(LAUGHS) This is outstanding! Wow. How cool are these waterfalls? They're everywhere. They're amazing. Pretty lucky. I'm feeling insignificant but very very alive. Yeah! BOTH LAUGH LIGHT, LIVELY MUSIC Captions by Glenna Casalme www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 ANTICIPATIVE MUSIC Where do you think we're going, El? Right, well, let's have a look. Invercargill. We're going to Invers! What's the slogan? Um, 'City of Water and Light' and 'Where Dreams are Possible'. Anything is possible this weekend. That's right. Oh, I'm excited about this. Cheese rolls! Lolly cake, lamingtons. Let's go. Let's do it. El is from Southland, and I'm from Otago, so to find out that we're coming home, if you like, is a pretty amazing feeling. To come away and have some time together before our baby, which is due in a couple of months, is epic. This is awesome for us. I haven't been back, probably, in about two and a half years, because of saving money for the baby. Great to be able to get away one last time before we pop out a wee one. EXCITING SWELLING MUSIC To be a dad is huge for me. I wanna do an amazing job of that. Um, that's probably the most important job I've got in my life, I see, is being a dad and being a really good dad. Matt is amazing. He's obviously the love of my life. He is so much fun, extremely caring, and I know he's just gonna make the best dad. So he's pretty cool. I think I've chosen well. So,... seriously, how good does it feel to be in Southland? Really good. Great to be home. We're probably going to Bill Richardson's Transport World. There's a way that we can find out. See, here we have a little clue... Hit me. Hit me. ...to tell us where we're going, so I'll read it out. Right. What have we got? What have we got? (READS) 'Welcome to Southland. Start your trip off... (CHORTLES) '...with a truckin' good time at Bill Richardson's Transport World,... BOTH LAUGH '...the largest private collection of its kind in the world.' That's hilarious. Picked it like a dirty nose. You really did. You really did. That's where we're going. CURIOUS MUSIC Hi. How are you? I'm Ellen. Nice to meet you. Hi, welcome. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Matt. Hi, Matt. You're about to come through. You haven't been before, so you don't really know what's behind those doors,... No idea. Very intrigued. ...so I'll enjoy showing you around. So, welcome to Bill Richardson's Transport World. Bill was my dad. Oh wow! Ohhh! Awesome. Cool. This was his collection. So he'd written a book called Wheels and Deals, and, as you'll see from the quote at the back of the book, he said,... So` That was you? That's certainly happened. So it is! Yeah, and a whole team. A whole team, actually, not just me. Awesome. It's massive. (LAUGHS) This is outstanding! Wow. Oh my God. It's really big. So these are the` I love it. These are early Ford cars. Dad passed away in 2005, and at the time of his death, there was about 150 vehicles in the collection. His personal collection? His personal collection. Wow. Phenomenal. So that continued to grow. We had about 250 vehicles, and we thought, 'At what point do you think, "We need to really open this up to the public and share it"?' Of course. Because, you know, it was something that would be so good for the city of Invercargill. So, Joc, how does a man acquire 150 vehicles? Did he not clothe you as kids or...? What's going on? Well, we've got a family company that has been built up over the years. It's heavily involved in trucking. It started, really, cos Dad couldn't let go of some of the old workhorses that he, um, loved so much, and he just` it just grew. LIVELY COUNTRY MUSIC So, I'll tell you a wee bit about the Texaco tanker. It was brought in from America, and, uh, initially, Dad had said he'd only collect stuff that was in NZ. But that didn't last that long. (CHUCKLES) So this one in particular took four years to restore and was Dad's absolute pride and joy. Could you drive that around town? (LAUGHS) You probably could drive it round town. It's road legal? She's looking good now. Really cool. It's a beautiful vehicle. So, do you have any idea what a vehicle like this might be worth? No, I honestly don't. Priceless. There's three in the world. So Henry Ford Museum's got one, and the Chrysler Museum, which I understand has closed down, in America, has also got one. In the Vegas. I know. In Invervegas. Going into it, I thought, 'This isn't really my scene ` trucks and all that sort of stuff.' But this place is just massive, and the amount of work that has gone into it, and the passion behind it, I'm really overwhelmed and really impressed. There were so many different elements to it ` things for everyone, places for kids, and a great cafe. Holy hell, it's a bit of a` an assault on a couple of senses, certainly the eyes. The eyeballs are popping out of the head. BOTH LAUGH We didn't expect anything as cool as this. This is epic. How does this happen here in Invercargill? Oh wow. This is gorgeous. Beautiful. This is me? Take her for a drive. Take her for a drive?! (LAUGHS) Um... Are you sure about this, Malcolm? Why not? Yes. You don't know how to drive a manual, though, so you'll be in trouble. What is it? Three on the tree? Yep. Three on the tree. Yep. I just hope I'm capable of driving this. Love, jump in. We're doing this. OK. (LAUGHS) Handbrake's off. ENGINE STARTS How much would your brother love this? How much do I love this? (CHUCKLES) Yeah. Belt on? Yeah. ENGINE RUMBLES SOFTLY (SQUEALS SOFTLY) Don't crash it! (LAUGHS) JAUNTY MUSIC I'm torn. Part of me is thinking 'I don't know how to drive this machine.' The other part of me is thinking, 'This is so cool! 'El, buckle up, we're gonna cruise in this machine and it is gonna be fantastic.' And I'm not a car man; El's not a car woman; but we love it. We absolutely love it. He is clearly ecstatic. I don't think he's ever driven anything like that before. I certainly haven't either. He's very excited to get into that beautiful machine and take it for a spin. It's one of those things you didn't think you'd be allowed to do. So we drive back into the transport collection, parking up thinking, 'This is done. We're done here.' And then we've got this massive` probably the biggest screen I've seen in my life in front of us, and we're watching a movie. We're thinking, 'This is it. This is all laid on for us. 'It's just you and I in the movie theatre, love.' It was an awesome way to finish what was a very cool drive. Be in to win your own NZ escape, including flights, car hire, accommodation and activities. Head to ournzescape.tv to enter. Tammy, call me foolish; I'm feeling ballsy. Are ya up for a shuck-off? Righto, then. How many's that for you? Get out of my way. You're in with a chance here. Do I want a hand with my ones?! RISING MUSIC Right. Let's find out. Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! READS: Get yourselves to Bluff for some true hospitality at Oyster Cove. Oh, you are gonna fill your boots, my friend because I can't have oysters, being pregnant, but... you can have mine. Oyster Cove. I've never been to Oyster Cove. That's lost on me. That sounds good, though. Well, I think it is a cove that has a lot of oysters, perhaps. Gidday. Hi. How are you? Hi! Good, thank you. Hello. Welcome to Lands End. Thank you very much. Thank you. Right, so,... Gorgeous. ...make yourself at home. Thank you. Yeah. Beautiful. Enjoy the view. Brilliant. Awesome. Cool. Thanks, Lynda. Cheers. Bye. Bye. Bluff is a little gateway to heaven, I think. And Bluff in itself is quite cool. We feel like we're pretty working-class sort of people. We feel like we relate to Bluff. It's cool to be... looking out over the ocean and knowing what that could provide. Oh wow. Look what we've got here. Your fave. Is this what I think it is? Hello. Bluff's finest. Hey. How's it going? Good. It's going good. I'm Matt. I'm Tammy. I'm Ellen. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys. How are you? Gee. They're massive. They're big beauties, aren't they? Do you reckon? Are you keen to have a go? Keen to have a go? Yeah. You do it. Uh, yeah, I'm happy to have a shuck. Have a shuck? OK, so, just be mindful, put a bit of pressure on the back there, and then start to twist the knife up, remember. Ooh! Good job! Good! Oh, look at that. That's an A-grade, that one. Oh, I will keep you on, Tammy. (LAUGHS) Far out. Oh, that is a good time. Tammy, call me foolish; I'm feeling ballsy. Are ya up for a shuck-off? Righto, then. Three, two, one. See you at the bottom. EXCITING MUSIC Good. Oh! Good work. How many is that for you? Get out of my way. How many's that for you? (GIGGLES) Two? Yeah, two for me. You're in with a chance here. Good commentating, love. Good commentating. ALL LAUGH Do you want a hand with your ones? < Ooh! Do I want a hand with my ones?! < That was a good effort. I think I might have cleaned up there. Points off for cheating. You were stealing my oysters. I think you did really well. You did really well. You did really well. I was a little bit set-up. That's OK. I'll let you have it, eh? OK, thank you very much. No worries, mate. Cheers. Um, I think the person who got second deserves to eat the oysters. Oh! So that's you? It's just the way it's turned out, yeah, isn't it? LAUGHTER Tammy, I couldn't eat all those oysters, but I'll give it a bloody good go. Righto, let's see you do it. Just dunk 'em in there? If you wish, yeah, dunk 'em in there. Straight down the hatch. I don't even want to talk to you any more. BOTH LAUGH HEARTILY They have that effect on people. That's a bit of heaven right here, isn't it? Bit of heaven. > Little bit jealous there, Chiz. Yeah, sorry, love. Good? They're awful (!) (CHORTLES) Right. If it makes you feel any better, they're awful. I'll come back in about three months or so. Righto, you're on. Try them then. Tammy, thanks very much. Thanks for being a great sport and teaching me how to shuck oysters. No worries, man. Hope to see you again. Yeah, you too. Thanks for coming down. It was nice to meet you. Yeah. Thanks very much. Thank you very much for having us. Oh wow. That's amazing, isn't it? Yeah. Gorgeous. Cheers. Cheers. To Bluff and Invercargill. And Southland. Yeah. Turning it on for us. Definitely. It's been awesome. Having this time with Matt before we have our baby, in NZ's best province, I couldn't have asked for anything better. I can't wait to be a mum. I'm so excited to have Matt's wee boy. As you know, Matt is quite an enthusiastic young man, so I'm excited to see what his son's gonna be like. Might be quite a handful, but it's gonna be a lot of fun, and I'm really excited for this next chapter. Here we've got that Pan-fried blue cod with the steamed vegetables. Thank you. Oh wow. That looks great. Mate! Pan-fried blue cod with pea mash instead of vegetables. Thank you very much. That's all right. Enjoy. Cheers, mate. Cheers. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Really? Mm-hm. I don't know who cooked that, but they did a bloody good job. Mm-hm! Highlight today? Oh, the whole day, really, but now is pretty good. What about you? Without a doubt, the Ford Fairlane. Oh, yeah. (LAUGHS) And cruising, roof off, feeling like a man. You did pretty well with that stick, cruising the streets of Invers. And to be honest, before today, 'three on the tree' was just a saying to me. I'd never actually used three on the tree. (LAUGHS) So, should we do a little cheers to Southland and our first day? Absolutely. I didn't think you'd ever ask. Cheers. Cheers. Thanks, love, for a great day. Thank you,... It was awesome. ...my little Southland rose. (SPUTTERS, LAUGHS) > EXPECTANT MUSIC What a way to start your day ` a beautiful, stunning, pristine morning. It just doesn't get much better than this. El. Yes? Do you wanna know where we're going today? Yes, I do. I hate not knowing where we're going. Where are we going? Here goes. READS: 'You're off to Stewart Island.' Awesome. 'Take in some island culture and enjoy the charming town of Oban.' Brilliant. That's awesome. Brilliant. Well, you can't come all this way south and not go to Stewart Island. I agree. It's essential to go to. I love Stewart Island. And it's such a b` stunning day. Southland's really turned it on. I don't think I've ever been to Stewart Island when it's been this beautiful, in terms of weather. Hi. Gidday. Hey! Leah, is it? Yeah. I'm Matt. How you doing? Nice to meet you. I'm Ellen. Nice to meet you, Leah. Welcome. This is the start of the Rakiura Track and lots of our other wonderful walks. Lead us. Please. Yeah, there is an amazing beach down here. Let's go and check it out. Cool. So, how long have you lived in Stewart Island for? I've been here for probably just over 10 years. Oh wow. Yeah. You like it, then? I love it. It's a great lifestyle. Hey. Hold on. Stop. Stop. Oh! There's some wildlife. (CHUCKLES) Is that a seal? It's a female sea lion, I think, down there. A sea lion? Oh, hello! That's pretty cool. She's having a roll around in the grass. You don't see that every day. So how lucky are we now that we're this close? So lucky right now. This is amazing. This is the gateway into the national park, folks, so you're officially stepping through into the Rakiura National Park. Oh my goodness. I can see why you've done 10 years here. Yeah, well, we're surrounded by bush, and I think it's really important, especially for children growing up, to have that type of environment, and we love living here, and it's a great community. Can I just thank you for bringing us to this little part of paradise? It's pretty good! This is outstanding. BOTH: Ah, it's beautiful. This place is absolute paradise on Earth, and only about 400, 500 people realise it, (CHUCKLES) and they're living there full-time. Sure, it rains, but they're inside with the fire on those days. Perfect. How's the view? The view is brilliant. But it's gonna come to an end, isn't it? That's right, because we've got another clue of where we're going. READS: 'Travel as the crow flies, to Te Anau, and check out the picture-perfect sights 'before checking into the Distinction Hotel and feasting on some Fiordland delicacies.' We're flying to Te Anau. Wow. That's gonna be awesome. From` From Stewart Island! Wow, that's gonna be amazing. Perfect day for flying. We are very very lucky people. So spoiled. This is awesome. Brilliant. Right, let's go. How cool are these waterfalls? They're everywhere! They're amazing. Pretty lucky. I'm feeling insignificant but very very alive. Yeah! BOTH LAUGH * So we've got this flight from Stewart Island to Te Anau. We're pretty much flying across Southland, and here I am with my beautiful wife. It really doesn't get any better. This is cool. This is epic. RISING MUSIC Beautiful to see Southland from up high. It's so green. You forget how green it is. The feeling of isolation and tranquillity is definitely present up in the air. People just don't get to do this stuff every day. This is cool. This is epic. Special experience. I don't think I'll ever forget that flight. ROLLING GUITAR MUSIC Hey, guys. Who have we got here? I'm Matt. Kerry. Pleased to meet you. Kerry, nice to meet you. These are my daughters, and they're also junior rangers here at the park. Fantastic. Wonderful. And what are we gonna do today? We're gonna go and meet our takahe. Cool! Fantastic! Are they officially endangered? They are critically endangered. Critically?! Yup. Critically endangered. OK. Right. So at the lowest point, there was somewhere around 50 birds, and we've built them up to` today to just under 300. Yeah. Oh, well done! They're quite large. They're quite heavy too. Here they come. PLASTIC RATTLES Oh cute! (LAUGHS) They look so cool. They are cool. Beautiful colours. They're a cool-looking creature, aren't they? Yeah. Oh, here he is! Here he comes. They are an attractive-looking bird. They are. They're beautiful colours. Kerry, thank you so much for showing us these fantastic birds; and girls too, for spending your time with us and showing us the fantastic takahe. And keep up the good work on the conservation. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Thank you so much. See you girls! All right. See ya. SLOW ROCK MUSIC Go into the hotel, and we're very well-looked after. Felt very spoiled. Pretty happy to hang the hat here for a couple of nights. Wow. This is a little bit fancy! Isn't it? Very nice. I feel like we need to do this more often. Ooh! Look. (GASPS SOFTLY) Here's the salsa and duck. Thank you! It looks amazing. Looks superb. And here's the beef fillet. Oh, thanks, mate. No worries. I like what you've done there with the scallops on the side. They are massive. Jeepers, that is a good-looking feed, isn't it? Mm-hm! How's your duck? Really good. Tell you what, it's pretty nice to do something like this... I know. ...to get away and go somewhere amazing, awesome food and time together before we... have no sleep. (LAUGHS) We absolutely should do a toast. OK. To an amazing babymoon, a stunning province ` the best in NZ, if I can say ` and a amazing day tomorrow. Cheers. Cheers. RISING MUSIC OK, should we figure out what we're doing on day three? Absolutely. OK. (READS) 'No doubt about it, this is one of the most picturesque places in the world. 'Enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the best that Fiordland can offer, 'with a once-in-a-lifetime cruise of Doubtful Sound.' Doubtful Sound?! I've been to Milford Sound; I've been to Dusky Sound; I can't have done Doubtful. (CHORTLES) You doubt that you've done Doubtful? I doubt I've done Doubtful. (CHUCKLES) I see what you did there, love. Thank you, yeah, that was` that was good, wasn't it? Oh, that's really cool. Again, another nice start to the day. Southland, you bloody ripper. So, our little busy here left Auckland three days ago. What? Invercargill, Bluff, Stewart Island, Fiordland, heading into Doubtful Sound. And who goes to Doubtful Sound?! No one goes! (LAUGHS) This guy is a` an unborn baby... Who's done what? Very very well travelled. Maybe he'll be a wee explorer after all of this. Little Ed Hillary in the making. Little Captain Cook. (LAUGHS) We get off Lake Manapouri, which is stunning, jump into a bus, with Eve, who's driving the bus, and we head over this Wilmot Pass through epic bush. Again you've got those mountains, the mist, valleys, cascades, and you're thinking, 'How the hell did these people put this road in here... 56 years ago?' Pretty pleased they did it, though, because it's allowing us to go and do what we're doing. SWELLING MUSIC Mist, snow-covered mountains. I think Fiordland in winter is pretty close to being as good as it gets in terms of scenery. I've gotta say, I think there's something quite glorious about being here, in and amongst it. Would you agree with that? Oh totally. Like, these waterfalls wouldn't even be here if it wasn't raining. So if you don't see it on a rainy day, you miss out on a lot of stuff here. Um, it's pretty cool to see it in a storm, as awesome as it is to see it in a blue-sky day. You get the` you know, the magical kind of feel if you see it with a bit of cloud. They're kind of the real way, I guess. Yeah. It's teeming down, but that is the charm. That is the beauty of it. Water is life, and you haven't seen Fiordland until you've seen it in rain. I wanna get close to it. All these temporary waterfalls are springing up because of the epic rain that they're getting. I think we're seeing Fiordland at its best. INSPIRING MUSIC How cool are these waterfalls?! They're everywhere! They're amazing. Pretty lucky! I'm feeling insignificant but very very alive. Yeah! BOTH LAUGH Come here. Mwah! Thank you for a wonderful three days! Oh, thank you for a wonderful three days. Love you. I love you too. Come here. Mwah! The whole trip has been spectacular. I knew it would be, though, to be honest, when we found out we're going to Southland, because it's just an amazing province. Really special to do it with Matt and a great way to finish off our time, just the two of us, before we embark on the next adventure. We're really lucky that this untouched world is right on our back doorstep. I can't believe we've done this much in three days. Amazing scenery, amazing province, amazing people. I feel like this has been my fun before I get serious about life. This has been the last hurrah, if you like. We are leaving Southland with great memories. An amazing experience. We wanna come back here and not leave again, one day. It's too good to not be here forever. Book now at Air NZ. Captions by Glenna Casalme www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016