Whalerider Country

I spent the past week in Gisborne, the largest city on the East Coast, where Whalerider was filmed. It’s a gorgeous part of NZ – rugged coastline, surfing paradise, rolling green hills, lots of sheep. It’s also the poorest and most remote part of the country, with one of the largest Maori populations. Whalerider was filmed there, and if you haven’t seen that yet, run out and rent it, it’s a great film. Most of it was filmed in the village of Whangara (pronounced Fangara), a tiny town about 20 minutes north of Gisborne.


Whangara