Modellers make Whanganui their home

Uli Falkner, son Jakob and dog Sonny have more space in Whanganui. PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY

After exciting jobs in the film industry Uli and Alex Falkner put space and family life first when they bought a house in Whanganui.

The two moved from Wellington and his job at Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop in June. Both then got jobs at retail design company GDM, but Mr Falkner has since been lured back to Wellington to work on another film.

It's not the first time Mrs Falkner has lived in Whanganui. Her parents moved here in 1998, and she was here from 2000 to 2004, when her partner worked at Whanganui Hospital. When that relationship ended she sought a job in her own field, pattern making, at Weta Workshop in Wellington.

In 2004 she and two others started the three dimensional modelling department there.

"We had to buy the equipment and software and everything. We had to learn pretty fast - but man it was fun. There was no one to ask. We were pushing everything to its limits."

While at Weta for nine years she met and married Alex Falkner. When the two had a son, Jakob, she had to leave.

"It's hard to work part-time in the film industry."

Meanwhile Mr Falkner was still working crazy hours, and hardly ever at their small house in Miramar close to the film studios.

With a child they wanted a bigger house, but prices in Wellington had "gone completely nuts", Mrs Falkner said.

One Saturday night they were having that "What are we going to do" discussion again, and the idea of Whanganui came up. Some of Mrs Falkner's friends, and her mother, are still here.

They looked online and couldn't believe their luck. The took three days out, looked at houses, and had bought one four days later.

They kept their Wellington house but moved north in June, immediately going from being a couple with two jobs and a small house to being a couple with two houses and no job.

Mr Falkner got a job at GDM Retail Systems. When he talked about his wife she was offered part-time work there too. But before he had finished his 90-day trial period he was called back to Wellington to work as a concept model maker on a new film.

He's there during the week, returning to Whanganui at weekends.

Jakob, now six and just as creative as his parents, is at St John's Hill School.

Mrs Falkner misses her Wellington job, but said Whanganui's art scene offers opportunities to collaborate. Her husband's FilmCraft idea has already been a finalist in the Den of Dragons search for public events.

"That was sort of the idea - that we could have normal jobs and do creative stuff from home."

Mr Falkner now has a shed where he can make things and keep Citroen cars. And Mrs Falkner is looking forward to exploring the Whanganui River and beaches.

"We have no regrets so far. We feel really, really lucky," she said.

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