The butterfly effect

You wouldn’t think that volcanic activity in Iceland could screw up things for my mate Hamish here in the Waikato, and for the entire New Zealand book trade, but that’s what has happened. The Herald reports:

A delegation of New Zealanders to the London Book Fair next week have been scattered and stranded all over the globe with volcanic ash continuing to disrupt flights across Europe. All airports in Britain were shut down and others in France, the Netherlands, Nordic countries and others closed in an unprecedented, massive no-fly zone imposed after a volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Already 1500 Air New Zealand passengers have been affected, with one flight diverted to Frankfurt and another stuck in Los Angeles. Flights out of London have been cancelled. . .
“It’s chaos,” said Hamish Wright, from Cambridge’s Wrights Bookshop. “It’s a complete state of flux at the moment. Who knows whether I’m getting there.”
Mr Wright is meant to leave Sunday night from Auckland – but the volcanic cloud may not be cleared by then, and even if it is, the backlog of flights would mean continuing disruptions for days.
Many in the industry left last night on flights to London via Hong Kong and Los Angeles, stop over points where their Air New Zealand planes are still stranded and may have to turn back, Mr Wright said.

Still, they probably won’t be short of reading material while they wait at their various airports. Don’t they all have Kindles or something?