Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Destination Invercargill

The Blondini gang arrived in Invercargill yesterday, driving 37 Minis. They were raising money for Starship Hospital by re-enacting the journey from Kaitāia to Invercargill taken by the characters in the 1981 movie Goodbye pork pie.

Like the Mini in Goodbye pork pie, some of these cars suffered from mechanical difficulties. One arrived a few hours after the others, due to having to get a new engine in Dunedin. It parked in the foyer of the venue where the rest of the participants were having a black-tie dinner. There’s something inherently funny about Minis, and few other cars are little enough to be driven through buildings and down railway platforms, as occurs in the movie.

Goodbye pork pie came out in 1981, a time when the New Zealand film industry was just starting to chug along. Apparently it was the first New Zealand film to recoup its costs from the local market. As NZ On Screen says, ‘With 600,000 tickets sold locally, it was in the same league as Star Wars or Jaws.’

It’s no wonder it appealed to New Zealanders – it was anarchic, funny, anti-authority and escapist. The year it came out was the same year as the Springbok tour and, as director/producer Geoff Murphy said, ‘Inflation was running at double figures, people were beginning to queue at the dole office, Maori people outraged to find themselves treated as second-class citizens were being dubbed as ‘radicals’, and the country was beginning to slip downhill economically, socially, and racially. Suddenly here was a film where the heroes didn’t buy any of this shit. And it was funny … It was the last laugh.’

Another reason New Zealanders loved it was that it was filmed on location, almost the entire length of the country. This meant that many communities knew about it when it was being filmed, and recognised their city or town in the finished movie.

I didn’t see it when it originally came out (was a bit too little for all that bad language); my first viewing was at an outdoor screening at the Wellington Botanic Gardens sound shell one summer. When the Mini raced around the streets of Wellington, the audience laughed and cheered and grinned with delight at seeing our familiar streets on screen, albeit a little changed by then.

Lots of people have a Goodbye pork pie story. I once met a woman who acted in the party scene. Someone else whispered to me a couple of months ago that the garage behind Aro Video was where the bit in the garage after the party was filmed. And I remembered something I once saw that added some kind of credence to that story. A few years ago I was having a cup of coffee at one of the fine cafés on Aro Street, and saw a yellow Mini racing up the road and into a driveway next to that very same garage. It did this several times, and was being filmed. I can only assume it had something to do with the movie, because otherwise it was a pretty odd thing to do.

Do you have a Goodbye pork pie story? When did you first see it? Do you agree that tiny cars are inherently funny?