Supplied/FENZ
Senior firefighter Abel Esera with the swan he waded in to rescue from ‘thick, gloopy; mud in Christchurch.
We live in unusual times. It all gets a bit much some days. So each weekday we’re bringing you a much-needed dose of positivity to remind you that there’s inspiration, kindness and quirkiness out there too. Brought to you by Tourism Fiji.
Gumboot-clad firefighter rescues swan stuck in the mud
It seems not all heroes wear capes. A Christchurch firefighter opted for sturdy footwear on Thursday morning, when he got word from two council workers that a large bird was stranded in “thick, gloopy” mud in Bexley, in the upper reaches of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary.
The ‘exhausted’ swan needed a helping hand from emergency services to escape the quagmire, Stuff’s Keiller MacDuff reported.
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Senior firefighter Abel Esera waded in to retrieve it. It didn’t take too long. Swan rescue was not common, he said.
“It’s the first one in my career.”
Has the Surfdale Sausager gone national?
One Twitter user was concerned Waiheke Island’s Surfdale Sausager had struck again, this time outside the Auckland island’s boundary.
Jennifer Duval-Smith said her son got sausaged by mail. She posted a picture of a plastic wrapped saussie inside a special postage cannister, marked Weiner Mail.
She wondered if the island’s serial sausager had gone national.
It turns out it was a fundraising sausage, but it certainly wasn’t in the classic style of a community group’s Saturday saussie sizzle outside Mitre 10.
Duval-Smith posted a second tweet saying, “Hang on! Turns out it helps somebody else. There’s a note on it that you can’t eat it tho’, which is sensible but also seems a bit wasteful to me”.
Stuff reporter Brianna Mcilraith knew this modus operandi. She had written a story about the two Christchurch brothers who had come up with a weird way to do good – offering to send a sausage anonymously to feed a person in need. She reported in April last year that the anonymous brothers started Send a Sausage after the first Covid lockdown.
The sausage, which costs $19.99, is inedible (we hear ya Duval-Smith) and comes vacuum sealed with an anonymous note. Each sausage purchased meant Send a Sausage would provide a meal for an individual in need. They opted for real but inedible sausages for logistical reasons. You can read more here.
Taxidermy huia stolen from a Dannevirke museum reunited with her mate
Back in July 2020, a preserved juvenile female of the long-extinct bird was pinched from the Dannevirke Gallery of History. It was gone for a long time but the taonga (treasure) was recovered by Kāpiti police in May last year.
DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
Dannevirke Gallery of History president Nancy Wadsworth and vice-president Murray Holden didn’t expect to see the stolen female huia again, or to reunite it with its male counterpart.
After undergoing repairs at Te Papa the huia will be returned to the town at a powhiri at Makirikiri Marae today, RNZ reported.
Huia pairs mated for life, using their different beaks to feed cooperatively. Manahi Paewai, a kaumātua of the local iwi Rangitāne, said seeing the female returned meant the gift was complete once again.
The last confirmed sighting of a huia was in the Tararua Ranges, not far south of Dannevirke, in 1907.
Pink pigeon rescued in New York City park
The pink pigeon was brought to a wildlife rescue organisation by a good Samaritan who noticed the odd pink bird wandering around. Sadly the pigeon was likely to have been dyed as part of an experiment, wedding party or gender reveal.
The poor bird became a talking point on social media, with some making light of the situation. One poster wondered if its mother was a pink flamingo. Another asked if it ate a lot of shrimp. We wish the pink pigeon well.
It’s Goundhog Day
Yes it’s a real thing. A furry critter in a US town in Pennsylvania has predicted six more weeks of winter during an annual Groundhog Day celebration.
People gathered at Gobbler’s Knob as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned the groundhog from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he has seen his shadow – and they say he did, AP reported.
According to folklore, if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring comes early.
The annual event in Punxsutawney originated from a German legend about a furry rodent. The gathering annually attracts thousands.
