On Hiatus while Into the Wild

Well the holidays didn't leave much time for blogging, and now I'm on a collecting trip in the land down under, Australia. So, you will have to forgive my lack of postings until the end of January.

I flew Air New Zealand to Australia, and I must say their in-flight entertainment was great, you get your own video screen and you can pick what ever movies and games and music you want to play.

For one of the movies during my 12 hour flight I watched Into the Wild, which is also a book, that recounts the adventures of Christopher McCandless as he abandons society and travels around the U.S. before traveling to Alaska. It's a great movie for the nature lover - there's a great reverence for the beauty and calm of nature. At one point in the movie, armed with a local field guide Chris decides that he wants to learn the names of the plants around his campsite in Alaska and begins to collect and identify them. Which to me, is a great demonstration of why people need leave cities and go exploring - nature has this way of inspiring us to learn more about it.