As a kid my Uncle Allan was always interested in models, he liked trains, planes and small toys. When he left school he worked for New Zealand Railways as a train controller.
About 16 years ago his job finished so he went to England to visit his daughters Ada and Tracey. While he was there he visited some model villages and he loved them.
When he came back to the West Coast he decided to build his own village. He started first with an English village and then built Waiuta, a West Coast gold mining ghost town. Then he built Reefton which is his home town.
The village took 15 years to build, and last year he finally opened it, but Uncle Allan says it is still far from finished. It takes up nearly three acres of land. .
The buildings, people, cars, animals and scenery are made out of whatever he can find. He reuses all sorts of things to build new scenes. He uses treated timber to make weather boards that are 3mm thick, pretty tiny aye?? Windows and door frames for buildings are made out of old road markers he finds on the side of roads. Whenever he sees a broken road marker he jumps out of his car and gets it.
Every day Uncle Allan always has something to do, because the village always needs maintenance and he is still building new stuff. Visitors come every day, the most he has had is 100 in one day. He likes to talk to them all and show them round the place. He goes home exhausted but he says it is really exciting meeting people from all round the world and hearing their stories.
So next time you visit the west Coast make sure you visit “Little earth model Village”, it’s on the way to Punakaiki and the Blowholes”.
Make sure you tell Him you heard about the village from Mitchell ……
cheers Mitty.
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