Jessie Casson

The past five weeks have been an incredible learning experience, one that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I have worked with Mike and Ken editing and piecing together the hour long documentary. We began with 27hrs of footage and that has been whittled away to a much shorter version of our journey on the road. The story focuses predominantly on the champions themselves with some of our trials and tribulations thrown in. The result will be shown on TV3 this year or early next year. The book Champion: New Zealand Winners is selling ’steadily’ in these economic times. Click here to read a recent review of the book.

I feel neglectful of this space. I have spent the last five months with my head down whilst this Champions project has brewed and grown. During this time the book has been written and published, launching at a wonderfully unique party last week at the Ponsonby Bowling Club. Two weeks ago the Exhibition ‘Champions: New Zealand Winners’ opened in Rotorua’s Museum of Art and History and will continue to tour around the country for the next two years. Today I begun work on the documentary about the subjects themselves and the trip around NZ to shoot the project, this is being funded by New Zealand on Air and will be broadcast on TV3. Tonight is the first time in a long time that I have sat and found nothing pressing to do. It is a year since the first seeds were sown and the initial ideas for the project begun to cumulate and I enjoyed stopping for a moment and looking back and thinking about how much more I know now.

It is possible to watch a short doco which accompanies the touring Exhibition.

Campbell Live, TV3, profiled our trip and some work from the book last Tuesday. They were able to include video footage, shot by me during the 3 months away, plus photographs plus their own interviews. We were really pleased with the results, see the TV3 clip

Back to large beds, showers that do more than dribble, a dishwasher and a large static house. For the last day of the trip and the following days I felt exhausted, headachy and very out of sorts. Whether this was a reaction to the end of the mission I can’t say but I think perhaps the mental adjustment back to “normal’ life might have played a part. The last week saw more beach action than the rest of the trip put together and 4 more champions were collected. Allan making a last minute entry as a winner of the ‘Wearable Arts’ held annually in Wellington. Allan lives a 20 minute walk into the bush, past the lake through the goats field and across a couple more stiles to reach his incredible abode. We all went to visit Allan, who has lived without power since 1971 raising a family there and working as an artist.

Matt did twelve hours at work to day, next week the clocks go back and things seem slightly grey in comparison to life in the sunshine bus on the road. But there is still plenty to be done, we have a book to edit, an exhibition to create and a two year old to potty train.

I write this in the car as we head up to Northland for the last 10 days of the trip. Yesterday I shot subject number 35, a champion bow-hunter specifically a winner of the World Koi Carp Classic held annually in Huntly. This classic competition involves shooting Koi Carp (fish) with bows and arrows to try to eradicate the introduced pest from the waterways.

We have just driven through Auckland for the first time since we left in December. I felt slightly overwhelmed by the urban sprawl and traffic volume and that desire to move away and bury our heads in an organic garden with free range chickens pounded strong.

We spent 3 days instead of the planned one night last week with Emily, a shearing world record holder. Her family let us park in their about-to-be-open café car park and invited us to banquet with them every night with 10 others. They took us caving into a kilometer long cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites lining the walls and ceilings like a sugared cathedral. They sent us on our merry way with a bag full of greens from the garden and some bacon from the farm. I would like to think we will see this family again, either because they live 90 mins from Auckland or because we have fled the city and bought a piece of neighboring land.