By WAYNE THOMPSON
The campground at Pakiri Beach where the film Savage Honeymoon was shot 18 months ago is attracting moviegoers in droves.
They have ventured off the beaten track to the camp, 25km east of Warkworth, in the month since the film was released.
"It was amazing. The first weekend the film
was on we had seven or eight phone calls and a lot of people were driving in wanting to book accommodation," says the property manager for the camp owners, Phil Lewis.
He gives some credit for his full houses at long weekends to the film's depiction of the camp and its tantalising backdrop of kilometres of white, sandy beach.
But Mr Lewis quickly adds that he has been promoting the place recently with signs as well.
The film, a comedy about a West Auckland couple at the camp for a weekend, received publicity when it was given an R18 rating for its characters' "conspicuous and substantial" drinking and a scene where a gas cylinder is thrown on a bonfire.
"When I heard it was to be called Savage Honeymoon I wondered what sort of film it would be," says Mr Lewis. "But it turned out that Savage was the name of the people who were on their second honeymoon."
He has qualms about the foul language in the film, "but I had a good laugh."
Mr Lewis says that in real life Pakiri Beach is a family camp and its managers have strict control on people going in and out.
Many of the campers are regulars and tourists - "we get a good cross-section of people" - and marketing is aimed at encouraging more use by schools.
Caravans let at the camp are also better quality than the Savages' accommodation. "It's a real old one that they have just done up and towed up there."
Mr Lewis has seen the film twice, at New Lynn and Newmarket.
"I heard people wanting to know where the camp was. I had to bite my tongue."
He suspects that cinema staff reveal the whereabouts or direct inquiries to the film company.
"Pakiri has been isolated but it's a popular surf beach, and now with the motorway we are an hour and a half away from Auckland.
"The new managers have found it busier than they expected. A few weekends ago I arrived on a Saturday and the managers could not find me a bed. They sent me home," says Mr Lewis.
"The film director called me and said he would like to stay at Easter. I said to him 'What year?'"
By WAYNE THOMPSON
The campground at Pakiri Beach where the film Savage Honeymoon was shot 18 months ago is attracting moviegoers in droves.
They have ventured off the beaten track to the camp, 25km east of Warkworth, in the month since the film was released.
"It was amazing. The first weekend the film
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.