New Zealand

26/07/11 19:11

Described as Middle Earth after so much success derived from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a traveller to New Zealand could easily feel the humorous irony behind this if they were to pick a spot anywhere in New Zealand and simply look at it. For instance take in the view from the top of Tamata Peek, overlooking Napier and Havelock North in the beautiful Hawkes Bay. When you take in the southwest angle maybe forty five degrees of it and look as far as you can into the horizon, you could easily count on one hand the number of homes settled in that part of the North Island; virtually none! Very Middle Earth. It has been said there were more Orcs and Elves in the movies than actual people in the whole country.

According to the Ecological Footprints of New Zealand and its Regions report released by the Ministry for the Environment as it relates specifically to the World Wildlife Fund's report Living Planet Report 2000 shows that, overall, New Zealand is one of the few developed countries that is living within its carrying capacity; i.e. based on its ecological footprint per capita. It is easy to see why. Quoting the famous words of Spike Milligan, the British comedian on an earlier tour
of New Zealand, “Where is everyone?”

To add to the fact that New Zealand really is Middle Earth; Auckland really is spelt incorrectly considering how it is pronounced - “Ork-land”. I’m guessing J.R. Tolkein had this in mind when he wrote The Lord of the Rings all those years ago, knowing that there would be just enough people in New Zealand at the time the book was made into a movie for the number of ‘creatures’ needed to take part... perceptive man. Try driving through Auckland on a rainy day, in fact, any day, and you’ll quickly realise how crazy everyone is around here – they were made for it.

With the completion of the movie and the huge environments that were created for the movie sets and all the fuss and bother of its success being put to bed, it has been noted of late, that the population in New Zealand is decreasing. Now it is believed by many that the population irregularity of the early 2000’s was due to a mass exodus of emigrants leaving for Australia because of the elitist liberal set and the accompanying left wing Green Party and Labour Party. The truth of the matter is that a large number of people were accidentally killed in the making of the movies and the Riders Of Rohan were in fact Riders Of Taumarunui and simply forgot they were only acting in a movie. It is a little difficult to tell the difference between some of the locals who live here and some of the characters portrayed.

On the other hand, where else in the world can you sit on a South Pacific island beach, drinking world class coffee on the doorstep of a major international city, be skiing in pristine snow less than 3 hours later on a highly active volcano with your friends and family, be hunting less than 20 minutes away in farmland and native forests for pig, deer and possum while being chased by flocks of sheep looking for a quick thrill? Nowhere...!

New Zealand; though it be a little quiet and far away, indeed thats the point... its a little quiet and far away.