KEY POINTS:
It could be seen as the ultimate act of camouflage, but one Southland man is less than happy about his maimai's disappearing act.
Robert Brunton visited his family bach at the Fortrose sandspit, 50km southeast of Invercargill, at the weekend to prepare his mobile maimai for the duckshooting season, due to start on Saturday, the Southland Times reported.
However, he discovered the maimai, consisting of a pipe frame covered in scrub on a steel-framed and wooden-decked trailer had vanished.
Thieves had hitched it to their vehicle and driven off with it.
Mr Brunton found the badly damaged maimai yesterday but the trailer was missing.
The maimai was on a trailer so it could be towed to different spots by a motorbike when the tides changed, keeping the ducks in shotgun range.
His wife Leona said her husband's response was unprintable.
And even more upset were his boys Hayden Beck, 15, and Regan Brunton, 7, due to head out with Dad for the shooting season.
Mr Brunton had followed the tracks of the thieves along the sand and found a digger had been used to move sand after they got stuck, Mrs Brunton said.
Police were investigating.
- NZPA
