Opossum World

Truly bizarre. Ostensibly a store devoted to selling products made of possum fur, or possum fur blended with merino wool, it had a freak show in the back.

Let’s start with the retail at the front. Lovely but standard resort-town pricey sweaters, gloves, scarves, hats, etc. And not too hidden in a corner, "Norma's Nipple Warmer" and "Opossum Pete's Peter Heater".

“Factory prices” were promised, but it appeared their possum fur miniature kiwis, for instance, were exactly the same price as other souvenir shops I've browsed.

Moving on to the horror show in the back - one big ole justification for killing these cute furry creatures en masse. They were introduced by Aussies (figures) in the late 19th c. and have more or less run roughshod over the country with few non-human predators to keep numbers down. News articles, photos of destruction to foliage, yadda yadda.

Then there was the ‘playful’ side featuring stuffed possums in a singing chorus (see above), being squashed by a car, looking scary and ferocious, and so on and so on. Even a video game of some sort where you could ‘shoot’ at em.

Side note: one of the employees at local hostel claims the whole overpopulation of possums thing in NZ is grossly exaggerated. But who really knows..

The place was creepin’ me out, frankly, so I didn’t snap as many photos as I normally would in such a house of oddities.

Napier

Back by the Pacific Ocean at last! It was already dark when I arrived in this seaside town of about 25,000 but could hear the pounding surf across street from the YHA hostel. Very friendly old folkie Bob checked me in but was confused because a Valeria from Spain had already checked in.

Next morning I had a chance to stroll along the waterfront. Beach was black pebbles, ocean a milky light jade green, light was constanly changing as a weather front was blowing in. After picking up tourist info at the local iSite I pointed myself towards Opossum World. Never did make it there that day as I detoured into a very interesting Maori art gallery where I ended up spending several hours. (see other post)

By mid-afternoon the rain had stopped. Well-timed, because I was gung-ho to do the Art Deco guided walk of downtown. (covered in a separate post)

After that I checked out a wine tasting at the local Wine Centre. Modelled after those winery boutiques you see in Napa and Sonoma valleys, it was very much geared towards folks like the couple from Orlando (both pilots) I met in there. Not so much towards the budget traveller.
Still, I had bought fresh local mussels that day and needed a good wine to drink with. Ironically the recommendation was not a local (Hawkes Bay) wine, but a Riesling from the Central Otago region of South Island. Was still tasty and good value for $20NZD.

Cooked up those juicy big green-lipped mussels in a creamy wine sauce. Pas mal du tout.
We had some heavy rain that night, much needed in the region by farmers, I’m told. Had a lazy morning wandering along the ocean and popped in on my Maori artist friends again.

And this time I did make it to Opossum World, a very bizarre tribute to their national pest.