Waiheke Island sandflies

Hi there

I've just returned from Auckland.  While there, I went swimming on Waiheke Island (two different beaches), and at Mission Bay, and also Takapuna Beach.

Oneroa Beach on Waiheke is lovely and so is (the water at)  Palm Beach.  But Palm Beach has sandflies.  Lots of little hippity-hoppity sandflies.  Most of them wanting to surround obviously only me.  I decided to laze up high on a wooden bench, but they surrounded me up there, too.   Who knew the little blighters could jump so high?

Cutting short my enjoyment of a lovely afternoon, I stomped angrily back into the changing shed where a fellow swimmer pointed out that I was in the centre of a ball of sandflies.

"Oooh, they're in your hair!" she shrieked.  "Go-get-a-shower!-go-get-a-shower!" 

She all but pushed me out of the shed.

Water is scarce on Waiheke but I stayed under that outside shower a good ten minutes.  I didn't care about passersby looking meaningfully at their watches, or even if they were staring at my big thighs. 

All I could think of was that I must have looked awfully like Pigpen, the character from the Peanuts comic strip ...

***
PS:  I don't know what sandflies are called outside of New Zealand.  Maybe 'midges'?

PPS:  no lasting effects from my bubble bath bathroom flood, except I was up till 2 am washing and drying dozens of towels.