Bob McKerrow

Bob McKerrow, humanitarian, mountaineer, polar traveler, writer and poet was born in New Zealand and currently works as Head of Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia. Since the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck on December 26, 2004, Bob McKerrow has worked in India, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia coordinating Red Cross programmes for people affected by the Tsunami. [cite news |title=TAURANGA MAN TO HEAD RESCUE OPERATION IN INDIA. |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-18337899_ITM |work=New Zealand Press Association |date=28 December 2004 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ]

Bob McKerrow was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on 21 March 1948 and is registered as Robert James McKerrow in Deaths, Births and Marriages office in Dunedin.

Bob McKerrow was a leading middle distance runner from the age of 13 and broke the Otago provincial record for Under 17, and later Under 19, 880 yards (800 m) with a time of 1min 57.8 sec. He won a number of athletic titles at the Otago and Southland Inter-Secondary school championships and ran his first Marathon at 17, recording 3 hr 10 sec. He represented Otago province at junior level athletics and rugby before turning his attention to venturing into the hills and mountains where he established himself as a competent mountaineer and skier.

At the age of 19, Bob was selected to be a member of a New Zealand Mountaineering Expedition to Peru, to the remote Cordillera Vilcabamba. The expedition spent four months climbing and exploring. Bob climbed 12 peaks and did 8 first ascents.

In 1969-70 he spent 13 months in Antarctica as a member of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Antarctic Expedition. He went first to Scott Base in early October 1969 and in January 1970 moved to Vanda Station in the Wright Valley, and was part of a 4 - man team that wintered over. At that time, the four-person party was the smallest ever expedition to winter over in Antarctica. In an era of self regulation, the team did many winter trips with temperatures frequently between -40 and -50 degrees Celsius including trips into the Asgaard Range, an attempt on Mt.Newall with Gary Lewis are examples.

Bob first worked in Asia in 1971 as a member of the New Zealand Red Cross refugee Welfare Team to Vietnam working on livelihood programmes. During a break from his work in 71 he went to Sabah and did a solo ascent of Mt. Kinabalu.

Bob has worked for the Red Cross in New Zealand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, [cite news |title=Flood fears in Bangladesh |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/886324.stm |work=BBC News |date=18 August 2000 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] India, [cite news |title=Death toll expected to rise: Red Cross |url=http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s239130.htm |work=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=29 January 2001 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Geneva, Afghanistan (4 years), [cite news |title=Afghan Toll In Flooding Put Over 100 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E1D91F39F930A15757C0A960958260 |work=The New York Times |date=23 April 1996 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Pakistan, [cite news |title=Heavy Rain, Hail Slow Quake Aid Effort in Azad Kashmir |url=http://pakistantimes.net/2005/10/13/top3.htm |work=Pakistan Times |date=13 October 2005 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Sri Lanka,cite news |title=Moving on a year after killer tsunami |url=http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3666464&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection= |work=Bay of Plenty Times |date=27 December 2005 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Nepal, Maldives, Ethiopia, Indonesia, [cite news |title=I sent you forth my brightest world, now it's nearly gone |url=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/218536/11956228527.htm |work=AlertNet |publisher=Reuters |date=21 November 2007 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Cambodia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Western Samoa and Cook Islands. He has also been head of the Regional Delegations of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for Central Asia [cite news |title=Afghan refugees want to stay in Turkmenistan |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0F28EB4116136&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=The Washington Times |date=5 July 1997 |accessdate=2008-09-28 |format=fee required ] and South Asia. [cite news |title=Sri Lanka signs legal status agreement with the IFRC |url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/07/12/new26.html |work=Daily News (Sri Lanka) |date=12 July 2004 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ]

From 1983 he was Director of the New Zealand Outward Bound School at Anakiwa [cite news |title=Arctic Explorers Expect No Easy Sledding on Trek to North Pole |url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/58565324.html?dids=58565324:58565324&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Mar+30%2C+1986&author=MARJORIE+ANDERS&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Arctic+Explorers+Expect+No+Easy+Sledding+on+Trek+to+North+Pole&pqatl=google |work=Los Angeles Times |date=30 March 1986 |accessdate=2008-09-28 |format=fee required ] and wrote a number of publications of outdoor education and experiential learning.

Bob has lived in Asia intermittently since 1971 and has a deep love of mountains, writing, poetry and travel. He has published three books which are related to mountains/poetry. They are Mountains of Our Mind - Afghanistan, tara press-india research press ISBN 81-88353-17-5, [cite news |title=Crossing Over, For Life |url=http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=46182 |work=Indian Express |date=12 March 2003 |accessdate=2008-09-28 ] Ebenezer Teichelmann - Cutting Across Continents (tara-india research press, new delhi, 2005 ISBN 81-87943-87-4) and with John Woods, Coast to Coast-The Great New Zealand Race (Shoal Bay Press 1994 IBSN 0 908704-22 4). He has published a number of his poems in the New Zealand Alpine Journal, North and South Magazine and Hokitika Live Poets Society - Wild Food For The Soul, June 1997. ISBN 0-473-o4428-5. He was Editor of the New Zealand Adventure Magazine for two years, 1989-90 and continues to write and contribute photographs to various magazines websites and blogs.

Bob McKerrow has climbed and trekked extensively in New Zealand, Europe, Peru, Antarctica, Borneo, East Africa, Nepal, India, Central Asia [cite book |title=The American Alpine Journal |last=Carter |first=H. Adams |year=2006 |publisher=The Mountaineers Books |isbn=9780930410612 |pages=p. 298 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bGmGKqbwe14C&pg=PA298&dq=%22Bob+McKerrow%22&num=100&sig=ACfU3U1bbxQfu5w3fbw6TzTMw2116WlvEA |accessdate=2008-09-28] and have also been on expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. using sledge dogs to transport equipment.

In 1985 he was invited by the famous polar explorer and arctic conservationist Will Steger to join him on a training expedition in preparation for an unsupported trip with dogs the following year, to the North Pole. On the 1985 expedition with Paul Schurke, Bob Mantell, Will Steger and Richard Weber they departed the settlement of Arctic Red River on the MacKemzie River and travelled down the river to the Arctic Ocean and then along the coast of Canada to Demarcation Point, crossed into Alaska, and continued to Point Barrow Alaska, a trip og 1500 km. McKerrow took part in the unsupported 1986 expedition [cite book |title=The National Geographic Magazine |year=1986 |publisher=National Geographic Society |volume=v. 170 |pages=pp. 296-302 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vcIYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Bob+McKerrow%22&dq=%22Bob+McKerrow%22&num=100&pgis=1 |accessdate=2008-09-28] but had to be airlifted out early with broken ribs. [cite book |title=Women of Adventure |last=Kolosov |first=Jacqueline A |coauthors=Jacqueline McLean |year=2002 |publisher=The Oliver Press |isbn=9781881508731 |pages=p. 138 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6otCn3ri10MC&pg=PA138&dq=%22Bob+McKerrow%22&num=100&sig=ACfU3U0nZNZZqnZlLWh5VdyudkblOmubqA |accessdate=2008-09-28]

Sea kayaking is another of his passions and he has done a double crossing of Cook Strait and a 10 hour solo crossing from Raumati to Cape Jackson, New Zealand. In 1989 he accompanied Paul Caffyn in an attempt to be the first people to kayak from Australia to New Zealand, They were arrested by the Australian Maritime authorities for not having a large enough radar detector and were forbidden to do a further attempts.

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