Not just playing possum

The Norwegians have all been identified and vengeance will be ours! It's just a shame they didn't shoot possums instead: then, they'd have been heroes. Nasty things, eating eggs and baby birds, and killing the trees - the only good possum is a dead one, like this one run over on the bridge leading to Waitangi in the Bay of Islands.

Another animal in the news today: a dog discovered alive and well after 16 days adrift on a yacht, with no sign of the owner. There seems an obvious conclusion, but no-one's voicing it yet. The yacht was blown all the way to the Chatham Islands from near Tauranga, and was found with shredded sails but everything else intact.

The last time I went sailing was almost exactly two years ago at Easter in the Bay of Islands, when we took our German exchange student to see one of NZ's best bits. It was the R. Tucker Thompson, a schooner, and we had a lovely day under sail around the bay, stopping for a swim, when the wusses climbed down the ladder into a dinghy to go to the beach while we intrepid types swung out over the water on the end of a rope to have a moment's glorious soaring before the big splash. We were also allowed to climb right up the rigging to where it gets complicated and the ship looks very small down below. Less adventurous but still fun was perching out on the bowsprit where the crew brought us scones with jam and cream. Yum!