When we asked people around the country to send us in bush yarns, several wrote about strange meetings in the bush. Here is a selection.
What's your story?
A strange one
Warden Michele Ayres enjoys the sun on the deck at Mueller Hut in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. But one evening an unusual visitor disturbed the calm.
Possum in a hole
Ernie Smith seems very much at home up a ladder pruning his trees. He was not quite so comfortable down a hole fighting with a possum.
The wild bull
A young Fred Hollows helps to bring supplies up the Waiatoto River. In 1953 he was a medical student, working over the summer with the Forest Service. He later became a renowned eye surgeon, whose work is carried on by the Fred Hollows Foundation. As Ashley Cunningham’s story from those early days suggests, he was a cool customer in a crisis.
City slicker
Shelley Bennet spent 40 years working in the bush, and became expert at climbing trees and lopping off branches. But back in 1947, it was a bit of a shock when he met his workmates.