Veronika Wild

Mt. Huxley -View from the Crotty Road, south of Queenstown. The debates on the Origin of the Species were raging when the area around Queenstown was being explored in 1862, so whoever was responsible for naming the mountains, had a bet each way, naming  two peaks Jukes and  Owen after critics of the theory of evolution, one after Darwin and one after Huxley who was initially against the idea, but became a staunch supporter of Darwin, after the great debate at Oxford in 1860  The day didn’t start brilliantly – grey, overcast and a little misty and cold. We hadn’t slept well and now we had to rush to get my friend to the Gordon River Cruise. That, and the “The Ship that Never Was”  -Australia’s longest running play (in years, not hours that is),was sure to keep her pleasantly occupied for most of the day, so taking the winding road back to Queenstown, I head for Kelly Basin,   40 km South.   Where it belongs to the Hydro, the road is awesome in bot...

By the way, if you enjoy the photos of the Tasmanian bush, be sure to see the movie “The Hunter” with Willem Dafoe. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I understand that the scenery plays a starring role. It doesn’t start here until today, but here is the trailer : I went down to our venerable State Cinema -the oldest in Australia, on Tightarse Tuesday (I believe the polite term is Thrifty Tuesday) to see it and ended up watching “The Whistleblower” instead. It is brilliant and a real shocker. We don't need fantasy stories about vampires. They are right here among us and traffic in humans. The question is, what can we do about it? It doesn’t seem as if the UN is going to do anything, toothless tiger that it is. I certainly hope none of us have shares in DynCorp or other companies like them who either actively take part or turn a blind eye to such activities and use diplomatic immunity and whitewash to deflect blame. There should be an immediate investigation and full protection for...