Posted 3rd of February 2014 to the Domminion Post
I have to say I was fascinated as to why Film Makers where as attracted to the Top of Lake Wakatipu and decided to research the History of the Kinloch Glenorchy Area in the farthest Corner of Otago. I have to say it seems somewhat odd that so much Film and TV footage has been shot there but nobody has bothered telling the colourful lost real stories of this remarkable area long before the first Movie Cameras arrived. It was amazing Jane Campion made her TV series based on a somewhat dark and Twisted version of this settlement, which is also the home of Mainland Cheese adverts, Water Horses, Wolverines, Himalayas Dwarves and Hobbits, but Wellywood never tapped the Horse & steam powered World of Drama and Tragedy as people struggled in abject isolation for a hundred years before the road was pushed threw in 1962 particularly the Community of Kinloch who where the Hosts of the Routeburn Track until 1971 when the Dart River was bridged and the Modern World consigned them to the History books, It is Ironic too how it’s Homesteads inspired Names like Arcadia and Paradise because the area seemed to embody the very heartland of the New Zealand Landscape. Wouldn’t it be nice if a Jane Campion could capture what that essence of Paradise was now that we have kissed it goodbye.
I have to say I was fascinated as to why Film Makers where as attracted to the Top of Lake Wakatipu and decided to research the History of the Kinloch Glenorchy Area in the farthest Corner of Otago. I have to say it seems somewhat odd that so much Film and TV footage has been shot there but nobody has bothered telling the colourful lost real stories of this remarkable area long before the first Movie Cameras arrived. It was amazing Jane Campion made her TV series based on a somewhat dark and Twisted version of this settlement, which is also the home of Mainland Cheese adverts, Water Horses, Wolverines, Himalayas Dwarves and Hobbits, but Wellywood never tapped the Horse & steam powered World of Drama and Tragedy as people struggled in abject isolation for a hundred years before the road was pushed threw in 1962 particularly the Community of Kinloch who where the Hosts of the Routeburn Track until 1971 when the Dart River was bridged and the Modern World consigned them to the History books, It is Ironic too how it’s Homesteads inspired Names like Arcadia and Paradise because the area seemed to embody the very heartland of the New Zealand Landscape. Wouldn’t it be nice if a Jane Campion could capture what that essence of Paradise was now that we have kissed it goodbye.
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