Jeremy’s Mt Cook Adventure
Hi
We’re back from Jeremy’s TV commercial shoot at Mt Cook and it was quite an experience. Jeremy was the “spare child” and didn’t get used as #1 boy, Tom, did really well.
Thanks to Red 11 and the Film Business
We left Auckland on Friday and left straight from Christchurch to drive to Mt Cook via Tekapo - our first tourist jaunt.
The scenery was great but Jeremy had a new Captain Underpants book.
In this shot he’s with his minders - Steve and Paul the driver.
What Jeremy wanted, Jeremy got, so here he’s taken the guys for a bush walk down to the lake’s edge. Halfway down we realised the track was pretty rough and Jeremy had bare feet. Those minders weren’t looking after the cast so well!
Despite the dreadful weather that put the kybosh on Saturday’s filming at Mt Cook you only had to drive 10 minutes down the road (with the Hermitage still in sight) to find spots so sunny and bright that the photos look washed out! The boy on the left is Tom, for whom Jeremy was the understudy.
Tui (aged 11) also featured in the ad, pushing her brother on the sled. Jeremy and Tui got on famously.
So on Sunday we had to drive back to Christchurch and hang out. Another 4 hour cross country trek. Not before Jeremy and Paul (the driver) caught rainbows!
We’d spotted these big pipes feeding water from the canals down to the hydro turbines on the way out. Jeremy was promised a leisurely drive home so a stop was essential.
As well as run up the side of them.
The canals are home to salmon farms. We stopped at one and fed the salmon. Jeremy reckoned he saw wild ones in the main part of the canal, I saw fishermen so I guess they must have been there somewhere.
In Christchurch we stayed at the Millennium which was lovely and Jem worked on his muscles in the fitness centre.
We took a long walk through the city centre on the Sunday night looking for a suitable eatery and ended up at “Helter Skelter” a Beatles themed steak house. Knowing how much Aunty Vivvy loves the Beatles we just had to get some photos.
Monday was free and we packed plenty in - Breakfast, stake out the Cathedral Square chess board, a trip to the Antarctic Centre complete with a ride in one of the funny snow mobiles over a track pretty much like the BMX tracks, then off to see a client of mine, into town to see the chess, off to Farmers to buy Jeremy’s winter wardrobe, off to Ballantynes to see Sarah’s Godmother, back to the chess (and finally a game), a workout in the hotel gym, dinner and a hotel movie.
Tuesday looked beautiful from Christchurch and the Alpine Guides gave us the all clear so it was off to the airport to fly back to Mt Cook. There were two little charter planes to take us all out there. Most of the gear had been trucked to Mt Cook overnight.
Up close and personal with the mountains.
Boys being boys, Tom and Jeremy set to looking under rocks. Jeremy found a weta much to the horror of the girls and the delight of the English clients.
We helicoptered into the Tasman Glacier and the film crew seemed so tiny against the awesome backdrop.
Despite being the “spare” on the shoot Jeremy made himself useful and built igloos and bridges and trenches. Given that he had no one to play with and wasn’t the centre of attention he really was good as gold.
It was pretty exciting when there was an avalanche on the hills behind us, close enough to see but far enough away to not cause problems.
Because of the size of the glacier we couldn’t just let him go anywhere (the red tape formed the camp boundary) but we were able to drag him on a spare sled round in circles. Hard work for the grown ups!
The hard work done, Jeremy and Tui chill out in the helicopter on the return trip.
And on the plane home, after a long day as “spare child” and doing all that digging a boy just needs to nap.
