Another Cousin!

(I've got heaps of them).

No, not the Hobbit - the other guy.

Ken Hunt, and his wife Selina, came to see us yesterday. I've never met him before, I think, but he would be a 4th (?) cousins - our grandfathers were brothers.

Ken is an artist (http://kenhunt.org/) and so is his daughter Renee (http://reneehunt.org/) They live at Paraparaumu Beach, near Wellington.

I think that we both learnt some stuff and he had some great stories, the best of which was about the Lord of the Rings which he did some work for.

Ever wondered how they made the Hobbits look small while Gandalf etc were big? Apparently, there were two identical sets, one bigger, one smaller. They filmed the 'little' people in the big set and the 'big' people in the little set. The films were then blended together.

Ken was commissioned to paint portraits of Peter Jackson and his wife, done up as Bilbo Baggins and Belladonna Took. He had to show Peter without a beard, give him Hobbit ears and do two identical portraits, one bigger than the other, to hang on the wall inside the Hobbit's houses in the first movie.

He didn't enjoy the works because there was no inspiration involved, they had to be done as ordered and done twice. They were in the background in the movie and he thought that no-one would recognise who they were really of.

However, when Peter Jackson went up to recieve his award at the Academy Awards, there was a huge blow-up of the portrait behind the stage. Ken said that they were watching the awards on TV. His wife laughed but he cringed when he saw his work up there.

Great story!

I do like this game, never know who we're going to see next and the less in the mood I am, the more interesting the visitors are.

Who's next? Cheers

They Came Back!

Last Sunday, we had a barbecue at On Yer Bike for all the families who've been through Nuturing the Future parenting courses in the last 6 months, also combined with people from Sue & Mike's church group - about 200 in all, in the pouring rain!

That didn't seem to worry any of the kids though - thank goodness for Michael's big shed. Everyone got to visit the village, got fed, (except for me!), and had a ride on the Haglund, thanks to Michael.

Everything went smoothly, largely thanks to Warren and his team who were there all day cooking a whole pig, 6 chickens etc. A lot of the food was donated by New World Supermarket, which was great of them. Thanks.

Everybody went home by 7pm, which was also good.

cheers

Room 7,Murchison Area School

Dear Waiuta Model Village People,

Thank you for letting us look at the Model Village and thank you for letting us look at the shantytown at your place. I liked how you were nice to us and let us look for the wedding party.

From
Cassandra

Dear Waiuta Model Village People,

Thank you for letting us see your model village. I like looking at your lake. It was very exciting.

I got all mixed up when I was counting the red houses.

Were you tricking us with the people in the pool because I couldn't find all the people at all? It was funny when I saw the man on the toilet. I like that model.

Thank you very much again.

From,
Bevalyn

Dear Waiuta Model Village People,

When we came to see the model village I saw the rocks with the writing on them. I saw insects on them as well. Some of them were spiders and some of them were grasshoppers. We were still on our way to Shantytown. I fell asleep on the bus on the way to Shantytown. I was impressed with your effort. Did it take a long time?

Can you write back please?

From,
Abby


Hello Murchison People!

Thanks for your letters, I really liked them. Thanks too, for coming to see the village. I'm glad you liked it. I've been building it for nearly 20 years now.

There used to some models of kids in the swimming pool, but they've gone. I think somebody must have pinched them!

Speaking of the wedding party, I copied that picture from an old photograph. There were 2 old ladies here one day, they were laughing and pointing when I walked up to them. They said that they were two of the girls in the photo, 60 years ago!

If you ever come back to the Coast, you should go and visit the real Waiuta. The town is not there anymore, but it's still a magic place, (and it's free!)

Thanks again. It was nice to see you and I'm not surprised that Abby fell asleep on the bus. It was a long day for you all.

Enjoy your holidays.

cheers

Glentunnel School

So, 26 kids from Glentunnel School in Canterbury came to visit - in the rain, but they said that the weather was worse where they came from. I didn't take any pics, because i'm an idiot.

Their teacher said he used to teach at Totara Flat, West Coast, and knew Ena Griffin there well. Ena grew up in Waiuta (nee. Beckwith) and she was my wife's aunty. New Zealand really is a village!

From here, the kids were going on to stay the night in Reefton, and then going to Waiuta the following day. Hope the weather was kind to them. Waiuta is a magic place but it's not fun in the rain up in the hills.

cheers

Coromandel Area School

A group of 20 year 6 to 9 kids from Coromandel Area School came to visit.

They're doing a tour of the top-half of the South Island, travelling in 2 vans. Half of them had seen Reefton on the way here, the other half hadn't because they took the wrong road and got lost. (North Islanders!)

From here they were travelling on the Tranz-Alpine train to Christchurch - a great trip and a great experience for them all. Lucky Beggars.

Anyway, the Waiuta Mine was the 2nd. richest gold-mine in New Zealand. It produced more than enough gold to pay-off the entire national debt at any time in New Zealand's history. The only bigger mine in NZ was the Martha Mine in Waihi, Coromandel, where this lot come from.

One of my Great-Grandfathers was killed in the Martha Mine, he fell down the shaft.

I'm not sure how it happened, but his widow, my Gran Healey, later came on a boat to Greymouth, married Ted Healey, a carpenter, and they and my 5yo Grandmother went up to Waiuta in a horse and cart. That was in 1905 and they lived there for a few years while Ted was helping build the town. He actually built the Red Huts, a long-time landmark.

My Grandmother, Mattie, was a pupil in the school on the day it opened. She later lived in Reefton and died there in 1997, aged 97 years, so she saw Waiuta start and finish.

She was originally born in Arrowtown, near Queenstown, so she spent her whole life on goldfields.

Today's history lesson concludes.

cheers

St. Canice's Came Back

On a brilliantly sunny, but windy, day 20 kids from St. Canice's school, Westport came to visit. My favourite school!

Actually, it was the 4th time they've been here now - different kids/parents but same teachers. It is such a great idea - they come down the Coast Road from Westport, see the village and have lunch, and then go on, up the Grey Valley to Waiuta for their school camp for a couple of days. After that they go home via Reefton and the Buller Gorge.

Much better than going off to a city for their camp and learning about other people's regions & history. Waiuta is different to home but it's in their own backyard.


We give them a list of questions and things to look for in the village.


It helps to slow them down.


Always a joy - roll-on next year!

cheers

The Can-Man was Cole Parker, NOT Tony Anisy!

Visitors to the village are given a copy of the Souvenir Map/info sheet. These are quite handy because the map helps them find their way around and when i see someone with one in their hand, i know where they're going.

On the back of the map there are little stories about people in Waiuta and these correspond to the numbered stones dotted around in the village at relevant sites.

We're about to have the maps re-printed because we've run out, which is good because there's a mistake which badly needs fixing.

The last story is about 'the Can-Man'. Most of the toilets in Waiuta were long-drops, (seats over deep holes in the ground), but some at the top-end were short-drops and their cans needed emptying regularly. The guy who had this delightful job for a long time was an pensioned-off miner and he would change the cans in the middle of the night.

He didn't have a cart, just two cans on a long pole carried across his shoulders. So, of course, the locals all called him 'the Chinaman'. At home, he had a large garden and he grew a lot of strawberries, but even the kids of the town weren't interested in stealing them.

He couldn't sell his produce locally so he used to come down to Greymouth and sell on the side of the street - nobody here knew where they were from and what they were grown in.

Anyway, when the map was printed, through a printer's error, the Can-Man was named as Tony Anisy, which was not right, it should've said Cole Parker.

Tony was actually a dapper little man, of Lebanese descent, who had a small draper's shop in the village. He was always very neat and tidy and generally wore a three-piece suit, even in leisure hours.

His god-daughter, Gwen Poole, nee Jones, came to see us one day and she was mortified that we were telling people that Tony Anisy changed the poo-tins in the night. She said that he'd be spinning in his grave!

So, now we can fix it - the Can-Man was Cole Parker, not Tony Anisy.

Sheesh, politics!

cheers