I set my Eric trap, and wait...

Knowing that National Party MP Eric Roy was to walk his Riverton to Colac Bay leg of his Southland tour today, I baited his route with a protest-cairn made with 3 chunks of lignite. My plan? To leap nimbly from behind the nearby power-pole as Eric lumbered toward the lignite and snap him looking perplexed. I'd then batter him with challenging questions around climate change and lignite mining. Once he'd ceased his tearful pleading for mercy in the face of my searching interrogation, I'd walk him up the hill to my house, where I'd make him a cup of tea and he could have a wee lie down, before continuing his slightly stunned way, on to Colac Bay.

But he didn't show up. I knew he was in town, as I'd seen his massive diesel-burning support truck earlier in the morning. Perhaps he'd been caught up in a leg of the cycle Tour of Southland that also came through here this morning, helicopters, cars, trucks, buses, vans and motorbikes in attendance. Or perhaps he'd beaten me to it, passing through in the murky half-light, like a thief in the night :-)

So I didn't get the shot I wanted, but the cairn looked good, so here it is anyway, slap-dab in the middle of the footpath. Imagine, if you will, Eric's grimace and fallen shoulders, on seeing this affront to his excavatory plans. I'll not give up though. Eric's due out here again next week for the candidate's debate at the local school hall. I have other plans and schemes for that night.