Ruud Kleinpaste, aka "The Bugman".....

How lucky were we to have some time with "Ruud The Bugman" this afternoon? He was hoisted up a tree (the tallest Queensland Kauri in the Southern Hemisphere - 32m!) to see what he (and us) could see:






These guys were tricky as with their pulley set-up for hoisting Ruud up:



But the King of Tricky for the day went to this guy - it took him less than a minute to hoon up that tree - he just sort of 'walked' up that rope, making it look *very* easy, as people who do that sort of tricky-looking stuff every day are prone to do:



He was really an entertainer, he was incredibly interesting and engaging and kept the kids enthralled with a few "bum" and "poo" words peppered throughout his dialogue:




He fascinated us with a hundred and one facts about a monarch butterfly (this one was a boy, don't ya know?):


Then the *WETAS* came out - his own little flatting situation he travels with - George and The Girls (Dorothy - Dot for short, and Betty (thanks, Kate!):




Somehow I never expected anything less than something this size for a weta poo, lol:


The kids who wanted a turn all had a handle of the wetas (my skin was crawling just watching all this):



L9 was brave beyond herself:


Even the Mum's had a go - Anasera was well at home:


But Samantha took a bit of convincing they weren't going to eat her alive, lol:


Thanks, Bugman, you were awesome: