A stirring in the night and a slight scratching noise may not be your tramping companion. It could be a furry or feathered visitor ‘dining’ out while you sleep. By Val Monk

I hear a tiny scuffle, but I’m snug in my tent at Twilight Bay in Northland and assume it’s Robyn next door so go back to sleep. 

Next morning I find that a possum has ducked under my tent fly, reached into a pack pocket and made off with my chocolate and cashews. Worse, Robyn’s breakfast has gone. Her porridge was in a billy, lid closed, stowed under her pack in the camp shelter. Only a few shreds of sachet remain. 

All this inspired me to ask around for possum stories. They came thick and fast. 

Possum scavengers are cunning and quiet. The most brazen creep under tent flies, sneak into unoccupied tents, even open pack zips. They enjoy biscuits but they’re not so keen on gummy bears. A pack of cards can prove interesting, though inedible. 

There were several stories about the possums at Twilight camp. Over the years, many walkers have lost precious food on the first night of Te Araroa. But other areas have their raiders, too.  

Ingrid Jones stayed in the old Pahautea Hut at Pirongia while the new hut was being built. “We heard noises and wondered if one of the builders was rifling through our gear,” she says. “When we finally figured out it was possums (or rats) running all over the place, we brought our gear into the cramped hut.”

At Waitawheta Hut in the Kaimai Ranges, Sarah Smith was in bed when the door handle went down. “I quickly snuck over to see what was on the other side,” she recalls. “A possum was hanging off the handle. We pushed the table over the door so we didn’t get an unexpected guest in our sleeping bags.”

The possums of North Arm, on the   Rakiura Track, are like large fluffy cats and completely fearless, according to Georgina Lew. One walker decided to sleep in the camp shelter instead of the hut. “That idea was abandoned due to the possums ransacking anything and everything in the shelter. Our warnings to others to put their stuff away had gone unheeded!” 

In a hut book on Taranaki Maunga a German visitor wrote about feeding a cute fluffy possum on the deck. The next entry was from a Kiwi who had given the same possum a swift kick. Another walker said he’d dealt one a lethal blow with a hut broom. 

Matt Hickson, from the Department of Conservation, says DOC’s main pest control focus is on biodiversity, but the team also tries to control scavengers around camps and huts. At Twilight camp the local ranger and iwi set traps, “but it could take a while to break the cycle of learned behaviour. Possums equate trampers with an easy meal”. 

They are not the only scavengers. Weka are legendary in the Abel Tasman. One marched into a tent and tried to make off with a walker’s dinner. They steal powdered drinks, Snickers bars, oats, hats, bootlaces, once an entire block of chocolate. Kea grab their share of food as well, and some huts and campsites have a population of rats and mice. 

Hickson says that wild creatures learn to steal by scavenging around huts and camps. “I implore people not to leave food scraps or food items around – not even to drain the billy and leave a few grains of rice on the ground,” he says. 

He warns never to leave food unattended. It’s easy to have a nice meal then wander off to look at the view, only to come back to find your supplies ransacked. He recommends keeping all food in a sturdy bag inside a pack. At night, provisions are much safer inside the tent. 

At least in New Zealand we don’t have to worry about bears.