Blood Moon Over Middle Earth

What an amazing day! Yesterday was one of those days that we will remember here. For two reasons. Firstly, we've been waiting for three days hoping that Dr. Michael Brewer, who was trapped for three days down in the Middle Earth caves, would be successfully rescued. Last night we saw tv footage from inside Middle Earth as rescuers struggled to try and move Dr. Brewer up to the surface. Dressed in their caving gear they reminded me of undaunted hobbits. Caving is popular here, (I've posted previously on my own very safe excursion into the Waitomo Caves), and yet these kind of accidents are rare. So it has been three days of hoping and praying that we would see him come out ok. There is something about one man trapped alone deep in the earth that really catches the heart. They finally got him up to the surface in the very early morning after carrying him through 3 miles of tunnels on a stretcher - and today we are relieved and celebratory. (More on the rescue here at Stuff.co - with video and a photo gallery).

At the same time as the struggle to save Dr. Brewer was continuing, we had a total lunar eclipse. This is called a Blood Moon (more with a great photo at the Taranaki Daily Times). And it was awesome. Just before it was due to start it poured with rain, the wind howled, and the sky was full of clouds. But then, the rain stopped and I stood in the dark and watched the moon - which was so bright! - slowly disappearing. The clouds scudding across the sky made the moon look like it was moving - and then, just before the total eclipse, a clear sky, and a blood red moon. Well it looked orange to me but I won't quibble. The awesme thing about this for me was that usually the moon looks two-dimensional, like a flat white shining disc. But when eclipsed it looked three dimensional - like a ball in the sky. In the dark with the wind whipping my ears and the trees shaking and swooshing, it seemed to me like I had a glimpse of a universe beginning. I love these kind of things. I saw Halley's comet the last time it appeared in the sky - and that is a once in a lifetime event. I remember that it looked like a white blob with a bit of a smear behind it, because it had lost a lot of it's famous tail since it last passed our way.

The blood moon like a small planet in the sky. And me, standing here in this land we call Middle Earth, feeling privileged and so small at the same time. It seemed to me that the view from above would be even greater, and that I was just one, but not unnoticed. And I thought about what it means to be trapped under overwhelming solid weight, down in places where no light should penetrate, and what it is like to be rescued. Later I saw the moon back in it's brilliant splendour.