Mosquitoes

It was what can only be described as a Hitchcock-esque nightmare.

Last night at the campsite we shut ourselves in Gertrude with the normal nighttime drills (closed doors, lights off when getting in and out etc) but there was a steady hum of Mosquito.

Whilst not unusual to get a few in with you, we then set about the pre-bedtime game of squash the bug. Except this game didn't seem to end. We spent a few hours before we turned the living room into the bed. Then in bed we continued to suffer them diving our heads so we continued to squash them (by this point having a hit rate in the high 90%) until about midnight. Then we tried to go to sleep thinking we must finally have got them all just to be cruelly pulled back awake by the incessant humming and knowledge that you'll be eaten alive if there are more. Every time we turned the light back on there were another three or four just over our heads which needed squashing. This happened every hour or so until a 3 am brainwave led to us pushing the duvet down inside the case to provide a thinner cover we could then put over our heads. Whilst cooler it was still nearly unbearably hot but it was that or more head/neck/face bites. So the rest of the night (which wasn't much as we had to get up at 6 to go ice climbing) was spent trying not to put any bare flesh outside the duvet cover, whilst simultaneously trying not to suffocate or be driven insane by the endless whine/hum of the kiwi Mosquito as it dive bombed your head.

More Mosquitos died last night than I have ever previously seen in one place but there were endless amounts more which seemed to be insatiable. We don't know what caused it, but can only hope it was a one off as it is nearly bed time....

[subsequent thought on the long drive to Wanaka has led me to a theory- remembering vaguely that all references to Paradise in the bible are thought to refer to Heaven rather than earth, perhaps God therefore did not want to create a paradise on earth. So, anywhere that he thought might be approaching paradise he put Mosquitos, which is why they always turn up in the glorious holiday places. Think about it, when did you last see a mosquito in Slough.....]