KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand woman whose prized banana-eating cow Daisy has been stolen from her Tongan farmlet is worried it has been taken for the coronation feast.
The two-year-old heifer, which had been tied to a mango tree with an 18m length of rope, vanished from Lee Miller's property at Ha'ateiho on the outskirts of Nuku'alofa on the weekend.
Mrs Miller is sure the disappearance is connected to this week's coronation of King George Tupou V, the animal stolen either for the feast or as a living gift.
Mrs Miller went to police but they said they couldn't do anything. "I cried yesterday, she is worth a couple of thousand dollars but means a lot more to us than that."
Mrs Miller, who runs a number of businesses on Tongatapu, got Daisy about six months ago after a man failed to pay his rental car bill.
"He said he couldn't pay for the car but he had a cow."
Daisy was highly valued, keeping the grass down and providing manure for her organic commercial vegetable garden. She also loved bananas.
"All the kids that come here loved her. She was gorgeous and placid but would headbutt us if we didn't bring her bananas."
Mrs Miller had been hoping to get a calf out of Daisy and then milk her.
Whoever stole Daisy had untied her from the tree and dragged her on to the back of a truck of which the tyre marks could still be seen.
Mrs Miller, who has lived in Tonga for 17 years after getting shipwrecked there in a cyclone, hoped someone would help save Daisy from the umu (earth oven) before it was too late.
She said Daisy was completely black with no horns.
She would have a rope mark around her neck if the rope, also missing, had been taken off her.
* The Prime Minister will travel to Tonga for the coronation. Helen Clark said the presence of New Zealand's Governor-General and Prime Minister reflects the close ties between New Zealand and Tonga.
