Roger Moroney. Photo/File
I kind of like that strange thing which is simply called "the unknown."
A thing that could be out there but a thing we don't know anything about ... which I guess is why it is called "the unknown."
And of course it may not even exist...because we just don't know.
People use the term a lot.
Especially the sporting fraternity.
How will their opponents get on with a stand-in coach they aren't familiar with?
"Ahh, that's the great unknown," they'll most likely say.
And those opponents themselves would have looked at each other after hearing there was a stand-in coach stepping in for the weekend and they would have conceded "we're heading into the unknown."
Nothing wrong with a good mystery.
Indeed.
What's going on inside the head of the North Korean leader and what's he going to get up to next?
That's the great unknown.
The early pioneers who ventured onto the wide open plains of America or the dense bush-clad landscape of great islands like ours made it very clear they were heading into "the unknown."
When I set foot in the school hall for my maths school cert' exam back in 1970 I too was stepping into the unknown.
However, when I set foot back on the asphalt outside about 22 minutes later I knew exactly where I was and no mysteries lingered for the rest of that day...I knew very well I had mathematically imploded.
But thank the stars for that thing called 'multiple choice as it enabled me to guess my way up to an eventual mark of 17 out of 100.
Having gone in with the target of 12 I felt like Einstein.
When the school cert' results arrived in the mail and I held the envelope it was indeed a case of delving into the great unknown ... although let's say I had a rough idea of what lay within.
"Seventeen for arithmetic?" Dad said quietly as he later examined the results.
"Ah well...it's better than nothing I suppose."
He was a fine realist was dad.
So then, is there life on other planets?
That is one of the great unknowns and I know what dad's view of that intergalactic conundrum was.
"If there is they'll lie low and stay away because it's too bloody unpredictable on this one."
So then, are there great and undiscovered creatures creeping along the very deepest of seafloors on this planet which life on other planets has placed a travel ban on?
Well, despite probes and things being sent down to great depths the remote ocean beds are still very much part of the great unknown.
So is the great green landscape.
We were flying out of Christchurch to go and do our bit for the Aussie economy a couple of years back and flew over some of the most dense bush and high forest terrain I've ever seen.
I had no idea it was that expansive and dense and pondered if, perchance, perhaps, per maybe there were bird and ground creatures in there we had never seen ... for surely no one could get that far in there to discover them.
Maybe, maychance, mayhaps a happily lost last clan of moas?
"Wonder if there could be any moas hiding down in there," I mentioned to the pilot of the drinks trolley and he looked blankly at me and said "I doubt it sir."
Further up the aisle he looked back and it appeared he was noting something down.
What he was noting down is of course the great unknown but I suspect it was along the lines of "CN (cautionary note) chap in seat 26B ... MRO (may require observation)."
And so, to the ice caves of Antarctica, which I read about the other day and which fascinate me ... because despite being on the frozen base of the planet temperatures of up to 24C have been recorded deep in some.
Scientists delving into them have come up with plant and algae DNA, as well as DNA from animal life.
Animals?
Down there?
What could they be?
Ahh, that is the great and wonderful unknown.
One of the scientific bods rather colourfully described what they had been uncovering as "an exciting new world."
Crikey, so how long will it take us to wreck it like everything else?
That is the great unknown.
The House was suspended briefly after the haka disrupted voting.