Saturday, 13 June 2009

sheep in NZ

New Zealand - a country with superb landscapes and beautiful vistas - is commonly used by movie production companies as a location to film their next biggest hit. The Academy Award trilogy blockbuster, The Lord of the Rings, was filmed entirely at many various locations throughout the country. The director, New Zealander Peter Jackson who won the Oscar as the best-director for the third instalment, stated that there was no other country on earth which could provide the scenery that would do justice in transforming the J. R. Tolkien's epic novel from book-form to the big screen. New Zealand company, Weta Workshop, also won several Oscars in the special-effects category for their innovative works on the movies.

With a population that has only recently exceeded four million, New Zealand has been the butt of jokes primarily from it's nearest neighbour Australia because there are approximately 60 million sheep. Throughout it's history, New Zealand's economy has been based on farming, agriculture and timber industries. In more recent times, while these industries continue to remain an important contributor to the economy, New Zealand's innovative and creative psyche and culture has created many other industries that are actively making a significant input to the economy. It is a small modern country which more than holds it's position against much larger and more populous countries in terms of lifestyle, living conditions, environmental sustainability and human rights for all it's peoples.

As a proud and very patriotic New Zealander, I accept that my views and opinions will be seen by many as biased and one-eyed - I absolutely make no apologies for this.

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