Farewell, fair moths.

There have been great moth films made in the past. I guess there'd be a few arguments over whether Mothra (the Japanese cult classic) was one of these. No doubt there will be great moth films made in the future. Maybe, even by me. But they will have to wait. Farewell, fair moths, I bid you farewell. I have another calling...

Which is...what, Jint? What random tangent are you off on now? Well, geckos. Alpine geckos, to be precise. After a day of negotiations, pondering the appeal of a) Dwayne's Sentinal Goat technique and b) Nick's biodiesel, I was seduced by Julia's geckos. Reeled in, hook, line and sinker.

It's a fantastic topic. Not only was the first alpine gecko only discovered in 1996, but it was discovered by our hero, Tony. Tony hangs out with his geckos (and frogs and rats) in the middle of a Central Otago orchard. He's a huge fan of rock music, and wiles away the hours jamming away on his guitar. He's New Zealand's gecko expert - no one will go on a gecko hunt without him, because he'll find a gecko if there's one there to be found. He's camera shy...but he's so passionate about geckos that he's determined to overcome it and get the film made. I'm dying to meet this guy!

And the geckos? Well, the more I find out about them, the more I'm fascinated. Tony's got a captive baby Roy's Peak gecko. It grew just 4mm in its first year. This incredibly slow rate of growth has experts wondering if they could take 30 years to reach maturity! If so, it makes Tony's mission over summer even more imperative. He's going to take us (which means we can take you) into the depths of Fiordland to a secret location accessible only by helicopter. It's here that he will search for more populations of these incredible creatures. Currently, there are very few known populations, and experts are worried that these may be declining in the face of introdued threats. Any new population will be a huge boost to the species' chances of survival... A truely unique character, beautiful landscapes, fascinating creatures, a journey of exploration to save a species, and a fun partner-in-production. What more could one want? I'm a lucky girl!

So what's up next?! Well, we've got to sit down and nut out a succinct storyline to pitch (yip, AGAIN!) next week. When Julia first pitched the idea, the panal of experts in the room pointed out that the weak point in the story was the ending. No doubt before next week we'll be sussing out how best we can plan for that.

In the meantime, there's some serious gecko research to be doing...!