British tourist's passport stolen by parrot in New Zealand

Police said the Scottish visitor reported the theft from a tour bus on its way to Milford Sound, a coastal beauty spot in South Island's rugged Fiordland region.

A police spokesman in Te Anau, the nearest town, said the kea had swooped on a brightly coloured courier bag containing the man's passport when the coach made a stop and the driver opened the luggage compartment.

The passport has not been recovered and, given the 4,600 square mile size of Fiordland's alpine national park, the officer feared it was unlikely to be.



The Scotsman, who did not want to be identified, said he had been told by the British High Commission in Wellington that there could be a wait of up to six weeks before he receives a replacement passport.

He said he was planning to return home to Scotland in August.

"Being Scottish, I've got a sense of humour, so I did take it with humour, but obviously there is a side of me that is still raging," he said. "My passport is somewhere out there in Fiordland. The kea is probably using it for fraudulent claims or something."