The Author

In the 1990s Avery set a record for the longest stay (501 days) living and working at New Zealand’s Scott Base in Antarctica. During this time he encountered profound experiences of intense awe and personal transformation — experiences that opened the door to the theological understandings and spiritual insights that provided the foundations for Messages from a Quiet Land. Initially responsible for Scott Base’s geophysics programme, Avery went on to become the New Zealand Government’s representative in Antarctica. In his spare time Avery prayed and meditated in some of Antarctica’s most beautiful places, and as a part-time Search and Rescue Team leader, some of its most fearsome.

Messages from a Quiet Land bridges science, theology, and the psychology of meaning, drawing from Avery’s deep personal encounters with the sublime and the sacred in Antarctica. Avery brings a unique voice — grounded in lived experience, spiritual insight, and interdisciplinary scientific understanding—to the growing conversation around awe, meaning, and the Divine. Avery is a seasoned writer whose previous book on project risk management have won industry awards and established him as an international thought leader and conference speaker in the field. Avery lives in Wellington, New Zealand, with his wife Melanie and their two children, Timothy and Charlotte. As Avery writes in the introduction to his book, his deepest motivation for the book was his children — “I wanted them to know.”