(They didn't eat the possum. Kiwis, however, make great mittens from them- one of my better buys here.) Most Kiwi's feel the only good possum is a dead possum, because of they destruction they have caused to forest and birdlife.
Friday Vicki and I walked the track on Forest Hill just southeast of Winton. It was a fine, cool day and we were rewarded with spectacular views of Winton with the snowy peaks of the Takitimu and Fiordland mountains in the distance.
We walked from the Tussock Creek parking area northward about 4 km. to the Forest Hill picnic area. The short trail is mostly along the hilltop, and includes a huge rata tree that sprouted around the time of Columbus, and at the summit, a variety of huge limestone outcrops, covered with ferns.
Yesterday we drove over to Gore to do some shopping and see the world's largest fiberglass trout. The winter clothes are in the stores now, and we are buying some warmer things, including more polypropylene underwear, but this time for daily use. I found a nice NZ wool sweater, and Liz found a Thai restaurant for lunch.
We toured the Hokonui Moonshine Museum in Gore. The very large range of hills between Winton and Gore, the Hokonui Hills was a haven for moonshiners 100 years ago. The Gore and Invercargill districts were "dry" for over 50 years, a result of the collision of the Presbyterian and Christain temperance movement with the wild behaviors of sealers and sailors at the coastal ports of the first country to give women the right to vote. However, immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland brought with them their own stills and recipes for whiskey, and many of the farmers living in the hollows of the Hokonui made more cash from their distilleries than from their crops or stock. One moonshiner even entered his whiskey in a competition, and proclaimed that "it passed all tests, except the police". 
We also enjoyed the litte art musuem in Gore, an eclectic collection of ancient African wooden statuary, watercolors of New Zealand plants and seaweed, and contemporary Maori art and poetry.
So now, from history to the "ghost story". We visited the Winton Cemetery
on one of our walks a few weeks ago, and when I mentioned this to the office staff at tea one day, they told me the story of Minnie Dean. In this part of the world, children who are bad are told they "better behave, or I'll take you to Minnie Dean's farm, and you'll never be heard from again". Minnie Dean emigrated to Winton in the 1870's. Times were tough, and her husband was not a good farmer. When they became destitute, Minnie became a "baby farmer", taking in illegitimate children for a fee, with a promise to find them adoptive homes. The story goes that she would kill the babies with a hat pin, and bury them in her garden. The local police became suspicious after she boarded a train with a baby and a hatbox, and left the same train with the hatbox alone. Minnie was tried and convicted, and is the only woman ever to have hanged in New Zealand. She was buried in an unmarked grave in the Winton cemetery. The legend is that grass would never grow on her grave. Although one of the locals here claims that it never grew on her grave because the caretaker fo the cemetery used a weedkiller on it, on a regular basis. Over the web, you can hear a folk song, or view a music video, about Minnie Dean. The music video is pretty good, and uses pictures of the Kingston Flyer steam train for scenes about the famous railway journey. There is even a revisionist history of her crime and trial.
Well, I gotta go now, 'cause its time for our regular Sunday evening family get together, watching New Zealand Idol. I'm voting for Big Dave. You should too!
