Easter In New Zealand Seems Festive

When there's a " Great Easter Bunny Hunt" in America it usually involves laughing children carrying wicker baskets filled with Cadbury eggs. But in New Zealand it involves 14,799 bloody bunny carcasses.

Yes, the 19th annual hunt in the Central Otago portion of New Zealand drew 460 shooters, separated into 39 teams whose sole purpose is to kill as many rabbits as possible. The winning team was the "Cuniculus Terminators" whose 12-man team blasted 978 cuddly little bunnies over Easter weekend. And bunnies weren't the only things taken out by the marauding hordes of gun-wielding Kiwis. Nope, the total tally included "hares, stoats, ferrets, goats, possums, turkeys and the odd feral cat."

Women and older children joined in, as did the Central Ostago boy scouts, even if they weren't allowed to shoot anything.

Local scouts also benefitted, being commissioned by the Lions to pick up all the dead rabbits and dispose of them in a purpose-dug pit.

Personally, I feel like my Easter Sundays spent finding colored eggs in various pairs of shoes are completely wimpy compared to this.

Terminators top in Easter bunny hunt [Otago Daily Times]

Original PHOTO: By Rosie Manins, Otago Daily Times