Flicks on Waitangi Day!

Happy Monday evening everyone. Hope you had a good weekend!

Saturday 6th was Waitangi Day - NZ's holiday! In London, it's a chance for Kiwis to get together and celebrate being a Kiwi. Lots of us go on a pub crawl round central London (roughly following the Circle Line on the tube -- when it actually used to be a circle -- and originally drinking on the tube too, before Boris outlawed it!) The pub crawl ends with a big haka in Parliament Square at 4pm. Mudfest. It's quite messy and raucous but entirely good natured. Apparently, it's the only time of year that the London authorities turn a blind eye to the huge group of people drinking in the square, where you normally need an agreement from the police for a mass gathering of people.

It's much more celebratory and upbeat than I remember Waitangi Day back home, where it's a fairly subdued national holiday that is (was?) often marred by protests. In London, everybody dresses up and shouts and yahoos through the tube network and down the street, gently shepherded by police who are generally in a good mood too and happy to get their pictures taken with Kiwis wearing their police hats. You feel a bit sorry for any normal person trying to catch the tube though! They are either HORRIFIED at such debauchery, or DELIGHTED to be caught up in the fun atmosphere!

I've done the Circle Line pub crawl once and that was enough for me. If you're a girl you basically spend the whole time queueing for toilets. So this year, a few of my buddies came over to the flat for Kiwi snacks (chips & onion dip, Squiggle Tops) and to watch some NZ films.


First of all we saw the absolute classic "Such a Stupid Way to Die" - a short educational video made in 1971 about the dangers of hypothermia when tramping (that's "hiking" for non-Kiwis) in the mountains. It's just brilliant -- dark and unsettling with jangly music, a touch of Pink Floyd, and full of thick Kiwi accents and stunning scenery -- filmed in the Nelson lakes region. I remember watching it as a kid in school. I think almost every Kiwi kid would have seen it, no matter when you went to school. This stuff might be dated but it's good value! The immortal line "Oh no, it's the wrong bloody way!" had us all in hysterics. You can watch it too at the link above, on the NZ On Screen website (which is brilliant if a bit slow).

We then watched The Frighteners, Peter Jackson's movie before he did Lord of the Rings. We had a lot of fun pointing out ex-Shortland Street actors. It's a 1996 film, and apparently the graphics were masterful for the time, with the largest number of digital effects used in a feature (the same year as Independence Day and Twister, btw, so I'm not sure if that's true??) but watching it now, it's quite ho-hum. Some good dark laughs though. It's quite astounding to think how slim Jackson's back catalogue was before he did LOTR.


If you're interested, the NZ On Screen website also has a documentary on the making of Bad Taste, Jackson's first finished film. It includes the very youthful Jackson demonstrating all the special effects and wizardry he cooked up himself in his garage - masks and guns and camera braces etc - true "Kiwi ingenuity". Fascinating. I think it shows how he must know everything that goes into making a film. He might have employees making the masks now, but he's done it himself.

Another waaaay exciting event this weekend -- the Duffster & I put up new bookcases! Our flat has no decent storage, which is soo annoying -- I hate clutter -- so we needed these for a place to put "stuff". We now have a bookcase on each side of the bricked-up fireplace, so they're usefully standing on floorspace that wasn't being used before. I have put all of our books on one, and the other will be for boxes & magazines & trinkets etc. Stuff. You know. The things you compromise on when you move in together (him: pretty floral vases and little pictures frames. me: beer steins and stubbie holders.)

When I get a Real House(TM) I would love to have built in bookcases. *dreams* And no beer steins.