In the Immortal Words of Maria von Trapp

"Let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start."

After being made redundant from N.Z.Railways in 1991, I went to England for a 2 month holiday. While there I went and found Bekonscot Model Village, which I'd read about in an old children's encyclopaedia. It was closed for the winter but the staff in the office made me very welcome, gave me a coffee and an umbrella and said to have a wander around.

Basically, I fell in love with the place and came home, full of confidence. and started building my own model village - 15 years later I'm still wondering what I've done.

I first started making buildings for a 1/12th scale model English village. Then, after a year, it occurred to me that it would make more sense to model our own local history - so I started on a model of Waiuta - a local goldmining town,now a ghost-town. After a couple of years on that, I heard of another model village which included its own model, model village, so I started making one of those too - a model of my hometown, Reefton NZ, in 1/76th scale (HO).

In the Reefton village, I included a model, model, model village - a model of Bekonscot in 1/144th scale. Since then I've also started on a pioneering goldtown - Nelson Creek c.1880 and a model Maori village. Also there is Gnomeland - a haven for gnomes and fairies.

After 13 years, and hundreds of models, I was getting nowhere and was about ready to give up when Mike & Sue came and offered space on their property at On Yer Bike (still don't know how to do a link there), at Coal Creek, Greymouth - so that's what we're doing.

All the villages, in various stages of completion, are now set-up except for the English one which is coming next.

That's enough of that. The photos, which i somehow managed to upload, are the models of the Waiuta gold-mine and Waiuta's "other gold-mine" - the Empire Hotel.

I need to get some lessons this weekend on how to upload photos & move them around.

'Til then,

cheers