What with the Christchurch earthquakes, -the aftershocks are still going on!- and now this bloody ship up on the Astrolabe Reef, we could use a break.
The reef has been charted for about 150 years, but a container ship found it. Now it is breaking up and is releasing bunker oil into a the sea, and it started reaching the shore in bulk today. So far over 500 dead seabirds, and that's only the counted ones, and 'only some' of the fuel-oil has leaked so far.
This stuff seems to be more like tar than oil. The authorities don't want the locals to get involved with it unsupervised, but to wait until they are organised and controlled. Fat chance, the residents are out there with their shovels.
No doubt Little Robin will be able to give a first-hand report later, it is her patch.