Rod, who had spent so many years living with tropical sandflies and mosquitoes, tended to pooh-pooh the idea of wearing repellent to ward the beasties off, even despite the many well intentioned warnings he had received prior to his journey to NZ. He always claimed he would prefer to feed the monsters rather than absorb those horrid chemicals.
Well, he now regrets his earlier opinions. The Kiwi sandflies are more than double the size of the Aussie ones and sport a voracious appetite. Plus they leave an incredible lingering itch wherever they’ve feasted.
The extreme discomfort of those annoying itchy bites far outweighs the nasty feeling of slathering dangerous chemicals over your skin. Therein lies a lesson to Rod, just because one may have developed resistances to certain parasitic insects, it doesn’t mean the resistance extends to those insects’ cousins residing over the ditch.
So to all those planning to visit this glorious wonderland heed this advice: wear repellent for goodness’ sake!
Do we get pictures of the bites???
Gross! No way! I want to FORGET about them not immortalise them.