 hours per week in an economy seat…

OK… I guess I didn’t really expect too much sympathy.