Back to the North Island for another Contiki tour - around the
Bay of Islands.
Whilst the rest of the world was talking about the 'War on Iraq',
in New Zealand it was all about the 'War on the Painted
Apple Moth'! Who cares about terrorists, just get the
bloody moths! You know the kind of movie trailers which
have the voiceover guy who's got a really deep voice and they
go, 'It was a time for War, it was a time for Heroes!'? Well
they had ads just like that on the radio, explaining why the
air force is currently engaged on a mission to wipe out the moth. Apparently
they have links with Al-Qaeda.
These are just moths they talking about; not suicide bombers. I
don't know why they don't just buy a whole stack of 60 watt light
bulbs, set them up in a line and wait for the moths to head-butt
themselves to death against the lamps! So that's the War
on Osamoth Bin Laden. (Sorry, couldn't resist it!)
Perhaps as the home of 'extreme' sports the Kiwis could combine
moth elimination with a new sport. You could have people
hanging on bungee ropes from aeroplanes, trying to thwack moths
with a cricket bat... 'extreme moth twatting'. I think
it's the way forward!
