FROM THE EDITOR

When I was a young man, I came around a corner towing a trailer load of lumber and mowed down an innocent mallard in the middle of the road.

This is one of several bad duck stories.

Later, I had a flatmate who enjoyed harvesting nature’s bounty. He had a gun for every occasion and a freezer full of duck corpses.

Whenever it was his turn to cook, he would gently lay one in a slow cooker before heading off to work. A third of my diet was dead duck until I could take it no more and moved out.

Years later, I tried to balance the karma by taking my kids down to the park to feed bread to the ducks. One time I had to fish my toddler out of the pond. He emerged covered in green stuff like a swamp monster. The ducks almost had their revenge.

It turns out I still owe the ducks an apology because as you can see [p1 story] bread is pretty much poison for our feathered friends.

Be kind to the ducks. NEWS DIRECTOR: Daniel Hutchinson, daniel.hutchinson@fairfaxmedia.co.nz; 027 809 6854. SENIOR REPORTER: Luke Kirkeby, 027 204 2913, luke.kirkeby@fairfaxmedia.co.nz. SENIOR SALES CONSULTANT: Matt Holmes, 027 807 4632, matt.holmes@fairfaxmedia.co.nz, CLASSIFIEDS: 0800 800 373 swn@fairfaxmedia.co.nz or Lynda 07 888 7011, MISSED DELIVERY: 0800 339 000, DIGITAL EDITION: southwaikatonews.co.nz. FACEBOOK: facebook.com/southwaikatonews. DISPLAY AD DEADLINES: 4pm Thursday. ADDRESS: 45 Heuheu St, Taupo or PO Box 205, Taupo