High wires menace Hobbiton's peace

Movie director Peter Jackson is backing residents in Matamata who are opposing Transpower's proposed 400kV line and rumours are rife that he intends to return to the area to film The Hobbit.

The Herald has published running a series of stories this week examining the issues around Transpower's proposal to build a 400kV line strung on pylons up to 70m high from the Whakamaru substation to Otahuhu to help solve Auckland's power woes.

There are two proposed routes up the centre of the North Island, one of which will run alongside Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours near Matamata, a tourist attraction made famous by Jackson's filming of The Lord of the Rings.

Owner Russell Alexander said he had spoken to Jackson who was "very supportive" of what was being done to oppose the lines.

 

The Herald understands Jackson has indicated he would not look at returning to the site to film The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien's preclude to Lord of the Rings if the pylons are erected.

Jackson was unavailable for comment on the issue because he is filming King Kong.

The site on the outskirts of Matamata where the shire was filmed was one of the hardest to locate for Lord of the Rings because Jackson needed an area untouched by infrastructure, man-made buildings or roads.

Mr Alexander would not be drawn on any suggestion Jackson was planning another movie.

"Logic says The Hobbit is going to be made, but I'm not party to any of that information," he said.

"If it was going to go ahead and they were considering returning, this would jeopardise it."

As Transpower's proposal stands, one of the planned routes for the transmission line would see pylons running up the road to Mr Alexander's farm and cutting across paddocks.

He said tourists visiting the Hobbiton movie set and farm would see the pylons from viewing platforms and would have to drive alongside them to get to the farm.

"It's not a great look, is it?"

He said the pylons would destroy the clean, green, rolling countryside that tourists came to see.

Transpower has indicated if the proposed lines impacted on Hobbiton it could look at alternative routes past the area.

BEHIND THE PYLON DEBATE

 

* The top half of the North Island, particularly Auckland, cannot get enough electricity and transmission lines are struggling to cope with power demand.

* Transpower has proposed to build a new 400kV line from the Whakamaru substation to Otahuhu, using pylons up to 70m high crossing private land across the Waikato and South Auckland.

* The line is planned to be built by 2010 and Transpower is currently going through a public consultation process with at least two possible routes.

* Many landowners are horrified by the prospect, saying the pylons will wreck their property values, restrict the use of their land and damage their health.