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What humans call the Moeraki Boulders are actually the petrified remains of giant Intergalactic Space Hedgehogs who crashed on the earth around 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. As with Earth's hedgehogs, the Inspogs curl into balls as danger approaches.

Sadly, in this case, the Inspogs were all killed on impact. The heat of the crash melted the ice, and the curled Inspogs sank into the ice. The floor of their spaceship was lined with dirt to make the Inspogs feel more at home in space, and this dirt cover the dead Inspogs. As ice formed again over the crash site, the weight of the ice compacted the dirt around the Inspogs so much that it turned into rock, petrifying the Hedgehogs.

Although they were all killed in the crash, Inspog mythology says that if Earth's Hedgehogs are ever in danger of extinction because of humans, the Inspogs will be returned to life. The Hedgehog God of War, Hérisson Armipotens, will save the mortal hedgehog population from being wiped out.

He will raise an island from the sea off the Otago Peninsula, and will move all the world's hedgehogs there. He will then place a protective forcefield around the island, that will prevent any humans from every reaching the island. Hérisson Armipotens will then help the Inspogs to rebuild their spaceships so they can return to their home planet that they left thousands of years ago.

All hedgehogs on earth are expected to make a pilgrimage to the Moeraki Inspogs at least once in their lives. Upon arrival, they place their paws on the boulders, and chant "Take me to the island when you go" seven times (in Hedgehog). Once the chant is finished, a bond is formed between the hedgehog and his (or her) Inspog Saviour. If the time comes during the hedgehog's lifetime to go to the island, then he or she will be taken there by his (or her) particular Saviour.

There was one other hedgehog undertaking a pilgrimage to the Moeraki Inspogs at the same time as Dover was. Prickles, from Framlingham, Suffolk, on the other side of the world in the United Kingdom. Prickles was travelling around New Zealand with a human friend and was very excited when he found out that Dover lives in Tauranga.

Prickles lives in a primary school in England, and his human school friends there exchange e-mails with a school in Katikati. Katikati is only a 20 minute drive away from Tauranga. As the Inspogs said when they arrived on earth, "It's a small world".

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