KEY POINTS:
It was Jemima Puddleduck, rather than Renee Zellweger, who was the star of our visit to Beatrix Potter country.
When we arrived in England's Lake District - from which Potter drew the inspiration for most of her wonderful children's stories - it was one of Jemima's great-great-great-great-granddaughters who waddled up from Lake Windermere to greet us.
I was delighted, because of the many characters Potter created in her 23 published books I've always had a particular soft spot for the naive duck who left her precious eggs with a smartly dressed gentleman with white teeth, red fur and a bushy tail.
Sure, some may say she was stupid and her clutch did come to a sticky end, but she was only trying to prove she could hatch eggs without help from the hens, she did survive to raise a family and, anyway, there has to be room in this paranoid world for someone who thinks the best of others.
We nearly saw Zellweger, too, because she had been there a few days before for the world premier of Miss Potter, in which she plays the title role (the film is due to be released in New Zealand next week). We did manage to get into a preview showing in the Royalty cinema, in Bowness-on-Windermere, but somehow Zellweger's performance, good as it was, didn't have the same impact as seeing a genuine Lake District puddleduck.
No offence, but we were in the Lake District to see the reality behind the stories, not movie stars.
Part of that reality, it quickly became apparent, is a lot of mist and rain - well, as I remarked to my wife, all those beautiful lakes have to get their water from somewhere - and probably because of that ducks were the only real live Beatrix Potter characters we saw.
Still, even with water pouring from the sky the Lake District is extraordinarily beautiful, and it's easy to see why generations of visitors from Roman soldiers to the Romantic poets, and from Victorian city folk like the Potter family to the modern fellwalkers we saw striding over the hills regardless of the weather have been seduced by its gushing rivers, clear lakes, green fields, brown hills, mysterious stones and quaint villages.
Driving through the clouds along our Beatrix Potter Trail we got constant glimpses of its charm: fishermen sitting in the mist on the shores of Esthwaite Water in pursuit of pike (which you can't eat); thick flocks of water fowl - including more puddleducks - frolicking at Newby Bridge where the River Leven Flows into Lake Windermere; fleeting rays of sunshine highlighting the glorious browns and greens of a hillside above Coniston Water and even persuading a perky red-breasted robin to make an appearance; and the first daffodils starting to break through the grass on the shores of Lake Grasmere.
Beatrix Potter was actually raised in London and had to develop her talent for sketches and stories about anthropomorphic animals by studying her pets and making regular visits to the marvellous Natural History Museum in Kensington.
But her horizon broadened dramatically when she was 16, in 1882, when her parents rented a pseudo-castle a couple of miles outside the town of Ambleside, at the head of Lake Windermere, for their summer holiday. Wray Castle, which probably should be the starting point for any Potter Trail, is a bizarre concoction of fake turrets and ramparts, but the grounds running down to the lake are delightful and it's easy to see why the young Potter fell in love with the area and thereafter used it as the setting for most of her stories.
Like much of the Lake District, Wray Castle and its grounds are now owned by the National Trust and, like just about everything owned by the trust, it was closed for winter when we were there. The house is mainly used as a training centre anyway but locals reckon the gardens are still as glorious as when they first captivated young Potter.
For later holidays the Potters rented more conventional country houses, including Lindeth Howe on the outskirts of Windermere township, which Potter liked so much that years later she bought it as a home for her mother and featured it in The Tale of Tommy Tiptoes.
These days Lindeth Howe is a hotel and restaurant so anyone can go there at any time and enjoy a nice afternoon tea or a tasty meal while taking in the spectacular panorama of lake and hillside.
Potter's love affair with the Lake District was consummated years later when she finally broke with her oppressive parents and used the earnings from her first books to buy Hill Top Farm on the edge of the tiny village of Near Sawrey - Far Sawrey is just down the road - not far from Lake Windermere.
This is the key point on the Potter Trail because it is where Potter lived for 30 years and the farmhouse and garden provided the material for many of her tales. It too is owned by the National Trust and so was also closed for winter but I did manage to peer over the fence at the cluster of stone buildings, squatting morosely under a grey sky, and understood why the makers of Miss Potter decided it was too gloomy for their film.
But others who have been there in the summer months say it is a delightful experience to explore the ivy-clad farmhouse, still furnished with her photos, furniture and even the stove on which a mouse pie was cooked in The Tale of the Pie in the Patty-Pan, and enjoy the charming gardens.
More importantly, just next door to Hill Top was my favourite spot on our Potter Trail, the Tower Bank Arms pub, which features in one of the illustrations in The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck - see why I like that duck? - with the perfect combination of cosy fire and cheery welcome to keep the soggy world at bay.
I don't know whether Jemima ever dropped in for a pint - though given her stressful experiences who could blame her? - but they keep a great range of locally made ales, including one from the Ulverston Brewing Company called Another Fine Mess, made in honour of silent movie comic star Stan Laurel who came from Ulverston.
Next stop on the trail is the wonderful old village of Hawkshead with its cobbled streets and arched alleys - so narrow you basically have to park on the edge of town and walk around - picturesque white cottages, quaint shops full of official Beatrix Potter souvenirs and old stone buildings.
This is where Potter's lawyer William Heelis, who later became her husband, had his offices, which today house the Beatrix Potter Gallery - oops, it's National Trust again, so closed - and according to the publicity material has some of the original office furnishings, lots of her sketches and displays of the animal characters.
Never mind, Hawkshead is still well worth a lengthy wander, though you won't find it in the film because the makers decided to set Heelis' office in the premises of The Rum Story, a tourist attraction telling the story of the British rum trade, in the coastal town of Whitehaven. Rum choice.
And speaking of alternative settings, not far from Hawkshead is Yew Tree Farm which plays the role of Hill Top in the film, with the aid of a new coat of paint, a fake vegetable garden and a few pigs and chickens. It's certainly pretty - it was voted Most Beautiful Farm in the North of England - and it was actually owned by Potter who, with the business acumen she displayed throughout her life, persuaded her tenants to take advantage of that by opening a tearoom which is still there today.
These days the house is a B&B and owners Jon and Caroline Watson plan to refurbish the bedrooms in the hope of capitalising on the publicity for Miss Potter.
After that, well, you could go almost anywhere in the Lake District and still be on the Beatrix Potter Trail.
Much of the land between Lake Windermere and Coniston Water was once owned by her, as she bought up farms to preserve her beloved countryside from developers, and on her death willed 2000ha to the National Trust to preserve it in perpetuity.
That includes one of the most famous beauty spots, Tarn Hows, a small but perfect lake surrounded by a 2.4km walking trail where Potter liked to walk and which features in the film. I had planned to do the walk but I chickened out in the face of the constant rain and went to a pub instead.
But Potter's interest in the countryside went well beyond owning it and in the town of Ambleside is the Armitt Collection, a mildly idiosyncratic museum of Lake District life, where you'll find her huge collection of drawings and hundreds of specimens of the region's natural history - 450 fungi alone - reflecting her lifelong interest in nature.
Then there's the town of Keswick at the head of Derwent Water - another holiday spot for the Potter family - which provided the setting for several of Potter's stories including The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, and The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, the hedgehog washerwoman who lived on a hill called Catbells which sits above the lake.
Derwent Water, Loweswater and Loughrigg Tarn also feature in the film, and its opening and closing shots both show a view of Loweswater from a track leading to Mockerkin, the site of the palace of a Celtic king.
Goodness, I thought, as we watched these scenes from the warm, dry vantage point of the cinema - on a sunny day this area is stunning.
As a local van driver said as we sought shelter from a cloudburst, "This is Cumbria, you know, and if it's not misty it's raining and if it's not raining it's snowing."
I was still disappointed that because of the rain Jemima Puddleduck was the only character from Potter's stories that I saw. All the bunnies, hedgehogs, fieldmice, foxes, badgers and squirrels were sheltering.
So to round off our journey we visited the World of Beatrix Potter, in Bowness-on-Windermere, where a lot of those characters hang out. It has some wonderful displays of Potter's life, the landscapes she loved and - the focal point - each of her stories.
There's Peter Rabbit looking longingly at the carrots in Mr McGregor's garden, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle doing her washing, Johnny Town-mouse discovering life in the countryside, Jeremy Fisher fishing in his pond ... and, look, there's the real Jemima Puddleduck ... and, oh no, she's smiling trustingly at an amiable gentleman with a bushy tail who's peering over the top of his newspaper at her eggs.
* Jim Eagles visited the Lake District as guest of Visit Britain and Emirates.
Checklist
* Getting there
Emirates flies from Auckland three times a day to Dubai, and from Dubai to several British airports including twice a day to Manchester (from September it will also fly to Newcastle which is closer to the Lake District). Basic round trip fares start at $2460 plus taxes but there are frequent specials. See www.emirates.com or call 0508 364 728.
* Further Information
General information on the Lake District is at www.golakes.co.uk There is also a special Beatrix Potter website at www.visitmisspotter.com A new company offering a tour of sites associated with the film is at www.lakedistrictfilmtours.co.uk
The World of Beatrix Potter is at www.hop-skip-jump.com
You can find out about National Trust Properties at www.nationaltrust.org.uk
