World's Fastest Indian

We just came back from seeing this NZ movie. We had a special interest in it, because we were in the Southland while it was filmed. We were in Invercargill while they were filming in Oamaru, and vice versa, but got a bit of the excitement from the locals and the papers. Anyway, it's a good little movie and a piece of proud Kiwi history. Anthony Hopkins does a lovely job as Burt Munroe, the eccentric, mechanically brilliant motorcycle rider & mechanic who takes his 1920 Indian bike to the Bonneville Speed trials in Utah. If you like Kiwi movies, motorcycles or daft dreamers, you will probably enjoy this movie.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our local papers had an article about Burt. Apparently he entered the US via our port (Humboldt) rather than LA. Reminicences by folks who met and helped him out in his first few days here are featured in the article. Darn it, but now I can't find it online. One person recalled that Burt made his own nuts and bolts in his shop in NZ, and wept when they gave him a can full of them. According to them, he certainly did have a way of charming people and acquiring help for his cause. They were all very proud of his achievements in Bonneville. Yay Kiwi ingenuity!

It's a great insite into the "she'll be right" psyche (spelling?) of the kiwi's...

I watched it on the plane from London to LA..
It was great..
one line in particular about Confuscious and his thoughts on peeing on lemon trees had me in stitches..
especially, when a little boy asks who Confuscious is and is told, "Some bloke from up Dundedin way...."

I thought you of all people here, Natty, would want to see this film.

Actually, there is logic to peeing on a lemon tree - or at least on the soil around it. Citrus trees require a lot of nitrogen, and urine is rich with it, in a rapidly available form. However, peeing on the leaves themselves could "burn" them. I might do it myself, but I don't have the "picnic attachment" that men do!