Oh No Something Killed The Easter Bunny

Photograph taken by Doug on Easter morning. Clouds hide the mountains.




We celebrated Easter this year with a treasure hunt all over the neighborhood. Liam and Colin rode their bikes frantically from one clue to the next. The Easter Bunny left an egg next to each boy’s bed with the first clue that said,

Are you awake?
Shhh- for your parents’ sake

When you hear them talking,
Get dressed for biking or walking

Then find Mom and Pop,
It‘s time to hippity hop!

Amazingly, the boys didn’t come up until around eight when Doug and I awoke. But when they arrived in our room, they were dressed and ready to head out the door. As we were riding our bikes down the road following one of the first clues, Liam stopped his bike and pointed at something on the side of the road. When I caught up with him, he looked up at me and said, “Oh no, something killed the Easter Bunny.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to be funny or was truly distressed. The huge rabbit sprawled in the grass was definitely dead. It was technically a hare, I think, but I decided not to share this extra info and I tried to bike on quickly before Colin noticed the dead Easter Bunny too.

By the time Liam and I saw the dead Easter Bunny, I would have to say I was already desensitized. This Easter week I have seen more dead rabbits (and hares) than any other week in my life. One more dead rabbit on the side of the road didn’t seem that big a deal, except that was Easter morning. Our neighbor had been out rabbit hunting several nights earlier. Doug and I were walking by his truck the following morning and he asked if we wanted to see his catch. I was expecting a fish or something, but started getting suspicious as I got closer to the truck and realized the bed was buzzing with flies. I peered over the side to find a mountain of dead rabbits and hares. I tried to act cool and nonchalant, like all my friends in Denver kept piles of dead rabbits in the beds of their trucks. I do understand the problem, though. Our area is overrun with rabbits and there are few predators to control them. I guess a night of rabbit hunting provides both entertainment and pest control. Now Doug, Colin and Liam want to go rabbit hunting. However, I am not yet desensitized to the idea of my sons hunting. We’ll see.

Kiwis seem to have a different relationship to Easter Bunnies than Americans. In the United States, images of cuddly, soft bunnies appear in stores and on TV right after Valentine’s Day. Maybe the bunny images are just the result of the increased commercialization of holidays in the U.S. In New Zealand, there are chocolate bunnies and Cadbury eggs, but entire stores are not plastered with bunnies and ducklings and other pastel spring animals. Another reason might be that we are heading into autumn. Halloween, not Easter, marks the season of rebirth when we experience baby animals and all new things.

There is one local Easter tradition that I don't think Americans yet celebrate. The annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt takes place at Alexandra in Central Otago, just down the road from us. The NZ Herald Tribune reported hunters bagged 16,121 bunnies in twenty-four hours this weekend. Who knew there were so many Easter bunnies?

Doug asked me to give you the vermin count:

Mice: 2
Rats: 0
Possum: 2




I promise no more entries on dead animals for a while, unless Doug sneaks one. Instead, maybe next entry, I can update you on how successful we were at overhauling the septic system and cleaning its filters today. I guess we're just adjusting to life in the bush.