If You See a Possum, Run It Over!

One thing we heard over and over in NZ was how much people here hate possums. These medium sized rodents (much bigger than their docile cousins in the US) consume tons and tons of foliage in forests and worse, they eat the eggs of the flightless birds. In short, they are a major pest and every Kiwi has a duty to try and run them over or shoot them if they see them in the bush.

Pennie Sands runs Environmental Products, in a converted dairy factory in Mahoe, a little village just off the winding road called the Surf Highway. Here you can find all manner of items made from the skins and pelts of these pests...it's possum product heaven! They make wonderfully soft gloves by combining in merino wool, and jackets using the leather. We picked up some gloves and Pennie showed me where they pin up the hides and dry them. "We tried having this done for us over in Canada," she said, "But it didn't measure up quality wise." Pennie serves a growing market and helps find a use for up to 20,000 pelts that come from poisoned, shot and sometimes run over possums.

Then we met another Kiwi with a passion...Rob Wright of Moano Pearl fabricates jewelry using the natural paua pearls found in the Pacific. The mother of pearl has many uses in his jewelry as well, and outside they have a little collage of the abalone shells mounted on sticks. Rob showed us a pile of pearls that he said is probably the only time on earth you'd see that many of them at once. It was a year's supply, he said.

Rob is another person who loves what he does and takes joy in the creative process and in life here in rural Taranaki. With the view of fields and his daughter's horses outside the window, we can see he's having a ball!