Long-legged stranger shows himself

Castlecliff mum Rachel Liley thought she was seeing things when she found a rare brown vagrant spider while weeding her garden.
"It's the biggest spider I have ever seen. I was so amazed, I had to catch it so I could show everyone. I also wanted to find out what it was and whether it was dangerous.''
Mrs Liley said her initial plan was to have the monstrous spider set in resin and have it as a keepsake forever.
But after speaking to a Department of Conservation expert that idea had to be shelved.
"They told me not to kill it and to let it go, because it was a native spider and quite rare, so I'm glad I found out," she said.
Vagrant spiders are usually dark brown to black with a 5cm leg span.
There are probably about 20 species of vagrant spider in New Zealand, most of which have been documented by scientists.
These spiders seek shelter by day and hunt by night, and they prefer to run away rather than bite.