Update from Last Weekend

Hey there, boys and girls...

It's Saturday, the 29th of July- I was actually supposed to go back home today, but there's still much to do, so I've extended my trip a bit to get as much of it done as I can before shooting begins. I figured today would be a good opportunity to catch you all up on the goings on down here and post some new stuff.

(Real quick- as I'm writing, I've got a Cricket match on... does anyone really have any idea what the Hell Cricket's all about? It's been on for hours and NOTHING'S HAPPENED!!! Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick... this makes Curling look like the Super Bowl.)

So, last Saturday, I went with David and Erika to our friend Robyn's farm, (about 65km/40 miles outside of Auckland), for lunch. Robyn's the 2nd assistant director on the movie and she's a really cool lady... she has 4 boys that she takes care of all by her lonesome. On a farm, no less...

Damn.

On the way, a real- honest- to- God clown pulled up next to us in a weird little clown buggy. He introduced himself by throwing candy at us through Erika's window and then had the nerve to get weirded out when we started filming HIM. What the weird clown didn't realize was that David has a deep seated fear and hatred of clowns, so he took a great deal of gleeful satisfaction in terrorizing said clown by chasing him all over the highway while we filmed him nervously trying to elude us...

good stuff.

You know you've done your job as the director of a horror movie when you manage to scare the shit out of a clown.

The drive into the country was absolutely beautiful. Seriously, it was surreal. Seeing that kind of scenery in a movie is one thing, but when you see it for real it's just mind blowing. I kept expecting Frodo and the other hobbits to pop up out of the side of the road.

Anyway, we stopped on the way to take pics at a particularly pretty spot. It was on the edge of a pasture where a bunch of moo cows were grazing. As we took pictures, the cows all stared at us intently. It was weird, they were really checking us out. Then- as if they all agreed to move at the same time through some sort of psychic connection- they all gathered up in a group, from all over the pasture, and met in the middle of the field. Then, with murder in their eyes, they stormed the fence and came right at David and I. It was wild- but really kind of cute and funny. There were dozens of them. Then, out of nowhere, right when they got to the gate, it started raining like mad and the cows, (I swear to god), started head butting and trying to hump each other. It was just bizarre- funny as hell, but bizarre...

(Here's the transcript:

"Moo, moo, moo... moo, moo...

MOOOOOOOOOOO"!)

Classic.

Robyn's was just amazing. Her kids were all great. David and I ended up hanging out with them all day and it was a blast! It was like going to camp. David jumped on the trampoline with them, (I was too tall), and then they showed us where all the cool critters were all over the farm... we found a real, live, 3 inch Weta bug in a tree, then I found a giant centipede in an old log... oh man, that sucker was HUGE!

We had a really great time. We spent hours just roaming all over the land, taking pictures and laughing like-well-a bunch of kids.

For lunch, we had fresh lamb, (raised right there on the farm), and home grown NZ white sweet potatoes, (called Kamura), and it was unbelievably tasty.

(little NZ tidbit: most places in NZ, for an extra dollar, you can get Kamura fries insetad of 'normal' fries... truthfully, Kamura fries are going to be one of the things I'll miss the most when I leave.)

Before we left, I drew a superhero each for the 4 kids and Dylan, (Robyn's oldest boy), gave everyone a drum lesson on a little drum set they had in the garage. He's pretty damn good for only playing a year and a half.

Evil clowns, rampaging moo cows, giant bugs, drums and tasty home cooked vittles- all in the same afternoon...

What a great day.