It could be a Tom Cruise blockbuster. However, it’s not a movie (yet) – it’s the true story of a Wellington neighbourhood working to rid itself of rats, mice, possums, stoats and weasels.

Ever heard a possum lurking outside your bedroom window in the middle of the night, breathing heavily, or a rat’s tiny feet scuttling across the roof overhead? Neither experience is pleasant.

I’d never been to the ‘Third Island’, and had heard enough raves about backyard kaka and beaches chocka with kiwi to want to check it out.

Our task was to lay out one hundred DOC-200 traps (a large box trap primarily targeting stoats) in the Ruahine Range behind Waipukurau, central Hawkes Bay.