Some more moody coastal scenery from Pancake Rocks and the West Coast of NZ before we head back east.
For those who want to find out more of what it was like on the West Coast in the ‘bad old days’ then having a read of Booker Prize novel, The Luminaries or watching Jane Campion’s classic film, The Piano, would probably give you an idea.
After Wyndham, we returned to those distant hills, and as we drew closer we saw that it was a sandstone range – the Cockburn Range.
These mountains formed much of the backdrop to the first half of Australia – they’re very distinctive. It also lines the first part of the Gibb River Road – the 660km old drover’s route between the ports of Wyndham in the East Kimberley and Derby in the West Kimberley. We’ll travel down its entire length during the tour.
They’re so distinctive that it became my picture of the day – with the now obligatory boabs and a few whistling kites for good measure.
Down at sea-level, we perused the one-street town that was Wyndham.
The salt pan attracted a few people.
And there were plenty of rusty remnants from bygone days. Since the closure of the meat works and the mine, there’s really not much work at the port, or anywhere in town.
Aside from these attractions, it had a jetty, a big (fiberglass) crocodile, a museum, a grocery shop, a gift shop, and a surprisingly good cafe. We tried looking for saltwater crocodiles at the jetty, but all we saw was endless mangroves.
Hugh, Nic and Baz were in the area to shoot Australia, but that’s 10 years ago now. Let’s hope that Wyndham gets back on its feet someday.
When the first of the Lord of the Rings movies came out more than a decade ago, my brother and I were quite enchanted by it all. So when we did a tour of the North Island a few months later, we tried our hardest to find the set for the village of Hobbiton. It’s where the little hobbits (who were half the size of humans) lived their quiet lives. Well, until the wizard Gandalf proposed an adventure.
We heard that it was somewhere near the Waikato town of Matamata, so on our way to Rotorua, we tried driving down the country roads nearby Matamata to find it. The landscape roundabouts was certainly similar to what we saw in the movie, but try as we might, we couldn’t find the movie set.
Nowadays Hobbiton is a part of the North Island tourist route. I was excited to find out that it was part of our tour. Hobbitses! Its entrance is inconspicuous enough.
The tours were all guided, so our tour guide directed our bus down the driveway, past paddocks of sheep (the property is still a working farm).
Until we came to the village…
Yes, it was Hobbiton, with little hobbit holes, lovingly recreated…
Vege patches and a shed…
Beehives and the party tree…
Even a watermill and the Green Dragon pub (serving hobbit-style ales).
Even though everything except the pub were exteriors, the level of detail was astounding. It must have costed a fortune, and from what the tour guide told us it did. Why? Because Peter Jackson, the man behind Lord of the Rings and all of this, was um, obsessed. He wanted to get everything right, especially the details. The tree above Baggins End (Bilbo and Frodo’s place), for example, was constructed from a tree cut down from elsewhere on the farm that he had liked. Because the leaves of the original tree weren’t quite right, he had artificial leaves imported from Taiwan and hand-sewn on!
But the movies made so much money that all the production excesses simply didn’t matter in the end – they recouped the costs half way through the cinema run of the first movie and ended up making a profit many times over. Which is all very un-hobbit-like. Nevertheless, I (and lots of other fans) are glad they decided to open up the village, because I certainly found it delightful.
Made another rediscovery last night I was looking through some old art magazines last night and stumbled on an article about English author/illustrator, Raymond Briggs. Now, that’s a blast from the past. I first came across his work in high school. I was a nerd and spent most of my lunch times in the library with all of my nerdy friends, and as a consequence discovered some interesting sections, such as the children’s picture book section. Raymond Briggs’ books were in this section, but I certainly don’t call some of his work for young children. My favourite is the hilarious and clever, Fungus the Bogeyman, but the most affecting had to be When the Wind Blows. And what do you know, the whole thing is on youtube.
Ok, so the introduction is a bit dated now, but persist because this is powerful stuff, and unfortunately still a possibility even now.
A little clichéd maybe, but cute nevertheless!
While channel-surfing last week I stumbled upon the Beatles musical, Across the Universe. I only aimed to watch 5 minutes and swap back to the food channel, but it was so good that I ended up watching the whole thing.
A poignant rendition of a classic song…
Static and Silence 