Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz

Beachcombers and boaties beware: There may be more hazards than sunburn and blue bottles lurking at the shoreline.

Occasionally unexploded air force devices wash ashore on our region's coastline and some can be quite dangerous. Such as the unexploded military nightmare the RR team stumbled across this week.

Most people have fairly uneventful holidays: Catch a few fish, read a book, take home some nice snapshots. Not so the Rogers. A simple week away seems never without drama. Previous calamities are too numerous to cover here, but may make a subject another day.

In the latest episode, this week, Claire Rogers and Labrador Flo were swimming in the pristine, blue waters of an isolated Coromandel beach, with nothing more taxing on their minds than contemplating tuna and kingfish sashimi with home-made pickled ginger. Until they discovered this potentially lethal contraption awash near the high tide mark.

After brushing the sand and seaweed off to read the writing, Claire finds the shiny grey cylinder carried the words: 'Danger do not touch. Contact Police.”

Too late! Had to touch it to read the words!

Under instructions from the military, Claire carries her 'bomb” above the high tide mark to await detonation by navy munitions experts.

Other instructions, unreadable after months in the water, included the words 'arm” and 'launch” suggesting the sinister-looking device was some sort of bomb.

Heeding instructions to call police, the Rogers were soon in touch with the military, who from the description decided that the 'bomb” was in fact an air force marine marker flare head, fired from an air force plane, containing highly volatile phosphorous and designed to shoot flame and smoke once it struck the water, as a marine locater.

The flare head was meant to activate on striking the sea surface, and in the event of it not firing, a scuttle function should have kicked in, and sent it harmlessly to the bottom of the sea.

In this case, neither of those things had happened, and the flare head eventually found its way to high tide on White Beach, Great Mercury Island to interrupt Flo's stick fetching operation.

The navy bomb experts assured the Rogers that it would be safe to carefully lift the device above the high tide mark. They didn't want it washing away.

The navy and army, who apparently clean up after the air force, despatched munitions experts, who hitched a ride with fisheries patrol, and met the RR crew on the beach.

They confirmed the gizmo had not ignited but were unsure how much hazardous substance it still contained. It needed to be blown up. Being mature and sensible professionals, we agreed by saying 'Yeeha, bring it on”. The beach was evacuated, which wasn't a big job since there was no-one there.

Word spread quickly around Mercury Cove that there was some action out on the bay and a few boats gathered for the spectacle.

The army and navy guys took the device down the beach and laid their charges around it. Anyone who watches repeat episodes of Sea Patrol will know about this.

After retreating back along the beach a few hundred metres and ensuring the area was clear, the army guy counted down, pushed the button and our 'bomb” was blown to smithereens.

(That's a navy term, for completely munted.)

The moral of the story is – follow the instructions on the packet.

The navy man said there have been about eight such devices found and destroyed on the NZ coastline in the last year and there could be many floating around the Pacific.

'Call the police, and don't touch unless instructed to,” is the wise advice from the experts.

During the course of researching this story, we were informed of one case of how not to handle a derelict military flare head.

Apparently a young farmhand found one washed up on the coast, and instead of calling the police, he decided to take it home and see what was inside.

Attacking the cylinder with an angle grinder, it wasn't long before the heat of the cutting and the sparks from the grinder ignited the contents. He was unable to put out the fire, so dropped the thing into a tub of water.

It continued burning furiously and boiled the bucket. Officials say he was lucky to escape alive.

That's all for this week. Flo tells the story from her viewpoint in this issue and we'll have a follow up and video of the detonation on the beach on SunLive in a few days.

Have you had holiday dramas to share with our readers? Drop me a line at brian@thesun.co.nz and tell us your quirky stories. Photos would be great too.

Enjoy the beach and watch where you step. Next time you're writing your tax cheque, spare a thought for those in the military who are ever-creative in their pursuit of dramatic and spectacular methods of spending it.

Next week: How to make your own pickled ginger, and three easy steps to diffuse a nuclear warhead.