Attack by magpie runs campaigner off the road

A magpie attack left Otago University student president Paul Chong dazed and bloodied on a Northland highway at the weekend.

The attack occurred north of Kawakawa on just the second day of Mr Chong's cycle trip down the country to raise awareness about the $8.7 billion student debt mountain.

"I was travelling at about 60km/h, which is about the top speed I can get, when out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pecking," Mr Chong said from the safety of urban Auckland yesterday, where he was recuperating.

"I thought, 'What is that?' The next thing the bird was scratching at my face. I tried to shake it off but I came off my bike in the process and cracked my helmet on the asphalt. I woke up in the middle of the state highway."

The pecking had started on his back, before the bird jumped up on his helmet to attack his face, he said.

After regaining consciousness but still dazed, Mr Chong rolled into the ditch at the side of the highway where he said he lay until a van carrying locals stopped.

"I was lying in the ditch in a huge amount of pain being bitten by millions of bugs."

The locals had room in their van for his broken bike, which is now in a bike shop in Auckland.

"It was a great feeling when they came along and said, 'Are you okay'," he said of the van Samaritans.

They dropped him at the Kawakawa hospital.

While intent on pushing on with his "Student Debt Cycle" of the country, he said he would feel nervous the next time he heard the "quardle, ardle, oodle, ardle, wardle, doodle" of the magpie.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES