What was the best birthday present you ever received, and why?
A gift of a hand-crocheted scarf from a close friend. A warm scarf is an essential given our climate in autumn and winter.
What smell do you find irresistible?
Mint growing wild by a burbling clean and healthy high-country stream.
What is your least favourite thing about humanity?
Our worldwide trend to over-population and the continuing damaging exploitation of the natural world.
What is one strong childhood memory?
In the late-1950s, I and my brothers and parents gustily singing songs from musicals - South Pacific, for example - in the car on our way home from picnicking and fishing in Lake Mahinerangi, late on Sunday afternoons. Blue skies and magnificent tussocks swaying in the wind; many if not most of them now ‘‘removed’’, ploughed or burned in the name of ‘‘progress’’ and ‘‘development’’.
What is your message?
For goodness sake guys, get a grip! Look after and treasure and, where possible, restore the natural values of our country, our planet.
