How do you describe on of the best cons I have ever attended. Right up there with meeting Jon Pertwee (he signed my Catweazlel book). In the last fifteen years I have been to many cons even as far away as the USA (anyone else remember the Star Trek August Parties in Baltimore and Blake's Seven Scorpio cons in Chicago?) and have come to realize that the thing that makes the best cons is atmosphere.

Sure a great guest will help make a great con but it is the fans you meet, the people who run the convention and the panels themselves that give the thing a feel. I was pleasantly surprised at how good this convention was. Like one big weekend long warm fuzzie.

Anyway let's start at the beginning.

I have two male Samoyed dogs who due to advancing years (but not attitude - they still race) I tend to consider before heading out of town. Throw into the mix that I have a brother who lives in Brisbane (with wife and baby daughter) and making the leap across the Tasman became something I thought about. I kept an eye (and several email to Sonja) on Peter's status as a guest and finally decided that a four day international holiday was a go.

Having been a Methos fan since his first episodes (the guy had attitude!!!) I was very keen to see how much was actor, how much the scripts. Several cons I have been to have shown me that some wonderful actors can make shocking guests (of the "...roll on the fanfare and let me out of here..." variety) so I was open on this issue.

So Friday afternoon last I left work and flew out of New Zealand for Oz. Now understand one thing here. Kiwi's (as we down here are called) and the Aussies (as we affectionately refer to our Trans Tasman neighbors) have a lot of "water under the bridge" but when it all comes down to it "most" is just friendly rivalry over beer, weather, rugby and cricket teams and about anything else we can find to argue about, sorry....to discuss. Aussie "bashing" is a national sport, ok.

Five local fen had decided to make the trip. We all met at the hotel that night to see what was happening. Not a lot as it turned out. The others ended up staying to assist with many of those last minute things all cons have occur and I headed of to meet with family (good plan this because I could then ignore them until the end of the weekend she says evilly). Meeting up again at the end of the night we all decided to have an early 6.30am start. Sure the con did not officially begin until 10am but we wanted good seats.

So we were down to breakfast soon after 7am and heard that there would be a screening of a British program called Degas and Friends (this may not be spelt right because I have lost my copy of the video program). Staring guess who, it was about 2 elderly men who are to appear on a TV show but will not speak to each other. Peter played one of the producers who was trying to convince them otherwise. We interrupted our breakfast for an hour to watch this and pick our seats for later then headed back to finish our munchies - which turned out to be a good idea as we never managed lunch on either day.

Now comes my first accolade. The opening would have to be one of the best I have ever been to. Not because it was flashy, or because Peter was there (yeah, clap, roar, drooling) but because it quietly opened with a video. Sonja had spent over 100 hours making a three minute odd clip. The audience was spellbound. I think the song was by/called Enigma but it was haunting. To this she had montaged video clips in an extremely professional manner. As the pages of the book turned the images inside to book cover changed from the background shot. All the spectacular imagery that we remember from the original Highlander movie. Scene after scene after scene. I cannot praise this beginning enough. It was incredible.

Suddenly straight after this there was Peter. Hey wow. Looking very casual but well dressed (he wore slacks and dress shirts all weekend). He was quietly spoken but smiling and casual at the same time. :-( Then suddenly after a few words he was gone. Hey what's going on here, I thought. Oh, he will be back...good because the con committee would be lynched otherwise.

First up was a big surprise - a screening of Indiscretions. Wow was this good. Funny, warm, full of the wit and camaraderie that had been so missing. Hmm. Maybe the show just needs Methos. Without spoiling it for those yet to see it...  this is a good one. Right up there with my favorite episodes. Apparently they had tried to get To Be and Not To Be as well but could not get details finalized. Oh well. Here in NZ as I write this we just had Black Tower screen so not too much to go. I have to stop myself wishing for the Methos episodes because they are also the end of the show. :-(

Next up on the agenda was a panel by Carmel Macpherson on "Duncan MacLeod - His continuing journey since Bordeaux". Wow is this lady good. There is nothing like attending a panel where the speaker knows their stuff...backwards, sideways and upside down. To top it off she is an excellent speaker, drawing the audience in and having them answer their own questions. After Carmel's panel I was at least prepared to consider looking at season six seriously and attempting to give it another go. And that is no mean feat.

Next was meant to be lunch. The convention committee had arranged with the hotel a special reduced price menu which was great. But the problem was that with only a half hour for lunch the hotel were (when asked how long things would be) unable to take an order and produce the food in that time. So no lunch which made us glad for the early start and breakfast.

I had two choices next. One on sword fighting the Renaissance Way (but I decided to miss that) and instead went to Spirituality in Highlander by Tricia McKinlay. This was in the smaller con room. About 10-15 people gathered and the conversation while slow to start soon had us throwing ideas in all directions. One of the things that has always intrigued me is the way that the producers of Highlander have danced with the topic of religion. Creeping close to different views and then changing direction. This gave us plenty to talk about and it was a shame that things were just getting serious (the speaker had been late arriving) and interesting (after all Methos could answer some interesting religious questions from approximately 2000 years ago could he not) when we all had to run to make Peter's first Question and Answer panel.

With Peter's arrival that morning having been very brief we were eagerly anticipating the Q&A session that afternoon. This was to be our first main "viewing" and I even made a friend go and sit under the lights before he arrived so that I could see how the piccies were coming out on the camera. (Thanks Gillian).

The committee asked that people only use cameras with flash as Peter arrived and left. I was not too panicked by this but it did make me pleased we had done our own lighting check. For the session he was wearing a pale blue shirt that looked very nice. Or was it that Peter looked very nice and the shirt was...ok. Yeah, I think that's it. Rather than list all the questions I will leave that for a visit to Carmel's web site where she will have transcripts of both Q&A's up soon.

He did seem somewhat nervous (which was endearing) and is very quietly spoken and thoughtful about his answers. No matter the question everyone got a detailed and personal response which was lovely. Luckily (or perhaps in response to this) there was only one "silly" question all weekend. As an example of how obliging he is as he arrived he even remained standing for a few moments to allow photographs - now that to me is nice.

All too soon it was over :-( and Carmel was whisking him away to parts unknown. Now we all know how cons are and rumors were that he had just flown in from Vancouver or that he had just flown in from Byron Bay (the accurate one), they also had him staying somewhere else, etc. Some I would find out about in person later (wee teaser there).

Next on the program was an item on the Watchers by Jennifer Haas. Unfortunately we all decided to skip this and get setup for the autograph session which is a shame. Now I was really annoyed with myself over my illos. Last year a friend had attended HLDU1 and brought me back a wonderful illo (Peter sitting on the fence in bare feet). I had wanted to get this signed but could not remember where I put it. Oh well, I had assumed there will be plenty of zines and piccies for sale - no problem. Big problem.

The con committee had struggled to even have a dealers room apparently and one table was run by a professional dealer (boxed set of tapes $495 Australian - ouch) and the other by the con com?. As things opened at 9am that morning we had been there (us Kiwi's are NOT slow) and managed to get one of only three Methos illos (and they were group shots). There were three zines and not much else other than shirts and unrelated (to Methos) items. It was very disappointing in terms of spending money (but did mean I had more for the auction).

(Note from Carmel: There was a mix up - Peter's Exec Assistant thought that Peter was bringing Pictures and Peter though his Exec Assist was sending them. As a result - no pics! Ah well....and with the appalling exchange rate, we just couldn't afford to buy much of anything from overseas...)

Faye managed to pick up some items off the con table that were very reasonable (satin jacket $50) and they were doing a brisk trade but the common question was where are the Methos illos. There were none. And that was something I thought someone should have anticipated. I mentioned in passing to the guy on the other table that he should do something about it and by that afternoon he had a laser copy of a picture from the calendar. Now I would not say this was ethical (he also charged $15 each) but he had got something and for the many fans that had traveled a long distance it was better than nothing.

The con committee did their part by providing a photographer and taking shots of each person in the autograph line with Peter. It added to the time the session took (it was programmed for thirty minutes and took an hour and a half) but no one (not even Peter) complained.

So how was he to talk to? As this was our first chance for a one on one hello we were a bit nervous. Ok most of us oldies have done the "actor thing" and they are real people whose job just happens to be acting. At least that's what you tell yourself over and over. :-)

I noticed quickly that as each person came forward he looked at them, smiled and started chatting. Very professional, very personal. I introduced myself, said I was from New Zealand and he said wow. That it was great of us to have come so far. I mentioned it was good that he knew we were not one country but two separate nations. He said he had the same problem with being from Wales (vs being classed as English). He then asked me how long it takes to fly from NZ to Oz and how far apart the countries were. Duh, VB Mind blank. But hey, I have a neat picky of me sitting there next to him hands a foot apart "showing" him how far it is (double duh)..

In addition he also signed my piccies and posed for the main shots by the photographer. Beside the photographer was Faye working my digital camera and Peter commented about it and we talked about cameras for a few moments. He (you could not see Faye's face just this square camera perched atop a body) asked if anything was happening out there. Silence. Faye? Nothing. Umm ... and so I left to rescue her from modern technology. And in her defense the picture she took of me with Peter is nicer than the main con one. So thanks, Faye.

Now a strange thing started happening. It was a big queue and pretty slow (what with the photos and long chats happening) and people just drifted into the middle of the floor opposite the table and sat down and watched. It was quite strange really but no one wanted to leave, so we sat, watched, took photos, looked and just really soaked up the atmosphere. This must have lasted for over an hour when Sonja came over and mentioned that the Stage Fighting panel was starting and the guy was a great speaker.

Shows how much we had drifted of to fairy land. I had kept an eye out for the Fan Fiction panel but nothing was happening and I had wandered away to see the panel on Methos, Mythology and their Influence by Helen Nicolaou and Jen Riddler. It had been delayed (due to the attendees being in the autograph queue) and they would let us know when it started. I went back a bit later in time to see it finish and left again disappointed at having missed it. So here we were just sitting watching Peter when Sonja came by.

The panel on Stage Fighting by Nigel Poulten was excellent. It was very informative. Sonja had sent him a tape of the fights in Highlander and then asked him to come and talk. He is in charge of a fight school and trains actors, etc how to fight. He went through all the basics on balance and choreography and then proceeded to give actual demonstrations. It was great. When asked about the fights in Highlander he was very complimentary saying it was obvious that the actors (and stage fight director) were very good. We asked how you tell if someone is not very good and apparently it is by the number of scene cuts. If it is long panning shots with no camera changes then the actors are good. If there are lots of little cuts the film has been edited to make the scene (and fighting) look good.

I headed back to the main area in time to find out that at the end of the autograph session Peter had done some impromptu group shots including a "Kiwi" one. Boy, was I annoyed and told them off, pouting the whole time. But we couldn't find you they said. I still wonder how hard they looked :-(

Next it was time to go have a swim and spa and chat about the day as the program had a break until 7.30pm. This was a good idea as we spent the time laughing and chatting our way thru a reminiscence of the days events.

At 7.30 we came downstairs to find that most people had taken the opportunity to "scrub up" as we say down here. Lots of really nice evening clothes, period costumes and the odd alien running around. First spot was a really good Kronos costume. Rie Natalenko had made a wonderful costume for her 16 year old son (who had a dream night being ogled by lots of really impressed women). Rie also had on herself a lovely costume she had also made. I jokingly suggested that the reason Kronos was always in such a snit was his Mum made all his clothes, this had us giggling for ages.

Sonja came around soon after and announced that Peter would be coming by. They wanted it to be very informal and him to have a chance to go from group to group and chat.

Peter spent quite some time going from group to group with Carmel ably marshalling him along and doing a good job too. He chatted with us all about New Zealand and Kiwi vs Aussie beer (which he had in hand at the time) and we assured him was pure and utter *$%#@. We also discussed grass color. You see (and I warned you at the beginning about our 2 countries) Australia has brown grass. This is because it's hot. We on the other hand have this wonderful green stuff (and I am NOT biased, ok). Just watch any episode of Hercules or Xena (both are filmed in NZ). So we chatted about how lovely it was Downunder and then he moved on.

Finally the announcement came that Peter had gone and we could all relax. The night involved finger food which was brought around by hotel staff, to music, dramatic presentations and various other items. There was some concern at first that at $25 a head the food seemed a bit slow but the veterans from the year before assured as that it came out all night and there would be plenty.

The costume parade started quite late but while small was excellent. Kronos won hands down (to a special prize from Peter) and while some felt the "clapometer" results varied it was a good night for all. I especially enjoyed the B5 G'Kar costume (which despite being wrong show deserved credit for being as good as it was) and the "Byron and Amanda" show.

At 11pm the food and music wound down and it was time to go. Lots of "I'd love to have a beer with Duncan", Macarenas, line dancing and other really good fun events later. I must really say how much I enjoyed a con dance that was more country than rap based. And so did the audience as most events had excellent participation on the floor.

Debs