Visitors to Hamilton gardens can go reptile spotting at Turtle Lake, so named after its population of abandoned pet red-eared slider turtles.
Unfortunately, they are one of the world's worst invasive species, and Turtle Lake isn't the only waterway in Waikato where you can now find the unwanted reptiles.
Listing them on the National Pest Pet Biosecurity Accord would control their sale throughout New Zealand.
But as Libby Kirkby-McLeod found out, that is easier said than done.
