Look what we found on a recent local walk! Douglas County Sheriff Car. Bizarre! Tapanui, West Otago, New Zealand. Taken by Nigel, 03 May 2020. Click on photo to enlarge
It occurred to me that the filmmakers couldn’t have used old cars from New Zealand because the steering wheels would have been on the wrong side. Then I saw your comment about 10 cars having been imported from the U.S. There must have been a big enough financial advantage to filming in New Zealand to offset the expenses of moving people and equipment half way around the world.
As luck would have it, we lived in Douglas County in Nebraska, so imagine how bizarre this is for me! It looks like it was meant to be Maine in the movie, though. Wow!
How strange Gary! At the millhaven.nz website the opening words read “The small West Otago town of Tapanui (population of around 770) was transformed into the town of Millhaven, Douglas County (located somewhere in the USA state of Oregon) to film the remake of the Disney movie “Pete’s Dragon”. I haven’t seen the movie and wasn’t even living near here in 2015 when it was filmed. The website said that only 2 (of the ten) cars surivived the movie intact 🙂
Strange indeed. I’ve seen the movie and it’s pretty good. I Googled Passamaquoddy Bay, where it’s supposed to have happened, and it’s an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the US state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Poetic, license, I guess?!
Yeah, still puzzled about that sheriff car! Just had a thought – a Disney movie was partly filmed in Tapanui in 2015 (Pete’s Dragon). Wonder if that explains this car? Hmmm
Exploring Colour 
It occurred to me that the filmmakers couldn’t have used old cars from New Zealand because the steering wheels would have been on the wrong side. Then I saw your comment about 10 cars having been imported from the U.S. There must have been a big enough financial advantage to filming in New Zealand to offset the expenses of moving people and equipment half way around the world.
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As luck would have it, we lived in Douglas County in Nebraska, so imagine how bizarre this is for me! It looks like it was meant to be Maine in the movie, though. Wow!
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How strange Gary! At the millhaven.nz website the opening words read “The small West Otago town of Tapanui (population of around 770) was transformed into the town of Millhaven, Douglas County (located somewhere in the USA state of Oregon) to film the remake of the Disney movie “Pete’s Dragon”. I haven’t seen the movie and wasn’t even living near here in 2015 when it was filmed. The website said that only 2 (of the ten) cars surivived the movie intact 🙂
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Strange indeed. I’ve seen the movie and it’s pretty good. I Googled Passamaquoddy Bay, where it’s supposed to have happened, and it’s an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the US state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Poetic, license, I guess?!
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Thanks for the extra info Gary, it’s interesting to know a bit more of the context!
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Ok… weird!
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Yeah, still puzzled about that sheriff car! Just had a thought – a Disney movie was partly filmed in Tapanui in 2015 (Pete’s Dragon). Wonder if that explains this car? Hmmm
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Yep! There’s a special page about the sheriff’s cars – seems a total of 10 were imported into NZ from the US for the movie: https://millhaven.nz/2015/07/12/sheriffs-cars/
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Fascinating. Who knew?
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Not me 😉
What would I know… [shrug] 😉
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😆😆😆
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