The end - and we're still here

Kerrison hedged his bets and adopted Mayan time - nominating 6am yesterday as the "stillpoint." Photo / Doug Sherring

Mayan doom deadline ushers in new age of peaceful, feminist optimism.

When a mynah bird fell from the sky in front of a startled Katja Wernicke, she wondered if the doomsday predictions might be right.

The Hamilton woman was pottering about in the garden and momentarily considered whether December 21, 2012, could be her last day.

"He is still alive, his heart is beating and his feet are twitching but his eyes are closed and his head is lolling around ... is that a sign?" she wondered in an email to this newspaper. "I didn't believe this whole world ending stuff but this made me think."

Wernicke, a university administrator, was half-joking, of course. But her attitude towards Friday's non-apocalypse was typical of most sceptical Kiwis.

Catastrophists believed the planet would come to a fiery end on 21/12/12 because it was the last date on the ancient Mayan calendar.

The fact nothing happened came as no surprise to Aucklander Kimberley Paterson. The author is among a growing number of people who instead believe the date marked the start of a new era of peace and harmony. She has started a website called Generation Spirit to share her views.

"Friday felt like a significant date for me. It was like 'wow'," she told the Herald on Sunday. "In the afternoon I saw a half-moon in the sky and thought a number of significant galactic alignments were happening.

"Whenever there is a worldwide collective focus of people like there was on Friday, something really powerful can happen. Instead of facing extinction, I think the date signalled the beginning of a new epoch in which people will become more connected.

"There is now a great global brain connecting us and that is the internet. We are talking to one another like we never could before and it is time for a positive change."

Transformational healer Beverley Edwards recently spoke to 100 people who attended an event at Tamaki Yacht Club in Auckland to mark the dawning of a new age of positivity.

"Friday was a really quiet, calm day and I was aware of a distinct change in the way I felt," Edwards, who also runs the Shekina Centre of Change, said. "I believe the date is significant because it means a major shift in direction for mankind. It was never about the world coming to an end.

"Men have been in charge for thousands of years and all it has led to is us annihilating each other. I believe we have now entered the start of a period where the views of wise women will dominate. It could be the start of 2000 years of peace."

New Zealand's most famous catastrophist, Opshop front-man and NZ's Got Talent judge Jason Kerrison, had talked about "the end of time".

However, as the world continued merrily through Friday, Kerrison hedged his bets and adopted Mayan time - nominating 6am yesterday as the "still point".

He wrote on Facebook: "See you on the other side of the still point. We're thinking 06.11 on the 22nd is apparently our synchronation point with Mayan time if you are in NZ. Awesomeness. Wakey wakey Planet Earth ... loves - jk."