PACK A PICNIC
Make the most of the long weekend in the great outdoors — with great food
Afew weekends ago we took a family hike for a day on the Routeburn Track. We drove from Glenorchy up to the Routeburn car park, popped our picnic into a day pack, slapped on sunscreen and insect repellent and hit the trail. It was a glorious bluebird day, the beech forest was glistening and the river chorused past the track, revealing itself now and then in pristine crystal blue pools.
The air was wonderfully cool under the canopy of beech trees, with that particularly energising quality you get when there’s moving water nearby. The bellbirds called out their sing-songy warble through the forest. Within a couple of hours we had reached the Routeburn Flats hut.
We enjoyed our picnic looking out over a wild meadow, the view framed by a spectacular vista of the mountains. And then we turned around and walked back out. Five hours and 14km later we were back at the car again, tired but happy. A deep sense of contentment settled over the car as we made our way home. We’d had a magnificent nature fix and we all (my blisters aside) felt so good for it.
Double Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson, who died at the end of last year at the age of 91, built an hypothesis on the intrinsic connection we have with nature. Wilson is widely considered “the father of sociobiology” and “the father of biodiversity” for his environmental advocacy. His work Biophilia, which was published in 1984, explores the evolutionary and psychological basis of humanity’s attraction to the natural environment.
In its essence, Wilson’s hypothesis proposes that we humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life for the very reason that we are part of nature, a species that evolved among other species. The realm of nature is not just a source of succour and wellbeing, it’s the real world. It’s in our DNA.
Wilson’s introduction of the word biophilia and the ethos behind it influenced the shaping of modern conservation ethics. One of Wilson’s many quotes has always stuck in my mind: “Humanity is a biological species, living in a biological environment, because like all species, we are exquisitely adapted in everything: from our behaviour, to our genetics, to our physiology, to that particular environment in which we live. The Earth is our home. Unless we preserve the rest of life, as a sacred duty, we will be endangering ourselves by destroying the home in which we evolved, and on which we completely depend.”
Getting outdoors and into nature is the key to appreciating the natural world and ensuring our sense of stewardship for the wild places and all the life there that make our planet magnificent.
What could be better than a wander in nature this long weekend? Pack a picnic and head out of town. An amazing world awaits.