Zane Wedding. Photo / Michael Craig
After a day of swimming, Zane Wedding thought the blocked ear he had woken up with the next morning was simply water.
But when the supposed water started moving around - even as he sat still - the Aucklander knew he had to see a doctor.
The first visit to the doctor, on Saturday morning, resulted in antibiotics being prescribed and the instruction to blow a hairdryer into his ear to help dry it out.
He was also told to return today if the feeling remained.
After two sleepless nights, however, he booked himself in at an ear clinic to see a specialist doctor yesterday.
It was the "Oh my God" from the doctor that made him jump - as well as her next words.
"She said: 'I think you have an insect in your ear'."
The doctor worked for a few minutes to extract the bug - all the while in disbelief herself, she told him - before pulling out the first half of a full cockroach.
"It made me physically ill," Wedding said.
The rest of the insect was later pulled out using a suction device.
"I felt [my eardrum] pop as it came away. The lady who extracted it said: 'I've never seen this before. I've read about it, but never seen it'.
"She kept saying: 'Oh my God'. When she first said it I thought I had a tumour."
He had spent Friday swimming and when he arrived home, dozed off on the couch that night.
At around midnight, he woke up to feel that his left ear was blocked.
After the initial visit to a doctor on Saturday morning, he did as he was told and used a hairdryer in a bid to dry his ear out, but it did not feel any better.
"I was basically doing a boil-up of that cockroach.
"On Sunday, I'd be sitting still and feel something moving around. I was deaf in that ear for that three days."
Wedding works as an arborist and has protested against the removal of native trees in the region - one of the most recent events being a protest in Avondale in 2020.
"I slept in a tree and nothing happened.
"I fall asleep on the couch on a Friday night and end up with a cockroach in my ear for three days."
Wedding said one positive to come out of the experience was the message to always seek a second opinion if you feel something is not right with your body.
Wedding, who is Māori, said that was a particularly important message he wanted to send to people of Māori and Pacific descent who he acknowledged were sometimes afraid to see a doctor or seek specialist advice.
Thinking about the ordeal now, he is still in disbelief.
"It still gives me the creeps. We've got the fumigator coming in on Friday."
The new free open-air saltwater pool is already proving popular.