In 2006, Keith Richards fell out of a coconut tree.

The Rolling Stones guitarist was hanging in Fiji during a world tour, and subsequently had to be flown back to a New Zealand hospital for observation after suffering a concussion.

Maybe Keith was playing possum.

According to Fairfax NZ News, possum involves a group of people drinking a 24-pack of beer while up a tree. The first one to fall out from drunkenness loses the game.

Dunedin City Council gardens and cemeteries team leader Alan Matchett said people, believed mostly to bestudents, played the game at the gardens in the afternoons and early evenings, during the week and at weekends.

Staff were fed up with the mess left behind, which included glass, food scraps and cans – and vomit.

"It's been occurring fairly regularly for the last two or three years. We don't usually see them, but police and Otago University campus watch staff have had to move people on from the park and told them to clean up their mess," Matchett said.

"What they drink has to come out again, so they do throw up and urinate from the trees. Obviously, it's not nice to have that left behind."

Camping wasn't a big part of my youth. My mom's idea of camping (or roughing it as she calls it) was a hotel that didn't have a working air conditioner.  When I was a teenager we went camping a couple of times and rented a trailer in a campground beside Darien Lake (a Western New York amusement park). Most of my camping time was spent chasing girls around the park and riding roller coasters. I camped a few more times in high school - which really just meant underage drinking in the woods. And it always rained.

Last fall I was asked by a local boy scout troop to come talk about food safety on camping/canoe trips. I admitted early on about my lack of camping experience - and kept their attention with stories about barf and diarrhea. I also gave out candy. Gotta know your audience.

According to the New Zealand Herald, a camping experience has left at least 30 kiwi students and parents with some sort of gastro illness following a camping trip.

A school trip to Omatua Camp, near Rissington in Hawkes Bay, has resulted in about half the 30 youngsters and even some parents getting ill.

The school's assistant principal Jane Taylor said the group arrived at the camp on Wednesday last week but days later the sickness kicked in. A second planned school visit to the camp was cancelled as a result.

"They [health inspectors] advised us not to go until they had identified the cause of the illness," Ms Taylor said.

The Hawke's Bay District Health Board's Medical Officer of Health Lester Calder said health protection officers were presently carrying out tests to find what sparked the outbreak of gastroenteritis.

While the cause of the outbreak was a mystery at this stage, health inspection officers were adopting a precautionary approach by investigating the drinking water supply at the camp, and providing advice about improvements which may be needed for better drinking water protection.

I guess it wasn't just the lack of coffee, nice beds and air conditioning my mom was worried about - maybe she was trying to avoid foodborne illness.
 

The kiwis have been trying to get some sort of food safety reform bill through parliament for years so, with the deck chairs shuffled or thrown overboard, why not try again.

The New Zealand Herald reports a bill bringing sweeping reform to food safety standards is being criticized for giving food safety officers excessive power and threatening the viability of small-scale food sellers and backyard community food swaps.

The bill, which is almost certain to become law with the support of most political parties, would replace 30-year-old legislation, which falls short of properly protecting consumers, and create a new framework for food safety.

But small operators fear that new compliance costs could push them under, while others have concerns about the bill's effects on community food swaps and growers who sell small amounts to retailers.

An online petition, which says the bill impedes the basic right to share food, has gathered almost 24,000 signatures.

There is also concern over the powers of food safety officers, who could search premises without a warrant in some circumstances and use any force necessary to enter and search, while being immune from civil or criminal liability.

While the Government has dismissed some criticism, Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson is seeking advice on how to ensure the bill would not affect the current rules on food swaps and selling and exchanging seeds.

The new safety framework is expected to be simpler. At the top end, businesses such as restaurants would need a rigid food plan, while places considered less risky, such as bakeries, would have to comply with a more flexible national program.

Neil Young once had to cancel some tour dates because he sliced a guitar finger while making a ham sandwich.

New Zealand's state-run Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which offers universal insurance cover for accidents, released figures today showing the cost of treatment, rehabilitation and compensation for accidents recorded last Christmas Day have topped $NZ1.9 million ($1.45 million).

That includes several claims for ham-related injuries - including carving mishaps and burns, neck and knee strains from carrying heavy hams, and even a crushed finger after a ham toppled from a stand.

Most of the 3,040 Christmas Day injuries accepted by ACC resulted from outdoor activities - including frisbee, fishing, slippery sliding, trampolining and poolside antics.

One person laughed so hard they fainted, hitting their head in the garden, another broke their tooth on a dislodged gem that ended up on the menu, and someone taking their post-lunch nap was injured when a drunk person stood on their face.