Musings of an Idiot

Roadtrip

It has been an awesome roadtrip today and we found a town which could act as a backup/fallback incase Coromandel town doesn't work out for filming. Helensville isn't as scenic as Coromandel but it has it's own unique character and I saw quite a few small things which made me confident that it would be a good fall back location. One of the advantages is that it is only 60 K.M from Auckland - so it would be quite convenient for cast and crew. But again - it is only a backup; there is some magic in Coromandel town which suits the movie, so the efforts will be to try and get permission for filming there.


But to get to Helensville - it took us a better part of the day. Lance, Echo and Lancer {i will tell you who that is soon} came around to my place and picked me up and our first stop was Puhoi and then Warkworth, then Leigh; and finally to Wellsford before we got to Helensville. In between we had a stop over at Pakiri beach (near Goat Island).

Puhoi was a really small township and is famous for it's cheese. There was nothing much to the town which suited the film. Warkworth was way bigger than I thought it would be and it was a really busy town and thats one of the main reasons that we can't possibly film there. The vibe you get there is almost meteropolitan but at the same time there is a nice art community over there. Leigh is a small fishing township and it is a little too small for us plus didn't get much vibe from the place. It was really hot today, so Lance had a brilliant idea and took us to Pakiri beach, so that we could have a swim.


It was a fantastic beach and I could not resist getting into the sea for the 4th time in my life {first was when I was in 4th class at Loyola Public School; second time was when i first came to NZ in 2003 and promptly split my right palm open by jumping in shallow water and landing on a sharp rock; third time was again in 2003 when we took the trip to Goat Island, where Lance tried to teach me how to snorkel}. Did I mention that I don't know how to swim???? (:-) Well - this time around we were only in standing water and it was fun - it is a pity that I can't swim otherwise I think i will be addicted to swimming.

After the brief time at the beach, we headed towards Wellsford, as all of us were hungry and also had this huge urge to have an ice cream. We had lunch at a bakery/restaurent and had their ice cream after the lunch and the ice cream serving was huge. All of struggled to finish off our icecreams - Lance and me had a triple scoop while Echo had a single scoop. As we headed off towards Helensville - I was kind of down because nothing we had seen till then came anywhere close to what we were looking for but once we got Helensville it clicked a couple of buttons in my head.


Now if you are wondering who 'Lancer' is and why I haven't mentioned him to this point - well he is a small merekat toy that one of Lance's friend gave to him as a present to remind him of the Merekat incident at the Auckland Zoo where a Merekat dug its teeth into Lance's finger and wouldn't let go {this was when Lance was filming them in their enclosure}.


As we were driving back, Echo had Lancer with her and was trying to take a snap of him when Lance braked suddenly and since the window was wide open Lancer was out of the window. Lance had to stop the car, so that Echo could jump out of the car and go and fetch Lancer before he got squished to plastic by some passing car. We had a look at the photo which Echo took a split second before Lance braked and we cracked up laughing - you will see why.


Lancer is safe and sound -despite being in a bit of a shock. So the trip was fun and fruitful at the same time. It was great because the weather held up and it has been a gorgeous day. I will put up more photos once I get them from Lance.

I will sign off my update here as I am pretty tired and almost feel like hitting the bed early tonight.
Amit

posted by Amit @ 5:37 PM