Snakes.
Apart from the rare finding of a sea-snake at the coast in the far North, New
Zealand does not have snakes. Pity.
When I was married, she and I had a vacation in Queensland, Australia (about
1980). We went on a few 'bush-walks' - walks in tracked and untracked forest
and grassland.
We discovered that when Australians do this, they tend to make a lot of noise,
and in general, snakes go rapidly away from noise (there are exceptions). We
walked around quietly with our eyes wide open - and saw an interesting range
of snakes, which was fun for us. At Surfers Paradise there was then (but not
now) a wildlife park with lots of feathered birds, and a VERY large snake pit
with lots of species. The highlight there was a display of a ? South American ?
African boa-constrictor type of snake. The keeper put it back on a carry box at
the end of the display. We hung around watching, and he came out when all
the other visitors had gone. And he offered to let us handle it - which we did,
with this great snake draped over our shoulders. The two main impressions I
have of it are (a) how heavy it was to carry, and (b) how beautiful the
patterns
of colours etc of its scales were - especially close up.
Brian Swale
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