Why?
I’ve always been fairly obsessed with strange stuff. From strange movies, to strange people, to strange places, to strange creatures. Odd stuff fascinates me, it makes me excited to be on this planet where I don’t really quite know what’s going on (I don’t really understand people who think they do know what’s going on. Can’t take them seriously).
Confused/Happy: Tokyo Game Show, 2008
From an early age this fundamental obsession led me to the rather bizarre topic of Cryptozoology. Put simply, cryptozoology is the science of hidden animals. Bigfoot, Nessie - they’re some of the big ones. But there are loads of creatures cryptozoologists around the planet are trying to find - from the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) in Australia, to the Waitoreke (a type of otter) in New Zealand. You see, they’re not all sexy like bigfoot. Some cryptozoologists are out hunting boring old frogs.
For the last 3 years, I’ve found myself working as an entertainment reporter for TV3 News. In amongst meeting some fascinating & famous characters, I somehow forgot the joy associated with pondering the existence of creatures yet to be discovered by science.
That was until earlier this year, when I took a whirlwind trip around the UK. As well as engaging in all the stereotypical things a kiwi gets up to in London, I found myself at a lecture by two of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, Richard Freeman and Jonathan Downes. They were so fascinating, I filmed a story about them:
Talking to those two men got me excited again - genuinely excited - about weird stuff on planet earth. And there’s one particular creature that’s very weird. It’s a creature that can’t help but capture the imagination, reminding you there’s more to life than watching Home & Away every night after you finish work. It’s the Mongolian Death Worm, known by the locals as “Allghoi khorkhoi”. Mongolians say it’s around 1.5 meters long, reddish-brown in colour and has the nasty habit of spitting acid and killing you.
It’s a creature too good to resist - and in August, I’m going to Mongolia to find it. What’s more, it’ll be filmed and turned into a documentary about one of the most fascinating topics on this planet: Mongolia’s deadly Death Worm.