29-06-2008 / 18-07-2008
The Flight
Shanghai
Auckland
Rotorua
Wai-O-Tapu
Rural Life
Maori and the Kiwi
No White Island
What I am missing
The East Cape
Gisbourn to Napier
Napier and Art Deco
Netball
Last day Napier
Napier - Carterton
Wellington
Wellington 2
Getting the Boat
Grey, Greyer, Greymouth
Mapoeraki Hotel
Helicopter Flight
Glaciers / Lake Matheson
Shotover Jet
Franz Jozef - Queenstown
Queenstown - Christchurch
Best for last
Epilogue
Rural Life
About the Possum:
A possum is any of about 64 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi (and introduced to New Zealand). The name derives from their resemblance to the opossums of the Americas. (The name is from Algonquian wapathemwa, not Greek or Latin, so the plural is possums, not possa.) Possum is also used in North America as a short form of Opossum. The possum's rank odour is due to its large musk glands located behind each ear.
Possums are small marsupials with brown or grey fur, ranging in size and weight from the length of a finger or 170 grams (6 ounces) (pygmy possums and wrist-winged gliders), to the length of 120 centimetres (four feet) or 14.5 kilograms (32 pounds) (brushtails and ringtails). In general, though, the larger possums are about the same size as a well-fed domestic cat. All possums are nocturnal and omnivorous, hiding in a nest in a hollow tree during the day and coming out during the night to forage for food. They fill much the same role in the Australian ecosystem that squirrels fill in the northern hemisphere and are broadly similar in appearance.
The two most common species of possums, the Common Brushtail and Common Ringtail, are also among the largest.