What did a Kea parrot recently steal from a tourist in New Zealand?
A CHEEKY NZ parrot – perhaps with a desire to spread its wings further afield – has pinched a Scottish man’s passport from a bag. The passport was in a brightly coloured courier bag in the luggage compartment of a bus heading into the popular tourist destination of Milford Sound in the Fiordland region of the South Island, the Southland Times reports. The kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, struck when the bus stopped and the driver was busy in the luggage compartment. When the driver turned around the startled kea flew away with the passport. The bird was last seen heading into thick forest and the British passport’s owner doesn’t expect to get it back. “Being Scottish, I’ve got a sense of humour so I did take it with humour but obviously there is one side of me still raging,” said the man, who did not want to be named. “My passport is somewhere out there in Fiordland. The kea’s probably using it for fraudulent claims or something. “I’ll never look at a kea in the same way.” Kea are
Wooping down and swiping the document from a bus heading into Milford Sound, before flying off. A Scottish man reported the audacious theft of his passport from a bus heading into Milford Sound this week, the Southland Times reported. A kea swiped his passport from a coloured courier bag, when the bus stopped at the Chasm on the Milford road. When the driver was in a compartment beneath the bus, the bird swooped down, grabbed the bag and flew off into the bush. The unidentified Scotsman said ‘I did take it with humour but obviously there is one side of me still raging’. The passport is very unlikely to be returned. A replacement from the British High Commission in Wellington could take as long as six weeks and cost up to $400. Sources: http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2009/05/29/Parrot_nicks_off_with_UK_mans_passport_336803.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Polly wants a passport — and isn’t above stealing one. A brazen parrot, which spotted a Scottish man’s passport in a colored bag in the luggage compartment under a tour bus, nabbed the document and made off into dense bush with it, the Southland Times newspaper reported Friday. The bird — a parrot of the Kea variety — made its move while the bus was stopped along the highway to Milford Sound on South Island, and the driver was looking through the compartment. Milford Sound, which runs inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock face, is part of Fiordland National Park, a world heritage site and major travel destination. Police told the newspaper the passport has not been recovered and is unlikely to be located in the vast Fiordland rain forest. Sources: http://www.google.
