Travel Bug Bites

Carolyn here, reporting live with my first special-interest post! I'm half of this talented twosome some call "Carolorno"…or was it "Fornolyn"..."Carno"? It just doesn’t roll off the tongue like "Shiana"… Anyway, my contributions to this bodacious blogging duo are mostly behind the scenes, so I wanted to take this chance to jump out front and say hello. Also, don’t be afraid to show us some love by leaving comments! We wanna know what you love about the blog, what you can’t stand, and what you want more of (please say knock knock jokes). If you have no opinion, we love you anyway and want to know what you had for breakfast.

But the real reason I’m writing today is to tell you about insects, AND HOW THEY ARE THE MOST EVIL THING IN NEW ZEALAND EVER EVER EVER EVER. I grew up in the muggy South, so I’m no stranger to mosquitos. In Auckland, we breezed past the bug repellant aisle when we were loading up Flash – bug spray is for wimps and DEET can kill you, right? So wrong. A few weeks of beach-hopping and a few thousand bug bites later, we learned our lesson. Maybe we’re spoiled city slickers from New York, but it felt like these Northland mosquitos swarmed twice as hard and bit twice as often as those in the States. And when the mozzies were sleeping during the day, we were devoured by sandflies, a New Zealand specialty. The sandfly is a nasty little bugger because he looks like a harmless gnat to the untrained eye, but up close, his true, evil identity is revealed! Some of their bites are hard enough to draw blood.
We’ve also had bad luck with bees and wasps. I got stung while I was driving on the highway. The angry little wasp bounced off the sideview mirror, down the back of my pants, and stung me 3 times in the butt before I could pull over and jump out of the van (just like in Tommy Boy). Shawn's bee attack was more traditional. He got stung in the face. When we went through Auckland again we spent almost $100 NZ on the war against bugs. We bought itch creams for the bites we already had, spray repellant to drench our skin and clothes (80% DEET yo!), and a Raid mozzie lantern with smoke that kills every bug in a 10 foot radius. Consider yourself warned - this was not an overreaction.