Islanders tell of new film on epic shipwreck story

Great Barrier Island. Photo / File

A movie telling the story of the Rose Noelle will begin filming on Great Barrier Island in May, say island sources.

A company calling itself Moviemakers has apparently booked a charter boat, plus accommodation at Orama Oasis, a large complex run by the Orama Christian Community at Karaka Bay on the north end of the island.

Orama runs Christian retreats and also hosts Hillary Outdoors.

The 6.5 tonne trimaran Rose Noelle washed ashore at the southeastern tip of Great Barrier in September 1989 after turning turtle during a stormy voyage to Tonga 119 days previously.

After drifting about 3000km, it washed on to a reef off Little Waterfall Bay, the only place suitable for scrambling ashore in that rugged area.

After four months in the upturned vessel, skipper John Glennie and crew members Jim Nalepka, Phillip Hofman and Rick Hellreigel were skin and bone.

They had huddled together in part of a flooded cabin, an area about equal to a queen-size bed.

The men cut a hole in the hull, caught rainwater and lived off stores, plus fish which swam into the craft.

The adventure of these four (of whom only Glennie and Nalepka are alive today) became one of the world's great maritime survival tales.

Many people were sceptical about the astonishing story, but scientific examination of marine growth on the Rose Noelle's hull confirmed it.

The adventure inspired two books, a New Zealand stage production called Flipside and a television documentary.