December – March, 2013 and April 28, 2013
One all to frequent Northland sight is dead possums along the roadside. There are a lot of them here, and apparently they have no talent for crossing the highway in a timely manner. We soon found out no one sheds any tears over this as possums are not native to New Zealand. Somehow they came over from Australia, and their introduction (along with stouts, rats and weasels) was a disaster for a few species of native birds, some of which remain only on offshore islands. The parklands all have programs to trap and eliminate these animals, but they still roam freely in the countryside. From the looks of the numbers alongside the road come morning, it doesn’t look like they’ll be eradicated anytime soon.
One thing we noticed about these possums is that they, unlike North American possums, are beautiful animals. I wanted a picture of one, but that was unlikely as they are nocturnal and shy. I got the idea that maybe I could find one in good shape along the road and get a picture of that. After all, most of them don’t actually get squashed. And so our quest began to find the attractive “squashed” possum. For weeks we’d drive and whenever I saw a possum coming up I’d say, “Squashed possum,” and then give my verdict on it as we passed. Unfortunately it was always, “Squashed possum . . . unattractive.” Unattractive meant we’d drive on. Our holy grail was the attractive squashed possum.
Time came and went and we never found an attractive one. We went cruising down the coast, ending up far south in Tauranga, south of Auckland, along with our car brought down by our friend Robin. We gave up on the possum picture. But then in April, we went back north for a cruising seminar in Opua and spent the night. The next morning as we headed south, I could see a possum fast approaching. “Squashed possum . . . . . Attractive!” Rich whipped a quick U turn on the highway and we zoomed back to see that indeed we had found what we’d sought for so long, the attractive squashed (actually not squashed) possum.
We must have looked very strange, our car parked on the side of the highway, taking photographs of a dead possum. I can imagine the Kiwis shaking their heads at some of the crazy things tourists do. We got our photos and now can show that those Australian possums are very cute, even if they are better off remaining in Australia. –Cyndi
