That's what 3,500 West Coasters said after a major broadband outage was caused by hungry rodents chewing through fiber optic cables.
The internet went out for customers between Greymouth and Westport on Sunday evening, just after the national alarm went off for the Civil Defense's annual emergency test.
The coincidence led many to wonder if the system was overloaded, when in fact the problem could be traced back to rats.
Chorus said his team discovered that the fiber optic cables had been damaged by rodents.
The first outage occurred on Saturday night and a temporary solution was implemented.
However, because the rodents were still in the canals, repeated disruptions occurred this weekend.
“We have now diverted all services to the alternative temporary cable, which is outside the affected channel,” a spokeswoman said.
Service was gradually restored over the weekend, until just after midnight on Sunday.
Chorus said it is working to provide protection and prevent future incidents, with a new rodent-proof channel for the fiber optic cables.
“We try to minimize the impact of rodents by using rodent-proof ducts where possible and sealing ductwork properly, but unfortunately the critters sometimes get through. This is especially the case at this time of year as they are nesting .”
The spokeswoman said the blackout was not related to the emergency mobile phone test yesterday, just after 6pm.
– Greymouth star