INSTRUMENTAL DRAMATIC MUSIC In the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean... MUSIC CONTINUES ...lies a land cut off from the rest of the world... since the time of the dinosaurs. MUSIC CONTINUES After 80 million years of isolation,... nature has gone its own way. MUSIC CONTINUES CRICKETS CHIRP In this lost world,... life plays by different rules ` DRAMATIC MUSIC INTENSIFIES penguins in the forests,... parrots in the snow.... MUSIC CONTINUES ...and predators from prehistory. MUSIC CONTINUES Their lives are dominated by the most powerful forces on Earth. MUSIC CONTINUES When humans finally arrived, they discovered... nowhere is more strange... and mysterious than NZ. Copyright Able 2017. BIRDS CHIRP SEA ROARS WAVES CRASH There are more species of penguin in NZ than anywhere else in the world. SEA CRASHES, ROARS They first evolved here around 60 million years ago. PENGUINS CHIRP, SQUAWK And here in their ancestral home, penguins do things a little differently. WHIMSICAL MUSIC PENGUINS CHIRP This Snares penguin has been out with hundreds of others catching fish for her chick. MUSIC CONTINUES Like all parents here, her commute home to feed him is unusual. PENGUINS CHIRP, SQUAWK She follows a path worn by thousands of tiny feet. PENGUINS CHIRP, SING Next, a sheer rock face. When you have no arms and a swimmer's body, it's a bit like scaling a slope in a sack. PENGUINS CONTINUE TO CHIRP, SQUAWK One obstacle conquered, now it's on to the next ` PENGUINS CONTINUE TO CHIRP, SQUAWK an expedition into the woods. SLOW, ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC Hidden deep amongst the gnarled trunks and ferns,... they've established a large woodland colony. SLOW, ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PENGUINS SQUAWK Mum may have scaled cliffs and battled through forests, but she's not home yet. CURIOUS, JAZZY MUSIC She's just one of the 60,000 residents who make this journey. Over centuries, they've worn down a maze of tiny streets and miles of criss-crossed pathways. PENGUINS SQUAWK She has to remember every twist and turn... PENGUINS CONTINUE TO SQUAWK CURIOUS MUSIC CONTINUES ...while jostling past all the other busy commuters. PENGUINS SQUEAK CURIOUS, JAZZY MUSIC Finally she reaches her destination, half a mile or so inland,... PENGUINS SQUEAK ...one of many forests clearings where penguins have their young. Her partner and her baby are waiting for her,... if she can find them. JAUNTY MUSIC Other adults are very protective of their territory. (SQUAWKS MENACINGLY) So returning penguins hold themselves in a peculiar posture designed to intimidate. PENGUINS SQUAWK, CHIRP JAUNTY MUSIC CONTINUES PENGUINS SQUAWK, CHIRP Home at last. PENGUINS SQUAWK, CHIRP And Mum finally delivers a meal of pre-digested krill. PENGUINS SQUAWK, SING This woodland lifestyle is only possible for a seabird due to one remarkable fact ` NZ doesn't have any large predators. In fact, it never had any large land mammals at all. UP-TEMPO ORCHESTRAL MUSIC The reason lies back in the time of the dinosaurs, when NZ was one small part of a single gigantic continent. Around 80 million years ago, huge geological forces broke up the land. TENSE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC One fragment was forced far out into the ocean ` NZ,... cut off and impossible for any land animal to reach since. MUSIC CONTINUES WATER BUBBLES The same geological forces that caused its isolation are still alive today. SEA CRASHES, ROARS WAVES CRASH In this part of the North Island, the groundwater boils. WATER BUBBLES, ROARS The Pohutu Geyser ` NZ's mightiest... WATER CRASHES ...erupting up to 20 times a day, shooting super-heated water 30m into the air. GEYSER ROARS The geysers form part of a dramatic geothermal landscape, with boiling cauldrons and corrosive lakes with scalding water. STEAM HISSES MUD GURGLES It's so acidic that it dissolves the rock itself... into a mineral slurry. LOUD GURGLING SLOW, EERIE MUSIC BUILDS LOUD GURGLING CONTINUES Hundreds of steaming vents breathe eerie life into this deadly landscape. GURGLING CONTINUES SLOW, EERIE MUSIC CONTINUES At its heart, Frying Pan Lake, one of the world's largest hot springs. MUSIC CONTINUES The water here is hot enough to slowly cook your flesh. GEYSER ROARS DRAMATIC MUSIC As it flows downhill, it cools and deposits colourful minerals. LIGHT PIANO MUSIC Over thousands of years, these build up into glistening, crystal-lined terraces. MUSIC CONTINUES Further downstream, the water cools to around 40 degrees; the temperature of a steaming hot bath. MUSIC CONTINUES It's too hot for fish,... so the stream beds are largely predator-free,... a haven for heat-tolerant insects. LIGHT PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES Wisps of geothermal midges ` MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS CHIRP ...they only fly a day or two, so they urgently dance in search of a mate. But their performance attracts unwelcome attention ` DRAMATIC ACTION MUSIC ...a mob of fantails, one of NZ's smallest and most agile birds. MUSIC CONTINUES It's easy to see how they got their name. WATER BUBBLES, BIRDS SING, INSECTS CHIRP This father has a ravenous family to support. BIRDS SING FRANTICALLY His hunting technique is called hawking. BIRDS SING He leaps from stream-side perches to snatch the midges in mid-air. UP-TEMPO, LIGHT MUSIC Fantails' flight isn't just fast; it's unpredictable too. MUSIC SWELLS Slowed down 20 times, the secrets of this aerobatic ace are revealed. MUSIC CONTINUES BIRDS SING, CHIRP Short, round wings give him the power and manoeuvrability of a stunt plane. MUSIC CONTINUES But it's his enormous tail that gives him the edge. MUSIC CONTINUES Fanning it out turns it into a giant air brake, creating the equivalent of a handbrake turn. UP-TEMPO, DRAMATIC MUSIC BIRDS CHIRP MUSIC CONTINUES The midges are tiny,... so to feed his growing chicks, this dutiful dad undertakes more than 300 sorties an hour. BIRD CHIRPS WILDLY UP-TEMPO, DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES These fantails have turned this uninhabitable landscape into an opportunity. MUSIC FADES BIRDS CHIRP 1 WAVES CRASH In NZ, hostile environments are part of everyday life ` The entire country sits astride a massive tectonic-plate boundary, where two shifting fragments of the Earth's crust meet. Just off the coast of Kaikoura, this boundary takes the form of an underwater canyon, a trench that brings the deep sea near to the shore. WAVES CRASH (BLOWS) The depths of the ocean are full of nutrients, and here, close to the coast, winds and currents force them to the surface, creating a rich feeding ground. Bull sperm whales come to bulk up on deep-sea squid. And there's plenty of prey for their smaller, more agile cousins. DOLPHINS SQUEAK, TRILL WONDROUS MUSIC Dusky dolphins live here in their thousands. WONDROUS MUSIC BUILDS All dolphins communicate with each other using a complex range of underwater sounds and clicks, but Dusky dolphins can speak in another way too. MUSIC INTENSIFIES As a species, they're some of the most acrobatic dolphins in the world, and researchers have discovered that leaping is part of their communication. WONDROUS MUSIC CONTINUES Some jumps and splashes may have their own particular meaning. MUSIC SLOWS A high leap and a clean re-entry can be a signal there are fish below. SPLASH! A jump and a sharp tail slap is loud and far-reaching underwater, so may help coordinate large pods. UP-TEMPO ORCHESTRAL MUSIC It appears to be one of the easier moves, and youngsters are keen to learn. DOLPHINS CLICK, TRILL Mum shows him how an expert does it. And now it's baby's turn. WHIMSICAL MUSIC DOLPHINS TRILL Young dolphins can stay with their mothers for up to three years, so they get plenty of time to practise. FAST-PACED MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES Synchronised leaping is more difficult to master. MUSIC CONTINUES Leaping may encourage dolphins to work together ` a vital skill for rounding up fish. SLOW, DRAMATIC MUSIC But the most spectacular jump, and perhaps the most hardest to master, is the acrobatic leap. MUSIC CONTINUES This one may be just for fun. MUSIC CONTINUES MUSIC INTENSIFIES EERIE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC On the land beyond the Kaikoura coast, the shifting plates which drive the canyon downwards now thrust the land upwards. MUSIC BUILDS This creates a mighty chain of mountains which form the spectacular backbone of the South Island ` The Southern Alps,... NZ's greatest wilderness. WIND HOWLS Reaching almost 4000m,... the mountains are still growing... despite the weight of some 3000 glaciers slowly grinding them down. I love watching rugby with you, but I can only imagine how good it would be at a decent volume. Right now healthy hearing is even more affordable, with... Offer ends 30th of April. TINKLY MUSIC 1 This is NZ's most challenging terrain, with a climate to match. Animals have to be tough and resourceful to survive here. SHEEP BLEATS Sheep were introduced to NZ over 200 years ago. With expert help, they can live in even the most extreme conditions. CONTEMPLATIVE PIANO MUSIC WIND WHISTLES But farmers must adapt to the violent swings of alpine weather and know when to act. For sheep farmer Kate Cox, protecting her precious flock is an extreme challenge. So, the property here's about 40,00ha, which is pretty big. It stretches from the lake right through the mountains behind us, through a couple of ranges of mountains. So, it would take, you know, maybe a couple of days to walk across it. This is one of the biggest days in Kate's calendar ` Hey, girls. Are you excited? ...the autumn sheep muster. Good girl. Sit down. 'So, basically an autumn muster, they've been going on for the last 150 years on this property,' and really all it entails is bringing down the sheep from all the high summer grazing in the mountain tops and bringing them down to lower levels, where they're gonna be safe from snow during the winter. For more than 100 years, the muster would've meant two days of hard hiking, but Kate's team of shepherds have a helping hand ` a helicopter and some of the very few flying sheepdogs in the world. HELICOPTER ROTOR WHIRRS Their goal today is to muster at least 4000 sheep if they can. HELICOPTER ROTOR WHIRRS Her brother Davey is the pilot. Their family have been working these hills for 40 years. SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Even for farming in NZ, this isn't your normal farming. It's in the, you know, the harshest environments that you can farm in NZ. So, yeah, it's a bit on the edge. HELICOPTER ROTOR WHIRRS All right. HELICOPTER ROTOR WHIRRS Can't do much about that. BIRDS CHIRP, SHEEP BLEATS Kate has 29,000 thousand merino sheep up here, one of the very few breeds tough enough to survive. But the winters are severe, and too many would die in heavy snows if they were left to roam all-year round. BIRD CHIRPS, SHEEP BLEATS Today Kate's team consists of five shepherds and 10 dogs. I'll head down that track to the grain. Yep, Chris may as well just come with me. The tactic is to start at the very top, looking for the most adventurous sheep. So, up on the tops of the mountains, it's` it's quite rugged ` lot of rock, cliffs and a bit challenging at times. A good rule of thumb is, if your dogs don't wanna follow you, you shouldn't be going there either. RT: Have you just popped out of that ridge line? Can I see you up there? Yeah, we are out on the ridgeline, but there's bit of fog coming through. You need to be able to look after yourself, look after your dogs and look after the stock, cos generally, like, no one's coming to help you. (WHISTLES) DOG BARKS The first sheep are soon flushed down from a high slopes. Oh, no, here's some mobs coming down as well. Kate and her dogs, Fudge and Fred, must intercept them. We have a huntaway, which is a NZ breed, which has got a bit of all sorts of things in it, and they generally are big, noisy, rambunctious. You're such a showboat, Fudge. > They get things moving, so you bark your dogs, and` and then everything starts running off in front of you. Fred, behind. Fred, behind! As more sheep join the flock, the challenge is to keep them moving without triggering a stampede. (WHISTLES) Sit down! Get out of it, Fred. Back down! They've had no contact with people or dogs for the past four months, and a panic on these slopes would be a disaster. Good girls, good girls. Whoo! Hey, hey, hey! Nowhere else are such huge number of sheep herded over such distances on foot. Been gathering up a lot of sheep. We've probably got about 800 or 900 now, which is` which is good. We'll collect a lot more as we come a bit further, but, um, yeah, they're walking really well and making good progress and going quite quick. Quiet! Kate's record is mustering 10,000 sheep in a single day. SHEEP BLEAT BLEATING CONTINUES A flock like this can stretch for over a mile. Whoo-hoo! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! All out, Fred. All out, Freddie. After 12 hours and a 13-mile hike, this part of the muster is complete. And the sheep are safe in their winter pastures by the lake. Yeah, no, it's great having the job done, especially when you have a few hiccups during the day. It's always good to get done and have everybody home in one piece. We've time it just perfectly ` just before dark; home in time for tea. MAJESTIC MUSIC There are places where NZ sheep have never reached. MUSIC CONTINUES The wild mountainous heart of NZ hides some of the most ancient secrets on Earth. Far beyond the reach of people... are hidden valleys... full of pre-historic life. BIRDS SING, WATER RUSHES WATER RUSHES, BIRDS SING Huge trees and giant tree ferns, who's ancestors lived 100 million years ago, still thrive here today, thanks to NZ's long isolation. BUGS CHIRP, BIRD CALLS These are forests that a dinosaur might recognise, living links to NZ's primeval past. TENSE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC Around 16 months ago, a mother laid these eggs, buried them, and then left them to their fate. MUSIC CONTINUES Only in the special filming burrow can we capture intimate details like this egg tooth. MUSIC CONTINUES Tuatara are the last survivors of an ancient dynasty of reptile which flourished during the Jurassic Age. MUSIC CONTINUES These baby predators need to eat to grow quickly. BIRDS CHIRP But for youngsters this small, it's eat or be eaten. TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES There is the threat of prehistoric predators. Adult tuatara are more than 50 times this big. MUSIC INTENSIFIES They are known to be cannibals. MUSIC CONTINUES If you want to avoid being dish of the day, then the trick is to stay absolutely still. Fortunately, a cockroach is a tasty distraction. MUSIC CRESCENDOES But even the bugs can be deadly. Giant centipedes more than 60cm long would make short work of a baby tuatara. INSECTS BUZZ And velvet worms have digestive saliva. They've been on patrol for 500 million years. Best give her a wide berth. TENSE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC He's still hungry,... and this fat and juicy insect is packed with protein. Another prehistoric NZ specialty ` a weta. TENSE MUSIC In this topsy-turvy land, a baby tuatara needs to learn that bugs can be bigger than the beasts. SOFT TENSE MUSIC INSECTS BUZZ 1 1 SLOW, QUIET MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES The trees here are as prehistoric as the wildlife. And the most spectacular are an ancient family ` the podocarps. MUSIC CONTINUES These mighty conifers are of special significance to the first settlers of NZ ` the Maori. Hey, that one's a beauty. Yeah. 'S not bad, eh? Mike Bradley is a chief of the local Rangitane tribe from the Marlborough Sounds and a distinguished Maori carver. Well, this is a native called totara. This tree here is about 40m high, and I would think it's about 700-1000 years old. It's n good nick. Mike and his son Joel have one of the largest private collections of Maori wood carvings in the world. The wood of these native podocarps is especially prized. These trees are now protected, uh, by law, and even I could cut one of these down, I wouldn't, because I have far too much respect for these big old giants. Mike and Joel have come up with an ingenious and sustainable way of sourcing this rare and precious material. Well, what we do is we go fishing for trees up the Pelorus River, that through time have fallen down into the river. They eventually get washed down, uh, into the tidal estuary here, where we've been going for the last 25 years to collect some of these logs. Some of the logs are huge, yeah. Some of them are 30-50 ton ` you know, as big as a big truck. This looks good, real good. When we first started, you know, removing the logs from the river, recovering them, it was quite challenging, all the things we had to do. You want these side by side or what? Nah, I'm gonna put this one right under. Nah, OK. Over the years we've just worked out a technique where we just use, uh, fishing floats and the tide. BIRDS CHIRP The Pelorus River has a 2m tidal range, easily enough to lift the old tree from the riverbed. ENGINE RUMBLES Uh, these podocarps, you know, some of them are up to a thousand years old... before they even fall into the Pelorus. And they can stay lodged in the mud for hundreds of years. So, these logs would have been standing where humans weren't even in NZ, and there would have only been bird and insects. Some of these trees, you sit back and you look at them, and you wonder what they saw in their lifetime when they were standing in the forests. It must have been paradise back then. CHAINSAW RUMBLES CHAINSAW RATTLES Mike uses the logs to record Maori history and tradition. Well, because Maori hadn't` hadn't developed a written language, and so the only language we had was, really, carving and wood. Uh, the Maori were the first people here. They had to pass on their knowledge to the next generation, and so the only way of recording all that was in wood. HAMMERING It was a record of important events and places. INTENSE MUSIC The piece that Mike has been carving today tells of the most bizarre of all NZ's forest spirits ` a creature that almost no one ever sees. BIRDS CHIRP These are extremely rare and only come out at night. One of the few places to glimpse them is at the Otorohanga Sanctuary in the North Island. LIGHT, JINGLY MUSIC In the dead of night, a brown kiwi leaves his burrow for the pitch dark of the primeval NZ forest. MUSIC CONTINUES INSECTS BUZZ MUSIC CONTINUES A kiwi is a most distinctive and peculiar type of bird. INSECTS BUZZ He's about the size and weight of a stout chicken, but he's more closely related to an ostrich. INSECTS BUZZ To help them locate underground prey in the soil, kiwis are the only birds in the world to have nostrils at the tip of their bills. It's more like a snout, perfect for rooting around for grubs. LIGHT, WHIMSICAL MUSIC But right now, the kiwis here have something else on their minds. (SINGS) A female sings an alluring serenade. Love is in the air. These birds are part of a habituated group, which means we can film intimate details of their private behaviour. JAUNTY MUSIC Brown kiwis often mate for life, and females are very fussy. MUSIC CONTINUES In kiwi couples, the ladies are normally the ones in charge, but he's happy to follow her around. He flirts by grunting and tapping her bottom with his break. She takes a lot of persuading, but eventually succumbs to his charms. INSECTS CHIRP The female lays an egg in her mate's burrow, but she leaves him to care for it alone. He'll spend most of the next three months sitting right here. BIRDS SING A kiwi egg is enormous. It weighs in at almost half a kilo, most of which is yolk. It's one of the largest eggs in proportion to body size for any bird, and it needs one of the longest incubations. It can take three days for a chick to battle its way out of a thick shell. INSECTS CHIRPING By the time baby hatches, Dad may have lost a quarter of his body weight through incubating his giant egg. And his work is not over yet. INSECTS BUZZ He's taking great care to hide the nest entrance, but junior just won't be left behind. Kiwis can't see well in the dark, so he's taking his first tentative steps into a pitch-black world. LIGHT, CURIOUS MUSIC He still has the remains of the giant yolk inside him, which means he won't have to eat for the first few days. MUSIC CONTINUES But he's very unsteady on his feet, and in the darkness his anxious dad never lets him out of reach. His beak serves as an excellent toddler's rein. This little bundle of fluff will stay with his dad until he is steadier and able to fend for himself. LIGHT, CURIOUS MUSIC CONTINUES INSECTS BUZZ MUSIC CONTINUES INSECTS BUZZ 1 NZ's ancient isolation allowed many strange creatures to evolve here,... but the geological forces which created so much life in this land also have the power to destroy it. SLOW, DRAMATIC MUSIC The country is fissured and fractured by underground faults that can rupture without warning. LIGHT PIANO MUSIC At 12.51 on the 22nd of February 2011,... one city's future was changed forever. MUSIC CONTINUES Elizabeth Pitcorn worked in the city centre of Christchurch. So many memories ` I remember the whole day. I remember every single detail of that day, and I will for the rest of my life. On the day of the earthquake, I was working up on the first floor of the old post office building in Cathedral Square in Christchurch. Uh, it was about lunchtime that the first tremor struck. It was actually really terrifying. RUMBLING, SCREAMING RUMBLING, ALARM WAILS Oh my gosh. ALARM WAILS After the shaking stopped, we just grabbed everything that was handy and just left the building. Unfortunately, we walked past some pretty horrific scenes. One of my colleagues just said, 'Oh, my God, the cathedral.' ALARMS WAILS, YELLING And I happened to have my camera in my bag with me that day, and I just... I guess I naturally, sort of, started taking some photos. And it was at that point that I really realised how serious this earthquake actually was. It was one of NZ's largest and most devastating earthquakes. It occurred unexpectedly close to the Earth's surface, so the ground under the city was shaken in a particularly violent way. The movement of the ground accelerated faster than any other earthquake ever recorded in NZ, resulting in huge damage. ALARMS BLARE There were buildings crumbling all around us as all the aftershocks rolled through. RUMBLING, ALARMS BLARE, YELLING I remember I looked down at the ground, and the cracks started opening up. And they were moving backwards and forwards, and at that point I actually had this thought, 'Is this ground just gonna open up and swallow me?' TRAM BELL RINGS PIANO MUSIC 185 people lost their lives,... and the damage is estimated at US$25 billion. But five years on, the people of Christchurch are learning and rebuilding. PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES Liz is part of Christchurch's recovery. Should we` Should we start at the window and come back around right around to the front? She works with drones to survey areas of the city ruined by the quake. Honestly, I think the people of Christchurch now are all geologists. I` I certainly know a lot more about earthquakes than I ever needed to or I ever wanted to. But I guess we all know how to be safe in one as well. It's vital work, which is part of the rebuilding of the city. You think that stuff doesn't happen in my city, you know. But yes, it did, so we've gotta be real about it and, uh... and move forward and build a new Christchurch. DRONE BUZZES INTENSE MUSIC The earthquake wasn't a freak event ` around 20,000 are recorded in NZ every year. Most are small tremors, but the threat of another major quake is never far away. Nowhere here is immune to the country's active and sometimes violent geology. INTENSE MUSIC CONTINUES Even Auckland, the country's largest city and home to 1.5 million people, is built on an active volcano field. MUSIC CONTINUES The volcano Rangitoto dominates Auckland Harbour. Although it last erupted 600 years ago,... many of its lava fields are still black and almost barren to this day. But hidden beneath the lifeless surface is one of NZ's most unusual natural features. EERIE MUSIC Thousands of tons of liquid rock once raced through these lava tubes at more than 1000 degrees Celsius. MUSIC CONTINUES Cavers have mapped a network of over 200 of these tubes under Auckland, stretching for miles. The air here is humid,... carrying just enough moisture to spark life. PLOP! SLOW, DRAMATIC MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES These are aerial roots. They attract and absorb moisture directly from the air. LIGHT, FAST-PACED PIANO MUSIC The roots power fresh green growth in the lava above. MUSIC CONTINUES A pohutukawa tree ` a miracle of life from almost nothing,... BIRDS SING CHORAL SINGING ...Providing a midsummer feast for the birds. The tui's curved beak is perfect for sipping nectar. The kaka opts for the pollen. BIRDS HOOT, SING TINKLY PIANO MUSIC Pohutukawa trees can live for more than a thousand years. They bloom in December, so they're often called NZ's Christmas tree. Each has the miraculous ability to transform a barren volcanic wasteland into a garden of life. TINKLY PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES Of all the species that have flourished in NZ, perhaps it's the pohutukawa tree that has best met the challenges of this demanding and beautiful land. FAST-PACED PIANO MUSIC WATER RUSHES All across NZ, life battles the geological forces which give this land its power... GEYSER WHOOSHES ...and its beauty. SHEEP BLEAT From the pioneers of the high country to dolphins leaping over the deep... and tiny aerial aces who dare to hunt... in sizzling volcanic steam,... NZ is magnificent and mysterious,... a land apart, shaped by its extraordinary past... and facing a restless future. PIANO MUSIC FADES