[ZenGum]

All this, from here.

Weird and wonderful is the only way to describe many of the stories which came out of New Zealand this past week.

By now most people have heard about the service station owners from the North Island city of Rotorua, who skipped town after Westpac accidentally put $10 million in their bank account.

They are still hiding out somewhere in Asia.

[Also, one in-law was able to visit them for a while but was ditched after posting details of her location ON HER FACEBOOK PAGE and one thing they aren't explaining is how the couple got $5,000,000 or so out of the account and out of the country. Zengum]

But New Zealand police managed to catch up with Billy the Hunted One.

South Island man William Stewart had been playing a cat and mouse game with police for 100 days and became a bit famous in the process.

Despite a string of violence and drug convictions, Billy the Hunted One - as he likes to be known - was being written up as a "national hero" in some newspapers.

When he was being chased by police, he would bamboozle them by pulling off the road and turning off his headlights.

He also gave hitch-hikers rides in his stolen vehicles and scratched thank-you notes into kitchen tables with a knife when he stole food from farmhouses.

One female journalist appeared to have developed a slight crush on the long-haired fugitive.

In her stories she likened him to a "dishevelled version of American crooner Michael Bolton".

But Billy was bad - his luck ran out when he tried to steal a farmer's quad bike in the middle of the night.


As the week wore on, the stories got even stranger.

A motor vehicle company in New Zealand announced it was giving away a free goat with every ute sold.

Its public relations man was quoted in the papers as saying, with sheep numbers in decline in New Zealand, it was time to "float the goat".

He talked up their weed-eating abilities and also guaranteed there was zero risk of getting goat flu.

Then, police revealed thieves had broken into a wine shop just down the road from the ABC's office in central Auckland.

Local robberies do not usually raise an eyebrow, but this was no ordinary break-and-enter.

The bandits stole alcohol worth $250,000.

They pinched rare pinot noir, very costly cognac and a bottle of Dom Perignon, which was plated in gold and worth $14,000.

Police believe it was a robbery to order and the bottles have probably already hit the black market.

On the subject of beverages, a New Zealand woman came forward with her story of how she lost 45 kilograms in eight months.

She revealed she had done it by drinking nothing but the energy drink Red Bull.

Brooke Robertson says she downed about 10 cans a day. If she was desperate for some solids she scoffed a handful of cereal.

She hid her addiction from her family until she had a minor heart attack. She now suffers from anxiety and has a permanent heart murmur.

and not one incident amongst them.