Cane toad catches ride to Queenstown

BY WILL HINE

A poisonous cane toad evaded biosecurity checks at Queenstown Airport last week after arriving in the resort from Australia in a passenger's luggage.

A woman from Cairns unwittingly brought the noxious pest into Queenstown in her hiking boots.

Ultimate Hikes general manager Noel Saxon said the woman had been in the company's Duke St shop for a briefing last Tuesday evening, ahead of a Wednesday guided walk on the Milford Track, when the toad hopped out of her bag.

"People around her said, 'that's a cane toad', and our staff ran round and captured it."

A staff guide who worked part-time for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry contacted the organisation for instruction on how to proceed, Mr Saxon said.

"They told him to identify it and euthansise it.

"It was quite an event really."

The staff member killed the toad by popping it in a freezer.

A MAF biosecurity spokeswoman confirmed the woman carrying the toad had arrived in Queenstown on a flight from Sydney on Tuesday.

She declared her boots on her arrival card and was taken to a bench where they were cleaned with detergent. "The boots had socks stuffed in them, the toad was possibly inside the boots.

"We've tipped the boots, looked at them, cleaned them and returned them to the passenger."

The spokeswoman said the toad would probably not have survived the South Island climate if it had escaped into the wild.

It had been sent to an expert for further analysis, with a report expected this week.

Although it was rare for a toad to be found in a passenger's luggage, other small creatures and insects could more easily "hitchhike" into the country.

People arriving in New Zealand or returning from holiday were advised to unpack carefully and notify MAF if they noticed any organisms.

A spokeswoman for Biosecurity Minister David Carter did not know whether he was aware of the incident because he had been in Italy until this week, but she said it was the type of incident which would normally trigger an internal briefing.

The woman who brought the toad into New Zealand has since returned to Cairns.

She declined to comment when contacted yesterday.

- © Fairfax NZ News