o possum world.

I introduced Jamie to the touristy side of Napier this morning, with a stop at Opossum World. Interestingly enough, the possums here don’t officially have an O at the front, but this store just dares to be different in a lot of ways.

In New Zealand, 70 million non-native possums consume 21,000 metric tons of vegetation each night. I know this because I have had this fact pounded into my head at every single conservation-oriented attraction in New Zealand, and there are many of these. Possums also eat the eggs of endangered native birds like kiwi. Therefore, it’s a good thing to kill them, and the government does all it can with poisons, traps, etc., and it’s considered very patriotic for individuals to go possum-hunting by whatever means necessary. I did my part for the good of the country by running over three of them in my car on the West Coast of the South Island last time I was here. It was partly out of concern for the national mascot, and partly because the roads there are pretty bad and I didn’t want to swerve at night and possibly end up wrapped around a [native] tree [and then feel guilty for maiming/killing something native].

Anyway, Opossum World is this terrifically tacky tourist shop selling possum tails, possum pelts, 8-foot-tall emus made of possum pelts (everyone needs at least one), mini kiwis made of possum fur, possum-merino sweaters and scarves, and Daniel Boone-style possum hats. More importantly, they have interactive displays such as a band of possums sitting on top of half of a car that sing a static-y version of ‘On the Road Again’ when you push a red button on the wall, a walk-through ‘forest’ with trapped (stuffed) possums and buttons to hear native bird calls, and jars of preserved fetuses/possum kittens in various stages of development. It’s definitely the must-see attraction in town – and best of all, it’s free!

After finally exhausting the entertainment possibilities at Opossum World, we drove up to a look-out point with a great view, and eye-hurtingly bright flowers. We also tried to drive to the gannet farm, but found out half-way that four-wheel drive/all-terrain vehicles are preferable over lowered cars.

Back in Hastings, we stopped at a hunting and fishing store that looked like the only thing open in the area. Turns out they were just about to close (1 pm), as it was some sort of regional public holiday and they’d discovered they were the only store still open in the town, but they welcomed us in, asking if we each wanted a ‘beer’ (we politely declined, which was especially good as it turned out to be Jim Beam & Cola premixed. The two guys in the shop seemed like they may have been a few into the day already). Anyway, we were originally looking for some bait for saltwater fishing down at Lake Ferry (today’s destination), but they didn’t have what we wanted so I wandered over to the fly-fishing section and…45 minutes later, we left the shop having seen the owner’s most recent fly-fishing digital photo album in its entirety, gotten hand-drawn maps to recommended spots on nearby rivers, added 4 flies to our collection, and heard plenty of fish stories from our two hosts.

We stopped at one of the spots for a while, but the water seemed pretty rough and we certainly couldn’t see anything in it, so we just played around with casting practice for a little while and then picked up pizza for dinner halfway to our destination, Lake Ferry.