An ode to sand flies

For anyone who has not been to New Zealand then you have presumably not yet had the pleasure of enduring countless evenings in the company of the notorious NZ Sandfly!

They are horrible pesky disgusting creatures, swarming rather like a Scottish Midge, perhaps hanging around in slightly smaller numbers but with a lot more vigour! They land on you and proceed to tip their tails in the air and borrow their faces into you and extract all they can before you spot them. The ensuing furiously itchy patch must not be touched for at least half a hour or it will itch for days....!

They enjoy in particular to hang around in otherwise delightful locations like beaches, viewpoints, mountains, nice towns, forests, valleys and lakes. They can sense a human a mile off but will wait until you have settled down, got out your picnic (to relax and enjoy said delightful spot) and will then proceed to devour ankles, waists, hands, faces heads and basically wherever they can burrow.

They can ruin otherwise 'perfect' moments like sunsets and sunrises or stunning views appearing from behind clouds...

However, and this is important, they really do not like insect repellant spray (so that does help) and after speaking with many fellow sufferers we are all convinced that they must be one of the few reasons so many areas of the country are untouched by man. Therefore they do play an important role in protecting some of the worlds most stunning wilderness areas. For that I would like to say thank you to the sand flies - but for that reason alone!