Can't give you Maori spirits, but can send you heaps of purrs to make the
baby come soon (oh, so you are going to be a great-aunt? Why didn't you tell
us??) and for mother and child to come through with flying colours.

Purrs for all the people affected by the storm.

Ditto.

Does this mean you're going to be a great aunt.? Why didn't you say
something? You shouldn't be so shy and retiring.

Well I"ll send some Purrs for the bub to arrive soon for Mother
and Baby to be in good Health  Jean.P.

Ow indeed ! I'll never forget my first encounter with the evil little
buggers. I was down in San Antonio in the late 80s for Army training.
For some reason the normal physical training (PT) field was
unavailable for our PT test. So, we used an alternate field that
hadn't been used for awhile.

It was a typical setup, half the class started to do pushups at one
station while the other half started doing sit-ups, rotate and once
everyone was done do a two mile run. Well, the station for sit-ups
turned out to be covered, and one of the guys ended up having to go to
the dispensary  -  he sat down during the briefing and was covered
with ants before they all started biting at once. I started at the
push up station, and ended up with about a dozen bites on my hands.
Their bite produced immediate pain, and left me with small blisters
which lasted for weeks.

After the first attacks we ended up doing the push ups and sit ups on
the paved running track rather than risk the grass field.

Thanks for the purrs and best wishes everyone.   The rain has continued
(look at the newspaper link again) and one man had his life saved by
clinging to a swimming cow!!!!  Damage now estimated to be 100 million
and rising and more rain predicted for the rest of the week.

I suspect fire ants would live just fine here, it's a fairly temperate
climate - no snow here in Napier.  They are laying bait for them to find
the nest.

Helen, hope the half kiwi grand-niece arrives safely, I didn't know you
were going to be a great- aunt :)

Bev