Diary with Maureen

What a gorgeous day again today. Full sun and frost in all shady places. No possums today. But I deployed three more traps. All automatic ones the A12. They are on Waterloo Line. An area which has not been trapped much. I had to cut a path through the wood first with my chainsaw. I did that a while ago.
 
But carrying a chainsaw plus three traps and an electric screwdriver is just too much weight. So I did it in two days. I believe these to be excellent spots as I found possum evidence in all locations. In fact around trap 51 there were two dead possums. One in perfect mummified condition. Gave me quite a fright. Nearly stepped onto it. There was a poison station nearby, defunct now, but maybe that’s how those possums got there.
 
Then I went a bit further to Taximus but nothing. Checked most other traps on Waterloo but nothing. Met two families both French. Both four children. One living in Auckland, the other from Melbourne but going back to London. How they all just travel I do not know. So I chatted with both of them for quite a bit. One of the girls was called Madeleine. She was maybe four. I asked her name and she cutely said ‘Madeleine’. I showed them two traps and how they work.
 
And when I was in the field with the big tree they were walking not too far away back to the bridges and I called out loud: ‘Madeleine, au revoir’ and they all waved. And then off they went, wherever, leaving trapper Robbie behind in his woodland paradise. Maybe I should call it ‘melancholy encounters’ in the Rakaia Gorge. Just wonder what will become of them all.