Bumble!

And now for a spot of New Zealand kids TV, with Bumble and Fishy. Kia kaha!

And in case you didn't catch it, Fishy is a banded kokopu, Galaxias fasciatus, a galaxiid of the genus Galaxias. Fortunately for Fishy, when he was a tiddler - a whitebait - he didn't end up in a whitebait patty at the local fish & chip shop (hope the kiddies weren't traumatised by the thought). End of learning moment.

If Kiwi kids absorbed this sort of knowledge at a tender age through children's TV programming, how come the country isn't turning out a generation of Einsteins yet?

Damn, can't get that Fishy song outta my head!

Goodnight Kiwi - Alternative Ending

This one didn't air so it is said. But the kiwi gets the chick after all. No word on TVNZ's official position on inter-species dating...

Goodnight Kiwi Comeback!

Well, it's late and what better topic to post on than the Goodnight Kiwi who graced the last minute or so of TVNZ's closing down routine between 1981 and 1994 before the yammering of all-night informercials started. A cooler, saner time (oozing sarcasm about here).

Here's the classic clip. Quite what a kiwi, a nocturnal bird, is doing sleeping when its wild peers are out rooting up worms & bugs, or hanging out with a cat, a predator of said kiwi, one cannot say but most people find it charming in its anthropocentric way. The kiwi even puts out a glass milk bottle...

But Goodnight Kiwi fans, the good news is they're back apparently. Starting 1 December, TVNZ is bringing the guys back for an encore - 3 all-new animated shorts.

Incidentally, the music is a Maori lullaby song "Hine e Hine".... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...