It's double trouble - times four

From left: In green, Strydah and Devontae Matthews-Panoho, aged 2. In blue, Kaleb and Cypress Travis, aged 3. In red, Jesse and James Leask, aged 3. In black, Blake and Cruz Stevenson, aged 2. Photo / Northern Advocate

Emma Romley at Hikurangi Educare says she's never seen anything like it.

"I wonder if there are other situations like this anywhere in New Zealand, to be honest."

She's talking about the four sets of identical twin boys who turn up at her childcare centre every Thursday.

The boys, who were all born within 18 months of each other, have hit the education scene with a bang and they're already pulling the wool over their caregivers' eyes.

"Usually they're dressed differently because their parents are being nice to us, so we can usually tell them apart, but Jesse and James have just got to the stage where they're trying to trick us.

"It certainly provides us with some challenges because when we've got photos we often can't remember who is who."

Educare caregivers have developed a set of clues they use to tell the twins apart.

One boy has a mole on the side of his head, another has a birthmark.

One boy's ears poke forward, another is wearing a hat.

"It's something we've got used to, we've gradually got to know each set of twins."

When the boys first came to the centre they tended to stick with their twin, Mrs Romley said, but as they got older they started to branch out on their own.

"As they get older they start to play in different directions."

The staff at Educare said the boys' parents were not related, so as far as they knew, there was only one explanation for the sudden boom in the number of boy twins in the town - "everyone says there must be something in the water".

Strangely enough there are no girl twins at Hikurangi Educare, although there is a set of them on the waiting list at the Hikurangi Kindergarten down the road.

Nor are there any mixed twins, although there is one set of mixed twins at the local primary school.

That's a lot of twins for a town of just over 1400 people. \NZH