White Heron in Wonderland & The Last Fatso Movie Tickets

White Heron in Wonderland

The exquisite White Heron and its ancestral nesting site on the Waitangiroto River in New Zealand’s South Westland spell a magic allure.

To the Maori the Kotuku, or White Heron, has long been revered as a sacred bird and has come to symbolize everything that is beautiful and rare. For centuries the White Heron returned to the same nesting trees above the tranquil flowing river of the swamp forest in complete secrecy.

It was only in the nineteenth century that a European explorer discovered this idyllic place. The Waitangiroto Colony is the only nesting area of the White Heron in New Zealand, and every spring birds return from the far corners of the Country to breed.

Under the close supervision of the Department of Conservation you too can now visit this once isolated place. It’s less than a half hour’s drive from Franz Josef to Whataroa where the tour begins, and in just a few hours you can experience the character of a traditional New Zealand country road followed by the elegant sweep of scenery viewed on a jet boat ride to the Coast. In the sanctuary a board walk takes you through ancient Kahikatea forest to a “hide” amongst the trees, unseen by nesting Herons rearing their young, undisturbed only metres across the river.

In this legendary place you will be at one with other life as well, like Bellbird and Tui, and the comical round beak Royal Spoonbill. And in the intimate proximity of one of the last untouched wilderness places on earth you will come away with a new understanding of the Natural World, and an insight into the place of the bird which spans the Natural and Mythological Worlds.

The  trailer can be seen here https://youtu.be/x241P8XDfCI

The Last Fatso

Well-known New Zealand ceramic artist Barry Brickell and international award-winning film maker David Sims join forces to bring you this intriguing humour-rich story with a serious educational purpose.

Join Barry through all the processes from the clay pit to throwing, glazing and firing in the kiln, as he makes the latest of one of the celebrated and notorious Fatso jugs, whose modern day collectable incarnations inspired by the whimsical skills of the Medieval English country potters and their folksy sense of humour.

But, as we learn, behind every earthly story there is a hidden cost. Eager that the “Truth must out” the Fatso has sized control of this movie’s narrative.

Never backward in coming forth with priceless gems of Fatso history and folklore, and not to be out-done by his carter’s genius at working with clay this Fatso proves to be a defiant bloke, an independent thinker possessed with a skeptical streak, at all times critical and questioning of his master (who happens to be a rather thin man) and his methods.

And this newly made jug, already a natural-born worrier, has good reason for concern.

Throughout his creative process he has become tormented by a nagging fear, ignited by a chance overheard rumour, that not only is he the latest, but he also might well turn out to be the last of his kind. THE LAST FATSO, “And No Maybes”, or so he says.

The  trailer can be seen here https://youtu.be/tyeg1yOGfgU