Sir Paul Callaghan on prosperity in New Zealand

I went along to a public lecture by Professor Sir Paul Callaghan on Wednesday evening. He's a scientist who focusses on nanotechnology and magentic resonance. He was voted New Zealander of the year this year.


The lecture was organised by the main Wellington university and the City Council, as part of a programme of 'during the World Cup, but not rugby' events. The audience turnout was really impressive, with around 1,200 people showing up.


The subject of his talk was how New Zealand could become more prosperous. His arguments for why this needs to happen included a personal account of his battle with cancer - he has paid for treatments himself where they aren't funded by the healthcare system here.


He made the case that greater propserity shouldn't (and can't) be achieved through exploiting natural resources or by expanding tourism and the wine industry. Instead, he advocates a focus on high-tech export businesses that aim for small niches in the global market. These would need to be developed by scientific entrepreneurs, so policies should look at how to support researchers and reduce the brain-drain overseas.


I thought the proposed silver bullet was a bit too simple. I did really enjoy his speaking style and the energy he put into making his case. I haven't been able to find footage from the lecture, but
Update - here's a link to the lecture http://vimeo.com/29126569

he gave a shorter version of the address to a public service leadership course that my colleague went to a few months back. Here's the video of that -

Red Rocks Seal Colony

Last weekend Helen, Harry and I made the most of a sunny winter Saturday. We went to look at a seal colony that someone at work had mentioned to me.


The colony is on the coastline just to the south of Wellington. It's accessible by an easy walk of about an hour from the end of the road. As it was a clear day and the trail was right on the southern tip of the North Island, we were able to see snow capped mountains on the South Island on the horizon.

Path to the seal colony, with the South Island mountains

View back along the coastline towards Wellington Airport

The route passes a collection of naturally red rocks in the shallows, inventively called the Red Rocks. There are several Māori legends about Kupe associated with the colour of the rocks. We were passing the rocks in the afternoon and so unfortunately they were mostly in the shadow of the headland and it was hard to capture the colour.

We then made it to the colony itself. A few sites I'd read online before we set off told me that the colony is made up of young males who hadn't managed to find mates. The first thing that struck me as we got close was the powerful smell of rotting fish, so maybe that's what is putting the female seals off these guys. Initially it was easy to miss the seals as they were mostly lazing motionless on rocks. After a few moments we started to spot more and more of them in the water and all around. 

Play fighting in the water

Looks like a tough lifestyle

'Watcha taking a photo of me for then?'