Of the flies I saw today, this one is my favourite. It's the ngaro tara or three-lined Hover Fly (*Helophilus seelandicus*), a New Zealand endemic species.

I like the sleek colour pattern. It would not look out of place on a coverable sports car.

While the adult is sleek, the larva is a rat-tailed maggot with a long snorkle out its rear end that allows it to eat decomposing matter in stagnant water.

I saw this while on my weekly biodiversity run this afternoon through Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ.

https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/348889144

#diptera #flies #entomology #nz #Syrphidae #Ōtautahi #Christchurch #iNaturalist

Trump's stupid war has sparked medicine shortages in NZ. Pharmac's "Medicine supply notices" page shows all of the currently affected meds with details.

https://www.pharmac.govt.nz/medicine-funding-and-supply/medicine-notices

#NZ #Pharmac

O'K. It's a rich person's indulgence, but this loo-with-a-view at Highlands Motor Park in Cromwell is something else.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360962743/loo-view-cromwell-inside-new-zealands-craziest-toilet

#NZ #Cromwell #Toilet

Does any one else find their hair gets a little frizzy before a storm?

#NZ #CycloneVaianu

It's the season to be appreciative of #feijoafizz.

I think it was @zeborah here who first told me about this neat trick. Don't throw your feijoa skins away. Put them in a clean bottle (or jar) and fill with water and leave them for a day or two.

The fruit flavour leaches into the water and the yeasts in the skin lightly ferment. The result is a feijoa flavoured lightly fizzy drink.

The recipe linked below goes all in and uses sugar. I've just been sticking the skins in bottles, waiting, then drinking.

It's surprisingly flavourful and refreshing.

http://www.thriftykiwi.co.nz/meals-and-snacks/feijoa-fizz

#feijoa #nz #drink

For context on oil supply to NZ published by the nz govt, viz the US-Iran war.

The #NZ government has committed to earmarking #oil supply for commercial truck shipping at all costs, which I guess is what diesel is.

This confusing metric is essentially "negative price". So the plummeting "number of cents down" means the price is skyrocketing.

New Zealand, relative to other countries is extremely reliant on trucking and government subsidy of shipping via highway shipping infrastructure.